Blue House Farm Bird Reserve, North Fambridge Thursday is our new day off, so we took ourselves out of London on the Eastern Railway line towards Southend and then on the little single track branch line from Wickham to North Fambridge1  .

North Fambridge is a lovely quiet place with big skies, salt marsh estuary, boatyards, a good old pub and loads of wildlife. The flooded fields, dykes and river provide such special habitats for all kinds of birds that the main farm in the area, Blue House Farm, is now managed as an SSSI2 nature reserve by the Essex Wildlife Trust.   The large flocks of thousands of geese still haven’t arrived from Siberia and Eastern Europe yet, the weather over there isn’t quite cold enough all along the path but Brent geese were chomping away on the sward and flying alongside the sea wall in several flocks of fifty or more, which is a cheery sight on a mild and bright, relatively wind free morning towards the end of November. Other types of geese included Greylags and Canadas, about 25 Barnacle geese, and a small group of six White Fronted geese. Will Marsh Harrier take a Wigeon? Back home at Wanstead Flats we are always pleased to catch a rare glimpse of a pair of Teal on the Alexandra Lake, but from the furthermost hide at Blue House Farm we watched a group of about 150 teal being frightened up into the air by a pair of Marsh Harriers hunting along the reed beds. These colourful small ducks can fly really well, twisting and turning almost like a murmuration of starlings. Then one of the Marsh Harriers started to make a move towards a solitary wigeon we’d been watching sitting on the river. The Marsh Harrier approached like an Osprey towards a fish near the surface, talons outstretched to within a couple of feet above the hapless wigeon, who wasn’t in the least bit bothered by the very real threat of impending carvery, the Harrier hovered for a second, eyeing up the prospect, then seemed to think better of it and withdrew. The wigeon still didn’t move towards cover though, and the Harrier came back for a second approach, but again decided that it dan’t want to attack a whole duck right at the moment and headed off back to the reed beds where it was presumably hunting for small songbirds or mammals.

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Wanstead Birds Egyptian Geese

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Wanstead Birds Egyptian Geese

Red Breasted Goose, a photo by AndyRob on Flickr.This Red Breasted Goose appeared on Alexandra Lake in Wanstead Flats today, having a rest on its way home to Siberia.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogRed Breasted GooseRelated posts:Bar Head Goose at Wanstead FlatsWhat Easter Is All AboutWalk in the woods

I like duck eggs myself, but not necessarily from Waitrose.

This article titled “Turkey eggs make UK supermarket debut” was written by Rebecca Smithers, for The Guardian on Sunday 10th April 2011 14.14 UTC They are one of the best-kept secrets of the baking world, but shoppers have never before been able to buy them on the UK high street. Next week, however, turkey eggs will go on sale in supermarkets for the first time in response to demand from consumers keen to cook with a growing range of speciality eggs. Retailers report healthy year-on-year sales of duck, goose, quail and even ostrich eggs as a more interesting and distinctive-tasting alternative to traditional hens’ eggs. Turkey eggs – which will make their debut in Waitrose – have never been sold by retailers because turkeys lay fewer eggs than hens and most of them are used for breeding the Christmas birds. The chef Jamie Oliver has used turkey eggs in his test kitchens. They are about one and a half times the size of large hens’ eggs and are strongly recommended for baking, giving cakes a light and fluffy texture. They are also suitable for soft boiling, scrambling and poaching. The Waitrose eggs buyer, Frances Westerman, said the supermarket had decided to stock the eggs in response to customer demand “Turkey eggs are the most asked-for speciality eggs amongst our customers,” she said. “They have excellent cooking qualities and, because they are they’re bigger than hens’ eggs, you need two instead of three to make a really light sponge cake.” The eggs will be on sale in selected Waitrose stores until late August, when the laying season ends, and will cost £1.99 for a pack of two. Later this month, the chain will also stock rhea eggs – 10 times the size of medium hens’ eggs, which take roughly 90 minutes to hard boil – costing £25 each. Selfridges sells the full range of eggs supplied by the Cornwall-based speciality breeders Clarence Court – goose, ostrich, hens, guinea fowl, quail and duck – endorsed by chefs and restaurateurs such as Mark Hix, who is keen to show the potential of eggs beyond boiling and scrambling. The store will be stocking gulls’ eggs when they come into season later this month, and says its food halls attract a high number of customers looking for speciality goods. The Selfridges chilled goods buyer, Elizabeth Hastrip said: “We’re also seeing a big spike for quail’s eggs at present – up 20% on this time last year. Goose eggs have only just come into store, but they’re performing about 20% above expectation at the moment.” Of other supermarkets, Sainsbury’s stocks duck and quail eggs and reports a year-on-year rise in sales of 10.9% and 1% respectively. Overall, sales of eggs in the UK grew by 2.6% last year, according to TNS Superpanel data, but Britons still lagged behind many other countries in egg consumption.

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Thousands log on worldwide to the Osprey webcam to watch the oldest breeding osprey keep vigil beside a Scottish loch.

This article titled “Osprey webcam thrills bird lovers as Lady of the Loch awaits mate” was written by Tracy McVeigh, for The Observer on Saturday 2nd April 2011 23.14 UTC Inside a wooden hide at the edge of a Perthshire loch, there is a flurry of excitement and a crackling of waterproof clothing. Binoculars are raised and whispered instructions exchanged. But hopes quickly fade as the alarm proves a false one. The bird that has swooped into sight is not the one they’d been waiting for. “She is taking a defensive stand; it’s not Him,” said seasonal ranger Anna Cheshier. “Look, she’s seeing him off. It’s just an interloper trying his luck.” There is a palpable feeling of disappointment in the hide, where half a dozen people sit glued to the goings-on on a platform of sticks less than 200 yards away, 60 feet up a Scots pine tree. Inside the nearby visitor centre, many more are watching the action in real time on two large HD television screens. More than 100,000 people have already viewed the webcam. The object of all the attention is Lady, the osprey, who stands in her giant nest and looks out to the blue skies. Having confounded the experts by not only living to the age of 26, against the eight years’ lifespan the bird was thought to have, but also by producing 48 fledglings, she is now waiting for Him – a 10-year-old male with whom she mated last year. He is due to land any day after a 3,000-mile migration back from west Africa. Ospreys mate for life so, if he has survived, he should be on his way. But if he doesn’t get here within the next few days, Lady is likely to presume him dead and move on to another male. In her lifetime, she has already outlived two mates. “The interest is huge,” said Cheshier, 25, from the Scottish Wildlife Trust‘s Loch of the Lowes nature reservation outside Dunkeld, an hour’s drive north of Edinburgh. “Lady is a star attraction and also very important. She has been coming back to her nest here for 19 years, but last year she was very ill and we all thought she was going to die, so no one imagined she’d be back this year.” Lady survived her near-death illness and arrived back from her African winter late last Monday night. She is not chipped or ringed, so it wasn’t until later, when the cameras got a look in her eyes, that the rangers were sure the remarkable raptor had returned. “She has a unique defect in the iris of her right eye – it looks like a lightning bolt,” said Cheshier. “It was amazing to see her come back; she is bucking every trend, rewriting the books.” Since her return, Lady has been helping herself to the loch’s supplies of perch and trout, even visiting the nearby Tay to catch herself a salmon, tidying up the nest, and waiting. Meanwhile, she is being closely watched by experts and fans. On the branches around her are positioned discreet cameras trained on the nest, one for day and one for night, and two microphones that pick up every ruffle of her feathers and her occasional piercing hawk cry. Live pictures are being eagerly watched around the world. Last year 33,000 people viewed the webcam online, but this year 120,000 have viewed the Lady of the Loch. “We will have the computer on all day in the background, just having a look every now and again,” said Jenny Hillier, up from Southampton with her husband, Pete, on a short break to see the bird. “We followed her on the webcam last year and the year before, but assumed she’d be dead. It’s amazing she’s back.” Pete Hillier has been writing about their trip on a wildlife blog to envious bird lovers around the country. “It’s quite something to see her – I think it’s the age of her, and the fact you can see her so close up here, that makes her so special,” he said. Colin and Dorothy Wilson from Dunfermline, Fife, are rooting for Lady, taking a detour from their spring break to make a pilgrimage to the nest. “We were here last June to see her and then we heard she hadn’t been so well, so we were astonished that she was back, and we had to come. It makes such a difference to be able to see wildlife like this,” said Dorothy. Two other diehard osprey fans, Alan Barraclough, 77, and Hazel Studham, 74, have come up from Cumbria to see Lady. “She’s a very special bird; we didn’t think she’d make it through the winter. I hope her beau turns up,” said Studham. Smaller than an eagle, larger than a hawk, the osprey disappeared as a species from the UK in 1916, when the last pair was killed by egg and bird hunters such as Victorian collector William Dunbar, who guiltily wrote to a friend that their obsessions “had finally done for the osprey”. Even when they returned in the 1950s to recolonise old haunts, their small numbers remained under threat, especially from postwar pesticides such as DDT. But now the osprey’s tenacity gives real encouragment to environmentalists. Roy Dennis, a conservation veteran and honorary director of the Highland Foundation for Wildlife, said Lady’s return was an astonishing feat. “It’s a real emblem, the osprey. People can see it [while they are] having a picnic on the side of a loch and you’ll see one dive in, so it’s very visible, distinct and identifiable, unlike a lot of birds. “It’s a great ambassador. But the reason osprey came back is that the habitat and the food supply are still here. It’s the persecution of the species, the shooting, that has stopped. With some of our other birds, it will be harder as their habitat is going. If Scotland isn’t becoming entirely the nature reserve of the UK, then it’s certainly its lungs – the successes with sea and white-tailed eagles, red grouse are great, but we need to do more for conservation, encouraged by these successes.” But as Dunkeld’s aged raptor enchants wildlife lovers around the world, Dennis thinks Lady may have a wait ahead of her. “I was out checking on osprey nests near me today and of 12 only two birds had returned. The weather hasn’t been so good and the closest of the tracked males is still in Spain, so it’s early days,” he said. “It could be another three or four days.”   Find the webcam at swt.org.uk/wildlife/webcams/loch-of-lowes2/

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Thinking of taking cheap breaks over half term to Norfolk for the countryside, coast, broads and wildlife. Lapwings make a great spectacle.

This article titled “Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk” was written by Mark Cocker, for The Guardian on Monday 21st February 2011 00.05 UTC It may be a projection of my own sense of seasonal change – such as the crocuses in our hedge and the song thrush shouting from the wood – but I cannot help thinking that there is a definite edginess in the birds gathered on the Yare floodplain. It is as if they know themselves that it’s in the air – a kind of pre-migration tension – and it will soon well up and drive these wigeon and lapwings north for their breeding grounds. The mood is stirred further by a male peregrine, who rises above the woods and glides south so smoothly that it feels as if I’m watching a floater pass gently down the curve of my own eye, rather than a distant physical object. The anxiety among all the 5,000 ducks and waders across the marsh wells up in a great symphony of flight. Momentarily their lives are shaped and answer to the beating of one falcon’s heart and I wonder how we should process morally that all this glorious spectacle of the rising flocks is a product of raw fear? Can something so dreadful truly be beautiful? The most compelling part comes when about 2,000 lapwings lift in a single elongated group. As they rise so their upper wings are tilted towards me like a billowing sheet of black. Then, as one, they present their undersides and rise higher in a broken veil of white. From below and almost through the middle of these lapwings blasts a denser flock of wigeon with even greater urgency. They cross. I can hear all the woodwind chaos of their wings. Out of this terror they build upwards into a great momentary cathedral of birds and the peregrine, shining powder-blue even in this flat light, twists down upon them. Yet he fails. They scatter and in sub-groups slowly they simmer back down until all are once again spread across the marsh. Still nothing has happened.

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Tim Birkhead, author of ‘The Wisdom of Birds’ speaks at the DO Lectures, held last month in fforest, Wales. (Go and look at the yurts then come back and listen to the video)

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Turnstone at Southend on Sea Pier, originally uploaded by AndyRob.

I believe that Turnstones should be included as urban wildlife for the way they like to colonise pires, harbours, boat ramps etc in the man made marine environment and the way they behave. Turnstones seem to like hanging about very near people, keeping themselves just a few feet away at times, as they happily wander about pecking at the shorline, floorboards decking or harbour walls.

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Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the peanut feeder.

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Flightless birds at Kew Gardens

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Flightless birds at Kew Gardens

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Flightless birds at Kew Gardens

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Flightless birds at Kew Gardens

It’s peak season for fledgling baby birds in our garden right now and every day seems to bring new additions to the hungry crowd.

The baby great tits have been a joy to have around for the past week or so, with a blue tit family sometimes keeping them company. Then yesterday fledgling baby sparrows made an appearance, followed by young juvenile starlings today. I have a feeling there must be some young robins about but I haven’t seen them yet, likewise for the wrens who can be heard singing early in the morning but tend to stay in the cover at present and we know there are gold crests around but they just wizz past so fast you don’t notice until after they’ve gone. With all this going on just outside the window it’s difficult to get any work done!

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Wild Bird Photography Do you like watching wild birds? I do. Wherever I travel around the UK and the world the local wildlife is at least as interesting as the built environment to me. I take a lot of photographs without following any particular instructions and over the years I’ve produced very few good bird pictures, and that can be a bit frustrating at times. There are lots of pictures of small fuzzy distant ducks, little avian specs flying across a boring expanse of sky, and countless pictures of a wooden post from which a glorious example of an interesting bird species has just flown away out of sight. Why only yesterday I took a picture of a tree trunk with a goose flying behind it. How many shots have you taken like that? I’ve kind of accepted that you can’t get good pictures with ordinary cheap point and shoot cameras. But I’m not the sort of person who lugs a large camera bag around all day long, let alone a full length tripod. So which are the best compromises? Tips On How to Photograph Birds Most days I take a walk around the local duck pond just for a constitutional really, and keep an eye on which birds are visiting. Tame birds are easy to photograph and so are large ones like swans and geese. Birds which are preoccupied with feeding or some other essential activity may also be photographed from closer up when they are distracted by something important. Getting up close is the key here. Patiently waiting quietly is a rewarding skill to practice, so work out where is the best place to lie in wait and then stay calmly for as long as you possibly can, but be ready for when the perfect bird appearance suddenly arises.
Basic Equipment for Taking Pictures of Birds Optical zoom is essential, at least 3 times but preferably more powerful. You then need decent lighting conditions. Really, you do eventually need a digital SLR camera, not just a pocket sized micro point and shoot affair, although you can get some good results with these if you learn how to master the manual settings and strike lucky. A tripod is not essential if you have a steady hand, but the use of something to lean upon such as a ledge, wall rock or tree can only help to get a sharper photograph. A pair of binoculars will help to identify distant birds and inform your choice of the best place to wait. These should be wide field of vision rather than high magnification for bird watching. RSPB Digital SLR Competition To celebrate the spring, the RSPB is launching a Free Prize Draw on 6 April to win an Olympus E-520 Digital SLR camera along with a copy of the RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography (together worth over £400). Five runners-up will also receive a copy of the illustrated book by David Tipling, one of Britain’s best known wildlife photographers. Everyone who buys an RSPB membership online between 6 April and 14 May 2009 will automatically be entered into the prize draw including adult, family, children’s and gift memberships. RSPB membership makes a great alternative gift at Easter time - with over 100 nature reserves to visit with admission free to members.

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