It's like waiting for a London Bus!

The bird list has been steadily building up since I discovered my local patch in 2010. The 99th species was a marsh harrier that was seen during the winter and spring of 2012. I have spent the last year wondering what was going to be the landmark 100th. I had to wait until the 6th August for an answer when I heard a green sandpiper flying overhead whilst moth trapping.

A year and a half was a long time to wait for the hundredth bird, but it has seemed to break some kind of block and I immediately added a further two species the next day.

The 7th looked like it was the best day of the week to walk my butterfly transect, but I had to do it before starting work at 3pm. I always do the walk in reverse if I am working later on, so I headed out and up into Reffley Wood and towards the end/start of the transect.

As I approached a clearing close to the end/start, a Land Rover with horse box was coming down the track. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be there, but there was nothing I could do and proceeded to my starting point. I started the transect at 10:56 and started to walk back along the way I had just come and found the Land Rover now parked up and with the horse munching some hay that was on the side of the box.

It turned out to be a contractor for the Woodland Trust and we soon got chatting about conservation and I discovered that he had worked on some of the same nature reserves that I had back in the 90's. As we were talking, he spotted a reflection in the windscreen of the Land Rover. I looked up and was startled to see 4 common cranes flying overhead. I couldn't believe it! Common cranes flying over my patch and my 101st species for the patch.

We watched the cranes circling around and thought that they were getting ready to land on Roydon Common, which isn't too far away. But they were just using a thermal to gain some height. As we were watching them, a raptor came into view and started to do the same thing.

I didn't immediately recognise what type of raptor it was and I knew straight away that this was going to be another new patch bird. But what was it? It looked big and I could see that it wasn't one of the buzzards that regularly breed in the woods. I decided to compare the size of the wings with that of the cranes and realised they were much bigger. I then noticed that the tail of the raptor seemed too small for the size of the bird and that it was a much lighter colour. The wings were dead straight and looked like someone had tied a plank across it. A big and bulky raptor with huge, straight wings and a short, light coloured tail could only be one thing - a white-tailed eagle.

We were both ecstatic to see the cranes, but were dumbfounded to have a white-tailed eagle as well! We just looked at each other and laughed, not believing our luck for that day. I watched them all climbing higher and higher before having to leave to ensure I was able to get back home and have some lunch before starting work.

I was on such a high for the rest of the day, and I still am a week later! But then that is the beauty of having your own patch. It is moments like these that make all of the hard work worthwhile.

Thursday 21st, Gaywood Valley

I had a busy day today and wasn’t able to go down my patch until later on, which was no bad thing today, with the weather being so cold. I made sure I had a full flask of tea and a flask of warming soup and headed out mid-afternoon to look out for owls.

The trouble with my patch is if the wind is from the east, it blows directly across the valley and slices straight through you. It was bitterly raw as I stood at the watch point and, with no sign of any owls, it was difficult to keep my mind off the cold. A female Sparrowhawk tried to help as it flew across in front of me, but it was too quick and I soon began to feel the cold once again.

A pair of buzzards were in the far corner of the valley, with one just sitting on top of a tree and the other flying around in front of it. The short-eared owls were still not showing and I was getting colder and colder. My flask of tea and flask of soup helped, but I was getting colder and colder as I stood there. Finally, I had had enough and started to pack up to leave. I took one step back towards home when a shorty finally decided to show.
There was only one owl again, but it put on a good show this time. It quartered over most of the valley and gave some reasonably close views. Barn owls will often fly breath-takingly close when they are about, but the shorties never do. It is obvious that they are aware of me, and they stare me out with their great headlamps whenever they come within a hundred yards of where I stand.

It is amazing how I can forget all about the cold whenever the owls put in an appearance, but it eventually makes itself felt again. I couldn’t stand it anymore today, so I decided to leave once again, stopping every now and then to re-check the owls. I had reached the cycle track that runs alongside the valley and turned for home, when a superb woodcock flew up from close by, giving some stunning views as it flew at head height just in front of me. What a way to finish of the day!

Grey Heron 1
Eurasian Sparrowhawk 1 Female
Common Buzzard 2
Common Kestrel 2
Common Pheasant 1
Eurasian Woodcock 1
Black-headed Gull 8
Mew Gull 3
Common Wood Pigeon 450
Eurasian Collared Dove 1
Short-eared Owl 1
Chinese Muntjac 1
Green Woodpecker 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Winter Wren 2
Hedge Accentor 4
European Robin 2
Common Blackbird 4
Mistle Thrush 2
Long-tailed Tit 3
Blue Tit 3
Great Tit 2
Black-billed Magpie 1
Eurasian Jackdaw 1
Rook 3
Carrion Crow 1
Common Starling 18
House Sparrow 1
Chaffinch 8
European Greenfinch 2
European Goldfinch 1
Common Bullfinch 1
Reed Bunting 1

Tuesday 20 March 2013

It is holiday this week and, as usual, my week has been screwed up. I always start my holidays with high anticipation that I will get a lot of birding in, but things continually crop up to prevent my aspirations becoming reality. A drunken neighbour woke me up in the early hours of Monday morning and kept me awake for some time, so by the time I woke up for the first day of my holiday, I was just too tired to go out. A meeting on Tuesday morning prevented an early start, and just to make it more frustrating, the person didn’t turn up and I ended up waiting in for no reason. Thursday will be screwed up now because this meeting has now been rescheduled for then, so I won’t be able to get out early once again.

So after waiting in for no reason, I eventually got out and headed off down Gayton Road just after 11:00AM. I was dressed for the cold, but the temperature wasn’t too bad. It is still below average as winter reluctantly gives up its grip, but there was some warmth in the air and the ENE wind was only very light. This was enough to encourage plenty of bird activity and I managed to record 45 species for the day. But it was too cold for anything else and I only recorded one grey squirrel, one rabbit, and three muntjacs.

Now is the time that snakes and amphibians come out of hibernation, but there has been no sign of anything so far. I checked the usual spots in Half Wood and Reffley Wood for grass snakes and adders and the dykes and reservoir for amphibians to no avail. Spring is definitely arriving late this year and, just to confirm this, a couple of flocks of siskins and lesser redpolls were present in Half Wood and Reffley Wood – both the first winter records for this season.

There was some encouraging signs, however, with a single flowering daffodil close to the Reffley Reservoir and a couple of primrose basal leaves in Reffley Wood. There were also plenty of lords-and-ladies leaves present in Reffley Wood and looks like it could be a good year for this superb species.

After last week’s fantastic count of five, the short-eared owls were a bit of a let-down today. I arrived at the watch point a little after 3:00PM and was immediately treated to a brief glimpse of a single bird. I set myself up with my camera and settled back to conceal myself in a stunted tree growing on the edge of one of their regular haunts. But I have been having trouble with my camera, and after taking some test shots to make sure it was working, found that it suddenly decided to stop working again.

I think it is a problem with the lens rather than the camera and I found if I reduced the zoom a touch, everything worked ok. But there was no sign of any owls by this time and I pondered on the fact that they always seem to do this whenever I bring my camera. They must have a hit rate of 95% for not showing when I bring it along! The only other time I got a glimpse of an owl was when I was checking a text from a friend and one showed way over on the far side and out of range.

I was going up mums a little later on and had to leave earlier than I would have liked to. On my way back, I spotted a couple of birders also looking out for the owls. There have been a number of people down the Gaywood Valley this winter and it is encouraging that all of the hard work I have been putting in is beginning to work. I have been sending in my records to the County Recorder and spreading the word with as many other birders as I can. The valley might not be up to the standards of a full blown nature reserve, but it is still a superb place for wildlife and the more people who know about it, the more likely it is to be protected.

Whilst the short-eared owls had been a disappointment, my spirits were lifted when the little owl was present in its regular spot. Its appearance can be very sporadic and it can be absent for months at a time, so it is always great when it decides to grace us with its presence.

Little Egret
Mute Swan 
Mallard 
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard 
Common Kestrel 
Red Fox (Droppings)
Red-legged Partridge 
Grey Partridge 
Common Pheasant 
Common Moorhen 
Eurasian Curlew
Black-headed Gull 
Mew Gull 
Stock Pigeon 
Common Wood Pigeon 
Eurasian Collared Dove 
Little Owl 
Short-eared Owl 
Chinese Muntjac
Green Woodpecker 
Great Spotted Woodpecker 
Grey Squirrel 
Winter Wren 
Hedge Accentor 
European Robin 
RabbitCommon Blackbird 
Song Thrush 
Redwing 
Mistle Thrush 
Goldcrest 
Daffodil (Flowering)
Long-tailed Tit 
Coal Tit 
Blue Tit 
Great Tit 
Eurasian Treecreeper 
Eurasian Jay 
Black-billed Magpie 
Eurasian Jackdaw 
Carrion Crow 
Common Starling 
House Sparrow 
Primrose (Basal leaves)
Chaffinch 
European Greenfinch 
European Goldfinch 
Eurasian Siskin
Lesser Redpoll
Reed Bunting

23 January 2013

The cold and snowy weather is well into it's second week and I have been a little worried about whether the short-eared owls have finally abandoned my local patch. So I decided to brave the cold and go down this afternoon to see what is happening. I had some good news as I walked down towards the watch point when I bumped into a regular dog walker who told me he has seen a s-e owl chase off a kestrel last Sunday and had had it fly right over his head this morning. Whilst he was telling me, we were treated to a great view of a barn owl as it flew overhead. I slipped and slided my way down to the watch point and set myself up for a long, cold wait. The first thing I did was to pour myself a hot, steaming cup of tea before I started to scan across the valley. One of the regular kestrels was out hunting and the barn owl was still hunting along the edge of the copse on the northern edge, but there was no sign of the short-eared owl. I thought I might have seen it dip down into the grass out in the middle, but it was only the briefest of glimpses and couldn't confirm a thing. The kestrel then came dashing in and was calling as it went. It attacked something in the grass, which then jumped up and flew a short distance before disappearing again. I had been right, the bird I had briefly seen was indeed a short-eared owl. That was the only time I saw the owl whilst I was down my patch. I continued to wait in the cold for very little reward. I then heard a brambling calling from a near by tree and went over to have a look. Any ideas of not being rewarded for putting up with the cold immediately dissipated as I stood admiring a flock of 6 brambling and a couple of greenfinches. This is the best count of bramblings I have had for my local patch and I always have a lot of time for this beautiful species. Pleased with my efforts so far, I decided to go and have a look at the river to see if last years little grebe had returned. I arrived at the bridge, but only found the usual number of mallards present and so I decided it was time to return to my nice warm home. There is a drainage ditch that runs away from the cycle path along the way. I noticed what I first thought was a large leaf next to a bramble. I stopped to have a look and found it was in fact a water rail. I have recorded water rails on my local patch for the last two winters, but this is the first time I have actual seen one here and it rounded off what has been a superb couple of hours birding.