The Big Garden Birdwatch

Yesterday I did the Big Garden Birdwatch with a friend Liz - we spent an hour 2.15pm to 3.15pm looking out of my flat window while chatting, enjoying tea and cookies!!! As expected, some birds I've seen recently such as coal tits and dunnocks didn't make an appearance. However, over the hour we finally concluded that at least 9 chaffinches were feeding on the lawn (they were a bit jittery and kept flying back into the trees!) while at least 2 great tits and 2 blue tits fed on the feeder. A few jackdaws came down to pinch some old sandwich I had put out and although there were no starlings in the garden a few small flocks did fly by! 2 male and 2 female blackbirds fed on the apples and half an hour after the Big Garden Birdwatch 2 mistle thrushes sat in a sycamore tree!

If you haven't done it yet, there's still time today - just spend an hour watching your garden or local park and record the maximum number of each type of bird you see. Then submit the sightings to www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch.

And yes, the following day the dunnocks did reappear, singing with full vigour!

Full totals:

Blackbird 4
Blue tit 2
Chaffinch 9
Great tit 2
Magpie 2
Robin 1
Woodpigeon 2
Jackdaw 4
Carrion crow 2

Radio Bristol and the Big Garden Birdwatch

The past few days I've been busy helping to promote the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch on BBC Radio Bristol! Listen out for me also on the weekend - I'll be Doctor in House with Faye Dicker on Saturday 10-11am talking about what we can do for nature this spring while on the very early morning show I'll be chatting with Nancy Jackson about counting birds!

Today I'm in a school in Cheddar, Somerset. Very cold but at a great school! In between giving dinosaur workshops I'm watching the redwings just outside the classroom feeding on plenty of worms on the grass!
A few siskins flew overhead earlier.  

Seabirds, swallows and sunshine

Wow! Where does three weeks go!
Had an amazing holiday with the dive club down in Skomer - perfect weather, calm sea, wonderful people and great wildlife. I got to do five dives, see my first wreck, some lovely fishes and ring storm petrels and manx shearwater overnight on Skomer - something I've always wanted to do.

On return I ringed some baby swallows at a stable and took part in the annual Canada goose ringing at Chew Valley Lake. I also reported on the translocation of young cirl buntings by the RSPB from Devon to Cornwall - soon to appear on the BBC Radio 4's Savings Species.

Meanwhile, my work with the Bristol Dinosaur Project is going well - I've successfully visited two schools now trying out some ideas and have been getting to grips with the website and HTML coding today. I just can't do the coding so have resorted to using Dreamweaver - I'm too much of a visual learner to do without it!

Have been enjoying watching parties of swifts screaming over Clifton in the past few days. On the weekend  while ringing on the Severn Estuary I saw streams of swifts moving through south - no doubt birds all ready on the move. It only seems like yesterday they were arriving.


Me with an manx shearwater (left) and a baby swallow (right)

badgers, peregrines and eggs

It's been a busy week winding down from my museum job before I begin working for the University of Bristol in a few weeks time - I'll be starting as the Bristol Dinosaur Education Officer! Still, I'm getting there clearing out my drawers, files and e-mails! Meanwhile, I'm also doing an inventory of the bird eggs we have in the learning collection - I've been really absorbed identifying and labelling them and amazing to see the huge variety and handle some very old and unusual eggs such as little auk, stone curlew and red-backed shrike.

Last night I went out badger watching with some friends in the Chew Valley - we got sat ready by 8.45pm and at 9pm, while we could still make out colour, a badger poked its head out of a hole and sniffed around. There was a light wind and our scent was being carried in their direction. It disappeared for a bit but reappeared before having a long poo and scuttling off up into a field nearby. As we waited longer, three more appeared, again poking their heads out and gradually coming out further. By 10pm when it was too dark to see them we had seen six or so. We were also treated by seeing them on a thermal imaging camera courtesy of Howard who had brought it along. We saw two or three venturing out in the dark despite not being able to see them with our naked eyes. We also found a bird roosting up in a tree, looking like a white sphere!

This morning I led a walk at the Newport Wetlands for the Bristol Naturalists Society joined by volunteer wardens Roger and Julie. We had a great time watching the birds and seeing some of the special plants and insects. Some swifts and house martin flew in and fed very close by while pochards, tufted ducks and dabchicks fed in the water. We heard a very distant cuckoo and saw a lovely female marsh harrier. Meanwhile, we watched a peregrine pursue a pigeon and bring it down - a first for many to see. Later, we watched the 2nd year bird just gliding and circling low over the foreshore. Meanwhile, a distant osprey moved in over Cardiff from the estuary.We were lucky to see the caterpillar of a scarlet tiger moth and see the first leaves of a southern marsh orchid. After a quick cuppa, I nipped down to Goldcliff with another member to see the avocets, redshanks and lapwings. We were also treated to a summer-plumaged spotted redshank (splendid bird), a turnstone, male shovelers and many other birds. Finished off watching house martins coming down to collect wet mud by the side of the road!

Reporting for BBC Savings Species

I had an early start today but on a plus side managed to hear the full dawn chorus from my flat as I got ready! Blackbirds and robins were blasting away! I got picked up by Andrew Dawes, BBC at 6am and we travelled down the RSPB's Pulborough Brooks to record the release of some very rare insects, field crickets. It was a brilliant morning and I spent it interviewing contributors involved with the translocation project and met some very nice and passionate people at the same time. I hadn't realised it at the time but I released the very first field cricket at Pulborough for the first time in history!! An awesome moment indeed! The piece is aired on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 11am and again Thursday 9pm. www.bbc.co.uk/savingspecies

Meanwhile, a cuckoo called and flew nearby, the scratchy songs of whitethroats could be heard and great spotted woodpeckers drummed throughout the morning.

We then moved on to another RSPB site where we released some more field crickets, including two full adult females - the have a beautiful golden sheen! It was wonderful seeing them being translocated and successfully released.

Here is an adult female field cricket just after release - she's as rare as gold dust, which also looks like what has been sprinkled over her body! This translocated individual was soon looking for somewhere to live in the soft, spongy grass/soil.

Newport Wetlands

Just back from a lovely morning birding with friend Mike on the Newport Wetlands, http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/n/newportwetlands/index.aspx

We saw a brilliant cuckoo sat on a pylon, tons of sedge warblers singing away mimicking other birds (including willow warbler), reed warblers grating from the reeds, whimbrels bubbling on the mud and whitethroats and lesser whitethroats singing from the hedgerows. We also watched redshanks displaying, while oystercatchers, avocets and lapwings sat tight on nests. Spring's definitely here! Other highlights included bullfinch, wheatear, little grebes and skylarks.

Adders and ravens

For my 30th birthday earlier in the week I took a trip with friend Jo to the Forest of Dean, hoping for some spring migrants. I wasn't disappointed and caught up with a most stunning male pied flycatcher singing and checking out a nest site at the RSPB's Nagshead reserve, http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/n/nagshead/index.aspx. Nearby a male wood warbler was singing while the muddy signs of wild boar were evident!! A family of 20 piglets (or are they called boarlets!) had apparently been in the muddy pool a little early. You could see where mum had rubbed her muddy body against an oak tree. We tried to follow their track but to no avail!

We then popped over to New Fancy View and spotted 7 or 8 female fallow deer and found a basking adder! My second ever and this time I didn't try to pick it up!!

Later in the week I organised two climbers from the British Mountaineering Council www.thebmc.co.uk
to visit a raven's nest in the Avon Gorge with thanks to the National Trust, www.nationaltrust.org.uk. There were two chicks in the nest, around three and a half weeks old. They had unique ID metal rings put on their right legs and were then safely put back into their nest. They should leave the nest in two or three weeks time.

This morning I've just got back from leading a birdsong identification walk for Mandy Leivers and the Avon Gorge and Downs Wildlife Project, http://www.avongorge.org.uk. Last night I was showing images and playing birdsong as preparation for then going out today and putting it all into practice. Blackbirds, songthrushes, robins, blackcaps, dunnocks and chiffchaffs were all singing away. Highlights included a treecreeper and a male roe deer sprinting across the Downs!!

France and Exe Estuary

It's been a busy few weeks. Last weekend I travelled to Orleans, France - 6 hours south of Boulogne- to deliver some possessions to my brother and his family living out there. The ferry trip was exciting with some great birds including over hundred gannets, a harbour porpoise, 4 great skuas and over 300 cormorants stood on a metal platform! The fields along the journey were very bland - huge expanses of monotonous, open country, rather like parts of East Anglia. There were few birds, although one field had around 8 brown hares chasing each other. In the suburbs south of Orleans I found a female lesser spotted woodpecker - a real highlight, while lots of sparrows were inhabiting a bush nearby. The ferry back was just as interesting with Mediterranean gulls on the lamp posts at the hypermarket and more in the port. Over 10,000 herring gulls were loafing around while over 100 starlings came to roost on the nearby cranes. At least four black-necked grebes were diving in the port and as we left I put my binoculars up, revealing over 100 great crested grebes sitting on the sea just out of Boulogne.



This Saturday I was tutoring a friend and we went down to Bowling Green Marsh to develop more bird ID skills and try out some survey work. The sounds of the wigeon calling was beautiful and the hedges were alive with robins, dunnocks, goldfinches and greenfinches. A weasel even joined in the fun and came too and fro on a log by the lane. On the mud black-tailed godwits gave out their quivering calls while some avocets fed nearby - close enough for a few nice photos.

Later, I was giving commentary on the RSPB's avocet cruise with Charles Martin. It was a full boat with over 100 people, gorgeous sunshine and plenty of wildlife. Highlights included 3, yes 3 great northern divers, 2 black-necked grebes, a grey seal, lots of avocets, a goosander, a tufted duck and the usual shags, gulls and mergansers.

Last night's talk went well - I love being able to see all the New Zealand wildlife I saw all over again!!

Had an early start this morning for a phone interview on BBC Radio Bristol about not feeding birds turkey fat!! Apparently it can kill them which I hadn't even realised until I saw the press release from the RSPB - the juices that often get mixed in can go rancid and cause bacterial death! Nice!

I then ventured out into the sub-zero temperatures and went into the BBC Radio Bristol studio to do the newspaper review, focusing on BA's strike (now called off until the new year), Copenhagen (and Hilary Clinton's halo), the death of two soldiers in Afghanistan and the display of a famous painting that was stolen in 2003 and refound in an office earlier this year!

Time for a quieter morning at work!!

Ah, the delights of bird song. Heard the evocative song of a mistle thrush this morning reaching out across Clifton. Perhaps not as melodic as song thrush or blackbird but still very wonderful on an overcast November day.

Chaired a great presentation last night by Ian McGuire (www.wildowl.co.uk) for the bird section of the Bristol Naturalists Society - brilliant stories and images of birds of prey on the Isle of Mull. Especially good photos of short-eared owls.

Hoping there are some short-eared owls at Aust in the next few weeks - leading a walk up there to see them but I think this mild weather has meant they haven't all migrated here yet!! There's been the odd one though seen! Ever optimistic.

Quiet day at work - catching up on e-mails! Preparing a talk tonight on the migration of raptors for the Plymouth RSPB group next week - should be a nice adventure down.