RSPB Loch Leven (27/09/24)

 We spent a great few hours at Loch Leven the other week, the Pink Footed Geese were there in large numbers;

But the outstanding bird of the day for me was this one:

Spitfire T.9 based out of Biggin Hill, so what it was doing over Loch Leven is anyone's guess!

So keeping to this theme, here are a couple of gliders from the nearby club:

Back to the birds! Greenfich,

Kestrel, why when the appear do the always fly or hover between me and the sun!

Pink-footed Geese grazing,

with a few Greylag Geese for company.

In the woods behind the visitor centre there was lots of bird activity, but only manages a Blackbird and Robin for a decent photo.

Other birds seen where Whooper Swans (10), a Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, no winter ducks yet, the usual Tufted Duck and Mallard. In the woods, Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, a Spotted Flycatcher. I won't list them all!

But the star of the woods was this chap

It doesn't matter how often we see Red Squirrels, it's always a joy!

Avocet Time at Upton

Thursday took us off to Upton Warren, primarily for our first views of the Avocets now that they have returned, from various forums we knew that they were now back in good numbers, it was just a shame that after a couple of days of glorious sunshine, that the only day we could get there was rather dull! But here are a few Avocet photos anyway,

Other birds at the Flashes at Upton were; Shelduck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Mallard, Black-headed Gull, Lapwing and a glimpse of a Curlew.
One of the many Lapwing

Walking back to the car park a couple of Goldcrest put in an appearance, but wouldn't give me a good view for a photo, this was the best I could do!

At the Sailing Pool we counted at least 10 Great Crested Grebe, all looked like they were pairing up and doing some courtship posturing, but no weed dancing yet!

We popped over to the Moors Pools and stopped at all the hides for a while, although it was fairly quiet, we added Tufted Duck, Cormorant and Little Grebe to the list of Waterfowl,

The feeders to the right of the concrete (Water Rail) hide were busy with Greenfinch, Reed Bunting, Tits and Dunnock with the odd Chaffinch showing up.

A couple of Canada Geese performed in front of the hide,

A pair of Bullfinch did show briefly, but thats about it apart from the Rats!

So 40 species in all today, with the Avocet bringing us up to 97 for the year.

Up and running for 2017!

So a new year and the birding clock was set back to zero, so a New Years Day afternoon was called for at Upton. It was a rather dismal wet day, our original plan had been for a walk along the canal at Kinver again with a nice baguette at the Vine, but firstly the as I said the weather wasn't conducive to walking without any shelter and we discovered that the Vine was only doing a carvery and with the excesses of Christmas we weren't up for that. So Upton it was.

We opted to go the Moors as that would mean the shortest amount of walking in the rain.

As you can imagine it was fairly quiet, I think all the birds were sleeping of their New Year hangovers. Though seen from the Lapwing Hide some Snipe did appear some distance away:

This Gadwall and Mallards had the right idea with the weather,

just tuck up and keep warm.
There were plenty of Shoveler, Pochard and Tufted Duck about along with a solitary Shelduck. We spent an hour or so here then wandered over to the Water Rail hide and did indeed get a glimpse of a Water Rail. The feeders to the right proved productive with Greenfinch,

Reed Bunting,

Bullfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Robin and Tits showing well, although I gave up on photography as the light was now terrible. we tried the Jacons hide as well just in case any Otters put in an appearance but with the light going we gave up and having had a late night, we were tired and cold. So our first birding afternoon of the year gave us a decent start for our 2017 tally with 35 species.

Norfolk Day 2 - Sculthorpe Moor & RSPB Snettisham

The weather wasn't looking great for the Sunday so we made a plan to go to the Hawk and Owl Trust at Sculthorpe Moor and hopefully if the weather improved as per the forecast head up to Snettisham to see the Pink Foots come in.

As we headed out of the visitor centre at Sculthorpe a Sparrowhawk surprised us by trying to take one of the Tits of the feeders, sadly for it, it ended in failure, but was great for us to see. Of course it all happened to quickly for me to even lift my camera up!

The woods and hides gave us some respite from the constant drizzle and we had a great few hours adding woodland species to our Norfolk list:
Pheasant,

 Greenfinch,

 Robin,

 Marsh Tit,

 Brambling,

 Collared Dove,

 Bullfinch,

 Nuthatch,

 Blackbird,

 Great Tit,

 Marsh Tit,

 Brambling.

I can't recommend Sculthorpe Moor enough, the reserve is fantastic, with lovely walks and great hides.

The weather did improve so we set off for Snettisham, about half an hour away and went out to the hide overlooking both the lagoons and sea, again its a brilliant place.

The lagoons were full of Wigeon, Lapwings, Cormorant, Greylags, Canada Geese, Goldeneye, Little Grebe and Mallard. While the muddy shore held, Dunlin, Redshank, Godwit, Shelduck, Knot, Lapwing, Oystercatcher and a host of other waders unidentifiable in the fading light and also because of the distance out to sea.

At around 4.15, the Pink Foots arrived on mass, thousands upon thousands coming in and settling down on the mud flats for the night. A truly awesome sight.

A 'Tern' up for the books at Upton

On Sunday we took our good friends Keith & Liz to Upton for the afternoon, primarily to see the Avocets and their broods. I did look at the Birds Forum on the morning to see if anything else was happening and saw that a Black Tern had been seen at the Sailing Pool about 8:30 in the morning, I didn't hold up any hope of seeing it as we weren't planning to get there until 2ish, but to my and our surprise it was still there zooming around the pool picking up what it could. I tried some photos but trying to focus as it flew around was nigh on impossible, I did get a record shot though:

So a lifer for us and on our favourite reserve, bonus!

We carried on to the hide overlooking the flashes, where of course plenty was going on:
Lapwing with 3 chicks (the 3rd is just under the adult..)

 Little Ringed Plover

 Avocet

 Avocet young

 Lapwing chick

 Shelduck and ducklings

We then went over to the Moors Pools, again admiring the Black Tern, who was still cavorting around the Sailing Lake.
Mute Swan on approach!

Juvenile Long-tailed Tit

Vociferous Reed Bunting

Canada Goose

Sedge Warbler

Greenfinch

TTFN!