birdpix

The goldfinch charm at Pleasley pit ,is building up in numbers again and a delight to watch they are too.The wind is icy cold today ,some nice sunshine though.May go up there with some nyger seed and see if they will come anywhere near my camera.On return from the pit ,the garden was full of goldfinches....Saw a fox the other night driving home ,wife spotted a weazel dashing out in front of the car ,I was too busy driving at the time ,well actually I was looking at a bird at that moment ...

Not even going to mention the jack snipe that come getting dark time ,having lost the use of my extra pink hands,had not appeared at  Pleasley pit this afternoon.The several hundred gulls had departed from the main pond ,off to roost (kingsmill res? ,River Meden?) A green woodpecker seemed surprised to see me and rapidly dissapeared,as did three grey partridge.Whilst staring at a reed bed for several hours ,out popped a kingfisher,who perched on a post for a few seconds,a few moments lat...

On the way to work a couple of days ago ,a female merlin flew out in front of the car ,I almost crashed,getting as good  a look as possible .Wow what was all that about I wondered , actually  I uttered the words fuck me! despite the fact that I was the only one in the car.If theres anyone at all who has been paying attention ,in my blog last week I told tales of not seeing jack snipe at William Thorpe ,depite knowing that they were in a reed bed that I was staring at .This is mentio...

It could be described as being a wee bit chilly out ,we have had some marvelous sunshine today to compensate.Been to Sutton Lawns to look for the bramblings that werent there again.Met a woman there who interegated me about pied wagtails ,apparently she wrote a poem about a pied wagtail that was in her garden that got published in the local newspaper.It would be fair to say that Sutton lawns was absolutely t...

As  the Nottingham Anglers' Association bailiff on King's Mill Reservoir, I must say something about the amount of bread being fed to the ducks, geese and swans. I, for one, know what pleasure grown-ups and children get from feeding the birds, but please try to feed wheat or corn instead of bread, particularly white, which is unnatural food and is really quite harmful to the birds. The bread also has effects on water quality, plus it attracts vermin if any is left lying around. I...

This life sized model of a Royal Albertross ,was kindly loaned to me for a week by Alan Bailey from the Mansfield RSPB group.Thanks Alan ,Im sure you will agree ,Alans creation is something special.I made as many members of the public aware through out the week of the ongoing RSPB campaign working in partnership with Birdlife International to Save the Albertross.Some of the stuff I was telling people included that 100,000 Albertross s around the globe are killed needlessly annually.At least t...

Anyone that knows the horrible dump that is Sutton In Ashfield  town Centre,will know where Asda is ,this evening in their car park ,a blackbird wassinging beautifully from a tree in this spot.Earliest I have heard them sing before is in december .

My ten year old niece, Megan  is showing encouraging signs of becoming a bird watcher.We were on a bike ride and she wanted to go to the river Meden from the village to see the ducks,after we had done that she wanted to ride (my wif...

Watching corvids get out of a tree in their hundreds had me fascinated ,they had seen a couple of buzzards and a ridiculas number of them immediately mobbed the offending raptor.Then the wiffling kicked in and they were back to their lofty perch again ,many corvid conversations going on at once,they were probably saying to each other something along the lines of: did you see that bloody buzzard ,thinks he can fly past us without regreting it? oh I know what a liberty,Id hate to be...

Keep seeing green woodpeckers -which is good ,not just on my home patch either.

        At Carsington today the water fowl were reaching rather large numbers with many duck species present including goldeneye,pintail,scaup and most notably as many wigeon to look at as you would  want.An injured  mute swan was being hassled mercilessly by a crow ,the Rangers were informed.The barnacle geese are building in numbers ,they are as my wife would sa...

Its true,the sun was shining today ,in fact it was almost warm at one point . A good day then to have a stroll around the local patch ,having worked seven days in a row and going slightly mad.A bullfinch shot out of a tree and flew over my head while I was thinking that would make a nice picture .A male kestrel sat on the pit buildings chimney.A solitary redwing whoosed past A charm of goldfinch numbered about a hundred,I watched some of them drinking from a puddle.In the surrounding  fi...

It was strange to see a couple of Swallows over the river Meden ,then a few haundred yards later in sunny Pleasley to see some redwings.The temperature first thing in the morning  definately felt Autumna,its only a small village but its a twenty minute walk to Pleasley hill.Pleasley Hill hopefully will be demolished soon-they could put something useful ints place.The usual grey wagtail was by the dam ,no sign of the dipper...Highlight of this RSPB local group trip to Spurn point for me a...

Call me a sentimental old fool ,call me me  a big girls blouse call me what you will ,but I was saddened by the death of two collared doves in our garden.We have been down this road many times ,sparrowhawks have demolised them ,this I can accept as a part of nature ,I can rationalise this ,it needs to happen .Sparrowhawks are great to see anywhere and their killing prey dosent even scratch the surface of for example collared dove populations ,nature has of course allowed for this.Ok you ...

At Blacktoft Sands it would be fair to say that it was quiet from three of the six hides there was literaly nothing to be seen ,notable abscence of some of the taken for granted birds like swans and geese for example ,(no coots! ,there was a water rail though) Caught up with some curlew sandpipers ,trying to hide in amongst the superficially similar dunlin .A welcome year tick then ,missed them at Cley earlier in the month ,they too were probabaly hiding in amongst the vast numbers of dunlin ...

Buzzards are seemingly everywhere ,for example the wife just said to me, looking out of the window at home: come and look at these two Buzzards-I did.Yesterday I saw four of them in the air at once-not uncommon ,in fact Ive seen Buzzards everyday this week.It doesnt seem that long ago that you were more likely to see a kestrel hanging the air than a soaring Buzzard,they eat rabbits ,theyre breeding like rabbits more like,not cpmplaining ,they are great to watch.Now that Red kites are breeding...

Going to work the other day ,driving down the section of dual carriageway on the way to Chesterfield,I watched a Buzzard and a Kestrel cross each others paths in mid air-which was nice.

At Carsington ,we watched the gull roost build up on alovely sunny evening ,Im left wondering weather they were Herring gulls in amongst the Lesser Black backed gulls or were they the recently reported seven yellow legged gulls? The problem being that their legs were out of sight -under water...

Where do you go for a day out on your wedding anniversary? Bird watching of course.I count myself lucky in that my wife is a keen bird watcher,its not like I was taking her somewhere that she didnt want to go on our special day.Every year since we got married the day before has been  a cracking day ,weather wise and september the 14th ropey in comparison ,this year being no exception!

               In the past c...

Saw a weazel on my way to work this morning ,it darted out in the road in front of me ,I was having a de ja vu .Absolutely gutted at having run over a tiny rabbit the other evening on the same road ,earlier in the  same evening ,I had braked sharply to let some grey partridges cross the road .The poor bunny had no chance ,it was dark ,he appeared at precisely the wrong moment ,couldnt do anything.Every day ,on this road ,I am ready to brake ,its usually sparrows by a farm who dont know t...

 I was talking to chap recently ,who liked Magpies coming into his garden as they ate snails and his plants didnt suffer.He liked the way there is no need to use chemicals or feel bad about killing slugs and snails ,he liked the way it is natural ,recyling, or part of a food chain .I shook the guys hand ,I felt we had connected.All beings ,especially creatures as inteligent as Magpies are sentient ,they express emotions and have a wide range of what we would call feelings. Magpies are ve...

We went on an RSPB local group trip to the mysterious Penington Flash.The bus driver was entertaining ,he took an unfeasibly long route route to actually get there.On the way back ,he had trouble getting out of the car park ,to be fair it was a tight manouveour ,he still managed to dent the side of the bus before getting lost again on the way back .I looked up and wondered why we were in the middle of Stoke City centre,we hadnt gone this way on the outward leg.

The star of the show, wer...

The speaker at last nights local RSPB groups indoor meeting ,Gerald Hall was the most self important dullard that I have ever had the misfortune to see and hear do a presentation.He started the slide show by spending a good five minutes to tell us exactly what the letters after his name meant,they all related to his excellence in the field as a wildlife photographer.Brilliant I thought ,we are in for a treat here then.Ten minutes later we were still looking at pictures of areoplanes that took...