Monday 21 November 2011
20-11-11, Whitemoor Haye.
After a late night which didnt involve too much beer (this time) I was up early, threw the curtains open wide and hey presto, thick fog. An hour later including egg on toast and not much change. This morning was my only birding chance this weekend as worked all day Saturday, out Sunday afternoon and off barbel fishing on the Monday. Anyway I headed off with the dog and we had a quite chilly walk round. Birds noted were Blackbird, Robin, Black Headed Gull, Dunnock, Carrion Crow, Starling, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, 98 Mute Swans from what I could see through the fog, Tree Sparrow I counted around 65 at the regular feeding area, Goldfinch, Linnet, Pheasant, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wren, Woodpigeon, Magpie, 41 Golden Plover, Lapwing, Fieldfare, Redwing, Skylark, Mallard and Meadow Pipit. At the lake I could only see a solitary Tufted Duck.
Sunday 20 November 2011
20-11-11, News.
Never fear, or actually do fear, as I am back with renewed grrrrrr to keep this blog rolling. Not going to go into detail but a few things went wrong during the summer regarding my birding hobby, gave myself a good kicking and now ready to enjoy the winters birding. The odd thing has changed which I am sure will become apparant to regular readers if you have not all deleted the link to this blog already.
Since I have been off the blogesphere I have not stopped birding. One aim this year is to visit my local patch, Whitemoor Haye, at least 100 times. I am on course for that. I think this is very important for my birding, yes I do go and I enjoy going to see birds at other sites that have been found by other birders but I hope I return the favours by trying to find stuff at Whitemoor. Obviously I will never repeat the Woodchat Shrike from 2010 but this year I have found my own Arctic and Black Terns and a few Whinchat. Nowt special but ernjoyable. Whitemoor Haye has obviously been the main place I have been visiting with nothing special found since the last entry. I had a small break in Norfolk and very enjoyable it was too. No lifers but a few year ticks including a self found Snow Bunting which was particularly enjoyable. I feasted on Yellow-browed Warblers and twitched but failed to see a Radde's Warbler. I was only there two days and on the way home I connected with the White-rumped Sandpiper at Rutland Water. Within the last couple of weeks I have managed to nail a couple of lifers. The first was the Squacco Heron at Attenborough nature reserve which was a smart bird, and then the Steppe Grey Shrike near Telford, again, another cracking bird. One thing I have been want to learn is why birds are are this and not that - a Steppe Grey and not a Great Grey. We all do it every day with the obvious birds - why is it a House Sparrow and not a Dunnock. I hope that is easy to all but the shrike is obviously more difficult and I wanted to know what I was looking for to say yes it is a Steppe Grey and not a Great Grey. This was a good oppurtunity and information did take some finding but some on-site birders help out too.
Recently work has been very busy and also my private life is quite busy so birding is quite limited. Its bad enough with weekend birding only but when I am working weekends and busy on days off birding has to take a back seat unfortunately. The busy period wont last so more time will soon be found, along with some days off in December.
I have been out this morning to Whitemoor Haye and I will update later although it was a tad foggy.
Since I have been off the blogesphere I have not stopped birding. One aim this year is to visit my local patch, Whitemoor Haye, at least 100 times. I am on course for that. I think this is very important for my birding, yes I do go and I enjoy going to see birds at other sites that have been found by other birders but I hope I return the favours by trying to find stuff at Whitemoor. Obviously I will never repeat the Woodchat Shrike from 2010 but this year I have found my own Arctic and Black Terns and a few Whinchat. Nowt special but ernjoyable. Whitemoor Haye has obviously been the main place I have been visiting with nothing special found since the last entry. I had a small break in Norfolk and very enjoyable it was too. No lifers but a few year ticks including a self found Snow Bunting which was particularly enjoyable. I feasted on Yellow-browed Warblers and twitched but failed to see a Radde's Warbler. I was only there two days and on the way home I connected with the White-rumped Sandpiper at Rutland Water. Within the last couple of weeks I have managed to nail a couple of lifers. The first was the Squacco Heron at Attenborough nature reserve which was a smart bird, and then the Steppe Grey Shrike near Telford, again, another cracking bird. One thing I have been want to learn is why birds are are this and not that - a Steppe Grey and not a Great Grey. We all do it every day with the obvious birds - why is it a House Sparrow and not a Dunnock. I hope that is easy to all but the shrike is obviously more difficult and I wanted to know what I was looking for to say yes it is a Steppe Grey and not a Great Grey. This was a good oppurtunity and information did take some finding but some on-site birders help out too.
Recently work has been very busy and also my private life is quite busy so birding is quite limited. Its bad enough with weekend birding only but when I am working weekends and busy on days off birding has to take a back seat unfortunately. The busy period wont last so more time will soon be found, along with some days off in December.
I have been out this morning to Whitemoor Haye and I will update later although it was a tad foggy.
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