A day out in Essex

I said I'd make more effort to get out and about so with a free day today I headed up to Abberton reservoir for first light. I found yesterdays Wood Sandpiper with a Green and four Common Sandpipers. A Kingfisher perched in a distant Willow, the same trees that held breeding Grey Heron, Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets and a single nest of Spoonbill that held four almost fully grown chicks and kept both parents busy feeding them whilst I was there.

Common Sandpiper

Grey Heron

Spoonbill nest top left, Cattle Egret nest bottom right

Spoonbill nest also in the picture nesting Cattle and Little Egret along with Grey Herons.

The Slavonian Grebe showed well from the causeway too and was great to see in it's summer plumage.

Following a tip off I headed to the car park at Fingrinhoe Wick where I watched two Osprey first sat on posts out on the salt marsh then both in flight ironically headed in the direction of Abberton.

On the journey home down the A12 I took the short diversion to Hanningfield where I found plenty of Red-crested Pochard and the newly arrived Ruddy Shelduck. On the wader front just 13 Black-tailed Godwits and some Lapwing but it was good to see breeding Pochard on site.

Pochard

Pochard

The Ruddy Shelduck amongst the Red-crested Pochard

Year list now 208

Finally got a picture of the vixen visiting my garden

Black-winged Kite at Horsey in Norfolk

There I am bemoaning my lack of time and opportunity just two days ago after the first twitchable Black-winged Kite was reported on Monday evening and then low and behold I find some time and see the magnificent bird at Horsey but as is the usual diary format of my blog let me tell the story.

Monday I took my father in law to a hospital appointment to have his pacemaker checked, he then returned home and had dinner with us and didn't leave until quite late in the day so off I went to bed without checking my phone to see that a Black-winged Kite had been reported at Horsey in Norfolk. "seen well between 19.30 and 20.45pm" but the news hadn't landed until 21.56pm. I woke to find the news and rang the Jims to let them know but again had a hospital appointment with my father in law at 11am and a doctors appointment with him at 2.30pm so getting away on Tuesday was going to be difficult or impossible. I then watched as news came out that the bird had been re-found roosting at Horsey and many birders were enjoying early morning views. I guess these guys had a little more information about it roosting to be as determined to be on site for first light and even in the right place to view it as the news service hadn't released this information.

The news then went very quiet with the last sighting at 10.41am as the bird flew high north over Trimingham some twenty miles away with everybody assuming that's the bird moving north and away, but bring on Wednesday morning at 9.59am and extraordinary news that the bird had returned to Horsey. I called the Jims and arranged to pick them up but I had the small matter of a doctors appointment for myself at 10.40am. With the appointment done I picked up the Jims and news was now coming in saying no further sign. The weather forecast was poor with heavy persistant rain expected but we still pushed on arriving at around 2pm. The bird hadn't been and the road down to Horsey windmill was full of parked cars and people were plotted up on every spare pull in scouting the area for the bird. We parked up at Horsey Windmill as requested on the news services and set up scopes on the mound by the cafe enjoying a cheesy scone and coffee as we waited. The weather forecast was correct as we took cover from the rain and the chance of seeing the bird seemed to have disappeared. Cold, wet, tired and disappointed we left for home around 7pm only to hear news as neared home that the bird had returned to the roost it had chosen on Monday evening.

Straight away I told the Jims I would be returning Thursday morning first light and whilst Dad dropped out Jim was up for it and we set off at 3am this morning. We arrived at Horsey Windmill shortly after 5am and walked down the track to the roost location which took a good twenty minutes or so. On arrival we found around forty or so birders had beaten us to the spot and it was difficult to find a place to stand but we eventually settled in and waited for the mist to lift which it did to reveal the bird sat on top of a distant bush. Chaos ensued as people panicked to get a view which was still difficult as light was poor and the bird was sat with its grey back set against a grey sky but slowly everybody settled down with most very happy to help others get a view and indeed helping those new arrivals to get on it. 

After an hour or so with much wing stretching and preening the bird took off and flew high away to the north before turning and heading back towards the windmill where it sat on a telegraph pole to enjoy a snack before flying west and then being lost to view and not seen again until being spotted in Felixstowe Suffolk this evening as I type this diary blog post. Next stop Essex?

A great day catching up with a few familiar faces and with the added notable birds of Great-White Egret, 9 Cranes, and 3 Hobbies. I'd like to think this is the start of me finding more time for myself again but I fear that may be a little hopeful. 

Year list now 206

Life list now 439

No Black-winged Kite for me

I haven't blogged since May and that's because I've had nothing to blog about.

My caring/domestic/family duties continue to dominant my life with birding very low down on my list of priorities. It isn't a lack of desire as I still very much long for the benefit being out birding brings in terms of both my own wellbeing both mentally and physically and of course of the challenge to add a few new birds. I missed the Grey-headed Lapwing earlier this year as it was just too far and would have taken too much of my time and yesterday I missed the Black-winged kite as I was busy running my father-in-law to a couple of hospital appointments. This one hurt as it was just a couple of hours drive away but I just couldn't get there.

I did get the camera out yesterday to dust the cobwebs off but only sitting in the garden.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Kite is refound and I do get an opportunity on a day I have no commitments and maybe just maybe I'll get a days birding soon.

Garden birding

Well since I got my hopes up in mid may about finding more time to myself things have returned to normal and I'm in demand with the usual caring duties with the grandchildren taking up a lot of my time which of course I don't mind in the slightest save the lack of time left for birding. I haven't been birding since 12th May save a brief visit to Rainham, other than that the garden has kept the interest burning and given me the odd little fix.

Corn Bunting

Skylark

I've messed around with the Merlin ID sound app and whilst it's pretty good the local Starlings seem to be giving it a challenge as It's ID's them as Lesser-spotted Woodpecker on a couple of occasions. I've had Mute Swan ID'd on it and although I've seen them fly over I'm surprised its able to pick them up on sound.

The local Lesser-black backed Gulls are often called out as Yellow-legged gulls by the app and it's picking up Tree Sparrow amongst the House Sparrows when none are present but otherwise it's done OK.

I've a particularly stunning Sparrow visiting the garden at the moment and although it's much more wary than the regular birds I have managed a few images of it. The bird is a Melanistic House Sparrow where the lighter grey pigments have been replaced by browner tones.

I've been putting an apple a day out and whilst I put it out for the Blue Tits it has attracted up to four Parakeets to visit daily so I've enjoyed taking a few images of them too. So far this year the garden has seen juvenile birds from Starling, House Sparrows, Magpie, Robin and Great Tit. The Blue Tits can't be far away now.

Juvenile House Sparrow

I'm still hopeful the Grey-headed Lapwing will turn up closer to home but as it's travelled from Northumberland into Scotland and now west into the western Isles I fear my chance of connecting with it may have been the six hour drive to Northumberland which I declined mainly due to being too busy and of course because it's six hours there and six back!

The pointless year list has well and truly stalled!

Anyway onwards and upwards 

oh and my grandson drew this picture for me......Its him and me birding and we're watching (in his words)...Parrots, crows, pigeons, Blue tips and red birds. 

Birding with Grandad by George aged 5

Yet another day out

Not sure what's going on but I managed another day off today and with a last minute call to the Jims we hatched a plan to find a few year ticks.

First stop was Welney village where we heard a Corncrake (my first outside of Scotland) Despite a good search from the gate we failed to find it but it was good to hear the constant calling. We also year ticked Garden Warbler here. When we arrived I found a rucksack and it had a camera in it so appeared to have been left by accident and as it was dry I guessed it had been left by somebody birdwatching this morning.

I put out a tweet asking if anybody knew who may have left it hoping the owner might get to see it if he searched ''Corncrake Welney''.  I then planned to leave it with staff at Welney but they didn't open for a while and the road to the reserve was closed so I was going to have to take it with me and hope to get in touch with the owner later but as we got to the car another birder pulled up and asked if we'd found his rucksack. He was relieved as was I because I no longer had the drama of what to do with it and how to contact him.

We moved on stopping at Choseley where Dad surprised us and himself by finding the Dotterel for us. At Titchwell there was no sign or sound of the Great Reed Warbler from last night but we year ticked Little Gull and enjoyed views of Spoonbill, Ringed Plover and LRP to name a few. It was freezing this morning more like winter than spring and after some time scanning from the hides we left stopping at Thornham to tick Wood Sandpipers for the pointless year list. By now it was raining hard with a cold wind making it very unpleasant so we headed for the car. We now had a call to make...do we head home or up to Freiston shore RSPB and try again for the Blue-winged Teal we missed at Frampton earlier this week. 

Avocet

Spoonbill

The coin landed on heads so we found ourselves heading north into Lincolnshire. At Freiston we found the screen overlooking the reservoir with two other birders but negative news on the target. I found two Garganey on the distant flood and a couple of Yellow Wagtails and then after half an hour or so I found the BWT. It had appeared on the reservoir out of nowhere to the delight of everybody present.

The day delivered some decent birds despite the grey damp cold conditions.

Year list now 202 (with the heard only Corncrake) 

Frampton

We were due to visit Frampton on Sunday but things got in the way so we delayed the trip until Tuesday.

Arriving around 7am we scanned the marsh from the car park finding lots of Ruff with most of them reeves. Lots of Avocet, Redshank and Lapwing along with a distant group of Blackwits which appeared to have a Spotted Redshank with them but distance prevented ID. Ringed Plover and Little Ringed Plover were present along with small numbers of Dunlin.

Brent Geese, Wigeon and Teal remain in small numbers with the regular summering ducks. A Hobby buzzed through with the Swifts and Swallows and the place was alive with Skylarks and Warblers. 

Avocet

Common Tern

Orange Tip

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

From the seawall we found the Black-winged Stilts out by 360 hide and scanning a large flock of Dunlin and Ringed Plover revealed two Little Stint. A Wheatear was seen along with a couple of Yellow Wagtails and three Whimbrel showed well out on the marsh too. As we completed the loop we watched as a large female Sparrowhawk took a Lapwing.

Oh and I can recommend the Cheese, bacon and red onion Scone in the new cafe.

On the journey home we stopped at Wallington church but failed to find the reported Spotted Flycatchers but did watch a nest building Treecreeper and had fly over Hobby, Sprawk, Kestrel, Buzzard and Red Kite. We also saw Black Squirrel which I'm told aren't that rare in the area.

Year list now 196

Leaving the trip until Tuesday cost us Curlew Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Blue winged Teal opportunity but this disappointment aside Frampton always has plenty to enjoy and today was no different.

I found some time

I'm pleased to say that I have this week found a little time for myself and have used it to get a few local birding adventures in.

Firstly a trip to Abberton followed by Wrabness 

At Abberton we quickly located the reported Pec Sandpiper on the flood opposite the parking area for the Wigborough bay screen and we also year ticked Greenshank with four on the flood and another nine in Wigborough Bay. Also on the flood were eight Ruff and three Ringed Plover. From Layer Breton we found a sleeping Spoonbill and two Common Sandpipers. A fly over Hobby was another first of the year. Wrabness was alive with the sound of Nightingale and Turtle Dove but both proved elusive giving the briefest of views.

We popped over to Rainham when the White-winged Black Terns got reported but missed them by a few minutes and I returned the next day on my own to see the Black-winged Stilt. I found a female Whinchat on the old tip whilst watching the Corn Buntings and had another Hobby sitting on Butts hide.

Today saw us twitching yesterdays Short-toed Treecreeper at Dungeness but sadly as we half expected the bird had moved on. A sea watch was hard going but we did year tick Sandwich Tern and Arctic Skua. The Poms came through either side of our visit and we missed a reported Arctic Tern.

At Oare marsh we found three Whimbrel and a drake Garganey along with two Cuckoo and a Hobby. On the way home I drove the Jims round to the Serin mound at Rainham were they year ticked the Stilt. 

After this recent activity the pointless year list now sits at 195 but sadly I seem to have lost the ability to point the camera at anything hence this wordy post.