Peter Jones Wildlife blog

Exactly a year ago I was in Shetland battling a birdless North wind, and finding very little out of the norm. This year I was determined that Spring would prove a more fruitful season, and so far, the birding, mainly along the Hampshire coast has been pretty good. Certainly as good as Shetland! And so, on a spur of the moment decision, I looked into heading to Finland to try and find Red-Flanked Bluetail, a species I have always wanted to see. Cheap flight routes weren’t easy to come across, but I eventually settled on Ryanair from Stansted to Tampere, then a hire car for the 5 days. Simple! My original plan was to head up to Vaaltavaara, and wait there until I saw a Bluetail! However, the 10 hour drive put me off, and I stumbled on some other good Bluetail sites about 6 hours from Tampere in the North Karelia region of finland. This together with reports from Siikalahti, “the best bird lake in Finland” and my itinerary was pretty much made up. The weather was quite windy when I touche...

Took my dog on a long walk out of the village and across the local common. The area seems to have been in decline for breeding birds in the few years I have lived in this area. Afternoons in particular can be a struggle, and today seemed to be heading the same way. Stonechat seems to be the latest species becoming very hard to find. However, looking back, the walk was pretty good. A hat-trick of our three Woodpecker species is always a memorable achievement, even if today all three were heard only in the distance! A Wheatear foraged in the distance and a Raven called high overhead. The walk was rounded off with a singing Yellowhammer. One species at least that seems to be clinging on locally.

* Hurst Castle pays dividends, * Hurst Castle subsequently proves hard work with little reward! * My first Spring Migrants arrive, A couple of mornings spent at Hurst Castle over the Easter weekend. The strong North East winds have persisted for a couple of weeks now, with no sign of abating, and adding a bitter cold chill to the air. Spring migrants seem to be struggling through though, and the first visit, in sunshine, was quite enjoyable with Pale-bellied Brent Goose, Common Scoter, Eider, Greenshank, Black Redstart and 4 or 5 Wheatears the highlights. The second visit, in painfully cold conditions was less successful with just two Sandwich Terns for highlights! The saltmarsh side of the spit did, however, have good numbers of Waders at low tide with a Summer plumaged Black tailed Godwit among the Dunlins, Grey Plover, Curlew etc. Despite the long walk over shingle, Hurst is proving to be a productive venue so far this Spring, Black Redstart being a better find than anything I manag...

About 200 yards from the kitchen window is a row of Oak trees on the edge of the village. I have often scanned these trees during the last 4 years and never seen anything of note. This all changed on sunday though, when a flock of birds landed in the uppermost branches. Something didn't quite feel right, and through the Binocs, they had a Waxwing feel to them, even though they were just too far to confirm. Fortunately, they stayed put while I got my scope and tripod out of the car and got nice views of 19 waxwings all sitting tight. Funnily enough I had thought I heard a Waxwing in the morning, but scanning around the garden only revealed a Greenfinch. "Must have imagined it", I thought. Maybe I did, but a funny coincidence. Sadly the real Waxwings turned up just as my Sunday lunch was being served, so I didn't get a chance to pursue them for closer views with my camera. Still, a pretty cool addition to the "seen from the house" list which now stands at a fa...

Plenty going on in the garden though with a good assortment of Finches. Best of which have been 4 Bramblings, 1 Redpoll, 1 Siskin, and a good sized flock of 22 Greenfinches. Out of the village, Hoe Lane has been fairly uneventful with a flock of 30+ Chaffinches, and 6 Waxwings the highlights. Also 20+ Lapwings and an albino Redwing in the area.  The rest of my time birding has been spent “re-negotiating” access to some private fields locally. It’s always heartening how generous the local landowners are towards letting a birdwatcher on their land. Such arrangements pretty much guarantee a tranquil hour or so birding off the beaten track.

* Cold snap brings some variety into the garden * Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Purple Sandpiper at Hurst Recent snow has brought with it some much needed variety into the garden. Not so many Thrushes this winter, although Redwing, Song Thrush, Fieldfare, and Mistle Thrush all appeared in singles along with several Blackbirds. Finches on the other hand have really brightened up the month: Bullfinch, Brambling, Siskin and Redpoll have all been regular around the garden along with the regular Goldfinches, Greenfinches and Chaffinches. Slightly further afield, I headed to Hurst Castle for the second time this year. A very high tide caught me by surprise, and the marsh was totally underwater by the time I began my return trek. the sea was rough, and highlights were a Guillemot and couple of (probable) Red-throated Divers. Along the shingle a Purple Sandpiper was a surprise, although they are recorded sporadically along this stretch of coast. Finally a single Pale-bellied Brent amongst the D...

* Birds of Prey in abundance * Dunbridge lake continues to improve.. slowly! Sunday brought an end to the low pressure and rain in Southern England, replacing this with sunshine and a cold North wind. I headed North to the Test Valley farmland, and had a pretty good afternoon: Hoe Lane: A disturbance put a large number of Crows and Woodpigeons up. I pulled over and scanned, to see the back end of something big in the distance. Looked like a Goshawk, but I wasn't able to nail this one. On the opposite side of the road was a Peregrine and a Buzzard as a small consolation! Dunbridge Lake: Haven't been here for a while and was surprised to see a Great Crestred Grebe and a Female Goldeneye on the lake.. both firsts for me here. Goldeneye is a bird I don't recall seeing too often along the Test Valley. Brook Sewage Works: The sewage beds continue to be quiet this winter but a Goldcrest and Chiff-Chaff were present. Nether Wallop Sewage Works: The most birds I've ever seen h...

A good start to the year in terms of birds around the garden at the moment.. 30 species so far, the highlights being Lesser Redpoll, Redwing, Brambling, Bullfinch, Coal Tit and Tawny Owl. I also checked out a group of telecoms masts just West of Winchester which looked to have a superb view, and looked like a good area for Vis-Mig. However, as is often the case, places look totally different in person compared to on the OS map and from aerial photos! There was a pretty good view, but this was obscured by trees, and the drop from the summit was too gradual. Plus it was a pain to get to, and much of the area was marked "private".

·          A different look at Spring Spring 2012, and previous Springs thinking about it, have been fairly ordinary for me with very few finds of any real quality. The trouble is, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong compared with Autumn when the goodies are never too far away! Weather must be the major factor, so in 2013, I’m not even going to venture out unless conditions are classic. This should give me plenty of time to complete my BTO surveys etc. as SE winds and rain in the Spring in Hampshire can be as rare as the birds! ·          Vis mig (Coast versus Downs) Just can’t decide between the Test Valley or Calshot area for my vis-mig and bread and butter birding, or even further North on the higher hilltops. It’s a nice problem to have though, as I can think of many worse places to have to choose from. So 2013 I’m going to try both, in equal doses. Lepe and Calshot, plus Keyhaven will get a number of visi...

2012 was an extremely frustrating Birding year for me, until the end of September. In the final months of the year, a hastily planned trip to Scillies, and a Marinelife survey across the Bay of Biscay ensured that the year would be fondly remembered. Frustrations! My theory that “Spring is rubbish” held true in 2012 with a very poor return for many hours searching around Hampshire. A Spring trip to Shetland was derailed by a North wind, and the one really good find, a White Stork from the A1 near Newcastle turned out to be an escape. Add to this a probable Siberian Chiff chaff that showed well, but didn’t call, followed a couple of months later by a probable Siberian Chiff chaff that called twice but didn’t show beyond a glimpse and you begin to get the picture! It wasn’t all bad though, and finding a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker territory near home was a bonus, along with some super photo opportunities from the Shetland trip. Then the Olympics came to town .. Annual leave cancelled and n...

An exciting weekend to end the year in the Bay of Biscay: http://www.marine-life.org.uk/poole-santander/2012/11/17-19

Decided to run an experiment this Autumn and moved closer to the coast for my vis-mig sessions. I decided on Badminston mainly due to it's cracking panoramic view, and fairly obvious flightpath between Lepe and the gap between Fawley Power station and the refinery. In total, I spent 26 hours(!) this Autumn watching the migration passing over my head, and although it was fairly pleasant, it never really felt *that* good! Highlights were fairly modest: a Marsh Harrier, an Osprey, and that was about it really. However, vis-mig is all about numbers and it actually performed better, on average, than my other watchpoint overlooking the Test Valley. From Trektellen: 2010 Lower Brook: 3000 birds of 47 species in 26 hours (7000 Starlings excluded from the total as they were a local movement of birds heading to evening roost. Pretty spectacular nonetheless!) 2011 Lower Brook:  2775 birds of 35 species in 15 hours 2012 Badminston: 4453 birds of 63 species in 26 hours Badmi...

A couple of sessions of vis-mig over the weekend. Badminston is quite frustrating as it is obviously right beneath a migration flightpath.. Finches, Hirundines and Thrushes pass right over my head, and Corvids, Woodpigeons and other species all pass within recording range.. there just doesn't seem to be a great deal using the flightpath! Results from Friday 2nd November at the link below: http://www.trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=1200 I may try an alternative survey spot North of the Fawley power station to see if more birds divert North around the refinery then across the New Forest. (Badminston catches the migration filtering between the refinery and the power station). The alternative spot would also have the advantage of being closer to Southampton Water, so birds moving along the coast would be picked up. I also ran my Sound recorder overnight on Thursday 1st November and picked up: 28 Redwings 5 Song Thrushes Plus Robin and Tawny Owl present. Finally the Kingfishe...

Quiet end to October, but a real highlight last Saturday when a Kingfisher dropped in to the Brook alongside the house. Always thought we had a slim possibility of adding Kingfisher, but I have waited over 4 years for one. Looks to have moved on after one brief glimpse, though it could still be around, further along the stream, perhaps.

Ran the tape overnight again, on 12th October. Weather was fairly clear skies, with a SW wind, but with a band of rain passing thru. Results were down on the previous weekend with only a handful of birds: Redwing: 6 Song Thrush: 1 Present: Tawny Owl, Robin The biggest highlight was my new method of analysis: I now produce a single mp3 (@  128kbps), then split the file using a free tool called mp3splt. Also, by loading the next sound file as I analyse each file reduces waiting time. I'm up to 5 hours of analysis per hour now!

I've noticed a few people are trying their hand at monitoring night migration lately. It seems to be popular in the US where software is available to pick out calls. See Oldbird.org . So, with nothing to lose, I wrapped my Zoom H2N in a tight plastic bag, put the weathershield on and left it in the front garden overnight! The first problem I encountered was the size of the wav file the following morning. Can't remember how big it was, but it took audacity over half an hour to open it! Fortunately, the Zoom has a built in tool to divide files, and so I chopped the file into 1 hour chunks. These took about 5 minutes to open in Wavesurfer, and once the spectogram was focussed and showing a healthy glow of background noise it was fairly easy to fast forward/scroll through each hour segment. Lots of unwanted noise at first, but it soon became clear that the vertical signals were fireworks, doors slamming, or twigs snapping. The huge blurred low frequency areas were cars, and yobs fa...

* Self-Found Melodious Warbler finally brings 2012 to life! * Other Migrants on Scillies include Yellow-Browed Warbler, Ring Ouzel and Pied Flycatcher * Quiet Scillonian crossings still bring some good sightings Took two weeks off work and headed to the Isles of Scilly for a few days. Unlike recent trips to Shetland, which I have had to book many months in advance, camping on the Scillies can be booked a day in advance, so I had no real excuses that the weather was all wrong! Having said that, a Low Pressure that I had intended to piggyback somehow doubled back on itself, and loitered in the Irish Sea for the duration of my stay. This caused North and North West winds throughout, and no doubt reduced the number of East Coast migrants continuing West. I stayed on St.Agnes, and decided pretty early on that the outlying Isle of Gugh, joined to St.Agnes by a sandbank and cut off at high tide, was the place for me. And so it proved to be a super venue with a Melodious Warbler found on the...

* Vis-mig switched to the coast, with limited success * Meadow Pipit added to House list * Nathusius’s Pipistrelle Survey.. Highlight was a Nathusius’s Pipistrelle * Badger watch. Vis Mig at Badminston continues at a reasonable pace. Numbers aren’t particularly high just yet, and I’m not sure if I am sitting in the optimum location. Slow moving Hirundines seem to pass tantalizingly North of me which is no problem, but finches and Pipits could be going undetected so a tweak of the viewing location might be in order. Best bird so far has been an Osprey, and judging by recent reports from the North end of Southampton Water, I suspect a decent number of Ospreys pass the area. Any change in my location needs to ensure the flyway past the power station is still in view. Closer to home, Meadow Pipit was added to the house list during a fairly massive movement across the region (e.g. a few hundred over Christchurch Harbour). This has been a very elusive species over the house, despite them...

Saturday morning was a very poor vis-mig session, with just a couple of hundred Woodpigeons on the move, and these were, worryingly, a long way West of my favoured position, in a very light West wind and thick cloud cover. The morning was at least brightened up by a few migrants on the ground including Spotted flycatcher, Blackcap, and a few Chiff-chaffs. This is turning into a pretty dismal year for finding birds.. I don't recall seeing a Whinchat so far! let alone some of the more scarcer species. Another species that seems to be in short supply locally is Yellow Wagtail. There seem to be a lot more records East of Southampton Water than West where I tend to focus. Also, sad to report a Polecat dead on the side of the A3057 near Ashfield. Such a rare and elusive Mammal, a pity I have only ever seen dead ones, and amazing to think this one has passed less than a mile from my house.. picture, slightly gory!

* Wheatear and Spotted Flycatcher brightens up local dog walks * Tree Pipit signals a new era for my "Vis Mig." Spending more time around the village taking our dog for a walk lately. He's old enough to go on longer walks now, and it gives me a chance to at least check out the habitat around the village. in the last month just a Wheatear and a family of Spotted Flycatchers to show for several miles of walks! Hoe Lane is starting to look a bit better now with the fields being harvested. Have also spent a couple of mornings at my closest area of coast, which is Lepe and Calshot. Again, nothing out of the ordinary but a ramping up of Terns and WEaders in the last week or two. I've also been checking out Badminston with a view to vis. mig. later in the Autumn. My walks in the area last year certainly showed the area to have potential with clouds of Woodpigeons, and on one occasion a passage of Crossbills. Finding a suitable vantage point, other than the chimneys at Fawley...