Little Bunting

It always feels good when you see a bogey bird put to bed and for me the Little Bunting is one such bird. 

Back in 2015 Dave and I went to look for one that had been reported at Old Lodge Nature Reserve. It wasn't one of our most successful days and we ended up coming home without seeing the target bird. Later that evening Dave e-mailed me a picture he had taken of a small flock of Reed Buntings and sitting in the middle of it was the Little Bunting. I had seen the flock but a quick check of my shots for that day confirmed that I didn't have the picture.

There was no choice, it would be a life tick, I had to go back the next day for another go. Then the day after that and the one after that, seven successive days in all, with no luck even though others were reporting seeing it. Ridiculous really but I couldn't give it up, it was an eighty mile round trip and a waste of seven days with no result to show for it.

I did eventually get to see a Little Bunting but even then it was disappointing. I only managed to get a couple of pictures, they were poor and although I can look back at them now and know that it was a Little Bunting, I did at the time have my doubts.

Little Bunting

Today Warnham Nature Reserve delivered the goods, a Little Bunting sitting out in the open, if only for a few seconds. Just long enough to get the picture above before it moved behind cover and stayed there for a frustrating ten minutes or so before it dropped down on to the ground and started foraging.

It was surprisingly difficult to see and to follow whilst moving about in the leaf litter and twigs on the ground.

The picture below has a number of small out of focus twigs in front of the bird but it is worth including as it shows the head crown stripe which along with the straight culmen (upper ridge of the bill) are the key identifying features.

Other birds seen, a Marsh Tit, this one being ringed and a different bird from the one I saw in the same location a couple of weeks ago.

Marsh Tit

and a male Siskin

Siskin

I would have liked more and better pictures of the Little Bunting but I did at least come away a lot happier than I had with the Old Lodge bird. 

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.

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.

Eyeworth Pond

Mid February and time to make our annual trip to the New Forest to see Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Or, as it turns out almost every year, to spend a morning listening to distant drumming and to leave without managing to set eyes on them. This year was no exception. Greater spots drumming and a distant half hearted drumming from a Lesser Spot but no sight of them at all.

Plenty of birds in the forest but all of them difficult to approach although we did get the opportunity to photograph a juvenile Buzzard just after we entered the forest. It is not an unusual bird to see but it is one that I have always found difficulty in photographing.

We had a look at Blashford and a few of the enclosures but there was not much to see and even less to photograph. There were a few of the more common birds about but there was little point in spending time chasing them when our final stop of the day, at Eyeworth Pond Fritham,  would deliver close up views of all of these birds.

You do need to take a few handfulls of peanuts or sunflower seeds to keep their attention but the birds are conditioned to being fed and to being close to people.  It's not our usual idea of birding but it does lift the spirit to have so many "wild" birds almost close enough to touch.

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Even the Mandarins are happy to come over looking for food. We had seen ten of these at the northern end of Swanbourne Lake earlier in the week but they were very wary of people, staying well away from the feeding areas. The Eyeworth birds were out on the pond edge often too close to be able to get the picture.

Mandarin

Displaying to the ladies

Female Mandarin

Last time we visited there were a pair of Wood Ducks on the pond. I was hoping they would have stayed and I could have another go at photographing them but we did not see any sign of them this time.


As you leave the forest there are some areas of open grassland which are always good for Thrush species. Most were a bit distant but we were fortunate to get a pair of Mistle Thrushes that were feeding close to the car.

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

We didn't see anything spectacular and we didn't add any year ticks but it just felt good to be in close contact with the birds and to be taking pictures all day. The alternatives were standing in the cold all day waiting for the  Thayer's or Ross's Gulls to turn up -- boring!!

Long-tailed Duck

There have been quite a few trips out since the last blog but picture opportunities have been limited and on a couple of occasions so have the birds. A trip to Dungeness proved to be particularly disappointing. We had distant views of Smew and Slavonian Grebe but the Black-throated Diver we were hoping to see failed to make an appearance. Picture-wise all we managed were the Tree Sparrows at Boulderwall Farm.

Fortunately views of distant White-fronted Geese at Pett Level and then a Short-eared Owl in the half light at Horse Eye Level proved to be some compensation.

Similarly a trip up to Stapleash Farm didn't deliver on the Hawfinches or Little Owl but we did at least get to see Dartford Warblers on the commons. The only picture of the day was this Marsh Tit but even that proved hard to get as it scurried through the branches searching for food.

The Tit flocks seem to be dispersing as breeding season approaches and it was unusual to see this lone Long-tailed Tit feeding on the ground.

I also trekked through the mud on the footpath from Pagham to Honer reservoir. It was great to see the long staying Long-tailed Duck but I really should have worn the wellies.

The year ticks are gradually edging up but I am somewhat behind schedule as compared with previous years. The birds, particularly the Geese and the Owls,  just don't seem to be around in the same numbers. Just have to make do with Hawfinches.

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