A day to remember, all day long.

An advantage of not cycling so much any more is all the extra free time.
I have yet to fully utilise this, but yesterday morning, before my late shift at work I went for a walk over Bransbury Common.

Bransbury is a large open plain of grassland, bordered on both sides by the River Test. A vast expanse that could possibly be described as a large island? You decide.

  

Previous visits have led to great views of Barn and Short Eared Owls.  One of the best (luckiest) shots I've ever taken was of a Barn Owl at Bransbury.. A Barn Owl flying off with a vole, over a deer's head. (right)


So, speaking of luck, yesterday offered a couple of 'firsts' for me.

The first part of Bransbury, as I walked from the road out to the grass Savannah was quiet.. A few Bullfinch (my nemesis), Blackcap and my first Whitethroat of the year were well hidden in treetops and bushes. A Green Woodpecker could be heard in the distance, as could a Cuckoo somewhere towards the Wherwell to Longparish road.  I was walking in to a strong headwind, so I had hoped to get quite close to whatever was on the common.

Pretty empty! Couldn't even see a Stonechat on the bushes. It was a cloudy day so the pictures wouldn't have been great, but where were they? The winter hasn't been too harsh!

Sat on a stile next to the river, scanning the grass land for anything - I notice that the old shed where the Barn Owl used to cache food has now been replaced with a new one, with doors.  Disappointing as I had hoped to hook up a camera there and snap the owl as it flew in with its catch.
Out the corner of my eye I see a brown flash of something next to the river. Not a clue what it was, but definitely worth investigating. I couldn't exactly creep up on it, walking on dead grass, and the noise was enough for whatever it was to hear me.

A STOAT lifts its head and looks at me. Today's first 'first'!
I've seen a couple of stoats, or weasels in my time (very hard to tell the difference) but never this close and actually having a camera!!  How many times do we say 'if only I had a camera' in every day life...

Happy with that! 

I decided to continue walking on the common and managed to snap a Whitethroat but it was way off.. Even with the best crop it still looked like a blob in a tree.

A couple of Buzzards being mobbed by some crows next to the river and then a Sedge Warbler thinking about singing in the reed beds. I got an ok shot from the other side of the river, and then it rained which stopped both of us. Me trying to keep the bins and camera dry as I didn't wear a coat.

Walking back to the car I saw a male and female Sparrowhawk separately flying low over the grassland and a Green Woodpecker from close quarters as it flew off.  No deer on today's visit.


Home to get ready for work.




At work and another Sparrowhawk encounter. In The Nightingales I hear some Starlings going mad overhead and notice them mobbing the bird as it cruised over the estate. #birdingwhilstworking
Anything can almost pop up anywhere, so much nature on the doorstep - I've even seen Waxwing on that estate in the winter.

I had a plan for the evening but whilst we were waiting for dusk we checked the Bird Hide at Lower Farm. Another first was a Swift that was flying over the hide. A year tick and very pleased to see them back. They nest in Curling Way and I love the sound of them as they scream over the estate.
It was hard to see what was on the lake due to the low sun, but it did provide an excellent photo opportunity. Only on my camera phone now, but even they are pretty good these days.



And then on to a woodland in Cold Ash.
One large badger sett here has seen a lot of use recently, judging by the amount of earth that is being moved. I wondered if we were gonna get lucky and see one. We were working so didn't have time to do it properly (arrive early before dusk and settle down, down wind and be quiet etc.)
To our surprise the woods were stunning.. So many bluebells, a true carpet of blue! The light conditions weren't great so a return trip will happen next week.


The wood was a real network of tracks, badger, so we knew they were in one of the two setts. We made our way to the number of entrances and decided to lean against a tree and see if there was any activity. Not a cat in hells chance, we thought.. There must be at least a dozen entrances amongst the trees and bushes on the hillside.

Wrong..

With no exaggeration, not 10 minutes had passed and all of a sudden one, then two and a third nose came out from one of the holes. No more that 10 metres from us!!

At this point the hairs on the back of my neck stood up..
1, because it was badgers!!
2, because the tracks I've described were about 2 foot away from our feet!!
What if they walked past, didn't see us and panicked!

Thankfully they just decided to sniff the air, listen to the noises coming from the nearby estate, and have a good scratch. This lasted a few minutes then the noise got too loud and they disappeared back in to the sett.  They appeared under a tree / bush and it was pretty dusky, but we managed to snap them with our phones.

And some videos 

Goosebumps! 

Both my work colleague Jim and I just looked at each other with open mouths. That was AMAZING! A first for him too!

We're definitely going back soon!