Patch visit....

   A trip to patch  yesterday started with a male Pheasant along the railway line and a single Lesser Redpoll  in the tree. 2x Grey Herons flew over as I approached the marsh scrape. On the scrape itself were 12x Lapwings and 45x Teal  along with 5 x Mute swans in the dyke's.
A single male Reed Bunting was calling as I approached the hide. A good number of wildfowl on the water but I was more drawn to a calling Treecreeper on the tree behind. It was among a Tit flock which also contained 1x Goldcrest, 2x Coal Tit . This  made great watching and was all the more pleasing as I'd only ever had a Treecreeper along bungalow lane .
As I scanned the broad spit among the resting Lapwings a Water Rail appeared 



Water Rail and Lapwings



Treecreeper



 

A nice bit of birding.
  Happy birding,
  Shaky

Dipper & Waxwings

  On Tuesday morning as I was about to step into the van for work I heard and saw a flock of Waxwings drop onto the telegraph pole in front of me. I just stood and smiled as these charismatic  little birds called away to one another before taking off again, only to drop and settle in the next street , (Gloucester st). I watch em for around 5 minutes before work came calling! (Always nice when the birds come to you I think!)



Waxwings

  After work today I decided to finally go get my self a Dipper! Now I know it's been there for a few months now but i just haven't had the time to nip off & see it. I arrived at the bridge and along with two other birders : Richard & Eddie ( very nice chaps ) we begun to scan the stream. After around 10 minutes I picked the bird up, bobbing away on a branch on the water- (just as i imagined  it!) This is a bird that i always wanted since owning my Collin's a few years back ,due to its fantastic bold contrasting colour and its cool look along with that smooth bobbing action- it's one smart bird and what's even better is its only 35 minutes from home!
 A few  record shots:

Black-bellied Dipper

 Happy birding,
  Shaky

Thanks James!

  I had so many titles for today's blog with the name of this species of bird but held back from the smuttiness and simply decided to thank local birder James for not only finding a cracking bird but  sharing the info of the birds where abouts to me  before I left off for work , helping me change my route and sneaking a peak of a Shag.
 This is a lifer for me, I know some of you out there probably saw one within your first year or so of birding but the truth is I've not done too much sea watching and never gone out looking for one .So this was a fantastic tick for me ,especially as its  virtually on my door step. The bird looked pretty happy to me when I saw it , diving regularly for food. I whipped out the iphone and took a few record shots as it came close to the bridge. A Super bird  to look at , and a real treat to have it this close showing of its greeny shine against its black feathering . As I said earlier, a big thumbs up to James  !



Shag(255)

Happy birding,
 Shaky