Least Sandpiper

 

A couple of good birds in my patch recently with mud being the main theme. The first a Bluethroat showing well at Brooklands Park in Worthing.

These are fairly common on the continent but rarer in this country. This is only the second one I have seen and unfortunately both have been the white spot subspecies. I am still looking for a red spot which tend to put in an appearance later in the year.

Bluethroat - Luscinia svecica

The first Bluethroat I saw was very secretive making only brief appearances then quickly retreating back into cover, making it difficult to photograph. The Brooklands bird was much more obliging and was happy playing in the mud whilst an admiring group of birders watched and snapped their pictures (including me!)

Bluethroat - Luscinia svecica

The second bird was another mud lover, a Least Sandpiper. A new bird for my British list although I have seen them before in North America.

There have been some good pictures of this bird but unfortunately my sighting on the Medmerry Stilt Pool was quite distant for such a small bird. Even taking the picture on a 300mm lens and 2x converter I had to crop the picture a lot more than I would have liked.

Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla

The picture below taken in Banff Canada a few years ago shows a Least Sandpiper in breeding plumage but still in their favoured muddy environment.

Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla

And to finish, one I see most years but for which I rarely manage to get close up views, a Brambling. It must be something about the colours but it always feels like a happy day when I see one.

Brambling - Fringilla montifringilla

Brambling

 

A message on Tuesday, to let me know that Redpolls had been seen at Warnham Nature Reserve, had me standing outside the reserve waiting for it to open the next morning. I do see Redpolls around where I live but they are usually at the tops of trees and hard to photograph. The feeders at Warnham had delivered me some good pictures of them in the past and I was hopeful of another opportunity.

The idea was good but as often happens the Redpolls failed to put in an appearance. However, Warnham is a good location for photography so I had a wander around the hides to see what was about.

A Brambling made a brief appearance. It did not venture out into the sunlight as I was hoping but I was pleased to see it. It seems to have been a good year for them with reports of flocks of three or four hundred just over the county border in Surrey. A spectacular site but one foraging under the feeders at Warnham is a better prospect for a picture.

Siskins were also in attendance but not in the numbers I had seen there before.

and a neat looking Song Thrush

Plenty of Chaffinches with a few showing fresh breeding plumage.

Long-tailed Tits always take a nice photograph

And a really smart looking Bullfinch. Great to see but I couldn't get a picture of it away from the feeders. He was flying in from the golf course straight onto the feeder then back out the same way. I really needed him to perch up and have a look around before landing on the feeder.

Nothing spectacular but the Brambling and Bullfinch are not easy birds to photograph so I was happy with the opportunity.

Snow Bunting

 

With a Snow Bunting being reported in the sand dunes at East Head, Dave and I thought we would pay a visit. We hadn't been there for a couple of years. It is a really beautiful place but it's spoilt by too many people and hundreds of dogs, most of them off the leash.

We wouldn't have bothered for most birds but Snow Buntings seem particularly tolerant of disturbance and are adept at avoiding dogs. They take little notice of people and so usually offer the photographers some good picture opportunities. It was worth a look.

And look we did, for about an hour and a half, walking around the tide line and through the dunes. We could see no sign of the bunting and other birders we saw were leaving empty handed. The dogs got the blame but to be fair there were plenty of places amongst the dunes where the bird could have been feeding in safety.

In the end we gave it up as a bad job and headed back to the car to move on to another location. Then, much to our surprise, as we walked across the car park and were only about fifteen feet from the car, there was the Snow Bunting waiting for us. Or so it seemed at the time. In fact we only just managed to avoid stepping on it as it scuttled across the grass in front of us.

There was a bit of a panic as we had already packed the cameras away but the bird was very obliging, staying close by until we got our record shots. In fact it stayed within 20 feet of us for the next hour.

Nothing seemed to phase the Snow Bunting, people and dogs walking by, groups coming to see what we were photographing, cars and a tractor going past, and even a Land Rover splashing through the deep puddles at speed, less than ten feet from the bird.

I don't get to see that many Snow Buntings, this being the first for a couple of years but as they are so obliging you do tend to end up with a lot of good photographs of them. It was nice to get this one, with a background of grass and water, instead of the usual pebble beach where it tends to blend in.

Our target a couple of days later was a much less obliging bird. We were after Brambling. The technique is simple, find a big flock of Chaffinches and search it in the hope that there are a couple of Brambling flying with them.

The location was Friston Forest and we found our Chaffinch flock easily enough. We also identified at least three Brambling flying with them. So far so good, but unfortunately the light was very poor. A heavily overcast day, a location under the shade of trees, and a very skittish flock of birds. Added to that the Brambling is well camouflaged when feeding amongst the Beech Mast on the forest floor.

But again, this is a bird that I don't see very often and unlike with the Snow Bunting, it's not one that I get many good photo opportunities with. We did manage to get some record shots, they are not particularly good, but this is certainly a bird worth recording here and I think we will also be going back for a second go at photographing them.

Iceland Gull

We had a great trip to the Coto Donana but the downside is that it's hard to get going again once you get back. With so many birds to see you end up a little numbed by the experience. Flocks of Flamingo, Glossy Ibis, and I seem to remember White Storks and Black Kites on every other pylon. So many birds that I often didn't even bother to get the camera out. I get home and it all seems a bit dead. There are a few migrants starting to come through but nothing to really get me motivated. I am almost tempted to do a twitch somewhere but fortunately I resist the temptation.

I didn't bother to put any pictures on the blog last week but now, a week later, looking back at what was about, there were a few birds worth recording. The 2CY Iceland Gull at Goring Gap made a couple of appearances but I only ever managed to see it in the rain....

and for flight shots it was always a bit too close.

A Purple Sandpiper on the beach at the Hillfield road car park in Selsey was a bit unexpected.

There were also a few Brambling about. This female being near the feeders at the Pagham Harbour visitors centre.

I had my first Willow Warbler in the garden but it was gone before I could get a picture and I have yet to connect with a Wheatear although there have been a good few reported.

Snow Bunting

The title should have read Brambling which was yet again our target for the day with Friston Forest car park being the location we had chosen. We did actually manage to see two female Brambling this time which is a big step up from our last few failed attempts but there was no chance of getting any pictures.

It had looked promising as we drove into the car park with a large Chaffinch flock moving through the area. After studying them for a few minutes we came up with at least two female Brambling. Unfortunately the cameras were in the back of the car and our attempts to retrieve them saw the whole flock take flight. We watched for about another two hours but they did not return in that time. I should be happy at getting the year tick but without a record shot or better it does not feel like a success.

We aborted a plan to look for Kingfishers on the Cuckmere and decided to head back to West Sussex but a last minute decision (about ten yards from the turning) saw us heading into Tide Mills. We were telling ourselves that these last minute impulse decisions always come good, and it did. Two young birders Gideon and Caleb had located a Snow Bunting. We might well have missed it but the two doing a commando crawl across the shingle suggested there might be something worth looking at. They already had a few good shots and, hopefully without spoiling it too much for them, we also managed to get some pictures.

We then tried the pier looking for Purple Sandpipers. Unfortunately by then we had missed high tide and the birds had gone back onto the concrete supports below the pier. Light levels were low down there so I only managed to come away with one decent shot but I was grateful for that given that the speed setting was only 1/40 sec. Its amazing what you can do with image stabilisation.

Purple Sandpiper

We went back to Friston Forest and had one more search for the Bramblings. There was a Chaffinch flock feeding there but we could see no sign of the Bramblings this time. A couple of Jays were threatening to give good picture opportunities but I could not get them down sun of me so I had to settle for a backlit shot.

Jay

To finish, here are a couple of shots of the Tundra Bean Goose taken on Sunday at Cuckoo Corner. The lighting was poor but the bird did allow a reasonably close approach whilst it was out on the river. I was surprised to see it still there by itself. There was a fox about, a number of dog walkers,  a few bird watchers and at one stage it was even harassed by one of the local crows. Having to keep a constant watch for threats takes a big toll on feeding time. It would be better off in one of the the Greylag flocks where it could share sentry duties.

and there is always someone trying to gatecrash the picture

I wasn't aware of the Kingfisher at the time it only came to light whilst I was checking the pictures at home.