Richard Dunn: Duck

Showing posts with label Duck. Show all posts

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Saturday, May 03, 2014

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

January 29 2012

Due to a request from work, for me to go back, today was my last day of holiday. To make the most of it, I did a replay of Sunday.

I think this Barn Owl had just finished a meal, and hadn't manged to get rid of the veg that came with the meat.

I'd had a Short-eared Owl even closer than the Barn Owl was, but failed miserably when it came to getting pictures.

The Cattle Egret was much easier to see, but still a long way off.

This Peregrine tried hard to catch a Fieldfare, tried but failed. It moved between half a dozen perches and still didn't settle.

As I left the Island, a Long-tailed Duck was again showing beside the causeway.

Apart from three different herds of Whooper Swan, I didn't see anything else of note on the way back.

Back to work tomorrow...

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

January 16 2013

At last a rest day where I wasn’t working, or travelling, or drinking or suffering from the dreaded Norovirus bug!

It seems that, this year, everyone is doing some sort of challenge. So not to be out done and left out, I did my own today. It’s TTCEGNMTOHYFI, that’s the Take The Car Everywhere and Go No More Than One Hundred Yards From It challenge!

It has a very simple scoring system, today’s score was 4

It means nothing, it’s just a random number.

I started this morning nice and early on the causeway at Holy Island, an excellent place for this kind of challenge, as you don’t even have to get out of the car.

The car temperature gauge said it was –6 degrees as I left the house, steadily warming up during the day to +2 degrees. I felt cold only once, during a very nice sunrise…

ice floe’s on the road

From the car…

Bar-tailed Godwit

Grey Plover

Whooper Swan

Herring Gull

Long-tailed Duck

Further down the road on the way back, both Kestrel and Merlin were seen

the Merlin had been as close as the Kestrel was to the road, but my mode of travel spooked it down the hedge a bit

Budle Bay was surprisingly quiet, but Stag Rocks was canny. A Great Northern Diver, 6 Red-throated Diver, 3 Slavonian Grebe, 2 Fulmar, 40ish Common Scoter and 20ish Long-tailed Duck

but just one Purple Sandpiper.

Approaching Seahouses, this beauty stopped me in my tracks…

Short-eared Owl

Eventually I end up at Cresswell, just as some bloke in a bright red coat gets out of his car to try and photograph the Pink-footed Goose flock, which was right next to the road. Needless to say most of the flock moved into the middle of the field, he then flushed the rest when he pulled up behind Ian’s car and got his telescope out to look at the birds; the dipstick was a birder!!!

Fortunately a small group close to my car didn’t flush…