American Horned Lark

The title should perhaps read American Horned Lark Revisited. We had been to Staines Reservoir to see the bird back at the end of November last year. It was another of  those cases of "you should have been here ten minutes ago". It had been showing well at a distance of about ten metres but as we arrive it flew away. We waited a couple of hours in the freezing cold and did eventually get to see it but at a distance of about 200 metres. You could make it out through the telescope but there was no chance of a record shot.

The bird has been AWOL for about a month, probably resident, out of sight, on one of the other reservoirs around the area. Having seen it reported again we were back on the case. Today was all about getting that record shot that we had missed last time.

Everything looked perfect when we arrived. It was a lot warmer than last time and the sun was shining. The bird wasn't around but other birders told us that it was returning to the same spot on a regular basis. We congratulated ourselves on not having travelled yesterday in the pouring rain and settled down to wait.

It was only a few minutes later, when the bird appeared, that we realised that from a photographic point of view things weren't so perfect. A low and very bright sun along with strong reflections off the water made it very difficult to get a picture. Perhaps yesterdays wet conditions would have given better results.

It was really a case of just trying to grab a shot every time the bird turned side on and caught some sun on its features.

There was no chance of that show stopper picture we were hoping for but at least we had our record shots. This is not a bird that I am likely to see in this country again and we were just happy to get a second chance.

Being part way round the M25 we decided to press on towards Rickmansworth and visit Stockers Lake. This was a chance to record a year tick on Red-crested Pochards, not a bird that we always manage to see. We found them easily enough Two groups consisting of four males and two females, but our visit seemed to have coincided with siesta time. They were on the banks or in deep cover and picture opportunities were limited. The shot below grabbed just as they were settling down to roost.

Picture of some nice sharp branches

Lunchtime and early afternoon is clearly not the best time to visit Stockers, even the Parakeets were asleep.

Overall, a good day out. Even the drive around the M25 didn't seem so bad today.

Fledglings

I haven't been out birding much this past couple of months. A combination of a lot of wet weather,  a lack of any really inspiring birds in the Sussex area, and an unwillingness to get involved in any long distant twitches.

We did pay a visit to Cliffe Pools to see the Marsh Sandpiper and we did see it but it was very distant. I managed to get a picture although it is not one that I would care to put up on the blog. Frustrating really, it now moves on to my hit list, of nine birds, that I have seen but for which I did not manage to get a decent picture. Although I have to say that is a very subjective view. On a bad day I look at my pictures and think they could all do with improvement.

So today was a fresh start, the first days birding of the rest of my life. You just felt that Autumn was in the air and the migrants were on their way. Sad to say we failed to connect with them but there were a few fledglings around that will soon be migrating in the opposite direction.

The area around the sluice at Pagham North Wall is always a good spot to find baby Swallows at this time of year. Today there were probably three families in the area with about ten hungry mouths waiting to be fed.

Amazing to think that they are just a few weeks out of the egg and in a couple more weeks they will be on their way to Africa.

There were also a good number of Sedge Warbler fledglings in the reeds waiting to be fed.

They were probably just a little bit to eager, climbing to the top of the reeds and calling loudly for their parents. Good for me taking pictures but they are making themselves a bit of a target.

No Sparrowhawks about but there were a pair of Peregrines hunting across the area. These are probably the ground nesting ones from the island in the harbour. I doubt the Chichester Cathedral pair are welcome in the area any more.

Below are a few odd pictures taken earlier in the year. There weren't enough for a blog at the time but they are still worth recording.



The first a Black-tailed Godwit in Summer Plumage, again from the North Wall Pagham.

Ring-necked Parakeets taken at Kew Gardens from the high level walkway. So common in London but still a rarity just fifty miles south.

And two from a quick stop at Fairburn Ings on the way north. I had hoped to see Willow Tits. They were there but not showing in the short time I had. Consolation was from good views of nesting Sand Martins and a few Tree Sparrows.

Ring-necked Parakeets

I was staying in East London for a couple of days so got up early Friday morning and went out onto Dagenham Chase to listen to the dawn chorus. With the sun just breaking the horizon, with bird song all around, and with about 260 hectares of green space, it was easy to forget that I was in the middle of one of the most "developed" areas in the country. Even the odd pile of discarded drinks containers and fast food wrappers could not spoil the feel of the place. For once I was even out before the dog walkers.

Song Thrush in the early morning light

Dunnock - probably my most photographed bird

I don't really associate Jays with the dawn chorus but it was great to see these two feeding out in one of the open spaces, although they quickly fled back into the trees when they spotted me.

Jays

I saw over forty species of birds in the hour and a half after dawn. Most were the common species but Ring-necked Parakeets and an Egyptian Goose were firsts for me this year. The Egyptian Geese have now used the area for breeding for the last three years, although sadly, I was told that all nine of the chicks they produced this year have been predated.

Egyptian Goose

Then a screech, a flash of green and the Parakeets appeared. I know they are officially classed as a pest, I know there are flocks of hundreds around London, and I know they are a threat to some of our resident birds but I don't get to see them very often and I just like the colour, the movement and the noise that they add to the birding scene.

Ring-necked Parakeets

These are probably females as they do not show
the rose pink and black collars of the males

I was told that the Parakeets had recently arrived in the area in large numbers. Their dispersement around the country seems slow but relentless and they will soon cover the whole of the South of England.

At the other end of the day I managed a quick walk around Rainham Marshes RSPB. There wasn't much time to stop and search but we did manage to see a Spoonbill and a Garganey, my second for the week, and we had good views of a Cettie's that popped out on the reeds in front of us.

Garganey

I made a quick search of the stone barges area but could not find any Water Pipits. I think they must have mostly moved north for the summer but I am still hopeful of catching up with one before the end of the month.

Ring-necked Parakeet

With the birding on the south  coast still slow we decided to visit the London Wetland Centre to see if the Garganey was still there and also Richmond Park to catch up with the Ring-necked Parakeets. This was my first visit to the Wetland Centre as I had been put off by the thought of the drive through London. It's not my idea of the best way to start a days birding.

Actually, the drive up there wasn't too bad but the birding was just as slow as our local patch. There were plenty of ducks around including Shoveler and Gadwall but no Garganey that we could see and very few other birds. There were a couple of Snipe visible but no other waders. It's an impressive site and I think we would visit again but I would need convincing that it attracts the waders in the winter.

When we told a local birder that we were going off in search of Parakeets and that it would be a life tick for me in this country he fell about laughing. The birds are very common up there, as we were to find out later, and he found it difficult to believe that we did not have them on the south coast. In fact they are a very sedentary species and will not move out of their home patch unless forced to, so their migration south has been very slow.

Ring-necked Parakeet

I have to say , the bird does look unusual flying around in an English park, but it is very colourful and is great to see. There is no difficulty in finding them as the loud squawking sound immediately tells you where to look. The problem is that they quickly disappear once they land in a tree.

Blending in well with the leaf cover

Bright red beak making it easier to spot

 

At one point we were searching a tree for three or four birds that we had seen land. They were proving difficult to isolate from the background of twigs and leaves but then something spooked them and fifty plus birds suddenly irrupted from the tree. 

Even Parakeets need some peace and quiet

Iridescent colours when the sun catches them

  

The bird, also known as a Rose-ringed Parakeet was first recorded as successfully breeding in the wild in England in 1969. The population is believed to have been established by birds that escaped from aviaries and others released by sailors returning from the tropics. It is an aggressive bird and a hole-nester and there is concern that it might drive out British hole-nesting species such as woodpeckers. It also causes major crop damage, especially to fruit trees. As such it has been classified as a pest.

Pest or not it is a great bird to see

You also have to look out for the local wildlife. I always keep an eye out for adders when I walk across the commons but treading on a sleeping stag in the undergrowth is a different scale of problem.

Tread carefully

At the moment the stags are calm but give it another few weeks, when they are in full rut, getting back to the car could be a bit more difficult.

I think another visit to the park is called for in a few weeks time, when the stags will be in rut and the Parakeets will have less leaf cover to hide in.

Spain

I have just got back from a week in Spain on a non birding Holiday. We spent the week exploring the influence of 800 years of Moorish occupation on the country and very interesting it was. I had left my cameras and telephoto lens at home but did manage to squeeze in a little Canon SX50. I say little but it has a zoom lens that gives the equivalent of a 35mm camera 1200mm lens plus a 4x digital zoom. Very impressive figures but it only has a 12.1 Megapixel sensor, it still has all the problems of hand holding such a long lens, and a zoom lens will always be a compromise on quality. Still it could be a useful way of obtaining record shots when carrying the full photographic set up is not an option.

The route we took was mostly through the cites of central southern Spain and only included a couple of places where I had expectations of seeing birds. The first was Seville Cathedral which I had read was a stronghold for the Lesser Kestrel and the second was Ronda where I could expect to see a variety of birds around the gorge and cliffs. There were no Lesser Kestrels at Serville but Ronda did not disappoint. There were dozens of birds floating on thermals about 50 metres below the cliff top and lots of small birds in the bushes along the top. Viewing was great but positive identification and, even more so, good pictures were difficult and I only had an hour before we had to move on.

Chough were easy to identify as they swept up and into nest holes on the bridge, but checking my pictures later either the camera has a shutter delay or the operator was suffering a brain delay from too much Rioja the night before.

Not my best ever picture!

In Flight

There were Pallid Swifts and at least five Kestrels on the cliffs and there may have been a few Crag Martins as well, but they were all too fast and too far away to get any decent pictures. The Kestrels could have been the Lesser Kestrels that I had been hoping to see but the only positive identifier I had was the colour of the claws and that is not very helpful when you are looking at them from above.

Fortunately things did improve when we moved towards the coast. I am reasonably confident on this being a female Red-backed Shrike and as I was taking the picture a Hoopoe flew past. Fortunately I remembered about the bird in hand being worth two in the bush and settled for getting one decent picture.

Female Red-backed Shrike

See comments below from Richard T. It looks as though this is actually a Woodchat Shrike. Checking Collins again I am inclined to agree with him.

There were also plenty of Spotless Starlings around.

Spotless Starling

Smart Looking Birds

The coast around Malaga had a more colourful selection of birds. I have yet to see a Ring-necked Parakeet in England and the Monk Parakeet was a new bird for me.

Ring-necked Parakeet

Monk Parakeet

There was also another bird that so far I have been unable to identify. It's probably an escapee but I am hoping its short tail will give me some clue as to what it is.

Suggestions for identity gratefully received

I also managed to get record shots of a couple of other birds including the Hoopoe so given the time I had available for birding this was not too bad a trip. Its interesting seeing the different birds but not as satisfying as adding to my UK list.

The SX50 will not be replacing my 500mm lens. It was ok for record shots but the real quality was missing from the picture and I found it quite difficult to handle. There are buttons all over it and I found myself brushing against them and switching the camera into the wrong mode just as I was about to take a picture. It was also quite difficult to hold such a  lightweight camera and long lens combination really still whilst setting up and taking the pictures. However, if you need to travel light, need a back up camera, or are just getting started in bird photography then it is worth looking at. My one cost about £310 as compared to a new Canon 500mm lens at about £8500.