In the open plan office in Sth Devon I am fortunate to be on the second floor and have a window that looks out on the  remainder of the field not occupied by our office and car park. This about three acre patch is a useful distraction from email dross and open plan verbiage, it is suprising the regular bird visitors it has, carrion crows, magpies, meadow pipits, buzzard and kestrel, I have just watched a male kestrel succeed in the capture of a small item, shrew or mouse I guess, our convenient setting out posts was chosen as a perch to …
I saw our site friendly buzzard again eating human food, this time it was on top of the security cabin the food probably placed there by the guards.
I know the contact call of long tailed tits and whilst standing quietly under a tree with about a dozen of them feeding and calling, their calls all changed to a shrill Chree, Chree,Chree, then a buzzard flew over. so I had learned a new call, an alarm one. Within five minutes I heard it again and looked up, a female sparrow hawk cruised over the tree. I would not have seen…
Dec 8th by davidleask under Bird Watching, Travels, my Friends travels
A few weeks ago I had the good fortune of spending a day on the Black Isle photographing pine forest wildlife. Â My thanks go to James Moore (www.jamesamoore.co.uk) for the grandstand seat in his hide. Â If you fancy a seat there give James a shout on his website. Â My main 'targets' for the day were Red Squirrels and Crested Tits and I saw these in abundance along with a few of the more common birds. Â I got settled in the hide around 9am and finally left at 3pm with a card load of what I hoped were great shots. Â I…
Sep 24th by Ian under Bird Watching
Aug 4th by Ian under Bird Watching
4/8/13, am, as I predicted (to myself) both juveniles on the wing and as it was low tide, down on the estuary sand banks. One was up to its tail washing the other standing doing the odd preen. It is obvious the independence of the pair to each other given the distance between them and just doing their own thing, in fact one flew off and the other remained. Both juvs had been ringed. I saw no adults so female could be gone with the male remaining or both adults may have gone leaving the juvs to migrate separately to…
I was at home on 15th and 16th of June, but garden work, real garden work, not the one armed stuff I am more familiar with, that is wandering around with a glass of whisky in my hand occasionally plucking out a weed with the other. Consequently on Sunday the 16th I had a few hours watching the Ospreys and Harriers. These spot checks either have luck or not for getting useful  observations, this was a non luck spot check, the ospreys do have two chicks though, the male was not around in the time I was there, and I guess…
I had predicted the Ospreys would have chicks for the weekend 25/26 May and I was right, just caught at 8.00 am the last feeding of a chick or chicks. Hopefully next visit in mid June will reveal the head count. Spent more time looking for harriers than at the Osprey eyrie, and I got not a single sighting, these birds should have young chicks on my next visit home so should see some food passes if they are still there. Not a sign of the "may" flowers on hawthorn, but the gean trees were flowering the paths with floral…
May 8th by Ian under Bird Watching, Travels, my Friends travels
May 5th by davidleask under Bird Watching, Travels, my Friends travels
Tags: Birds, Lochwinnoch, RSPB
Lochwinnoch RSPB Nature Reserve is located approximately 25 miles south-west of Glasgow, just off the A737 Paisley to Dalry Road. The visitor centre, with its shop, toilets and viewing areas, sits on the north side of the A760 Largs road between Castle Semple and Barr Lochs. There are two main nature trails starting at the Visitor Centre – the Dubbs Water Trail is just less than 500m and heads along the north-west shore of Castle Semple Loch and Aird Meadow Trail is 1200m long and heads along the south-east shore of the same loch. There is a hide part way…
Apr 19th by davidleask under Bird Watching, Travels, my Friends travels
Tags: Birds, David Leask, Linlithgow Loch, slavonian grebe
I'm afraid my 'passing interest' in Bird Photography has developed into a real passion. Â I'm not sure how or why it happened. Â I just love photographing birds of any kind, common or rare, woodland or water, at home or abroad. Â I can never wait to get the images home and review them, sometimes spending hours trying to identify the species. Â Am I a Bird Watcher? Â I don't think so, but what if I am, I like it and I'm proud of it, hahahaha.
One of my favourite locations near home to practice the 'art' is Linlithgow Loch. Â Although the main…
I saw my first swallow, several actually, Â hawking over an area we had stored timber from site clearance work at Kingskerswell in Sth Devon. On the Devon birdwatching report they have been around the coast for about a week. the property owner said they returned on saturday the 14th and were reccying out the shed they normally use. Maybe get Cirl Bunting and water rail at Hackney marsh in Devon this weekend. Heard a water rail but never seen one.…
First post in a long while. Â Forgive me if I make a hash of it!
My wife and I took a run to Caerlaverock Wetland Centre on Sunday 17 February 2013. Â The weather was terrific, particularly for the time of year. Â Warm sunshine all day, just lovely. Â It was our first visit to Caerlaverock and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Â We should have made the trip long before we did. Â There was plenty bird activity in and around the Whooper Pond. Â We arrived in time for the 11am feeding of the swans - what a blast that is!
There was not…
5th April and an Osprey at the eyrie, the female from the amount of brown across the chest. Doing nothing, waiting. The grass mound in the eyrie untouched, is she waiting for the male and bonding before "excavating" the nest cup of it's grass dome? went on harrier watch and saw no harriers, that's normal.
6th April no Osprey at the eyrie, that's because two of them were on a navigation pole in the river, paired up, the male looks much smaller than last years, surely will get to see his legs for rings later, if in fact he is…