birds – Sarah's Wildlife Watch

Small Wonder

I’m so chuffed that there is at least one kingfisher regularly fishing a patch of the canal near me. There may even be a pair. I think this one is a female, as there is orange on her lower beak. I tried to capture her in flight and managed a couple of shots of herContinue reading “Small Wonder”

If you go into the reed bed today …

On my recent birthday we travelled to the Tay Reed Beds at Errol, between Perth and Dundee to hunt for rarely seen bearded tits, also known as bearded reedlings. If lucky enough to spot one for the first time ever it would be such a birthday treat. We’d been once before in early spring butContinue reading “If you go into the reed bed today …”

Bonkers Bonxies and Greedy Gannets

Recently on Shetland I went on a boat trip to the sandstone cliffs of Noss, home to a gannet colony and many other seabirds. On the way past the Isle of Bressay we got close up views of the great skua, known as a “bonxie” (meaning big breasted) in Shetland. This one had its eyeContinue reading “Bonkers Bonxies and Greedy Gannets”

Water Babies

Tonight, instead of watching “Springwatch” on TV we went out to enjoy the sunny evening and see what we could observe on the canal. All was quiet and I was just saying, “I hear there’s some cygnets been seen…ooaah, and there they are!” Coming round a bend towards us was a swan with a groupContinue reading “Water Babies”

London Exotics

I went hunting in the centre of London for ring (or rose) necked parakeets and then realised I didn’t really need to hunt as they seemed to be everywhere! They originally come from Africa and Southern Asia but were kept as pets in the UK. However many escaped and they are living in the wildContinue reading “London Exotics”

Feeder Firsts

We’ve had some new visitors to our garden feeder this winter, smaller than the goldfinches and tits, wee redpolls. They have a maroon streak on their heads and pinkish breasts. I’ve never ever seen them in the garden before. There was a group of three feeding from the feeder and on the ground. We’ve alsoContinue reading “Feeder Firsts”

On Return Tickets

The whooper swans have flown in from Iceland to spend the winter here. Down in an English nature reserve they have seen thousands, however I was pleased to see seven at my local Hogganfield Loch. There are a couple of young ones in the group whose grey plumage is gradually changing to white. Whooper swansContinue reading “On Return Tickets”

Fabulous First Fledgling

Last night we had a long awaited fine evening and we saw from the owl cams that the fledglings were out! So we headed over to the barns and sure enough our bairns were practising flying the lengths of the barns. The light inside the barns was too poor to capture them in flight butContinue reading “Fabulous First Fledgling”

Bigger Barn Owl Bairns

The blurry photo below shows the first of our barn owl bairns to venture out of the box last week. This was perhaps his or her first sighting of a human being, myself, at 10pm. I had crept around the corner of the barn as I had seen on the the security camera footage thatContinue reading “Bigger Barn Owl Bairns”

Barn Owl Bairns

All is well in the barn owl box, although due to a technical hitch its only this last week or so that I’ve been able to check in on it. At the start of May Marny left the nest for a few minutes to reveal six white eggs. Also a lovely juicy mouse for breakfast!Continue reading “Barn Owl Bairns”