August

Weather Stats This Month

Max Temp =  24.9 deg C               Min Temp =   6.4 deg C            

 Max Wind  21.6 mph              Max Rain in 24 hr Period = 24.8 mm

 Max Rain in 1 hr Period = 7.2 mm          Total Rain For Month = 67.3 mm

Diary

26th.  After yet more debate regarding the ID of the bird I have seen lower down this page on the 23rd I am now happy and confident that this bird was, as I originally thought, a Marsh Harrier.

Several reasons in my mind. This bird I feel is a young bird possible second summer Female which tend to show a pale patch on the inner primaries leading onto the secondaries which this bird shows. The rusty brown of the bird follows through to the undertail coverts which is then punctuated with a pail undertail. The wings are quite broad considering the bird is at an angle and I am happy with how the bird did not show  signs of Red Kite Jizz with this feature. The big sticking point has been the tail which in the picture clearly shows a very Kite like appearance. I noted that the upper tail showed no signs of rufous or red and neither did the tail show any fork in it's tail whilst I watched for 3-5mins through my scope. The other thing for me is that the picture does not show any black emargination to the undertail outer feathers as would most probably be on a Red Kite.

For those interested I have put a few links to comments on several sites just to help/confuse the issue.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=94768

http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=96940&p=3&topicID=13191085

This link helps to show that tail shape is not the only characteristic that differentiate one bird from another.

http://www.lincsbirdclub.co.uk/rare_birds/marsh_harrier_3.htm

I have enjoyed this excercise and whilst I know some are happy with this ID others will not, but I really appreciate the messages,emails and thoughts sent to me including the use of others sites as above.

25th.  Back from our trip to Spurn Point which we hoped may throw up an odd bird we had not seen before. On arrival at 8:00 high cloud but light winds made it feel a lot cooler than we were thinking. Non the less we headed down to the lighthouse area and the usual Swallows tipped their hats as they skimmed by. Whinchat and plenty of Whitethroat were about but boy they liked to skulk. We walked round to the beack area where Sandwich and Common Terns were in good numbers. These were constantly being joined with more and the group became quite raucous. Apart from the more common birds to be seen we did manage to catch a glimpse of a nice Turtle Dove. These had bred successfully here this year so it was nice to see such a wary bird. Plenty of Linnets were in evidence making the most of the copious amount of ragwort seed.

On one of the hides a Little Grebe family patrolled the far bank where the rattle was only spoilt by the scolding of the Coot whenever anything got to close to it's chicks. A good day out although a little early for any real migration. A Hobby flew through early on with a Tree Pipit not far behind. I noticed that a Red Backed Shrike appeared near to the Warren later that evening and has remained until today so that is a real shame as I have never seen a Red Backed Shrike. A few pictures below taken with my new digiscoping adaptor (SRB Griturn). Not sure if I like it yet as there is evidence of movement in the bracket at the eyepiece. I will try out a new camera too soon as I look to get the new Nikon P5000 that may increase my digiscoping keepers.

                             Common & Sandwich Terns                                                           Little Grebe

                 Juvenile Coot                                               Linnet                                                 Turtle Dove

24th. After some deliberation the ID of the bird below  the incorrect ID I gave as a Marsh Harrier has been updated. Thanks for the emails and comments.

23rd.  Pheww! A hectic period since my last diary entries as a trip to the 2007 British Birdwatching Fair was squeezed in as we spent 5 days in the smallest County in England, Rutland. A lovely place where a whole miriad of people interested in nature in general are able to rub shoulders with others with a similar outlook and where education comes in the form of free lectures and talks. I will be adding this years view on the fair to the others in "And On The 7th Day" page on the menu. When time permits I will add a few pictures of the fair for those who may not get chance to look through other pages.

It seems that at the moment it really is all or nothing with many new interesting happenings in and around the garden with new visitors strange goings on and some great photo opportunities due to the, wait for it........great weather! It seems that for a change the weather is treating us Northerners to a bit of late summer sun and to be honest I think it's our turn.

The weather has steadily been getting better as we arrived home on Monday and by yesterday (wednesday) the sun was really quite nice although a strong wind did accompany it but, it really was a day full of sunshine. Today has followed on with a max temp of 23.3 deg being reached at 18:00 and the wind had died down considerably. It has been so long since I was able to go out into the garden without it feeling chilly and with that, the strong sun of the past two days, I now favour a belisha beacon.

Just as yesterday Mandy and Me sat in the garden enjoying our break form work. We had considered going on a birding trip but due to the great weather in the West we decided to leave this to Friday and let the better weather filter through to the East coast where we hope to visit either Spurn or Flamborough.

As we sat enjoying the sun I noticed a large bird of prey being mobbed by crows and soon realised it was not a Buzzard. After swapping my Bins for my scope it became apparent that I was seeing a Marsh Harrier!!! Amazing not just because this is a first in Rossendale for me but the really big plus was that I had my scope and digiscoping gear set up and so mamaged a few rather poor quality images due to the shots being taken from almost half a mile away. The bird was flying low and gradually built height where it then set off in a South Westerly direction. I will post this image although I do realise it is not great.

Marsh Harrier

As stated a lot more info to come but I am in the process of sorting the images and getting ready for my day out tommorrow on the East coast where I am hopeful of a new bird to tell about!

12th.  Well a real treat today as I looked out the window I noticed a slim and slightly wary bird feeding on the Honeysuckle berries on top of the pergola. Initially it disapeared  into the Sycamore but quite quickly returned to feeding. A female Blackcap had once again lit up an otherwise dull morning. I had not got my digiscope equpment ready and by the time I had set it up another larger, more boisterous visitor had arrived leaving all other birds fleeing the garden. I did manage to get a few shots of this bird whilst it settled down to take many peanuts into it's crop.

Jay

 Today started very wet with 5.6mm of rain falling in one hour but has grown into a better day with the chance of a few photos grabbed as I wanted to get a picture of the juveniles that are about the garden at the moment.

                                    Juvenile Robin                                                                   Juvenile Dunnock

Other things have caught my attention whilst checking for bugs and the like around the garden and these have proved just as difficult to get good images of. I was inspecting the grass and this creature resembling something from the "Alien" movies sat motionless on the lower blades of the grass. I also got a chance to photo the new Froglets that have lost their tales and which are now appearing all around the garden.

These smaller residents of the garden are probably making very good food for our next visitor which I have been feeding dried mealworm to for the last 2 weeks or so. He is very much a creature of habit and appears at the "table" at the same time every night. Mandy and me sat outside in the pergola last night until about 22:30 where we saw the Hedgehog appear from a neighbours garden from under the fence. I say "he" but I am hoping it is a female that may bring it's young in the coming weeks...we will  have to wait and see. The picture to it's right is a Garden Snail that has so far evaded the Hogs attention.

                                           Hedgehog                                                                       Garden Snail

2nd.  No real news in the garden except to say that Summer has finally reached Whitworth. The sun has now shone for several days which has allowed us to eat outside on the decking for quite some time. The warmer weather has not really produced a lot of Butterfly sightings which is a disappointment, with only the odd White and a Small skipper stopping to rest. The moth trap has not yet been out in the garden this year so I hope to have this out shortly.

A few birds are about the garden with "our" Blackbird pair producing another set of young which hailed from our neighbours hedge at the bottom of our garden. I have only seen one youngster from this clutch but I suspect that there will be more. A family of recently fledged Wrens is seeking cover in the mixed stems of Lonicera and Clematis which runs accross the roof of the pergola. One parent is shuttling mealworm to and from the feeder to the pergola where the young are being fed in relative safety.

A Willow Warbler stayed quite some time in the Silver Birch next door as it flitted about the branches picking off minute insects. Is this bird the start of the migration south for many of our breeding birds? I was reminded of the fact that summer is soon to be turned as the Times newspaper gave mention of the young Swifts of this years nests are already starting their unacompanied flight South. With the poor weather it feels like I have not had my fill of screaming Swifts and the fast "churrring" like call of the House Martin. I hope August is kind to the birds who make this perilous journey to their feeding grounds for the winter..........did I mention winter!