Spring

With exams drawing ever closer, I find myself once again confined to my house, local patch and occasionally Tring, which is only 30 minutes drive from my house. Procrastination being a natural cause of exam times, I've found myself out on the patch quite regularly.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Spring has definitely sprung on patch, temperatures are rising, and flowers and buds are beginning to blossom. With them the first arrivals of Wheatear on patch were happily greeted, along with my first sighting of Whitethroat this year only yesterday.

After many years of postponing and putting it on the side lines, I have actually begun ringing. Most Sundays are now spent in Tring, training so that hopefully some day in the future I will be able to hold my own C permit. So far highlights have been: Fieldfare, Kingfisher, Treecreeper, Reed Warbler and Blackcap. Since we are usually finished by midday it leaves a couple of hours for me to visit the Reservoirs and see what I can find. I've taken these opportunities to shoot for my upcoming photography exam, and have spent my fare share of time with the Great Crested Grebes on Marsworth Reservoir.

Great Crested Grebe

Common Tern

Following last weeks ringing I visited College Lake briefly where I was able to connect with a stonking Ring Ouzel and Greenland Wheatear. Both were in mint plumage and provided good entertainment. Great views of Red Kite later in the hills didn't go amiss either.

Red Kite

In more recent weeks, the weather has been quite mild and even warm at some times, which has lead me putting the moth trap out a few times. Anything spectacular has evaded the trap so far, but some of the highlights have included: Dotted Chestnut, Frosted Green, Pine Beauty and some of the Hebrew Characters and Early Grey have been looking pretty sharp!

 Clouded Drab

 Pine Beauty

 Early Grey

Frosted Green

I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce I've received a long-term volunteer placement on Bardsey Island for this autumn from the end of August until the end of October, and I intend to do weekly round ups of my stay including highlights, trends, and of course photographs!

A year on patch

I rarely find myself writing about my patch in recent years, mostly because I don't think it interests that many people particularly. It's a small amount of farmland and fishing lakes in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire which I try to visit at least twice a week, school work permitting. It provides a great indicator of the different cycles of the year. Obviously being land lopped means the migrants are late to come and often in far fewer numbers, but still it is always a joy to experience the beginnings of the seasons, or general changes in weather throughout the year.

Orchid

When the flowers start to blossom and the hirundines seep into the country in small numbers they mark the start of migration on the patch. Subsequently the first Wheatears arrive in numbers of up to 5 or so, but only when the weather collaborates.

Wheatear

Finally the Swifts, one of my all time favorite birds, come gliding over the patch and grow progressively in number over the next few months until the temperature drops and they are forced back to Africa. The spring brings very little out of the ordinary on patch, but the common summer vagrants fill the woods and farmland with the sound of bird song. Whitethroats chatter in the bushes, Skylarks dance in the air, and Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler hope around the tops of trees occasionally calling to a mate, and that's when I know spring has truly arrived. Of course Spring marks the emergence time for both Butterflies and Moths, both of which can be seen in good number.

Comma

Buff-tip

When summer hits, it all goes quite and if I'm truthful birding gets quite dire, except for the odd nest being found.

Common Frog

Then when almost all hope is lost, the hirundines and Swifts begin to leave as well! But it's okay because it's a sign of more to come. Once again the autumn brings the odd common migrant, and eventually winter sweeps across the country, bringing with it the thousands of thrushes and Goldcrests that make it my favorite time of year on patch. The cold holds promises for birds which it sometimes even delivers, especially in the more recent weeks where I've seen an influx of finches like Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. That brings a conclusion to the summary of a year on my patch.

Lesser Redpoll

Blood Moon

Startrail on patch

Landscape

Coming to the end of my first project in my A level photography course I find myself, once again, shooting the same subject, landscapes. It's a form of photography which I very much admire and takes a lot of patience and skill, unfortunately I am still trying to master it and with my unforgiving equipment it isn't easy. Anyway, here are my attempts.

Pantenburg, Germany

Pantenburg, Germany

Crag Martin, Chesterfield

I wouldn't put myself down as an obsessive twitcher, but when it comes to a twitchable Crag Martin I was happy to drop any plans for the weekend to have a chance of seeing it. Which I did. A long staying individual in Chesterfield was the one responsible for this. Me, Chris, Paul, Brendan and Ian, headed off this morning around 6, this meant after a traffic-free drive up the M1 we arrived around 8:30.

None of us were feeling highly optimistic about the likely hood of seeing this bird but still we gave it all the time we could, and amazingly just as our confidence had reached 0% the bird decided to make an appearance! The Crag Martin then showed reasonably well for a good half hour before heading on, on it's circuit. 

Eurasian Crag Martin

Slow-mo Crag Martin video

Even with the views we got, the bird was far too fast and the light too bad to get any good photos. So I end by saying well done to any with good shots of this bird.

Portland NGB trip

I don't really think I have the time, or you, for me to write a long blog post on my visit to Portland Bird Observatory this year, so I'll try and keep it decently 'short and sweet'.

Portland Bill

Portland Lighthouse

Pulpit Rock

Portland Lighthouse

Portland Coast

I went 2 days earlier then the others, Ben, Billy, Josie and Sorrel, so I was able to get my bearings and begin a bit of birding before the others arrived. Instantly on the first day it was visible that Portland was in the middle of a huge Crest influx, with double figures easily in almost every bush you looked at!

Goldcrest

This made it quite clear that the week could produce some kind of leaf warbler, and possible some other kind of interesting Siberian bird. We were all quite keen to find something, so we were all in the field for most of the stay apart from if some of us were ringing, in which case that would take precedence. Generally the birding was quite good and on most walks would produce something of interest, be it Black Redstart, Short-eared Owl, Firecrest or something of that sort.

Kestrel

Luckily for the others, a Pallas's Warbler popped up on their first day, and obviously we were all very interested to see it, so we headed to the Pumping Station Quarry where after some brief searching Martin managed to find it. We rushed to a better viewing point and managed to grab good views of it before the sun began to set.

Pallas's Warbler

Me and Ben made the wise decision to head for the top fields straight after the Warbler so we could try and see the Owls in decent light, we were lucky and had a great views of one which swooped past us in the beautiful evening sun.

Short-eared Owl

Following that the success we managed to further see another 3 or so individuals. Throughout the week there were at least 3-5 different birds hunting each night including up to 2 Barn Owls as well, which always proved to be a very nice end to each day.

Kestrel, being mobbed by a crow

The moths throughout the week were good and the sheer number was quite impressive compared to the 3-4 I catch a day back on my patch.

Angle Shade

The week proved to be quite successful, and seeing some birds in the hand was amazing to say the least, the best of which were Pos. Siberian Chiffchaff, Continental Coal Tit, Firecrest, Redwing and even a stonking Pallas's Warbler!!!

Firecrest

Siberian Chiffchaff

Continental Coal Tit

Pallas's Warbler

That was definitely an immense way to finish the week and send us off back to boring old school.

Little Owl

Peregrine

For a more detailed blog summary I would recommend reading Ben's blog, which contains some cracking photos!