The Standlake Birder

  With nothing bird wise to temp me to drive any great distance I popped down to Slimbridge again o n Friday for a relaxed days birding. Making use of the members early access privilege I arrived before normal opening time and made my way to the Robbie Garnet hide where the sky seemed full of Sand Martins, an uplifting and welcome sight after such a dreadful wet winter.    Taking pictures of Hirundines is, to say the least, challenging, mainly due to the speed they move at. The more distant they are the more chance you have of getting focus to lock on but the smaller the image and hence the larger the crop and noise. This is compounded by the very high shutter speeds required, typically 1/4000 sec which almost always equates to high ISO and hence noise. To be honest this is 10% skill and 90% luck but if you shoot enough a few will be in focus as per this typical example.    From the hide I could also see an adult Spoonbill that has been present at Slimbridge since mid-February. There h

  On Wednesday I met Jeremy just after dawn in the Wyre forest to look for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. To cut a long story short, a few hours searching where they have been in previous years only yielded two sounds of them drumming somewhere but no confirmed sightings. There was quite a nice selection of backup birds to keep us entertained, good flocks of Siskin, a few Redpoll and my first singing Chiffchaff of the spring.   Just to prove they do sometimes show themselves, here’s a picture taken in the forest two years ago.      Come mid-morning we relocated to Dowles Brook to look for Dippers where we had much more success. We spotted two very active birds almost immediately collecting nesting material with huge beaks full of moss. Assuming they were the same pair, they had chosen a new nest location compared to previous years, possibly because the water level was much higher. This led us to speculate how big a territory is and whether there could be more than one pair. Somewhat unhel

       Dartford Warbler This Wednesday just gone I planned  to meet Jeremy at dawn in the Wyre forest to look for Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. On Tuesday the forecast was for fog for the first couple of hours so, as this is exactly when these diminutive little  Woodpeckers are most active,  we decided to postpone the trip. Instead I decided to pay a visit to Thursley Common in Surrey which is normally a top spot for Dartford Warblers and Wood Larks in early spring. The forecast for Thursley was also mist and fog for the first couple of hours so I planned to arrive at 10:00.   Dawn broke on Wednesday in Pirton to reveal a lovely bright early spring day – typical! The weather did deteriorate to heavy fog as I drove down the M5 so perhaps it was also foggy in the forest. The forecast for Thursley was mist clearing to light cloud but in fact it was again a lovely sunny spring day right up to sunset. My wife always laughs when I check the forecast for birding  - she says wait and look out of

          I had a lovely bistro lunch with my gorgeous elder daughter Louisa in Witney yesterday. On the way home I decided to try and see the above Owls at a well-known Cotswold  hilltop spot. I used to go to this spot every year but stopped going 5 years ago when it became very popular and, at times I’m afraid, a bit of a circus. I know its been very busy there again this winter but I hoped that, as it is quite late in the season, it might be a bit quieter. I was pleasantly surprised to find just a couple of friendly and well behaved birders present when I arrived. Encouragingly, there were also four Short Eared Owls flying over the fields, all be it a little distantly.   The Short Eared Owl is a grass land specialist with an almost world-wide range. It is found on all continents except Antarctica and Australia and hence has one of the most widespread distributions of any bird. It is an attractive grey and sandy coloured bird with very noticeable bright yellow eyes. It is strongly de