New Fancy View, Forest of Dean, Wednesday, 10 November 2010.
New Fancy View is a spoil-heap dating from the time when New Fancy was a working coal mine. It looks out over a large area of the Forest and is the best place to see Goshawk in winter, if you don’t mind standing in the cold for several hours. At
different times there were at least three, perhaps four hunting over the trees, including a large adult female with conspicuous fluffy white undertail-coverts, and a smaller juvenile male with spotted flanks. The overhead finches were more of a challenge.
With the help of Lewis Thompson, a local birder who has much sharper hearing than me, we identified 5 Lesser Redpolls (see photo-shot of one that perched for a moment), 8 Bramblings, 8 Greenfinches, 3 Siskins, 7 Crossbills, 2 Hawfinches and
many Chaffinches.
Lesser Redpoll at New Fancy View, Forest of Dean, in November
Close Up of Lesser Redpoll
There was also a good movement of Fieldfares – about 170 in small flocks, all travelling NE as though in hurry, perhaps not the direction one would expect at this time of year.
Monday morning 25 October, by the Severn near Lydney, Gloucestershire at high tide.
Along the foreshore 22 Redshanks and about 100 Dunlin. In a maize field a large mixed flock of small birds: pied wagtails, reed buntings, greenfinches, goldfinches, linnets, chaffinches, meadow pipits and skylarks – many more than you would expect to see on farmland further inland these days. I got some shots of a skylark fluffing up its feathers on the river bank in the morning sun. As I was about to leave, I scanned a plowed field by the railway track and found a flock of 15 Ruffs with about 60 Lapwings. As usual with Ruffs there were big ones and small ones, some (adult males) looking twice the bulk of others (presumably juvenile females).
Goldcliff lagoons, Newport Wetlands, 23 October 2010 at dawn.
The first sun lit up 200-odd Curlews sitting out the high tide. There were also 22 Grey Plover, 150 Lapwing, about 120 Common Redshank, 5-600 Dunlin, 3 Greenshank, some Knot and few Black Tailed Godwits.
Also 5 Spotted Redshank (see photos) – always worth watching. They are elegant and enterprising birds, usually busy while other waders are asleep. They swim in deeper water and often appear to be fishing cooperatively, upending like ducks.
A little while later an inept young Peregrine flew over the waders, put them all up and over the seawall – without coming close to catching a thing. Below shows a photo of it sitting on the shingle-bank in the empty lagoon wondering what to do next.
A few days ago there was a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in our back garden shinning up a dead tree, and a few minutes later a male Greater Spotted in the same place (see images). Considering its increasing rarity I think the Lesser is the most interesting bird I have had in the garden in the 14 years we have been here. The first I have seen anywhere in about 5 years whereas I see Greater every day. What next? Hawfinch, Willow Tit? The bad news is that Greenfinches – once the commonest back garden bird – have completely vanished. They are said to be suffering from a deadly parasite infection, nationwide, probably spread through peanut feeders. It’s not worth putting out peanuts any more.
The excellent www.ukwildlife.com website is a mine of information on general wildlife and conservation issues in the UK. Running since 2000, they have the full UK listing of species included in the Schedules 1 to 4 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981. The Act came in to force in 1981 and is domestic legislation for Great Britain that repeals existing wildlife legislation such as:
Protection of Birds Acts 1954 to 1967;
Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act 1975;
The Act is the primary legislation in Great Britain for the protection of flora, fauna and the countryside, yet there is no official listing online, making this site the only available online source. Among other things, it lists the birds by sepcies that fall into the following categories:
Birds: Schedules 1 – 4
Birds which are protected by special penalties - Schedule 1
Birds which may be killed or taken – Schedule 2
Birds which may be sold – Schedule 3
Birds which must be registered and ringed if kept in captivity – Schedule 4
“All naturally occurring wild birds in Great Britain are protected from persecution. It is illegal to kill, injure or ‘take’ any wild bird, take or damage the nest of any wild bird whilst in use or being built. The eggs of all wild birds are also protected. If you have in your possession any live wild birds, egg(s) or any part of a wild bird you are committing an offence. The birds listed in this Schedule are further protected by Special Penalties all year round for those in Part 1 and during a specified closed season for those listed in Part 2.”
Went to the Chew Valley Lake bird hides yesterday, in some light rain and cold conditions, but the light itself wasn’t too bad. We saw Goldeneye, Grebes catching fish, Goosanders and a Merganser, along with Herons, Pochard and there were Smew around but we didn’t see them. It’s a great day out and you can get day permits from Woodford Lodge or the visitor centre, or buy an annual membership (you need to already be an RSPB member for this). The hides are set all around teh lake, marked on the map provided with a “H” sign, and well signposted as you make your way around the wooded fringes of the lake, We saw deer in the woods among other things, and the walks around the shore are well worth it, very secluded with lots of wildlife about. Another highlight was the fishermen wrestling a large Pike into there boat!
Spent Sunday putting up a Barn Owl box from http://www.specialisednestboxes.com/ – a quick call to the makers Keith & Linda Hall gave me all the advice needed for where to site the box, how high it should be etc. and we set off with ladders and tools having decided on the right tree location for the box. More later on this but here’s a few pictures of the box going up – hopefully we’ll have a nesting pair of Barn Owls by the Spring.
Watching the massed Fieldfares and Redwings in the fields today when their feasting was broken by a very excited group of foxes – one with a Redwing in it’s mouth! Have a look at the Field fare’s strange “group hopping” behavior in the video below!
Below is the “campfire tent” I use for a mobile bird hide. It’s not designed for this but it works very well, even though as a proper expedition or base camp tent it is quite large – but plenty of use for your equipment then, so no excuse for not having plenty of hot coffee for long watches, a comfortable folding chair, and some hefty bird guides and notebooks! But seriously, as a full height tent it is excellent to be able to stand up properly during your time outdoors. The modular configuration means that once set up you can open three different side for spotting in different directions. Today I watched Fieldfares and Redwings, Buzzards, Jays among other things and also the foxes hunting on the fringes of the fields: inside the hide buzzards flew within about 20 feet and the foxes came even closer before spotting me moving inside, reaching for the cameras!
