And now for a short intermission

Sunday May 15^th  a little meander round Markeaton Park with nothing out of the ordinary to report. 

I did watch a nice male Great Spotted Woodpecker searching for grubs as it worked its way up a dead tree, and heard plenty of bird song. But we are now in the difficult times for birdwatching, with the green foliage obscuring what may be there, and we have to depend on song and calls for the next 4 months.

............ and that could not be more true on Tuesday 17^th May at Whisby in Lincs.Whisby has always been a good site for Nightingales, although your patience gets seriously tested to see if you can see the bird that you CAN hear. 

Chris Tony and I could hear 2 Nightingales the other side of the railway, but no way could we see them, and a bird photographer with rigor mortise watching one particular branch, was just waiting for the right moment for that perfect picture, was equally unsuccessful.

Anyway, we did tick a nice Med Gull amongst 5000 black headed gulls (well it seemed like that, especially with the noise), an Oystercatcher on eggs, and a lovely Garden Warbler amongst a range of warblers.

After a good lunch at Whisby (at another eatery featured in the Egon Bennett guide to birding fast food outlets) we found our way to the newish RSPB site at Langford Lowfields, just north of Newark, and which I had not visited before

The site is large and still partially a working quarry. After a 600km walk, we found ourselves at the Beach Hut, a quaintly named mini visitors centre, (sorry...here we go again... it is the centre which is mini, not the visitors) manned on this occasion by a group of young volunteers. 

The perfect bird for us to end our day, and qualifying easily as BOD, was a Hobby. So this takes me on to a respectable 170, which at 17^th May handsomely compares with 2015 when I only counted 170 for the whole year.

Unfortunately, as I have hinted in the last couple of blogs, all good things are having to go on hold as I am about to pack my overnight bag for an operation followed by a longish stay at the Royal hospital in Derby. So I’m afraid that my blog will be on hold for a few weeks, not least of all because there aint much to be seen from a hospital ward window, and that’s assuming it HAS a window! And even when I get home I’m afraid recovery will be lengthy.

Thank you to all the relatives, friends and fellow birders who have sent me good wishes for my operation, some from as far as from Majorca, Devon and even Belper!!   I hope my (warped-) sense of humour will not be diluted, and one friend has suggested I write a book whilst in confinement to maintain my writing style.

I am able to various statistics about readers of my blog, which tell me amongst other things the home country of readers. Currently they are in Ireland, Russia, USA and Poland to name a few, and I sometimes wonder what makes them look at my article. Maybe they were just surfing, or possibly lured by the heading on the entry.

For example, I can see that the blog headed “so bald heads ARE attractive to birds”, on the 24^th April had more hits than any entry from Feb to May... I wonder what they expected?  

I hope that some readers may feel inclined to add a comment on an entry you enjoy, perhaps with your own experiences or sightings, and foreign comments would be very interesting..... to everyone. Just click on “No comment” at the end of post, and follow the stages through. You will then find that YOU are in print.

TTFN

A free App with every pair of bins!

Tuesday 10^th May 2016   so as I was saying I’ve got to get it all in by the 18^th May, so I’d better get straight to the point this week.

Birding colleagues being away somewhere, Billy no-mates decided to try and boost the YTD figures ASAP (sounds like some sort of code!), so armed with a flask of Aunty Marys patent (potent?) coffee, I set off bright and early for Bempton Cliffs. Apart from a diversion off the M62 to North Cave (good site – good caravan that does a belly-buster breakfast roll that will last for the day, which almost made me stop) I duly arrived at the busy RSPB centre, and headed straight for the cliffs. 

I get a very rapid 5 additions to my list with Guillemots, Kittiwakes gathering grass for their nests, Razorbills, Gannets and a small number of Puffins.

Surprisingly I could find no Fulmars, nor Corn Buntings, so I decided to go to Filey Brigg to try and find the Surf Scoter. Popped into Filey Dam on the way through, where Tony and I saw 2 Spoonbills in 2011. Locals told us that the resident pair of MALE Mute Swans would never let them stay and would always chase them off??!!

Only excitement was the 2 eggs on toast at the good Carr Naze cafe (where a bird sightings book is available for visitors to check the birding news), and a Skylark with a small grey ring on its right leg. I have witnessed the regular ringing activity on the headland which the public are allowed to watch, so this little feller was probably one in their records.

I witnessed a birder at Bempton using his binoculars for a purpose that I had not seen before, although I knew immediately what he was doing. (Stop it!!). It reminded me of something David Smallshire had shown the people on the Exe trip back in February. He had a very small phial of shells that waders eat, but to see them clearly, he explained that if you look through binoculars the wrong way round, the binoculars actually act like a microscope. Try it. Of course at a distance, things do look much smaller.

The birder rather than looking for his glasses, or manually enlarging the image on his phone, was using his binoculars to give an enlarged image!!. So there you have it, a pair of binoculars is a useful app to read your apps!

Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12  Another of our journeys south and a few “dips”, Mary asks if I heard the Ring Necked Parakeet calling as it flew over at Putney (No!), but we totted up 20 Red Kites between the M25 and Oxford (Including one cruising over the car park at Oxford).

Because of the forthcoming event next week, we have sadly had to cancel the 14 days in Majorca. But if I let my mind wander as I read Amanda’s daily sightings report whilst she and Noel enjoy the birding delights of the North east of Majorca, I can almost imagine I am there. (Who am I kidding.)

I was pleased to hear from Severn Trent at Tittesworth that they have had 3 sightings of Osprey, and wanted some help and advice on how to go about putting up nests to try and get some breeding birds. Gave them what I can at the moment, so that they look at costs etc, and hopefully we will be able to get a nest up ready for the 2017 season.

So...168 and 4 days to go to “O” day.

Ring Ouzels Leicestershire NIL Derbyshire 2 !!

April ended and May began at Carsington with a nice bit of Osprey flourish, with birds seen on the 28^th, and then on Bank Holiday Monday – not for the tourists..8.05am is a bit early!

Sunday May 1^st,  and sadly no Ospreys, but a very good walk for the 23 people (and a dog) that enjoyed a productive but cold morning.  It was double-double-U time – Warblers and Waders, and all the Hirundines plus Swift to make a good count of 38 species.

Sightings began with a pair of very obscure Dunlin on water Sports Island, and the 3 birders with scopes were in demand!  Common Sandpiper was added to the sightings, as was Oystercatcher and Redshank.

The summer warblers proved very popular. A male Blackcap was very obscure, but Chiffchaff could be seen and heard.  The Willow Warbler that sat at the top of a tree showing off its distinctive song, was not surprisingly voted BOD. 

A few years ago the story was going round of Penguins standing on the beach in the Falklands, looking out to sea. Allegedly, pilots would fly in low over the water and up and over the penguins, who instead of turning to look, leant further back until they fell on their back. This was almost the same at Carsington when the first Swift flew over at the tip of Stones Island, except that it was the birders who almost fell over – well I did actually lose my cap!

Wednesday 4^th May, and I joined an RSPB Chesterfield walk to Padley Gorge, up in the north of Derbyshire, to look for some of the breeding summer visitors. This walk was lead by Amanda Palethorpe, an RSPB volunteer whom I have mentioned before, together with her husband Noel.   

Padley Gorge has a strong water course tumbling over the rocks (Dipper country), and the pathway is arduous in that you often have to watch every step to avoid tripping over stones, rocks and roots. So the tendency is to stop frequently. Padley is well known as a good location to see Flycatchers (Pied and Spotted), Redstarts, and then at the end of the gorge going on to the Longshaw Estate and Burbage, sightings can include Cuckoos, Ring Ouzels, Chats etc.

(FLASH NEWS..... Mary has just come in and told me she has seen a Blue Tit going into one of our/their nest boxes... fingers crossed.)

Sorry, as I was saying...... Amanda and Noel are very keen and knowledgeable birders, and they had identified a route that quickly climbed to a higher point, with views over the canopy, rather than the strenuous path where you have to lean backwards all the time. (see Penguins above!!)     

And it paid off. Within 20 minutes, they picked up a singing Wood Warbler, not seen by me since 2007, and 8 minutes later another of the target birds for the walk, a Pied Flycatcher. .. and 3 minutes later a Redstart. Resisting the urge to be satisfied with those 3, we still continued onwards, seeing Tree Pipit and Stonechat on the way.

Amanda had arranged for 2 people to join us, both of whom are doing moorland survey and monitoring work for the RSPB, and knew where Ring Ouzels were nesting.   And in no time we saw at least 2 different birds sitting on rocks and feeding on the grass. Really made up for my not seeing them at Bardon Hill last month.

So with 5 additions to the year list, I retraced my path to Grindleford Station, missing out, as it happens, on seeing a nice Whinchat. I must admit that the strenuous walk had taken its toll, but moving on to 163 made it worthwhile.

 
Sadly, some forthcoming news will explain why there will be a bit of concentrated birding up to the 18^th May.