Pagham Snow Bunting

 

Whilst not a common bird Snow Buntings usually turn up somewhere local on the Sussex coast every year. If I am lucky it is within walking distance of home with Goring beach being a regular location. This year, with November drawing to a close and no local sightings, I had to travel down to Pagham Harbour for my year tick.

Snow Bunting

The Snow Bunting had been in the area for nearly two weeks and had been reported regularly so finding it should not have been so difficult. However, the bird is well camouflaged and can be difficult to locate when on its usual foraging area on the pebbles along the tide line. With most birds you would expect to flush them if you walk too close but with the Snow Bunting you usually have to be close enough to tread on it before it will move.

Snow Bunting

I searched the tideline along the spit a couple of times but could not locate it, so thinking it may have relocated to a different area over high tide, I decided to come back later. Fortunately on the way back to the car I met up with "Pagham Birder" who seemed mystified by my inability to find the Snow Bunting. We returned to the harbour wall where he quickly located it in its usual spot. 

My thanks to Trevor for the help but it's always a bit easier when you know where the usual spot is!

Snow Bunting

After a vey quiet autumn it was great to see the harbour starting to fill up with birds. Duck numbers where building nicely, with Brent Geese starting to arrive and flocks of waders circling around the harbour.

Particularly impressive where some large flocks of Knot roosting out on the shingle bars and harbour islands.

Knot

They were even more impressive in flight but it is always difficult to capture the scale and effect of the swirling flock in a still picture.

Knot

There were plenty of Stonechats along the spit but it was sad to see that the little lagoon had been eliminated by tidal movements and that the trees and bushes used for nesting by the linnet flock were now underwater.

Stonechat

There were Mergansers and a Slavonian Grebe in the harbour but having left the scope in the car I did not get to see them. 

Also interesting was a Sandwich Tern fishing in the harbour. It was probably a lot easier than attempting to find food on the rough sea beyond the spit. Its attempts proved successful and the shot below shows it flying off with a rather large fish.

Sandwich Tern

To finish, two of pictures of a Black-necked Grebe resident  for a short period  at the beginning of October on the lake at Brooklands Park. It is good to see that recent improvements there are turning it into a more promising area for nature.

Lets hope the Grebe is a sign of better things to come.

Jack Snipe

Getting a picture of a Jack Snipe has been on the top of my wish list for a long time. I have probably seen them before but but only in flight and I could never be sure. There was always that nagging doubt that I was seeing what I wanted to see and not what was really there.

On Wednesday I finally nailed it, a photograph and the confidence to claim the life tick. To get it we ended up travelling into the centre of London, to the Greenwich Ecology Park. Not my favourite place to go birding but actually a little oasis of calm and tranquillity in the middle of a huge housing estate and industrial area.

The park  volunteers pointed us in the direction of the East hide and we duly spent some time  searching the reedbed and banks around the pool but without any luck. Fortunately the warden then arrived, opened a window on the side of the hide and after a bit of searching declared that it was there. Great, except that neither of us could see it. It was only fifteen feet from the hide but so well camouflaged that it took about five minutes and the use of binoculars before I could pick it out. Put the bins down and it just disappeared again, very frustrating.

It was sleeping most of the time but fortunately did move around a bit, it also did a bit of bobbing and at one stage was disturbed by a Water Rail. It was always in cover and picture opportunities were limited but I was happy. I have my picture and it is clearly a Jack Snipe.

I probably won't be happy for long. The picture below is really the one I wanted, minus the reed stalk of course. That's the problem with bird photography, there is always a better picture out there waiting to be taken.

Our quest finished by midday, we decided to call in to the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve on the way back home. A quick walk round to the far side of the East Lake and we had the Black-necked Grebe in view. Good views but unfortunately back lit by the sun.

Our first time at the Sevenoaks site and it was really quite impressive. We didn't have the time to explore it all but I think we will be going back for a good look around.

Black Stork

We had a good day out on Tuesday although I did not come back with many pictures. First stop was the Little Common Recreation Ground near Cooden to look for the Black Stork. Research of recent sightings had shown that it often did a flyover of the recreation ground between eleven and eleven thirty in the morning but just to be on the safe side we were in place and waiting before nine o'clock.

This was easy birding, sitting on a park bench exchanging stories whilst having an early lunch and occasionally scanning the sky. Sure enough at about 11.15 the Stork was spotted away in the distance. It did a few circles gaining height and then drifted westward coming right over the top of our park bench.

Some of the locals have had spectacular close ups when it has landed in their gardens or on one of the local roads. That did not happen for us but I was happy to come away with a recognisable record shot and a life tick for this country.

Black Stork

By eleven thirty we were wondering what to do with the rest of the day. As we were halfway to Dungeness we decided to press on and see what it had to offer.

Initially it looked very good. There were Black Terns and White-winged Black Terns reported on the ARC Pit. An Icternine Warbler near the visitors centre and a Black-necked Grebe from the Makepeace Hide.

The Black Tern was easy if a bit distant but we could not get a clear view of the White-winged Black Terns.

Black Tern

A quick check around the visitors centre was also disappointing. There were a number of people looking for the Icterine Warbler and there were various claims for having seen it earlier that morning but I could see nothing that would convince me that it was still there. My second Icterine dipped in a week.

Then I made a bit of a mistake. For some reason I thought that I had already seen a White-winged Black Tern earlier this year so Dave and I split up with Dave going to look for the tern and me chasing a Black-necked Grebe that I needed for a year tick. We both succeeded in our quests but it was only when I got back to the ARC hide, to be told that the Tern had disappeared after having shown well, that the doubts started to creep in. Sure enough when I got home and checked, my sighting had been in the previous year.

It was good to have the Black-necked Grebe but on balance the Tern would have been better. Worse still the Grebe was so far away that it was difficult to get a picture.

Black-necked Grebe (500mm lens 1.4 converter and 1.6 multiplier in camera)

Heavy crop of the above.

We waited a while, during which we got good views of a Bittern on the far side of the pit, then drove down and checked the southern end, but the Terns were nowhere to be seen, so we headed for home.

It took nearly four hours with road works at Bexhill delaying us for three quarters of an hour, two separate crashes on the A27 causing tailbacks and delays for a single lane at Shoreham caused by the recent air crash. All the way home my doubts on having seen the White-winged Black Tern this year were growing as was the sense of having missed a good bird.

Still I had the Black Stork so it had to be counted as a good day.

Dungeness

Dungeness was today's destinations with the objective of adding a few year ticks before the winter visitors start to disappear. The day got off to a slow start when a stop at Scotney Pits gave us plenty of ducks and Lapwings to look at but very few geese and other than a couple of Egyptian none of the rarer species we were looking for.

Goldeneye

The ARC hide at Dungeness was a little better. A Marsh Harrier flyby as we arrived, Golden Eye displaying, a Great White Egret, and whilst there were no male Smew we did see lots of redheads spread out over the lake. We also had a brief view of a Bittern from the viewing screen as it disappeared into the reedbed.

Great White Egret

The Tree Sparrows were on the feeders and around the garden at Boulderwood Farm as were a number of House Sparrows and Reed Buntings.

Tree Sparrow

I think we were both a little disappointed by the end of the morning. Birds like the Marsh Harrier and the Great White Egret are unusual in Sussex but in Dungeness they are quite common. We had four or five sightings of each during the day. The water levels were also very high and there were no waders around.

The afternoon livened up a bit. We spotted a female Goosander on the far side of the lake and could not believe our luck when she swam all the way over to perform just in front of the hide.

Female Goosander

After much searching of the thousands of ducks and gulls present we also found a Black-necked Grebe. As you can see below they do not always come close enough to give a good picture opportunity.

Black-necked Grebe

A local birder also put us onto a a pair of Black-throated Divers on the New Diggings Pit. We missed them in the morning but they proved a lot easier to find when we returned in the afternoon.

Black-throated Diver

We tried Scotney again on the way home. The geese were there but were on the fields on the far side of the pits so even with the scope we could not see any detail. All we saw were more ducks and Lapwings and a few Golden Plover. We also tried Pett Level . Even more ducks, a couple more Marsh Harrier sightings, and plenty of Curlew.

We have often looked over the sea wall here and seen a vast expanse of sea with nothing on it so we had no great expectations as we climbed the slope. It's always worth a look though and this time there were hundreds of birds. They were mostly Wigeon but we did manage to pick out Red and Black-throated Divers, Great Crested Grebes, and a few Auk species.

With the mist  rolling in and the sun beginning to go down the opportunity for more sightings disappeared and we headed for home. Over fifty species seen on the day and eight year ticks, it had proved to be a good day out.

Loose Ends

I have been out birding a lot lately and have managed to see many good birds but the resulting photography seems more like quantity rather than quality. I needed some good pictures and that would mean revisiting some of the locations again. Top of the list were the Hawfinches at Romsey. I picked up Dave early Friday morning and we set off for Hampshire confident that with a sunny day we would get the pictures we wanted.

 It rarely works out as you planned. Our visit on a dull overcast day had produced dozens of birds, some good picture opportunities, and a lot of dull, out of focus, and blurred shots. Our visit on a sunny day produced a lot more  walkers, children and  dogs. There were fewer birds, they were being disturbed regularly, and they were not coming out into the open. I had one lucky shot, shown below, but even this was a bit distant and does not show the true colours of the bird. However, it's a good example of what you can get away with if you get the eyes sharp.
 

Hawfinch

We spent about three hours trying to get that illusive close up but eventually we had to move on. Fortunately I also had a Goldcrest paying regular visits and a Bullfinch hiding in the bushes.

Goldcrest

Bullfinch

We moved on to Blashford Lakes in the hope of catching up with the Green Winged Teal. No luck with that but we did see a pair of Black-necked Grebe on the Rockford Lake. Again a bit distant so this is more like a loose end created than one closed. Still I will save the good picture for when I see them in full breeding plumage.

Black-necked Grebe

Another loose end was my failed attempt to see the Snow Bunting on Ferring Beach. I had in fact been searching the wrong part of the beach and stopping about 30 metres short of its location. An early rise this morning and it proved easy to find as it had already been spotted by a couple of other birders. As with previous Snow Buntings I have seen it was quite confiding, seeming to show little concern for people and often landing very close to their feet. It had, however, chosen one of the busiest parts of the beach so was regularly being flushed by dogs and by joggers running through.

Snow Bunting

 

 To cap a good morning I returned home to find my first ever garden Blackcap. The garden has been virtually bird free for about a month. The big garden bird watch resulted in a total of one Pigeon for me and I had not filled any of the feeders since Christmas. Snow seemed to make little difference, apart from an influx of Fieldfares. In the past couple of days it has all changed. The birds are back and the feeders are being emptied at an alarming rate. Long may it continue.

Blackcap

With both a Chiffchaff and a Blackcap in the past week it feels as though Spring has arrived early.