Sunday, 9 March 2008

28 bird species seen and heard today

BBC weather forecast said this morning the weather would be great, and it was. I wasn't going to miss the opportunity to get some good photographs, so out I went. I was out most of the day probably about 5 hours, photographing and filming wildlife at my local bird club. I came back with some good photographs, and some great footage on my camcorder. The footage needs to be edited, and when it has I'll add it to the blog.

Here's a picture from my local bird club that I took today:


As it says above I saw 28 species of birds today. Here they are:

  • 2 Common Buzzards
  • 13+ Herons (Heronry)
  • 2 Long Tailed Tits
  • 25 Canada Geese
  • 16 Coots
  • 2 Robins
  • 1 Blackbird
  • 4 Mallards (2 of which were courting, and then eventually mated, this was caught on film)
  • 3 Moorhen
  • 6 Great Tits
  • 4 Chaffinch
  • 6 Blue Tits
  • 1 Common Snipe
  • 5 Lapwings
  • 2 Wrens
  • 2 Magpies
  • 1 Cormorant
  • 1 Teal
  • 1 Oystercatcher
  • 1 Chiffchaff (Heard. The first chiffchaff I've heard this year)
  • 1 Pied Wagtail
  • 1 Great Crested Grebe
  • 2 Willow Tits
  • 2 Dunnock
  • 8 Greenfinch
  • 1 Domestic Goose (this may not officially count because it's domestic but i've counted it anyway)
  • 2 Woodpigeon
  • 2 Jackdaws
I saw my first wasp of the year today. I'm sure it's far to early for them - Global warming.

13 comments:

Nigel Blake said...

A nice blog you have started here Anna; just like my daughter, you seem to be very keen, its good that there are youngsters who want to look after our natural heritage.
Well done!
Nigel Blake

The Quacks of Life said...

hi Anna,

nice looking blog and comments from Mr Blake!!

I see you are a member of Ogston Bird club. You may know a friend of mine Dawn Bryan?

Anna Simpson said...

The name sounds familiar. Is she well known for knowing a lot about gulls, or am I thinking of someone else?

The Quacks of Life said...

she is well known for complaining she has never seen a bittern!!

Anonymous said...

Excellent blog Anna. Keep it up! I've bookmarked it, and also added a link to it on my own site. (www.thenatureofnescotland.com)
Ken

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

You have some beautiful pictures here, Anna. That's a wonderful list, too. You saw lots! I love the kingfisher on the top of your page. I looked at some of your archives and I think you've got a great blog going here. I'll be back to look at the rest of your pages. Thanks for visiting my blog today. My blog is new, too. :)

Anonymous said...

WoW..this is a very beautifully captured shot...lovely view!

Richard Powell said...

Hello Anna!

You've certainly got some good ideas to put on your blog, besides birding.

I can't think where you got the idea to take pictures of birding scenery from? :o) I assume that's Ogston? Unlike wildlife photography (portraits), landscapes don't move!

Keep it going!

Richard

Mark Wilson said...

Great looking blog Anna - look forward to seeing more posts and pictures!

Nick Patel said...

Hi Anna,

If you want to see a Yellow legged gull, try Ogston reservoir as the Gull roost apparently it usually holds about 3 or so, and also a few other rarity Gulls (e.g. Glaucous, etc).

Don't know if this is of any use to you?

Nick.

Anna Simpson said...

Thanks Nick, I'll hopefully be getting to Ogston soon (it's my local bird club), to do a little photography, so I'll stay all day, and keep an eye on the gull roost in the evening. Then I'll be able to go badger watching as well. Yipee! Have you been to see the Water rail yet at Ogston?

James Owen said...

Hi Anna,

Nifty blog you have going here, nice breadth of information and I really like the bird lists - you can't beat a good one.

You asked in my blog about volunteering with the RSPB.
First I want to refer you to the website - www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering

It tells you the different ways you can get involved, outdoors or in.
I do my volunteering at Carsington Water (ABB Project), talking to the public about the RSPB's work, signing up new members and jazzing about birds in general - you need not be the world expert to do this, believe me! If that's not what you're after, there are reserves around like Coombes Valley in Staffs or Langford Lowfields in Notts, where I'm sure you can do hands-on conservation work or you could help with surveying bird populations in farmland areas all over the region - you could even apply to volunteer abroad in places like Malta!
I like the work I do because it brings the money in, and the RSPB simply couldn't function without it.

As well as the good vibes for helping the RSPB, the other really cool thing for volunteers is that all the training available to the paid staff is open to us too - so long as it broadly relates to our role - indeed I'm on a week-long course myself in April.
It's great to be a part of a conservation team too. We're always so happy working together it's almost like a drug. And I've learnt so much more about birds!

Lastly, my RSPB volunteering experiences played an instrumental part in me getting paid employment in conservation. Okay - it's with the National Trust, but it's a start for now.

So try the website, or if the ABB Project sounds good to you let me know and I can hook you up to the member of staff in charge. The staff, by the way, are all invariably cool people.

Regards,
James

Anonymous said...

Rather interesting blog you've got here. Thanks the author for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.

Bella Kuree