Photos:
Wood Sandpipers, Altrincham Sewage Works
Great Spotted Woodpecker, Bromham
Barn Owl, Chew Valley Lake
16th June
Drove back from MK and called in at Altrincham Sewage Works to watch the two Wood Sandpipers. One showed well with the other skulky for a while. A Grasshopper Warbler perched on the fence and a Kestrel dashed over my head. Two Little Ringed Plovers also present. At HGF the two pairs of GCG’s were rebuilding flattened nests – fortunately the regular pair are still incubating.
17th June
Early visit to HGF and a nice Black-necked Grebe present on the pool. Around 140 Swifts were feeding over the fields nr Midhops – presumably the same birds were over Waterworks Lane a few hours later.
Drove down to my brother-in-law Mark’s new place in the south west. In the early evening I took Bill for a walk in the rain and found a male Great Spotted Woodpecker flitting between Mark’s garden and next door. It clearly can’t fly but seems otherwise quite wick! The rain stopped for the Simple Minds concert at the national arboretum – they were awesome!
18th June
Male Great Spotted Woodpecker still in Mark’s garden. Sparrowhawk through plus large tit flock including a juvenile Coal Tit. Spent most of the day cabbaged.
19th June
One of the good bits about staying with my brother-in-law is that Chew Valley Lake is within striking distance and I usually get a few visits there each year. The flip side is that these weekend visits are supposed to be “non-birding” – a concept I am struggling to get my head round. So anyway this morning I managed a couple of hours at CVL.
First stop, very early am, was at Hollow Brook to look for the Blue-winged Teal. I eventually found the place after crawling through some barbed wire and through the branches of Willow trees and found this is the only spot where you can view this section of the pool. On a mud flat, asleep and behind a scrub Willow were a drake Garganey, an unidentified female Teal-like duck and several Teal, all asleep. Fortunately the BWT was the one next to the Garganey and she did wake up and stretch her wings to confirm the ID. She then went back to sleep! There was also a cracking drake Ruddy Duck here – just think a few years ago I used to see 80-90 on HGF and thought nothing of it. Today I was chuffed to bits to see one, however DEFRA have confirmed they won’t be leaving any Ruddy’s alive so I guess its days are numbered. A couple of Cetti’s Warblers were also singing here.
Nest stop was Herriott’s Pool which was full of aythya ducks and Gadwalls (164 of the latter) plus three Barnacle Geese. Nothing much else here so I wandered over to Heron’s Green Bay. A birder I talked to at HP had told me the Barn Owl was nowhere to be seen – within 2 minutes of my arrival it was playing out! I watched it for 20 minutes or so (it caught one vole) before it disappeared. Little else here and time had now run out. Back at Mark’s house the male Great Spotted Woodpecker was still wandering around his garden.
Got home late this evening and took Bill to HGF. The usual Great Crested Grebe is still incubating and one of the other two pairs is now sitting on a completed nest. Not much else though.
Drove back from MK and called in at Altrincham Sewage Works to watch the two Wood Sandpipers. One showed well with the other skulky for a while. A Grasshopper Warbler perched on the fence and a Kestrel dashed over my head. Two Little Ringed Plovers also present. At HGF the two pairs of GCG’s were rebuilding flattened nests – fortunately the regular pair are still incubating.
17th June
Early visit to HGF and a nice Black-necked Grebe present on the pool. Around 140 Swifts were feeding over the fields nr Midhops – presumably the same birds were over Waterworks Lane a few hours later.
Drove down to my brother-in-law Mark’s new place in the south west. In the early evening I took Bill for a walk in the rain and found a male Great Spotted Woodpecker flitting between Mark’s garden and next door. It clearly can’t fly but seems otherwise quite wick! The rain stopped for the Simple Minds concert at the national arboretum – they were awesome!
18th June
Male Great Spotted Woodpecker still in Mark’s garden. Sparrowhawk through plus large tit flock including a juvenile Coal Tit. Spent most of the day cabbaged.
19th June
One of the good bits about staying with my brother-in-law is that Chew Valley Lake is within striking distance and I usually get a few visits there each year. The flip side is that these weekend visits are supposed to be “non-birding” – a concept I am struggling to get my head round. So anyway this morning I managed a couple of hours at CVL.
First stop, very early am, was at Hollow Brook to look for the Blue-winged Teal. I eventually found the place after crawling through some barbed wire and through the branches of Willow trees and found this is the only spot where you can view this section of the pool. On a mud flat, asleep and behind a scrub Willow were a drake Garganey, an unidentified female Teal-like duck and several Teal, all asleep. Fortunately the BWT was the one next to the Garganey and she did wake up and stretch her wings to confirm the ID. She then went back to sleep! There was also a cracking drake Ruddy Duck here – just think a few years ago I used to see 80-90 on HGF and thought nothing of it. Today I was chuffed to bits to see one, however DEFRA have confirmed they won’t be leaving any Ruddy’s alive so I guess its days are numbered. A couple of Cetti’s Warblers were also singing here.
Nest stop was Herriott’s Pool which was full of aythya ducks and Gadwalls (164 of the latter) plus three Barnacle Geese. Nothing much else here so I wandered over to Heron’s Green Bay. A birder I talked to at HP had told me the Barn Owl was nowhere to be seen – within 2 minutes of my arrival it was playing out! I watched it for 20 minutes or so (it caught one vole) before it disappeared. Little else here and time had now run out. Back at Mark’s house the male Great Spotted Woodpecker was still wandering around his garden.
Got home late this evening and took Bill to HGF. The usual Great Crested Grebe is still incubating and one of the other two pairs is now sitting on a completed nest. Not much else though.
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