Local and worldwide wildlife adventures. Drone cameraman to TV's Nigel Marven. Dedicated Nikon user. Follow me on Twitter @chardbirder and Instagram: www.instagram.com/chardherper/. All images on this Blog are copyright of the Owner/contributors and cannot be used without written permission. All views expressed are my own. Translation to other languages available at the end of the page.
After a report of up to 8 birds yesterday, an early start by the Church in the village this morning produced a flock of 10 followed by a single bird on its own, quite amazing and easily the largest flock I've ever seen. They spent most of their time in the top of tall polars along the edge of the churchyard and Rectory Lane or flying around calling, fantastic birds. Short hand-held video clip below taken from about 100m away in poor light but you can see what they are...
And a couple of images too...
Hawfinch, Norton Sub Hamdon: R Harris
Hawfinch, Norton Sub Hamdon: R Harris
After this a visit to a traditional tree sparrow site produced good numbers but no photo ops and then to finish off the morning a stop at Cheddar reservoir produced 3 Goldeneye, small numbers of Pochard, a little owl and 3 Scaup quite close to the northern edge:
What a great start to the year! A visit to Bowling Green Marsh found 350+ Avocets, good numbers of Black and bar-tailed godwits, a kingfisher, a water rail, the long-staying female long-tailed duck, at least 4 pintail and large numbers of wigeon, teal and shoveler.
Close by at Exeter services were four very obliging waxwings - my first of the winter (they've been very thin on the ground in south Somerset). Sorry for the shaky video - forgot to take my video tripod.
Waxwing, Exeter M5 services: R Harris
Next on to Milbury Lane in Exminster to see another long-staying 1st winter Rose-coloured starling:
1st winter Rose-coloured starling, Exminster: R Harris
1st winter Rose-coloured starling, Exminster: R Harris
1st winter Rose-coloured starling, Exminster: R Harris
Just outside Exminster at least three Cirl buntings showed well along with a mixed flock of chaffinch and 7+ brambling.
This one's been hanging around on the flooded pool at Stockland Reach for 5 days now and looks quite happy too. It was showing down to 20 yards, pity the light was so bad and it was blowing a howling north-westerly wind - might have got some decent shots then...
Short video clip below - you can tell how windy it was...
Just clearing out some recycling in my garage this morning, when I came across this little monster.
It's a Drassodes sp. (there are two that are inseparable without a microscope) and yes, those are it's fangs you can see. Needless to say I didn't handle this one and it moved very quickly, so no able to get great shots of it either. With a body about 10mm long, it was a reasonable size too. They are fierce nocturnal hunters and use their weapons to pierce woodlice armour.
Another decent bird that's been hanging around for a while is this lovely adult Bonaparte's Gull. It seems to favour the seafront near the Boathouse restaurant along the sea wall at Dawlish Warren. Although fairly mobile, it did show very well at times and it was a beautiful morning for a change...
And if you're not tired of looking at it, you'll find a short video clip of this lovely bird here:
Nice to see an adult med among the black-headed gulls yesterday. First seen a few weeks ago by Dave Helliar and subsequently by Kevin Harris, this one seems to be coming back on a fairly regular basis. It flew off shortly after first seeing it, on its own (as meds always seem to do).
I hope it continues to visit the res through the winter, always good birds to see.
Yes, two together today. I suspected there might be two birds around as I saw initially what I believed was a 1st winter male and then a browner looking female bird on occasions although never at the same time.
