White Winged Wonders ......At Dungeness NNR

                                             29th  February :  Dungeness  NNR

                                                        
                                                                     

Iceland Gull

Winter at Dungeness is probably the best time of year  to connect with White winged Gulls in Kent and this winter proved to be spot on.

After storms Ciara & Dennis Dungeness NNR was the place to be if you wanted to see Gulls in there 1000's !!!!

With lots of bivalve molluscs washed up because of the storms the Gulls were having a large feeding frenzy .

As the title of this post said, white winged wonders were evident in the form of several Med Gulls and a superb Juv Iceland Gull, which was incredibly hard to track down (well for us anyway) , it took 2 visits to finally connect with this superb bird.

Battling the waves

Iceland Gull.

We spent quite sometime searching for this bird over the 2 visits but eventually we caught up with it as it fed along the shore line by the fishing boats.

7th  March  : Dungeness NNR

Glaucous Gull

A week after seeing the Iceland Gull we were back down to Dungeness this time in the hope of seeing the Juv Glaucous Gull.

We bumped into JB & DB & NB who were already watching the Glaucous Gull which was roosting on the shingle bank.

Eventually the Glaucous Gull was disturbed by a family making their way along the beach , however  we were treated to some close flight views of the Glaucous Gull before it headed towards the lifeboat station.

Flight views.

We managed to re-locate the Glaucous Gull near the Lifeboat station where it spent most of the time on the sea with the occasional fly around.

Glaucous Gull

Day Trip to ..... North Norfolk

 Barn Owl

A day trip to North Norfolk on the 19th February was a very good day indeed, our first site visited was Sedgeford near Heacham and our hope was to see the superb Blue Headed Eastern Yellow Wagtail .

Well we were not disappointed , the initial views were in flight and every time it flew the Blue Headed Eastern Yellow Wagtail called.

Calling in flight

Blue Headed Eastern Yellow Wagtail

We did see it on it's favoured Dung heap and also feeding in the nearby fields.

On favoured Dung heap

Brightly coloured bird.

There was also 2 Barn Owls in the area and several Yellowhammers.

From here we headed to Thornham harbour and had superb views of 10 Twite without getting out of the car.

Colour ringed birds.

Twite.

Really enjoyed watching these birds go about their business , at least half the birds had a combination of different colour rings.

We then headed to Holkham Gap in the quest to see Shorelark & Snow Bunting (Many thanks to Johnathan Farooqi for site details).

We walked through the pines hearing Goldcrest & Coal Tit and then eventually reached the roped off area where we enjoyed superb views of 49+ Snow Bunting .

Small selection of the main flock

Snow Bunting.

After watching these superb Buntings for quite sometime plus looking for the Shorelarks without success we headed to the sea and saw several Common Scoter & ♂ ♀ Red Breasted Merganser.

On the walk back i had another scan across the roped off area and manged to locate at least 4 Shorelarks with their bright yellow faces showing really well.

We made a brief stop at Wells-next-to-Sea but sadly drew a blank on the long staying Rough legged Buzzard but we did get good views of a roosting Barn Owl and several distant Pink footed Geese.

Brambling

On the way home the weather had closed in with lots of rain, however we still decided to call into Lynford Arboretum .

Looking through the 'Tunnel' we saw lots of Chaffinch, Yellowhammer, Great & Blue Tit plus a Nuthatch put in a brief appearance ,  we were also treated to 3 Bramblings.

We continued towards the paddocks and shown a roosting Tawny Owl high up in one of the pines before the bridge , a couple of Marsh Tits joined Coal,Great & Blue Tits on the nearby feeders and a flock of 50+ Siskin flew over.

Wow what a place to end the day , the rain was relentless now and photography was out of the question so sadly no further photos , However we did add 3 + Hawfinch, 10+ Greenfinch & 4 Mistle Thrush to our days total.

A really great trip to Norfolk today with an incredible 7 Barn Owls seen through the day.

Barn Owl  (From previous trip)

Black Throated Thrush ..... at Whipsnade Zoo

Black Throated Thrush.

After giving it some thought and having received lot's of positive comments from regular readers of my blog i have decided to restart posting some of my trips, i am still struggling with the enthusiasm i once had, however i will try to at least post one blog post a month.

Many thanks for the kind comments i have received both on here and twitter.

Feeding very well.

As you can see i paid a visit to Whipsnade Zoo (in early January) and had some great views of the wintering Adult Black Throated Thrush (i had only ever seen 1st winter birds before).

Looking good in a Pig pen !!!

The Black Throated Thrush spent most of it's time feeding on Berries in the nearby tree but on one occasion it landed in the Pig Pen and gave some excellent views.

Superb plumage detail on this bird.

Really enjoyed watching this rare Thrush go about it's business , it's still present at Whipsnade Zoo as i write this (07-02-2020) and well worth a visit if you get the chance.

Black Throated Thrush

Taking a Break.....From Blogging

Long eared Owl.

I have decided after 10 years of doing this blog to take a break from it, i have really enjoyed doing the blog from running quizzes which proved popular at the time to just my general ramblings about my birding adventures around the country and abroad.

However i have struggled over the last year to find the enthusiasm i once had writing about my trips, hopefully in the future i might refind that same enthusiasm and restart my blog but for now i will just leave it up for anyone who wishes to re visit my past trips.

Many thanks to all those who have  visited my blog over the years, very much appreciated

Kind Regards

Rob

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Just like to wish everyone who has visited my blog this year a

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

&

GREAT BIRDING

FOR

2020

A Great Day Birding on..........Isle of Sheppey

                                        7th December  : Isle of  Sheppey

                                                    

Ringtail Hen Harrier

On Saturday the 7th December a birdwatching trip to the Isle of Sheppey proved to be a very successful one , starting off walking from the car park at Shellness which was busy with many Meadow Pipits & Reed Buntings in the nearby bushes (which used to be very good for Twite in years gone by).

We walked out onto the Swale NNR , plenty of Little Egrets in the pools plus good numbers of  Brent Geese flying overhead and landing in the adjacent fields.

4 of the 5 Pink Footed Geese.

As we were approaching the hide a scan across the fields produced 5 Pink Footed Geese which were hunkered down and we saw them later in flight on the way back, there was also a Peregrine Falcon sat in a nearby field keeping an eye on proceedings.

As we went past the hide we were treated to a really great view of a Ringtail Hen Harrier which was amazing to see.

We carried on and eventually found the Tundra Bean Goose which was feeding among the Greylag Geese.

Tundra Bean Goose with Greylag Geese.

Tundra Bean Goose.

Lots of  Marsh Harrier, Kestrel & Common Buzzard were seen with constant calling Curlew was really wonderful to see and hear.

A Corn Bunting heard but remained unseen on the way back plus a good size winter flock of Skylark was seen, we decided to head to Elmley NNR for the afternoon which proved to be a very good choice.

Long eared Owl

We parked up in the reserve car park and were soon looking for the roosting Long eared Owls , they took some finding but eventually i managed to find them with one bird showing well.

Thankfully they are well out of reach for shall we say over enthusiastic photographers & birdwatchers (so hopefully no disturbance).

Long eared Owl

Overlooking the fields from the car park we were treated to 5 Short eared Owls, which showed very well, plus a Little Owl was heard and also a Barn Owl was heard to.

Short eared Owl

In flight

Digi scoped Short eared Owl

The drive along the track can be very productive with lots of Marsh Harriers , Kestrel & Common Buzzard seen plus a further 3 Short eared Owls.

We also saw plenty of Lapwing close to the track and a superb Brown Hare was seen very well, a really great day on Sheppey indeed !!!