Merry Christmas

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

Lapwings .

I set off early on Saturday 10th December my destination was Cley Marshes  in the hope of seeing the Western Sandpiper , i arrived in good time just as the pager informed me that it was still there showing from Pats Pool , great i parked up and headed to Pats pool , i got into the first hide No birders , went to the second hide and instantly realized i would be looking into Sun , and there was only one birder in this hide and by which time i had a small following of birders behind me , the guy said " its showing from the hide over the other side of the pool , so without haste i ended up in my third hide in about 10 minutes , Phew !!!!  

 Within a minute or two i was straight onto the first winter Western Sandpiper   ,  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 .

  I watched it for a short while when  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 i didn't see the Western Sandpiper again in next 3 hours i spent there , however it did re appear later in the afternoon when i was on my way back home .

Green Winged Teal.

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

Green Winged and Eurasian Teal .

There were very good numbers of Golden Plovers I 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 i counted 16 birds , i did not have long here as i had to get back home as i had other arrangements in the evening however i had a good time with lots to look at , i did see a female Marsh Harrier on one of the banks.

Marsh Harrier.

And i 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. 

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

Birders viewing from Herriott's Bridge.

A trip to Chew Valley Lake in Somersett on Saturday 26th November produced a truly wader spectacle , i arrived at 8.45 am and joined the already assembled birders along the bridge , see above photo, my main target bird was the juv. Sharp Tailed Sandpiper and i 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, i bumped into Nick and Russell .G. who were quickly onto the bird and this was a new species for Russell as well and a very welcome year tick for both Nick and myself . Sadly i didn't 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 , there was also  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 i saw 3 Bewick's Swans , Russell picked out a distant Peregrine which was good to see .

i then  decided to head of to Blagdon Lake to try for the Ring Necked Duck so i said my goodbyes to Nick and Russell and headed off there via the visitors centre where i tucked into pastie and chips and got my permit .

Male Red Crested Pochard.

I had no luck with the Ring Necked Duck but did add this smart Red Crested Pochard to my year list   I also saw a smart Long Tailed Duck and female Goosander which i added to my days total , i spent about an hour here and also added Slavonian Grebe and a lone Roe Deer then i decided to go back to Herriots Bridge for another look at the Sharp Tailed Sandpiper. 

I 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 i saw  2 Red Kites which added to the earlier count made 5 in total today , a really enjoyable day with top quality birds  .  

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

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 past in front of me and landed on a post . 

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

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 .

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

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 couldn't 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 .

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.

Glossy Ibis

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 Cetti's sounding off here and there plus 3 Bearded Tits pinged their way across the reeds .