A visit to Dungeness

During the week Jim and I made a local visit to King George Reservoir where we walked the four miles around both basins with and managed to find two Greater Scaup, at least six Sand Martins and three Wheatear and a pair of Grey Wagtails for our trouble. A Red Kite feeding on a carcase at the reservoir bank was another highlight. We failed to see the long staying Red-necked Grebe and there were still no Terns on site.

Wheatear at KGV

Grey Wagtail

We had planned to go to Dunge on Wednesday but had to delay the visit until yesterday. We arrived at around 7am at the sea watch hide to find just two other guys there and they reported that it was very quiet with a very light breeze but they had just had a flock of sixty Whimbrel through. We set up and within minutes were watching a very smart Black-throated Diver before the first of two single Whimbrel. A few small flocks of Scoter and Brents went through and Sandwich Terns were busy going up and down. A large pod of Harbour Porpoise were feeding close in and bringing the Gannets in to inspect the area. A single Kittiwake flew through close in to give me another year tick but a possible Black Tern was too distant and never came close enough to ID fully.

A walk around the moat delivered two year ticks with a couple of Willow Warblers and a Whitethroat. A very smart Wheatear and male Black Redstart added interest on the walk. Chaffinch and Linnets were showing off around the car when we returned to give the camera a little exercise.

Chaffinch

Chaffinch

We found nothing of note at ARC but at Boulderwell we spotted two Cattle Egrets and the place was alive with the sounds of Sedge and Cetti's warbler. Marsh Harrier and Buzzard entertained as we scanned the area. Our last stop was Scotney where a pair of Med Gulls was the only thing of note before a brief return to the sea watch hide where it was as quiet as I've ever known it. The drive home was horrendous with the five mile stretch of M25 taking well over an hour.

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Year list now 193

Temminck's Stint at Tilbury Essex

I have seen a few Temminck's Stint but never one in Essex so with news of one at Tilbury yesterday I decided to give it a twitch this morning what with it being so local and all that. We arrived at a respectable 9am and walked down to the new scrape where we found just one other birder present so started the process of scanning each and every island and I found a couple of pairs of LRP so assumed the Temminck's could be in the same area and eventually managed to find it to make it much easier for those turning up a little later of which there were several before we left and a few that passed us on the way back too but it wasn't as popular a bird as I'd imagined.

The Temminck's Stint

A little pebble sized wader ...The Temminck's Stint

For scale a poor record shot shows it's size next to those Linnets 

A smart little bird and a first in Essex for me

The view through the camera lens before the heavy crop.

The bird showed well at x50 in the scope but was a challenge for my little 400mm lens which didn't stop me trying to fire off a few record shots. The new scrape looks really good and should attract some decent birds so I reckon we'll be back soon. The only other bird of note whilst here was a single Med Gull.

We scanned the paddocks on the walk back for a chance of Ouzel but that wasn't to be so we made a stop to walk the sea wall at Rainham and again failed to luck onto an Ouzel but we did manage to get out first Sedge Warbler of the year so not a wasted diversion.

The Stint wasn't just a year tick but was also my first in Essex too.

Year list now 187

Essex list now 273

Lesser Scaup at Abberton

Sunday evening saw news that a Lesser Scaup had been found at Abberton but today was the first time I could travel for it and needing it for an Essex tick and a year tick I decided to go and called the Jims to arrange an early start. We saw the now resident Cattle Egrets as we drove down to Abberton and made our way straight down to Lodge Lane where we walked down the lane to the reservoir. We scanned the Tufted ducks and thought we could see the Lesser Scaup in the group but decided to walk down to the first view point  for a closer look. A Black Swan in the bay was a little unexpected.

poor record shot of the Lesser Scaup

We were joined by another five birders and found the target in the raft of ducks in front of the view point.

Amongst the Tufted and Pochard group were a few Goldeneye, three Greater Scaup along with two hybrids one which looked to be Tufty/Pochard and the other Tufty/RND.

The Lesser Scaup could be picked out by the head shape and in good light showed that nice purple sheen too. 

Having added Lesser Scaup to the year list (184) and indeed to my pointless Essex list (272) we moved on to the farm hoping for a Yellow Wagtail. At the farm we found lots of Skylark and hundreds of Black-headed Gulls feeding out in Wigborough bay but no Yellow Wags so we moved on to the screen and as we were trying again without joy we had a couple of Spoonbill fly over heading towards Layer Breton so we jumped in the car and headed across to the causeway but alas we couldn't find the Spoonbill there. A Great White Egret was seen along with Green Sandpiper before a flyover Sand Martin and three Swallows to add a couple of bonus year ticks before we left for home. We also found time to grab some images of a pair of Little ringed Plover on the causeway as we scanned the gulls hoping for something a little rarer.

(As always thanks to the guys that put in the time and effort to nail the ID and put news out.)

Year list now 185

Essex list now 272

New Work in progress issued by BBRC

The BBRC issued a new work in progress on 31st March which was a a little overdue after the last update back in June last year. The report contains very little in the way of surprises or even real updates to be honest but I find running over the report on the blog helps me digest it so enjoy my brief summary if you please otherwise read the full report at the BBRC web page or if you prefer ignore the report and this summary.

The big one that I'm waiting for remains the Eastern Black-eared Wheatear record which has been moved from IC (in circulation) to PEND (pending) no explanation has been given at this point but I guess it means the committee members are finally going to discuss the record at least I hope that's what it means.

As for other news the Sennen Paddyfield Pipit has been put into Cat D until a later review when they decide if it makes it into Cat A (wild vagrant) or Cat E. (escapee)

Two interesting records have been Ok'd and sent to BOURC these are Long-legged Buzzard and Eastern Siberian Wagtail.

A dated record from 2007 in Norfolk (Subalpine Warbler sp.) has been reviewed and now becomes Moltoni's Warbler sadly before my twitching days or that may well have been a nice armchair tick.

My home county of Essex sadly saw nothing OK'd on this report.

As for aged acceptance well the oldest OK was for a Blue-winged Teal dating back to 1982 on Lewis and a Hampshire Red-footed Falcon has been accepted after almost twenty years. A Kent Short-toed Treecreeper has been accepted from 2010 and a Hampshire Long-toed Stint from 2011 has also been revisited and OK'd much to the delight of many with this being the same bird later seen in Sussex.

Ten records made the not proven list including the Pechora Pipit from Winterton that had several people looking for it on the day of the report and would have had me twitching if refound and confirmed.

Now for the bit that always interests me.....THE DATED IN CIRCULATION STUFF!

Oldest record still in circulation goes to a Northern Treecreeper from 1959 at Spurn.

In total 65 records exist in the IC file from 1959 to 2020

As for Essex well the interest here lies with the 2002 Syke's Warbler from Dengie and also of interest is the report of Black-eared Kite dating back to 2009/2010 from Rhayader

2019 still has six birds in circulation notably the Kent Pied Crow which remains on this list whilst 2021 still has hundreds of records in circulation. In terms of Essex there are a couple of surprises on the list with a reported Long-legged Buzzard over Tiptree on 30th March last year and a Lesser Scaup reported at Hainault Park on 27th December along with Brunnich's Guillemot past Bradwell another surprise. Black Stork and Red-breasted Goose make up the rest of the IC records for Essex and should prove a little easier to get OK'd.

Well I enjoyed that in a geeky data loving kind of way.

Green winged - Blue winged

After visiting Dad to finish fitting his new garden fence/gates we decided on making a run around the orbital car park to Wilstone reservoir in Tring for the Green-winged Teal and after a short walk to the hide we very quickly enjoyed decent scope views of the target which we could actually have scoped from the car park without the walk. A quick check for early Terns or any hirundines as we walked back to the car failed to deliver. With a female Blue-winged Teal being reported at Marlow in Bucks and now being less than twenty miles away we decided on giving that a twitch too. The cross county route was slow but we pulled into the car park on Pound Lane and paid for a couple of hours before walking along the road to Lower Pound Lane then walked around 800metres down the lane through the kissing gate to view the ponds and found the Blue-winged Teal sitting alone on the right hand pool whist all the other ducks slept on the left hand pool.

Green-winged Teal at Wilstone

The bird is being reported as a female which I haven't seen until today having seen several males prior to this bird. Although the bird news services are reporting the bird as a female Blue-winged Teal some are still casting doubt over it's purity. For now the bird makes the year list but I'll keep an eye on developments with it and watch with interest as the debate continues.

Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal

Year list now 182

Life list targets

With the falling of Snow Goose this week my life list targets now looks like this.....                             (top ten according to those seen by other Bubo listers)

I wonder if this year will bring any ticks from this list.....my bogey bird is the Tawny Pipit having dipped a couple so that's rightly top of my list.

I've also dipped Terek Sandpiper and White-crowned Sparrow.

Sociable Plover and Bufflehead could have fallen if it not for lockdown restrictions and of course the Black Scoter winters in the north and could be a realistic probability any time I chose to make the six hour drive to look for it.

Looking forward to my next life tick in whatever shape it takes and of course looking forward to the places this crazy hobby take me this year too.

It just wouldn't go away

The Belted Kingfisher in Lancashire just would not go away.

Every time it gets reported it reminds me that I really should go see it but I've seen them well in America and this bird is only seen at distance and can involve steep muddy river banks or crossing private land and paying a £10 toll for that privilege which I have no problem with when these tolls/collections are for a good cause. Then there's the risk of failure with some birders visiting four times before connecting with it so you may understand why I haven't rushed to connect. This week I planned to go but other matters got in the way until yesterday when I caught a break which freed me up for today.

I called the Jims and they agreed the trip was worth a go so we set off at 2am arriving in Roach Bridge at 6am. We walked the bridleway and crossed the field to view the river below and were the only birders on site at this early hour. Within a few minutes we'd heard the Belted Kingfisher calling and I quickly found it in the scope sitting in the trees set back a little from the river. It gave great views in the dim early light and we watched it fishing and heard it calling a couple more times. We were joined by another birder and managed to help him get onto the bird before leaving him to enjoy it too. Two other birders arrived as we left and their pace quickened when we told then it was still showing. Back at the bridge we watched a pair of Dippers and a pair of Grey Wagtail go about their courtship. Of note on the drive up was a Badger seen running along the side of the A5.

Belted Kingfisher

Dipper

Our next stop was to be Banks Marsh which is only eighteen miles away. We had little information on the exact location of the target here but made our way down Marsh Road to Old Hollows Farm where we parked up and walked up onto the marsh. Within seconds Jimmy had the Snow Goose in his scope and we all enjoyed great views at x60 through the scope but I failed to capture much detail with my modest (x8) 400mm lens. This Snow Goose has to me got decent credentials arriving with good carriers in October in the north too so I am happy to finally add it to my life list. The finder of the goose was on site and put us onto a Todd's Goose (my second of the year). He also shows me a close in Greylag thought to be of wild origin and later a distant scope view of a Russian White-fronted Goose. Walking back to the car park we enjoyed good views of the nesting Tree Sparrows but I then decided to walk further east in search of Twite. I flushed two Greenshank then found a Merlin which sat long enough for the Jims to catch up and scope too but they'd missed a year tick with the Greenshank. The Merlin took off and flushed a large flock of forty plus Twite which then broke up and some settled on the fence by the car park allowing me to grab some nice images. Wheatear, Great White Egret, several wader species and tens of thousands of Pink foots added to the spectacle and made for a fantastic days birding which will live long in the memory. 

Record shot of the Snow Goose

Twite

Twite

Life list now 429

year list now 180

Watching the Belted Kingfisher

Roach Bridge

Me and Jim at Roach Bridge