Swallows in flight

By some miracle I have managed to take a few photos that aren't standard 'bird on a stick' portraits! I find birds in action photography pretty impossible to be honest and I am always in awe of people who regularly take stunning photographs of fast moving subjects. Since winning Birdguides Photo of the Week with the image below of a Swallow flying low over flood water I have received many emails asking how on earth I managed it. The truth is the conditions helped me immensely. It was a cold dull morning and strong winds were whipping across Aylburton Warth. A small flock of Swallows were searching for insects across the surface of the water and using the wind to slow their flight down as much as possible. So all I had to do was lay down (getting soaked I should add!) in front of the flood with the wind behind me and wait for the Swallows to fly slowly straight at me; Locking on with auto focus was really quite easy. I would have stayed for much longer, but annoyingly I only had 15 minutes with them before I had to rush to work.

Swallow (Hirundo rustica) ©Lewis Thomson 2012 

And just to prove that the above image wasn't a complete fluke, here are a couple more from the same session......

 Swallow (Hirundo rustica) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Swallow (Hirundo rustica) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Don't get too excited, I will be back to birds on sticks very soon!

Spring

Firstly, I have to apologise for the lack of updates this year, we have been very busy at work making preparations for spring and the beginning of the breeding season. Our first Pied Flycatcher arrived at Nagshead on March 31st, the earliest ever Gloucestershire record! The reserve is now alive with Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and a few Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts and Tree Pipits.

I have been doing a bit of photography on my days off, although, as ever, I have a constant battle in my mind as to whether I spend my time doing photography projects or birding, I find it pretty impossible to do both! I have seen some nice birds in the past month on the Severn, including five Little Gulls, Little Ringed Plovers, lots of White Wagtails, Yellow Wagtails, Little Owls and the long staying Short-eared Owls, Black Redstart and Cattle Egret. I also spent a few mornings photographing Hawfinches in the forest, something I try to do every March/April if I have time. This is my favourite shot from this year's efforts......

Male Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Crossbills went a little quiet through March as they got on with nesting, I was lucky to find a pair at Nagshead feeding a very recently fledged youngster that could barely fly at the end of March, a clear sign that they bred on the reserve, something that is usually difficult to prove. This male came down to drink from a puddle at the side of a path and seemed totally oblivious to my presence......

Male Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

The Short-eared Owls at Aylburton Warth have been quiet astonishing really. I have moaned for years about Short-eared Owls not being present there and then this past winter with a slight change in the habitat we have been really spoilt. I made sure I was present for the spring high tides in March which flooded the warth. I couldn't believe my eyes as EIGHT owls were pushed out of their roost by the flood! A few are still present and I enjoyed watching two birds hunting in the sunshine on a nice still day last week......

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Migrants have been arriving steadily along the estuary in the past two weeks, including some of my favourite species. The first Wheatears of the spring are always special, my first were on March 16th this year, a fairly typical date for the species. The flooded scrapes at Aylburton Warth have been attracting Little Ringed Plovers (another favourite of mine!) and White Wagtails. I look forward to the Wagtail migration every year and watching 19 pottering around a single scrape with a couple of Little Ringed Plovers last week was a real highlight of my year so far. Yellow Wagtails have just started arriving here; I have seen three stunning males in my last two visits. I decided to try and photograph the White Wagtails on a nice sunny morning, unfortunately this meant getting up very early, walking miles with kit and lying in the mud, but I am happy with the shots that I got......

Wading male White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

With lots of Ring Ouzels appearing around the country and county in the past couple of days I decided to hit May Hill early this morning. Its not the best site in the world but certainly looks like it has potential to me. I am one of these strange birders that would rather flog a seemingly hopeless local site for a target species on my own for days on end than travel miles to a known site with the masses. Its not that I am antisocial, I just find it so much more satisfying when eventually finding something! Anyway, the Ouzels didn't do the decent thing, but there were two lovely male Redstarts and a male Wheatear present. There are also plenty of Meadow Pipits on the hill, this one posed for me with some nice backlighting......

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Wild Boar are being seen regularly around the forest with adorable piglets. They really are fantastic animals and watching tiny piglets playing is a real treat. This litter was born at the end of February and the photograph was taken on March 2nd......

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) piglets, ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Young male Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) ©Lewis Thomson 2012

Christmas Bittern

I went to WWT Slimbridge today hoping to see one of the three Bitterns that have been there for a few weeks. I've been seeing amazing photographs of them from Zeiss Hide and hearing stories of how great the views have been ever since they arrived. I entered the hide and had a scan around the reeds and eventually latched onto one of the Bitterns right out in the open on the far bank. It soon flew across the water and landed in the reeds in front of the hide and disappeared from view. After half an hour or so a couple next to me relocated the Bittern (or another!) right under our noses on the edge of the reeds no more than 20 feet from the hide! It showed incredibly well and eventually strolled out into the open for a posing session......

Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) close-up, ©Lewis Thomson 2011

I then went and had a look at the female Lesser Scaup on the Rushy from Peng Observatory, it showed very well before climbing out onto an island for a snooze.

Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2012!

Update and video

We finally had our first proper snow of the winter this morning, although it has melted already! The Hawfinches were still present along the entrance track to Nagshead this week and had increased in number to at least eight birds on Tuesday; the food supply there is dwindling fast though. I was amazed to see a Red Admiral flying around yesterday, presumably it had been disturbed from hibernation. I have just added some new Wild Boar footage to my video page that I took recently; these animals are still as controversial as ever......

Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) close-up, ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Hungry Hawfinches

Its been a good week at work with two Hawfinches feeding on sloes and hawthorn berries along the main track to Nagshead visitor centre. I spent two lunch times watching them from the comfort of the work truck as they fed totally unconcerned on the edge of bushes overhanging the track. With the window down I could even hear a loud crack as they opened each sloe stone with their powerful bills! Blackbirds and Redwings were also raiding the same bushes and the Hawfinches regularly had scraps with them over the best spots to feed, it really was fantastic to be able to watch them behaving so naturally for long periods at such close range. Huge thanks to Arron, one of our volunteers, who first noticed a Hawfinch feeding there on Monday morning.

 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Egret madness

Today I finally managed to get back down to Aylburton Warth, all seemed very quiet at first...... should I go and check if the Cattle Egret is still on the New Grounds? My mind started to wander and I found myself thinking about the regular herons I still hadn't seen in Gloucestershire......Purple Heron, Great White Egret...... So imagine my surprise as I glanced up a couple of minutes later to see a GREAT WHITE EGRET drift in from the northeast and land on a small pool on the warth!! It only stayed for a few minutes before continuing southwest towards Gwent. Please forgive the poor quality record photograph below, but its yet another cracking species for the patch this autumn/winter!

Great White Egret (Ardea alba) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Afterwards I walked back along Lydney New Grounds and sure enough the Cattle Egret was still with the same herd of cows. I also managed to locate a female type Black Redstart along the rocky sea defences that was found yesterday by John Sanders, another great bird for the stretch.

Out of action

Unfortunately I have had the severest ever case of man flu for the past week (maybe a slight exaggeration), so I wasn't able to get out over the weekend. Thankfully I am much better now and looking forward to getting back down the estuary soon. I did manage to do my BTO WeBS count at Aylburton Warth and Guscar Rocks last Sunday, the highlights included the two White-fronted Geese again and a hunting Short-eared Owl. The Cattle Egret was still on Lydney New Grounds mid-week allowing me to get some better photographs. I crouched at the gateway to the field which attracted the curiosity of the cows and I soon had them all in front of me, the Egret duly followed them and I was able to watch it at fairly close range (albeit through a mass of cow's legs!)......

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) ©Lewis Thomson 2011

Nagshead is attracting a nice variety of winter visitors now with flocks of Bramblings, Lesser Redpolls, Siskins, Crossbills and Redwings today. I also saw two Hawfinches this morning and the real highlight, a superb male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Not a bad day at the "office"!