And The Cold Spell Continues...

Well actually, now I've finally got round to posting this, temperatures have now started to climb and I think we can expect warmer conditions next week. But when I went out for a walk around campus on Saturday it was still only about 4 degrees, and even with plenty of layers on it was pretty chilly. 

Just a standard patch walk really, but saw an interesting range of species along the way including Kestrel, Kingfisher, a Grey Heron flying overhead (which isn't as common as you might think on the lake), a few Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Redwings and Mistle Thrushes, lots of Goldcrests and Nuthatches, Jays and Siskins. The photos below show the view across the lake: 

There wasn't anything particularly out of the ordinary on the lake other than a Kingfisher flying over the water surface, and a couple of Tufted Ducks, which aren't always around on campus. As usual, the lake was pretty much dominated by Black-headed Gulls as seen in the photo below. As you can see, some of the gulls, like the top one in the photo below are starting to show their spring plumage with that dark chocolate brown head beginning to appear. 

Moorhens like the one in the photo below were seen plodding around the edge of the lake too: 

And these Mallards looking who were looking rather smart...

As I was heading over to the woodland, I saw this Jay hopping around on the ground underneath the trees. Please excuse the terrible photo- they're incredibly hard to approach without them flying off. 

The first bird I saw when I walked into the woodland area was a Blue Tit, which is photographed below. This one was perched on a branch just a few metres away and kindly allowed me to take a few pictures:

Quite a few Goldcrests were seen in the woodland although again, I was unable to get anything other than an average record shot. The thing is, when you see them they often stick around for ages and are very happy to forage around in the vegetation in close proximity to you, but they just don't stay still for a second and are constantly shuffling along a branch, hanging upside down or hovering around. The best I managed is the photo below. 

I was constantly looking around, hoping that the next tiny bird I saw would be the Firecrest, but I'm really starting to think it may have moved on now. Haven't seen it in a while and no one seems to be mentioning it anymore. Still, I feel pretty lucky to have seen it, and maybe it'll turn up again next winter, we shall see.  

And one more final record shot for the day, the Nuthatch in the photo below. Despite the fact there are lots of them here on campus, they're really very shy and getting close to them is pretty difficult, similarly to the Jays. Anyway, enough excuses, the photo I managed is below: 

That just about rounds up my walk yesterday, hopefully by next week the temperatures will have risen enough for it to start feeling like spring :D  

A Jay today

Well actually I didn't see a Jay today as suggested in the title, but I wanted it to rhyme! I saw it on the day I got the footage of the squirrel. This is a new garden bird to me. In case you didn't know Jays are members of the crow family. They are much more shy and secretive than the more common Magpies and Carrion Crows we normally get in our garden. They are woodland birds really, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it fly into our tall conifer. Our conifers are very tall and the tops are often good perches for passing birds. Just last week a Sparrowhawk was perched there and flocks of Starlings visit too. But never a Jay.

It was a brief visit too. It was there less than a minute so no photos, I'm afraid. It was also a bit too far away for my camera to cope with. I have seen this bird before but I have to say that despite their colour, this bird can be very hard to spot. I was begging for it to fly down onto the bird table so that I could get some close-up pictures but I don't think it was convinced. I only saw it because I happened to be looking out of the window at the time when it came. What luck! Come to think of it, there are probably plenty of birds that pass by unnoticed...

I have seen plenty of other posts from other blogs on them too. If only my dad's binoculars were able to take photos. They are excellent and let in a lot of light, meaning that I saw the Jay in its full colours. They are unmistakable when you see them. The blue streak on their wings is the give-away for me. If you want to see a picture of one on wikipedia, click here. Also on wikipedia it mentions their ability to mimic other birds, which can make it very hard to distinguish its identity.

I thought this post would be a bit dry without any images, so I thought I would share some of my recent Goldfinch photos. Now, you may have noticed that quite a few of my posts are based on these birds. OK, hands up its because these birds are simply some of the easiest and most colourful birds that visit my garden. They are surprisingly tame compared with the Greenfinch and Chaffinch. They also spend more time at the feeders than quite a lot of our other garden birds. Its interesting to look at the behaviour of birds. For example over the years I have noticed that the Blue Tits will often take a seed and fly off into a bush with it to break it up. Unlike the Greenfinches, which are much less likely to give up their spot on the feeders.

Adult Goldfinch


The images below are juvenile Goldfinch ones. This one was actually feeding while I was doing something to my patch, and I was only a few metres away from it. This one even took a quick drink from the bird bath. Its a little disappointing I didn't get better ones but never mind. I am guessing that the young birds are less aware of the dangers in the garden. The adult Goldfinch (also pictured above) was a lot harder to capture.

Juvenile Goldfinch

All photos were taken in my garden on 21/09/08