The Quietest month of the year - sadly!

Tuesday 1^st August 2017

August is notorious for being a month when bird watching is hard work. Some species, and in particular adult birds, are already starting their migration journey South, with Ospreys and Cuckoos being good examples. So with my 200 target in mind, my best plan has been to keep tabs on the web sites and see if any of my missing birds are in the area.

At the same time defending my claim that I am not a twitcher!!, I see Frampton has Curlew Sand and Wood Sand ??   Tuesday maybe??

Anyway, Gill, Chris and I decided to have last Tuesday morning at Attenborough, and getting there at 9.00am on a day in the first week of the school holidays was a good idea…. Well until Noon!.

But we had a nice walk, and starting with the Kingfisher hide we had good views of a Green Sandpiper, and a Little Ringed Plover.  Gill intended to have some lunch in the café when we got back, but at 12.15 it was buzzing, so we each dispersed to dine whence we could!

It’s been a funny old week.  Most of the Derby press has been about a jogger who was attacked by a raptor, variously suggested as a Buzzard or an escaped falcon of sorts, but whichever I guess the chap never expected to see photos of his semi-bald head with 2 parallel scratches, on the front page of the Derby Telegraph.

And of course the Bee-Eaters continue to make publicity, sadly now because of the reports that 2 out of 3 nests have failed.   What disappointing news, although they have given a lot of pleasure to a lot of birders, who, like me, now have the Bee-eater on their UK list.

I see Slim Bridge appears to be preoccupied with culinary delights, so I thought I would suggest 7 recipes that he might like to recommend to Mrs Bridges.

1                    An obvious one - Duck in orange sauce, or if his Chef is continental, Canard a l’orange.

2                    Bombay Duck

3                    Roast Teal for those with small appetites

4                    Roast Snipe comes with pseudo chopsticks.

5                    Woodcock Michigan  -

6                    Bird nest soup

7                    …………………………….. and a partridge in a pear sauce.

Any other recommended meals on my blog comments page, please.

Right, back to sanity.

Sunday 6^th August.   Drove to Carsington and nearly flattened a male Bullfinch sitting in the middle of the road…but he survived. Thought they were tree birds??

My 151^st Bird Walk at Carsington, with 18 people was a pleasant morning walk, even if it was a bit chilly, particularly by the water.  2 new people in July enjoyed it so much that they came again in August, and persuaded a couple of friends to come with them for the first time…now that I like!  Makes it worthwhile.

Because as I said above, August can be a hard month for birding. We did manage to list 35 species, but not in volume. One Willow Warbler, not in singing mood took some searching, but for some reason Pied wagtails on the beach(!!) were plentiful, and for those who loitered in the Wildlife Centre, they were accompanied by some Linnets on Horseshoe Island + as a good bonus for only a few, a Peregrine on the Pylons. 

An Osprey was spotted during the morning, seen to fish abortively, but not by us.Left going South= home.   

Our Bird of the Day was a nice flock of a dozen Dunlin which did a bit of an air-display to help the learners see more of the wings and the dark patch on the breast.

So as B O D, it is beholden on me to research and talk about this delightful wader at a future BWB, but it will have to wait until October. 

Keith will be leading the walk with Gary on the first Sunday in September because I will be recovering my sea legs in Bridlington, after the previous days trip in the Wash, looking at Skuas and Shearwaters ……I hope.  Last time I did the trip (2015), and Amanda and Noel were on that trip too, there were more technicolour yawns than sea birds.

Never mind, it will all be worth while and I love it all.

Happy Birding