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.

Blackcap!

Happy surprise in the garden today, our first Blackcap, that's #32 on the garden bird list (since January when we moved in). You can tell the early ornithologists were all men, this being a female she clearly had a brown cap.
The bird has feasted all day on ivy berries, nice to see it bathing too. In the last week a Willow Warbler passed through, which is a nice early date anywhere never mind in my garden, and a Peregrine has gone over again. I'm in the middle of a busy Easter stretch at work, so god only knows what I'm missing when I'm away from the house.
Would have gone for some local Waxwings if I'd had the time, yes, they're still around!

Yum?

On the sightings pages I see Sandwich Tern, Cettis Warbler, Osprey in the county, birds like Redstart and Cuckoo arriving back too, it's getting bloody exciting out there. Had better find the time.

Pleased

Loving life in Derbyshire, albeit just about 100 yards into the county. We can take a 10 minute walk and there's Dipper, Little Ringed Plover and Little Owl variously around the village. It's also a little pleasure to see Mallards in the street when I go to work in the morning.

Went to a talk at the local RSPB group, good stuff on farming with wildlife and the Higher Level Stewardship scheme. Learned a wee bit about margins, scrapes, etc, travelling through the countryside in the week after it's easy to spot the what ifs on the local farmland. What if the hedgerows weren't all massacred at the same time, what if the roadside verges weren't mowed so short, what if more farmers became stewards of our natural heritage as well as providers for the table. I suppose there's a whole can of worms there, economically and politically, but what if it saved the future of our wildlife?

And what if I posted another video?

Down at the mill, it's the Dipper again, for a cool half a million you can get it on your garden bird list.

In Confirmation of Spring

Did another Carsington ABB last week, that's where the Chiffchaff came from there. The Great Northern Divers are still around but shouldn't be there for very much longer. Always a tease to have them disappear just before summer plumage kicks in. My first Swallows and Sand Martins of the year were scooting along the dam, plus the Redshanks and Oystercatchers look frisky and ready to begin nestwork.

Another first for the year was a Willow Warbler right on time at Kings Mill Reservoir.

Scenes from Carsington...

RNG

(picture courtesy of the girlfriend)

Inspired by some epic photographs on Birdguides we finally took the trip down the A38 to Foremark Reservoir, a bit south of Derby, to catch this long staying Red-necked Grebe that's more or less reached full summer plumage. Real glamour bird this one, a rare specimen of Russian chic and proper little show-off drifting around 20 yards in front of the car park (this beats the pale distant RNGs you usually freeze your bits of for in the mid-winter at Rutland Water).
Also picked up my first Wheatear of '09, hopefully to be met with again in July if all plans for a week on the Isle of Mull come together.

What's missing from this entry? Oh yes, the dodgy digi-video-scope effort...

Dipper at'Mill

Nice bird in the village today, unusual this far east in Derbyshire, it's a Dipper, of course. Well worth all of that 5 minute walk down to the mill. Looked territorial too, so fingers crossed on that, even if it means a hard time for the regular Grey Wagtails.
Technically a good county bird for Nottinghamshire listers when it flits onto the opposite bank of the Meden.

Also, while a Coal Tit calls outside my window, a couple of good birdy articles in the Independent this week, well, one good, one bad:

Triumph of the Bumbarrel - AKA the Long-tailed Tit

The Sound of Silence - The Cuckoo is Vanishing

Through the car window

A shot of Redwings the girlfriend took last week on her way to work in Derbyshire. Won't be seeing these birds for too much longer now, not until the autumn anyway.
She tells me in China they have a very similar bird the Eyebrowed Thrush, which is commonly sold as a sweet swinging cagebirds. I think we both prefer to see them in (or usually over) the fields.

In other news frogsprawn has appeared in our new garden pond. Can hardly describe how thrilled we are. It's the simple things when you're into nature, isn't it?