Feeding Frenzy

On Sunday I took Ellie and Ben out to feed the ducks at our favourite spot in Peebles, at Greenside Bridge.

The mallards, goosanders and black-headed gulls were all out in force!

Feeding the Ducks, Peebles
[January 2013]

One minor thing that may be worth mentioning... The last time we came here I noticed there were exactly four male goosanders and four females. On this occasion, there was one extra female goosander.

Big Garden Birdwatch

Last weekend I participated for the first time in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. This is an annual large-scale survey of garden birds. The idea is that you pick a spare hour to count the birds that appear in your garden.

We only have a small garden, and I had to do this from the living room window while also looking after my five month old son, so I didn't see all that many species. In fact, for the first 25 minutes I saw no birds at all!

It picked up a bit after a male chaffinch arrived, however. So for what it's worth, here are my results:

• 1 woodpigeon
• 1 blackbird
• 3 chaffinches
• 5 house sparrows
• 1 dunnock

Jealousy

So far this year I haven't added any new species to my "life list." So what, you might say. It's only January and it's the middle of winter. Fair point.

My mum, however, has already secured two life ticks this year.

Her first was a brambling. She saw a bird visiting her garden that looked somewhere "between a bullfinch and a chaffinch." A bit of work over the phone with the Collins Bird guide ID'd it as a male brambling in its winter plumage.

Her second sighting was even better - a kingfisher which she saw flying across her local lake.

So yes, I'm jealous. I wonder what will my first life tick of 2013 will be?

Hungry Birds

One of the great things about living in the Tweed Valley is the wildlife attracted by the river and its environs.

Before I came to Peebles, I have never seen a goosander before. Nowadays, I rarely walk by the Tweed without at least seeing a long female floating by or a group diving together under the water, but I'm still delighted every time. However, I've never before been close enough to get a decent picture.

On 26 December, I took Ellie to Greenside Bridge to feed the ducks. To my surprise and delight, in addition to the obligatory mallards and gulls, we also attracted a small group of goosanders - four males and four females. I can only think that the onset of winter and shortage of food has made them more brazen than usual.

The goosanders, in fact all the birds, went for the bread aggressively and chased or fought each other off to get at every morsel.

Best of all, the goosanders were close enough for me finally to get some shots:

Female Goosander
[December 2012]

Male Goosander
[December 2012]

Female and Male Goosander
[December 2012]

The black-headed gulls also came up close enough to get snapped.

Black-Headed Gull
[December 2012]

We managed to get reasonably close to a heron before Ellie got a little bit too interested in it and it flew off under Tweed Bridge!

Grey Heron
[December 2012]

There was also a moorhen but it was much too shy and I stood no chance with my 5x zoom of getting a decent shot.

Before we headed back to the car, I took the opportunity to spot some ash trees, using their winter buds as a guide - I've only just taught myself how to identify ash! There were quite a few ash trees actually and I took this photo which I'm quite pleased with:

Common Ash Winter Buds
[December 2012]

Species of UK

A few weeks ago I started a new project on Twitter.  It's called @speciesofuk, and on it I am tweeting about a different UK plant or animal species every week.

The idea came about as a way of helping me focus on learning about new species and sharing interesting information with others.  This way, I hope to know a bit about 52 species than I do now.

What's been really exciting is the response I've had from other people.  I'm only a month in but the @speciesofuk account already has 50 followers and it's growing all the time.  I've gotten into it so much that I've created an accompanying blog, too, to keep a record of everything.

So far I've covered buzzards, ash, beavers (definitely the most popular one so far), mistletoe, and I'm currently doing oysters!

I'm obviously not particularly (or at all) qualified to inform other people about these species, so it's taking me quite a lot of time each week to research them properly and pick out stuff which is from reputable sources.  I don't know if I'll be able to keep the time commitment up long term, but it's a lot of fun at the moment and I'm learning a lot so I'll just have to see how it goes.

Highlights of 2012

All I did new in 2012 was pay more attention to the things that were already around me.  Everything I've seen and learnt has been a highlight in some way because everything has felt new.

Here are a few of the things I've enjoyed the most:

• Seeing swallows, house martins and sand martins doing an aerial dance together over the Tweed.
• Watching a deer casually wander past the window of the office.
• Being amazed at the bright colours of a bullfinch and a goldfinch.
• Learning the difference between winter buds on trees - the claws of the ash and the pipes of the beech.
• Seeing a blue-variant pheasant strolling across the field and being convinced it must be a new species.
• Trying to catch enough of a glimpse of the little furry creature running across the road to work out if it's a weasel or a stoat (I couldnt').
• Hearing the song of a willow warbler for the first time.

Amidst all of this, there have been two wildlife encounters that really stood out for me, and the thought of which still give me a guaranteed shiver up the spine.

The first was early in the year driving to work, when I saw a vixen and her two cubs trotting across a field.  As I stopped the car to watch, the foxes paused by a bush and the two cubs started playing with each other, jumping and rolling around.  I stared and stared.

The second special moment was seeing two tawny owls fighting just outside my house.  It lasted for only about ten seconds and it was too dark to see them clearly, but the raucous screeching calls they made and excited fitful flight were just unreal.  I wasn't sure at first what type of owls they were but was able to ID them to almost certainty thanks to a wildlife forum post.

So that was my 2012.  I can't wait to see what I discover in 2013!