Glossy Ibis

Three years ago the Glossy Ibis seemed like a common bird on the south coast. I saw five perhaps six that year. The following year it was one bird and last year zero. It looked like being zero again this year but with a Glossy being reported regularly at Pett Levels we were still in with a chance.

Our first visit on Monday was a bit of a failure. We spent an hour there in the morning and an hour again late afternoon, with a visit to Dungeness in between. We searched thousands of birds that morning but came up with nothing. It's strange how, at a distance, an upright walking coot can look a bit like a Glossy Ibis and there were a lot of coots out there feeding on the grass.

As you would expect whilst we were away at Dungeness the Glossy Ibis was reported again and in its usual place - in the ditch, in the first field, just to the left of the roadside pool (the eastern most pool). In the afternoon we searched all the birds again but still drew a blank. The doubts start to creep in, Who had reported it? Did they know the difference between a Glossy Ibis and a Curlew? Was it someone's idea of a joke?

Still we had to try again and with some decent weather promised on Thursday we left home early and were out at Pett Level just before nine o'clock. Within thirty seconds of getting out of the car Dave had spotted it. It was exactly where all the reports had placed it and despite what I said above, it looks nothing like an upright Coot. But then its easy to be clever once you've made the identification.

We grabbed a few record shot, all of mine were useless. The early morning light was giving me 1/80 second and hand held on a large lens that does not make for good pictures. Then the bird took off and we thought we had lost the chance. It circled round then came into land even closer to us. Too close in fact.  Great for looking at the bird but I could barely get it in the frame and there were reeds blowing across the view.

I don't usually put up poor pictures but this one is a classic. Almost close enough to touch but too big for the frame, too close to focus properly, reeds blowing across the view and photo bombed by a coot.

Little more that could go wrong with this picture

A bit of shuffling around to try to get a better view saw us flush the bird and for a second time we thought we had lost it. Fortunately it stayed close and we had the chance to get some better pictures.

A great bird to see but this time of year its colours are a bit dull. I would like to get a picture of of one that was really showing the green and purple gloss that they are named after.

Given our early success we headed off to have a look at Scotney and Dungeness. It was all a bit quiet although the numbers of geese and ducks are gradually building. We saw Great White Egrets and Marsh Harriers, both quite common birds at Dungeness these days.

Marsh Harrier

The Long-eared Owl was still showing behind the dipping pool, but it was even better concealed than when we last saw it, and there were four redhead Smew on the Burrows lake.

On our Monday visit to Dungeness there were a couple of pairs of Pochard showing but both the males were asleep. This time they were nowhere to be seen so I had to settle for just taking a picture of one of the females.

It took two trips but it was good to see a Glossy Ibis again.

Caspian Gull

If you have read previous blogs you will know that Dave and I have been on a mission to spot a Caspian Gull. Neither of us were confident in our ability to identify a Caspian. We had studied the identifying features and knew what to look for  but theory and practice are vastly different when you are faced with a large flock of Herring Gulls.

Our favoured approach has been to visit Dungeness where there are two juvenile Polish colour ringed Caspians and we could play hunt the colour ring rather than hunt the Caspian.

Today we were down at Dungeness again for another try. Our initial search drew a blank and somewhat discouraged we headed off in search of other birds. We had a good day and had just finished photographing the Smew at Burrowes Pit and were about to head for home when we realised that we still had a loaf of bread left. Rather than waste it we decided to head back to the beach for one last look for a Caspian.

This time our luck was in, when a local gull expert told us that there was an adult Caspian in the gull roost. Unfortunately he was just driving away so we had to find it for ourselves. Knowing one is there is a huge advantage but we still had the challenge of locating it.

Some time later and having studied every gull in the roost it looked as though we were going to miss out again. We had one gull, that looked significantly different from the Herring Gulls and showed some of the features we were looking for but it had a yellow eye so could not be our Caspian. We were left with one gull that was asleep with its head tucked back so that we could not see its features. We waited, our confidence slowly draining away, then it moved and a black beady eye appeared.

A Caspian at last - please don't anyone add a comment telling me that it is some form of hybrid and doesn't count.

The pictures are not good. It was getting late and the light was failing. Then on top of that I was admiring the shots on the back of the camera when the bird took off and I missed getting a flight shot. See Dave's Blog for some flight shots.

Caspian Gull

The identifying features I was looking for and think I can see are:-

Small black beady eye
White head with no streaking
Small head compared to a Herring Gull
Legs thinner, longer and paler grey than the Herring Gull
Bill long and narrow
Long neck - not really visible here

It looks good and I am claiming the life tick.


We had a good day at Dungeness but it started slowly. Our initial search for the Caspian drew a blank and the ARC hide, for once, had little to offer, although we were told later that a Bittern had shown well and close just after we left.

We headed back to the Power Station to look for the Black Redstarts that are often present there. The sewage treatment area in the south east corner supports a good colony of midges and a number of birds can usually be found feeding in the area.

Black Redstart

Good supply of food 

Pied Wagtail

We also had a visit from armed police to check out what we were doing taking pictures so close to the Nuclear Power Station. There is no restriction on taking photographs but in this day and age they take no chances. It was a bit annoying but they were only doing their job and trying to keep us safe so it is best just to co-operate. Anyway he had a machine gun so I wasn't going to argue.

Just as we were packing up to move on an alert came through for a Long-eared Owl close to the RSPB Visitors Centre. It was buried deep in the bushes at the other side of the pond and very difficult to spot but we did at least get a picture.

Long-eared Owl

I have only ever seen one Long-eared Owl out in the open and I doubt that I will ever get better pictures than on that occasion. Have a look at this blog if you are interested.


We were on a roll, so we walked round to the Scott hide to have a look for the redhead Smew. They had not been showing last time we were there. This time we were a bit luckier, showing but very distant. Lets hope the male comes in to visit them before the winter is out.

and getting further away all the time

One life tick  and one year tick. Not a bad days birdwatching. The past month has been very slow on the bird photography front. It was nice to come home feeling we had achieved something.

Great White Egret

We were down at Dungeness beach on Monday searching for Caspian Gulls. I have studied all the books and know how to identify juvenile Caspians but theory and practice are vastly different. The advantage of going to Dungeness was that it has two Polish colour ringed birds. So this was a case of spot the colour ring rather than spot the Caspo.

It didn't help. We started by searching the beach area and gull roosts around the fishing boats. Plenty of Herring Gulls, Greater Black-backed and Black-headed but no Caspians, or at least none that we could identify. The wind was fierce so we soon retired to the car and parked up so that we could scan the gulls in comfort. Still no luck. We found one ringed bird but that was a Herring Gull.The only consolation was that a couple of other birders were having the same problem.

In the end we dipped but we did have a brief stop at the ARC hide and had good views of a Great White Egret and Marsh Harrier.

Great White Egret, a superb looking bird sideways on.......

but a bit more comic looking head on.

Not too bad, but with a white bird it's always difficult to get the exposure right so that you can see the feather detail.


The Marsh Harrier gave some great flybys but was difficult to photograph against the sky. Fortunately he did one low pass with the water as a background.

 

Not the Caspos we were looking for but at least a couple of decent birds to photograph, so it wasn't a wasted day.

Acadian Flycatcher

The title of the blog was going to be Wilson's Phalarope but a change of plan ended up with me seeing an even rarer bird.

The Phalarope was at Vange Marshes in Essex and I had arrived there about 10.30 just as the rain was clearing. I made my way over to where a couple of people looked to be watching the bird, only to be pointed in the direction of a distant spot on the other side of the scrape, probably three hundred metres away.

Through the bins I could see that it was a Phalarope although I could not have made the identification of a Wilson's. Even blowing the shots up on the back of the camera did not give me enough detail in the image. I was considering heading back to the car for my small travel scope but fortunately one of the birders there let me look at it through his Swarovski Scope. The detail seen was staggering. I must really scrape some funds together to get one of these.

Wilson' Phalarope

I waited to see if it would come closer but after an hour with the rain starting up again I gave up and retreated to the car. I was hoping to see the Glossy Ibis that had been reported over Vange Marsh and also at the Watt Tyler Country Park but an hour trudging around in the rain soon dampened my spirits. The RSPB Visitors centre did not seem to know where it went during the day, only that it often came back to roost during the evening.

I retired to the car once again to eat my sandwiches, reconsider what to do in the afternoon, and best of all to enjoy a short siesta. The only problem was that I kept getting disturbed  by Mega alerts coming through on the phone. Something called a Empidonax sp. - I had no idea what it was and anyway I don't do Twitches so I switched the phone off and went back to the siesta.

A short while later and much refreshed it occurred to me that if the experts could not put a name to the bird then it must be really rare. It was still raining so the choice was go home or wait for about five hours in the car to see the Glossy Ibis come in to roost. In the end I decided to drive down to Dungeness to see what an Empidonax looked like and to experience my first large twitch.

I have to say I didn't like it. When I arrived at 1530 there must have been between two and three hundred people on site and there were more arriving all the time. It was like a ring of steel all around South View Cottage where the bird seemed to have taken refuge. Everyone was well behaved but somehow it all felt uncomfortable. This was a tiny bird, thousands of miles from home that was probably going to live a short and lonely life. Did we care - not really, it was all about getting the tick.

Lifted from Twitter - original I think by Owen Leyshon

I only stayed about ten minutes. I saw the bird, grabbed a few quick record shots, said hello to a couple of faces I knew and then went home. I will probably regret it when I see some really good pictures coming out over the next couple of days but it wasn't for me.

Acadian Flycatcher

The Empidonax sp now seems to have been identified as an Acadian Flycatcher, a North American bird for which this is the first record in the UK and only the second for Europe. 

---------

The previous day I had also been in Kent and had stopped off at Samphire Hoe on the way back to look for Black Redstarts. It's probably now the most reliable site that I know of for these birds. I saw either four or six, it was a bit difficult to tell as they were very mobile. It's a good place to see them but it is not easy to get close.

Black Redstart

So two life ticks in the Wilson's Phalarope and the Acadian Flycatcher and a good year tick for the Black Redstarts.

and, just in case you were wondering, the Glossy Ibis did come in to roost in its usual spot at 1900 - but I wasn't there to see it.

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.

Tree Sparrow

If its Tree Sparrows it must be Dungeness. Although actually the day was about much more than just the Tree Sparrows. We saw fifty two species in all on the day. This included Great White Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-necked Grebes, Bearded Tits, and Marsh Harriers together with all the usual Dungeness residents.

We missed the Cattle Egret at the first attempt. It was reported as being behind Boulderwall Farm but we were unable to find it and so headed off to the Visitors Centre to see what else was about. Apparently it walked out of the long grass just as we drove off. My thanks to the birder who recognised us in the car park later and let us know that it was showing again.

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

One little bonus was this Field Mouse that Dave spotted when he was pee(r)ing into a bramble thicket. It was completely fearless and carried on eating whilst being rocked up and down as we tried to get a clear view of it through the bramble. Those big eyes must have given it a clear view of a couple huge monsters scrabbling about within a few feet of it, but it remained calm, finished off its blackberries, licked its fingers and then wandered off deeper into the thicket.

Field Mouse

Field Mouse

Field Mouse being a generic term, it should really be called a Long-tailed Field Mouse or Wood Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis)

There were three Black-necked Grebes on the ARC pit but they were too far away for a picture. I had to make do with this female Shoveler that was posing in front of the hide. I also missed out on a couple of Water Rails that raced across a gap in the reeds in front of the hide. Even if I had the camera ready it doesn't focus that fast.

Shoveler

Stonechats were all around the RSPB site and there were a few nice males displaying dark heads. I was a bit suprised by this one. He was gathering food and flying off with it then reappearing a few minutes later looking for more. Either he likes a bit of privacy when he is eating or perhaps the warm weather has resulted in a late breeding attempt.

Stonechat

The Tree Sparrows have been absent from the Boulderwood Farm area on my last few visits to Dungeness and I was beginning to think that the colony was disappearing. It is probably just that the feeders are not being filled and the birds have dispersed over a wider area. These were on the ground under the feeders at the Visitors Centre. The background is a bit busy and distracting but it was nice to be able to record them.

Tree Sparrow

Tree Sparrow

Black-winged Stilt

We set off today with rather ambitious plans. Rye Harbour for the Kentish Plover and Little Stint; Dungeness for the Black-winged Stilt, and the Little, Arctic, and Common Terns; and Sandwich Bay for the Blue-winged Teal and Garganey. Its not really us, its not what we do. Its a twitch, there would be little time for photography and little time to observe the birds, but we had to go, the Black-winged Stilt alone was worth the trip.

The day did not go to plan. We never made it to Sandwich Bay, we wasted time chasing a bird that was not on our list, and we wasted time because neither of us was willing to move on without getting pictures of the birds, however bad those pictures turned out to be. But we did see some great birds.

Our first stop, Rye Harbour, was where it all began to go wrong. We could not find the Little Stint or the Kentish Plover and we should have accepted that and moved on. Instead we were tipped off by the warden to a Temminck's Stint and Curlew Sandpiper. A long walk and extensive search and an hour and a half later we had little to show for our efforts. We saw Avocets, distant Little and Common Terns. and a Whimbrel but none of our target birds.

Whimbrel

Avocet

In the end we had to accept defeat and move on even though three of the birds we were searching for had been see by others. The consolation prize was that Dave managed to pick up  a House Martin as we arrived back in the car park, another first for the year.

A quick stop at Scotney Pits gave us nothing new and on arrival at Dungeness we headed straight off to see the Black-winged Stilt.

Black-winged Stilt

The pair were still there so it was a life tick for me. We should have been able to get some great pictures but just after we arrived the Nuclear Power Station started venting steam and the noise caused most of the birds to relocate. The Stilts were still visible but they were further away. I don't know if it was the beauty of the birds in flight or the thought that I might be getting showered with nuclear particles but I just watched them go and forgot to take a picture.

Black-winged Stilts

There were a  small group of birders gathered there but most were waiting for another bird, a Wood Sandpiper, that was skulking in the reeds. As before we could not let it go and we stood around for about two hours waiting for the bird to appear. The best shot I got in that time was the one below. People who had seen it earlier confirmed that it was a Wood Sandpiper but there is nothing here that I can use to identify it.

Possible Wood Sandpiper

Even when the power station stopped venting steam about an hour later the bird stayed hidden in the reeds. Fortunately there were plenty of Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers and Cettie's to keep us busy although as usual the Cettie's managed to avoid having their pictures taken.

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

Having wasted a couple of hours and with the rain setting in we aborted the last part of our trip and retired to the ARC hide. This gave us Black Terns and there were probably Arctic Terns as well but we could not separate those from the Common Terns at the distances involved.

So not a completely successful trip but I came away with six year and one life tick so I can't really complain.