Swindons Murmuration

We've all seen them, if you've been in the heart of Swindon in the evening. Tens of thousands of Starlings roosting around New College. The last time I saw such numbers was in southern Italy many years ago, but what I saw tonight surpassed that.  With the car parked up in the car park in Hawksworth Way, it was camera at the ready and an opportunity to catch an amazing moment.  The only thing I forgot to take into account was the amount of poop that was going to fall on me and the car. Me and the car were covered and the smell is still on me, even after a couple of hours. Anyhow here are a few images from this evening, including a before after shot when a thousand plus birds landed on the top of a tree before flying off to join the main groups.

Above New College

One of the smaller flocks above the Great Western Way at Cheney Manor

More and more birds arriving

A close up of the trees smothered in birds.

The tree looks like its in leaf (Before)

And then they all take off (After)

Probably just a tenth of the flock

A Bitterly Cold Ridgeway

With the word out that there have been some Ring Ouzels sighted around the Liddington Hill area, I decided to have a look myself. Starting at the Liddington village end and heading west towards Chiseldon, I headed along the road with the Ridgeway on my left. It was fairly cloudy at first and though there were a fair few birds around I didn't find any Ouzels. However a Curlew calling was a bonus and two Chiffchaffs calling from the trees/bushes running up the hillside was good to hear. A Buzzard was sitting very quietly on the lee of a hedgerow, keeping out of the way of the bitter easterly wind.

Buzzard

Along the hill top a Lesser Black-backed Gull headed east and disturbed a small party of Rooks as it flew overhead.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Rook in flight

There are fantastic views from up here and looking north you can see  Swindon's Great Western Hospital quite clearly.

Great Western Hospital

 Looking further east and to the north you can just about pick out the churches of Liddington and Wanborough.

In the foreground All Saint's Church, Liddington and
in the background St Andrews Church, Wanborough

Along the roadside there were Linnets, Chaffinches, and both Great & Blue Tits. In the lower fields looking north a Skylark was singing and every now and then Meadow Pipits flew over on their northerly migration.
 

The trees on the Ridgeway silhouetted against the grey skyline.

Further along the Ridgeway Road there is a turning on your left which takes you up to Folly Farm. This is probably one of the best places I have found to see Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers, in the local area.

As you turn into Folly Farm road, there is a field on your right. Often or not this is an arable field, but this year it appears to be full of sheep. A quick scan across revealed hundreds of  Starlings, Fieldfare and Redwings. It was heaving with birds. Unfortunately no Ouzels in amongst them, though I did spot a couple of Mistle Thrushes.

The road up to Folly Farm, with the sheep field on the right.

At the top of the road you have fantastic views of the rolling hills and especially Liddington Hill to the east. To the west you can also make out the old RAF Wroughton airfield and hangars.

What was nice when I got here, was the sun coming out for a brief spell. Unfortunately it still wasn't enough to get rid of the bitterly cold arctic wind. It was freezing up here.

Liddington Hill in the sun

The Ridgeway looking east

Looking north-east. (The white building is the Hospital again)

Looking north-west towards Wroughton from Folly Farm

There is always something to see here and I wasn't to be disappointed. The Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers were soon seen and in the field on the right (See picture above) there were several more winter thrushes. Often or not they use the two trees on the the right to sit and preen themselves. Today was so cold I think they gave it a miss.

A shy Corn Bunting

Also around were some birds of interest with at least 3 Ravens calling, a Common Gull flying just under Liddington Hill and two fly-by Bramblings.

Despite not finding any Ring Ouzels this was, all in all a rewarding morning. I'm sure I shall find one soon, though it would be nice if the weather would warm up a bit. Bitter summed today up......

Raven calling

Common Gull (left) and Black-headed Gull

A total 27 species of bird were seen and heard this morning along the Ridgeway: Pheasant, Curlew, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Gull, Woodpigeon, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Starling, Raven, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Chiffchaff, Robin, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Brambling, Chaffinch, Linnet, Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer.

Catch Up

Saturday was almost a white out, with snow falling all morning giving up to an inch or more by lunchtime. Fortunately it didn't last long and by evening most had thawed. During the morning a Grey Heron landed on the rooftop on the house behind, before heading off into the raging blizzard. Personally it it were me, I would have gone in the opposite direction and sought sanctuary at Nythe Pool.

Raging Blizzard

Grey Heron

Overnight there was a chilling frost and the pond froze over again. There's still no sign of any frogspawn, even though there have been up to 3 frogs around the pond.

Sunday was bitterly cold again and the two resident Common Gulls were scavenging behind the shops. Locally the murmeration of Starlings is still on-going with up to 10,000 birds in central Swindon.

Today a Red Kite somehow got lost and flew over the house at 10:45am, and was being hurried along by a couple of Herring Gulls. My first Kite of the year so a good tick.

Bread and Pigeons

Not see this behaviour before, but our local Wood Pigeons are having a great time flicking up slices of bread, so that it breaks up into beak size pieces.

Bread and Pigeon

Also in the garden today, the resident pair of Collared Doves and a brief visit by a Chiffchaff. It came down to the pond and flew off before I could capture it on film. Never-the-less a good first for the garden. Overhead at 5:30pm a flock of around 7000+ Starlings flew northeast towards the centre of Swindon

Stanton Park Wood

Having overdone Coate Water recently, I decided on a visit to the Feeding Stations at Stanton Park Wood. When I arrived the car park was fairly busy with lots of dog walkers making the most of what was a fairly decent day weather wise. In other words it wasn't raining or snowing.  With my bag of Sunflower seeds and corn it was off to the logs which are just opposite the feeders, a couple of hundred meters or so up the track from the main car park.

Looking back towards the main car park

The Feeder on the left and the Logs on the right. The car park is behind me.

There weren't too many birds on the feeders when I arrived, which was good for me. It meant any food I placed on the logs was going to be sought after fairly quickly. And true enough a Robin was down on the log within seconds. Its funny how they always seem to be the first on the scene. The next bird was a Blue Tit, followed by Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock and a female Blackbird. After that it was a frenzy of activity, with tits squabbling over the sunflower seeds and a pair of Robins squaring up to each other. A Nuthatch gave a brief appearance but was more interested with the food on the main feeder, as were the Long-tailed Tits.

Robin

Blue Tit

Marsh Tit

Chaffinch (male)

Dunnock

Blackbird (female)

Locally I heard my first Treecreeper of the year; but I just couldn't locate it. It was calling well but on what tree, who knows. High up in the canopy there were at least a dozen or so Siskins, with at least 3 males singing very loudly. Occasionally one male would break away from the flock and chase off another male. On one occasion a pair dropped down onto a small tree. They were within a few feet of  me next to the logs, but before I could get my camera on them they were gone. I did manage to photograph them high up in the canopy, but the quality of the photo is not great.  Another record shot as they say, but having said that you can just about see the yellow underside and fork tail.

Two Siskins high up in the canopy, hence the poor quality and image size. 

Other birds heard and seen were Great Spotted Woodpecker hammering away at a tree close by, a Bullfinch calling, a few Goldfinches overhead and a drake Mallard on the small pond half-way up the track. Where incidentally there seemed to be a lot of amphibians coming up to the surface for air. I'm guessing they were Newts, but I'm not a hundred percent certain.


Birds recorded, with numbers seen were:
1 Mallard, 2 Woodpigeon, 1 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Rook, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, 1 Wren, Dunnock, 3 Robin, 1 Blackbird, 2 Coal Tit, 8 Great Tit, 5 Blue Tit, 3 Long-tailed Tits, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Treecreeper, Goldfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch and 12+Siskin (20 Species Recorded)

Phew They Are Both Back!

After an absence of nearly 2 weeks the female Collared Dove returned with her mate to the feeders in the back garden. I'm guessing she was sitting on eggs locally, which is why we have only seen the male in the garden. So yet again I'm guessing they have hatched and is the reason why she is back collecting food.  However her return to the garden wasn't appreciated by the resident Woodpigeons, as the photo below shows only to well.

Out the way I'm coming in!!!

The Close Season

It was eerily quiet at Coate Water this afternoon.  What with the statutory coarse fish close season starting today, the Lake was very quiet indeed. The close season actually only applies to rivers, streams and drains in England and Wales, and to some canals and a few stillwaters, Coate Water being one those stillwaters. In fact it wasn't just the anglers missing, but a large proportion of the wildfowl. The 14 Mute Swans are now just 2 adults and 2 juveniles, and the Canada Geese, were for some reason all on the small pond just beyond the kiosk on the right. Also on the pond were several Tufted Duck and the drake Pochard.

30+ Canada on the small pond to the side of Coate Water

Back on the lake there were still plenty of Mallard and the pair of Aylesbury Ducks are still present. The number of gulls hasn't changed since my last visit, however there are many more Black-headed Gulls in summer plumage.

Mallard (Female)

The Aylesbury ducks in amongst the Mallard and Black-headed Gulls

Juvenile Black-headed Gull in flight and an adult in summer plumage on the water.

Further out into the lake were quite a few Tufted Duck and a few larger gulls, mainly juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls and 3rd winter Herring Gulls. A quick glance to my right and I was lucky enough to see a flash of blue as a Kingfisher sped across the water.

3rd winter Herring Gull

In the background a juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull and in the foreground a Kingfisher.

Unfortunately my stay at Coate was curtailed by the rain, which started off light but eventually was to heavy for me to stay any longer. However there were a good number of species around and birds recorded were: Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Mallard, Aylesbury Duck (feral), Tufted Duck, Pochard, Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Kingfisher, Pied Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Starling, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Chaffinch.

Afternoon Break

I know it was only a few days ago that I paid a visit to Coate Water, but with the sun out for the first time in quite sometime, it was great opportunity to visit the Feeding Station again.  This time though I hid the Sunflower seeds and corn in amongst the ivy on the handrail and with sun beaming down, it gave a more realistic photo than a few seeds on the rails.

The ivy with hidden treats in amongst them

At first I placed it on the bare hand rail and then after 5 minutes changed to the ivy. Within seconds of me changing the location of the seeds, the birds were straight down and feeding in amongst the ivy.  They must have been watching my every move.  In fact the birds along this stretch will come within a few feet of you if you stop.  They have been fed so many times by walkers that every human that stops for a few seconds is a potential food source. A perfect example is here below.  A couple of walkers stopped to chat to me and I gave the chap a small handful of seeds and asked him to stretch his hand out.  Within seconds he had a Robin feeding out of his hand.  To say he was gobsmacked would be an understatement.

A very tame Robin

Whilst all this activity was going on at ground level, I was aware that a large party of Redwing and Fieldfare had just landed in the oak trees above me.  I guess there were about 50 birds in total plus at least 3 Bramblings.  The photos below are very poor quality. I'm afraid they are what bird watchers would call a record shot, a quick photo to prove they saw it or as in this case them.

A poor shot of a Brambling

And an equally poor shot of a Redwing.

However at least the imagery at ground level was a bit better and I managed some nice shots of Marsh Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch and two individual Blackbirds. Just check out the difference in beak colouring. One was yellow the other very orange.

Marsh Tit

Great Tit

Blue Tit

   

Coal Tit

Chaffinch (male)

Blackbird (yellow beak)

Blackbird (orange beak) and a bit of swagger to go with it