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