A Fruitless Search for Waxwings!

I paid a brief visit to the Business Park this morning but there was not a sign of any waxwings - its really like looking for a needle in a haystack. Not even a consolation prize in the form of a fieldfare or redwing. The highlight of the trip was a trio of pied wagtails and there was a motley assortment of crows, wood pigeons and magpies. Even the ornamental lake was devoid of life - no sign of the 3 moorhens I saw the other day. Oh, well not to worry, it looks as though we are going to have a "waxwing winter" so plenty of time for more to enter the county.

There are zillions of berries and I am looking forward to further visits to see the species they will attract especially when the weather gets colder.

Missed Garden Tick

I came downstairs early this morning for a cup of tea and as I glanced up the garden I noticed an unusual bird in the border under the whitebeam. My first reaction was "what the heck is a snipe doing in my garden"! OMG its a snipe I thought! and turned to grab the bins. Well, of course in the time it took to walk a couple of paces and put the bins to my eyes the bird had disappeared. I dashed upstairs and got dressed as quickly as possible and tiptoed out into the garden. There was still no sign of the bird by the whitebeam or pond so I walked slowly up the garden and as I turned the corner of the path just behind the pond I spotted the bird at the same time as it saw me. Within that split second it had risen vertically and disappeared over the fence. The only identification features I had time to register were a cream stripe on the face and a brown and black streaky back.

As luck would have it I had promised to take my son to work and it was time to leave so I had to endure an hour return journey before I could look for the bird again. Despite continuously looking out of the windows all day and countless walks around the garden the bird hasn't returned - not that I really expected it to. Was it a snipe, jack snipe or woodcock grounded on passage migration? - unfortunately it doesn't look now as though I will ever know and I am hopping mad that I have missed what would have been a brilliant garden "first"!

I've watched countless snipe over the years, the odd jack snipe and a few woodcock but its very difficult when you see a bird in the garden (i.e. out of its usual habitat) and for just a few seconds (and when you are half asleep!) to gather the essential id features for a positive id - well it is for me any way. No doubt Bill Oddie would have known!

Garden Moths

After expecting an empty trap after putting out the moth trap Saturday evening I was really pleased to find 3 moths of two different species.

Feathered Thorn - this is a male and this photo shows the feathered antennae of the male really well.





I am pretty sure these two moths are the same species - Yellow-line Quaker - hope I have got the id right this time.





(All the photos have been quite heavily cropped)

Summary of Moths Caught - Saturday, 30th October

Actinic 15w Skinner Trap

6.00 p.m. until dawn

Minimum Temperature 8.7 degrees centigrade

1 x Feathered Thorn
2 x Yellow-line Quaker


I'll probably carry on trapping for a while as I'm still catching some moths.

Looking for waxwings

I went a quick drive out to the Business Park I mentioned last week - there are loads and loads of berries even more than usual. No sign of any waxwings or thrushes feeding on them but I will try and visit once a week to keep an eye on any feeding activity. I know waxwings have been seen at this site several years ago and last winter I saw a lot of fieldfares and redwings feasting on the berries.

Edit (at 20.45) - Have just visited a couple of local Warwickshire "sightings" blogs and, believe it or not, 21 waxwings were spotted today in the vicinity of "my" Business Park" - I will be returning there tomorrow!

Autumn at the Gardens

I went along to Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens for my October visit this afternoon but we only had time to walk around the formal walled garden today. Lots of autumn colour in the leaves and there are still a few flowers about.

I saw a few more birds there today - blackbird, magpie, wood pigeon, robin, blue tit, sparrowhawk and fleeting glimpses of a flock of redwings.

The light was poor today but here are some of the photos I took.
























This pretty plant is Salvia horminium. Its been in "flower" at the Gardens for months now and I really must plant some of this annual in our garden next year.












St Mary and St Margaret's Church





I visited part of the gardens today (near to the hall) where I haven't been before. You can only gain entry to this part if you go on a guided tour so a kind volunteer gave us a tour just of this part of the Gardens.

Parterre in the North Garden with Castle Bromwich Hall in the background



Ornamental Gate (restored by the Trust) once used by residents of the Hall to reach the Church






I've put my moth trap out tonight but things are not looking promising - I checked a few minutes ago and there were no moths in the trap (again) and its also started to rain. I suspect it won't take long to empty in the morning!

An empty moth trap

I put my skinner moth trap out last Thursday evening and it didn't take long to empty the following morning as there were no moths at all! The temperature ranged from 9.7 - 5.8 degrees centigrade so there hadn't been frost and it wasn't that cold. I'll carry on trapping for another couple of weeks and then put the trap away for the winter.

Garden Update

Nearly all the pyracantha and whitebeam berries have now been eaten by wood pigeons and blackbirds. Last week's submission to the BTO Garden Birdwatch:
2 x Carrion Crow
2 x Blackbird
2 x Goldfinch
3 x Feral Pigeon
2 x Dunnock
6 x House Sparrow
2 x Great Spotted Woodpecker
1 x Robin
1 x Wood Pigeon
1 x Coal Tit
1 x Great Tit
1 x Long-tailed Tit
3 x Blue Tit
1 x Wren
1 x Sparrowhawk
1 x Greenfinch
1 x Magpie

is fairly typical of birds visiting the garden at the moment. It would be nice to see something different even a collared dove (where have they disappeared to?) or thrush. No signs of any butterflies - the last sighting was a small white on 21st September! Where are those red admirals that usually visit the michaelmas daisies at this time of the year?

Waxwings

Great news - the waxwings have returned - I know of 2 separate sightings in Warwickshire over the last couple of days. I shall be checking out every berry bearing bush from now on and will be visiting a nearby business park quite regularly which has loads of trees and shrubs with berries in the hope of finding my very own waxwings.

A few photos to finish with. I want to check I have solved the text and image problem I have been having. I haven't got any recent photos of the garden so I have picked these as a reminder of summer. They were actually taken by my son on the Fuji Finepix and I am very jealous as they are a darn sight better than the butterfly photos I took this year with my new olympus! They are uncropped as well!

Common Blue at Hidcote



Painted Lady at Baddesley Clinton



Meadow Brown



Gatekeeper

Castlerigg Stone Circle and Watendlath

Day 4 Wednesday, 20th October

Our last day in the Lake District and the weather was beautiful - cold and frosty with clear blue skies and sunshine.

We drove northwards towards Keswick to visit Castlerigg Stone Circle. The circle was built around 3200 BC in Neolithic times and was used for ceremonies. Today it consists of 38 stones of different sizes and shapes, some of which are now lying on the ground. It is believed that originally there may have been 41 stones. It was very atmospheric there with superb views and ravens "kronking" overhead.

Near Keswick we saw our one and only red squirrel of the trip which sadly was lying dead in the road. 15 - 30 years ago we regularly had red squirrel sightings on every holiday but in more recent years we have only seen one every 3 or 4 visits.

Before driving home we made a brief visit to Watendlath.

Not sure how the layout of this posting will work out but I am keeping my fingers crossed I won't have problems with text appearing at the side of the images instead of above or below!!!

Photos taken from the ferry crossing Windermere (first 2 taken by my son)










The next few photos were taken from a moving car as we travelled from Grasmere to Keswick. They are not very good but I was surprised that they came out at all although I did set a high speed on the camera. The lake in a few of the pictures is Thirlmere.













Castlerigg Stone Circle - first photo taken by my son













Traditional packhorse bridge at Watendlath (the lake in the distance in the middle photo is Derwentwater)

Loughrigg Fell, Brathay (again) and Hawkshead

Day 3 - Tuesday, 19th October

The weather was better today - it was cold but there were far more sunny intervals and just a few heavy rain showers (both of which occurred when we were walking along a fell with nowhere to shelter!).

I'm still not sure what happened to cause the strange layout of yesterday's blog posting but I will try and type less between photos today in the hope that the problem won't recur!

We drove to Ambleside this morning and parked by the River Rothay and walked up the fellside of Miller Brow/Loughrigg Brow and along Loughrigg Fell which reaching a height of around 1000 feet is one of the lower fells.

The photos below show a view at the beginning of the walk, a bridge over the River Rothay and then various views as we made the ascent and then as we walked along Loughrigg Fell. In the last but one photo you can see in the distance the fast approaching rain which arrived about 10 minutes later and in the last picture (if you click on it to enlarge) you might just be able to make out a rainbow in the centre.

There was a lot of RAF jet activity in the area today and you could hear them screeching along Windermere only to suddenly appear at a terrifyingly low height as they shot over the fellside.

































We stopped off at Brathay so I could take some more photos in the vastly improved weather. Saw another dipper here - in fact a few years back a pair were nesting under Brathay Bridge and we watched them taking food into the nest.













We stopped off at Hawkshead on the way back to the Hotel. Hawkshead is a really picturesque village with whitewashed houses, archways, cobbled streets and courtyards. You can visit the Grammar School that William Wordsworth attended and there is a gallery exhibiting original Beatrix Potter illustrations from the books. I'm a bit miffed that I didn't get time to visit the church as it holds a sixteenth century altar tomb and illustrated psalms and quotations painted on the walls in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.











EEK!!! - oh no, I have just checked the preview and the same problem has occurred with text appearing at the side of the photos instead of above or below. I haven't a clue what I am doing wrong as I am still using the "old editor" and, as far as I know, I haven't changed any settings.