Red-necked Grebe

Wednesday and a promising start to the day with the mist clearing and the sun starting to break through. First stop was Warblington just over the border into Hampshire. The fields around the church are becoming a reliable area for Cattle Egrets. Only one so far this year but there were eight here at one point last year and also birds present for a couple of years before that.

Find the cattle and you can usually find the Cattle Egret. This time in the field just west of the cemetery at the end of Church Lane. There is a Little Egret roost close by and this morning five of them had joined in with feeding on the insects disturbed by the cattle.

Next stop was Church Norton to look for the reported Red-necked Grebe. This is a bird that I had seen a few times before but it had always been distant and my only record shots were poor. We were fortunate in meeting Andrew House when we arrived but the update he provided was mixed - Still there but distant. 

A walk along the spit and we realised we were in luck. The Red-necked was being aggressively pursued by a Great Crested Grebe and it was bringing it in closer to the shore.

It was not clear why this bird was behaving so aggressively, possibly protecting some food source, later we saw the Red-necked happily feeding alongside another Great Crested without any problems.

Fortunately things eventually quietened down and we managed to get a couple of reasonable shots.

There was not much to look at on the North Wall other than an idiot in a light plane (G-MZPJ) making a number of low passes across the harbour and seemingly intent on disturbing all the birds. Possibly practising forced landings but if so a poor choice of locations and lucky not to be involved with any bird strikes.

With little else of interest at the North Wall we headed off to the Burgh in the hope of seeing a few raptors and downland birds. Again nothing much showing. A distant Buzzard, Corn Bunting and Grey Partridge but no sight of the Red Kites and no Fieldfares or Redwings in the usual fields below Burpham Church.

Still, a good day out and a few shots of the Red-necked Grebe that are better than anything I had before.

Water Pipit 2

I was a bit disappointed with the shots I took of the Water Pipit. The lighting was good that day but I just did not manage to nail it, so Friday afternoon I went back for another go. It looked OK when I left home but by the time I got to Apuldram the light had gone and it was starting to rain. I took a few quick shots but lack of contrast or dull lighting conditions, meant that when I got home I found that the pictures were not really sharp.

Water Pipit - nice grass but the bird is a bit soft

It looked like a wasted trip but then it's always worth checking every shot. Sometimes when everything seems wrong you just get lucky and I ended up with the shot below. A Water Pipit with attitude.

Earlier in the week we had a day looking for Geese at Scotney and Pett Level. They were all a bit distant for photographs but we did have a successful day for year ticks. White-fronted, Pink-footed, Greylags, Canada, Barnacles, Emperors, but we missed out on the Bean Geese. We had seen the Taiga the week before and only needed the Tundra at Scotney for the full set. We thought we had them but blowing the pictures up on the big screen when we got home they looked more like a couple of juvenile White-fronted than the Tundra Bean Geese we were looking for.

The day also gave us year ticks for Black-throated Diver on Scotney, Red-necked Grebe on a pool at Camber, a Bittern on the ARC Pit at Dungeness, and Bearded Tits at Pett Level.

Bearded Tit

Bittern on the far side of the ARC Pit

Red-necked Grebe

The picture of the Red-necked Grebe was taken at a distance of  of about 230 metres and then heavily cropped. It's not good but it is the best image of this bird that I have ever managed to get.


I think I might be going back for another go at the Water Pipit.