Sunday 29 March 2015

Alpine Swift at Crawley

I leave Brian's house on sat evening with him undecided where to go this morning, Jimmy had text that an Alpine Swift had gone to roost on the Virgin Atlantic building at Crawley by Gatwick airport.
On arriving home Brian sent a text to say he is going to come with us to try for the Swift instead of going to his first choice of Dungeness.
We meet up at 5.30 & it takes just over the hour, when we arrive just a couple of birders are here & they had not seen the target yet, it was only just getting light so it's no wonder there.
After a short while more people arrive & after a few phone calls it appears we need to be a couple of hundred yards up the road to the other Virgin building, so all in our cars to meet up with a bigger group there.
The weather is not good with fine rain had us getting in & out of the car to keep our self warm & even with Lee turning up the bird refuse's to show.
Only being 10 miles from Warnham LNR a Jack Snipe was reported there yesterday, we head there only to find it doesn't open till 10 o'clock, so not a good morning so far.
Just as we are deciding what to do for an hour the warden opens the door & let's us in,( nice fellow)
we pay a small donation & take a short walk to the first hide, we scan the lake for the Jack Snipe but to no avail.
I do see a male Mandarin Duck & a couple of Heron's & Great-crested Grebe plus Tufted Duck .
We move on to the next hide & find that it looks out on a feeding station & is well stocked with seed.
We see many Finches & Tits plus a Great spotted Woodpecker comes to feed, Treecrepper & Nuthatch plus the odd brown Rat & what I think are field mouse are seen running in & out from their nest under some moss covered logs, not to fond of these rodents but still nice to sit & watch them go about their business. A couple of Grey Wagtails  & a few Reed Bunting make up the show. A really nice clean reserve that deserves a longer visit.
The pager busts into life to tell us that the Swift had shown up at last, so a very quick 10 minute drive  gets us back to be told that the bird had not been seen for a while.
The weather has not improved with the fine rain looking set for the whole day, makes us think it's not to be our day, then we get a great sight of the Swift as it flies in & heads over the car park & goes to roost on the Virgin building.
Everybody heads round the building to locate the bird, it's visible but it's tucked right up under the gutter & although I took some photos the rain made it hard to get anything worthwhile so I delete them. So a good year tick & only an hour from home makes it a good morning after all.
Great spotted
Just going about it's feeding.
Just had to save one photo




Friday 27 March 2015

Willow Tit Kelham Bridge lifer for me.


After Brian got a Willow Tit at Kelham yesterday Jimmy & I just had to head there our self today.
It's in Leicester & 116 miles from home, we leave just before 6 am & arrive around 8 am.
We park just by a sub station on a small dirt stripe & pop over the style & it's a short walk to the first hide with feeders hanging just outside.
Within a couple of minutes we see 2 Willow Tits on the feeders & over the next hour we get to watch & hear them as they come to & fro to feed.
Long-tailed Tit, Blue & Great Tit along with Robin, Chaffinch, Dunnock, all come to the feeders.
Out on the lake a Snipe is feeding on a small Island & we see at least 4 Buzzard before we leave.
This is just a small reserve with not to much to see here but it gives both Jimmy & myself a life tick.
A couple of volunteers arrive before we leave to do some work on a water pipe & we have a good old chat with them about what they had seen & where they had been so far this year, it's always nice to talk to local birders on their patch.



















































Sunday 22 March 2015

Lakenheath comes up trumps.Fudge Duck & Cranes.

Arriving just after 7 am at Lakenheath RSPB, we are soon onto a male Garganey as we look out from the Washland viewpoint so a nice early year tick.
A walk along the path down to Joist hide gives us tick number 2 for the day when we see a couple of Whooper Swan in amongst a lot of Mute Swans, we see at least another two on the walk down.
A local birder named Steve is sitting on his own in the hide when we arrive & he gets us onto the Fudge Duck that has been here a few days, it is seen just behind the hide & we get very lucky with a very quick view of the duck before it disappears out of sight.
We return to the hide & see 5 Marsh Harriers & a couple of Buzzards, then another tick flies in from the left when we see a pair of Common Crane, we get a great view as they fly over the back & as they land we get to see the great wing span a great sight to see.
On the walk back we pop into the new hide but apart from a Snipe & another Marsh Harrier nothing doing today. We hear at least 2 Bittern booming but not to loud & we never got to see any on this trip.
As we drink a cuppa by the visitor centre watching the many variety of Tits & plenty of Reed Bunting coming to the feeding station a fellow walks in with a dead Barn Owl very sad to see .
The same fellow tells us that a Great-white Egret was showing by the bridge just up the road on the Norfolk side, a quick drive & we are looking over the bridge at the Egret.
A quick stop for some photos & then we head to Santon Downham , the aim is to look for a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker but as we get near to the sight we see a group of birders & we decide to stop to see if they have seen any thing of interest,as we get near to them the cry goes up Goshawk, we all get a nice view of it before it soars behind the trees & out of sight, what a bonus.
A Great-grey Shrike is also seen while here, none of us need the Shrike for a tick but always nice to see one.
On the way home we pop into the Brecks & pick out a single Stone Curlew for the last tick of the day. the weather was on the whole pretty good a bit up & down  but no rain so a good day with plenty of year ticks for all three of us.
Fudge Duck
One of the Whooper Swans
Great-white Egret


Monday 16 March 2015

Dipped again Lesser-spotted at Stocker's lake.

A flying visit with Brian & Jimmy to Stocker's lake where a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker has been showing most of the week, we arrive at the lake near Rickmansworth at around 7 am.
Only a couple of people looking for the bird at this time & they had not seen or heard it up till now.
We allow our self a good 4 hour's to  see if the bird will show but nothing is seen or heard while we are here.
A pair of Red-crested Pochard give us all a year tick so not altogether a wasted trip,but Jimmy & myself had to spend over an hour walking the lake before we found them.
Meet another new face here who had just got himself into birding & we pass on a few tips about where to go for him to get the best out of the hobby, I'm just a novice myself but you realise how far you have progressed when you talk to somebody really new to the hobby.
The pair of Red-crested Pochard
Wren
Great-crested Grebe


Saturday 14 March 2015

Shut heath wood

With nothing to do we decide to try for Lesser -spotted Woodpecker at Shut heath wood.
It's only just over 30 miles from home so no problem there, we arrive & find the big pair of gates that take us to park the car just inside them, it's just a short walk down to the woods.
We spend 4 hours just walking around the woods, sitting down from time to time so it was easier to look up at the top of the trees in the hope of spotting the Lesser.
We here Green & Great calling & drumming but the Lesser doesn't want to come out to play today.
We meet up with a couple of birders & have a good old talk & it turns out that one had seen Dave B on Sunday while here & Dave had seen the target bird within minutes of turning up near the car park how lucky is that,
Plenty of Coal, Long-tailed,  Great,& Blue Tits, also many Treecreeper's & the odd Nuthatch seen & heard.
Before the other birders had turned  up Jimmy had heard a Tawny Owl Call, later on I also pick up a call & we mention it to the other fellows & one of them knows where it is likely to be as he has seen it before.
So we take a walk into the trees & we pick the bird out with ease very nice,that's two Tawy Owls in a couple of weeks, after the one we saw at Abney park a fortnight ago. Then we here what we hope is the Lesser but it's only a quick drumming & we don't see any movement so although we all think it was the Lesser we will not call it as a tick. Still a very nice few hours spent in some good company & not to far to travel home.

About as good as I could get very nearly got the face.








One of the many Treecreepers

Sunday 1 March 2015

Dover for Glaucous Gull.

We arrive in Dover  in search  of a Glaucous Gull & park up by the pier, we are only on the pier a few minutes & the Gull is spotted sitting with a lot of other Gulls, it sticks out from the others & is very easy to spot.
Some well placed bread brings the Gull into the air & flies along the pier in front of us, a good year tick & Brian & Jimmy get some really good photos of the Gull.
Also seen from the pier a purple Sandpiper & a couple of Shag to give us two more ticks for the year.
A look in at Oare marsh is not to productive with the water level very high & hardly anybody there.
So with very little bird activity we head to Elmley to finish the trip off with a drive we hope with a few photos.
We don't expect to see any more ticks here but we do get lucky as we arrive, when in the field by the entrance a couple of Grey Partridge give us one more tick.
We drive down to the farm & then back up the track stopping to get a few shots of some of the usual birds that we see here.
The White cliffs from the pier
My effort on the Glaucous Gull
Turnstone on the pier
Curlew at Elmley



At Elmley