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

Yellow-browed Warbler

 

I went looking for the Yellow-browed Warbler at the Patching Sewage Works on Tuesday. It was part of a hyperactive flock consisting of two Firecrests, probably half a dozen Goldcrests and a number of Chiffchaffs including at least one possible Siberian. Seeing it was easy enough but getting a good shot was near impossible.

Checking my pictures later that evening I think I did get one picture of it, as below. Yellow supercilium, dark eye stripe, brown legs rather than the Chiffchaffs black and the hint of a pale wing-bar, but without getting the double wing bar in the shot, I cannot be sure. There was a good picture of it published on Twitter which was a close match, even showing the thin brown line breaking the supercilium just behind the eye.

Am I happy - no - I want a better record shot. If it stops raining I will have to go back for another go.

Possible Yellow-browed Warbler

One bonus from the visit was that I picked up a half decent shot of a Firecrest. Another bird that I see often enough but rarely manage to photograph.

Firecrest

Other pictures taken recently

Marsh Tit

Siskin

Skylark

Spotted Redshank

Wren

Red-legged Partridge

And a couple more of the Barn Owl from  a revisit on Tuesday evening.

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

It was good to see the Barn Owl again but the lighting was not so good and most of the pictures were blurred or grainy.

Firecrest

Today it was a choice between the Red-throated Diver at Arlington Reservoir and a return trip to Arundel Wetland Trust for another go at the Firecrest. Both were tempting but having failed to secure a decent picture of the Firecrest yesterday, and in fact having failed to get a decent picture of one ever since I started birding, it had to take top priority.

After two hours with hardly a sighting of any birds it was beginning to look like a bad decision. I was bored and hungry and really needed a bacon sandwich. I would have gone but Dave kept winding me up about the bird turning up as soon as I left. It was just as well that he did because that is exactly what would have happened.

Fortunately I hung on and with a Goldcrest and then a Firecrest arriving in quick succession all thought of eating disappeared.

Photographing the Firecrest was hard work. They are very fast moving and you rarely get clear views of them. By the time the camera has focused on them they have usually moved on and you are left with a shot of an empty perch or the back end of the bird as it disappears out of the picture.

This time we were lucky, the bird stayed in the area for a decent length of time. I had an awful lot of failures but in the end weight of numbers told and I ended up with a few good shots.

Am I satisfied, no not really. The background of most of the pictures is very messy. I didn't get a shot of the bird with its crest up, and all my flight shots were blurred. However, as Dave always says, they are a lot better than the pictures I had this morning.

Little Owl

My blogs seems to have been mostly about Owls of late but then who could resist the opportunity to photograph this pair of Little Owls? Dave certainly couldn't and you will see an almost identical set of pictures on his blog. All except for the Firecrest that is and I will get on to that later.

This now looks like a possible nesting pair so forgive me but I am not going to publish any details of their whereabouts.


Later we went to Chichester Gravel Pits to look for the Red-crested Pochard. They were there, on Ivy Lake, but staying well hidden under overhanging willows on the far side of the lake. My thanks to Sarah for putting us onto them, I don't think that we would have found them without her assistance.

With a White-fronted Goose on East Lake, the area became a bit like a birding reunion, with a lot of old faces and a newly shorn Bart Ives (not looking quite so Organic now) turning up to view the birds.

White-fronted Goose

The Great Crested Grebes seem to have suddenly developed their breeding plumage. This is a bird that we tend to ignore for most of the year and then, with a chance of seeing a Weed Dance, they become the centre of attention for a short period. These two looked as though they would kick off but then seemed to loose interest and drifted away.

Great Crested Grebes

Great Crested Grebes

We then decided to head over to Arundel and visit the Wetland Centre. I still haven't managed to get a decent picture of a Firecrest and this is one of the most reliable places for seeing them. There was a great looking bird feeding around some of the brambles with probably half a dozen or more photographers trying to get a picture of it. 

Checking later, Trevor Guy, who we met there, and Dave seemed to have nailed it as probably did everyone else apart from me. Checking the back of the camera showed a lot of empty perches and blurred shots. The best I could manage was this head shot below. Better than nothing but not really the picture I was after.

Firecrest

I suppose I shouldn't be too despondent, at least it's the head, I usually just get the rear end as it flies out of the picture.


One last shot. This is the Ashdown Forest Great Grey Shrike that I saw a couple of days ago. It was about a hundred metres west of the Long car park but very mobile. There were a lot of people and dogs walking in the area and it was avoiding these. You could probably get it down to about forty metres but any closer and it would fly.

If you want to see pictures of a much more obliging bird have a look at my November 2013 blog.

Ashdown Forest Great Grey Shrike

Another great day for bird photography but there was a definite heat haze building this afternoon despite the chill in the air. That window of optimum lighting and clear air is all to brief.

A Break in the Clouds

Despite the cold and overcast weather of late, the birding has been good with many species forced out into the open in search of food. Photo opportunities under the grey skies have been limited, but they still exist. The following two shots are hand held at 1/60sec using a 700mm lens combination. It works to a certain extent although the Wood Lark is still showing some head movement.

Unfortunately this technique will not work with the likes of Goldcrest, Firecrest or any other of the highly mobile small birds which is a pity as they have been much more visible during the cold spell.

Mistle Thrush on Goring Green

Wood Lark on Goring Green

Today the sun came out and we rushed off to capture all the pictures we had missed over the past couple of weeks. Except it didn't happen. With the sunshine and warmer weather the birds had reverted to more normal behaviour and were less easy to find and to approach.

Our first stop of the day was to photograph Goldcrests and Firecrests at Swanbourne Lake Arundel. These had been foraging on the ground within six foot of us on previous days but today they were back in the treetops. An hour and a half of observing them left me with about thirty blurred pictures. You could see that both birds were present but they were not even worth keeping as record shots.

Our next targets were at various locations around Hayling Island. We had great hopes of relocating a Short-eared Owl that we had seen perched the day before and of finding Divers in the harbour. I came away without a single picture and despite the sunshine the day was starting to look a little dull.

A quick review of our plans and we decided to head off to the Long Pool at Pagham Harbour to have another look at the Bearded Tits. It is a real challenge to photograph them.The reeds are forever moving even in a gentle breeze and the birds rarely appear in the open. However, there is always the chance of an exceptional picture and that makes the challenge interesting. Sadly though, good shots but nothing outstanding today.

Such a soft and gentle looking female

And a real bruiser of a partner.

Blue colouration more evident in this light

Ring visible but not readable

There are probably five birds present and at least two of these are ringed. The objective now must be to get a close up of the rings and find out where they came from.