The Weekend's Antics

Big Waters

I got beaten by a Tortoise in my last race so what chance have I got now

 Damn, little BHGs could be due right next to the Common Terns nests

 I've watched other Birds doing this so thought I might give it a go for 

30mins or so and see if I can pick up a small titbit

Down from 8 to 6 but has also cleared the pond of the other Swans and now rules the roost

 First Large Red Damselfly of the year

 Quite a few around even with the high winds, just a pretty picture

 The Boardway Arch is filling in nicely

 Tremendous winds forcing planes to come in at strange angles

and wobbling quite a bit but the Emirates came in at the strangest

angle yet it was rock steady.  Pilots definitely deserve their wages

Howdon Wetlands

Beautiful meadow but a bit too windy for Butterflies at the moment

Although at least one little bird was using it

 The hide at Howdon, note the smashed windows on the lower level done in a 10min makeover by those kind prats from a housing estate not too far away.  The only good thing to come out of it is there are now 4 Swallows residing in there although only half a nest is built

 A few of the 17 Grey Herons that were there on Sunday

The Swans were out of site but I could see at least 3 of the 4 young

 I noticed 2 Godwits amongst the Curlews and decided to take a pic but using only the viewfinder on my Bridge I missed them completely but got this shot.  The left bird is obviously a Curlew but the right one is much smaller (Any comments appreciated (to go with a couple I already have))

The Garden

The chap who lives behind us has recently lost his wife and he used to cook 3 meals a day for the two of them although I suspect now he does what I do when Carole is not in and just makes a sandwich.  He used to put out the remnants of his meals for the 3 Herring Gulls but very little goes out now so they have started sitting on the garage roof waiting for us to put food out.  For a chap not far off 90 he still gets around OK and always hangs a bag of Rhubarb on the fence at least once a fortnight and always chucks his egg trays over when he has finished with them.

In case you didn't catch my Moth Blog here are a couple of pictures of the

Lime Hawk-moth I trapped on Friday night

Now for the obligatory video, I could watch these for hours in the garden

Quite a good little feeder this

p.s.  Met Mick M on Sunday at Big Waters.  Great chap and extremely knowledgeable, hope to bump into you again 

Big Waters Sunday 31 May 15

A late start on Sunday for the Big Waters Walk due to the weather but when I arrived at least the rain had stopped.  Although after we hunted around for about 30mins the rain started so the 4 of us headed for the hides bumping into Graeme B on the way.  Not a great lot to see as everything was huddled into the reeds as the wind picked up a bit although the rain did hold off.  Everyone was scouring the area hard trying to find something when someone did, it was Alan J of course and just as we were getting our Bins onto it Alan called it as an Osprey.  About 10 seconds was all we got of it then, grabbing cameras, some of us raced outside, unfortunately just in time to see it disappear in a SW direction over the trees.  Not a great lot else was seen but here are a few pictures anyway.

This young fox came onto the main scrape causing all the birds within view

to come up to the scrape and watch it

Fox wandering along the Scrape

 One Day......I will get a good shot

 From 10 down to 2

First Blue Damselfly of the year

Well thats another exciting weekend over with although if I am bored I can always
go and watch the birds feeding and drinking in the garden

Trip to Scottish West Coast last week

Had 5 Days on the West Coast of Scotland last week.  It was not a birding trip but we saw quite a few anyway.  Here are a few pictures from the visit.

On an outhouse next to the hotel near Prestwick

 Some great street art in Glasgow

 Went to Church a few times

 Great afternoon walking back and forward crossing the bridges on the River Ayr

 Met these nice guys who live in the harbour area of Ayr then we found out they came from Darlington (where Carole comes from)

 Lots of Bikers around there although this guy and his bike just blew the rest away

Poor James Watt

Cute 

Only 1 VPL on view as many eyes followed them as they walked around the square

 Zebra trying to communicate with Herring Gull

Great idea for your old wellies

Big Waters Update

Once again my week has been rather full of work, work and more work.  Haven't even got round to doing the ironing, hoovering or the garden yet, although I did manage to sort my pictures from last weekends visit to Big Waters were we had a great walk round on Sunday adding Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Swift to the Patch List.  So here are a few pictures from the day

As you can probably see the Common Tern on the right has a ring on it and after a lot of photographing I have managed to get the ring number and passed it on to Alan J who hopefully can get it from the BTO so we can find its origin.  Note the other Terns left leg (poor thing).  There is another Tern there with a ring also, so will attempt to get that if it decides to stay.

Plenty of singing Sedge Warblers

A very short video of a Sedge Warbler singing and Birders talking

 One of five Pochard that have been seen a couple of times last week

A welcome addition to any birders morning as it pops up beside you and belts out its amazing song louder than most singers and doesn't need amplification

The family of Swans from Little Waters are now doing daily trips to Big Waters.  Still 8 Cygnets and their father clears a patch at Big Waters before they are brought onto the pond ensuring some modicum of safety

Then faster than a speeding bullet (not quite) but can be just as deadly

Finally one of my favourite places at Big Waters and as Spring turns to Summer the foliage will completely encompass the path making it a stunning view.  Unfortunately then the path will be filled by cyclists, dogs walking their humans,  family packs of walkers with children off the leash, horses with people on their backs wearing their pretend police shirts to make them feel important, etc etc.  Of course they all have their rights just like I do but I don't ride along the paths eating choc bars and just throwing wrappers away, leave my old shoes lying on the road like some leave their bits of bikes that have broke, leave huge or small dollops of excreta where other people are treading, run across fields that have signs that say DO NOT, I could go on (as I normally do) but just look at the beauty of this little spot