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For our first bird watching sortie of the new year we had another visit to Slimbridge. However, with two young ones in tow we only had limited time for bird watching before their attention waned.

The highlight again was the water rails as normally they are quite elusive but today in one spot we saw three. There was a marsh harrier in the distance towards the estuary and pink footed geese (no photo).

Marsh harrier in the distance

Water rails

I’m not too sure about my identification of Bewick’s/whooper swans but I think the first below is whooper and the second Bewick’s.

Wigeon

Teal

Robin

Robin

Chaffinch

Blue tit

Blue tit

Pheasant – such wonderful colours

Redshank add a bit of colour on a muddy bank

Shelduck in flight

Shelduck

Little egret in the distance

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s almost a tradition for us to go to Slimbridge at this time of year: it’s definitely worth it even if you only go to the hides and don’t visit all the exotic wildfowl in the pens (which isn’t really our cup of tea anyway).

The stars were the whooper, Bewick’s and mute swans in flight. although pintails and the water rail were a close second. Its always good to see teal, wigeon and redshank close up too.

Bewick’s swans

Mute swan

Mute swan

Whooper swan

Amourous shelduck

Male pintail

Female pintail

Lapwing

Redshank

Greylag goose

Teal

Blackbird

Lapwing

Wigeon

Greylag goose

Waterrail

Robin

Bluetit

Tufted duck

I have mixed feelings about the bust up between the whooper/Bewick swans; in the end it was probably no worse than the stand-offs seen by rugby players in most matches these days. However, it did remind me of the infamous “99” call made by the England rugby team v Australia in 1975 with an element of pre-meditation.

 

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I wandered over to Stoke Park Estate at the beginning of my walk this morning but it was very wet underfoot and very slippery. There wasn’t much to keep me there other than a moorhen and some gulls fishing at Duchess Pond.

A black-headed gull has success with a small fish

The moorhen was quite bold and didn’t dash for cover

On the way across to Eastville Park I saw a song thrush but couldn’t get a clear shot.

Song thrush hiding behind the branches

There wasn’t a lot going on in the park either. The water in the River Frome was very high and the only bird I saw on the river was a cormorant.

Cormorant by Wickham Bridge

A kingfisher was busy around the lake and more cormorants (six in all) were keeping the fish stocks well under control. I could only see one grey heron,  which is quite unusual. The tawny owl was in its box but didn’t show its face any better than any other day.

The kingfisher was quite easy to see but challenging to photograph as it was always in poor light.

Difficult to catch the eye of the coot

… no such trouble with the cormorant

If only the tawny owl would show her face.

I heard the robin as I entered the park but it wasn’t until I was leaving that it popped out (to say good bye?).

My last blog before Christmas and so I would like to thank anyone who reads my blog and wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

 

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Following even more rain this weekend the River Frome and the water in the lake in Eastville Park were very high.

Robins are very visible at the moment as they stake out their territory and there always seems to be one to greet me as I enter the park.

A kingfisher darted around the lake and paused every now and again to fish and (maybe) have its photo taken.

Cormorants (I could see 7) seemed to be the most successful of the fishermen but a grey heron also had reasonable success but only very small fry.

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I thought I would be a little less parochial this morning and try and see a few of the rarities reported on Barrow Tanks (a reservoir just south of Bristol). I managed to see the great northern diver  (but it was a long way out) but failed with the black-throated diver and the long-tailed duck. Whilst walking around the reservoir I saw a common sandpiper, a common buzzard and a grey wagtail and on the lake there were coots, great crested grebes and cormorants. The light was not terribly good and it was very cold.

Great northern diver

Common sandpiper

Common sandpiper

Common sandpiper

Grey wagtail

Common buzzard

Common buzzard

As I was that side of Bristol I carried on to Chew Valley Lake. The light was better when I arrived at Herons Green but it was no warmer. I stayed briefly and spent most of my time watching lapwings circle around the lake. There was also a great white egret and a grey heron.I  carried on to Herriotts Bridge but saw very little – but that was because it was too cold and I spent nearly all the time in the car eating my lunch. I’m clearly not a dedicated birder.

Lapwing

Lapwings

Great white egret

Great white egret

Grey heron

Grey heron

Cormorant

Cormorant

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I know its not terribly exciting writing about my walks in Eastville Park again but I’m always excited about seeing a kingfisher. I don’t quite know what it is but it always lifts my spirits.

Today I saw both a male (on the lake) and a female (on the river). I so enjoyed seeing them that I found myself watching them rather than taking photos.

Female kingfisher

Make kingfisher

Two visiting birders (who had made the trip from Yatton by train) reciprocated my showing them a kingfisher by pointing out to me a goldcrest: I didn’t, however, manage to take a very good photo of it. I also enjoyed putting a face to Trevor and Mark (whose names I have seen on reports to Avon Bird Blog) and chatting to them.

Goldcrest (rather poor photo I know)

I was pleased that other passers-by (who had seen my photos on the Facebook page of The Friends of Eastville Park) stopped to introduce themselves. I also spent time talking to two other photographers (Steve and Dani) and hence the reason for not too many photos today.

Grey heron

Robin

Magpie

 

 

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We were popping in to town but we couldn’t resist stopping at Eastville Park for a walk around the lake.

A robin greeted us at the entrance to the park

The lake looked no more frozen over than a few days ago even though we had another heavy frost last night.

The park was very quiet but there were a few photographers drawn by the ubiquitous kingfisher. We weren’t disappointed and saw it flitting around the (appropriately named) Kingfisher Island. It was rather gloomy and so I put my energies into trying to capture her in flight

Even the swans were placid.

 

 

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I don’t seem to have time to venture far at the moment so I am very pleased to be able to go for a quick walk around my local park and see some wildlife.

After a heavy frost last night a large part of the lake was frozen. I do feel sorry for the birds when it freezes over but the gulls seemed quite happy standing on the ice and the fish must get some respite.

Black-headed gull on ice

A female kingfisher was very active on the lake and, although the light was poor, I tried to capture her in flight (with limited success).

Right profile

Left profile

Grey heron reflecting

One swan was again being very aggressive and assaulted another one.

Ice breaker

Common assault on the lake – ouch

There was a dipper on the River Frome but it seemed very reluctant to try its chances at feeding below the water in the fast flowing river.

Dipper

 

 

Another enjoyable walk around the park this morning. Colder than previous visits  especially by the lake.

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The female kingfisher was there  …

… and then she was gone.

3 mute swans flew down the lake and three stayed behind at the other end.

The tawny owl doesn’t really want to be seen

3 grey herons on the lake

This one was disturbed by the mute swans

We saw two robins and heard many more

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I set off on my walk around Eastville Park this morning full of optimism as the sun was shining and I was confident of taking some reasonable photographs. I wasn’t really disappointed in the end as there was lots to photograph but I hadn’t counted on the lake  still being in the shade: just a bit more editing to do.

I saw a kingfisher in three different places but I think it was always the same female.  There was lots of activity from seven cormorants (four of whom I saw fishing on the lake) and there was a female goosander and three grey herons. There must be a huge stock of fish.

The tawny owl could be seen clearly (at least she was in the sun). I tried photographing the black-headed gulls in flight but there really wasn’t enough light. Good fun trying though. It was the same thing with a crow bathing in the River Frome.

The best thing about it being a sunny day was there were lots of people about, many of them stopped to talk, and they all had a smile on their face.

 

N

Perhaps I was foolish to take my camera out on such a dismal afternoon but you can’t give in, can you?

I realised early on that the light wasn’t good enough to capture much in the way of bird photographs but I enjoyed seeing a kingfisher, 2 grey herons and 2 cormorants on the lake, a cormorant on the River Frome and a dipper and a grey wagtail on Fishponds Brook.

As the rain came down I limited my use of my camera and with my phone tried to capture a little of the colour which remains in the park.

I was drenched by the time I reached home but my spirits had been lifted by my walk in the park and I had fun editing my photos.

 

 

 

 

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Yet another dull and dreary day so we settled on the safe bet of Slimbridge Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire where there’s always a chance of seeing something and where we knew we could keep fairly dry by visiting the numerous hides. We also wanted to see what the newly opened Estuary Tower hide was like.

Golden plovers and lapwings (I think) were the first flocks we saw

In the end it only rained on the journey there. However, the weather was so  miserably dull that we didn’t spend long at the centre and headed home pleased that we had had some fresh air and had stretched our legs a little. We did visit the Estuary Tower hide which was most impressive with excellent access and very good views across the estuary (that is if it’s clear enough to see anything).

Despite the excellence of the  Estuary Tower hide we weren’t going to see much in this light

The highlight of our visit was a water rail which was close enough for me to get some decent photos.

Water rail

Not a great day for photographing wildfowl but I was pleased to see one of my favourites – pintails.

Pintails

Greylag goose

I also took the opportunity to photograph some small birds at close quarters.

Blue tit

Blue tit

House sparrow

Blue tit

Robin

Wren

Can’t wait for the sun to come back!