Lammergeier

 

I had just arrived home from photographing the Grey Phalarope at Widewater when a message popped up on Twitter to say that the Lammergeier had been seen near East Dean. I knew it was travelling south and I had joked about getting a garden tick, but I hadn't really expected to get a chance to see it. The obvious route for it was down through Kent and out across the channel.

There really wasn't any choice, I jumped back in the car and headed off towards East Dean which is about a 50 minute journey. I pulled over just after crossing the Exceat bridge to check the Twitter messages for updates and realised that it had moved and was flying above the Friston Forest. Quite frustrating really as I was sitting in Friston Forest car park and couldn't see anything through the trees.

I had to retreat to more open ground at the Exceat bridge to get a view out over the forest.

The Lammergeier was distant, only really visible with binoculars, but there was no mistaking it as glided over the forest accompanied by a flock of crows and at least one Buzzard.

I tried driving along the Litlington Road but couldn't get any views of it so ended up at High and Over along with a lot of other birders and watched it from there. It was distant all the time I was observing but it is amazing what detail the camera can pick up given that it was barely visible without the binoculars.

I watched until it went to roost in a tree just north east of the Long Man Brewery on the Litlington road. It had made one close pass at High and Over before I arrived there, so I am sure there will be some good pictures about. There is also the chance to go and see it leave the roost in the morning but I get the feeling that it might be a bit busy along there. Perhaps if it is still around in a couple of days I might give it another go.

The main event of the day was meant to be photographing the Grey Phalarope but that ended up being a bit overshadowed by the Lammergeier. Still, an excellent bird for the local patch and well worth recording.

As with most Phalaropes it showed little fear of people, often approaching within a few feet of the observers.

It makes it easy to get good pictures but perhaps a little less rewarding in that the skill element necessary to get that picture is non existent.

I also find that I am starting to gather a lot of  images of these "rare" but easy to photograph birds. The Red-backed Shrike is another example.

Great bird though and who can turn down the opportunity of adding just a few more good pictures to the collection.

Grey Phalarope

It has been a frustrating autumn migration, made even worse by the reports of good birds from around the country. I really don't understand what the birds have against coming to visit us in Sussex. I have spent hours walking the local birding spots looking for a rarity, have stalked many promising looking birds only to discover Chiffchaffs, Reed Buntings, Goldfinches, etc. and have generally started to sink into a state of despair over birding the local patch. I don't think I have taken a single decent picture since the Eastern Olivacious Warbler back in mid September.

Today I decided to change my luck. A Snow Bunting at Shoreham Fort and a Grey Phalarope at the Cuckmere were bankers. Both appearing to be in residence for a few days, both species loyal to a small patch so making them easy to find, and both easy to approach giving the promise of some decent photographs.

It was going to be a good day, except it didn't start too well, the Snow Bunting had gone AWOL. Undaunted I moved on to the Seven Sisters Country Park and headed off down the footpath to the Phalaropes location. On the way I spoke to one kind lady who told me that there was a police car down there with the occupants flying a drone out along the cliffs and that the drone had flushed the Phalarope. It didn't look good.

The valley looked great with the meanders and the flood plain mostly under water but on arriving at the target location there was no sign of the bird. I stood on the path scanning the area for about ten minutes just hoping I would see it flying back in but with no sign of it I decided to move on. Fortunately Alan Kitson, walking in from the opposite direction,  kindly pointed out that the Phalorope was feeding under the bank less than three metres from where I was standing. All credit to Alan, he even managed to keep a straight face whilst he was telling me!

What a great bird to see and to photograph. It paid no attention to me, to the people walking by, or to the police car passing close to it. Its sole interest seemed to be the task of clearing the Cuckmere of flies which it was picking up off the weed covered surface of the pool.

A great bird to see, easy to photograph, although strangely difficult to get a good photograph. Dull lighting and a grey bird against a grey background don't make for the best  of photographic opportunities.

Only usually seen in the UK when on migration and in this dull grey plumage the bird is known outside of Europe as a Red Phalarope due to its bold red breeding plumage. Migration from the arctic breeding grounds is usually down the western coast of the UK to the Atlantic Ocean where it winters off the coast of Africa and South America. Recent storms have probably driven this one inland where it is topping up on supplies before it completes the rest of its migration.

Grey Phalarope

Only my second blog of the month. It's been a tough Autumn with very few interesting birds about and even less in the way of photo opportunities. The Grey Phalarope dates all the way back to the first day of the month at Bough Beech Reservoir. 

Always a great bird to see but there was nothing much else about so I thought I would hold it back until I had some other pictures to add to it. Here I am at the end of the month and I am still struggling to come up with anything else.

So here are the best of the rest.

Jay on Holm Oak at Church Norton

Kestrel at Kithurst Hill

Blackcap - Kithurst Hill

Reed Bunting Pagham North Wall

My first Fieldfares of the year - Pagham North Wall

Whimbrel - Church Norton

Common Darter

Not much to show for a months birding although I did get to see the Rustic Bunting at Wanstead Flats. Just too much good weather, the birds seem to have gone straight through Sussex without stopping. Lets hope the current cold snap brings a few Winter goodies.

Pectoral Sandpiper and Grey Phalarope

I did a few jobs around the house and then with the sun shining outside I thought I would make a return trip to the Ferry Pool to see if I could improve on yesterdays picture of the Grey Phalarope. As I arrived I could see a group of people standing by the road and pointing there scopes and cameras down into the reeds. It all looked very promising.

I parked the car and crossed the road to what must be my least favourite birding spot. You stand on a path no more than three foot wide, with a low metal railing and the pool below on one side and on the other the cars, HGVs and buses thundering past. The strange thing is that the birds don't seem to be fazed by all the movement and noise.

The Phalarope and the Pectoral Sandpiper were feeding in the reeds no more than twenty feet from the traffic and less than that from the assembled birders. They didn't even seem to be upset by the occasional, more mentally challenged, members of the Selsey community that feel obliged to go by sounding their horns. I am not sure if they hope to scare the birds away or perhaps just to frighten one of the birders into jumping into the pool.

So, the birds were close and the sun shining, I should have superb pictures. Nearly, but not quite, I should have done better. I would have prefer diffuse sunlight, the angle of the sun was wrong, I was photographing down onto the birds, it was difficult to get a clear shot through the reeds, and the reeds were casting shadows over the birds. I could probably think of a few more excuses as well.

So here we go with the Pec Sand first. Fortunately you don't have to look at all the ones that didn't make the grade.

and the Grey Phalarope. I think this one spotted me hiding behind all the scopes and objected to having its photograph taken, so I only got a few shots before it flew off to the back of the pool.

This was a really beautiful bird. I think I will have to go back and have another go at this one.

Common Crane

I haven't put a blog up for the past week or so. There have been plenty of birding opportunities  and I have seen some good birds but I am having one of those spells when you just don't seem to be able to take a decent picture.

Tuesday last week Dave and I made a return visit to Dungeness. I had managed to miss the White-winged Black Tern when we visited the previous week and with nothing else to chase we decided to give it another go. It was on the ARC pit and sitting on exactly the same island as the Black tern we had seen on the last visit.

It was not close enough for a good picture but there could be no doubt on the identification. It as lacking the dark breast patch evident on the Black Tern and as it flew off there was a clear view of the white rump.

White-winged Black Tern

with the all important white rump

This week I had planned a trip down to Slimbridge to see the Cranes and with a Glossy Ibis reported at Ham Wall it looked like an interesting if somewhat long trip. I should have gone Monday but when I got up at five o'clock the weather outside was awful and with the promise of better weather on the Tuesday I decided to put it off for a day. Tuesday and the weather was even worse but I decided to go anyway. Unfortunately so did the Ibis. It had been giving good views on the Monday but despite three hours of searching I could find no sign of it, nor has it been reported since. I will put that miss down to the BBC weather forecast yet again. All I managed to see at Ham Wall was a Marsh Harrier.

Marsh Harrier

Fortunately the Common Cranes were showing at Slimbridge. There were four visible in the fields to the north of the wetland centre although they were all some way off. At first I though that I would not be able to get a picture but the rain had cleared the air and when the sun came out I got a distant shot.

Common Cranes - 500mm lens 1.4 extender and 1.6 camera multiplier

A crop of the above shot

With these birds being barely visible to the naked eye I was quite pleased to walk away with this shot. Given the proportions of the two birds in the picture this looks as though it could be parent and fledgling. If so it is one of the first free born and free flying Common Cranes fledged in this country for 400 years. On the other hand it could just be a small adult!

For interest hear is a shot of one of the captive Common Cranes from inside the wetland centre.

Captive Common Crane

There was also a Kingfisher showing well from one of the hides. I didn't want to miss the cranes so I just grabbed a few quick shots with the intention of going back later. I did, but of course by then the Kingfisher had gone missing.

Finally I had a quick trip down to the Ferry Pool at Pagham Harbour this morning to see if the Grey Phalarope was still there. Most people were searching for the Pectoral Sandpiper but without any success. I was quite pleased that I had seen it when it first arrived at the North Wall (see here).

The Phalarope was there but as usual it was right at the back of the pool. It kept making a purposeful approach along the southern edge of the pool but every time it looked like coming into range of the camera it would fly back to the far corner. I managed a record shot, during one of the brief breaks in the rain, but it's not very good.

So some good birds but not many good pictures. Lets hope for a return to some sunny autumn weather next week.

Hove - Grey Phalarope

I had just decided to pay a visit to the Gull roost at Goring when an alert came through for a Grey Phalarope on the children's paddling pool at Hove Lagoon. It seemed a bit unlikely. The pool is in a really busy area, it was a Sunday afternoon, and the first dry day for a long time. It would be packed with people, children, and dogs, and it was probably the last place I would think of looking for such a bird. Still, if there it would be a year tick and its not a bird I could guarantee catching up with later in the year.

I am glad I went and my thanks to whoever put out the alert. It was a great bird to see and it seemed to have no fear of people or dogs.

Grey Phalarope

It was overcast and drizzling by the time I got there so the pictures were never going to be brilliant but I did get a few record shots. It was not too difficult, as the bird was quite happy feeding only a few feet away from the gathered watchers. In fact I would have been better off with a smaller lens as most of the time I found myself having to back away from the bird to get the big lens to focus.

It did go out on the larger lagoon a couple of times but kept returning to the paddling pool which is only a few inches deep. They do seem to favour walking around in shallow water when they are feeding over having to swim on deeper water but I am not sure what food it would have found in the paddling pool.

On the way home I called in to Widewater to see he Red-breasted Mergansers. The weather was even worse by then and pictures were very difficult. They have been there for a few weeks now but I have yet to see them on a decent day.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Still, getting a picture of one catching a fish made it worthwhile.

Red-breasted Merganser with fish

 The gulls were out over the sea and seemed to be having a great time with the wind and waves. There is probably a lot of food being washed up and there were certainly more gulls on the sea at both Hove and Widewater than I would normally expect to see. Great to watch but all the action made it very difficult to spot anything unusual amongst them.

Grey Phalarope, Snow Bunting, and Kingfisher

Travelling back from Canterbury Sunday afternoon I stopped off at Tide Mills to see the Grey Phalarope that had been reported there. I was on site between 2.00 and 3.00 but saw nothing. It was only when I got  home that I found reports of sightings at both 1.30 and 3.30. Perhaps it had flown out to sea whilst I was there or perhaps I was just not looking hard enough. What ever the reason I was determined to have another go.

Monday morning, I picked Dave up, and we headed back to Tide Mills. Bit of a risk really. Dave has dipped a few birds recently and we were starting to think he was turning into a jinx. Fortunately everything went well this time. A couple of birders had already located the Phalarope when we arrived and we soon had good views.

Grey Phalarope

We watched it for a couple of hours. The bird spent most of the time feeding with occasional rest periods spent in the shelter of small rocks. Most of the feeding was in shallow water with the bird walking rather than swimming and finding huge numbers of worms. If its only interest is food it could be staying for a while.

actively feeding

finding lots of worms

The species spends the summer in the high Arctic with Iceland being its southernmost breeding location. They then migrate to the South Atlantic for the winter rarely visiting land.

Known as the Grey Phalarope in this country where it is seen in its non-breeding plumage most books refer to them as Red Phalarope on account of their stunning red breeding colours.  The female has brighter colouration than the male. They are also unusual in that the male takes responsibility for incubation of the eggs and care of the young with the female either mating a second time or starting migration early.

Easy to photograph - they seem unconcerned about people being around

As the tide came in and the mud was covered up the bird gradually moved away and we decided to move on.

We did find a Bar-headed Goose in amongst some Canada Geese. Interesting but probably an escapee. I saw one earlier in the year on the Arun and there have been a few other reports recently.

Bar-headed Goose

However, most of the afternoon was spent watching and photographing an obliging Kingfisher. I thought the pictures were going to be fantastic, but maybe we were a little bit too far away, the lighting was not quite right, or the photographer was not quite up to the job.
I came away with some good record shots but they could have been so much better.

Kingfisher on perch

Looks like a female with the red base to lower mandible

Successful dive

Note the way the wing and back colour change from greenish through to bright blue dependant on lighting conditions

I tried to capture a shot of it diving into the water but ended up with dozens of empty frames. Even flight shots proved difficult. I know I should be using shutter speeds of a round 1/2000sec to freeze the action but the high ISO required to deliver these speeds would give an unacceptable level of noise in the picture.

Taken at 1/800sec but still too slow

And to finish off with a couple of shots of the Snow Bunting on Worthing beach at the end of last week.

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Another good days birding. We really seem to have left the doldrums of the late summer behind.