A Cheeky Visitor...

On the bird table!

Sunday Down The Vale

The sun was out this morning after a few days of what was at times torrential rain, so I decided a first visit for a couple of weeks to the Vale was in order.

I had a very pleasant morning photographing some of the more common, but none the less photogenic species.
There are certain species that a lot of photographers overlook because they feel that they are too common and therefor not very exciting.
I've never fully understood this logic because even the most numerous everyday species can be an excellent subject if you capture it doing something unusual.

A point in case maybe is this shot of a Black-Headed Gull from this mornings session.
He wasn't doing anything other than standing on a post overlooking the main Mill Pond, but I still fired a few shots at him anyway...He was fairly close and you never quite know what you will get.
After a few seconds the Gull opened his beak as wide as he could to yawn and I managed to capture this portrait which I'm sure you will agree is a lot more interesting than it would have been if he hadn't of yawned!
One nice thing about photographing the more common birds is a lot of them are used to humans and quite often are even curious of us.
This Blackbird seemed to be the curious type...

It's actually quite curious to why certain animals are curious of us and when you point a large lens at them ,some run in fear and some come for a closer look.
Like this Grey Squirrel...

It was a day of curiosities and this normally very shy Magpie was on the cautious side of curious and spent a full five minutes edging closer towards me, stopping every now and them to assess the situation...

Feeding Grey Squirrel

Because I have championed the plight of our native and fast disappearing Red Squirrels on many occasions, it may seem unusual that I also have a soft spot for their American Grey cousins.

Red Squirrels have sadly been vacant from my local area for 30 years or more and the Grey Squirrel in that time has been a regular and for me welcome sight.

The 'Tree Rat' as it is called by many of the local unbelievers is a truly wonderful, charismatic and very cheeky creature that is always a pleasure to watch.

I spent 5 minutes yesterday watching this Grey performing all manner of acrobatics while feeding on berries in a Hawthorne Tree...

Fighting Back!

Some heartwarming news reported in the press this week concerning one of England's most endangered mammals the Red Squirrel.
Our true native Squirrel has been a very rare sight in recent years because of the Squirrel Pox virus which is carried by the non-native and now far more widespread American Grey Squirrel and is confined to only a handful of locations in the north of the country.

One of those locations is Formby Point on Merseyside and I told you back in February about the desperate plight of the species there and at the time the situation look very bad indeed.

Well I'm very pleased to say, that I and many others underestimated our Reds and these little beauties are staging what can only be described as a miraculous comeback at Formby.
Numbers dropped from around 1000 to only 100 or so Squirrels in 2008, but a culling of Greys and the quarantining of infected Reds has seen the Formby population double in the last two years.

There's also good news for Welsh Reds as well, with the population booming on Angelsey and the Greys now all but extinct on the Island.

Grey Day

Yesterday, I took a walk through the woods at Brabyns Park in Marple, Stockport.

The River Goyt runs through the woods which leads to a nice varied collection of wildlife.

The area is renowned for hosting all three species of British Woodpecker as well as Tawny Owls and Woodcock.

On the river I got fleeting glimpses of a male Kingfisher, as well as a Dipper and a pair of Grey Wagtail...Unfortunately non of the above were in range of my lens.

In the woods there were the usual common woodland birds, but for some reason my attention was grabbed by a rather curious Grey Squirrel...

Now, I'm not quite sure what to think of the Grey Squirrel aka The Tree Rat anymore...

I'm a strong supporter of the native British Red Squirrel and I used to have a lot of ill feeling towards the imported American Grey for carrying the pox which has led to the decline of our little Reds.

Sadly, barring a miracle I feel that we may be fighting a losing battle when it comes to saving the Reds in England at least and sooner or later we may have to accept the Grey as our only resident Squirrel...It's a crying shame but I now think it is inevitable.

I spent about 15 minutes watching at close quarters the Squirrel yesterday and as I watched, my feelings towards the species dramatically mellowed in that short time...

After I first spotted him, I put some bird food down on the ground and watched as he curiously peeped around a large oak at the bounty.

After a while, slowly and surely he crept down the tree occasionally stopping to have a quick peep at me.

Within a few minutes, he was on the ground only a few feet away, feasting without a care in the world and not the slightest bit worried about me pointing the camera at him.

His initial nervousness and mannerisms were identical to that I have observed with Red Squirrels in the past, although the thing that struck me most and perhaps even saddens me a little is how much more trusting this Grey seemed to be compared to his Red cousins...I'm slightly saddened at this because considering both UK species of Squirrel, the Grey is the one that really should be most fearful of man.

The Wirral

A bit of location hopping on the Wirral side of the Dee Estuary this morning...

First stop was Burton Marsh and apart from the presence of 5 very distant Little Egret, the site proved unusually disappointing.

Next it was one of my favourite places and an often overlooked gem...West Kirby Marine Lake.

I arrived as planned at high tide and despite a low bird count and a very choppy sea which threatened to engulf the path that circles the lake, I managed to get close views of Redshank, Dunlin and a single camera shy Turnstone!

The highlight of the day was the drive back towards Parkgate, where I got a real treat, with a very close view of a Red Kite flying along the side of Telegraph Road just north of Heswall.

Parkgate itself was very quiet apart from a further 4 Little Egret and I was disappointed to learn I'd missed the Spoonbill yet again!

Finally it was back to Burton, but this time Inner Marsh Farm.

Hen Harrier and Ruff were just visible at the far reaches of the marsh, with Shelduck and Teal a lot nearer to the hide.

I couldn't resist a shot of this cheeky Grey Squirrel...

The most pleasing event at Inner Marsh was the sound of a very early Cuckoo calling from the woods close to the car park...Although I couldn't see the bird, I was more than happy to hear it because it's the first I've heard in several years!

Spring is here!

Formby & Marshside

A 100+ mile round trip to a couple of my favourite haunts proved more than a little bit disappointing today.
If you were to believe the weatherman and unusually I did today, then this part of North West England was just about the only part of the country to be promised long periods of sunshine!

My first stop of the day was Formby Point, where the first couple of hours were spent on a fruitless search for the last remaining Red Squirrels, which although said to be making a slow recovery from the devastating Squirrel Pox Virus, numbers could be as low as 40.

It really is a heartbreaking situation in one of the last remaining 'strongholds' for the species in England and the speed that the disease has spread is frightening.
Here is a photograph I took of a Red at Formby in late March 2008...

On that day, there were dozens of Squirrels seemingly in good health, all around the pine woodland.
I returned in February 2009 and on that cold winter's day the situation looked dire, with notices posted around the site and wardens telling me that no Squirrels had been seen for weeks.

I suppose you have to put your faith in the experts when they say things are improving at Formby, but after visiting the site on a number of occasions in happier times and witnessing the situation twice as it is in the last 12 months, I can't help feeling no small amount of despair at the plight of the Formby Red Squirrel.

My quota of the promised sunshine was used up in the heavily shadowed pine woods at Formby and by the time I had walked the woodland path to the sand dunes and the sea beyond any evidence of clear blue Sky's were long gone!

Coastal bird life was very quiet...Small groups of Oystercatcher and Knot passing overhead looked unremarkable against the dark grey Sky's.

On the shore I was expecting to see Sanderling and Dunlin at least, but had to settle for the odd Herring and Black Headed Gull.

I wasn't overly optimistic when I got in the car and headed up the coast to Marshside on the southern tip of the Ribble Estuary.

Marshside is perhaps my favourite RSPB Reserve and has been good to me over the years, but sometimes you just get that feeling that it's not going to be your day...

Large numbers of wildfowl were as usual present at Marshside, but rather frustratingly from a photography point of view the birds seemed to favour the far reaches of the Mere!

Teal and Wigeon were in abundance, but these birds which would be regarded as 'prize spots' at my local patch are as common as Mallards at this time of the Year in this part of the world.

As I've mentioned before, my 'buzz' is to get the photograph and although it was a pleasure to see a distant Merlin 'raise' large flocks of wildfowl far across the Mere, I still left Marshside on a bit of a downer.

When in this part of the country, I usually always visit Martin Mere as well as Marshside...These two great sites are only a few miles apart, but as the grey sky's became heavier, the first drops of rain fell and already very cold from a biting sea breeze, I decided to call it a day.