Nightingale

I have been out of circulation for the past couple of weeks and seem to have missed out on most of the spring migration. Today was a chance to do some catching up, with a trip to Pulborough Brooks to see the Nightingales.

There were a couple calling in the zigzags and three more round in adder alley but as usual none were sitting out giving clear views. The singing was beautiful but it was the picture that I really wanted. After about half an hour it all went quiet as the birds set about feeding and once on the ground I did get a few better picture opportunities.

They always seem very confiding when they first arrive. This bird was coming within about ten feet of where I was standing and often just seemed curious about what I was doing standing there.

I didn't get any pictures of them singing but there will be opportunities over the next couple of week as more arrive.

I also managed to see the American Wigeon. It was about two hundred and fifty metres away so the picture is poor. This is getting to be a bit of a bogey bird. I have seen three over the past couple of years and I still have not managed to get a decent shot.

American Wigeon

Blackcaps and Whitethroats were around the bushes but not showing very well. There was a good selection of the usual subjects, with the Dunnock, Song Thrushes, and Skylarks posing nicely.

Dunnock

Song Thrush

Song Thrush

Skylark

I also had good views of a Water Vole from Netley's Hide. She obviously had a nest close under the hide and swam straight towards us across open water.

Water Vole

It was only when she swam back that it became obvious that she was transferring the young between nests. She was being a lot more careful in this direction, keeping to the side of the water and using the long grass for cover. Very frustrating, there was a brilliant picture to be had here but I didn't manage to get it.

Water Vole carrying young

A quick trip to Pagham North Wall on Sunday gave me brief views of the Cattle Egret as it left the roost and flew across the harbour. I followed it down the east side of the harbour but could not relocate it. This is the first one that I have seen in breeding plumage in this country.

And to finish off, a moth from the back garden. Moths are not my area of expertise and after studying a few books and looking it up on the web, I had to resort to putting a picture up on the web and asking for help. I am told that it is an Angle Shades (Phlogophora meticulosa) a moth of the family Noctuidae. It's also quiet common so I should have been able to do the identification myself. I have a lot to learn.

American Wigeon

Last week Dave and I paid a return visit to Scotland. The key reason for going was to see a number of Butterflies that we do not get in the South of England but I was also hoping to see the King Eider "Elvis" that has been based around the Ythan Estury and Nairn for the last couple of months. Needless to say Elvis waited until we had booked our hotels and then did a disappearing act.

To stop the blog getting too long I have split it into three parts covering birds in the first and butterflies in the next two.

First stop on the way up was at Old Moor RSPB where an American Wigeon and a Little Bittern had been reported. We had limited time so it was unlikely that the Bittern would appear whilst we were there but the American Wigeon would be a life tick for me. Well we saw it, but it was very distant.

American Wigeon

American Wigeon

Compensation, of sorts, for the poor shots of the Wigeon came in the form of close views of a Green Sandpiper and Redshank.

Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Redshank

We spent about an hour looking for the Little Bittern but it had not been seen all day, so in the end we decided to move on. We did have one scare whilst we were there, when a "common" Bittern flew over being mobbed by an assortment of Gulls, and other birds. Any other day we would have been overjoyed at the sight but not on a day when there was a possibility of a Little Bittern. 

Day 2 was mostly about butterflies but we ended up late afternoon at an Osprey site that Dave had visited before. I was expecting another Loch Garten or Bassenthwaite lake where you are kept four hundred metres or so from the nest. When I found that we were standing only sixty or seventy metres away I was a bit wary of disturbing the birds.  However, there was a well used footpath going past the spot and groups of kids moving through between us and the nest tree and neither the movement or the noise seemed to bother the parent Ospreys.

It was late afternoon and the lighting was poor so the picture opportunities were limited but it was great seeing the birds so close and getting glimpses of the chicks as they moved about in the nest.

Both parents on the nest with one of the chicks also visible

Male on his favourite perch

The weather looked even worse on Wednesday so we decided to spend the afternoon over in Oban harbour looking for Black Guillemots. Whilst we had both seen them before neither of us had managed to get a good picture. We stopped off first at the Corran - Ardgour ferry just off the A82. This was our fallback site if Oban failed to deliver. We could see the Black Guillemots on the sea loch and also landing on the pier on the other side of the crossing  but we decided to carry on to Oban rather than take the ferry across.

Oban delivered but we had our doubts for a time. We eventually managed to track them down to the sea wall just in front of the cathedral.

Black Guillemot

A Rock Pipit turned up whilst we were photographing the Black Guillemots and there was also a tame Chaffinch that had joined us for lunch one day that was worth recording.

Rock Pipit

Chaffinch

The bird list for the five days sits at around seventy which is not too bad when you consider that we spent most of our time looking for Butterflies. As ever, time was all too short and there are many more places that I would have liked to visit during the trip.