Slimbridge Saturday

On Saturday I thought was about time that I paid a visit to Slimbridge. After discussing with my birder’s wife, we agreed that she would stay at home and go shopping (for my Christmas presents) and I would go to Slimbridge with a friend, Capt Blackeye to try and score her some species not yet notched up for the year. After just over an hour from leaving home we arrived at Slimbridge to find the car park absolutely heaving, maybe people were hoping to find the stars of Autumn Watch loitering around the canteen? Our arrival time was just after high tide which allowed us to score our first target species, Golden Plover, not just one bird but about 900 along with hundreds of Lapwing and a decent sized flock of Linnets. We then spotted our second target bird, White Fronted Goose and decided, as we were on a roll to rush over to the Zeiss Hide to try and nail a Bittern for Blackeye. Unfortunately, after an hour’s wait, there was no sign of even one of the two that had been showing the past few days. We were entertained though by the comings and goings of the Lapwing, Dunlin and Golden Plover all of which seemed to be constantly spooked by the gusty conditions. As, any discerning Birder would do, I decided to check Birdguides to see if there was anything good in the vicinity only to notice a Little Stint had been reported from the exact same hide 5 minutes earlier. This kind of behaviour really annoys me, there were only 5 birders in that hide on the upper deck besides ourselves, so it must have been one of them. What I cannot understand is why report the bird on Birdguides if you are not prepared to share it with others in the same hide? Clearly that person was one of the many grumpy birders that we encounter on a weekly basis who go round with long faces. I know birding can bring out the solitary in all of us and it is a chance to be on our own in this mad world, to unwind and relax and for me, that makes me happy. If birding makes you so miserable, why not give it up and give up some hide room to someone who actually enjoys their hobby? Rant over. Anyway, after all that, myself and Blackeye could not locate the Little Stint so we decided to give up and made our way to Frampton to see if we could find any Goldeneye or Goosander on the lakes there. The day was definitely working out to be the namesake of this blog, as the only thing we could find on the lakes were Coots and Tufties. We decided to return to Slimbridge for the remainder of the day to continue to miss the Little Stint, Bittern and a Sanderling. We completed the day at the swan feed with James performing his swan feeding duties, much to the delight of Blackeye and I phoned my birder’s wife only to discover that she had been shopping solid for six hours – I must have a lot of presents!

SEO'S at Otmoor

After a flying visit down to Hampshire on family business yesterday, I thought I would pop into Otmoor on the way back to try and finally see my first Short Eared Owls for the year.  After many failed attempts at Brandon Marsh and failures on  my Scottish trip this summer, I was not optimistic.  However, as it was a very mild mid November day, the fresh air and stretch of legs after an hour's drive were a least to be a pleasant experience.  The first hundred metres did not disappoint with good views of a Buzzard busy on his thermals closely followed a few minutes later by a Red Kite.  The feeders did not have that much activity but some scattered seed a bit further on was attracting a fair bit of attention with many Chaffinch, Blue Tits,Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting.  I greedily hung around hoping that something like a Brambling may appear in amongst the Chaffinch flock but, alas not this time.  As I ambled down the track heading towards the (newish) wetlands hide, I clocked a Kestrel and a Peregrine - I was at least having a good raptor day.  The view from the hide itself was not that inspiring so I continued back the way I came from and started down the footpath toward the reedbeds screens.  Halfway down I encountered a few birders looking at the distant horizon and immediately noticed what appeared like a bird of prey being mobbed by some corvids.  The other birders who had scopes confirmed that it was a Short Eared Owl and there were two others around as well.  Strangely enough, I was not that elated at the spot even though I hadn't seen a SEO for over a year, perhaps it was the fact that they were hundreds of metres away.  I decided at that point to head back to the car and back home to my birder's wife.  The way back to car did provide some closer views of the Owls including one being mobbed by a Kestrel.  All I need now this year is to try and see a Tawny, which is another owl species that has evaded me for several months.

One I didn't miss

On the odd occasion, I do actually achieve a bird that I had bothered to jump out of bed to see and today was such an occasion.  My working week turned out to be non eventful, pretty much as usual and main thing that kept me going was the weekend and the possibility of trying for the White Rumped Sandpiper again at Rutland or just going for a nice stroll at Brandon Marsh.  However, with autumn kicking in for good (finally) and Christmas looming on the horizon, there were added pressures of clearing leaves and buying Christmas presents.  So, this morning after supplying my birder's wife with her weekend cup of tea in bed, I reacquainted myself with my old friend, Mr Rake and set to the front garden.  After putting away Mr Rake, hopefully for another year, I went inside and found my birder's wife had returned from her travels in the land of Nod and urshered her to my car with her binoculars round her neck so that we could travel up the M69 and M1 to try for a bird I have always wanted to see and never really got round to (before now).  This is probably the nearest I would normally find myself to a twitch (to me, a twitch is to venture out with only the desire to see the target bird) and this trip did not disappoint.  After an hour's journey, we pulled into the car park just before the entrance to Attenborough NR, squeezed into a parking space and walked the short distance to the nearby Sailing Club.  Out target bird was a juvenile Squacco Heron who was not being that obliging and was obviously becoming camera shy to the 30+ other birders who were also there.  Even I managed to obtain a record shot and after watching it do nothing much for 20 minutes, we proceeded back home via Fosse Park in Leicester for some Christmas shopping.  Not a bad haul then for the day, I not only managed to clear the leaves but also managed to see a fantastic bird and keep my birder's wife happy by going shopping.