Cuckoo in the nest

A few weeks ago I was privileged to witness something that I consider to be a true wonder of the natural world and something that I had never witnessed before, a Cuckoo chick being fed by its' adopted parents. In this case the parent was a Reed Warbler which was extremely attentive, feeding its' oversized offspring every five minutes or so.
The Reed Warbler does not question its' weird looking youngster and the Cuckoo chick knows that it is a Cuckoo, indeed it will fledge and then fly to Africa knowing where all the other Cuckoos go and then return to start the process all over again. The Reed Warbler will breed again the folowing year and probably raise Reed Warbler chicks, never once thinking that these young look different to the bird they raised the previous year.
A true case of nature over nurture.

Black Terns at sunset

Black Terns at Baston and Langtoft gravel pits, Lincolnshire

A few ropey 'record' shots showing a few of the 6 Black Terns that were present on 'T'-junction pit at the Baston and Langtoft gravel pit complex, 2 juveniles and 4 adults. These birds were forced down by the rain (hence the grainy/gloomy shots), but as soon as the rain lifted, so did the birds. These birds represent the first 'multi' sighting of this species by yours truly and the first in the PBC recording area this year.

Hopefully you will see in the photos the birds' different plumage, showing what is left of the black plumage on the adult birds and the 'cleaner' appearance of the juvenile birds.

Barn Owl on a post

Willow Warbler

Nothing says 'Spring' to me more than the Willow Warbler.

Pink foot

I haven't visited Grummit's Scrape, a small site close to the village of Baston just over the border in Lincolnshire, but still in the PBC recording area, for a long time, but yesterday I made amends.

On arrival, I noted that the sun was shining right in my face, not ideal for seeing anything much, but I persevered. There wasn't an awful lot present, a few Coot having a tussle, some Mallard, Mute Swans and a couple of dozen Wigeon were all seen and duly noted. The most numerous bird present were the geese, Greylags, with a farmyard goose moulting from white to grey and a rather strange looking Canada Goose. Whilst scanning the flock a couple of smaller looking geese appeared from behind a bank and revealed themselves to be Pink-footed Geese, not a major rarity, but nice to see in a land-locked area like ours. After a while a third appeared, very nice.

Below are a couple of shots, digiscoped and hand-held with the bridge camera, but as I have already said, the light was not ideal. (What is the saying about a bad workman blaming his tools?!)

Digiscoped effort

Above and below the bridge camera efforts. The picture above shows one of the geese with a potato stuck on its's bill.

Black-necked Grebe, take 2

I paid another visit to Baston & Langtoft gravel pits today to see if the Black-necked Grebe was still present and also if I could get some slightly better shots of it.

The bird was present, but frustratingly elusive, constantly diving and `going missing` for 15-20 minutes at a time. I did manage to get a few reasonable digiscoped images of the bird, but am still not 100% happy!

The Black-necked Grebe is a smallish bird, smaller than a Moorhen. An extremely scarce breeder in the British Isles, with only about 50 pairs breeding here, they are specially protected at all times with their breeding sites permanently monitored. A stunningly beautiful bird in breeding plumage, although in Winter the bird loses the gold `ear tufts` and brown on the side and becomes basically black and white. They still have that piercing red eye though.

A lovely bird to bring my PBC year list to 170.

Black-necked Grebe

It has been a while since I have added anything to my PBC year list, but with the finding of a splendid Black-necked Grebe in almost full breeding plumage yesterday I have hit the 170 mark, 1 more than my full total for last year.

Josh Jones found this bird on his local patch of Baston & Langtoft gravel pits yesterday evening, although with other commitments I was unable to get there until today. The bird was showing very well, but the light was awful, giving the `black and white` images below.

If the bird is still present tomorrow I may go back as the forecast is slightly better. Meanwhile, click on Josh`s blog above for some better shots of this splendid bird.