Category: Blog

In the morning we had a very pleasant walk along the beach at Hout Bay where we saw a number of gulls and a very small cormorant-like bird diving in very shallow water and a single swallow (one swallow doesn’t make a summer but it’s definitely summer here).

Bird photographer in local camouflage at Hout Bay

Bank cormorant

We had enjoyed a very pleasant breakfast at Hout Bay and, not feeling like lunch, we made the silly mistake of visiting The World of Birds in the hottest point of the day.

We had doubts about seeing caged birds but as this is very much a bird sanctuary we thought it would be worthwhile. We believed we were nearing the end (literally) after cages 17 and 18 but discovered this was only the first section and that in all there were over 150 cages.

Here are photos of a few of the 400 species that can be seen at The World Birds from our (exhausting) visit.

Today’s travelog

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

On our first full day in Cape Town we visited the National Botanical Gardens of Kirstenbosch – surely one of my top ten best places in the world.

The gardens were as spectacular as ever and we had a few glimpses of birds on the coast road to Kirstenbosch (mainly cormorants) and at the gardens (although as yet I don’t quite know what I’m seeing).

Seals and sea birds on the coast road out of Camps Bay

A sample of birds from Kirstenbosch:

 Egyptian Goose

Guinea Fowl

And some of the amazing flora:

I have created a travelog page of our stay in Cape Town for family and friends who might be interested (but they won’t all be nature photos).

Menu Cape Town February/March 2018

I have just finished reading Horatio Clare’s charming little book Orison for a Curlew about the (possibly) extinct slender-billed curlew. It’s a mix of travel and nature writing

My photo and plate are taken from the entry about the slender-billed curlew in Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender-billed_curlew

I so enjoyed reading this book and thought it would be worthwhile to record the nature books that I have read and enjoyed in the last few months:

Horatia Clare (2015) Orison for a Curlew (Little Toller)

Brett Westwood and Stephen Moss (2017) Wonderland A Year of Britain’s Wildlife, Day by Day (John Murray)

Rosamond Richardson (2017) Waiting for the Albino Dunno How Birds Can Change Your Life (Weidenfield & Nicholson)
Simon Barnes (2017) The Meaning of Birds (Kindle Edition http://www.headofzeus.com)

Lars Gejl (2016) Waders of Europe A Photographic Guide (Bloomsbury)

I have also created a bibliography page which I will add to as time allows.

Bibliography

Circumstances and dismal weather have limited my sorties recently and so I enjoyed my walk through Stoke Park and Eastville Park this morning, especially as the weather was  milder and the birds are beginning to sing (although most of the noise seemed to come from robins which were just about everywhere).

In Stoke Park the first bird I heard (and then saw) was a song thrush.

Next, in the (very) wet area next to Duchess Pond there was a male stonechat but no sign of the female. The crows even seemed quite cheery.

There were a couple of Canada geese on Duchess Pond, a few mallards and even more moorhens.

Before leaving Stoke Park a dunnock appeared and had plenty to say for itself.

In Eastville Park there were even more robins (I counted 10 different robins on my walk) and half a dozen long=tailed tits.

I was disappointed not to see a kingfisher at the lake but I think I was just unlucky as there were several reports of one. There was a cormorant fishing and it was interesting to see that some of the black-headed gulls are now getting proper black heads.

Some of the heads of the black-headed gulls are quite black now

The blackbirds were outnumbered by the robins this morning

The pigeons and wood pigeons were enjoying the sun too.

I spent a while watching a juvenile grey heron trying to fish but it didn’t seem to have the knack and was looking rather disheveled.

Near the weir I had very good views of a grey wagtail and then, just before I left the park, I saw the flash of a kingfisher fly along the River Frome.

When I arrived home I was beaming like the red breast of the robin.

A robin and holly – it could be Christmas!

A squirrel enjoying its stash of nuts.

More encouraging signs that winter is moving on – snowdrops next to the River Frome.

A blue tit also making lots of noise.

I saw a tweet (from Rojobus) about dippers (or the lack of them) in Siston Brook, Willsbridge and realised that the brook led to St. Anne’s Church (now famous for hawfinches and ring-necked parakeets) and thought I would have another go at seeing hawfinches. We had no luck but really enjoyed the stroll up from Willsbridge Mill (with its pleasant café) to St Anne’s Church.

We were treated to snowdrops, crocuses, catkins, a fleeting glimpse of a dipper and several views of a kingfisher. There were reports of ring-necked parakeets but none of hawfinches.

The ring-necked parakeet which I had seen at St Anne’s Church on the 29th January.

The trees are beginning to show signs of life

Catkins

The beautiful willow below St Anne’s Church

Crocuses and snowdrops

St Anne’s Church is a real delight (with its Commonwealth War Memorial graves) and beautiful yew trees.

The walk back was brightened by a cheery robin singing its heart out.

A cheery robin singing near to Siston Brook

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

I was the only person at Northwick Warth this morning and it wasn’t really surprising as it was bitterly cold. However, there was plenty of bird action to maintain my interest and encourage me to stay.

There were large flocks of wigeon, dunlin and redshank and 3 oystercatchers on the water’s edge, 50+ curlew and 40+ shelduck on the warth (warth is an old or dialect word for a river bank or a flat meadow beside a river or estuary especially along the Severn estuary).

Redshank

Redshank and dunlin

Dunlin in flight

Redshank

2 redshank and a dunlin

A wigeon escaped the flock

Mixed flock of wigeon and dunlin

Oystercatchers join the dunlin and redshank

2 curlew in flight

Oystercatcher and a dunlin

Wigeon

Redshank in flight

Dunlin in flight

Curlew flying with dunlin

Flock of dunlin

Dunlin

Mixed flocks

And a few others before driving home:

Starling

Robin

House sparrow (male)

House sparrow (female)

Click below for gallery of photos from this morning:

Eastville Park in the rain in winter is more about fungi and lichen but this afternoon I saw the first celandine of the year and the yellow theme was maintained when a grey wagtail came close and brightened up a miserable afternoon. Through the gloom the catkins also looked quite a picture.

Grey wagtail

You would think it would be all about ducks on a day like today (and there were quite a few)  but there were plenty of other things to see and (try and) photograph.

Black-headed gull

Mute swan

Canada goose

Moorhen

Herring gull

Herring gull

Blackbird

Long-tailed tit

Long-tailed tit

Grey heron

Moorhen

Cormorant

Female mallard – the special one

The rain was quite persistent and I was quite glad to get home.

After relentless rain yesterday it was not surprising that it was very wet in the park today. I saw three goldfinch as soon as I arrived in the park and then a male and a female stonechat.

On the lake there were a dozen mallards, 2 moorhens and a grey heron which flew from one side of the lake to another, giving me good opportunities for photos of birds in flight.

There were only three black-headed gulls but plenty of crows and a single blackbird.

A very pleasant hour spent on a dull afternoon.

One of three goldfinch which didn’t really want to show themselves

Male stonechat on 2 different perches

Mallard in flight

Pair of mallards in flight

Grey heron flying from one side of Duchess Pond to another:

Mallards looking very handsome

Black birds

Crow

Blackbird

Just a chance for a few photos whilst on a visit to Midsomer Quilting at Chilcompton in North Somerset.

Collared doves, robins, pied wagtail and meadow pipit,

Unusual to get 2 robins together?

Collared doves in a barn

Meadow pipit

Pied wagtail

Bucolic scene in North Somerset

First snowdrops of the year

Rainbow over Chew Valley Lake on our journey to Chilcompton

Winter Levels – The Somerset Levels as seen through the eyes of quilter Judy Hayward on a frosty morning

It was good to be back on my home patch and get some good views of our local birds.

I started in Stoke Park and was instantly treated to two stonechats in the boggy section.

Stonechat

Even more to my surprise was a common snipe that jumped up out of the bog and flew over to Duchess Pond (too fast for me to react).

On the pond I could only see a grey heron.

In Eastville Park there was no sign of a kingfisher but the black-headed gulls were doing a good job diving for fish in the lake.

The mallards are starting to look good again with their new plumage.

However, they are not as good at posing as the robins.

On the way home I went up the small stream that feeds in to the River Frome and was well rewarded with views of a dipper and a yellow wagtail.

A crow with a large mouthful of bread and a magpie caught my eye before the rain started and I scurried home.

After a week of murky and, at times, bitterly cold weather in Suffolk, today we were blessed with a gloriously sunny day which warmed our spirits (which certainly weren’t  at all low anyway) and allowed a chance of some decent photographs.

We spent the morning at RSPB Minsmere and then in the afternoon we moved on to the Blyth Estuary at Blythburgh and saw a great variety of birds.

Off the coast at Minsmere (more like a mill pond today) we had good views of red-throated divers and on the reserve the best was a male stonechat and some dunlin which were being given a hard time by the lapwing.

On the Blyth Estuary there were thousands of birds and in particular we had good views of avocet, redshank, shelduck, oystercatcher, curlew, whimbrel, pintail, lapwing and huge flocks of gulls. It felt really warm standing in the sun watching them and was particularly interesting seeing their plumages in the beautiful sunshine as they regularly took to the air.

Red-throated divers

Common snipe taken in to the sun

Gadwall

Pied wagtail

Male stonechat

Redshank and greylag goose ignoring each other

Dunlin

A (charmless) goldfinch amongst the gadwall

A lapwing photo bombing a dunlin and teal

Lapwing chasing off dunlin

Dunlin in flight

Tufted ducks comimg to the party

Teal

Dunlin between two (out of focus) shovelers

Pheasant wondering who is following him

Greylag geese

Long-tailed tit in the woods

A colony of avocets

Avocet feeding with its swiping action

Shelduck

Oystercatcher

Redshank

Avocet in flight

A mixed flock with a whimbrel centre stage

A deceit of lapwings

Avocet

Cormorant, avocet, shelduck, curlew, lapwing, oystercatcher, pintail, wigeon, redshank, black-tailed godwit, dunlin, gulls and probably even more

Click below for gallery of photos from today:

Not really worth a blog today as it has been too rainy and foggy to take any nature photos. However, after lunch at The Crown at Westleton there appeared a smudge of blue in the sky and so we stopped off at the quay in Walberswick and I couldn’t resist a few snaps of some herring gulls and a redshank.