Friday 31 December 2021

New Year's Resolutions and a Snow Bunting!

 I'd like to start by wishing my readers a Happy New Year, hope you both have a good un😀! I don't usually bother making resolutions but thought I would give it a go!! 

1)  Do more Birding, especially Sea-watching! (seems a no-brainer and should be fairly easy to keep!)

2) Show Margie even more love, affection and respect than I do already, tell her I love her everyday, acknowledging all the little things she does around the house, that I usually ignore, take her to at least one Bryan Adams concert and a minimum of 5 castles in 2022, buy her lots of presents and it wouldn't kill me to do a bit of housework every now and then💓 Love you Hunny💕

3) Stop leaving the laptop unattended when doing Blog Posts, especially when Margie is about!! Though she might have a point on a couple of the issues raised in resolution 2,Bryan Adams and Housework maybe a step to far!!

4) Stop arguing with Twats on the internet! (almost impossible😲)

5) Stop being a Twat on the internet! ( equally unlikely😏)

6) Lose weight! (over the Covid period have put on 2 stone😲!!)

7) Eat less cakes!!😢 ( this could be a difficult one but essential to achieve number 6,though difficult when your other half works in a cake shop and keeps bringing home cakes!! I know I should show more self-control and apply some of that iron willpower that keeps me staring out to sea on a sea watch despite knowing, nothings gonna come through)!!😁

8) Be more Green!! ( although we don't fly, have cut our mileage from 20000+ miles a year down to less than 7000, only eat Organic food, recycle everything possible (in truth that is mainly down to Margie!) and have given the garden over to wildlife (rumours that this is mainly down to laziness and a reluctance to get the Lawnmower out are outrageous slurs!!) So will have to have a think about what else we  can do, feel I'm a bit to long in the tooth to glue myself to a road(me back won't stand it either) or have a riot so will have to be something less strenuous, any suggestions welcome!! 

9) Stop making resolutions I'm unlikely to keep!! (except number 2 obvs) 

Last day of the year today and with the weather forecast implying that today and tomorrow may be the only rain free days before I go back to work, we  felt, we should try and get out. Unfortunately the weather forecast turned out to be wrong (quelle surprise) and we were greeted with a fine drizzle, undeterred we set off anyway. Yesterday a Snow Bunting had been reported from Bo-Peep car park so thought we would have  a crack at that, now I wouldn't normally twitch a Snow Bunting, as I've seen loads but after 10 years in Sussex I'd never heard of the Bo-Peep area of the Downs so I thought could be a good idea to  check it out! We headed along the A27 the grey drizzle getting thicker but I used my legendary catchphrase "It's getting brighter over there" (I grant you it's no "Nice to see ya, to see ya nice" but we can't all be Bruce Forsyth and I'm working on a better one) and we reached the turn off to Bo-Peep Lane  the rain did stop!! Huzzah!! (took your advice there Nicky) unfortunately as the lane wound it's way up onto the Downs we drove into thick cloud!! Denied!!! On opening the doors we discovered not only were we in a pretty thick fog we had the bizarre situation of also being in a howling wind!!! Not sure how that works shouldn't a howling wind clear thick fog!!

We decided it was refreshing and a short walk would blow the cobwebs away, so unconfident was I in finding a single Snow Bunting in these conditions I left the Camera in the car, we checked out the Sheep Pens where the bird had been seen before, and walked down the atmospherically mist wrapped track, no sign, we chatted to another local birder who hadn't seen it earlier, apparently seed had been scattered around in a couple of places but both were Bunting free!! We were just about to give up when I decided to check out the Pens again, with Margie's usual catchphrase "you can't go in there" (she's no Brucie either) ringing in my ears, a quick peak into the furthest pen revealed the Snow Bunting sitting right out in the open, rootling about in the mud, quick dash back to the car, enlighten the other guy to the situation, grab the camera and return with Margie, who having kept the bird in sight further excelled herself by offering her shoulder as a camera rest against the onslaught of the howling wind, enabling me to take a few pics, best of em below










Very restrained only 9 of the 246 I took😀. Even I was getting a bit bored with it, when sensing it was losing it's audience the bird abruptly took to the air and flew off into the mist, seemingly flying around in a circle and landing on the track approx 100 yards to the south, difficult to be %100 sure because of the mist. After this success we decided to call it a day, heading back to the car we found the gloves I had dropped in my haste to get to the car, thanks to the other birder for pointing them out!!! 

Happy New year everyone may 2022 bring you everything you want!!😍😍😍

Green-winged Teal for me please!!!! (and world peace obvs😂)!!!!





Thursday 30 December 2021

Owl hunt on the Patch!

 Having survived the Christmas festivities more or less intact, despite eating my body weight in homemade Organic Christmas Cake😲🎂 and with the offspring returned to their various abodes thoughts turned to getting out and  doing some birding, However the Christmas weather seems against this with persistent rain/drizzle and high winds the order of the day😢! A brief respite in the weather yesterday afternoon decided me on an Owl hunt, I figured the aforementioned weather would have meant any Owls in the area would have been prevented from feeding and like myself would take advantage of  the break in the atrocious conditions to get out and do some hunting! My local patch off the Albourne road has a couple of areas that I've always thought looked good for Owls and discussions with various locals I've bumped into on my walks seem to confirm it with reports of Owls seen in the past. 

I arrived at the parking place at about 3.20pm, was not looking particularly promising with cloudy skies and everything looking very wet, traversed the first field without incident despite the treacherous conditions underfoot, the only bird sighting of interest a Buzzard sat in a small tree, which did at least give me a flypast.

Buzzard in a Tree




Yes I know atrocious pictures, had to lighten them, usual excuse, gloomy conditions and operator incompetence😀!!

Ignoring the Glades which would have been a mud bath, I turned left at the crossroads and headed up the hill, atop the hill is a broken down barn which has Little Owl written all over it, but despite giving it a ferocious scanning I couldn't find one, not that much of a surprise done the same thing many times before without success!! At this point the path splits in two, turn right and it goes down the hill towards the Vineyard or carry straight on and it goes down the hill to the Golf Course, either way brings me out on the long run of rough grassland that looked excellent Owl habitat, just at different ends.

At this point a Stonechat appeared at the head of the right hand path, now I'm not superstitious, but I've seen enough Lassie films to know when an animal wants you to follow them😲!! It was clearly a sign from the Birding Gods to follow the Stonechat to Owlmegddon!! So I did, and to give it, it's due, it posed quite nicely in the low sunlight!!



Follow Me!











I followed the bird down the hill, noticing that the water-logged field next to the path was alive with Pied Wagtails at least 30 birds running about over it, unfortunately they were quite distant and were the wrong side of the light so pics were difficult!!

Pied Wagtail
I had reached ,what I have optimistically named the Owl Field, the Stonechat had mysteriously disappeared!!  The area of grassland runs into the distance before turning at right angles and running up to the Golf Course, it has thick hedges on either side, in order to give myself the best view each way I decided to leave the path and walk a couple of hundred yards along the hedge and make a stand where I could see both areas, ,there was no fence and I followed an obvious track, so broke no new ground, although technically I'm not a 100% sure it's an official footpath😏!
In general I'm a wander around kind of Birder, walking around an area to see what I can find, but there is merit in occasionally just standing in one spot to see what comes by. I became one with the hedge, was a few sightings of interest, a small flock of Tits came into the hedge to roost, various flyovers from Blackbirds and Song Thrushes , a large flock of Pied Wagtails flew over heading to roost, presumably the ones from the field, a flock of Redwing flew over, Corvids and Pigeons also flew into the trees to roost, I heard a Green Woodpecker somewhere behind me. So in tune with the hedge was I that a Robin landed on a branch a couple of feet away and started to sing before realising I was there and flying away with an indignant squawk😲!! 
So the light started to fade, no Owls appeared, it got darker and darker to the point where pics could no longer be taken and still  no Owls appeared 😢 with the thought about trying to cross muddy, slippery fields in the dark, I decided to call it quits and head back to the car, nothing to do with the fact it was getting a bit spooky😱😱

Spooky!!

I headed back up the hill, the sunset was trying it's best but didn't amount to much!!



At the top of the hill I gave the derelict Barn another quick going over, with no success, as I turned away in the far distance I heard the call of a Tawny Owl!! Or was it just wishful thinking!!! Pretty sure it was one to be fair, though it didn't repeat!! 

No Owls sightings for me, though nice to get out and about, To be honest I think the area I am looking in, while on the face of it looks good habitat, it is pretty much like an oasis in the desert, surrounded by large empty fields, a highly manicured Golf Course and a Vineyard with all the chemical use that entails so maybe it flatters to deceive. I will try the other area in my next visit!!

The moral of the story is never trust a Stonechat, their Lying B&**#@&*ds!!!😁😁😁😁 although in their defence they do pose well!!













 

Monday 27 December 2021

Review of the Year 2021: Part 4 Holiday

 Our Holiday in 2021 was a trip to Scotland, we only got the go ahead 2 days before leaving, with restrictions on crossing the border lifted just in time phew!!!😏 We spent the first few days in Dumfries and Galloway, before heading north to Badachro on the West Coast. 

We stayed at a very nice Bed & Breakfast near Dumfries, we had limited time but managed to visit several places of interest, Caerlaverock National Nature reserve, a chapel built by Ukrainian prisoners of war, The Forest of Galloway, The Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall, Eskrigg Nature Reserve, Mull of Galloway, Scotland's most Southerly point. All of which were pretty good!

Tree Sparrow, a good first bird in Scotland

Twite

As ever scenery in Scotland doing the business

Reed Bunting

Plenty of Geese

Barnacle Geese

Twite and Linnets

Twite

Chaffinch

Nuthatch

Chiffchaff

The Grey Mare's Tail


Stonechat

At the top of an epic climb!!


Dipper

Wheatear


Galloway Forest Park

Wood Warbler



Willow Warbler

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Foghorn at the Mull of Galloway

Rock Pipit

Clifftop Flowers

Wheatear

Shag

Gannets



Dumfries and Galloway was excellent, definitely worth another, longer visit, felt like we just scratched the surface of the birding oppotunites.

From there we headed north to our cabin on an Island in Badachro, it was quite remote and the cabin was small, but the Scenery was epic as was the Hot Tub!! Quite a few quality birds about as well! We spent most of the time birding the local area, beaches, lochs and mountains (mainly from the bottom😃) but we had a drive up to Ullapool although we missed the opportunity to do a ferry trip to the Hebrides and back!! Also spent a bit of time in the Hot Tub😃

Black Guillemot taken from the floating bridge across to the Island

Red-breasted Merganser

Hooded Crow, feels like you are in Scotland proper when you see the first "Hoodie"

The view from the cabin it really was amazing




Great Northern Diver, seem to be off every beach !


White-tailed Eagle flushed from the beach!!

Greenshank

Dunlin

Great Skua (Bonxie)


Pied Wagtail


Common Gull



Pinkfeet

Bonxie

Goldeneye


Margie enjoying the view from the hot tub

Seal from the Cabin

Black-throated Divers


My favourite Mountain







Iceland Gull in Ullapool Harbour




Saw Feral Goats in several places

More Hot Tub relaxation

Gannet

The weather was changeable but overall pretty good!

Grey Heron


Intrepid or What!? (no need to answer)

Wheatear

Golden Plover


Gannet



The Floating bridge could get a bit hairy in the wind!!


Gannet

Rua Reidh Lighthouse

Hooded Crow

Golden Eagle




Cabin View

Oystercatcher rumpy-pumpy


Wheatear

Meadow Pipit



Gannet

Shag










It was a beautiful place, the Golden Eagle encounter will live long in the memory and the Iceland Gull was a real beauty, but the Scenery stole the show, the views all around from the cabin were amazing and the bird list from the sofa was also epic!! My kind of birding with the scope set up at the window so even in the occasional bad weather the birding didn't stop. Excellent trip!!!