Coffee and cake birding at Gravel Pits

Canada Geese and Greylags take off on main pit

Redwings and Fieldfare were everywhere

Captured by the wife

A good finish to the day

Female Scaup

Just a short post with sightings from Sunday's visit to the Gravel Pits. I was joined by my wife for this visit and she picked up the site Peregrine hunting for a Red-legged Partridge.

Two Raven were being harassed by a group of Carrions up above the hedgerows that had big numbers of Redwings and Fieldfares fielding on the abundance of berries.

The main meadow contained a good number of Snipe and a single Jack Snipe.

A female Scaup was on the main pit which I'm 100% sure is a different bird from the week before. Sadly I didn't have an image from last week to compare. I did sent the image to Jon for an opinion and he thought the same.

Other sightings on the main pit included 5 Shoveler, 12 Black-headed Gulls, 30 Canada Geese, 2 Cormorants, 6 Gadwell, 3 Grey Heron, 40 Lapwing (over), 14 Little Grebe, 16 Greylag, 6 Mute Swans, 8 Pochard, 20 Teal, 30 Tufted Duck. 

After a good session of birding we headed up to Hilliers for a tasty slice of Dundee cake and coffee. 

Return to Hawling

Digiscoped images

Photographers waiting for show time

I couldn't resist a return to Hawling in Gloucestershire on Saturday. A nice day with no wind was the deciding factor before making the hour long journey into the heart of the Cotswolds. Arriving just after 1pm there were plenty of spectators all hoping for a good showing from the Owls.  

I set up my tripod next to Birmingham based photographer Pete Walkden who I hadn't seen for quite some time so we had a good rattle. There was a nice selection of birds to watch whilst we waited which included 2 Red Kites, Buzzard, Raven, Kestrel, 30 Golden Plover, 50 Lapwing and large flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares.

There was no early show from the Short-eared Owls the first one didn't show until gone 3.15pm appearing sat on top of the field wall before starting to hunt. He was quickly joined by another Owl which then increased to a maximum 5 Owls all hunting at the same time. A brilliant session of birding. One of the Owls perched up to enable the photographers to get some great shots. 

As the final rays of light faded I headed off down the lane. As I reached the cross roads and turned right a Barn Owl took flight and flew along the road before crossing in front of me into the farm. Another top afternoon. 

Many thanks to Pete who kindly forwarded the above images he took. 

Scaup lands at Salford Priors

We had a local mega on Sunday when there was a female Scaup on the main pit at Salford Priors. On the downside I'd put the wrong memory card in my camera so I was unable to get a digiscoped image. I did take a few landscape phone photos. The diving duck was showing nicely in the top corner and it was great to see a new bird. Birding there takes a good deal of walking as its so soft under foot and the only other addition lately was a Yellow-legged Gull.

8 Wigeon had returned to make up for a single Shoveller which took a great deal of finding of which the same could be said for the Common and Green Sandpipers. Other sightings on the main pit included 3 Pochard, 25 Greylag, 17 Gadwell, 8 Mute Swans, 15 Little Grebe. I must admit I didn't count Tufties or Teal.

The Little Owl was keeping his head down as we passed his tree and then a Peregrine put everything up and he tried to snatch a Red-legged Partridge for an early breakfast only to miss out he then sat perched at the top of oak looking for his next target. 

There were increased numbers of Redwing and Fieldfare but there were no Tit flocks across the site. Elsewhere sightings included a Water Rail, Buzzard, 11 Cormorant, Linnetts, 6 Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Rooks, Siskin and Goldcrests.

Raining Black Redstarts

This late Autumn has seen a serious influx of Black Redstarts around the county. I've gone from chasing them around to country to seeing them in three separate locations within two weeks.

The latest was a nice male at St. Johns Church, Worcester right next door to the Birders Store. Very handy for Brian Stretch as I'm sure every optic tested would have looked good with a Black Redstart in view. The bird was found by Brian on the 26th and was present up to early this morning.

My digiscoped images don't really do justice to the bird.

Other birds reported over the last few days include :- Male at Hereford Cathedral, Male and Female at Brean Down, Ayr, Cornwall x2, Suffolk, Northumberland, Pembrokeshire, Norfolk and Isle of Scilly. Never a better time to go out and find one !

Short-eared Owls steal show at Hawling

After the Rosy Starling in Bristol and a good session at Slimbridge I was already happy I'd had a great day but I decided to stop at Hawling on my way home to see if I could pick up a wintering Short-eared Owl. I'd never been to this location before but the habitat stood out so finding it was no trouble at all. There were three photographers set up and this number increased to around 18 as the light faded. 

Patience was the order of the day as for the first two of hours I had to be content watching two Stonechats perform along the wall. A Kestrel hunted the Owl fields whilst there was an occasional fly over by Raven, Redwing and Fieldfare.

A Red Kite came into view on the other side of the road and was quickly joined by another 3 Kites and a Buzzard before they went off to roost.

By this time the crowd had reduced to just 5 people of which non were photographers. Our patience was rewarded when 4 Short-eared Owls hunting at the top of field and then edging closer towards the viewing area. I just love watching these birds and it was a case of them passing a glance at us whilst they carried on their daily business. An amazing sight, it must be said. If I lived locally I'd be up there every night without a doubt.To top the day off I found another Shortie hunting a few miles north of the location.  

Thanks to Pete Walkden for file image.

Bewick's Return

Entrance to Slimbridge

Bewick Swan Family

My arty attempt of Pintails

Curlew

White-fronted Geese

Wigeon

Teal

Common Crane (GCP)

Bewick close up

The superb book shop

After a great start to the day in Bristol I stopped in at Slimbridge to catch up with the returning Bewick Swans. It was nice to see them at close quarters in the Rushy pen but also out on the Dumbles with the thousands of other birds. I managed to count around 40 Bewicks include a good number of young birds.

There were two pairs of Cranes showing territorial behaviour and one pair fully chased off the second pair and lets hope they manage to breed again next year. 

From the Holden tower I picked up the Juvenile Marsh Harrier I observed on my last visit whilst other sightings included a Peregrine, 2 Buzzards, 500+ Dunlin, 1000 Golden Plover, 200 Barnacle Geese, 200 Lapwing, 50 White-fronted Geese and 2 Little Stints.

The Tack Piece was full of birds including 4 Crane, 20 Ruff, 50 Curlew, 200 Black-tailed Godwits, 200 Dunlin, 600 Wigeon, 40 Pintail, 200 Teal and 800 Lapwing.

After a good scan and sandwiches on the move I had a good trawl through their great range of books, avoiding drawing the debit card out ! 

Bristol Rose-coloured Starling

Nice capture from local birder Lee Gardiner (with thanks)

 Can you spot the bird here ?

Peek-a-boo

Area I saw the bird either stationary or in flight

With an additional day off this week I opted to head down to Bishopston, Bristol to try and catch up with the reported Rose-coloured Starling as I'd never seen this species before. Thanks to advice from local birder Lee Gardiner (@urban_birding) I found the area shown on the above map after two slight hold ups with the local recycling service that completely blocked the streets I was going down as they were so narrow.

I've never a great fan of birding around houses but the local residents seemed very friendly and were quite intrigued to ask me about what the bird watchers had been doing by their local church. 

After a couple of laps of the area I returned to my start point on the church park where the bird was last seen and as if by magic the Rosie came in and landed on the top right hand edge of the bush. Accompanied by a number of House Sparrows the Starling was keeping his head down, no doubt to avoid the local Sparrowhawk doing the rounds. 

When another birder arrived the bird did take flight and did treat us to some great views and you could really see his salmon pink colouring. Despite our patience and checking among the Starling flocks we didn't manage to locate the bird again.

If you are heading down I'd suggest you start your search in the region of 

St Bonaventures Parish Club and Church, the gardens that back on to the car park is where we saw the bird for a prolonged period.