RSPB Otmoor - or an afternoon out!

Last weekend saw us travelling down on the Friday to East London to spend the weekend with our son. We decided to make use of the journey down and spend the afternoon at RSPB Otmoor in the hope we might see a murmuration.

This was our first visit to Otmoor so didn't know what to expect. I had looked at the reserve map on the RSPB website that we now know is not to scale! Looking at the map we thought that we would park up and have a short walk to the 'hide' and coffee! After the drive down, I was certainly ready for one. Anyway the 5 minute walk turned out to be a tad longer, so much so we found a bench parked our bottoms and braved the cold for a while to get our fix and also be entertained by a hunting Kestrel.

Not a great photo as it didn't come close enough, but for the record:

Feeling refreshed we carried on the path to be treated to a flyover by a nice group of Golden Plover,

After this we reached the lookout building, much bigger than a hide with a 270 degree view over the lagoons and fields. The highlight from here was the large numbers of finches and buntings feeding around the hedgerows and pathways at the far end of the building:
Yellowhammer,

 Mixed flock of Linnet, Reed Bunting and Goldfinch,

 Reed Bunting,

 Yellowhammer,

 Goldfinch,

Linnet,

There were also thousands of Lapwing around giving some great aerial displays and plenty of Golden Plover doing the same:

The water also provided plenty of Teal, Wigeon and Mallard. We did have one spell when all of the small birds disappeared for a while after a Sparrowhawk tried its luck, but they eventually returned. As the sun started to get lower in the sky, small groups of Starling started appearing heading towards the reed beds, so we set off and followed the path to the first reed bed viewing platform, this is basically a hide without a roof.

Here we added Great Crested Grebe and Shoveler to our list, but eventually the main event started:

I do have a video that you can find on Flickr:
Starlings

Our list for the afternoon, but the key thing was the Murmuration!

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Coot

Dunnock

Golden Plover

Goldfinch

Great Crested Grebe

Great Tit

Greater Canada Goose

Greenfinch

Greylag Goose

Kestrel

Lapwing

Linnet

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Marsh Harrier

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pheasant

Red Kite

Reed Bunting

Robin

Shoveler

Sparrowhawk

Starling

Stock Dove

Teal

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Yellowhammer

Attingham Park NT - Shropshire

The other week we drove over to Attingham to have a look at the Snowdrops and have a walk around the estate. The Snowdrops were magnificent and my photos really don't do them justice:

Of course wandering around there were some birds about, the highlight probably being Treecreepers,

there were plent of Pheasant about too.

Up in the Deer Park we came across a flock of Redwing, that gave us good views, but wouldn't let me get close enough for a decent photo, although this one hung around for a few seconds longer than the rest,

of course there were Deer in the Deer Park as well,

So all in all a very enjoyable walk, that also included, Jay, Mute Swan, Wren, Mallard, Chaffinch, Blackbird, Great & Blue Tit, Nuthatch and plenty of Corvids. We heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but never saw it.

Winterwatch Our Way! Part Three

So our last two days. Day five is a walk day, our destination today is Glen Muick a lovely walk in the right weather on the Balmoral Estate. However today wasn't quite the right weather but what the heck! The wind was howling and it was a tad on the cool side, but we went any way. We started off walking into the wind and down to Loch Muick. This took a while but we were rewarded with a couple of Black Grouse giving us a very brief flypast. Occasionaly the sun did come out;

This gave us the opportunity for a coffee stop sitting against the boat house out of the wind. Tina and myself were just chatting as we do when not four feet away from us a Dipper came around from behind the boat house and landed. I don't know who was more shocked the Dipper or us. Needless to say it took one look at us and scarpered, being blown around mercilessly by the wind as it went.

Feeling suitably refreshed we carried on now with the wind behind us making progress a lot easier (and unintentionally quicker at times as the wind gusted behind us) The only other sighting on the walk was a Mountain Hare spooked by a group of walkers a hundred yards or so in front of us:

The rest of the walk was uneventful, though we did see a Treecreeper as we headed through the trees back to the car. Another great day.

Our plan for the final day was to drive to Montrose Basin via the RSPB Reserve at Loch Kinnordy. However the weather forecast for later in the day was looking bad so we decided in the end only to go as far as Kinnordy so that we were certain of getting back over Glenshee before the snow came.

Loch Kinnordy was great, giving us our best Red Squirrel sightings in a log time:

We saw three within a few minutes, in fact they ended up chasing one another around the woods!
So onto birding, I guess the highlight was a Bittern that flew right across the front of the hide. It took us completely by surprise, I tried to get the camera on it but just got a blur, never mind!

Next up were four Whooper Swans that insisted on staying over the far side of the Loch playing hide and seek in the reeds. This is the best shot that I could get:

A group of about 13/14 Snipe gave us some good entertainment as the constantly moved around, of course they never cam very close to the hide:

There were also plenty of Teal

and Wigeon about and some distant Goldeneye. A few female Tufted Duck came for a visit towards the end, looking nice in the sunshine:

So a good day was had, but again being sensible we headed back with plenty of daylight left, this gave us a chance for a slow drive down Glenshee back to Braemar as the weather worsened:

Although Red Deer don't seem bothered by horizontal snow!

So now it's time to go home, we awoke to a bit of the white stuff:

and found that the road out of Braemar over Glenshee was closed due to the heavy snow and drifting on the summit. This meant a big detour north towards Aberdeen then across to the coast and down the east coast through Dundee adding a good hour onto our journey. Never mind it was all worth it.

Winterwatch Our Way! Part Two

Part Two of the blog starts with a quieter day and a walk around the Muir of Dinnet. We weren't sure what to expect as this was another new place for us and I had read reports of a lot of flooding blocking some of the paths. We struck lucky though and managed a circular walk without getting out feet wet!

The walk started well with a Buzzard in a Rainbow:

Followed by a couple of Cormorants in a tree!:

We did spy some Goldeneye through the trees out on Loch Kinord, but not close enough for a photo. As we continued our walk Jimmy spotted a couple of Fieldfare in the fields those were our first of the year.The only other birds of note were a pair of Lapwing who obviously wanted to be alone! A bit early for that I would of thought:

So a lovely walk with a few coffee stops was had but not many birds seen. We ended the day with a dash up to Glenshee again, for dusk for the Hares and Red Deer.

Another long trip out for day four, this time over the Lecht again for Loch Garten and Abernethy Forest. No sign of 'our' Golden Eagle this time sorry to say and no Snow Bunting at the Ski Centre either, however shall we say the weather was now decidedly wintery!

The main reason for going to Garten is Crested Tit and they never disappoint us!

In addition the Coal Tits here are very friendly:

To our delight we also saw a couple Red Squirrel, some Treecreeper:

and a brief sighting of a Goldcrest:

The light was terrible while we were there and it rained continually but at least the birds didn't desert us. After Garten we had a drive up to Aviemore Ski Centre in the hope of Snow Bunting or Ptarmigan but both must have been on their tea break when we were there! The views were great though!

The later weather forecast wasn't great so we headed back reasonably early again, which was a wise move as with the high winds there was some snow drifts building around the Lecht, in fact a lorry was unable to get up one of the hills the snow was too deep for it on the road. Thank heavens for a Land Rover! We finished the day by adding Red-legged Partridge to the list on our way down out of the mountains. So endeth part two!  Decided that was enough for this one. So sorry there will have to be a part three.

Winterwatch Our Way! Part One

It has been a while since I have posted anything, not because we haven't been out and about, but because we have been so busy, I just haven't had time, but here we go......

By shear coincidence we chose to be up in Scotland staying in Braemar the same week as Winterwatch were holed up just a couple of miles down the road on the Glen Mar Estate, so it was interesting to 'compare notes' on a day by day basis when watching the programme in the evenings tucked up in our lovely rented cottage in Braemar.

I think the only things we didn't see that they showed were Pine Marten and Ptarmigan although that wasn't for lack of trying on our part.

We toured a fair way over the week  venturing north to Burghead, west to Aviemore and east to Loch Kinnordy as well as staying local and exploring the Mar Estate, Muir of Dinnet and Glenshee.

So we started with a walk on the Mar Lodge Estate heading out from the Linn of Dee car park, wildlife was non-exisitant on a dull day, the highlight being a Stoat that raced across the path in front of us with what looked like a mouse or vole in its mouth. The views were great though:

We finished with a drive up Glenshee for Mountain Hares and were rewarded with numerous but distant sightings:

The next day saw us head up to Moray and Burghead via the Lecht. It was a miserable and murky start to the day but as we started climbing up the mountains we saw a large bird perched on a fence post that was then 'attacked' by some crows, a Golden Eagle, I have to apologise for the photographs it was difficult to get focus in the murk!

A tremendous start to the day followed by some Red Grouse:

Once we were over the Lecht, and after stopping for a single Snow Bunting at a freezing Ski Centre, and heading north the weather improved and we arrived in Burghead in glorious sunshine, although the wind was fierce. We had hoped for some Long-tail Duck in the harbour, we had seenthem there before a couple of years ago, but no such luck this time, instead they were braving the rough seas a little way offshore:

along with the Eider:

The harbour side did produce some Turnstone and Redshank though:

A couple of Seals were hanging around among the boats:

Before leaving Burghead we drove around to the north coast and were luck to find some Red-breasted Merganser, and a small group of four Velvet Scoter, we had good views through the scope, but the distance was too much for the camera.
From Burghead we headed out to Findhorn stopping at the public hide on the bay, but apart from Crows there was nothing to report. I'd say not our lucky day, but we had seen an Eagle so musn't complain. We decided then to head over to Lossiemouth, as we got there the weather turned very nasty so we stayed in the car overlooking the sea. Here we had a real bonus if you like your heavy metal birds which I do of course. A couple of Typhoons came in and gave us a bit of a show:

Luckily they arrived just before the rain came lashing down.

We planned from here to try and find the hide at Loch Spynie, I had done some reserarch before hand and with the aid of 'following my nose' we found it. The rain was still coming down pretty hard, but Jimmy and me went for a recce and we find the hide was only a 5 minute walk from the car so I reported back leaving Jimmy in the hide and went and brought the kit and the girls!

As we walked down to the hide the rain stopped, hurrah! Followed by two Roe Deer running through the trees and across the path. A good omen!

As always when you go somewhere new first impressions can be there's nothing here, but once settled in and coffee poured we started finding plenty. This is the view front and right of the hide:

 There are feeders to the right on the shore line and woodland edge, the Long-tailed Tits were the most of the time, that is until a Sparrowhawk cane hurtling through the trees, that was pretty awesome. All the 'little uns' escaped though.

 Mute Swan passing through:

 Great Spotted Woodpecker in for an easy meal:

 Goldeneye

A very profitable day. As we had a long drive back to Braemar we headed out well before dark as the roads can be a bit dodgy going over the Cairngorms.

Part Two to follow very shortly.