As is my usual, I didn't blog up half of my birding days out last year. Obviously, now almost a year on, it's a hopeless task to catch up so what I've decided to do, more for my own benefit than anything else is to blog some photos of the days not blogged already with, hopefully just a minimum of rambling. Starting with June. Back to 2023!
Saturday 3rd June; Chapel Six Marshes
A trip to the Lincolnshire Coast to twitch a Marsh warbler, in fact we saw two. Later in the summer news emerged of successful breeding of the species at the site. We watched a male, sing beautifully almost non-stop, and at very close range.
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| Marsh Warbler |
During the Marsh Warbler's varied mimicry song we picked out samples of Bee-eater, Oystercatcher, Blue Tit, Blackbird and Curlew and many more.
Year List addition;
235) Marsh Warbler
Sunday 4th June; Devil's Punchbowl
A sortie into the Oxon Downs looking for Quail which was doomed to failure when we were invaded in the "beauty spot" by a Labrador & Retriever lovers club annual dog walk in which the members deliberately allowed their dogs to trash the grasslands. Over fifty of the adorable pets ran amok through prime nesting areas while their owners yelled ridiculous commands in an attempt to get them under control. After my reaction to the absurdity of it all, I don't think I'll be getting an invite to their next meeting. Why do "dog walkers" have to ruin wildlife and nature areas? Perhaps we birders should go and stick our scopes and stuff into their houses and gardens and trash their flower beds and carpets.
Fortunately however, we did find a few birds. Angry birds!
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| Common Whitethroat |
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| Red Kite |
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| Robin |
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| Yellowhammer |
Monday 5th June; Upton Warren, Moors Pool
An after work dash into Worcestershire to year tick a Spotted Sandpiper. If you're attempting a "Big Year" then you have to chase birds that are reasonably local and doable, whenever they become available.
This was our sixth Spotted Sandpiper. Viewing was awkward with the sunlight straight at us but it was an enjoyable twitch nonetheless.
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| Spotted Sandpiper |
The North American compatriot of our Common Sandpiper did sterling work in reducing the fly and gnat population a little, for which we were extremely grateful.
Year List addition
236) Spotted Sandpiper
Tuesday 6th June; Home Base
In preparation for our upcoming trip to Scotland, I wasted a bit of time after work photographing some of the Red Kites that treat us to low flyovers of the garden every day. It's all too easy to become blasé about a bird whose population was perilously low not so long ago. I'm am far too easy. Most days I hardly bother to look at them.
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| Red Kite |
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| Le Soleil |
Friday 23rd June; Blue is Always Best!
In the bird world there are far too many reds and not enough blues. Every sane thinking person in the world knows that blue is the best colour and that the best things come in blue. There are some gorgeous (predominantly) blue coloured birds around, Kingfisher, Bee-eater but not many are actually named after the colour. One that is though is the Bluethroat (which comes in two forms, white-spotted and, unfortunately, red-spotted). A white-spotted Bluethroat had returned to WWT Slimbridge for a third successive summer and was showing well as it attempted to attract a mate.
The singing bird was located easily enough since it was fond of using some prominent twigs that the WWT had stuck into the tall grass and reeds of the River Severn floodplain to belt out its tinkling and delicate song. It was fairly distant though so record shots were the order of the day.
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| White-spotted Bluethroat |
Occasionally the Bluethroat would venture closer to the line of observers, when it perched up on fenceposts but it was still out of reach for decent photography. Bluethroats are Robin sized birds but it would appear, far less confiding.
We were also able to connect with a Black-winged Stilt which was keeping company with a post-breeding flock of Avocets on the South Lake.
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| Black-winged Stilt |
A marauding juvenile Peregrine was also interested in the birds on the South Lake. It may have secured a prize too, but the limited viewing from the Discovery hide made looking up high, nigh on impossible as usual so the outcome of the raid went unseen.
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| Peregrine Falcon |
We stopped at a usual haunt of ours on the way back for a late lunch and found a young Nuthatch clinging on to a light fitting in the cafe. It had been stuck inside the Cotswold Outpost for most of the morning but couldn't be coaxed out. I hit on the idea of playing Nuthatch calls to it and incredibly it reacted and flew down to our table. I managed to catch it and release it outside. It flew strongly off to a nearby stand of trees. I thought it was amazing, everybody else apart from Mrs Caley in the cafe, appeared less impressed. The disconnect from nature in this country is awful.
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| Nuthatch |
Year List addition;
261) Bluethroat
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