Timing.....

Ah yes, timing. Timing can be the maker or breaker of us all.
In the recent case of several midlands counties being named as drought regions, this was exceedingly bad timing; it basically hasn't stopped raining since. This makes the authorities look inept and authorities dont like looking inept. In this case I can feel a sort of empathy towards the bungling decision makers that run this country however. The empathy is brought about because until this recent period of rain it has been horribly dry and although it has been the subject of much hilarity all this rain may not change much. Afterall, one period of rainfall is unlikely to be sufficient to replenish surface and groundwater stores of water back to "normal" levels - particularly in the case of aquifers which have a very slow re-fill rate. So, it is entirely likely that this rain won't fix anything for the better and will only cause the Environment Agency and others to be called bunglers and nancys and pooboys. The Governments decision back in the 70's of not constructing a national water grid on the grounds that it was too expensive is looking more and more a foolish decision as current Governments are being faced with the same proposals now but at a much larger cost. Can Governmental plans to spuff a big, fat, wedge of cash on a train-line between London and Birmingham (destroying many valuable habitats in the process, I might add) be justified when basic problems such as provision of water are not at the standards expected of one of the more developed nations? I think not.


Anyway to stop the ranting there an example of good timing was my decision to go down to Jubilee this afternoon in the middle of a moderately intense shower. As Skev mentioned on his blog yesterday, all this weather knocking around means any number of migrants might be forced to drop onto the patch and thus onto my patch list. And so I waited until it was nicely pissing it down and then went for a lookie at the patch to see if anything had dropped in. Two Common Sandpiper was exactly the sort of thing I was after and two common sands was exactly what I got! Would have been nicer if they had been greens and thus a patch tick but this is only my 2nd or 3rd (yes, im terrible with records) record of them on patch so no complaints really. They swiftly flew off towards the other (out of view) pools though, highlighting the benefits of good timing! A text was sent out anyway to Sir Skev Markington on the off chance they came back and turns out they did, how nice of them! House Martin and Blackcap were also new for the patch yearlist and two pairs of Tufted Duck were on the pool - new since the last visit.


Anyway to make up for the lack of photos so far have a couple of the current Leicestershire drought conditions:

EDIT: been meaning to do this for a while but have only just got around to it - my profile now has a contact email - its hoodedbirder@hotmail.co.uk if you would like to get in touch about anything. As you may have surmised this isn't my personal email account but I will check it regularly and try to respond to everything that isn't ludicrous/idiotic/on fire.

EDIT #2: and I've just added a new page at the top which is the current garden list, I'll do the patch one next but lets not get carried away with this listing lark, thats the first proper bird list I've ever written!

EDIT #3: I must be gravely ill as I've just got back from visiting the patch for the second time in one day! Shocking behaviour! In my defence it did look for all the world like the heavens were going to open, noah-style and so would be an ideal time for a juicy migrant to drop into Jubilee. In the end the rain passed by Jubilee and although I got one of the Common Sandpipers from earlier the only things new (or things I missed earlier - this is more likely) was a Little Egret and Grey Wagtail around the pool and a spanking male Reed Bunting along the river. Oh yes and probably the same Fox that Skev saw yesterday was cruising around looking for something to menace. A quick look at the newly christened "Owl and Snipe field" (never seen either species in this field but I reckon I will if I start/keep looking) across the road from Jubilee produced nothing but that shall not deter me from checking the field again regularly.

The good, the bad and the ugly

Yesterday I had a pretty miserable day on the birding front. I dipped Skevs Wheatear at Jubilee and then, eschewing the chance to go and see the Ring Ouzels at Timberwood Hill, I made the choice to go and find my own Ring Ouzel at Croft Hill instead. I did this because of previous urges to find my own birds and Croft Hill is a good shout for one at this time of year. Too bad I didn't drag myself up there until mid afternoon when the hordes of dog walkers had turned the place into a birdless wasteland.
So that brings me to today

The good (or should it be bad?): After not seeing any Ouzels yesterday I quickly settled for looking at other peoples today and so pootled off to Thornton res. where three birds had been reported a couple of hours previously. But they were nowhere to be found upon arrival. Bugger, I checked the whole Markfield arm too.... twice! The visit was rescued (cue the good bit) from being a total washout by a lovely close encounter with a pair of Goldcrest which just occasionally sat still long enough for a couple of images to be taken:

The bad (or should it be good?):
After this It would have been rude not to carry onto the Timberwood Hills area to actually try and see some Ring Ouzel this time as these birds had been present for a couple of days and happily they were quickly found once I parked up at the correct spot, thankfully bagging me a full-blown life tick! Yes, this really does highlight my status as a birding novice but somehow I'd just never seen one before! Last spring in the days before blogger I visited Beacon Hill twice and Burrough Hill a few times specifically on the hunt for them but never got lucky and saw one. Other current "bogey" birds you may wish to poke fun at me about also include any Skua, Corncrake, Lesser pecker, Montys Harrier, Wood Warbler and most species of Petrel!
Oops I've been waffling, back to the bad bit. The bad bit refers to the attempts at photographing Ring Ouzel using a smart phone at a considerable range. Undeterred, the Galaxy SII was cranked up to a beefy 4x zoom and bagged this delightful image:

I think I should at least get a bonus point for getting all three in the same shot...plus a blackbird for comparison, like.

And the ugly:
No, no, no, this doesn't refer to the arrival of John Hague who briefly joined me watching the Ouzels, it refers to the attempt at photographing one of the three Wheatear that were also present in the same spot as the Ouzels. You might want to shield your eyes....

Aaaaargh my eyes, it burns, it burns!

The anxious wait...

Was exactly what I had to contend with this afternoon when news broke of the Black winged Stilt at Rutland. It would have not only been a big, fat, county tick; it was a bigger, fatter, UK tick! I've seen the little devils before in France on roadside salt pans but never one before in good old blighty so I was rather eager to see this one. But because Amy was here and because her train back to Sheffield wasn't until 4pm I had to sit around getting increasingly rage-filled at the prospect of missing it!

I needn't have worried, Amy was dropped off at Leicester station promptly at 3.40pm and then I drove like a complete arse calmly and sedately over to Rutland where long legs was quick to show once Dunlin hide was entered. Isn't it nice when things go to plan!?

Cue terrible photographs - scope views were generally excellent and it afforded one beautifully close fly-past, the tart.

Seconds....

As the post title suggests things have happened for the second time today.

Firstly (or should it be secondly!?), I saw my second patch Little Egret at Jubilee yesterday but I won't bore you with an image of it as all attempted shots were truly aweful. Nothing much else about apart from the lingering Oystercatcher, no patch hirundines or warblers besides chiff yet....

Never fear though, keen reader, as I do have a shoddy image to share with you below taken today at one of Pauls Little Owl sites out in the Desford(ish) region...sorry about the vague locations but one can never be too careful in the breeding season! Anyway, this was actually my first sighting/image at this site after a few fruitless searches but it was more importantly my second chance to photograph two owls together!
This was never going to go well though - the owl tree in question is an old Horse Chesnut smack bang in the middle of a grassed field and although there is a footpath that runs close to the tree, any attempts to approach the site on foot would surely be met by the owls quickly "doing a bunk". So I had to make do with distant shots from the car and thus the results weren't great.

Nevermind, still looks a likely breeding site for this year!

Its 3am and...

My drunken perusal of the internet has unearthed this gem, one particular reader of this blog may enjoy this more than others......

Just the one...

Image of any value taken today. But in my opinion its one of the better ones I've managed with the new camera so far so i'm quite pleased to be fair. I actually managed four owls today, one of which was at my newly discovered site which indicates the bird is indeed in residence, it certainly looked at home in the entrance to the tree cavity. I did get a few more images of this fella but I wont post them as they're almost identical to the last post. The "new" image however is from one of Pauls sites out near Lutterworth:

I'm most pleased about this because I can see its feet - I somehow often struggle to get the whole owl in view!

Finding stuff....

Oh how I could have kicked myself this morning. As I hadn't done much birding recently today had been earmarked for a tour of a few sites in Leicester that I hadnt visited in a while with the hope of finding something nice. Recently I've noticed a definite change in my birding habits - a couple of years ago when I was relatively new to the hobby I was more than happy to decide where to go birding on the basis of what was being reported on the LROS page, there were many species I hadn't seen in the county and many more birdwatching sites that I'd never visited before and this news service simplified matters on where to go and what to look for. Now as I'm a touch more knowledgeable about birding in Leicestershire I've been becoming increasingly eager to find my own birds rather than go and look at other peoples. Now, im not talking about stringy, one-observer reports of Short toed Larks, more like finding my own Ring Ouzel or GG Shrike.
So that brings me back to the wanting to kick myself bit - as mentioned above I had planned to get up and out nice and early this morning to visit a few sites, one of which was Swithland reservoir. So imagine my annoyance at 11.45 this morning (the snooze button got abused) when the news broke of a summer plumaged Black necked Grebe at Swithland. That should have been my Grebe!
Annoyed, I vowed to not go and see the Grebe even though I'd never seen a summer plumaged one before and went to Brascote Pits instead to find something else. In the end I didn't find much at the pits themselves besides a new lake since the last time I visited and four Oystercatcher but that was about it.

New Lake at Brascote Pitts, this used to be some promising looking passerine habbo!

The real star of the show however was found en-route to the pits when a familiar looking blob in a roadside tree had me slamming on the brakes in a rather unsafe fashion and turning around for a second look. I was glad I did.

This was certainly a new and previously unknown site for me and after a quick correspondance with Paul Riddle it became clear that it wasn't one of his known sites either. I found something! Jackpot!

After a look at Thornton res. where Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin found their way onto my year list I got lost on the way home and whilst scanning the surrounding countryside with the scope to find my way home I saw this, dont know how it happened really, it was all a blur: