How to count

5623 Starlings coming in to roost. How do I know there are that many Starlings in the photograph? I've counted them.

Actually I haven't counted them, I've used a fantastic piece of software called Dotcount. Very neat, and very customisable so it only counts what you specify. Give it a go yourself. Here is the link:

http://reuter.mit.edu/software/dotcount/

Ding-dong!

Bare-throated Bellbird from Steve Blain on Vimeo.

These surely have some of the biggest gobs of all birds? Bare-throated Bellbird, Brazil, October 2008

Honey Bee

As I was wandering around in Abuko I bumped in to this sat atop a large dead tree. When I put my bins on it I was rather surprised see it was a young Honey Buzzard! Abuko, The Gambia, December 2009.

Erithacus rubecula

Great, aren't they?

Black-necked Grebe video

Black-necked Grebe, Broom, January 2010.

GND

Cracking views of the Stewartby Great Northern Diver this afternoon.

From a land far, far away...

Spent a cracking day with Paul Hackett grabbing shots of this Black-throated Thrush near Whitby today. Dull light, but a very showy bird made for a very pleasing day. Thanks, Paul.

A tale of two shots

Had a super night out chasing Owls around the local lanes with Paul Hackett last night. We had two lovely Tawny Owls that sat long enough for us to take some snaps of them.

The two shots above are taken with two very different methods. The top shot is digiscoped, with just the light of the lamp illuminating the bird. This is really difficult and relies on a wide-spread of light from the lamp, the bird being the optimum distance away, and a co-operative bird. The bottom is a far better option - a DSLR and flashgun - much faster to setup and the light is superior because of the flash.

I like the DSLR shot much better, but the challenge of getting a cracking shot digiscoped is far greater. I will keep trying...

Berry gobbler

Lots of snow and these things around at the moment. Redwing, MVCP, 19th Dec 09.

Ed ticks Caspian shocker!

I thought it might have been a hopeless task this afternoon. I looked at the tip and very few gulls were on it. I then looked at the fields and I could only find a handful of birds. Quest was equally poor, with just a few early-afternoon loafers. Ed's mission to find one of the Caspian Gulls today was looking decidedly dicey!

I met up with him at 2pm and we did the usual circuit - tip, field, pit. It was quiet. We decided to have a look at Broggy and let the gulls assemble prior to roosting. Broggy was full of duck as usual, with up to five Scaup bobbing around in front of the watch point. However, as nice as they are, it wasn't what Ed was after!

We ended up back at the pre-roost pit. A few more birds had drifted in, but nothing that resembled a Caspo. I went through them again, and found this boy paddling in the water - score!

I say 'boy' but its such a demure thing, that I suspect it's probably a female. Que life tick for Ed - Cha-ching!

Looking at photos of the first-winter we had a few weeks ago, it's clear this is a new bird - that makes five individuals in the last three weeks.

Captain Caspian

I spent most of today 'brickpitting'. That is chasing gulls from tip, to field, to pit, and back again. I ended up with two Caspian Gulls - an adult from last week, and this new bird - a 3rd winter.

After complaining about the lack of Caspian's so far this winter, I've now seen four in the last two weeks. November has to be one of the best months to find these chaps in the UK?

Reed Bunt

Reed Bunting, game-strip near Upper Caldecote, 15th Nov. Game-strips are a real boon for finches, buntings, and sparrows during the winter period. They provide a fantastic food supply for wild birds, as well as their more 'cultivated' brethren. Unfortuantely, soon after Christmas, many of them are ploughed in as their usefulness declines as the pheasants and partridges are shot out.

Casper the ghost

It's been fairly slim gull pickings recently in the county. After a juv/first-winter Caspian Gull in the Stewartby roost the other week, things went a bit quiet before an adult Caspian was found in the dying rays of light on Friday night by MJP.

Saturday evenings roost was typically poor, with just a single adult Yellow-leg of note. Today I decided to pop in and see the mid-day roost on one of the more 'exclusive' brick pits.

I struck gull-gold! Well, reletively speaking - I found two adult Caspians in a matter of minutes. Both pretty typical birds, but both flew off seperately towards Stewartby before anyone else could get to see them. Below are a few shots.

This is the second bird I found:

And here's the first bird:

Talking of Redwing...

I had a week away in the wilds of Scotland back in July. As it was a holiday with some mates, no hard birding was on the cards - this was a relaxing week away.

Of course, the birds didn't see it that way, and even without trying I found Redwings breeding in the garden! Reading the latest Rare Breeding Birds Panel report (for 2005) they are staggeringly rare birds - just one pair were confirmed breeding in 2005 - which makes the pair I found fairly significant.

I watched them bouncing around the lawn all week. They were picking up small worms to feed their young, which was actually in a leylandi right next to the window of our room. They were also incredibly aggressive towards anyone walking through the garden - they dive-bombed anyone who got too close to the nest, which was also right next to the gate!

The best bit was on the last day of our stay, when on a fairly wet afternoon, I saw a dark, streaky, stubby-tailed juvenile Redwing sitting on the veranda! It was too quick for the camera mind you, but it put a large smile on my face.

Bluebills

A mini-influx of these dudes in the county at the moment. Its gone from none on Saturday, to three on Sunday, and five today! Anyway, lovely ducks, Scaup. This one was at Brogborough Lake, 1st Nov.

Snowflake

Snow Bunting, Ben Nevis, July 2009. Several of these boys singing (and eating peoples sarnies) at the summit. There are four races of them around the globe, this is Plectrophenax nivalis insulae which breeds in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and in Scotland.

Coming in to roost

Some Gulls flying in to the Broom gull roost. 12th October 2009

Zorros Gull

Apparent Azorean Gull, Didcott, Oxfordshire, 10th October 2009. The shade of this gulls mantle was mid-way between a normal Yellow-leg and a British Lesser Black-back. A very interesting bird indeed.

Saturday gull twitch

Apparent Azorean Gull, Didcott, Oxon, 10th October 2009

Loony vismiggin'!

This isn't what you usually expect to see vismigging in the middle of Bedfordshire! This Diver, which I'm pretty sure is a Black-throated, flew over a few minutes before I was about to leave for work.

I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at when I first picked it up as a dot off to the north-east. As it got closer I thought 'grebe?' but after a few seconds more it was quite plainly a diver! It's not often to have to identify divers from underneath, so I couldn't put a name to it initially. It was only after viewing this on a TV at home this evening I could piece together what I saw:
* Smalli-ish Diver, not as bulky as a GND
* Slim neck with obviously sticky-out and bulbus head
* Obvious feet and legs sticking out the back
* Quick-ish flight
* Not startlingly white, like Red-throat

In addition to the Diver I also had three probable Woodlarks fly over, but were just a bit too far away to confidently identify. Anyway, the rest of the session was fairly productive too...

07:00-08:30
Most movement was north this morning, quite different to the usual south
and south-west. In order of appearance:

Meadow Pipit - 23
Chaffinch - 74
Dunnock - 2
Redwing - 26
Goldfinch - 7
Yellowhammer - 5
Pied Wag - 10
House Martin - 4
Sparrowhawk - 2
Blackbird - 3
Song Thrush - 6
Starling - 2
Linnet - 7
Skylark - 4
Poss Woodlark - 3
Bullfinch - 1
Reed Bunting - 4
Diver sp. - 1