2 out of 3 Cant be Bad

Adult male Lesser Scaup.

I joined up with the regular birding crew of Michael and Dan Booker on Saturday 18th and we headed to South Wales with 3 target birds to try and see , the main bird was of course the 1 st winter Common Yellowthroat which had taken up residence at Rhiwderyn  , we arrived on site at 7am and after sliding into place in the field car park we set of to try and see it , the weather was overcast with quite strong winds with a light drizzle , so not ideal warbler watching conditions , birders had staked out various hedge rows and by 10 am there had not been even a sniff of our main target bird , we gave it another hour and the weather had got a lot worse , the rain was becoming heavy and the wind had become stronger and we were feeling just a bit dejected to say the least , we decided to head off to Cosmeston Lakes for the adult male Lesser Scaup and within minutes of arriving we were soon on the bird , this was a lifer for both Mike and Dan and a very welcome year tick for me , we watched this bird for quite some time getting very good views this is the 4th Lesser Scaup i have been lucky enough to have seen and by far the best views i have had of one .

Lesser Scaup note the high peak at rear of head.

When then headed off to Cardiff to try and relocate one or both of the Bonaparte Gulls of which the first winter bird was found by David Campbell the previous day , great find David . However we were abit unlucky with the tide as it was still out and there was only a handful of gulls and sadly no Bonapartes , we added 3 Bullfinch and Michael located a single Chiffchaff here which was good to see plus we had 3 Fieldfare fly through , we got soaked to the skin here as the weather was showing no sign of improvement , we got back to the car dripping wet and were pondering what to do next ??? then the pager bleeped and Michael shouted Common Yellowthroat  has just been seen , so without haste we were off heading back to Rhiwderyn , we arrived on site only to be told the field was flooded and we had to park somewhere else , i dropped Michael and Dan off and i found the new parking area and made my way back to the promised land , oops i mean field ...lol

1 st Winter Common Yellowthroat .

Well i no sooner joined the gathered crow of birders waiting in anticipation of the Yellowthroat  making an appearance than i heard  'tacc' then this incredible warbler made an appearance , quite stunning , the bright yellow throat and undertail coverts were striking , its partially facial mask was evident , what a stunner it was quite breath taking to be honest , this was not a lifer for me as i had seen one on Scillies in 1997 , but that bird was alot further behind in its plumage and was abit more distant and only seen through my scope , however this beauty put on a show for us all to enjoy .

You can see the bright yellowthroat and face mask .

Sorry about the poor quality of the photos Michael will have some better pics on his blog which is well worth a look when he has updated it .  http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ .

Happy Birders .

This was a truly amazing birding experience and a special thanks must go to the local birders who organised this event and the land owner who allowed us to explore his land , a final look for the Bonapartes was without success however we went home very happy , thanks to Dan and Michael for there company on this special day.

A very icy Oare Marsh

East Flood.

This was the view from the road of the East Flood at Oare Marshes today , almost completely frozen over , i have nt been out for a couple of weeks mainly due to work and weather conditions , this was my car ankle deep in snow last weekend .

My snow covered car last weekend .

So it was nice to be able to put in a couple of hours at Oare today , there was a large gathering of ducks in the middle of the East flood where there was only a small amount of water not frozen over , these mainly consisted of Shoveler , Mallard , Teal and large numbers of Pintail of which there was approx 50 birds .

Mixed flock of ducks .

I drove down to the sea wall from here and was soon scanning the mud flats and the Swale , lots of Dunlin , Redshank and Avocet with lesser numbers of Curlew and Grey Plover , several gulls were moving up and down the Swale although i did nt see anything out of the ordinary amongst them , i decided to walk along the sea wall towards the sea hide and was followed along the path by 3 Rock Pipits which were busy looking for food along the rocks to my left , there were a couple of Meadow Pipits here and there plus a female Marsh Harrier was busy flying around the reed bed and East flood unsettling the ducks every so often.

Avocets on the mud flats .

 I continued my walk along the sea wall adding a very cold looking Turnstone to my year list and also i picked out in the distance on the Swale a male Red Breasted Merganser which brightened a dull day , i scanned the whole area not adding much more other than a few thrushes searching desperately for food plus a tiny Wren put in a brief appearance , poor little thing hope it survives the snow and ice , i decided to head back to my car and took anther look over the East flood before heading home for a welcome mug of hot chocolate .

Grey Heron on a very icy East Flood.

Oare Marshes and My Garden

Pintails.

I had a very pleasant couple of hours at Oare Marshes this afternoon , i was hoping to see the Little Stints but got the tide completely wrong as normal ...lol , the East flood was fairly quite with just a scattering of waders  mainly Lapwing plus Grey and Ringed Plover with a couple of Common Snipe here and there , a female Marsh Harrier drifted over the flood and spooked everything , there were plenty of Pintail and Shoveler with lesser numbers of Pochard and Teal .

3 Black Tailed Godwits.

I decided to check the waders out by the slip way and was delighted to see good numbers of Dunlin and Black Tailed Godwit , still no Little Stints though , i scanned across the other side of the Swale where i was really pleased to see the Rough Legged Buzzard over Mocketts farm where it stayed most of the time i was there , it was mobbed by a Peregrine at one point which was great to see , now here is a dilema , can i count the Rough Legged on my Oare list ??? although i was at Oare the bird was on Sheppy , answers on a post card please ....lol i also added Avocet here which is always nice to see .

Wood Pigeon on my garden fence.

When i got home there was this smart Wood Pigeon on my garden fence and a could nt resist a couple of photos .

Spanish Delights in Hampshire

Male Spanish Sparrow.

I team up with Michael and Dan on Saturday 14 Th and headed down to Calshot in Hampshire for the now TV and newspaper famous Spanish Sparrow , we joined the already assembled birders at about 7.30 am and as luck would have we stood in the right place as after about 20 mins the Sparrow appeared although not very well right in front of us , after about 10 minutes it eventually climbed through the hedge and appeared out in the open for all of us to enjoy , it was also calling which sounded very much like House Sparrow to me , i have seen plenty abroad but this was a very welcome British tick for me , a really striking bird . chestnut crown , white cheek patches and delicate small white supercillium , the upper breast and flanks were heavily streaked black , it has breed with the local House Sparrows as there are 2 or 3 hybrids around .

Spanish Sparrow.

The Spanish Sparrow stayed in the bush for a while then flew over the road to another bush where it showed well before flying off to the locals gardens , we then went to the village hall and tucked into some bacon sarnies and a hot mug of tea , if only all twitches were this good !!!!  , On our way back to the car Dan picked out a Peregrine perched on top of a distant tower , so with a spring in our step we headed off to Hawkhill enclosure in the New Forest .

Dark Eyed Junco . 1st winter male.

Our target here was the Dark Eyed Junco , we were onto the bird as soon as we got there however the views were very brief at first , we bumped into Nick and Russell .G. at this site and they had already had some good views of the Junco , they were just about to head off for the Sparrow so we said our goodbyes , after about an hour we had some really good views of the Junco both on the ground and perched on top of a dead tree , there were several Common Crossbills here which showed well at times plus at least 3 Goldcrests and approx 25 Reed Buntings along with several Chaffinch , Great and Blue Tits , we had a good time at this site before we headed off to Blashford Lakes , we called into these lakes to hopefully see the Ferruginous Duck , we arrived at the South Hide and were almost straight onto the bird , it was sleeping for the first few minutes then it sprang into life in pursuit of a female Pochard even displaying at one point , these are smashing ducks , lovely warm chocolate brown plumage with a striking contrast with its white undertail coverts and very noticeable white eye.

Drake Ferruginous Duck.

We did not add much more from this hide other than a fine distant Green Sandpiper , we decided to check out the woodland hide which was truly amazing , they have set up lots of bird feeders and a host of finches and tits plus Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch put in an appearance .

Siskins on one of the feeders.

Michael has got some smashing photos on his blog which is well worth a look http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ , this is a really smashing reserve , we added several species here including 6 Goosanders , Goldeneye , Little Grebe and good numbers of Wigeon , Teal and Pochard.We then had a short drive to Harbridge for the herd of wild swans , we saw 1 Whooper Swan and 6 Bewicks's Swans mixed in with lots of Mute Swans . 

Cattle Egret.

Our final destination of the day was on the way home when we popped into Warblington for the long staying Cattle Egret which like everything else today showed well , it showed a little bit of buff colouration on the crown which you can just about make out in the above photo , there were at least 6 Little Egrets here , just like to thank Michael and Dan for their company on this great day out .

  

Dungeness .....RSPB , ARC and Fishing Boats.

2 male and 1 female Shoveler.

One of the best sites in Kent in winter in my opinion is Dungeness , it has a mixture of most species and winter ducks are normally its speciality , although this winter is so far very mild there were plenty of winter ducks around just you had to work abit harder to find them , i no sooner reported into the RSPB visitor centre , where i had a close view of some fly by Shovelers , when i then bumped into Chidders and Adam , we teamed up and then headed off to check the Makepeice hide , this did nt produce much other than the expected ducks although there were good numbers of Pintail and Eurasian Wigeon with a scattering of Goldeneye mixed in , we decided to head off to the Arc Pits where Chidders and Adam had seen some good birds earlier , we started off looking from Hanson hide but yet again it seemed fairly quite and little was seen from here , although there were good numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover plus we had just missed a Peregrine fly through  although a smart Sparrowhawk sat in a nearby bush was a good alternative , smashing bird to see . We then headed off to view the ARC pits from the road and were instantly rewarded with some cracking views of two Great White Egrets , i cant remember ever having seen two birds together in the UK before and from what i can gather there is a third bird here as well .

One of the Great White Egrets in flight.

Really enjoyed looking at these Egrets , there were plenty of Little Egrets around plus several Grey Herons were dotted about , at one time there were Great White Egret , Little Egret and Grey Heron in the same scope view and it was good to be able to see the size differences . 

Great White Egret .

We checked out the rest of the ARC pit hoping to connect with Smew  and after a short while we were soon onto a stunning male Smew and 4 Redheads which were hiding away up a small channel , excellent birds to see , there was another Redhead showing distantly on the other side of the road , Chidders had to head off home so after saying are goodbyes Adam and myself decided to head of to the Fishing boats for the gull roost , we were just about to go when another birder came along wanting to see the Smew , we tried to put him onto them but as luck would have it they had gone out of sight , Adam then got onto a Kingfisher which landed briefly in a nearby bush , having checked my records i have seen them in the Dungeness area before but not that many so this was a very welcome bird to see.

Kittiwake.

After arriving at the Fishing boats we walked to the sea and had some really great views of Kittiwakes which seemed to be zipping about everywhere , there were impressive numbers of  Guillemots and Razorbills both on the sea and flying by with several birds in full summer plumage !!! there were several Great Crested Grebes on the sea but no sign of our target birds , we walked along the shore line checking the gulls as we went then decided to head back further inland to check out the gull roosts and after a quick scan Adam picked out the 2w Glaucous Gull at the back of the roost , smart !!

 Glaucous Gull , sure there is a funny caption that could go with this photo ..lol

Glaucous Gull going for a walk.

After a good amount of time here we headed back to the RSPB reserve to try for the Long Tailed Duck  a quick stop at Boulderwood farm produced a healthy flock of 20 + Tree Sparrows .

2 Tree Sparrows.

Then after a short scan from behind the Dennis hide we were soon on to the Long Tailed Duck which was a little to distant for a photo . 

New Year Gets Underway..........In Norfolk

Great Grey Shrike . Fakenham.

I joined up with Michael and Dan on 1st January and we headed to Norfolk for another look at the Western Sandpiper which Michael did not see well enough to tick the first time we saw it in December , an uneventful journey saw us arrived in Cley at about 7.45am and the year listing begun in earnest , several species were added on our way to the hide and by 8.10 am Dan had located the Western Sandpiper with a small group of Dunlin , we had the hide to ourselves for several minutes and enjoyed prolonged views of this small wader which Michael was very pleased about , all credit to him for for ticking it on the brief views he had before , there is a photo on Dan and Michael's blog http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ , my photos were to awful to post ...lol 

From here we headed to Titchwell in the hope of connecting with the Redpoll flock and we were on them almost straight away , now Redpolls are always a bit of an id challenge ( in my opinion ) but we had a really good view of the Coues Arctic Redpoll , pure white rump was very evident and its overall white plumage stood out along side its rather dull companions , we also had at least one Mealy but there may have been more as the flock was constantly on the move and were quite high up in the canopy most of the time . Here is a photo of the bird i saw on Shetland in 2011.

Coues Arctic Redpoll , Shetland 2011.

We added lots of finches to our year lists here such as Greenfinch , Goldfinch and Chaffinch plus several Robins put in an appearance , we then headed of to Fakenham for the Grey Grey Shrike and were very fortunate to get some really good scope views , Michael actually saw it take a mouse , i noticed the shrike showed alot of white in the wings in flight but the face pattern looks like normal Great Grey Shrike . We enjoyed the shrike for awhile before heading of to our final destination at Ranworth broad for the  female Ring Necked Duck which Michael and Dan both needed for their life lists ,  we arrived on site in good time and after a 5 minute walk we were at the visitor center and scanning hundreds of ducks which mainly consisted of Pochard , Tufted Duck , Teal and Wigeon , its was not looking good until a birder who was further to our left picked it out near a fine male Goldeneye , it did nt take us long to get on the bird which is very distinctive .

Female Ring Necked Duck , note the pale crescent on flank .

Ring Necked Duck with Pochard.

The face and beak pattern are very distinctive , white face patches and broad white band on bill with black tip , the head shape has a high peak at the rear of the head which is very noticeable , so not a bad start to the year , as ever like to thank Michael and Dan for their company.