Musings of an aging fan

More here:
http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd262/wellinghall/Slimbridge%2026%20March%202011/

Or for the slideshow:
http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd262/wellinghall/Slimbridge%2026%20March%202011/?albumview=slideshow

What does the Latin word "fratercula" mean, as in the Atlantic Puffin, fratercula articula?

New additions:
- green woodpecker
- redwing

( Birds )

( Animals )

"Rushy
There were 250 Bewicks overnight with a few new arrivals this morning promising to be great yet again on the afternoon feeds at 16.00. The ice has melted sufficently to allow the 400 Pochard to get to the open water in front of the Peng. They might only be introduced birds but the 600 Greylags and Canadas look great and bring a lot of life to the Pond.

South Lake
A great set of ducks here with 330 Teal, 70 Gadwall, 80 Wigeon and 140 Pochard.

Holden Tower
Produced a few suprises this morning with an adult Gannet coming in on the tide and floating back out again. There was a report of 25 probable Snow Buntings moving north along the Dumbles and a Woodcock provided fantastic views for a lucky few on the out side of the walkway near the Knott Hide.

Kingfisher Hide
The Whitefronts are showing well here this morning at least 400 present but large parts of the flock are out of view. The bird feeders are very busy. Lots of all the usual candidates including one Brambling, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a frantic flock of about 30 Long Tailed Tits invading the feeders for a few minutes."

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit-us/slimbridge/wildlife-sightings/another-day-of-hard-frost

Gannet? Snow Bunting???

Bempton Cliffs RSPB bird reserve

Churches

Elvington air museum

Railway museum

Miscellaneous

Comment and constructive criticism are welcome!

( Birds )

That's twenty-four species in just over four months

( Animals )

And that's three species

After three months and one week in our new house, we have seen the following birds in our garden.

( Read more... )

That's seventeen species.

Mammals are limited to a hedgehog and several cats!
ETA: adaese reminds me that she has also seen a squirrel in the garden.

A very good weekend

My father came down on Friday evening. On Saturday, we went to Slimbridge, where we saw a peregrine chasing a few hundred lapwings and dunlin (although it didn't get any, as far as we could see). It was a truly magnificent spectacle.

This was followed by lunch at the Old Spot Inn in Dursley, which I've been to twice before - great welcome, great food, great beer.

On Saturday afternoon, my sister and her family also came down, and we went to the nearby playground.

On Sunday morning, my father left us to go back home. We had a very quiet day after that, with just a bit of gentle pottering around, and a walk up to see the local moorhens.

And that evening, we had the first game of the season, in the form of grey partridge. Delicious! :-)

But not quite such a good Monday

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, to add to the sniffle I've had for the last few days :-(

(On the other hand, I do now have my own desk at work!)

"Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery - but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country's biggest web firm, Telkom.

Winston the pigeon took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8248056.stm

Also -

"A retired pilot has told how he managed to control a bomber which unexpectedly took off during an airshow."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8246544.stm

It's worth watching the video ...

Yesterday, adaese and I went to Slimbridge WWT (Wildfowl and Wetland Trust) for a gull watch. We hesitated before going, as there was a lot of heavy rain about, but in the end we decided to go; and we're glad we did, as the rain abated, and we had a great evening.

The tour was timed to coincide with the birds coming into roost and the tide coming in, and it took us out onto the private area that you can only visit with a warden. We saw all seven species of gull that they get there at that time of year, with Great Black Backed, Lesser Black Backed, Herring, Common, Black Headed, Mediterranean and Yellow Legged. (Neither of their winter species - Icelandic or Glaucous - but that was no surprise. And we did see a Glaucous gull in Svalbard last year - along with a great impersonation by one of our guides, of it swallowing a little auk). As well as the gulls, we saw a Spoonbill (yes, really; apparently they get a few each year as they migrate), Curlew, Dunlin and Knot.

The warden said that in total, there were round 19,000 gulls out there; but in winter, they can get up to 200,000. Apparently that's the best spot for them on the whole of the Severn estuary, as it's protected and there are no dogs permitted (and hardly any humans - only small groups with a warden, and even then we were kept well back from the edge of the water). The warden gave us some tips on when best to see gulls and waders for ourselves, and we had the obligatory (but still welcome) plug for their other tours (including one for waders, and one for the Severn Bore).

I didn't take my camera because of the weather, but even if I had, my lenses wouldn't have been long enough. adaese had her binoculars - with any luck, we can get our other pair (not as good, but still quite reasonable, and with better low-light capability) out of storage soon.