GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

Reports of a Great Northern Diver landing at Lanishen Reservoir in Cardiff was enough to get the pulses racing and when my great birding mate Steve Bool said shall we get down there to take a look I jumped at the chance.

The Great Northern Diver breeds in Iceland and is a Winter visitor to the UK, they are usually found off the coast of Scotland and eastern England. Although during and after Winter storms it can be found anywhere along the coast and very rarely on inland waters, which has happened to this bird. It is the largest diver that we have in the UK with the others being the Red Throated (which we had both seen a few weeks previous at The Cardiff Barrage) and Black Throated.

When we arrived the weather was miserable but we both decided to have a look as it would be yet another lifer for me and Steve hadn't seen one for years. A very kind chap who was on one of the boats gave us directions to where it was last seen, so we strolled around scanning the reservoir with our binoculars until Steve finally spotted it right out in the middle of the water. As the weather had been so bad Steve had left his scope in the car so he rushed back to fetch it. I walked a bit further along the track and managed to get a bit closer to the bird so rattled off a few shots. By this time the rain had eased so giving us a window of opportunity to get some good views, pictures and footage.

 

my first great northern diver

Steve by this time had returned with his scope and got this lovely footage.

It was great to finally be able to tick this one off what a great bird.

more great northern diver action

After about forty five minutes of spending quality time with the Diver The heavy rain came back in again, but we were more than happy with our photos and videos so decided to call it a day. No coffee and cake this time as we were both drenched by the time we got back to the van but we had both seen and recorded it The Great Northern Diver what a bird.

MORDEN BOG & SALISBURY

My birding buddy Steve Bool and yours truly decided to go to a place called Morden Bog in Dorset as we have heard that it's another good site for Crossbills and Dartford Warblers so on a wet dank Thursday morning we set off to have a look.

When we finally got there we parked up in a small flooded car park and made our way into the bog. We soon realised that wellington boots should have been worn by both of us as it was a lot more wet and squelchy under foot than we had anticipated. We made our way to some tall fir trees that were bursting with cones and soon heard the familiar "chip chip" calls of the Crossbills. There must have been about twenty birds there all above us but really high up in the trees but they wouldn't keep still long enough for Steve to get any digiscoping footage but we had some lovely views of them through his scope. I managed a couple of photos but they are heavy crops as the birds were so high.

female crossbill

and the male

Here's Steve with his scope hoping that the birds would stay still long enough for him to record them.

stay still you pesky crossbills

We moved on from there hoping to get a sighting of a Dartford Warbler we had already heard them calling but they would show only briefly then dive back down into the undergrowth.

We got talking to a nice bloke who was telling us of the birds they get at the bog including a White Tailed Eagle what a bird that would have been to see.

We finally had decent views of a Dartie but I was to slow with the camera although Steve did manage a record shot of it through his scope and phone combo it stayed still long enough to get this record shot it's not great but it's a shot.

record shot of a dartie

With not much else showing and it being very wet and mucky underfoot we decided to make our way back to the Van and go to another good birding area called Compton in Salisbury.

this is me battling through the bog

This is the place that we came a few months ago and got to see, film and photograph the Great Bustards.

We parked up and nearly straight away were greeted by flocks of Corn Buntings, Linnets and Starlings what a sight and what a feeling as the Starlings came in whirring over our heads.

starlings settling in a tree

starling flock

Here's a small section of the massive flock of mixed finches and buntings.

mostly linnets with a couple of corn buntings

Here's a couple of heavily cropped Corn Bunting pictures.

corn bunting

There were also Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and Stonechat mixed in with the Linnets and Corn Buntings.

We also spotted this Brown Hare in amongst the undergrowth.

brown hare

Although there were no signs of the Bustards this time (I think they disperse in the Winter so are more difficult to see) there were good numbers of raptors (birds of prey) with six red kites filling the sky and Buzzards circling overhead.

red kite searching for worms

red kite in flight

here's a couple of Buzzard pics

buzzard also looking for worms

buzzard in flight

We also saw a Merlin perched on a fence post but as soon as we got the gear out to record it and hopefully get a photo it took off. I would have loved to have got that beauty in my lens but it wasn't to be. We also had a flyby Kestrel but again to quick for us to get any footage or picture.

It was finally time to call it a day but we had seen some great birds and that Morden Bog would be worth a visit in the springtime. Big thanks to my good mate and chauffeur Steve Bool for taxiing me around the country so until the next one cheers. 

CROSSBILLS AT FARNHAM HEATH

A trip to RSPB Farnham Heath was the next adventure on our travels. My good birding mate Steve Bool had already been there a couple of weeks previous and said how good it was for seeing Crossbills so when he had a job delivering there a few days ago I went along with him to hopefully see and photograph this beautiful little finch.

Farnham Heath is in Surrey and is not very well sign posted so how Steve found it god only knows. It's a massive area of fir trees and heathland and is used extensively by dog walkers which doesn't go down well with the Wardens and Volunteers but still it's a cracking site and we were looking forward to spending a few hours there.

When Steve went there  previously he found a small pond where birds come down to bath and drink so we set up there and waited. Crossbills are predominantly seed eaters so have to drink regularly they eat the seeds from the cones in fir trees preferring spruce. They extract the seeds by using their specially adapted beaks to pry open the cones to get at the seeds inside. We were lucky as it wasn't to long before some came in to drink, here's a couple of pictures of the birds waiting in the surrounding trees and coming into the waters edge.

male crossbill

female

female

and another male

 As you can see from the photos above the male's are a bright red and the females more of a greyish green.

Steve took some lovely footage of the Crossbills through his Leica scope and IPhone combo here's a couple of clips of the male and female.

After their short stay at the pond the Crossbills all flew off so Steve and myself had a wander to see if we could find the Dartford Warblers which also frequented the Heath.

It wasn't long before we heard the distinctive buzzing churr of the Dartford as one hopped up on a small pine tree giving us a chance of getting some pics and a bit of video.

dartford warbler

Another showed quite well on top of a small gorse bush but they kept their distance not allowing us to get to close.

another Dartie

When we were looking for the Darties we flushed a Roe Deer which was a bit of an added bonus.

roe deer

As we're now in November the days are getting a lot shorter so with not much light left we went for one last look at the Crossbills. They did come in again giving us cracking views a great way to finish off our visit.

What a stunning bird - We left Farnham Heath with some great memories and met some lovely people and will hopefully if Steve gets another job in the area go back there again.

On the way back we stopped off at Aust which is the Bristol side of the Seven Bridge or as it's called now the Prince of Wales Bridge. A Penduline Tit has been there for a few days, Steve had been lucky enough to see it on the Saturday but I had family commitments and was unable to go. Although the light was fading we were hoping to get a glimpse of this quite rare and lovely little bird.

Here's Steve's footage of the Penduline Tit he took a few days earlier.

No luck I'm sorry to say but we did have some nice views of a Kestrel and the sunset over the bridge was pretty spectacular.

female kestrel

gorgeous sunset

We had a great day out and even though I didn't get to see the Penduline Tit those Crossbills and Dartford Warblers more than made up for it.

two happy birders

Big thanks once again to Steve for doing the driving and taking us to these wonderful places another excellent day out, so until the next one cheers.

A DIVER AT CARDIFF BARRAGE

 A Red Throated Diver had turned up at the Cardiff Bay Barrage over the last few days so when my best birding buddy Steve Bool asked me if I wanted to go down to see it I absolutely jumped at the chance.

Red Throated Divers breed up in Scotland on inland lakes but in the Winter although scarce can turn up on UK coasts as this one's done in Cardiff.

When we got there we spotted it nearly straight away swimming with a Great Crested Grebe but the sun was shinning straight into our faces so views were pretty poor. We decided to move onto one of the pier like structures so the sun wouldn't be so obstructive but the time I'd got into position it had gone. The tide was going out so it must have swam out to deeper water, divers can swim underwater for two hundred yards or more so it might be the reason why we didn't see it leave. 

We decided to have some refreshments and wait for the tide to come in a bit before trying to relocate it. After an hour or so we went back to the same place it had disappeared from, the tide had started to come back in and the mudflats that were left after the tide went out were now underwater again. After about another half hour of scanning the sea with our binoculars it finally turned up. It was a good way out to begin with but came closer and closer until at last I was able to get some decent images.

red throated diver

The bird is obviously now in it's Winter plumage, some were saying it might even be a juvenile but it's difficult to tell.

what a cracking bird

One annoying thing was it was constantly diving so Steve couldn't get any video footage but just to see it is sometimes enough what a beauty.

Whilst trying to photograph the Diver a Seal turned up and caught a huge Salmon. Lucky enough it wasn't to far out and I was able to grab a few shots as it devoured this massive fish.

seal with it's catch

 
After seeing that unexpected treat we concentrated back on the Diver what a privilege to see this handsome bird.

red throated diver

 After a while the bird once again decided to do it's disappearing act and as our car parking time was nearly up and the rain started to come down we decided to call it a day. What a morning it was though Red Throated Diver and a Seal with a Salmon it don't get much better than that. Big thanks as always to Steve for doing the driving what a diamond he is and what a great morning it was at Cardiff Barrage brilliant.

AN OUZEL ON THE SOMERSET LEVELS

Myself and my best mate Steve (the digiscoping king) Bool decided to have a days birding at RSPB Ham Wall and West Hay nature reserves on the Somerset Levels. Obviously we'd both been there before but they are such great places to visit and can sometimes throw up the odd surprise. I brought my scope this time as the birds from the hides can be a bit distant and I also want to start using my scope more often on our birding days out.

Surprisingly Ham Wall was fairly quiet but we did both see and digiscope this Marsh Harrier feeding on a dead Canada Goose on the waters edge.

Here's a short video of the scene.

 We didn't see much else there and had decided to go over to West Hay when a birder told us that there was a Ring Ouzel in the Ham Wall car park. I've never seen one and the last time Steve got to see one was years ago. Ring Ouzel's would be on passage now as they stay here to breed during Spring and Summer usually on rocky mountain slopes and then in the Autumn migrate to mountainous regions of the Mediterranean. As we got to the car park there were quite a few birders with their scopes, bins and camera's pointing towards a berry tree. We darted over there and just sat under the tree was a handsome first Winter male Ring Ouzel. 

my first ring ouzel

Steve went around the side of the berry tree and got this stunning footage.

It was so good that I took these two stunning captures from his video.

what a beauty

It stayed either underneath or in that berry tree for about twenty minutes, what a turn up for the books a Ring Ouzel at Ham Wall car park and what were the chances that we were actually going to be there on the day it turned up unbelievable.

Steve's footage was so good the warden at Ham Wall asked him if they could put it on their Facebook page and would give Steve a credit on their page for his video. So we're looking forward to seeing it on there.  

We decided to go over to West Hay now our luck was in and on our way into the reserve on one of the fields we spotted a load of Cattle Egrets a lifer for Steve, but I think he was more excited about the Ouzel.

cattle egret

At West Hay we were hoping for Bittern and Bearded Tit but although a birder said he'd seen a Bittern at one of the hides our luck didn't hold out and we didn't get to see either species. I did photograph a displaying male Gadwall, what a beautiful drake duck he was and also a Heron skulking in the reeds.

handsome male gadwall

grey heron

Although we left West Hay a little disappointed that we didn't see the Beardies or a Bittern I think the Ring Ouzel and Cattle Egrets more than made up for it, a great days birding and how lucky were we to see that Ring Ouzel.