Kent birding adventures

Oare Marshes and My Garden

2012-01-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-07T12:28:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-06T15:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2011 REVIEW......Best and Worst Bits

2011-12-28T03:41:00.000-08:00

Sandhill Crane photo by Joseph Nicholls

Firstly i would like to do a few thank yous , To Mike and Dan Booker for putting up with me during most of my birding trips this year ( how do they do it ?? ) , to local patch watchers such as Martyn Wilson , Mark Chidders , Marc Heath , Murray Wright and David Campbell to name just a few , for whom we all owe a debt of gratitude as with out the dedication of patch birders we would not see as many species as we do so a big thankyou to them .

Greenshank on Scillies .

Well back to the review of 2011 , every year i set out to try and get one new species for each month which i rarely achieve although i did come mighty close this year :

New Species for 2011 : 11 which are :

1. PACIFIC DIVER at Penzance in Cornwall 1st January.

2. RUFOUS TURTLE DOVE at Chipping Norton Oxon 19th February. 3. SLATY BACK GULL at Rainham Marshes 20th February.

4. TRUMPETER FINCH on Lundy Island 21st May.

5. GREENISH WARBLER at Warren Wood in Norfolk 27th August.

6. PALLID HARRIER at Burpham in West Sussex 23rd September.

7. SANDHILL CRANE St Combs in Scotland 24 th September.

8. BLACK HEADED BUNTING on Unst Shetland 29th September.

9. NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH on St Marys Scillies 29th October.

10. WESTERN SANDPIPER at Cley Marshes 10th December.

11. SIBERIAN STONECHAT at Wells Wood in Norfolk armchair tick.

Iceland Gull in Suffolk.

I have been lucky enough to have many highlights this year , also achieving a lifetimes ambition in going to Shetland , this was a truly amazing experience and i am hoping to go back in 2012 , i have also met some amazing birders this year and made many new friends which only enhances the whole experience of birding , of course there are always downsides to birding ie : the dips and i have made some spectacular ones this year , here are the ones that hurt the most ..... lol

Number one dip for me has to be the White Throated Robin in Cleveland , i don't normally get to affected by gripping but this one hurt big time , i have always wanted to see one and with work commitments meant i could not get there til the Saturday and by that time most if not all my birding buddies had connected with it , and of course it had gone over night on the Friday ( sob .... sob.... ) totally gutted , tired and a 5 plus hour drive home didn't help plus some stunning photos just about finished me off, other dips included White Winged Scoter , Black Scoter, Great Snipe ( Twice ) and Scarlet Tanager ( Twice ) , so its not all glory .

Black Guillemot Lerwick Harbour Shetland.

If i had to choose the bird that gave me the most enjoyment and relief this year it would have to be the SANDHILL CRANE near Aberdeen , this was such an amazing bird to see and made a long journey worth while , achieving my 60 th wader species in the UK is another highlight , i can still remember sitting down Pegwell Bay when i first started birding way back in the eighties looking at a wader species for over an hour trying to work out what it was , no scope in those days plus my first set of bins were 20 x 50 , the wader turned out to be a Black Tailed Godwit and i was hooked .

Northern Long Tailed Tit at Dymchurch.

I have seen some very good sub species this year including Northern Long Tailed Tit , these were delightful to see and a sub species i had longed for , i also saw the Northern Harrier at Thornham in Norfolk and i feel this has a very good chance of being split some time in the future fingers crossed , plus of course the smart looking Eastern Black Redstart which was a great find for Barry Hunt .

Eastern Black Redstart.

My 2011 year list stands at 276 and this is the second highest year list i have achieved in nearly 30 years of birding , i always keep a year list but never set out to get huge year lists , i am not that competitive , so that just about sums up 2011 and i am already looking forward to see what 2012 might turn up , thanks for taking the time to read this and i wish everyone a bird filled 2012.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

Just like to thank everyone who has visited my blog this year and to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .

60 UP............... Norfolk Stars Again

2011-12-11T04:17:00.000-08:00

Lapwings .

I teamed up with Dan and Michael on Saturday 10 Th December and we set of for Cley Marshes at 4.30 am in the hope of seeing the Western Sandpiper , we arrived in good time just as the pager informed us that it was still there showing from Pats Pool , great we parked up and headed to Pats pool , we got into the first hide No birders , went to the second hide and instantly realised we would be looking into Sun , and there was only one birder in this hide and by which time we had a small following of birders behind us , the guy said " its showing from the hide over the other side of the pool , so without haste we ended up in our third hide in about 10 minutes , Phew !!!! and within a minute or two i was straight onto the first winter Western Sandpiper i quickly got Dan and Michael onto the bird , it was with a small flock of Dunlin , now i am no expert on " Peeps " but the features i did notice were the following : the rather long thin bill was evident ,as were the white breast patches , the lore's were white and there is a small whitish super behind the eye , rather long legged , the crowned appeared faintly streaked , the overall profile reminded me of a very small Dunlin, and is a very welcome lifer which brings my wader list in the UK to 60 , we watched it for a short while when a all of a sudden a Peregrine flew through flushing everything into the air , although most of the birds settled back again the majority of small waders flew off to safer grounds and we did nt see the Western Sandpiper again in next 3 hours we spent there , however it did re appear later in the afternoon when we were on our way back home . Sorry for lack of pictures as i spent most of my time trying to pick out features on the bird however there are a few photos on various blogs and on Surf birds :

http://www.surfbirds.com/

Green Winged Teal.

We did see this Green Winged Teal which was quite distant but showed well through the scope and was a welcome year tick for us all .

Green Winged and Eurasian Teal .

There were very good numbers of Golden Plovers Dan made a count of 500 + and there were an equal number of Lapwings ( see top photo ) , there were lesser numbers of Black Tailed Godwit , Redshank and Avocet where Michael counted 16 birds , we did not have long here as i had to get back home as i had other arrangements in the evening however we had a good time with lots to look at , we did see a female Marsh Harrier on one of the banks.

Marsh Harrier.

And we also had very close views of this fine male Pintail which is one of my favourite ducks.

Male Pintail.

And then it was time to head home , just like to thank Mike and Dan as ever for their company .

Chew Valley Wader Show.........

2011-11-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Birders viewing from Herriott's Bridge.

A trip to Chew Valley Lake in Somersett on Saturday 26 th November produced a truly wader spectacle , i picked up Dan and Michael at 6 am Sat morning and we arrived at 8.45 am and joined the already assembled birders along the bridge , see above photo , thanks for the use of your photo Dan , our main target bird was the juv. Sharp Tailed Sandpiper and we did not have long to wait , it was quite distant but very good scope views were obtained , the white supercillium especially behind the eye was very noticeable , the buff tinged breast was also very noticeable , we bumped into Nick and Russell .G. who were quickly onto the bird and this was a new species for Dan and Michael plus new for Russell as well and a very welcome year tick for both Nick and myself . Sadly i did nt get any photos as the bird was to distant and was quite flighty .

Nearby Grey Wagtail.

On the other side of the bridge there was an adult winter plumage Spotted Sandpiper which showed every now and again , my best views of this were in flight , Michael also picked out a close Grey Wagtail, later in the morning the 2 Long Billed Dowitchers were seen and once again to distant for any attempts at photos , there were hundreds of Pochard , Tufted Duck , Shoveler and Teal plus we saw 3 Bewicks Swans , Russell picked out a distant Peregrine which was good to see .

Dan , Michael and myself decided to head of to Blagdon Lake to try for the Ring Necked Duck so we said our goodbyes to Nick and Russell and headed off there via the visitors center where we tucked into pastie and chips and got our permits .

Male Red Crested Pochard.

We had no luck with the Ring Necked Duck but did add this smart Red Crested Pochard to my year list we also saw a smart Long Tailed Duck and female Goosander which we added to our days total both birds found by Michael , we spent about an hour here and also added Slavonian Grebe and a lone Roe Deer then we decided to go back to Herriots Bridge for another look at the Sharp Tailed Sandpiper , we got some more distant but good views of this plus i re located the two Long Billed Dowitchers which were by a massive looking Black Tailed Godwit in size comparison , on the way home Dan picked out 2 Red Kites which added to the earlier count made 5 in total today , a really enjoyable day with top quality birds and company too . The only downside was not getting any photos of the waders in question today , David Campbell who went the week before us has some photos on his blog which is well worth a look http://devilbirder.blogspot.com/ , I managed a couple of photos of a Black Headed Gull and a Mute Swan during the day.

Black Headed Gull.

Mute Swan.

Thanet Way

2011-11-22T01:46:00.000-08:00

Not much to report over the weekend , i had planned to go for the Blackpoll Warbler in West Kent but decided to wait on news before making the trip , however the news come back as negative .
Now back to the Thanet Way , on my way to work yesterday i had a really smart view of a female Merlin flying fast and low across the Thanet Way between the St Nicholas and Monkton roundabouts and later in the day on my way back i had just passed Whitstable when a really graceful Barn Owl drifted pass in front of me and landed on a post . smart .

Eastern Black Redstart........ In Margate

2011-11-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Eastern Black Redstart.

I popped down to Margate Sunday morning to have a look at the Eastern Black Redstart ( form Phoenicuroides ) and what a really smart bird to see , according to Uk400 website its the first confirmed record of this race in Britain , as i said a really smart bird and totally different in overall plumage to Black Redstart , according to the experts in this field its the separation in primary feathers that clinches it as a Eastern Black Redstart plus i believe it was confirmed after some droppings were taken and the DNA from this confirmed it . Here are some more photos :

It seemed to be feeding well.

There were a few other birds around and i managed a photo of a normal Black Redstart for comparison .

Normal Black Redstart .

Thornham........Desert Wheatear

2011-11-13T07:17:00.000-08:00

Male Desert Wheatear.

I picked up Michael at about 7.30 am on Saturday 12th and we headed to Thornham in Norfolk and the hope of seeing the male Desert Wheatear that had been showing well on the beach and we were not disappointed , it showed very well for the whole hour or so we were there , this was a new species for Michael and was a very welcome year tick for me , here are a selection of photos i took :

Eating a meal worm.

In flight note pale buff rump and black tail.

Doing a little stretching.

We ended up at Salthouse and saw an amazing flock of 109 Snow Bunting which is the largest flock i have seen of this species and was a fantastic sight to see , Michael took the time to get a photo and printed it off and counted them , hopefully i will be able to post a picture on here soon.

Stodmarsh .........Glossy Ibis

2011-11-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Glossy Ibis in flight.

I spent a couple of hours at Stodmarsh this morning in the hope of seeing the Glossy Ibis and to catch up with the recent sightings of Water Pipit from the Marsh hide , on my way around to the hide i bumped into the regular Stour Valley birders Martyn , Adam and Chidders , it was great to meet up with them as i often neglect local birding when i am of in pursuit of some far away rarity , they informed me that the Glossy Ibis was still on view from the Marsh hide and they had up to 16 Water Pipits whilst they were there , so after saying our goodbyes i headed off and once in the hide i did a very quick scan and could nt find the Ibis , had it flown off or walked behind some reeds ?? then all of a sudden it flew in from behind the hide and landed right in front of the hide only to be flushed by a very close Marsh Harrier , i did not get a photo as it was to quick but managed a flight record shot ( see above ) and i got a couple of the Marsh Harrier .

I then checked out the pipits in flight which were spooked by the Harrier and counted at least 10 Water Pipits plus several Meadow pipits , eventually they all landed out of sight although later in the morning 3 Water Pipits flew out of the grass onto the mud but were abit distant to try even for a record shot , however the Glossy Ibis had re appeared at the back of the pool.

Feeding.

This is a really smart bird with light buff speckling on the nape , it had a curious feeding motion in the way it constantly opened a shut its bill at a very fast rate , great bird to see . Other birds of note were 3 Fieldfares , Common Snipe , Sparrowhawk and a fly over Siskin , there were several Cettis sounding off here and there plus 3 Bearded Tits pinged their way across the reeds .

So which is Best .... Shetland or Scillies ? Theres only one way to find out ..........

2011-10-30T03:00:00.000-07:00

Tresco Isles of Scilly.

Well having been lucky enough to visit both Shetland and Scillies this year the question i have been asked which is better ?? I first visited Scillies way back in 1988 and have been back on and off since then , probably around 8 or 9 times and i have seen some wonderful birds and made many life long friends on my visits , the birding in my opinion is totally different on Scillies compared to Shetland , having said that i only have been to Shetland once , however its plain to see that on Shetland you need a car to get around as the mainland is much bigger then you think where as on Scillies you are on foot basically all day long which can be up to at least 10 hours per day .

Most reliable mode of transport for Scillies.

Cost wise there is not alot in it to be honest , getting to Scillies by helicopter is the most reliable way but quite expensive , the Skybus plane is abit cheaper however they don't always fly if the weather is particularly bad and then of course there is the Scillion ferry which i used this year , its by far the cheapest way to get across to Scillies and there is always the chance to bird from the ferry ,highlights this year being Storm Petrel , Great Skua and a pod of Common Dolphin however if the sea is rough and you don't have good sea legs it can be quite an uncomfortable voyage plus the crossing takes the best part of 3 hours and if there is a mega on offer it can be quite frustrating .

One of the headlands on Shetland.

Getting to Shetland was pretty straight forward , flying from Gatwick to Aberdeen and getting a connecting flight from Aberdeen to Sumborough , although the Sandhill Crane in Aberdeen did throw a spanner in the works this time ...lol . getting around the mainland easily was only possible with a hire car and the birding was quite different to Scillies , the habitat on Shetland is far more barren and the areas that you check were anywhere there was any cover i.e peoples gardens which looked good for migrants , where as on Scillies there is so much cover for birds to hide and feed all over the place , on Shetland there are isolated pockets here and there .

North west of Lerwick .

The social side on Scillies is really great and there is an evening bird log from the Scillion club where you can get food and a pint to celebrate your days birding , plus the use of CB radios to give out bird sightings or ask for any news works really well , on Shetland as far as i know none of this exists so its always worth exchanging phone numbers with other birders you meet so any news gets passed around , this method helped me connect with Lesser Grey Shrike , Little Bunting and Red Breasted Flycatcher on Shetland this year .

Grey Seal.

Getting to the off Islands on Scillie is very easy , the local fisherman have this well and truly worked out with daily trips to most of the other Islands , i must admit i found this very frustrating on Shetland , where access to the surrounding Islands is not easy , if a mega breaks on an off island you have little or no chance of getting a ferry or plane to them as they are almost always fully booked , i would have liked to have visited Fair Isle but there were no flights available all week !! still that is the only downside of Shetland and with a little more research and planning on my part i might be able to solve that problem .

Well to sum it all up i cant really decide which is best , they both have their own magical appeal and i will have to visit both again to help me decide ...........lol

Scillie Break..........

2011-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

Northern Waterthrush.

Using up my last 3 days holiday i decided to spend a long weekend on Scillies as there was some quality birds on offer , i picked up the regular bird crew of Dan and Michael on Friday evening and we ended up in Cornwall at about 7 am Saturday morning , we tried for the Scarlet Tanager which had been seen at St. Levan but with no success , we boarded the Scillion and had a rather up and down voyage , about half way into our journey i picked out a Storm Petrel riding the waves only 2 other birders got onto it , sadly Dan and Mike who needed it missed out this time , not long after i was soon onto a Great Skua which we all saw this time .

News broke of a Scarlet Tanager on St Marys which i also dipped , a real error on my part as i decided to head off after about 30 mins looking for it , which proved to be a bad decision as it re appeared after i left and showed quite well all but briefly then disappeared never to be seen again !!!!!

Northern Waterthrush.

However i did see this stunning Northern Waterthrush , which is a new species for me , very cramped viewing from the Shooters pool made viewing difficult and tempers were shall we say a little short at times , the Northern Waterthrush showed quite well for a time in the back pool and the first feature that stood out were the massive supercillium , it was constantly tail flicking , i managed much longer views later in the weekend from the ISBG hide in Lower Moors where i had scope views , this is my fifth new world warbler species and made the trip worth while on its own.

Upland Sandpiper.

This very obliging Upland Sandpiper was very impressive to see near Borough Farm , i saw it on a couple of occasions over the weekend , very thin necked with a ping pong ball sized head , black tipped long yellow bill and central crown stripe were evident as was its long yellow legs , i have now seen 3 Upland Sandpipers and all have been on St Marys .

Note Central crown stripe and thin neck.

We also managed to see 2 Olive Backed Pipits at Watermill Lane , which showed well at times , sadly i never managed any photos as they kept walking out of sight into the furrows in the field , these were a new species for Dan and Michael and a welcome year tick for me.

Wilsons Snipe.

Common Snipe.

Wilsons Snipe.

We also managed to catch up the Wilsons Snipe from the ISBG hide on Lower Moors and it showed really well at times , much plainer in overall appearance than Common Snipe , the braces are almost white compared to the yellow braces on Common Snipe , the barring on the flanks and underwing are the key id features . We also had a very close view of a Greenshank from this hide.

Very close Greenshank.

Other birds of note from this trip included 8 + Black Redstarts , female Merlin , adult winter Med Gull and a quite close White Rumped Sandpiper on Porth Hellick beach .

Black Redstart.

On the return journey on the Scillion on Monday evening we added another Great Skua and several Gannets which Russell picked out on several occasions , plus we all saw a pod of Common Dolphins very close to the Scillion , i would just like to thank Michael , Dan , Nick , Russell and David for their company over the this amazing weekend.

Grey Phalarope at Reculver

2011-10-19T00:51:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to see this stunning Grey Phalarope at Cold harbour Reculver on Saturday 8 Th October , it showed really well and did not seem bothered at all by the closeness of fellow birders .

Shetland Last Day ... Plus Aberdeen

2011-10-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Yellow Browed Warbler.

Day Seven Final Day on Shetland 30 TH September

Well Our final day on these magnificent Islands was yet again a wonderful experience , we started of on an organised flush in the hope of seeing a Great Snipe which proved to be unsuccessful although 10 plus Common Snipe were seen , we then headed of to Sumborough Hotel to try our luck with a Red Backed Shrike that had been seen there on and off for the last couple of days , after some searching Dan managed to locate it and some decent scope views were obtained , Dan and Michael have some photos on their blog : http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ , whilst looking at the Shrike and scanning the Bay Michael called out that their was a small warbler near the Red Backed Shrike on the fence then had flown down into the grass , i scoped the area and all of a sudden a smart Yellow Browed Warbler re appeared on the fence and was flicking its wings and tail trying to ward of the Shrike which was in the same scope view , smart !!.

We then went of to Quendale to try for the Pallid Harrier that had eluded us all week , although after the great views of the Sussex bird last week we had other priority's , anyhow we arrived near the farm buildings and were soon onto the bird , this bird is an oiled bird and the flight seemed quite cumbersome and spent quite abit of time grounded , in flight the lovely Rufus / orange underparts was evident , and the tail and facial markings were very prominent, we also had several Whinchats and Wheatears here. we did nt add much more to the day except the usual Hooded Crows , Raven and a few more Black Guillemots .

Black Guillemot.

Raven.

Very close Peregrine.

The sign says it all.

Drinking Horse.

Our Transport .

And that ends the trip report to Shetland , hope you enjoyed the adventure and thanks for taking the time to read it.

Oh nearly forgot Aberdeen

Sandhill Crane Photo by Joseph Nicholls

We managed to see this on our way to Shetland and would like to thank Joseph Nicholls for the use of his photo , his photos of the Sandhill Crane were published in the Sunday Express as well as the local paper and was photo of the week on Birdguides , here is a link to his flicker page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephbirdphotography/ .

And finally we were also treated to a very short view of the Semipalmated Sandpiper on the Ythan Estuary before our flight back to Gatwick .

Shetland.....Next 3 Days

2011-10-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

Long Tailed Ducks.

Day Four on Shetland 27 Th September

Once again the day started of at Boddam in the south and more or less the first bird we saw was found by Michael , it was a really active Yellow Browed Warbler , this was a really smart bird and was zipping around everywhere , a good find by Michael , there was also a male Blackcap in the garden , from here we headed of to Sumborough and had distant views of 2 Long Tailed Ducks , we called into Vikerie beach and were soon enjoying Sanderling and a Curlew Sandpiper , other birds noted were Arctic Tern 20 + , Red Throated Diver and a summer plumage Great Northern Diver , we then moved onto Sumborough garden where Michael found another Yellow Browed Warbler , then we were alerted to news of a Little Bunting showing well on Whalasy so without any time to spare we headed of to catch a ferry onto Whalasay , we saw Gannets from the ferry.

Gannet.

We met up with Ashley Powell and Dan Pointon on Whalasay and followed them to the site and within minutes we were enjoyed really great views of the delightful Little Bunting i have seen several over the years but this was my best ever view down to less than 5 feet at times .

Little Bunting.

Other birds of note seen today were female Merlin , Ruff and new for the trip Chaffinch at Grutness.

Day Five on Shetland 28th September

Red Grouse one of nine birds seen.

We started the day at Girlsta which is slightly north of Lerwick and our target birds were Red Grouse we drove along the road with moorland either side of us stopping and scanning every few yards and we then reached a point that looked like a good area and within 15 minutes we heard then saw a Red Grouse in flight very briefly , Dan managed to locate it and distant views were obtained , as we were heading out of the moorland Dan spotted a small party of Grouse on a hillside and another 8 birds were added to our total and these were much closer , we headed of to Yell to try for some more Otters and on our journey we saw a Moorhen along side the verge , once on Yell we were treated to 2 Great Skuas which showed well at times.

Great Skua.

Other birds of note on Yell were Garden Warbler , Black Throated Diver and Gannet. We decided to try for better views of the Couse's Arctic Redpoll which we only really saw in flight earlier in the week and we were not disappointed , it showed very close and even dropped down into the grass at times .

Couse's Arctic Redpoll.

The undertail coverts were completly un streaked as was the rump which appeared huge in flight , we then headed of to Urkridge to hopefully see the adult male Surf Scoter and although it was quite distant we had good scope views , the white nape and huge bill was easily seen .

Adult male Surf Scoter.

Day Six on Shetland 28th September

Black Headed Bunting.

News of a first winter Black headed Bunting on Unst yesterday evening had made our plans easy today we arrived at the ferry terminal for the 6.45 am crossing to Yell we then had to race and i mean race the length of the island to the ferry crossing which took us to Unst , the ferry only held about 4 cars and we just made the fourth spot , we arrived at Belmont house and the Black Headed Bunting was on view and in the bag , wow a really smart bird even though it was a first winter , white eye ring , white median coverts caught my eye straight away , then it flew up on to a stone wall reveling its yellow under tail coverts , in flight the tail was all dark with no white at all , it was quite a large bunting and is a UK lifer for me .

Black Headed Bunting note white median coverts and Yellow under tail coverts.

Thanks to Dan and Michael for the use of their photo of the Black Headed Bunting on stone wall , the photo of the Bunting near the chimney stack i was taken by yours truly lol.

We also had some super flight views of a Bluethroat at a different location which the name escapes me but was nt far from Belmont house , we spent the whole morning on Unst and came away very happy , we called into Laxo on the way back had some more excellent views of the Lesser Grey Shrike

Lesser Grey Shrike.

Our final destination of the day was Boddam and we saw 10+ Twite and some close Grey Seals.

Grey Seals

Sandhill Crane in Aberdeen .....Plus First 3 Days on Shetland

2011-10-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

Black Guillemot

After driving through the night to Aberdeen on 23 rd / 24 th September Dan , Michael and myself arrived at St Comb at about 7.45 am , our target bird was of course the adult Sandhill Crane , unfortunately we only had a two and half hour window before we had to drop of the hire car and get to the airport to catch a plane to Shetland for a weeks birding holiday , well we heard that the crane was on show at the nearby rspb reserve so after dashing there we met a load of cars heading out and were given the news it has left its roost and was heading to its favoured field ,we did a very quick u turn and headed back to where we had come from , NO SIGN ....Aaagh , time was against us and things were looking pretty bleak , we were just scanning the fields when we noticed a few birders rushing back to their cars and we were soon told the crane had been seen just the other side of the fields , we shot around to the area and were greeted with the news which was negative , Michael and Dan decided to head off over the fields to check a different area and i was busy fixing a hose from the exhaust pipe into the car ( only joking ) . anyhow we all got split up and i was busy chatting to some Scottish birder when i noticed Michael and another birder running and Michael waving his arms saying he had got the Sandhill Crane , wow i don't normally run for birds but i did for this stunner , it was fantastic to see slightly smaller than Common Crane , grayish overall plumage with traces of buffish brown in wings and striking red forehead , this was a new species for me and i have to say it has to be one of my top ten birds of all time . Sorry for lack of photos as my camera was all packed away , wow we had half hour left and what a great start to the holiday .

Day One on Shetland 24 th September

Great Northern Diver

Well it was a rather quite start to the holiday on Shetland with only the afternoon to explore , the first area we went to was Boddam and we had delightful views of Twite , and a fly over Great Skua was really good to see , from here we headed to Quendale and had close encounters with a Great Northern Diver. We also had a brief view of a Whinchat plus there were a few Wheatears about , a flock of 100+ Golden plovers flew over , there were plenty of Hooded Crows and Ravens all over the place.

Hooded Crow with Lucozade bottle.

Day Two on Shetland 25 th September

A quick look in Lerwick Harbour produced close views of Black Guillemot

Another Black Guillemot.

We headed south to Boddam as this looked like a good area for migrants , when we arrived on site their were a few birders checking out a garden and we were informed a Barred Warbler had been seen , after about 5 minutes we were on the bird which showed well at times and even landed on a stone wall at one point , it became more elusive as time went by but good views were obtained of this bulky warbler , after hearing that a Yellow Browed Warbler had been found at Sumborough gardens we headed down there , and within seconds of arriving we were soon enjoying great views of this super leaf warbler , it even landed in the grass at one point.

Yellow Browed Warbler.

We enjoyed this bird for a good half an hour when news broke of an adult Lesser Grey Shrike at Voe which was further north approx 45 minutes from where we were , so after a mad dash we were soon on site but the Shrike had flown further into the moor ,then all of a sudden it appeared on a fence post , wow i have seen 2 previous Lesser Grey Shrikes in the UK but this bird was in stunning plumage with a lovely pink flush jet black facial mask pale grey upper parts .

Lesser Grey Shrike .

Thanks to Dan and Michael for there use of the above photo.

Day Three on Shetland 26 th September

With news of a Coues's Arctic Redpoll at Voe the previous day we decided to try our luck and an early start saw us arriving on site about 7 am , we were the only ones there and the weather was awful , heavy showers and windy , we split up to try and locate it , Michael and Dan had very brief views of the bird in a small bush but i never got onto it , we spread out again and i walked further down and flushed the Arctic Redpoll and had good flight views of its large completely unstreaked white rump and white wing bars as flew into cover.

Arctic Redpoll in flight .

Despite spending alot time here we only ever managed flight views ( better views were obtained later in the week with better photos to come ) , other birders were here now and although it was flushed a few times it never seemed to settle , we did add Reed Warbler , Willow Warbler , Siskin and Brambling here , we then received news of a 1 st winter Red Breasted Flycatcher at Elswick so as Dan and Michael needed this for their life list we headed of in that direction , we met up with Ashley P and Dan P who had already seen the bird and we were soon enjoying some quality views of this bird Michael and Dan Pointon headed further into the garden to try and see some Yellow Browed warblers and were rewarded with very close views of an Otter whereas the rest of tried in vain to get better photos of the flycatcher.

You can just make out the white in the tail.

We added Garden Warbler and Goldcrest here and then decided to check out a place called Vidlin which is a good location to see Otter , we had no sooner arrived at this attractive location when Michael was straight onto an Otter just feeding in the bay .

Otter.

We added smart Arctic Tern and 12 Ringed Plovers before time run out on us .

Pallid Harrier in West Sussex

2011-10-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

Pallid Harrier juv.

On Friday 23 rd September i travelled down to West Sussex to hopefully see the juv Pallid Harrier i met up with Dan and Michael who had already seen the bird as they only live about 15 minutes from Burpham where the Harrier has been residing for about a week , well we were on site soon enough and instantly were enjoying good views of a male Hen Harrier mobbing a Common Buzzard , not long after enjoying that spectacle we were soon looking at a couple of Red Kites drifting along the nearby hill side , after about 30 minutes there was still no sign of the star bird , Dan was confident it would show in the area we were standing in , i was abit twitchy as i needed this for my UK list , then we all had a distant view as the Pallid Harrier flew high and away from us , damn yes i have seen it but not very well , we only had to wait another 20 minutes or so when Michael picked out flying low from a completely different direction , it continued to fly right in front of us even chasing Wood Pigeons at one point , the Pallid Harrier put on a tremendous display even landing in the nearby field a couple of times , big thanks to Dan and Michael for getting me to this site and for the use of their photo of the Pallid Harrier , now of to Aberdeen for the Sandhill Crane and then flying to Shetland for the week , part one of my trip to Aberdeen and Shetland to come in next post .

Shetland Holiday report to come...

2011-10-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Just come back from a great holiday on Shetland , full trip report will follow once i have sorted through hundreds of photos and find time to get everything logged .

Pennington Marsh

2011-09-18T12:30:00.000-07:00

Bairds Sandpiper.

The usual birding crew of Dan , Michael and myself headed of to Pennington Marshes in Hampshire on Saturday 17 th , Our main target bird was this really smart Bairds Sandpiper .

Neat breast band was very visible.

Primary feathers extend beyond tail.

Supercillium was prominent .

The Bairds Sandpiper was smaller than the nearby Dunlin , a really smart bird to observe , feeding constantly and showing very close at times , all the waders were spooked by a Kestrel which flew through the area where they were feeding , all the waders took to flight and the dark central tail feathers were easily seen on the Bairds Sandpiper. This is the fourth Bairds i have seen and by far the best view i have had of one , this was a new species for Dan and Michael .

We headed of in the general direction the Bairds Sandpiper had flown of to and despite scanning various parts of the estuary drawing a blank , we decided to head back to the original pool we had first seen it in and on our way there we noticed a gathering of birders checking out some bushes and we were informed that yesterdays Wryneck had been re found but was being very elusive , however we had only been there for a couple of minutes when Dan picked the Wryneck out sitting in a slow bush , we had really great views of this wonderful bird and i never tire of seeing them.

Wryneck.

After we had our fill of these great birds we headed of to the nearby Normandy marsh where there had been a report of a Grey Phalarope , we arrived on site and were soon enjoying really good views of this smart wader feeding in its usual circular motion.

Grey Phalarope.

Other birds of note here included a juv. Curlew Sandpiper which Dan picked out plus up to 3 Greenshanks , Black and Bar tailed Godwit , several Turnstone , Ringed Plover and Dunlin , we also en counted at least 3 Kingfishers here . With time against us we headed for home , however we had just enough time to call into Thorny to check out news of a Sabine's Gull but our luck run out with this one , we did add Common Sandpiper , Little Egret and Sandwich Tern plus Michael located several Yellow Wagtails flying around the nearby cattle .

Sandwich Tern.

Little Bittern....Titchwell

2011-09-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Juvenile Little Bittern.

A trip to Titchwell rspb reserve with Dan and Michael on Saturday 10 th was amazing , we were hoping to connect with 3 target birds , Little Bittern , Cattle Egret and Buff - Breasted Sandpiper and we were not disappointed , we started of first for the Little Bittern which had been seen briefly the day before and only in flight before we got there , so i thought are chances were pretty slim to be honest , well i could not believe are luck , we had only just settled along side the large gathered fellow birders when it appeared more or less right in front of us , what a really smart bird , it was just creeping along the reeds slowly giving us all some excellent views , in the rush of birders desperate to see it my coat and scope were lost in the crowd ( i did find them later ...lol ) being a bit short i was struggling to see over the reeds to get a better view but eventually it appeared right out in the open whilst it was moving through the reeds .

Another view of the Little Bittern.

Dan and Michael managed some excellent photos and a big thankyou to them for letting me use them in this post . We watched this bird for a good length of time before it moved out of sight , this was new bird for Dan and Michael and the first one i have seen since the eighties !!! I decided to move on to see if i could re locate the Cattle Egret which i needed for the year , Dan and Mike decided to wait for the Little Bittern to re appear , i walked along the main track when i saw two birders getting excited setting up there scopes as i approached them and sure enough they had re located the Cattle Egret perched in the distant dead trees the Harriers normally use , i quickly got on the bird then phoned Dan and Mike to let them know and they too got onto the bird , we all met up and then moved onto the new hide at Titchwell and were soon enjoying the Buff- Breasted Sandpiper , really like these birds unfortunately it was a bit to far for a photo but great views through the scopes were seen , there were Redshank , Ruff and a really smart Spotted Redshank nearby , a really great visit , we headed of to " In Focus " as Dan wanted to buy a new scope , we decided to head back to Titchwell afterwards to have another look for the Little Bittern and would you believe we once again more or less saw it straight away , simply stunning . Michael saw a Hobby earlier in the day and i took a photo of this dragonfly , not sure what it is but very smart looking all the same , big thanks to Dan and Michael for there company and once again for the use of there photos of the Little Bittern .

Dragonfly Species.

After a little bit of research i believe the Dragonfly above is a Migrant Hawker .

Bittern Feast

2011-09-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Juv. Bittern.

I had a very pleasant few hours this morning / early afternoon at Grove Ferry , i started of at the viewing ramp where there were approx. 250 Lapwing with equally large numbers of Teal , there were a scattering of Shoveler, Gadwall and Mallard amongst them , several Bearded Tits were " pinging " nearby giving glimpses here and there , then i picked out amongst the Lapwing a very elegant Spotted Redshank , smart , from here i headed out to the Marsh hide in pursuit of the recently fledged Bitterns , i bumped into Steve Ashton and another couple of birders in the hide and we all enjoyed a couple of hours watching these delightful juvenile Bitterns .

These were great to see , and very interesting to observe , they were feeding well and and at one point the adult bird joined them with all 3 juvenile birds flying to her , the adult bird did not stay long before flying off over the path and out of sight , there were at least 2 Green Sandpipers around plus a Ruff flew into a distant pool , a Little Egret put in an appearance as did a couple of Grey Herons.

Grey Heron .

There were a couple of Common Snipe around plus several Stock Dove were seen over the adjacent fields , from the marsh hide i headed back to Harrisons hide for a quick look which did not produce anything to be honest , however i did see this on the path .

Common Darter ?

Think it might be a Common Darter ? , if anyone has any ideas please let me know , a final look from the viewing ramp produced a single Black Tailed Godwit plus several Swallows over head and a Cettis Warbler blasting away in the distance , a really enjoyable visit with good company and excellent birds .

Finally Bagged .....Great Waders too !!!!!

2011-08-29T06:57:00.000-07:00

Ruff.

I teamed up with the regular birding crew of Michael and Dan early Saturday morning and are destination was Cromer in Norfolk , are target birds were Greenish Warbler and Western Bonellis Warbler which were both at the same location , we arrived at about 8 am and the weather was awful , heavy rain which looked like it was in for the day , however after about an hour of searching the woodland we were in there was no sign of the target birds or any other birders , we decided to head of to Cley which was only half an hour along the coast and hope for some improvement in the weather and some news to break out on the warblers .

Juv. Red Necked Phalarope.

The main attraction on Pats Pool was a superb juv. Red Necked Phalarope which was a lifer for both Dan and Michael and a very welcome year tick for me , as you can see by the record shot above it was quite distant but gave excellent views through the scopes , there were loads of waders everywhere , the Ruff ( top photo ) was very close and there were juv. Curlew Sandpipers all over the place with only one molting adult bird amongst them , Michael counted 37 birds in total which is the highest amount i have seen in one location.

Juv. Curlew Sandpiper.

Moulting adult with 3 juvs.

There were groups of Curlew Sandpipers where ever you looked with one group containing 15 birds , we were treated with a really smart Wood Sandpiper which came quite close at times .

Wood and Curlew Sandpipers.

We had a real mixed bag of waders including Avocet , Black tailed Godwit , Little Ringed Plover , Common Sandpiper and this very close Green Sandpiper. A large flock of Greylag Geese took to the air and 8 Spoonbills just seemed to appear from behind a bank , smart !

Green Sandpiper.

8 Spoonbill.

We had a really good session of birding here when the pager alerted us that the target birds at Cromer had been seen , so with just enough time to have another look at the smart looking Wood Sandpiper we then headed of to the car park .

Wood Sandpiper.

As we approached the car Michael informed us that there had been a report of a Red-Backed Shrike nearby which they both needed for there life lists and i needed it for my year list , so with no time to spare we piled into the car and were soon at Whalsey hill , after a rather frustrating 15 minutes Dan finally managed to relocate the shrike on top of a bramble bush , this was a juvenile bird and showed really well at times , Dan and Michael have a photo on their blog http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ . We enjoyed this bird then headed of to Cromer , we again arrived at the site but no birders were anywhere to be seen , which was very strange so after a quick phone call to RBA we were given directions to the right location as we were in totally the wrong area ,( thanks Pete for your help with this ) anyhow as we arrived a couple of birders were heading quite fast towards an area of the woodland and informed us the Western Bonellis Warbler had just been seen , we followed and after about 5 minutes wait we were all on the bird , wow the green wing panel on the wings were very evident and the rather pale head and underparts were a real contrast to the rest of the bird , this is my second Bonellis the last one some 10 years ago ! the bird showed for about a minute and was enjoyed by all , when it went out of sight we headed off to the area where the Greenish Warbler had been mostly heard , we were there for half an hour when another birder picked it out calling , then about 20 minutes later it called again no more a foot away from where we were all standing but would not give its self up !! there were plenty of Chiffchaffs about then Dan picked the Greenish Warbler opposite from where we were standing , i only saw for the briefest moment when it dropped down out of sight , i could see the silvery under parts and smallish size , but was far from satisfied from that view , we waited around but it never re appeared , Michael and i went back to the car for food and coats and on the way back news broke that the Greenish had reappeared , this has to be one of my most frustrating birding experience's , we were under a canopy of trees looking up everyone seemed to be getting on the bird except me , yes i saw movement and i again saw the underparts but could not get a clear view , i momentarily went insane at one point and thought about taking up sheep herding or joining the salvation army ( no offense to any sheep herders or salvation army people out there ) , eventually i did get a brief view so although far from satisfactory i have finally bagged a bogey that i have dipped to many painful times to count .

Quick visit to Oare

2011-08-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

Little Egret.

Being on stand by at work today gave me the chance to pop over to Oare Marshes this afternoon , a look over the East Flood gave me great views of this smart Little Egret , there were up to 4 Knot , and very high numbers of both Redshank and Black Tailed Godwit , at least 10 Ruff and several Avocets were seen .

Little Egret.

I left the East Flood and headed towards the slip way over looking the Swale in the hope of seeing my target birds which came out on the pager earlier on today , parked up and then noticed Murray Wright the regular patch watcher at Oare and two other birders i did nt know , Murray greeted me with the news the 9 adult Curlew Sandpipers ( my target birds ) were still there and feeding on the up coming tide line , great i soon got my scope on them and was enjoying some fantastic views Murray and his birding mates said there goodbyes after awhile and i spent another 40 minutes watching these superb waders , i did manage a couple of record shots and even by my poor standards are not that good .

3 of the 9 Curlew Sandpipers

And 7 of the 9.

Eventually they took to the air with some Black Tailed Godwits and appeared to drop down into the East flood , i made my there and did brief scan but could not relocate them but did see 6 Common Snipe and 8 Common Sandpipers .

Hoopoe brightens the Day

2011-08-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Lesser Whitethroat.

Dan, Michael and myself headed to Holland Haven to try and see the male Subalpine Warbler that had recently turned up there , this bird had been very elusive for the best part of its stay and to the lucky few sometimes did show well , sadly we were out of luck with this bird , i managed a very brief view and by the time i said " There it is " it had disappeared out of sight again , we spent a good five hours on sight and although it showed a couple of more times we never managed to see it again , Michael found a superb Pied Flycatcher and other birds seen here were : Reed Warbler , Blackcap . lots of Common Whitethroat plus a really smart looking Lesser Whitethroat which every so often stuck its head out of the blackberry bushes , we also had several Yellow Wagtails fly overhead plus there were good numbers of Sand Martin and Swallow overhead.

Lesser Whitethroat .

From here we decided to head of to Farthing Downs in Surrey / London and after getting some local information ( thanks David ) we arrived on site and within approx 15 minutes we were soon enjoying some stunning views of this really great Hoopoe. Here are some photos i took :

We watched the Hoopoe for approx 45 minutes but it was constantly being flushed by dog walkers who did nt seem to care that we were watching it and before i get a load of dog walkers moaning there were several paths they could have used and not make a be line for us , rant over ...lol

Th at said it was very enjoyable to watch in glorious sunshine in meadow filled with flowers and butterflies which were mainy Meadow Brown and Small Heath , it was surprising how easily the Hoopoe almost disappeared in the grass , we did see it raise it crest once which was a bonus , i have seen many Hoopoe over the years but get the same thrill as if it was my first every time i see one , thanks to Dan and Michael for there company today.

Moth Species ????

2011-08-08T05:50:00.000-07:00

Moth Species

I saw this quite large moth on my next door neighbours curtain as i walked past their house yesterday , i have always had an interest in moths and butterflies , i am ok with most ids on butterflies however i really struggle with moths , if anyone could tell me what this one is called i would be very grateful.

A Day in Kent

2011-07-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Two Dunlin at Dungeness.

I picked up Dan and Michael from Ashford train station and are first location was to pop into Elmley to try and see the roosting Long - eared owls at Kinghills farm we spent a fare amount of time trying to locate these but were not lucky this time , however we had decent views of a Garden Warbler which Michael picked out amongst the folage and there were 2 Green Sandpipers and a couple of Avocets nearby which are always nice to see , we decided to cut are loses and head of to Oare Marshes , we encounted 41 Golden Plovers and Dan picked out a smart Whimbrel out on the mud flats , we had 50 +Black-Tailed Godwits and 200 + Avocets , other than a few Dunlin there were no small waders to be had here.

Dunlin.

Are final destintation of the day was Dungeness , we headed straight to the Arc pit to try and see the recently found Pectoral Sandpiper and we were straight onto this delightful sandpiper , this was a new bird for me at Dungeness and a very much welcome year tick for us all.

Pectoral Sandpiper.

Another record shot of the Pec Sand.

We enjoyed this bird for about 30 minutes , often feeding close by and it was also quite flighty showing off its centrel tail stripe , we also had up to 5 Dunlin, 1 Common Sandpiper and a couple of Lapwings here , from here we headed of to the rspb reserve to try and see the Great White Egret having already failed a couple of times this year , we made are way around to the Denge marsh hide and Dan decided to try viewing from the gate area whislt Michael and i decided to look from the hide , after about a couple of minutes Dan phoned to say he had it out in the open from the gate so we made our way round with one or two other birders and were soon all enjoying the Great White Egret.

Adult Great White Egret.

And about to land.

This was a really graceful bird , feeding quite actively every so often , there was not alot around other than this apart from some really smart Common Terns and a fly over Hobby , there were a few butterflies about mainly Gatekeeper , Red Admiral and a couple of Peacocks , we also saw a young Fox near the Christmas dell hide . So after a bag of chips and a diet coke in Rye i dropped Dan and Michael off at the train station where Michael had time to pick out a rather tatty looking Raven flying overhead.

Top Quality Waders

2011-07-18T03:13:00.000-07:00

Adult Spoonbill

An early start saw Michael, Dan and Myself heading north to Blacktoft Sands rspb reserve in the hope of seeing the adult Marsh Sandpiper , we arrived at about 7.30 am and the weather was awful , consistent rain and quite windy , we met a couple of birders and the news was negative , not a good start but we were undeterred and we checked out several hides where the Sandpiper had been seen on and off over the past week , we encounted a superb adult Spoonbill which was later joined by another adult bird smart , we also had some great views of Wood Sandpiper .

Adult Wood Sandpiper.

We encounted 3 Wood Sandpipers , at least 5 Green Sandpipers and 1 Common Sandpiper at this reserve plus a really smart couple of Ruffs put in an appearance .

Two Ruff.

We also had fantastically close views of a female Marsh Harrier right in front of the hide , i have never been as close to one before , truly a remarkable sight and well worth the journey on its own.

Female Marsh Harrier.

There were plenty of waders flying in and out , lots of Egrets and at least 5 Marsh Harriers were spooking everything every now and again , we moved onto the other end of the reserve and bumped into another birder named Rich , we exchanged information of what we had seen and he said he was going to check out another area of the reserve where the Marsh Sandpiper has been seen from whilst we checked out a different area , we exchanged numbers so we could inform each other if we see the bird , well we were in the Marsh Hide checking out at least 50 Black tailed godwits , there were Dunlin, Snipe and various ducks but no Marsh sandpiper , then my phone went off , it was Richard with positive news , the Marsh Sandpiper was showing from the Ousefleet viewing screen , with a rather quick dash around to the viewing screen we were greeted with the news it had just waded out of sight , so after a fretful 10 to 15 minutes wait the Marsh Sandpiper gave its self up to us , really super sandpiper , a miniature version of a Greenshank is the nearest comparison i can think off , a delicate thin bill , longish legs , i never managed a photo but if you check out Mike and Dans blog they have some http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ . This was a new species for them and it was my third bird in the UK but this was by far the best view of one i have had , we also added at least 5 Spotted Redshanks at this viewing screen including one very black bird .

From here we decided to head to Rutland Water which was on the way back and hopefully try and see the summer plumage Spotted Sandpiper , we arrived there in good time and the weather had improved we parked up and and got are permits from the visitor center where we bumped into a very wet looking David Campbell and his birding crew who had just come back from watching the Spotted Sandpiper , we said are hellos and goodbyes and set off to the Shallow water hide , and as luck would have it we connected with this super wader straight away , it was a bit distant on the far bank but you could make out the orange/ yellowish bill and spotting on its breast and flanks , it was along side a Green Sandpiper which was much bigger .

Spotted Sandpiper wing stretching.

Spotted Sandpiper

And in flight

There were five Ospreys in close attendance and one bird spooked the Sandpiper and it flew towards us and landed on are side of the water , wow a stunning bird to see the spots were much more evident at this close range , it had a striking supercillium , i have now seen four Spotted Sandpipers but this is the first one i have seen in this plumage , once again its worth checking Michael's and Dans blog for better photos of this bird , the Ospreys were really stunning to see at such close quarters too.

Two of the five birds on the nest.

And an Osprey in flight.

Other birds seen here were a female Goldeneye , Common Sandpiper ( at one point there was Common , Green and Spotted Sandpiper all in one view ) plus several Common Buzzards were flying around , Michael also managed to see a Peregrine , there was a huge number of Sand Martins nearby giving some fine views.

Several Sand Martin.

Then it was time to head home very happy after a superb days birding with some quality birds in the bag.

Stodmarsh to Pulborough Brooks

2011-07-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

Marsh Frog on a dead fish.

Still catching up with my blog , on 2nd July i once again met up with Dan and Michael and we started up at Stodmarsh in Kent to try and catch up with the juv Night Herons , we met up with local birders Mark and Martyn and it was not long until we managed to see one bird a sleep on its favoured Cormorant tree , we watched this for several minutes also adding Hobby and Marsh Harrier here , we then headed off towards the river and soon heard a purring Turtle Dove which was a most welcome year tick for us all we never managed to locate it though , we carried on with are walk along the river to the first pool and picked out 2 Green Sandpipers and a Lapwing when Dan and Michael picked out a Bittern flying along the back of the reed bed before it alighted out of sight , this was nice to see . we headed back from here along the Lampen wall for another look at the Night Heron which was a little more active lifting its head up and preening , we also saw alot of dead fish which had one or two Marsh Frogs perched on them , not sure why the fish had died ? one reason could be lack of oxygen in the water ??

From here we popped down to Dungeness and we checked out Denge marsh road where we saw the Little Owl around the chicken farm .

Little Owl.

From the rspb reserve we saw a smart party of 3 Tree Sparrows , we also saw several Common Terns , we added 2 Bitterns over denge marsh plus 3 Little Egrets and the highlight from here was 3 Hobby .

Hobby.

Are final destination of the day or should i say night was Pulborough Brooks rspb reserve and are target bird was Nightjar , we arrived fairly early which gave us time to have a little look around before the vigil of waiting for are target birds to put in an appearance , we saw several Blue , Great , Long tailed and Marsh tits , plus a Treecreeper put in a very brief appearence , and a very showy Common Whitethroat .

Common Whitethroat

Michael was busy checking out the pond and picked out a couple of Great Crested Newts .

Great Crested Newt.

Then we made are way around to the area where the target birds normally show up , i was lucky enough to pick out a female Common Crossbill whilst we were waiting , as it was getting dark a Bat Species flew out from inside a nearby tree, it was quite small possibly Pipistrelle ? at about 9.45 pm we saw and heard are first Nightjar of the evening , this was quickly followed by a second bird churring then a third and fourth , wow just love that sound we saw one bird perch on a branch and even though it was quite dark you could see all its marking fairly well , it was an amazing evening with Nightjars churring and on occasion flying around us plus several Bats were seen every now and again.

June Update

2011-07-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

Avocet at Minsmere

Well i am pleased to say computer and camera problems have now finally all been sorted out and instead of doing individual posts on birding trips i have decided to just do a overall summary of my birding adventures June , which i have to say has been more about dipping then ticking ...lol White throated robin and white winged scoter where two major dips and to be honest i will leave it at that , the month also started of with yet another dip in Norfolk with missing the Broad Billed Sandpiper at Breydon water by a day , this was nt to much of a disaster for me as i did nt need it but my birding crew of Dan , Michael and David all did , we decided to head to Minsmere and had some very close views of Avocets with chicks .

Avocet chick at Minsmere.
These were delightful to see , there was alot of activity on the scrape and are main target bird here was Roseate Tern which would be a lifer for both Dan and Michael where as David had seen one only a few weeks before , we put in a bit of time for this bird and just as it was beginning to look like another dip we all connected with this super tern.

Roseate tern in flight.

And at rest.

You could make out a slight pink flush to this bird in certain lights and was a very welcome year tick for me . i am going to by pass my very painful trip to Cleveland and move on to yet another painful dip to Scotland and although i was very disappointed to miss out on the scoter we did have some other quality birds to at least make the journey worth while , we started of with 1 male and 3 female Scottish Crossbills near Avimore which were seen well and heard calling , this was a year tick for myself and a lifer for Dan and Michael , we then carried on to the scoter sight near Aberdeen and although the scoter was seen by a few we never managed to connect with it , Dan and Michael added Surf Scoter to there ever growing life lists and we made the effort to see the male King Eider at the Ythan estuarie .

Sleeping male King Eider.

We did see it with its head up for awhile and we also got some fantastic views of Eider here.

Male Eider.

And we had some Seals , not sure what type , think they could be Grey ???

Eiders and Seals

Another Seal.

It was a very long journey and i was ready to head to the whisky distilleries after dipping the scoter but made the wise decision and headed home disappointed with dipping but pleased with the birds we did get .

Sorry for lack of updates

2011-06-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone just to say sorry i have not posted for awhile , computer problems and now my camera wont upload photos are the main reason for this .
However not much to report of late to be honest , added a smart Roseate Tern to my year early in June and have had one or two other decent bits and bobs which i will post once i have sorted out my camera problems lol

First visit in 21 Years ........ Lundy Island

2011-05-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Trumpeter Finch.

My first visit back after 21 years saw me teaming up with Dan and Michael in the hope of seeing the superb Trumpeter Finch which was on its eighth day on Lundy Island , leaving Bideford at approx 8.30 am we arrived at Lunday at 10.30 am , now i was 21 years younger the last time i came here and the walk / climb up to the top of the island was very hard going even then , now with lets say just a little bit more weight then i had back then the walk nearly finished me off.....lol but i have to say it was well worth it , this pink beauty gave excellent views , quite stunning in appearance the photos don't really do it any justice , Dan and Michael have better photos on there blog : http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ .

Here it is just taking off .

We spent quite abit of time looking at this stunning bird and although it was quite flighty it did show really well at times feeding on the ground or sitting on the stone wall , the weather was closing in and Dan and Michael wanted to try and see some of the nesting birds which i declined as i was still suffering from the walk from the quay !!!!! so i decided on a walk back to the shop but before i returned i managed some photos of a couple of Wheatears which was rather smart.

First of two Wheatears.

Second bird on the wall.

We eventually all met up again and went to the pub to dry off and celebrate the Trumpeter Finch which was a lifer for all of us . We had time to do some more birding on are way back to the quay and first i saw 1 Spotted Flycatcher then Michael located another 4 birds near by , a much welcome year tick for all of us and really smart birds to see , they were doing there normal flycatcher thing , flying out to catch insects and then returning to there favoured perch. There were plenty of Swallows and House Martins around plus a unexpected Lesser Redpoll put in a brief appearance , a few Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were seen as was at least 5 Rock Pipits . The return journey on M S Oldenburg was rather an up and downer affair the swell in the Bristol Channel was quite immense but the birding was spectacular with hundreds of Manx Shearwaters giving stunning views a really under estimated count of 500 birds was made but there was most certainly alot more . Close views of Gannets , Kittiwakes and Fulmers were had .

Of interest we did see a Grey Seal whilst waiting at the quay , plus the endemic Lundy Cabbage was well represented around the cliff face , a great day out and special thanks for Dan for organising the tickets for the boat and both Dan and Michael for there superb company.

An Old Ruin on Lundy

Flying the flag.

Good Run Comes to an End .......

2011-05-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

Avocet

Well as the title indicates the fantastic run of connecting with major target birds came to an end yesterday evening when the regular birding crew of Michael , Dan and myself dipped the Great Snipe at Cley in Norfolk , we spent from 4 pm til 9.15 pm in the Avocet hide which was rather full , you could feel the anticpation and excitement grow amongst the crowd of birders gathered to see this delightful bird but sadly the very anticpated viewing never happened , the weather conditions did nt really help as it was quite windy , it was apparently heard but that might of been the tape recording someone played near the end of the evening , still as disappointing as the dip was we had a truely good days birding.

Close view of an Avocet from the Avocet hide.

We started of at Titchwell and soon connected with the superb Wood Warbler that was by the picnic area , it called off and on and gave some superb views , i really enjoyed this bird , there were several local Robins with young nearby as well as Chaffinch feeding young as well , a pair of Great Tits were constantly in and out of a nearby nest box and you could hear the young birds inside , smart !

We did not spend long here as we wanted to get to Cley , we deciced it best to check out the wader pools along Beach road before are stake out at the Avocet hide , wow what a selection of waders we saw , first and foremost was a superb Lesser Yellowlegs which is the second one we have seen this year or maybe its the same bird we saw in Somersett a few weeks ago ????? , in the same pool there were at least 4 Wood Sandpipers , these were alot closer than the Sussex bird we had recently , and then Dan picked up on the Temmincks Stint which was a new bird for the year for all of us .

Lapwing from Avocet hide.

From here we headed of to the visitor center and got are permits then made are way to the hide , and as i said earlier we spent 5 hours here and although we never saw are target bird we still had some quality birds , first up was a fantastic close view of an Avocet , this was a very aggressive bird chasing off everybird that came to close to its territory and young chick , maybe the Great Snipe had got to close at some point ?? we also had a very confiding Lapwing which performed well for the camera , there were a pair of Little Ringed Plovers zipping around and the selection of waders kept growing with , Greenshank , Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper all added along with 2 Temmincks Stints putting in a brief but welcome appearence .

A juv. Spoonbill did a fly around and landed in a pool not to far from camera range .

Spoonbill juv.

The Greylag Goose in the foreground had a dutch ring around its neck , apparently thats how they ring them , i have to confess i am not to sure i like the way these birds are ringed , its not that they are being harmed or look bothered by them i just think it takes away the charm and looks of the bird .

Whislst waiting for the non appearence of the Great Snipe Michael picked out the earlier seen Barn Owl and Short Eared Owl flying together which was great to see . At least 3 Common Snipes put in an appearence plus there were very good numbers of Sand Martins flying here there and everywhere and they were joined by a good number of Swifts as the evening drew to a close , we had a good selection of mammals today including a Weasel which Michael and myself saw plus 2 Brown Hares which we all saw.

Dungeness Sea Watch and RSPB reserve

2011-05-08T02:14:00.000-07:00

Dungeness sea watch 6 am to 9.30 am then 1.30 pm to 3 pm , all birds moving east unless otherwise stated :

Pomarine Skua          15 light phase 2 dark phase

Common Tern           50 +

Arctic Tern                 1

Sandwich Tern            50+

Little Tern                   8

Black Tern                  2

" Commic Tern "         100 +

Fulmar                         1

Gannet                         100 +

Great Crested Grebe     10 + on the sea

Common Scoter            80 east and west

Shoveler                        2

Kittiwake                        1

Bar Tailed Godwit          3

Sanderling                       9 east 2 west

Oystercatcher                 8

Turnstone                       2

Dunlin                             1

Redshank                        5

Auk Sp.                          1 west

Swallow                          6 in off

Not huge numbers of birds moving although the main target bird Pomarine Skua was seen very well with most birds quite close in and their " spoons " were easily seen , well done to Dan for picking 5 of these birds out .
A quick visit to the Rspb reserve was less productive with very little seen , highlights being a showy Cettis warbler and a Booming Bittern was good to hear , also several Common Whitesthroats gave themselves up to the camera .

Common Whitethroat.
We also had a look over the ARC pits and Michael picked out a Black Tern being harassed by a Lapwing , not else of note was seen here , although a smart Little Egret and a Grey plover was nice to see . Whilst dropping Michael and Dan off at Rye railway station Michael picked out 4 Common Swifts flying overhead which was a welcome year tick for me.

Seaford Sea Watch

2011-05-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

I joined up with Dan and Michael and several regular sea watchers at Splash point on Sunday morning from 6 am to 12 pm and here is what i saw : All birds were moving east unless otherwise stated .

Pomarine Skua    6 light phase 1 dark phase

Arctic Skua   2 light phase 2 dark phase

Manx Shearwater   1

Black Throated Diver 4

Red Throated Diver   1

Black Tern 2

Little Tern 1

Common Tern 10

Sandwich Tern   15

Bar Tailed Godwit 428

Whimbrel    37

Knot 45

Grey Plover   11

Sanderling   9

Dunlin 2

Oystercatcher 1

Turnstone 1

Common Scoter 32

Shoveler   17

Great Crested Grebe 2

Hobby 1 in off

Swallow   14 in off

Linnet 2 in off

Wheatear   1 in off

Diver Sp.   4

Auk Sp.   5

Commic Tern 85

Other birds seen : Fulmar , Kittiwake , Kestrel , Peregrine and 2 Med Gulls.

From Pratincoles to Cranes ....Weekend Birding at its Best

2011-05-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

Collared Pratincole

An early start Saturday morning saw me picking up Dan and Michael and heading off to Lincolnshire and Norfolk for the weekend , we started of at Rosper road pools for the Collared Pratincole , we arrived at 2 pm and had missed it by 25 minutes , but were informed that it often goes and returns later in the evening , well this was a new bird for both Dan and Michael and we were all very keen to see it , we decided to put the time in as we had come so far , we were entertained by several House Martins and we also heard Lesser Whitethroat which was new for the year , we had been waiting for approx 3 and half hours and were deciding how much longer we should give it when Michael announced he had got it from the front of the car , it was quite brilliant and showed down to ten feet at times , cream throat patch and reddish underwings were the first things to hit you , short forked tail white rump and trailing edge on secondaries were easily seen , black edging around the throat patch and red base to the bill were harder to see , it was constantly flying around picking insects of the pools , whilst watching this bird a Grasshopper Warbler started reeling in the distant bushes , i have seen four Collared Pratincoles now but this was by far the best views i have had of one .

From here we had just enough time to head of to Tetny Lock for the migrating Dotterels that had been there for the last couple of days , on arrival Michael picked out first 1 then 2 Yellow Wagtails which were welcome year ticks for me , we reached the ploughed field and it was not long before Dan managed to find all 7 Dotterel 4 females in stunning plumage and 3 males , they were to distant for photos but gave great scope views , with the excitement of seeing these superb birds we headed of to a B&B near Brandon and on the way we all connected with a superb Barn Owl and Michael was also lucky enough to see a Merlin .

Stone Curlew.

We arrived at first site of the day Weeting Heath just after 8.30 am and it was not long after a short scan over the road we picked up are first Stone Curlew , we also saw it flight which was a nice bonus , we added a second bird from one of the hides and also saw a Stoat running across the reserve , smart . we then headed of to Lakenheath , i have not been here for a number of years and have to say the RSPB have done a wonderful job to the reserve , we were probably a couple of weeks to early for Golden Orioles at this site but never the less we had some quality birds , 2 adult Common Cranes gave amazing flights views on a couple of occasions and were also heard calling .

Common Cranes.

Other birds of note here were 3 Hobby , lots of Sedge Warblers and Common Whitethroats , 4 Common Terns and at least 8 Marsh Harriers giving amazing views whilst displaying plus one male bird carrying nesting material was good to see. Are next planned destination was Halesworth and are target bird here was a superb adult Woodchat Shrike and after a short wait we were all enjoying superb views of this bird as perched on some railway sleepers and every so often taking flight only to return to its perch.

Woodchat Shrike .

Could this weekend get any better ? well it could and it did news of an adult summer plumaged White Winged Black Tern at Minsmere which on are way home could not be resisted , within 25 minutes we were at the site 10 minutes later Michael was the first to pick out this stunner , quite simply brilliant to see , i have seen lots abroad but never a full summer bird in this country , wow is all i can say...lol

White Winged Tern

We were treated to many flight views of this bird and although it more or less kept the same distance away it was unmistakable , we also had superb views of Bar Tailed Godwits in summer plumage .

Bar Tailed Godwit .

Other birds of note here were 2 singing Nightingales , Common Sandpiper , Greenshank , 2 Grey Plover and several Avocets.

Avocet.

The day was almost up when we were greeted to the news of 4 Black Winged Stilts in Essex , surely not was are first reaction but when the news was confirmed we could not believe are luck , we made a short diversion on the way home to Wat Tyler Country Park and believe it not the hide was harder to find then the birds !!

In Flight

One of the Four

And in flight again.

These were new birds for Michael and Dan and the most i have seen together in the UK , i just love the long pink / red legs , they were quite flighty but did spend some time feeding along the small islands eventually they all took to flight and dropped out of view in another part of the reserve . Just like to say a big thankyou to Michael and Dan for there superb company and the use of some of there photos : Collard Pratincole , Stone curlew , common crane , white winged tern and the black winged stilt standing on its own , oh and the woodchat shrike .

Top Quality Birding ....... and some Photos Too !!!!!

2011-04-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Record shot of Lesser Yellowlegs.

The regular birding crew of myself , Dan and Michael headed of to Shapwick Heath for the recently found Lesser Yellowlegs and although it was a bit to distant to get a decent photo it showed very well through the scope , a really smart wader to see , hence its name the yellow legs were very evident constantly feeding and every now and again it stopped to have a preen , quite long necked and overall a very delicate looking wader , other birds of note were Hobby, Garden Warbler and Reed Warbler which were all new birds for the year , we heard at least 3 booming Bitterns which was superb and several Common Whitethroats were seen and heard as was Blackcap , Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler , we spent a good couple of hours here hoping the Yellowlegs would come abit closer but it stayed loyal to the back of the pool along with 20 odd Black tailed godwits in their fine summer plumage . From here we headed of to the Stour Valley in Bournemouth for the adult Night Heron which showed really well compared to the juv. we saw last week , this bird was stunning to see we saw it in flight on a couple of occasions and it was also calling at times.

Adult Night Heron.

Michael also brought are attention to a reeling Grasshopper Warbler and we were also treated to a fishing Kingfisher , there were a pair of Long Tailed Tits nest building nearby , a really pleasant location to visit.

A visit to Seaford head early Sunday morning for a couple of hours produced a dark morph Arctic Skua and 6 Whimbrel flying east ( i think ..lol ) plus several Sandwich Terns plus Dan and Michael were lucky enough to connect with a Great Skua whilst i was parking the car , i was also pleased to see the local Kittiwakes and Fulmars nearby giving stunning views , we decided to head to Ashdown Forest as the sea watching was rather slow going and we were rewarded with at least 6 Common Redstarts , we also en counted several Lesser Redpolls and Common Whitethroats , we stacked out an area where Michael had seen a Tree Pipit whilst Dan and i tried to get a photo of a Redstart , when we all saw a superb Woodlark doing its display flight , quite superb and one of the best sights and sounds ( in my opinion that is ) of displaying British breeding birds . Eventually without success of re connecting with the Tree pipit we headed back to the car and bumped into another birder who had just seen one and we were soon enjoying a superb Tree Pipit also doing its display flight parachuting from one tree to another .

Tree Pipit.

Are final destination was Wier Wood to try and see the earlier reported Wood Sandpipers , on arrival and after and after scanning a very distant area where the 2 birds had been earlier seen it was not looking at all promising , Dan had picked out a Little Ringed Plover , then Michael got us all onto a male Mandarin flying over head , a Common Buzzard drifted over and we were about to give up when Dan picked out one of the Wood Sandpipers feeding along the North Bank , although very distant and the heat haze did nt help it was still a much welcome bird to see , top quality birding and company too !!!

Another Busy Saturday

2011-04-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Bluethroat

Another busy Saturday saw Dan , Michael and myself heading to Welney in the hope of connecting with the White Spotted Bluethroat , on the road not far from the reserve we saw a really smart Barn Owl , unfortunately we must of spooked it as it took to flight before we could get any photos , it was great watching it hawking over the fields and along a dyke , we arrived at Welney and made are way to the area of the reserve where the Bluethroat has set up territory and after checking out its more favoured haunts another birder came across it perched in a willow tree , lovely blue throat with reddish just below , white central spot was very evident and reddish tail markings were also seen , it was also calling which is the first time i have heard this call , we watched it for 5 mins when it flew out of sight , we also encounted a rather fast flying Cuckoo which was a first for the year , on the way back to the car we were treated to 15 + House Martins and 2 Sand Martins , and when back at the car i heard then saw a fine Corn Bunting , i also managed a photo of a Pied Wagtail amazing i know ...lol

Pied Wagtail.

We then headed to the nearby Ouse Washes rspb reserve and it was not long before Dan picked out the quite smart looking Blue-Winged Teal this was a new bird for both Mike and Dan , it was keeping company with a female Shoveler and was very flighty , unringed and showed no sign of any wing abrasion .

Blue Winged Teal.

We also heard Cuckoo here and i year ticked 2 Little Ringed Plovers which was a nice bonus, we also saw several Little Egrets and there were plenty of Sedge Warblers in good voice , are final destination of the day was on the way back home ( sort off ) , we went to Two Tree Island for the 1 st summer Night Heron , on arriving at the car park Michael instantly picked up the reeling call of a nearby Grasshopper Warbler , we then made are way around the entrance and eventually we saw it perched in a distant bush reeling away , its tail was vibrating along with its throat whilst it reeled away , we also heard and saw several Common Whitethroats here , before we reached the pool the heron had been favouring we heard the superb song of a Nightingale what a treat !!! Dan and Michael manged to see it but unfortunately i did nt , the news was rather mixed when arrived at the pool . it was still there but not in view , damn , my experience with herons is pretty much the same as everyone else , we all know they can sit for hours , well we were nt wrong nearly 3 hours later Dan who was on a roll with finding birds today managed to see it underneath a small tree , it was very tricky to see and i only managed to get one really conclusive sighting of it , with time against us we headed back to the car very happy after a really great days birding with all target birds bagged , Michael managed to see a Cettis Warbler and we heard the Grasshopper warbler again as we approached the car , Dan and Michael have some better photos of the Bluethroat on their blog http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/

Stodmarsh... New Site Tick

2011-04-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

I have seen many firsts at Stodmarsh , it was one of my very first sites i ever visited when i started birding back in 1982 , these days my travels take me far and wide in this fantastic hobby i have chosen and more often than not when i venture into the Stour Valley these days i tend to go to Grove Ferry and rarely visit Stodmarsh but when news reached me via the pager and then by text ( Thanks Mark ) of the recently found Wood Warbler i could nt wait to try and see it and as luck would have it i got home on Tuesday and spent an hour and a half looking for it with no luck , so with having today of ( hospital appointment in afternoon ) i spent another two and half hours looking for the bird from 11 am to 2pm , and eventually managed to see it really well for approx ten minutes , thanks to a birder who sorry i don't know by name who kindly called me over when he got on the bird, it was delightful to see silvery white below with bright yellow upper breast and head ,pinkish bill and legs , sorry for lack of photo but it was keeping rather deep in the foliage .
other birds of note seen :
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Treecreeper
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Green Woodpecker
Sparrowhawk
Marsh Harrier

A Busy Weekend... Portland and Arundel

2011-04-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Razorbill.

A very busy weekend saw me teaming up once again with Dan and Michael at Portland Bill with the hope of seeing the Short- Toed Lark and the nearby Long Billed Dowitcher , no sooner had we reached the ploughed field where the Lark had been seen of late and we were on the bird , this was the first spring Short toed Lark i have seen in the UK and a really good looking bird it is too , lovely warm brown crown was very evident , the smallish dark spots on either side of its upper breast were seen on occasion , clean under parts and upper breast , smaller and much more compacted than Skylark . other birds of note were several Wheatears and a couple of Swallows flew over head , we spent quite some time looking at this superb bird before we headed of to look for some sea birds , we connected with several auks including up to ten Puffins out at sea , with closer views of Razorbill and Guillemot with several Shag also seen , Michael picked out 4 Little Gulls out to sea and we also added 15 Kittiwakes .

Shag

Gannet.

From here we headed of in the hope of catching up with a female Ring Ouzel that had been seen earlier in the day , and Dan soon picked it out in some bushes in a field .

Female Ring Ouzel.

Really enjoyed this bird it showed really well for quite some time , with time against us we headed of to Lodmoor RSPB reserve , this is the first time i have been to this reserve and we soon heard a Sedge Warbler which was a welcome sound and then we tried to locate are main target bird the Long Billed Dowitcher , and after are initial scan it was nowhere to be seen which was rather disappointing as Michael and Dan were telling me the two previous times they had seen it it showed really well quite close in , after about 20 minutes Dan located it in another pool abit further out , really smart waders , bold supercilliums really stood out the Dowitcher is beginning to show a bit of reddish colouration around the flanks and neck area , they are so distinctive and a joy to see , i have managed a couple of record shots.

Long Billed Dowitcher ( Honest !! ) .

SUNDAY 10 TH APRIL

Arundel was are destination for the Little Crake that was found yesterday , and not long after arriving on site we were on the bird , now the viewing area was not that great and the boardwalk was rather narrow with water and reeds either side so you can imagine how dodgy it was balancing scope , camera and rucksack in that small area , luckily i was able to get some superb views of this female bird , the white markings an the back and wing coverts were like they had been painted on with tipex , a really delicate looking bird and i am sure my description would not do it any justice , however Dan and Michael have got some superb photos of the Crake and record shot of the Short - Toed Lark and have kindly allowed me to post a selection on here.

Short-Toed Lark

Female Little Crake.

Big thanks to Dan and Michael for the use of there photos and company this weekend.

Dungeness plenty of Seabirds and Migrants

2011-04-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

Reed Bunting.

Although i did see plenty of seabirds and a scattering of migrants today unfortunately i never managed any photos of them so i apologise in advance for that , i still struggle to combine birding with photography.

However i met up with Michael and Dan at Rye this morning and are first port of call was Pett level , we had superb flight views of 2 adult Med Gulls and a fly through Peregrine which Michael picked out , we then headed of to Dungeness to do a little bit of sea watching , and in a couple of hours we managed a good selection of birds , plenty of Sandwich Terns and at least 2 Common Terns were new for the year for me and there was a smart Little Gull seen flying over the patch also a further 2 Med gulls were seen flying along the shore , there were good numbers of Common Scoter mainly flying east with 2 Velvet Scoters seen , up to 8 Red Breasted Mergs east was nice to see to , then a bird i don't see that often in Kent flew west quite far out but it was greatly received all the same when i came across a Manx Shearwater flying west , only one other birder go on this but it was not long before a second bird flew through and thankfully Michael picked this up and was adding it to his British list smart in fact we had 3 birds in total ! 5 Red throated divers and a smart summer plumage Great Northern Diver were also added to our total , it was a pretty impressive couple of hours sea watching which is something i love doing but don't do enough. then news broke of a Ring Ouzel near the old lighthouse so without haste we headed there , it had gone under cover of the gorse but with patience it re appeared in flight on a few occasions , a really smart male bird , well done Mark Chidders for finding this excellent bird .

Female Brambling.

We also had a female Black Redstart inside of the power station grounds and there were several Wheaters and Swallows seen , i also added Willow Warbler for the year with at least 10 birds present .

After a much welcome cup of tea and bacon roll we headed of to the Rspb reserve and had good views of the above female Brambling plus several Reed Buntings on the feeders in the car park , after checking the sightings board we decided we would be better of checking the Arc area , another Swallow was seen and a cool looking Tree Sparrow put in a appearance , but not alot else was seen , although we did enjoy this rather smart male Goldeneye.

Almost forgot there were a couple of male Stonechats in really superb plumage calling from a bush and other head wires along the road towards the light house this morning .

Finally some Migrants

2011-03-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

Wigeon and Black Headed Gull

An early start saw myself , Michael , Dan and David " canons " Campbell heading off to Landguard to try and catch up with the Short-Toed Treecreeper that had been there for the last couple of days , we arrived at 8 am with the news being positive on the bird , and after almost minutes of us being there it flew from one area of scrub to another and out of sight , it had quite a laboured flight but on those views i was less than happy to include it on my year list , and the birding crew i was with all needed it for there life lists , but thankfully we did not have to wait to long for it to re appear in a some what smaller tree giving some brief but excellent views , its overall appearance was so much different to that of Eurasian Treecreeper , the wing pattern was quite striking and the supercillium was not as long or as broad , the rufous flanks were not that obvious from the range we were viewing from , it also called on occasion.

We also added Black Redstart from this site and after we were all satisfied with are views we headed off to Minsmere , i have not been to this reserve for a number of years and it has changed quite abit , however back to the birds !

Male Tufted Duck.

We spent quite a bit of time checking the scrape and it was not long before Michael picked out a smart Spotted Redshank , which was followed by David coming across a Yellow-Legged Gull , we also added Avocet , Black Tailed Godwit and Ruff plus several Pintail scattered here , there and everywhere , i also managed a couple of photos of a very close Tufted Duck and a smart male Wigeon , we headed off to the Island mere hide and were soon surprised to see two female Goosanders , whilst we were scanning the area Michael saw some hirrundines over the reed bed , we all got on them and soon were very pleased to be watching 10+ Sand Martins .

With time against us we headed back to drop David off and found we had just enough time to call into his local patch , Dan and Michael got onto 5 Ring necked parakeets flying overhead , and David and his patch buddie Ian got us all on to a superb Little Owl . On the Sunday it was just Dan , Michael and myself and we headed of to Farlington marshes to hopefully connect with the Spoonbill and after walking around to roughly the area it had been from when Dan picked it out doing what Spoonbills do , sleeping .... lol .

Sleeping Spoonbill .

Its awake !!!!!

We had prolonged views of the Spoonbill and it every now and again did a little bit of preening , this was a superb adult bird and you can make out the yellow tip to its bill in the second photo. From here we called into Chichester to hopefully see the Little Gull which has been lingering there for quite some time and after a short walk we soon located it .

I just love Little Gulls and was very pleased to see this one and even managed some pics , we added several Chiffchaffs but not alot else so with news of a Osprey near West Witterring we headed off there and despite a lengthy attempt of seeing this bird we failed but did get a very smart Swallow fly through ( well done Dan ) and a couple of Red Breasted Mergansers for our efforts were reward enough , we also saw a superb Brimstone from the car plus bumping into 6 Waxwings in Littlehampton was a really smart bonus, so elements of winter birds and the up coming spring provided us we a really good weekends birding .

Dungeness

2011-03-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Goldcrest

I spent a few pleasant hours at Dungeness today and although my main target bird the Penduline tit never showed up i still had some decent birds , i arrived at the Hanson hide at approx 8.30 am and after spending approx 2 hours scanning the reed beds and willow trees i had no luck with the penduline , there were plenty of Reed Buntings keeping me company plus a very showy Goldcrest , there were several Cettis Warbler in full explosive song but were keeping out of sight as usual .

I then decided to have a walk around the rspb reserve not adding much to my days total , i eventually caught up with the Firecrest that has been residing in the scrub at the back of the Christmas dell hide and although i got some superb views through my bins i never managed a photo , i walked further along the track and just before i reached the Denge marsh hide i saw this fine male Stonechat .

Male Stonechat.

I always find these birds so photogenic and love seeing them in all there glory , i had my lunch on the viewing ramp over looking Hookers and added Bearded tit and another Cettis warbler which actually allowed me a very brief view as it flew low down between bushes . I was hoping to connect with some early migrants but other than several vocal Chiffchaffs around the reserve i never got any . other birds of note today were :

2 redhead smew and 1 male and 5 female Goldeneye on the Arc pit plus a pair of Marsh Harriers displaying over the reserve , oh almost forgot i did see a White Wagtail on my way around the reserve just past the Makepeice hide , so all in all a enjoyable day out .

M40 ..... Record breakers

2011-03-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

I drive for a living and every so often i end up driving along the M40 motorway which has a very healthy population of Red Kites , and to turn a very dull day into something quite special i often do a raptor count along my journey , as i can only go as fast as 56 miles an hour top speed and am quite high up in my truck i get quite a good view .

I have counts normally between 15 to 20 birds and my record total was 25 Red Kites in August 2010 , however that all changed on Tuesday 8 th March 2011 when i counted no less than 36 Red Kites mainly between junction 3 to 6 , i also saw 9 Common Buzzards and 5 Kestrels , i have encounted Merlin , Peregrine and Sparrowhawk on previous journeys along this motorway , i know i should keep my eyes mainly on the road but hey who could resist looking at these majestic birds ????

Hampshire and Sussex ... Raptors galore

2011-03-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

Great Grey Shrike.

A really busy weekend saw me birding in Hampshire and Sussex , apologises now for this being a fairly long post and my usual one or two crappy photos , i met up with Sussex birders Dan and Michael plus Matt and Dick , we started off in the New Forest at an undisclosed site for Goshawk , the conditions were murky and rather cold , my first thoughts we prob will have to wait for the mist to clear , we flushed two Woodlarks as we walked to the Goshawk site , after approx 15 or twenty minutes Dan picked out a large Hawk in the top of a fir / pine / conifer tree ?? ( i am hopeless with trees ..lol ).

Anyhow we all got onit and it was quickly id as a adult Goshawk , this stayed put for quite awhile and is the first Goshawk i have seen perched . not long after we were all enjoying views of this bird Matt picked another Goshawk soaring around fairly high up , i managed to follow this in my scope until it drifted off high to the left through the cloud , sorry for lack of photos but even by my low standards i could nt even manage a record shot !!! , of note there were several Hawfinch at this site and although i counted five at any one time i would expect the true total to be in double figures .

From here we headed of to Bishops Dyke and caught up with this superb Great Grey Shrike , it spent most of its time perched on top of small dead trees and on some silver birch trees, we watched it for about 20 mins when a family with a dog walked through the area and flushed it further into the forest out of sight , we also added Stonechat, Meadow Pipit plus around the car park area we had a mixed flock of Siskin , Lesser Redpoll and tits .

Firecrest

Firecrest.

Are next destination was Emery down and we came across this little gem , a superb Firecrest giving amazing views and as you can see i even managed a photo or two , a couple of Marsh tits were seen plus Nuthatch , we decided to head back toward Lyndhurst to try and see some Dartford Warblers well you could say we were more than successful with 3 males and two females giving the best views i have ever had of Dartford Warblers.

Female

Male

Second male

male.

On the sunday it was just Dan , Michael and myself and we went to a small common near Pulbororugh in the hope of getting some better views of Woodlark , we managed to get onto two birds within about ten minutes of arriving on site .

One of two Woodlarks.

Woodlark

We also added two fine Yellowhammers to are very impressive weekends total , we enjoyed quite prolonged views of the Woodlarks much more rewarding than the two we briefly saw yesterday , we then decided to head of towards another site when we were alerted to the news that the White Tailed Eagle was showing about an hour from where were so we headed off to try and catch up with this majestic bird , we approx 20 minutes from the site near Old Basing when the pager informed us the Eagle had flown , what to do ? what to do ? well we carried on in the hope it would re appear and after about half an hour it was re located about a mile down the road from where we were standing , we quicky got to the site and onto the bird , it was rather distant but the sheer bulk of the bird and the massive bill were very evident , i have not got a photo but if you follow the link Michael has a record shot on his blog http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ .

Red Kite.

I did manage a record shot of a Red Kite which drifted by , there were also up to ten Common Buzzards in the area , the White Tailed Eagle looked settled and as much as we wanted to see it flight it was still an amazing bird to see .

Kent and Thanet tick at Pegwell Bay

2011-02-26T04:28:00.000-08:00

Caspian Gull 1st winter.

I spent 3 hours at Pegwell Bay this morning scanning through a massive roost of gulls , hundreds in fact and my target birds were Caspian and Yellow legged gulls , constant rain showers and the distance of the gulls made the viewing fairly challenging , i always get a buzz from scanning through gull roosts because you never know what you might come across , it was nice to sit in the dry and comfort of the hide , my first scan through was long and laborious but a probable adult Yellow-legged gull was seen , however although it looked darker on the back , somewhere between Herring and Lesser black-backed. the head shape was slightly wrong and at that range the leg colour could not be confirmed .

Another poor record shot of 1st winter Caspian gull.
On my second scan through i came across a superb 1 st winter Caspian Gull , high breasted , very white pear shaped head , it had the classic small dark eye although at that range the colouration would not have shown , all black bill , very long legged , white tipped brownish terrials and black primaries were all easily seen , it also had the dropped lower rear belly , the photos really are bad i know and they just don't do the bird any justice at all , at one point it stretched its left leg and the length was quite amazing , you can just about make the very long legs out in the second photo , it spent most of the time preening .

Mixed gulls and waders going out with the tide.

Several species of wader were seen also today including , approx 75 Bar Tailed Godwits , Grey Plover, Dunlin , Redshank , Curlew and Oystercatcher , also a Sparrowhawk did a rather quick fly through .

Curlew.

So all in all a very rewarding 3 hours spent doing some local birding ( for a change ..lol )

Like Buses....... wait ages for one then get two together !!!!!!

2011-02-21T03:29:00.000-08:00

Rufous Turtle Dove.

An early start saw myself , Dan and Michael heading to Chipping Norton on Saturday the 19th Feb in the hope of seeing the Rufous Turtle Dove that had taken up residence there on and off since December 2010 , the journey was uneventful and we duly arrived on site at approx 6.30 am , the weather was constant drizzle and we headed of to The Leys to join the already gathered queue of approx 100 other birders , it felt quite weird standing in the queue of this road god knows what the local residents thought when they opened their curtains ??? and as time went on the queue kept growing and growing , i think at its peak there must of been 400 birders there , the rain was getting heavier and after 2 hours i felt like a drowned rat , the news was negative from No. 41 where the dove was seen most mornings , oh joy getting up at 3 am driving all this way standing in a road for 2 hours getting soaked !!! we must be mad , oh wait we are !!! ...lol

Anyhow whilst we were debating whether we should go off and check out other areas were the dove had been seen from hence giving up are place in the queue or should we just wait it out just in case ?! the news broke the dove was seen on top of a tree between No41 and 39 , well it was nothing short of a stampede , total madness no order nothing , and i was more or less carried along with the crowd , some how i was near the front so i crouched down out of the way when another birder bumped into me knocking me over , then i tried to set my scope up while kneeling down only to find someone standing on my straps . total madness eventually i managed to set the scope up and was soon enjoying the Roufous Turtle Dove ( form Orientalis ).

Another record shot .

The birding crew i was with were scattered all over the place i saw Dan looking through his scope and i went over to where he was and enjoyed better views , Michael was nowhere to be seen but we hoped he was getting good views eventually we all met up and indeed Michael did get good views , the dove eventually flew off and was then re found in tree at the bottom of the Leys in a field and the madness started all over again , i could see Michael and Dan heading off in that direction and eventually met up with them and was looking at the dove again , notable features were the white tipped median and greater coverts giving it a scaly appearance , the upper breast and belly were fairly dark , the pale head with smallish red eye were noticeable , i never really got a great view off the tail but i did notice the whitish tipped tail edgings did nt seem as extensive as normal Turtle Dove , the neck markings were evident every now and again , redlegs were also seen , overall a very compact dove and despite the total madness of the occasion and the weather being awful it was well worth the journey on are return journey we added 6 Red Kites . Michael has some better photos on his blog : http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/

On Sunday the 20th Feb. we headed off to Rainham marshes in the hope of seeing Britain's first Slaty Backed Gull , this bird has been giving birders the run around turning up at Pitsea , Hannigfield res. and of course Rainham , also it has gone missing for weeks on end , so we were hopeful more than expectant of seeing this bird , we arrived at Rainham and we were informed that the rubbish tip does nt work on Sundays and therefore the gull has not been seen here on Sundays as it only comes in to feed at the tip and then rest up on the marsh , not the news we had hoped for to be honest , but my thoughts were well it has to be somewhere and although the tip is closed there is still going to be food waste there for any gulls to feed on , we headed off towards Wennington marsh and the rubbish tip along the sea wall adding Wigeon , Teal and 100 + Dunlin , plus 11 Avocets were a nice to see , Dan got us all onto a small falcon flying over the river from Crayford marsh heading in land and we soon identified it as a Merlin , smart !

We reached Wennington marsh and there were not many gulls about to honest , although there were several large gulls flying inland most of the time , we joined 3 other birders and they informed us that they had not seen it , we checked through the gull roost in the middle of the marsh which were very distant , Michael said he was going down towards the tip to check it out after about 30 mins he came back and said there were lots of gulls down there so we headed off in that direction , as we were getting nearer to the tip i noticed a closer roost of large gulls and we started to scan through the flock , as i was scanning a large gull flew across and landed in my view , very broad white secondaries just hit me , long legged , darkish grey wings ,white head with streaking on the nape , deep fierce bill, my god it was the SLATY BACKED GULL i quickly got Dan and Michael on to it and another birder who had joined us, we watched it for about 10 mins , wow i could not believe are luck , then the gulls all took up some went left and right and it was lost to view the murky conditions were awful , i could nt decide to put the news out or wait until we picked it up again , we were joined by 3 other birders and we all started to scan for it again , and thankfully another birder picked it up again , i then put the news out at 12.14 pm and the Slaty Backed Gull was then seen for most of the afternoon , and like my title says , ( Like buses ) i have been waiting ages for one lifer now i have had two in a weekend , smart.

Oare Marshes

2011-02-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Male and female Pintail.

A couple of hours spent at Oare Marshes today was quite productive , i started of looking over the East Flood and soon encountered several Pintail quite close in plus most of the regular ducks were seen , huge numbers of Lapwing were present on the mud flats but not much else in the terms of waders .

More Pintails.

I made my way down to the car park and instantly heard a Cettis Warbler which was the first of my 3 year ticks this morning , making my way along the sea wall i encounted good numbers of Dunlin and Redshank with a small scattering of Grey Plover amongst them , Curlew and Oystercatcher were also added and several hundred Dark Bellied Brent Geese were seen on the Swale i also added approx 150 Avocets near the sea watching hide and there were 8 Common Seals out on the sand bar , i continued my walk past the sea watching hide and along Faversham creek not really adding much else other than a male Marsh Harrier drifting slowly over the East Flood spooking all the Lapwings and various ducks , this was followed by a fly over Grey Heron and then i heard then saw my second year tick of the day as 2 Bearded Tits flew over the nearby reed bed .

And i thought i need a haircut !!

This is what i look like after i have dipped !!!

I encounted the above cattle on my walk around past the back of the East flood hide and just could not resist a photo or two ...lol , i bumped into Murry Wright on my back towards my car and we exchanged notes and he kindly informed me of a Spoonbill on the other side of the swale although a bit distant well worth a look , we said are goodbyes and of i went in my quest to see it , after about 15 minutes i managed to pick it out along side a Little Egret , the Spoonbill was my third year tick of the day and although it was very distant a much welcome bird and i then set of for home and a nice mug of coffee .

Norfolk mixed fortunes

2011-02-07T03:19:00.000-08:00

Rough-Legged Buzzard.

I joined up with Dan and Michael for a day trip to Norfolk on saturday 5 th Feb. and i have to say this is my favourite area to bird outside of Kent , the day started of with a very brief view of a Tawny Owl on our journey up around the Brandon area , we also saw several hundred Pink-Footed geese as we got nearer to north Norfolk , we arrived at Holkham fresh marsh around about 8 am , and the Pink feet went from hundreds to thousands a real spectacular sight indeed , we also were quickly onto a female Marsh Harrier and that was followed by a very close ringtail Hen Harrier , are main target bird was soon bagged when Dan got onto a low flying Buzzard and we duely all got on to the bird and it was quickly confirmed as a Rough-Legged Buzzard , a really stunning bird and flew low over the marsh and then landed just the other side of a fairly large pool , in flight the large white rump was clearly seen as was the white on the tail , very heavy bodied , pale head , we watched for several minutes and then it flew of to the left , we managed to re locate it abit further along the A149 , when it was being mobbed by a Peregrine , wow this was great to see , the Rough-Legged Buzzard then alighted in a tree giving good scope views but sadly just abit to distant to get a decent photo so this record shot will have to do .

Very happy indeed with this we headed of to Titchwell to try and get some better views of Twite and we were not disappointed when after about 15 mins Michael got onto a flock of approx 30 finches and they landed right out in front of the hide and we were soon enjoying these superb Twite.

Twite.

Several of these birds were colour ringed , in this picture you can see a bird with a green and yellow ring , another bird had a white and pink ring and a third bird had a blue ring , very interesting to see. We saw several Skylark also feeding on the brackish marsh plus various waders out in the lagoon including Black tailed godwit , Spotted Redshank and Avocet with 2 Ruff also nearby , there were good numbers of Goldeneye including several really smart male birds . we then went to the beach and saw a large raft of Scoters out on the sea and a very close flock of 12 Snow Buntings.

Snow Bunting.

We also saw a few Bar-tailed godwits and Grey plovers here plus a very close Sanderling.

Sanderling.

We made are way back to the visitor center and had a really nice bacon baggette for lunch ( recommend this Mmmm ...lol ) and then made plans to head to Cockshoot Broad to try and see the female Ferruginus Duck ,we arrived on site in good time and soon located the bird , however we met a local birder here who informed us that he believes the bird to be a hybrid ?? i had a fairly good look at the bird although it was abit distant and it looked like a good bird to me although i have to confess i am know expert in this field , all the information services are putting it out as a Ferruginus Duck with no mention of it being a hybrid , and on Rare birds of Britain see link and scroll down to 22.1.2011 http://rarebirdsinbritain.blogspot.com/ they seemed fairly convinced its a good bird to , i thought the head shape looked right and was a lovely chocolate brown colour and the bill was dark as was the eye , the only thing i thought was slightly wrong was the flanks looked abit pale , but distance and light conditions may have been the reason for this ??? and of course females are slightly paler , as i say i am know expert on this .

Are final location was near Great Yarmouth and are target was the wintering Ross's Goose we arrived at about 1.30pm and after about an hour we had seen several thousand Pink-footed geese and 7 Bewicks Swans which was a new bird for my year list but no sign of the target bird , we moved further down the road and scanned another area of the marsh , after about another 30 mins the geese all took up just as a chap in an offical looking van pulled up along side my car , i went over to him as i thought i may have parked where i should nt have ?! just as Michael shouted i have got it , damn i rushed over to where Michael and Dan were but was to late i just could nt get onto the bird and soon they were back down into the fields out of sight , i had dipped , we gave it another half hour but to no avail and with time against us we headed of home , so mixed fortunes but i guess thats the name of the game.

Park Wood and Grove

2011-01-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

Treecreeper.

I called into a local woodland today , Park Wood which is between Canterbury and Chilham and my target bird was Lesser spotted woodpecker , alas i was unlucky with this , however i did encounter some good woodland birds , i saw a very showy Treecreeper and heard a very vocal Nuthatch , other birds of note were 2 Marsh Tits and 1 Coal Tit which were new Kent year ticks as was 2 fly over Lesser Redpolls , this is only a small woodland and only takes approx an hour to do the whole circuit , i never saw another person there which is also a bonus , not that i am unsociable but woodland watching does need abit of quietness to get the rewards , on my way back to the car i had fairly good views of Goldcrest and 5 Siskins high up in the canopy plus a few smart looking Redwings.

Very showy Treecreeper.

From Park Wood i headed to Grove Ferry and it was rather quite there to say the least , although i did see a fine female Pintail from the Feast hide and a very close fly by from a female Marsh Harrier was a real treat .

Female Pintail.

Female Marsh Harrier.

From the hide i took a walk along the river but did not really add anything and on my way back past the paddock i briefly saw a male Bullfinch perched but know soon had i got onto it and then it was gone !!

Hawfinch in two Counties .....Smart !!!!!

2011-01-23T13:34:00.000-08:00

Hawfinch.

Once again i teamed up with " Eagle Eyes and Maximus " aka Michael and Dan and we had a day in Kent on the 22 nd , we started of at Tescos and were very pleased to see the Tesco Waxwings 24 birds were present , although the poor light did nt help with photography we had great views of these wonderful birds , our next stop was for the Northern Long-Tailed Tits at Dymchurch , on arrival we bumped into a couple of birders who had seen them by the Murco garage , we headed there but they had moved off out of sight , then after about 15 mins Eagle eyes got onto some long tailed tits high up in the canopy and we were all soon enjoying these quite stunning Northern Long tailed tits , we saw 2 birds but they were very flighty and sadly no photos were managed this time , we called into Dungeness briefly and saw a superb drake Smew and a redhead Goosander on the Arc pits and we had 2 Chiffchaffs along the willow trail ( or should that be renamed as the Chiffchaff trail ? ......... lol ) , 2 Ravens , 3 Tree Sparrows and 3 Ruddy Ducks were all added to my year list plus we had up to 5 redhead Smew and several Goldeneye from the visitors center , time was against us here as we wanted to try for the Hawfinch at Denge wood that i had seen previously , we arrived at Denge Wood at 1.30 pm a bit early but we had several Siskin and a Treecreeper to keep us entertained and Michael and myself heard a distant Tawny Owl the weather was closing in and the light was poor with a steady drizzle of rain but are persistence paid of when Marc Heath who was also present at this site picked out a Hawfinch high up on top of a pine tree , we all had superb scope views when Dan picked out two more Hawfinches on a second tree .

Two Hawfinches.

We had really great views of these birds and we had a further 4 birds fly over head and a seventh bird was also seen abit later on , this is truly a remarkable site for these birds and with light fading very quickly we left for home very happy !!!!!

Kingfisher.

We headed for Sussex today 23 rd , and Dan and Michael showed me some of there local birding sites , we started of with a superb female Blackcap in their garden which was a year tick for me , then we headed of to Fishbourne Creek , we were soon on site and it was not long before Maximus found this fine Kingfisher , i struggled to see one last year so this was most welcome , not to be out done by Eagle eyes re found the adult Little Stint out on the easturie , several hundred Black tailed godwits , Dunlin and lesser numbers of Curlew were seen and a very brief view of a Jack Snipe in flight was very rewarding , we then went to Thorney Island and are target bird was Short-Eared Owl and we did not have to wait long for this as it was in the same location as Dan and Michael had seen it the previous Friday .

Short-Eared Owl.

From here we popped into Church Norton ( a few years since i had been to this site ) and we were soon enjoying views of Peregrine , Bar-Tailed Godwit several Avocets plus 7 Slavonian Grebes on the sea with at least 5 Red Breasted Mergansers amongst them , are final destination was West Dean woods , at least 9 Marsh Tits , 3 Coal Tits Michael called out Raven and we all heard but did not see it , good views were obtained of Nuthatch and Brambling .

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch.

2 Brambling.

And just as we were about to leave Dan did a final scan of the pine trees and picked up two more Hawfinches , they wer are ninth Hawfinches of the weekend spread over 2 counties , these birds were a little bit more distant than the ones in Kent but no less appreciated. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos , poor light and the birds being fairly distant is my excuse and i am sticking to it ...lol

Tesco Waxwings Part Two

2011-01-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

Just could not resist some more photos of these delightful birds , apologises if i have bored you with my constant Waxwing photos , but its not often go to Tescos and see these stunning birds ........lol

Norfolk and Suffolk birding Bonanza 15 th & 16 th January

2011-01-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

Twite.

With news breaking of the Slaty backed gull in Rainham sussexbirders Dan and Michael and myself had a decision to make , did we join the hundreds of birders at Rainham and hopefully see this bird or did we play it cool and go on are planned trip to East Anglia and if the gull is refound try for it on the way back on the Sunday ?????

Well with trepidation we decided to continue with are planned trip and i have to say when we drove past Rainham i felt a feeling of dread , but as it turned out we made the right decision and had a really great trip seeing loads of good birds !!

We started of at Thornham and instantly saw 2 ringtail Hen Harriers and then had a few hundred Pink-Footed Geese fly over head, wow what a start ! we then joined a few assembled birders on a raised mound and within a few minutes someone picked out the Northern Harrier very distinctive, very dark headed which gave it an almost hooded effect ( similar to that of a short-toed eagle ) it flew past fairly close by and good views were obtained , this is a sub species of Hen Harrier and hopefully one day it will be split into a species of its own right , we also added Barn Owl and 2 Egyptian geese at this site plus Common Buzzard and Marsh Harrier .

From here we headed to Burnham Overy Staith in the hope of seeing the Rough legged buzzards , but despite a possible on a fence post ( to far to be confident ) we left disappointed although we did encounter 2 then a further 4 Waxwings first spotted by "Eagle Eyes " aka Michael , we then arrived at Titchwell and once again " Eagle Eyes " picked out the Whooper Swan amongst the Mutes from the access track.

Spotted Redshank.

We encounted several passarines along the path including siskin , goldfinch , Greenfinch and a very tame Robin which Michael fed from his hand , amazing , check out their blog http://sussexbirders.blogspot.com/ for photos of this .

On the way towards the new hide we encounted a rather stunning Spotted Redshank really close in, smart ! we entered the hide and was completely swapped with the amount of birdwatchers in there , turns out it was a coach party from somewhere and they were not budging for anyone , still we did manage to see a flock of around 40 to 50 Twite feeding quite close in there were several Skylarks amongst them and one of the RSPB group announced that they had a woodlark and having followed the directions given the only larks i could see were Skylark !? , they all flew up and i intently watched the larks , all long tailed and showing a white trailing edge on the wings , so Skylarks they were.

Well we spent about as much time as we could bare in the hide before the noise and rudeness of this particular group got to much and we duly left and ventured onto the sea , we saw a really large raft of scoters which were mainly Common with the odd Velvet Scoter amongst them , with time and daylight against us we then decided to try for the American Wigeon at Cley , we arrived and bumped into a smaller group of birders about 10, and we all scanned the fields where the American wigeon had been seen earlier and would you believe " Eagle eyes " was the first to pick it up , it took the rest of us a while to find it and then i picked it up and it was not long before Dan and the rest of the birders were on it , it was fairly distant but a really smart bird indeed and was in the company of approx 200 Wigeon , sorry for lack of photos but the wind was very strong today and holding onto the scope was a job in it self ..lol

Lesser White-Fronted Goose .

We spent the night in Norwich and are first destination was Cantley marshes and are target bird was the Lesser White-Fronted Goose , we arrived on site a little after 8 am the wind was still fairly strong and there were geese everywhere , after much scanning we picked out between us several hundred White-Fronted Geese and lesser numbers of Pink feet , than whilst Michael and i were checking out some distant swans Dan announced that he thought he had some Taiga Bean Geese which you thought might have contained are target bird , we soon got on them and although they were fairly distant you could clearly see that they were indeed about 30 to 40 Taiga Bean Geese , we decided to try and get closer and eventually we got as close as we could and Dan then spotted just the top of are target birds head , you could clearly see the white face patch extending over the forehead but nothing else , eventually it came out into the open for us all to see and enjoy , the Lesser White-Fronted Goose showed really well and whilst we were watching Michael found 2 Peregrines in a nearby tree .

Two Peregrines.

We had a real good time here and then headed off to Lowestoft and are target bird was the Iceland Gull that had been seen for the last few days , no sooner had we parked the car and Michael was soon on the bird .

Iceland Gull.

The pictures don't do this white winged wonder justice really , quite simply stunning to watch , we also saw 2 Med. Gulls at this site , we got chatting to a couple of local birders and they were really helpful and gave us some local sites to check out for other birds , the first site was for Purple Sandpiper and we saw 4 birds really close in , Dan has some stunning photos of these , the second site was for Scaup and once again this proved very successful with 2 birds seen .

Scaup.

We also tried a site for Hawfinch but were unlucky this time but we still saw Treecreeper and heard at least 2 Nuthatches plus Michael and Dan saw a Coal Tit which eluded me, humph !! lol , just like to thank the local birders for there info its just a shame more birders are not like this , we had time for one last stop but we dipped the Great white egret , but we did add Dunnock to are weekend list , which reached 95 species , including 23 year ticks for me and i believe Michael and Dan got 5 lifers , big thanks for there company this weekend .

Tesco Waxwings

2011-01-14T03:22:00.000-08:00

Waxwings

I finished work early today and called into Tescos at Whitstable to try and see the reported Waxwings that were seen earlier , and sure enough i soon saw 3 birders who were watching 11 of these superb birds and i soon joined them and enjoyed this stunning birds.

The light was fairly poor but all the same i just cant seem to get enough of these delightful Waxwings.

Northern Wonder

2011-01-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Northern Long-Tailed Tit.

I had no plans to go out birding today but the lure of this delightful Northern Long- Tailed Tit was to strong , i arrived at Dymchurch and joined the already gathered birders , it was proving elusive to find , i did see a female Merlin whilst i was waiting and then i noticed a few birders rushing over towards some trees , i soon joined them and it was not long until i got onto this northern wonder .

Good view of the under tail.

This is only a sub species of Long tailed tit but it was really stunning , white head, white under tail coverts , and much whiter wing coverts , it was keeping close company with a regular Long tailed tit and very good comparisons were made.

View of the wing coverts.
I watched this for about 10 minutes but the whole time it was keeping busy , moving around and was tricky to photo , eventually it moved of towards the church , there have been up to 5 birds seen here , i was completely satisfied with one ...lol , i also saw 1 Goldcrest and 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers here.

Waxwings.

I called into Fowlmead Country Park on the way home as the weather was much better today and i thought my chances of seeing the Waxwings were much higher , and on my arrival i first saw 4 or 5 birders and then i got onto the Waxwings in the top of some nearby trees , they were very vocal and abit flighty , i counted 18 birds in total .

In flight.

Local Birding....... and 100 up for 2011

2011-01-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Male Siskin

I decided to do some local birding today , i headed off to Fowlmead country park near Deal on the hope of seeing some Waxwings , however i was unlucky with these despite being there at 10.15 am and the pager alerting me that there were still 8 birds present and yet i was the only birder there ????? its a mystery ! still i did add Green Woodpecker and Wren to my year list , i also had good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing , i spent about an hour here then headed of to the Alder wood part of Stodmarsh and heard then saw a Siskin fly overhead in the car park there , i then encounted a further 50 birds in the woods mixed in with my first Goldfinches of the year , oddly there was not a Lesser Redpoll to be seen or heard here , i saw a distant female Marsh Harrier and good numbers of Teal , Mallard and Gadwall out on the lake , and then i had a brief view of a Bittern fly along the reed bed ,on my way back towards the car i saw 3 delightful Long-Tailed Tits .

Another male Siskin.

Mixed wildfowl, how many can you id ??

From Stodmarsh i headed of to Denge wood where i had been told of a fairly reliable site for Hawfinch , its been a number of years since i have seen them locally as the site i used to see them is now devoid of most birds let alone Hawfinch , so with the directions written down i followed my map and duly arrived on site at 1.30 pm , abit early for the roost which is roughly 2.30 - 3 pm , but as it was an overcast day i thought i would just wait and see what happens and despite several more vocal Siskins there was no sign of any Hawfinch by 2pm , i had bumped into 2 other birders but they had not seen any either by this time , we spread out a little bit but keeping in earshot just in case, then i noticed 3 birds flying overhead quite short tailed and fairly large, as luck would have it they landed in the tops of some nearby trees and with in an instant i set my scope up and gave the shout " 3 Hawfinches in the top of left hand tree " very well marked birds and fantastic to see , really big billed and headed , they eventually flew off after about 2 to 3 minutes but sadly they were just abit to far to get any pictures.
With this i headed off home happy having reached over 100 for 2011 already with some top quality birds .

Kent and Sussex Birding

2011-01-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

One of three Shorelarks at Reculver.

I teamed up with Michael and Dan today ( 2nd Jan. ) and we started of at Reculver to try and see the Hooded crow which would be a British tick for them and a year tick for me , it was a bitterly cold morning and on our walk along the sea wall Dan picked out a distant Harrier which soon came closer enough to id as a Marsh Harrier which was quickly followed by Little Egret and Lapwing and Pheasant ( hope your reading David ...lol ) there were plenty of Wigeon and Dark-Bellied Brent Geese on the sea and Michael saw a Red-Necked Grebe flying west , as we carried on moving towards cold harbour we had 3 larks flying off but could not put a positive id to but were most probably the Shorelarks , damn , in the same area i first heard then saw 2 Snow Buntings which we all happily added to our year lists , we eventually reached cold harbour and were soon enjoying distant views of the Hooded Crow .

On our return journey we reached the area where we had seen 3 larks flying off earlier and within seconds we were all enjoying close views of 3 Shorelarks which were a very welcome addition to my ever growing year list , these are scarce birds in Kent and really smart birds to see let alone photograph .

Shorelarks.

We arrived back at the car and then headed of to Dungeness , we called into the visitor center and had really great views of a Bittern out in the open and then Michael picked out a red head Smew and 3 Goosanders. we also added at least 2 female Goldeneyes and 1 Black-Necked Grebe . We then headed of towards the sea to try and catch up with the reported recently seen Glaucous and Caspain Gulls , but despite an intensive scan through the gulls we had no luck with the Caspian gull but thanks to Dan we managed to see the Glaucous gull which was first spotted sitting on some type of metal structure then eventually seen resting on the ground .

Glaucous gull on metal structure.

Resting on ground.

We also added several hundred Red-Throated divers of shore , quite a remarkable sight plus there were a few Great crested grebes on the sea and a couple of Guillemots and a fly by Razorbill.

Are final destination was a trip to Pett level via a quick check of Scotney on the way through which resulted in 4 White-fronted geese and at Pett Level we enjoyed seeing a large mixed flock of Dark-bellied Brent geese which had approx 10 Pale-Bellied birds and a really smart looking Black Brant and another White-fronted goose , there were also 100 + Barnacle Geese and a scattering of Canada geese , and then it was time to call it a day , i dropped Michael and Dan off at Rye train station and on my way home i added Moorhen to my year list , just like to thank Michael and Dan for there superb company today .

I am keeping two year lists this year , my normal UK year list plus the new addition of a Kent year list.

Great start to the new year in Cornwall

2011-01-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

Purple Sandpiper.

A very early start saw me picking up David Campbell at 4.20 am and are quest was a trip to Cornwall for the Pacfic Diver that had been there for a few days , on our journey we started of the new year with a superb Barn Owl drifting across the road as we were just about to join the A303 , other birds noted on are journey included Robin , Blackbird , Common Buzzard ( approx : 15 ) Collared Dove and David also added Lapwing and Pheasant and much to his amusement gripped me off with these all day...lol

We arrived in Cornwall and located ourselves at Marazion marsh where the diver was last seen the day before , our first Diver was a distant Red-Throated and was soon followed by a superb Great Northern Diver but no sign of the Pacific , there were alot of birds a long way out which were to far give a positive id to , we chatted to one or two local birders for up to date gen and were told of several good birds around past Penzance harbour at jubilee pool so we decided to check this site out as the Pacific has been seen from here to on occasions , we arrived and on are way towards the Jubilee pool area David quickly picked up a really smart male Black Redstart , then whilst trying to get a photo a rather odd character decided to make conversation with David which seemed to be a bit of a theme for the rest of the day ...lol

Eider . ( one of two birds present )

We added Slavonian Grebe , Purple Sandpiper and Eider from this vantage point plus 3 more Great Northern divers and a well picked out Red-Necked Grebe , well done on that one David.

We were than told by some old lady that there will be lots of swimmers coming around to where we were birding from very soon ( they must be mad , it was a very cold day ) , so we decided to go around to a small bay and try for the Grey Phalarope that had been seen there , just previous to speaking to the old lady another birder picked out a fly over Glaucous Gull 1st winter bird smart ! on are arrival it was negative news on the Phalarope but there was a very close Pale-Bellied Brent Goose which i managed to photo .

Pale-Bellied Brent Goose.

Still no news or sign of the target bird but top quality birds were making this a very good days birding all the same , then the news broke , my pager chirped that the target bird had been seen just off Jubilee pool so we decided to head straight there , and some manic driving later we were back on sight and after approx 15 minutes i was adding PACIFIC DIVER to my life list , a really smart bird to see , white chin strap was seen every now and again especially when it started to preen , white throat contrasted really well against dark nape and back of neck , the evident lack of white thigh patch was very obvious , a very compact bird with small roundish head and slender bill, i have now seen all five world species of diver and my only disappointment is i never got a photo of this bird , David has a record shot on his blog .

The Pacific Diver then drifted off towards St Michael's mount so we decided to head off back there but we could not pick it up again , although we did add several more year ticks from Marazion marsh including a fine Bittern giving us a brief flying view , so with time against us we decided to pop into Hayle Estuarie and added many new birds to are year list , including 6 female Goosanders , Knot , Redshank , and plenty of ducks , and then time caught up with us and we headed of home very happy .

Merry Christmas

2010-12-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

As i am likely to be working from now until Christmas i would just like to say a BIG THANKYOU to everyone who has followed my blog and to those of you have also been kind enough to have left comments , i would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope the new year brings you all some great birds and plenty of lifers .

very snowy garden shed.