Attenborough Nature Reserve

On Saturday we had arranged to meet some friends that we met in Sri Lanka last year. The chosen venue was the Attenborough Nature Reserve (Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust). We had been trying to get together for ages and finally managed it.

It was great to see Wendy & Tim  again and have a proper catch up instead of swapping emails. With the added bonus of being on a nature reserve as well!

This was our first visit to the reserve, which is pretty extensive and has a good variety of habitats, so anything was on the cards. We really liked the layout with lots of good walks it also has a very good Visitor Centre with shop and cafe. The weather was glorious, but the only down side was that with the weather being great and being not far from Nottingham City Centre it was packed! People, Dogs and Bikes everywhere, this meant that the hides were very busy and quite noisy when one is used to the more sedate hides at Upton or most RSPB hides for that matter. So as a general bit of advice if you want to visit I would suggest avoiding the weekends. We elected to take a circular walk around the reserve, in our case we chose a 3 mile walk.

The start of the walk produced our first Willow Warbler for the year, followed quickly by a Chiffchaff, so a good start, a Dunnock in excellent voice gave me our first photo opportunity:

The lakes seemed to lack variety, but we picked up Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Teal Canada Geese, Coot, Moorhen and so many Great Crested Grebes they were impossible to count:

We did get our first Little Ringed Plover of the year, this is a distant record shot:

A Willow Warbler then posed:

followed by a Blackcap, who just wouldn't keep still for a photo. We saw many Blackcaps but I didn't manage a photo of any! Ah well, seeing is the main thing! I do put a lot of pressure on myself to get a decent photo, but as you all know birds don't know that and don't care!

As we continued the path led us between one of the lakes and the River Trent, this is where most of the Greylags were congregating, but we did spot a Common Sandpiper on the river bank, again a distant photo:

The reserve boasts a Heronry, that we didn't find, but did see plenty of Herons about as we walked. The next highlight was a Sparrowhawk whistling over our heads which was a bonus.

We eventually made it back to the Visitor Centre where we encountered what was for me the highlight of the day, 3 Red Crested Pochard, this was only our second ever sighting, the first being in Norfolk last year and at some distance, this was a little closer:

Prepare to dive:

So off to the Visitor Centre for a bite to eat and a cuppa!

Suitably refreshed we set out again for another slightly shorter walk past the sailing club, looping around back to the Trent, just after we set off, a Middle Eastern Surprise in the form of 2 Egyptian Geese:

Just after this we came across a couple of Arctic Tern skimming the sailing lake, another year tick. I didn't expect to pick those up until we go to the Farnes in June. So after that the only additional bird picked up on this loop was a Kestrel, but all in all a very nice walk.
We finally ended back at the Car Park (£1.50 all day and entrance to the reserve is free), found a bench and  had a a final cup of tea and a chat before heading home.

The last additions here was a solitary Gadwall gliding past, some Long Tailed Tit and a Song Thrush going through its full glorious repertoire! Our total count for the afternoon was 40 species, but this included 10 year ticks, so that was fabulous.

Finally thanks to Wendy & Tim for a great day out and looking forward to meeting up again.

Are You Local?

Sorry to repeat myself but another very busy week, we didn't do any birding the weekend for various reasons, but I did manage to get out at lunch time and take a walk to Warrens Hall along the canal.

Now I had high hopes following the Warrens Hall and Bumble Hole thread on Bird Forums as although nothing mega there sounds like there was plenty about.
The walk along the Canal resulted in what you would expect, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Canada Geese, plus Blackbird, House Sparrow, Dunnock and Crow in the hedges rows.

Once I arrived at Warrens Hall, first spot was a Grey Heron on the fishing pool:

I stopped for a Coffee at the Visitor Centre (A bargain at 60p!) then proceeded over the canal, suddenly everything disappeared! I hardly found a thing, A Chaffinch, more Blackbirds and a couple of Gulls:

I wandered around the reserve for a while, I heard a few birds and a call a didn't recognise (not surprising I'm pretty useless at calls, but this was one I hadn't heard before) it was only a few feet away, but I just couldn't find it! So frustrating!  It then went quiet, so I presume it had moved on.

Anyway just about to head off back to work, when I heard my first Chiffchaff of the year and even managed to track it down:

So that was it....

When Tina came home though we went for a walk around Haden Hill again plenty of Birdsong but very few sightings, the highlights being two Buzzards flying together over the trees and a pair of Nuthatches calling to each other, here's a poor shot of one of them:

That's all folks

TTFN

It's been a while

I haven't posted for over a week things have been a bit hectic with work so just haven't had time!

Last weekend we did a Saturday afternoon National Trust visit to Hanbury Hall not far from Upton. We had a coffee to set us up then wandered around the estate, highlight being a flock of Redwings down in a copse on the edge of the estate, didn't get any decent photos as they were well in the trees and in the shade, but very enjoyable none the less. Plenty of Blackbird, Blue & Great Tit, Chaffinch, Crows, Wood pigeons etc. A flight of 5 Teal flew over us heading towards the masts, so I guess they were on the way to Upton.

There were also some Pheasant wandering around, it was a very pleasant couple of hours. We walked on up the hill to the Church, first time we had done this in all the times we have been there, the views are brilliant, well worth it. The walk up there took us through the a field full of Sheep with Lambs, so an obligatory cute photo is required:

So back to the car, where we saw more Redwing and a Jay. So pleased with that. We hadn't left ourselves a lot of time, but we sneaked in 45 minutes at Upton the way home. We went to the Moors and chose the wrong hide as the sun was shining directly at us, didn't think, so only one photo of note: 'Makin BHGs':

So, the usual culprits:
Great Crested and Little Grebe, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, mallard, Canada Goose, Cormorant, BHG, LBBG, Herring Gull, Snipe (just the one), Coot, Cormorant, Kestrel, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch and Long Tailed Tit.

The Garden has been more interesting this week, with rare visits for us of Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Long Tailed Tit and a first for the garden a very brief visit by a  Goldcrest. We also now have a pair of Magpie building a nest in the Leylandii at the bottom of the Garden, but sadly our 3 bird boxes, whilst being checked out are at the moment empty!

The pond has burst into life, its a frog orgy down there, it's rapidly filling up with frog spawn, so interesting times ahead!

Don't know yet what we are doing this weekend, depends on the weather!  But we do have a trip coming up to the Attenborough NR in Nottinghamshire to meet some friends and the at the end of the a month a long awaited return to Mull, cant wait to see the Eagles again and this time hopefully get some better views of Otters.

TTFN

Bournville Park & Brook

For a change I have being working out of our office in Bournville on and off the past couple of weeks, so with no longer being used to working with loads of people all the time I have taken the opportunity to have a couple of lunch time walks from Cadburys along the Bournerbook through Bournville Park and out to the model boating lake at Bournville Lane.

Today's walk was quite interesting with a couple of surprises.

The park provided me with a first for the year, 2 Goldcrests jumping around the branches of a tree overhaning the brook, so that was a great start to a very cold walk. Otherwise the park revealed the usual suspects, Great Tit, Blackbird, Woodpigeon, Magpie and Crow, although on my first walk last week I did pick up a Wren as well.

So on to the lake, as usual there was a host of Black-headed Gulls (100ish), Mallard a plenty, but amongst them was a solitary Male Tufted Duck, never seen one on there before. There were also quite a few Canada Geese feeding on the few open patches of grass, but on the lake a solitary Greylag was tootling about.

There wasd also a single Juvenile Mute Swan, still lots of grey plumage, surprised to see it on its own.
The only other birds to trouble the scoreboard were Moorhen, Coot and a Lesser Black Backed Gull.

So an intersting 30 minutes brisk walk, much to cold to hang about!

South African Birds by Proxy!

Well as we haven't been birding since our trip to Wales and I haven't even had time to go out on my lunchtime walks, so I thought I would go off at a tangent.......

Tina's brother lives just outside Cape Town and through him we have a friend Doug, who is also interested in wildlife and birds in particular, so occasionally he sends me details and photos of what he has seen on his travels, so here are a few to wet your apatite if you are ever thinking of a trip down that neck of the woods:

Steppe Buzzard

Sugarbird

Sunbird

Sunbird

Hoopoe

Hammerkop

Cardinal Woodpecker

Black Hooded Oriole

Knysna Loerie

So Doug keep the photo's coming.................

Dippers for Breakfast

We had a trip into Wales the weekend, staying in Llangollen at the Chainbridge Hotel. It was a superb location with great views over the river.

We saw Dippers both mornings from our Balcony and from the Restaurant whilst having breakfast, brilliant!
Here's a shot from our balcony (shame that the weather was so dull and wet!):

We also saw Grey Wagtail, Kestrel, Buzzard, Crow and Pheasant from our room, so not a bad way to start each day.

Our plan on the Saturday was to go up to Worlds End as a Great Grey Shrike had been reported there, but all we saw was Great Grey Clouds, the weather was awful we could only see about a 100 feet in any direction, so not conducive to walking especially somewhere you don't know and both of us having stinking colds!

So the Satnav was brought into play and we went National Trusting to Erdigg. The house was interesting and  the gardens were great, certainly worth a visit later in the year. There were plenty of birds about, the highlight being a couple of Goosander on the huge ornamental pond.

Find the Goosanders!

So it was still earlyish and again checked the RSPB reserves on the Satnav and saw we were only 30 minutes away from Burton Mere, so it would be rude not to!

We had a great couple of hours here the staff were very friendly, although the visitor centre was too warm inside, with a roaring fire and after returning from the other hide our bins and camera steamed up and we couldn't use them! Luckily when a Ruff turned up (winter plumage) a scope was on hand otherwise we would have missed it! So highlights were the Water Rail showing well:

Taken through the window, so a bit hazy!

Ruff, Pintail, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Avocet, Black Tailed Godwit, Buzzard, plus all the usual suspects! We missed a Little Gull by a few minutes, hey ho!

Next day we had to head home, so we had a drive up Horseshoe pass just for the view as the cloud had lifted a little, but the wind was howling and at times it was blizzard like:

The only bird brave enough to be out up there!

So we then decided to go home via Lake Vyrnwy, we guessed there wouldn't be much about and by the time we got there it was cold, snowing and my nose was streaming! (Not that you needed to know that!)

We went straight in the hide by the Carpark, only 10 feet from our car and what a surprise!  For those that have never been the hide is glass fronted overlooking the woods, with feeders inches from the window, so we got close and personal with:
Chaffinch, Blue, Great & Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, Brambling, Siskin, Dunnock and Pheasant:

We had a drive around the lake and stopped at the Centenary Hide, but the only bird seen was believe it or not a Dipper!

So we headed home via Powis Castle, where we just made it before closing for a cream tea. (great views of a Nuthatch here!)

The tally for the weekend was 50 species taking our year tally to 90.

A Song Thrush in the Garden on Monday made it 91.

Upton Warren Last Sunday!

Again another late post.

We went with Jo & Jimmy to Upton last Sunday, staying from about 3:30 until 6 in the hope the Bittern might show, but no luck! We started off at the Flashes, but the working party were just packing up and said that there was nothing there because of the work, so about turn and off to the Moors.
(Having said that counted at least 10 Great Crested Grebes on the Sailing Lake)

So went up to the Lapwing hide (A large flock of Fieldfare were in the field behind the Paddock on the way up) to start as the other objective of the afternoon was to see our first Avocet of the year and the mission was accomplished:

A single Snipe showed away to the left a bit different from our last visit when there were about 50 right in front of the hide. There were a few Oystercatchers about, this one came the closest:

Well what else did we see! Ducks a plenty, Shoveler, Tufted, Mallard, Gadwall,

Teal, Pochard and a single Shelduck. Also the usual Gulls, Lapwing and Cormorants. A Kestrel flew over heading over to the other hides, after which we thought we would head that way too!

From the new hide the feeders were pretty busy with Reed Bunting and Long-tailed Tits:

So the Bittern never showed, oh well, next time. All in all 34 species for the afternoon, with the Avocet the only one adding to the years tally.

Til next time

Haden Hill - Last Week!

Another very busy week with one thing and another. Even though I managed a lunch time walk around the Park and Reserve last week this is the first chance I have had to put finger to keyboard.

It was an interesting walk, the sun was out and birds were singing, even though I couldn't find them! Well not strictly true, a few pics from the pool:

Black Headed Gulls starting to get their Black Heads

Interesting Hybrid (Well I thought so!)

BHG on approach!

'Tree' Moorhen

In addition Coot and Canada Geese, then walking through the NR I picked up Great Spotted Woodpecker, Mistle Thrush, Long Tailed, Blue & Great Tits, Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Jackdaw, Rook, Crow, Magpie, Woodpigeon and a Buzzard, sadly none presented well for any photos, so took some snow drops instead!

Middleton Lakes

Very busy at the moment so apart from seeing Argo on Saturday night, it was so good I thought I might give it an Oscar, we managed to get up to Middleton on what was a bleak Sunday afternoon.

The paths were quite manageable, but still recommend Wellies or Boots.  The feeders by the Heronry were very busy as was the Heronry itself, most of the Heronry nests were occupied, so looking good! The star for us at the feeders being the Lesser Redpoll:

The others seen here were Great & Blue Tits, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Dunnock and Reed Bunting:

So on up the path to the reserve, the path through the woods is closed for repair, so had to continue up the Bridleway. There was plenty of Crow activity as usual (I say as usual, it's the first time weve been since June last year!)

The reserve was pretty quiet as the water levels at the first lake were high so no waders, I guess everything is up the far end the other side of the works. It's difficult to tell how this is progressing other than the pathways are a quagmire because of the vehicles going up and down, but never mind!

We walked as far as we could around by the river, this resulted in:

Great Crested Grebe, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Cormorant, Coot, Lapwing, 

BHG, a Kestrel and some Mallard, we heard a Cetti's we think, but couldn't find it. The river produced a pair of Goosander:

It was very cold so after coffee we headed back and encountered a very friendly Robin!

So 30 species in all, not great but a pleasant afternoon all the same. Just a shame there's no hide so you can get out of the wind! Especially at Coffee time!

TTFN