Solitary Sandpiper at Stodmarsh in Kent

With the Jims still not able to travel I made a solo run down to Kent to give the Solitary Sandpiper a go. I arrived at 7.30am and took one of the last places available in the car park. At the reed bed hide I squeezed in and found some standing room with over thirty birders having beaten me to the front row. Viewing from a standing position was limited but I made the best of it watching as a Great White Egret dropped in, 3 Cattle Egrets flew over along with a couple of late Swallows. A Water Pipit dropped in to feed with a Grey Wagtail and a Green Sandpiper raised the pulse for a couple of seconds. Water Rail and Bearded Tit were both heard and a Kingfisher came in twice to fish in front of the hide. Marsh Harriers hunted across the reeds and I think a Ring tailed Hen Harrier was seen before I arrived.

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Great White Egret

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Water Pipit

After four hours of standing enough people had moved on to let me have a sit down for a while. I enjoyed a chat with Graham J about his big year and generally the atmosphere in the hide was good despite the hours of waiting without news on the bird but that was to change as I started to get ready to leave when news came in that the bird had been seen flying from the pool behind Tower hide and this was followed soon by news that the bird was showing on the small mud patch by the boathouse. The hide emptied as we marched around to the boathouse and very quickly we were all enjoying good scope views of the target. Everybody was doing their best to get all the birders a view and the atmosphere was excellent as relief took over after such a long wait for the tick.

Record shot of the Solitary Sandpiper (views much better through the scope)

The viewing area was tiny but people were very helpful getting everybody on it

The news that finally cleared the hide

The rain started falling so after watching the bird for around thirty minutes I left for a frustratingly slow journey home.

Year list now 227

Life list now 445

Flamborough head for a scruffy Red headed Bunting

I've been watching news of the Red-headed Bunting at Flamborough head in East Yorkshire since it's discovery. The bird was originally posted as Black-headed Bunting or possible Red-headed Bunting. It's a first winter bird so plumage differences between the two are very subtle but the collective was after a day or so leaning towards Red-headed Bunting due to the grey tone of the mantle, the level of streaking etc.  A poo sample has been collected so that should reveal the definitive identify in time. The bird is really scruffy with most of the greater coverts missing and the tail is also in heavy moult and this along with the lack of full identity had me holding back on my need to see it.

Move forward a few days and it seems the popular opinion has shifted and it's very likely the bird is a Red-headed Bunting and most listers are visiting Flamborough for the insurance tick expecting it to be accepted so I decided I'd give it a go having learnt my lesson with birds such as Pond Heron and Dalmation Pelican proving that anything is possible. Thursday was my window but Dad couldn't make it so I decided to leave it but in the evening I decided that I'd go Friday morning should I wake early enough. I called the Jims and Dad was still unable to go whilst Jim was feeling under the weather so we left it I'd go alone if I still had the urge Friday morning. I woke at 4am after a decent sleep and decided I'd make the journey leaving home at 4.30am and driving through heavy fog I arrived at Flamborough at 9am and paid the car park before starting the mile or so walk. Thrushes were coming in constantly, mostly Fieldfare and Redwing but also large numbers of Blackbird and Song Thrush. Robins were everywhere and every bush had a few Goldcrests in it. I scanned every movement hoping for a Rouzel or a good warbler but found nothing of note save the large volumes of common migrants. Some of the birds were so tired from the crossing they would hardly move as I got to them. I saw a warbler which had me thinking Yellow-browed but despite a search I couldn't relocate it and never heard a peep from it so that remains one that got away.

Once at the muddy path down to the Bunting bushes I set up with the thirty or so other birders/twitchers/toggers and started to scan. Lot's of Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings kept me entertained then a Common Redpoll flew in giving me an unexpected year tick. The place was alive with Robins, Meadow Pipits, Skylark and Goldcrest were everywhere again even walking between our legs at times. A ring tailed Hen Harrier was quartering the fields below us and a Short-eared Owl came in off the sea and rested a while on the fence posts before heading further inland. Sparrowhawks hunted taking advantage of the huge numbers of birds present. A couple of Brambling were noted along with a single Blackcap.

The twitch 

After a while I picked up the Bunting sitting high up on a bush between us and the hide but it quickly flew and was picked up again to our right sitting in some distant bramble where it spent the next couple of hours showing regularly between feeding on the ground and sitting in the brambles. Mealy Redpoll was seen again before I left . On the walk back I had two Woodcock in off along with three Herons.

Others would later report two Cranes, a Dusky Warbler and a Radde's Warbler along with Pallas's Warbler and what would have been a lifer for me in the form of a Two-barred Warbler. Ten Ring Ouzels were reported so I missed quite a bit on the day but the spectacle of seeing this massive migration on the day will live long in the memory bank. I knew there was going to be some good birds amongst the masses but just didn't have the time to it required to find them.

Britain's smallest bird...the Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Red-hunted Bunting or at least we hope it is 

Short-eared Owl

I tried for the Pallas's warbler at Bempton but dipped it seeing just loads more Goldcrest and a couple of Chiffchaffs. A fly over Woodcock was nice along with lot's of Pink-footed Geese moving through. Tree Sparrows were present in big numbers as you'd expect and lot's of thrushes moved through the Dell. I'd like to have stayed much longer but with a four hour drive ahead of me I set off around 2pm for the journey home.

Year list now 226 (accepting the Bunting as Red-headed or Black-headed in the longer term)

Life list now 443 (pending the acceptance of the Bunting as Red-headed)

(ps truly gutted to have missed the Two-barred Warbler which is still there and showing well as I write this morning)

More of the Lee Valley Bittern

Well I haven't managed any time for a day out as I'd hoped but I did manage a few hours over the Valley this morning sitting in the hide out of the rain I enjoyed good views of the Bittern and Water Rail. A Great White Egret flew in and a Sprawk flew over. Conditions were very dull but I made the most of the brief appearances of the Bittern and enjoyed the company of the other two birders present in between its visits.

Chasing late year ticks

As I've mentioned a few times my worst year list total is 238 and this year I'm in danger of not reaching that total. This is due mainly to family commitments which restrict my birding time but also a lack of motivation to travel too far in search of year ticks, yes there's a level of carbon awareness coupled with financial considerations and of course responsibilities to others.

Having said that I have looked at some of the gaps in the total and considered a few targets as follows.....

Eider

Dipper

Purple Sandpiper

Manx Shearwater

Little Owl

Ring-necked Duck

Crossbill

Ring Ouzel

Great Skua

Black-throated Diver

Iceland Gull

Yellow-browed Warbler

Grey Phalarope

Red-necked Phalarope

Fudge Duck

Glaucous Gull

Taiga Bean Goose

Little Auk

So these are what I consider realistic targets which would save the year list being remarkable for all the wrong reasons and of course there's always a chance of a rare or two.

Let the games begin!     oh wait I'm baby sitting tomorrow and Saturday and sorting a new carpet for the father in law on Friday so the games might not begin for a few days yet but we live in hope!

Counting Stone Curlews

I headed up the M11 this morning with the Jims hoping to year tick Stone Curlew at a favourite spot an hour from home. On arrival we found the year tick was easy and set about trying to count how many Stone Curlews were visible. Counting them should be easy right but as they move around, get flushed by Crows, squat down low in the vegetation and hide behind the small banks and valleys it makes a total count quite challenging but as luck would have it the whole flock took flight around 8.30am and landed again seconds later which gave me the time to scan left to right with the scope counting a total of 69 Stone Curlews.

My record for this site is 78 but this years high count by others was 64 until I had this count of 69. I started again from left to right hoping to beat the count but this time only managed 48 as many of the birds had already vanished into the vegetation and a third attempt resulted in a count of 36 proving how hard to see they are once settled.

We had a flock of twenty or more Lesser Redpoll over and some Redwing flew high to the south. Two Great White Egrets flew south and another dropped into a ditch in the distance. There were lot's of Skylark and a couple of Woodlark present along with Stonechat, Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipits. Common Buzzard, Red Kite, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk flew over and the heath was alive with Corvids including a single Jay. 

Great to have finally seen Stone Curlews this year which take the pointless year list to 224 and now only 14 short of my worst ever year list of 238. 

No islands

I often make reference to the fact that I chose not to do the islands as part of this crazy hobby but the last few weeks have again tested my resolve with so many lifers getable should I be able to justify the time and money involved. So far I remain steadfast in my approach and find it helps with the anxiety associated with rare bird news coming in from the islands. I know I'd love any time on the islands and I expect the day to come when my resolve breaks, I've been tested the most with last years Blackburnian Warbler and this years Red-footed Booby but for now it's the odd mainland twitch, the odd reasonably close day out and mostly the local escapes like this mornings trip to the valley where I sat in the Bittern hide for a few hours enjoying prolonged views of a Bittern as it sat stationary in the reeds fishing for Perch taking no fewer than eight fish in two hours. Eventually the bird left the safety of the reeds to walk up the channel away from me but stopped half way to show concern at something overhead that clearly bothered it although from my position in the hide I couldn't tell what it was.

A Kingfisher flew in and sat just long enough for a single shot before heading out over the lake towards the river. Water Rail showed on several occasions and a Grey Heron dropped in. Little Grebe tried to feed but one of the local Mallards took offence and kept chasing back out to deeper water. Parakeets and Great-spotted Woodpecker visited the feeders and a group of 15 Barnacle Geese dropped in for a visit. Of note was a large mixed flock of Thrushes that flew over the lake mostly Redwing but appeared to contain some Fieldfare too.

Barnacle Geese

Dog Fox

Grey Heron

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Little Grebe

Water Rail

An enjoyable couple of hours in a very quiet public hide with some good birds.

Still looking for a few year ticks to close that gap on my worst year but they're not coming to me so I guess at some point I'll need to go to them if I really want them enough.

Day at Frampton RSPB

Due to a cancelled hospital appointment for my father in law I found myself with a free day on Thursday so invited Jim to join me on a day out at Frampton. Dad was in Rome looking at old buildings and paintings so it was just the two of us on this run.

We arrived to an empty car park and walked along the footpath towards the reedbed hide where we'd set up scopes and scanned all the birds on the flood. Great White Egret was encountered again and it seems we can't go out now without bumping into one of these. A Kingfisher visited the sand bank and fished and then we started the wader count. Lesser Yellowlegs and White Rumped Sandpiper were the highlights and added to an impressive list that included twenty Curlew Sandpipers and ten Little Stints along with Greenshank, Turnstone, Dunlin, Redshank, Avocet, Ringed Plover, Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Blackwits, Snipe, Curlew and Lapwing for a sixteen wader day.  Eleven Whooper Swans left the flood early to feed in the farm fields to the south and we had seven Bearded Tits high over the reed bed hide to finish a very enjoyable morning birding this wonderful reserve.

Year list now 223 (15 short of my worst ever year count of 238) 

Curlew Sandpiper

Great Egret

Great Egret

Kingfisher

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Little Stint

Ruff

White-rumped Sandpiper with Little Stints

White-rumped Sandpiper