Smew

With nothing much happening locally we decided on a trip along the coast to Dungeness. It offered a couple of year ticks and there was always the chance of something unusual turning up.

We stopped off at the Camber Ponds and Scotney Pits on the way but it was clear that the majority of ducks and geese had moved on. There were a few birds about but we could not find anything unusual.

At Dungeness we called in at the RSPB Visitors Centre to see what was about. Three birds looked interesting, a Ruff on Burrows, Black Redstarts at the lighthouse gardens, and best of all a Drake Smew on the New Excavations.

Drake Smew is a real prize. It is a bird that usually keeps its distance. I have a few good pictures of them but all taken of the captive birds at the Arundel Wetland Centre. It would be good to throw them away and put some real pictures in their place.

We had a quick look for the roosting Long-eared Owl but it wasn't showing out in the open so we didn't stop. A quick search from Makepeace gave us the Ruff. It was too far away for a picture but still a good bird to see. There haven't been many waders about this year.

On to Christmas Dell hide and the Smew was visible out in the middle of the pool. A few minutes of silent pleading from us  and it turned and headed towards the hide. I couldn't believe our luck. It wasn't perfect, I could have done with the light coming from behind us, but these would be better shots than I had before.

Smew

Unfortunately he didn't stay in front of the hide for long. He ended up being pursued across the pond by an amorous redhead.

They spent a few minutes feeding together but her thought were clearly on other things. She then went into display mode giving him every encouragement - but he just wasn't interested.

We waited, hoping that they would come back towards the hide but they stayed distant and eventually something spooked him and he flew to the far side of the pool. I would have liked longer photographing him but I can't really complain.



A walk round the rest of the reserve gave us sight of a couple of Bearded Tits but we were keen to get down to the lighthouse to look for the Black Redstarts. They were easy enough to find, sitting out on the lighthouse garden wall. We counted four, possibly five, but they were all staying inside the garden wall or up on the roof. Easy to watch but just that bit too distant for a good shot.

There were reports of Wheatears on the beach but we couldn't find them and also of juvenile Iceland and Caspian Gulls on the patch. We didn't even try for these. I have enough trouble identifying them, when they are on the ground in front of me. My chances of picking them out in the swirl of birds above the patch were next to zero.

The journey home was also a bit disappointing. Still nothing on Scotney or the Camber ponds and a search of the Pett levels and a couple of brief sea watches from Camber and Pett failed to add any excitement to the day.

Overall though a good day and a couple of reasonable pictures of the Smew to remember it by.

Addition

Wednesday morning and my first Wheatear of the year, in the fields behind Goring Gap. My thanks to Nick Bond for the tweet. Rather distant but I didn't want to trample the farmers crop.

Glossy Ibis

Three years ago the Glossy Ibis seemed like a common bird on the south coast. I saw five perhaps six that year. The following year it was one bird and last year zero. It looked like being zero again this year but with a Glossy being reported regularly at Pett Levels we were still in with a chance.

Our first visit on Monday was a bit of a failure. We spent an hour there in the morning and an hour again late afternoon, with a visit to Dungeness in between. We searched thousands of birds that morning but came up with nothing. It's strange how, at a distance, an upright walking coot can look a bit like a Glossy Ibis and there were a lot of coots out there feeding on the grass.

As you would expect whilst we were away at Dungeness the Glossy Ibis was reported again and in its usual place - in the ditch, in the first field, just to the left of the roadside pool (the eastern most pool). In the afternoon we searched all the birds again but still drew a blank. The doubts start to creep in, Who had reported it? Did they know the difference between a Glossy Ibis and a Curlew? Was it someone's idea of a joke?

Still we had to try again and with some decent weather promised on Thursday we left home early and were out at Pett Level just before nine o'clock. Within thirty seconds of getting out of the car Dave had spotted it. It was exactly where all the reports had placed it and despite what I said above, it looks nothing like an upright Coot. But then its easy to be clever once you've made the identification.

We grabbed a few record shot, all of mine were useless. The early morning light was giving me 1/80 second and hand held on a large lens that does not make for good pictures. Then the bird took off and we thought we had lost the chance. It circled round then came into land even closer to us. Too close in fact.  Great for looking at the bird but I could barely get it in the frame and there were reeds blowing across the view.

I don't usually put up poor pictures but this one is a classic. Almost close enough to touch but too big for the frame, too close to focus properly, reeds blowing across the view and photo bombed by a coot.

Little more that could go wrong with this picture

A bit of shuffling around to try to get a better view saw us flush the bird and for a second time we thought we had lost it. Fortunately it stayed close and we had the chance to get some better pictures.

A great bird to see but this time of year its colours are a bit dull. I would like to get a picture of of one that was really showing the green and purple gloss that they are named after.

Given our early success we headed off to have a look at Scotney and Dungeness. It was all a bit quiet although the numbers of geese and ducks are gradually building. We saw Great White Egrets and Marsh Harriers, both quite common birds at Dungeness these days.

Marsh Harrier

The Long-eared Owl was still showing behind the dipping pool, but it was even better concealed than when we last saw it, and there were four redhead Smew on the Burrows lake.

On our Monday visit to Dungeness there were a couple of pairs of Pochard showing but both the males were asleep. This time they were nowhere to be seen so I had to settle for just taking a picture of one of the females.

It took two trips but it was good to see a Glossy Ibis again.

Caspian Gull

If you have read previous blogs you will know that Dave and I have been on a mission to spot a Caspian Gull. Neither of us were confident in our ability to identify a Caspian. We had studied the identifying features and knew what to look for  but theory and practice are vastly different when you are faced with a large flock of Herring Gulls.

Our favoured approach has been to visit Dungeness where there are two juvenile Polish colour ringed Caspians and we could play hunt the colour ring rather than hunt the Caspian.

Today we were down at Dungeness again for another try. Our initial search drew a blank and somewhat discouraged we headed off in search of other birds. We had a good day and had just finished photographing the Smew at Burrowes Pit and were about to head for home when we realised that we still had a loaf of bread left. Rather than waste it we decided to head back to the beach for one last look for a Caspian.

This time our luck was in, when a local gull expert told us that there was an adult Caspian in the gull roost. Unfortunately he was just driving away so we had to find it for ourselves. Knowing one is there is a huge advantage but we still had the challenge of locating it.

Some time later and having studied every gull in the roost it looked as though we were going to miss out again. We had one gull, that looked significantly different from the Herring Gulls and showed some of the features we were looking for but it had a yellow eye so could not be our Caspian. We were left with one gull that was asleep with its head tucked back so that we could not see its features. We waited, our confidence slowly draining away, then it moved and a black beady eye appeared.

A Caspian at last - please don't anyone add a comment telling me that it is some form of hybrid and doesn't count.

The pictures are not good. It was getting late and the light was failing. Then on top of that I was admiring the shots on the back of the camera when the bird took off and I missed getting a flight shot. See Dave's Blog for some flight shots.

Caspian Gull

The identifying features I was looking for and think I can see are:-

Small black beady eye
White head with no streaking
Small head compared to a Herring Gull
Legs thinner, longer and paler grey than the Herring Gull
Bill long and narrow
Long neck - not really visible here

It looks good and I am claiming the life tick.


We had a good day at Dungeness but it started slowly. Our initial search for the Caspian drew a blank and the ARC hide, for once, had little to offer, although we were told later that a Bittern had shown well and close just after we left.

We headed back to the Power Station to look for the Black Redstarts that are often present there. The sewage treatment area in the south east corner supports a good colony of midges and a number of birds can usually be found feeding in the area.

Black Redstart

Good supply of food 

Pied Wagtail

We also had a visit from armed police to check out what we were doing taking pictures so close to the Nuclear Power Station. There is no restriction on taking photographs but in this day and age they take no chances. It was a bit annoying but they were only doing their job and trying to keep us safe so it is best just to co-operate. Anyway he had a machine gun so I wasn't going to argue.

Just as we were packing up to move on an alert came through for a Long-eared Owl close to the RSPB Visitors Centre. It was buried deep in the bushes at the other side of the pond and very difficult to spot but we did at least get a picture.

Long-eared Owl

I have only ever seen one Long-eared Owl out in the open and I doubt that I will ever get better pictures than on that occasion. Have a look at this blog if you are interested.


We were on a roll, so we walked round to the Scott hide to have a look for the redhead Smew. They had not been showing last time we were there. This time we were a bit luckier, showing but very distant. Lets hope the male comes in to visit them before the winter is out.

and getting further away all the time

One life tick  and one year tick. Not a bad days birdwatching. The past month has been very slow on the bird photography front. It was nice to come home feeling we had achieved something.

Smew, Bittern, and Marsh Harrier

This looked like a good start to the day. Two drake Smew, five redheads, and a Bittern sitting in the reeds behind them.

Taken from the ARC hide Dungeness

It being a crisp, bright, and sunlit winters day we had driven down to Dungeness in the hope of just such pictures. If only I could have gotten a bit closer, but there was a lot of water between them and me and they had no intention of coming over to give me better views.

Drake Smew - a long way off

Showing off to the ladies

And "too distant for a good picture" turned out to be the theme for the day.

Bittern flying - too distant

Marsh Harrier flying - too distant

Another Marsh Harrier - too distant

Avocet - too distant (at Rye Harbour)

We had a good day and saw a lot of birds including the scarce Smew. In fact this was my first sight of a Drake Smew in the wild. Overall though, it was disappointing to have returned home without a couple of really good pictures. Sometimes it just doesn't happen for you.

Penduline Tit

Another early start, picking Dave up at 06.00 and heading out to Kent. Our first destination was Stodmarsh NNR to see if we could locate the Penduline Tit. The weather on the way down was not promising. There was dense fog in places with cloud cover above but we arrived with the sun breaking through and were able to quickly locate the bird.

Penduline Tit on Reedmace

Our last encounter with a Penduline Tit had involved distant views through moving reeds and whilst we had left happy to have seen the bird the pictures were not very good. This time we were more lucky, the bird came close and at times was perched out in the open.

Colours blend in well in the reed bed.

The thin mask and lack of red spotting on the breast suggest this is a female

As there had been various reports of between twenty and thirty Water Pipits at the Marsh Hide we felt obliged to struggle through the mud to have a look. There were only two visible in the distance when we arrived so no picture opportunities but still worth seeing. We also had views of two or three Marsh Harriers circling over the reserve.


Our next destination was the ARC Pit at Dungeness with the target bird being the Smew. We did locate the female (redhead) in the distance but there was no sign of the drake. However, there was a bonus sightings of a Great White Egret and there were also Marsh Harriers flying over the area.

Poor shot but an unusual bird - Redhead Smew

Great White Egret

Spring was in the air and the Goldeneye were getting amorous.

Goldeneye displaying

Making sure she doesn't escape

Either mating or attempted drowning

Still looking good

The one disappointment was that the Tree Sparrows at  Boulderwall Farm were not very visible. We still had three of our target birds for the day to look for so could not afford the time to wait.

Scotney Pit found us just inside the Sussex border when Dave located the drake and female Scaup through his scope. No chance of a picture using the camera or with the phone camera through the scope when I gave it a try. I will have to read up on how to do this. Next stop was Pett Level where we were hoping to see White-fronted and Pink-footed Geese. Dave found the Pink-footed but we had to get the Collins guide out so that he could convince me of what we were looking at. Good to have him along as I would not have spotted the Scaup or Pink-footed without his help.

Pink-footed Goose

We did not get to see the White-fronted Geese but whose complaining. We had five of our six target birds for the day and a few other good sightings as well with 50 different species seen. Its always worth leaving something for another day.