#lesser redpoll

09/03/2024-Pig Bush in the New Forest and home

Photos taken in this set are of; a Great Spotted Woodpecker we saw drumming very closely on a dead tree in the woods at Pig Bush such a wholesome and loud sound as another drummed in the distance they were marking their territories as we go into spring the closest we'd ever seen a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming so this was fantastic and so nice coming just under two weeks after we saw and heard the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker drumming at Acres Down so well on a similar tree, one of a lovely group of Lesser Redpolls it was great to see at Pig Bush, New Forest Pony at Pig Bush, beautiful views on the walk with stunning sky scenes, a dashing sky scene at home this evening, gorgeous Goldfinches which I enjoyed seeing on the feeders at home today and some vegetation in the water at Pig Bush.

Lesser Redpoll.

Illustration taken from ‘Britain’s Birds and Their Nests’ by A. Landsborough Thomson. Illustrations by George Rankin. Published 1910 by W. & R. Chambers.

American Museum of Natural History Library.

Biodiversity Heritage Library.

16th October 2023: Lakeside and home

Flora and fauna pictures taken in this set: 1. Some stunning common toadflax just outside the park on the pavement to the east, a favourite flower of mine in bright clumps currently that I've enjoyed here throughout the year it was nice to have a chance to get photos with my DSLR and macro lens today. 2. A mesmerising Mistle Thrush, one of a few I saw. They're birds I find so sweet to see, they're dashing and powerful. 3. A Lesser Redpoll, one of six I was euphoric to spot in the birches at the east of the southern fenced off area and I saw them flying around a bit, gleeful moments spent in awe of these mini finches. Interestingly like Mistle Thrush was on New Year's Day, Lesser Redpoll was a patch tick for me in March here so it was brilliant to get these into another autumn/winter here birds I love seeing. There were around six Mistle Thrushes I saw all together so these two species were intertwined today. 4. A record shot of a Jay. I was amazed enough as it is to get wonderful views of this one of my favourite birds and crows again here today and get a photo, and it adds yet another great little trend to my phenomenal year of wildlife that I've now photographed all eight British crow species this year. I like my corvids and it's a unique point of this year that like 2019 I had the chance and was able to see them all so to get the pictures is nice. 5. A delightful scene of a bee on purple teasel. 6. A gorgeous Roe Deer I was privileged to watch in the northern fenced off area both from the northern path and the central path between the fenced off areas. It's always magical to see these mammals which I've had a top year for, especially here. Not long after 3pm in the afternoon not when I'm often here it was peaceful which meant it was more bold perhaps. 7. Mallard. 8. Broad-leaved clover. 9. Viper's-bugloss another flower I love. 10. Another key bird today, Carrion Crow.

10/03/23-Lakeside Country Park 

Photos I took on a longer visit here today for a couple of hours or so great use of my day off are of: 1 and 2. Views with buds and blossom looking beautiful. 3. Fungi on a tree. 4. A Great Crested Grebe pair, the main purpose of this time here today to add to the amazing couple of weeks I’ve had seeing and photographing these birds in their magical courtship days. It was very precious time with them, I got sensational close views of two pairs on two lakes and saw a bit of dancing as one presented a fish it had caught to its partner. It was good to see them fishing and opportunistic Black-headed Gulls pressing the grebes into diving back down as one had a fish. 5. Greylag Geese on a brilliant day of geese I had. 6. Moorhens a star bird across today. 7. An amazing Lesser Redpoll I was over the moon to see a group of these in alders lining Concorde lake to the west. This is not only my first Lesser Redpolls seen in 2023, a key target and seeing it took my year list to 151 I’ve reached a milestone I am overjoyed to get to into the 150s inside three months of the year for the first time ever, but the first I’ve ever seen at Lakeside they have been about here before and I was hoping to see one here one day. One of my Lakeside moments of the year so far, exactly a month on from my last it’s my third patch tick in as many months so far this year. Four years and one day on from one of my greatest ever views of these excellent finches at Blashford Lakes it was an honour to see them today a powerful winter and thrilling birding moment. 8. A Siskin, the redpoll’s relative which I saw a pleasing group of with Goldfinches the drop in temperature possibly bringing these finches in a bit. 9. Lesser Black-backed Gull part of a smashing array of gulls seen today. 10. Some rose hips still going. 

10 of my pictures from the past 2 weeks that didn’t feature in any of my blogs 

I have just burned my latest disk of my photos, I reached a certain zone in terms of numbers of megabites the pictures added up to make that I like to think about or do a disk, thus ending that folder on my laptop, clearing the memory card in my DSLR and creating a new folder. If I felt a sense of dejavu its because I last burned a disk only two weeks ago tonight. So this brought to an end one of my greatest ever fortnights for photography, especially one that didn’t involve a trip away/further afield day trip. I produced on average 14 pictures per day I took photos during this folder, which is extraordinary considering 4 used to be the average I’d produce on a trip and even this time last year 11 which would now seem a nice small amount to me in a sense to come home and process was a high photo yield day in my eyes. As I said in a post yesterday I will see what happens with this and whether fortnightly disks could be my future. 

But what I was so thrilled with these last two weeks has been the quality I felt I had throughout my photos I was so proud of how so many turned out and the variety of photos I took. My landscape photos have continued to be ones I’m so proud of over these two weeks after a strong start to 2020 for me for them I felt, but I came into the fornight just creeping out of a firstly closeup then general wildlife photo drought and within the two weeks I have had some amazing chances to photograph wonderful wildlife common and rare at some varied locations to truly shake myself out of that. The two weeks have also seen an increase in my minority subjects photos so things I do take pictures of but not as much as wildlife and landscape which has been due to spring flowers and blossom photos continuing to become available and I boomed with this a bit so its definitely been subjects coming from all angles that has helped me have this memorable photo feast I think. 

Daily photo yields of 16, 17, 16, 23 and another 16 alongside one odd one sky photo of an evening last week has meant in the last couple of weeks I had to be selective and only include 10 photos in the days’ blog photosets. I tried to be fair between wildlife and landscape and other subjects doing this and between photos I really liked or maybe didn’t as much/ So in this photoset, captioned below, are 10 photos 5 wildlife and 5 landscape or minority subjects that I have taken over the last two weeks that I didn’t include in any Tumblr post. 

1. One of my favourite birds the Peregrine at Winchester Cathedral 

2. The river at Abbey Gardens, Winchester 

3. View from Hayling Island 

4. Another of my favourite birds the Brent Goose at Hayling Island 

5. Sunny view at Pennington 

6. Mute Swan at Pennington 

7. Lesser Redpolls at Pig Bush in the New Forest 

8. Pig Bush in the New Forest 

9. Flowers on the balcony at home 

Two of my favourite pictures I took in February 2022, eight of my favourite photos taken in the past week, end of month thoughts and my bird of the month 

The two favourites of mine from across the month are; Blue Tit at Lakeside Country Park and sunny morning at Winchester Cathedral the first two pictures in this photoset. 

Some favourites from this week the rest of the pictures in this photoset are; view at Bolderwood in the New Forest last Saturday, view at Blackwater in the New Forest on Sunday, dandelion out the front on Monday, crocuses at Lakeside Country Park on Tuesday, sky at home on Wednesday, beautiful blossom against a bright blue sky and Greylag Geese and Black-headed Gull at Lakeside on Thursday and House Sparrow by the Lakeside allotments yesterday. 

At home and Lakeside and Winchester with increased days working from the office in the new hybrid working rota system in the week, with lots of exciting New Forest trips on weekends forming a nice spine to the month, its been another amazing month of walking, watching wildlife and taking photos for me. Across all the locations I had some amazing moments seeing birds this month, and in terms of numbers my bird year list is still competing with my past lists with the best totals for how many species I had seen at this stage. The calibre of species seen has been brilliant too. It has felt like the seasons are a bit ahead of themselves so far this year and February was a good month to examine that with the early spring vibes of many flowers around such as snowdrops and daffodils and blossom entering the year well as the month went on, as well as the nights drawing out a bit too. So its been a really good month for admiring flowers and taking photos of them this month for me, and it was a good month for enjoying other wildlife too. I was really pleased with a lot of the photos and the sets of photos I have taken this month wildlife, landscape and sky. Whilst the weather has been slightly more dramatic than January overall it has been kind to me this month. 

4/10/20-A red day with red fly agaric mushroom, Lesser Redpoll and Red Deers as well as a Muntjac Deer on a New Forest walk from Blackwater and autumn leaves and House Martins at home this evening 

As the rain stayed falling today compared to yesterday when it stopped as the day went on we did a walk from Blackwater in the New Forest and back taking in woodland and some more open areas. I took the first, sixth and eighth pictures in this photoset on the walk some quite atmospheric which I’ve always found Blackwater and the area around it where we walk good for especially on rainy days with lots of autumn leaf scenes nicely coloured again too. My Mum had been lucky to see some Red Deers here this week. So even if it was wet I wanted to come today to see if I could see them. As we are attempting to go to Bushy Park soon to do our usual visit to there and Richmond Park during the Red Deer rut not doing Richmond this year as it attracts more people just about I feel in current circumstances having to take this into account. We did think of doing it yesterday but thought it may be a bit wet in the end it turned nice here but I don’t know what it did in London. We are aiming now to go next Saturday unless Covid travel or any other restrictions prevent us going to a park on the outskirts of London. We’ll be socially distancing at all times anyway. But in case we didn’t I felt like coming here to try and see the Red Deers and also I have not seen them in the New Forest a strong local area for this iconic species nearly enough over the years so it was a chance to see them here. 

As we walked out in the rain the first bits of the walk were a red walk as I was delighted to come across our first red fly agaric mushroom of the year my favourites and what made me like mushrooms that had not been knocked over as we saw some uprooted ones last Sunday at Fleet Pond. Today we saw one not flat and small and the other big and flat and I loved seeing them and studying their bright colour and markings and taking pictures. Always a big highlight of my autumn seeing these. I took the second picture in this photoset of the small one. 

With not so many birds seen on the walk by this point early on it changed as I was delighted to spot a finch on the path. When looking at it in the binoculars I found it was a Lesser Redpoll and we saw it on the ground for a bit. A very special bird for me to see here. Until February I had only ever seen them at two places most usually Blashford Lakes the nature reserve with a woodland hide and sets of bird feeders on the outskirts of the New Forest until I saw some at Pig Bush in the New Forest for my first of 2020. So that’s twice in a year I have seen them in the open forest it just feels satisfying seeing nice finches out in the wild and not on feeders for a change whilst I love seeing them up close on feeders, a bird I didn’t even see in 2018 so I feel happy to have used the area to catch up with them this year and it was one of my birds of the weekend today as I really enjoyed making out its beautiful markings and lovely red bit on the head for a bit. I took the third picture in this photoset of the Lesser Redpoll. 

As we walked on we stepped away from red when we saw a minute deer on the edge of the undergrowth next to the path. We were thrilled to see it was a beautiful Muntjac Deer. It was a brief look as ever of this shy, cute and fascinating mammal but I loved seeing it. My third ever one after one in 2008 at Rutland Water and there again last August when there for the Bird Fair so my first ever in Hampshire and outside of Rutland Water. Its always a special wildlife moment to see them I was so happy to see it. What made it even more special is that it now means I’ve seen all six deer species found in the wild in Britain this year. This comes after alongside roe, fallow, sika and red this year I saw my first ever Chinese Water Deer at RSPB Titchwell Marsh in Norfolk last month I did remark at seeing all six in my life then but never did I image I would see a Muntjak this year! A great moment. And all of those mammals have helped my mammal year list onto 17 my second highest ever total now after last year’s 18. Two of my year lists along with butterflies will end as my second highest ever this year last year all four of the year lists I keep were my highest ever so with the obvious challenges and not being important in scheme of things this year two personal second places I am pleased with.

We then moved on and did get a view of a female Red Deer in the woods in front of a fence which I took the fourth picture in this photoset of, then a stag with the nice antlers and a female on the path which I took the fifth picture in this photoset of and then we walked around a bit and saw the first female with another the other side of the fence from another angle I took the seventh and ninth pictures in this photoset of. This was an amazing few moments spent with these iconic mammals and one of my favourites. I really did love seeing them and spend some precious moments watching them today. One of the best wildlife moments in the autumn seeing Red Deers during the rut and I loved watching them today. I really was so captivated by them and it made me smile so much to see some majestic Red Deers. A species I adore. 

So this meant if restrictions tighten in the next week and we cannot make it to Bushy Park or beyond in October, just like the Ring-necked Parakeets the other stars of those places which I have seen literally at home the past few weeks, I have had an amazing experience fairly (at a safe distance for them and us) close by. Richmond and Bushy Park in the rut for people like us that do perhaps more general wildlife watching and photography walks going after lots of things and whatever we may find whilst we might go to a place specifically for a species we may not spend all day looking at it or get up early often has over the 10 years now been invaluable for us because you go there and you can so easily see them in the rutting season in a fairly confined area in a city. So that’s a big part of why I love it going there getting so many photo opportunities here with the deers. But I have long known the vast and our beloved and local New Forest alongside the Fallow Deers I fell in love with here have Red Deers, for us it was just finding them which we’ve done better at as the years have gone on. So it felt fantastic getting an experience with Red Deers in the New Forest and really being able to celebrate this species in this strong place for it. Alongside the Muntjac, the redpoll and the fly agarics today I just found myself feeling very proud of and happy at seeing iconic New Forest species and so proud of the amazing area I am so lucky to call my area. 

When home I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset of autumn leaves out the front of the house. As we saw something else red, a red card for Manchester United my football team as we sadly lost 6-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, we were thrilled to see some birds flying almost right into the window and back out at the front of the house. We soon realised they were House Martins and we got stunning views of a large group all flying extremely close to the window. Such beautiful and well coloured birds. This was exactly what I had in late May out the back which I loved and today it was brilliant to see them so well again. A nice potential last experience with them before they migrate back to Africa this a regular group I have loved seeing at home and Lakeside this spring and summer and even into autumn now. Bringing to an end another fantastic weekend of wildlife, views and photos I’ve done and seen so much on two relaxing days off again. Thanks for your support this weekend.