WILLOW WARBLER

One of my very first signs of Spring each year is the sound of the Willow Warblers returning back to the farm and setting up territories with their delightful ascending little song.

A very close relative of the Chiffchaff (they're practically identical except for their song) but for some reason we never get Chiffchaff up here, you have to say they're a great addition to our Summer migrants.

singing willow warbler

A lovely little leaf Warbler that remarkably for it's size travels all the way to the UK from it's wintering grounds in tropical Africa each year to breed.

THE SWALLOWS

 Every year the Swallows arrive back at the Farm from their Wintering grounds in Africa.

This year a male arrived in early April and was finally joined by a female a week or so later. We usually have a few pair up here but this year only the one pair has turned up so I'm hoping they'll be successful  and I'll be seeing the chicks flying around here soon.

the male with the long streamers on the tail

another male

female

and another

Here's a short clip of a male calling in early spring.

Like I've already said let's hope this pair is successful and we see some young Swallows flying about soon.

SPRING TIME CHATS

Well Spring is all but over but it's been quite a decent season for myself with a good number of Spring/Summer migrants seen and photographed.

The chats are always a pleasure to see and back in April I photographed this female Wheatear which had just arrived back from it's wintering grounds in Africa.

female wheatear

The Stonechat although not a migrant but a resident species comes back on territory at the Farm every year and this year they have been very abundant with territories everywhere.

male

chick

female

These are gorgeous little birds and the males are stunning.

male stonechat

and another

Another migrant Chat that migrates here to breed from Africa is the Redstart, these birds are hole nesters and readily take up the old holes in the trees near my home or nest in a few of my nest boxes which I've put up around the Farm.

male

female

They are a beautiful bird and I am very lucky to have them nesting on my doorstep. 

I've had the opportunity to take several images of both male and female, I think they've had a good year this year as they also seem to be everywhere.

trying out one of the nestboxes

Last two images of the male and the female, I have to say they are stunning.

As a footnote another stunning little Chat the Whinchat used to be a regular at the Farm but sadly no longer, I did see one in early April (no photo I'm afraid) but although I've looked for them throughout the Spring I think that bird must have been passing through. Never mind maybe next year.

SISKIN FOR STEVE

A couple more slo - mo videos for you, my good friend Steve Carter loves a Siskin so here's a short video of - first Goldfinches squabbling at my sunflower hearts feeder and then a male Siskin at the same feeders.

                                                  ENJOY!

Really enjoying using my new Vortex scope and looking forward to getting out in the field and honing my digiscoping skills.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I'll catch you all soon.

DIGISCOPING WITH THE VORTEX VIPER HD

Got the Vortex Viper HD spotting scope for Christmas off my lovely wife so I've been trying my hand at digiscoping again with the iPhone 12 and a Viking adapter to keep the phone and scope attached.

Here's a couple of images of the scope with the adapter attached. I use it now in horizontal mode although in the picture I have it set up vertically.

my new scope

and with the attachment

Here's some pictures I've taken with the set up although not as sharp as my DSLR still I think pretty good.

nuthatch

goldfinch

jay

great tit

great spotted woodpecker

The iPhone 12 has a great camera and video camera with a slow motion mode which captures slo - mo video at 120 or 240 frames per second. Here's a clip in slo - mo, it's just at my feeders I'm afraid but you still get to see and appreciate the movement and fine markings of the birds up close.

The video is of a female Great spotted woodpecker, the stills picture above is of the male.

                                               

I've captured a couple more slo - mo videos and I'll put them up on my next blog.

Thanks for dropping by and a belated Happy New Year to you all see you next time.

SOME NICE WINTER THRUSHES

Nice to see our winter Thrushes back at the farm. Last years berry crop at the farm failed dramatically, with most of our berry trees going into a sort of limbo state where they looked like they had died and so didn't produce any berries. So by the autumn of 2020 there wasn't a single berry on the trees. The knock on effect of that was that the winter thrushes and our own resident thrushes didn't settle at the farm to take advantage of the bounty that usually awaits them.

Thankfully this year the trees sprang back into life with a good crop of berries on most of them that I thought had died. So with a strong northerly wind this week the Redwings and Fieldfares arrived on mass and I went looking for them with binoculars and camera in hand hoping to get some decent images.

redwing

With the sun pretty low behind the birds the photo's are a bit backlit but it was great just to see the birds and be happy with any sort of image of these Scandinavian winter visitors.

fieldfare

fieldfare

redwing

I must say it's fantastic to have them back and I hope to see them regularly this autumn/winter feeding in the berry trees and in the fields at the farm.

It was a bit of a mystery about the berry trees but I suppose that's nature for you. Thanks for calling by and I'll catch you soon.

RUTLAND

Went up to Leicestershire to see friends for a couple of days during my well earned week off after my horrendous fortnight of 12hour shifts. 

Well we couldn't go all the way up to Leicestershire without popping into Rutland Water for a days birding.

 

map of rutland at the first visitors centre

I've got to say the place is massive, there's around 31 hides there and to get to the other side of the reserve you have to drive back onto the main road and travel 10 minutes to reach the other visitors centre at the north end. The staff there were very pleasant and helpful, inside the visitors centre there was a video feed of this years nesting Ospreys that was taken in the spring and early summer. The birds have departed now for Africa so we were to late to see them. There were feeders just outside a massive glass window where various tit species finches and other passerines were darting back and forth from cover. The staff told us they do get the occasional Marsh tit come in but although I sat there patiently for nearly an hour non showed up.

great tit at the feeding station 

We walked to some of the hides near the visitors centre where you could see out over the water, you do need a scope which I hadn't taken but I think lugging that around as well as my camera and bins would have been hard work.

looking out over the water you can see how distant the birds were

most of these are tufted duck

You can see how far off the birds were so to get any detailed images was going to be a bit of a challenge.

There's over 900 cormorants at Rutland and a lot of them liked roosting in this tree.

cormorant on their roosting tree

roosting cormorants

Here's the Osprey pole where they successfully nested this year.

the osprey post where they nested this year

After exploring some of the hides we decided to go up the north shore where hopefully we could get closer to the birds. Whilst going for one last look in one of the hides before we set off I managed to get a close view and pic of this WillowChiff.

couldn't identify this with any conviction so willowchiff it will have to remain

Up at the north shore we managed to get a little closer to the action but still only managed some record shots of a lot of the birds with the duck species being the most approachable.

eclipse male tufted duck

female teal

male teal

a moulting shoveler

male wigeon also in eclipse plumage

The hides at Rutland are very well kept and luckily for us very waterproof as we did have a deluge of rain at one point.

one of the hides at Rutland

the mountain birder

They were a pleasure to sit in and brought my thoughts back home to our own Llandegfedd Reservoir and how poorly kept the site is even though it's a SSSI. Just wish Welsh Water could do to Llandegfedd what the authorities have done here.

Anyway enough of pondering on things I can't do nothing about and lets see some more water birds. Here's some Egrets

little egret

little egret

great white egret

a bit of a distant great white egret

There were rumours that a Black necked Grebe was at the reservoir but I wasn't lucky enough to see it but did see Great Crested Grebe and Little Grebe.

great crested grebe with chick

little grebe

There were a few Mute Swans there I captured this one as it flew by.

mute swan

Waders were very scarce at Rutland all I saw there were just Lapwings and Snipe, I managed to get a pic of a Snipe but I must apologise for this appalling photo but I think you can just make out what it is.

there's a snipe in there somewhere

Finally I must write about the birds of prey that were at Rutland Water, it was raptor central although most to far off for a photograph the selection there was very impressive with Buzzard, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, Kestrel, Hobby and Marsh Harrier.

I did get a couple of very dodgy pic's of the Hobby as it streaked past the hide.

hobby

juvenile 

We had a great days birding at Rutland Water and saw some great birds even though my feet were in bits at the end of our visit. We never got to see all the hides but I think covering the site over 2 days would be a better idea especially for my feet. Hopefully we'll come back up in the spring where there would be a better chance of seeing and also photographing the Ospreys and seeing a lot more woodland birds in the woods that surround the reservoir.

That's it for this one thanks for calling by and hopefully catch you all soon.