The Drunkbirders

Snow good yet

2008-10-05T11:26:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was mostly spent indoors as it rained incessantly until lunchtime when theweather changed... it snowed. After an hour or so of rain it dried up and we finally headed out to Quendale. Four of us walked west up the burn and flushed bugger all but a couple of Meadow Pipit and Wren. The Wren up here though are something quite different. Much darker and probably a little larger than the Wren we're used to at home. Hopefully I'll get a phoyo or two before we head home.

This morning started brighter but soon descended into heavy showers swept through on a Northwesterly gale. Birding was hardwork with only a couple of Wheatear and a Lesser Whitethroat.

This afternoon we'll probably head off to Hoswick which should be a bit more sheltered. I hope.

Things happen in threes?

2008-10-04T09:26:00.004+01:00

My old Mum used to say bad things happened in threes. Well yesterday Dave and I put her theory to the test. First up the cash point at the Branting Hill Shell garage ate Dave's debit card. Incident No1. Incident No2 occured as I realised that I had left all my waterproofs hanging in the hall instead of packing them in the car. Oh bugger, we tried the retail park at Gretna and could only see clothing by names I've never heard of. Perth had a Millets so a new Berghaus fleece and waterproof were bought for not to much cost.
A stop in Dundee for Red Squirrel was productive and so onwards to Aberdeen. We finally found Girdle Ness and a quick seawatch gave us Bottlenosed Dolphin, Harbour Porpoise as well as good numbers of Kittiwake moving north. A possible Little Auk powered north along with a couple of Bonxies and a dark phase Arctic Skua.
On the boat we settled down to our cabin only to be told Dave hadn't got a bed. The Northlink website is somewhat misleading when you book. Anyway another £39.50 later and Dave had a bed. He probably wishes now he wasn't.
A lovely steak pie on the boat was washed down with a bottle of Simmer Dim. An hour later as the boat pitched into a strong Northerly my dinner was down the toilet and it didn't taste half as good! That's four bad things so the theory doesn't really hold does it.
Oh well we're on Shetland now and the weather is shite. Thankfully the kettle's on at Rob's and thanks to Micky for the loan of his laptop.

It's nice up North

2008-10-02T18:08:00.002+01:00

Tomorrow the Drunkbirders will follow in the footsteps of the legend that is Sheffield's own John Shuttleworth and begin their migration North. This year as part of Radio 4's World On The Move a number of Drunkbirders have been trapped and fitted with satellite tracking devices as well as BTO rings to try and work out their migration routes. It is thought that Drunkbirders use Aberdeen as a staging post but this has never been proven.
Roy Dennis, who was responsible for buggering up Leicestershire and Rutland's avifauna with his daft Osprey project said 'I honestly can't get that excited now my three Ospreys have all stopped transmitting so the Drunkbirders mean fuck all to me.'

Shetland Weather

2008-09-30T08:58:00.002+01:00

I decided to give up on predicting the weather and potential birds by endlessly scouring the weather reports and speak directly to the man with his finger on the pulse. Well you have to take a pulse don't you, it's only decent.
Instead I rang Rob who was spending his evening fretting about what else to show the lucky punters who had spent last week on Fair Isle. Don't worry Rob, I'm sure that another Yellow-browed Warbler will suffice. On the phone to Rob I could only think, were we going to be too late? It seriously cracked off just about everywhere last week, except from my office window, and Shetland didn't miss out. Anyway in-lieu of a proper weather forecaster I listened as Rob looked at his magic box and said the winds were due to go Southeast on Saturday... hooray. The downside to this is the prospect of a quesy crossing into quite a strong Northerly wind.
Ah well, whatever the weather I'm sure we'll be in and out of every Iris bed we can find, tramping around stone-dykes and staring into any bush and enjoying every minute of it.

Fudge anyone?

2008-09-28T16:46:00.004+01:00

I was stuck at work yesterday when I got a message from Steve that Norman Hall had a possible Ferruginous Duck at Sence Valley Forest Park. Unable to do much, I forwarded a message around and waited. I finally heard back as I was getting into Manchester, it was a Fudge Duck. Bugger, I need that for the County.

A call from Dave Gray this morning allayed my fears somewhat as the bird was still present and showing well. I arrived and was guided to the hide by Ben as I'm not familiar with the site. A lovely 1W drake Ferruginous Duck was feeding well from the hide... get in! The light was awful but I tried for a few digiscoped shots. Jim Graham's are probably much better than mine but here are a couple anyway showing some of the key features.

Spontaneous Combustion

2008-09-28T16:36:00.003+01:00

Last night saw Leigh and I at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester to see Doug Stanhope. For those of you who haven't yet seen or heard of Doug, he's a must. Doug was his usual drunken, abusive, politically incorrect but so right-on (should that be left-on) self and delivered a cracking show. If Doug ever reads this blog, you had to be there, the I for one thought you were brilliant and I hope your ego is so big you can't fit through a door.

Enough of that though, we stayed in a Best Western on the Wilmslow Road last night and as Manure had been at home it felt more like Belfast. We were surrounded by Irish Manure Fans in various states of inhebriation.
One poor unfortunate had fallen asleep alone at the next table to us but as he started to come to a fanfare of Tijuana trumpets heralded a well known Johnny Cash song. Dazed, the bloke looked round not realising it was his mobile ringing.
Leigh pissed herself laughing as I said he'd just gone up in Ring of Fire. You just had to be there!

Bishop's finger

2008-09-25T08:58:00.002+01:00

Not very often I side with men of the cloth as I generally see them as not better than astrologers when it comes to their religion. I do however agree with a lot of what they say on social issues so it was lovely to hear the Archbishops' of York and Canterbury stick the boot in to the money men.
It really is time that Labour started to act for the people who form their core vote, blue-collar workers, and regulate these wankers in the city. I would normally say that I wouldn't want to ever help out the greedy bastards in the financial world but sadly they've spread their evil web so wide this time that unless society and the tax payer helps out we'll all lose out somehow.

Brown... shite

2008-09-25T08:46:00.002+01:00

Oh knackers. Two mega's on the pager yesterday and both browns. The first I didn't need to go for as it was a Brown Flycatcher the second however was a dream bird, a Brown Shrike. Shrikes are my favourite bird family and I really did agonise about just going for it this morning especially as Dave Mack was offering a lift. I sadly decided not to go and now I'm feeling bad. I guess I could have gone and been on my way to work now... or maybe not as there's a Yorkshire tick at Spurn in the form of Ortolan Bunting. Plenty of Red-breasted Flycatcher and Yellow-browed Warbler to make a good day of it too.

Oh well, here's hoping for something big or bigger on Shetland next month.

Men against boys...

2008-09-24T09:21:00.000+01:00

This goes out to all Blades. Ha ha ha hah hah ha ha! Something about playing boys against men eh? 6-0 wasn't it... to the boys!

Birthday kisses and pub quizes

2008-09-24T09:15:00.002+01:00

Had yesterday off as it was my birthday. Our plans to go to Lincoln for a session were scuppered by lineside problems in the Newark area momants before I bought a ticket. We quickly shifted our focus to Sheffield. A phone call dragged Mr Reeder out of work for a lunchtime pint and some banter about Shetland and everything. I'm even starting to think about taking up ringing.

Back in Leicester Leigh and I headed off to The Criterion for a few beers, pizza and the pop quiz. When it did finally start we blew away all-comers in two rounds out of three to end up with some beer, 'scary' halloween balloons and some eye-ball lights!

Earlier in the day I had some lovely presents including an FM thingy for my ipod and a World Atlas. Ah music and a map, I'm easily pleased.

Fungi Foray: Charnwood Lodge 21 September 2008

2008-09-22T19:22:00.005+01:00

Cep

Until yesterday the key identification criteria for mushrooms and me were the labels on boxes in the supermarket or on jars of dried Shitake and Ceps. I also used to hunt for other mushrooms but after a particularly bad trip in the early 80s I decided to give up that particular variety.

I had always wanted to know a bit more about fungi and the stuff I was seeing in the fields and woods and so I did a search for a local society. I found the website for the Leicestershire Fungi Study Group and made contact. I met up with group leader Richard Iliffe and a few other and off we went. We were pretty soon into Waxcaps and a short detour brought me my first 'wild' Ceps Boletus edulis. I was pretty happy.

Fly Agaric

Into the woods and a fallen beech was teaming with fungi and nearby were these superb Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria another species I'd long wanted to see and photograph.
All-in-all a great morning out and topped off with a lovely juvenile Red-necked Grebe at Swithland Reservoir. A fly-over male Crossbill was a real bonus and my first in VC55 for a long time.

Bridlington and Bempton: 20 September 2008

2008-09-22T19:17:00.006+01:00

Sooty Shearwater

Juvenile Gannet

Red Admiral

Juvenile Tree Sparrow

Redstart

Skua and Shearwater Cruise... just about!

2008-09-21T08:24:00.005+01:00

Dave and I met up with Alan, Ben and Paul at the quay in Bridlington Harbour yesterday for an RSPB Skua and Shearwater Cruise. It's a while since I've done one of these and it will probably be a while before I do another. In short it was crap. I'm not too worried by the lack of seabirds, we can't expect them all the time that's not how migration or the weather works. No what I'm moaning about is the organisation when it comes down to birders.
These trips are not very good for birders, especially if you want to try your hand at photography. For a start the boat is far from ideal, it's fine for its primary role of taking trippers round the bay but awful for birding. Next up and I guess it's not really Tim Mellings fault as there weren't many birds but christ on a bike, stop banging on about bloody Guillemot and Gannet all the time.
My main gripe though is the chum they were using. Anyone running seabird trips now should really be able to knock up some decent chum. It has moved on a bit since we slung in a bit of rotting fish. The chum needs to float and attract birds as much by smell as anything else. The RSPB aim sems to be to get a few gulls interested so other birds come in to the chum slick. Well there weren't many birds and there wasn't much of a slick. The reason was clear. Mash-up your fish bits get some oil in there and plenty of popcorn to help it float. Don't indiscriminately throw out huge chunks of fish as all they do is sink.
We did finally connect with a few Little Gull, that don't feed on chum anyway. Four Arctic Skua and a Great Skua passed by and never harrased birds in the wake. Only a couple of Sooty Shearwater did anything like what the should. There were though good numbers of Harbour Porpoise in the bay and these certainly kept Tim entertained!

After filling up on fish and chips in Brid we moved on to Bempton Cliffs. A couple of Wheatear and a Whinchat were obvious migrants as was the 'buzzard' Dave called. As soon as Alan and I got on it we knew it was a Honey Buzzard and a superb pale morph as well. Dave alerted the reserve staff and quite a few people enjoyed the moment as it it moved south. Ben then picked up a Great Skua just off the cliffs that was most un-skua like as it thermalled down the coast. The Dell proved quite but there was agood showing of butterflies including plenty of Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell. A very showy Redstart fed arounf the field edges opposite the Dell and I took hundreds of photos of this gorgeous bird. As Rob Fray said, what if Redstart was a rarity?
Four Swift moved south - one with an large amount of white on the throat but they all seemed to be Common Swift. I didn't get any photos that we could study more closely and anyway nothing else about them seemed to spark any interest.

The group now split with Dave and I heading off to Tophill Low. After a short search the male Red-footed Falcon was finally on my Yorkshire List and about time too. Other good birds, to round off what turned out to be a really enjoyable day, were Red-crested Pochard, Black-necked Grebe and the largest number of Ruddy Duck I've seen for years.

Photos to follow tomorrow...

Gutter Snipe?

2008-09-17T09:08:00.007+01:00

It looks like the 'Great' Snipe at Flamborough last Saturday is under a bit of a cloud. Bird Forum certainly seems to be generating some great debate with at least one, not so, Drunkbirder springing to its defence. Anyone wanting to see photos and judge for themselves should look here. More pictures from Birdguides as well, see what you think(Search for Great Snipe).
I remember going for a Great Snipe a few years ago at Fazakerley in Liverpool with a couple of birders including one LGRE. The whole thing stank of stringing right down to the last Little Bunting and later Siberian Thrush at the site. The great LGRE was as ever changing his mind with the wind and we certainly never saw Great Snipe that day with Evans finally admitting he didn't believe the record. Funny how he 'ticked' it later in the winter with plenty of other sheep.
Great Snipe remains one of those birds I really want to see but not at any cost. I hope those that did see it will wait for the BBRC to judge the record before it goes on their lists.

Greed and stupidity

2008-09-15T08:55:00.002+01:00

It seems another 'name' in the world of finance, Lehman Brothers Bank is going down in the US whilst AIG is begging for cash from the US Federal reserve and Merrill Lynch is being taken over by the Bank of America. Now I'm not normally interested in financial and business news in fact I generally hate it but in this globalised world we can't ignore what happens.
Basically, to use a term of phrase made unpopular by Dave, the financial world is coming crashing down due to greed. Regulation, some put in place after the Wall St Crash of 1929 has been torn up and flash bastards have been making millions personally from what is effectively gambling.
Does anyone in their right mind think that this kind of free market economy is good? Oil prices being kept artificially high, with all the knock-on effects of this, by wankers betting on what will happen in the future. For me, a lifetime socialist, this is proof the capitalism does not work and that our leaders are just as greedy and lazy as those twats on Wall St or the London Stock Exchange etc.

When someone does actually come up with a good idea to beat the global economy, namely local pounds (as in money (vouchers) that is traded locally) stupid greedy bastards are selling these pounds on ebay for huge profits.
The case in point is the recently introduced Lewes Pound that is part of the Transitions culture and follows the very successful Totnes pound. It was reported on the BBC News this morning that rather than buy and spending the pound locally they were being banked as keepsakes or worse still selling them on ebay. One is currently going for £21.
What I really can't grasp is the sheer greed and stupidity of people who cannot think beyond making quick money and trying to undermine a brilliant idea of a scheme that is trying to look beyond our reliance on oil and global markets. A real eyeopener for me at the local LRWT trust meeting where Transitions Leicester gave a talk. Due to the current way food is distributed to supermarkets on a 'just in time' way there is only about 9hours food supply should the shit hit the fan. It really is time that we as Britons and in the wider world stopped thinking of only ourselves and started caring. In short stop being so fucking greedy and selfish.

No honey for tea

2008-09-14T20:47:00.005+01:00

Over the weekend a very large number of Honey Buzzard have moved south through England mainly. Yesterday the pager was reporting loads down the East Coast. This morning as I headed home from Sheffield I had a strong feeling we were going to get some in Leicestershire and Rutland. More birds were being seen and more records were coming from inland sites Time to head for the hills and Deans Lane seemed like a good idea.
I was bouyed by pager reports of probable birds at Swithland Reservoir (too good to be true?) and Watermead Country Park. I met Ben Croxtall at Deans Lane and we were shortly joined by Steve Lister. Jim Graham was on the Beacon (Hill) and later Ives Head whilst Carl Baggott was out in the west and Andy Mackay and Matthew Berriman were enjoying a juvenile Little Gull at Rutland Water.
Well we logged plenty of Common Buzzard, one with maybe a hint of Red-tailed Hawk in it; a few Raven, Hobby, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel whilst Carl logged an Osprey south at Brascote Gravel Pits. Allen Pocock had earlier had a Marsh Harrier at Groby Pool. Sadly the Honey's just didn't come. Sods law dicatates as I return to work tomorrow someone will log hundreds of the buggers through Deans Lane and down the Soar Valley

Twat-nav

2008-09-11T17:55:00.005+01:00

I know I've done this before but christ on a fucking bike when will those simpletons too fucking stupid to read a map or remember where they're going ever learn. A quick heads-up for those morons who today included the wank in a suit in a dark grey VW Passat on Blackbird Road and the stupid cow in a silver Vectra a few minutes later on Fosse Road North, Jane might tell you to turn round or take the next right but simple laws of driving dictate you actually look before you do these reckless manouvres, especially when you're in the wrong lane.
When you learn to drive you are always taught: mirror, signal, mirror, manouvre. Your twat-nav on the other hand works by using a GPS satellite to locate your car. It doesn't inform your twat-nav about the whereabouts of other road users. Cunts!

Predictions

2008-09-11T10:26:00.004+01:00

In light of everyone and their Llama predicting what might or will not turn up in autumn I thought I'd join in.
My predictions are:

There will be a big 'scare' on Scilly when some daft twat misidentifies a moulting juvenile Starling as a Brown-headed Cowbird, blimey that's already happened in Cheshire... probably.

There will be a sighting of Mark Reeder sat on rocks near Rob's looking all windswept and interesting.

Andy Lawson will be found raiding our kitchen as he sneaks in from his self-imposed exile in the wank-shed.

I'll get a 'gripagram' from Scilly from the Brown-headed Cowbird or Northern Parula twitch.

After a night out, probably at Helen's when all her drink has been consumed, a group of hungover Drunkbirders will fail to be impressed at Andy Mackay's Blyth's Lanceolated-tips Warbler at the top of Quendale. Though we'll all cough, wheeze and splutter our way up there, with someone being sick on the way, while Andy looks on with sober incredulity.

Finally and most importantly whatever happens we'll all whereever we are actually enjoy the company and have a good time.

As for birds, well I'd love to find that Lancy though I doubt I'll get close. A Siberian anything but Thrush would be equally welcome.

When one vote counts as four...

2008-09-09T12:34:00.004+01:00

For some unknown reason anyone voting in some shitty beautiful baby competition in the Leicester Mockery, on vote now counts as four. This seems to have been the case for some time now. I only ever see the boards outside newsagents by the way.
I have to wonder why this is, surely you'll get the same result if only a single vote counts or is it so they can fix the voting figures. Imagine how popular political parties could pretend to be if they adopted this silly scheme.
Anyway I think there should be a form of single transferable vote in the baby competition as you are after all voting for the one you feel is least ugly. Being truthful here and parents I might upset you now but no-one who is not the parent of a child (or grandparent or mouth-breathing moron) thinks babies are in anyway beautiful. They are in truth fucking pug ugly and a complete annoyance to everyone else. Even when they grow into toddlers, they're not 'special,' 'inquisitive' or 'bright for their age.' No they are a complete pain in the arse especially when they're throwing a fucking paddy on a plane or down the pub.
The ones in pubs are usually bored as pubs are places for drinking alcohol, chatting and generally trying to get away from kids. If you do have to take the fuckers in, at least entertain them not just play the bastarding fruit machines while your kids run riot. Failing that fuck off to a whacky wharehouse as there you won't be disturbing me!

Oh Nuts!

2008-09-08T11:10:00.001+01:00

I really must learn to have my camera with me even at work. Only a few minutes ago I was looking out of the main office window and heard a squeaking call I didn't recognise. The culprits a couple of very smart young Nuthatch feeding on the ground a a metre away from the window. Buggeration!

Photo updates on website

2008-09-07T12:40:00.002+01:00

Quite a few new photos added to the website this morning. Check them out now. You can if you so wish send them as an e-card should that be you bag.

Terned out nice again

2008-09-07T08:13:00.004+01:00

Like most local birders, except Dave Gray who went out while it was pissing down, I stayed in most of the day listening to various tales of woe and joy on the wireless. Scotland sadly going down 1-0 in Macedondia and Wales beating some other lot from Bacu 1-0 at home.
I did venture out as the rain abated at about 17.30 and found a few folk with the same idea. Jez Robson was already at Cropston where four Black Tern were performing around the Reservoir. A good number of Great Crested Grebe with still quite small young were feeding well too. At the three places I visited, Cropston , Groby Pool and Thornton Reservoir I saw good numbers of young. Must have been a good year.
At Cropston there were also a couple of Little Egret, a male Mandarin and a distant Common Sandpiper. As I was leaving a couple turned up who are blog regulars and recognised me from the blog. Thanks for looking and hope you continue to enjoy.
Over at Groby not much other than five Mandarin, 49 Pochard and a few hirundines. At Thornton the hirundine situation dramatically changed. There were upwards of a thousand hirundines hawking over the water. Estimates would be 500+ Sand Martin, 300+ Swallow and 200+ House Martin, plenty of the latter two species were juveniles too.

Back home we settled for a chippy tea and I had a pleasant but not very special Pukka all steak pie. After watching an old Dad's Army, I never noticed as a kid how ill John LeMesurier looked in the probably last series. I followed this by watching the Coast episode on Shetland... looking forward to getting back up there very soon. Thinking of all those pies.

Who'd a thunk it?

2008-09-02T15:48:00.002+01:00

Biggest non-surprise ever is 'King Kev' Keegan has once again left Newcastle United Football Club. BBC story here. I wonder whether this tiresome little man will finally decide to end his attempts to successfully manage a football team?

My new website

2008-09-01T21:48:00.002+01:00

With a huge debt of thanks to Richard Fray for building and hosting my new website and a similar round of thanks to Mark Rossell for helping me get going I now have a website John Hague Wildlife Photography. You can access either by clicking the adjacent link or by clicking the link in the side bar of this blog.
Things are at a very early stage and I will be building on the website all the while so please check in regularly to see what's happening. If nothing does seem to be happening then it's probably because I've done something stupid!

Green with envy

2008-09-01T14:26:00.000+01:00

Just when you haven't got your camera a bloody juvenile Green Woodpecker is feeding right outside my window at work... bugger!