Dungeness again.

After climbing up the hills yesterday, it's off to the old favourite Dungeness to get Jimmy a Firecrest for a year tick.We try the beach first & manage to get in the hide for a change.Gannets,G C Grebe are plentiful, some normal stuff are about, whimbrel are seen but not by me.
After being in there for some time, it's clear nothing is happening today, so off to the moat area.
More luck here as we see many Firecrest in the bushes, 20 or more are seen. We also see a couple of them being trapped & getting a ring on the leg.
With the target of the day seen it's off to the reserve to see whats about, it turns out there are 6 Yellow Wagtails on Demo pond area,before we go into the visitor centre a Fox comes close up to us, it's fairly tame & starts to feed by the bird feeders, a good photo opportunity for us all .Off now to get the Wagtails, so we show our pass & walk out of the visitor centre, within a minute we are seeing them, also the White Wagtail is seen, a nice sight to watch these birds flying in & out.
Off now to walk right around the reserve, all that we get to add for a tick is a Willow Warbler & leg ache after the climb of yesterday it's been a strain so it's in the car to get home in time for dinner with the family.

Goldcrest

A Fox just paying us a visit out by the bird feeders.

Just before release the Firecrest      
                                  

Firecrest

Green-winged Teal at Crossness.

Up early & set off for Crossness, not to far away for us to drive.When we start to walk down the side of the sewage works we meet Kev Jarvis & he tells us the the G W Teal is still about, so we walk down the path beside the Thames, we move quite fast as it stinks a bit from the works around here.
We scan the Thames shore for about 10 minutes, before the target is seen not to far away from us, but as I had to walk back to the boys to see it.
The bird flies up & goes to far out for me to get a photo, but Brian did get a photo, so the photo on this page is from Brian.                                                            
With the target seen we move on to the next target a Ring Ouzel in Bedfordshire,we drive to Blows down & walk  to the paddock, the site has lost the sheds that were there & some new fencing been put up.
No sign of the Ouzel but 3 Redstart are seen in great colour, also a couple of Wheatear walking about.
As its' the Ouzel we came to find ,it's decided that we will climb up Kingsbury slope so we can scan the whole area. At the top it takes a little while to recover from the climb, apart from a nice Yellowhammer not to much about, we give it a good try to find the Ouzel but have to admit defeat this time.
From here it's off to Startops End Reservoir, a pair of Red-crested Pochard swim close to the bank as soon as we arrive there.
Also our first Swallow of the year is spotted, along with House Martin, & Terns. 183 ticks so far this year.

Male Red-crested Pochard

Female Red-crested Pochard

Green-winged Teal

Birds in the Garden

House Sparrow

Collared Dove

Blue tit

Just a few of the birds in my garden today, along with Goldfinch, Blackcap, Goldcrest, Redpoll, Greenfinch,
Chaffinch, Starling, Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Dunnock.

Kingfisher & Sand Martin at Amwell & rye meads

With the sun showing itself today I take a trip over to Amwell as I see that Sand Martin had been seen yesterday, Brian & Jimmy had seen one at K G Reservoir but I missed it, I know I will see plenty in the next few weeks, but see it as soon as you can is my motto.
A quick look over the lake & I see a Little Gull, Water Rail running in & out of the reeds, plus plenty of normal stuff, like a couple of Snipe, 2 Redshank, Teal, Gadwall, a tree full of Cormorant, B H Gulls everywhere.
Then I spot 3 Buzzards just circling around over head, as I watch them I pick up 20 or more Sand Martins up above them, so target bird for the day seen.178 for the year.
As I watched a Cormorant flies past & turns upside down & twists itself round in flight, this maybe normal for the bird to do this ,but I had never seen it happen, none of the other people standing with me had seen it happen before.
A Cetti's Warbler is heard & then drops into the small trees at the side of the water it gives a quick view.
As I walk back I see some Chiffchaff in the trees, also many Dunnock are in & out of the bushes.
Off now to Rye Meads a couple of miles away.
I head down to the Kingfisher hide, there are a lot of big people in the hide, a few with massive camera lens all trained on the bank in front of us, the bird had not been seen for over an hour, but I got lucky as soon as I sit down the Kingfisher flies onto the branch by the bank, it sets off quite a  noise with all the cameras clicking together. I stay & have a talk with a couple of nice fellows for a short time, then it's off home.
                                                                                                     

         

Water Rail

                                                                      Small but a record shot                                                                                    

Scaup at K G Reservoir

No plan to go anywhere today, but Jimmy heads off to look for the Scaup that is reported at King George Reservoir.
Then at 10 o'clock I get a phone call to say that he had found the target bird & Brian was over there with him & he will wait for me at the gate if I wanted to make the short trip to the reservoir.
So off I go & 10 minutes later I meet up with them both, Brian has to shoot off, so Jimmy & myself head up the path & see the Scaup after a few minutes, it helps when they had already just got it.
It's quite a distance over the reservoir, but I get a good view in the scope, it's a female Scaup & the white patch on the base of the bill is easy to pick out.
Just a very quick visit but another year tick 177 that I hadn't planed for today so a nice bonus.

Boxing Hares + Birds at Elmley

We meet up with Brian at 6.30 & sit in he car trying to decide where to visit as no birds that we needed for a year tick had been reported within the distance we wanted to travel.
So after not knowing where to go we head to Elmley, as it's not to far to go for us.
As we drive down to the car park, we are the only car here & with a lot of water around we see plenty of Redshank, Teal, Wigeon, Lapwing, Skylark, plus Meadow Pipit.
 As we move down the track about 20 Hares are seen running about chasing each other at great speed, then they would stop &  stand & go into a boxing match, I have never seen this happen before other than on t.v.
We spend a good deal of time just watching this, a lovely thing to see.

With the car parked we walk down to Wellmarsh hide, not to much about,just a lot of Black-tailed Godwit,

hundreds of Dunlin, plus the normal stuff.

So we head back & we see a nice Merlin sitting on a post very close to us , but as the cameras come out it flies off, shame that. One of many Marsh Harriers seen flies quite close to us, a photo taken gives me a record shot.

We have a quick talk with some birders we bump into on a number of occasions, then we head of to Wanstead to look for a L R Plover reported for a couple of days, we walk over the flats looking in all the pools, but no luck.

So not to be beaten it's off to Hallmarsh pool at Lea valley, to look for the one that has been seen here, this is Jimmy's home patch, so he knows where to look, we find the target within a few minutes.

So another tick for the year.

A fairly quite day, but still nice to be outdoors doing what we like doing.

Marsh Harrier

Lapwing

Lapwing

White spotted Bluethroat at Dover

With Brian back on board today, we drive the 80 odd miles to Dover in Kent & head through the one way tunnel that has been cut into the white cliffs to get to Samphire Hoe to look for the Bluethroat that has been here for a few days now. On the way we spot a Little Owl, fly up & over the car, the first one of the year for me.
A couple of local birders have already spotted the bird & after a few minutes we get to see it as well, it hangs about for a few minutes then drops out of sight, we hang around for about an hour but it stays out of view, with the cold wind biting at us, it's in the warm car & off to the old favourite Dungeness.

Bluethroat

It's about 35miles away, when we arrive it's a quick walk around the moat area without to much activity,
so we start to focus on the over side of the road & right away we see at least 3 Black Redstart 1 being female.
Next up it's a Stonechat showing well on top of a small bush another year tick for two of us
There are a few Wheatear about as well ,Jimmy & I
needed one for a year tick.175 ticks so far this year
11 year ticks over the Easter holidays at six locations

Black Redthroat

 The tunnel

BlueThroat as good  a photo as my little lens could get.

Wheatear