Whoosh, that was Summer!!

Moving to a Farm has been great, but I cant believe 7 months have gone past and I haven't had hardly ANY adventures, either locally or down the coast etc.

It is worryingly easy to sit here and do nothing.. Either chill with a few beers in the garden with neighbour Joe, or just relax and do nowt.. I'm actually an expert at the latter now... probably the first part too if the truth was known.

Anyhoo.. Its pretty much business as usual here. Probably been naughty and fed the birds all summer, but its been great watching the woodpeckers every day.. Maximum number has been 7!! After a few weeks of no visits, there are a pair now visiting again.
Migration has provided a Wheatear and Redstart in the paddocks. Still can't believe those 'garden ticks'..  Joe has seen Yellow Wag, Pied Flycatcher in the car park and Green Sandpiper over.. But he's an expert ;o)

So Autumn is here and the sunsets recently have been stunning to say the least. But the nights..  the nights are sooooo chilly, the woodburner is lit most evenings.. Living here isn't the cheapest, but for quality of life - very hard to beat :o)

The visiting Redstart, en route back to Africa.

The view from my cottage over the paddocks.

One of the many horses and ponies on the farm.

Last night's sunset.

Them be Otters, them be...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure (understatement) of watching 3 otter in the Nature Reserve I used to live at.. Having never seen any Otter in the wild before, you can imagine how pleased i was.. Still smiling now!

I used to live next to the Reserve for a year, had heard of Otter being seen, but these sightings were very few and far between.. I had tried, as had friends and neighbours, but no luck.

Local friends had recently got lucky.. Rainy days seemed to be the best days to try. So with that in mind (and dipping once on a sunny day) a predicted rainy day off was identified and off we went..

Within 5 minutes, success.. Movement was seen in the water and there they were... 

2 Otter swimming on the far side of the lake !!!

Enough waffle, here are some pics and video, if it will load...

Baby Woodpeckers!!

Spring has sprung and to my surprise - yesterday morning I was greeted with the site of 2 baby GS Woodys in the garden..  I have had 3 regular adult visitors for some time now, but genuinely didn't think they were breeding due to pretty much always being in the garden..

Anyhoo.. the noise made me look outside (not that I don't spend all day looking outside anyway)..and there on the fence were 2 chicks asking to be fed.. First mum, then dad took turns in passing them peanuts from the feeders.

At certain times throughout the day there were 2 adult males and 2 adult females in the garden, on the fence / feeders, so that indicates that there are a minimum of 6 birds now visiting..  

This is gonna be expensive..

But I'm not complaining.

Swallows and Amazonial weather.

Spent a very enjoyable afternoon at Thatcham Discovery Centre a few weekends ago showing my friend Grant and his son Jack around my local patch.

Feeding the Geese and then trying to snap the Swallows and House Martins that were feeding on the lake. Must have been around 200 of them, just back from Africa and fueling up after the 5000km journey.

 Grant trying to teach the Geese some table manners..  #fail.

 Elvis, the resident RC Pochard who was very loved up with a Mallard.. 

 Feeding Swallows

 House Martin

 The top Swallow mouth wide open.

And then a walk around Lower Farm GP, to see the Heronry and also where the Cormorants were nesting..

More from the garden... I'm very lucky :o)

 One of two that regularly visit.

 A Goldcrest, with the camera set up completely wrong, which of course you only realise afterwards.

 Someone else likes watching them too..

 Whilst they were watching the sunset.

 Just to prove 2 GS Woodies visit.. :o)

This is Mike II.

Makes a change from Sparrows...

Some more shots from today...

Garden Visitors...

A recent house move has paid off rather nicely as far as visitors to the garden feeders are concerned.

In the old place, I had taken the Nyger seeds down, as nothing visited.

Here its very different. With in 20 minutes of them being up - 2 Goldfinch & Greenfinch chomping away.

Other regulars (very regular) visitors are 2 Nuthatch and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpecker - and 3 of those have been seen at one time in the trees nearby.  

Ok, its gonna be expensive feeding this lot..  But i ain't complaining.

 Nuthatch

 Long Tailed Tits

 A Coal Tit and Great Tit.

 Goldfinch

 Greenfinch

Great Spotted Woodpecker

A Summers Day in February

The location of today's adventure was the Gallops of West Ilsley..

Hen Harrier were the target. Midweek someone had listed a pair and the usual Merlin on the berksbirds website. The sun was shining and from a previous trip's experience, there was also the chance of SEOs..  

So why not.

Things were looking up as soon as I reached the Gallop.. 

2 birds of prey, perched on different Hawthorn bushes, but they turned out to be Kestrels..  Loved up Kestrels as it turned out.. and the mood was right for both of them as they got rather friendly.

Continuing my walk up the Gallop and something large was spotted, flying low over the long grass in the distance.. Short Eared Owl..  Happy days!

I took my old camera with me today as I am yet to match the zoom capabilities on my new one.. Everytime (only 4) that I have seen SEOs I've failed to get a decent picture. Today, with 4 flying around I got lucky :o)

Corn Bunting were abundant up there and they posed quite nicely in the last moments of the golden sunshine.. A very pleasant afternoon for February.

  

Corn Bunting

And this is the sunset they were watching. 

Bittern by the bug . . . . . . grooooan.

That was one of the better titles too!

Monday 20 February, another adventure and a return to Blashford Lakes near Ringwood -The winter home of at least 2 Bittern.

I've only ever seen 1 Bittern twice before in my life time, both from close range as they flew from reedbeds. 

The first view being a very brief view as one flew away from me as I was walking around Woolhampton GP. The second was at Testwood Lakes in January 2011. Another accidentally 'flushed' bird that offered better views than the first as it tried to blend in with the reeds. (details here http://chriscountryfiles.blogspot.com/2011/02/another-day-another-tour-of-hampshire.html ). 

Blashford was listing at least 2 Bitterns and boasting that they were showing well from Ivy North Hide so a trip out with my friend Grant was arranged.

We arrived at Blashford at Noon and went straight to Tern Hide. A few Goldeneye, Goosander and the usual Cormorants, Grebes and more common types of Gulls, but the water was generally quiet. 5 Barnacle Geese on one of the islands were a nice surprise but not much else. Grant had never been to Blashford before so seeing birds like Goldeneye was a new experience for him. I searched hard for the Smew that was supposedly on the lake, but couldn't find it.  Me and Smews have that kind of relationship.

A quick chat with a couple next to us, they had just come from Ivy and seen the Bittern!!    Game On!

Ivy North was packed! Someone had arranged the benches to their convenience (and nobody elses) and set up camp in the corner..  How kind.. The rest of us were being polite ish.. and gazing, with consideration to others, through the fixed glass, We didn't have to wait long. Within 10 minutes a Bittern appeared, actually from right in front of us.. How on earth it got there without anyone noticing - I don't know!

The thing with reedbeds is that they always get in the way.. 

No clean shots, but the best Bittern views I have ever had.

After a while, the smell of the great unwashed got too much, so we decided to go to what was a quieter Woodland Hide and have lunch. Plenty of Greenfinch, Redpoll, Chaffinch and Great and Blue Tits on show, as well as an occasional view of a Nuthatch and G S Woody..  

Then a Sparrowhawk flew over and everything disappeared.....  for a long time!!

A return to Ivy and again, after a 10 minute wait, we were greeted with 2 Bittern.. 

Both no more than 10 metres away and really not bothered about hiding.

It was really hard to leave when you're watching a Bittern, but time was pressing on.. 

A return to Tern Hide and a good view of a Peregrine through the scope - then the news that Bewicks and a Whooper are at Harbridge... Gotta be worth a look on the way home as its just down the road, especially as Grant is, shall we say -  a bit keen on taking pictures of Swans.

Harbridge has a fabulous stone River Bridge that one day, when I've figured out how and when, will lend itself to an amazing picture, but not today. 

Swans were plentiful. Many Mute Swans in the surrounding fields, then we spot 5 Bewicks in a small piece of water in a field. Nice..

The tip was to head to the field behind the Church.. Here, what started out as around 40 Mute Swans ended up as over 200 grazing in the fields surrounding us! As we stood there, more and more flew in.. Keen not to miss out, 2 Egyptian and many Greylag Geese flew in, the 5 Bewick Swans circled and then....  a lone Whooper Swan flew over us and into a field behind.. 

All 3 UK Swans in one space -in the space of 5 minutes - and not at a Reserve! 

Doubt that will ever happen to me again :o)

Incoming Mute Swan.

The Bewicks flying over.