Spoonbill

 

I had a walk around Medmerry on Monday morning, from Easton Lane down to the Stilt Pool. There seemed to be a lot more bird movement than the last time I had been there but it was mostly the usual suspects, Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail, Meadow Pipits, Goldfinches, Stonechats, etc. I had been hoping to see an Osprey flying through but the closest I got to one was a Buzzard passing over.

Buzzard

It was coming up to high tide and the Stilt Pool held a lot of birds. As usual most of them were Canada Geese to the extent that perhaps the pool should be renamed in their honour! Other notables included large numbers of Egyptian Geese, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Lapwings, Black-tailed Godwits, Little Egrets and a good selection of wildfowl.

There were also some unusual geese amongst the Canadas. They were smaller, a greyer colour, had smaller beaks and appeared to have longer wing projections. They were too far away to study the detail but possibly some form of Cackling Geese and almost certainly escapees. 

Possible Cackling Geese

There was no sign of the reported Spoonbill when I arrived but returning past the pool half an hour later it had turned up and was showing well if a bit distant. The views were short lived, however, as after a few minutes of preening it adopted that favourite position of Spoonbills, of fast asleep with its bill tucked away out of sight.

Spoonbill

Butterflies were also in evidence with amongst others a Clouded Yellow and a Painted Lady busy nectaring alongside the pool.

Clouded Yellow

Painted Lady

And finally

When I arrived home I found dozens of these tiny creatures happily munching their way through the Strawberry plants. Thinking they may eventually morph into some form of moth I spent an hour online and examining the Field Guide to Caterpillars in an attempt to identify them.

I had no success but then the experts amongst you are probably already ahead of me. I came across a small passage that stated that all caterpillars have six real legs as do all insects but they also have a number of prolegs attached to the abdomen that enable them to move around. I knew that! but what I hadn't realised is that caterpillars have between two and five pairs of prolegs. My specimen above has six pairs of prolegs so it's not a caterpillar it's a Sawfly Larvae.

Why didn't I know that? It makes it so much easier. I now only have 400 different species of Sawfly to sort through in order to find out what it is. Or maybe not.

Pectoral Sandpiper

I seem to have spent a lot of time over the past week standing around waiting for birds to turn up. I went to see the Ortolan Bunting on Sunday morning. Stood around with a few other guys for about three hours waiting for it to show and eventually went home disappointed. Should have gone on Saturday, it would have been a life tick as well.

Today I went to Farlington Marsh to see the Pectoral Sandpiper. The Bluethroat reported there last night would also have been nice but given the strength of the winds it was unlikely that any small birds would be showing in the open. No point in wasting any time looking for it, so instead I wasted four hours trying to find the Pec Sand.

Got it eventually and even got a couple of pictures but why is it that when you find anything good, you usually end up with trying to take a brown bird against a brown background with backlighting and glare off the water.

Still, at least I did get to see it.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The bird showed quite well, if a bit distant, but unfortunately looked to be injured and was avoiding putting weight on one of its legs.

Pectoral Sandpiper

A few other pictures from the past week. A Corn Bunting from up on Chantry Hill, one of a large foraging flock.

Corn Bunting

and a scraggy looking Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

We kept a look out for Honey Buzzards but they were all commons.

Common Buzzard

The North Wall at Pagham had a few good birds but again all a bit distant. There have been about a dozen Cattle Egrets around the area but it was unusual to see this one at the back of the Breech Pool along with a couple of Little Egrets.

and the Spoonbill roosting on the island along with the Little Egrets and Herons

Spoonbill

Also a Sparrowhawk making a couple of passes over the Breech Pool and causing panic amongst the waders feeding there.

Sparrowhawk

Willow Warbler

The Pectoral Sandpiper brings up my 200 for the year. Still a bit down on previous years but then I am still missing a few of the more common birds, Water Rail, Firecrest, Black Redstart. Must have been going around with my eyes closed. Also a big gap this year from not having an early spring Scotland trip.

Spoonbills

I have been out birding a few times recently but there has been nothing really interesting about and no real picture opportunities. The Spoonbills below are two of the three currently in residence at Snowhill Marsh. They are usually asleep sheltering from the wind and difficult to photograph but this time they were just the opposite, out in the open and non stop action, but then never taking their bills out of the water to let me get a decent shot.

There is also a Greenshank showing at the marsh but again usually very distant.

Greenshank

I had been over to the Pagham Harbour a couple of times looking for the Tundra Bean Goose. We eventually found it in the fields at the back of the Breech Pool. From the North Wall this would usually be well out of range for recording any detail but with good lighting, clean winter air, and no heat haze it was worth a try. I measured the distance on a map when I got home, just over two hundred metres. If only I could achieve detail at that range every time I am out.

Tundra Bean Goose - Highlights in the eyes at two hundred metres

The lighting was superb and the pictures would have been great except that there were no birds on the pool. My only other shot was of this Cormorant that flew in just as we were leaving. The breeding plumage really lifts them out of the ordinary.

There have also been a couple of trips to see the Kumlien's Gull at Littlehampton. It would be interesting to know if it is the same gull as last year. It's a lot harder to pick out this time. On the ground it looks a lot like a juvenile Herring Gull but in flight you can see the difference.

Kumlien's Gull

Cetti's Warbler

Out birding with Dave again today and having the usual problem of how to make our blogs look a little different. Fortunately I can start off with a couple of pictures of Spoonbills taken at Snowhill Creek on Sunday. If only I could have trimmed the reeds that were blocking my view.

Spoonbills - with one not sleeping!  Pity about the reeds

Smart looking bird

Today started off in the dark and rain at Widewater looking for the Goosander. It had taken us just under an hour to do the five miles from Worthing and it was a complete waste of time. No Goosander, no birds on the sea, just the usual two pairs of Mergansers, a few dabchicks, and a Shellduck. To make it worse all my pictures of the mergansers were rubbish.

Next stop was Chichester Gravel Pits to have another look for the Dusky Warbler. We drew a blank on that one but there was a particularly showy Cetti's Warbler around. It was pure luck on where you were standing and where he emerged and I could not get a clear shot out in the open but there were a couple of reasonable record shots. Certainly a lot better than the usual back end that you get as it disappears into the bush.

Cetti's Warbler

Not bad for 1/60 Sec

We also searched for the female Red-crested Pochard without any luck. We were even told where it was by Owen Mitchell but of course by the time we got there it had moved on. Fortunately we then relocated it on the far side of Triangle lake and then watched as it paddled over to give us good views.

Red-crested Pochard

There were quite a few small birds around the lakes although the numbers of Coots and wildfowl still seems low. Winter does not really seem to have arrived yet, at least not as far as the birds are concerned. On the other hand some of the Great-crested Grebes seem to be moving into summer Plumage.

Great-crested Grebe

We ended up at the North Wall but there was very little showing. The usual Mallard, Teal, Widgeon, Canada Geese, and Curlews with flocks of Lapwings wheeling overhead but nothing unusual. The water was very high in the Breech Pool and the only Godwits that we could see were half a dozen in the flooded fields at the back of the pool. The wind was cold and getting stronger so we did not hang around for too long.

Hoopoe

The birding has been a bit of a mixed bag of late. There has been a shortage of waders for the first three months of the year and even the usual small birds seem to be keeping a low profile of late. I have not had many good picture opportunities recently and the birding seems to have all been a bit flat. Strange then that, when I check back, the week has been quite successful with five year ticks and one life tick.

Perhaps the most rewarding was catching up with the Cuckmere Spoonbill. This was my fifth attempt at this bird. Previous visits had involve a walk along both paths on the Western side and detailed scanning of the channels and ditches. Other than the White-fronted Geese I saw nothing, but on every occasion the bird was reported on the same day. This time we parked up on Seaford Head and scoped the area from a distance. Not a very satisfactory approach but we did eventually manage to pick it up over in the lagoon on the eastern side.

Other ticks that day were a Linnet and a Black Redstart at Tidemills and Kittiwake at Seaford Head. Whilst I managed distant record shots of all of these birds the only shot worth publishing is this slightly out of focus Skylark.

Skylark

Today I visited Kent and with the M20 passing within a mile of Snodland it seemed an ideal opportunity to catch up with the Hoopoe that had been reported there. I managed to park in the wrong place but after a short walk I eventually found the bird, although I only managed four shots before it disappeared into cover.

Hoopoe - my first in this country

Feeling flushed with success I thought why not try for the two reported Garganey at Allhallows, its only a few miles away. So I did, but without any luck. If they were there they were staying in cover or were both females that I was unable to separate from the female Teal. Then I thought, there is another Garganey reported at Restharrow Scrape in Sandwich Bay, this time a male, its only a few more miles away (65 to be exact). Can I justify the mileage, I don't really go in for twitches, but then this is not really a twitch.

I arrived at the hide only to be told  the usual, you should have been here ten minutes ago it was swimming around in front of the hide, and the guy had superb pictures to prove it. I eventually managed a brief view through the bins when it appeared in a gap in the reeds. If I was just a birder I could have gone home happy. Being a photographer, I wanted a picture and I was still sitting in the hide three and a half hours later when I had to finally accept that I was not going to get a picture in the dark.

A bit of a frustrating week as far as the photography goes, my only consolation, telling my birding buddy Dave about the Hoopoe and Garganey. It doesn't quite make up for his Capercaillie and Crested Tit but it helps.

Spoonbill

There have been no pictures for the blog for the past week. I have been out a couple of times but have been concentrating on sea watches in an attempt to pin down a few new species before the end of the year. I have seen Auks, Skuas, Divers, and Grebes but very few where I was confident that I could identify the species and none that were close enough for a picture.

I managed to get out again this afternoon and headed over to Widewater.  However, a quick check proved that there was nothing of interest showing on the lagoon or the sea so I moved on to Tidemills to see if the Spoonbill was still around. Photographers were not flavour of the day when I arrived. There had been a couple there earlier that had been spooking the bird by trying to get too close and were in general upsetting the other birders there. Fortunately they had left and with the bird also absent most of the other people drifted away.

Good news for me as the Spoonbill then flew back in and I had it all to myself. From the colour of the bill and the dark markings on the tips of the outer primaries it is a juvenile but it also has dark legs so possibly a second calendar year bird. It also has a dirty white appearance where adult birds that I have seen are a much brighter white.

Showing the light coloured bill and wing markings of a Juvenile

It was very active, feeding all the time I was there. You could certainly get close without disturbing it but it was clear that it had a boundary. People walking too close, anything down at its eye level and the noise from the trains going through all saw it unsettled.

On alert

Feeding too much of an attraction

Happy again

A great bird to photograph

Whilst I was close to Newhaven I took the opportunity to look for Eider Ducks out in the harbour. There was one close to the eastern arm and it would have been a great shot but unfortunately it was straight into the sun.

Worth putting on the blog but not much that can be done to rescue it as a picture

 Not much else about. A few Fulmers up on the cliff. They looked as though they were pairing up already and were spending most of their time practising aerobatics against the cliff face to impress their partners.

Convenient nesting holes in the cliff face

Performing a flyby

With there being a dearth of pictures lately all birds were receiving attention and it is surprising what you miss out on if you ignore the more common birds.

Turnstone

Red-breasted Goose and Spoonbill

Rain and mist on Thursday but I still needed to see the Red-breasted Goose that I had missed on Tuesday so I headed over to Farlington Marshes early afternoon. I have been spending a lot of time in Hampshire lately, perhaps I should change the name of the blog.

It looked quite dull for taking pictures but fog and mist often give a soft even lighting and can give good picture opportunities as long as the subjects are not too far away.


I found the Red-breasted Goose after a short walk along the sea wall. I had good views through  the binoculars but then had trouble relocating it through the camera. It blends in really well with the Brents when it has its head down feeding. So a frustrating ten minutes until it stuck its head up again and I managed to get a couple of pictures.

Red-breasted Goose

A couple of Spoonbill had been reported on the marsh on the previous day and a helpful birder located them for me, asleep on the far side of the marsh. A distant view through a scope was useful but I was keen to get a picture so I hurried off in pursuit fearing that they would fly off before I got there. Sure enough before I had taken a few steps one took to the air and disappeared off high and in an easterly direction. I felt sure the other would follow but although it was active and moving around it stayed on the ground.

Spoonbill

The mist probably helped here as these shots would have been difficult to get in sunlight. Fabulous bird, pictures could have been a bit sharper though.

Back at the car park I spotted a raptor sitting in the tree with its back towards me. Useful in that it enables you to get closer but a bit frustrating when you see the pictures you have taken.

Buzzard - rear view

Buzzard flying - rear view

etc.

Still if it had been facing towards me I doubt that I would have got anywhere near it.