Eastern Sub-alpine Warbler at Beachy Head

I've seen several Sub-alpine Warblers over the years but never one of the Eastern form apart from an unconvincing sight of one at Landguard which I decided not to tick at the time so when one was found on 12th at Beachy Head in West Sussex I had one eye on it. News was that the bird was singing which is always a good marker for it sticking a while and the weather also looked good for keeping it there a few days so I continued with my commitments and arranged to pick Jim up at 5am this morning having talked Dad out of the venture due to the expected steep climb back to the car park at Cow Gap.

We made light work of the 88 miles and arrived just before 7am. A walk to the top of the hill and I spotted a birder with a scope down at the cliff top so we set off in that direction in the hope he was either on the bird or knew where it was yesterday. It's quite the walk down but we made it in one piece to the good news that the bird was still there, still calling and in view. We managed to see it in seconds and so the tick was bagged but we settled down to watch the bird for two hours as it went about it's business. The bird was almost constantly singing and was doing a short circuit picking moth lava from bushes and flying back under the bank before repeating the circuit again and again. According to a local there has been issue with tape playing which I don't agree with and I'm pleased to say we saw nobody doing it today although we only saw ten other birders in the three hours we were there.

So Eastern Sub-alpine Warbler comes off my dipped list and onto the life list.

Year list now 206 Life list now 455

Also present were a family of four Stonechat with the young begging for food and being fed. A Lesser Whitethroat was seen whilst looking for the Warbler too and another birder had Black Redstart we I missed it. As we left a Peregrine flew over to cap a nice visit before we started the climb back to the car park which proved my point that it would have been too much for Dad on his metal knees.

Peregrine

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