Autumn Colours and Landscape

Back at work after my two weeks off, so I am going through recent images and working on a few.
After the long trek to Cornwall on Friday, I spent the next couple of days recuperating.
 I carried on working in the garden ,but rather less strenuous than of late. This meant getting the last of the autumn planting in-a nice Hydrangea aspera which has replaced a rather large but tatty and not very manageable purple leaved Elder. I had misgivings about taking the Elder out, as the birds like it, but it is a martyr to greenfly, and because it is by the steps to the gate, the honeydew is a problem, and the unruly leggy growth gets in the way. The hydrangea seems to be a very good late summer bee plant and the cover provided should be useful. Ive also put in a climbing rose beside it, to grow over the shed and up the Rowan-not sure what it is as Sarah found it growing wild by the river Lee some years ago. Its rather larger than anticipated and had to move it from the path side fence as it was getting in the way. Other than that, its been a gradual preparation for the colder weather, which from the forecast is likely to be next weekend. Not looking forward to it with the huge quantity of tender and half hardy plants I have to deal with.
In the meantime it has still been warm and sunny during the daytime. I had Skylarks going over the garden every day, and also had a couple of Fieldfares and Redwings as well, so despite the fairly still conditions, birds are moving.
On Sunday I had a stroll round Aston End with the intention of getting some scenic photos. Luckily I left fairly early and there was still a bit of mist in the air which produced one or two worthwhile images.

By the time I hit Aston End, it had cleared though remained damp underfoot and the dew remained in places all morning. The dogwoods, maples and viburnums were colouring up nicely and it seems to be a good berry year as well, though a lot of the spindles are a rather pale pink rather than the more appealing red.

 

The fields are largely planted now-brassicas are popular this year. There are a lot more Meadow Pipits and Skylarks than last month, but I had a hard time finding much else. Two Chiffchaffs and a few Yellowhammer, Chaffinch and Greenfinch seemed to be the best that I could manage. A couple of gull flocks went through, one consisting of about a dozen Lesser Black Backs went north, and a small flock of Black Headed and Common Gulls were wheeling around over the ford before drifting west. Best birds were probably the 22 Fieldfares along the river near Lords Farm. Could be the first of the usual wintering birds, but they might just be passing through.

I tried to  get a few scenic shots while in Cornwall, but the lighting wasn't great. This shot of the tin mine at Ballowal Down worked best as a B&W image with some grain and contrast, a bit reminiscent of the old Tri X film. Might need to tinker with it a bit more.

Gray Catbird

Since the trip to Norfolk, most of my two weeks off has been rather quiet. What didn't really help, was a bad day last Friday followed by a couple of days of very high winds and heavy rain. This apparently didn't bring in the birds, but is caused some problems in the garden.
A lot of the plants have got rather battered, though there was no long term damage. However the plastic greenhouse that I have had on the patio for a couple of years was found on Monday to be leaning at a bad angle, and a couple of the shelves had dropped down, though thankfully nothing was damaged. I temporarily tied it all together, got it straightened but it was clear it wouldn't last much longer-the plastic cover was in pretty poor condition with a broken zip and large holes where the plastic had suffered from the sunlight. I was thinking about getting a new cover,  but had a look on line for lean too greenhouses. Even the smallest aluminium ones seemed to be too large, but `I found a wooden self assembly model that looked ok, and arranged delivery for Wednesday.
Big problem turned up on Tuesday, in the form of a Grey Catbird in Cornwall. The first UK record (apart from one each on the Channel Islands and Eire) was on Anglesey in 2001. Weather conditions as I remember weer appalling and not everyone saw it. It was according to some (but vociferously denied by others) seen by a few next day, and became rather controversial as a result. I never went-the weather put me off, but I remember seeing Lee Evans a couple of days later at Prawle while twitching a Bobolink and had a chat about it.
Anyway I wasn't expecting it to stay. A few friends went down on the Wednesday while I started to assemble my new Greenhouse. This took much longer than expected and its was clear that I would still be working on it the next day so I called Colin. Unfortunately he was going to be busy on Friday so it looked like it would be a Saturday trip-and it was doubtful if the Catbird would still be around. However Colin called on Thursday and said he had rearranged work, so Friday was possible. It was tense as there had been no sighting since lunchtime bit when it was seen to go into roost that evening we made arrangements.
Seven hours later, at 2am we were on the road, and made good time, arriving at the parking field at Treeve Moor half a mile from Lands End at 745 am. There was a small crowd in the field, but no sign of the Catbird, though I heard it call a couple of times. The other side of the house had a larger crowd and not long after we set up seemed to be interested in something so most of us went round to join them. A quick peek through someone's scope revealed a dim Catbird in the hedge (ironically not far from where we were originally) and over the next hour it put in several appearances as the light improved. My best views were in a bramble by the pond, not more than 30 yards away. Good job I had the 500mm lens with a 2x converter as I got pretty good close ups, thought he light levels weren't ideal.

There were a lot of thrushes around. Mainly Blackbirds, with several Song Thrushes and a couple of Redwings over. Ring Ouzels were being reported all around the coast though and one was later seen here. Also one or two Richards Pipits seemed to be lingering in the area, but the only other good birds I saw were two Chough over the hill east of us. Though calling loudly only a couple of us noticed them. These were the first i'd seen in England-all previous birds had bee on Anglesey and it has been a long time since were were last there.
Had a chat with Mike Illet in the car park while trying to decide where to go next. Colin and I decided on Ballowal Barrows near Cape Cornwall where three Vagrant emperors and several red Veined Daters had been seen previously. While the landscape was very nice-superb coastlines, old tin mine chimneys and the barrows we couldn't find any dragonflies in the cool breezy conditions-a few were seen later in the day some way away from where we were.
Mike had gone to Drift reservoir and reported the three Ring Necked Ducks so we went there as well. Unfortunately a car load was packing up saying they were no longer there so they started to drive off. Meanwhile the couple scoping the water called me over to question the three ducks he was looking at-Ring Necks! Despite waving them back the car load ignored us and drove off. The duck were a long way off, but clearly female/juvenile birds. A scan of the gulls and ducks failed to find anything else of interest.
We were now approaching noon and made the decision to return home. It would have been good to search one of the valleys or  head to Porthgwarra-a lot of very hard work in every case with maybe nothing to show, and had we been down for a couple of days we would have tried Cot or Nanqidno. On the way back Colin indulged me and we stopped off at Hardy Exotics Nursery outside Penzance. Bit like a kid in a sweetshop unfortunately. However I was very restrained and kept my purchases to a couple of foliage Begonias (including a replacement for one I had lost in spring) and ignored a lot of very tempting plants.
The journey home was pretty good. There were the usual slow sections on the M4, needing diversions and also around the St Albans stretch of the M25, but the slowest bit by far was the last three miles as Stevenage was well and truly stuffed and my bit seemed to bear the brunt of the traffic problems.

October Holiday Starts with a Barred warbler

I have started my annual October fortnight off. While there is still a lot of garden work to be done e.g. I painted the shed yesterday and took some stuff down to the tip (not the most thrilling holiday hi light) it means I can keep an eye on garden wildlife. Had a Comma and a Small Tortoiseshell today, plus a few bees and there has been a few Skylarks going over.
On Sunday I went to Norfolk with Colin. The cold and rather wet northerly winds on Saturday promised a bit of interest, considering the rather poor east coast autumn so far. The reports in the evening suggested a few were Yellow Browed Warblers scattered along the coast so it seemed worthwhile to go up and try and get a few things.
The generally clear skies and warm sunshine wasn't ideal when we reached the coast, but the northerly breeze was still continuing. There didn't seem to be a great deal along the lanes between Ringstead and Chosely apart from hoards of Red Legged Partridge and a couple of Pink Footed Geese going over and the barns at Chosely didn't seem to have much either so we continued on to Titchwell, which proved to be rather busy.
As the tide was dropping we headed to the sea, with only the occasional halt. A male Wheatear on Thornham Pool was nice as was a flyover Rock Pipit. The Fresh Marsh was full of duck-mainly Wigeon, Teal, Mallard and Gadwall with some Shovellers, Pintail and Tufted. There were lots of Ruff on the muddy patches, with Golden Plover, Lapwing, Godwits and Knot, but only as couple of Avocet. The muddy channels of the now tidal brackish marsh and a few Curlew, Grey Plovers and Redshanks, but most of the waders were on the shore, feeding among the remains of the forest. There were lots of bearded Tits pinging away in the reeds, but a scan of the muddy edges for rails cakes and Jack Snipe didn't deliver.
Offshore there was a constant movement of gulls westwards, including Kittiwake and Little Gulls, and Brent Geese and Wigeon were also heading west. Several Common Scoter flocks were movie around, and a couple of Gannets flew east, but there was little else of note unfortunately. Other had reported Skuas and a Red Necked Grebe and elsewhere a few Manx Shearwater and Leaches Petrels were seen.
Back at the car park we spent a while going through the tit flocks hoping to pick up the Yellow Browed Warbler with them, but with no success.
In the afternoon we spent a couple of hours at Burnham Overy Dunes. Half way up, by the sluice a small crowd had gathered. I noticed a large pale warbler pop out of a small hawthorn and realised they had been looking at a Barred Warbler. The interesting thing is we had hoped to see one here, but it was supposed to be on the boardwalk. Turned out there were two here, and several more on Blakeny and elsewhere.
I managed to get a couple of not very good images-a camera problem meant I had two clean the sd card contacts before I could take photos so missed the best views.

 
This was our first Barred Warbler since one at Kelling around 2004.
We were told that there were a few Yellow Brows in the west end of Wells Woods and a possible blythi Lesser Whitethroat in the dunes which I was most interested in seeing. I think I found the right patch of scrub but the only birds around were Dunnocks and Stonechats. We didn't get as far as the wood, but I did spend some time scanning the sallows along the north side of Holkham Marsh but didn't find any birds-I suspect that any that had dropped in overnight had moved on.
One annoying thing is I did see a brownish bird fly out of the reeds and along a ditch while we were walking up to the boardwalk. Could have been a Reed Bunting but it looked like a warbler in the brief glimpse I had. Blakeny had a Blythes Reed Warbler that day.