THE SCOPS OWL

 A Scops Owl had been discovered in a local park in Dunvant near Swansea and it has also been roosting in someone's back garden. In birding terms this is a MEGA!

The Scops Owl is a rare visitor to central Europe, it's breeding areas are the warmer areas of Southern Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, so how it got into a park in Swansea South Wales god only knows.

Steve and myself had heard of pretty naughty behavior by birders who were relentlessly harassing the bird with torches for a view and/or a picture, so at first we decided not to go. Then a shout came out on one of the main social media sites we are members of that they were going to organise it so when the Scops Owl is located they would shine a torch on it for about thirty seconds so people could get a view and then leave it alone for about thirty minutes to allow the bird to feed. This I could cope with and as this was a mega rare bird we decided to travel down there to see it.

We got there at about 5.15pm and it was already pitch black, we walked into the park where you couldn't see your hand in front of you and already there were people with torches shining them into the trees but where was the organised twitch that was talked about on social media? There were foot paths but it was that dark you couldn't distinguish them from the grass which was like walking on sticky mud and I had already found a muddy pot hole which went up to my ankles. Steve was talking to some other birders when a shout went out it was down the other end of the park in a deciduous tree. Steve got there before me and had a good sight of it, by the time I'd got there it had moved into another tree close by but with the relentless shinning of torches I saw it perched up on the left hand side of the tree a little further down.

This image below is not mine but it is one of the Swansea Scops Owl that someone had taken the previous day. I took it off the internet but I don't know who's pic it is so I couldn't give them a credit.

the swansea scops owl

Although delighted to have seen it the experience was a bit bitter sweet with people continually shinning their bright torches and not giving the bird any space and time to feed.

It went out of sight soon after I had seen it, we met a couple of birders that had thermal imaging cameras so we stayed with them for a while but they could not relocate the Scops Owl and it was not seen again that night. 

After marching in the muck a while longer we headed home glad we had seen the mega Scops Owl but also realising that after that experience twitching definitely isn't for us.

NEW SCOPE

 My lovely wife "god bless her cotton socks" has got her wonderful husband a new Spotting Scope for Christmas and has let me open and use it before the big day what a wonderful woman.

It's a Swarovski 65mm ATS and she got me a 20x60 angled eyepiece and a nice new cover for it as well. Swarovski wanted £270 for their cover so she bought one from ACE Optics which was a lot cheaper at £80 but does the job just as well.

my new scope the swarovski ATS 65mm

and with the cover on

My old scope the Vortex Viper is a bit to big and bulky and was very heavy to be carrying around in the field all day especially as I'm getting older but I must say is still a good scope.

I haven't taken the Swarovski out in the field yet but it being a lot lighter than the Vortex and optically superior it should perform a lot better, so I'm looking forward to putting it through it's paces. With it having a 65mm front lens it might struggle a little in lowlight situations but the quality weight and sharpness of the lens should more that make up for it.

I have done a bit of digiscoping with it on some of the birds that visit our garden and even through the bedroom window the quality seems great. 

Here's some short clips - chaffinch, goldfinch, great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, long tailed tit and great tit.

A fantastic scope and a fantastic Christmas present looking forward to using it when I'm out and about on my birding adventures. Once again thanks to my lovely wife and I hope you like the slippers I got you😂 until the next one cheers.

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.