Banburyshire: freeze and thaw

Male Brambling, back garden

The past week has seen one of the coldest spells of winter weather for a long time.  Snow arrived on Thursday and Friday when Storm Emma came up against the bitterly cold air mass of arctic origin.  The strong easterly winds created some spectacular swirling snow drifts on the leeward side of hedgerows.

6 foot snow drift on Fox Hill above Upper Wardington

Swirling snow drift, cream coloured due to the particles of soil which got swept up from the fields and mixed into the snow

A huge drift nearly blocked this kissing gate

Many birds found refuge from the freeze in our back garden, the highlight being a stunning apricot-plumaged male Brambling, as well as a less conspicuous female, and a Stock Dove (common around the edge of the village, but rarely seen in the garden).  A Song Thrush made numerous attempts to feed with the other birds but was always quickly chased off by the blackbirds.  A single Redwing made a brief visit before it too was chased off.  It was also interesting to watch a woodpigeon drinking at the edge of the pond, pushing deep into the snow to find a source of water.

the female Brambling mastered the sunflower seed feeder

The male Brambling stayed on the ground, feeding here with female Chaffinches and a House Sparrow

Stock Dove

Robin

Woodpigeon drinking from edge of the pond

Somehow the Woodpigeon found water and gulped it down

Tree Sparrows joined the House Sparrows for a while

The Song Thrush that got continually chased off!

Dunnock next to Rosemary bush

Today there was a remarkably rapid thaw as temperatures rose well above freezing, but still some of our local lanes were impassable for 2WD cars.

minor road from Wardington to Chacombe

 This male Blackbird took advantage of the thaw and chose a local pothole a wash

By the afternoon, spring seemed to have returned: Skylarks were singing and Brown Hares were chasing each other around the fields on the edge of Wardington.

Estonia: May 2017

Pygmy Owl

Last year I spent the first week of May in Estonia catching up with some of my "most wanted" European birds.  Colin Wilkinson and I joined a short tour organised by Estonian Nature Tours and led by Tarvo Valker, to see "Great Snipe and woodpeckers", then added a couple of extra days on our own at the superb Matsalu National Park.  We enjoyed almost unbroken sunshine, though it was pretty chilly: Estonia was just coming out of it's coldest spring for decades.

My personal highlight of the tour was a brilliant view of Pygmy Owl, sitting just above us in the forest edge, bathed in the last rays of evening sunshine. Here is a selection of my images from the tour:

Female Capercaille feeding beside a forest track

Black Woodpecker, male

Hazel Grouse, male

Hazel Grouse, female

Old growth forest - a rare habitat in Estonia - but of course, the best place the look for woodpeckers

Grey-headed Woodpecker, male

Part of a huge flock of European White-fronted Geese - many tens of thousands stop off in Estonia en route to the arctic in spring

White Stork

Liverleaf  Hepatica nobilis

Red Squirrel

Woodcock on track at dusk (in car headlights!)

Male and female Common Toad

Brambling, male

Garganey, male and female

Nutcracker

Other highlights of the organised tour included:

• an evening visit to a Great Snipe lek near Tartu (Karavere Slid)
• tracking down a male Three-toed Woodpecker in the depths of an old growth forest
• great views of Wrynecks singing in parkland and orchards
• Red-necked Grebes in gorgeous breeding plumage on many lakes
• Great food and hospitality, one place we stayed was a vodka factory turned into a hotel.

At Matsalu, Estonian Nature Tours booked us into a superbly located guest house, in a prime location overlooking a fine expanse of coastal wetland.  On arrival we were greeted by a large flock of Ruff feeding really close to the front lawn!  A very nice place to stay, with great breakfasts and lovely hosts.

View from Tuulingu guest house, Matsalu

Ruff were numerous all around Tuulingu, some great views from the road as you approach the guest house

Wood Sandpiper

Barnacle Geese

European White-fronted Geese

Sunset from the viewing tower at Tuulingu

Ruff, male

Wood Warbler

Elk

Other highlights at Matsalu:

• Displaying Montagu's Harriers
• Migrating sea duck - hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks, Common and Velvet Scoter
• Spotted Redshanks in lovely chocolate-black breeding plumage 
• Nice restaurants in nearby Happsalu

I can thoroughly recommend visiting Estonia. It is a very forested landscape that is actively managed - every property in the rural areas has a big stack of logs in the yard.  This means that old growth forest is actually pretty scarce and sadly we did see some areas of old mature pine and firs in the heart of the best area for forest birds (Capercaille, Pygmy Owl etc) being clear-felled.

SP 42 Short Day Count: Hawfinches and Farmland birds

Great to be out all day on Saturday taking part in the BOS Short Day Count with Colin Wilkinson, covering 10km OS grid square SP42.  This was our second year covering this patch for the winter count and we are starting to get to know some of the sites quite well.  One place we always head to is the hamlet of Kiddington, where there is some nice parkland with mature trees, an old church with yew trees and a small lake that is relatively undisturbed.  We called in reasonably early in the morning as we felt this was our best potential site for Hawfinches. And so it proved, with a small flock of at least five in tall trees as we approached the main house, and at least eight more as we left the churchyard and walked towards the lake - at least 13 in all - the largest number I've seen so far this winter.  Extremely wary, they did not stay around too long, soon flying off up the small valley.

Our favourite site is probably the area around Northbrook, just south of Lower Heyford.  This a great place for farmland birds - the last Corn Bunting stronghold in the BOS area - and also close to the Cherwell Valley.  Pretty much the first birds we saw were a pair of Grey Partridge, then a little further on, a large mixed flock of buntings and finches soon produced a good number of Corn Buntings (at least 30), as well as plenty of Yellowhammers and a single Reed Bunting.  Our "purple patch" continued with a Little Owl appearing briefly in a barn window, then further on, we picked out a Yellow-legged Gull amongst a mixed group of gulls in the valley.  Very surprisingly, given the abundance of farmland birds in this area we didn't locate any Skylarks, and we regretted not trying harder for them, as by dusk we hadn't found them anywhere else! 

This afternoon I spent some more time watching farmland birds, this time a bit closer to home, near Thorpe Mandeville (Northants)  This particular area is often quite good in winter, with large flocks of linnets every winter, for example.   But this winter it seems to be better than normal, with a large flocks of Skylarks and Yellowhamers as well at the Linnets.  Searching though bunting flock a week ago I was very pleased to find two Corn Buntings - now quite a scarce bird in Northamptonshire - giving hope they may just be hanging on as a breeding bird in this area.  The star birds this afternoon though were Lapwings.  A flock of about 300 were spread across the field, busy pulling earthworm after earthworm from the soil. It looked so easy for them to find the worms, they just had to make sure the attendant Black-headed Gulls didn't steal them.

A flock of 300 Lapwings is a very notable sighting in our area

Busy swallowing an earthwor.

The flock were constantly filling the air with their wonderful calls

Fieldfares and Redwings were also very much in evidence, one Fieldfare obligingly walked towards me:

Fieldfare

Two great patches of farmland showing how nature can flourish alongside productive farming & heartening to see.

For more about the Short Day Count look here and here. 

Queensland 2016 No. 4: Daintree and Cairns

Great Bowerbird, Mount Molloy School

Donation box at the school where the Great Bowerbird can be seen.

Before I start rounding up 2017, here is the final instalment of Queensland from 2016.  It would have been a shame to not have finished the story, as some of the best birds came towards the end of our week in the Cairns area.  Here are some highlights. It really is a lovely area to visit, highly recommended - September is an ideal time to visit as it is not too hot.

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

Figbird

Pale-yellow Robin

Australian Bustard

Blue-winged Kookaburra

This Blue-winged Kookaburra was is the garden along with many other birds at Hannah's Habitat, a really nice and affordable place to stay.

The next series of images are from the Daintree area, some taken during our Daintree Boatman river cruise.  We stayed at the excellent Red Mill House.

Azure Kingfisher (river cruise)

Great-billed Heron, juvenile (river cruise)

Sacred Kingfisher, Daintree NP

Large flock of Cattle Egrets, Daintree Village

Searching for the Southern Cassowary, a bird with a somewhat intimidating reputation, was near the top of my priorities in the Daintree National Park.  They live in the lowland rainforest, much of which has already been cleared, fragmenting the cassowary populations and bringing some of the birds into close contact with people.  And sometimes they are aggressive toward people, especially when looking after their chicks.  One of the best places to see them is the Jindalba Boardwalk trail.  I was lucky enough to spot a stripy cassowary chick on the path, then quickly realised there were two.  I peered upwards through the dense forest vegetation to see the male Cassowary towering above the chicks (and with him being up the slope, me too!).  One of those heart-stopping wildlife moments! Slowly, he led the chicks away from the path and I was able to continue along the trail and enjoy more views of the family group.  In cassowaries, it is the male that incubates the eggs and raises the chicks on his own.

Southern Cassowary, Jindalba Boardwalk Trail

One of the two chicks

The third and last of my main target birds for the trip, the Beach Thicknee, was the hardest to find.  It took three tries at different sites before I finally succeeded: at the Mossman River entrance (accessed from Newell Beach).  Even then, after a long search, I was literally about to close the car door and leave the site, when one bird flew into the muddy creek.  This bird was very relaxed and spent a long time preening, feeding and loafing around, gradually getting nearer and nearer.  I really couldn't have hoped for better views, just awesome.  This was also a great place to watch Ospreys fishing.

Beach Thicknee, Mossman River

Beach Thicknee

Osprey

Comb-crested Jacana, Cattana Wetlands

Returning to Cairns there was just enough time for a walk along the famous Esplanade.  The light was fading fast but still delivered a great wader experience, including a flock of Great Knot, a few Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and this Eastern Curlew:

Eastern Curlew, Cairns Esplanade - what a bill!!