Deerie me -WARNING Contains Spaiders

Hello strangers! Many apologies for the long silence; work has been absolutely crazy the last few weeks, with 12 hours days the norm & days off a bit of a rarity. Compounding that, it's been a bit of a funny time of year for wildlife in the local area; the summer migrants are by & large departing, but winter arrivals haven't put in an appearance just yet. Vegetation is still very high in most sites, so the few occasions I've managed to get out for an hour or two, there hasn't been a huge amount to see!

On the plus side, I have recently upgraded my main lens to the spanking new Canon 500mm f/4 IS II, so I've been itching to give it a proper test-drive! Thankfully, the last week or so, I've managed to get out and about a little bit & I'm pleased to say it's performing very well!

I spent a few hours one afternoon on one of the local private lakes, watching a pair of Little Grebes fishing. I really enjoy working with these entertaining little birds. The female seems to have a particular penchant for eating newts  - while the male tends to stick to minnows & sticklebacks.' 

Little Grebes

Sadly 'Lonesome George' - a male Great Crested Grebe I've been watching for the last few years, is once again an eligible batchelor. I'd hoped that, after he paired up with a female this spring, he'd succeed in raising a brood. Unfortunately, after two failed clutches, his mate seems to have disappeared & poor George is all alone again. Hopefully, better luck next year.

Lonesome George

I was also pleased to be able to spend a couple of hours watching the resident pair of Hobbies catching dragonflies over the lake at Coate Water - although the site was otherwise very quiet for this time of year.

Hobby

Common Darter (Lunch)

Last weekend, Lou & I spent a few hours in a hide in the Midlands. It's a site where I've previously had good luck with Muntjac Deer, but no joy this time around. For the first 90 minutes or so, a Buzzard was perched close to the hide, which meant that very little was stirring, apart from a few rather handsome pheasants. Once it left, the bird life picked up a little, with a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and one of their juveniles spending some time on the feeders. Although we didn't see any Muntjac, we were rewarded with a pair of Fallow does and their fawns, which were very nice to see.

Fallow Deer - Fawn

Now that some of the hay fields have been cut, it's starting to get easier to see hares again. I managed to get fairly close to one more or less at eye-level through the stubble. They seem to have had a good year - we saw over a dozen in one field, albeit rather distantly. 

Brown Hare

One of my local pair of Little Owls have also had a successful season; I was delighted to spot two owlets out and about on my last visit to their territory.

Little Owlet

This morning, we made the decision to get up mega-early and head down to the lovely RSPB reserve at Arne, on the edge of Poole Harbour. We especially like to visit during the autumn, when the Sika deer are rutting. It's still a little bit too early for that yet, although we did hear a few of their squeaky bellows this morning. We arrived just before sunrise, and spent several hours wandering around the heathland and mixed woodland. An unexpected bonus on the way in was coming across a Nightjar sitting on the entrance road; I'd thought that they would have all made their way across the channel by now. We also spotted a Little Owl flying off a fence by the side of the road. 

Little Owl - Not from Arne

The Sika deer were out in force. We saw around 50 over the course of the morning; although mainly does and fawns/ juveniles. Unusually, we only came across a couple of stags. They seem to be mainly congregating under the chestnut trees, and appreciating the windfall nut mast - as were the multitude of Grey Squirrels! 

Sika Deer - Doe

Sika Deer - Fawn

Green Woodpeckers are also abundant at Arne - although tricky to get close enough for a decent shot. However one did pose quite obligingly for a few minutes on a dead tree limb in the sun's first rays. We also spotted a Wryneck flying through the glade, but couldn't quite see where it had landed. 

Green Woodpecker

It was a good day for raptors, with distant Ospreys out in the channel, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzards. On the Salt marshes, we also saw 9 Spoonbill, Cormorants, Little Egret, Shell Duck, Greenshanks, Herons, Curlew and various gulls.

Small birds were also out in force; highlights were the resident Dartford Warblers, but we also saw Treecreepers, a female Stonechat, Long-tailed Tit, Great-Tit, Coal-Tit, Gold Crest, Gold Finch, Chaffinch, Swallows, Housemartins and  Wheatears (in flight).

Stonechat

For me, the invert life was a particular highlight; we found a nest of hornets, which were quite something to watch, as they carted caterpillars and other insects into the chambers at a great rate. I also saw my first Raft Spiders today - a big tick, after several years of looking for them. We saw at least 10 spiderlings (which are still big enough to make most people feel rather uncomfortable!), but no adults today.

Hornets - Trying to be a bit arty

Hornet Nest

Raft Spider

Think that's probably enough for now - I promise not to leave it so long between posts in future! 

Crested Tits, Crossbills, Capercaille & back to the Coast

Finally getting around to finishing off the trip report for our last couple of days North of the border last week. Apologies go to our avid readers in Cults in particular for the delay in producing the last installment!

We'd originally planned to retrace the same route up Deeside, through Glenshee & Perthshire back to Edinburgh after our few days in Aberdeen. However, tantalised by seeing other people's fantastic shots of Ptarmigan on snow, we decided to take the super-scenic route back with a detour through Aviemore & a flying visit to the Cairngorm.

After a hearty full Scottish breakfast to give us strength for the day, we set off up Deeside as far as Balmoral Castle - again passing good numbers of Greylag Geese feeding in the fields around Muir of Dinnet. 
A final pass through the moorland around Bridge of Gairn was rewarded with some more great views of Red Grouse displaying.  

Red Grouse

We then continued along the same road through Tomintoul and the Lecht towards Aviemore - passing several Roe Deer, large flocks of Lapwings, several groups of Curlews and some distant Mountain Hares along the way. I'd been hoping that there might be some better snow-cover remaining at the Lecht for another chance of getting the Grouse on snow, but it was pretty much all gone apart from a few compacted patches. 

Nearing Aviemore, we spotted quite a lot of large winter visitor waterfowl grazing in the fields along the Spey - mainly Greylags again, but also several groups of Whooper Swan and some Pink-footed and Canada Geese. 

Just outside Grantown on Spey, I was absolutely flabbergasted to spot a female Capercaille walking through the pine trees, not too far back from the main road. I nearly crashed the car in my shock, but as we were in a stream of fast-moving traffic there wasn't anywhere to pull over for some distance. We had to go a couple of miles further down the road before coming to a place where I could turn round, and by the time we'd made our way back, there was no sign of the bird. While I'm gutted not to get even a record shot, it was an incredible feeling to see one in Scotland. 

By this time, we were in dire need of caffeine & cake, so we paid a visit to the Potting Shed Tearoom at Inshriach Nursery. This is a great place for a coffee stop if you are even remotely interested in birds, as the tearoom has a really nice viewing area looking directly out over their wildlife feeding station, which attracts a constant stream of birds and the odd Red Squirrel or two - with the added bonus of excellent cake too! We enjoyed watching the dozens of Chaffinches and Coal-tits on the feeders, as well as Greenfinches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Arriving at the Cairngorm, I was disappointed - but not really surprised- to see that here too, the snow cover had receded up the slopes. I did pick up a group of Ptarmigan on a ridge to the far left of the funicular railway, but too far up to tempt me to try an ascent, I'm afraid! Ah well, got to leave some challenges for next time, after all.

We then stopped into the Scottish Heather Centre, as we've found their wildlife feeding station to be good for woodland birds when we stayed in the area a couple of years ago. However nothing at all was moving during our (admittedly, very breif) visit this time - although we could clearly hear Crested Tits calling in the pines around the grounds. Chatting to the owner, he hasn't seen any come down for a few months, so he thinks the mild winter has meant they are less interested in visiting feeders.

Before hitting the road again, we decided to stretch our legs with a quick walk in one of our favourite spots - in the beautiful RSPB Abernethy forest around Loch Mallachie. Almost immediately, we were surrounded by Crested Tit calls on every side, and we had fun watching them flitting around high up in the pines - too high for much in the way of photos, sadly. (Guess I'm just spoilt after my close encounters in Spain last month!)

Crested Tit - Spain

We also had a small flock of Scottish Crossbills, although again they were staying in cover at the top of the trees. 

Lou stumbled across (almost literally) a very obliging Common Toad - always a fun challenge to shoot 'macro' style subjects using a 500mm lens! 

Common Toad

The highlight of the walk was hearing the unmistakable sounds of a male Capercaille clacking away somewhere in the depth of the forest. We didn't manage to work out where the call was coming from, but it was quite a thrill all the same. 

Back in Edinburgh on Friday, the weather had changed back to cold, grey and drizzly - with strong winds. It wasn't a day to tempt us to go too far afield, especially knowing we had the long drive home the next day. We did take a drive down to the coastline at Crammond, where we found the sea was very rough and few birds were visible out on the water - except a few gulls on the front. However we did come across a huge flock of over 200 Curlews in a sheep field just back from the bay -accompanied by a single Ruff. If it wasn't for the farmer driving through the field as I was setting up I could have managed some close shots of them.

Moving on through Leith Docks, we noticed there were quite a few more birds sheltering in the harbours, so we decided to pop down to Musselburgh again to see if we could pick up the Surf Scooter.

Arriving at the Fisherrow Harbour, we thought we had completely struck out, as there wasn't a single bird to be seen. However a quick scan through the bins showed a few waders huddled on the spar at the mouth of the River Esk further along the bay, so we headed in that direction for a closer look. It turned out to be a good call, as we discovered lots of the waders and waterfowl were sheltering just slightly upriver - including Greylag & Canada Geese, Golden Eye and Dunlin. We didn't find the Scooter, but I was very pleased to be able to finally get really close to a group of Goosanders, as they've been a bit of a bogie bird for me in terms of getting a decent shot!

Goosander -Female

Goosander - Male

So, overall we had a really good time in Scotland - always good to combine seeing the clan with some top-quality wildlife action too!  

Winter waterfowl & some signs of Spring

The forecast for the weekend isn't brilliant, so I thought  I'd better take the chance to get out for a bit today. So after dropping Lou at work, I headed round to Coate Water to see what was around.

On the main lake, there were lots of Canada Geese, 4  Goosanders,  Great Crested Grebes and a large group  of Tufted Ducks, including one that was visibly different - possibly a Scaup hybrid. However, I couldn't get close enough for a decent shot to confirm. Most of the Wigeon have now left, apart from one last straggler.

Moving on to the smaller Nature Reserve lake, I spent a good couple of hours - mainly looking at tits! As well as the usual Blue, Coal and Great Tits, a large flock of Long-tailed Tits kept me amused with their antics, and a Marsh Tit was showing well. This is quite a new thing for this hide, but the bird seems to have been visiting quite a few times recently. 

Blue Tit

Also visiting the feeders were a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and a couple of Coots & Moorhens. A Wren was rummaging around in the vegetation. A Water Rail was heard calling just behind the hide, & we were hopeful it might visit the feeders, as they occasionally do when it's cold. However, just after we heard its grunting call, a Sparrowhawk flushed all of the small birds.

Great-spotted Woodpecker - Male

There were lots of Teal and a few Gadwall, plus several more Goosanders and Great Crested Grebes. Apparently they were seen showing more courting behaviour this morning, including displaying with waterweed. I didn't observe this myself. However, the Grey Heron's were carrying nesting material back to the heronry so there are definitely a few early signs of Spring in the air.  I also spotted the Great White Egret visiting Coate fairly regularly over the last few months, flying past distantly. The Canada Geese were busy shuttling noisily to and fro between this and the main lake.

Long-tailed Tit

Further round the lake, Hide 2 looks out across a shallow backwater and small island. Generally, there were similar birds to be seen here, but also Pochard and Mute Swans - mainly juveniles.
On the island, over a dozen Snipe were hunkered down on the edges. A second group were flushed by a Heron flying in. The Great White Egret landed on the island, and one of the Kingfishers did a quick fly by, as did a flock of Redwings. Quite a few Cormorants fishing and perched up too.I heard a Green Woodpecker calling, but didn't see it today.

On the walk back to the car, I had Greenfinch, Goldfinch and a Goldcrest. Not a bad tally for a couple of hours of easy birding!

Confused Grebes and waterfowl galore

Finally, a dry day with some actual sunshine! I spent a few hours visiting two of our local Country Parks; Lydiard Park and Coate Water. Both are on the edges of Swindon, and heavily used by families, runners, dog walkers and so on - but that doesn't stop them being home to a good range of wildlife. 

When we first lived in Swindon, the lake at Lydiard was almost completely silted up with a 100 years worth of muck, but after extensive work back in 2007,  the 18th century landscape features have been restored. It's one of my favourite spots for photographing grebes and other waterfowl, as it's easy to get down for a water-level view.

Great Crested Grebe

This morning, there were plenty of Tufted ducks dabbling around, alongside the resident pair of Mutes Swans and their 4 signets from last season, plus Little Grebes, Moorhens & Coots. It's also a good place for woodland birds; this morning the main sightings were a Great Crested Woodpecker, an entertaining flock of Long-tailed Tits,  Mistle Thrush, as well as Blue Tits, Coal Tits & Great Tits.

The main Lake at Coate Water was originally created as a Headwater tank for the Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal in the 1820's. A smaller lake, now a Nature Reserve, was added in the 1970's. Most of the area is now a SSSI, largely due to the wildflower meadows - a real haven for butterflies & bees in the summer. Both lakes attract a wide range of wintering waterfowl, and the park is also home to a wide range of woodland species - so I'm a regular visitor at anytime of year. Today, I was glad of my wellies - everywhere is thick mud & deep puddles!

There's currently a large group of at least 24 Goosanders wintering on the main lake, although they're hard to get a close view of, as they are quite shy & prefer to stick to the inaccessible areas. I managed to get a few shots as one obliged with a fly past! 

Goosander - Male

Lots of other waterfowl around too; Little Grebes, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks, Gadwalls, Cormorants, Mute Swans & 10 Great Crested Grebes.
One pair of Grebes seemed to have been rather confused by the mild weather & today's sunshine, as they were displaying their courtship head-weaving 'dance'. The earliest I've seen signs of this behaviour in the past has been around the second week of February.

Great Crested  Grebes 'dancing'

A large flock of 100+ Lapwings flew over - presumably they'd been feeding on some of the surrounding fields.

Lapwings

Plenty of woodland bird activity too - Green  and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, more Long-tailed, Blue & Great Tits, plus a Marsh Tit. A Grey Wagtail & a pair of Pied Wagtails looked to be having a good time flitting about.

All in all, a pleasant way to spend a morning - let's hope we get a decent weekend!