Long Eared Owl Wivenhoe Essex

Long-eared Owl

LEO

LEO

LEO

LEO

LEO

Long-eared Owl

What a bird...what a night....Pleased I made the trip after work. Paid £3.60 to park in Wivenhoe station car park and walked c400m along the trail onto the marsh to view the bird first sitting in the bush before moving on to the fence post. It spent a few moments flying along the fence line before returning to a post. As a dog walker went past it took flight and headed away to the south of the marsh. The bird appears to have a damaged left eye. This is the best view I've ever had of a LEO as all too often they are either hidden deep in a bush roosting or just heard in the darkness. The few minutes I shared with this bird will live long in the memory.

Birds of Southend

Mediterranean Gull

Turnstone

Sanderling

Sanderling in the surf

Turnstone

Garden full of Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Just a couple of pictures of the Goldfinch in the garden.....they really are smart birds.
The feeders saw a lot of action today as the snow heads our way again with a large number of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch enjoying my sunflower hearts with half a dozen Siskin. The male Blackcap continues to spend all day in my garden along with three Robin, a pair of Dunnock, a Wren, a small family group of House Sparrows, Long Tailed Tits also dropped in today along with all the other usual suspects.
I have worked out that the feeders are costing me about a pound a day....a small price to pay when you see how they value the food I've provided this winter.

Good morning at Dunge

Anybody that takes any time to read my pointless postings here will know that if I'm ever stuck for somewhere to go I head down to Dunge...that's Dungeness to the uninitiated.
The Jim's accompany me and we arrive in thick mist at around 7.30am this morning. With visibility low we headed for the moat but found very little present of note. After an hour we're on the beach by the first hide with a local recorder and we had a fantastic couple of hours sea watching with him.
A few Great Crested Grebes are present on the sea, over a hundred Red Throated Diver pass and I guess over a thousand Brent Geese..(sorry I wasn't counting) Lot's of Common Scoter and two Velvets head a small flock. Gadwall, Wigeon and Pintail were all on the sea and a Goosander flew west too. Over twenty Little Gulls were on the move and our first Sandwich Terns of the year were spotted. (183) A male Black Redstart was showing well and singing on the power station wall behind us and we had two Alba Wagtails, a Chiffchaff, (184) a Redwing and two Meadow Pipits all come in off the sea. A few Kittiwake flew past close in and lot's of Gannets flew past as did many auks. Only waders on the move were Oyster Catchers and Curlew.

Female Reed Bunting

Female Reed Bunting

Male Reed Bunting

Tree Sparrow

We stopped at the reserve briefly where we saw up to four Great White Egrets, a Marsh Harrier, Reed Buntings, Tree Sparrow, another three Chiffchaffs and a good few others that you'd expect here. Also bumped into Mick Southcott and Kev Jarvis in the hide at ARC pit....Kev of Crayford Quail fame and Mick writes the "Birding the day away" blog which I follow. Nice guys always willing to chat and share knowledge.

A very nice relaxing morning down in Kent.

More Otters

Otter 

Otter

Apologies I couldn't resist posting a few more of these fantastic creatures.

Otter

Otter

Otters

I returned today after yesterdays dip for the Otters.
This time I took a secret weapon as the wife came along and we quickly spotted an Otter within minutes of our arrival. As we got back to the car park a second Otter was in the river just in front of the car giving another photo opportunity. The two seemed to be meeting up but interestingly hunting in different areas of the river.

Otter at Thetford

Otter

Otter

Otter

Otter

Otter

What a morning! Great views of these fantastic creatures, I think the phrase is "crippling views"

After spending some time with the Otters we moved to Santon Downham where after a walk along the river I added Lesser Spotter Woodpecker to my year list. (182)

In search of Otters

I paid another visit to Nun's Bridges Thetford this morning in search of Otters. I connected with the Black-bellied Dipper several times as I walked up and down the river and ticked my first Kingfisher of 2013 (181) as I saw the bird flash along the river a couple of times.
I watched as a couple of Redwing took breakfast with a menu of worm, worm and more worm, I was amazed at the constant need to feed as you'd think a few worms would fill up the gut of the bird but they didn't seem to find them that filling.

Redwing

A Brambling showed in the brambles along the river bank and a large Siskin flock fed noisily in the tops of the trees. A Grey Wagtail fed with a Brown Rat on the river bank and I watched a group of Black Headed Gulls diving for food which I haven never seen before. They sat on the water before leaping into the air then diving back to catch their food.

Going Up

Going down

I saw Muntjac and Roe Deer along with a few Hares but despite several hours walking the river no Otters appeared. On the way home I had a call to say the Otters were now showing well...how's that for luck.