First visit of the year to Dungeness & Rainham Marshes.

On Friday we head off for our first visit of the year to Rainham Marsh & pick up a few year ticks.
Walking along the foreshore of the Thames away from the stone barges the first tick is Water Pipit quickly followed by Rock Pipit,next up a Yellow -legged Gull adds to the list. The boys find 5 Snipe but I had to wait to tick just one when we scanned from the foreshore over the pools on the reserve.
A couple of Ruff add to the year ticks,so a very good visit & only 1/2 an hour from home.
On Saturday it's off to look for Red-necked Grebe that has been seen on Alpha Pool at Cliffe.
On a arrival we find that it's very very muddy as we struggle to get down to the Pool.Once we get in a position to scope the pool we find the Red-necked Grebe at one end of the pool & a bonus when we find a Black-necked Grebe at the other end of the pool so well worth fighting the mud to find them. Lots of Little Grebe all over the pool along with Great-creasted are nice. A Green Woodpecker gives Jimmy & myself another year tick. We have to be home early so just a very quick visit that still gets us 3 nice ticks.
Sunday sees us set off at 6 am & arrive at Dungeness by 8 am for the first visit of the year.
First up we head up to the beach & it's really cold, so after ticking our first Gannet & Razorbill we get ourselves back to the car & think we will easily tick Tree Sparrow by the entrance gate that we do every year but to our surprise we find the cupboard bare,plenty of Greenfinch & Tits on the feeders but whats happened to the Tree Sparrows.
A quick look at the mound gets us Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tit to keep the ticks rolling.So a good 4 ticks. Off now for Purple sandpiper at Hythe, after parking up we find it's a longer walk as we find we need to be at the 2nd off the Groynes & that is  a fair walk along the sea front.The bonus is when we reach the right place we spot 2 Purple Sandpipers within minutes, that's good as we want to head off to Chatham Marina on the way home.

We arrive at the Marina & have to look for pool 2 as some Shag had been reported yesterday. it's an easy tick when we see 2 at different sides of the pool. Another 6 ticks added today pushes the year total up to 149 for me.

Hythe where we got the Sandpipers

Rainham's Stone Barges

One off the Shags at Chatham Marina

Hawfinch + at Lynford Arboretum.

Not a long trip today, Lynford is just over an hour away from home.We park up in the Arboretum car park at first light & after a quick look at the feeders we find nothing is awake yet so head down to the bridge. A small flock of Siskin followed by a single Greenfinch give us our first ticks of the day.
A look over the Paddocks gets us a few Hawfinch 5 in total seen but they might have been the same bird returning once or twice.
On the bridge many Coal Tit & Marsh Tit along with a few Nuthatch are seen for year ticks.
Walking down to the other bridge we all tick Mistle thrush in the Paddock & Jimmy gets a needed Song thrush tick. At the bridge we find more Coal,Marsh & a flock of Long-tailed Tits gives Brian a tick.
Another look at the feeders by the entrance as we head for the car gets us an unexpected tick as a single Yellow Hammer is seen feeding on the ground by the empty pool.We head off in search of more birds but after we get lucky when we spot a Goshawk very low over the trees when we pull off the road to watch it.The rest of the time we had left before heading home produces no more ticks so it's a fairly short day for us,but with 9 year ticks a very pleasant trip.
135 year ticks is not a bad start to the year.

Marsh Tit

One of the many Nuthatch

Richard's Pipit.( Boy what a walk )

A quick tick not far from home when we visit the Eagle Pond in Snarsbrook & find the Caspian Gull after about 5 minutes,the bird has been here for a while now,so it was time we paid a visit.
We have not planned anything for today apart from the Caspian but we have the bug so a quick decision gets us heading off to Kent in search of the Richard's Pipit.
Over the water onto the A2 & after running around a bit we find Clinch St, in High Halstow  it's a very narrow lane with little parking,but we pull off the road & get the only bit of room available down by the gates.
Now just the longest walk I have ever done while out birding it's nasty. but off we go heading for Egypt Bay & that's only half of the way, we have to get our self's over six stiles & that turns out not to be to easy for me it feels like we are never getting any closer to the bird.
It takes us nearly an hour to get down too the second sea wall where we had been told the Pipit had just been seen by Barry W, he was the only person on site the whole of the time we are here.
After we find the area the Richard's has been seen we have to walk the wall a few times before the Pipit gives a brief flight view.
Over the next hour we keep getting little views of the bird in flight before finely it lands close enough for a few photos.
On the way back we get a couple of Reed Bunting's for a year tick & just before we reach the car a Barn Owl flies across the field for Jimmy & I to tick our first one of the new year.So another 4 year ticks helps to ease the old legs. 120 year ticks in a few days & some good ones on the list.

Thank God we never dipped this one.

The Richard's Pipit.

Great day at Abberton on Friday followed by a day in East Anglia on Saturday.

What a great day we had at Abberton Reservoirs on Friday, a Green winged Teal had been seen over the last few days so that was the main reason for the visit.

We do find the Teal but it took us a few hours to pin it down but a nice looking bird so well worth braving the cold & rain to look for it.

The Ring neck Duck also proved hard to find but that was found at Layer Bretton Causeway just before setting off for home,a Kingfisher gives us another tick.

My first Rook of the year was seen & a real shock when we see a single Swallow flying up & down the edge of the Reservoir frantically seeking food.

Many Goosander are seen along with Red head Smew & a nice male Greater  Scaup, & all really good year ticks.
Up by Billets farm our first Stonechat of the year is ticked along with Skylark.
Round to the church we get a real bonus when both the Black-throated Diver & Green wing Teal are seen also a flock of Corn Buntings & a Male & female Merlin show. So despite a gloomy rainy sort of day a nice year tick total.
On Saturday we set out with a plan & set off for the East Anglia heading first to Buckenham Marshes
In Norfolk where we tick the Taiga bean Geese that had not moved away from where we saw them before xmas.
Next stop is Ludham, a large flock of Golden Plover are seen as we arrive followed from a distance
by both Bewick & Whooper Swans.Onto Acle where we find a large number of Common Cranes.
So  off to a good start. Eccles-on Sea next for the Desert Wheatear.With the car parked it's a fair walk along the beach before we arrive to join a group who had the bird pinned down on the sea wall.
A real good tick I think we have only seen 3 before today.
After spending some time with the Wheatear it's a long drive to the next site Hollesley for another look at the Siberian Stonechat that we saw before the new year.
Just outside the car park a Peregrine Falcon sits not far away perched in a tree, the place is alive with
Tundra Bean,White Fronted,Pink Footed, Brent,Greylag,just everywhere you looked was Geese.
Once again it's a long walk for these old legs, but the rewards are great when the Siberian Stonechat
is spotted on arrival.
Kittiwake & Common Guillemot also ticked while here.
We finish a very good day of birding at 5 locations when we spot a Short-eared Owl to round the trip off. 116 bird ticks in 3 birding trips feels like a good return for the effort put in .

The Siberian Stonechat

again

The Desert Wheatear

Again

Whooper & Bewicks Swans at Ludham

Off we go again.not a bad start for 2020

The day we look forward to, as we set off on a new birding year. This year we decide to head off to Norfolk as we seem to see more birds there than Kent.
It's a 5 am start & we arrive just after 8 am at Sedgeford  to find only one other birder there.
It's a short walk down to some dung heaps where we only have to wait 10 minutes before the best tick of the day is seen when the Alasan blue head Eastern yellow Wagtail shows well while here Fieldfare & a few easy ticks are seen.,we are joined by a lot more birders before we leave to set off on a day to see as many birds as we can.
So a good start to the  year. we pop into Brancaster Staithe on the way to Holkham it gives us a few ticks Brent Geese,Oystercatcher,Black & Bar tailed Godwits, Gadwall,Wigeon,Redshank,Dunlin & Turnstone.
On to Holkham to find it packed out with no parking spaces & people just everywhere enjoying a new year walk,this place is so popular.
A walk down to the roped off area where we soon spot the Shore larks & a large flock of Snow Buntings are seen. A quick look out to sea gets us Red-breasted Merganser,Red-throated Diver,Long tailed Duck,Goldeneye,& just hundreds of Scoters with a few Velvet there as well.
An easy tick at Wells when the Rough-legged Buzzard is seen on a tree in front of a couple of sheds.
At Burnham it's White fronted Geese & Cattle Egret.
Passing through Docking a Ringtail Hen harrier shows along with a couple of Redkites on the ground for a cracking view of them.
Choseley next where we get a couple of Tundra Bean Geese along with a large flock of Pinkfoot.
Now we pop into Titchwell,it's a bit of a let down as the water levels on the pools was very high so not much bird life about there.
A walk up to the beach gets us a nice Slav Grebe on the sea & on the way to the beach a Spotted Redshank gives us a tick.
Just enough time to pop into Thornham  for a flock of Twite & then we head on to Hunstanton for the last tick of the day when a few Fulmar fly along the cliff top.
Not a bad start to the new year with 90 year ticks.

The Eastern yellow Wagtail at Sedgeford 

A couple of a few Grey Partridge we saw.

Black-throated Thrush at Whipsnade ( lifer )

With no news of the Whipsnade Thrush on Thursday we thought we had lost our chance of a good lifer not far from home.
With all the election stuff on the television on Friday we never took a lot of notice of bird news until later in the day when we saw that the bird had been seen on & off all day, it's now to late to go, so we decide to just get up & go on Saturday morning in the hope that it had stayed around.
As we pull into the car park lots of birding pals are heading towards the Zoo entrance.

After the Zoo fee is payed we head down to the pig enclosure & another lifer is ticked within minutes.The Black-throated Thrush is first seen in a well stocked berry bush & then drops down into the pig pen for a few minutes before flying off over the cafe calling as it went before landing on top of a large tree with a  bare branch at the top of it giving great scope views before flying a long way out of sight.
It's a grey old day & now for the next hour the rain gets heavy, so the crowd head for cover.
Brian breaks cover as the rain starts to ease off & head off over a foot bridge & gives us a call to inform us that he had relocated the bird,Jimmy & I pass on the information to the now large group of birders some had not seen the bird yet so a mad chase is on as they all scramble over the bridge & are all rewarded as Brian still has the bird in view. It's in a distant berry bush but  did drop down to drink
from a distant puddle for a short time before going out of sight not to be seen again for the time we stayed here.We spend a couple of hours  watching the Zoo animals before heading off for home after a nice twitch with many birding  friends.

The Black-throated Thrush

Just a few of the zoo animals as we walked around

White Rhino

Wolverine

A Red Panda

Brian's 300th year tick at last.plus 3 ticks for me.

It was a long time coming but we were both with Brian to congratulate him on ticking he's first 300 year ticks today.
The bird was a Siberian Stonechat that we went to Hollesley Marshes to find. We drive down by the prison & park in the reserve car park,it's a wet muddy walk that takes us 20 minutes or so before we spot the target bird flitting about in the reeds not far away from us & we get great views as was fitting for a milestone bird.
It's off to Waxham for the Red-breasted Flycatcher but on arrival we meet a fellow birder who tells us the bird had not been seen at all today & he & fellow birders had been searching for a few hours without any sign. we decide not to waste any time looking as we had already dipped on the way at Winterton  where we thought it would be rude not to have a look for the  Eagle Owl as we are so close we didn't find it but had to have a look.
On to Buckenham now after a tip off as where to look for the Taiga Bean Geese.
The car is parked by the railway crossing & we find the Taiga Geese a long way away just after we cross the crossing, 3 Geese are seen in the far corner of the field along the railway line.
A two tick day turns into three when on the way home in the Brecks we finally get to see a male Golden Pheasant after we had looked a few times before & failed to see any.
So a really good day getting 3 year ticks for both Jimmy & I & a big day for Brian with his 300 up.

The 300th Bird

The Siberian Stonechat