Bittern shows well at Barnes WWT

15 January 2010

The bittern finally showed well at Barnes for me. I saw nothing from the Dulverton hide where it had been seen recently so I made my way up to the Wildside. My approach was greeted with the appreciative 'ooohhs' of those already inside who were onto the bird. It was on the other side of the lake but the nearest I had ever seen one. The lake was still frozen so the poor bird was reduced to stalking the edge of the ice shelf and fishing in the negligible strip of water at the edge of the reeds. He didn't go hungry. I was told he'd already caught four fish and he caught another three in the hour or so that I watched him. Here's the sequence:


Hmmm. Stretch up high. Then stoop down low....!



Ha! Gottcha!





Mmm. Fish for lunch.


Gulp!! AAhh!

Water pipit at Staines Moor, redpolls at Barnes WWT

First thing today I went to Staines reservoir to see the black-necked grebe and female scaup. It was still freezing but managed to see both as well as some smew.

Then went to Staines Moor, not so much to see the brown shrike (which hasn't been seen now since 2 January) but more for the water pipits. I decided to walk up from the southern end so as not to have the sun in my eyes. A dog-walker told me the way but it wasn't quite as direct as I was expecting. I got to the river and started taking pictures of a little grebe in the reeds.

Little grebe, Staines Moor

A large flock of fieldfare flew overhead. Another photographer (Ian, alias Fungus McBogle) came along and we talked for a while before Ian noticed a small bird fly along the river, a water pipit. We were able to take quite a few pictures before it flew further upstream.

Water pipit, Staines Moor

As it was only about two o'clock, I decided to go to Barnes to see the bittern. I met Corinna Smart coming out as I went in. She advised me to go straight for the flock of redpolls that were feeding on the Wild Side. I went in and managed to find the birch tree where there were one or two other birdwatchers waiting. The redpolls soon returned and allowed very close approaches for some lovely pictures in the warm light of the late afternoon sun. I did see the bittern briefly and distantly from the Dulverton hide but it was very skulking. However, a jack snipe was another welcome bird for my year list from the same hide. I went home very pleased with the redpoll photos which I knew would take me hours to sort out. Ah Well! It's always nice to get at least one good photo!

Lesser redpoll, Barnes WWT

Lesser Redpoll, Barnes WWT

Brown shrike back at Staines Moor

At the start of the listing year the brown shrike is back after an absence of two weeks. As it's fairly local, I decided to go straight up and see it for this year. There were surprisingly few people there, only six or eight. With directions from them, I quickly got on to it, in exactly the same area as when it went AWOL before Christmas.


I watched it for a while and took a few record shots. There were quite a few dog walkers going over the river so I went over and set up my tripod over a small clump of rushes where there was a bush about 20m away. The shrike is a creature of habit and usually does the rounds of its favourite bushes. I sat down to wait.


I watched it on the far side of the river where it gave good views to those on that side. Had I made a mistake? Perhaps I had made the mistake of sitting on the grass. Very quickly I had a very wet behind, the ice cold water seeping through all thicknesses. I shifted sideways so I could sit on the tuft itself. Eventually the shrike came over the river again quite a way away. It flew off behind a bush. Suddenly it appeared low down left of 'my' bush but it was obscured by a twig. Then, yes, it moved to the right hand side, half-way up. I managed about ten shots before he was off and I was happy.

This is a very entertaining bird. If you go, you're almost bound to see it. A nice start to the year.

Sheppy, Waders and raptors

As I write this, Tuesday evening, it has been raining nonstop all day! I'm so glad I decided to go out yesterday! I made what will probably be the last outing of the year. David Campbell and I decided to go to Sheppey to try and track down David's bogey bird, the white-fronted goose. It would be a lifer for him and he had already spent yesterday on Sheppey with no luck.

We set off at 0700 so we would arrive just after dawn and have maximum use of the few hours of winter daylight. It was well below zero most of the day but it was fine and mainly sunny.

On arrival in Leysdown we drew up close to the sea wall and peered over. The tide was in and we wowed at the numbers of sanderling and turnstone just in front of us as well as a grey plover. After a short while with these active and interesting birds, we decided to concentrate on the main goal, so we pressed on into the Swale nature reserve, an area served by an exquisitely pot-holed track which made for a tense drive wondering if my rather low-slung car would hit the bottom in some of the deepest holes. In the end it wasn't too bad.

At our first stop we viewed a field teeming with curlew, golden plover and Brent geese - but no white fronts. We pressed on further and stopped on a small hillock giving a good vantage point over the fields. It wasn't long before we picked out a reasonable flock of white-fronted geese among the many more Brents and that put David one ahead of me for the year! Dohhh!!
He deserved to win (243 to 242). He beat me even though he has to rely on others for all his transport. His dedication and tenacity brought its reward.

We returned to the beach where we lay behind one of the groins photographing the turnstones, sanderlings and the odd redshank. This was instructive as well as allowing some fairly close shots. I'd always wondered what sanderlings ate. I'd only seen them racing along the sand at Titchwell, close to the water's edge. Leysdown beach at high tide is pebbly but with many shells. Both sanderling and turnstone ate shellfish - not sure which, could be cockles. I'm no good at shellfish. They seemed to be able to break into the shells with their beaks and pull the fish out. Clever!

Turnstone with cockle?

Sanderling with cockle

Sanderling

After lunch in the car (it was still freezing), and a bit of sea watching (during which David tried bravely to identify birds that must have been at least 3-4 miles offshore!!!) we decided to go to Capel Fleet, as David still needed short-eared owl for his year list. We stopped at a pull-in just before the raptor watchpoint to watch a lovely male marsh harrier that was flying towards us.

Male marsh harrier

Male marsh harrier

He dropped down and, while we were waiting for him to re-appear, a skein of 36 Bewick's swans flew right over our heads. The noise of their wings, the calls of some of them and their graceful flight was wonderful.

Bewick's swans. Lovely.

We also saw two or three hen harriers fairly close by.

Female hen harrier.

Shortly afterwards a car stopped and I met Corrina Smart for the first time. She had pulled up to ask what was about. I hadn't realised that she, as Eagleseagles, was the person who wanted to use my brown shrike photo on her blog. We chatted for a while, found a pregrine eating its prey and then went on to the raptor point. The light was fading, but we still saw two or more hen harriers, several marsh harriers and quite a dark barn owl. We had just left to come home when, in the fading light the barn owl alighted on a post in the glow of the Western sky. David jumped out to take a silhouette in the semi darkness.

All in all, a very enjoyable day and a fitting end to a good year. Thanks, David for your help and company this year.

Epsom Common, Lovely cormorant!

Sunday was not a bad day after 11 o'clock so David Campbell and I visited Epsom Common. It was quiet, not to say almost dead from a birdwatching point of view. We heard / saw a few common birds, got followed by the tame mallard and came across a flock of mixed tits.

Eventually, we spent quite a lot of time photographing an obliging cormorant who was drying its wings in the sun (yes, sun). That was the highlight of the afternoon!

Cormorant, Epsom Common

Brown shrike. Much better pictures.

David Campbell and I went to Staines Moor again to see the brown shrike (after failing miserably to see the Black-throated diver on Papercourt Gravel Pits). The path was incredibly muddy after the thousands of birdwatchers who must have trodden it in the last two months.


We saw the bird immediately on arrival after checking with the handful of others who were there. After a while it came nearer and actually came over the river to our side. It was about 100m away. Someone suggested approaching it as a chap who had just left passed close to it and it didn't fly. We got closer and closer until I was about 25m from it and was able to take some close shots before an off-road motor cyclist came thundering through.


We watched it for another half an hour and then headed back to the car as it started to rain lightly. Here is the star bird which has stayed in the same area for almost two months!


Brown shrike, Staines Moor.

Serin and Yellow-legged gulls at Rainham

Went to Rainham last week and saw the serin briefly in poor light at the end of the day. Decided to go back today (Fri 27 Nov) to try and get a picture. It's a very small bird, smaller than a goldfinch, and very mobile. It was almost impossible to see it in the flock but it was possible to see it as soon as it landed and before it dropped down to the ground to feed.

When I got there it had been seen shortly before (always the way) but it was now nowhere to bee seen. Walked up and down the path for a while, settled on the grass to set my tripod up in readiness. Surely they would come through here soon??

Waited 35 mins - nothing, not even the main flock of goldfinches. I got up and wandered down the track to where another man with the same lens was also waiting. After a few minutes the unmistakable calls of goldfinches could be heard. Dominic Mitchell (as I learned he was) saw the serin straight away and did hid best to point out exactly where this tiny bird was, camouflaged in the bushes. Normally, I'm fairly quick at following where people are looking by following the line of their scope but, at that moment I couldn't. I was also desperately trying to extend the legs on my tripod and that didn't help!!

They flew again!! Nooo! They settled again. Dominic was firing off shot after shot while I fumbled and looked. They flew again to a bush directly in front of us. I got onto the serin and, before they all flew off again, managed a single, poorly focused shot . This is it:

Serin, Rainham Marshes.

Just had time to see a few Yellow-legged gulls (year tick) on the Thames before heading home.

Spotted sandpiper at Abberton Reservoir, Essex

As the penduline tits had gone from Dungeness, David Campbell and I decided to go to Abberton Reservoir for the spotted sandpiper, an American wader that bore more than a passing resemblance to a common sandpiper.

This trip turned out to be a harsh lesson in how it pays to do your homework before setting out. Abberton reservoir is large. It is man-made and eleven miles in circumference. The spotted sandpiper was seen in 'Peldon Bay'. Large bodies of water like this often have local names for parts of it but they aren't marked on any map. Peldon Bay? Could be anywhere. I looked on a map and concluded (correctly as it turned out) that it was the indentation nearest the village of Peldon.

I had been to Abberton only once before and knew that access was restricted. It looked like the best way in was to walk from Wigborough Bay (I'd learnt that name from my first visit) and walk about 2 miles round. Well, we got there before the centre opened and started off. We enjoyed watching flocks of dunlin, black-tailed godwits, avocets, Bewick's swans, lapwing, golden plover, teal, wigeon which abounded and the odd goldeneye . We didn't think it would take us long but, what with scanning the hoards of waders and other water birds that were thriving on the mud exposed by the low water levels, after two hours of walking we still hadn't happened on the small group of birdwatchers we assumed there must be around this bird!!

At this point, a call to the visitors' centre confirmed our fear that the reservoir was larger than it seemed. We were still further from our destination than we had walked already and it was possible to gain access only about a mile from the bird!! We decided to bite the bullet, walk back to the car the way we had come and drive round to the other entrance.

A short trip to the visitors' centre to get passes (all legal now) and we were off again. The other 'entrance' still involved scaling a gate with all our gear but after 20 mins walk we came across the spotted sandpiper. We watched it for an hour and a half before going back to the car.

Spotted sandpiper. Abberton Reservoir.

David's year list was now on 239 and mine was 238. David unselfishly agreed to go to Westcliff-on-sea on the way back to see the ring-billed gull that he had already seen this year. This American gull has returned to Westcliff every year for the last 12 years. It hangs out at Rossi's ice cream parlour and, sure enough, within five minutes of our arrival, David had picked it out in the twilight as the light was fading. 239!! That had to be celebrated with an enormous ice cream in the aforesaid ice cream parlour. Aah!

Dungeness. The rare egrets.

Arrived at Dungeness hoping to get a better view of the dusky warbler but no luck. In recompense, managed reasonable views of the two rare egrets, the cattle egret and the great white egret.

The cattle egret was in a field next to the Dengemarsh Road. The barren field doesn't make a very good backdrop but that's where he was!!

Cattle egret, Dengemarsh, Kent

I walked to the Dengemarsh hide in search of the great white egret and perhaps even the glossy ibis which some had seen. Had my lunch there and scanned the gulls for any rarities. No sign of the great white, so I wandered back to the car again. As I arrived, the great white egret was just coming out of some nearby reeds. I crept up to a large fencepost to put my beanbag on and took a few shots before it went into the reeds again. I like this one particularly.

Great white egret, Dengemarsh, Kent

Glossy Ibis, Snipe, Pectoral sandpiper, Brown shrike and cattle egret

David Campbell and I have been getting around recently. We decided to go for the glossy ibis at Oare Marshes. We arrived early (well, about 9 a.m.) but a diligent search of both the West Flood and the East produced no glossy ibis. We were walking back to the road when it suddenly flew off towards Sheppey. I managed to get one or two distant shots before it flew out of view.
We did a tour around the East Flood to the sea watching hide. We were just about to leave Oare when a man told us that the glossy ibis had been seen from the West Flood. We raced to the hide. After a few minutes the ibis came out from behind the reeds.


Glossy Ibis

I wasn't supposed to be doing much birdwatching in September because I'm in the process of moving offices after 25 years at Balham. However, we went to the theatre in Chichester a couple of weeks ago and the report came of a pectoral sandpiper on Hayling Island, not a million miles away. It only took about 20 minutes to get there but a search produced no pectoral sandpiper. However I got talking to some other birdwatchers and, when I rang one of them later that day, it turned out that I had been looking in the wrong place. Lynne was with me by now. We jumped in the car and drove about a mile down the road to another car park where a short walk brought us to quite a small pond with a magnificent pectoral sandpiper in the middle, all on its own. This bird was very tame and came quite close. The light was perfect. At one point a dog walker with a large dog came. One bark from the dog and the sandpiper was off. Fortunately, it came back a few minutes later and landed on the far side of the pool. If I had had more time I would have waited for it to come closer. As it was, I was very happy to have seen the bird which was a lifer for me.

Pectoral sandpiper

The following weekend Lynne and I took Louise back to Durham. On the way back the following day, we stopped at Draycote Water to try and see the long staying lesser scaup. We walked well over a mile but the bird was undoubtedly associating with a flock of a least 100 tufted ducks on the other side of the water. Because we had to get back, I didn't have time to go round to the other side. However I took a picture of what I thought was the lesser scaup.

In the meantime, Lynne had been speaking to another couple who recommended Brandon Marshes just up the road for kingfishers.Kingfishers are Lynne's favourite bird so we had to go. Brandon marshes is a very nice reserve. We saw a very close snipe on the way to the Kingfisher hide.


Snipe

While waiting for the kingfishers to arrive we had lovely views of a grey heron fishing.

Grey heron

After about an hour, I heard the unmistakable sound of a kingfisher approaching. Sure enough it perched on a very long thin perch which had clearly been put there for the purpose. This gorgeous bird treated us to very nice views for about 10 minutes before flying off.

Kingfisher

On Sunday the 10th of October David and I went to St Margarets at Cliffe, in Kent, hoping to see a yellow browed warbler. Shortly after we arrived David got a message on his pager of a wryneck about 1 km away. While walking down there we met the man who had discovered it and he mention that there was also a barred warbler.

We didn't see the barred warbler that we did see the wryneck which proved fairly tame, but we did not approach it too closely because there were about 10 people in the pack and we didn't want to frighten it off.

We went briefly to Samphire Hoe to look for two ring ouzels but David wouldn't let me stay very long because a cattle egret had been reported at Lydd. It was getting late. A cattle egret was a lifer for me and a British lifer for David. We got to the place but no sign of the egret. We drove towards the farm buildings passed several fields until we came to one with cattle in it. True to its name, the cattle egret was there but distant.

I had the Monday off as part of my new regime of working three days a week. I spent the day shopping in Kingston and doing a few things about the house, as well as an hour or two at the wetlands in Barnes. A nice, but not that rare, red backed shrike had been seen on Staines Moor. This bird was later re identified as a much rarer brown shrike. David rang me in the evening and said he was planning to go and see it after school the following day. I had to work but I took my scope into work with me just in case!

I eventually got away at 4:25 p.m., missed the 4.40 train from Streatham Hill and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one. When I arrived in Ashford the sun was going down. The minicab came quickly but there was at least a 10 minute walk at the other end. I met a woman who said she thought I was too late because the shrike had gone to roost. I met up with David (who had already taken several photos and had observed it for at least half an hour) just as the sun was setting. The shrike had not been seen for a least 10 minutes. As we were looking into the sunset, I suggested we go round the other side so as to have the light behind us. One or two other bird watchers were already there and, as we arrived, one of them had just seen the shrike go into the middle of a Bush. I managed to pick it out using my scope and it flew several times from bush to bush before the light failed. David took the only picture that didn't suffer from severe camera shake from the soft ground. Those fleeting last minute glimpses of the shrike before Sunset were profoundly unsatisfying. I knew there was a reason I didn't want to become twitcher!?

Brown shrike