Ad a great morning

Friday 14 March
A foggy start soon lifted and then beautiful sunshine. So prime conditions for some emerging Adders. Not too much to say other than saw eight in all, mostly females and pre slough, silvery sides, so in a couple of weeks they will look even better. Here some pics.......

Bramblings give it up

Finally....
After lots of shots through the kitchen window (never clean) and much slithering about (too far away) and poking round corners (too obvious and they flew off) I finally caught up with our garden Bramblings this evening. We have five birds visiting the garden at the moment, one a cracking male, not in full breeding plumage but give him a few more weeks and I reckon he will get even blacker. They mostly visit early morning to feed when the feeders are in the dark and then visit on and off during the day.

another from behind trying to resemble a Wryneck ! really fantastic patterning

 with a couple of cousins - no ? ok full species difference Chaffinches 

I love 'em !

At Last.....

First Siskin of the year
While the garden has been filled with birds this year there has been a noticeable lack of Siskins, which were present continually through Jan, Feb and March last year. So this morning was a great  surprise as a Siskin paid us a visit - lets hope he stays for a bit and brings his friends !

A Garden Hour

Before Work...
A quick hour in the garden was really good fun on a nice sunny morning. It started with some stupidity in the pop up hide as once I was properly installed something went ping and all the birds flew off as the hide almost deflated ! Some hasty improvisations and I was up ( rather in ) and sitting again - less time available now.

First bird in was quite a surprise, a Nuthatch, and before I had time to sort the camera's settings. A good photographer would have done this before getting in the hide of course. My pics then were a bit over exposed - still it's a Nuthatch and although I was ready after this, it never re appeared at the nuts, despite calling all the time.

Then after about ten minutes the usual suspects started to arrive... Woodpigeons first and despite the use of a No Wheat Mix to try and keep them at bay a bit, they found the sunflower hearts feeder. They really do dominate and it was hard not to shout at them from my cover so the smaller birds could get a look in. Luckily they quickly decided to feed on the ground and keep the feeders open to others.

 Once again close up views allow the conundrum of the irregular iris - why oh why do they ( and Oystercatchers, and Black Woodpeckers ) have this ? Hey Ho   .... an unanswered enigma

Then came the Goldfinches, never an underestimated bird. They do love Niger seed and are really quite fearless

In recent years CJ WildBirdfoods have developed the Niger seed feeder so it is more efficient. Gone are the small slits which cost the birds too much time and effort to access the seed, and now are the larger port feeders, and I must say a great success in our Stanhoe garden. These feeders with a smaller access area than general seed mix also allow for better cleaning, overall excellent ( of cousre available from The One Stop Nature Shop ! ) 

 Hmmm... thinking about it

 Getting stuck in...

Great birds so worth a couple more portraits.....

 Almost unbelievable colours for a UK bird

Then of course no garden would be without one.....

Greenfinches are a bit uncommon at times here at Stanhoe but luckily today a few came in to feed.

 and the final entry before unveiling myself from the hide was a Collared Dove

all in all a very pleasant hour, pity the Bramblings didn't appear which is what I was really after, still there's always tomorrow......

Poland part 2

The second day...continued
this should have been a seamless post but for some reason the blog site kicked me out and before I had time to check the post, also a problem with upload quality of previous pictures (well that's my excuse). So to finish our last day in Poland. A clearish sky developed around 3pm so I suggest a trip back to the concrete road part of the reserve hoping for a nice sunset.

Poland February 2014

A Wildfowl Wonderland
Half Term provided us with both the excuse and time to zip over to the house in Poland with the main aim being to liase with the estate agents on how to put our house up for sale. This took a full day out of our three day stay but the remaining two days allowed for some birding amid the usual domestic duties. We were lucky with the weather, no rain but of course being February predominantly greyish skies with some blue intervals. It was cold but not Polish cold, similar to UK at around 3 - 8 degrees C during the day.

I was expecting the main reserve to be completely flooded and the concrete road to be impassable. I can't remember ever before being able to get down this road at this time of year so it was remarkably dry, in stark contrast to the UK's flooding problems
 
 The usual suspects were hanging around the field edges - Hooded Crow

By the main river in the adjacent flooded fields were hundreds of Whooper Swans.

Out on the main stretch of the reserve were thousands of Geese, Greylag Gees, Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese. All the time there were hundred of Geese in the air, these White-fronts dropping in 

 A Bean Goose in among these White-fronts

and of course the main contenders Grey lag Geese

Goldeneyes were on the river approach and also on the main reserve 

 as were groups of twenty plus Great White Egrets, a total count of 237 in all.

and as it came to dusk some small groups of Goosanders flew in to roost

Some blue skies but as the day came to a close the temperatures dropped and the icy patches gave a truer feeling of the real temperature.

Day two: and a trip around the southern side of the reserve had me tumbling out of the car at high speed as a White-tailed Eagle flew overhead. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough and this enormous raptor was already directly over me as I got out. A few seconds earlier and I would have had head on views.

A short walk in search of Beaver drew a blank and an area that was previously really good for woodland birds had been cleared, so much so that I don't think it will revive for the spring - just a lonely Penduline Tit's nest from the previous year evidence to it's former glory.

Sunlight required

Birds in woodland shade
It's amazing the difference that good light can make to photography and I just knew that when I started taking these pics at just an 80th of a second with a high ISO that they would be soft. Still it was a nice diversion for a couple of hours to have some quiet birding and photography - I didn't see another person, rare in birdwatcher crowded Norfolk.

In the woods then, Bramblings, Bullfinches, Water Rail (woodland edge)  and Reed Buntings.