Up north - day 1

On Saturday Paul and I went up to Knutsford for a few days of birding/wildlifeing with Hazel and Mike. Over the few days we went to lots of different places and I took LOTS of photos. Sadly I didn't have room in the bag for a landscape lens so I can't show you any scenics, just the wildlife. Probably the best way to handle this is to do a day-by-day breakdown. So day 1, which was very breezy and sunny - we arrived at Macclesfield at about 9.45 (yes, it was a very early start from Sevenoaks) where H and M picked us up and whisked us straight off to the wonderful Woolston Eyes.

This is a rather special reserve. The land's owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company, and the reserve is managed by a very committed and organised group of volunteers. The habitats include woodland, meadowland and a nice stretch of reedy wetland with shallow bits for the waders. It's permit-only but we went as H&M's guests. The early arrival was with a view to catch the ringers who are here each Saturday morning before they pack up, which we did, but they had nothing to show us - too windy for much little-bird movement. So we wandered round and visited the hides instead.

Here's the star of the show. My photo barely does it justice but they were all a long way off. Several pairs of Black-necked Grebes breed here - it's the premier site in the UK for the species, and presumably the presence of this vulnerable bird is one of the reasons the site is permit-only and you need to unlock two massive gates to get in. We saw six or seven of these gorgeous grebes.

The other top bird was this Med Gull, one of a pair that 'yowked' their way overhead.

Moments after the Med Gulls went over, my first 2015 Orange-tip appeared, and eventually settled briefly on a dandelion before racing off again. Butterflies in general were abundant when the sun was out - the usual early spring species involved with Peacocks most numerous.

The place was full of Chiffchaffs, many showing really well.

This reserve has one large, fancy hide, and several smaller ones which are basically shipping containers balanced on scaffolding. This was taken from one of the latter - a Grey Heron that obligingly came to fish right in front of us. Other birds on the water included Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal, Great Crested and Little Grebes, Lapwings and plenty of Black-headed Gulls.

The afore-mentioned Little Grebes. Pity the Black-neckeds didn't venture this close!

A Woolston Willow Warbler. Good to hear them again. Other summer visitors singing included Blackcap, and a couple of hesitant phrases from a shy Sedge Warbler. There were lots and lots of Sand Martins about and a handful of Swallows.

We went back to H&M's frankly amazing house after that, and spent some time in their amazing garden, photographing the many birds that come to sample the array of bird foods that H&M generously provide. I'll put the garden pics in the next post, as that is otherwise a bit thin on photos. In the late afternoon, we walked to nearby Tatton Park and made a leisurely circuit of the main lake there.

This is a deer park. If you imagine a flat Knole Park with a lake in the middle, that's pretty much Tatton Park. The first bird of interest was a Kestrel on the edge of an area of woodland. I got pics of it in a tree and then on the ground, but liked this one of it ninja-ing its way between the trees best (even though it's not super-sharp).

Here, as at Woolston, there were lots of Sand Martins, plus a few Swallows.

There wasn't a lot on the lakes - Mallards/Tufties/Great Crested Grebes, but after serious scanning I found a pair of Goldeneyes, then a bit further around three more.

The park has Red and Fallow Deer. We saw no Fallows (though I did on the last day when I went for a run through the park), but eventually found a bachelor herd of Reds near the way out. Most have dropped their antlers and are growing new ones, and so look faintly ridiculous with these fuzzy bumps on their heads.

Spoony, Gargs and Ron the Weasel

Shane texted me yesterday asking if I would like to go to Rainham tomorrow (ie today). I usually have to say no when this happens, because of work, but with no birding since Cornwall, a sunny day forecast, and all manner of tempting birds reported at Rainham lately, this time it had to be a yes. We arrived at 8.30am-ish and took a riverside walk before meeting Graham at 9.15am and getting onto the reserve when the drawbridge dropped at 9.30am. It was a still day with hazy sunshine, and got sunnier and breezier as the day progressed.

A couple from our quick riverside stroll - Dunnock almost but not quite hiding, and a Grey Heron on its way somewhere.

There were lots of Cetti's Warblers around, on our lap we heard them pretty much everywhere and there must have been at least 15 singing birds.

They were also pretty showy for Cetti's - these are four different individuals. Unfortunately I was not on great form camera-wise, and none of my shots were really up to much.

There were a couple of singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, which I think by now probably ARE proper migrants rather than lingering winterers.

We walked anticlockwise, visiting the cordite store where we saw... not much, though the warming air was bringing insects out (more of those later). Reed Buntings and Wrens were in fine voice.

Emerging from the wood, we paused to scan the marshy shallow pools on the left here, where a pair of Garganeys has been for the last few days. Graham found them very quickly. They were distant and there's an annoying fence here, hence shoddy pic, but it's always nice to see the 'summer duck'.

On to the Ken Barratt hide, which is a horrible hide for photography (sorry guys but it is!) - seats too low and too far back from the windows. Not much to see here, though we were entertained for a while by two female and one male Pochard, all feeding enthusiastically.

Carrying on from here, we had a brief, close view of a female Bearded Tit which (I think) was carrying nesting material.

As we got near the Target Pools we had a scan for the juv Spoonbill that was found yesterday. Amazingly, four Spoonies in all were here yesterday - but the other three were in Aveley Bay first thing and flew off to destination unknown. The young bird on the Target Pools stuck around though, affording distant but nice views.

On the boardwalk near Tower Butts hide, a Common Lizard, found by lizard-whisperer Shane.

From the Tower Butts hide, a near-silhouetted Little Grebe catching flies.

And looking the other way, a couple of record shots of Spoony. Note the Pintails among other wildfowl in the second pic. In fact, every regular British dabbling duck species was on the reserve today, though Wigeons were down to just a handful and will probably be gone by this time next week.

Speaking of ducks - three badly lit drakes on the move. Mallard, Shelduck and Shoveler.

There must be quite a few pairs of Lapwings nesting on the meadows, and they all rise up in outrage if a corvid dares to fly through their airspace. This Carrion Crow kicked back... but the Lapwings still chased it away in the end.

This Skylark was in the same area near the Tower Butts hide. Also from here we had a distant female-type Marsh Harrier, the only raptor of the day.

We were just rounding the corner by the Dragonfly Pond when Shane, who was a few paces ahead, stopped us and pointed at the side of the boardwalk. For a moment we all stared at nothing, and then a Weasel popped its adorable little head out of the exact same gap where I'd seen one disappear on a long-ago previous visit. But this time, the Weasel didn't vanish for good. It really wanted to keep heading along the path, but we were in the way. There followed a wonderful minute of Weasel-watching as it crossed from side to side, ran towards us a bit, paused, nipped under the boardwalk and then out again, before finally rushing away for good when a group of children approached. Here are what I think are my best photos of it.

After THAT, the day could be declared nothing but a triumph. If you are wondering why 'Ron the Weasel', Howard V referred to a regularly seen Rainham Weasel a couple of years ago as Ron, though of course there are probably quite a few Weasels on the reserve, and some of them might even be females. Though I suspect this one was a male as it was fairly big for a Weasel.

The loop was rounded off with these Marsh Frogs near the MDZ. The Kingfisher mesh is in place, and Graham managed to see one of the Kingfishers later as it belted across the fields on its way to the nesting bank. Rumours of a Spotted Redshank and Yellow Wagtails came to naught, but we did score a male and a female Wheatear near the MDZ, and had fun watching Lapwings chasing each other about from the Purfleet hide.

A bit of a surprise right by the visitor centre - this very big Brown Rat sitting by the side of the path. I just had time for one pic before a child rushed over with the intention of stroking it, something that the rat evidently didn't want to experience as it turned tail and disappeared into the reeds. And then we were back at the visitor centre for tea.

We opted to do a mini-loop of the woodland area after tea, as it was by now quite warm and we hoped more insects might be out and about.

This proved to be so, with loads of Small Torties and Peacocks on the wing, feeding on Blackthorn (I think) blossom and breaking off now and then to chase each other in soaring spirals. Also seen - a couple of unphotographable Brimstones, and this Small White.

It's now the season to waste hours photographing small hovering things in flight. A Beefly and a Drone-fly kept me amused so long that the guys disappeared and it took us a good 15 minutes to relocate each other. All that for some not-very-sharp pics. It does make me happy to see them again though, especially the Beefly with its fat furry bum and ridiculous drinking-straw beak.

The feeders had been empty on our first look round, but now were full, and drawing in Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches and Reed Buntings.

On the way back towards the visitor centre, I stopped to admire this Magpie as it peacefully preened in a pathside tree.

We gave the Purfleet hide another go, but all was quiet. The bridge here has a sign saying that Water Voles are being seen here, but we didn't. We did see these two Mute Swan cygnets. The lead bird is of the Polish form, with white juvenile plumage and paler bare parts than normal.

Last pic of the day - this splendid Dandelion. All in all a great visit to Rainham, with the Weasel (whether it's Ron or Rhona) my Species Of The Day by an East London mile.

ETA - I have JUST realised that 'Ron Weasel' is a Harry Potter reference. So I guess it would be Ron or Ginny.

Back to Cornwall - part 3

Last Friday was my second day out with Jayne. We kicked things off by returning to the field at Gulval, haunt of the Little Bunting. This time, we were there alone, and after a few minutes the bunting flew into one of the trees that it had been frequenting before.

The light was better today, and so were the views. As we watched, the bunting came down to the ground to feed, and returned to some nice photogenic spots to pose. It is a great-looking little thing, all complex markings and lovely cream, smoke and chestnut tones.

Keeping it company, along with the aforementioned Chaffies, were a Robin, a couple of Dunnocks, and this lovely (though non-Siberian) Chiffchaff.

From here, we headed up to the Hayle estuary. It was markedly colder on the north coast than the south, and seriously breezy. We had a lovely walk around Copperhouse Creek, seeing Redshanks and Curlews plus many gulls (sadly not including any unusual species).

Overhead action included a Sparrowhawk and a couple of Common Buzzards. A small ornamental pond among pretty community gardens by the marshland was stuffed with fresh frogspawn.

We went on to Newquay after this, and a walk along the cliff edge, fighting the high winds which nearly knocked us over more than once, to a vantage point from where we could watch Fulmars and Kittiwakes. The Fulmars in particular provided some wonderful views.

Wonderful to be eye-to-eye with these gorgeous seabirds, even though I wished I had a zoom lens for some of the opportunities.

Actually, I DID have a zoom lens, but it was my short landscape one. Here's a look across the cliff edge and sea - stunning views, to which I really haven't done justice, but manoeuvering on the cliff-edge was tricky and I was quite keen not to be blown over.

The Kittiwakes (about 30 pairs I reckon) didn't come so close but still provided some great photo opportunities against the wild sea-and-rocks backdrop.

I didn't want to leave, but on the other hand it was freezing, and the idea of a hot beverage was becoming irresistably compelling, so we went back into Newquay and had tea at the cafe by the boating lake. The lake here was busy with gulls, many of which were amusing themselves by playing with twigs, discarded tennis balls and other random items. There were also assorted manky Mallards and some of the best-looking Feral Pigeons I've ever seen.

Two examples of the Handsome Ferals gang.

We then took a short walk down the Gannel Estuary, in search of another Iceland Gull, with no luck. Tide was low and there were many Oystercatchers foraging on the saltmarsh.

Once again, afternoon tea and cake was enjoyed at Marazion, and we decided to round off the day at Newlyn Harbour.

With a great effort of will I kept the birding lens in my bag, and took a few pics of the boats.

We found nothing unusual in the harbour today so the short lens was allowed to stay for the entireity of our visit. Here are a ton of Herring Gulls loitering hopefully by a recently arrived fishing boat.

And that's Cornwall, or bits of it, anyway. Hope y'all liked the pics. I gather that I got out of the county just in time, as the world and his wife (in fact, especially his wife) are heading there in droves in response to the BBC's new 'Poldark' series, starring the supernaturally stunning Aidan Turner, as well as the earthily stunning Cornish landscape. So I'm OK about leaving Cornwall for now, but I hope to make a return visit next winter.