Abberton

I had a decent visit to Abberton on Friday. As winter approaches the duck numbers increase and there's always the chance of finding something odd among them. 

I found four Cattle Egret in the cow field before getting to the causeway and with the scope up I scanned the ducks which are mostly Tufted and Pochard with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Teal, Mallard and Shoveler. There's lot's of Great Crested Grebes, Geese and Swans too along with the odd escapee or strange looking hybrid.

Nothing stood out despite reports of some Red-crested Pochard being present which I still need for a pointless year tick. From the main causeway at LDLH I picked out lots of Pintail and six Goosander before moving my attention to waders. A move to Wigborough bay added to the wader count which now included Lapwings, Golden Plover, Blackwits, Dunlin, Redshank and several Ruff. A Fox was a strange site as it walked through the Lapwings without putting them up.

Two of the four Cattle Egrets

Fox walking through Lapwings at Wigborough bay

Goosanders

Great White Egret

Great White

Great Egret.....We dropped the white when we adopted IOU names 

Great Egret

An enjoyable visit and a nice little fix to take my mind off all the images coming through of the Varied Thrush on Papa Westray which is unfortunately way out of my twitching zone and budget.

I'm still looking for those elusive year ticks to prevent me setting a new low to my year listing totals.

A day out at Titchwell

I called the Jims and arranged a day out at Titchwell but needed to be home early as my Grandson had promised me a visit so we left at 5.30 to arrive for first light in Norfolk. It was a joy to be out but the weather has turned and with the coastal breeze it was quite cold. We set off down the west path to view the new scrapes recently created on freshmarsh and it would appear they are going to get lot's of use from the many waders that use the shorelines to feed. A large flock of Golden Plover rested on the new islands along with Lapwings, Avocets and small numbers of Knot and Dunlin. In the distance we could pick out Ruff, Barwits and Blackwits along with a few Redshank. A Grey Phalarope gave us all a year tick as it swam in circles reasonably close to the footpath. A couple of Pink-footed Geese flew over calling to add a frustratingly late year tick. A single Marsh Harrier quartered the marsh and a Snipe was flushed. The volunteer marsh had high water levels and held very little birdlife but there was a decent roost on Tidal marsh which included Curlew, Greenshank, Knot and Turnstone before I spotted a Guillemot preening close to the bank. The bird started to dive and would swim quite a distance under water before finally making its way back to the sea.

Titchwell and the new scrapes

At the beach we walked towards Thornham hoping to chance upon the Purple Sandpiper that's been seen and it didn't take long to find it. I plotted up behind a small boat and waited hoping the bird would come closer and sure enough the plan worked and I managed some very satisfying shots of it. I also got lucky when Jim called a Snow Bunting in the distance and this too came running down the beach and got very close to where I was sitting before another flock of eleven birds dropped to the beach but quickly took flight again towards Thornham point. The Sanderling entertained as they do running along the tide line feeding and a couple of hours watching the sea gave us another year tick with a smart Slavonian Grebe among the many Great Crested. A Small flock of Scoters were seen and a few Gannets, Mergansers and Red-throated Divers. Two small birds flew past in the turbines that were most probably Little Auk but distance prevented a positive ID on them. Hundreds of Starling came in off in small groups but sadly only appeared to be carrying a few Mipits with them.

Me hiding behind the boat for the Purple Sandpiper

My reward as the Sandpiper came ever closer

Purple Sandpiper

Snow Bunting

Sanderling

Sanderling

Purple Sandpiper

The walk back presented another Marsh Harrier and good views of the Phalarope. A Water Rail popped out briefly as we sat watching the Phalarope to make for a splendid day out on the Norfolk coast. To be honest I can't wait to do it all again.

A tiny Grey Phalarope on freshmarsh

A Guillemot on Tidal marsh

Guillemot

So confiding this guy had put don the camera and use his phone

Water Rail

Year list now 225 and still 13 short of my all time worst of 238 in 2010

Nice chatting to Ray who is a volunteer at Titchwell and has good stories of life on the Norfolk coast and the birds he's encountered there especially with his time as a golf pro which gave him garden ticks like Leach's storm Petrel, Red-breasted Flycatcher and a Little Auk actually in the garden one year. (think he said his garden list for the golf house was 225)

Starlings in the garden

 Just a few Starling images taken in the garden this weekend.

The plumage is a bit special at this time of year.

oh...also have a Squirrel visiting at the moment.

Long-toed Stint at St.Aidain's RSPB

Friday saw some debate on the identity of a small wader found at St.Aidan's RSPB reserve in West Yorkshire first seen distantly and called as Temminck's Stint only to be later ID'd as a Least Sandpiper neither of which would be particularly of interest being outside my year list travel restrictions but late evening news arrived that the bird had been re-identified from photographs and was now considered to be a much rarer Long-toed Stint. A vagrant from the east with just two British records and one Irish.

1970 saw the first British record in Cornwall followed by the 1982 bird in Cleveland whilst there was a bird at Ballycotton in Cork in 1996. Another bird was reported at Weir Wood reservoir, East Sussex in 2011 but the record seems to have never been submitted/accepted. All records to date have been short stayers so we needed to react fast to this one. We decided to wait for news in the morning and luckily the bird had stayed but wasn't found until 8.26am. A quick call to the Jim's and we were on our way at 9am arriving on site at 12.15pm. 

Just some of the over flow parking on this very large twitch

The large car park was full and the main road was lined both sides with cars for several hundred yards but we eventually managed to get a spot in the car park and started the mile or so walk along the path to Ashley Lake were the bird had relocated to whilst we were travelling. As we reached the lake we could see a large twitch had built up and it took a while to slot ourselves into the crowd and set up the scopes but thankfully the bird was active and continued to walk around the small island giving great views to all that had made the effort to see it. I worked on the ID features having had long discussion with Jim on the way up about the difference between the Stint and the Least Sandpiper and left satisfied that we'd added a life tick but of course I'll leave it pending until fully accepted. We added another late year tick when a Red-breasted Merganser put in a brief appearance.

The bird attracted a couple of thousand plus birders on day one.

My first visit to this splendid and vast reserve.

Showing the history of the reserve

The view from the visitor centre with the twitch away in the distance by the green buildings 

This tick if accepted would by Jim's 399th BOU and he has the Pilning Black-eared Wheatear in the pending file too so could be his 400th if both accepted so a nice landmark in the waiting and a pleasure to share the hobby with him as he's built this total.

As for my own lists well the year list has finally moved again to a very modest 220 whilst if accepted the Long-toed Stint will move the life list to 424 (this includes the long standing as pending Black-eared Wheatear at Pilning but is otherwise clean) 

Dad viewing the Stint and his 383rd BOU tick

A bit more garden birding

With Suzannes worsening mobility restrictions I'm spending more and more time at home which has sadly limited my birding exploits this year to date so the garden has become my new patch.

Yesterday I saw a Chiffchaff in the tree and it spend some time feeding occasionally flying to the roof and the lower bushes. Chiffchaff is probably an annual visitor to the garden but only on rare occasions so when it does visit it's a bit special.

Chiffchaff in the garden

Today whilst washing up I noticed a male Sparrowhawk attack the House Sparrow flock but it was unsuccessful on this occasion and after climbing around the base of their safe bush it flew onto my feeding stump. I had the window open so grabbed the camera and managed a couple of shots before it flew off.

Male Sprawk

Sprawk

Sprawk

Oh and the Green Warbler vanished the same evening of my last post saving me the stress of worrying about missing that twitch any longer.

Onwards and upwards.

Sparrowhawk in the garden

So I'm still watching the daily updates from Bempton and the Green Warbler is still there and giving itself up to most birders that can be bothered to go for it. For some reason I haven't managed to work up the appetite to travel for it which wasn't helped by the first day stories of the crowds, tape luring, encroachment and general poor behaviour and it's just not exciting me in the same way the Albert did. The year has been strange to say the least but the bird is a real rarity and may yet pull me towards the twitch if it continues to hang around but if I'm honest I'm half hoping it moves on to save me the stress of deciding if I do or don't want to see it. 

Anyway to take my mind off the little Green Warbler I've been doing some garden work like cleaning the block pavers and repointing the Indian stone etc and as I stood admiring my work from the kitchen window today I spotted a couple of Magpies alarm calling and assumed a cat was nearby but as I opened the back door I could see they were letting everybody know I had a Sparrowhawk in the garden.

The young hawk had caught a Collared Dove and over the next hour sat at the bottom of the garden and ate the entire catch. Using the cover of shrubs I managed to grab some shots as it consumed it's prey.

I went in and left the bird to finish it's meal but a few hours later it came back and just sat on my fence wings hanging trying to dry out from the heavy rain we've had all day. Again I managed to open a window and grab a couple of images.

A very nice consolation prize for staying home.

Another Wryneck at Wanstead

I was minding my own business yesterday when news came out of a Wryneck at Wanstead so I called the Jims and ten minutes later picked them up and headed to Wanstead to find that the bird had just flown. We searched in vain for the Wryneck with no joy but did manage to get the Jims a couple of year ticks with a Spotted Flycatcher at the end of Long wood and two Pied Flycatchers in the birches. A fly over juvenile Cuckoo, two Whinchats and at least three Wheatears made it an enjoyable walk even without the target and it's always nice bumping into the patch workers at Wanstead for a catch up.

Fresh from yesterdays dip I woke this morning and drove back over to Wanstead on a solo run and found a small gathering at the end of Long wood. Marco had just seen the Wryneck so it was now a waiting game. In the next four hours the bird showed briefly on five or six occasions always a little distant but gave decent views through the bins even if it was just out of reach of my 400mm lens. (see heavily cropped evidence below) The juvenile Cuckoo made another fly past and a Spotted Flycatcher performed for a while along with the Wheatears. 

Wryneck

One of those really elusive Wrynecks

Nice to bump into Mike and Paul from the Lee Valley who I hadn't seen for a while along with a few of the locals who are always welcoming to us "good bird" invaders to their patch. I just missed the six Curlew which I'm told are rarer than Wrynecks at Wanstead which illustrates well the challenges of patch birding. This was my third Wanstead Wryneck but I've never seen a Wanstead Curlew.

Covid year list now a miserable 218 chasing my worst ever year of 238