Wryneck

A morning up on Chantry and Kithurst hills, earlier in the week, gave great sightings of up to ten Ravens and half a dozen Buzzards. We watched them for a couple of hours as they practiced aerobatics, squabbled over territory, and just seemed to be enjoying themselves tumbling in the updrafts.

Great fun but a bit of a disaster for me, photographic wise. I took lots of pictures but the quality was just not there; poor light, blurred, out of focus, heat haze, mist, lots of excuses but at the end of the day, probably just that the photographers skills were not up to the challenge. So only one shot from the session.

Ravens on Kithurst Hill

Find of the day was this Wryneck spotted in the distance as we waked up towards the trig point. Nice to find our own rather than have to go twitching someone else's bird, even if we did only get fleeting views.

Big crop of a distant Wryneck

Lots of Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings about although the flock of Corn Buntings seemed to be making a point of avoiding anywhere that I chose to stand.

Yellowhammer

A trip up to Cissbury today produced mixed results, with the usually reliable Monarch's Way proving to be virtually birdless. We did see a few Yellow Wagtails in with the cattle but these were spooked by the farmer coming through on his quad bike.

Yellow Wagtail

Cissbury Ring itself was also looking quiet with just a raven and a couple of Wheatears.

Wheatear

Second Wheatear

But fortunately, as we were about to leave a mixed flock of Spotted Flycatchers and Redstarts came through the wooded area on the east of the ring and rescued the day.

Redstart

Spotted Flycatchers

Earlier in the week we had seen a good number of Yellow Wagtails in with the cattle at the western end of the North Wall but these had proved to be very flighty. With good numbers of Cattle Egrets being reported it seemed to be worth another visit.

Grey Heron on the Breech Pool

There was no sign of the Yellow Wags but the Cattle Egrets were showing well with a group of twelve birds, consisting of eleven Cattle Egrets and one Little Egret. A record number for me in this country.

Eleven Cattle Egrets and One Little Egret front right

We also managed to get a distant sighting of the Spoonbill out in White's Creek but missed out on the Curlew Sandpiper that has been around for a few days.

Ravens

A recent holiday with the family in North Devon proved to be very enjoyable, if just a bit frustrating as far as bird watching went.

I had great plans - a detour on the way down to see the Purple Heron and Red-footed Falcon, a trip to Lundy Island giving me a four hour sea watch and a chance to see the Puffins, and a couple of walks planned for locations with Wood Warblers. If I was really lucky and got a few hot days I might also get an early High Brown Fritillary.

Needless to say, it did not quite happen as planned. We were late leaving due to a hairdressers appointment that I had not factored in (not mine) and I had to abandon the detour. The trip to Lundy was great but I only saw a couple of Gannets and a few Guillemots on the boat trips and the Puffins were too far away for a photograph. I did one of the Wood Warbler walks without seeing any Wood Warblers and then when I went to my banker site at Watersmeet it was so crowded that I couldn't even get into the car park.

Still, there's always something to look at and in flight shots of the Ravens and Fulmars from the local cliffs proved to be one of the best attractions.

Raven

and with a tasty morsel of food!

Raven

Fulmar

Fulmar

Plenty of Grey Wagtails about

Grey Wagtail

and juvenile Grey Wagtails

and even younger Grey Wagtails

Linnet

Rock Pipits in the coastal steams

A Whitethroat

A juvenile Warbler - probably a Chiffchaff

and just for the record a very distant  and heavily cropped shot of a Puffin

It's not the raft of excellent photographs that I had hoped to come home with but it is the record of the birds seen on my holiday.

Raven and Others

Another overcast and less than promising day but I was tempted out by reports of a couple of interesting birds over at Langstone Harbour and a Ravens nest being built at Cosham. My first stop was at Warblington Church to see if the Glossy Ibis was still around. It was, and these were the closest views I have ever had of this bird, but without any sun it just looked black and there were none of the deep greens, bronze and coppery red reflections I was hoping to capture. Still, a nice bird and I was happy to see it there.

Glossy Ibis

The bird was visible from the church path which leads through to the Nore stream at Emsworth. I had been there on a couple of occasions to see the resident Spotted Redshank but without any luck. It was high tide so I was not very hopeful of seeing the bird but it was only a short walk so I decided to give it a go.

Much to my surprise the Spotted Redshank was in the water about six feet from the path and showed no signs of moving. I actually had to move away from it to be able to get the camera to focus. It seemed too good to be true and it was. I managed one picture before the inevitable dog walker came along and the dog dived into the water in an attempt to catch the bird.

My remonstrations met with the usual arrogance - it was a Springer Spaniel - that's what they do - what did I expect. When I told her what I expected, I got the ultimate insult, she called me a Twitcher, deeply hurtful!

Fortunately the bird did not go too far and I still managed to get some good pictures.

Spotted Redshank

Reflections

It was proving to be a good day so I headed off to Cosham to see if I could locate an electricity pylon with a Ravens nest being built on it.

The nest is visible from the footpath running alongside the James Callaghan Drive at the top of the chalk pits. You cannot get close to the nest but you do get superb views.

A nest with a view

Raven - Black birds are always difficult to photograph

Bringing lining for the nest

Female trying it out for size

On the way home I called in at Budd's Sewage Works. First time I had been there and I was amazed at the number of birds present. I was hoping for good pictures of the Scaup but they stayed distant and the female did not raise her head to show the white face blaze that would confirm the identification.

Scaup - male on the left female on the right - white face blaze just visible

I had gone out with low expectations but it proved to be a good day. Plenty of birds about and enough light to get some good pictures.