Great Grey Shrike - Brimpton 12Nov15

After several extremely frustrating failed attempts a week or two ago, I finally managed to get a glimpse of one of the UK's rarest winter visitors - a Great Grey Shrike. A lifer for me!

A big thank you to the Bracknell birders who helped provide much needed directions. I parked up at the Rowbarge Pub in Woolhampton and walked around the west side of the Gravel Pits. The bird has quite a large territory and currently it is using the fields and hedges just north of Wasing Road, Brimpton.

It was initially spotted on the power lines and then started hunting in the fields, resting atop a Hawthorn bush, where I managed to get this picture. There was very poor light this afternoon, which is fairly typical of November in the UK!

Whinchat on Migration

It was a really nice Autumn day today, so I popped up onto Greenham Common in search of the Yellow Wagtails which were reported on Berks Birds yesterday.

Although there were no signs of the Wagtails, I was delighted to spot a pair of Whinchats feeding in small gorse bushes, just on the western edge of the runway.

Whinchats are migrating back to Africa and are passing through Berkshire from their breeding ground in northern and western England.

Male Redstart on Greenham Common (Sep 2015)

After spending over a frustrating hour and a half today, looking in vain for Wheatears, I finally got lucky and spotted this beautiful male Redstart. It was showing really well, flying down, catching insects, then returning to the same fence post where it sat for quite some time.

Redstarts are beautiful birds and I feel privileged to see one, on its Autumn migration back to Africa, from the breeding areas in Wales and the west country.

The bird was sat right on a post of the perimeter fence surrounding the bird ringing area on the western side of Greenham Common.

The pictures (left) were taken with a Canon 7D Mark II, with a Canon 300mm F2.8 IS II lens and a 1.4x extender - making 420mm focal length. This combo takes great pictures, although I probably would have done slightly better with the 2x extender, as the bird was about 80 feet away.

Great White Egret

It's not every day that one of the UK's rarest birds comes to Thatcham, so I thought I would stop by at Lea Farm, just off the A4 to take a peek at the Great White Egret which appears to have taken up residence there, for a few days at least!

The Great White Egret is unmistakeable; standing around 1m tall with a wingspan of 1.3 - 1.7m. It is around 30% larger than the Little Egret, its much more frequently seen cousin.

When I visited, the Egret was at the far end of the lake from the hide, so you will need binoculars and a long lens or decent Bridge Camera to take photographs. Even my DSLR and 100-400mm lens weren't really adequate. Unfortunately this morning was rather cloudy too, so high ISO was needed, which took the edge off the quality of my pictures.

How to find Lea Farm

Lea Farm can be reached by leaving the A4 (towards Newbury from Thatcham) onto Hambridge Road and taking the first exit at the mini-roundabout onto Hambridge Lane. Then follow the road straight on, until it becomes an unmade road. You'll then need to follow the brown signs for "bird hide".

The NDOC site provides a map. The grid reference is SU495665. This translates to GPS coordinates of 51.395385N and 1.2899073W, if you need to programme your sat nav.

Wheatear Migration

With the summer over (and what a good one it was!) our attentions are now focused on the autumn migration.

I took a trip up to Walbury Hill, which at 974ft is the highest natural point in South East England and a good place to spot migrating Whinchat and Wheatear. It is located near Hungerford, West Berkshire.

No luck with the Whinchat today, but it was nice to see this friendly Wheatear posing for me on a post near to the westerly car park adjoining Combe.

Additional sightings at Combe were two Red Kites doing aerial acrobatics, a hunting Kestrel, 30+ swallows and a Meadow Pipit.

Pair of Nuthatches

The Nuthatch has to be one of my favourite birds! Full of character and with plenty of attitude, it will see off much larger birds and doesn't seem overly bothered by my presence.

It was on our feeder when I was out in the garden the other day and just looked at me as if to say 'I don't care about you, but thanks for the food'.

We have been getting a pair of Nuthatches for a while and it is always a pleasure to watch them. One will come into feed, closely followed by the other. They usually take as many sunflower hearts as they can and then fly off towards West Wood, Greenham - where we think they live. Hopefully we have helped them in the cold months of winter. A warm 15C here today, so Spring looks as if it has arrived early!

Bullfinches in our Greenham Garden

The reason fruit farmers sadly used to persecute Bullfinches was their taste for Spring buds, including those on budding apple trees. This practice is now thankfully outlawed.

This week I witnessed our almost resident male and female Bullfinch adding a tasty salad mix to their sunflower heart diet! Here is the male Bullfinch (looking particularly well fed I have to say!):

Siskins on Greenham Common?

This winter has been rather disappointing for birding. The warm weather both here and on the continent has kept some of the winter migrants away from UK shores.

This week saw the first Siskin sightings in our Greenham garden, which leads me to believe that there are small numbers up on nearby Greenham Common.

A male and female have been regular visitors for the last few days.

Trip to RSPB Arne

Sunday 29th December 2013 - what a fantastic day for birding with crystal clear, blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine. Not even that cold either for the time of year! A trip to RSPB Arne, we felt, was way overdue and as usual it did not disappoint.

Thanks to meeting up with a friendly and helpful survey team from Birds of Poole Harbour, we were treated to great sightings of Avocet, Spoonbill, Grey Plover, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Red Breasted Merganser and more, through their awesome 50x Swarovski Spotting Scope. Must put one of those on my "must buy" list for 2014!

The scenery at Arne is, in my opinion, unparalleled in southern England with a fantastic and diverse wetland habitat, alongside breathtaking heathland which the RSPB work so hard to preserve. The reserve is about 3 miles from Wareham in Dorset at BH20 5BJ and well worth the trip.

Pictured (top left) is the view from Coombe Heath and a few pictures taken whilst we were with the Poole Harbour birding team, including some Oyster-catchers (middle left) in flight and a pair of Spoonbills (bottom left) who were feeding in the bay.

Spoonbills are rare in the UK with only small numbers visiting annually and Poole Harbour is one of the best places to see them in the UK.

The Sparrowhawk - A Ruthless Opportunist Killer!

After a year long absence a male Sparrowhawk turned up this morning, perched on our neighbour's roof eyeing up our bird feeder. It left empty handed, but it made us all aware of how cunning Sparrowhawks are in their search for an easy meal.

It looks like the same bird that visited in July 2012, as it has a ring on its right leg. Either these birds hunt within a very small area, or they have a very good memory as to where to find food! The Sparrowhawk is the ultimate opportunist killer of small birds. Whilst the female will take birds as large as wood pigeons, the smaller male would target smaller prey like blue tits.

Red Backed Shrike - Greenham Common

Incredible day! I got to see the Red Backed Shrike on Greenham Common this morning and this afternoon the sun came out which gave much better photographic opportunities after the disappointingly gloomy start to the day. The RB Shrike is a very rare bird which is on the RSPB Red List for endangerment, with (on average) less than 10 breeding pairs in the UK.

This particular Red Backed Shrike is a juvenile and probably a female. Apparently the adults head back to Africa first leaving the young to fatten up on bugs and beetles before they too leave for warmer climes in late September.

Quite a few birders were present this morning on Greenham Common and this stopped me from getting close enough for good pictures with my meagre 400mm lens. The other birders were all using spotting scopes and were clearly not keen on us photographers. The exception being a kind hearted couple from Bracknell who let me use their fantastic Leica spotting scope which offered amazing quality images.

Late this afternoon was much better for photography as the spotting scope brigade had all gone home and we had the opportunity to take some serious pictures! The Shrike was still showing really well in the same area as this morning - in the undergrowth to the north west of the Fire Plane. In reality you could carefully approach the bird quite easily without spooking it by hiding behind nearby bushes, so not sure what all the fuss was about this morning.

For those not familiar with Greenham Common, the Fire Plane is a very rusty metal aircraft frame used by the USAF to practice putting out aircraft fires. It is located on ground south west of the EPC Factory and Venture West buildings. It is only a 5 minute walk from the disused Nuclear Bunkers. The closest parking is at Venture West, Greenham Business Park - that is if you're not staying long as this parking area is really intended for employees working on the business park.

Chiffchaff on Migration?

I noticed a small bird hopping about and doing aerial acrobatics catching insects in our back garden this morning and it turned out to be a beautiful little Chiffchaff.

There are a few others in the hedgerows opposite today, so maybe they've had enough of the colder-than-average September weather and are heading south to their wintering grounds in the Mediterranean and western Africa.

We know some birds stay in the UK all winter as we've seen them particularly near rivers (Dinton Pastures by the River Loddon  being one place), where they feed off insects even when there is snow and ice on the ground.

Chiffchaffs are one of my favourite birds and have a wonderful soft yellow colour and are great to watch darting about. They can be confused with other small warblers, but you can distinguish a Chiffchaff by the "chiff-chaff" song which gives the bird its name and by it's black legs. Please write a comment to correct me on that if I am wrong!

Marsh Tit visits garden feeder

This friendly Marsh Tit stopped by this lunchtime to briefly visit our sunflower feeder.

The Marsh Tit is an RSPB 'Red Listed' bird and are not particularly common. We saw one yesterday in Bowdown Woods off Bury's Bank Road, so there are definitely a few in the Greenham area and this year looks like it has been a good one for them, with quite a few local sightings over the summer period. We think this particular bird may live in West Wood adjacent to our house.

Redstart at Dinton Pastures

A great bird sighting yesterday at Dinton Pastures, near Woodley, Berkshire - Three Redstart were seen at the far side of the car park field.

This is a first for me and after a great deal of patience sitting around, we managed to get the birds fairly used to us and approached a little closer to get a few decent pictures.

Apparently according to FOLL bird expert Fraser Cottington Redstarts start their migration in late August and through September and are regularly seen in this area each year.

Interview on Radio Berkshire

I took a trip up to Lardon Chase, Berkshire on Wednesday to take some pictures of the blue butterflies which favour the wild flowers of the Chalk Downland. I was lucky enough to spot a very rare UK butterfly - the Clouded Yellow which visits the UK from southern Europe in very small numbers some years.

This year, butterfly numbers seem to have recovered after last year's awful summer, and it has been a similarly good year in Europe where the Clouded Yellow has been seen in good numbers. The Clouded Yellow sighting was very exciting!

Sophie Larkins on Radio Berkshire

I contacted Radio Berkshire and was interviewed live on their popular 'Smartphone Safari' feature on Saturday morning. You can listen to the full interview (8MB MP3) or a cut-down version of the interview (5MB MP3) from this page (Media Player required).

Kingfisher Sighting - Rye Meads RSPB Reserve

We had an amazing day at Rye Meads RSPB reserve in Hertfordshire yesterday. Bit of a trek from West Berkshire, but worth it.

The Kingfisher Hide at the reserve produced some memorable views of Kingfishers fishing, perching and returning to the nest hole to feed their young. It was all quite magical.

The bird pictured left is a male as it has a black beak. Kingfishers are uncommon birds with only about 5000 - 8000 breeding pairs in the UK, due largely to the shortage of suitable habitat and their fiercely territorial nature.

We were surprised that they are only a little larger than a house sparrow. The Kingfisher's incredible iridescent blue colour is due to the reflection and refraction of blue light from its feathers, rather than from pigments.

Kingfishers eat mainly small fish (typically sticklebacks and minnows) but they can also take small aquatic animals and insects to supplement their diet.

2 to 3 broods are raised each year, and the Kingfishers at Rye Meads are currently raising their second brood. Multiple broods are very important as Kingfishers frequently only live a year or two. They are very susceptible to sever weather and to make matters worse the survival rate of young Kingfishers is only 25%. The adults tend to chase the young birds out of the territory soon after fledging, often before they have learnt how to fish!

Green Woodpecker Searching for Ants

We spotted this Green Woodpecker a few days ago - outside our house in Greenham on some communal land.

It was seen very early in the morning before the noise disturbance from passing cars became too much, and it reappeared briefly in the afternoon.

An ant-infested lawn is all you need to keep Green Woodpeckers coming back time and time again!

Blue Tit Fledgling

It's been a long time coming this year given the delayed nesting season, but our Blue Tits have all successfully fledged and have been seen back in the garden today being fed by the attentive adults.

The chick appears bigger than the adults, who both look rather bedraggled following the heavy showers earlier.

Here we see one of the adults feeding the chick sunflower hearts, whilst the other waits patiently to answer the chick's insatiable need for sustenance.

Blue Tits Gathering Food

The unseasonable weather has finally picked up and our Blue Tits now have young in the Greenham Birding nest box on the side of the house. This adult is very busy gathering caterpillars for the growing chicks. Feeding starts at dawn and extends to dusk, which must be exhausting work for such small birds!

Interestingly, the adults take in a mixture of food which includes various winged insects and caterpillars as well as small pieces of the fat balls and sunflower hearts from our selection of feeders.

Sophie made the nest box herself at RSPB Arne and  just a month after it was put up last year, it was occupied by Blue Tits who successfully raised young. This year the nesting season is much later due to the very cold spring (the coldest for 50 years). At least food appears to be readily available now that the trees are in full summer foliage. Fingers crossed that the chicks successfully fledge in a few weeks time!

Juvenile Greenfinch

Two juvenile Greenfinches turned up again on our feeder yesterday and they have grown a lot in the week or so from their last visit.

I managed to get a picture of one of them before a Magpie scared them both off!