American Wigeon

Last week Dave and I paid a return visit to Scotland. The key reason for going was to see a number of Butterflies that we do not get in the South of England but I was also hoping to see the King Eider "Elvis" that has been based around the Ythan Estury and Nairn for the last couple of months. Needless to say Elvis waited until we had booked our hotels and then did a disappearing act.

To stop the blog getting too long I have split it into three parts covering birds in the first and butterflies in the next two.

First stop on the way up was at Old Moor RSPB where an American Wigeon and a Little Bittern had been reported. We had limited time so it was unlikely that the Bittern would appear whilst we were there but the American Wigeon would be a life tick for me. Well we saw it, but it was very distant.

American Wigeon

American Wigeon

Compensation, of sorts, for the poor shots of the Wigeon came in the form of close views of a Green Sandpiper and Redshank.

Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Redshank

We spent about an hour looking for the Little Bittern but it had not been seen all day, so in the end we decided to move on. We did have one scare whilst we were there, when a "common" Bittern flew over being mobbed by an assortment of Gulls, and other birds. Any other day we would have been overjoyed at the sight but not on a day when there was a possibility of a Little Bittern. 

Day 2 was mostly about butterflies but we ended up late afternoon at an Osprey site that Dave had visited before. I was expecting another Loch Garten or Bassenthwaite lake where you are kept four hundred metres or so from the nest. When I found that we were standing only sixty or seventy metres away I was a bit wary of disturbing the birds.  However, there was a well used footpath going past the spot and groups of kids moving through between us and the nest tree and neither the movement or the noise seemed to bother the parent Ospreys.

It was late afternoon and the lighting was poor so the picture opportunities were limited but it was great seeing the birds so close and getting glimpses of the chicks as they moved about in the nest.

Both parents on the nest with one of the chicks also visible

Male on his favourite perch

The weather looked even worse on Wednesday so we decided to spend the afternoon over in Oban harbour looking for Black Guillemots. Whilst we had both seen them before neither of us had managed to get a good picture. We stopped off first at the Corran - Ardgour ferry just off the A82. This was our fallback site if Oban failed to deliver. We could see the Black Guillemots on the sea loch and also landing on the pier on the other side of the crossing  but we decided to carry on to Oban rather than take the ferry across.

Oban delivered but we had our doubts for a time. We eventually managed to track them down to the sea wall just in front of the cathedral.

Black Guillemot

A Rock Pipit turned up whilst we were photographing the Black Guillemots and there was also a tame Chaffinch that had joined us for lunch one day that was worth recording.

Rock Pipit

Chaffinch

The bird list for the five days sits at around seventy which is not too bad when you consider that we spent most of our time looking for Butterflies. As ever, time was all too short and there are many more places that I would have liked to visit during the trip.

Medmerry Black-winged Stilt

I was in two minds about going out today. The weather did not look so good and the birding has been a bit slow of late.The decider was a pair of Black-winged Stilts still being reported at Medmerry. I had seen a pair down at Dungeness a few weeks ago but these were Sussex birds and so a patch tick.

I started the day off at Pagham Harbour Visitors Centre with another two hours wasted trying to get a picture of the resident Cuckoo. Again I had plenty of views but I just could not get it in the viewfinder either perched up or flying - very frustrating. The consolation was a Wood Sandpiper on the back of the Ferry Pool. I managed a couple of record shots but it was too far away for a decent picture. Fortunately a couple of friendly birders let me have a look through their telescope and I was able to see the diagnostic features.

No pictures of the Cuckoo or Wood Sandpiper so you will have to make do with a Chaffinch

The Black-winged Stilts had been reported on the scrape at the end of the footpath on the Earnley side of Medmerry. It's a long walk in, particularly if the birds have flown when you get there, but if you don't look you don't get to see so walk it was. I am glad I went. The Stilts were still there as were some other interesting birds although they were all a bit distant.

Black-winged Stilts

Given that the environment is only about a year old the bird population is building up nicely. I just hope these are new birds and not just ones that have been attracted away from Pagham Harbour. There were a number of Avocets there and they appeared to be sitting on nests. I only saw one younster but that was being well cared for by the parent who was seeing off any Gulls or Crows that came close.

Avocet

The Avocets are very protective parents and even the Stilts were expected to keep their distance.

Not really a threat but see it off anyway

There was also a Curlew Sandpiper putting in an occasional appearance. Again very distant but this time the record shot is just about acceptable. You can see the diagnostic features, long black legs, pale stripe over the eye, slightly downcurved bill. The white underside is gradually disappearing as the bird moults into its red summer plumage

Curlew Sandpiper

I had a couple of hours left and a choice of things to do. I could head off to Whiteways and look for the Turtle Dove or have a look around Church Norton for a Flycatcher or other migrants. I chose Church Norton which was probably the wrong decision as the Turtle Dove was found at Whiteways.

Nothing was found by me at Church Norton apart from the rather odd behaviour of a cock pheasant. He was stood on one of the old gravestones as I walked through the church yard and he was still there when I came back half an hour later. I went over to investigate and he was rather reluctant to move away, letting me get within five or six feet before he moved off. There was no name on the gravestone, it had worn away with time, but I did wonder if he had found the remains of an old game keeper or poacher and had been dancing on their grave.

Pheasant on gravestone

I also took a couple more pictures of butterflies when I was out on Monday. Not enough for a blog but they are worth adding here.

Common Blue

The Wall Brown has to be one of the hardest to photograph. I am used to chasing Brimstones or Orange Tips over long distances but at least they stay at a reasonable height. The Wall likes baked hard bare mud where it waits until I get down alongside it laying on my belly when it then takes off and lands ten feet away. This is a game that we pursued over a couple of hours in the hot sun on Monday afternoon. I got my record shots but it was hard work and I am going to have to do it all over again to try to improve on the ones that I got.

Wall Brown

Wall Brown closed wing shot.

Green-winged Teal

Seen but unfortunately not photographed.

We were down in Hampshire at Sopley Cemetery overlooking the flooded fields around the river Avon. The Green-winged Teal was the main target of the day and at first it looked like an impossible task. There were probably more than a thousand teal spread out over the water in front of us and they were all very distant. You could not pick out the distinguishing features using binoculars so it fell to a tedious inspection of each individual bird using a scope. Perhaps not too difficult if they are all lined up giving a side view but not so easy when they are all milling about and often have their backs to you.

So what were we looking for. Well, at the distance we had, the only thing you can really pick out is the vertical stripe in place of the horizontal stripe on the common teal.  Fortunately Dave likes to get stuck into these difficult tasks and eventually he found it. He managed to get a couple of other birders onto it but I just could not see it. I was 99% sure I had the right bird but it had its back to me and I could not make the identification. After a long wait and with my eyes streaming from the cold and my refusal to blink in case I missed it, the bird turned and I had a clear view of the vertical stripe. Life Tick.

Unfortunately the rest of the day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. We went to Blashford lakes. We found the housing estate and the hole in the fence through which if you were lucky you could get a distant view of the Ferruginous Duck. But it felt more like voyerism than birding so we quickly abandoned that search.

Blashford always looks promising but the wildfowl is usually distant, very few of the windows in the hides open, and one of the hides uses blue tinted plastic for the windows. On top of that the light was going. Not ideal for taking pictures.

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Siskin

Juvenile Siskin

 

A few shots of the usual suspects and we moved on to the Eyworth Pond at Fritham. There are usually Mandarin Ducks at this site but they can be difficult to find. After a bit of searching we thought we had five or six hidden deep in the bushes on the far side of the pond. It was only when they were spooked and took to the air that we realised that there were between twenty and thirty present.

Mandarin Duck

This is also a good site to see the smaller birds. A few handfuls of bird food on the fence posts and the bushes were alive with half tame birds. Good for photographs but nearly as bad as having shots of them on feeders.

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Real manners - sitting down for lunch

To finish off the day we drove along the Warningcamp road to see if the Bewicks had returned to their usual feeding ground. No sign of them but I did manage to pick up a Red Kite and Grey Partridge as year ticks. I think we probably had Corn Bunting as well but in the fading light it was difficult to be sure.

Grey Partridges

Mealy Redpoll

Today's destination was Warnham Nature Reserve and in particular the Woodpecker hide. In the winter it is one of the best locations in the county for being able to get close to the birds and for getting good pictures opportunities. You need a bright day for the best results but it's always worth a visit.

The Mealy Redpoll was our main target. Redpolls show a lot of variation in appearance and it can be difficult to identify the Mealy unless it is sitting alongside the more common Lesser Redpoll for comparison. Fortunately a number of experienced birders had also turned up so we would be able to confirm any identifications we made.

There were also a number of Lesser Redpolls flying into the feeders and perching in the surrounding trees.

Lesser Redpoll

The Mealy was putting in an appearance about every twenty minutes. Unfortunately he was flying direct onto the feeders rather than using one of the many available perches. I am never sure if it is better to have the bird sitting on  a grubby looking feeder or looking unnatural floating around in mid air. Judge for yourself in the following pictures. Replacing the metal perch with a branch is possible but it takes a lot of work.

Mealy Redpoll

On the feeder

 

And, on the feeder showing a comparison with the Lesser Redpoll.

Lesser on the left and Mealy on the right

 There seems to have been a shortage of the smaller birds around of late so it was nice to see so many at Warnham.

Long-tailed Tit

Siskin

Greenfinch

Chaffinch

I just wish I could get this selection of birds visiting the feeders in my Garden.

American Golden Plover

I was up at 5.30 on Wednesday morning, ready to go down to Cuckmere Haven to see the AGP, but rain and poor light helped convince me that the bird would have moved on, so it was back to bed with a cup of tea for a copy of Birdwatch. I was not quite so happy later that day when I read that the AGP was still there and showing well.

Thursday morning and I set off convinced that it would be a wasted journey but not willing to make the same mistake twice. Fortunately the bird, which had been found by Matt Eade, was still showing well and there were only a couple of people around when I arrived. All credit to Matt as I don't think that I could have spotted the difference between this and a Golden Plover, but then I have only ever seen the Golden as a distant flock bird and do not have a close up photograph to compare it with.

American Golden Plover

It's nice to have a photograph to take home so that you can sit down later and really understand the identifying features. So on these pictures I can identify:-

• Four primaries projecting beyond the tertials
• Wing tips projecting beyond the tail-tip
• More white in the supercilium than for a Golden
• Gold spangled on upper parts - but more confined to the upper mantle

I did also see the grey underwing when it stretched its wings but I was a bit slow on getting the photograph.

Showing gold on the upper mantle, projecting primaries and wing tip beyond tail tip

It's not that I don't trust the experts but if I am ever going to learn I have to be convinced that I can make the identification. If you want more details on identification have a look at Matt's blog    -     http://seafordbirding.blogspot.co.uk/     now added to my recommended list on the right.

I stayed watching the bird for about an hour hoping to get a flight picture but with the number of observers gradually increasing I was reminded of why I tend to avoid twitches and decided to move on. The bird did not seem to be phased by the birders, nor by a party of about 40 school children going past less than 20 ft away, but I was. Everyone deserves a chance to see the bird but too many people around takes the bird out of its real environment and takes me away from what I really like in birding. It also spoils the background!

Wandering back to the car I came across this distant view of a Black Swan on the meanders. Unless it has completed a long flight from Australia it will be a bird that has escaped or been released from captivity. So cannot count this one, but who knows what will happen in the future. The BTO has reported that in 2003 there were 43 of these birds at large and that attempts had been made to breed. It may well be added to the list at some time in the future.

I stopped at Arlington Reservoir on the way home to eat my lunch but missed out on the Osprey yet again, it now seems to be settling into an early morning slot for fishing. I then made a quick trip to a local wood to have a look at a Great Spotted Woodpecker's nest. The birds are easy to view but the lighting is poor even on a sunny day. I was quite pleased with these shots given that they are at slow shutter speeds on a 700mm lens set up.

chick with red crown (ISO 640, f7, 1/13sec)

Female feeding  ISO640, f7, 1/15sec)

Male feeding   (ISO 640, f7, 1/25sec)

There were plenty of other birds about. The usual Chaffinch, singing its heart out - balanced on one leg!

Also a Jay, that I ended up stalking for about a quarter of an hour, but it would not come out into the light. This shot could have been so much better with a bit more depth of field and a couple of stops more on the shutter speed.

Jay  (ISO640, f7, 1/25sec) - My missed shot of the week

 

I could have got faster shutter speeds by increasing the ISO, but despite what the camera manufacturers say I think the quality has gone once you get above ISO400, particularly if you are cropping the shot.

And finally in the reed beds a Little Egret, always great to watch.