Hi, My name is Christopher Teague and I am 19 and live in Yate, South Gloucestershire. I used to go to Ruskin Mill College in Nailsworth and live in residence.
I like Birdwatching and Steam Trains. I am hoping to update my blog more often now I am home.
The birds of
South
Gloucestershire
Bristol
Ornithological
Club
Latest
Slimbridge 05.12.11
We went to Slimbridge to see if the Bittern was going to be visible from the Ziess Hide. It was first seen at the edge of the island in the middle of the lake opposite the other hide and flew towards the main reedbed and landed right on top like last time but a bit longer before it dropped into the reeds. We went to South Finger to see what was on the feeders. The Greenfinches were perched nicely in the Alder Trees and Brown Rats feeding in the cage but no Redpolls, Siskins or Bramblings yet. Back to the Ziess Hide to see the Bittern again this time preening in the recently flat cut reeds and suddenly it was by the small pond and walked towards the hide slightly and ran across the open gap between reedbeds and climbed up and perched on top of the bush for a couple of the seconds and walked back into reeds. We also checked the feeders at the Holden but nothing interesting on them.
Bittern at Slimbridge
Dorset 10th - 11th December
We went to Dorset for the weekend and our first stop was Radipole Lake in Weymouth and all the usual birds were there from Cormorants to Mallards and the regular Mediterranean Gull amongst the other Gulls. We saw eleven Common Snipe feeding out in the open on the far side of the reserve. Disappointingly the Bearded Tits seen first thing that morning feeding on seedheads, we found no sign of. There were hardly any birds visible from the hide, only 5 Grey Herons and a few Gadwall. There are still a few Brown Rats around the reserve. However, for the third time we saw our star - Hoody - the Hooded Merganser. He was with the Tufted Duck group by the bridge and spent most of his time fast asleep. One of the Tufted Ducks had a nose ring and this was her 5th winter here, coming from France. We bought some grain at the visitor centre and Hoody soon woke up and started diving for it. After a while he swam downriver into the reedbeds, just as two Mallards started fighting over the food. One got a bit carried away and he nearly drowned the other one, which was right under the water. We quickly popped to Arne to see if there was any Sika Deer. We only saw two does just as we were going and it was starting to get dark. We then made our way to our B&B stopping off at Wareham for a chip supper.
Poole Harbour/Brownsea Island 11/12/11
After breakfast we made our way to Poole. Almost as soon as we arrived, we saw a Common Guillemot in winter plumage. I normally see them in summer plumage, this was my first winter bird as they are usually right out on the open sea this time of year. To be honest I like them more in their winter plumage. We got on board our boat. On leaving Poole Harbour we saw Shags and Cormorants like on the Exe but here we saw one special bird that winters in Poole Harbour - the Great Northern Diver. We passed the Brownsea Lagoon on our way to the island. We saw a few Little Egrets flying past. Not long after landing on Brownsea Island we spotted our first Red Squirrel, and unfortunately our only one for this year because they were not on the feeders this time. We went to the Mac hide and there were a good number of birds to be seen, but the star bird, which the RSPB adopted for their logo was the Avocet and there were lots of them. There were also quite a few Spoonbill. This year has been a Spoonbill heaven for me as I saw the first one back in March and also in the Summer. However this will probably be my last Spoonbill sighting of the year. Something was upsetting the wading birds - Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank and a few Knot and Avocet all took off in panic. Then we saw why. There was a Peregrine Falcon sitting on the wall behind the Spoonbill tree. The Dunlin and a Knot returned to their little island, but were very nervous. We moved on to the other hide and one Avocet showed at close quarters in front of the hide. The Spoonbill flock had split in half, one group went left and three, including a juvenile was present in front of the hide. Despite the fact it's December we saw some unusual looking fungi on the way back to the boat. The weather had started to get bad by now and so it was a wet trip around the island, even the Japanese Sika Deer on the Arne Penisula were just visible through the murky fog. We saw some Red - breasted Merganser, but these were a lot shyer than the Exe birds and we never had very close views. On our way into the harbour there were now two Guillemots in winter plumage. We saw some Canada Geese but we didn't see many Brent Geese. Still, we did see quite a lot on the Exe.
Waders
Guillemot
Great Northern Diver
Avocets
Redshank
Shag
Canada Geese
Spoonbills
Garden Wildlife for December
The Blackcaps have arrived back in the garden, a little bit later than last year. The first male arrived on the 18th, with 3 males, all seen at the same time on the 19th, they all seemed to tolerate each other, but I expect that will change when a female arrives, as they tend to be a bit bossy. The Grey Wagtail also arrived at the weekend, a different one from last year as this one is a female.
........................................................
Cormorants
Hooded Merganser
Tufted Duck
Wagtail
Sika Deer
........................................................
Bittern Video
Opens a new website Chris Web Diary - Video, in a new window
Requires Apple Quick Time to play videos
© Christopher Teague 2012