Ring Roads & Rose Ringed Parakeets

We have spent the last 4 days working in the Sunbury and Kempton Park areas of Middlesex.  As we travelled along the motorway near High Wycombe on the M40,  the sky became crowded with good numbers of Red Kite.  Apart from the thousands of Gulls on the local reservoirs and flooded fields,  the other birds you can't help seeing are dozens, if not hundreds of Rose-ringed Parakeets.  

These charismatic birds are not difficult to find; you just have to listen and follow the raucous call to locate them.

Red Kite (ex. library picture)

 Rose-ringed Parakeet

 and again

 Rose-ringed Parakeet

A Real Big Bird

Cheshire Lifers again

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day in Cheshire so when news broke that the Buff-bellied Pipit from last year had been relocated on the Wirral, I dropped what I was doing and headed off for the 40 minute drive.  I was keen to add this bird to my Cheshire list because work commitments in December meant that I could not go for it then. 

There were forty other birders on site when I arrived and the bird had been seen half an hour earlier. Confident of seeing my quarry I was ready to wait it out when the man next to me said he had it in the scope.  We watched the bird for a good five minutes in perfect sunshine until a Heron flew over and spooked everything that was around.  Happy with my views and as it was so nice, I decided to take Scruffy for a walk up Denhall Lane.  This turned out to be a good move as 400 metres up the lane there were four Chiffchaff feeding in the hedgerow, two of which were Siberian Chiffchaff.  I watched them for ten minutes and took plenty of photographs.  Scruffy was fed up of keeping still now so I headed back towards the car.  As I approached the car the Buff-bellied Pipit was showing even closer than earlier so with camera in one hand and the dog in the other I managed a few photos to share with you.

 Siberian Chiffchaff

 and again

 and in the sun

 Buff-bellied Pipit

 Buff-bellied Pipit

and one more

Happy New Year

Aquila Bird Tours would like to wish a Happy New year to all our readers.   Between Christmas and New Year we spent some time in Mid-Wales and spent some time photographing Red Kites. 

Pleasure birding seems to have taken a back seat over the last few months as we have been busy setting up a new branch of Aquila - ABT Ecology.  Although there has been a lot to do and it is a big step to take, we felt the time was right to branch out offering environmental consultancy services along with the birding/wildlife tours, having spent the last three years working extensively within the industry.  

Rarities were indeed just that during the festive period, despite some being on offer in the form of Brunnich's Guillemot, work prevented any trips. With this in mind it was pleasant to see a scarcity close to home in the form of a drake Green-winged Teal that was reported at Neumanns Flash, Northwich. Arriving on site I decided to turn left from the car park, this was a good move, as within minutes of being in the hide, I had found the bird. Good views of the bird were had varying on distant and light conditions. Unfortunately these conditions were not particularly conducive to photography, I did however manage a record shot clearly showing the vertical, opposed to horizontal wing flash. 

In the field the head pattern plumage subtleties were also noted.

 Red Kite

 Red Kite

 Red Kite

 Red Kite

 Grey Heron

 Long-tailed Tit

 Mistle Thrush

Green-winged Teal