Cuckoo

Sad to report, but a most unsatisfactory session with a Cuckoo. Or perhaps I should say with people photographing the Cuckoo.

We had heard reports of a male Cuckoo at Thursley Common that was being fed mealworms and so returned to the same area on a regular basis. I was interested, I had heard a number of Cuckoos during the spring but had not managed to see one, and they would be starting to head back to Africa soon. We just happened to be at Thursley photographing dragonflies, it was a no brainer, we went to have a look.

Initially it looked quite good. Just the two of us there and a good viewing area with some cover available for concealment. We settled down to wait. After about an hour, team one turned up. They were reasonably pleasant but explained that the bird was virtually tame and you could get a lot closer without spooking it. They proceeded to set up perches and sprinkle mealworms around the area.

Redstart on team one perch - he wanted his share of the mealworms

A short time later team two turned up. They walked out into the field of view and proceeded to set up a different perch and liberally laced it with caterpillars. No explanations no apologies.

Perhaps this is the point at which we should have left but we had waited about an hour and a half in the hot sun and we could hear the Cuckoo calling. We stayed, after all it was our year tick!

The Cuckoo flew into an adjacent tree but which perch to choose, mealworm or caterpillars. More caterpillars where thrown out. Half of team one joined team two. No competition, big juicy caterpillars are the obvious choice and it chose perch two.

With the food so easy to find the Cuckoo made a few sorties on to the ground and then flew back to the perch or more often into the tree. It wasn't around for long. Team one were muttering that it had filled up too quickly on the caterpillars and that it would have been on the ground for longer looking for the mealworms. Team two were not bothered. They had lured the Cuckoo to within about twenty feet with more handfuls of caterpillars and a trail of them leading up to their big lenses. The Cuckoo certainly wasn't bothered. Stupid humans providing unlimited food, he had trained them well!

What was I doing apart from looking down my nose at my fellow toggers? There was a Cuckoo on the ground about fifty feet from where I was sitting. I was taking pictures.

It all felt a bit like observing a bird in a zoo but then who am I to criticise. Feeding stations are getting more and more popular - Red Kites, Eagles, etc; The RSPB do it; I am sure the top wildlife photographers all do it; I have one set up in my back garden. But then I would not take a picture of birds on my feeders (unless it was a real rarity). Perhaps it really comes down to the issue of passing off pictures of tame birds as wild birds. It just leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. Learn some field craft and go and find some wild birds.


Perhaps this has been a good lesson for me. I always thought that the picture was all that counted. I guess I realise now and have probably always really know that it is the when, where and how that really add the value and create the exceptional shots.

Common Terns

I was back over at Selsey today. My targets were to get a good picture of an Arctic Tern, to see a Cuckoo, and if there were Pomarine Skuas coming through, to get a look at those as well. There have been plenty of Cuckoos reported but, so far this year, I haven't even managed to hear one.

My first stops were the Pagham Harbour Visitor Centre and Church Norton looking for the Cuckoo. There were lots of small birds around in the bushes but no sign of the target bird. My best shot was of this Red-legged Partridge in the Church Yard.

Red-legged Partridge

Down at the bill things looked a bit slow, although there had been a couple of Arctic Skuas through earlier. I was told that there had been a Roseate feeding offshore so I decided to walk along the beach to take a closer look at the Terns. There were a few feeding over the water but with the tide rising the shingle bar was being covered and the Terns were moving onto the groynes to roost.

Terns at rest

Now all I needed to do was to find an Arctic Tern. The Sandwich Terns I can spot, the Arctics and a possible Roseate were a different level of problem.  I was looking for a Tern with slightly shorter legs, longer tail streamers, and a slightly paler upper-side, more the shade of the Sandwich Terns. Is there a difference?

When faced with this sort of problem I usually photograph everything and take the pictures home to check against the diagnostic details.

You only get about an hour before the groynes go underwater and the Terns move back out to sea. I took plenty of pictures and spent hours checking through them at home - and the conclusion - lots of pictures of Common Terns. There may have been an Arctic or a Roseate in amongst them, I may even have seen them, but I couldn't identify them.

The experts sitting at the bill can pick them out at a hundred metres and I struggle with the pictures two feet in front of my nose. I still have a lot to learn.

So here are a few pictures of Common Terns

and a Sandwich Tern

No success this time but I had great fun taking the pictures and I will be going back for another go.

I eventually caught up with a Cuckoo flying west to east along the North Wall at Pagham Harbour. It disappeared in the direction of Pagham Church but I did not bother pursuing it. By then the rain had set in and there was little chance of a picture.

Autumn Cuckoo

Ring Ouzels were seen on Blackdown today but unfortunately they were not seen by Dave or me. We had spent the morning searching the area where they had been seen but without any luck. We did, however, get onto a mystery raptor which we watched from a distance. Initially it looked like a female Sparrowhawk but it was moving about the trees as if catching flying insects. Hobby and Merlin came to mind but when we eventually got close enough to get decent views it turned out to be a Cuckoo.

Juvenile Cuckoo

Great bird but not what we were expecting. We also saw Stonechats, Kestrels, and had distant views of something that could have been a Ring Ouzel but which disappeared into the bushes before we could confirm the sighting.

After lunch we headed off to Church Norton. Sometimes it's great there but today we had  one of those completely dead afternoons where nothing is moving. The Ferry Pool was similar and the North Wall not much better although we did find a Ruff and the usual Godwits, Snipe, Teal, etc.

Teal - no shortage of food here

I don't like Herons as a bird but they always look class and they do take a good picture.

Grey Heron - Top Predator

A bit of a disappointing day as far as birds go but it was good to be out and about. There was also a final Kestrel, perched up in the tree, as we left the North Wall. A good way to finish off the day.

Kestrel

Cetti's Warbler at last

What a difference a day can make. I was out on Tuesday around Pagham Harbour and the Chichester Gravel Pits but it was overcast and cold and there was nothing moving and very little singing. A couple of distant Common Terns and two Hobby hawking around Ivy Lake were the best sightings of the day. I managed to conceal myself in the bushes and had the Hobby flying by within fifteen feet of me. Great to see but not much good for photography. After about 30 shots and not having got the birds in frame once I gave up and went home early.

I went out again today. It was cold but the sun was shining and there was a lot more activity. I headed over to the North Wall at Pagham again hoping to see a Turtle Dove I had been looking for the previous day. No luck with that but instead there was a Cuckoo sitting in the tree that I had been staking out.

Cuckoo

My being there did not seem to worry him but he was under attack from a male Chaffinch and after a token resistance he soon got fed up and moved on with the Chaffinch in hot pursuit. The Chaffinch came back and posed on the same branch, looking every bit the victor, but somehow it did not make such an interesting picture.

I had a look at Church Norton but, with the tide in, there were few birds about. As it looked like rain I decided to return home via the Arundel Wetland Centre. There is a lot of landscaping taking place on the site so I did not expect to see much in the way of wild birds but at least if it rained there would be plenty of shelter in the hides.

As I walked through the reed bed a Cetti's warbler started up close by and I caught a glimpse of him in the tree.

Cetti's hiding in the tree

He disappeared as quickly as he had arrived but at least this time I had seen his face and managed to get a picture, where usually all I see is the back end as they disappear into the bush.  Not expecting to see him again I started to move off when he called again this time even closer, and I found him sitting out in the open.

Cetti's Warbler

Out in the Open

and staying for a few pictures

I managed to get quiet a few pictures before another visitor  disturbed him. Most of the pictures have an out of focus branch or reed across his face, so I have some detailed work to do in Photoshop to clean up the best ones, but I am more than happy with what I have got. This bird has been on the top of my hit list for a long time.

For once there seemed to be quiet a lot going on at Arundel. Plenty of chicks but not all of them pretty.

Looks more like an old man

but at least his mother still loves him

Shelduck seem to be everywhere this year so they must have been one of the more successful breeders last year. It looks as though they are off to another good start.

Shelduck

Lots of Hirundines over the scrape but it only seems to be the Swallows that you see perched at this time of year. House Martins will give better picture opportunities when they flock before migrating and I don't think I have ever seen a Sand Martin other than in flight.

Swallow

Lots of other birds about including this Common Tern. Not too bad a picture given that it was taken through a plastic window in the hide.

Common Tern - not looking very happy in the heavy rain

Only one pair seem to be building a nest. Even if they lay eggs the chances of successful fledging must be limited given all the gulls around them.