The Standlake Birder

This morning first thing I went for  very pleasant sunny walk with Carolyn and the dogs. It really felt as though spring was here, the violets were in bloom, the Cowslips were just coming out and Chiffchaff sang from the rapidly greening hedge rows. When I got home I settled down with a nice cup of coffee and checked RBA. To my great surprise three Garganey had been found on our local village lake less than a mile from our house! The report said there was no further sign at 10:00. Ever the optimist, I shot down to the small lake on our small holding to see if they had relocated to it – sadly not!   We were visiting my daughter and partner in Worcester to meet their new puppy today and we did not get home until around 16:00 when I checked RBA again and found that the Garganey were still on the lake but said to be exclusive near the dam. Now I’ve been to this lake many times but for the life of me I could not remember seeing a dam there! I grabbed the camera and bins and da...

Audrey Hepburn March birding wise can be a bit of a funny month. Overwintering birds are starting to leave for their spring breeding sites but most summer migrants are still to arrive creating a short term lull. My birding friend Jeremy once described March to me as the month birders choose to go on honeymoon! The first indications of birding delights to come have, however, started to  happened with a mass arrival of migrant Chiffchaffs from their African winter grounds in the past ten days. The song that gives them their name can now be heard in the hedgerows all around our house. My wife finds it a rather dull repetitive song but I always find the association of the song with the arrival of Spring very uplifting. The first migrant hirundines have also started to arrive. I say migrant in both cases as as our climate warms both Chiffchaffs and Swallows now overwinter in small numbers the UK. Gulls divide opinion in marmite fashion amongst birders, i.e. you either love or hate ...

   Dartford Warbler In late winter or early spring I like to make a visit to Thursley Common in Surrey looking for two heathland specialists, namely the Dartford Warbler and Woodlark. In the summer of 2020 there was a large heathland fire at Thursley and I missed out on visiting last year because of the lockdown. I was hence a little apprehensive as to what state the common would be in.     The Dartford Warbler is, unusually for a UK warbler, largely resident. Its range runs from southern England westwards to the south of Italy. It is a small warbler with a very perky character. The adult male is a very attractive bird with grey-brown upperparts and a dull reddish-brown belly except for the centre which has a dirty white patch. It has light speckles on the throat and a red eye-ring. On a warm sunny spring day it likes to sing its scratchy rambling song from the top of a gorse bush, often with its tail held cocked at a jaunty angle. The tightly packed spikey gorse als...

Pied Kingfisher A combination of dawn to dusk rain and various projects at home meant no birding this week so I thought I’d put together a gallery of some of my favourite bird photos from the last few years. So, in no particular order….   Little Owl   Crested Tit Bluethroat Greenfinch Cuckoo Puffin Secretary bird Blue Tit Hawfinch Malachite Kingfisher Grey-headed Kingfisher Corncrake White-bellied Coucal Common Whitethroat Red-flanked Bluetail Grasshopper Warbler Reed Warbler Redwing Fieldfare Red-footed Falcon Wryneck Pied Flycatcher Spotted Eagle Owl Spotted Thick Knee Heuglin's Courser