Peter Jones Wildlife blog

Is spring over-rated?! From the perspective of someone who likes to find my own birds, based in Hampshire, the last two springs have been fairly uneventful, compared to other times of the year. So I went onto Bubo and retrieved my major finds since moving to Hampshire.. Low and behold, with the exception of a (very memorable) Montagu's Harrier in Mid-April, (not listed), Spring never seems to produce the goods for me. The last week in Shetland was an extreme example of this, although I had my share of bad fortune with the weather on this occasion. So why do I find more birds in Autumn? Could it be that there are more birds to be found in Autumn after the breeding season? Could it be that in the Northern Hemisphere it is easy to migrate North in Spring, than it is to go South in Autumn, and therefore the Autumn Migrants get lost and held up much more? It is often said that Autumn Migration is more relaxed compared to the Spring rush to breeding territories, so the birds are easier t...

Spent a long weekend in the Shetlands, mainly thanks to some Flybe rewards points, and an understanding family! Weather prior to the trip had been excellent for migrants with a constant East wind for the best part of 2 weeks. Sadly it didn't last into my break, and I was faced with some pretty unpleasant North Winds for the duration of the stay. This had a really adverse affect on the migrants with single figures in total of Blackcaps, Spotted Flycatchers, Chiff-Chaffs, plus a Willow Warbler. A likely "Tristis" Chiff-Chaff called, but didn't hang around for a look at the plumage. Pretty ironic as I spent much of last winter grilling a likely Tristis that showed well but never called! I persevered on Unst but there was nothing doing. I was almost relieved to get back onto Shetland Mainland, but this too had very little in terms of excitement. I did see the long staying Subalpine Warbler and Long-Eared Owl at Quendale. However, what the trip lacked in rarity findin...

Have converted a metal money box into a weatherproof box for ym Bat detector, and sound recorder. In the past I have left it out in the countryside overnight!, but this weekend I just ran it from the back garden. Both nights were fairly successful with a similar tally.. 1 Noctule, a handful of Serotine passes, and a lot of Common Pipistrelle activity.

Up early on Sunday morning for a walk around Lepe. Best birds were 6 Avocets high over, heading East, 1 Greenshank, 1 Turtle Dove, 1 Nightingale, and a Siskin overhead.

Finished my BTO Breeding Bird Survey at Broadlands Lake and Wade Bridge this weekend. As is often the case, the second survey whittled out with very little to add, except a distant Sedge Warbler. The best bird of the morning was a Red Kite overhead.. Within the survey boundary, but outside the timeframe. From there, I headed to Badminston for some vis-mig. With blue skies and a South wind it seemed like a good idea, but not much to report here. Baddesley Common was also fairly quiet over the weekend. I seem to struggle to find quality in Spring compared with Autumn. Only hope now lies with a few days in Shetland at the end of the month.

Spurred on by news of a Woodchat found up the coast at Keyhaven, I changed my plans for Sunday morning and headed to Calshot. The marsh always looks a good bet for migrants, but was pretty quiet with only Reed and Sedge Warblers about. Headed round the castle to scan the sea but this was no better. Ringed plover and Rock Pipit were all I could add here. So, took a few photos then decided to try my luck with the sky. Headed to a fairly small embankment which, despite it's low altitude had a superb view of Calshot, Fawley power station, and New Forest. I could even see the Spinnacker Tower in the far distance. This looks like a superb place to witness Vis-mig, and in the hot sun, I managed a small trickle of Hirundines, plus Kestrel, Hobby, Peregrine and several Buzzards. The one that got away was a possible Honey Buzzard over the coast.. Just too far to make any plumage out, though the structure looked very promising. Photos below of Sedge Warbler and Ringed Plover

A good weekend when all the floodgates seemed to open up with migrants, and left me thinking "why have I bothered going out searching for scraps for the last 2 months?!" The weekend started well with a Lesser Whitethroat singing outside the BBC building at White City. This area has a few bushes and trees, but is really manicured and isolated. I'd be surprised if I have got into double figures of species seen here. (although I did once record a Reed Warbler, so it kind of has some form). Over the weekend I visited Lepe twice. The first visit was pretty dire with just 6 Avocets to liven up the morning. Two days later, and the area was alive: Great Skua and Razorbill offshore 20+ Med Gulls overhead 1 Peregrine 2 Avocets 1 Greenshank 1 Dunlin Handful of Bar-Tailed Godwits and Whimbrels moving west 1 Nightingale 1 Lesser Whitethroat Plus Sandwich and Common Terns Calshot area had 3 Wheatears. Finally, Baddesley Common got in on the action with 2 Wheatears, a Tree Pipit, and 2 ...

My Zoom H2 was starting to show it's age and drop a few sessions last year, so I changed to a newer model, a Zoom H2N. Main advantage of this newer model, according to the literature was a much better battery life, and also preserving recordings if the battery dies during the session. Both of these features are of paramount importance to me, but it was two additional features that have made this an excellent recorder for Bat recording.. 1. Auto-record: The H2N has a useful autorecord which records a new file each time the sound level exceeds a customised threshold. Having experimented with this feature, I get a lot of false triggers, but these are easily identified by their short file size. The bat files are easily extracted from the list. This could be very useful once I have tuned the recording level to get the best quality signals. This is not easy at the moment as I only have a single Pipistrelle roaming the garden each night! 2. 4 channel recording, The H2N can record from a B...

Bad weather brings the Hirundines down Birding after severe weather, or even during the storm has been good to me over the years. Nothing like some good gusts to bring in the unexpected, and nothing like the bad weather to keep other people, (and other birders!) indoors, thus maximising my chances of finding something! Last night's strong winds and heavy rain ended quite abruptly just after lunch, and for much of the afternoon there was a small but noticeable movement of Gulls over the village. Mainly Herring with at least 1 Lesser Blackback. Also a few Hirundines and a Swift plus a Raven. All heading West. The House list seems to have dried up recently, and it is occasions like this where a new addition might be added. Stock Dove, Peregrine, or pretty much any species of Wildfowl except Mallard would be much welcome. Today it was not to be though. Late afternoon, I was able to head out to the River Test at Skidmore. This is an area that often turns up good birds, Ospreys migrating...

I'm always willing to give apps a try on my android phone, especially if they are free, and to date there have been a few birding log tools released. I've tried them but quickly abandoned them - they all seem fine when sitting at home, but become very tedious, and laborious to use in the field. Let's face it, the more time you spend with your head in the phone, the less you are going to see. The BTO BirdTrack app, initially fell into this category: I set it up fairly easily, and added our garden Blue Tits in without any problems. However, "in the field" I stood for a couple of minutes trying to enter a Shelduck into the app, whilst continuing to get an error message that my pre-defined site did not match the grid reference I was at. So, I looked for a workaround, and by ignoring sites, and just entering sightings as you see them by grid reference from the phone, it seems to work very well. Best of all, you can upload the sightings to the BTOs Birdtrack survey whic...

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Drumming and calls caught on sound file  I've never been able to really study a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in any great detail before. Usual sightings have been brief one-offs, but this Spring, a local territory seems to be very reliable for drumming and calling birds (even though I haven't actually seen the birds yet!). Managed to grab some recordings of Drumming and the alarm call.. (Call on the sonogram looks to be the constant calls at ~5KHZ)

Migrant Redstarts in local farmland Whitethroats and Swifts arrive Whimbrel and Wheatear at Lepe White Stork Bonus (County Durham) Quite a few bits and pieces from the last few weeks. Locally, 2 Redstarts have turned up in local farmland, and I watched my first Swift of the year at Skidmore, with Swallows and Sand Martins. Slightly further afield at Lepe, Sandwich Terns are now joined by a few Common Terns offshore, and I saw my first Whitethroat of the year singing in coastal scrub. My last visit coincided with bad weather, so I checked out the new hide in the conservation area. A good place to spend an hour sheltered from the rain, but a slightly strange view from the hide as there is a line of trees between the hide and the marshy meadows. Still a few birds on show including 2 Wheatears, 2 Whimbrels, plus Redshank, Shelduck, and a Lapwing. Finally, on a work trip, I was amazed and delighted to see a White Stork drift North over the A1. I pulled over and was unable to locate but phon...

Wheatear and Fieldfares at Baddesley Common Double delight with Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers Plenty of Migrants in the local area now. Difficult to say exactly when they all dropped in, but the recent rain probably played a major part. Chiff-Chaffs, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps singing in most woods and Baddesley Common had 3 Wheatears and 4 Fieldfares together in one loosely grazed field. Baddesley Common also had the best find for me so far this year.. a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming and calling. This just a day after unbelievably good views of a Male Lesser-Pecker during my BTO survey (this one at a known territory)

Firecrest, Raven and Woodcock establishing territories locally Probably the mildest March I have ever known, and subsequently the Summer migrants seem to be puring through fairly quickly. My part of the world in Hampshire, about 20 miles inland seems to suffer from very few passage migrants when the weather is fine, and so far in March the only activity has been breeding birds arriving on territories. Firecrest and Raven are both holding territories nearby, and Woodcock seem to be fairly abundant in the nearby woodland. Still haven't recorded a Woodcock from the garden, but came very close with two over the adjacent street last week. Also, in the surrounding commons and fallow land, Stonechats seem to be making a recovery compared to last year. 4 Territories so far. Further afield, I did spend a morning at Lepe and Calshot, but I seemed to have fallen between seasons, with just my first Swallow and a very pale Buzzard giving me excitement. The bird feeders are starting to ease off ...

I started looking for bats about 7 years ago. Armed with a fairly basic heterodyne Bat Detector I soon started to pick up the commonest species around Milton Keynes (Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle and Noctule, plus the occasional Natterer's and Daubenton's). I then joined up with the North Bucks Bat group, and took part in some organised surveys before moving to my present house in Hampshire. Nowadays, I have a much better detector (a Pettersson D230 frequency division detector) which lets me listen to the heterodyne signal in one ear whilst recording Frequency division in my other ear (and to a recorder for further analysis). My samples of the typical echolocation of some UK species are below together with sonograms, and power spectrums: Common Pipistrelle Soprano Pipistrelle Nathusius' Pipistrelle Barbastelle Serotine Noctule Whiskered/Brandt's Brown Long Eared Bat, Natterer's  and Daubenten's  to be added. Plus some more exotic...

Black-Necked and Slavonian Grebes off Lepe Singing Firecrest at Calshot Siberian Chiffchaff still looks the part - but no call Arrived at Lepe shortly after dawn for a pleasant stroll along the coast before the crowds arrived. Always lots to check out here. Today's highlights were the 3 Black-Necked Grebes relatively close to the shore and 3 very distant Slavonian Grebes, probably on the limit of identification with a 60x eyepiece. (Great Crested and Little were also present giving me 4 out of the 5 regular UK species). Also offshore were 2 Eiders and 4 Red-Breasted Mergansers. Not as many Med.Gulls today, but some of these were approaching full Summer Plumage. and ducks included quite a large number of Pintails plus Teal, and Wigeon. Black-Necked Grebes off Lepe Late morning, I checked out Calshot beach. Very little offshore here, but the Firecrest was singing in the pines, and still a single Chiff Chaff in the area. Finished the day in warm sunshine at the Sewage treatment works...