A Holiday Trip

As an early wedding anniversary treat for ourselves, we booked a long weekend in a a wildlife-orientated hotel, the Grant Arms in Grantown on Spey. If you fancy a treat, give this place a try; the location is breath-taking, the welcome warm, and the food excellent.This was the view from our bedroom window.

On the way up (beware, it IS a long way!) we stopped at Leighton Moss, scene of this years Springwatch programme. The only regret was that we could only stop a couple of hours; you really need a full day to explore here. We missed out on the Bearded Tits, but instead we came across this Marsh Tit trying out a new home for size. These little birds, along with the visually very similar Willow Tits, are under threat as their habitat is being destroyed, so always pleasing to see.

As we were in the area, it seemed rude not to go and visit Loch Flemington, and see the American Coot that has taken up residence there. This is a rare visitor to this country, and yet this individual seems right at home, having been here for several months now.

Having featured a cute Grey Squirrel in a previous blog, it's time to show the even cuter native Red Squirrel. This little chap howed great interest in the food that had been put out to attract the birds at Loch Garten.

The real attractions at Loch Garten were the Crested Tits. These elegant birds are pine tree specialists. so limited in this country to the Highlands, and were the number one reason for the trip. Worth it? Oh, Yes!!

We spent a number of hours at Lochindob, a small loch on a quiet road. The moorland around was so peaceful, yet so full of life. No drone of traffic; instead the accelerating call of Meadow Pipits as they first soared, and then glided in their characteristic display flight, the cheerful burble of Red Grouse, and the 'gronk' of Ravens overhead.

Here is one of the comical Red Grouse. When alarmed they would explode into flight, but to land it seemed they had forgotten how, and would just fold their wings and almost tumble into the heather, and then stick their heads up as if to say, 'I meant to do that'!

Lochindob was also home to this recently returned Black-throated Diver, smart in it's breeding plummage, and hungry for a fish supper.

This view is along the Findhorn valley. While we only saw distant views of the birds of prey that this valley is famous for, the setting more than made up for lack of raptors. The valley was full of curlew, oystercatchers and lapwing, alond with the usual meadow pipits, and a dipper working energetically along the river.

We would loved to have stayed longer, and it was far too soon that we found ourselves travelling back along the A9, heading sadly south.

Having arrived home, we had one more day before returning to work, so what better way use it than to head into the North Wales hills before dawn, windows open so that we could listen for the odd bubbling sound that marked a Lek site, and then to park up and wait for first light to reveal the sight of male Black Grouse displaying in a series of twirls and rushes at one another. The purpose of this strange 'dance' is to establish the relative rankings, like teenage lads at the dance floor showing off for the girls. 



Spring is almost here

It's always worth a trip to New Brighton in winter. On the highest tides, the pontoon in the marine lake becomes a refuge for local waders. There will dozens of redshank with a good smattering of dunlin. Often there will be a local speciality, the Purple Sandpiper, but on this occasion the highlight of the day was tucked in with the redshank, this Greenshank showing a nice contrast in leg "shank" colour. 

Another local treat was this Kingfisher, not a mile from home. The poor light robs the colours from the picture, but a real delight to see. We've seen reports of a bird at this site for some time, but this was the first time we'd actually seen him. It seems such an insignificant bit of water, with all sorts of junk dumped both on the banks and in the water itself, yet there must be enough life to support this fisher, and hopefully we'll see many more times.

We managed a return trip to Pennington Flash, near Wigan. The hides there provide great views, such as these of a Reed Bunting and a Bullfinch. The only downside with a popular place is that it can get crowded, and sometimes you meet a 'character'; we found one photographer with a lens the size of a rocket launcher running up and down in the hide, pushing the lens right out of the window in an attempt to get a 'better' shot.  Needless to say the end result was the sight of lots of bird's bottoms disappearing rapidly into the trees. Sigh - time to move to a different hide...

Not quite as far away is Woolston Eyes; this is a much quieter place, not least because you need a key to get in! Woolston has been the scene of some amazing Starling murmerations this year, with some estimates as high as 500,00. The Starlings have been starting to arrive just before dusk, groups of birds flying in from all directions to merge with the growing mass. Sometimes a large group of maybe a 1,000 birds, other times just dozen birds at a time, indeed, even single starlings, each flying up to the main stream, and disappearing into the mass. Every now and again a sparrowhawk flew into the mass, and each time clear air formed around the hawk, like an invisible forcefield was around it. The mass of birds stratched from as far left as we could see to as far right; the sky was full of swirling wings. And then a group would peel off and dive into the reeds with a sounds like that of heavy rain, and then another group, and another, and another, until there was one final group. They too would dive into the reeds, and the sky was empty. Fascinating, and well worth the rushed trip from work, and the dark trip home.

 

Not far from Woolston is Moore Nature Reserve, no key needed, yet still much quieter than Pennington. From wigeon and teal whistling in the ponds, to the raptors soaring over, the wary goldcrests flitting around the trees, to the raucous great spotted woodpeckers pushing all out of the way at the feeders, there is much varied birdlife around. Even waders dropped in, these curlew feeding in fields by the road in.

Wherever you find woodland you are likely to find a great spotted woodpecker. These large birds, about the size of a starling, are easily identified, black and white with a bright red spot on their underparts, like this one.

As well as the great spotted, Moore has a small number of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, it's star resident. The Lessers are a smaller bird, not much larger than a sparrow. They lack the red under-spot, and have more white on their backs, in almost a polka-dot pattern. 

Alas, they are not just lesser because they are smaller, they are also lesser seen - this is an increasingly uncommon bird. The most likely threat to them is from loss of habitat; they need an established wood with a good canopy. It's very important for the survival of this delightful birds, and many like them, that we protect established woodlands. The government is keen for economic growth - with good reason. However, they have indicated that they are willing to allow developers to destroy established woodlands, to replace them with newly-planted woodlands elsewhere. This policy makes no sense from a wildlife point of view - it could take a hundred years or more for a new woodland to mature sufficiently to again support Lesser Spotter Woodpeckers. So, please, support your local woodlands, and help to protect them.

 

And to finish, a 'cutey' shot, again at Moore, of a Grey Squirrel nonchantly munching on his lunch, seemingly oblivious to our presence.