Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Monday, 2 January 2012
New Year Local Listing
Monday 2nd January 2012
As has been the trend since moving to Budleigh, the Mrs and I attempted a year list within just 6Km of our home, with the majority being within 2Km and most of it on bikes. The sites visited were Budleigh/The Otter, Otterton/Chiselbury Bay and the East Devon Commons. We managed a total of 86 - not bad considering the small area covered!
Highlights included:
RT Diver
GN Diver
RB Merganser
Little Owl
Hen Harrier
Merlin
Woodcock
Lowlights were missing the following!
Mistle Thrush, Green Woodpecker, Jay, Siskin and Coot, Marsh Tit, Stock Dove, RL Partridge, G Partridge and Barn Owl.
As has been the trend since moving to Budleigh, the Mrs and I attempted a year list within just 6Km of our home, with the majority being within 2Km and most of it on bikes. The sites visited were Budleigh/The Otter, Otterton/Chiselbury Bay and the East Devon Commons. We managed a total of 86 - not bad considering the small area covered!
Highlights included:
RT Diver
GN Diver
RB Merganser
Little Owl
Hen Harrier
Merlin
Woodcock
Lowlights were missing the following!
Mistle Thrush, Green Woodpecker, Jay, Siskin and Coot, Marsh Tit, Stock Dove, RL Partridge, G Partridge and Barn Owl.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Interesting Wigeon
Saturday 24th December
Had this interesting and quite distinctively cold grey-headed Wigeon on Christmas Eve. It seems to potentially show some female American Wigeon features but it is not perfect and may just be a grey variant Eurasian.
Unfortunately, most of the photos were in harsh light as my camera ran out of battery when the light was better, of course! Sadly, I did not manage to get the all important underwing shot showing the axillaries with the time I had available. No sign of bird since.......
Had this interesting and quite distinctively cold grey-headed Wigeon on Christmas Eve. It seems to potentially show some female American Wigeon features but it is not perfect and may just be a grey variant Eurasian.
Unfortunately, most of the photos were in harsh light as my camera ran out of battery when the light was better, of course! Sadly, I did not manage to get the all important underwing shot showing the axillaries with the time I had available. No sign of bird since.......
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Balancing Recreation & Wildlife
Thursday 22nd December
Hats off to East Devon District Council today. After lots of constant grumbling to both Natural England and EDDC about the disturbance of birds using the Otter Estuary SSSI from various watersports activities and ignorant dog walkers, today we have some Polite Notices!
It is always a battle trying to educate good old "Jo Public" on such matters and at the end of the day, perhaps the more negative amongst us might say "what good is a polite notice going to do?" However, it is a move in the right direction and always better to try and work with people than alienate them from the start. The Otter's disturbance issues are just a small problem compared to the likes of the huge Exe Estuary, but the Otter is a SSSI with birds being one of the notified features regardless, and hopefully we shall see a slightly less disturbed estuary where wildfowl and waders can feed and roost undisturbed.
It was good to speak with a couple of locals whilst we were putting up the signs, who were only too pleased to see the signs and were willing to try and educate others.
We shall see....
Thanks to Assistant Countryside Ranger, James Hunter for coming down to the Otter and putting the signs up.
Click on image to read sign
Hats off to East Devon District Council today. After lots of constant grumbling to both Natural England and EDDC about the disturbance of birds using the Otter Estuary SSSI from various watersports activities and ignorant dog walkers, today we have some Polite Notices!
It is always a battle trying to educate good old "Jo Public" on such matters and at the end of the day, perhaps the more negative amongst us might say "what good is a polite notice going to do?" However, it is a move in the right direction and always better to try and work with people than alienate them from the start. The Otter's disturbance issues are just a small problem compared to the likes of the huge Exe Estuary, but the Otter is a SSSI with birds being one of the notified features regardless, and hopefully we shall see a slightly less disturbed estuary where wildfowl and waders can feed and roost undisturbed.
It was good to speak with a couple of locals whilst we were putting up the signs, who were only too pleased to see the signs and were willing to try and educate others.
We shall see....
Thanks to Assistant Countryside Ranger, James Hunter for coming down to the Otter and putting the signs up.
Click on image to read sign
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Chilly Birding
Sunday 18th December
An afternoon on the Otter produced:
1 Great-crested Grebe on the sea
1 drake Red-breasted Merganser on the Otter
3 Dunlin
4+ Redshank
25+ Curlew
and a Snow Bunting remains on the beach with
3 Reed Bunting
An afternoon on the Otter produced:
1 Great-crested Grebe on the sea
1 drake Red-breasted Merganser on the Otter
3 Dunlin
4+ Redshank
25+ Curlew
and a Snow Bunting remains on the beach with
3 Reed Bunting
Friday, 16 December 2011
Winter Doldrums
Friday 16th December
Not much excitement on the patch today, just messing about taking a few photos. Had a look for the snow bunting reported on Birdguides yesterday, but the only birds of interset on the beach were 2 Reed Buntings. Lots of flood water around and a flock of 26+ Curlew. No sign of any wigeon feeding on the scrapes, in fact conspicuous by their absence. A lone Dunlin and 4+ Redshank on the Otter and 40+ Teal.
North of White Bridge were 40+ Wigeon and a drake Shoveler, a lone Lapwing, Little Egret, Grey Wagtail and female Bullfinch.
Not much excitement on the patch today, just messing about taking a few photos. Had a look for the snow bunting reported on Birdguides yesterday, but the only birds of interset on the beach were 2 Reed Buntings. Lots of flood water around and a flock of 26+ Curlew. No sign of any wigeon feeding on the scrapes, in fact conspicuous by their absence. A lone Dunlin and 4+ Redshank on the Otter and 40+ Teal.
North of White Bridge were 40+ Wigeon and a drake Shoveler, a lone Lapwing, Little Egret, Grey Wagtail and female Bullfinch.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Snow Leopard Training
Sunday 4th - Thursday 8th December
Recently returned from another short break to the Sierra de Andujar region in search of Iberian Lynx. Some people might say we are a bit obsessed with this feline friend, but hey, it is the rarest cat in the world and it is a privilege to see it! Just 2,5hrs from Malaga too. It is also very good training to be scanning vast areas of landscape from dawn until dusk if we are to prepare ourselves for our planned Snow Leopard trip next year!
We spent 3 whole days looking for Lynx and had sightings every day including three animals on one evening. The views varied from less than 100M to around 1Km with varying behaviour that included two animals chasing and play fighting. Regardless of what some people's sightings might suggest, these cats are typically unpredictable in where and when they might show themselves and you do need to spend an awful lot of time scanning if you want to succeed. Most of our sightings were rather frustratingly in the last hour of light, though previously I have seen animals at dawn, mid morning and mid afternoon.
It was the busiest that we have seen the site with up to 40 Lynx watchers on one day! This was most likely due to a Spanish holiday taking place during our visit. It was rather annoyingly noisy at times, but the Lynx did not seem to react at all. Being Mr Grumpy, I got a bit annoyed by the constant babbling from the Spaniards (many of them just don't do quiet!), but I did have to remind myself that actually, it is good if so many Spanish people are as interested and excited about these animals. It can only raise awareness in the country as to their importance and ensure that these animals do not become extinct. It was also great to see so many young Spaniards who had come to see Lynx.
It sounds as if the population is increasing slowly, so fingers crossed.
Highlights were clearly the Lynx, but also a new mammal in the form of a Garden Dormouse that ran across the road one morning in darkness and sat in a tree for us to get great views of as it returned back down the tree with some fruit. An impressive beast and ironically, harder to find than Iberian Lynx!
Below are some pics and a bit of video!
Recently returned from another short break to the Sierra de Andujar region in search of Iberian Lynx. Some people might say we are a bit obsessed with this feline friend, but hey, it is the rarest cat in the world and it is a privilege to see it! Just 2,5hrs from Malaga too. It is also very good training to be scanning vast areas of landscape from dawn until dusk if we are to prepare ourselves for our planned Snow Leopard trip next year!
We spent 3 whole days looking for Lynx and had sightings every day including three animals on one evening. The views varied from less than 100M to around 1Km with varying behaviour that included two animals chasing and play fighting. Regardless of what some people's sightings might suggest, these cats are typically unpredictable in where and when they might show themselves and you do need to spend an awful lot of time scanning if you want to succeed. Most of our sightings were rather frustratingly in the last hour of light, though previously I have seen animals at dawn, mid morning and mid afternoon.
It was the busiest that we have seen the site with up to 40 Lynx watchers on one day! This was most likely due to a Spanish holiday taking place during our visit. It was rather annoyingly noisy at times, but the Lynx did not seem to react at all. Being Mr Grumpy, I got a bit annoyed by the constant babbling from the Spaniards (many of them just don't do quiet!), but I did have to remind myself that actually, it is good if so many Spanish people are as interested and excited about these animals. It can only raise awareness in the country as to their importance and ensure that these animals do not become extinct. It was also great to see so many young Spaniards who had come to see Lynx.
It sounds as if the population is increasing slowly, so fingers crossed.
Highlights were clearly the Lynx, but also a new mammal in the form of a Garden Dormouse that ran across the road one morning in darkness and sat in a tree for us to get great views of as it returned back down the tree with some fruit. An impressive beast and ironically, harder to find than Iberian Lynx!
Below are some pics and a bit of video!
Sunday, 4 December 2011
FOR SALE
Due to an upgrade!
Email creamteabirding@hotmail.co.uk
A Nikon Coolpix P5100 with London Camera Exchange attachment for digiscoping, x2 batteries and charger and Nikon attachment for LCE attatchment. Well used but fully working. -
£125 ono
A 30X fixed Swarovski eyepiece. Tiny 1mm hairline scratch on edge of lens but not visible at all when using scope - £189 ono
OR £299 for the lot!
Examples of photos that I have taken from the above set up.
Email creamteabirding@hotmail.co.uk
A Nikon Coolpix P5100 with London Camera Exchange attachment for digiscoping, x2 batteries and charger and Nikon attachment for LCE attatchment. Well used but fully working. -
£125 ono
A 30X fixed Swarovski eyepiece. Tiny 1mm hairline scratch on edge of lens but not visible at all when using scope - £189 ono
OR £299 for the lot!
Examples of photos that I have taken from the above set up.
Friday, 2 December 2011
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