Dungeness, spoonbills, small birds and a bad back!

Yesterday, David Campbell and I went to Dungeness. Weather wasn't brilliant but we had a really nice day. David wanted to see the squacco heron that was there on Sunday but the bird had flown!

While David kept a vigil for the heron at the ramp I relaxed photographing small birds near the Christmas hide. Monday being a weekday, the reserve is quiet and the birds more confiding. I was able to get really close to a sedge warbler and a common whitethroat, and reasonably close to some linnets.

Sedge warbler

Common whitethroat

A hobby flew over chasing dragonflies and eating them on the wing as this sequence shows:

Hobby. "I'm hungry! Hope there's some food soon".

"There's a damsel fly. I'll go for it!"

"Nearly there! Get claws ready."

"Gotcha!! Mmm! Lovely!"

"Right. Where's the next one?"

I joined David on the ramp from where we were treated, unexpectedly, to the sight of a pair of spoonbills which flew almost over our heads. I fired off well over 100 shots with my camera above my head and must have pulled a muscle in my back. I was in serious pain this morning! Handholding a 5Kg camera for more than a couple of frames is dangerous!! This is what caused my agony:

Spoonbill

Reed warblers flitted tantalisingly near but they are very difficult to photograph as they only hang around for a second or two. I just couldn't get a photo.

From the hide we saw a pair of common terns on the raft, mating even this late in the season.

Common terns. "I told you to sit on those eggs!"

Back at the visitor centre we nearly stepped on some very small newts, probably smooth newts, that were crossing the path.

We wandered over to the ARC pit hoping the spoonbills might have landed there. They hadn't, but there were more reed warblers! Several times I tried to get a shot without success. The reeds were thick and autofocus doesn't work in that situation. I initially had my camera on a beanbag but it's not possible to focus manually with the focus ring resting on a beanbag! Finally, I put my camera on the tripod and waited. After a couple of failures I finally managed to nail a shot of a reed warbler bringing food back to some youngsters out of sight.

Reed warbler bring food to its young.

A very enjoyable day.

Norfolk 5 and 10 July 2010 - Montagu's harrier at last.

After our 'not bad' visit to the New Forest, David and I decided to visit Norfolk, and also to try and see the river warbler which had turned up East of Norwich (i.e. a very long way from home).

The day started well with some distant stone curlews in a field near Weeting. A useful year tick.

On to Titchwell for the buff-breasted sandpiper. We saw a corn bunting (which I needed) on the way and we were confident. Too confident as it turned out. The buff-breasted sandpiper proved elusive and after 2 hours or so we decided to call it a day and look for Montagu's harriers at North Creake. That also proved fruitless so we headed for the river warbler. It didn't normally come out to play until 21.00 or 21.30 so it was almost dark when it did appear. It had been singing for quite a while before we saw it a few times flit from place to place in the reeds. Not a very satisfying twitch if I'm honest. We watched / listened to it on and off for about an hour before heading for home where we arrived shortly after 01.00.

At the end of the week I decided to go back to Norfolk. I retraced our steps except for the river warbler. At the stone curlew site I watched a common curlew for about half an hour from behind a bush and it came quite near.

Curlew.


On the way to Titchwell, a couple of miles from the coast, I heard a quail and saw it fly briefly. I tracked down the corn bunting and photographed it.

Corn bunting.


At the reserve the buff-breasted sandpiper was more forthcoming and someone from the hide who had seen it came out to tell those on the bank where it was. Very distant but visible for quite a long time.

















Buff-breasted sandpiper (behind oystercatcher).


While I was waiting I saw a spoonbill on the other side of the freshmarsh as well as 3 little terns.

I headed off to North Creake with a couple of guys I met at Titchwell. We weren't sure which site to watch from. There were warning signs at some of the most obvious gaps in the hedge but we found a site to the West which gave good views. Eventually, one of the guys spotted a harrier in the distance and we saw an unmistakable male Montagu's harrier as it came nearer but still distant. My record shot is not one I'm proud of but here it is:

Montagu's harrier.


We also saw a turtle dove fly nearby, another year tick.

I and one of the guys went to Swanton Novers in the hope of seeing a honey buzzard but no luck. A couple had been seen that day by a chap who visited Scandinavia a lot and had seen hundreds of them, but they are not breeding this year so their trips were less predictable as they had no need to find food for young.

After that I went back to North Creake hoping to get a better view of the Monty's. I met some others there including a couple of Americans and one of them pointed out a harrier not too far away which I didn't examine too closely while trying to get a picture. The general view was that we had seen a Monty's but later inspection of my photos revealed that it was in fact only a male marsh harrier. If any them reads this, I'm afraid it wasn't a Montagu's harrier, guys.

Spoonbills at Oare Marshes

We had heard there were Wood sandpipers at Oare Marshes and Lynne wanted to go and see her parents at Blean so we set off late morning. David Campbell heard on his pager that three spoonbills had been seen at Oare that morning so that was an extra reason to go. At Oare there was a good collection of waders. We saw at least 200 black tailed godwits, 100+ golden plover, 4-5 curlew sandpiper, 2 greenshank, 2 sandwich tern, 2 common tern, 11 avocet, 100+ redshank, several ruff in various plumages, as well as the usual assortment of ducks, a female teal, lapwings, little grebe, little egret, etc. While we were looking for the wood sandpiper the three spoonbills, which had been on the West Flood, took to the wing, wheeled around and flew off. I managed to get a few flight shots before they got out of range. In this photo the adult is in the lead, followed by the two juveniles (black wingtips). The second juvenile hasn't quite got the hang of flying with legs straight behind yet!! He seems to be running to catch the others up!



Spoonbills, Oare Marshes.


We never did find the wood sandpipers but we did see a pair of hobbies catch a swift in mid air and then pass the prey one to the other in the air. I had just put my camera back in the car, so no photos of that fascinating episode. I've made a mental note never to leave my camera in the car again!

I'm only working a four day week next week. I'm off on Friday to go to the Scillies for a pelagic boat trip to see seabirds, the sort that don't normally come ashore much. I'm hoping to increase my year list to re-take the lead from David. He's 3 ahead of me now. I'm on 209. He's on 212. Grrrrr! No, of course I'm not overly competitive!!

That American Sparrow

Well, before I get to that, let me apologise for not posting anything for the last four weeks. Lots of things going on at work caused by the credit crunch, etc. I have been out there in the field, but no time to put everything on the blog.

On 28 March went to Beddington SF to see if there were any early migrants. Saw tree sparrow (Beddington is the place to go for tree sparrows), green sandpiper, and blackcap but nothing more exciting.

The following day I went to Farlington mashes for the spoonbill. I did see it distantly but had to cut short my visit when my son rang to say that my daughter had had an accident (now fine, nothing serious).

On 5 April went to Dungeness with David Campbell, who was confidently predicting at least ten year ticks and a couple of lifers for both of us. As it turned out we got a few year ticks and no lifers (which would have been Common redstart and velvet scoter).

We did enjoy fairly close views of a male garganey in breeding plumage and some even closer views of a pair of slavonian grebes, one in breeding plumage.

Garganey, ARC Dungeness.


I got my camera out and while the grebes were diving we moved 50m down the causeway to just about where they would come up close to shore. It worked. they surfaced and didn't move. I had put my tripod down but, while I had carried it on my shoulder, the lens had swivelled round so that it was looking the wrong way. I swivelled the lens round the right way again but too fast it seems. The slavonian grebe in breeding plumage took off like a rocket, half flying, half running on water as they do until it was at least 50m away and the other one joined him. Ah, well!

Slavonian grebe putting a lot of distance between me and him!!

Also that day we saw a male black redstart and a flock of c.25 linnet.

Linnet, Dungeness.

The next day while waiting at the bus stop at Sutton station on my way home from work I looked again for the Peregrine which used to sit regularly at the top of the Reed Building. No sign again. Then I looked at the building to the South of it. There on the rail at the top was what looked like a Peregrine. I pulled out the small monocular that I now carry with me all the time just in case. Sure enough it was the peregrine. I tried to phonescope it but my bus came before I could manage it.

I want to get this posted so I'm going to do another post about that sparrow. Watch this space!