Attingham Park NT

As I said at the end of the last post we managed to book a slot with the National Trust at Attingham Park in Shropshire for Monday just gone. It was pretty well organised when we got there, with a socially distanced check-in. Once in the park it was a one way system around the estate, with various route options, the house itself was of course closed, but we only ever do the house on our first visit to any estate, we go for the walks in the main part.

The first part of the walk past the house, with the bonus of our first House Martins of the year, then out onto the grounds was a bit busy for our liking with a few people not distancing properly, but we soon diverged from the main route and were out on our own. The first wildlife, although not truly wild were the resident Fallow Deer;

Just after these photos, the heavens opened and we took shelter under some Oak Trees, this happened to be a good move as from our shelter we saw, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit and I think a Spotted Flycatcher.

Once the rain stopped we carried on, not seeing much else apart from Crows, Jackdaw and Woodpigeon, then as we turned a corner there was a bird sitting on the end of a bare branch about 80 yards away, a female Redstart, we were over the moon! We then found the male, near a convenient bench, so we settled down and watched. In the end we had two pairs of Redstart hunting and disappearing into the trees and back to the nests.

Just after this we were back in the woods, plenty of birds singing but with the dense foliage, much more difficult to find, although another Spotted Flycatcher did give us a view.

As we headed back towards the house and the car, we took a few opportunities to sit and watch (and rest!) and were rewarded with a nice male Blackcap:

So a lovely day and 3 new species for the year, so we crawl on to 117, way behind this time last year but we had been to Lesvos, so that boosted our 2019 total somewhat.

Who knows what's next!

Malham Cove, Yorkshire Dales

Sunday saw us taking the walk from Malham Village up to and over Malham Cove, it was a strenuous walk but well worth arriving on the Limestone Pavement at the top. Of course a few birds were seen as we went,
we started with a Wren,

 followed by a young Redstart.

 There were plenty of House Martins zooming around keeping the insects down,

 whilst a male Redstart looked on

 and luckily another Grey Wagtail posed very well.

There were plenty of Corvids around, Jackdaw, Rook and Crow. We did hear a Peregrine but couldn't find it which was a shame.

Malham Cove itself though is pretty spectacular;

RSPB Nagshead

At the end of our wonderful trip to Somerset and as we had to be out of our digs by 10am, we took the opportunity for a detour, crossed the Severn (paying an extortionate £6.70 for the privilege) and ended up at RSPB Nagshead in Gloucestershire (just!) luckily we still don't need passports for Wales, but with the way this barmy country is going who knows what the future may hold.

So we arrived at a very quiet Nagshead visitor centre, that was closed, we then discovered it only opens weekends and bank holidays! Hey ho!

We took the short walk up into the woods to the Campbell Hide, this overlooks a pond in a woodland clearing, we were surprised how busy the hide was as there were only a few cars in the car park. We had a great hour in here, with many fledglings coming down to the water for a bath and a drink, I didn't take any photos here as although warm it was overcast and the hide is raised very high above the pond, so I would be shooting into very poor light.

We did however see, Nuthatch, Long-tailed, Blue, Great and Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Blackbird, Chaffinch and Spotted Flycatcher. One eagle eyed chap saw a Pied Flycatcher, but we couldn't find it, a shame as that would have been a new species for us, it's one of those birds that keeps eluding us. One day.

After a while it all went very quiet and we got chatting to the locals, (I have to say I could hardly understand a word, thick west country accents) But Tina got the gist of it and it persuaded us to walk down to the Lower Hide, we had intended to head home after coffee and lunch. But the chance of a Redstart made us stay longer.

So we took the 15 minute walk down, seeing Wren, Blackcap and Song Thrush on the way.

This hide was quiet we were the only ones there, brilliant just the way we like it, sorry to be so anti-social. Tina quickly spotted a Kingfisher at the big pond below us, it kindly put in a few appearances, but never showed that well, as you can see for yourself.

A female Redstart then arrived,

we were pleased with that one. First one this year and only the third time ever. A Great Spotted Woodpecker then turned up way to the left of the hide,

not the greatest of photos. This was followed by a Jay and great views of a Treecreeper or two.

It was certainly turning into a great visit. Then came our star of the show a male Redstart,

he stayed well away from the hide unfortunately, but you can't have everything. He was busy for a while catching various insects and we took this as the time to leave and go home. Always best to leave on a high.

So Nagshead a great place and I'm sure we will be back sometime.

Crinan and all that, Scotland Week 2 or Nice Beaver!

So after Mull & Iona it was on to pastures new. The Crinan area and the peninsula down to the Mull of Kintyre is somewhere we had never been before. We did have a reason for choosing this, we wanted to visit Knapdale and have a look at the Beaver Trial area and hopefully get really really lucky and see a Beaver.

We stayed in a cottage on the Crinan Canal at a small place called Cairnbaan, another beautiful spot and a good location for visiting Knapdale, it is only 15 minutes drive.

But day 1 we decided to explore a bit and went up to Crinan, this is where the Crinan Canal joins the open sea so its quite an interesting spot and well worth a visit. Although according to our daughter (who joined us here for a couple of days the staff in the Crinan Hotel are most unhelpful and rude!)

Anyway from Crinan you can do a bit of sea watching, Gannet and Cormorant were about but it was very dull day and not much birding activity was had. From an information board/map at the Crinan Car Park we discovered that there was a Bird Hide overlooking the river and the nearby marshes accessible from the canal tow path, so we drove down and had a look.

It was nice new hide, although the views over the marshes are distant so a scope is needed. We did spot Shelduck with ducklings, Merganser, Common Sandpiper, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Mallard and Redshank, with only the Redshank and Merganser really being close enough for a photo:

We explored a few other places in the immediate area, but little else was seen.

The next day we went a bit further afield and explored some of the coast. Again the weather wasn't great very dull and windy, but we did find some Deer and the odd bird or two:

We had planned the Tuesday to go to Knapdale, we had tried in vain for days to phone the Beaver Trial to book on one of their Tuesday guided walks, but we only ever got an answer machine and the never phoned back until the Friday! Bl**dy useless. So we went on our own, the Beaver trail is advertised as a 3 mile walk, so we thought we would have plenty of time to do it then get to the Car Park for 6pm and join the walk anyway. let me tell you it's not 3 miles! (not according to GPS anyway!) So we got to the car park at 6:10 to see the walk setting off and didn't have the will to chase after them!

Of course we didn't see any beavers on the walk, but we did see plenty of signs that they were about:

Bird life on the walk was sparse, Buzzard, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Willow Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Chaffinch, Mallard, Heron and Crows. The first half of the walk is great alongside the lochs and through nice woodland paths. The second half back is a tiring slog up a forestry track, but never mind. We decided to come back the next Thursday and Friday evenings to try our luck at dusk for the beavers, but those plans were to change!

Anyway next day we headed down to the Mull of Kintyre just so we could say we had been and call in at the Machrihanish Bird Observatory near Campbeltown. The drive down was great stopping at a few place on the way. The Bird Observatory was locked! But there were nice views to be had there anyway and there were plenty of places to sit and watch. The wind wasn't right for sea birds, but there was still some nice things to see:

We carried on to the Mull of Kintyre where there were some great views of Northern Ireland and Ruthlin Island that we visited a couple of years ago.

Next day was a visit to Taynish NNR again only a 20 minute drive from our digs, this is a beautiful place with a great circular walk through the woods along the lochside, some great sightings were had and even a few photo opportunities:
Tree Pipit

 Female Redstart

 Male Redstart

We stood entranced by the Redstarts for a good 15 minutes, they flew around in circles around us calling to each other, we actually think there were 2 males but the shot about so quickly through the trees that it was difficult to tell, the female was more obliging than the male, but he did finally hold still for a few seconds to get this shot. In the end we had to move on as the midges had found us!

After Taynish we popped into the Crinan hide again as it was on our way back, luckily for us as we entered there was a chap on his mobile phone. Now me being a bloke I zoned out, but Tina couldn't help but overhear that he mentioned the beavers. So when he finished Tina asked him about them. He happened to be on the guided walk we missed, it transpires we didn't miss much, other than a tip the guide gave about a really good place to see Beavers, he went the Tuesday night and saw them, so he told us where.

Hence the change of plans, we went bacfk to our cottage had some tea, then after watching Springwatch for a while we set out. His directions were great and we found where to park then walked the three quarters of a mile to the Loch. I immeadiatley spotted the Lodge, and was pointing it out to Tina, but she went one better and was pointing at a Beaver!! Being 9:15 on a murky night the light wasn't great but I tried:

'He' swam around a little then headed to the lodge, dived and disappeared. Absolutely brilliant!! We stayed for about an hour and got another really good sighting further down the loch, by now though the midges were driving us mad, so we headed home for a celebratory dram! (Well we are in Scotland.)

The final day we took a boat trip out from Crinan to see the whirlpool at Corryvreckan, the whole trip was brilliant, Seals galore:

We saw 3 Golden Eagles over Scarba, although somewhat distant!

Then plenty of Guillemot and the odd Razorbill on the water:

We then moved into one of the Lochs to be shown an Osprey nest and Sea Eagle nest only about 100 yards apart from each other! One of the Ospreys was at home, but kept putting its head down whenever I took a snap:

Whilst the Sea Eagle chick obliged but again quite distant:

None of the other adults returned whilst we were there although our skipper stayed as long as he could.

So zoom book to Crinan:

Til our next trip!