North Norfolk - 7th-10th February

Sarah had brought for me, at Christmas, a photography course with David Tipling and so we all headed up to North Norfolk for the weekend. David is a recent convert from Nikon to Olympus and is now an ambassador for Olympus. The main aim for me was to glean some of his knowledge in using the Olympus set-up for bird photography, particularly in low light. Since switching from Canon to the Olympus OMD MK-1 Mark II, I had been struggling to get the results that I had been achieving with the Canon and so felt that I needed some guidance. David's website can be viewed here, he runs a range of courses and I would throughly recommend booking with him if you are new to Olympus.

We travelled up on 7th arriving in North Norfolk at 15:00, to stretch the legs after a 4.5 hour drive we headed to Titchwell and walked out to the beach. There were large numbers of Brent Goose on the reserve but water levels were high and bird numbers low. On the beach I scanned the sea and picked up Red-necked Grebe, three Slavonian Grebe and a few Common Eider. On the beach were large numbers of Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot and Sanderling. At 16:30 with Sarah cold and Tobias tired it was time to head for the hotel and a much needed beer.

On Friday 8th I met David at 07:30 in dark, windy and fairly wet conditions and we drove to his woodland hide where we spent the first few hours of the day. Despite the poor weather conditions there were good numbers of birds coming into his pool and feeders and over the morning we had good views of many common woodland birds - unfortunately, the Marsh Tit which were so vocal around the hide only dropped down for brief visits. We spent much of our time working through the camera settings and becoming familiar with the menu's and learning to shoot in the low light conditions.

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Eurasian Blackbird

Great Tit

Common Pheasant

Coal Tit

European Robin

We then went onto Cley where the wind was blowing a gale and, at times, the rain was almost horizontal. We spent some time studying the flock of several hundred Brent Goose along the Beach Road. At the beach we walked east along the shingle to see if we could see a Glaucous Gull that had been present feeding on a dead seal but unfortunately the bird was distant and roosting on the marsh. A flock of around 30 Snow Bunting gave some consolation but it was very difficult to photograph them in the high wind.

Brent Geese - Cley-Next-The-Sea

Brent Geese - Cley-Next-The-Sea

Brent Geese - Cley-Next-The-Sea

Snow Bunting - Cley-Next-The-Sea

Snow Bunting - Cley-Next-The-Sea

We had a brief lunch stop at Morston Quay where we were hoping for an obliging Spotted Redshank but instead there was an obliging Common Redshank. We headed in-land scanning the fields and eventually found a covee of 16 Grey Partridge at fairly close range

Common Redshank - Morston Quay

Grey Partridge 

Grey Partridge

We then went onto a small stream where David had been feeding a Water Rail, it wasn't long before the bird appeared at close range but unfortunately the bird did not show for long, presumably due to the high winds. We finished the day at Holme Marshes Reserve hoping for a Bittern or a Barn Owl but saw neither. Despite the windy and occasionally wet day we had seen a few nice species and I had definitely found a new confidence with my Olympus set-up; now time to practice.

Water Rail

Water Rail - I quite like the sharp head and the movement shown in the legs and body in this shot

On Saturday we woke to a sunny day but the wind was even stronger. After a leisurely breakfast I convinced Sarah and Tobias that a short walk along the shingle at Cley to see the Glaucous Gull feeding on a dead seal was a good idea but when we arrived, not only was it nearly impossible to stand, but once again the gull was off on the marsh and was far too distant. I think even Tobias was upset at dipping seeing the gull feed on a dead seal. On the return walk a flock of some 70 Snow Bunting was some conciliation. We then headed inland to the road between Wiveton and Langham where up to four 'Tundra' Bean Goose have been present with c.3,000 Pink-footed Geese since 5th February. We stopped route to watch boxing Hare's which are always enthralling to watch. On arrival at the sugar-beet field where the geese were frequenting, there were a few birders present and I was soon onto a couple of Bean Goose. They were very easy to pick-out of the masses of Pink-footed Goose by way of their bright orange legs.

Pink-footed Goose - Between Wiveton and Langham 

'Tundra' Bean Goose with Pink-footed Goose - Between Wiveton and Langham 

Pink-footed Goose, note the Barnacle Goose at the top of the image, I failed to notice this bird and my images show two birds to be present - Between Wiveton and Langham 

We then headed to Holkham where a flock of c.30 Horned Lark have been wintering, we parked on Lady Anne Drive, which is like a zoo now that the new visitor centre has been constructed. Sarah and Tobias wanted to stay in the car due to the wind so I walked swiftly to Holkham Gap through the crowds and quickly came across a small group of birders watching the Shore Lark. The birds were moderately close, maybe 20m away, feeding in the saltmarsh vegetation. Always great to see these stunning little birds. I watched them for around 15 minutes until the flock took off and flew north much further away from the path, in flight I counted 29 birds, the largest flock I had seen in the UK.

Horned Lark - Holkham Gap

Horned Lark - Holkham Gap

Egyptian Goose - Lady Annes Drive, Holkham

After dropping Sarah back at the hotel for a spa treatment, Tobias and I set-out to look for Barn Owl, he was really keen to see Barn Owl. We drove from Burnham Market and out to the coast road and fairly quickly I spotted a distant Barn Owl hunting the meadows to the north of the coast road at Burnham Overy Mill. The bird headed north-west and we followed it along the main road to Norton Hall Farm where we eventually had great views. Tobias was made up with this and wanted a toy Barn Owl to celebrate so we popped to Titchwell where we obtained said toy and also got good views of a Woodcock in the car park. We spent the last hour of the day driving the fields inland trying to get photos and more looks of Hare but despite seeing many we never found one close enough for decent photos. The highlight was a fantastic flock of around 5,000 Pink-footed Goose that we came across in fields north of Stanhoe, as we parked on the verge next to the fields the flock took flight and passed overhead, an amazing site and sound.

Barn Owl - Norton Hall Farm, Burnham Norton

Barn Owl - Norton Hall Farm, Burnham Norton

Barn Owl - Norton Hall Farm, Burnham Norton

Eurasian Woodcock - Titchwell RSPB Car Park

On Sunday we woke to heavy rain and so afterbreakfast we headed back and were home by 14:30 just in time to watch England thrash France in the Six Nations, a fine end to a highly enjoyable weekend.

Sound Recording - Cowley Woods 1st November

I have spent many years recording and analysing bat calls as part of my work and have often considered experimenting with bird sound recording but have never done so. Having read the recent article on night sound recording in Birdwatch magazine and seeing the various samples posted on the Portland Bird Observatory website I thought I would finally give it a try. Initially I borrowed a Tascam DR05 from work but I quickly found that this recorder was not suitable (despite good reviews) for recording bird sounds. I found that the recordings were low level and that the playback on the recorder was poor, I considered that the ability to playback a recording at reasonable volume was important. After some research I opted for the Olympus LS-14 and although I tested the inbuilt microphones i found that these were not good enough for anything but the closest of birds. So I then tested a Sennheiser video-microphone that I have had for years but I couldnt get this to work. Finally after digging around I found my Sennheiser ME66 microphone which, again, I have had for many years but barely used. This was, and I believe still is, considered to be one of the best directional microphones for recording bird sounds. My research indicated that the Telinga set-up is the ultimate but this is a considerable financial outlay for one just commencing in bird sound recording.

I then investigated software for analysis of recorded bird sound and after some fairly quick research I decided that the Raven software was a good starting point. Having downloaded the free Raven Lite and watching a number of tutorial videos and reading some of the user manual I found this a fairly straightforward piece of software to get to basic grips with. I then opted to download the Raven Pro one year licence for USD100 with a view to extending this licence if my interest took off.

On 1st November I had my first opportunity to test my kit and here are a few recordings from wandering around Cowley village and to Cowley Woods near to Cheltenham. The calls were uploaded to Sound Cloud and the sonograms were generated in Raven Pro.

First I encountered a flock of Long-tailed Tit and recorded their 'zerrr' call. The sonograms generated remind me of horse heads with the higher pitched 'ze' element of the call forming the head and the lower pitched trilling 'rrr' the body of the horse.

 I then recorded this singing Robin. The recording levels are a little high and therefore there is some distortion to this recording but the sonogram shows some of the complexity of the song.

Here is a fairly distant (c.200m) Great-spotted Woodpecker showing its broadband 'pic' call.

I then encountered a flock of around 50 Redwing and in this sonogram the familiar 'seep' calls at around 7kHz and and low inverted 'V' of the 'gack' call at around 2.50 kHz at 0.4 and 2,5 seconds can be seen and heard,

Finally, at sunset this flock of House Sparrow were socialising just before settling down to roost. The sonogram is so busy that its simply fuzz from the shear level of calling by the birds.




So, I think that this is a fair start but initially I notice that there is a lot of noise to my recordings particularly in the lower frequency. I suspect this is simple background noise from the recording device as the frequency of this noise seems to be consistent across all recordings. There is a way to filter this noise in Raven Pro and I began to get to grips with this in the Robin recording, this reduced noise can be seen in the sonogram above which has a reduced fuzz along the bottom of the sonogram. During my investigations to find suitable kit to commence sound recording I found the following websites very useful and I hope they are useful for you if you decide to embark on this rapidly evolving element of birding.

Resources
ABA Blog - How to Record Birdsong Part 1
Audubon - A beginners Guide to Recording Bird Vocalisation's
Ear Birding Blog
How to Visualise Bird Sounds
Macaulay Library - Audio Recording Techniques
Raven Sound Analysis Software
Sound Approach
Understanding Sonograms
Wild Mountain Echoes

Bratley Plain and Eyeworth Pond - 7th February

The first time I visited the Bratley Plain/Kings Garden area of the New Forest was on 2nd January with Trev when we failed to locate a Great Grey Shrike that had been present. So with reports of the bird there again on 6th February I decided to have another crack at the bird today. In a still bitter north-easterly and with much of the water on the heath frozen, I walked the exposed ridgeline southwards from the carpark at Milkham Inclosure to the main path that passes east to west from Bratley Inclosure to Kings Garden and from here I chose a high spot to scan across Bratley Plain and Buckherd Bottom. After some scanning and very few birds I spotted a grey dot in a bush about 500m to the north-west in the Hawthorn bushes flanking Roe Inclosure, through binoculars I couldn't decide whether this was a lump of lichen or some litter but then the wind shifted the branches and I could just about visualise what could be the Great Grey Shrike so I headed back north from my view point and onto the main path back towards Milkham Inclosure and as I walked I periodically stopped and scanned and eventually I was certain I had the shrike. When I was about 200m away I stopped and ran of some photographs and that was it, the bird flew, gained height, hovered over the thorn patch and flew way into the distance before dropping into Buckherd Bottom. I contemplated chasing it but surveyed the terrain and decided against it. I checked the thorn bush where it had been sitting to see if it was a regularly used perch and found numerous droppings beneath  and then noticed a small bird, possibly a Robin impaled on a thorn - this was the first time I had found a shrikes larder in the UK.

Great Grey Shrike perched distantly in a Hawthorn bush

Great Grey Shrike hovering before flying off into the distance

The shrikes larder, I suspect this is a Robin 

View across the heath to Buckherd Bottom, this is an extensive area of heathland. The shrike flew from this position to just beyond the middle ridge visible in the left of the photograph

New Forest Ponies

I decided to head back to the car as the time was pushing on, I cut through Kings Garden and Milkham Inclosure birding as I went, it was fairly quite but with many of the common birds now in territorial song, a sign of an approaching spring. I watched a Great-spotted Woodpecker feeding in a Scot's Pine often clinging to the outer limbs and investigating the needle clusters. A Raven passed overhead and Siskin called from the trees.

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Raven

With a couple of spare minutes I decided to pull into the carpark at Eyeworth Pond to try to get some shots of Marsh Tit, this is a good area for the species as the public put down seed and they allow close approach but other than some fleeting glimpses they were not performing today. The Mandarin Duck showed well, with 11 birds present in the only unfrozen area of water on the pond. I watched the feeders for a while and then had a sudden feeling of being a bit of a dude watching plastic ducks and Blue Tits - it was time to head home.

Mandarin Ducks on ice

Blue Tit on a lichen and moss covered Oak