Bittern hide Lee Valley

With a spare couple of hours on Wednesday morning I popped over to the Lee Valley and enjoyed a few brief views of the Bittern from the discovery centre hide along with a few flight views of Kingfisher. The Grebes were busy catching perch and a Cormorant and Heron watched on from a safe distance. Water rails were heard and seen quite often, and a Cetti's showed quite well in the reeds.

Bittern at Lee Valley

The view from the Bittern hide

Bittern

Cormorant

Great crested Grebe with Perch 

Perch for lunch

After leaving the hide I walked down to the farm watching a Red Kite as I walked. The finch flock feeding on the set aside numbers well over a hundred now and I managed to find a couple of Brambling amongst the Chaffinch and Goldfinch. On the walk back a pair of Stonechat sat up asking for their picture to be taken.

Stonechat

Stonechat

All in all, a very enjoyable couple of hours to clear the head and set me up for the afternoons tasks.

Sabines gulls in Kent

I haven't managed a day out birding for over a fortnight now but have had an eye on the Sab gull at Lympne in Kent all week. A combination of caring duties for Suzanne, the grandchildren and my father in law all prevented me travelling and of course the protests on the M25 wouldn't have made the journey very enjoyable this week so with a free day Saturday I did make the journey with the Jims.

I started the day at Dunge where I walked far too many miles up and down the shingle in search of the Grey Phalarope that was seen by others but never allowed me a glimpse. The sea was calm and therefore quiet. We had two drake Eider to give the Jims a late year tick but otherwise the usual sea birds although we did spot what looked like a distant Sabines Gull. 

We decided to shoot off and check out Appledore as the Osprey had been reported and we hadn't yet seen one in 2022. Pulling up at the bridge we walked down the track and found the Osprey sat in a field, after a while it flew and landed close to us on a telegraph pole before flying to its favoured dead tree.

Osprey

Back at Dunge and we had another go for the Phalarope but missed it again by a few minutes so we set off up the road for the Sabines gull at Lympne. As we drove down the entrance track we saw the gull feeding alone infront of a small gathering of admirers and were told to park on the grass close to the gates. From the safety of the fenced pull in we enjoyed the bird hanging out on its newly found territory as it pulled worms and called along with chasing any Black-heads that got too close. It was only 1pm and we had a descision to make, do we go down to Foreland and look for the Pallas's Warbler or do we go back to Dunge and give the Phalarope another go.

Back at Dunge we set up at the Sea watch hide and sat it out for a couple of hours. We failed to see the Phalarope which had flown from the sea watch hide just before we got there. The Sabines gull that I'd seen at distance this morning was now flying along the tide line constantly giving great views. An Arctic Tern was at the patch and later flew along the tide line too. Lots of Med gulls flew up and a few Sandwich Terns but little else of note.

Enjoyed being out and clearing the old cobwebs even if we did miss the Phal but we did add three very late year ticks.

Year list now 246 (nothing new for Kent|)

Alpine Accentor at Slaughden in Suffolk

News broke yesterday of an Alpine Accentor being found by Mark C on or around the Martello towers at Slaughden beach near Aldeburgh in Suffolk. The first reports were around 1.30pm which would usually have given me plenty of time to travel but yesterday I was on grandad duty, and it was impossible to travel so I watched the news in envy all afternoon but was pleased to see reports that the bird had roosted on a pipe of the tower. I called the Jims and arranged to travel up to be on site at 7am today with sunrise scheduled for 7.40am I assumed if the bird had stayed, we'd at least see it leave the roost.

We arrived at 6.55 and walked up to the tower in darkness to find around thirty birders on site and reports that a thermal imager had picked up a heat source on top of the pipe which was promising. Within ten minutes with the light improving, we could make out the shape of the Accentor on the pipe but by 7.15 it had a big stretch flew up onto the wall of tower then flew off around the back of the tower and out of sight.

The Martello towers

The enthusiastic scrum

It took around 40 minutes to locate the bird again. It was a bit of a scrum and I found myself at the back and although I managed to see the bird the views were poor until a guy next to me with a better placement let me look through his scope. When the crowd moved, I remained distant with three others and eventually had a magical reward when the bird flew back down the beach landing on the large boulders briefly before flying up onto the path close to me. Better still it then walked towards me giving views down to about ten feet or less.  Quickly the crowd gathered around the four of us, but the bird seemed unconcerned and continued to feed giving everybody the opportunity to enjoy it.

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor Slaughden beach Suffolk

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

I have previously dipped Alpine Accentor so this means I can remove it from the "dipped list"

My year list now stands at 243

My life list now stands at 436 (Mainland Britain only/BOU)

couple of local trips

My time birding remains limited, but I have managed a couple of local trips of late. Firstly I spent a morning at Grafham water in Cambridgeshire where we enjoyed a year tick with a drake American Wigeon that was difficult to pick out in the large duck flocks especially as they kept getting put up by a fishing boat that had very little regard for the wildfowl on the water. We picked out a Pectoral Sandpiper on the shoreline and a couple of Little Stints. Curlew Sandpipers were also present along with Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover. 

We've also visited Lemford Springs for a couple of hours. Here we found several Green Sandpipers three Snipe, Water Rail and Kingfisher to name a few of the highlights. There has been a Jack Snipe reported but we failed to see it on our visit. 

Year list now 241

Grafham water

Green Sandpiper

Little Egret

Snipe

Snipe

Snipe

Water Rail

Water Rail

Blue-winged Teal at Fairlop waters ESSEX

News broke yesterday of a Blue-winged Teal at Fairlop water along with the usual (can't rule out Cinnamon Teal or hybrid) caveat. I thought I'd pop over today and have a look but then this morning it was reported as having clipped wings so my enthusiasm understandably waned until it was reported again at lunch time "fully winged".  On the second report I set off with the Jims as Fairlop is only a couple of miles away, we were there in a few minutes, and I noticed three birders with scopes/cameras set up so we headed for them hoping they knew where the Blue-winged Teal was. Andy T, Russ S and another greeted us and did indeed have the bird in their scopes.

The bird sat on the bank of the centre island of the main lake and did take a short walk before briefly swimming for a bit of a feed. The bird has a limp but definitely has two full wings and appeared to be un-ringed. The large white bar in the wings between the blue and green would indicate that it's a male and the dull sandy colour of the legs would indicate that it's a juvenile bird.

It remained distant and wary and all points to a wild bird. It was first reported as a possible Cinnamon Teal so this doubt remains but if accepted it would be an Essex tick for me so I'm pleased I put in the small effort to go and see it.

Egyptian Goose

Egyptian Goose

Common Nighthawk at Wantage in Oxfordshire

Sitting at home today doing my usual domestic duties I'm joined unexpectedly by my father-in-law, my son and my granddaughter and then the news breaks of a Common Nighthawk report in Oxfordshire. I called the Jims and put them on standby to await news of its accuracy and twitch ability.  These issues were quickly cleared up and access seemed ok too in exchange for a tenner, so I made my excuses and we set off for the 90mile trip around the M25/M40 arriving on site at 2pm to find around a hundred others already on site. We each dropped a ten-pound note in the bucket and within seconds were enjoying the fantastic vagrant from a distance of no more than twenty feet away. It sat on the fence all afternoon shuffling from looking left to looking right and back again every so often and would lift its head and open an eye every time a Red Kite flew over. 

The bird was last reported as taking to the skies just before 7pm.

Common Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

Common Nighthawk

Nighthawk

Nighthawk

The news on site was that a resident had seen the bird and reported it to the RSPCA thinking it was sick as it was just sitting on the fence and of course it was quickly ID'd as Nighthawk and news put out. Well done to all involved locally for getting news out, arranging viewing and for the charity collection work.

Sitting on the fence

Some of the crowd

It's proving quite a year and this is my ninth life tick so far taking the life list to 435 and the year list to 240