Brambling

 

A message on Tuesday, to let me know that Redpolls had been seen at Warnham Nature Reserve, had me standing outside the reserve waiting for it to open the next morning. I do see Redpolls around where I live but they are usually at the tops of trees and hard to photograph. The feeders at Warnham had delivered me some good pictures of them in the past and I was hopeful of another opportunity.

The idea was good but as often happens the Redpolls failed to put in an appearance. However, Warnham is a good location for photography so I had a wander around the hides to see what was about.

A Brambling made a brief appearance. It did not venture out into the sunlight as I was hoping but I was pleased to see it. It seems to have been a good year for them with reports of flocks of three or four hundred just over the county border in Surrey. A spectacular site but one foraging under the feeders at Warnham is a better prospect for a picture.

Siskins were also in attendance but not in the numbers I had seen there before.

and a neat looking Song Thrush

Plenty of Chaffinches with a few showing fresh breeding plumage.

Long-tailed Tits always take a nice photograph

And a really smart looking Bullfinch. Great to see but I couldn't get a picture of it away from the feeders. He was flying in from the golf course straight onto the feeder then back out the same way. I really needed him to perch up and have a look around before landing on the feeder.

Nothing spectacular but the Brambling and Bullfinch are not easy birds to photograph so I was happy with the opportunity.

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.

Siskin

This post could have been called Redpoll but by the time they showed up the light had gone and it was threatening rain. I only managed one picture of the Redpoll and that was on a feeder so not very satisfactory.

We were at Warnham LNR which provides one of the best locations in Sussex for photographing small birds. The feeders at the Kingfisher hide attract the birds in and if you are lucky you can get natural looking shots as they perch up before landing on the feeders. This time of year they usually get Siskins and Lesser Redpolls and if you are really lucky the occasional Mealy Redpoll.

Redpoll

Siskin

Female Siskin

Siskin

The bonus is an occasional Jay. You often see them flying in the distance but you rarely get close enough for a picture.

Jay

Ptarmigan

Friday 13th March

The road up to the Cairngorm car park had been closed for the previous three days due to the strong winds and the threat of snow. Friday dawned sunny and with no wind. This would be our only chance to get above the snow line and find the Ptarmigan so we made an early start and were in the car park by eight o'clock.

The earliest running of the funicular looked like being at ten thirty so we were facing a long wait or a long walk to get to the top. Fortunately we checked with the local ranger and he pointed us in the direction of an easier walk up to the Northern Corries where he said we would find the Ptarmigan.

Local knowledge is always useful and with an hours steady walking we were above the snowline. At first all we could pick up was the sound of the Red Grouse calling but Dave soon got onto the "screwdriver" sound of a couple of the Ptarmigan and we had distant views.

Female Red Grouse

We were having difficulty getting close enough for a picture and decided to split up to cover more ground. I could hear one calling so went higher to see if I could find it. It was then that I realised that it was sitting out on a rock about ten feet away from a group of climbers that had just gone past me. It clearly did not like people in its territory and was giving them a server scolding. They all had their phones out taking pictures and must have thought me an odd sight trying to run through the snow to catch up with them before the bird disappeared.

Dave was a couple of hundred yards away and had even further to travel. He managed to get a few shots but I think his arrival must have been too much for the bird. It probably felt out numbered and made a strategic withdrawal.

We found a few more of the Ptarmigan and got some good pictures but none were as close as the first one.

This male is in full breeding finery

Back down to the car park by midday we decided to give the Crested Tits another go. Much to our surprise we found David Gardiner standing in "our" spot. Still it was nice to see someone from home and we spent a pleasant afternoon and evening discussing the birding opportunities.

The Cresties put in some good appearances and there was also  a Siskin in the area, a rare sight this year.

Siskin - this one seems to have a deformed bill and its feet look a bit of a mess as well

Crested Tit - Posing nicely for a picture

You need to see the bigger picture - a large dollop of peanut butter helps to keep its attention

Ptarmigan and Crested Tits in the same day. Birding back in Sussex is going to seem a little boring.

Green-winged Teal

Seen but unfortunately not photographed.

We were down in Hampshire at Sopley Cemetery overlooking the flooded fields around the river Avon. The Green-winged Teal was the main target of the day and at first it looked like an impossible task. There were probably more than a thousand teal spread out over the water in front of us and they were all very distant. You could not pick out the distinguishing features using binoculars so it fell to a tedious inspection of each individual bird using a scope. Perhaps not too difficult if they are all lined up giving a side view but not so easy when they are all milling about and often have their backs to you.

So what were we looking for. Well, at the distance we had, the only thing you can really pick out is the vertical stripe in place of the horizontal stripe on the common teal.  Fortunately Dave likes to get stuck into these difficult tasks and eventually he found it. He managed to get a couple of other birders onto it but I just could not see it. I was 99% sure I had the right bird but it had its back to me and I could not make the identification. After a long wait and with my eyes streaming from the cold and my refusal to blink in case I missed it, the bird turned and I had a clear view of the vertical stripe. Life Tick.

Unfortunately the rest of the day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. We went to Blashford lakes. We found the housing estate and the hole in the fence through which if you were lucky you could get a distant view of the Ferruginous Duck. But it felt more like voyerism than birding so we quickly abandoned that search.

Blashford always looks promising but the wildfowl is usually distant, very few of the windows in the hides open, and one of the hides uses blue tinted plastic for the windows. On top of that the light was going. Not ideal for taking pictures.

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Siskin

Juvenile Siskin

 

A few shots of the usual suspects and we moved on to the Eyworth Pond at Fritham. There are usually Mandarin Ducks at this site but they can be difficult to find. After a bit of searching we thought we had five or six hidden deep in the bushes on the far side of the pond. It was only when they were spooked and took to the air that we realised that there were between twenty and thirty present.

Mandarin Duck

This is also a good site to see the smaller birds. A few handfuls of bird food on the fence posts and the bushes were alive with half tame birds. Good for photographs but nearly as bad as having shots of them on feeders.

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Chaffinch

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Real manners - sitting down for lunch

To finish off the day we drove along the Warningcamp road to see if the Bewicks had returned to their usual feeding ground. No sign of them but I did manage to pick up a Red Kite and Grey Partridge as year ticks. I think we probably had Corn Bunting as well but in the fading light it was difficult to be sure.

Grey Partridges