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Week 8 - Week Beginning 12/02/24 - Foot Print Rafts, Meadow Pipits & Doormouse Boxes

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 12th  Walking along the canal was a very enjoyable walk along the canal today, I was very lucky enough to photograph a range of species including the Eurasian Siskin, Wren, with ususal suspects such as Kingfisher Egyptian Goose, Goosander and Heron. Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes). Newport, Telford, 10/02/24. Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis). Newport, Telford, 10/02/24. In the evening I attend the royal forestry talk event happening at Harper. It was very interesting talk including how trees react and a talk about natural england and forestry comission agro forestry grant schemes on how farmers can plant trees in their fields to benefit the farmer and the enviroment. On the walk back through the fields at 9pm I saw my first moth.  14th  Today the conservation society set up 3 foot print clay rafts around the Harper Adams Farm Estate to survey for American Mink or Water Vole. This was lead by lecturer Julia Casperd. Whilst setting up the 2nd Raft on the reservoir ...
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Week 7 - Week Beginning 05/02/24 - Thrushes, Finches and Mud

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 7th When walking back from setting up mink foot print rafts I decided to walk back through the Harper fields too reach Newport. On the way I spotted a variety of different Thrushes including Fieldfare, Redwing & Song Thrush. Along the walk I also noticed that there was only one Egyptian Goose in the field which suprised me as I had only ever seen them together, I wondered if one was a nest would have to wait too see. Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos). Harper Adams, 07/02/24. Redwing (Turdus iliacus). Harper Adams, 07/02/24. After a long walk back I arrived at the canal. The usual suspect species of the canal were present but when I reached the small bridge the kingfisher normally sits near I spotted a small finch like bird I had never seen before. The light was low but it had a black bib, a brown streaked breast and a dark small cap on it's forehead. I am pretty sure it was a Lesser Redpoll (Acanthis cabaret), but unforunately I didn't get a photo.  9th  I had a l...
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Week 6 - Week Beginning 29/01/24 - Spring

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30/01/ 24 Walking back from university lectures today the weather was extremely warm and sunny with it being 9 degrees celsius. I also noticed my first tree leaf shoots for the year, hawthorn in the hedgerow I helped lay on the 7th and 8th of february last year. Looking at the shoots it appears they may have been in shoot for a few days already. It almost seemed like spring. Hawthorn Shoots 01/02/24 Walking to university in the morning I got some excellent photos of a Grey Heron, Mallards and Rooks and the Kingfisher (for like the 5th time.) The lighting was perfect bright which allowed my photos to have a good level of exsposure even with a slightly higher shutter speed. It also allowed me to increase my apreture up to f 7.1 to increase sharpness. Aswell as phototgraphing the heron sitting I tried to get it taking of but I was too close to fit the entire bird in the frame. I also saw a Dunnock and the egyptian geese which I tried to photograph taking off but failed. Grey Heron (Ar...
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Week 5 - Week Beginning 22/01/24 - The Canal & Shropshire Entomology Day

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 22nd  On my way back from university I stopped and got talking with a dogwalker who said they had seen what they thought were Smew (Mergellus albellus). I thought it was unlikely but still got super excited and decided to rush home and grab my camera just in case there were Smew. The rest of my journey home would take me along that stretch of the canal anyways. As I walked through the fields before the canal I noticed the Pair of Egyptian Geese (Alopochen aegyptiaca.) Once I reached the canal I immediately saw the "Smew", whilst they weren't smew it was still a very exciting species which rarely visits the Canal. It was a pair of Goosander (Mergus merganser), also called the Common Merganser in many countries. The females of Gossander do look very similiar to female Smew. After getting home and grabbing my camera I headed back to the Goosander, along the way I got a few out of focus shots of the Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis.) Photographing the Goosander was hard, they were ...
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