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!

Bardsey Bird Observatory Review/Feedback

Having applied for the BTO young birder's grant to visit a bird observatory in Britain, I am required to provide a written review/feedback of my trip to the observatory so I have decided to place it here. The Bird Obs I visited is Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory. Bardsey is a small Island placed 1.9 miles off the Llŷn Peninsula in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It was recently made famous within the birding community after having played host to the first Cretzchmar's Bunting not to be seen in the Shetland area. It's position in the Irish Sea, makes it a hotspot for particular migrants, including a great sea bird passage, not to mention the huge number of Manx Shearwater which breed on the island and are visible offshore by day. Having visited in late August, 22nd-29th, the majority of migrants hadn't quite reached the West Coast by that time and were still grounded on the east coast of Britain. However, the week still proved to be one of the most enjoyable birding weeks I have ever had, but we will get onto that later. Following the 30-minute boat trip over to the island, our first bird was a Tree Pipit which flew over whilst calling. However, I digress, this is not a summary but a review. The week was filled with plenty of activities organised by the Bird Observatory specifically for our visit, although the majority of our time was left to us just to generally go birding. Our counts were then compiled in the evening's 'Log' and were added to the official counts from the island which would be sent to the BTO or uploaded to BirdTrack. This was very compelling for me to actually observe each bird, be it common or scarce, and have those numbers make up future statistics!

One of the evenings that we were on the island was dedicated to recording and ringing Manx Shearwaters, especially adults, which is why we had to go out at night. A brief presentation by Steve (Obs Warden), before heading out was very informative and gave a perspective on Manx Shearwaters on a whole, with statistics I had previously no idea about. For example, the oldest Manx Shearwater had been ringed and recovered on Bardsey and was at least 50 years old, as well as being informed that around 90% of the worlds breeding population is contained in the United Kingdom! Being a bird in decline, makes these investigations immensely important and once again to be part of it was amazing. Some of us were allowed to ring a few individuals and encounter them at very close quarters where we could really enjoy them for what they are, instead of a black speck out to sea. A day or two after this event, we headed out to the burrows to record more Manx Shearwater numbers, this time by day as we were interested in the immature birds. We were instructed to pull some birds from their burrows (obviously not quite as crudely as I am describing), and bring them down to Steve where we would be able to process them ourselves! Another amazing experience!

During our stay we also managed to have two Bird Races, one against the Observatory staff and another against Skokholm. The Bird Race against Skokholm was throughout the week and joyfully we managed to beat them! But unfortunately the Bird Race between staff and NGBers didn't work out quite as well, due to us losing by a margin of only one species! However, James O'neill and I were able to locate a Barn Owl that evening which if it had been included could have possibly won us the competition! On our last evening Steve was kind enough to organise a quiz for us and all observatory staff. Sadly I clumsily shouted out answers resulting in my team sometimes getting slightly aggravated in me, but nevertheless the evening was very enjoyable.

On a whole the week proved to be a very memorable and enjoyable experience, meeting new people and getting to participate in the field studies of another Bird Observatory, and much more, was great fun. The adventure has encouraged me to try to volunteer at as many bird observatories across Britain and Europe as possible, hopefully starting in my Gap Year from Summer 2016.

Thank you for reading,
Ephraim