Mandarin at Connaught waters.

A quick walk around Connaught water today just to get a photo of the Mandarin Ducks that are in good numbers on the waters. No sign of the Smew today.                        
After getting a photo I take a trip over to Rainham after the White-fronted Goose that has been reported there today. Howard tells me that they have been seen near Purfleet hide, but on the way to the hide a fellow tells me that they had just been sent up by a lorry working on the site. I walk around the reserve scanning all the Geese on the water but as it turns out nobody gets any more views while I am here, the only tick for today is a Rock Pipit. A bit sad but still a nice couple of hours spent  here.

Mandarin Duck

 

First lifer 2014 Hume's leaf Warbler Dungeness. Kent.

Long way off the Bewick Swan's

It was always going to be Dungeness this weekend, we never need any excuse to visit there, so the Leaf Warbler was a right bonus for us.
Brian Jimmy & myself arrive around 8 o'clock & pick out a Great white Egret on Arc Pit as we head down to the beach, also our first Kestrel of the new year seen on the way sitting on a post.
Up on the beach we find it is very busy with many Cormorants & Great-crested Grebe & Gulls every where you looked, after scanning the sea we find Guillemot, Kittiwake ,Red- throated Diver & flocks of Common Scoter, Razorbill as well.
Not bad weather for here so not to bad being up on the beach, but the pager goes off the Leaf Warbler has been seen & showing well, so off over to the ringing area where the bird has been reported.
On arrival we find out that  the place is under a lot of water, so wellies a must.
We see Dave B in the bushes & he is already on the bird, we hear it at first, then get a quick view before it flies over to the over side of the bushes, we all move round to get a better look at it, it lands at the bottom of a small bush in clear view for everybody to see, it is to quick for us to get the camera on it but it's a life tick & that was the aim just to get a view of it, so with the Hume's leaf Warbler in the bag it's off to watch the Gulls by the fishing boats, they are to far out at sea to be able to pick out any thing of note.
A quick stop to see the Tree Sparrows at the farm by the entrance gate gives us another year tick. A quick walk down to New Diggings gets us a Black-throated Diver.-
Now Brian takes us to Caldecot Lane as he has seen that Bewick Swans are about, we see them as soon as we arrive in the Lane, another year tick & one of my favourites I don't know why but I love to see these Swans, they were a long way off though..
A Long-tail Duck is reported not to far off , so off we go to find it.
We end up at the wrong end of the pits, that turns out to be a good thing as we get to see a Great northern Diver at close range, photos taken then off to the Kent end of the pits to pick out the target bird the L-t Duck. so a good day spent at Dungeness again. Up to 102 ticks for the new year so far. Meet some more nice Birder's to have a good talk with.

Great white Egret

                             

Great-northern Diver

Off we go again 1st Jan 77 ticks

Up early & off up the A 10 to Norfolk, the first tick is once again Barn Owl sitting in a tree by the side of the A 10, Brian spins the car round just to make sure it's a Barn Owl, it flies down to a fence post tick one confirmed.This is the third year in a row that it's been the first tick of the year.
The first port of call is the triangle to look for a Golden Pheasant, we pass Penny parked up at the side of the
woods, but like us it turns out she dips out.
So after a few trips around the triangle, we give up & head to up to Titchwell to start the year count in earnest.
We pick up all the usual birds while here,it's well down on last years count, but the weather is not the best.
Out on the sea we pick out Scoter, Merganser,Kittiwake but nothing seen passing through.
Next it's off to Sculthrope Moor, this is a first proper visit here, it won't be the last, we pick up four ticks here. As soon as we walk away from the visitor centre we see many Brambling plus Marsh Tits, Greenfinch,& the first Nuthatch of the year.
Tawny Owl is seen from a nest box that had been set up in the trees as we walk down to the hides.
Once in the hide we must see at least 60 Bramblings & many Tits & Finches plus the first Water rail tick.
A really nice place to visit to get close up shots of birds feeding on the feeders.
The pager goes off to say that Pink- footed Geese are in a field only 7 miles away & so off we go in search of another tick, also reported with them a Barnacle & Bean Goose. we scan the hundreds of Geese but only Pink-footed are picked out, Penny turned up to help scan but in vain, the weather was now getting really nasty so we head towards home stopping off to look for a reported Glaucous Gull without any luck, we are now pretty wet so we call it a day with 77 ticks in the bag, that is twelve down on last year but not a bad start with such bad weather.
Today I add Goldcrest & Ring-necked Parakeet plus Redwing in my garden 80 up & running for the new year.
                             

On the feeders from the hide.

                                               
                                         

So many birds.

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.