Author: martintayler

I made an early visit to Stoke Park and I was rewarded with a wonderful light and some lovely birds.

After a period of dry weather it is now possible to visit Stoke Park without having to wear Wellington boots. This morning, in the sun, we spent a very pleasant hour chatting to people , seeing a few birds and hearing so many more.

The highlight was the sun on our backs without a bitterly chill wind. Nothing very special in the way of birds but reed buntings, lots of ducklings, moorhen chicks, dunnocks, chiffchaff, willow warblers, wrens, green finches, gold finches, robins, cormorants, buzzards, long-tailed tits, mute swans and blackcaps were enough to keep us entertained.

Very pleasant indeed.

We spent a good hour again this afternoon in a local cemetery looking for a pied flycatcher. This time we were lucky and had views of it flitting from tree to tree for 10 minutes. Frustratingly I never had a clear view of it with my camera but I was quite happy to get a few shots.

I did, however, get clear shots of a wren and a jay.

The cemetery is a wonderful place for photographs and I look forward to returning with a wider angle lens than my 200-600 lens.

The common redstart was the incentive to wander over to Duchess Pond in the Stoke Park Estate (less than 500 metres from home) and we were lucky to see it again. There were lots of treats including our first swallows of the year, willow warblers, chiffchaffs, reed buntings, green finches, blackbirds, robins, a cormorant, 2 mute swans, Canada geese and dozens of ducklings of various sizes. I’m sure there were loads more to see but we were bitterly cold and the attraction of a coffee was too great to entice us to stay out any later.

There have been reports of a pied flycatcher (and lots of willow warblers) at Greenbank Cemetery not far from Eastville Park.

We went and had a look this afternoon but the closest we got to seeing one was looking at the photos of other photographers who had bagged some great shots in the morning.

My consolation prize was a jay and a blue tit preparing a nest.

Nevermind, I have been quite lucky recently. I also had lots of goldfinches in the garden when we got back.

I went back to Stoke Park with my godson to see if we could see the redstart. With his sharp eyes he had no problem picking it out. I could only see it when it perched on the wire but he was able to see it scrambling in the grass and on an adjacent tree. We also saw a chiffchaff nearby. All around Duchess Pond there were robins who were much more obliging in posing for us.

I have been rather frustrated over the last few days as I have seen reports of sightings of a common redstart on my local patch but knew I didn’t have the opportunity to go and try to spot it.

This afternoon, with dwindling light (and a cold northerly wind) I found an hour to go searching. On turning up at the acknowledged spot I met other photographers who had seen it in the morning (with their proud photos). But nothing to see. I hung around in the cold without any success. Another birder claimed to see it across the pond, but all I found in my lens was a robin.

It started to rain so I set off home on two occasions but kept coming back. And then – voilà – my redstart appeared on the barbed wire. I fired a few shots and then it flew off only a few seconds after it arrived, never to be seen again.

It was bitterly cold around the lake in the park and so we were quite pleased to spend time in the woods looking for birds. We really only managed to see two birds (which were making very loud calls) – a nuthatch and a great tit.

As we made our way alongside the lake on the way home it was good to see the Tawny Owl in its box on one of the islands.

We had visited Algars Manor and Algars Mill gardens near Iron Acton just north of Bristol as part of the National Garden Scheme in March, and enjoyed the spectacular show of daffodils in the 2 acre woodland gardens which are bisected by the River Frome. We returned again for another NGS day and this time we were treated to another spectacular show: this time it was the turn of the camellias and magnolias to steal the show. The wood anemones and the fritillaries were pretty amazing too.

Urban blossom in spring including my first Peacock butterfly of the year.

Early sunshine tempted us to our local park even though we knew we would have to contend with the weekend crowds. It turned out to be much colder than we anticipated, the sun disappeared and it turned to rain. There were lots of people out and so we were pleased to spend time in the woods looking for birds. We were well rewarded with a pair of nuthatches.

On the lake there was a pair of grey wagtails too but the light proved very testing.

When we got home the weather improved and we had our coffee in the garden in the sun.

It’s going to get colder they say. But for now it was a glorious day.

A walk round the park didn’t bring me any great surprises but at moments like that you have to look closer at what you have – and it’s all quite beautiful, even the gulls (lots of lesser black-backed gulls today).

It would have been even more beautiful if I had managed to capture the kingfisher which we saw flying along the river in the sun.