A VERY WET DAY

I've just come back from shopping with my dad I looked out of the window and counted 46 House Sparrows in the garden (a new record for the garden).

I have been getting some great pictures of sparrows with my camera and am just starting to get the hang of getting good pictures.

How many sparrow do you get in your gardens?

And finally I had to mention this because I got the most beautiful picture of a Collared Dove.

Off to enjoy the rainy view from the garden before I watch some of the olympics.

Wilde Bird Wednesday

Haydn's Pool & Neumann's Flash

As you may know, today I have been Haydn's Pool and Neumann's Flash. My dad woke me up this morning (not the other way round) at about half past five to give us time to have breakfast. The House Sparrows were having their breakfast in our garden too:

As we got ready I was already clutching my new Bridge camera which my mum had teated me to.
Me and my dad eventually set off, however I didn't see much whilst on the the way. When I got there the place was littered with rabbits there must of been atleast 30 as well as a feeding party of tits.

As we set off on the main walk I saw........  MILLIONS OF BIRDS!!! Here is a list of the ones on the way:
I spotted the most beautiful Kingfisher with it's turquoise blue back, that darted straight in front of us (about 2m away), three Reed Warblers not singing there normal song, 8 Bullfinches mostly males, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Jay, a few Wrens, Tits of all sorts and finally a few Feral and Wood Pigeons.

When me and my dad got to Haydn's pool there were already a load of mallards and best of all there was two Green Sandpipers and that was that for Haydn's Pool.

Then as we moved on towards Neumann 's flash I tried the camerea again, but I need a bit of practice.
here are some of the pictures.

There wasn't much at Neumans flash apart from a few Swans, Lapwings and Great Crested Grebe.
On the way back we walked along the old road which used to from northwich to Anderton/Barnton but it is now closed like has been for years. I saw and got a picture of a dead Shrew:

On the way back I got a funny picture of a squrrel and saw 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers:

We did call back at Haydn's pool but there was hardly any thing there. And thats the day.
And by the way you should visit if you get chance, it's great there.

Tommorow morning I am going to Neumann's flash but am also going to call at Haydn's pool.
I am going to go really early again at about 6 o'clock getting my dad up but it is the best part of the day !

Here is a list of birds I would like to see:
Redshank,
Bar tailed Godwit,
Spotted flycatcher,
and a Greenshank.
But I would like some more species of rare birds to see.

Wigg Island

It was about six months ago now, but I went to visit Wigg Island near Runcorn where you can look at the estuary and look for rare birds. However there wasn't much around apart from a few Curlews, a Golden Eye and Terns. These Canada Geese kept popping up their heads:

But when I went, yes the birds did inspire me but, most of all what I really liked about going was seeing the rampaging current of  tide rushing into the sand.

Here is a short video of the tide rushing up the Mersey estuary. If you look in the background, you can see a surveying rig which is doing all the measurements for the new bridge over the River Mersey.

BIRDS EYE VIEW

Yesterday I went to one of my friend’s birthday parties at Go Ape in Delamere Forest where you basically climb up 40 or 50m red and white pine trees. As I got to about stage 5 of the tasks, you could get a beautiful view of the lake which was made about ten years ago I think.

Really I just enjoyed the view of the lake and watching all the Canada Geese, Common Gulls, Great Black Backed Gulls and a few others squawking around.  And of course I had to concentrate or I would fall from one of those terrifyingly high trees (but luckily I didn’t).

Check out my video clip (30 secs ) to see me coming down the 100m zip wire:

MARTIN MERE

Sorry I couldn’t write something about Martin Mere yesterday, I was just too busy. Here is how the day went:

I started off the day getting up really early so I could pack everything up (of course my mum had to as well).

When I got into the car I sat and read my bird book until we got there. My mum got us there a bit too early, so all the bird watchers had to wait. And then had to wait a lot longer because suddenly, as it was turning half past nine (when it opened)..... The fire alarm went off and of course we had to wait till the fire engines came. As they looked for the fire most of the bird watchers including me went on the reed bed walk but didn’t see much.



When I came back from the reed bed walk the centre was finally OPEN!!! When I got in I was looking at all the birds that have been held captive like Red Crested Pochards and Rosary Billed Ducks:

But best of all I liked watching all the wild birds, here is what I saw: Avocets, Oyster Catchers, Lapwings, Black Tailed Godwits, Ruffs, Green Sandpiper, Marsh Harrier and Shell Ducks.  Here are the Oyster Catchers:

After I had done my bird watching I went on a tour with a very helpful man from Martin Mere called Gary Hird, he pointed out some very weird but wonderful birds.

I did get some pictures but I need a much better camera for me, any suggestions and remember I am ten years old so I don’t think a massive one would suit me.

A really great day at Martin Mere.

 

Camera On Fire

It has finally got to the summer holidays and my mum has made up her mind up that I can go to Martin Mere tomorrow.

Today I put up my remote camera by my hanging feeders and got some great pictures of all sorts. I finally got a decent picture of some Blue Tits.

My dad thought they were Great Tits at first but then realised they were Blue tits.

I never realised how much bigger a House sparrow is than a Goldfinch.

There were a few Bullfinches this morning before I went to school and 1 or 2 White Throats.  Later on after school I went on a 1 mile bike ride to do some bird watching. I saw some Lapwings really close up, a Great spotted woodpecker scrambling up a wooden pylon, and finally I heard a Green woodpecker.

However the best thing throughout the day was......... a Great Spotted Woodpecker which fed on my nut feeder.

The camera also snapped a few of my favourites like the lovely chatty House Sparrows

And a peeping fat Wood Pigeon

Can't wait for Martin Mere tomorrow.

I am in school at this very moment but whilst I have got a bit of spare time I wanted to put on that over the weekend I might be going to Martin mere to whach some water fowl activity. (last time I went on the website I heard there were 1 or 2 Red crested pochards about).

Blue Tits

Today's post is going to be about the new fledged Blue Tits that are permanently coming back and forth to the garden. They're are about 5 or 6 fledglings including a few adults mostly feeding on the sunflower hearts. Unfortunately I haven't got any pictures of these fledged Blue Tits yet.

Goosander

This is just a short post about when I went to Snowdonia to watch a bit of water fowl activity.
I saw a beautiful female Goosander.

And a bird that I carn't exactly work out what it is... Do any of you bloggers have any ideas what it is?

I also really like this picture we took of all the gulls on the sunken rowing boats.



Haydn's Pool

Today I went to visit Anderton Nature Park with one of my friends called Sam, he’s kind of interested in birds.  I had to wake up at around 20 minutes past 5a.m, because me and my dad had to get dressed, have breakfast and most importantly get my binoculars ready. After we had done all of that business we set off to collect my friend Sam.

Because Sam had never been before on the way I told him about all the birds and nature that lives among Anderton Nature Park, (he was really excited).

Because we got there so early the car park was closed so my dad had to park on a separate car park (but my dad still had to pay the ticket). On his way to get the ticket he spotted a beautiful Grey Heron which he pointed out to me and Sam. As he left to get a ticket he told us to wait at the car park which we did and soon the trees around us came to life: there were Tree Creepers, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Blackbirds and a load of rabbits, however that’s just the beginning of the day.

When we set off on our long walk to Haydn’s Pool the birds started chirping and the sun was coming up.

Birds we saw on the way and on the way back:

Blue Tits, Great Tits, 3 Reed Warbler’s (2 males showing off to the female), a very handsome Jay flew across us, Chiffchaff’s, Wren, Chaffinch, Magpie’s, Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon, Ring Ouzel and a Cormorant.

When we got to Haydn’s Pool these are the birds we saw:

Little Grebe’s, Moorhen’s, Reed Warbler (really close up), Common Sandpiper, Black headed Gull’s, Cormorant, Sand martin’s and I thought I saw a little Ringed Plover. Below is a picture dad tried to take through the telescope.

We had to hurry back because Sam had a Keyboard exam.  Apart from that the morning was great.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker in my garden.

I keep a good suply of bird food available at all times (which I have been doing for a few years now).
However I use different types of foods for different species of birds. For example I use meal worms to invite Robins, Starlings and Blackbirds and use nuts to invite Tits and Nuthatches (even though I don't get Nuthatches yet).

Now as I have kept on feeding birds and kept a good suply of food, one time in the garden a female Greater Spotted Woodpecker visited my garden to have a good nibble on the seeds and fat, even though I don't really live near woodland. Hope she comes back now that she knows where some nice food is.

Big day tomorrow, getting dad up really, really early to see what we can find.

Goldfinch Thursday!

Today was Goldfinch Thursday, there was Goldfinches flying in from every direction (as well as one Greenfinch).

Most of them were feeding on the niger seed feeder which I normally fill up twice a week; however one or two were having a peck at the high energy seed feeder. Here are a few pictures that my Infra-red camera took…look at the 2 on the niger seeds

At the moment there coming to feed nearly every half an hour, which means I can get a good look at them. They are just about learning to hang off the feeders properly,  it’s rather funny when you see them fail to land.

There are seven Goldfinches on the feeder at the moment.  

I’m sure in some of your gardens Starlings might be quite a common visitor, however Starlings in my garden are the commonest bird I get, and are here all the time.

Mostly feeding on my black tray or fat ball feeder the Starlings come in huge feeding parties mostly every 2 hours.

As you should know Starlings are quite greedy birds. And once there was a male Blackbird attempting to feed. As it was about to take a meal worm a group of Starlings came and gobbled everything up. As they left the Blackbird came for his turn to feed however there wasn’t anything left. (He looked very disappointed).

Here is a picture of some of our Starlings feeding earlier this year.

Just waiting for our Goldfinches to come for their evening treats.

Today's post is only going to be a short one about the Wood Pigeons that keep coming for tea every evening. This one was just landing even though there wasn't much food left.

Next doors House Martins still haven't fledged, but it must be any day soon.

Dad has taken the sheep wire off the bottom off the fence because we are hoping that the local hedgehogs might come for a visit. My infra red camera will hopefully get a picture of one.

As I have kept on feeding the birds, I have been noticing that a family of Jack doors have been coming back and forth to feed in the garden.

They are mostly feeding on my fat ball feeder (which I stuck to the fence so it didn’t move). As the juvenile cries for food, the adults are taking huge chunks of fat from the feeder.

Here is a picture of the young Jack door, which my Infra red camera took.

The lovely pair of Red Polls that visited us during the RSPB 2012 Garden Bird Survey.

Anderton Nature Park

At about 8.45am this morning me and my dad (Nigel) were setting off to one of my favourite Cheshire nature reserves, Anderton Nature Park.

When we got there the excitement was increasing rapidly inside me. We had to pay and display before we set off on are long walk to Haydn’s pool. As me and my dad started walking it wasn't long before we heard the laughing calls of the green woodpecker. As we continued walking we were soon walking beside the river (which was flowing rather fast).

As me and my dad got closer to the edge of the water there was a sudden strange call coming from the reeds and as it happened the bird making that noise was a very handsome male reed warbler which must of been showing off to the females. After that exciting spot it wasn’t long before a load of other birds showed up.

Here’s what I saw over the entire day:
Chiffchaffs, Willow warblers, Wrens, Blue tits, Great tits, Long tailed tits, Coal tits, Bullfinches (males red tummy was beautiful), Grasshopper warbler, Magpies, Common sandpipers, Coots, Moorhens, Little grebes, Great Crested Grebe, blackbirds, mallard ducks, Robins, Mute swans and Canada geese.

When me and my dad reached Haydn’s pool there was someone there who I had met before, he was very interested in birds. And because I was so enthusiastic about birds he had put me on his blog (Rambles with a Camera). I had a big chat about birds with him and told him about the Great Grey Shrike I saw whilst I was at my grandma’s house.

Wasn’t much at Neumann’s Flash apart from a few Mute swans and that’s the the day done.