Mark's Project Miscellany

Jack of all trades, master of none. Will include woodworking, photography, bird watching, knitting, perhaps chemistry and music, and combinations thereof,

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Fantastic to see this spotted flycatcher less than a mile from home. Bird 141 of the year and lifer 197...

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Definitely ‘record shots’, but another lifer today - Black Tern. On patch as well!

#140 of the year.

#196 on the life list - just 4 to go for 200!

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 As birdwatching projects go, this was certainly my biggest unresolved one - see a Dotterel! I live near Pendle Hill, which these days is as famed for its Dotterel passage as it was for the witches. Dotterel are creatures of habit and will favour the same migration routes every year, and so are a fairly reliable sight on the summit of the hill. For 3 springs now I have been climbing the hill early in the morning as soon as the local grapevine has alerted me to the presence of Dotterel... and seen naff all. This year, I climbed the hill twice a day for 5 days in a row, which while doing wonders for my fitness didn’t yield any Dotterel! With this year being a particularly wet spring, it’s possible the Dotterel chose to migrate through the lowlands, with only 5 individuals reported on the hill so far this year. I gave up on the hill. It just so happens that I had a trip to the highlands of Scotland planned, but with other species in mind - Golden Eagle, Ptarmigan and the like - but with this also being the Dotterel’s breeding grounds, I was hopeful of catching up with them. Not as romantic as seeing them on my doorstep, but I’d take it! We were up near Frazerburgh searching for Wood Sandpiper (tick - lifer #16 of the year, bird #132 of the year) when a text came through from the local grapevine - 3 Dotterel in a field not half a mile from where we were staying! We made the snap decision to abandon our White Billed Diver quest (it was far too foggy to see them anyway) and headed back, parked up next to the other twitchers, and lo and behold, there they were! Two females and a male looking absolutely splendid.

And the story doesn’t end there - the next day we climbed a Munro on Deeside, with the primary aim of Ptarmigan. Just as I approached the summit, with nary a Ptarmigan to be seen, I spied a pair of Golden Plover on the summit itself. A few other plover-like birds were scurrying around, and I assumed they were Goldies too. A couple of birders were approaching on a different path and we had a quick chat about our failed Ptarmigan hunt - they’d seen loads of course - and they headed off towards the summit to check out the Golden Plover. As we headed back to where these guys had seen the Ptarmigan, we heard a whistle from behind, and the other birders were waving at us - the other plover like birds were in fact Dotterel! 2 females and a male again, with a female preparing a nest right in the middle of the path... The romantic idea is that these are the same birds we saw the day before, but as these ones were due south west of the others it seems a bit unlikely. As they were preparing to nest we gave them a wide berth - after having a quick chat with some dog owners whose doggos were not on leads! Luckily they were happy to comply, especially after the saw where the birds were nesting. Dotterel - lifer #18 of the year, bird #136 for the year

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The first woodworking project on here may not be particularly interesting, well constructed or easy on the eye, but it’s functional - a warped and otherwise useless bit of plywood turned into a little platform to capture some of the mess the goldfinches make as well as an attempt to provide somewhere for the bullfinches to feed. It kind of works I guess. Luckily, we don’t have much of a squirrel or cat issue round here.

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My newest hobby, photography, goes hand in hand with one of my first loves, ornithology and naturalism. There’s a little nature reserve just down the road from where I work, and I’ve started taking my camera with me. This week I got a special surprise, these tawny owl chicks were staring down at me from a almost stereotypical hole in a dead tree trunk! The adult owl was keeping tabs on me from another tree. Lovely to see in broad noon daylight. I’ll be keeping tabs on how they do over the next week or so. They were also bird #121 for the year.