A SPINNING COIN

 My good friend Stephen Carter invited me along to a local wood to see if we could locate any Wood Warbler territories. The Wood Warbler is a spring/summer migrant  from tropical Africa and is pretty scarce outside it's preferred habitat of closed woodland with  sparse undergrowth. 

We walked about a 100 meters into the wood before Steve detected the off nest call of the male it was a long way from where we were stood and soon disappeared back into the canopy. We went a bit further in to the wood and this time we saw another male off calling this one was a lot closer and even gave snatches of the birds song which sounds like a spinning coin on a table top. I managed a couple of photo's as the bird moved around the tree branches above us.

wood warbler

 The bird must have had a nest close by and although we stood quiet and watched the male for a while we couldn't quite locate it so we left the bird in peace as not to disturb it to much.

wood warbler giving us it's spinning coin song

It was the first time I'd managed to photograph Wood Warbler so I was well pleased. Steve was a little disappointed that he couldn't locate the nest for his records but there's always next time. Well that's it for this one so as always thanks for dropping by and I'll catch you soon.

BACK TO RUTLAND

As I'd hoped this year we were able to get back up to Rutland Water to hopefully see and photograph the Osprey's.

We stayed in a Wetherspoons in a town called Corby which is about 15 minute drive from Rutland.

We went to the Lyndon nature reserve side of the Reservoir first where we saw the Osprey nesting pole last year and to my shear delight they were there!!

osprey nesting site

The site is a long way off from the hides which is a good thing but I had come armed with my digiscoping gear and it turned out to be the best decision I'd made as the views of the birds were outstanding.

Above is a short video of both the male standing guard preening itself and female on the nest.

Here's some of the other Osprey images I managed to take on the day.

At the Lydon visitors centre there is a feeding station where we saw this Muntjac deer.

muntjac deer

Also a Greenfinch which was nice to see as they've disappeared from my feeding station over the last few years.

male greenfinch

Male and female Pheasant

male

and the female

There were some nice warblers about with this Lesser Whitethroat and Willow Warbler showing well.

lesser whitethroat

singing willow warbler

Rutland Water is a massive site and to get to the opposite side of the reservoir you have to drive there, it has another visitors centre with a shop and cafe area that sells refreshments and loads more hides. Here's some of the birds I photographed while over there.

common tern

buzzard

cormorant

avocet

nesting colony of black headed gulls

 Also spotted this pair of Gargany from one of the hides. The Gargany is quite a rare summer visitor to the UK from Africa so I was well pleased to get this photo.

male and female gargany

It was a long day at Rutland but well worth it. It was great to see and photograph quite a few nice species but for me the Osprey's were the stars of the show.

Ospreys at their nestsite

Rutland Water is a beautiful place and if you've got just a partial interest in wildlife is well worth a visit. The Ospreys at Rutland is on a constant video feed which can be seen on YOUTUBE.

CUCKOO'S AND THEIR HOSTS

Every Spring hails the return of the Cuckoo back at the farm. Although this year they were a bit late and didn't really show as well as previous years but I managed to locate the Male and get a couple of pic's.

male cuckoo

The main reason they return every year is because just above the farm is moorland where good numbers of Meadow pipits and Skylarks nest. Also on the farm there's a habitat area of open woodland where Tree pipits also nest, the Cuckoo's use these species as their hosts to bring up their offspring. The male will lure the host away from it's nests and the female will go in and lay her solitary egg.

meadow pipit

The Tree pipit is very similar to the Meadows but is a Summer visitor here from Africa, the very faint lines on the flanks and a shorter hind claw is the best way to seperate them in the field, also the Tree pipits display call is slightly different. Tree pipits start and end their display flights from a tree where Meadows take off for their display flights from the ground and then return there.

Here's a couple of Tree pipit images in display flight.

tree pipit

 And here's a Skylark, there's always good numbers of these nesting on the moorland.

skylark

The Cuckoo's will be on their way back to tropical Africa by the end of June and as they only arrive here at the tail end of April their stay here is very brief, but I will look forward to their return at the farm next Spring as I do every year.

WOODPECKERS

 Green Woodpeckers are a very difficult bird to get close to let alone photograph but my luck was in a few weeks back when a male bird landed on a lampost near my home and then landed on the floor where it started feeding on an ants nest.

male green woodpecker

feeding on ants

They are beautiful birds and I feel very privileged to have them nesting up here every spring. For those who don't know the difference between male and female the male bird has a splash of red on it's moustachial stripe just below the bill which can be clearly seen on the photo above.

The next two images are of the female no red on the moustachial stripe.

female green woodpecker

Here's a short clip of the male feeding.

We also get Great Spotted Woodpeckers that unlike the Greens come regularly to the feeders here's a couple of pic's of the male and female.

male with the red patch at the back of the head

female

another female

So that's our regular breeding Woodpeckers, there is another woodpecker that breeds in the UK that's the Lesser Spotted a very rare bird indeed they are found in only small pockets of woodland around Britain and are I'm sad to say still declining.

A PLEASANT SURPRISE

 We've had Tawny owls nesting up here for the last few years and it's always a pleasure to see them. They nest in an owl box which I've put up at the edge of the small wood near our home. Obviously because they're nocturnal you only get a fleeting glance or perhaps see the female fly off when we check the box. We hear them regularly calling at night and is great to listen to.

Last year I decided to put up two boxes one to replace the original box in which the bottom had rotted away and was uninhabitable, and a second to perhaps attract a Kestrel or Stockdove which will nest in these sort of boxes. We checked the original box back in March which had three Tawny eggs in so I was well pleased that they had took to the new box. There was nothing in the other box but there was plenty of time as we were still in the month of March. A week or so later outside the second box was the Male Tawny he had decided to use the second box to roost in and was just sat there on a branch in full view. I quickly got my camera and took some photo's of this cheeky male who stayed in full view for the next week or so until the leaves on the trees got thicker and hid the box and him from view.

male tawny owl in full view

on the entrance to the box

For me this was a great opportunity to have cracking views and to be able to photograph a Tawny owl in broad daylight.

I don't know if I'll get this chance again but what an experience. I haven't checked the main box in which the female was sitting on them three eggs, but with him on guard I should hope that she successfully reared a healthy brood.

I've left them in peace over the last couple of months so I should think the chicks are out of the box by now and are in the trees near by still being fed by their parents. By October they should be independent and the adults will start to drive them out of their territory so they will have to find territories of their own.

AN OLD SCHOOL FRIEND (BEST MATE)

After just over 40 years I finally met up with my old school mate Steve (Eba) Bool.  We were both heavily into our birds back then as we still are today. Steve is a great digiscoper and some of his video's and pictures that he's taken through his scope can be seen at our local Facebook site GWENT BIRDERS. We've been out birding together a couple of times since we met up and this is a post of a mornings birding at his local wood which leads through farmland and to the top of a mountain side.

my old school buddy Eba and myself. We haven't changed a bit.

We first went through his local wood where there was a cacophony of bird song, this wood is where last spring Steve watched a pair of Sparrowhawks from egg laying to the chicks fledging which was in his words "a brilliant experience".

Here's a couple of the birds in his wood I managed to photograph.

song thrush

black cap (male)

willow warbler

We also had a rare treat when we must have walked into the territory of a Firecrest. What a beautiful little bird, it came in pretty close and I managed to get just a record shot, we decided to move away to leave the bird alone as it must have been nesting there somewhere and they are I think a schedule 1 species so shouldn't be disturbed.

firecrest showing it's distinctive white eye stripe 

We walked through a farm and on top of his local mountainside where there were a few heathland birds on show, here's a couple of images from there.

stonechat

meadow pipit

male linnet

female house sparrow

buzzard

skylark

another mipit

After a few hours out we made our way back down to Steve's house where we had tea and biscuits and a good old catch up. He's a great character and an excellent birder and I hope with work and our busy lives we'll still find time to have a few more days out birding.