Goosander

Although birding has its share of surprises you find yourself repeating some activities every year and you know exactly how it is going to pan out. End of January and it's time to head over to Petworth Park to look for the Goosanders.

I love to see them but it is always a frustrating trip. There is very little cover around the lake and Goosanders tend to be very wary, staying well away from people. Poke your head up to take a picture and all you get is the backend as they disappear across the lake. Strangely dog walkers can be quite useful here. They can be a bit annoying when they wander over to ask you what you are looking for but one walking round the far side of the lake can often flush the birds towards you.

It is always difficult to get decent pictures of the Goosanders. On the male, the contrast between the black and white plumage is difficult for the camera to deal with and the green gloss on the head is only visible in good light. The red head females are easier but on this occasion the two I saw both stayed close to the island in heavy cover, only venturing out to chase the males away. So true to form I came away with the usual record shots and I still don't have a decent picture of a male Goosander.

Today was a real mixture of ups and downs. An early morning and then late afternoon visit to Pulborough Brooks to see the White-fronted Geese was looking like a waste of time. No White fronts, very little else other than half a dozen female Bullfinches a few Black-tailed Godwits and a distant Jay. Then as I was leaving just after sunset a couple of flyover Woodcock. My thanks to Matt for advice on the best place to stand to see them.

As well as Petworth, I also managed to fit in a trip to Warnham Nature reserve and spent an hour watching an assortment of small birds around the feeders at the Woodpecker hide. The two I was after were Siskin and Marsh Tit but preferably with them giving picture opportunities away from the feeders. The Siskin was obliging, the Marsh Tit less so.

Siskin

Marsh Tit

There were a good selection of other birds present, Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Nuthatches, Sparrows, Reed Buntings, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbirds, Magpie, Wren, Pheasants, Mallards and with that selection always the chance of a Sparrow Hawk through. That's just the count from the Woodpecker hide. It's probably a good place to drop into if you still have a bird race to do. The only downside is that there haven't been any Redpoll on the feeders for a few years.

Long-tailed Tit

Song Thrush

Wren

There were plenty of ducks around today but, with the exception of the Brents, there seems to be a shortage of Geese and Waders. I am not sure if I want a cold snap to get there numbers up and to drive the Waxwings down into Sussex or if I would prefer a mild February to increase the number of small birds and to give the Dartford Warblers another successful year.

Mostly Widewater

You get some good birds at Widewater but getting pictures of them can be hard work. Pick the right day and the right time and there are some good opportunities. Get the timing wrong and you leave empty handed, only to read reports of the successes of others when you get home that evening.

You also have to contend with dogs charging out into the reserve and flushing the birds and also the occasional overeager photographer doing the same. Just what you need when you have been sat there for an hour or so waiting for the birds to come closer.

I even flushed the Goosander myself today. I watched it for about five minutes and then decided that I should pay for a parking ticket before I got the camera out. The Goosander must have good hearing as it took off just as my money disappeared into the machine.

Anyway here are a few pictures taken at Widewater over the past month or so.

There has been at least one male and two females at Widewater over the past month so I am not sure that these are all pictures of the same bird. As for seeing them, if they are not out on the water they can often be found roosting on the lawn of one of the houses. Have a look about halfway down the western most lake.

Pull up at the western end of the car park and the resident Stonechats will usually come over to see what you are doing there.

And over the New Year period we had a Knot in residence for a few days. It is always a bit worrying when you see a flock bird by itself but it looked healthy enough and was feeding well.

To finish a couple of pictures not from Widewater, the juvenile Black Guillemot from Sovereign Harbour Eastbourne and a couple of shots of Fulmars from Newhaven West Cliffs.

A useful blog, it has cleared out a some pictures that have been sitting in my pending tray for a few weeks. All now filed away and a clear inbox just waiting for the next great adventure!

Wood Duck

Eyeworth Pond near Fritham is always worth a visit. The birds are fed regularly and are nearly tame and there are always picture opportunities. This year there was the added bonus of a resident Wood Duck. It may well be an escapee but it is living in the wild, and it looks good, so it is worth a picture. What we hadn't realised was that there was a female on the pond as well. Next year we could be going back to photograph wild british born Wood Ducks.

If this happens you would have to question why their status should be any different to that of the british born Cranes from the reintroduction program.

Wood Ducks

Wood Duck

Female Wood Duck

We did initially have a bit of confusion over the female. We had not expected to see it and she looks very similar to the Mandarin Duck female, picture below. However, she does shows the diagnostic darker head, more white around the eye, black nail, and different markings around the base of the bill.
They are quite different when you see the two side by side.

The male Mandarins were also in attendance and there was a small group of Goosanders, one male and four females but as ever they were keeping their distance. Still, not a bad slection of ducks for a small pond.

Mandarin Duck

Mandarin Duck

Goosander with three of his four ladies

We had started the day at Blashford Lakes. It's not one of our favourite sites but the Bramblings are reliable on the feeders outside the Woodland hide. I would have liked to put a picture of them on the blog but you could barely see them through the windows in the hide. The "glass" is badly scratched and fogged and you have difficulty making out any colours on the birds.

Brambling duly ticked we moved on. We did have a quick look out from the Tern Hide but the birds as usual were so far away it was almost like doing a sea watch. The Ivy North Hide does give you a good chance of seeing a Bittern but you have to look at it through heavily tinted blue glass. We gave that a miss. The site has so much potential but seems so poor on delivery.


Eyeworth Pond, however always delivers on the small birds as well as on the ducks and there is no blue glass to get in the way.

Marsh Tit - white spot on upper mandible 

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Coal Tit

On the fields driving away from Fritham a flock of forty to fifty Redwings

Redwing

Below a couple of shots from earlier in the week. A rather wet and bedraggled looking Great Grey Shrike at Waltham Brooks. A bit like me that day. He wasn't going anywhere but there was a lot of wet and sticky mud between me and him. I thought better of it and headed off to Arundel Wetland Centre for a cup of tea.

Distant and rather wet Great Grey Shrike

And the Wetland Centre delivered yet another good Kingfisher photo opportunity. There are at least two on the site and they appear very tolerant of people. The only problem is that they are attracting more and more photographers to the site. Good for the WWT funds but not so good if you want the bird to yourself.

Arundel Wetland Centre - Kingfisher

Goosanders

Tuesday we went looking for the Goosander on Petworth Park Lower Pond. There was one swimming around when we arrived and three more flew in whilst we watched. These are never an easy bird to photograph. If you can get close, which is very difficult, you then have problems with the contrast, either burning out the whites or ending up with the head black, showing none of the green colour and often no eye.

This time the lighting was ideal, bright but diffuse, but the Goosander would not cooperate. I tried walking round the pool but they always stayed on the complete opposite side. If I changed direction they changed direction as well. I tried sitting in cover and waiting for them to drift over towards me, they didn't. Eventually I approached their position under cover of the bank, just poking my head up at the last moment. I didn't even get the chance of one picture. They saw me immediately and disappeared to the far side of the pool.

Fortunately the Egyptian Geese were a bit more trusting and gave a few good picture opportunities.

We then visited a couple of the commons looking for Dartford Warblers. There numbers have certainly increased on the south coast over the past three or four years but you always worry that a hard winter could see their numbers decimated again.

 We found two, or possibly three of the Dartfords. The easiest way to locate them seems to be to find Stonechats then to look for the Dartfords which often follow them around staying low and hidden in the undergrowth.

On Tuesday we did a circuit through Kent. An early start enabled us to spend a rather unwelcome couple of hours birding the M23 from a stationary car. This following a thirteen car pile up. We should have gone along the coastal route to Dungeness but had included a quick stopover in Strood to pick up year ticks on the Waxwings. We just couldn't risk them turning round and heading for home without ever reaching Sussex.

Standing outside the Bounty Pub in a busy housing estate is not my idea of fun birding but I did at least get one reasonable picture. We counted thirteen birds in total but they stayed mostly in the tree tops just making occasional visits to pick berries from the lower trees.

Key target for the day was the Red-necked Grebe resident on one of the pools to the west of Camber. It had been there for over a week. It's a bird that I have often seen at a distance but have never been able to get close enough to get a picture. And so it proved today. We found a couple of Coots but the Red-necked Grebe seems to have moved on. What is worse is that we drove past the pool last week, before it was reported, but were short of time and did not stop for a look.


Consolation was that the Long-eared Owl behind the dipping pool at Dungeness RSPB, that we had missed last week, has now turned into two Long eared Owls. Really great to see but still very difficult to photograph.

We found the Ring-necked Duck easily enough but it was more distant than last week so we moved on to look for the Stejnegers Stonechat again. I am not sure what we are doing wrong but this is the third time we have drawn a blank. I keep reading reports about how easy it is to find and talking to people who have just seen it but it is not working for us.


A stop at Scotney Pitts gave an assortment of geese but nothing unusual and a search at Pett Level eventually gave us very distant views of the Taiga Bean Geese. We finished off at Pevensey Levels searching for an Owls but again drew a blank


A long day with some good birds and some missed opportunities. It looks as though we will have to go back for fourth time lucky with the Stejnegers

Crested Tits

Being the second part of my blog about our week in Scotland, this part is focused more on the smaller birds and as always the number one target was the Crested Tit. This was a new location for us, a bit less busy than Loch Garten, and with the added advantage of Red Squirrels and a good supporting cast of other birds. The only disadvantage was that it was difficult to spot the birds as they flew in, so most of the shots are taken on the feeders.

Other birds at the site included Goldcrests, with the unusual sight of one using the fat ball feeders, Coal Tits, Yellowhammers, Siskin, Long-tailed Tits, Robins and an army of Chaffinches.

Coal Tit

Goldcrest

Just amazed that the bill is still sharp - reminds me of a Humming Bird

Yellowhammer

and of course one of the Red Squirrels

We found Twite at at Netherton Farm at the south end of Findhorn Bay. There were about sixty birds in the flock including a few Linnets but they were very mobile and difficult to photograph. The shot below shows the yellow bill of the Twite.

Twite

There were a number of Glaucous and Iceland Gulls being reported in the area. We spent a bit of time scanning the Hopeman Pig Farm seeing first and third winter Iceland Gulls. Unfortunately the third winter flew just as we found it so the pictures below are of the first winter bird.

Iceland Gull

Iceland Gull

Other birds seen are shown below.

A Goosander flying up the River Lossie

Pink-footed Geese running for cover at the first sign of a camera

A Red-legged Partridge in the early morning sun.

There was a distinct shortage of waders at all sites that we visited but we did find a flock of around a hundred and fifty Knot at Burgh Head. These are a particularly annoying bird to try to photograph. There are too many of them to be able to get a shot of a single bird and the flocks are too big to be able to get the whole lot into the frame. The best thing is just to sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the flocks movement.

Knot - part of the flock - perhaps a collective noun of a confusion is appropriate

And finally on the way home we called in at the Northumberland Wildlife Trusts Cresswell Ponds. We had tried it on the way up looking for the Long-billed Dowitcher but were short of time so left without finding it. This time local birders put us onto it and we also saw Snipe and a Water Rail so a good end to the holiday.

Record shot of the Long-billed Dowitcher at Cresswell Ponds

It's a pity a that a lot of these shots are of birds on feeders, I usually try to avoid that, and also that many of the birds photographed have been ringed, but then beggars can't be choosers, it was that or no pictures at all.