So another year gone.

The last day of a great year birding with the boys.  we have been all over this great country of ours, we have seen some fantastic birds & been to some really nice places along the way, we have meet many many nice people, I can't remember ever meeting anybody that I disliked while birding,odds & sods & plenty of fruitcakes maybe but on the whole nice people.
The last twitch of the year at Portland Harbour was the biggest that I have been on, with over a thousand birders turning up for the Brunnich's Guillemot.
The wettest twitch was at Hayling Island when we caught the tail end of the Hurricane, but it did give me my 300th lifer with the Semipalmated Plover so worth it.
The best day out we had was when we went to Somerset for Pied-billed Grebe at Hamwall, we then drove over to Devon for our first Cirl Buntings, stopping on the way to pick up Lesser-yellowleg Gull & Rose- coloured Starling plus the American Wigeon, a long drive but four lifers in a single day made this a day to remember.
The Capercaillie & Ptarmigan in Scotland made that a really great trip as well, we thought we had missed out on the Caper for the second year but picked it up on the last morning of the trip a right bonus that.
The best bird for me was the European Roller seen at Horsey a really colourful bird & not one I thought I would ever see.
A trip to the Isle of Wight for the Wilsons Phalarope meant that we meet Dave Aitken from Bempton Cliffs which was nice as we have meet him on other twitches since then & we keep an eye on his Bubo list to see where he has been to & what birds he has seen,although the birds seem to keep heading up near his patch that makes it easier for him, but to be fair he does put in a lot of miles for the sake of his hobby, I think maybe we are a bit jealous of where he is stationed. Also nice to bump into John at a lot of the twitches, who I spent a nice day with watching the  the Otters at Thetford one of the few times Robert has been able to make it this year.
The friendliness bird was the Red-backed Shrike in Essex that kept coming back & posing in full view for some great photos. A night trip to the Brecks to see & hear Nightjar was something special,  that sound was unbelievable to me who had never heard it before.
My target bird for the year was the Long-eared Owl that had eluded me for the last couple of years, was seen at Minsmere, glad that one is out of the way.
So I end the year on 265 birds seen this year, that is my top score so far in the four years that I have been listing I started with the first year 220 the second year ended with 223 the third year gave me a total of 252 so a great effort this year to finish on the 265. this is way behind the big boys but I am really happy to have achieved this many with the pleasure that I have got from being out & about with the boys.
On the first day of 2013 we listed 89 ticks at & on the way to Tichwell, the first bird seen was a Barn Owl the same as the year before at almost the same sport, so up early tomorrow to start it all again.
Hope to meet up with old birders that I have meet over the past few years & look forward to meeting some new ones, & maybe some more lifers along the way. so the last thing to do is wish everybody a very happy new year & good birding.

Mega,Brunnich's Guillemot at Portland Harbour.

Brian pops over on Friday evening to see if we wanted to travel 168 miles to Poole in Dorset for a lifer for all of us, I was a little bit unsure if I wanted to go that far, but with it not being to far from Gosport we could try for the Ring-billed Gull that is reported to be at Walpole lake, so up at 4 o'clock & in under 3 hours we pull into Portland Harbour & see a lot of birders already set up along the harbour wall
we only have to wait  a couple of minutes & we have another lifer in the bag,over the next three hours we get great views of the Brunnich's popping up here there & every where in the harbour.
The crowd has now swollen to many hundreds,the biggest twitch that I have seen.
While here we pick out our first Black Guillemot in England in winter plumage very nice that one, also Great northern Diver plus many Merganser swimming in line, also a Kingfisher flies up & down for a short while,razorbill &Shag also show.
We sport many familiar faces among the crowd so a really great time spent here.
Off now to look for the Gull but we stop off at Radipole Lake just to see if any thing about, not much as it turns out, but we are told a Glossy Ibis is in a park not to far down the road, so we pull into the car park & there it is on the flooded field in front of us. Photo's taken then it's off to drive the 80 odd miles to pick out the Ring- billed Gull in Walpole park Gosport, once again we get on to the Gull as soon as we arrive, a local lady  is already feeding the birds with some waffles & our bird is in with the flock enjoying a treat good on her.
A long drive but it turns out to be a really great day & nice to get the life & year ticks going again, thanks to Brian for doing the hard part in getting us here today with the long drive.

The Brunnich's Guillemot

Part of the flock.

Glossy Ibis

Ringed-billed Gull

Brunnich's Guillemot

Glossy Ibis

Nice day at Tilbury & Rainham.

A nice few hours spent with Jimmy at  Tilbury Fort, the first birds  we see are two Grey Plovers sitting on posts in the water in front of us.
It was high tide so not anything on the foreshore to see, a shame that as we hoping to pick up a Yellow-legged Gull that was the target bird for the day, but out in the middle of the water we see 2,000 Avocets & many Shellduck also a pair of Stonechat popping about in the long grass in front of us, Corn Bunting are flying about,also Greenfinch & Chaffinch in good numbers.
We now head to Rainham just to have a quick look at the stone barges they are packed full of Black-tailed Godwits & Redshanks also three or four Dunling seen.
The Gulls had all headed over to the other side of the Thames so once again no Yellow- legged  Gull.
Silly that Jimmy & I still need this Gull for a year tick but it's not one that we really looked for until now, when we saw that it was missing from the year list.
A really nice few hours spent birding, on a rather nice day.

Grey Plover

A few of the Godwits

Trip to Eastbourne Black-throated Diver.

After a bit of a mix up as to where to head to we end up in Eastbourne in Sussex. The other option was to go to Dorset for the Surf Scoter that would have been a lifer for all of us, but as I said we all got our wires crossed with Brian not knowing about this bird & we were half way to Eastbourne before Jimmy & myself spoke about it,so we just hope we can get some good close up views of the Black-throated Diver that we find on Crumbles Pond in Princes Park.
Its a busy local spot, with runners & Dog walkers stopping the Diver from getting to near to us as it stays near the middle of the pond.
While here a good few photographers arrive but I don't think they got any fantastic photos of it.

Black-throated Diver

Wigeon

Not the best day day birding that we have had as it was a long drive for such little reward, the diver could have been a bit more sociable, but it was still a better choice than
watching Arsenal as it turns out.

Afternoon at Amwell.

With Jimmy on holiday from work, we have an afternoon at Amwell nature reserve, it's only 20 minutes from home so it's no hardship driving there.
We arrive just after one o'clock & spend a good three hours just looking around, we start at Great Hardmead Lake & that is full of Gulls, also many Shoveler are seen swimming all over the lake,we pick out a male Pintail really nice that, a Snipe flies in & lands on the Island, then we see a Water Rail walk about in front of us for a good few minutes, the lake is full of all the usual like Tufted Duck, Gadwell,Great-crested Grebe,Mallard,Cormorant,Pochard.
Then we see two male Goldeneye  four female as well, as Jimmy scopes them he See's a female Smew swimming with them.
We decide to walk round the back of the reserve to find some feeders hanging between some trees not to far from the road, while here we see Long-tailed Tits, at least six Redwing along with loads of Chaffinch, a pair of Greenfinch pop in & out of the trees, then we notice a Buzzard not to far away from us, the light is not good but we are close enough to get a photo of sorts.
All in all a very nice afternoon birding.

The Buzzard

And again

Good times.

As a bit of fun Robert prints me off a keep sake front cover of Bird Watch to mark my seeing my 300 life birds. I know it is way down the league of the big boys, but I have only been into birding over the last few years, so not to bad an effort.
 This hobby has taken me & the boys to some really lovely places all over England, also a couple of visits to the highlands of Scotland where I probably would not have gone to if it was not for the birding hobby,many trips to Wales that is always a pleasure & a highlight of the birding year for me.
We made just one trip to the Isle of Wight as well to see the Wilsons Phalarope, that was my first time there & I enjoyed it so much that I took Jean back there for a holiday later on in the year.
Brian has driven me & Jimmy to most of these places & it's thanks to them for getting me into bird watching, I must say it fills a big hole when you reach retirement age.
I must say the hobby also lets me meet some really nice people along the way, so now I am looking forward to the new year when we start a year count all over again & maybe a few more life ticks will be seen as well.
To celebrate my 72 years of life the boys bring me the elixir of life to keep me going for a bit longer.

The name sticks, but not true, Jimmy gave me this name.

The boxed one Brian's reminder of our Scotland trips.

Back to Southend & Wallasea.

With Jimmy on board this week we go back to the Essex coast as we had such a good morning there last week. First stop is Wallasea.
We arrive at first light & it's not to long before we see our first bird, it's a Marsh Harrier & very soon joined by a female Hen Harrier.
As we watch three Peregrines hunt chasing a large flock of Lapwings, always a great sight to see, but I must say I was glad that they missed the target.
After three hours spent watching the birds here it's time to head to Westcliff beach for some more photos of Sanderling & Turnstone.
In amongst all the Gulls are Common ,Black-headed,  Herring, & the odd Mediterranean Gull.

Once again a very pleasant morning spent with the boys doing what we all love doing.

Young Med Gull

Black-headed Gull

   

Hen Harrier & nice day in Essex birding.

With no year ticks in my local area, Brian & I decide to just go local, so with Jimmy not with us today we head to Wallasea to look for Hen Harrier or maybe a Owl or two.It's really a cold morning with a biting wind.
It,s only 30 miles from home so 35 minutes later we are looking at a Ringtail Hen Harrier flying around giving us over the next hour one of the best views we have had of one of these birds, then it gets better as it is joined by another Ringtail two for the price of one.
So a good start to the day, plenty of Corn Bunting all over the place, a Peregrine nearly gets one for breakfast but just fails to get it. four Kestrels  hover over head for a nice show.
Just before we leave Brian picks up a Merlin as it lands on a fence post, a good bonus for us.
Being so close to Southend, we have to walk to the end of the pier for a look at the Med Gulls.
We see many while here, also a couple of birders that we see  from time to time Mick & Richard turn up for us to have a nice talk to them they also have half of Tesco bread with them to feed the birds. So a really cold start to the day but really worth getting out to spot some nice birds & only a short trip from home.
While walking along the sea front, we meet an American lady who had a pigeon on her shoulder as she walked along the seafront, on asking her about it she tells us that it was raised by her from an egg that she found in a gutter at her house, it stays in her house with the full run of it, & when she goes for a walk along the seafront the bird just sit on her shoulder & enjoys a free ride, the bird is free to go where ever it likes & often goes on a flight out doors but always returns to her house, I find this an amazing story. A walk along the beach & we get to see plenty of Sanderling & Turnstones to finish the morning off,

The Pigeon Lady

Corn Bunting

Med Gull

Sandling on the beach

Turnstone

Sanderling on Westcliff beach.

Roding Valley lake & the Intone Stone RAF Chigwell.

Part of the lake just a nice scene.

A very nice walk around the Roding Valley Lake mid morning, a cold but sunny day shows the lake very busy with 2 Great- crested Grebes,12 Tufted Ducks, 4 Shoveler, 24 Gadwall,  over 50 Black-Headed Gulls, many Mute Swans, also the usual flock of Canada Geese on & off the lake, Coots, Moorhen, & a couple of Cormorants helping to fill the lake for a nice Autumn  scene.
A walk about in the nature reserve & I spot 9 Long-tailed Tits, 2 pretty Jays, a few Robins, Magpies everywhere, plenty of Crows, 2 Green Woodpeckers.
I carry on & walk up to the Intone stone that was made from pebbles by an American airman.
This had been a mystery for years as to what it was all about, but they now know the story behind the stone,

If you are interested enough & want to read about it I have put a photo of the history of the stone on here for you to read, they now know everything about this stone that was placed here in 1943, except the name of the airman that made it, I think that will always remain a mystery now.
                                                                                           

The stone itself, still bright after 70 years.

Nice trip to Suffolk watching Crossbills.

We head to Suffolk today, not really knowing what to look for as we set off, Brian thinks it's a good idea to try to get some photos of Crossbills that have been about in Suffolk for some time, so it's a safe bet that they will be about today.
It's only 7 o'clock & the gates are shut till 9 o'clock, so we head to Lackford Lakes that are not to far away.
It's my first visit here & I really like the place, while here a nice Sparrowhawk soars past over the back of the pool, we think we have a Snow Goose as it stands out from all the other geese with it's white head.
Jimmy picks up on a Water Rail but that's about the highlights while we are here.
So back we go to look for the Crossbills, we park just inside the gates & stay in the car & just wait, inside 1/2 hour we start to see Crossbills flying onto the tops of the trees around the car park.
It's a fair time before they start to drop down into the puddles to drink. Brian & Jimmy are on the right side of the  car for some nice photos, I had got out of the car to walk round to some more water at the back of the car park, as usual I am not in the right place to get the best photo.
We see at least nine Crossbills sitting around the car park with three or four drinking at one time.
The light is not very good for the photos, that,s a shame as they sit really near to us at the top of the trees.

Two Males & one Female drinking

some of the birds waiting to come down for a drink.

Off to Lakenheath now just to fill the day up, we walk down to Joist hide without seeing to much about, we do get to see a couple of Beared Tits fly in & a Marsh Harrier hunts over the back plus a Kingfisher shows briefly, but over all a long walk for not a lot. A new hide has been built that will open near xmas that is to be called Mere hide it is in the middle of the reeds as you walk down to Joist hide it should be  a nice place to see reed birds.

Trip to wish Brian happy birthday.

I drove 125 miles to spend the day with Brian & Sue in darkest Norfolk where they are on a week's break to celebrate Brian reaching his  half  century.
I know this is not a birding trip today but we still managed to walk over the field across the road from the barn he is staying at, Brian had already seen a nice Barn Owl yesterday, so we hoped to see one with the little time we had to watch for it.
As it turns out we see three all flying near to each other & not to far off.
We only had about half an hour to spare, so this was a right bonus. Back into the barn to join the rest of the family to celebrate with the birthday boy.
This is Brian's ideal holiday location as he will be up early in the morning walking about hoping to pick up a few more ticks for the year or maybe a mega while here for the week, good luck to him & congratulation's on reaching  the big FIVE O".

Brian's photo of one of the Owl's

Day at Minsmere.

Jimmy has a day off work, so we make the most of it,but do not know where to head to, as nothing is being reported within our area we decide to go to Minsmere for the day.
A Surf Scoter has been seen yesterday off shore near Sizewell,  we don't expect it to have hung about over night, but we may as well give it a go.
It's 100 miles & it takes us just about 2 hours  before we arrive at the little car park near Sizewell power station.
There are a few people looking for the Scoter when we hit the beach, but nothing doing at the moment.
We spread out to give our self more chance of seeing the target bird, but it's one of those days where nothing much about on the sea. A flock of Scoters are seen flying past,our bird is not with them,
One of the birders tells us a Shore Lark was seen yesterday down by the open hide, so with nothing doing here we walk with him along the beach & on the way we hear some Bearded Tits, we spend some time looking over the reeds & soon see at least eight of them popping about from reed to reed,always nice to see them. also we see plenty of Meadow Pipit.
The walk down to the hide is a lot longer than I would have liked but still all for a good reason I hope.
The scrape is full of all the usual stuff, so we scan the scrape for a short while but we see no year ticks here.
It's a really pleasant day so it's no hardship being here as Jimmy said it beats work any day, we have another look up on the beach for the Shore Lark but no luck this time.
So no more ticks to add for October list but a good day out by the sea

Great October eight lifers + two year ticks.

The month started very badly with a few dips, mainly at Lynford looking for the Two-barred Crossbill.
Then things started to pick up for me & the boys when we got a great view of the Red-breasted Flycatcher  at Warham in Norfolk (1 ) next up we get the Lesser grey Shrike at Capel fleet (2), while here we get a year tick as well in Lapland Bunting.
Off on a roll now the best day of the month starts at Cley where I see my first Long-eared Owl,(3) I had made this bird my one to see this year as I had dipped on it last year a couple of times, so a great start to the day for me.
Pallas's Warbler(4) is the next lifer for me on the same day at Warham Green, I had also dipped on this bird earlier in the year so this is also sweet for me to pick it up here.
Still on the same day we head to West Runton for our first ever Dusky Warbler (5) a really great day only a couple of hours from home.
Then it's off to Hayling Island & we see the Semipalmated Plover on the beach, this is lifer number (6) for the month, a funny little bird that I'm not to sure it was worth the really bad soaking we all got, still we had a really good laugh about it on the way home, it would not have been quite so funny if we had missed the bird.
Also a year tick picked up while near here with the Red-breasted Goose.
The last weekend of the month See's Jimmy & myself finally get to see a Two-barred Crossbill (7) that we had dipped on four times before at Lynford, the views we get more than make up for the dips that  we had on the other occasions 's. To make the day even better is also seeing a Parrot Crossbill (8) at the same place.
I think Jimmy is going to get a day off on Wednesday so maybe we might just add to the October list.
It's been a great month for us with plenty of birds seen & meeting some really nice people & some new places visited.

Two more lifers at Hemsted Forest.Parrot & Two barred Crossbill.

With Brian working this morning, I drive Jimmy the 70 miles to Hempsted Forest in Kent. It takes about one hour & 20 minutes, there are five or six people already here, one being Dave B, nobody had seen anything up till now, so we have a talk as we scan the trees.
We see plenty of Crossbill but no target birds.
After another thirty minutes we get onto our first Two-barred Crossbill,we have dipped four times looking for this bird at Lyford so this is sweet another  lifer for both of us.
The view with the scope is really a good one, we can pick it out really easy, not just the two bars down the wing but the raspberry colour stands out on this male bird against the common Crossbills.
Now we start the look for the Parrot Crossbill.
There are now forty or more birders all looking with us, we stay with the main group for the next hour or so, then I decide to walk round to the clearing on the west side of the ride, Jimmy soon follows with five other birders, an hour goes by before we see any sign of Crossbill again.
One single bird lands at the top of the trees in front of us, every one is on to it & it is soon identified as a Parrot Crossbill, we are all convinced we have our bird, a fellow gets a photo & it confirms to us that we do have our target bird.
It has a bigger beak & thick neck & a flatter head, so we have waited to get these two birds but at last we have both of them for two lifers for the day.

Jimmy on the way home very happy with two more lifers.

A few of the birders at our first visit here.

Another lifer Semipalmated Plover at Hayling Island.

We missed out on sat as Brian had to work ? . Jimmy & myself talk about going to Hemsted Forest in Kent for the Parrot Crossbill, but with the weather looking bad we decide against going & hope to get out with Brian on Sunday.
We get the text at 5 am to meet up at 6 am, the target for the day is in Hampshire on Hayling Island the reported Semipalmated Plover.
So off we go for the 120 odd mile trip, on arrival we head to Milford first to look for the Red-breasted Goose, we give it some time looking for it at the reported place but it is not seen.
The Long-billed Dowitcher comes on the pager, it is only 10 minutes away from us , so of we head to Keyhaven Lagoon & soon meet up with the  people that had just put it on the pager, alas the bird had just flown away from the spot that they had reported it from, they seem to think it is still somewhere on the Fishtail Lagoon, so we give it a good few hours going to Butts & then back again to Fishtail Lagoons, I don't know how far we walked in search of the bird but the legs felt heavy after going up & down the stone walkway trying to keep out of the strong wind, in the end we have to give up & we head back to see the R-b Goose that has just been seen back at Milford.
A sign at the top of the road that we had just come down said the road was shut, we take no notice & head back to the bridge that we came over this morning, then we find out why the road is shut, the sea had washed all over the road making it impassable, but that was where the Goose was right in front of us, so we got away with it & many other drivers did the same as us so we don't feel to guilty about it
We head to Hayling Island now thinking maybe we have spent to much time looking for the other birds & will miss any chance of seeing what we really came here for, as we drive the good old pager goes off. to say it was on the beach again, we are 50 miles away & the weather is not looking to good but we have to give it a go.
We get there & see a few birders getting back in their cars, the words are spoken is it still about, the answer is yes but the sea has started to lap over the flock that it is with.
We run down the beach as fast as the old legs will go these days, come to think of it I got there before the two younger fit boys, always could out run them.
The bird is still there, so a quick look in  a fellow's scope already set up just to make sure not to miss it.
With the bird ticked we move down where the main group have set up to get a better view, we are not able to get a photo as it's a nasty day now & it's such a small bird in with all the Dunlin & some Ringed Plover it's hard to see, in the scope it's a great view, this is another lifer for all three of us.
Year tick 261 & my 300 life tick. We think it's time to head home before the rain comes, to late we are about to get the biggest soaking of our life's as a mini Tornado has hit the Island, we got so wet Brian had to find some golfing bottoms to change into before we could drive home.

Turnstone

Just some of the mad people just about to get drenched.

Somewhere in there is our lifer.

Target bird for the year seen plus two more lifers.

We meet up with Brian at 5 am,it's not a nice morning with the rain pouring down. We head to Norfolk & go to Sheringham to do some sea watching from the shelter on the beach front.

The weather forecast was for a windy rainy morning,but as it turns out the rain has stopped & the wind that we were hoping for a north easterly had changed to a fairly calm morning.

We spend a couple of good hours in the shelter,there were other people there so we have a bit of a talk to them that is always nice,as for seeing any birds it turns out to be not to good, all we see are 5 Bonxies, some Red-throated Divers,plenty of Gannets, plus all the usual stuff.

So it's a real bonus when Jimmy pops his head round the corner with the news of a Long-eared Owl has been seen at Cley.

This is my target bird for the year as of the three of us I am the only one not to have ticked one.

I must say we have not looked to hard to see one, but this is the day, so after persuading Brian to leave the sea watch, we head to Cley & go to Swarovski hide, the Owl is still here sitting on the shingle behind the hide. We get great views in the scope, so target seen at last

I take a photo from distance, so with my small camera it's not to good,the light is poor which never helps but a record shot never the less.     Old woman's lane is the next port of call to look for the reported Pallas's warbler.the lane is full of cars on arrival with lots of birders looking for it. But it's not to be again for us, we have dipped a few times looking for this bird.

 .

As we get in the car another Pallas's is reported at Wareham Greens, so off to Stiffkey. We park in the car park and walk down the coastal path. Not sure if we are in the right place we meet a lady who tells us we have gone past the location. We follow her as she has just met the finder of the bird and has the location. We walk past a gate and head up the grass track to a a ploughed field, here we see many birders already present, and in the bushes in front of us is the Pallas's to give me another lifer.

Glad to get any sort of photo another record shot.

We were about to head for home when we hear from a couple of birders that a Dusky Warbler is reported in West Runton, It would be another lifer, this time for all three of us if we can see it. We follow a car to the reported site where it's still being reported as present.
We talk to people already here and are told it's not been seen for a while, but had been heard often.
We hear it for ourselves and get a couple of flight views and a brief view when it drops to the lower branches of a large bramble bush to us another lifer. 

Not a bad day for me, three year ticks all of which are lifers.

Another lifer Lesser Grey Shrike.

The Lesser Shrike.

On the way home the pager goes off to say a Lesser Shrike had been seen at Harty Ferry, it's to late to try for it, so Jimmy & myself get up this morning & fingers crossed we set off to see it, no Brian as he has already got the Suffolk one a few weeks ago.
On arrival a good few people were already at the spot, so after finding out that the bird was still around, we set about walking over a ploughed field to find maybe fifty or more birders with the bird in sight.
So straight onto it for us for another lifer & a great view  with the scope. What a cracking bird to see, while watching we are put onto two Lapland Buntings, we both needed them for another year tick.
So after three weeks missing out we end up with two lifers & three year ticks for the two trips, a really good weekend.

A long way off but it's on top of the bush.