South coast birds

Yesterday we drove down to my Grandma's house near Portsmouth. Today we went to Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve and the sea front. Its amazing how much wildlife I saw in the hour or so I was there. The reserve is very near the sea, so the sea birds and the birds in the reserve mix. Gulls of various types are seen overhead in the reserve. And the best thing about today's birdwatching was the fact that the sun was shining!

The water was sparkling with the sun shining on it. The water was clear and it was calm too. It was the perfect day for spotting a few birds. Shame it wasn't like this yesterday for my birdwatch post. The birds were certainly happy to be out and about, and I saw a wide variety of interesting birds. Firstly, we went down to the sea front. I took some pictures of the sea, and you could see the Isle of Wight quite clearly.

After admiring the sea, I saw a group of small wading birds along the shoreline. I watched them intently, and at first I thought they were a group of juveniles of some sort. How wrong I was. I am most unsure about sea bird ID's than any other birds, so a quick look in the bird book told me that the birds in question were infact adult Turnstones. There was quite a large group of them too. While it was a sunny day, it wasn't warm, so these Turnstones were always moving about.

After watching these birds, I simply crossed the quiet road and had a look over the nature reserve. The first thing I noticed was a Cormorant/Shag on a wooden pole sticking out of the water. The reserve is made up mostly of reeds as you can tell from the picture below. My camera is great for what I need it for but it doesn't have zoom good enough to give some very good close-ups of the birds. I didn't however want to edit it to give a closer view because I didn't want to reduce any quality.

I find that some birds are sometimes forgotton by birdwatchers. The Cormorant is (in my opinion) one of these birds. While their colour is at first look quite dull, a closer look will show that they are in fact quite beautiful in their own right. I was struggling to work out if the one in the picture is a Cormorant or a Shag. Please comment if you can tell. Either way, this bird is one that I have never photographed before and actually have never really thought about before either.

After seeing this bird, I moved on and watched some of the ducks of the reserve. I watched them from the bridge where I saw the Grass Snake last time I visited. Click here for the post on that. This time I saw some very different ducks, and one caused quite a bit of trouble when I was trying to work out its ID. This one at first seemed quite timid, but eventually came closer to the bridge where I was watching. It seemed quite happy to be with the Coots.

I really was unsure about this one, so I brought up the topic on Birdforum. I must admit that it is a great service. I have used it before and was very impressed. Before I started using it, I thought the responses would be slow and inaccurate. I was mistaken however, and it is completely the opposite. I would really reccommend that you use it at some point if you are unsure about an ID. I now know that it is a Fulvous Whistling Duck. Now this is surprising. These aren't found in this country so its a real surprise to have seen one. The reply I got on Birdforum was "Looks like a Fulvous Whistling-Duck. Seems a bit far from home"! I looked its picture up on Wikipedia and its exactly right.

Picture of Fulvous Whistling Duck from Wikipedia.

Picture of Fulvous Whistling Duck taken by me.While I was watching some of the gulls at the reserve, I saw a tiny bird flutter out of the corner of my eye. I turned around and the bird was a Goldcrest. It got quite close, but even with my zoomed in camera, it turned out small in the picture. While I was watching it, I lost sight of it several times. They really are tiny. The picture I took isn't great but I was still pleased that I saw it.
We have seen this tiny bird in our garden recently, but I have struggled to get any photos. They generally don't use garden feeding stations so I guess it is mostly luck that I have seen one at home. I will have some more use for Birdforum soon as I check out an ID for another duck I have seen recently. I will post about this soon, and I should have some other photos to show to you as well. An out of season Swan Cygnet was seen too, so I have some interesting stuff to show you.

Sunday morning birdwatch

This morning is very wet here in Bucks, so this morning's birdwatch was a little tricky. I did plan to do it yesterday, but I was both short of time and short of battery power in my camera. I was unable to take the film from the "birdwatch hut" as I now call it, because the rain was driving right into the window. This means the footage was taken from my bedroom (further from the feeders). There was also a problem with uploading one of the videos onto Blip, so I'm afraid that there is only one video so far. I will try to upload it later and update the post. This mornings videos will show some of our garden pests, as well as a few other visitors.

I find that most of the time, the birds I regard as pests tend to visit at the same time. The Grey Squirrel, Magpie and Collared Dove below all visited in the space of about 5 minutes. The Collared Dove was sat on the bird bath getting very wet in the proccess. It did eventually take a drink, and then flew off. The rain outside made the video quality decrease, as you will find with the Magpie clip. If you look carefully however, you will see that the Grey Squirrel actually scares off the Magpie (which doesn't happen very often). Please check back tomorrow for the video of them.

Quite a few finches visited this morning. I often find that in the wet weather, these birds can be the only ones to visit. The Greenfinches and Goldfinches used all 4 perches of the feeder as you will see in the video below. Again, the video isn't the best and the colours are quite washed out but it does give you an idea of how they feed together. The Goldfinch is personally one of my favourite birds, and even in the bad light this morning their colours are still very bright.



I wonder what the birds are doing in Shirls garden in Scotland. I hope she sees some more exotic birds than I saw this morning. Its interesting to compare photos and text about birds in different parts of the world. You would be surprised about just how different the sightings are. Just in case you didn't know, it was Feed the Birds Day yesterday and today, so get feeding! Also, there are plenty of events going on around the country that you can get involved in. I certainly made sure that the birds were well fed yesterday and today.

All videos were taken in my garden this morning.

Hand-feeding Robins

I wasn't quite hand-feeding Robins but for the first time yesterday I managed to get very close to a garden Robin. In the garden we have a ceramic bowl. I filled this with some Robin food mix (which includes dried mealworms and fruit) and stood outside with it in my hands, waiting for a Robin to perhaps take a little food from the bowl. I was waiting a while but as you will find out, it was well worth it!

Several times throughout yesterday afternoon, I was able to hand feed a Robin. It didn't stay for long on any of its visits, and it took a long time for it to build up its confidence to do it as well. It would stay in a bush watching me with the bowl and picking the right moment to fly quickly onto the food bowl and take some food. It would also tend to take some food when other birds were around in the garden. The Dunnocks are quite likely to visit at the same time as Robins. It amused me that it also fed when I was looking away. Clever little bird!

I did manage to video the Robin but I was holding the food bowl with the Robin on it with one hand and my camera with the other hand so the video is a bit shaky. Also, it was very windy here yesterday, which also meant the video wasn't quite as good. While I am on the subject of weather, today has been awful. It has been blustery all day with some very heavy rain in the afternoon. I can imagine the Robin would have been sheltering from the rain today!

I think its amazing that we are able to do things like this. I have always known Robins to be tame birds but this is the closest I have got to any of our garden birds. If you just think of the size of a Robin compared with us, it really is amazing that it will get up so close to us. I know for sure that none of our other garden birds would do the same except perhaps the House Sparrow. Hand-feeding also allows us to get some great close-up views which I am sure would appeal to people new to birds. I took some photos of it nearby, and you can almost see each individual feather.

It is sometimes not easy to get these birds to feed so close. They are sometimes so close to hopping onto your hand and then they will decide against it and retreat back into a dense bush. It amazes me just how light these creatures are too. I would also say that it is a lot easier when there is only one person feeding at once. The Robin wouldn't feed when my Mum came out to watch with me. Maybe it is because of my size. I am small for my age and I guess Robins are less intimidated by children my size or smaller. Sometimes I would say that it just comes down to pot luck though!

I looked back at the video and photos I took of this Robin and noticed some definate similarities between it and one I saw quite soon after it had fledged earlier on this year. The one I saw earlier on this year had a yellow gape on its beak indicating that it was a juvenile (as seen on the photo). The pictures I took yesterday still show some traces of this. Not only this but they both seem to act similarly, and are both very friendly!

Below: Same Robin (I think). Top image was taken yesterday and bottom one was taken earlier on this year.

My next aim is to actually get this Robin to feed off my hand. I guess the trick is to take time and be patient. I would reccomend it to many of you. Its great fun! I would also say that for anyone who doesn't have feeders in their garden, this is a great opportunity to watch them, and you could even do it for Feed The Birds Day. You don't even need any of the specialist Robin food which I use. Robins love sultanas and kitchen scraps so anybody can have a go.

Finally I also know that many people will have tips for hand-feeding birds. I have already had one helpful comment on a different post giving tips on how to do it, but does anybody know what to do to hand-feed a particular species of bird, like for example the Blue Tit? I'd love ton know, and I'd also be interested to know if any of you have managed to do this. I certainly was thrilled.

All photos taken in my garden

Seed germination

My wildlife patch now officially has something to show for it! The seeds for some of the wild flowers have germinated. Annoyingly I have lost the packet for the seeds, so I am unsure of the exact plants that have come up. I do know that it is a variety of different ones. They can grow only in very sandy soil. They have come up in rows as you can see from the pictures below. They did actually come up about a week ago, but I wanted to wait until the plants got big enough to photograph properly.

These particular seeds were expected to germinate around now so I guess they are healthy so far. I say this, but we just had the first frost of the autumn/winter this week. I am hoping that these will survive the frosts and flower properly in the spring. As you may know I am very much new to plants and have only recently shown some passion for them. I am really enjoying watching the large plants from Homebase grow. Its amazing how quickly they grow after they have been removed from their pots.

This has got to be the neatest this area has looked in ages. Most people would want it to stay like that too. But not me. I am actually looking forward to the time when this part of the patch has grown a bit. The lizards that are very common there are mostly seen on the other half of the patch. I am hoping that when the strip is more wild again, the lizards will return. Fingers crossed!

The weeds in the patch don't half grow fast in this area of the garden. I am guessing that most of these seeds are coming from the other half of the patch. I have to weed it regularly. I do, however prefer to remove a few weeds every few days rather than letting them get out of control and having to spend a whole day defoliating the patch. Also, the weeds should struggle to grow as well when most of the patch is filled with other flowers.

So far the middle of the patch is empty. There isn't an awful lot of room so I thought a small water feature would look nice there. I then want to plant some Allium bulbs around the feature. The idea is that eventually the patch will provide some nice looks to the patio next to it. I am aware that water features use quite a lot of energy so a solar powered one would probably do the trick. I am not looking forward to seeing the prices though!

I have some very exciting news for my next post and I am almost too impatient to wait until tomorrow to do it. I like to give each post at least a day to be read before I do my next post.

All photos taken in my garden on 18-10-08

Saturday morning birdwatch

This morning, I took the time to go out and try to film and watch some of our garden birds. It probably won't just be this morning either. With Shirl at Shirls Gardenwatch, we planned to do a weekly posting each on the birds visiting the garden either during that week or just on the morning of the post. They shouldn't be long posts, but a light read for the weekend. Please forgive me if mine does end up being long! I do love to watch the birds at weekend mornings, and then come inside to some breakfast. I will be sitting inside my "birdwatch hut" most Saturday mornings which I have previously talked about to watch them.

I find that in my garden, between 8:00 and 9:00 is when the birds mostly come in to feed. So, I went out at about 8:30 and set up my camera in our office building, looking out onto the feeders. I had my camera resting on something, which isn't ideal. I would like to get a tripod soon so that the footage is smoother. I was quite happy with the outcome this morning however, and I caught quite a few birds on film. I edited the videos as little as I could because I didn't want to lose any quality, which is why the clips are quite long. They took an age to upload!

Possibly one of my favourite garden birds is the Coal Tit. They are so hard to film though because they are so quick. They visited several times throughout the morning with the Blue Tits. In the videos below, notice how quick the Blue Tits and Coal Tits visit compared with the Greenfinches. In the first video below you will notice a Chaffinch in the background. They are a bit more brief than the Greenfinches, and are more reluctant to come in and feed. The Greenfinches struggle to get inside the cage feeder as the holes are quite small. This means that some of the smaller birds use it more.


The next video, below is mostly of the Blue and Coal Tits. At the end of the clip, you will see a Greenfinch scaring off a poor Coal Tit. They are much more dominant and are larger too, so they get top spot on the feeders. The Blue Tit seems to be struggling to think of the best way to get into the feeder, and takes longer than usual at the feeder. In the bottom video, most of the birds are finches. The female Chaffinch stays before being scared off by something.



Throughout the week, the bird feeders have been busy and I have definately enjoyed watching them. Another tiny bird, the Wren has been visiting recently. They aren't seed-eaters, so they must be finding insects in our trees at the end. Also recently there have been a few visits from a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but they don't stay long and are quite secretive too. Also, as soon as I had finished filming the clips above, I saw the return of the Starlings on our roof. Lots of action here at the moment, so hopefully these birds return during the week ready for next Saturday.

So there you are... some of our garden birds. Hope you enjoy Shirl's post too. I was going to just say that if you wanted to join in to this weekly or fortnightly posting about birds, please do and let me know. Its great fun, and certainly gets me out of bed in the mornings!
All videos taken in my garden on 18-10-08.

Big walk, pub lunch, huge butterfly

My last post showed some slight disappointment on the wildlife front, and ducks and swans were the only features. The moist grey morning on Saturday turned into a beautiful sunny day, and before you knew it, we were at the start of a long walk in the countryside. Well, not that long, just hilly. The damp ground soon dried out and it became suddenly quite warm. It actually felt like the end of summer rather than mid-autumn. Sad to say that it's been grey and cloudy here all day to today so make the most of the blue skies in the photos below.

As a small kid, I've always walked in the countryside with family, so Saturday was no different. As always too we saw plenty of wildlife on the way. On the way there, the first sighting was a group of Long-tailed Tits with Great Tits in the woods. I noticed their tendency to stay in large flocks. The next thing I saw was a little surprising. A Red Admiral butterfly was basking on the trunk of a tree on the edge of some woodland. I got a little bit closer and saw the sheer size of it. It was massive and very colourful, especially with the light shining on it. This also made me think; isn't it a bit late for butterflies. After all, it is now half way through October. I have to say that I was quite pleased with how the pictures of it came out.

I had a some delicious fish and chips at the pub. While I was eating, Red Kites flew overhead. I took a picture and watched them circle over my head almost as though it was eyeing up my chips. In case you didn't know, Red Kites were introduced in Bucks between 1989 and 1994. Since then, their populations have gone through the roof, and it's hard to go a day without seeing one. They are mostly a rusty red colour that is easily recognisable.

After lunch the walk seemed much harder after I was filled with food. The good weather continued throughout the afternoon and it was nice weather for walking. We took a different route back, so there was even more to be seen. In the Autumn, the countryside is full of empty fields. These are great for seed-eating birds. Unfortunately, the boring old pigeons that raid our garden bird feeders are part of this, but other interesting birds are attracted too. Pheasants are particular fans of this kind of land, as the picture of a female shows below.

The Woodpigeons on this occasion scattered when we got near them in their huge numbers. They all follow suit and they are gone quite quickly. Above we could hear and see Skylarks, and there were other unidentifiable birds feeding on the ground. Before Saturday, I had no idea how popular the seeds in fields are to birds like these. I also thought that pigeons rely on garden bird food. Obviously not! Overall, a great day out. When I got home, with a map measurer my dad worked out that we had done 8.4 miles. Not bad for a day's work!

Just to note that I might not post quite as frequently at the moment as I have GCSE's coming up and I need to focus on them. You may notice that most of my posts will be at weekends. I will definitely not rush posts though and will still have fun blogging.

All photos taken by me on a walk on 11-10-08

My local patch in the mist

In BBC Springwatch, Bill Oddie especially is always urging the viewers to visit their "local patches". Well, this morning, I did. It was great to get out early in the morning too which meant that I could see this morning's mist. The effect was quite stunning, so out came my camera! I loved every minute of it, but was a bit disappointed with the lack of birds I saw. Before I start blithering about what I saw, I had better explain what my local wildlife patch is. It is a large park with a river running through it, and some woodland. It is called the Rye park and is pretty much on my doorstep.

I'm afraid that I only have some swans and ducks to show you today but they are such photogenic birds, so I am quite pleased with the results. On the river before, I have seen Grey Herons very often, and occasionally, Kingfishers too. Thrushes and blackbirds are normally also seen on the grass of the park. But none of these were seen today. The bad visibility probably didn't help, and on another day, it could have been a very different story. The bad visibility changed throughout the day however, as you will find out in my next post.

The Mute Swan is such an elegant bird and they are great to watch. They are a little dominant and the small ducks keep their distance, but they are very funny as they follow you along the path begging for food. I tried using some new camera modes to capture them in a different way today but I think I need some more practice. The swans make such loud noises when they flap their wings too. The swan is such a large bird and they are hard to miss. This is why I am surprised that I found it difficult to see the also large Grey Heron today. The pictures below show some snippets of the swans today. There weren't many different species of ducks out today either, but I did see the Tufted Duck. I posted on Tufted Ducks recently too but I think I got better photos this time. They are less tame than the Mallards, and are smaller too so they are harder to photograph. The males have a shiny look to their plumage and are more striking than the Mallard. My mum does a daily jog through this park and says that there were some colourful ducks yesterday. Just my luck that I saw none of them today :-(

The coots have a brilliant soft look about them, and although they are of a similar colour to the Tufted duck the plumage texture looks very different and they are quite different in how they act. Pictures of the Mallard, Coot and Tufted Duck are below.

I hope that I will be able to visit the Rye again on the weekends and hope that I see a bit more next time. This afternoon was a completely different story, and I have a more successful session of wildlife watching to talk about soon.

All images were taken by me at the Rye park this morning

Wanted!

Our garden is home to quite a wide variety of garden birds plus a few unexpected woodland and countryside birds. However, I always feel I can attract more. I put out a wide variety of food too, which helps. Goldfinches were a species which didn't used to visit our garden until a couple of years ago. While these birds are very common, quite tame and easy to see and hear, they are very fussy eaters as far as seeds go.

We used to just feed whole black sunflower seeds and peanuts. At this point we had not seen or heard Goldfinches in our garden. It was only when we started to feed nyjer seeds and sunflower hearts that the Goldfinches came. At the time seeing the first Goldfinch in our garden was very exciting but now they are just as common as other birds and we take the presence for granted. I would like to get the same exciting feeling by attracting other birds, but I need help! The pictures below show a juvenile Goldfinch seen in our garden recently:

So, what are the birds that I aim to attract to my garden. Well, some of the less common and occasional visitors are: Bullfinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Wrens, Goldcrests, Jays, Bramblings, Song Thrushes and Mistle Thrushes. These birds are all breif visitors, but I would like to attract some other birds too. One of the most common birds that has not been seen in my garden is the Nuthatch. Now I know for sure that a lot of people reading this will have seen one in their garden. I have seen one on holiday, but never at home.

These are colourful, small and acrobatic birds that I am sure are very entertaining to watch. But I am not sure how to attract them. I already put out peanuts, seeds of various types and fats. Does anybody know what else I could try feeding to attract them? The image below is from wikipedia. This must be a pet Nuthatch!

Another wanted bird in the garden is the Pied Wagtail. I have seen this bird countless times in car parks scavenging on food, but surprisingly this bird is not quite so common in gardens hence why I have never seen one. Not a particulary thrilling bird to watch, but important to feed nonetheless. I'm not sure if there is anything in particular that will attract these birds, but please comment if you can think of something. As far as I am aware they will not nest in nestboxes so I am not sure if there is an awful lot I can do for this bird. The picture below is again from wikipedia.

In fact this bird is probably one of the only ones that benefits from human activity, so it is maybe not essential that I feed these birds specifically apart from just to experience seeing it.

The Tree Sparrow is the bird I would like to see the most. Its close relative, the House Sparrow is recognised by birdwatchers all over the world, but the Tree Sparrow is a seemingly declining species. Its habitat is more in the countryside but is sometimes spotted in gardens too. I think its a real shame that this bird is struggling because it is one that would be fantastic to see alongside its common relative. It is more neat and tidy looking than the House Sparrow as shown in the photo on wikipedia. I have never even seen this bird even outside my garden so it is difficult to picture what the bird would act like.

The last bird on my list is not actually one bird. But it might as well be because it is often impossible to tell the two birds apart. They are the Marsh and Willow Tit. Again, I have never seen one of these properly in the wild, but I think I may have seen glimpses. They are a lot shyer than the more common Tits so it is not surprising that I have never seen one of these in my garden. While there is woodland near our house, their main habitat is probably more dense woodland.

I am guessing that if they visited feeding stations at all, they would take seeds but please correct me if I am wrong. This is probably one of those birds that has visited our garden before but hasn't been seen. It was very sad to hear that the numbers of Marsh Tits has decreased significantly over recent years. On wikipedia it says, "There has been a >60% decline in numbers in Britain between 1960 and 2000, with numbers down to 52,800 pairs". Now I know why I am unlikely to see them!

Now I have written all this I realise that my list is quite ambitious. If I don't see these birds in my garden (which is highly likely), I will hope to see them more when I am out elsewhere.

First 2 images were taken in my garden on 28-09-08. All others are from wikipedia.

Birdwatch hut

Just last week, we had an office building built on some bare slabs near the house. This didn't disturb any wildlife in the process as there was nothing there before it was built. I hasn't really helped wildlife either. But I tell you who it has helped: me! Birdwatching really wasn't the intended use for this building, and I didn't think that the window would give such a view. The windows face towards the feeders and a nestbox, and because of the way the light reflects off the windows, the birds can't see me through the glass. So it should be great for filming and watching wildlife in the future. What an unexpected surprise!

Some of the birds in the garden will allow to get up close to them anyway, but some of the shyer visitors like the Wren I saw yesterday are much harder to see in detail. So this should allow me to take some better pictures with my camera. Not only is this good for watching birds, I think that sitting outside the house, even in an office building or a conservatory is nice to be inside. Even if there are no birds to watch, there are our crazy rabbits along with insects and plants to admire.

In my garden, there aren't really any other places in which to sit and watch the birds in peace. From my bedroom window, you can see the whole garden but its quite a distant view. The garden shed isn't practical either as the windows don't face out onto any feeders or nestboxes. And while my garden is quite overgrown there is nowhere in the garden where I can sit without being seen. In nature reserves the hides are fantastic and allow you to see shy birds in their natural environment. Admittedly our little wooden office building isn't quite the same as a large hide in a nature reserve but its the same idea.

Now, to something related to bird watching and definately related to feeding the birds. I got an email from the RSPB recently telling me about Feed The Birds Day, which takes place on the weekend of 25th and 26th October. Any very keen birdwatchers reading this will already have heard of this event, but I thought I would make it known to others too! I didn't know about it until the email came through, so I am new to it too. I have however heard of The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch and although I haven't done it I plan to do it next year. On the weekend in which Feed The Birds Day is taking place there are many events going on all over the country.

So, why do I recommend feeding the birds. Well, as you may know the winter months can prove to be very hard for garden birds (the small ones inparticular) and its important that they eat the needed amount of energy-rich foods. You don't even have to watch the birds all the time (although I recommend that you do). It is most important that we just put the food out. I reckon that most of the people reading this probably already feed the birds anyway, but you can always do more! Now, a word of advice to someone who has never fed the birds before. Don't expect immediate results when you leave out food. It takes the birds a while to find and get used to the food being there.

I feed the birds sunflower hearts (sunflower seeds without the husks), suet, peanuts and specialist nyjer seed. In the breeding season I feed fruit and mealworms too. I must say that in recent years the peanuts get eaten far less often than the seeds and suet. So if you do take place in feed the birds day, these foods would be the best to provide. I find that nowadays even the slightest hint of a bird table or recently filled bird feeder will be sure to attract common birds. So even if you just put some kitchen scraps on the bird table, do something for birds on the 25th and 26th October.
All photos taken in my garden and office building on 28-09-08