Wildlife on the Gironde estuary - Our first garden Snipe

As my old thread is still locked up I thought I'd start & new one. New home, new thread, new forum!!

Since moving in we've been really busy but here are a few photos taken along the way, these are a pair of Gland weevils, up to something naughty on the moth trap,

a Shield bug (for Rockwolf, where is she?) ,Pantilus tunicatus,

A flight of storks passing over on migration, someone asked me once, how do you know a bird is on migration "Does it have it's suitcase with it?" & they are quite right, most of the time it's circumstantial evidence,

& a local stork flying around,

meanwhile, whilst insulating the roof space I found this perfectly dried Garden dormouse (male!) which obviously died a horrible death from poisoning,

a Robin on the overhead cable, they don't come too close;

This is it's & our view of the estuary marshes,

A spider visiting the moth trap, Hogna radiata,

A burying beetle, Necrodes littoralis, also around the moth-trap

& a hornet, who wasn't agressive fortunately,

a Migrant Hawker on the marshes,

some Great White Egrets,

Cattle Egrets (probably), sitting on the fence,

& finally another Spider around the moth trap, Xysticus sp,

I'll try & finish this update later. Thanks for looking.

  • Awww, lovely photos captures of the tiny Goldcrests, they are a delight to see any time of the year as they constantly flit from twig to twig.    

  • Very nice Hazel, hoping to see some at LM this week but the little devils need to stay still for a moment :)

    Jim

  • Thanks all, they are lovely little birds & because there were several when one went around the otherside of the tree there was always another to follow. You have to be quick though! They never stop!

  • You did well capturing those quicksilver birds Hazel, I have seen them on a couple of occasions but don't think I managed any photos.

  • Well we've had some very cold weather lately but compensated for by a rush of unusual birds. We don't normally put the feeders out until January but they've been out a couple of weeks now. A few of our recent garden birds

    We've had 3 members of the Thrush family perched in or close to the garden, the Song thrush is regular (especially on Sundays which is a big hunting day)

    The Redwings arrived on the 28th November with up to 6 at the same time

    & the Fieldfares arrived this morning, 3 of them perched in the Walnut tree, first for 5 years

    we also had Greater spotted & Green woodpeckers recently.

    The usual birds have been coming down to eat

    & wash their feet, or would have done if it hadn't been frozen (-3°C this morning)

    The Dunnock has been poking his head out from under the bushes

    & around the trees & feeders are the Great tits & Blue tits

    There has been 1 Brambling going around with the gang of House Sparrows

    The Chaffinches & Greenfinches eat mainly on the ground whereas the Goldfinch seems happier on the feeder

    However the highlight has been the arrival of Hawfinches, we had one a few days ago & yesterday came close enough for some decent photos

    cleaning his beak on the bark

    then this morning a female turned up & ate one of our new mealworms on the feeder

    then she joined 2 males eating cherry stones that had dropped from the tree in the summer (we had a glut & they rotted on the tree, this is the male

    Yum yum

    down it goes

    meanwhile the female went into pose mode in the tree

    & finally our male Black Redstart is still hanging around, he didn't migrate with the others

    The Robin is on the pastry thread & the Blackcap has just turned up so watch this space!

    All photos taken through dirty double-glazing so Sorry!