The Northern Lights and a King Eider or Two!

We have just returned from a 12 day cruise from Southampton up to the top of Norway. The sole objective being to see the Northern Lights with anything else being a bonus. First off we appear to have been lucky as the for the whole trip the Captain said that the weather was the calmest he had ever seen for the North Sea in winter.

We set out from Southampton about 6 hours late as they couldn't start one of the engines, not a good start. We then cruised the next day until arriving in Stavanger our first port of call. Along the way a few birds were sighted,
Fulmar

 Razorbills

As well as these various Gulls were seen as well as Guillemot and Gannet. We arrived the next morning in Stavanger and had a wander around that we enjoyed greatly. Of course there were some birds about, a couple of Eider showed well:

A pre-breeding plumage Cormorant then turned up:

It was great in the clear waters of the harbour watching both the Eider and Cormorant diving and zooming around under the water something we hadn't seen before.

Stavanger itself yielded Hooded Crows in abundance, some Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Mallard and Common, Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gull on the park lake behind the Cathedral. As we wandered around the quiet lanes of the old town we found a little area with a few benches and picnic table an ideal spot for a coffee. A neighbouring garden had feeders were we saw Starling, Tree and House Sparrow and a couple of Greenfinch.

So back onto the boat by 3.30pm for a departure shortly after. As the boat departed it raised about 20 Grey Heron from a small island, most we have ever seen in one go. Next stop Tromso in a couple of days.

We arrived in Tromso in the morning of the 1st. The scenery on the way had been spectacular as we hugged the Norwegian coast:

 Not sure I fancied a swim though

There were plenty of birds around at the port, mostly Eider, but as I looked out of our cabin window, just below us was a group of 6 duck, I had a quick glance through the bins, just before going up on deck, thinking Eider. I was kind of right, but they were King Eider, fantastic. I quickly phoned Jo & Jimmy in the next cabin to give them the heads up, as I desperatley tried to put the 500mm lens on the camera. When done looked back and they had gone! Frightened away as the ship docked! C'est la vie!

We went up on deck, to look around, there were plenty of Common Eider and a few passing Long-tailed Duck, but then we spotted this little beauty:

So a life first for us, well pleased. We saw a group then for a while hiding behind a Russian Trawler docked behind us, so sadly I never managed a close up. But what a result.

We then spent the day exploring Tromso in the freezing cold (only -5 so quite warm for the time of year!!)

So after exploring we headed back to the ship for dinner and to set sail for Alta.
Another morning found us docking at Alta, well 4 miles outside actually, right at the end of the runway at Alta airport. More on that later.
We were in a bay that was full of Long-tailed duck:

I would say there was over a thousand of Tina's favourite Duck. As well as the Long-tail there were also plenty of Eider:

Red-breasted Merganser, Black Guillemot, Gulls and this Red Fox scavenging at the end of the runway:

That night was a trip out for the Northern lights. Before that though we did get a showing from the back of the ship:

Later on we were going to get away from the city to get the best chance and boy did we get it! We were out until 01:30 and had two hours of a spectacular show.

I have over 90 shots but I won't put them all up here, probably even much better ones than these. But it gives you the idea!

We were so lucky the, as next night proved cloudy and nothing was seen.
Finally at Alta I mentioned we were docked by the end of the runway, so a little bit of heavy metal is in order:

We left Alta the next day after an explore round the very small town and steamed down the coast then through the Sognefjord to Flam. Sadly we traversed the fjord at night in both directions missing the fantastic scenery. I think P&O dropped a very big clanger there, surely they could have timed some of this during daylight!

Anyway at Flam the only additional bird was a few Goldeneye, but the main event was the Flam railway, a spectacular journey up the mountain side.

After Flam it was the long cruise back to Southampton. We did see a few distant whales one morning but much to far away to identify.

So that will do for this post.
TTFN

RSPB Rainham Marshes, a stroll!

My blog post are like buses, non for ages then 6 come at once!

After a great and boozy weekend with our lad in London we returned making a small detour to drop into Rainham Marshes. It was a bit cold and windy but at least it was dry.

There was allegedly a solitary Brambling about by the feeders at the visitor centre, but of course no sign of it when we headed out onto the reserve. Our initial goal was to stop at the first hide only a couple of minutes from the centre and have coffee. From here there were the usual wintering ducks, Wigeon, Teal and some distant Shelduck. There were also large numbers of Lapwing both on the ground and in the air. Watching Lapwing is always enjoyable and a real treat.

As we had a 3 hour drive home we couldn't afford to linger to long so set out to do the circular walk around the reserve, only really stopping for any time in the large hide about half way around to have lunch.

The walk was very productive with 41 species seen over the couple of hours we were there, not great numbers but still not bad. Photography proved to be difficult as everything was keeping its distance, but here are a few just to prove that we were there!
Stonechat:

 Lapwing

 Wigeon

 Teal

 Wigeon

 Gadwall

 Pintail, plus spot the Snipe!

So a good couple of hours, the full list being:

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Collared Dove

Coot

Cormorant

Curlew

Dunlin

Dunnock

Fieldfare

Gadwall

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Canada Goose

Greenfinch

Greylag Goose

Herring Gull

House Sparrow

Kingfisher

Lapwing

Linnet

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Pied Wagtail

Pintail

Reed Bunting

Shelduck

Shoveler

Snipe

Starling

Stonechat

Teal

Tufted Duck

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

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.