Garden Goldfinches

2 Goldfinches on the sunflower heart feeder when I opened the curtains this morning! A very rare sight in our garden and a fine start to my day.

Geese on my patch!

2 Canada Geese flew over my local patch this morning... nothing amazing I know but it is a tick for my patch!

First Swallow of 2005

The first Swallow of the year arrived today swooping over the barn and tree field on my local patch. They often nest in the barn so I will be watching closely!

Pugney's Country Park

I'd never been here before even though it's only 1/2 hour away so we took Laddie for a walk round today to see what's what. At first it seemed a little too busy, stacks of people around... then I found the wildlife "bit"... fantastic! A great looking hide to check out, trees, fields, dyke... I can see myself spending many many hours pottering around here. A quick scan while walking Laddie showed Heron, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe, Canada Geese (complete with cute babies) and Willow Warbler. There were a few other species around on the wildlife lake which will definately get me in that hide as soon as possible.

Scammoden

We took Laddie to Scammodem reservoir today. If you part in the lower car park it really is a fantastic little place to walk. From a bird point of view however, don't expect much on the water (although always look) but the trees, fields and moors around through up some treats. This place is only 10 minutes away from me by car and I truly intend to visit it as much as possible... there's no excuse when it's 10 minutes away!

So today I saw the following in or over the fields... Kestrel, Mallard, Canada Geese and Pied Wagtail. I also had some great views and listening pleasure from a new summer arrival, Willow Warbler... a bird which I have learned not to try and distinguish from a ChiffChaff until it opens it's beak!

Local Patch Mallards

It seems like it's been raining for days... it probably has... the field at the back is part of a flood plain where there is much underground water. It's been pretty boggy for quite a while but we've now got to the stage where I saw a pair of Mallards happily sat in the middle of it this morning. My local patch is usually compeltely void of wildfowl... just to goes to show you the most common bird can be a treat.

Garden Pond 2

We have progressed! The hole was lined with pond liner, weighed down with slabs of concrete and filled with water. We've added a couple of plants and some nice cobbles and a bit of gravel and give our roaming frog spawn a proper home. All we can do now is sit, wait and watch. We also plan to but some more plants etc around the pond and lose a little more patio... the broken up piles of patio slabs will be great hiding places for all sorts of garden creatures piled around the pond/wildlife area of the garden. All in all I'm very pleased :)

Successful Fat Cakes

My home made alternatives to fat balls have been proving highly productive! I'm onto my second batch and have so far had Starling, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Dunnock, Robin and most impressively Long Tailed Tit... who are quite the regular visitors now! My second batch use sunflower hearts rather than seeds but it makes little difference (other than keeping the lawn clean).

I've also had a rather loopy squirrel dangle on the fat cake cage gorging himself... I managed a slightly out of focus photo of the event...

Ilkley Moor ba Wheatear

We went for a nice long walk with Laddie at the weekend and came home through Ilkey, stopping of for a cuppa and a wander on Ilkley Moor. What a fabulous place. From a birding point of view there were quite a few Wheatears around.

Birthday Birding Equipment

It's my birthday... and being quite "birdy" I wanted "birdy" things which brought forth a rather excellent mixture of books.

But I also got some very nice equipment. Firstly, a monopod. I did a lot of research into whether to try a monopod for my scope (and indeed which one to get) and came to the conclusion it was just what I needed. I love using my scope but always end up trying to balance it on walls etc as I cannot be bothered with a big cumbersome tripod everytime I nip out for an hours birding. And so I got a Manfrotto monopod and it is fantastic! It's light, strudy and extremely quick to set up. I couldn't be more happy with it. Now when I wander around Blackmoorfoot and see a spec on the other side I can ID it in seconds... and then carry on my way. I've also got a small ball-head with it. Now most of the time I have it locked anyway (i.e. I may as well not have a head!) but it is very useful in 2 important ways...
1. I can pan upwards into the sky if a bird flys over (and no matter how hard you lean a monopod over you can't see THAT high up
2. It allows me to fold the scope flat against the monopod (and lock it) for carrying making it extremely small and easy to carry.

The only thing I can't do with it is take photos... it's steady but not THAT steady with a camera and scope hanging off it... which was never my intention but it does bring me to my other new piece of kit...

I've wanted to try digiscoping for a while. In fact when I first rediscovered birding I thought I would be an avid digiscoper in no-time. The principle was inspiring... you have a scope, you have a digital camera... put the two together and you're taking shots like the pros! Professional results on a budget! Yes?! No. You see the more I looked into it I began to realise most of my equipment wasn't good enough, I need a camera with threads, a better tripod (mind is very very cheap), expensive attachments... in the end it seemed as cheap to me to buy a digital SLR or at least a compact with a big zoom. But then I finally found the answer and bought myself a birthday prezzie. This amazing adaptor does everything I thought digiscoping represented... it will fit any camera, clamp to your scope and after twisting a few knobs, you're away! £30. I haven't had much of a play with it yet other than making sure it worked... and it does... but I can't wait to start playing. .. I don't expect to be on the inside cover of Birdwatching Magazine next month but I do expect to have a great deal of fun... and will no doubt be posting a few of my efforts right here.

Birthday Bempton Cliffs

We went to Bempton Cliffs today as a birthday treat (happy birthday me)... a place I've not been before but a place I will definately go back to. We also visited Flamborough Head and Fraithsthorpe sands (to eat our chips).

Bempton Cliffs
Gannets - Lots of lots of Gannets, some on the cliffs, some flying, and some great views of courtship with shaking heads and touching bills.
Cormorant - Just the one flying across the sea.
Jackdaws - Plenty of these guys around.
Pied Wagtails - A few of these around the fields.
Herring Gulls - A couple on the cliffs, lots on the fields.
Kestrel - Nice view of a Kestrel hunting over the fields.
Skylarks - Could hear these everywhere again over the fields and got some great views too.
Meadow Pipits - Again could hear them seeping away and got some smashing views.

Flamborough Head
Gannets - More gannets out over the sea but this time diving! It was an amazing site, I could have watched them for hours the way they swoop and hover over the waves then all dive down together... sploooooooooosh. Fantastic. Birding hi-light of the day! (and not actually at Bempton)
Skylarks - Again heard them everywhere and got some great views.
Meadow Pipits - And again some great views.
Cormorant - Just the one.
Herring Gull - perched on the cliffs.

Fraithsthrope Sands
We only stopped here to eat our chips and give Laddie a run but managed to see...
Great Grested Grebe - On the sea and diving!! Not seen that before.
Kestrel - Amazing Kestrel close ups over the fields.
Lapwings - A couple flying around the fields.
Mallards - Quite a few taking up residence on flood ponds in the fields.

A great day all in all... the Gannets were stunning and the amounts of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits gave me a wonderful chance to notice the differences in these birds plumage, size, song and flight patterns. Marvellous.

New Local Patch Tick

Just walking Laddie today and saw a Pied Wagtail on the roof of the dis-used barn close to our house... which is a new local patch tick. I will of course be watching for House Martins taking up residence in that very barn shortly as they did last year.

Front Garden Long Tailed Tits

Our front garden is usually quite void of birds... we do have a feeder out but it's rarely visited. But we do have a tree that attracts tits at this time of year with it's juicy young shoots and today I saw 2 Long Tailed Tits out there which was a first.