Tawny Owl

I visited Bramber Nature Reserve this morning. I had been intending to visit for a while but was triggered into action by reports of a Tawny Owl and owlet in one of the trees close to the entrance.

I arrived early and spent some time searching the tree. The adult (I assume a female) was easy to find but getting a photograph proved to be difficult due to the branches blocking the view. The chick if it was still there must have been well hidden as I could not find it.

I went for a walk around the reserve and returned an hour later. It was good timing on my part. Not only had the owl moved position but the light had improved and the owl briefly opened it's eyes.

Common Whitethroat, Blackcaps and a Green Woodpecker were seen around the reserve with Reed and Sedge Warblers heard only. Unfortunately none were giving picture opportunities. The reserve is a great addition to the local area and in particular to the chances of maintaining a green corridor along the Adur River.


The mornings target achieved and it only just having turned eight o'clock I decided to drive over to Park Heath Corner and have a look for the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries.

It was very quiet when I arrived but they were soon flying and in numbers greater than anything I had seen on the reserve before. A real success story for the Fritillaries for the Future project and for a butterfly that seemed to be lost to Sussex only a few years ago.

I spent a couple of hours trying to get a photograph but failed miserably. It was a hot morning and the butterflies which were probably all males were hyperactive. They are always difficult to photograph but I usually manage to get a couple of shots. For best results you really need a female or mating pair or a return late afternoon when they may be getting tired and will spend some time nectaring. Or it could just be that I am getting too old for chasing butterflies around under the hot sun!


Next stop was Old Lodge in the Ashdown Forest. I was hoping for Tree Pipit and Woodlark but there was very little moving. The temperature was getting uncomfortably hot and the area was very dry, although the dragonfly ponds still held some water and  a few dragonflies.

I spent a couple of hours walking around and did eventually get to see a two Woodlarks just as I was returning to the car park to leave.

Woodlark

Probably my best find of the day was the plant below. It looks like Bog Beacon Mitrula paludosa which has been recorded at Old Lodge but I can't be certain, apparently there are several very similar Mitrula species, separable only by microscopic examination.

Bog Beacon Mitrula paludosa - I think!

These specimens looked to be past their best. I will have to look out for it a bit earlier next year.

Tawny Owl

There had been a few reports of a Tawny Owl at Pulborough Brooks over the past couple of weeks but no real details of location. Reports coming out at the weekend were of the Owl and two Owlets. That means the Owlets would be branching, the practice of leaving the nest and climbing amongst the branches of the tree. With the young unable to travel far there was a good chance of the mother being close by.

It wa raining most of Monday but Tuesday morning I was able to get along for a look. Good directions posted on the web and confirmation from the visitors centre resulted in the family being easy to find. Mother hiding behind a branch as usual and the young in a tree on the opposite side of the path.

All asleep as you would expect late morning but mother was occasionally opening one eye to keep watch over her young and the admirers below.

Plenty of the usual birds around, with a Great White Egret out on the brooks and a Hobby making a fleeting appearance. The Nightingales are also starting to show a little more clearly with this one singing in Fattengates.

Butterfly hunting in the afternoon was less successful with no sign of the Pearl Border Fritillaries at Rewel Wood. A couple more days sunshine should lead to the first emergences.

Mandarin Ducks and others

I only walked away for a couple of minutes but I missed the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a bird that has been on my hit list for a long time.

We had travelled down to the New Forest in the hope of seeing the Lesser Spotted and initially things looked very promising. It or possibly both of them were very mobile but we could hear the drumming and it seemed as though we could track it back to the individual trees it was using. However, each time we found a tree and stood at the bottom searching for movement we came up empty handed and the bird would suddenly start up again fifty or sixty yards away.

After about an hour and a half of this we ended up back in the car park talking to a couple of other birders. The drumming had stopped so I decided to wander off and take a few photographs of a Tawny Owl that was resident close by. It's usually hidden behind branches so you never get good pictures but it's always worth a look. Bad move, I was only a couple of minutes from the car park when I had a call from Dave to say that the Lesser Spotted had just flown over them. Mission drift, how many times does it happen. I had come for the Lesser Spotted and that is all I should have been looking for.

I raced back to the car park but it was gone. Dave had only gotten a few seconds view but it was enough for all three of them to confirm the sighting. We looked but the bird was nowhere to be seen and the drumming did not start up again. I suppose you have to look on the positive side. We do at least know where to look and the next couple of months will give the best opportunities for sightings and possibly even a photograph.

So what of the rest of the day. Well I did get pictures of the Tawny Owl.

Tawny Owl

There were large Chaffinch flocks around as well but we could not see any signs of Bramblings flying with them.

After a time we decided to move onto Eyworth Pond. The hope was that the pond would still be frozen over and that the resident Mandarins would be out on the ice instead of hiding away under the bushes on the far bank. It looked good when we first arrived. There was only one area of open water and all the Mandarins were crowded around it. There was plenty to look at and some great views but picture wise it was difficult to frame any decent shots. I counted sixteen of them but most of the pictures just turned out to be a jumble of colours and shapes. Some of the more acceptable ones are shown below.

There were also a pair of Gadwall on the ice

Gadwall

The female seemed quite sure footed but the male spent most of his time sitting down

Eyworth Pond is also a good place to photograph the smaller birds. They are fed regularly and are not worried about people being close but do remember to take some bird food if you go.

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Coal Tit

The Coal Tit was just a bit too fast for me although I eventually managed to get the picture above but this Long-tailed Tit seemed happy to hang around eating its seed whilst I took pictures.

Long-tailed Tit

There were also three Muscovy Ducks cleaning up any dropped food and seeming to have intimate conversations gently hissing at each other.

Muscovys  - perhaps not the prettiest of ducks but there looks to be some character there

I wonder how many of these there are living and breeding in the wild. They are South American in origin and are not migratory so any out in the wild are escapees or descendants of such. Reading up on them they are meant to be great farmyard ducks and do not need their wings clipped as they do not wonder far from home. I think somebody forgot to tell the ducks! They are also meant to be some of the finest meat available from any animal or bird so their population in the wild is likely to be well controlled.

We then headed down to Blashford Lakes to see if there were any Redpolls or Siskin about. Siskin there were although we could not get any pictures. Why they have hides with windows that do not open and others that have blue glass in them I have never really understood.

There were other unusual birds around.

Perhaps they were expecting a visit from the "Next Generation Birders"

By early afternoon the light had started to go. We called back into the car park and had one final look for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but there was no sign of it. There was a nice Goldcrest hunting close by but the light was too low for a picture so we decided to head for home.

On the way out of the forest we had one more stroke of luck. Dave spotted a bird sitting out on top of a small tree. I stopped the car and we reversed back for a closer look. We were really pleased to find a pair of Crossbills, there have not been many reported so far this year. The light was low and they were a long way off but any record shot of these birds is worth having.

Overall, a great days birding. I missed the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but then that leaves me something for another day. Dave might have seen it but he didn't get a picture so I know he will be keen to go back and have another go.

Tawny Owl

We were back on our search for Brambling today. In theory, if you can find a decent size Chaffinch flock, you have a good chance of finding a Brambling in amongst them. The difficulty we had today was in finding a Chaffinch flock to search. We tried a few places and found a few odd birds but we could not find any feeding flocks. It was beginning to look like another of those days, plenty of birds to see but nothing unusual and no photo opportunities.

The good thing about searching woods though, is that there is always the chance of finding an Owl and we were fortunate enough to come across our second Tawny in a week.

Well hidden amongst the trees

The challenge is to get close enough for a clear shot without disturbing or upsetting the bird. Perhaps you can creep up on it. No chance, it knew you where there long before you managed to see it.

Keeping you under surveillance 

Don't walk towards it, wander around outside its comfort zone until it gets used to to the idea of you being there. Find the right angle for the shot.

Another weirdo with a camera and bins

When you find the right spot get your picture and then back off slowly. Don't underestimate the owl, Eric Hosking lost his eye when he got too close to a Tawny's nest.

Your getting a bit close boys

but your too fat and too clumsy to be a threat - might as well go back to sleep

It was a great day to be out in the countryside, bright and clear with the first chill of winter creeping in. The birding wasn't great but the Tawny Owl saved the day.

Franklin's Gull

For me, Friday of last week was not a good birding day. We had travelled down to Blashford Lakes to see the Franklin's Gull. It was there and was easy to see, albeit after a long wait and hours of searching the thousands of gulls coming in to roost. Easy that is for everyone in the hide except me. I just could not get onto it. Even looking through Dave's scope which was centred on the bird I could not see anything that I could recognise as the Franklin's. I think by then I was just brain dead from staring at gulls.

There were distant views of Goosanders, Egyptian Geese, Ruddy Duck, and Black-necked Grebe but my only pictures for the day were of a Little Grebe and a Coot doing its leg stretching exercises. Going home in the car Dave was doing his best not to sound too happy whilst I tried to come to terms with my total failure.

Little Grebe

Coot

At first I was a bit negative about going back for another try but Dave convinced me that I should give it another go and volunteered to come along with me to ensure that I did not dip it for a second time.

We did a bit of birding around the New Forest before heading to Blashford. It was all very quiet. We followed a Chaffinch flock for a while in the hope of seeing a Brambling but there was nothing we could be confident about. We also managed to catch up with an old friend that we had last photographed back in February.

Tawny Owl

On arrival at Blashford we found that the Tern Hide that we planned to use was to be shut between 3.30 an 4.30 for a gull roost event. The Goosander Hide had also been closed by the police as a result of an incident. This only left us with the Lapwing Hide. You get good views out over the lake from there but by 3.30 when the gulls would be arriving you are staring straight into the sun. Still we had no choice so Lapwing Hide it was.

We settled down to an afternoons gull watching with a couple of Green and one Common Sandpiper thrown in for a bit of variety.

Green Sandpiper

The only other item of note was a flock of thirty eight Herons that came in to roost late afternoon. This was the first time I had seen them in a large flock. Other than that it was a long afternoon and by the time the sun started to set at 4.15 no one in the hide had spotted the Franklin's. Then we had a call from the Tern Hide to say that it had been spotted and that it was close to us. It turned out to be directly in the path of the setting sun but as it dipped below the horizon we had a few minutes of light left and everyone in the hide, including me this time, managed to get good views.

I had already lost sight of the bird in the gathering gloom when I decided that I should try to get a picture of it. By then I could not see where it was so I just pointed in the general direction, wound up the ISO, fired off a few shots and hoped for the best. They are not brilliant but these are my record shots of the bird.

 Just a few of the gulls on the lake with the Franklin's arrowed

Heavy cropping but the white eye rings and darker mantle are just visible.

And, to finish off the day, we had a starling murmuration swirling over our heads as we walked back to the car.

Corncrake and Tawny Owls

Thursday and Friday saw me making two trips down to the Beachy Head area, making a couple of really stupid mistakes, but overall coming out of the two days with a decent result.

Thursday morning I was at Shooters Bottom just before seven o'clock looking for the Corncrake that had been reported the previous day. The wind was really harsh over the head and it was difficult to maintain your footing let alone hold the binoculars or camera steady. The gorse and scrub offered little shelter and worst of all there was no sign of the Corncrake.

By half past eight I was ready to give up and go home but fortunately the day was rescued by Mick Davis. He had seen the bird the day before and managed to relocate it again some way from the area that most of us were watching. All credit to Mick for putting us onto the bird and for ensuring that we all had good views. I managed to get off about a dozen shots of it foraging along the edge of the ride before it disappeared into the thicker cover.

I was feeling really pleased until I looked at the images and realised that they were all badly over exposed. Somehow I had managed to nudge the controls from aperture priority to manual. Worse, this has happened before, and I have lost valuable pictures. Even worse than that, I had stood there for two hours and not once checked that the camera was set up correctly.

Corncrake

Photoshop gives you some recovery options so I ended up with the picture above but the detail has been lost and I cannot enlarge the picture any more. I did wait around for a couple more hours and saw the bird a few times but pictures were always difficult with most of them being backlit.

Corncrake heading for cover

My second mistake was in not checking what else was about in the area. I did call in at Belle Tout wood on the way back to Birling Gap but when I opened the car door and was hit by the wind again I got back in and drove home. I checked when I got home and saw that two Tawny Owls had been reported at the wood. Another missed opportunity.

Friday morning and I decided to return to see if I could get a better picture of the Corncrake and also to see if I could locate the Tawny Owls. The Owls were first and despite them being well hidden I located them both quite easily. Looking at the pictures now I am not quite sure how I managed it.

Well hidden

Close up it looks like a Grey Morph variant

Second bird - more familiar Rufous Morph

Obviously been watching me from a long way off

but not going to loose any sleep over it

I had great fun photographing the Tawny Owls, which was just as well, as there had been no sign of the Corncrake when I finally arrived at Shooters Bottom. I gave it another hour but with the birders gradually drifting away it looked as though it may have moved on.

So, a bit of a messy couple of days birding with a number of silly mistakes but at the end of it I had seen the Corncrake for the first time and had also found the Tawny Owls.