In Praise of the Coot

It rained again last night, unusual for the rain to be convenient in this country.

So after a rather nice Roast Beef (ta Dad!!) I headed to Rye Meads, there was a Red Legged Partridge on the approach road.

There are more wildflowers and insects about so I think the macro lens will be getting a workout!

Birdwise everthing is back. Although the Tern numbers are low and they aren't on the rafts yet - loads og Black Headed Gulls. I saw one Little Ringed Plover, but I'm told there are two about.

I got a nice view of a Cetti's Warbler which was good to see.

Given it was breezy I and the birdlife was not playing ball I wondered if I'd get any photos but sitting DIRECTLY in front of Gadwall hide.


And there are eggs!





Of course some Coots young are already about! And some are much older than these.



The coot is an underrated bird I think.

There were some Canada Geese on the river - about 8 adults and I think more than one family.





Nothing exciting but a nice walk. Oh saw a Buzzard on the way home - these have really become common over here!

oh and next weekend I can promise you will definitely not see the Forest or Rye Meads!!

One good Tern deserves another!

I awoke early to find something immensely odd... RAIN!!! I can't remember the last time we had rain. We definitely need it but couldn't it have come yesterday? or Monday? Oh well.

I turned on the MP3 and lazed about (Faure and Franck if anyone is interested and very nice it was).

EVENTUALLY I dragged myself out of bed. I went to the Forest as I was curious if there would be Terns about FINGERS CROSSED!!





I soon found that there were still Grebe Chicks. There was this one with two and another with one. Looks like the little one may not have made it....



I then saw a solitary Tern on the Tern raft rail. I sighed as I had seen none flying and then heard the call of another!!! It circled and sat next to the other they both stretched necks to the sky and the new one dropped on to the raft!!!





I continued on my walk

There are now 3 families of Greylag chicks, there are coot chicks and a family of mallards.




As I was sitting bunching my brunch it started to rain!! but I was more amazed to see 4 Terns up!! Seems we may have some competition!!







There are still Sedge and Reed Warblers in the marsh.

As I was by the marsh it rained heavily so I wandered back and headed home and it stopped soon after!!

Still a pleasing short bit of birding!

Farmville in the real world?

The National Trust is to offer 10,000 farm followers a chance to "farm" on the Wimpole Estate in its MyFarm project.

The followers will be charged a £30 annual fee and will be expected to make key decisions on which crops to plant, which animals to buy and whether to put in measures such as new hedgerows to help wildlife.

They will be asked to make 12 major monthly decisions during the course of the year as well as other choices.

There will be strict parameters on what the options can be based on. These will include climate, legislation, the requirements of the environmental stewardship scheme and the heritage protection scheme.

Richard Morris (Wimpole Home Farm's farm manager) said:

MyFarm is Farmville for real. Real farming decisions with real farming consequences.

By influencing the work at Wimpole, our farmers will start to understand the effects and implications of their own decisions.

The National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall said:

The National Trust's MyFarm project is an opportunity for a wider audience to see some of the competing priorities that 21st Century farmers have to manage.

Still local

Well the sun has shone for four consecutive days! I perhaps should have gone further astray but the charms of my bed.....

I did head to Fisher's Green, the feeders were quiet but it was a pleasant walk.








I got to see a few Damselflies, there were lots of Terns about. There were a few Nightingales about, they are flipping loud and normally you never seen them! I looked into a bush and knock me down with a feather there he was!!! They have an amazing rufous tail!

I headed off to Rye Meads. Kestrels in the nest box!




There were two terns but not near the rafts.




I got to see my first Hairy Hawker Dragonfly.

And we'll finish with a couple of Damsels.




I'll do something different next weekend! I decided this weekend not to travel so far!

Grebe update

I went over the Forest first thing. It was looking rather lovely I thought.




Loads of Whitethroats about.



Sadly there were no Terns about (although one was seen yesterday). Still I was chuffed to see that the Grebe chicks were still there.

One chick



Two chicks


Ah all three


I was chuffed to find that the other Grebe had moved off its nest and there was a stripey headed baby aboard!!

There were still 6 Grebes and they were doing well with the fish.








There were some coot youngsters on the decoy lake and the swallows have a nest.




This chap looks SO happy.


The greylag chicks arer still about



And the Sedge and Reed warblers were still in the reedbeds.

BUT BUT BUT

there are signs up saying dogs on leads in the lake area and at least two different numpties were letting their dogs run riot and one was even throwing a ball in near where I had been photographing the chicks earlier!!! GROWL!! I ASK YOU.

So off to Rye Meads. There was a Kestrel in the nest box.

The Bird of the Day was a Common Sandpiper and there were a couple of Common Tern's but none on the rats.




Lots of youngster about here and there were quite a few pochards and tufted ducks about. There were some Swifts over.



There were lots of Sedge Warblers and at least this one posed!