Today I braved the rain and went for a quick walk on my patch - there was only really one big shower, and I actually managed to walk for most of it in one of the few sunny spells of the day!

Very few bird highlights - 4 x drake tufted duck and 1 x baby coot at Old Wheel Dam; 2 x dipper, 1 x grey wagtail and 3 x bullfinch (including a juvenile) at the Fisheries. Most of the male mallards are well into the eclipse (below).

And a couple of insects:

Speckled Wood

Hoverfly (if anyone knows species let me know!)

Call me a wuss, or call me sensible, but nocturnal birding has never been my strongpoint as I’ve never been one for wandering round lonely areas in the pitch dark on foot. So last night I siezed my chance to catch up with a couple of night-dwelling birds on a SBSG guided walk at Wharncliffe Heath.

The target birds for the evening were nightjar and woodcock, and it proved to be a very popular event, with over fifty people joining the walk. We got on to the heath about 9.40pm, and before long heard our first tawny owl, and very soon roding woodcocks appeared, one flying almost straight over the assembled group. I was as excited about this as the nightjars, as it consituted one of those “I can’t believe I’ve never seen one” life ticks.

A short while later, the distinctive churring of the nightjars began. We were advised that the time to look for them flying was when the churring stopped, as this was the time they’d be moving between perches. And sure enough, as the sound stopped, it flew across the sky, and there was enough light left to make out the white spots on the male’s wing, as it caught up with a second nightjar nearby. Brilliant stuff! We were greeted with lots more churring, and another good view, before the night was out, and it was great to see a bird I’ve only ever heard before.

On the way back, a quick poke of the torch into a pond revealed a few newts, presumably smooth newts, languishing in the water.

Unfortunately the most common animal of the evening were the bloody mozzies, and this morning I’m covered in itchy bites, but it was well worth it to see some fantastic night birds.

This morning I had a walk round Agden Reservoir, with a specific aim of finding pied flycatchers. I failed miserably at this, but did catch up with their spotted cousins. The first ones I saw were a pair on Smallfield Lane, near Low Bradfield. They’re really photogenic birds due to their habit of returning to the same perch they took off from, and all you have to do is point at where you last saw them and they’ll more than likely return.

At Agden Reservoir, there was another spotted flycatcher to be found, along with two common sandpipers, a great spotted woodpecker and several treecreepers, nuthatches, coal tits and the usual suspects.

I walked up Agden Side after this, and there wasn’t too much to see, except for the usual tree pipits singing away, and a single redstart. At Rocher Head there was a kestrel and a green woodpecker yaffling in the distance, but that was about it.

On the way back, the spotted flycatchers were still on Smallfield Lane, and I couldn’t resist another shot for good measure. Seems like a reliable spot to find them!

I had a day at Old Moor today, and got good views of another (or possibly the same) spoonbill that has been on the site for the last few days. In the morning it was way on the other side of the lake and a tiny white dot, but in the afternoon it rather obligingly flew across the near where I was sat for a few photos.

Other highlights of the day included several great crested and little grebes; nesting kestrels by the Field Pool hide (below); a green sandpiper (the only year tick of the day), a common sandpiper, several ringed and little ringed plovers and a redshank; lots of bullfinches showing well at the feeders; several sedge warblers and reed warblers singing in the reeds.

I got well over 50 species today, and here are the ones I managed to get photos of (click for full-size):

(By the way, I’ve changed my Theme yet again so I can put larger images on the site).

Not too much tonight - a kestrel over Stacey Lane, a brown hare at Stacey Bank, and a couple of garden warblers south of the river were about it.

A few pics…

A nasty, drizzly day, and certainly not the sort you want when you have a new camera to try out!

I did manage some time without showers this morning, though, and I’m glad I got out, because I finally after 13 months of beating the same routes, got my first patch kingfisher! It was darting down the river near the Fisheries.

Not much else to report - a dipper and two grey wagtails on the river near the Hepworth site and a drake tufted duck at Old Wheel Dam were the only real notables.

Below are a few shots I took today, between showers. I apologise in advance for the attempt at a dipper shot, it was very poor light!

A few shots taken with the macro setting of the FZ18 - if any of my flower identifications are wrong please let me know!

As promised, some more pictures from the FZ18. It’s amazing how well it works on ridiculously high zooms, even handheld, albeit with a loss in quality.

Well the new camera’s arrived, and I’m very pleased with it. I had a bit of a walk round with it last night, but haven’t had time to sort all the photos out. Here’s one to be going on with.

I’ll post more photos and more details soon.

On Saturday I got up early and spent the whole morning finishing, or nearly finishing, my two surveys. Firstly I did my late visit for the BTO Breeding Bird Survey. The first thing I found as I got off the bus at Damflask were three great spotted woodpeckers, all in the same tree, which boded well for a good visit (in fact I saw or heard no fewer than 11 GSWs over the course of the day!).

As last time, the actual survey yielded very few surprises, but it was still a good walk, and it’s interesting to compare the results from both visits:

 As you can see, seemingly big drops in numbers for some species, especially great tit and chaffinch, however this could be explained by a drop in amount of singing males, and therefore a drop in the number that came to my attention. (Mallards can be explained by the fact they must have swan to a different part of the reservoir that’s not on my route!)

After that was finished, it was a trek round SK28Z, my tetrad for the SBSG survey. A few added to the list, with confirmed breeding for coal tit, with a small flock of fledglings at Beacon Wood, a singing yellowhammer, and (finally!) a grey wagtail. Other highlights included more GSWs, a female whitethroat at Brookside, and a couple of pairs of linnet on Riggs High Road.

I must make a note about starlings - when you’re actually looking for them they’re very noticeable by their absence. The centre of the population in my tetrad was around the farmland at Storrs, but I still only managed to count 24 individuals in the whole area. For starlings in prime habitat that seems very, very low.

Tonight I went for a walk round my patch. I still can’t believe there’s still the odd patch tick to be found - there was a flock of 12 lesser black-backed gulls at Old Wheel Farm. The highlight, though, was a spotted flycatcher flycatching (as flycatchers do!) near Loxley Fisheries. Elsewhere, the mute swan is still at Old Wheel Dam (but no signs of the teal now), plus one drake tufted duck and two lapwings overhead. Breeding-wise, a fledgling wren was at the Fisheries, along with several new mallard ducklings, and fledgling robins were below the bridge near Pro-Roll. A coot is still sitting on a nest at Old Wheel Dam, when will they hatch?!

Finally, I’ve been a bit frivolous with my money, and ordered a new camera. Part of the decision is to illustrate this blog, and make it a little more interesting, and to generally be able to record some of the birds and other wildlife I see. My camera at the moment is a small compact job, and okay for the odd landscape, or to do some simple digiscoping with (when I can be bothered to lug the scope around!), and brilliant for holiday snaps and drunken night out shots (we all have them…), but not much good apart from that.

So, realising I’ll never be able to afford a DSLR and all the lenses I’d want, I’ve gone halfway for a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, a “superzoom” with 18xzoom which is supposedly very good for what I’ll need it for. It’ll arrive in a few days so expect lots of ropey photos to look at as I get to grips with it!

Here’s a picture of it, blatently stolen off Amazon, if you’re interested: