November Round-Up, Pt.2 - 16th to 30th November, 2021

The second half of November was, in terms of my birdwatching, even quieter than the first half, with my only trip out being on the last day of the month. It was not, however, without interest in the garden.

Tuesday, 16th November

Coal Tit is an occasional visitor to our garden. Sometimes we can go for months without seeing one, but at the moment we are seeing one most weeks. However, they tend to zoom in, grab a seed, and then immediately disappear to consume it - I tend to think of them as smash-and-grab artists. All this usually takes place at the top end of the garden, and I rarely manage a photo. On this occasion, one stopped momentarily outside my study window, and the camera was at the ready!

Coal Tit (Periparus ater) - garden on 16th November, 2021

Thursday, 18th November

We had been having some fine sunsets around this time, and Lindsay called me through to the front of the house to see this one.

Sunset - from front of house on 18th November, 2021

Sunday, 21st November

We had a pleasant surprise this day with the arrival of a Pied Wagtail in the garden. Whilst this is a relatively common bird, it has been a very infrequent visitor to the garden. I am not sure whether this is a male or a female, as all the reference books I have show, and discuss, males in breeding and non-breeding plumage, and females in breeding plumage, but make no mention of females in non-breeding plumage and even mention confusion over this aspect! At first I had this down as a female, but I'm now inclined to think that it is probably a non-breeding male. Comments will be welcome!

Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrelli) (male?) - garden on 21st November, 2021

Monday, 22nd November

The wagtail returned this day but was not photographed. We did, however, see Wren which is undoubtedly present more often than seen, and always a delight to behold.

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) - garden on 22nd November, 2021

The Viburnum was coming into flower and already filling that corner of the garden with its wonderful perfume.

 

Viburnum splendens - garden on 22nd November, 2021

Saturday, 27th November

One of life's greatest mysteries will be - how ever did a caterpillar get into the bath in our upstairs bathroom, when all the windows had been closed for weeks? I can only suggest that, as I had been doing some gardening over a couple of days, it had dropped onto me and I had brought it in on my clothing. I have not been able to positively identify this caterpillar, but think that it is probably the larva of a Dark Arches moth.

Dark Arches? (Apamea monoglypha?) - from the house on 27th November, 2021

Sunday, 28th November

Sadly, Song Thrush is in desperate decline and now rarely visits our garden. We did, however, have a very brief vist from one this day.

Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) - garden on 28th November, 2021

Monday, 29th November

This was a remarkable day in that, in the morning, I was greeted by snow when I looked out of my study window.

view from my study window on 29th November, 2021

Robin put in an appearance. All snow needs a Robin!

Robin (Erithacus rubecula) - garden on 29th November, 2021

Later, the skies brightened a little and the snow began to thaw. For a brief moment we had two Pied Wagtails together in the garden. I did not have time to check them out or take a photo and it didn't register whether they differed in plumage (i.e. whether the were a pair), but two together was a first.

I took a few photos of other common  birds.

Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) - garden on 29th November, 2021

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) (male) - garden on 29th November, 2021

Tuesday, 30th November

The snow had all gone and I did spend some time trying to photograph a few birds in the garden. A Pied Wagtail found my garden mini-pond. I'm even less sure about the sex of this one, and it looks a little different to the one shown earlier in this post - although that may be just a trick of the light and the pose of the bird(s).

Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrelli)  - garden on 30th November, 2021

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) - garden on 30th November, 2021

Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) - garden on 30th November, 2021

I find that Carrion Crow can look quite menacing sometimes.

I took a late afternoon trip out to the nearby Longmoor Lake in the hope of finding some owls as I have, in the past, seen both Short-eared Owl and Barn Owl at this location at this time of year. This was my only trip out in the second half of the month.

The light was already fading by the time I got to the lake at around 15h00. Shortly after I arrived, the numerous geese started to depart in groups, each group shouting their intentions to each other before departing. This is behaviour that I have witnessed many times before at the end of the day.

departing Greylag Geese (Anser anser) - Longmoor Lake

It wasn't long before they were all gone. I continued along the lake towards an area where I'd seen owls before, stopping to try and photograph a distant Reed Bunting in the lakeside reeds. It was now 15h15 and light levels made it difficult enough to find the Reed Bunting with the binoculars, let alone through the camera viewfinder. After many attempts, I did, however, manage a record shot as shown in the heavily cropped and light-manipulated image below.

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) (female) - Longmoor Lake

A little further on I found some Wigeon.
 

Wigeon (Mareca penelope) (female + male) - Longmoor Lake

Wigeon (Mareca penelope) (male) - Longmoor Lake

I did not succeed in finding any owls and so started heading back past the lake. When I was about halfway along the lake, a cacophony of sound started building up to amazing levels and, to my utter surprise, all the geese returned to the lake. This is something that I have not witnnessed before. I'd assumed that when these birds had departed, just before sunset, they were heading off to an overnight roost. I'm now wondering if they departed to find their supper, before returning to roost on the water. This image, below, is just a small part of the returning birds.

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) + Greylag Geese (Anser anser) - Longmoor Lake

This happened at 16h05 - it was much darker than this image would suggest! Ten minutes later it was dark enough that I had to use my head torch in order to pick my way back to my car without stepping in dog excrement, although I have to admit that this unpleasant factor was not as bad as on previous visits.

 

Thus ended a month in which I largely relied on my garden to maintain my wildlife interest. So far, in December, I have not fared much better, and the run-up to Christmas is not likely to improve that situation. However, the garden has been rather more interesting than usual, so I already have enough material for another blog post, which will probably appear between Christmas and New Year as I intend to take a short break from blogging, although I will try and visit your blogs.

In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that 2022 will bring some sanity to the world for us all - please take good care of yourselves and Nature. Best wishes - - - Richard