It's That Time Of Year...Spring Part 1...

Spring has sprung and the grass had rise I know where the business is.... Everywhere!!! I can't seem to get away from it this time of year, Fighting, Flirting, Feeding and that’s just in my way through town but on a serious note this is just an amazing time of year to be out and about watching the birds and the babies, I just love finding a nest then sitting back in the undergrowth watching the adult birds come and go and tracking the progress and weighting for them to fledge, up to date I have never managed to see a set of chicks fledge, slightly disheartening but as long as a see chick the day before and find and empty untampered nest, it keeps me very happy, recently I have been watching 7 - 8 nest with two fledging in the last week...

I haven’t had anytime recently to keep up to date with my blogs or even spend to much time out and about, due to this I have been spending a lot more time around my local area within ten minuets or less of my house and I have rediscover my love of my local area that I sometimes take for advantage...

Since my last blog I have been working on a series of photographs that I like to think catches the Essence of early spring, I hope that you like the results















This is my favourite shot that I have taken over the last few week, I took this whilst watching this Woodpigeon collecting twigs and building a nest at Marshide...

I Really hope that you like it...



Anyway thank you for looking at my blog, sorry I haven’t been updating my blog regularly but now I have finished university I should be able to when I take the pictures,

Thanks Always Lee Harrison

Common Ground...

You would think with university over and only working 2 days a week I have plenty how time to go out and do what I wish and so did I but no, for some reason I've been so busy I have been out and about for ages, so tonight as it was such a glorious evening, I decided to have a ride around a couple of my local spots around Chorley.

I started by heading to see if the Woodpecker that I had found the other day had fledged yet but for some reason they hadn't but now the chick look almost like an adult bird, calling all the time from the nest entrance...

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

As I was watching this little cracker, I managed to catch up with the local Spotted Flycatchers, unfortunately been very uncooperative...

Spotted Flycatcher

After this I decided to have a quick walk around Birkacre Lodge to see if anything was around, and there wasn't that much around really, a Pair of Mute Swans with only one chick, a pair of Grebes building a nest, plenty of Black Headed Gulls and a single Common Turn fishing around the lodge,

Here are a few pics that I managed to snap on my way around..

Great Crested Grebe

Black Headed Gull

Common Tern

Anyway I hope that you like my blog and you will visit again,

Thanks always Lee Harrison.

An Anglesark Evening...

I didn't have much time after work yesterday, so I decided to have a quick walk around my local Reservoir with a couple of nice results, as we started the walk all was quiet, a Heron fishing in the shallow,Swifts and hirundines dancing over head a Sparrowhalk gave us a close call as it landed within a metre of us an a wall, but soon departed without chance for a photo but seen such a beautiful bird this close was enough. As we reached the opposite side of the reservoir, thing started to pick up, first we stumbled across a Woodpecker nest where we could hear the young been fed and no more than 100ft down the path, we spotted a pair of Spotted Flycatchers that appeared to be feeding there young, which would be great unfortunatly the light had started to faid now the I still managed to get a couple of record pics.:-

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Spotted Flycatcher

Bluebells

Anyway I hope that you like my blog and that you'll visit again, please feel free to leave any comments,

Thanks always Lee Harrison.

white Coppice comes to form...

I haven't had much time recently, just enough time to go down to the local patch for a few short walks... so I decided to pop down to White Coppice and see what was knocking about...

I was pleased to see that the the Cuckoo was still around although it had chosen a different home to most year and has been spending a lot of time up the Nab, the Tree Pipits have returned and I even picked up a Marsh Tit which was a nice rarity down there, a massive number of Ravens around, my Dad and Me saw 4 together at once recently and a good friend of mine saw 8 on his walk around the surrounding area, a Peregrine has been reported although I haven't any raptors apart from Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and one unidentified raptor(that we were convinced was a Falcon(see earlier blog) myself but I do remember seen them over that area when I was very young so it would be fantastic if they had come back.

lots of different animals around as well, we have managed to get close to the local Rabbits and slightly more elusive Hares but talking to the local farmer be add that most nights whilst checking his livestock, he meets the regular Fox and Badger on him land although no sets can have been found.

Here are a few pics that I managed to get on the way around:-

House Martin

Mistle Thrush

Pied Wagtail

Willow Warbler

Male & Female Stonechat

Greater Spotted Woodpecker



Tree Pipit

And last but not least, this beautiful little Rabbit that I found feeding beside a small fence:-

Anyway thanks for viewing I hope that you will visit again,

Thanks always Lee Harrison.

Local Area..

I have a trip round the local turfs today with my Dad, I havn't bin out for a week so I was up for a good day, first we started off at Marshside, all the usuals knocking around, Reed and Sedge Warblers singing in the reeds, plenty of wheatears around the sand plant and reports of a Green Sandpipers and whitethroats sings near Crossens.

Unfortunatly we didn't manage to catch up with the whitethroat or the green sandpiper but plenty of othes knocking around including 3 Little Ring Plover, and Ruff feeding infront of Nell's hide:-

Wheatear

Greenfinch

Kestrel

After we had finished at Marshside, we decided to head over Mere Sands Wood, nothing unusual around, chiffchaffs singing in the tops of trees, no sign of the Crossbills today and no Redpolls either, but we got some nice views of the Nuthatch, and buzzard as we walked around:-

Nuthatch

Bullfinch

Buzzard

After Mere Sands, we decided that we'd go home and et some tea but as soon as we'd finished, we were back out to White Coppice trying to add more to our daily tally, and we managed to add a few more, including:-

Willow Warbler

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Raven (a very nice surprise)

And last but deffinatly not least this bird?????? we thought definatly a Falcon of sum sort, we, though it was a merlin at first because of the size of it, it was tiny but when I think back to the sights we've had of the Merlin at Marshside, it seemed smaller than that. After looking at the pics and trying to find what it was, we really have no idea, it has a brown back and wing, an unmarked buff breast, not many head marks apart from a very distinct eye strip, witch if you look closley, you can see.

Sorry about the distant pics, but if anyone can tell me what this bird is please help....

Thanks always Lee Harrison