KGV

Another four mile walk around the George this morning in the cold and windy conditions. My reward for the continued effort of walking the reservoir was today in the form of more views of the four Ravens, a Whimbrel, four Dunlin, four Common Sandpipers and three Yellow Wagtails. Grebe  numbers remain high but the Tufted ducks have all but left now. A pair of Wigeon are lingering and today lot's of Swift were hawking the reservoir with lower numbers of Swallow and Sand Martin. As for breeding eveidence I've now seen Pied, Grey and Yellow Wagtails young, the Raven have two young that have fledged now, Juvenile Starlings have started to make noisy appearances now too and I've noticed a young Backbird and a Magpie too today along with a juvenile Cormorant.

Cormorants

Cormorant

Cormorant

Egyptian Geese

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Yellow Wagtail family

Yellow Wagtails

Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Raven

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

Dunlin

A male Cuckoo continues to call but with todays wind I found it difficult to hear all but the loudest of the calling birds but still enjoyed the walk and the bird sightings it delivered to me.

Colchester farm survey and another visit to Old Hall Marsh

I booked my second visit to survey in Colchester for today and arrived early at 6am to get going whist the birds where at their busiest. The survey went well without any specific highlights and I'd planned to have a couple of hours at Abberton after but a quick check and the Essex Wassap group showed a Pectoral Sandpiper at Old Hall marsh so I headed there instead and made the long walk out to the bale field. (When I say long its only 1.5miles but I'd just done about 5 miles walking the farm)

I spotted the American Golden Plover in its usual spot out by the breach  but swiftly moved on to a small group gathered by the wind pump. They weren't on the Pec but instead put me on the Temminck's Stint which was a welcome year tick in itself. Following that I set about trying to find the Pec on my own and eventually located it and put two other birder on it too before it vanished again. I then found two Wood Sandpipers, a Common Sandpiper, Ringed and Little ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit, Spotted Redshank, four Dunlin and two Ruff. The bale field holds good numbers of breeding Lapwing, Redshank and Avocet along with lots of Oystercatcher. On the walk back to the car a lady stopped to ask me what this bird is and it was the American Golden Plover that had made a rare trip to the near side of the river giving me an opportunity to grab a few record shots.

Year list now 205

American Golden Plover

Ruff

Dotterel at Gamlingay Cambridgeshire

I've recently twitched the Dotterel at Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire and today managed to see a male and female. They remained quite distant but gave decent scope views. The fields here have provided a stop off for quite a few Dotterel this year so it was good to connect with a couple on this visit. They fields hold good numbers of Skylark and Corn Bunting too and Red Kite, Kestrel and Buzzard are regularly seen. I've also seen my 26th Wheatear of the year here and a Yellow Wagtail.

A walk around the George with Jim this morning delivered great views of the family of four Raven which allowed a few images before one of the parents decided they needed to move on. A Common Sandpiper was the only other bird of note on the water and Tern numbers remain low with just four today. Both Grey and Pied Wagtails have young now and we saw a Kingfisher fly across south basin and down onto the relief channel. A Barn Owl came out and managed to take some prey only to lose it to a Crow. 

Year list now 203

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Barn Owl

Dotterel

New bird for the George

I've walked the local reservoir for about sixteen years now with Jim who has walked it longer than that. The reservoir attracts around 130 species of bird a year most of which are pretty predictable and new birds don't come along very often so it was nice to get one this weekend when I saw my first Barn Owl. I was standing on the NE corner known by the locals as "magic corner" and another birder that's equally if not more enthused gave me the shout "BARN OWL!" and as I turned I picked out the ghostly figure of the Owl as it flew over Sewardstone marsh.

I've also had Whimbrel, Common Sandpipers, Yellow Wagtails and an LRP of note. The Ravens have been elusive since leaving their nest but over the last few days I've managed to find them mostly feeding begging young on the pilons and on one occasion the four birds together on the ground. Garden Warblers are singing now as the Lesser Whitethroats seem to have gone quiet. I'm seeing around 60 species on my visits at the moment but numbers are down within most species but in particular the Tufted Ducks are now down to around just 20 individuals. The Gt crested Grebes are still present in numbers up towards 50 birds. 

I'm still enjoying walking the George and remarkably I'm still quite enjoying counting the birds there each visit which has surprised me.

On Friday I took the Jims to look for Dotterel in Cambridgeshire but the birds that had been there for three weeks had a day off only to return two days after our visit. We did see remarkable numbers of Skylark and a few Corn Buntings and I found my 26th Wheatear of the year. On the way home we stopped at Ouse Fen where Jim picked out a drake Garganey for a year tick.

Year list now 202

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Raven

Barn Owl

Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

Oystercatcher

Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Whimbrel

Cormorants

Common Terns

Another Essex tick

Following close on the heals of my last Essex tick with the Ross's Gull on Sunday yesterday saw me grab the time to take Dad and Jim to Old Hall Marshes where an American Golden Plover had recently been discovered. The reserve doesn't open until 9am so we started the morning at Abberton where we enjoyed nesting Spoonbills, Little Egrets, Herons and Cattle Egrets. Two Great White Egrets flew in and settled too. A lovely visit before we headed off to Old Hall where we found the gate unlocked as we arrived at 8.45am. The walk out to the area where the American Golden Plover has been was about a mile but littered with the sound of Whitethroats, Sedge and Reed Warblers. As we reached the breach area opposite the bale fields another birder told us he'd seen the AGP earlier but not for a while so we set about scoping the area and Jim very quickly picked it out beyond the broken wall "the breach". It was distant but distinctive. We also picked up 2 Whimbrel, a Spotted Redshank, 3 Barwit, a Blackwit, 2 LRP, 2 Ruff and a Snipe with the resident masses of Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing and Avocet.

My Essex list now sits at 286

Record shot of the American Golden Plover

Bar tailed Godwit

Oystercatcher

Little ringed plover

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Spoonbills

Pied Wagtail

Great White Egrets

Cattle Egrets

Spoonbills

Spoonbills

Heron and Great White Egret