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

Waxwing

I am still waiting for the Waxwings to arrive in Sussex but with time moving on it is starting to look as though we could miss out on seeing them. That will not come as a surprise to most of the local birders. In an exceptional year across the country, for  rare and scare birds, Sussex has been noticeably missing from the list. Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire seem to be a birding Bermuda Triangle.


Today I needed to travel down to Canterbury. It is a regular trip and I usually take the opportunity to visit a few birding sites on the way. With Waxwings having been reported in the north Kent town of Strood and with it only being a short distance from my intended route it seemed to be worth a visit. At least I would have the opportunity of a 2016 year tick.

When I arrived it didn't look too bad. There were only two other birders present and the Waxwings were flying between a high tree perch and  an orange fruiting Rowan in a garden opposite the Bounty Pub. The only problem was that the Rowan was mostly in shadow.

After about half an hour the lighting improved but unfortunately the number of birders also increased. We were getting up close to twenty people with most standing directly under the feeding tree, setting up tripods and talking loudly. The Waxwings were coming down but were just grabbing a few berries and heading back to the safety of their high level perch.

How inconsiderate birders can be. Don't they realise that I need to have these bird all to myself, for about an hour, in what was turning out to be perfect light. We all have our problems. In the end I gave in, joined the fray, grabbed a couple of quick pictures, and then left to find a more peaceful place.

Dave and I have been able to get some great pictures of Waxwings in the past but you need time and space. A large twitch severely reduces your chances of success. I think, that in the new year, we could be making the trip up north, possibly even to Scotland where at the moment Waxwings can be found in their hundreds. 

My route to Canterbury then continued via a minor detour to Dungeness. I had no specific target but it is always a place where something unusual could turn up. There were Smew and Goldeneye on the Burrows Pit but both were too far away for even a record shot. I also failed to find the Ring-necked Duck behind Bolderwall Farm. However, there were good numbers of Tree Sparrows around Bolderwall, which was good to see after missing them earlier in the summer.

The Long-eared Owl was in its usual spot behind the dipping pool. With the green foliage gone it was at least a bit easier to find him this time.

Lots of other birds but nothing really unusual. The Great White Egret dosen't even raise an eyebrow these days other than for me to think that it is unusual to only find one at Dungeness.

Finally another shot of a Kestrel. One day I will get that picture of a Merlin that has been at the top of my list for so long.

Not a bad day out given that it is just a day after the mid winter solstice.

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.

Laughing Gull

Friday 6th March

The start of a much awaited, weeks birding in Scotland, based in the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on Spey. Best of all I had a guide to take me around as Dave had made a number of previous visits to the area and had all the best birding sites mapped out.

First stop was on the way up when we diverted off the M6 into Cheshire and visited New Brighton to look for the juvenile Laughing Gull. On arrival it looked a bit disappointing with no sign off the bird on its usual Marine Lake pontoon and no other birders visible. A quick search along the front located it at the model boating lake about 400m away where it was happily bathing with a few Black-headed Gulls. Unfortunately it then took off and disappeared from sight.

Another search and we relocated it on the beach where it seemed happy to pose for pictures.

First winter Laughing Gull

The Laughing Gull is a rare vagrant to the UK from America where it breeds in Mexico, the Caribbean and around the south and east coasts of the USA. There are usually two or three sighting a year in the UK mostly of juvenile birds but they do not occur every year.

This is a bird that is never going to go hungry!

With the Laughing Gull in the bag we decided to pay a visit to Burton Mere RSPB. I hadn't expected much but it turned out to be an excellent site with some decent hides, lots of viewing screens and great staff. You actually felt that they wanted to give you decent views of the birds instead of what seems to be coming the norm of focusing on the shops and restaurants and keeping you as far from the birds as possible.

We only had an hour before the car park closed so it was a quick dash round to look for the Long-eared Owl. I had to ignore all the feeders and attendant birds and the viewing screens to make sure that I got back to the car before the gates were locked. It was great to see the Owl but it was the usual view of a Long-eared, buried in a bramble bush in the darkest place that it could find. Then to make it even worse it had leaves over its face.

How do they get into these roosts without tearing there feathers to bits?

Views through the bins were a lot darker than this but the camera over exposes assuming an 18% grey image to give a much clearer picture.

There was no way to improve on the picture and I was not going to disturb the Owl so I grabbed a few shots and headed back to the car.  This is definitely a site that I will be coming back to. Perhaps a week on the Wirral should be my next birding trip.

If you want to see better views of a Long-eared Owl have a look at the shots here that I took of one out in the open at Pagham Harbour.

We stayed over at Lancaster that night and continued on to Grantown the next morning. Musselburgh gave us good views of Eider, Common, Velvet, and Surf Scoter, Red-breasted Mergansers, and Goldeneye, but few were close enough for pictures. These Goldeneye in the river mouth gave the only photographic opportunities
.

Female Goldeneye

Male Goldeneye

Long-eared Owl and Bonelli's Warbler

Birding doesn't get much better than this.

I had seen the reports of the Long-eared Owl close to the  Pagham Harbour RSPB Visitors Centre but had not expected it to be there for a second day. However, with no other plans I decided to head off in that direction and see what was about. First stop was the north wall. Perhaps I could get that picture of a Cetti's Warbler that I have been chasing for so long.

Cetti's were singing but not showing so I had to make do with an obliging Sedge Warbler.

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

The waders and ducks have mostly moved on but there were still a few Black-tailed Godwits about. It would be nice if they hang around long enough to see them in full summer colours.

Black-tailed Godwit - Needs a few more weeks for full Summer plumage

And there were a few Swallows collecting mud from the Horse field and sunning themselves on the fences.

Swallow

Looking a bit wind swept

When I eventually moved on to the Visitors Centre I was not expecting too much. If the Long-eared Owl was still there it would probably be in the middle of a thick bush with just its ears or eyes showing. They never sit out in the open.........

but this one did

A once in a lifetime opportunity

When I arrived the owl had its eyes closed but I still managed to take over a hundred pictures. Then it opened them and I took another hundred pictures. They are all very similar and it was a complete waste of time but you just felt the need to capture the moment. Or as it turned out hundreds of moments. The Owl seemed to be totally unconcerned by our presence, about 30 foot away on the path, and we were able to watch it like this for a couple of hours.

 I moved on to the car park at Church Norton thinking I would have a quick look around for any migrants. As I sat in the car eating a sandwich I noticed a couple of the local birding grandees hurrying by. If it was worth them breaking into a sweat then it must be interesting. If in doubt follow at a discreet distance.

Surly the day couldn't get any better - but it could, they had their scopes on a Bonelli's Warbler. I could see that it was not one of your normal run of the mill warblers but I would not have had a clue without their expertise. There was some discussion as to it being a Western or an Eastern Bonelli's but I was not really to bothered. Bonelli's was good enough for me.

No great pictures this time. It was too far away and did not hang around for long but at least I got some record shots.

Confirmed as a Western Bonelli's Warbler

Non stop feeding and very fast moving

 The bird was later confirmed as a Western Bonelli's Warbler a rare vagrant to this country. I will probably have to go back to Pagham harbour tomorrow just in case it returns. There is always a better picture waiting to be taken.


Addition

I went back the next day but did not get to see the bird again. I have had to resort to tidying up the best of my record shots.

First picture above with obstructing vegetation removed

How much tampering with the picture is acceptable?