November Highlights...........There were Some !!

                                                Swalecliffe

                               5th November 2024

                                        

Snow Bunting

On the 5th November i had a wander around Swalecliffe in the hope of seeing the Snow Bunting , after a chat with local birder AT i searched the area it favoured, after a short while i located this stunning bird which gave wonderful close views.

I also had decent but brief views of the wintering Dartford Warbler in more or less the same area.

Snow Bunting.

St.Maragarets at Cliffe

7th November 2024.

Rose-coloured Starling.

On the 7th November i headed to St.Margarets at Cliffe to try and connect with the juv Rose-coloured Starling.

After nearly an hour it was seen on top of a roof on an aerial and i finally managed to see it, very pale plumage, pink legs all seen well.

Rose-coloured Starling with a Starling 

Rose-coloured Starling with a House Sparrow.

King George VI Park Ramsgate

9th November 2024

On the 9th November i had good views of a Pallas's Warbler in King George VI park, sadly i never managed a photo but the views through my bins were very good with all features seen.

Pallas's Warbler Photo from Swalecliffe in 2023.

Worth Marshes

Pink-Footed Goose.

Also on the 9th November i headed to Worth Marshes and finally caught up with some Pink Footed Geese in Kent, 17 of them in fact.

Pink-Footed Goose.

A Trip to Bempton Cliffs & Flamborough

                                   BEMPTON CLIFFS  &  FLAMBOROUGH AREA

                                                         2nd October 2024

                                                                    

Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler.

News broke of a confirmed Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler on the 27th September at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire whilst i was was still on Shetland !!

We left Shetland on the overnight ferry to Aberdeen on the 28th but worked out we wouldn't have time regrettably to twitch the PLLW on the way home on the Sunday. 

The PLLW was still present Monday & Tuesday and the weather overnight was cloudy & rain both nights with the weather clearing on the Wednesday.

Thankfully i was offered a lift on the Tuesday and joined Steve .C. , JR & RR leaving early hours Wednesday morning.

There was no news on the PLLW until approx 8am and you could feel the sense of relief in the car , we duly arrived on site fearing how difficult it was going to be having heard stories of it being very elusive & some birders waiting 5 + hours to see it, you get the picture...Lol

Pale pinkish coloured legs.

Well we all connected with this incredible bird , (only the 2nd ever record for the UK and the first live record at that to) within 15 minutes of us arriving on site.

It was very active and with patience i managed to see the PLLW really well and even heard it call several times.

Photography was another challenge altogether but i manged a few record shots.

Long supercillium.

Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler.

Having seen & heard  this great bird very well the pressure was off and i could really enjoy watching it forage through the hedgerow, A really great find  by local birder Andrew Hood plus another very well organised twitch by Bempton Cliffs staff.

FLAMBOROUGH HEAD : Holms Gut

Red Breasted Flycatcher.

From Bempton Cliffs we headed to Flamborough Head and had superb views of 2 Red Breasted Flycatchers  at Holm's Gut.

Nice view of it's tail pattern

Red Breasted Flycatcher.

THORNWICK  BAY

Olive Backed Pipit.

Whilst we were checking out another area for migrants news broke of an Olive Backed Pipit showing well at Thornwick Bay which was only about 10 minutes away, so without haste we headed there and was soon enjoying some point blank views of this cracking looking bird.

Here are a small selection of photos i took.

Olive Backed Pipit.

We watched this bird for quite some time enjoying watch it forage among all the dead leaves often almost looking invisible at times.

OLD FALL PLANTATION

Yellow-Browed Warbler.

We had a walk to the Old Fall Plantation where SC & JR found 2 Yellow Browed Warblers & a Common Redstart.

There were lot's of Goldcrests pretty much at every site we went to & there must of been at least 20 here.

Merlin, Pied Flycatcher & Ring Ouzel were also seen by our Group.

Yellow-Browed Warbler

FLAMBOROUGH : Seawatch

We spent the last hour looking out at sea and added a close in Manx Shearwater to our days totals plus several Gannets, Kittiwakes & 2 Red throated Divers.

A really great days birding in great company and a special thank you to Steve.C. for the lift and doing all the driving.

                              

Shetland Trip...... 21st - 28th September

                                                         SHETLAND TRIP

                                               21st to 28th September 2024 

                                                 

Hooded Crow

       I joined up with RR & PG for a weeks birding on Shetland this year and had a great time, many birding  highlights were seen including 2 Lifers plus plenty of quality birds.

My 2 LIFERS were : Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler  which i saw very well out in the open plus several flight views, i also saw it land in an Iris bed and fan it's tail showing off it's white tips.

I had previously had a very, very brief view of a PGW disappearing into some  reeds in Norfolk a few years ago which has never sat comfortably with me, however now i can be very happy to finally add this superb bird to my Life list.

                                                                         

Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler . Photo by Dennis Morrison.

I never managed a photo myself however Dennis Morrison very kindly let me use one of his superb photos , Thank you Dennis!

For me the star bird of the trip was another lifer and one of my most wanted birds since i have been going to Shetland and we managed to see it on the final morning of our stay!!!!

PECHORA PIPIT 

Here are a selection of the many photos i took :

Pechora Pipit

You can just about make out the pointed tail feathers.

White tramlines on mantle.

Pechora Pipit.

As always on Shetland there are times when you do alot of searching for your own birds and although we never found any rare birds ourselves we did find 2 Yellow-Browed Warblers & 1 Barred Warbler  of note for our efforts.

A group of lads who i don't know personally found both Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler & Lanceolated Warbler on the same day !!! thankfully we managed to connect with both birds. A massive congrats & thank you to those lads.

Here are a small selection of photos of some of the birds we saw on our trip:

Lapland Bunting

Peregrine

Red Breasted Flycatcher

Red Breasted Flycatcher

Whooper Swan

Yellow-Browed Warbler

Yellow-Browed Warbler

Corncrake.

A really successful week in great company and great birds seen.

Beavers in Canterbury

                                         

Adult Beaver.

I first heard about the Beaver family in Canterbury a few weeks ago and got some directions from Julian where to look for them(thanks Julian).

On my  first visit  i saw a Kit firstly by the lodge they had made, later in the evening an adult Beaver put in an appearance.

I was really surprised how big the adult was, about 3ft from nose to tail and quite broad bodied.

Adult Beaver having a munch.

There are 2 adults & 3 Kits in this Beaver family and can be located just along the Great Stour from Sainsbury's in Canterbury.

One of the Three Kits.

I met up with some friends on my last visit and they had already seen a Kit before i had arrived and we all enjoyed prolonged views of an Adult Beaver swimming along the river before climbing up & down the river bank.

Lucas managed a video which he has kindly let me use on my blog (thankyou Lucas).

Coming back down river bank. (Video by Lucas)

Here is one of mine of an adult Beaver having a munch.

New Bird for my Oare Marsh Bird List

                                                         10th July 2024

                                                    Oare Marshes

Male Red Backed Shrike.

I received a txt message from MW (thanks Murray) informing me of a stunning male Red Backed Shrike between Dan's Dock & Uplees.

Without hesitation i headed straight there and enjoyed some excellent scope views of this superb bird.

This as the title says was a New bird for my Oare Marsh Bird list and a cracking bird to see to.

Red Backed Shrike.

Coquet Island...............

                                                          13th June 2024

                                                    Coquet Island

                                                                          

Puffin.

I'm a bit behind on my blog posts so apologises for that, one of my trips out of Kent was a failed trip to Coquet Island to see the Bridled Tern.

This would have been a lifer for my birding companion RR. The last & only Bridled Tern i have seen was at Cemlyn Bay Anglesey in 1988. 

We made good progress and reached the small harbour in good time to board the small pleasure boat that runs Puffin tours around Coquet Island.

On route to the Island there were plenty of Puffins, Razorbills & Terns keeping us company.

Close views.

Once we reached Coquet Island there were 1000's of seabirds to greet us, frantic searching & scanning through endless Terns didn't produce the hoped for Bridled Tern however the seabird spectacle was worth the journey on it's own.

Common Terns

Feeding young.

We only had about 30-40 minutes viewing from the boat and despite our best efforts we never saw the Bridled Tern, However we did see a special breeding Tern, in fact we saw about 20 Roseate Terns in total.

Roseate Tern.

Back to the harbour we went , we decided to spend an hour looking from the shore scanning the island just in case but without success, we did see Eider, Goosander , Gannets , Fulmar , Artic & Roseate Terns though.

My first visit to Coquet Island and although we never saw the main target bird i was very impressed with the seabird spectacle we did see.