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Zim Girl's 6th Big Year 2023


Zim Girl

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You can normally find Red Grouse here in the heather moorland, but usually always very distant.

 

UK 60.  Red Grouse

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Forest of Bowland  -  01/05/23

 

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There are a number of conservation areas along the drive and one of them has a bank where sand martins breed each year.  They were busy excavating their nest holes.

 

UK 61.  Sand Martin

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Forest of Bowland  -  01/05/23

 

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UK 62.  Meadow Pipit

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Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

 

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UK 63.  Common Redshank

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Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

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There is also a nest box scheme in operation for Pied Flycatchers.  We wandered up and down the track by the woodland and saw several of them, this being the best I could manage.

 

UK 64.  European Pied Flycatcher

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Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

 

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We caught this partridge asleep on a wall.  He shot off as soon as he spotted us.

 

UK 65.  Red-legged Partridge

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Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

 

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We always stop for the river walk into the Langden valley.  The scenery is beautiful and the river is full of dippers, sandpipers and grey wagtails.  Couldn't get a picture of a wagtail that I was happy with, but the sandpipers were a bit more accommodating.

 

UK 66.  Common Sandpiper

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Langden Brook, Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

 

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The sound of Willow warblers is everywhere here so I was pleased to actually get a picture of one of them.  

This year we have noticed generally that we are hearing far more Willow warblers than Chiffchaffs. 

 

UK 67.  Willow Warbler

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Forest of Bowland  -  06/05/23

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Great photos in this set, @Zim Girl and some good species, too!

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Great additions.

Interesting about the Willow Warblers.

We have seen or heard hardly any so far but there are lots of Chiffchaff around

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Some from the garden.

We have been able to add 3 new birds to our garden tick list just recently.  As I mentioned above, we have been hearing lots of willow warblers this year including from our garden.  It took us a while to find it but finally spotted one high up in our neighbour's tree and then later in one of our bushes.  We had a blackcap land very briefly near us while sitting at the bottom of the garden, too quick for a picture, but the best find was a common whitethroat.  This time I was determined to get a picture and spent three afternoons staking out the holly tree where it seemed to like to perch.  Trouble is it only sat there for seconds, so hard to get a decent picture, which is why it took 3 afternoons!  Still didn't really get a great picture but there is only so long you can sit watching one tree :).

 

3 pics from 3 days.

 

UK 68.  Common Whitethroat

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Back garden  -  10/05/23

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Back garden  -  11/05/23

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Back garden  -  12/05/23

 

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UK 69.  Common Blackbird

Female

P1560453c.jpg.e641c5e0e49f2b37dbe0391924de4dd9.jpg

Male

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Back garden  -  29/04/23

 

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Probably our most common garden bird.

 

UK 70.  European Goldfinch

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Back garden  -  10/05/23

 

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So our first batch of Tree Sparrows have fledged.  I missed seeing how many actually came out of the nest box but suddenly the garden was full of tree sparrows.

I took a few pictures.

Adult

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Two of the youngsters.

Incoming!

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Oops, where did she go?

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The adults are going in and out of the nest box again so hopefully batch two is being prepared.

 

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More babies!

We came across this very fat looking moorhen next to a path at Leighton Moss. We passed by her carefully but her nerve broke and she ran off leaving six chicks that had been hiding underneath her trying to catch her.

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Coot feeding it's chick.

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Newton Marsh

One we haven't seen before.  A young redshank.

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Newton Marsh

 

And this very cute little golden mallard duckling.

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Newton Marsh

Edited by Zim Girl
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Your determination with the Whitethroat paid off.

Lots of cute babies!

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wow a golden mallard baby! lovely additions at home.

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5 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

wow a golden mallard baby!

Ha ha. If only.

Signs that somewhere back up the family tree a lady has a dark secret.:o

Or did Mendel get it wrong?:P

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Peter Connan

Whatever it is, it's beautiful!

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  • 2 weeks later...

A week ago, we came back from a few days hiking in the Lake District. The focus was on walking but we found a bit of time for some bird watching.  Once again this year, the prominent bird heard was the willow warbler, with plenty of cuckoo thrown in.  I could only get a very distant blob of a cuckoo picture so I will hold off on that for now.

 

We always like to visit the cliffs of St Bees Head when we are there.  It is a lovely walk up over the headland and at this time of year there are plenty of nesting seabirds.

A view of the cliffs.

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UK 71.  Common Guillemot

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St Bees  -  22/05/23

 

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UK 72.  Kittiwake

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St Bees  -  22/05/23

 

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UK 73.  Razorbill

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St Bees  -  22/05/23

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UK 74.  Northern Raven

P1570373c.jpg.47eae4163f7111c9ac9bb0f91f059c96.jpg

St Bees  -  22/05/23

 

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There is a lovely wood near Loweswater where last year we found Redstart and Wood Warbler, but despite visiting a couple of times, no luck this year.

However, we picked up a bird we weren't expecting coming off Rannerdale Knotts near Crummock Water.

 

UK 75.  Yellowhammer

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Rannerdale Knotts  -  23/05/23

 

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