What's buzzing or flying near you 2022 ?

They may just look like farm Geese but these are White Fronted Geese from Russia taking advantage of our mild Winters. The 'white front' refers to the white around the bill.

 

There is just one Whooper Swan in Dorset, hundreds in the North and West, here for the Winter like the previous Geese. in the company of a few Mute Swans.

 

The birds are feeling the cold. Chaffinches, Goldfinches and a couple of Greenfinches and Robins. Oh and a Blackbird - there's a group of nine or ten that turn up together when I first fill the feeders and scatter some on the slabs beneath. It's difficult to keep them clear of snow though. About a dozen Long Tailed Tits come to feed on the fat balls together, either first thing or at dusk.

 

Just a few Guillemots!

 

Spoonbill no27 coming in.

 

We have a regular visitor to the garden. At first, we thought he/she was a tame escapee but now we are not too sure. Bunny has been absent for a few weeks but yesterday he/she returned and today spent a good time in my patch of garden. I managed to get a couple of photographs but the poor light and the fact they were taken through double glazing rather detracts from the quality.

 

Two stunning winter visitors on Poole Park lake today, both males. Goldeneye and Red Breasted Merganser. The long thin bill is serrated enabling it to keep hold of slippery fish.

 

The geese are on the move here with quite a number flying over. That's a lot earlier than usual.

 

Some of the wildfowl in and around Slimbridge last Thursday.
Bewick Swans.




Barnacle Geese.


Common Cranes.




Water Rail, shy and elusive.


Golden Plovers in the evening sun, just a few of over 1500.

 

Meadow Pipit and Skylark feeding together in the beet fields.




A very vocal Rook.


Great White Egret, 20 years ago, a rarity, now a fairly common bird.


Heron, fed up with all the Egret attention!

 

@strongylodon , I’ve not visited this thread before , it’s amazing , some very good shots.
You would love it around our neck of the woods , the Somerset levels.
We have some great days out walking and cycling .
Re. Egrets ,l have an old bird book which has them down in the “ rarely seen “ section , and on the levels we see cattle egrets , great white and little . As you say , quite common now ! .
How do they differ from herons ?.

 

@Tomcat, We went through the levels last week on our way to Slimbridge stopping at Ham Wall
(to see the rare Ring Necked Duck) and going through Westhay there were over 250 Cattle Egrets in two fields. These Egrets were rarer than the Great White but it seems they may have come from France and there weren't any cattle there either. They have only started breeding in the Avalon marshes recently. Herons and Egrets are similar and in the same family. Egrets have plumes down their backs in breeding season, Herons are normally grey or blue (US) Egrets predominantly white although there is the Reef Egret which can be grey and there are Green and tricolored Herons in the US, confused? I am.

Ring Necked Duck, looks like a Tufted without a tuft but is a North American vagrant.

 

I shall be having a restless night. This bird is the first I've seen of it's kind. Sorry for the pic but it was almost dusk when it showed up. I have never been a good photographer but I tried hard to get a clear shot. I thought it might be some sort of juvenile tern but I am 1,500 miles from the ocean. Lake Ontario is hugs but Worried it's lost as it looked like it kept calling out for Mommy in between eating. The picture is deceptive. It is quite large. About the size of a grown and overfed Canadian robin.

 

Did you count them Clive?