Very showy snowies!

If you didn't see yesterday's post, I mentioned going down the see the Snow Bunting at Southsea.
I didn't want to drive all that way (Ok, only 45 miles) and not see them so I came up with a cunning plan...
Head to Romsey first to check if the Hawfinch are there yet, whilst news filtered through on the Snow Bunting. As I was going for them, I suspected they would fly away over night so I was very pleased to see them listed this morning on Hants Birds.

Romsey offered a female Brambling, but sadly no Hawfinch today. I don't really know how often they are there but have seen them once and figured it was worth checking out - a half way stop off that I could easily come home from if needed.

Snow Bunting listed whilst I was there so off to Portsmouth I headed. They have been listed as being near to the bandstand next to Southsea Castle / the D-Day Museum since Sunday, and sure enough, this is where they were today. Tiny birds that had flown all this way, to eat the dirt in Hampshire.

The Hampshire Birding facebook group has been flooded with pics of them and to be honest, all pics look the same - birds eating in the mud.  It's a bit easier to get excited by owls that quarter the meadows in front of you. That said, the Snow Bunting were 'lifers' for me. A bird I had never seen before, and a double plus that it was showing so well. No excuses for not getting a picture. Just a shame the sun didn't come out. We always want more, don't we.

Purple Sandpiper are often listed around the castle, so I had a look for them too.
Completely missed them! Walk past them and was thankfully put right by a nearby photographer. I'm blaming the cold wind and the fact that my eyes haven't stopped watering for a week or so.
My friend Joe had shown me one before on a day trip to Portland. This time four were skipping on and off the rocks, raiding the seaweed for anything good to eat.
Again, snapped in gloomy conditions, facing what ever light there was, but always good to get a few more shots of a fairly rare bird. Click on all the pics for better viewing.

I tried to video the snow bunting whilst heading back to the car.

Happy with the morning's work. Off to KFC to eat a different kind of bird. (hopefully).

Farlington Shorties.

Winter is about to kick off. A couple of frosty mornings and the leaves are jumping off the trees at quite a rate. Autumn is my favourite season? I do seem to say that about every season? The golden trees and misty mornings on the lakes do put it right up there though.

With Winter comes the winter visitors. Redwing and Fieldfare have been here a little while, there's even talk of it being a good Waxwing winter. That would be nice after a couple of barren years here in the South.

Looking at the Hampshire bird news page (link) I saw that the Short Eared Owls had returned to Farlington Marshes so jumped at the chance to get down there on a sunny afternoon last week.

Farlington is a fairly large reserve managed by Hants & IOW Wildlife Trust and is situated to the south of the Motorway in between Portsmouth and Hayling Island. Details here
It's a reserve I've visited a few times over the last few years. Got good pics of Bearded Tit and Merganser in the past, but today it was all about the Asio Flammeus  - flame coloured, eared owls.

I got there around noon, had the rest of the afternoon spare and with the tide being in, I figured I would stay til around dusk if needed. The high tide meant that a lot of the waders would be on the lake as the mudflats would be underwater. Indeed the lake was busy! Dunlin, Grey Plover and Teal all over it.

I chatted to a departing birder who said that three owls had been 'up' til around half ten, then dropped down into the Point Field and not been seen since. Typical behaviour really. I anticipated them flying around an hour before sunset, so wasn't surprised.

Walked up to Point Field and sat on the sea wall, chatting to others with cameras and scopes, patiently waiting for the birds to return. Each photographer trying to out bid others on their recent 'I got this record shot' pictures. I didn't play today.

Two o'clock and we were in business. One owl takes off and starts to quarter the field. Yes!
Possibly the biggest reason to go today was to try and snap the owls with my new lens. Ok, it's not so new any more but this was my first attempt at using it with the shorties.
My camera battery died after 5 minutes! I'd been doing some firework shots the night before, long exposures that drain the battery, luckily I brought a spare.

Spent an hour watching all three birds flying over the marshes, not particularly successful at hunting, but gave good views in great light. A sight I have missed!

Pretty pleased with the pictures, a few 'Eek' shots in there.

A good afternoon.
With a poor weeks weather predicted, I might take a gamble and go for the Southsea Snow Buntings tomorrow morning. This means that they will fly somewhere else between now and I get there. Just like last week's Little Auk at Blashford. Dipped by 20 minutes.
Hmm, we'll see.

Wildlife Garden.

Ok, so I had a few goals in mind when thinking we could have a wildlife garden. We rent this place so cant go too mad, but bird feeders, wild flowers, and maybe a few other things. A bug hotel would fit in nicely in this garden.

We moved in at the end of January. With the week off work it just gave me enough time to put the bird feeders up for the #BGBW  - RSPB's Bird Garden Bird Watch. Hopefully I posted about our scores, will edit this post if I didn't.

Throughout the year we have done a few things to attract wildlife. I admit to failing on this - I want to do more next year. What we did do was to put up a few bird boxes, plant some wild flower areas and plant a lot of sunflowers. The bird boxes were put up early enough but sadly attracted no tenants.
The wild flower seed were actually amazin! They kept growing and flowering and flowering for what seems like forever! The bees loved them, and to be honest, so did I!  So much colour, so many different flowers.

But the best thing we did in our garden this year was to start feeding our visiting hedgehogs.

I'd been noticing hog pooh in the garden for a while and had suspected that they'd been coming in and out of the garden, using a small tunnel under the panel fencing. One night, whilst playing cards in the conservatory, Rach said she saw a bum disappear into the bushes. A few nights later we both saw it..  A hedgehog? what else could it be?

So we set about trying to enhance our view of the visitors. Mealworm was put down in the middle of the lawn. Didn't want to put cat food down (recommended hog food) as there are enough cats in the area.  It wasn't long before a spiky visitor came a chomping!

One, then two hedgehogs in the garden, How cool was this!
At this point I decided to buy another Bushnell Trailcam.
Had used one before to capture the foxes that fed at Holtwood but was never really brave enough to use it elsewhere so promptly sold it. Despite my friend Grant borrowing it to get great footage of the otters at Rooksbury.

Then first night Hodgecam (as it became to be known) was used, we saw THREE hedgehogs in the garden, Our celebrations were briefly muted in disbeleif when on playback we saw a FOURTH at the top of the shot, something we couldn't see with the naked eye!..

JACKPOT!!

Since then, the numbers have dropped a little. I think the most we have seen has been two for some time now. I'm not complaining, in my eyes, two is still brilliant.
Learning their habits I have been able to direct / locate Hodgecam in good places. The gap under the fence is always worth checking out.

Then we bought a hedgehog house.

My assumption was that two might be living in our garden already. Hard to prove, but they did seem to come from the top of the garden each night. Not sure that assumption is now true, maybe they've moved on. Nature has no rules. But to help the little fellas we bought a Hedgehog Igloo and put it up by the composter, top of the garden. Scattered some bedding around and hoped they'd move in.
Took a while but this weekend I noticed the 'spare' bedding was gone.
Set the camera trap and struck gold! A hedgehog moving in to our house. WE HAVE A TENANT! was my facebook update.

Rightly so.

High Fives all round. We made a house for one of our rapidly declining animals and, they found it!! Sleep well little hodgepig. We are still feeding, so hopefully this one has a strong chance of still being here in the Spring. 

650 grams is the ideal weight to survive hibernation. I haven't weighed it, but think we are there. Fingers crossed.

I keep setting Hodgecam, aiming at the top of the garden, not the food bowl. Last night it came up trumps. TWO wood mice in the composter. How cute are they! 

As always, thanks for reading. Hopefully you are now doing your 'bit for nature'?

The results are so rewarding. 

Back to the Island... Brownsea

It's been a couple of years since my last visit, so with the promise of good weather another visit was made to Brownsea Island a fortnight ago.

Facebook had been showing me lots of Brownsea 'on this day' shots, so with a sunny day predicted I headed back down there on Monday 03 October. Target - Red Squirrels. 

Arriving an hour early for the ferry, I left at 'Newbury time' not Andover, living closer does make a difference! A bacon roll was in order from the cafe by the Ferry. Perfect. The sunny day I left in Andover was yet to catch up with me, the wind was so strong! Waves lapping up the side of the sandbanks ferry, cormorants  diving right next to the ferry kiosk. Even they didn't want to venture out in to the channel.

 A choppy ferry ride and on the Island by 10:10 a.m. Perfect.

A bit of a speed walk to the hides on the lagoon, don't know why I still do that? I figure I always try to get there early before the crowds build up - It ain't Blashford Ivy Hide, so don't know why.
Seems I need not have rushed. The strong wind means everything is far away, sheltering behind the sea wall. 

A white flash goes by, grab a quick snap and it turns out to be a spoonbill, dropping in to a group of around a dozen little egret.In hindsight, that was probably the biggest number of little egret I've ever seen, but they aren't Spoonbill so I casually dismiss it.
Looking back at the picture I spot a Peregrine perched up on one of the bushes on that island. Lucky, happy, far away, but happy enough with that. According to the Dorset Wildlife Trust, FORTY NINE Spoonbill were on the lagoon at the weekend, but then they buggered off to RSPB Arne.  Maybe this is why I dismiss the big Egret gathering.

A few more pics of Godwits and the Oyks and it's off for a walk around the Villa and woodland hide. All very quiet! I only spot one red squirrel on that part of the island. A great spotted woodpecker is busy feeding on the Villa feeders and a Raven overhead, but nothing else, that I could see in that wind.

Quite a few Oystercatcher! Most I've ever seen!

A quick look around the churchyard on the island, I do like churchyards - and I see a circle of photographers around a load of fallen trees. Always worth a look.. And there they are, Red Squirrels enjoying the hazelnuts one of the photographers are putting down, Is it cheating? Baiting? It's not like putting a stickleback in a fish tank and goading kingfisher, so I don't feel guilty. Click click click.

 The squirrels are getting braver - one camera bag has nuts in and the battle is on!

Standing around taking pictures is quite tiring, so I sit down at an elevated position and before I know it, a squirrel is jumping on my back and looking in my hood! I don't recommend it - lots of warnings of 'squirrel leprosy' on the island, but so far I'm still in tact.  Quick check, yep, still got me nuts.

A quick snap of the Avocet, as I wait for the ferry. The closest I got to them this time.

A good day.. Again.

Thanks for reading. 

Chris

Pennington - 23 September 2016 (pics)

That long awaited day out with the camera!

A White Rumped Sandpiper was listed for most of the week, of course that meant that it didn't show on the day I went down, but was nice to be back down there again.. The usual suspects on show. Grebe, Wigeon, a few pintail and lots of curlew sandpiper. A very showy ruff, a couple of not so showy dartfords and a little stint - a new bird for me, so came home pleased.

Not much more to say, just a few pics of the day. click to enlarge. thanks for stopping by,

 black tailed godwit.

 Ruff

young buzzard, which i hoped might have been an osprey, briefly

 Lymington - Yarmouth ferry.

 Little egret

 preening godwits

 Snipe (in the middle)

 Little stint

 small copper butterfly

 curlew sandpiper

 Ringed plover and dunlin

 who were spooked by something

 Curlew sandpiper

 Stonechat

 coooow.

 Spinnaker tower, way off in the distance.