Birding with 'Statler' and 'Waldorf' at Warnham NR

Yesterday I found myself at Warnham Nature Reserve, a beautiful little reserve on the outskirts of Horsham in West Sussex. I've been there several times before and always enjoyed the place. It has the best large bird feeding station situated in a clearing with a golf course edged by scrub and trees on one side and a long sheltered hide on the other. It offers great views of the birds without disturbing them. In early February last year I saw my first Brambling at Warnham, pottering around the feeders without a care in the world. I also had great views of Redpolls and Siskins. Unfortunately we weren't so lucky yesterday, but sitting for hours in the hide isn't about 'birding', it's more about trying to get some lovely natural and close up photos.

 

So who are 'Statler' and 'Waldorf' ? Are they two more birds that I've nick-named like I have with Burt the Bittern or the Marmite Parakeets ? No. They are my new names for the two old farts who I went to Warnham with, my old muckers Fewy and Scally.

 

Some people would listen to them rambling on and comment they are like two little old ladies, but that would be an insult to little old ladies. They are just like the two characters from The Muppet Show who used to sit in their balcony, shouting abuse at the rest of the Muppets. As Wikipedia quotes 'They are two disagreeable old men who heckled the rest of the cast from their balcony seats', and that is ohhhhhhh soooooo true.......But without them my day would have been kind of boring. The banter between them on the journey there and back, and whilst at Warnham, was so entertaining I could often do nothing but listen with a bemused smile on my face.

 

 Numbers were evened up though when their friend joined us, the lovely talented Maryla, who is very much on our wave length when it comes to photography, bird knowledge, humour, sneaking off for a fag and who also shares cake in the hide. Fewy provided the coffee (in giant flasks as the café is temporarily shut) and as he was told to, both Scally and Fewy provided the fantastic dry humour and all in all we each had a pretty good day.

 

 

As always none of my photos are going to win any prizes. When I go out, I tend to take photos to capture a memory and to share that on my blog posts. The others all have fantastic photos from the day out, but as this is MY blog, you'll have to make do with mine....

 

The most noticeable, noisy and numerous bird yesterday was the colourful Goldfinch. There were loads of them, all centred around the feeders on the far left. It was hard trying to get a photo of one of them away from the feeders (for the more aesthetically pleasing photo) but I managed one eventually....

 

 

There was also a small group of Greenfinches around. Only three seen at any one time but they were also focusing more on the feeders on the far left....

 

 

Warnham has got to be the best place to get a close up view of Nuthatches. They feed on the chopped off stumps, on feeders, clamber up down and trunks and on the ground. As I so rarely see any at my own patch I do get a bit over excited when I see them so clearly elsewhere. So here's a mini over-load.....

 

 

  

 

 

Reed Buntings are another bird I don't see on my patches anymore (though I did have a 'moment' with an obliging female at the LWC on Saturday), so here's a couple of photos of winter plumage males.....

 

 

 

It's not just the little birds that take advantage of the feeders. Ground scattered food also brings in Pheasants....

 

 

Mallards....

 

 

Song Thrushes....

 

 

Dunnocks...

 

 

 and several Robins...

 

 

We also spotted at least three Redwings throwing up leaf litter right at the back, but they were very flighty and didn't come out in the open to have their photos taken.

Blackbirds were also around in very good numbers. Mainly males (some noticeably smaller than others with that distinct darker bill that indicates they aren't 'locals') along with smaller numbers of females who were more aggressive than the males.

 

Chaffinches were also present in big numbers. I couldn't get any decent photos but the one below made me smile, and I couldn't resist adding the speech bubble. Sorry !

 

 

 Back in the trees we had the usual Great Tits....(caught this one in mid jump)

 

 

Long-tailed and Blue Tits...

 

 

and the lovely Coal Tit, who despite showing many times I just could not get a decent photo off, so you'll have to make do with this crap one of the bird feeding on the 'totem pole feeder'...

 

 

 A visit to the feeding station would not be complete without the appearance of the Great Spotted Woodpecker......

 

 

 

 It was very cold yesterday, and despite being so wrapped up I could barely move my arms, head or neck, my feet still felt the chill quite badly though so I had to move around just to stop the numbness in my toes. Of course this then involved having a sneaky fag outside of the hide and it was whilst Fewy, Maryla and myself were doing just that when Fewy caught sight of our first Treecreeper of the day.

 

Now this is a bird that really does get me excited. I have only ever seen one on my patch and that was several years ago. I have seen them several times at Kensington Gardens but never managed any distant shots. They are so agile that by the time you've got your camera lens on to them, they've already moved up the trunk. But this one was a bit more obliging, and even though I nearly fell over backwards trying to focus up the trunk, I at last managed two half decent photos....

 

 

 

We were soon back in the hide sheltering from an ever chilly wind, and the Treecreepers must have felt the same. We had three more sightings of the little brown lovelies popping up all over the logs and tree trunks within the feeding station area.....

 

 

 

 

I could have gone home happy with that yesterday, but there was more....

 

Around the totem pole feeder we kept seeing a little Bank Vole or two. I managed some distant shots with my 300mm lens, but nothing that made me happy.....

 

 

Right in front of the hide was a moss and lichen covered log. It was partly covered with seed and we soon found out why. There were several Bank Voles in that immediate vicinity who were taking full advantage, but you had to be ducking quick to catch one....

 

 

The four of us hardly left that hide yesterday. We did pop down to the Heron Hide to see if the Kingfisher was around (it didn't show for me or Fewy but Scally saw it) but as we were all content with a relaxed non-pressured day just taking in the sights that the fantastic bird feeding station was offering, we were more than happy to stay in the same place.

 

I know Warnham has more to offer but I've yet to walk the full circuit. I have made it half way round before and seen Hobbies skimming over the marshes in summer, and seen Roe tracks in the mud around the board walks in autumn, but to me when someone mentions Warnham NR it will always be the feeding station and hide that springs to mind.

 

A great day out with fantastic like-minded company. One I wont forget in a hurry.

A ducking good day at the London Wetland Centre....

Picture this: It's a frosty cold but sunny day. The lakes and ponds are iced over. The trees are bare of leaves. Bitterns and Water Rails are searching so hard for food that they are performing 'Dancing on Ice' out in the open in their attempts to find a patch of water that isn't frozen over.

 

Nice picture eh ? All week this was what I was picturing in my mind for todays visit to the London Wetland Centre. Did it happen ? Did it duck !

 

It was cold today. I was wrapped in several layers, along with my new owl hat, snood, lined boots and long gloves. But by the time the centre opened all of the main lake and most of the ponds were un-iced over. Despite visiting every single hide by 11.00 not one Bittern nor Water Rail had been spotted. In fact the high-light of my morning was spotting the lesser-seen Gary of GG Wildlife fame. I haven't seen Gary for months and we had a nice catch up including putting the world to rights (we're very good at doing that). Before I go on with the rest of my day here's the link to GG Wildlife Flickr page. If I don't post that, GG might not talk to me the next time I see him !

 

If you like Herons, then today was certainly a day for seeing them. Several were posing nicely.....

 

 

 

 

The clear blue skies made for some nice flying Mute Swans shots....

 

 

But the good light also made for some lovely duck photography.

 First up were the funny looking Shovelers, with that huge bill that makes you wonder if they get a sore neck carrying it around......

 

 

I wasn't happy with this first photo, the position of the light didn't justify the birds colourful plumage, so I hunted around until I found another male in better light......

 

His portrait was so much better I decided to use my newly found Flickr edit tool (Aviary edit - Splash) to highlight his feathers rather than distract his image from the green duckweed little stream he was on.

 

My next subject was the lovely Teal. As with most ducks, it's the males that are brightly coloured and the females that are drab. The male Teal has exceptional colouring and detail in it's feathers. My photos do not do it justice, but I tried....

 

 

and then I found another male that deserved the Flickr Aviary edit tool - Splash......

 

 

From the Peacock Tower I spotted three Pintails, one male and two females.....

 

 

A little while later the male chose to swim closer for a better photo...

 

 

In todays good light even the common Tufted Ducks looked splendid....

 

 

and I caught a Wigeon looking at me in a curious way (must of been the 'owl' hat....).....

 

 

After having myself a good old ducking time but still not being able to find a showy Burt Bittern, or in fact any Bittern at all, I had already planned the title of todays blog. I was going to call it 'Bittern Blindness at Barnes'. Almost every hide I had been in to I had been told I'd 'just missed one', or 'one had just flown off' or 'look there's one' and frequently 'look there's two' but despite having the same equipment (ie: binoculars) I just could not see the Bitterns. They certainly weren't 'dancing on ice' as I'd dreamed they would be all week ! I've heard of 'beer goggles' where you see something that isn't attractive as very attractive when you've had a few beers. Well today it was 'bittern goggles' and I must have been the only one that had left them at home. Even with kind and patient observers pointing out landmarks and directing me north, south, east etc from those points, I still could not see what they were seeing and I soon wandered off feeling a complete Burt failure.....

 

I consoled myself with a small flock of Long-tailed Tits that perched nearby....

 

 

and spent a beautiful 15 minutes in the company of a female Reed Bunting, who was hopping around on a patch of flattened reeds eating grassy seed heads. She was so relaxed that I was able to sit just a couple of metres away from her. It made me get a cold bum, but well worth it, and after all I do carry extra insulated padding in that area.....

 

 

 

 

I treated myself to the usual pricey lunch after that, and even contemplated going home. It just didn't seem to be my day for seeing a Burt Bittern, but I pushed myself to do one more lap and eventually found myself in the Dulverton Hide where a group of hardcore birders had seen a Bittern. I found myself a bench space, and half heartedly scanned the area they were watching. After half an hour the sun suddenly high-lighted the outline of a distinct Burt shaped Burt as it crept nearer the waters edge. You didn't even need bins to see it. The golden outline was viewable to the naked eye. But it wasn't as easy to photograph. This Bittern wasn't by the side of the hide, it was right over the other side of the main lake !

 

Poorly taken crap-focus photos followed, but even though my spirits were dashed by a distant Bittern rather than an all singing and dancing one, they were lifted when I was able to show the elderly gentleman by my side where the Bittern was using much more easier descriptive terms than 'north, south, east'. My words of 'look to the right of the last cormorant on the right hand side' and his exclamations when his bins first focused on the Burt was enough, and his gratitude more than made up for it.

 

So here's our Burt. Just look at the red arrows......

 

 

 

I didn't exactly get what I wanted to get today, but who cares. That's what happens when you expect too much. I had a good day out. Seeing GG was a bonus, as was bumping into RPM (Richmond Park Michael). The light was great for getting some other photos and I had the bonus of spotting this flowering Hellebore on my way out...

 

This is what happens when you find a new photo editting tool !

When I get home from a day out watching nature, I have a routine. If I haven't already done so on the way home, I sit down with a glass of wine and a smoke, and go through my photos on my camera. Any that were out of focus or missed the subject completely, I delete. Any that look promising I upload to my laptop. Then, accompanied with another glass of wine, from the laptop I then delete any duplicates and start thinking about what will look good on my blog. And I then, along with another glass of wine, start editing my photos. Finally I post my photos to my blog and start writing it up. By this time, as you might have guessed, I'm half pissed. And with Queens Greatest Hits 1 or Blink 182 playing in the background and the days memories still fresh in my mind, I let my fingers loose on the keyboard and a waffling blog post soon follows.

 

But I'm now in a job that only sees my weekends free. My days of blogging during the week have gone........or have they...? This is a one off weekday blog post !

 

I've also had the disadvantage of my laptop 'dying' on me back late last year, so am currently using a friends 'notebook' pc. It's not mine so I haven't uploaded the editing Sony software that I was accustomed to......

 

Earlier in the week I discovered a new editing tool on Flickr.

 

I only post photos on Flickr that I feel are good, so naturally I don't post very often, and have probably neglected this invaluable editing application. On Monday I found some free time to really explore the Flickr website, despite being a paid member for over five years.

 

 It was quite a revelation ! I accidently found the most brilliant editing tool. I never even knew Flickr provided this service. It doesn't only provide me with my usual editing (cropping, sharpening etc) but also has several additional features. My favourite is an app called 'Splash'. Using this I found I could turn my photos monochrome but then highlight my chosen subject in colour.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I wondered how the same application would look on a human.....

Luckily I have some very photogenic family members to practise on.....

 

from the original photo I cropped and sharpened Beths original picture and concentrated the Flickr 'splash' edit tool to highlight the colours on Beths face and hair above....

 

 

With Lynsey and Debras photo above, I used the 'splash' edit button to monochrome the background and stand out the two main subjects in colour....

 

 

And with Ali's photo above, I concentrated the edit tool to high-light her photogenic face and hair...

 

After discovering this new editing application, there was really no stopping me....

 (as in Queens track number 7)

 

Literally......because I then discovered there was a 'text' edit app.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, for me, that was the next batch of blog cards made, sorted and ordered....

 

But then I had my next surprise.....

 

 I found out how to take a screen shot.

 

 From many I can already hear the 'scoff' sounds, but honestly until today I didn't know how to...

and my first attempts were....

 

 

and then I thought regular Cranford Parkers might appreciate this........

 

 

and from hours making that, I then decided to make one for my old patch, Lake Farm, too....

It's not a place I visit so often now. Despite various reassurances the site is not so populated as before the new school building went up.

 

 

They were made using both the Windows 8 Paint app and Flickr 'Aviary' edit.

 

But one other good thing did emerge from me discovering this Flickr edit tool......

 

Way back on a gloomy June day in 2013, Nathalie (the Fulham and Barnes peregrines Godmother) and myself went looking for the juvenile called Buster, who had disappeared after fledging.

 

 We found ourselves on a hospital ledge during our search............and after looking all over the prospective ledges below and across any potential sites, we never did find what happened to him. But at being at such a height we were on one memorable occasion, treated to an impromptu child game of catch from his siblings Amy and George. I never published my photos at that time, they were so dark and unsuitable...but with playing around with the Flickr edit tool at least one of the photos of them has become visible...

 

 

Never give up.