A PAIR OF TAWNY'S

 I'd blogged in the spring about a Tawny owl that had started roosting in a box that I had put up near my home. A couple of weeks ago I photographed it again peering out of the box but it wasn't until a close inspection of that picture that I noticed there were two Owls perched at the entrance.

if you look closely you can see two birds.

Well the next couple of weeks I would periodically check if they were there but no show from the birds. One day I could hear a racket from some birds alarm calling from near where the box was situated so I grabbed my camera to take a look and they were there. I snuck around to a vantage point where I could see the front of the owl box and I could clearly see both male and female Tawny's snuggled together at the entrance hole.

male and female tawny's

That's great news and should mean that they'll start breeding in that box in the next couple of months.

SOME LANZEROTE WADERS

 Went on a weeks holiday to Lanzarote in October with the Wife for a bit of autumn sunshine. We love walking on the beach where I noticed on some rocky little outcrops some wading birds. I had taken my binoculars and the wife had taken her Canon bridge camera so the next day I got up early and ventured down there armed with both.

There was a nice selection of waders with Sanderlings being the first I managed to photograph.

sanderling

There was also Turnstone present another coastal wader.

turnstone

To finish off this small group of coastal waders there were also Ring Plovers on the beach.

ring plover

I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted this Whimbrel amongst the waders.

whimbrel

I'd never been so close to waders before the whimbrel even started to walk up the beach about ten yards from me, you wouldn't get within a hundred yards of them without a hide in the UK.

To finish my morning off I got a couple of snaps of this Yellow Legged Gull.

yellow legged gull

We both had a lovely holiday in Lanzarote and seeing them waders so close was the icing on the cake.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I'll catch you on the next one.

AUTUMN ARRIVALS

Back at the tail end of October we had our annual visit from our winter thrushes the Redwing and Fieldfare. This years berry crop was very good so with some very patient waiting in my mobile hide "my car", I managed a couple of decent images of the birds.

the redwing

the fieldfare

Also trying to get their share of the Berry's were the Mistle thrush and Blackbirds.

mistle thrush

female blackbird

On a different note here's a pic I took at the end of September of a female Pied Flycatcher that must have been on passage and the first one I'd seen at the farm.

female pied flycatcher

Was also nice to get a couple of images of some long tailed tits that had ventured onto my feeders, I don't get to photograph these handsome little birds to often so it was good to see them.

long tailed tit

That's it for this one. It's great to see the winter thrushes back and that Pied Flycatcher was a nice surprise, until the next time cheers for calling in.

KITES NEST

A few weeks ago I was privileged to be taken to a Red Kite nesting site under schedule one licence with my old buddy Stephen Carter.

It's one of the happier stories in conservation of how the Red Kite is starting to spread out over our wooded valleys, a lot mainly due to reintroduction programs.

We did see one of the adults out hunting before we got to the site but I was to slow with the camera to get a decent shot, but here's an adult Red Kite I photographed at a different location.

adult red kite

When we arrived at the site there were two nearly full grown chicks in the nest and they both looked very healthy and well fed. Steve took some photos for me again under his schedule 1 licence and then we both left to leave them in peace.

red kite chick at the nest

second chick

both youngsters

It was great to be taken to and to see first hand the nest site and knowing that Red Kites after years of being absent from our Wooded Valleys are now doing well and will hopefully spread out even further across the country to the levels where they should be.

A WHINCHAT

In a previous post I'd stated that we had lost the Whinchat from the farm although I did spot a male in early spring but he was just passing through. What I can't understand is that the habitat is here for them and the likes of  Stonechat, Wheatear (although declining year on year) and Redstart are still breeding here, so there must be a reason why they are no longer breeding up here?

So a couple of weeks ago I headed for my old stomping ground Cwmtillery lake and reservoir to see if they're still doing ok up there.

It was good to see that the moorhen's and Coots have had a successful breeding season with both species feeding or tending to chicks the Coots nest was right up against the bank right next to the path that dog walkers fishermen and just people in general use quite frequently.

moorhen

moorhen with chick

coot

coot chick in the nest right next to the path

Walking up the path going towards the reservoir this rabbit was just sat on the path ahead of me but soon bolted soon as it saw me.

rabbit

Walking up around the top of the reservoir there were quite a few birds about but couldn't see any Whinchat but this Meadow pipit and Stonechat provided some good views.

meadow pipit

male stonechat

Walking back down towards the lake and thinking I wasn't going to see that elusive chat I heard a weird call it was a bit like a Stonechat call but at the same time very much different. Raising my bins up towards the call I'd spotted one, a female and it had it's chick with it. I scanned about for the male but it was nowhere to be seen, my thoughts were it had either been predated or was somewhere else looking after the other chicks, I rattled off quite a few shots before leaving it to feed it's chick.

female whinchat

And here's a shot of the chick, you can see the white eyestripe starting to develop.

whinchat chick

So had a great morning out and saw my target species the Whinchat even though it was just the female and it's chick I went home well happy.

taking off

I just hope in the not to distant future we'll have them back up here with us, they are cracking little birds.