Long Billed Dowitcher

The Long Billed Dowitcher is a very rare sighting in the UK, with only a handful of them being spotted per year on average - usually in the Autumn or Winter season. This bird was spotted on South Lake at the Slimbridge Wetland Reserve in Gloucestershire on Monday 30th July 2012.

Long Billed Dowitchers breed in the far north of North America and in eastern Siberia, so spotting one in the UK during the breeding season may be indicative of the odd weather we've had this summer with the jet stream being further south.

Unfortunately the Dowitcher was a fair distance away and the sun was reluctant to show itself, so the pictures are a little compromised. The bird was amongst lots of Black Tailed Godwits which made spotting it difficult without expert help from more experienced twitchers. These pictures were taken with the Canon 100-400mm lens at F8.

Fledgling Green Woodpeckers

Over the last week, we have noticed how the bird activity has dropped immensely at the feeding station because the birds are able to find more natural food. Today though, we found something to write about.

We looked out the window this morning and saw three juvenile woodpeckers and one adult male feasting on ant nests on the other side of our residential road. Juveniles are recognisable by their speckled plumage and males have red "moustaches" and females have black ones. Here's an up-close video of a juvenile Green Woodpecker. Enjoy!

Sparrowhawk kills Blue Tit

It seems that our Greenham garden is now being frequented by the Juvenile Sparrowhawk and its hunting skills are improving. It's mid-morning snack was one of our fledgling Blue Tits. We were only counting them yesterday and commented on there being seven of them. Now there are only six!

The Sparrowhawk is an ambush predator and small birds make up most of the male and juvenile Sparrowhawk's diet. The female, being larger can take much larger birds including Wood Pigeons.

The bird's presence in our garden has freaked out the birds who now make very short visits to the bird feeders before retiring to nearby bushes! It's a beautiful bird though we think it's the same ringed bird that we had a week ago.

This stunning picture expands to 1000x667 pixels when clicked and was taken through a double glazed window at F5.6 1/500s at 400mm on the Canon 100-400mm EF IS lens and Canon 500D body.

Juvenile Sparrowhawk Tries Hunting

A juvenile Sparrowhawk arrived at lunchtime today and sat on the fence at the bottom of our garden for an incredible 35 minutes, just observing the birds on the various feeders. We took an HD Video of this.

Amazingly Blue Tits were feasting on the peanut feeder only 12 feet away, but the 'Sprawk' just sat there eyes affixed staring not seeming to know what to do. Eventually a rather poor attempt at grabbing a Blue Tit was made, but it was just too fast for the Sparrowhawk and escaped into the bushes. The Sparrowhawk quickly conceded defeat and flew off towards Greenham Common. It seems that it needs a lesson in effective hunting from its Dad who has been much more successful in recent visits.

Interestingly, a video I took shows this as a ringed bird.

Green Woodpecker Video

Green Woodpeckers are very shy birds and any attempt to approach them usually results in a swift departure. They are significantly bigger than a Great Spotted Woodpecker and spend a lot of their time on the ground feeding on insects, with a particular fondness for small ant nests in grass.

We were very lucky to take this HD video of a male Green Woodpecker feeding on ants at the edge of our front lawn in Greenham a few days ago. It has been back several times, but flies off when cars come down the road, so we have to be quick with the camera!