SOME WINTER VISITORS

I'm very lucky that at the farm we do get both Winter Thrushes and the little Winter Finch the Brambling.

The berry crop at the farm hasn't been great again this year so locating and getting pictures of the Fieldfare and Redwing was both difficult and sometimes very frustrating. The efforts below were the best I could manage.

fieldfare

redwing

The Brambling on the other hand were coming into my bird feeders so I just had to sit at the bedroom window and wait patiently, here are some pictures of both the male and female.

female brambling

and another

And some pics of the male.

male brambling 

and another

Here's a short video of a male foraging

Here are a couple of pic's of some of the birds that also came into the feeders with the Bramblings.

robin

jay

great spotted woodpecker (female

great spotted woodpecker (male)

male chaffinch

Nice to have the Winter visitors back even though them darn Winter Thrushes are so skittish. I am hoping to get some better images of them before they go back up to Scandinavia for the breeding season but I'll have to get lucky.

SHORTIES IN THE COTSWOLDS

There's been a lot of Short Eared Owl pictures posted on social media lately. It's an Owl mostly seen in Winter as in this season the numbers swell as birds come in from Scandinavia to boost our numbers in the UK to an estimated 10,000 individuals.

So myself and my partner in crime Steve Bool decided that we'll take a trip out to see if we could see them. Steve found out through a trusted contact that the birds were showing really well at a site in the Cotswold's so at 7am on a freezing cold morning we set out with Steve obviously doing the driving.

When we arrived there were cars parked all up this country lane with birders walking around and searching for the Owls. Either side of this country lane was rough grassland which the farmer (god bless him) keeps rough throughout the year so to attract rodents especially voles which the Short Eared Owls prey on.

We talked to a few birders some who had been at the site since dawn. They told us that the Owls had showed at first light but none had been seen since. It was bitterly cold so we walked about to try to keep warm, there were some other birds of prey there Red Kites were gliding around the fields we saw Buzzards as well as plenty of Kestrels.

kestrel

kestrel at rest

After waiting for about four hours for the birds to show in freezing temperatures  a shout went up as a Shortie came from nowhere and started to hunt along the fields at last we thought, as it went over both fields giving the birders there a good chance of getting great views and some photographs.

short eared owl

I think this was my best pic

 Only one bird was on view but it did put on a bit of a show

The Owl after hunting for a while went to ground, Steve picked it up in his scope and it gave us some great views of the bird at rest. This is the best I could manage with my camera, it was so difficult to pick up amongst the tufts of grass.

shortie hiding amongst the tufts of grass

It stayed there for an hour and as there were no other birds hunting and it was freezing cold we decided to head back home. We were both very happy though that we had seen a Short Eared Owl and as a bonus we drove past a field that must have had 30 or more Red Legged Partridge in so Steve parked up and I took some pics.

red legged partridge

When we got back we heard that five Shorties had turned up half an hour after we left, you couldn't write it, but at least we saw one. Imagine how gutted we would have been driving all the way there in the freezing weather and seen nothing! perish the thought.

YOUNG GOS

Back in late September I had an unexpected visitor that landed on a lamppost near my home. I could tell it was a large bird of prey but what? after a look through my scope I was delighted to be looking at a juvenile Goshawk. It's the first one that I have recorded on the farm but it was a very welcome visitor.

I quickly got my adapter on my scope for my iPhone and managed to get a photo and a bit of video footage before it flew off. Though I hadn't realised until I checked the pictures that I had chopped the bottom bit of his tail off.

juvenile goshawk (with half a tail)

Still not a bad effort through the scope, I did manage to get all the bird in on the video footage below which I was very pleased with.

A very pleasing experience and what a beautiful bird. I hoped that it would stick around for a while but alas that was the only time I saw it but I shouldn't be to greedy, right that's it for this one and I'll catch you all soon.

THE WILLOW TIT

 The Willow Tit is now a very rapidly declining species even rarer than it's very close cousin the Marsh Tit which itself is now a very rare bird. I was lucky enough to watch a pair of Marsh Tits from a distance back in the Spring as my good friend and bird nesting guru Stephen Carter discovered a nest in a local wood situated in a Dormouse box. 

Amazingly though some Willow Tits had been discovered coming in to bird feeders at a Country Park at a place called Llyn Llech Owain near Llanelli. So me and my now regular birding mate Steve Bool decided to take the trip down there to see these delightful little birds and it would be a tick for both of us as neither of us had ever clapped eyes on a Willow Tit before.

the country park

We arrived at the car park and as we both hadn't been there before we didn't have a clue where the feeders were so we asked a very kind gentleman and his wife for directions. He showed us where to go and gave Steve some bird seed as well very kind.

 

the feeders

We got to the hide where the feeders were and sat down and waited rather excited at the chance of seeing our first Willow Tit's. There were loads of different birds coming into feed and after a few minutes in came the Willows we were both delighted to have seen them, I got my camera going and started to take some pics and Steve "the digiscope king"started taking pics and video with his scope and iphone.

our first willow tit

cracking little birds

Here's some of the footage that Steve took.

Like I said there were loads of birds besides the Willow Tit's coming to the feeders so here's a few of them that I managed to photograph.

male house sparrow

long tailed tit

female great spotted woodpecker

and the male

male bullfinch

robin

blue tit with the willow

coal tit

great tit

Obviously though the star of the show was the Willow Tit's

willow tit

and the final image

Great couple of hours at the country park and who would have believed that the very rare Willow tit would be there just feet away from us incredible. 

We had our customary tea/coffee and cake to celebrate in a lovely little cafe which gave us chance to look over our pics and footage what a great morning.

THE TAWNY'S HAVE MOVED HOME

My resident Tawny Owls have been nesting and roosting in a box I put up for them over the last couple of years. I had seen them in December/January at the box entrance enjoying the winter sunshine but later on in the year I noticed that the box was full of sticks.

tawny's at the entrance hole in the box

one of the owls

I suspect this was the work of squirrels, but as my expert nesting mate Stephen Carter had told me that there was no way a squirrel would eject a Tawny Owl from it's nesting site. I was gutted that they wouldn't be there anymore but just couldn't understand why they would leave. Perhaps one or both had died who knows but I knew that they hadn't left the area as I could still hear them calling in the evenings.

In the autumn and winter months we do have some bad storms and have had a couple of trees come down. While walking our dog through the small wood near my home I noticed that a big branch had come from a tree leaving a rather large hole, I wonder I thought, as I got nearer the hole a Tawny flew straight out, it seems that they have moved into this new tree hole, I was pleased to have found them and set up my trail camera opposite the tree hole to see if I could get some footage.

treehole

As I was setting up the camera trap a couple of days later the Owls flew out again confirming that they had decided to use this new site. I got the wife to help me with the camera so I was able to get a couple of images of an Owl as it flew out.

owl flying out of the tree hole

what a beautiful bird

Here's some of the camera trap footage, they're getting harrassed by the squirrels but both birds it seems are staying put.

Here are some frame grabs from the video, I think the smaller Owl is the male and is a different bird than the original bird in the picture at the nest box.

I think this is the male and is a different bird from the original pair

I think this is the original female

both birds together

It's great to know that they're still residing in the woods and hopefully will nest in their new home successfully this year fingers crossed.

  

FINDING THE BEARDED TIT'S

After the no show by the Bearded tits at Newport Wetlands my good friend and birding buddy Steve Bool was determined to see them before the Winter set in and the weather would restrict our birding outings and our chances of seeing this cracking little bird.

There was news of them showing well at Westhay Moor on the Somerset levels, so Steve once again did the driving as we headed down there to see if we could see them.

When we arrived it was a pretty still day so we were hopeful of getting at least a glimpse of them as they don't like windy conditions and so tend to stay deep in the reeds.

There was a large pond as we walked in to the reserve with some of our resident species of Ducks, the males do look rather handsome after their summer moult.

male wigeon

male gadwall

shoveler 

We went into a place called the Island Hide where we spoke to a Warden who was showing some birders around. He told us that non had shown yet but this was the best area to see them. We waited there for a while but nothing, so we decided to look elsewhere. As we left the hide we heard a metallic pinging as a small bright tawny bird shot straight passed us it was the Bearded Tits. We went back into the hide where they were right in front of us to close even for Steve's scope, they were picking up grit from a post, the grit is put there by the Wardens to help them break down the reed seeds which is a large part of their diet. I managed to get some pics but the reeds were a bit of an obstruction.

male bearded tit

female

They are beautiful little birds especially the males with that bluey grey head and the black moustachial stripe.

They came down on the walkway in front of the hide they didn't seem to mind that we were there at all.

female bearded tit

female and male together

male

We spent a brilliant twenty minutes or so in the company of these great little characters.

After the Beardies had gone elsewhere we moved on, Westhay Moor is superb reserve with lots of great species. We saw a flyover Bittern (no pic I'm afraid) and this Great White Egret looking for food at one of the many hides.

great white egret

We also watched this female Marsh Harrier quartering over the reedbeds.

female marsh harrier

There were lots of different waterfowl species to many to photograph but here are some Canada Geese coming into land.

canada geese

A fantastic morning spent at Westhay Moor and we got to see the Bearded Tits the males are gorgeous.

male bearded tit

Big thank you once again to my best mate Steve Bool for being my chauffeur fairplay he's a diamond although I do buy the coffee and cake :-)

Westhay Moor is a beautiful area on the Somerset levels and it would be great to go down there again perhaps in the Spring, what a place I can't wait.