Dartford Warbler

 

It is always good to see an unusual bird turn up close to home and a Dartford Warbler within walking distance, in a local park, was an opportunity not to be missed. 

The location Brooklands was unexpected. It is a run down recreation park and small lake on the seafront in Worthing although in fairness it is in the process of being converted into more of a nature park. An "outdoor interactive classroom and science learning resource" I think they will be calling it.

There is a small area of rough grass and low vegetation close to the lake that has attracted a couple of Stonechats and a Dartford Warbler. There is not much cover and there are a lot of dogs about but the birds seem quite happy in the area.

The birds displayed typical behaviour with the warbler following the Stonechats, staying low in the undergrowth and feeding low and on the ground, whilst the Stonechat stays high and prefers to perch on top of the undergrowth. It is typical of behaviour seen on the commons in the north of the county and is often the easiest way to find a Dartford Warbler.

The arrangement seems a bit one sided in favour of the warbler. It has the Stonechats providing an early warning system and alarm calls for any dangers and it has longer to forage for food as the Stonechats probably locate good foraging areas for it as well as providing a level of cover. I cannot see any advantage for the Stonechat and there must be an impact on their foraging from loss of food to the warbler.

There doesn't seem to be any attempt by the Stonechats to drive the warbler away although they do seem to move on a bit more rapidly when they have a Dartford Warbler in attendance.

As you would expect I took a lot more pictures but Dartford Warblers are not the easiest of birds when it comes to getting good images. They prefer staying in cover and it is difficult getting them in focus.

January has drawn to an end and it seems to have deliver a lot of rain but there were also some good birding days towards the end of the month. The highlight must be the Sabine's Gull which will probably also be the highlight of the year. I did go back for another look but I couldn't really improve on the pictures I had.

Sabine's Gull

Sabine's Gull

Other observations on the month - more Firecrests and Bullfinches than I usually see in a year.

Bullfinch - a female this time and easily a match for the more showy male.

Firecrest

More Wrens than usual but no Yellowhammers or Siskins and I only found a Corn Bunting on the last day of the month.

Wren

Corn Bunting

And who can resist a Long-tailed Tit.

Long-tailed Tit

Lesser Redpoll

As I still hadn't seen a Redpoll along the south coast, or at least not one close enough to photograph, I decided to make a return trip to Warnham. They were still being reported from there but it wouldn't be long before they were heading northwards to their breeding grounds.

I had no trouble finding them with three or four regularly attending the feeders. It was nice to get a record shot  but I have taken better. I was really hoping for a male showing more breeding plumage and a bright red breast or even better a Mealy Redpoll.

Redpoll

I often praise Warnham because of the opportunities to get good pictures of the birds but it does at times start to feel a bit like a zoo with very little skill needed to get the pictures of what are very nearly captive birds.

Having said that I failed to get a picture of my next target, a Marsh Tit. One was (occasionally) visible from the Bullfinch hide but it had a habit of grabbing a seed from the feeder and then disappearing into cover to eat it and it did not stay near the feeders for long.

I did take a picture of a Blue Tit. It's not a bird that I photograph that often but fluffed up against the cold, as it was, it makes one of those nice chocolate box pictures that seem to appeal to so many people.

Blue Tit

And lots of pictures of the usual birds around the feeders.

Nuthatch

Reed Bunting

Siskin

The Bullfinch made one appearance for me. On my last visit it was one show at the Woodpecker hide, this time it was one show at the appropriately named Bullfinch Hide. It didn't make it as far as the feeders this time, being spooked by the sudden movement of some of the other birds there. It took flight and headed out over the golf course never to be seen again.

 

Bullfinch

A strangely disappointing visit. I managed to see a Redpoll and Marsh Tit which were my targets and I came away with some other reasonable pictures. However, the light during the day proved to be a lot duller than I had been expecting. Which means slower shutter speeds, less sharp shots, and no real show stopper pictures. There was also the felling that the area around the hides was very busy for a Monday morning and was turning it into more of a zoo than a nature reserve. For me the reserve actually seems to be, becoming a victim of it's own success by attracting too many people. However, I am sure that for the reserve the increased cash flow and raised profile for nature make it all justified.

Having said that, once you leave the area around the visitors centre and the hides the people soon thin out. I did a circuit of the rest of the reserve and can only remember seeing one other person during the walk. I have a solution, open it at 8am for the birders rather than the current 10am which seems to be more targeted at the "somewhere to go for a short walk and cup of coffee" brigade.

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.

A New Year List

January always seems a bit weird. The start of a new year and Blackbirds, Starlings and all those birds you have paid little attention to during the year, suddenly become important again, as you try to get the year list off to a good start. Bird races are not for me but I do expect to get above the hundred before the month is out. A modest target perhaps but then my real objective is to get some decent photographs. Lighting is the key to success and cold January and February days, bright but with high thin cloud are the best. Unfortunately there aren't many of them and the useful hours in those days are limited.

The two shots below, of the Black Redstart at Shoreham Fort, show the difference lighting can make. The same bird on successive days and it looks very different.

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

January is also the time for me to make the annual trip to Newhaven West Beach to see the Fulmars as they start to take ownership of their nesting holes.

Fulmar

Actually the trip to Newhaven this year was mainly to see the Hume's Leaf Warbler. I did see it but I didn't manage to get a photograph. My second Hume's Warbler and the second time I have failed to get a picture, so my key list of seen but not photographed stays at twelve.

Truth be told I had to rely on Dave and others for the identification. I cannot pick up the call and with the brief views I had it could easily have been a Yellow Browed Warbler I was looking at.

A picture of a Goldcrest in the same area of scrub was no consolation.

Goldcrest

We have had large numbers of Gannets along the Sussex coast over the past couple of weeks, with the birds close in and giving good views of plunge diving. The lighting was appalling but they were at least good to watch.

I also failed to get a photograph of the plunge diving but I can't blame the lighting for that. It was something to do with my inability to press the shutter release at the right time.

We also had a day down at Pagham Harbour. There were a lot of birds there and I added a few to the year list but they were a long way off and there was no chance of a decent photograph. It was also very cold so we retired to the Wetland Centre at Arundel.

It's always good for a few pictures and as we drove there Dave predicted Water Rail, Bullfinch, Kingfisher, and Snipe. He was spot on, we saw all four and I also picked up on a Chiffchaff. Good practice for if I go back for another go at the Hume's.

Water Rail

Water Rail

Water Rail

Water Rail

Female Bullfinch

Kingfisher

Snipe

Chiffchaff

Not a bad start to the New Year. It's good to be out in the countryside again and even better to be getting a few photographs.

Willow Tit

Dave and I have just got back from a weeks birding in the Cairngorm National Park and on the Moray and Nairn coast, but more on that in the next blog. This one is about our stopover on the way up at RSPB Fairburn Ings. We chose the site as it has resident Willow Tits. They are absent from Sussex and most of the South East and, if seen, would be a life tick for both of us.

I think we could probably have told the difference between the Willow Tit and its look alike the Marsh Tit but the beauty of Fairburn Ings is that it has no Marsh Tits. It is always good to have the odds working in your favour.

Fairburn Ings is a great site and just a few minutes from the A1. The wardens gave us some useful information and we found our first Willow Tit within a few minutes of arriving.

Willow Tit

They were very difficult to get onto in the trees and picture opportunities were limited, so in the end I resorted to photographing them on the feeders. There was no way I was going to leave without a definitive picture.

Identification of the Willow Tit is now done either by the call or by the absence of a white spot on the base of the upper mandible. However, the birds shown here do seem to show other characteristics that aid the separation from the Marsh Tit. That is, dull rather than glossy black cap, larger black bib, and thicker "bull" neck.

Willow Tit in the bag on the first day, a great start to the holiday.

The reserve also supported nesting Tree Sparrows, another species mostly absent from Sussex, a good number of Bullfinches, and gave close up views of some of the more common birds.

Tree Sparrows

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Reed Bunting

Goldfinch

It may be a case of the grass always being greener but it seems to us that the RSPB sites in the north of England are far better at getting birders close to the birds. Fairburn Ings was no exception and it is a place I will be visiting again.

Little Bunting

The Little Bunting has proved to be a bit of a problem bird for me this year. I went to see the bird reported at Old Lodge in Ashdown Forest but failed to spot it even though Dave standing next to me went home with a picture of it. Not wishing to be defeated I went back for another try and another and another and..... Seven visits in all, hundreds of pictures of Reed Buntings but nothing that convinced me that I had seen the Little Bunting. This was starting to be a major part of my life that was going missing.

I had a forced break from the bunting when we went up to Scotland for a week but on return it was still there nagging away at me. Perhaps a different approach was needed. There was a Little Bunting being reported as showing well at Forest Farm reserve in Cardiff. It was a long way to go but could I face another seven days at Old Lodge and that was even if the bird was still there.  Wednesday of last week and I would have gone to Cardiff except I had a problem with the brakes on the car. This was really turning out to be a bogey bird.

Friday the car was fixed and I set off for Cardiff at 05.30 and was in the hide by 09.00 and settled in for what was going to be a long day. Late morning and someone in the hide had a sighting (below) but I was not convinced. It might have been but this looked too much like a female Reed Bunting and as this was my first Little Bunting I needed to be really sure.

Is it a Little Bunting?

By 15.30 I was thinking I would call it a day and go and look for the Lesser Scaup on Cosmeston Lake. I planned to be in the area for two days so I could always come back tomorrow. Except, the warden then appeared and told me that they planned to do some work outside the hide on Saturday and that it was unlikely that I would get to see the bird.

I gave it another half hour, another possible appeared and this time I was convinced - just. The shots are not clear but I can at least, this time, identify the diagnostic features I am looking for.

• Sharp bill with straight culmen
• Distinct white eye ring
• Chestnut cheeks - but not as bright as I would have liked
• White spot on back of cheek
• Dark edging around cheek
• Grey/brown shoulder
• Crown with dark lateral stripes and brown median stripe. - difficult one this, the crown was darker than the female RB but not as dark as I would have liked
• Pink Legs

The bird was also smaller than the Reed Buntings I was seeing.

Was I happy? Not really, I wanted a good picture and one that really stood out as being a Little Bunting but it is at least the end of the current search. It's time to move on to other things including what to do with the rest of my two day pass.

My thanks to Peter Suneson, Adam Bowley, and Rich. for help with identification via BirdForum and to Dave who was always confident in the identification and is probably just glad that I will not be going on about it any more.

Did I see anything else at Forest Farm? Well I did get a bit of mission creep when this pair of Bullfinches turned up. I was probably photographing these whilst the Little Bunting was displaying at the other end of the hide.