Hampton Loade Revisited. 10 March, 2014.

Again it was a glorious, sunny day for March, but with a hint of a cold wind. So I thought I would revisit Hampton Loade to see what the water levels were like. To my surprise, everything (or it seemed) was back to normal, as the two photos below show.  A comparison with the same shots taken taken on the 8th February illustrates that well!

Hampton Loade Ferry

Looking towards the water works

I walked up-river towards the water works bridge and took this photo of the water gushing out into the river.

Walking on to the entrance to Dudmaston, I noticed the hawthorn was starting to come out in leaf, a sure sign spring (excuse the cliché) has sprung.

Dunnock

Spring was certainly in the air today with temperatures rising to 18c in some parts of the country. It is in stark contrast to this time last year where we had snow piled high and freezing conditions!  To have heard any birds singing in that weather would have been a miracle, but this year is different.

Yesterday I saw my first summer migrant, a chiffchaff.  It was happily catching insects, which were in abundance, amongst willow, hazel and conifer trees adjacent to a sewage works.  On the sewage beds were at least thirty pied wagtails, some of the males looked great in their black and white breeding plumage. There were also ten grey wagtails feeding on the myriad of insects that the warm sewage beds had attracted.

But that's not the purpose for this post as the title suggests.  There was another bird singing with a subdued warble like sound.

Hedge sparrow, dunnock, shuffle-wing and hedge accenter are just a few names this unobtrusive garden bird has gone by over the years.  Hedge accenter is now the official name for the bird, but dunnock is the most used by birdwatchers.  The biggest misnomer (and there are a lot in the birding world) is hedge sparrow as the bird isn't even remotely related to the sparrow family.  It got that name by early ornithologists because of its preference to nesting in hedges and finding its main diet, insects, there.

It's a skulking and inconspicuous bird and can be present in gardens, parks, towns and even city centres and mostly go unnoticed. They feed out of sight under hedges, bushes, vegetable plots and flower beds searching out spiders and other small invertebrates.

The tell-tale sign they are present, though, is the high pitched "tseep" call uttered from dense cover but can be delivered on occasion on an open perch.  But the song is the thing to listen out for this time of the year which is a sweet warble like sound.

Their features are also inconspicuous being sparrow sized, slate-grey head and breast, streaked flanks, dark, slender bill and rich brown upper parts.

Dunnock's, like most other birds, are displaying this time of year and it's now to try and get a glimpse of them as they shuffle (hence, shuffle-wing) their wings in flicking movements.

Mistle Thrush

Not getting out much this weekend, I decided to look back on some of my nature notes I made twenty or so years ago and came across this one on the mistle thrush.

"Chatter - Chatter - Chatter" is the distinct call of the mistle thrush as it flies away when disturbed.  That may be all you hear or see of this shy, mysterious thrush in your neighbourhood. It's been described as mysterious by ornithologists because of its similarity to the song thrush; indeed, when most people see a thrush they assume it is a song thrush not realising mistle thrush exists - hence its mystique.  So how do we distinguish mistle thrush from song thrush?

Mistle differ from song by being greyish above (song is brown), having a more spotted breast, an upright stance, larger size (27cm), white underwing (song is yellow) and white tips to the outer tail feathers.

As mentioned above the flight call is a chattering call.  The song too is distinctive being similar to the blackbird but lacking the fluty notes of that species.  The sheer power of the song is its most striking feature being heard over a great distance.  This powerful song is often given from the top of a tall tree as early as January even in the most atrocious of weather; its alternative name of stormcock reflects this characteristic of defying the elements.

Food consists of insects and spiders - hence most birds you see are feeding on the ground. They also have a diet of berries, mistletoe berry is the main one from where the bird gets its name.  Other berries are also to their liking and they will defend berry bushes in winter aggressively chasing off other thrushes from taking them.

Birds can be found in parks, gardens and open spaces with scattered trees and bushes.  So if you are out and about, getting to know the habits, plumage, habitat and voice of the mistle thrush helps the mystery to fade away revealing a large handsome thrush one to look out for and worth watching.

The Mere, Worfield. 23 February, 2014

I visited the Mere at Worfield in the later part of 2013 and, because again it was a windy day and I could stay in the car, I decided to visit again.  Because of the amount of rain we have had the Mere was full; I have seen it in past years completely dried up even in winter.

The Mere, Worfield

To my surprise a pair of little grebes (dabchicks) were at the far end but giving good views through the binoculars.

As their name implies, they are the smallest of our grebes (25-29cm) but they are a bird full of character and courage.  Because of their diminutive size they are usually hard locate, but these birds were out on open water diving for small fish, insect larvae, molluscs and other things they eat.

The easiest way to find them, though, is by their voice.  A high whinnying trill is the best description; it's also been described as a tittering laughter or wild sounding shrill.  Once learnt it is never forgotten. The trilling sound is most often heard in the breeding season but can be heard in winter months as well.  When heard in the breeding season, birds can often duet with a courtship-trill.

They are a dumpy little bird with a rounded rear end and are don't have the ornamental head feathers like our other grebes. These birds were in breeding plumage with their chestnut-coloured cheeks and throat.

As I said, they are a bird full of character and when they detect danger they dive under the water with incredible speed and with the blink of the eye are gone, only to surface some distance away and dive again and then completely disappear out of sight.  It's as if they are playing games with you at times.

The little grebe were too far away to get any decent photos of, but this mute swan came very close to the car.

Mute Swan. 

Dudmaston Snowdrop Walk. 15 February, 2014

Dudmaston (NT) opens for two weekends in February for its annual Snowdrop Walk.  So, despite the high winds, I decided to start of the floral year with a visit there.

The snowdrops were in full bloom and, with nothing else in flower, stood out from last years dead vegetation and are a delight to see in, effectively, mid winter They are a simple and beautiful flower with their drooping flowers and green, linear leaves.  Wordsworth, that great nature poet, wrote his poem To A Snowdrop whilst he was at Rydal Mount and says impart:

Lone flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend ...
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend ...
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

I managed to get some photos but I wished I had taken my tripod with me as, because of low light, I was on a slow shutter and was finding it difficult shooting handheld.  Nevertheless, they haven't come out too bad.

Snowdrop 

Snowdrop

After admiring the snowdrops, I walked through the Dingle and came across a notice which had been put up by the NT staff of a sketch of the Dingle painted in 1835 by a Miss Elizabeth Shepherd.

The 1835 sketch by Elizabeth Shepherd and a view of the Dingle today.

Last time I visited Dudmaston (see 1 January post) I mentioned bamboo by  the side of the pool.  Interestingly, in the garden by the car park was two other species of bamboo - yellow groove and black bamboo.

Yellow Groove Bamboo.

Black Bamboo.

Close up of Yellow Groove Bamboo.

River Severn. 8 February, 2014

With the amount of rain we have had over the past week, I thought it would be prudent and not to walk anywhere, but to drive to the known flood areas of the River Severn and take some photos.

And sure enough when I arrived at my first destination, Hampton Loade, it was massively in flood.  The water was up to the entrance of the car park and was all over the fields right up to the water works.  I could see the Hampton Loade ferry securely tethered on the opposite bank, but all the old ferry gearing on my side was covered with water.  The only things that seemed to be enjoying it all was a pair of mallards feeding on the waters edge where the car park should have been!

View towards the water works

View from the car park entrance

Hampton Loade ferry

The old ferry gear workings and depth guage

Pair of mallards

I moved on and as I drove through Quatford and Danesford I could see all the fields on my left were flooded.  Some of the park homes at Quatford looked to be getting close to flooding.  As I drove over the bridge at Bridgnorth, the water level was very high; some cars were stopping on the bridge to have a look at the river and holding up the traffic. I thought about trying to park on the other side of the bridge to take some shots, but I couldn't find a parking space in the few spaces available and quickly drove on with my next place in mind, Hay Corner.

It always foods at Hay Corner and usually pulls in geese and swans.  Bewick's and whooper swans have been seen there in past years along with the occasional rare goose.  But this time all I could see was a flock of lesser black-backed gulls loafing on the waters edge.

Hay Corner

I was on my way home, but as I drove past the turning to Astbury the waterfall there came to mind. So I turned around and drove down the narrow road to it.  I couldn't believe the amount of water cascading down and the colour of it - brown.

Waterfall at Astbury

Waterfall at Astbury

Waterfall at Astbury

Looking down river.

Bowhills. 2 February, 2014.

There is a footpath from Birdsgreen (so772849) to Bowhills which I havn't visited for a number of years.  It being sunny and mild (wet with gale force winds yesterday) I thought it would make an interesting walk for Sunday afternoon.

The path, like most this winter, was waterlogged and muddy but not difficult to walk along with the right footwear - I still need a good pair of wellies, though.  I soon came across hazel which was unmistakable with its silver bark and pale lemon-yellow (male) catkins that was being enhanced by the sunlight. As can be seen by the photo below, you can see why the catkins are also, quaintly, called lambs tails.

Hazel Catkins, "lambs tails"

Hazel

View of Bowhills Dingle from Bowhills

I walked on and soon noticed a large flock of birds making a cacophony of sound.  Some were perched ahead of me in the top of a row of ash trees, others were on a hawthorn hedge alongside a set a side field which was being used for game cover.  I could pick out a variety of species: greenfinch, goldfinch, chaffinch, redpoll, and, one of our most colourful of winter visitor finches, brambling.

Bramblings start to appear in Britain from Fennoscandia and northern Russia in October and stay through to March or early April.  Occasionally birds will stay later because of poor weather conditions and, if you are fortunate enough to encounter a male, it will be probably be in its eye catching summer plumage: orange breast and black head.