Old Moor, Budby, Birds

Paid a visit to Old Moor at the weekend, good birds, good shop, good times. No stellar species around, Ringed Plover was about the best of it, lots of courting Goosanders, bountiful Lapwing flocks, and an entertaining female Kestrel (pictured) in the car park that dropped down after prey right beside our car. The Yellowhammer comes from the Tree Sparrow Farm area of the reserve where long-staying Brambling weren't playing ball.
Wath Ings hide had a Common Snipe several birdwatchers were convincing themselves was the Jack report a day before, it's one of the pitfalls of reading the sightings news that I'm pretty sure was susceptible to once upon a time.

Also been Budby way, as always nice views of several Green Woodpecker, a handful of Crossbills went over, otherwise hardly a dicky around. Better was Carburton were ploughed fields have proved magnetic for numbers of Greylags I've just never seen there before, and among them there be scarcer geese. Four Pinkies, and I found a surprise lifer in a White-front (#229), it looked dark to me but other guys with more experience we're happy it was a Russian race bird. We simply don't get many of either in the East Midlands, although a few birds were seen in North Notts not long after mine.

Across the Border

This past Saturday we had some time at the end of the day to head into Notts, so we did the Carburton - Budby Common double bill. Buzzards entertained from the pull-in at Great Lake and a small flock of Mandarins clattered around the trees. Give it a month or so for Honey Buzzards and perhaps last summer's Osprey will return too.
The Nuthatch vid comes from Carburton.

To Budby before sunset, again a little early in the season for the best action there, Tree Pipits with that go-bezerk trill at the end of their song were the big feature, Linnet and Yellowhammer among them. Late May to early June we'll definitely return for the Cuckoos, Woodcock and Nightjars, Woodlark ought to be singing too.

Bird Storking

A while since my last post and I wonder where to begin this update. No doubt about it, the honour really does belong to the immature Black Stork [lifer #212], literally a big lifer, had in North Yorkshire over the weekend. The location was Cawood, a small town along the Ouse with fields sparse and wide enough to satisfy this most wary of birds. The wait to see it pop up out a ditch was around 2 hours and well worth it, although enormous thanks go to the birder who yelled us back. The girlfriend and I had just quit for the day, accepting the dip, and had walked no further than 30 yards when the shout came, "HEY, IT's THERE!". Never give up hope folks. Anyway a bird like that though shy gets noticed wherever it wanders, the individual possibly first picked up in Ireland, and now has made its way to Spurn. That's a long long way from Hungary - the region the Black Stork really ought to be in. The girlfriend, upon seeing the bird, she simply exclaimed, 'WOW!'.
Peregrine through too on the day also.

In other news, I have lots of shiny new bird kit. We'd actually headed up to N Yorks to check out some RSPB optics at Fairburn Ings, and only made it for the Stork when I realised it was just another 10 miles motoring on the day. I was after new binoculars on my RSPB volunteer/discount card, and settled for a pair of RSPB BGs. £60 more and I could have had the HGs, but I preferred the cheaper model. They feel a touch lighter and seem just as bright to my eyes. Tried the Viking range too, but for the same price they were dimmer and had a definite blue hue. Weird really, Viking manufacture both its own and the RSPB range, so why the difference?

So bins sorted, it was a scope next. The venerable old Kowa has served us well for 10 years, but using the Swarovskis at ABB events has spoilt me, they are simply too good to go without. Fortunately those of us not rolling money the London Camera Exchange have a wide range of fully serviced secondhand optics, and we found an AT-80 plus 20-60 zoom (and a spare 32x eyepiece). Sure it's a ten year old model but still light years ahead of mid-range scopes from Viking, Kowa, Opticron, etc at the same price. Also, forked out a Viking S1 tripod which is a sturdy animal and very easy to use.
Tried out the new set-up on my well neglected local patch today, King's Mill Reservoir, and straight scored a distant Dunlin (we get maybe three through in a year). I'm sure I would have overlooked the wee wader with the old Kowa, so am I happy with the Swarovski? YES, YES and YES again!

Round-up of for the supporting cast in August goes... family group of Spotted Flycatcher at Carburton/Wellbeck watchpoint and hundreds of hirundine gathering nearby, Yellow Wagtail at Hardwick village in Clumber Park, Red-crested Pochard at Carsington. Nice enough to keep my going in a month I've been at work almost non-stop. Glad it wasn't sunny, that would have been awful!

Common Sandpiper (Carsington)

p.s. Stressed? Tried Birdsong radio here or here.

Red-throated Diver (rather on the white side)

With all those bird-miles burnt up on the way to Norfolk we're having to keep our weekend forrays closer afield for the remainder of the month. Fortunately a nearby opportunity for a lifer was there for the taking. First reports of this Red-throated Diver on a lake near Clumber Park came in two weeks ago, so it's become bit of a stayer, best bird in the county for a while too, and #191 for my life list. Don't get many of them this far inland in England.
The Diver was a real beauty, showing very well for the hour we spent there. To the eye it looked a very elegant bird, moreso than a camera could capture, and those eyes, black-eyes, like shark eyes, seemed to give the bird even more character.





Plenty came to see it. This pull-in is a well-known local raptor watchpoint, formerly famous for Honey Buzzard. Not sure they are seen so often these days though, possibly discouraged by the recent explosion in Common Buzzard numbers which have already made Heron so nervous they've abandoned a nearby colony.





A few thumbnails of the day's other birds...














Small numbers of Mandarin hang around the feeding station, probably a nascient 'wild' population ready to grow rather than escape









And finally...

Video - Red-throated Diver

Surprises

During a birding trip to Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire on an unsuccessful hunt for the park's famed Hawfinches, a couple of surprises presented themselves around a nearby layby used by birders to spot the Honey Buzzards.

We've seen several of these bottle-green-black pheasants along that stretch of road, birds presumably released during the shooting season.

Then along the fence a pair of shy wild Mandarin Ducks turned up, perched along the top feeding from the seed pots.

Pretty, long time and very welcome Chinese interlopers to our countryside, all seen from our mobile Volkswagen birdhide.