Kittiwake

I have been out gathering year ticks over the past week. That is, see the bird and move on, rather than stand and wait for the right picture opportunity. However, I have still ended up with a few pictures that are worth putting on the blog.

One of the key birds I was looking for was a Little Gull. I was standing in the right place, just by Southsea pier, a juvenile Little Gull had been seen a few minutes earlier, and this bird was sitting just off the beach. The risk is that we see what we are looking for and not what is actually there. It looked good, but then, the bill was the wrong shape, the dark collar on the back of the neck looked wrong, and it should have had black cap of some form. It's actually a juvenile Kittiwake but it had me fooled for a while and I had to spend some time delving through books on gull identification once I got home to be sure.

Therein lies the real benefit of bird photography. You get a second chance to check the identification. Without that I could easily have made a mistake.

Juvenile Kittiwake

Juvenile Kittiwake

Fortunately we caught up with a Juvenile Little Gull a couple of days later on Climping Beach. It was too far away for a picture but at least that time I had a lot clearer idea of what I was looking for.

It's hard work but I think I could actually get to like juvenile gull identification.

Other gulls spotted whilst we were out were Common and Mediterranean. The first at Arundel Wetland Centre and the second on Climping Beach. However, with Waldo failing to return to Gosport, there is no easy Ring-billed Gull this year.

Common Gull

Mediterranean Gull

The Wetland Centre also gave us ticks for Goldcrest and Firecrest. As you might expect there were a couple of decent Goldcrest shots but all the Firecrest pictures were blurred.

Goldcrest

Farlington Marsh gave us distant views of Bearded Tits but there was no chance of a picture. Fortunately the ever present Stonechat popped up to have his picture taken.

Stonechat

And, finally a trip to Church Norton didn't give us the views of a Spoonbill that we were looking for but we did get to see an overwintering Whimbrel that was hunkering down out of the wind.

Whimbrel

It has not been a bad start to the year but there are still a few of the winter birds that I would like to find before they head off to their summer grounds.

A Few Quiet Days Birding

Its all been very quiet on the birding front lately. I have been out plenty of times but its just the usual suspects around, I have not managed to see anything new or unusual. I have had some target birds in mind, Turtle Dove, Flycatcher, Little Tern, Osprey and they are about, if only in small numbers, but so far not visible when I am there. Still it's great getting out into the countryside early in the morning, it really makes you feel alive. I know my luck will change soon, I just need to go birding even more often to make it happen!

The following pictures are the best from the past weeks birding and where better to start than the ubiquitous Whitethroat.

Whitethroat - Seaford Head

Linnet - Hope Gap

Another Whitethroat - Hope Gap

Rye Harbour looked like giving the best chance of seeing the Little Terns and at first I thought I was in luck, but you start to get suspicious when you realise they are not moving.

Perhaps if I added a bit of blur in Photoshop ......

Plenty of Common and Sandwich Terns there and a few Mediterranean Gulls on the edges of the Black-headed Gull colonies.

Sandwich Terns nesting amongst the Black-headed Gulls

Sandwich Tern

and in flight

Common Tern with half a fish

Mediterranean Gulls

I also called in on Arlington Reservoir. There are Turtle Doves around there somewhere and I often hear them calling but I have yet to see them. The Osprey did drop in whilst I was there but unfortunately I was off investigating the river just below the weir which is usually a good place for Damselflies and I missed it.

I did get to see a Great Crested Grebe trying to swallow a large fish. It took about a quarter of an hour to get it down as the bird was getting tired and the fish kept slipping out. It did succeed in the end but as it sailed off into the distance it still had the end of the fishes tail sticking out of its mouth.

Great Crested Grebe with its catch

Just a quick swallow

Proving a bit harder than expected - keeps slipping out

All gone - nearly!

 Do birds suffer from indigestion?

Nice to see so many so many fledglings about as well. This Pied Wagtail was busy trying to keep three hungry youngsters happy.

Already bigger than its mum.

And to finish off a nice sunset shot of a Sanderling in full summer Plumage.

Sanderling