A cold November day and memories of May

November 3, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

It feels more like a typical November day today chilly and dark, in fact it is only just daylight by the time I get to work, I walk in darkness to the train station, but the Robins are singing under the false dawn of the street lamps, it is these dark mornings I notice how close the blackbirds get to your feet as you scuffle along in the fallen leaves, perhaps they are behaving like true woodland birds as they along with Robins would follow wild boar as they uncovered slugs and worms in the leaf litter of old woodlands.

It is days like today I think back to what is now seeming to be those far off days of late Spring and Early Summer, like late May when we spent a week in Kessingland visiting family and old haunts like Dunwich Heath.

Dunwich Heath

Dunwich Heath was always rich in birds and wildlife, but in recent years it now has a rare breeding bird that I would never have seen in my childhood years, the Dartford warbler which I was lucky enough to get an image of this year, now breeds on the heath, but sometimes their numbers take a tumble if we have a harsh winter so can be hard to find at times in the following spring.

Dartford Warbler, Dunwich Heath

So let us hope the winter is short and not a harsh one and it will not be so long before we can walk along the beaches of Suffolk and the heathlands are full of nesting birds.

Looking South on Kessingland beach, Suffolk

A new Month, a new Day

November 1, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

November can be a grey Month, but today was warm and as the progressed was bright and Sunny, the first visitor to the garden feeders was a male Great Spotted Woodpecker, I had not seen one in the garden since last winter.

Male Great spotted woodpecker

We walked into Ely so I decided to take my camera and was rewarded with plenty of sights first a steam engine traveling down the high street

Steam Engine in Ely high street

Which was escorted by an Edwardian Policeman

Edwardian Policeman escorting the Steam Engine

The we came upon a wedding at the cathedral where the wedding party arrived by horse and carriage.

Wedding party arriving by carriage

The afternoon was spent at WWT Welney where I gave the 3:30 pm Swan talk and feed, this week to 85 people, there are lots of birds arriving now, lots of Golden Plover estimated around 2,000 birds, Kingfisher, Geese, lots of wading birds and of course the Whooper swans, I managed to get some more images, one of which is of these Geese landing

Graylag and Canada geese coming in to land at WWT Welney

And it is always worth waiting for a fenland sunset

the Sun sets over Welney

Counting on the birds

October 29, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I have always kept a list of the species of birds I see every year, unfortunately I happened to mention this to members of our Local Wildlife Group committee and now found we have all kept a yearly list and it has got pretty competitive, only rules are the bird must be seen in the UK.

This year I have decided to keep a monthly list as well as a year list, looking at the months from January so far my monthly list has gone 78, 60, 72, 73, 74, 66, 51, 58, 70 and so far this Month 58. Obviously dropped off a bit in July and August but starting to build up again with the winter birds flying in.

Hopefully November and December may become colder and I get some good garden birds like this Sparrowhawk below that sat on our birdfeeders in January and February this year.

Sparrowhawk waiting on our garden birdfeeders

Wildlife can surprise you

October 27, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

I am never surprised as to what can turn up where as far as wildlife is concerned, I have seen foxes in the centre of Cambridge, caught Badgers on my camera trap also in the centre of Cambridge, but this morning on my way to work it was not the fact I saw a Grey Heron in Cambridge, but the fact there were three sitting together on the cross bar of a goal on a football pitch, of course I did not have my camera to hand, which is always the case when you see something like this, so here is a photo of a Grey Heron from May along the river Ouse.

Grey Heron in flight along the river Ouse, Ely.

First Swan talk of the season

October 26, 2014November 12, 2014 / clivebaker5 / Leave a comment

This Saturday saw my first swan talk of the season at WWT Welney

Whooper swans at Welney, Norfolk

WWT Welney And the the first family groups of whoopers have started to arrive.

There are around 800 swans there now and numbers will increase over the next few days, the young swans like the ones above will have flown 1200 miles to get to Welney and they are only a few months old, 500 miles of their flight will have been over open sea non stop.

Whooper swans at Welney, Norfolk

The small Bewick swan will fly in from Siberia having flown a total distance of 2,500 miles, but as yet only 8 birds have been seen in the area but we know there are 1,000 birds in the Netherlands.

You can tell by the yellow bill pattern which is a Whooper and which is a Bewick swan.

The yellow on a Whooper is pointed like a ‘Wedge of cheese’ and extends beyond the nostril as seen in the photograph above, on a Bewick the yellow is rounded like a ‘Blob of Butter’ and does not extend beyond the nostrils.

I shall be doing my swan talk and feeds at Welney now most Saturdays and as yet the water levels are down but all too soon I am sure the floating wheelbarrow will be out.