My first Hobby

My last posting was largely about the flowers I saw at College Lake a couple of weeks ago. The weekend after that, I went to College Lake again, but this time, I was in search of some birdlife. This time of year is certainly a busy time at the lake and it was tricky to focus on any particular bird. However, there was one bird that stood out that little bit more. This bird is a new first for me and was definitely the highlight of the visit- a Hobby!

Yep, amongst the usual birds at college lake, a Hobby was seen whizzing over the surface of the water. It was sometimes hard to pick out the bird at a distance, especially with hundreds of swifts flying in the foreground. I was amazed at the speed of the Hobby as it flew effortlessly around. Such a striking bird too, with its streaked black underside and red-brown leg feathers. It hardly stopped to rest either and was constantly speeding around.

I was unable to get any photos of it, mostly because it was too far away, but also because it was almost impossible to follow. There were plenty of nesting Canada Geese around, as well as a few waders such as Redshank. I saw some goslings too, many of which were still sticking very close to their parents, maybe because of the Hobby. How vulnerable they looked. They were tiny compared with their parents.

As we walked around into the woodland section of the reserve in the sunhine, I saw a plenty of butterflies around, especially in the quieter areas. I managed to get a few shots of a Speckled Wood Butterfly which sat on the ground as if it was sunbathing. I have to say that they are not particularly colourful compared with some of the other butterflies I saw that day, but nice to capture nevertheless.

In the tops of the trees, Chiffchaffs were heard as we walked through the dense woodland. On my last visit, I saw a Willow Warbler, so it seems that the reserve is packed full of migrating warblers at the moment. I also heard plenty of Green Woodpeckers and Pheasants. Through much difficulty, we worked out that the terns which were flying around the lake were Common Terns and not Arctic Terns, which aren't seen inland.

So, all in all, a great trip to College Lake, and another few birds to add to my year list. Hopefully I can get some more photos next time though.

Fledgling Starlings to come

Recently, we bought some live mealworms for the birds, thinking it would be helpful for any nesting birds to feed to their chicks. Well, we have certainly had a positive response from the local Starlings. They have been flying off with beakfulls of mealworms for a couple of weeks now. I think that there are at least 4 adult starlings flying off with food to feed chicks. With the frenzied feeding, I am sure it won't be long until we see some fledglings.

A while back, we got a couple of plastic green mealworm feeders with little covers and steep sides. Before this, we were always trying to find somewhere A) protected from the weather, and B) somewhere they couldn't simply crawl off. As a result, many of the mealworms we wasted. It seems that now, the problem has been solved and the mealworms have been disappearing fast.

The Starlings have been seen deliberately spilling the mealworms onto the lawn so that they can collect them more easily. The video below shows a Starling collecting some mealworms and flying off with them. Note how the Starling quickly flies off with the mealworms before the second starling is able to take any! I was so lucky with the way one Starling replaced the other when recording the video.



Another ineteresting sighting in the garden has been a juvenile Dunnock. I also managed to get a clip of this too, albeit a short one. After watching this clip a few times, I thought the juvenile Dunnock could in fact be a very scruffy adult Dunnock. See what you think. I must say though that the Dunnock does appear to beg for food from the parent. This "youngster" appears to be able to feed itself, so I don't think it is a recent fledgling.



Now, I also wanted to talk about a very strange encounter in the garden yesterday. In the late afternoon, I saw a small flock of Long-tailed Tits visit the garden. Fairly normal so far, then. But I then saw a pair of the little birds hanging around near our conservatory nestbox. To my surprise, they actually entered the nestbox for a short time. I have certainly not seen this kind of behaviour before from this bird, although I know that Long-tailed Tits are beginning to exploit food from a wider range of feeders. When you look at the list of birds which use an ordinary tit box, the Long-tailed Tit is not part of the list. It would be great if the little birds visited the box again at some point, and maybe even thought about a late nesting attempt there.

To finish off, below are a couple of pictures of Collared Doves seen in the garden recently They seem to have learned how to feed off our bird feeders now!

Hopefully I will see some more fluffy youngsters over the coming weeks.

Wild flowers of College Lake

Last week, I took the chance to go to College Lake Nature Reserve not far from where I live. The range of wildlife there is fantastic, mostly because of the widely varied habitats. At this time of year, the number of birds at College Lake is quite amazing. Swifts, Swallows and House Martins whizzed around overhead, and plenty of waders were around too... but even more impressive at this time of year were the wild flowers.

A picture of part of the reserve is below. The views were really spectacular. Its great to think that such an amazing habitat is on my doorstep.

Not long after arriving, we came across a small group of Bluebells around a tree. They have got to be one of my favourite plants.


Whilst I am on the theme of blue, below is a photo of a Blue Tit we saw just a bit further along the same path. College Lake had a large number of nestboxes scattered around the reserve on various trees and buildings. I saw a pair of Blue Tits pop in and out of one of these boxes as we walked. The female was taking in beakfulls of nesting material. The one in the photo below looks in remarkable condition.

I was quite surprised to see Primroses on the ground too. The little purple flowers surrounding the Primroses are Violets. I had never seen Wild Primroses before, so I was very pleased to see the ones in the photo below.

On the way around the reserve, we also saw Cowslips on the edges of the path. In the sun, the yellow flowers were very colourful. See them in the photo below:

I got a close-up picture too.

Violets were very common throughout the reserve, and I saw a good number of bees and butterflies surrounding them.

I've no idea what the flowers in the next photo are. Please forgive me if the ID is glaringly obvious, but i'm still new to flowers. The flowers hadn't come out yet but the buds were colourful anyway.

As we walked around to the woodland section of the reserve, we saw plenty of teasel swaying in the wind. It was around this point where I saw what I think was a Willow Warbler singing in the trees judging from its song and brighter plumage than the Chiffchaff. Both of these birds are apparently quite common in the spring around College Lake.

So there you have it. The flowers which I saw on the 2 mile walk around College Lake. I visited it again this weekend, and I may post on that visit soon. But my eyes have been glued to the garden birds today, as I saw a fledgling flitting around.