Swift Half update - 13th February 2011

• A pleasant day again yesterday (saturday) but more wind and rain in store I hear.



• Blackbirds seem to be nesting already (not unusual for blackbirds and woodpigeons to build nests and breed in February).



• First butterfly of the year yesterday - a rather tattered-looking adult red admiral which my wife's keen eyes plucked from the blue sky, as I trained my eyes on the three bickering woodpeckers we have visiting the garden each day still.



• The red admiral is very often the first butterfly you'll see in the UK each year (and the last) and like a few other species, often overwinters in sheds etc... as an adult.



• The butterfly landed on our very tattered gutter (needs replacing) and warmed itself in the blistering February sunshine! (see photo above)



• The daffodils are about 9" high now - no flowers as yet, but if the mild february continues - I think we'll have our first (and pretty-well last! (We've got hardly any flowers as such in the garden)) flowers in a week or so.



• The house sparrows have already taken to our swift nesting spot again - just like last year, but also like last year, when house sparrows and swifts used the same entrance hole to reach two separate nest sites in the roof, I'm not overly concerned just yet!



• The starling flock (1000 birds at its peak in january) has dispersed whilst its mild (I'm sure it will return in style if the weather gets colder again).



• Two birds of note in/over the garden yesterday - our little pied wagtail returned (always a favourite of mine) and a little egret flew overhead at dusk (I know they're not rare these days and I know they live locally, but I don't often see them overhead at dusk -so this was a treat again).



• As for our palmate newts in the pond - we have many. I counted 8 newts last night, visible at the same time, so I would guess we have many more - maybe a dozen, maybe two. They clearly love our shallow pond and have no fish to eat their young, or frogs this year yet (are we going to be frogless this year?). We have a mixture of male and female palmate newts in our pond, most quite young (I think these might have overwintered in the muck on the pond bed), but two fully-grown adults.



• I found a young female palmate newt on our back door mat last night, when I was wandering around in the dark. Almost squashed her! (She's back in the pond now).



• Spent a few minutes photographing her and watching a male greedily suck down a drowning earthworm (in the pond) like a string of spaghetti!



• I have still yet to see any smooth newts in our pond - only palmates - and many of them.

General (county) update - 9th February 2011

Please click any photo twice to see a larger version.

• A mixed week weather-wise. Yesterday was glorious, no wind, no clouds, cold and clear (but warm in the sun) and now we are back to leaden skies and blustery winds.


• I took the opportunity to go indulge in a spot of galanthophilia today under overcast skies as I find photographing flowers (be they snowdrops or my annual bluebell pilgrimage) far easier in cloud than strong sunlight.


• I drove up to Welford Estate - just north of the M4 between Newbury and Hungerford to see their display of snowdrops.


• I was the only one wandering around a) under 70 years old and b) on my own - but the trip was certainly worth it!


• Not only were there millions of snowdrops out, but they mingled rather nicely with the yellow "Winter Aconite" flowers also - a real splash of colour in winter.


• Welford Estate has the beautiful river Lambourn running through it - well.... its beautiful upstream of Newbury anyway. This winter, a solitary dipper has spent each evening under the weir bridge on the river - very rare down in Berks.


• I certainly enjoyed my snowdrop excursion and time on the estate (I'd thoroughly recommend it -but be quick - the park is only open to the public for 4 weeks each year - purely for the snowdrop extravaganza).


• I also saw maybe two dozen red-legged partridge on the road off the M4 (to Wickham) on the drive up there. Six were in the middle of the road, squabbling so ferociously that at least two of them actually went UNDER the car as I drove over them (no time to slow down). I don't think I killed any -bit of a shame actually - might have been quite nice to have a little frenchman for tea?


• On the subject of game, just up the road from Welford (at East Isley - very close to where I watch my winter short-eared owls and hare), I read that a few blokes had been done for hare coursing last week.


• I know hare coursing is illegal, and I suppose rightly so, but if these blokes were coursing for the pot, then I'm afraid to say I have no issue with that. (Apologies in advance if you're offended by that). I'd far rather non-working dogs (other than coursing hounds, ratting jack russells etc...) were made illegal - they seem to have no purpose, other than to yap and crap. But I guess that's just me!


• Its the theft of the vehicle that these men also allegedly were involved in, that I think warrants any attention at all.


• I took great delight in seeing a beautiful brown hare race across my path, the last time I was up at that neck of the woods but whilst its fair to say the brown hare population isn't exactly flourishing at present, it's not in serious trouble either -and I'm no bothered if a few souls want to course a few hares. Maybe I should be - but I'm not.


• Maybe 300,000 brown hares are shot each year anyway - coursing is certainly not a major influence on their numbers, but is deemed as cruel.


• So - was the fact that these men were coursing with dogs, enough reason to "pop a copper-chopper " in the air and catch them? I hope not. I really hope not...

General (county) update - 6th February 2011

• Hello. My name is Anas platyrhynchos. I know that sounds a bit rude (I'll explain why later), so I usually go by my colloquial name of "mallard". We mallards live at Caversham lock, on the Thames, in England, after arriving here last week - for the last part of winter.

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• A gurt big dirty human stopped by this morning (I think I've seen him all week on the towpath, actually) - and started to take my photograph, alongside all my mallard brothers. He seemed particularly interested in taking my photograph though - and left my bigger brothers alone.
  

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• It wasn't until I caught sight of my reflection in his lens, that it hit me like a brick.




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• I've always felt, you know, a little different from my brothers.
• They were always telling me how opinionated I was, or more specifically - how "black and white" my pinions were compared to them.
• How I liked diving down to the bottom of the water for my grub (see photo below), whereas they would just dabble around on the surface.
• How I liked to eat meat (well.... molluscs and crustaceans) and they liked to eat just slimy weed and weird processed wheat that small kids in brightly-coloured anoraks would throw in their direction.
• I do love my brothers (sometimes in a very homosexual-manner, like many waterbirds (sorry.... didn't you know?!)) but even though I knew I was different, I wasn't sure why...




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• Even for a nidifugous fledgling (like many waterbirds) like myself, I was extremely precocious - and as soon as I hatched last March, I waddled confidently away, never to see my family again. I joined up with some fun mallards and naturally thought I was a bolshy, bottle-green-headed common bird like them. But. I'd never caught sight of myself like I did this morning, in that strange human's lens.
• I'm no Anas platyrhynchos after all!
• I'm a beautiful , Aythya fuligula, or tufted duck. I have a wonderful piebald set of feathers, (sooooo that's what they meant by my black and white pinions!) bright yellow buttons of eyes and a super little flattened tail for all my underwater swimming. I'm quite a catch gentlemen, sorry, I mean laydeeez (I must get used to that now, I suppose).
• I may stay around Caversham lock for a little while longer, just to have my brothers, *cough* say goodbye to me (like only they can) - but I must NOT let them go too far..., but then I shall fly to a big lake (about a mile away I think, if memory serves me right), when the weather gets a little warmer -and try and find a brown tufted duck to chat up... Adios for now!

Swift Half update - 1st February 2011

Click photo twice to see at largest size.

• The local starling roost continues, although we're down to maybe a couple of hundred birds max now.


• Goldfinches have begun to belt out courtship songs for the first time this year (rather than just squabbling noisily).


• The blackbirds are fighting.


• Even a song thrush is singing from our neighbours' leylandii tree - a real treat and not seen from Swift Half before this year. (See my youtube video here)


• Blue tits and magpies seem paired up already.


• Just like the local waterbirds on the Thames - the passerines and garden birds seem intent on getting their mates early.


• Even the dunnocks (who generally do not pair -being the "swingers" of the bird world, and rather fond of threesomes etc...) seem to be in a fragile pair at present.


• This afternoon I photographed our female hawk eat one of our fighting cock blackbirds on our neighbours garden fence - she's stunning you know.

General (county) update - 1st February 2011

• Its beginning to kick off, 'ere.
• The coots are at it (the ducks have already finished), the kingfishers are at it and the lone tufted drake (who's shacked up with the lock mallards at Caversham) is getting a trifle confused.
• Birds a-courtin', I mean...

Swift Half update - 30th January 2011

• Another quickie - I've managed to procure a cheap DVD recorder (which can record and play multi format discs, and accept AV and USB feed) - and I've hooked it up to the swift nest cam.
• As I've already mentioned before - I do not intend to broadcast a live web feed this year (as the free website I used for broadcast destroyed any quality of footage and lost the sound).
• I do however, intend to upload much higher quality short videos of any nesting swifts onto my youtube account. I'll either provide hyperlinks to the videos on youtube from this blog, or even embed them.
• The first test (including me saying "Hellloooo and a little movement from 0:42) can be seen below.
• ROLL ON APRIL!!!
  

General (county) update - 30th January 2011

• Not much to report as I've not been mooching around a whole lot - but did manage to check on the short-eared owls this morning at dawn - none around still. I can't believe they've moved on already - but two "no-shows" in two weeks, suggests they have?
• Did get a super view of a hare though - legging it through the gallops around me - I do like hares! (to eat and to watch - so much better than rabbits all round I reckon).
• The waxwings (well - our very local waxwings) have moved elsewhere also. I might not get to see any again this year (or any year for that matter), so I'm glad I became a twitcher for a while and managed to see a few dozen.

Swift Half update - 25th January 2011

• Firstly - pond news.
• We certainly have adult palmate newts in the pond (I've seen both male and female at night, with a torch) - so thats good! Neither the heron nor cats have caught all our palmate newts!
• But - and here's something I've learned today. We also have larval newts - in JANUARY!
• It turns out that occasionally, newts will over-winter in ponds as aquatic, feathery-gilled larvae - and that's what has happened in our pond - clearly!
• I assume our palmate newt larvae will develop in the spring and summer, lose their feathery gills and walk onto land - they then will be known as "efts".
• Never knew that before!
• Secondly - Swift Half swift news (or plans I should say).
• This year -instead of broadcasting a live webfeed onto the internet (like last year) (if we're lucky enough to get swifts back in the roof), I intend to produce regular HD short video clips (with sound) and put them onto my youtube account (and embed them, or a link to them on this blog).
• This decision was primarily because the quality of webfeed last year was pretty atrocious. Whereas Anna and I could make out every detail of each swift, every feather, every dropping, every tiny chick -when we viewed via the web feed (rather than our tv) - everything was just a blurry smudge - with no sound at all.
• Anna and I were treated to A LOT of sound from inside the nest all summer - the female screaming at the male when he arrived at dusk, the youngsters purring for food -and the webfeed didn't give you any of that.
• SOoooo - I've tested a video suite today (results on facebook) and am very excited to see that it all works nicely. Decision made then - no webfeed this year, just short, high quality clips (maybe every day - certainly very regular) of our swifts - which should improve your viewing of them!
• Now all we need is a lorra luck - I expect our beautiful swifts back on St.George's day or very shortly after. Not long now. Plllease don't let me down swifts!

General (county) update - 23rd January 2011

Click the photo twice to see a little larger and clearer (11 in shot, 6 with berries in their gobs!)

• A quickie here as I've been incredibly busy all weekend (didn't even have time to volunteer at a local wetland on saturday like normal).
• Did have time to check on our winter ducks this morning though - hundreds of wigeon still about, pochard, tufties, gadwall and my favourite of all - the goldeneye.
• This morning at dawn, Mr.T (my neighbour) were treated to the superb site of FOUR adult male goldeneye displaying at a local lake. One day I WILL take my wee boat out and get a shot or two of this with any luck!
  
• Also managed to catch up with our local waxwings. Three dozen this morning, still feeding off the huge crop of berries outside a local Porsche showroom. I wonder whether I'll ever see waxwings in this part of the country again?
• Not so good was my quick belt up the M4 to see how our short-eared owls are getting on. For the first time in months - although I found plenty of fresh pellets -and I saw a hen harrier, I saw NO owls. Where have they gawn? I'll have to find time to investigate...

Swift Half update - 23rd January 2011

• A while since I posted on Swift Half - but not much news to report. A little newTs though...


• I've cleared out the pond a bit. Lots of muck in there -dead leaves, bits of wood etc... People will tell you not to clear out the pond in the winter, but they'll also tell you not to clear out the pond at all. Well - if I prevented any leaves getting in the pond at all -and also prevented it freezing AND also prevented the cats clawing the lining, then that would be fine - but I've done none of the above, so felt a little clearing out was in order - mainly to get rid of dead and rotting vegetation, that provides a little for the water lice -but takes so much from everything else.


• Annnnywaaaay.... great to see our newts still there (like I said the other day -VERY early for them - we're bound to freeze again before March).


• The marsh marigolds are up and running too - well above the water line their green shoots are now.


• Three woodpeckers in the garden still (old male, young male, old female). The blackbirds seem to be starting to nest already in the front garden- a cat will have them again there I'm afraid, even if its not one of ours...


• The local starling flock is still going strong - maybe 1000 birds the other day (photos on flickr).


• Couven is growing her feathers back very slowly, after a month of misery for her. Most of her feathers started to fall out a month ago - assisted (in a nasty way) by Conker and Trouble -who have really picked on her for a few weeks. They drew blood from her backside again last night, so I've had to cover the old girl in purple gentian spray - which helps a bit. She's pretty miserable though - I'm hoping that when her lovely pale feathers (and eggs!) return, she'll re-assert her position as number two in the pecking order and start to boss Conker again (who knows she's getting away with murder right now).


• Conker and Trouble are too young to moult this year and are pumping the eggs out like a tommy gun still.

General (county) update - 16th January 2011

• Having been frustrated with sightings of waxwings from all over the country, let alone county, I thought I'd turn into a "twitcher" for the day and go and find some, locally.



• For those of you who aren't aware, waxwings are rare winter visitors most years, coming over from Scandanavia, to the east coast of the UK, to feast on any berries over here with their cousins, the winter thrushes (redwing and fieldfare).



• Some years a hundred or so come over, but just occasionally, we get a winter like we have this year - when thousands come over, after a berry failure in their native northern lands.



• The latin name for waxwing is Bombycilla garrulus which literally means "chattering silk tail" but in English, we call them the waxwing after the little red "waxy" projections on their wings, visible in many good photos.



• Waxwings are starling sized and very striking in good light. Click here and press PLAY to hear their very distinctive call -and this year will go down in ornithologists records as one of the best years for UK winter waxwings in very many years - I just had to try and find some this morning.



• Its not too hard to find waxwings when so many come over to Britain - they hang around berry trees (rowan, holly etc...) and these berry trees are often ornamental trees / shrubs srrounding supermarket car parks etc... One doesn't have to hike into the countryside to see these birds - one merely has to go to a supermarket which is surrounded by berry-laden shrubs. For example, the Aylesbury Morrisons, the Bracknell Sainsburys, or where I went today, the Calcot Porsche showroom....!



• Even though the light was very low (overcast) and it was blowing a hooly, I managed a couple of photos where at least you can see that it was waxwings I was watching this morning, and not elephants!



• It was a real treat to see these stunning birds - a dozen all in all - and it has made me even more determined to plant plenty of berry bushes if and when Anna and I buy a house and garden of our own one day...



• It may be forty years or so again before we get thousands of waxwings over, and I may even be dead by then, but I'll give it a go!



• Please click the (very poor) photos above (twice) to see them full size.

General (county) update - 15th January 2011

• Before volunteering again this morning at a local wetland nature reserve, I managed a quick walk 'round the lake at dawn - and was delighted to see THREE male goldeneye displaying to one female.
• Wonderful to see, but I'm not sure I have the time to get my boat out on any lake before the Goldeneye close season begins (Feb 1).
• I really wanted the chance to try and photograph displaying goldeneye this winter - its such a super thing to watch! Never mind -at least I can watch - and maybe I can get my photographs next winter eh? (Click the green text to see goldeneye display video, especially 2:03 onwards...)

Swift Half update - 15th January 2011

• In this brief spell of warmth (incredible for mid January at 13c!), we've had our first midge hatch of the year, over the honeysuckle and also sightings of at least two palmate newts now, swimming around the pond like its April!
• The starling flock continues to impress around Swift Half, at dusk - maybe 700 birds last night!

General (county) update - 12th January 2011

• A quickie - Reading now has many waxwings in town - this is the best year I have ever known for these winter visitors (normally you get the odd flock on the east coast but this year there are hundreds EVERYWHERE)!
• I cycled up to a berry bush by work today, after being tipped off there were fifty or so of these wonderful birds there yesterday.
• True to form, they'd stripped ALL the berries off the trees and moved on to another part of central Reading.
• I STILL have yet to see a waxwing in moy loyf!
• Note to self- when we (Anna and I) buy our own home eventually - add berry tree (rowan, holly, whatever) to the moff plants. It may take another 40 years for these birds to come back to the UK in these numbers, but even if I don't manage to see any this winter - I'll be ready for them in forty years time!!!

Swift Half update - 12th January 2010

• No more of my bees have had their nests raided I'm thankful to say.
• Surprise sighting in the pond last night - a big palmate newt. Regular visitors to this blog might know that we have a healthy population of palmates in our pond (I'd say at least twelve individuals), but I thought they'd all be hibernating under the pond at this time of year (especially as the pond was almost frozen solid throughout December)
• It is slightly warmer at present though (13c tomorrow I hear) - but its important to realise (note to self!) that we're hardly into January, so consistent warmth won't be with us for two months or so, and we still are VERY much in snow / ice season!
• I've been watching a nice big flock of starlings over the past ten days or so, arrive over our garden at 4pm and roost maybe 1/2 mile NE of us. Tonight there were up to 500 birds in the "murmuration" (collective noun for starlings) -and they gave a spectacular display!

Swift Half update - 11th January 2011

• Those of you who have followed this blog since the start (or know a little about me) might know that I am a big bee fan - specifically mason bees.
• Since moving to Reading from London with Anna, I have catered for solitary mason bees (including my favourite wee species of all - the blue mason bee) by drilling nesting holes in dead branches or fence posts in my last two gardens.
• I've been pretty successful - especially last summer, when eighteen of my drilled holes were taken over by my little bees. In fact, as I drilled my latest log in the middle of April, a couple of red mason bees checked out my bee holes even as I was drilling! Quite incredible!
• Bad news today though - all through the severe (cold) weather throughout December, each bee hole was tightly plugged - until I checked today...
• THIRTEEN of the eighteen nests have been emptied!
• The holes in the plugs are neat, small and look like they've been raided from the outside in (rather than the bee emerging from the inside out).
• I've contacted an old contact of mine and a local expert at BWARS -and he has pretty-well confirmed my worst fears - these bees should not be emerging before March at the earliest - SOMETHING has got them!
• Could it be a bird - possibly - a wren or a tit maybe? (Not that I've noticed though).
• Could it be an insect? I doubt it -in the middle of winter?
• Could it be a rodent? Possibly -but the holes are too small for rodents I think?
• Could it be Henry, the mild-mannered janitor.... coooooould bee!
• In all seriousness - this is a bit of a downer - most of the plugs left were made by red mason bees - the raided nests are mainly my favourite wee blue mason bees.
• Bad news - and a lesson to me, to pop the logs in the shed over winter next time....

NB. All photos linked to (green text) taken by myself.

Swift Half SWIFT news - 2nd January 2010

• Today I cleared out the swifts nest in the attic - and refitted the camera and floor of the nest space.
• I know I'm a little early, but after helping my neighbour, Mr.T, with his new (self-built) swift box, I thought I'd get Anna and my swift nest spot sorted also.
• Fourteen weeks or so, and my little friends will be starting to wing their way back here from sub-saharan Africa - I can't pigging wait!

Photo of the month - December 2010

• Due to work pressure, christmas and a rather nasty cold / flu thing which has kept me in the house for a week, I've realised I've hardly taken any photos during December - possibly my skinniest photography month for thirty-six months.


• Not much to choose from then, in terms of possible photo of the month, but I'll choose the photo above - a close up of my father in law setting light to the christmas pud with brandy.


• For the entire, twelve month list (with photos of course) of "photos of the months" from 2010 -please click HERE.

Swift Half update - 2nd January 2011

• Not a whole lot to report here - bar a pair of blackcap (brown-capped female and black-capped male) in the garden today - very nice to see.


• Its fox season now - and I disturbed the two local youngsters in our rear garden at 6am this morning.


• I was just ensuring the hens had food and water, prior to setting off on my owl-hunt (see below) and bold as you like, the two young foxes (last years cubs) strolled into my torch beam, sat down and just looked at me. Not thirty feet from me n all! It was as if I was in THEIR garden!


• I chased them out of the garden, secured the chicken run with a few more bricks, left Malu and Yala on guard duty and headed off owl-wards anyhoo.


• Finally today, we had a lovely bit of sun - has that been in short supply recently! The kites LOVED it!
• Anna noticed that both Conker and Trouble were pulling feathers out of Couven today and eating them - NOT GOOD! I also noticed that Conker and Couven had a "stand off" for the first time ever - remember not so long ago that I had to spray Conker with "Scarper" to stop Couven bullying her.
• I'm slightly concerned the tables have turned therefore with regards to the pecking order of our girls - Couven seems to be the runt now and I've had to resort to spraying her fluffy white flanks with scarper, in a bid to stop the others pulling feathers out of her.
• I'm not overly concerned at present, but its something I will have to keep an eye on, as I really don't want to begin a fresh year with another ill / dead hen...

General (County) update - 2nd January 2011

• Firstly, may I wish anyone reading this blog a very happy new year. Personally speaking, I am keen to forget 2010 and Anna and I are relieved we have a fresh year to start - last year was not a great one for various reasons.


• Yesterday morning, Mr.T and I went for a dawn ramble at our local site - no sign of our barn owl(s) again but two other VERY unexpected visitors made themselves apparent - two female goosander on the weir pool at Southcote lock (on the kennet).


• Now Goosander aren't particularly rare -they breed on upland rivers and overwinter down here in numbers - but generally on large inland lakes / reservoirs or large rivers.


• I'd never have expected to see them on a tiny sluice pool on a river I can virtually jump across - another new visitor to our patch - lovely to see.


• Today I went for a drive at dawn, to check on my short-eared owls - and managed to see eight I think - so they're doing well. (apologies for the bad "in-flight" photo!)


• I ascertained which of the bare trees they like to perch in, picked up three short-eared owl pellets from under the tree (they can go to Anna's biology dept) as proof and made my merry way home. I may still get a chance to take a few nice close-up photos of these beautiful owls this winter, now that I know which tree they hang out in... I have a very limited timescale though!


• There was a lovely surprise for me as I parked near the short-eared owl spot this morning at dawn. On parking, I noticed a huge white feathery, ghostly moth 30 yards to my left and knew immediately what I'd seen - a quartering barn owl!


• I didn't even have time to take the camera (or binoculars - not that I needed them!) out of the back of the car - as I got out of the car the owl continued to hunt all around the parking spot - at one point she (I was so close I could tell it was a female (no rudeness please - female barn owls tend to have a more speckly breast than males)) virtually flew into me -such was her concentration whilst hunting.


• What a treat -the best view of a barn owl hunting I've ever had - I even saw her catch a vole!


• Maybe next week Mr.T and I will go back to see all our owls!

(Thanks to Shirl, for the super photo of a female goosander, in its more usual territory - on the Tay!)