Grasshopper Warbler

Each year I have to rely on my birding buddy Dave to find me a Grasshopper Warbler. Their reel is well above my hearing range. Fortunately Dave is still up to it and has an uncanny ability to track them down. Without his help I would have little chance of finding one. I then try to repay his help by taking a better picture than he does! Not so easy today. This bird had a territory centered on a low bramble bush surrounded by long grass.

Not too bad on the long range shots but when you try to crop them, the out of focus grass becomes more prominent. There is not a lot that you can do, other than use the lens wide open to put everything but the bird out of focus. Go any closer and you will flush your target.

The bird did actually come a lot closer to us. It was feeding mouse like in the grass and probably closed the distance to about twenty feet at one stage. You could hear it and occasionally see it on the long grass but it was impossible to get a picture.

Earlier we had completed a circuit of Pulborough Brooks picking up year ticks on Nightingale, Whitethroat, and House Martin. The Nightingales were at Fatengates, West Mead and in Adder Alley. Most were in deep cover and were just starting to use the subsong although one at Adder Alley was more advanced on its song and was showing reasonably well. It will probably be another week and a half before they really get going and give the picture opportunities that people are looking for. Here is one from last year.

Nightingale 18th April 2016

A number of other birds were seen including those shown below, Blackcap, Green Woodpecker, and Linnet.

Blackcap

Green Woodpecker

Linnet

One of the best finds was our first Dragonfly of the year, Most years it would be the Large Red but this year it was a Hairy Dragonfly

Hairy Dragonfly

Also seen over the past week, Tree Pipits at Old Lodge and Orange Tip and Green-veined White butterflies at most locations.

Tree Pipit

Orange Tip

Orange Tip

Green-veined White

We also saw Sand Martins and Swallows to add to the year list and a possible Garden Warbler that we were unable to confirm.


All in, a good days birding.

Mating Bloody-nosed Beetles

Well at least it's a title that I haven't used before.

I travelled around a few local sites today, looking for some of the birds that had been reported, but without much luck. The highpoint of the day were these two Bloody-nosed Beetles that I watched for about an hour. You have to admire his stamina, he didn't even take a break in that time. On the other hand the female didn't seem to notice he was there and just carried on walking for the whole time he was engaged.

Bloody-nosed Beetles

There were a lot more pictures but they don't really add much value. There was not a lot of variation in the action. The most interesting thing was the little pads on his feet that he uses to hang on. I must try to find out if they are suction or sticky.

Birds photographed were all at Old Lodge NR in Ashdown Forest. I managed to see five Redstars but I could not get a decent picture of any of them.

Male Redstart

A bit closer but a photograph of the wrong end

There were also Tree Pipits present enabling a comparison of  Meadow and Tree pipit.

Tree Pipit

Meadow Pipit

The usual Stonechats, although it was difficult to capture the contrasting black and white colours in the bright sunlight.

Stonechat

Woodlarks and plenty of Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs.

Woodlark

Contrasting colours but I am assuming that both of these are Willow Warblers

A good days birding but with Hoopoe, Wryneck, Ring Ouzel, Greater Yellowlegs, and Bee-eater being reported I could have hoped for something more.

Nightjar

Well, today was a good days birding, even if it did cost me £75 excess on the insurance to replace a cracked windscreen. We headed up to the commons hoping to find early Silver-studded Blue butterflies and to see a few of the heathland birds. We did not find the Silver-studded but the commons were alive with insects, dragonflies, and birds. We found Woodlark, Tree Pipit, Yellowhammers, Stonechats, but best of all Nightjars.

Nightjar

It was pure luck, we had been watching what appeared to be a female Emperor Dragonfly catching moths and eating them in flight. We were hoping that she would settle somewhere and that we would be able to get a picture. When she disappeared into low gorse bush Dave went to have a look. I found him "quite excited" and pointing through the bush saying look at that. When your brain is switched on to small insects it's difficult to see the bigger picture. All I could see was a couple of old branches and no Dragonflies. With Dave clicking away and getting more and more exited I could see there was something I was missing. Perhaps if he had said Nightjar I would have spotted it sooner but it was really well camouflaged. When I finally got onto it I realised that I was standing about six foot away from a Nightjar with a 500mm lens and 1.4 extender that has a minimum focal length of about 18 feet.

We tried to back off making as little noise as possible and I did manage to get off one shot but as you can see above I could not get the whole of the bird in the frame. Unfortunately, although we must have been over 18 feet away at that point we did flush the bird. Seeing it flying in daylight was a superb sight. A picture would have been great but then you would probably have missed the spectacle completely. When you get these rare moments it is best to just stand and watch.

We left the area, the temptation to go back and try for another picture was great but its the wrong time of year for disturbing the birds. As always with moments such as this you are never sure if it was a great success or a missed opportunity.

I had seen Woodlarks on another common earlier in the year so was not too worried when we only got distant views of these. I was particularly pleased though when we found a Tree Pipit. He was sitting out on top of a tree singing and then doing his display flight and parachuting back down to his perch.

Tree Pipit

There were also good views of Stonechats and Yellowhammers although my pictures of these were not great.

Yellowhammer

Insects interest me if they will take a good picture but not if I am going to have to spend hours on research just to find out what it is called. There were no such problems when we came across a hornet resting on the brambles. It's big and it's colourful but its quite intimidating. I know that hornets are meant to be quite docile provided you stay away from the nest and don't upset them. The trouble is with a macro lens you need to get quite close to fill the frame. I felt comfortable whilst it was facing away from us but when it turned around to look at us the theory went out the window and I backed off fast. If it's three times the size of a wasp it probably carries three times as much venom

Hornet

Hornet

So far this year I have not really found the time to go chasing Dragonflies. However, with the warmer weather they are starting to appear in greater numbers. We saw Four-spotted and Broad-bodied Chasers on the commons as well as assorted blue Damselflies although none of them were stopping to have their pictures taken. I was more lucky at Houghton Wood where this Hairy Dragonfly had paused amongst the vegetation.

Hairy Dragonfly

We thought that we might find a few Fritillary Butterflies on the wing at Houghton but it was mostly very quiet. I did get a first Large Skipper of the year and also a Red Admiral but there was little else visible.

Large Skipper

Large Skipper

Red Admiral looking a bit washed out

Birding days don't come much better than this.

Sussex Commons

I had a few disappointing days wandering around the Sussex Commons earlier in the year. The open heathland, the walking and the scenery were all great but the commons seemed devoid of bird life. You tend to expect more from such a unique environment. I have not been back since, but having seen a few promising reports on the SOS web site over the last couple of weeks, and knowing that the dragonflies would be about, I thought it would be worth another look.

I started off on Iping and Stedham Commons. Initial impressions were good, a lot of singing and plenty of birds flying. However, it did not last long, by 10am with the temperature gradually increasing and the humidity rising it started to go quiet. There were birds about but they were hard to find.

Tree Pipit

The Tree Pipits were perhaps the easiest to spot but they are going to have a difficult time nesting on the ground here. There were notices up all around the common asking for dogs to be kept under close control to protect the ground nesting birds, but of the thirty or forty dogs I saw on the common none were on leads and most were running backwards and forwards through the scrub. It was perhaps fortunate that there was nothing around for them to chase.

Tree Pipit

I did have a few doubts over this second Tree Pipit when I saw the length of the claws but the identifying feature is the rear claw which is shorter and more curved than on the Meadow Pipit and this can be seen in the picture above.

Stonechat

Stonechats seem to be in short supply this year. This is only the second one that I have seen so I was pleased that he was looking so smart.

Treecreeper

I am still trying to get a good picture of a Treecreeper. They are fast moving and usually stay in the shadows so it is hard to get a good shot of them. When they do come out into the sun the silky white on there underside burns out as soon as the sunlight hits it

Yellowhammer

There were Yellowhammers about on the common but my pictures there were poor so this is a shot taken on Cissbury Ring on the way home.

I tried Ambersham and Lavington Commons but by midday both were very quiet. Fortunately we are now into the dragonfly season so most of the day was spent photographing these. Getting good pictures is just as challenging as with the birds but you don't usually have to walk so far. Something I was grateful for on a hot afternoon.

See my next blog for the pictures.