A bright sunny morning made it impossible to resist a pre-work walk around the patch. Typically with nice weather there was little evidence of any migrant movement, though a couple of Curlews passed through. At least five Wheatears were still around posing for the obligatory photo.
A repeat visit after work and a Knot that Andy had found during his lunch was still present. Given how close a couple of dog walkers had been to it I decided to chance my arm with the camera. At times coming almost too close to focus as it constantly fed unconcerned at my feet.
I'm confused. This morning during my now daily round of the patch things were going well. A couple of Shelduck were on the big lake and a nice adult Kittiwake dropped in among the Black-heads. Things were looking good. That is until I found a pipit. I've been scrutinising the pipits and wagtails over the last few weeks hoping for a Rock or perhaps even a Water so it was no surprise when I picked up this bird. My gut feeling was that it was a Rock Pipit of the littoralis race. The light was poor and it was feeding on the small island about 30 metres away but I managed a few digiscoped shots at 800ISO.
However after looking at the pics and video I'm not so sure. The legs look pale, the supercilium strong and behind the eye and the breast isn't particularly strongly streaked, with the salmon pink wash coming through and fairly extensively. The outer tail feathers (visible in the first shot) also appear pure white. In my limited experience of spinoletta Pipits (I've seen more Buff-bellied in the last couple of years -shame!) I'm now leaning towards Water Pipit. However, just to add more pain - to my already pipit induced headache - I found a further two this evening around the edge of the big lake. Again the light was poor but this shot, taken at 1250ISO clearly shows a different bird and one that I am happy to call a littoralis Rock Pipit. Clearly I have lots to learn about this tricky group and comments for and against are most welcome, but please don't waste your time telling me that I'm a twat as I already know that!
Shit picture (digiscoped at 60X) but nice and easy
Illegal fishing at Pit-house West is becoming a major headache and with the days getting longer the problem is set to get worse. The biggest nuisance is groups of youths whose fishing parties often leave the litter strewn all over the site. Added to this is their seemingly compulsive desire to burn everything flammable, including fences and scrub. Visitors, over this winter, can't fail to have seen charred remains of the gorse bank that formerly held a good population of Linnet and Yellowhammer. As the reed bed is an obvious target for bored fishing youths I ask that all incidents of fishing at this site are reported to the Environment Agency. The more complaints they receive the more likely it is that they will take action. As it is unlikely that any of these youths have a Rod Licence and hopefully visits by a water bailiff will reduce these incidents. The Environment Agency can be contacted on 0800 80 70 60 or
follow the link to the right. These problems at this site are not the actions
of responsible anglers however their unauthorised presence does encourage
youths to fish there.
The Reedbed in 2009 following extensive burning of the Bitterns favoured area. The Gorse in the background was destroyed last summer.
Up for the challenge the four of us (Andy,Dave,Nick and me)
arrived at The Hop at six for the evening’s entertainment. There were four
categories, though to be honest most of them seemed to be students - or have I
reached that age where everyone appears younger than me? Our category was a bit under-subscribed; in
fact we had one opposing team!
The games got underway and the overall pace appeared pretty slow
- one contestant taking a full six minutes to eat his pie - it doesn't take me that with a knife and fork! Eventually our turn came, but there was a
problem, the other team couldn’t be found!
Technically we were through to the final. However we still wanted to go through with the
challenge and they hurriedly grabbed four willing volunteers. We felt a little deflated, but to be fair to
this standby team gave us a bloody good game, being half way through their
last pie when Dave sat down to start our fourth. Dave had been less than enthusiastic all week
and I had rather hoped he’d be a dark horse and he didn’t disappoint, racing
through the pie in no time giving us a justified place in the final.
The Team
Meeting Pie Maker Andrew Jones and finding out he occasionally reads
the blog was one of the highlights of the evening
A good start using the upside down eating method
Supporting Andy as he gets through those difficult final bits of pastry
Nick 'Karate Kid' flagging at the halfway mark
Dave coolly licks his fingers as the last piece slips down
Sadly Dave can't make the final and with that in mind the rest of us decided to quit while we were ahead - it just wouldn't be the same. Added to this I suffered post pie indigestion throughout the night, this I must add has no bearing on the quality of Andrew Jones pies. These pies are not your regular manufactured rubbish. These pies are in a class of their own and definitely require savouring like a fine wine. Once the indigestion calms down there's one in the fridge with my name on, though this time I'll use a knife and fork..
A total of seven patch visits over the last three days, with not a great deal to show for my efforts. With almost four seasons in just a few days I had rather hoped that I might sneak an early migrant or two. Two Knot on yesterdays third visit were the highlight, though they didn't stay long with a near constant stream of dog walkers around the waters edge.
Today's awful weather kept the canine wanderers mostly indoors. The days second visit, in heavy rain and a strong north/northeast breeze, produced 13 Ringed Plover (a big local count for March), 3 Dunlin, Curlew and a blinged Oystercatcher parading a fine set of colour-rings (orange left leg, green over yellow + yellow over knee on right leg).
When a colleague jokingly sent me an email advertising a pie eating contest at The Hop he was a little surprised when I had pulled a team together by tea time (or should that be pie time). It has been said that I like the odd pie or three, though usually I like to spend a couple of minutes savouring the delicate pastry and savoury filling before moving on to the next one. The contest has a limited number of entries so I was chuffed to bits when our team (of pies and men) were drawn out for the first round. This is a speed eating relay contest where hands or utensils are not allowed. So like my fellow athletes currently training for 2012 I am undergoing a strict regime of arduous physical torture.
If this hasn't put you off your tea and you want more we'll be in The Hop Unit 14 Westone Plaza Fitzwilliam Street Sheffield from 6pm Thursday 8th.
Over the last couple of days you'd be forgiven for thinking that spring had arrived, even the locals were taking their first dip in the lake this afternoon!
Duck numbers (most noticeably Pochard) have reduced drastically over the last few days, the Oystercatchers are back and Ringed Plovers are almost daily. The gull roost has become rather insignificant over the last couple of nights - though I did finally pull an Iceland Gull out of the bag on Saturday. A combination of poor light, shaking from the cold and crap technique resulted in some truly awful images of this juv/1st winter/2nd calendar year bird - it was a lot easier when we just called them immatures.
It was still there at first light the following morning and dropped in the dark on Sunday evening. A reminder that there's still plenty to go at this winter.
In 1997 I snubbed the Scillies Yellowthroat - simply because earlier in the year I had been to Ontario (Point Pelee etc.) and seen hundreds to the point where I was quite bored of them. When news broke on Thursday of one near Newport, Gwent the feeling that came over me was reminiscent of that of October 1997. However by Saturday night I had come to my senses and stopped being daft.
Sunday morning and 180 or so miles later we were faced with this vision of lemony loveliness - the likes that I had not seen (in Britain) since the Yellow-throated Vireo at Kenidjack in 1990 (I thought I'd throw that in for you smug lot that keep saying I saw the Scillies Yellowthroat in 1997 blah blah blah). Despite being brighter than a fluorescent jacket it kept itself well hidden and crawled around the long grass and brambles in a Radde's Warbler like manner.
Continuing the recent theme of un-prepared camera equipment I reached for the SLR only to discover that the battery was flat (probably due to being left overnight in the car). I managed to revive it enough for a few pics by keeping it in a warm place. I would like to point out to anyone who saw me with my hands down my pants, whilst watching the bird, that I was merely retreaving my battery. Anyhow I managed a dozen or so shots but inevitably they were all crap and the battery ran out - though I did attempt a few more warm ups! Apologies to the media friendly twitcher who shook my hand just after I'd put my battery 'on charge'!
One of the few (very poor) SLR shots
Marginally better digiscoped
Cracking HD video of a dead branch and half a Yellowthroat
An attempt to see the Bonaparte's Gull at Cardiff Bay Water Treatment Works,ended in abject failure when we couldn't find it - the water works that is!
The recent freezing conditions brought an influx of Smew to the bottom half of England, so it was no surprise that once a thaw set in they would start to move. Sure enough, this morning, I stumbled into a stunning male on the smaller of the two Orgreave lakes. Typically I had left the SLR in the boot and worse still the Coolpix' memory card in the laptop. Fortunately the latter does have enough memory to take a handful of shots, so all was not lost.
The euphoria - of finding the Smew - was short-lived when I came across this news item http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-17072533 However, unlike Pit-house West this site was reclaimed with the intention of creating a large industrial development and eventually housing and consequently proper jobs. So unlike the Chinese fantasy shite I am not at all upset by this. I understand that the Rolls Royce site will sit at the northern most edge so, given the size of the site, will hopefully have little affect on the site. The development at Orgreave is a 25 year plan - so I'll be drawing my pension (if there's any money left) by the time the last brick is laid.
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