Category Archives: Winter

A cold day in the Fens

Posted on by
Reply

This is a usual time of year for us to spend a day out in the Fenlands of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. With the sun bright over a frosty land, we headed out eastward in search of winter visitors and owls.

Our first stop was the Nene Washes, which was meant to be the main focus of the day. As we arrived the sun disappeared as low cloud and then fog enclosed the scene. This wasn’t a great start to our visit and it didn’t really get any better. Our visits over recent winters have coincided with flooding of the washes which attracts vast numbers of wintering wildfowl. Instead, today, to our surprise following a very wet autumn, there was barely anyway water at all and very few birds.

We heard very distant whooper swans and possibly a crane but as we walked along the high bund there was little to see bar a nicely perched red kite. There were also very few other people around; there’s usually a few people hanging about watching owls in the thick bushes behind the bund but today, virtually no one. It’s a significant task trying to find the amazingly well camouflaged long-eared and short-eared owls and we usually get a few pointers from those who have already found them, but with no one around, we gave up pretty quickly.

However, we bumped into a man who had just arrived from some birding sites near the ‘Deepings’ and he gave us a tip-off. With that information, we headed off in search of a bird that I have never seen before.

After about 30 minutes of driving along the long, narrow and often subsiding fenland roads, we came the spot we had been told about. In the distance was a large flock of wintering whooper swans and as we scanned through them we very quickly found the target of our search: a snow goose.

You can see the bird, third from the left on the following, very poor image taken through my scope.

I like a goose, particularly those that travel long distances to spend the winter in the UK, but snow geese shouldn’t actually be here. They are a North American and Siberian species that spend their winters on the far side of the Atlantic from us. However, they are a vagrant visitor to the UK albeit most that are seen have escaped from collections rather than being wild birds. In the case of this bird, I’m hoping it was the real wild deal given that it was amongst a flock of whoopers, which come here from the Icelandic breeding grounds.

Well, I’m going to count it as wild and therefore a genuine ‘lifer’ for me; the first I’ve seen in the wild and a great way to start the new year!

As we left the area we came across another flock of whoopers in a field very close to the road and we stopped to take a look…taking a nice video with, for me, one of the evocative sounds of winter…

A Boxing Day for (red) kite flying

Posted on by
Reply

On a bright sunny Boxing Day afternoon, we went for a walk to a local high point in the countryside. Despite the sun, it was bitterly cold with a strong wind taking several degrees off the already low single figure temperatures.

As we got to a viewpoint we were faced with a sight of at least 16 red kites playing in the wind as it raced across the rolling fields. They soared, swooped and whirled around each other, diving towards the ground and back up to above the height of the low hills. At times they seemed to be playing with together but they also went off on their own to explore the fields before coming back into the group.

The cold wind soon drove us back into the shelter of the hedgelines and we left the kites behind, continuing to play in the wind.

Brandon Marsh Starling Murmuration

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday afternoon we made the relatively short journey to Coventry to visit Warwickshire Wildlife Trust’s Brandon Marsh nature reserve. We have been a few times over the last couple of years but this was the first time for a winter dusk.

We arrived mid-afternoon and wandered around the reserve’s tracks. The plentiful recent rainfall had made some paths and hides unreachable so our walk was somewhere shorter than usual.

As sunset grew closer, we walked down to the viewpoint overlooking Albert’s Reedbed and waited. The sky cleared and we had a bright sun lowering in the sky to shine light across the reeds. As we waited there was little sign of starlings; instead there was a steady stream of gulls overhead and pigeons occasionally crossing the view. After what seemed like an age, a single starling flew over the reedbed and disappeared from view.

A little while later a small flock of five started circling and after a few more minutes it started to attract more birds. The group continued to fly over our heads, slowly adding more and more starlings to its number but it then moved off and appeared to be heading away from our viewing point.

Then, from behind us a mass of birds appeared and started wheeling around the sky forming continuously shifting serpentine shapes. It suddenly dropped low over the ground and, to the sound of screaming children, rushed at head height over the gathering of watchers. This was the start of an amazing show of avian synchronised flying that was without doubt the best I’ve seen. The videos and images below speak for themselves…

Spring arrives with the last of winter

Posted on by
Reply

Meteorological spring has arrived and with it has come some very welcome spring weather. We woke on Saturday to a frost but also blue sky, and the sun stayed out all day. Today, it is much the same and it looks set to stay this way for the coming week. On Saturday we had to get out into the fine weather and, amongst our various stops, we paid a visit to Summer Leys nature reserve. While the weather was spring-like, the wildlife was still very much of the winter, with the waders and wildfowl that have been staying over the colder months.

Unusually for me at the moment, I actually remembered to take my camera with me. Whilst I didn’t get too many shots, I did catch this image of make shovelers chasing a female around a corner of the large lake at the reserve. There were quite a few of them, seemingly stirred into a bout of breeding activity by the change in the weather.

The other image I got was of the glossy ibis which has been frequenting the reserve for many months and attracting a few extra visitors Summer Leys. It was pretty easy to find yesterday, feeding exactly where one of the local bird blogs said it had been.

After a bit of garden work this morning, this afternoon I’m going to head out for my first cycle of the year. I can’t quite believe I haven’t cycled at all so far this year but running is generally my winter exercise activity. Now it’s time to transition back again.

A few hours of spring

Posted on by
2

Yesterday we headed over to the Cotswolds for a walk and to buy some cheese. The weather forecast looked set fair and as we drove west from Northamptonshire we could see blue sky ahead of us. Arriving at Bourton-on-the-Water there was the usual chaos at the main car park but we got parked pretty quickly. Even in late February the town is packed of visitors but we soon left them behind as we walked out of the urban area and into the surrounding countryside.

Our walk was a loop from Bourton to the Slaughters and back; only about five miles, but enough to stretch the legs after a week at work. The sun kept appearing from behind springlike fluffy clouds and we could feel a little warmth in its rays. However, there was also a keen cool wind which kept the temperatures down when we were out of the shelter of field walls and hedges.

As we wandered up a long rise we could hear skylarks above our heads and across the fields; the first time we’ve heard them this year. There was also a pair of red kites circling in the wind and hanging above the valley. Eventually, we dropped down the other side of the hill and into Upper Slaughter, the chocolate box village, lit up brightly by the sun.

In Lower Slaughter, after negotiating some muddy fields, we even managed to have lunch outside at the pub, only to then get wet as the rain came down on the last leg back into Bourton.

While the walk was the main purpose of the visit, we had to stop at Stow-on-the-Wold on the way home to visit the excellent cheese shop!

Yesterday was really the first taste of spring we’ve had but today has gone back to winter with strong winds, rain and lower temperatures. We’re still in February, so yesterday was really just a very early bit of springlike weather and I suspect we might have to wait a little longer for some more.

More light in the morning sky

Posted on by
Reply

Almost two weeks on from my last post on this subject and the light has grown a lot as I stand on the station platform on the way to work. It’s now got to the stage where my use of my main beam on my car has reduced significantly as I drive through the countryside and now on the platform, I can see to the far horizon and Borough Hill.

I usually find February the most difficult of months, as we slowly start to move in from the dark and cold winter. This year, however, I haven’t found it so bad and the increasing light is starting to give me more bounce – what I call that positive energy inside me that often disappears during the winter. I’ve been exercising a lot recently which may have helped, with those endorphins raising my mood.

Even more positively, the weather looks good for Saturday and the temperatures are rising, so I’m hoping for an early springtime (almost) walk.

Village starling murmuration

Posted on by
3

Yesterday evening as the light was starting to ebb away, we ventured out to see if we could watch the starling murmuration that has started to build above our village.

We had been having glimpses of it on previous nights from our upstairs windows but these were often obscured. So, we walked up through the village and watched the starlings doing their performance.

We weren’t disappointed as the flock was murmurating almost immediately and it continued to grow as the minutes wore on. The flock wheeled above the houses, breaking and reforming many times until they eventually started to fall to a large long bush in a front garden. The chattering in the bush got louder as more and more dropped in for the night.

Snowdrops on a bitter day

Posted on by
Reply

There may have been spring-like signs earlier this week but today winter is very much making its presence felt. There is a keen north-easterly wind bringing cold air that cuts through any gaps in your clothes and chills you to the bone. It’s about 5 Celsius at present with the wind it taking it down to feeling around freezing. To make it look even worse there’s also a dark gloom hanging over us which, according to the forecast, will stick around all week!

This afternoon we ventured out into the cold and gloominess in search of more signs of spring. We found some at the nearby Lamport Hall. Each late winter the grounds are opened at weekends for people to see the display of snowdrops in the woodland and gardens. We haven’t been before but as the photos below show, it’s a very lovely display, even without any sunshine to brighten up the scene.

Slowly returning light

Posted on by
Reply

Standing on the railway station platform this morning, there was a clear sky and light on the horizon. This is the first time this year where there has been more than a smudge of dawn and today there is even an orange hue beneath the growing turquoise.

Not only a the light returning but so far are the sounds of birds. It might be just below freezing but the robins, blackbird and thrushes are all singing their dawn chorus – another first for me this year.