FOD and Hawfinches

Date: 13/02/2017

Location: Forest of Dean

Weather: Some Blue Skies, plus a little Overcast

Other Species: 
Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird, Robin, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Hawfinch, Buzzard, Marsh Tit, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Dipper, Mandarin Duck, Mute Swan, Raven, Little Grebe, Cormorant, Waxwing, Goldcrest, Siskin, Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Greylag, Canada Goose, Sparrowhawk, Jay.

Observation:
Been waiting for blue skies and today they were forecast, so headed the 40 miles to the fabulous Forest of Dean. Our mission was Hawfinch, Crossbill and Great Grey Shrike.
Started early and arrived at Parkend at 7:30AM first light, even better we were the only ones there! Parked up and waited.... waited and waited nothing going on, had Nuthatches, Coal Tits and plenty of Blackbirds but not the target, Hawfinches. We watched from van, people walking under the Yew trees disturbing everything but held our ground, sat a waited then just after 8:30 HAWFINCH! 
Grabbing camera and getting a few shots of these cracking birds.

 Saw 4/5 Enter the Yew trees where we were and 2 came on to ground, 

Light was hard and a bit dim but managed some half decent shots.

6 mins later they were gone!

Then 3 Deer wandered across green, a bit unusual.

We waited until 9:15 but Hawfinches didn't return so boots on and up to Parkend Church for Crossbill. Stopped on small stream and we saw 2 Dipper, excellent, one was cleaning and the other flew down stream and out of view.

Parkend Church saw Greater Spotted Woodpecker and more Nuthatches but little else so headed back to Van. 
A few more cars had turned up with lens popping out of car windows.

Next we headed to Mallard Pike, we parked on road and walked in, there is a toilet there so after making use of, walked around small lake finding a leucistic Mandarin and several other Mandarins also Greylag and lots of dogs, O Joy. 

Next stop was Crabtree Hill for Great Grey Shrike we hunted all it's normal spots but no joy, on walking back towards Woorsgreen lake Lauren, eagle eyes spotted 3 Waxwing.
A real surprise to see and a bonus.

No GGS or Crossbill were seen, so next stop Cannop Ponds always a great place to park up.
Filled the logs and feeder up and sat back to wait in fact didn't have to wait Nuthatch, Marsh Tit, Great, Blue Tits, Robins were on logs before I even turned around! 

Always good to get close to Nuthatches.

Marsh Tits also.

After a hour or so headed for wander round Cannop Ponds.
To our surprise no Mandarin were on lake Gadwall, Little Grebe, Tufted and Cormorant were present so took a few pictures.

Little Grebe being a bit elusive.

Then about to go and a single male Mandarin flew in, such stunning birds.

So almost tea time and headed up to Fancy View for Chunky Chicken and potatoes and a last hunt of the skies, nothing more was spotted but tea was lovely!

To end another shot of the Hawfinch, you just gotta!

Thanks For Looking! 

&

  Thanks For All Your Support!

If you enjoy our blog's, why not follow us on our social media:

Twitter

Facebook

South Coast > Reykjavik - Iceland

Date: 24th January 2017 - 28th January 2017

Location: Reykjavik, Þingvellir, Skogafoss, Gullfoss - Iceland

Weather: Snow, Sunshine to Rain, Cloudy and Cold

Other Species:
Red Kite, Raven, Fulmar, Whooper Swan, Pink-Footed Goose, Greylag Goose, Red-Breasted Merganser, Eider, Long-Tailed Duck, Wigeon, Black Guillemot, Glaucous Gull, Iceland Gull, Great Northern Diver, Razorbill, Purple Sandpiper, Turnstone .

Observation: We visited Iceland back in 2014: Blog Here

One of Wayne's birthday presents for this 50th was a trip to Iceland, planned for 24th Jan - 28th Jan. Flying from Luton was a perfect opportunity to get some birdwatching in on the way to the airport! We passed a huge number of Buzzard's (we counted 20+ along with a single Red Kite between Swindon/Oxford on the M4! 

We arrived late on the 24th, and after a long walk along the harbour getting some landscape images, we headed back for an early start the next morning. Our first tour was South Coast and Waterfalls (landscape images at the end of the blog). The 2-hour journey along the South Coast proved to us the Fulmar were doing extremely well in Iceland and the whole day we had thousands around us on the cliffs and in flight!

"The European Fulmar population is estimated to number between 2.8 million and 4.4 million pairs. Approximately 1-2 million pairs are estimated to breed in Iceland, with 1-5 million birds present over winter."

This image taken with our 18-135mm lens due to the spray of the waterfalls we kept our 400mm dry in the bags! As we were on and off the coach in wet weather we didn't really have chance to see other birds here but plenty of fly-past Raven's also seen and heard throughout the day.

Due to the wet and cloudy weather the Northern Lights was cancelled this evening and we re-booked for the next evening (with clearer skies forecast).

On the morning of the 26th we visited the Blue Lagoon at sunrise, so again not much to report here! We got dropped off near to the Tjörnin Pond this was well frozen back in 2014 (and had thawed this time around) if we knew this, we wouldn't have walked across it with out camera equipment!!

Lots of tourists and locals feeding the wildlife here and plenty to report, including 3 pairs of Red-Breasted Merganser giving superb views in the sunshine.

We counted 80+ Whooper Swans on this pond and the number stayed around the same for the duration we visited. 

We headed back along the harbour after 20+ minutes here and were plenty of new ticks for us here (even if the cold wind was against us)

A sheltered hotdog stand proved a good place for 10+ Redwing and Starling's to feed and were coming within inches of people!

Our first spot along the harbour was 50+ Eider (not all in picture as in separate groups)

After seeing the single Female Eider at W-S-M, it was nice to see a large number of them.

Along the rocks of the harbour were plenty of gulls including Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gulls and Common Gulls, we are happy to be corrected on any of our ID's as we found the Iceland and Glaucous Gull's difficult to ID!

This we think is a first-winter Glaucous Gull dwarfing a Herring Gull because of no white tips on the Glaucous)

Glaucous Gull's once adults can be the same size of the Greater Black-Backed Gulls!

Our next spot was no more than 100 yards along, a single Razorbill battling with the waves and wind which made it hard to get a decent image of this little one.

Another 200 yards along the harbour was our next spot, truthfully we couldn't ID until we returned to the hotel but it turns out it was a Black Guillemot and further back a pair of Long-Tailed Ducks in breeding plumage (no images good enough to upload!)

Lastly, a distant Diver appeared and we both agreed it was a winter-plumage Great Northern Diver, being the most common in this area and the white barred plumage on it's neck confirmed the ID (again no images to upload).

Just as we took a right turn away from the harbour about 40 birds came flying alongside the water, waiting for them to stop, we realised they were Purple Sandpiper with a single Turnstone, a flight shot for something different.

We were staying nearby to a Botanical Garden, and it would have been rude not to visit it (Waxwings being reported a few days before), it appeared the heavy snow overnight and the frozen ponds made it a very picturesque landscape, with not one bird spotted!

On the 27th Jan, we headed for the Golden Circle Tour,through the high area's of Þingvellir the snow was extremely heavy and this made visibility very poor (we couldn't see out the windows of the coach and some drivers couldn't either, the amount of stranded cars and even cars in ditches was unreal!)

Plenty more Raven's once we were back on lower ground, this one posed for us and allowed us close with our 135mm lenses.

With a few of our landscapes coming last, we will move onto our last day :(

We left the non-birders to a bit of shopping and headed back to Tjörnin Pond for another 40 minutes.

Lauren and Wayne in action:

Here's a few more images from the Pond:

Glaucous Gull

Pink-Footed Goose 

(The cleanest Goose ever, this was the only image we got as it wasn't cleaning over 4 days!)

Iceland Gull

Greylag Goose (Waffling)

Whooper Swan

Lastly some landscape images:

Skogafoss

Seljalandsfoss

Þingvellir

Of course some of the Northern Lights!

If anyone is looking at visiting Iceland and needs to tips for birdwatching, feel free to contact us and we will try our best to give some good advice! 

Thanks For Looking! 

&

  Thanks For All Your Support!

If you enjoy our blog's, why not follow us on our social media:

Twitter

Facebook

A Wet Slimbridge and another Waxwing dip!

Date: 16th January 2017

Location: WWT Slimbridge

Weather: Cloudy, Low Cloud and Light Rain

Other Species: 115 Bewick Swan, Pochard, Pintail, Shelduck, Lapwing, Teal, Barnacle Goose, Buzzard, Kestrel, Rook, House Sparrow, Song Thrush, Wigeon, Bullfinch, Greater Black-Backed Gull, Reed Bunting, Mistle Thrush, 8 Common Crane, 58 Curlew, Redshank, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Cetti's Warbler, Dunlin, Herring Gull, Cormorant, Shoveler, Black-Tailed Godwit, Collared Dove - 51 Species Total

Observation: The weather looking pretty bad today, we headed to Slimbridge on the chance it may brighten up. On arrival, the Rushy was full with a total 16 species counted, including a count of 115 Bewick Swans.

We also spotted a single Redshank on the far island (too distant for any images).
A Lapwing having a good old preen in front of the hide.
 

Also got a slow-motion video here: Slow Motion - Lapwing

Visibility kept improving and then dropping, as you can see below.

A small group of Jackdaws were making a right racket outside the Holden Tower, but this pair stayed out the way.

No sign of the Water Rail from the Willow Hide today between 10.30-11.30.

The Martin Smith hide never seems to disappoint, today we had a count of 58 Curlew and 8 Common Crane along with plenty of other species.

This GPS tagged Bewick Swan 'UNN' was present on the Rushy on the return walk.

A single Peregrine Falcon was causing havoc on the Reserve today keeping all the waterbirds active!

We left Slimbridge at 1pm and headed for the 'reliable' Waxwings at Cheltenham. On arrival just after 1.30pm, there were no signs of any Waxwings and all berries from the Buildbase location had gone. We drove around the local estates and also onto Twickenham Road in the last hope but it resulted in another Waxwing dip, one day...

Thanks For Looking! 

&

  Thanks For All Your Support!

If you enjoy our blog's, why not follow us on our social media:

Twitter

Facebook

Blue Rock Thrush > Slimbridge

Date: 2nd January 2017

Location: Stow-on-the-Wold > Slimbridge

Weather: Blue Sky, Cold and Sunny

Other Species:

Observation: As Lauren returned from London last night, we planned to finally visit the Blue Rock Thrush as blue skies were forecast for Stow-on-the-Wold. We have always stuck to the 2-hour rule when it comes to twitches (depending on how fast we drive!!)

We arrived at around 10am and parked in the car park which was around a 5 minute walk away. On arrival plenty of birders around, but had been told it had just gone into the garden to feed, using this opportunity we went around the back to find even more birders! The light was alot better this way and after a short wait the BRT popped up onto the rooftop which was in full sunlight.

After around 20 minutes it flew off and done a full circle of other nearby roofs, with even better light!

After around an hour, it flew over onto the conifer tree and perched there for a few minutes. It then flew back into the garden to feed again, we left shortly after this as out plan was to spend the rest of the day at Slimbridge.

Shame it's out of focus!

When the BRT disappeared, there were plenty of other birds to photograph including this Starling.

We saw and we conquered! A stunning bird, what a way to start 2017!

After what seemed like forever we arrived at Slimbridge to a full car park and even cars parked out on the road.

We headed straight for Rushy and the Martin Smith hides, hoping they would be slightly quieter, but it seemed they would all be pretty full today!

From the Martin Smith hide the resident Buzzard was on the fence as always, but today it was alot closer so proved for some nice shots!

The Wigeon flock were very flighty today.

What trip is complete without some in-flight shots...

The Bittern showed briefly for us late afternoon from the Kingfisher Hide, but unfortunately no images.

With everything starting to roost, a last drop-in to the Rushy proved successful with more flight shots, but with the light fading we got a few of the Bewick Swan's and headed home.

A very successful day with a finally some decent sunshine to try out our new camera kits!

A lovely start to 2017 and with hopefully plenty more trips planned!

Thanks For Looking ! 

 Happy New Year to All our Readers, Thanks for all your support!

If you enjoy our blog's, why not follow us on our social media:

Twitter

Facebook