It’s all getting a bit too busy for blogging! The end of April is always my favourite time and at the moment it is the movement of Teal and other dabbling ducks that is occupying me with the never-ending searching for something rare in their midst. Yesterday I was at Nordre Øyeren. At this time […]
Tag: Shoveler
Pennington Marsh – 5th and 9th March
I visited Pennington Marsh on 5th and 9th March and on both days saw much the same. Its a pretty static time of year with winter birds steadily but barely noticeably declining and very few migrants appearing. The Lapwing are now in regular display and are busy making nesting scrapes on the marsh while Black-tailed […]
Pennington Marsh and Woodchat Shrike at Chipping Sodbury
Another beautiful sunny morning at Pennington Marsh and I decided to walk my normal circuit in reverse, first out past Fishtail and to Keyhaven and back past Butts and Jetty Lagoon and finally past Pennington Lagoon and Shoveler Pools. I had much of the morning to spare after dropping Tobias off so my birding was […]
Pennington Marsh – 6th August
It was a beautiful sunny morning for a change, August has been a very unsettled month to date with long spells of often heavy rain and low temperatures. I was up early and decided on a walk around Pennington Marshes for a few hours. Arriving at 06:30 I first walked along the Ancient Highway for […]
Mongolia – 18th May (Day 11) – Barig Mountain to Sangiin Dalai Lake
We were up at 05:15 to the sound of screaming Saker Falcon, packed our bags and after a quick coffee headed back up Barig Mountain at 06:00 for a last try for Hodgson’s Bush-chat. After climbing the steep grassy and rock strewn slopes of the mountains in the vehicles we parked at the summit and […]
Mongolia – 11th May (Day 4) – Travel from Ullanbataar to Dalanzadgad
Today was mainly a driving day 570km south from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad passing through the Gobi Desert with a few stops, mainly at lakes, en-route. The landscape was vast, stark and barren, mainly flat with a few rocky outcrops and dominated by gravel plains with sparse grass. The common birds here were Horned Lark, Asian […]
Pennington Marsh – 7th April
This first half of April has been fantastic, like mid-summer come early, after an early morning breeding bird survey where the highlights were a couple of Song Thrush and a Willow Warbler I spent a couple of hours at Pennington Marsh. Spring really is here and there wereBlackcap singing from the scrub, fair numbers of […]
Western Swamp Hen in the Bank
So having dipped the Western Swamphen the day it left Minsmere I’ve been watching it during it’s stay at Alkborough Flats in Lincolnshire. As I’ve stated before I have this soft self imposed two hour twitch rule and with Swampy now 200 miles from home I’d need to break that rule if I wanted to […]
Pennington Marsh – 13th May
Another morning at Pennington Marshes was needed and I was on site by 06:00. It was remarkably cold for this late in the year with a north-easterly wind blowing and so I set off with fleece and gloves. Birding Efford lagoon it was apparent that the Swift, Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin were struggling […]
Northern Shoveler Anas clypeata
The Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata), sometimes known simply as the Shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and Asia and across most of North America, and is a rare vagrant to Australia. In North America, it breeds along the southern edge of Hudson Bay and west of this […]
