Wildlife in the Limelight

I love Christmas. An event that brings so much joy and happiness to the world in the midst of winter is always going to sit well with me. I am one of those annoying people who can't get enough of it, and it doesn't matter what the date is!  Within the last week various retail outlets have been showcasing their 2016 Christmas adverts, and anyone who has any interest in wildlife and conservation MUST be delighted at what is on offer.  

Although the main character in the John Lewis ad is a dog, two foxes, a badger, a squirrel and a hedgehog play major roles. In fact John Lewis have partnered up with the Wildlife Trusts - they are their chosen charity campaign partner, superb news!

Already being delighted by this, imagine my excitement when I first saw the Waitrose Christmas advert. The whole advert is about the treacherous autumn migration of a Robin from its breeding grounds in Scandinavia to its winter home in the UK (yes, nothing to do Waitrose!).  Back of the net for UK wildlife.

You may well be a Christmas humbug, but if you are a nature lover then please just be happy that our wildlife is taking center stage in something that is so much anticipated, far reaching and positive. Result.

And now usual service resumes...

I only need a paragraph to summarise today's bird sightings. A lovely male Goosander that flew up the River Coly at Colyford mid afternoon was the highlight, with the Estuary offering the Little Stint, two Grey Plover, 13 Dunlin, an adult Med Gull and a large dark mantled Gull that could only have been a hybrid of some sorts (it was too pink-legged, streaky headed and the wrong shade of dark grey for a Yellow-legged).

Longleat

This is a completely non-birding post, you have been warned!

Whenever I visit any zoo, I do so with mixed emotions. Animals should be free and wild and that's how I always want to see them, but I'm not completely dead against zoos.  I do understand the fantastic educational opportunities they offer, plus many do help with and undertake important conservation work. And of course the animals are not wild, they have been born and bred in captivity, as have their parents and parents parents (I hope!).

Jess has been keen to go to Longleat for a while now, and I have since I was about ten!  Thankfully my bank agreed the loan last week, meaning we were at last able to afford a trip to this impressive place.  

Overall it was very good, both the animals and the house part. My only real negative was the amount of people we were sharing it with.  It felt like we spent the whole day queueing, whether it was in our car with Wildebeest and Lions around us, or because we wanted to go to the loo or buy a bottle of water.  People and cars everywhere!!  The road through the safari park has two lanes, the left lane for people who want to stop and look, with the right lane being the over taking lane which is meant to stay flowing.  Well this works just fine when the animals are on the left hand side of the road, but when they're to the right the whole place comes to a stand still!

My final advice is if you have parking sensors on your car don't go in the Monkey section! I have lost 50% of my reversing sensors thanks to these critters - it was so painful watching and hearing them cause so much damage and not being able to do anything about it!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these few pics...

The above beasts were only half the story. As it got dark the Festival of Lights became the main attraction, and this really was impressive - done on such a massive scale ...

All in all, I can recommend. Especially at this time of year as there's a lovely Christmas feel to the house and surrounding gardens, just try and avoid their predicted busiest days (which last Saturday was one of!).

Some Snipe Action

Got a few more patch year ticks today, although most of them were 'expected' species...

Excellent!

Bird of the day goes to Jack Snipe.  I met Gav at 8am at Colyford Common, and we soon had seen two of these lovely little birds. Along with several Snipe, two Cetti's Warblers (there's at least four on the Axe wetlands, the most we've had since the cold weather in 2010) and a Kingfisher (a real one!).

A quick sea watch showed very little (just a few Kittiwake, Razorbill and Guillemots), and then I dipped a Firecrest. Bums.

After breakfast, Jess and I decided to take our 'New Year health kick' up another level by going for a five mile walk. Basically we walked to Colyton and back, which gave me Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Siskin and excellent numbers of thrushes - including a flock of over 200 Redwing near Holyford Woods. There were also lots of birds around Colyford WTW, where we bumped into Phil (wherever there's birds there's Phil!). Sadly neither he or I could see anything different.

On our return home, I tried for Bun's Redpolls at Seaton Marshes - but that proved to be dip number two of the day. Ho Hum.

Tonight, we've been busy taking down all the Christmas decorations - including the Christmas Tree. Now I know why my old man always insisted we had an artificial one...

Jess is still hoovering!

A Good Day For Ducks

I spent the morning doing some Bird Atlas work on my tetrads near Dunkeswell. The weather wasn't great - but the birding was, with two Crossbills and 8+ Brambling being the highlights.

I was back home early afternoon and headed out birding fairly promptly.

A sweep of the valley showed there were a few ducks about, with three Pochard (two drakes), three Tufted Duck (one drake) and 10+ Gadwall on the Estuary. I took my time and carefully counted (and checked!) the mass of Wigeon this afternoon, and surprised even myself with a final count of 1,800 birds! Most of these were opposite Stedcombe in two large clumps...

Clump one - the biggest bunch

Clump two

There were also smaller flocks on both Colyford and Seaton Marshes. Back to diving ducks, and a fourth Tufted Duck was at (the still surprisingly icy) Lower Bruckland Ponds...

They are so small compared with the monster Mallards!

I wish I was now writing about the success I enjoyed with my hour long Waxwing hunt around town....but I can't :-(

So, how was Christmas for everyone? I had a lovely few days - and it was nice that family, friends and love was the main focus of it. Just how Christmas should be. Mind you, I couldn't help but being over-joyed by this present...

Yes - that is the largest carton of Jaffa Cakes ever!!!

And I couldn't help but feeling stuffed after eating this....

There is turkey in there somewhere!

I shall finish with yet another Redwing photo, sorry...

I am just so pleased all the snow and ice has thawed so that these guys can get back to where they belong!