The Garden

The garden is where I do most of my birding these days and of late I've managed to capture a few images of the birds visiting. On any given day I get around twenty species visit the garden with a total species list of just 66 since I've been living here.

House Sparrow nest on the side of the house in a box provided and under the odd lose tile etc. They usually start the year at six pairs and by the end of the year total over sixty birds before they disperse in winter ready for next years breeding. At no time do you look out into the garden and not see House Sparrows.

Male House Sparrow

Juvenile House Sparrow

Starlings visit but aren't so regular but when they do it's usually in big numbers. Last night around forty dropped in to feed all over the grass before a pre-roost murmuration above the garden of around three hundred birds. Like the Sparrows numbers build as juveniles emerge and they're without doubt the noisiest visitors due to numbers and the begging of the young birds.

Blue Tit and Great Tit breed in the garden

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Robins breed at the bottom of the garden and are ever present with juveniles present every year too.

Robin

Robin

Woodpigeon feed in the garden and nest not far from the house as do Collared Dove. Feral Pigeons visit the garden but thankfully only in small numbers feeding on grain spilt from the feeders.

Goldfinch are visiting often, mostly for the sunflower hearts I provide. I currently have a pair with six juveniles visiting daily. They also feed in the Honey Locust tree where they enjoy eating the small leaves. I occasionally see Greenfinch but not as often as I did a while back.

Goldfinch

Juvenile Goldfinch

Magpies still nest in a fir tree two doors down so call my garden territory and chase away the Crows that visit from time to time. The Crows nest in a large Oak behind my neighbours house. Jackdaw visit daily too but again get short tolerance from the Magpies.

Jackdaw

A pair of Dunnock nest in the hedge a couple of doors away and feed in my borders most days.

Lesser Black-backed Gull and Herring Gull are constant overhead and do occasionally land or sit calling from the chimney.

Parakeets visit morning and evening but we don't see many during the rest of the day. They do bring young in so probably breed reasonably close. Epping Forest is a few hundred metres from the house.

Ring-necked Parakeet

Ring-necked Parakeet

Great Spotted Woodpecker visit but aren't regular.

Overhead almost daily now are Red Kite, Buzzard and Sparrowhawk whilst a local population of Swift hawks over the garden daily too.

The total garden list is 66 species.

Foxes visit daily too.

The Vixen

So there you have it a little window into my garden and the birds that visit and an excuse to post of few of  the images captured this week.

Couple of local trips

Monday saw me take the Jims down to Oare to connect with the returning Bonaparte's Gull which has now returned to Oare for twelve years and with it being a 2cy bird when first seen it must be 13 years old now or vey close to it by my maths anyway. I first connected with this bird in 2013 and have seen it every year since apart from last year when I just couldn't find it on my visits. We added a year tick whilst at are with three Turtle Doves scoped distantly by the wind turbine in fact two were seen sitting on the turbine. We heard several Cuckoo almost constantly during our visit and saw a group of two and a group of three fly out over the river to Sheppey and another sat on a post out on the marsh. A Barn Owl hunted over on the west marsh and we enjoyed a walk around where it was nice to see families of Linnet, Sedge Warblers, Stonechat and Bearded Tits.

Bonaparte's Gull at Oare Marsh in Kent

Year list now 219

Yesterday saw a Caspian Tern reported at Abberton and this is a rare bird in Essex so I called the Jims and we headed up the A12 arriving to find Steve and Tim on the causeway to report negative news in the last couple of hours. We scanned ourselves but failed to add the target to our Essex lists. It was still a nice visit with  good views of at least eighteen Spoonbill and it appears they're nesting on site again. Four Cattle Egret were seen in flight but we couldn't find any on nests although they probably are tucked into the trees amongst the Little Egret nests. Grey Herons are nesting and three Great White Egrets were present too. Two Yellow Wagtails and a calling Cuckoo added to the visit along with a Sprawk and three each of Buzzard and Red Kite.

Abberton

We popped into Fingrinhoe Wick on the way home and I managed to pick out a very distant Osprey out on the marsh but it had moved from it's post before I got the Jims on it and despite giving it a go we failed to find it again.

Year list now 220

An hour at Rainham

After dropping my grandson to school in Hornchurch this morning I popped into Rainham for an hour.

A Lesser Whitethroat was calling in the hawthorns as I exited the visitor centre and popped up for a second to allow an image to be captured.

Lesser Whitethroat

As I walked the path towards the discovery centre I could hear lot's of Marsh frogs calling and stopped to get a picture of one. Sedge and Reed Warblers were noisy along with the off Whitethroat. Two Cuckoos flew west and several Bearded Tits pinged as I got near the target pool. Marsh Harriers hunted across the reserve along with Buzzard and Kestrel but no Hobbies were seen.

Marsh Frog

Sedge Warbler

I entered the hide where the Kingfishers are nesting in the man made sandbank just outside the hide, the open area of discovery hide is closed to avoid disturbing the birds and the windows have been covered with camo too. In an hour in the hide the Kingfishers came out of the nest twice and briefly sat on the provided perch allowing me to capture several images despite shooting through the glass and in overcast conditions. A Little Grebe has a single chick left and was busy feeding it the whole time I was there.

A lovely quick visit which I'll try to repeat at the next opportunity.

year list still 218

Nightjars at Chobham Common

We usually got to West Stow in Suffolk for our annual Nightjar experience but the spot we visit is getting very difficult to see the Nightjars due to the trees in the clearing growing so we considered visiting the Kings forest to search for a new fresher clearing but at the last minute decided to visit Chobham Common in Surrey which despite being around the M25 for us is actually closer than West Stow.

With clear skies and some warmth in the air we decided to go last night and set off at 7.30pm arriving around 8.30pm at Staple Hill only to find the road closed so we needed to find a different car park to the planned destination and not knowing the site at all having never visited before we stopped firstly at Roundabout car park but after the checking the map we opted to drive down the road to Monument car park. 

We walked out onto the heath and after about half a mile found an area of bracken/heathland that looked ideal so set up at 9pm as the sun started to set.

9.15 and the first Woodcock appeared and by 9.30pm we'd heard our first Nightjars. Over the next half an hour we had no fewer than ten Woodcock and double figures of Nightjar with two birds coming so close we could have reached out and touched them as they flew slowly around us.

several Bats were encountered as we walked back to the car and we arrived home at 11.15pm to end what was probably our best ever nights jarring and it looks like we have a new place for the annual event.

year list now 218

Happy fathers day

Dad hasn't been out birding since 4th May so I asked if he was feeling well enough for a short trip this morning and he fancied it so off we went on a short fathers day trip to get him a couple of year ticks and get his list moving again. 

First stop was Bicester where a singing Quail had been reported a few times and as I got out of the car at the specified gate overlooking Upper Ray Meadow I could hear the bird singing its "wet my lips" song.

Jim and Dad missed it and it took another half an hour before the bird called again allowing them to connect. Quail along with Tawny Owl are probably the only birds I tick annually on call alone. I have been lucky to see Quail on a few occasions over the years but not today.

The gate overlooking Upper Ray Meadow 

We moved on travelling back down the A41 to Wilstone Reservoir where we found Spotted Flycatcher to give another year tick to all of us. I had a singing Garden Warbler which Dad still needed for this year but by the time he caught up it had gone quiet and never called again.

Swifts were present in large numbers hawking low across the fields to the east of the reservoir and came so close we could hear the wing beats. 

Common Tern

    Spotted Flycatcher

With Dad expecting visitors we headed home at 10am having added a couple of year ticks and enjoyed just the three hours birding but it's dusted the cobwebs off for Dad.

Year list now 216

Minsmere

 I found myself with a free day at last so arranged to take Jim to Minsmere for the day. 

The walk out gave good views of several Bearded Tit and a pair of Bullfinch along with the usual expected encounters. At East hide we plotted up and scanned all areas adding another 29 species to the growing day list. Lot's of Sandwich Terns and a few Kittiwake were good to see and we picked out a few waders but numbers were low. We picked out a black billed Common Tern but decided it was more likely not the reported Eastern bird but instead a Common that hasn't yet experienced full moult.

The dark billed Common Tern with a Sarnie

From the public platform we found the two reported Roseate Terns for a nice year tick and a second year tick when a Little Tern dropped in for a while with another two flying over high up in the clouds. A Great White Egret flew over and some Black-tailed Godwits dropped in. We encountered a couple of 2cy terns but couldn't be sure either was the reported Eastern candidate.

Roseate Terns with Sandwich, Common and Little Tern

Roseates amongst the Sarnies

Roseates

The walk round to Bittern Hide gave good views of at least three Bittern, six Hobby and a few pairs of Marsh Harrier to end a nice morning birding in Suffolk with a day list of 78 species.

Hobby

Hobby

Hobby

Year list now 214

Honey Buzzards in Surrey

This year the Surrey OC have released details of an established Honey Buzzard watchpoint so I thought I'd give it a go for this years fix at it's only about fifteen miles from Thursley Common.

We stopped at Thursley first being closer to home and walked the common for a couple of hours from first light. We had a garden warbler by the moat to give Jim a nice early year tick before finding lot's of Woodlark including a couple of juveniles. Tree Pipits were abundant and several Dartford Warblers flitted about here and there. Lot's of Stonechat with many juveniles and a Cuckoo added to the days spectacle. Swift and Swallow hawked around the bog and several Lizards were seen on the boardwalks.  We spent a while looking for the Red-backed Shrike that's been around since 25th May but didn't find it. As we walked back to the car I spotted our only Redstart of the morning to add another year tick and the bird allowed a couple of pictures before retreating back into the copse. 

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

Stonechat

Stonechat

We left Thursley and headed to the new raptor watchpoint driving up the single dead end lane to the small car park where we found about thirty like minded souls and arrived to news that we'd missed just one Honey Buzzard so far. Over the next couple of hours we enjoyed five views of Honey Buzzard with at least two seperate birds and probably more. The birds gave great scope views but remained a little distant for my little 400mm camera lens. Common Buzzard, Red Kites, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Raven made up the best of the rest here. This is a nice new place for us and I'm sure we'll return for more time with these great summer visitors.

Record shot of one of the Honey Buzzards

On the way home we tried for Spotted Flycatchers at a local spot we'd been tipped off on but failed to find the target birds despite the intel.

Year list now 212