Sunday 25 September 2022

Catching up

I've not blogged since early September but I have managed a little birding in the last couple of weeks.

Firstly, a trip to Cley for a sea watch, I'd seen the North westerlies forecast but couldn't make it up on the Friday so although winds were less favourable on the Saturday I headed up anyway. It took a while to get going but we eventually saw a dozen Arctic Skuas and a couple of Great Skuas. A few Red-throated Diver passed, others reported both Manx and Balearic Shearwater which we missed. Gannets were distant but ever present and a few Auks were seen along with a few Red-breasted Mergansers. We had a very distant very probable large Shearwater that we couldn't nail as views were so distant and brief. Lots of Ducks moved west which included mostly Scoter, Teal and Wigeon but wader numbers were disappointing.

After a cold four hours we departed and stopped at Dernford farm reservoir in Cambridgeshire where we quickly ticked the distant Pec Sand as it waded up and down in the company of Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper.

Very distant Pec

On Friday we took the short drive down to East Tilbury hoping to get the Jims a year tick with the long staying Stone Curlews. A walk down to the scrape where we bumped into Harry for a natter before the birding started. Green Sandpipers, Blackwits, Lapwing were seen before local birder Paul W helped us find the area the Stone Curlews favoured and we managed to pick out all three in the scope. We next watched the shoreline as the tide came in and what a spectacle it provided with over 1000 Avocets and Dunlin and hundreds of Blackwits the obvious highlights. We did pick out a few Curlew and Grey Plover too along with Shelduck. Little Stint and Curlew Sandpipers were seen but not by me. The walk back was very birdy with lots of common migrants like Meadow Pipit, Robin, Blackcap and Chiffchaff but we failed to find anything rarer.

Today we popped over to Wanstead for a couple of hours and find it very birdy. Firstly, there were lots of Mipits about and Stonechats numbered somewhere between ten and twenty but were difficult to count due to constant movement between areas of broom. A single Whinchat was spotted before we got to the enclosure area. We plotted up here as it was also very busy with birds, mostly Chiffchaff and mixed Tits but a few Blackcaps were seen and a family group of Greenfinch. Two small groups of Linnet moved through and a couple of Reed Buntings were also seen before two Spotted Flycatchers were seen. We eventually found a Common Redstart before leaving only to find a second Redstart in the Broom close to the Centre Road car park.

Carrion Crow

Common Redstart

Spotted Flycatcher

Whinchat

The above ticks moved my year list to 239 so I have remarkably avoided my lowest year list total despite the limited time birding this year.

Spotted Flycatcher


Onwards and Upwards!

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