Spring!

Very spring-like in Leicestershire today, it's been the first day in ages since the warmth of the sun could actually be felt on your face! So it would have seemed a waste if I hadn't got out and about. So of course I spent an hour down at Narborough Bog looking for Woodcock, thats a springtime activity yes!? Unsurprisingly I didnt see any Woodcock, I actually didnt see much at all so I went for a drive to see if I could find an Owl enjoying a spot of the afternoon sunshine. Thankfully I did so the camera got some action at last!

Small brown jobs

I had a small window this afternoon free for a spot of birding so after I'd checked a few local Little Owl sites (unsuccessfully I might add) I nipped over to Fosse meadows and spent half an hour in the car park, dogging furiously.

Only joking (dogging isn't until thursday), I was staking out the area around the feeders for a couple of scarce locals and happily bagged them both without too much hassle;

Reed Bunting

And again but a different bird to the first

Tree Sparrow

Coal Tit

Little 'un

For those of you who looked out into Leicestershire this afternoon you would have seen that it was generally a bit grot; dull, foggy, rainy - a trivector of unpleasantness. So what did I do? Went out to try and photograph some owls of course!
In the end I was glad I did as I managed my first Little Owl images with the new camera! They are nothing to write home about due to the unhelpful weather but I've been struggling for sightings of Little Owl so far this year so just to see one was nice.

Aside from the Owl, yesterday saw an unprecedented three Buzzards soaring above the house - a new record amount seen at once, absolutely smashing the previous record of one!

The recent cold weather has also pushed more thrushes into the garden, the Blackbirds being joined by more and more Fieldfares (up to about 12), Redwings (up to 6 at once), Song Thrushes (2) and Mistle Thrushes (2). I've been experimenting with a bodged hide of sorts to try and get close to the birds for photography purposes (more on that later!) but with mixed results so far, the best I managed was through the patio window yesterday;

Marsh Tit

Taken the other week but posting now as part of my drip feeding tactic to pad out the blog. Enjoy

Ah. thats more like it.

After the last couple of snowy winters it seemed only a case of when and not if it would snow this winter and finally the sky gods have granted the people of Britains wish and allowed them to tell facebook that it is indeed snowing - my guess is that facebook, being a non-existant virtual internet thingy, has no idea that it's snowing and enjoys being informed of this fact.

I haven't told facebook that there is currently snow showing well so I'm telling blogger instead as I suspect it may be feeling left out

*Blogger, there has been snow in the UK, I repeat; Snow is affirmative, the eagle has landed*

See...

Wild Geese

With reports of a flock of 18 European Whitefronts accompanied by a single Tundra Bean Goose at Wanlip gravel pits yesterday I made my way over this morning with the hope of life ticking the Bean Goose and county ticking the Whitefronts. Aided and abetted by the excellent directions on the Lros and Drunkbirder pages I found the site quickly but was greeted by negative news from two birders coming the other way who had seen the birds fly up and drop down out of view.
With hopes suddenly dashed I carried on anyway and found a birder viewing the general area the birds had been seen last and joined him in case they came back. About half an hour later we were joined by a third birder who almost immediately picked up a candidate for the Bean goose right on the edge of a Canada flock about three quarters of a mile away, and after discovering 17 of the Whitefronts on the other side of the flock the potential Bean stood up and walked to join them, showing off its lovely orange legs as a rare bit of light hit the flock (aided by the generous offer of a peek down a 60x eyepiece). I think the term "stonking" or perhaps "fucking ace" is appropriate here.

Terrible record shot (if you can even call it that) of the Bean - its the one on the right!

Similarly poor record shot of the Whitefronts

Robin and a female Chaffinch

I woke up this morning and discovered freezing temperatures but lots of sun - "why did I go out photographing yesterday when I could've gone today instead", I thought. After sulking for a while I decided to hell with it and went out again anyway! And the destination? Same as yesterday! The hoped for sunnyness wasn't in evidence when I got to the site though as in my wisdom I hadn't realised the woodland setting would remove all helpful sunlight anyway and light levels were about the same as yesterday.
I took silly amounts of photos in the end and in an effort to avoid posting an unreasonable amount of images now I'm going to post them by species over the next few days/weeks to help pad out the bloggage when I haven't got anything else interesting to post about!

So today I'm starting with a dual species post, the humble Robin and Chaffinch. Enjoy.