2022 Birding List

 

The start of another birding year and all those common birds that I wasn't interested in yesterday become important again. I have to see them for the new year list. It doesn't make any sense but I do it every year. I get home from the first day out birding thinking that I won't make a list this year. Then I realise that there are a couple of birds that I expected to see that were missing. Sometime in the next few days I go out looking for them and before you know it the year list has started.

Blackbird joins the Year List

This year was no exception. Skylark, Common Gull, Chaffinch, Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Buzzard, Brent Goose, all birds I would normally have expected to see at the places I visited. These were all picked up within a few days but by then the list is running.

Water Rail

Equally interesting are the birds that you do see. I found Water Rail on my first days birding, when last year I didn't manage to find it until the end of November. Better still I had Bearded Tits by mid January when some years I do not get to see them at all.

Bearded Tit

I have seen them at various places but Farlington Marsh seems to be the most reliable location and the best if you want pictures. It's still not easy, these two images are the best of around forty shots taken. In all the rest the reeds have blown in front of the bird just as I took the picture or there are heavy shadows or too many burnt out areas spoiling the pictures. You have to get the timing right. Is it skill or just playing the odds. Take enough pictures and you are bound to get lucky eventually.

Bearded Tit

A few good waders about, this Greenshank found on the Adur in Shoreham and a regular in the channel running alongside the houseboats.

 

Greenshank

A quick visit to the North Wall at Pagham Harbour gave me sight of the Cattle Egrets coming in to roost with an added bonus of this Glossy Ibis flying in just before they arrived. I had hoped for sight of a Barn Owl which would have given me some detail in the pictures rather than the silhouette of dark feathered Ibis. Just as well it has a distinctive shape which along with the curved bill make the identification easy.

Glossy Ibis

A brief sea watch from Church Norton beach added Slavonian Grebe, Red-throated Diver, Red-breasted Mergansers and Razorbill but no picture opportunities. The Razorbill below was taken at Sovereign Harbour.

Covid, Moths, Orchids and a reluctance to travel long distances to see unusual birds has resulted in significant drops in my number of sightings over the past few years. I can't get excited by 5 or 10 kilometer patches but I do feel there is more to see within my immediate area. It will be interesting to see how the bird list develops over the year.

Bearded Tits

Farlington Marsh is a great site, it's just a pity about the road noise from the A27 and today, with a slight north wind blowing, the smell off petrol and diesel fume polution drifting across the marsh. Still it's worth a visit especially at this time of year when the Bearded Tits are showing.

We arrived about 0830 and made our way down to the reedbed. Dave could hear them calling and we soon had sight of a flock of seven or eight. A great result and we could have gone home happy. Except, that then another small flock arrived, then another and another and so on. We had estimated twenty five to thirty birds on visits in previous years but it was soon clear that the numbers were well above that this time.

I counted thirty five birds in flocks of 16, 14, and 5 heading off in rapid succession towards the eastern side of the reedbed. Yet there were still dozens visible over the area we were watching and many more that were hidden within the reeds. It was impossible to carry out a count but a conservative estimate would be 60 and the number was probably closer to a hundred.

At one stage this small tree held about fourteen Bearded Tits but unfortunately I was too close and had too much lens on so could not get the picture.

Photographic opportunities were a bit limited. We were standing on the west wall and looking east into the reeds which means that you are taking shots into the sun. If you want pictures I would suggest going along mid afternoon when the sun will be over your shoulder.

I am not sure if these birds are all resident at Farlington or if some are just passing through but the numbers seen are hugely encouraging. Lets hope that a few of them move along the coast and take up residence at Pagham Harbour.

Bearded Tits

We travelled out west today with our first target being the long staying male Eider in Fareham Creek. It should have been an opportunity for easy close up pictures but despite a lot of searching we could not find the bird and came away empty handed. Fortunately the poor start to the day was rescued when we came across a small flock of Bearded Tits that were showing well on the edge of a reed bed.

Bearded Tit

It was an opportunity not to be missed. We counted eleven birds and we had about an hour photographing them before they moved on. Almost perfect, the only thing missing was enough light to take a decent picture. I know its not worth pushing my camera above ISO 400 but to get anything at all I had to go above this, use f6.3 and try to keep the lens steady at 1/100th sec. I took over six hundred pictures and in the first three hundred I could not find a single shot worth keeping. Fortunately towards the end it brightened up a bit, probably only by a couple of stops, but it was enough to get a few acceptable shots.

Female

We finished off at Pagham Harbour. There were lots of birds visible from the North Wall but they were mostly some distance off in the flooded fields. I don't think I have ever seen so much water north of the wall. The birds were flushed a number of times whilst we watched, probably by a passing raptor, and thousands of birds would take to the air forming up into flocks of the various different species. It was like an aerial ballet with the honking of the Brent Geese providing the soundtrack.

There were Goldeneye and a Slavonian Grebe on the lagoon along with the usual birds.

Goldeneye

Displaying to impress the females

The bird I really wanted though was the Slavonian Grebe. I had already had one go at getting a picture of it and had been driven off by the heavy rain. Today looked more promising and after a bit of stalking I had the shot all lined up. I pressed the shutter and nothing happened, just a little image in the viewfinder saying memory card full. If only I had taken a few shots less of the Beardies. I had a spare memory card but by the time I had changed them over the opportunity was gone.

I just hope it stays around for a bit longer.