Spring at last

Selection of birds at Dunwich Heath on Saturday and Willington on Sunday.

Is Spring Extinct?

Well if you want to see hirundines this spring then I guess you need to be inventive.  This one seemed quite settled at the Natural History Museum on Monday.

There is an exhibition on Extinction currently showing - all a bit Jurassic Park and likely to engender those who wont bother to much if we lose the odd species knowing we can re-engineer them at some point in the future.  I wonder where they will put them and what they might feed on?  And what species would you want to bring back?

Be nice if they can grow a few of these though?  CAT F?

Ethiopian Image Montage

Love the funky Ethiopian backing track from Gigi.

Endemic Selection

A few of the endemic species easily seen in Ethiopia.  Species shown, Banded Barbet, Abyssinian Owl, Blue-winged Goose, Rouget's Rail, Black-winged Lovebird, Thick-billed Raven, Ethiopian Siskin, Brown-rumped Seedeater, White-billed Starling, White-collared Pigeon, Wattled Ibis and White-winged Cliff-Chat.

Wolfie

The world's rarest canid and Africa's most endangered carnivore.

Fly Overs

A small selection of my images from Ethiopia - what a superb country for birds!

A Hearty Breakfast

At a local butcher's north of Addis Ababa.  Might need to review the garden feeders to see if I can pick up a few exotics!

Beardies

Great spectacle watching a pair of Lammergeier being mobbed by Fan-tailed Ravens from the Portuguese Bridge Hotel, Debre Libanos north of Addis Ababa.

First Redpolls of the year

The local birds are hungry in the recent freeze and a few feeding Redpolls are more confiding than I'm used to.  Good to see the local Kingfisher still on the river following the Christmas floods.

Monchrome Slav

Harsh lighting but I'm not complaining.

Winter Sun

Podicep Cousins

Better light on Sunday morning before the dog walkers or should I say dog swimmers, had a negative effect at Priory CP.

Waxwing in Kempston

Invasion has begun - bring on some sunshine.

Dip o'the Day - Penduline Tit

My MVCP "dip" list is becoming quite extensive with the latest addition today.  There were two birds seen this morning but I didn't see any and in fact, even struggled to ID the hide I needed to be in. 

I've never really taken a liking to MVCP if I'm honest which is probably linked to why I seem to have dipped more birds their than I've seen and don't go there enough to remember where the hides are!

Another Chapter Concludes

One of the pleasures of living where I do is that my village has hosted Barn owls for as many years as I’ve lived here.

I’ve followed their lives and the trials they have faced, each season never failing to surprise me that they have managed to sustain themselves and invariably, breed.
In the early years that I followed “my” owls, they frequented the NT Dovecote in Willington, everyone knowing that they bred in the roof space.  They attracted many admirers over the years until the NT decided that they wanted to save money and prevent birds entering the building and creating mess.  Sadly the Barn Owls left as their space had been invaded and access restricted.
Birds continued to nest in an old Ash Tree in the south of the village and over many seasons, produced good broods of young Owls.  Five fledged successfully in 2006 from a single brood.
More recently the birds have struggled after the breeding male was killed by a passing car in flight to or from the nest tree and since then a lone female has remained but until this year, has shown no signs of breeding.  The favoured ash tree fell in high winds in 2011 however birds have still survived and this season young have been seen and have remained close to nest and roost sites.
Today I found the adult female with two full-grown and anxious young at the roost site.  Unfortunately she had succumbed in the night and fallen from her perch.  She seems very thin and with the wet weather in recent weeks, perhaps she was unable to find sufficient food?
Another chapter concludes and I will be intrigued to now see how the two remaining young survive without their mother.

Table for One

Barford Road, Willington.  A young female.

Corax

A welcome fly-over Raven this morning at Willington.

Exotic Irridescence

Great light of late - gives rainbow irridescence to these two.