Willow Tit

 

Willow Tit, a rare bird for me as we don't get them in Sussex. I was staying up in Derbyshire with the family for a few days and with a rainy wet morning, the others were either off swimming or having a lie in, so I headed over to Carsington Water to see what birds were about. The target was the Willow Tit which e-bird said had been reported from around Stones Island on the reservoir.

After a couple of hours wandering around in the rain I had seen plenty of birds but had little in the way of pictures to show for the effort. A distant Tree Sparrow eventually gave itself up for a picture but on checking it later my initial reaction was to delete it. Mist, dull light and high ISO had given an image that was barely recognisable. Second thoughts when I got home and half an hour playing around with Photoshop eventually gave me a recognisable, if disappointing image.

Tree Sparrow

Still it was worth recording, my last sighting was at Bolderwall Farm Dungeness in 2019.

No sign of the Willow Tits so I retired to the bird hide adjacent to Horseshoe Island to eat my breakfast. It had a couple of feeders with various tits and finches dropping in to feed. I don't like taking pictures of birds on feeders but with a chance of the Willow Tit it was worth getting the camera ready.

Nothing unusual for thirty minutes or so but as I was getting ready to leave a bird dropped in that looked promising. I managed to snap a few quick pictures and it was gone. 

The trouble with photographing birds is that you don't really look at the bird, you are so focussed on taking the picture that you don't see the detail. Once it had flown I realised that I didn't know if it was a Willow Tit or a Marsh Tit. 

Willow Tit

Fortunately a couple of the pictures gave a clear view of the bill with no white spot on the upper mandible and with a face pattern and a pale wing patch that strongly suggested the Willow Tit. I didn't hear it call but I did have the Merlin App recording and it was showing Willow Tit confirming the sighting.

Willow Tit

So a miserable wet morning had turned into a successful birding session, my first Tree Sparrow for four years and then my first Willow Tit since 2016 at Fairburn Ings.

I also had good views of Dippers on the River Dovey but unfortunately was travelling light that day and had left my camera at home. Three birds I do not get to see in Sussex, I will have to visit the area again.

Long-tailed Duck

There have been quite a few trips out since the last blog but picture opportunities have been limited and on a couple of occasions so have the birds. A trip to Dungeness proved to be particularly disappointing. We had distant views of Smew and Slavonian Grebe but the Black-throated Diver we were hoping to see failed to make an appearance. Picture-wise all we managed were the Tree Sparrows at Boulderwall Farm.

Fortunately views of distant White-fronted Geese at Pett Level and then a Short-eared Owl in the half light at Horse Eye Level proved to be some compensation.

Similarly a trip up to Stapleash Farm didn't deliver on the Hawfinches or Little Owl but we did at least get to see Dartford Warblers on the commons. The only picture of the day was this Marsh Tit but even that proved hard to get as it scurried through the branches searching for food.

The Tit flocks seem to be dispersing as breeding season approaches and it was unusual to see this lone Long-tailed Tit feeding on the ground.

I also trekked through the mud on the footpath from Pagham to Honer reservoir. It was great to see the long staying Long-tailed Duck but I really should have worn the wellies.

The year ticks are gradually edging up but I am somewhat behind schedule as compared with previous years. The birds, particularly the Geese and the Owls,  just don't seem to be around in the same numbers. Just have to make do with Hawfinches.

Fledglings

I haven't been out birding much this past couple of months. A combination of a lot of wet weather,  a lack of any really inspiring birds in the Sussex area, and an unwillingness to get involved in any long distant twitches.

We did pay a visit to Cliffe Pools to see the Marsh Sandpiper and we did see it but it was very distant. I managed to get a picture although it is not one that I would care to put up on the blog. Frustrating really, it now moves on to my hit list, of nine birds, that I have seen but for which I did not manage to get a decent picture. Although I have to say that is a very subjective view. On a bad day I look at my pictures and think they could all do with improvement.

So today was a fresh start, the first days birding of the rest of my life. You just felt that Autumn was in the air and the migrants were on their way. Sad to say we failed to connect with them but there were a few fledglings around that will soon be migrating in the opposite direction.

The area around the sluice at Pagham North Wall is always a good spot to find baby Swallows at this time of year. Today there were probably three families in the area with about ten hungry mouths waiting to be fed.

Amazing to think that they are just a few weeks out of the egg and in a couple more weeks they will be on their way to Africa.

There were also a good number of Sedge Warbler fledglings in the reeds waiting to be fed.

They were probably just a little bit to eager, climbing to the top of the reeds and calling loudly for their parents. Good for me taking pictures but they are making themselves a bit of a target.

No Sparrowhawks about but there were a pair of Peregrines hunting across the area. These are probably the ground nesting ones from the island in the harbour. I doubt the Chichester Cathedral pair are welcome in the area any more.

Below are a few odd pictures taken earlier in the year. There weren't enough for a blog at the time but they are still worth recording.



The first a Black-tailed Godwit in Summer Plumage, again from the North Wall Pagham.

Ring-necked Parakeets taken at Kew Gardens from the high level walkway. So common in London but still a rarity just fifty miles south.

And two from a quick stop at Fairburn Ings on the way north. I had hoped to see Willow Tits. They were there but not showing in the short time I had. Consolation was from good views of nesting Sand Martins and a few Tree Sparrows.

Waxwing

I am still waiting for the Waxwings to arrive in Sussex but with time moving on it is starting to look as though we could miss out on seeing them. That will not come as a surprise to most of the local birders. In an exceptional year across the country, for  rare and scare birds, Sussex has been noticeably missing from the list. Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire seem to be a birding Bermuda Triangle.


Today I needed to travel down to Canterbury. It is a regular trip and I usually take the opportunity to visit a few birding sites on the way. With Waxwings having been reported in the north Kent town of Strood and with it only being a short distance from my intended route it seemed to be worth a visit. At least I would have the opportunity of a 2016 year tick.

When I arrived it didn't look too bad. There were only two other birders present and the Waxwings were flying between a high tree perch and  an orange fruiting Rowan in a garden opposite the Bounty Pub. The only problem was that the Rowan was mostly in shadow.

After about half an hour the lighting improved but unfortunately the number of birders also increased. We were getting up close to twenty people with most standing directly under the feeding tree, setting up tripods and talking loudly. The Waxwings were coming down but were just grabbing a few berries and heading back to the safety of their high level perch.

How inconsiderate birders can be. Don't they realise that I need to have these bird all to myself, for about an hour, in what was turning out to be perfect light. We all have our problems. In the end I gave in, joined the fray, grabbed a couple of quick pictures, and then left to find a more peaceful place.

Dave and I have been able to get some great pictures of Waxwings in the past but you need time and space. A large twitch severely reduces your chances of success. I think, that in the new year, we could be making the trip up north, possibly even to Scotland where at the moment Waxwings can be found in their hundreds. 

My route to Canterbury then continued via a minor detour to Dungeness. I had no specific target but it is always a place where something unusual could turn up. There were Smew and Goldeneye on the Burrows Pit but both were too far away for even a record shot. I also failed to find the Ring-necked Duck behind Bolderwall Farm. However, there were good numbers of Tree Sparrows around Bolderwall, which was good to see after missing them earlier in the summer.

The Long-eared Owl was in its usual spot behind the dipping pool. With the green foliage gone it was at least a bit easier to find him this time.

Lots of other birds but nothing really unusual. The Great White Egret dosen't even raise an eyebrow these days other than for me to think that it is unusual to only find one at Dungeness.

Finally another shot of a Kestrel. One day I will get that picture of a Merlin that has been at the top of my list for so long.

Not a bad day out given that it is just a day after the mid winter solstice.

Willow Tit

Dave and I have just got back from a weeks birding in the Cairngorm National Park and on the Moray and Nairn coast, but more on that in the next blog. This one is about our stopover on the way up at RSPB Fairburn Ings. We chose the site as it has resident Willow Tits. They are absent from Sussex and most of the South East and, if seen, would be a life tick for both of us.

I think we could probably have told the difference between the Willow Tit and its look alike the Marsh Tit but the beauty of Fairburn Ings is that it has no Marsh Tits. It is always good to have the odds working in your favour.

Fairburn Ings is a great site and just a few minutes from the A1. The wardens gave us some useful information and we found our first Willow Tit within a few minutes of arriving.

Willow Tit

They were very difficult to get onto in the trees and picture opportunities were limited, so in the end I resorted to photographing them on the feeders. There was no way I was going to leave without a definitive picture.

Identification of the Willow Tit is now done either by the call or by the absence of a white spot on the base of the upper mandible. However, the birds shown here do seem to show other characteristics that aid the separation from the Marsh Tit. That is, dull rather than glossy black cap, larger black bib, and thicker "bull" neck.

Willow Tit in the bag on the first day, a great start to the holiday.

The reserve also supported nesting Tree Sparrows, another species mostly absent from Sussex, a good number of Bullfinches, and gave close up views of some of the more common birds.

Tree Sparrows

Bullfinch

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Reed Bunting

Goldfinch

It may be a case of the grass always being greener but it seems to us that the RSPB sites in the north of England are far better at getting birders close to the birds. Fairburn Ings was no exception and it is a place I will be visiting again.

White-fronted Geese

It has been a bit of a mixed start to the new birding year. There have been some good birds about and the numbers of geese and wildfowl have increased significantly but on the other hand the weather has been awful, particularly for photography, and the number of waders still seems to be low. Today, Wednesday, gave us the first decent weather of the year so we headed off to Dungeness to get a few year ticks.

First stop was Pett Level to see if we could find the Glossy Ibis for Dave. We gave it a good try but it did not seem to be around. Fortunately I had stopped off on the way back from Canterbury a few days ago and managed to see it again, in near zero visibility and driving rain. No pictures but I might be glad of the views by the end of the year.

Picture of the Pett Level Glossy Ibis taken on the 17th December

We saw some good birds around Dungeness but most were distant or hard to photograph. A Long-eared Owl, but it was buried so deep in the bushes that you could barely see it. Redhead Smew, Slavonian Grebe, Tree Sparrow, Cetti's Warbler, and Shag, which are apparently unusual at Dungeness.

Shag

It was interesting to compare these three with a Juvenile that we had seen at Hill Head On Monday.

Juvenile Shag - Hill Head

The tree sparrows are also great to see. There are still plenty at Boulderwood Farm, at the entrance to Dungeness RSPB, but the numbers seem to be a lot lower than a few years ago.

Tree Sparrow

Great White Egret

On the way home we stopped off at Scotney Pit. We scanned a few hundred geese looking for anything unusual. It looked as though it would be just the usual Greylags and Barnacles until we picked up a flight of four birds that appeared to be different. We had just decided that they were White-fronted Geese when a farmer gathering sheep put a few thousand geese into the air. I thought that we had lost the opportunity of a picture but then we realised there were a lot more of them in the area. I think we saw just under forty of them but there may have been more. The most I have ever seen together in the past has been three or four.

White-fronted Geese in Flight

Showing the prominent black body markings

Greylags with a small flock of eighteen White-fronted and three Brent Geese at the back

The Barnacles were also flying. This picture showing a small group including a couple of the Barnacle/ Emperor Crosses.

Barnacle Geese

Other pictures taken this year -  A return visit to the Yellow-browed Warbler gave us some good views but it was still difficult to get a decent picture.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Fortunately a small flock of Long-tailed tits gave some better opportunities.

Long-tailed Tit

And, the visit to Titchfield Haven may have been disappointing in that we did not see the Penduline Tits but we did get some other birds.

Pochard

Stonechat

Gadwall

To finish off a couple of shots of Red-breasted Mergansers taken in a short break in the rain at Widewater. Still very dull though.

Red-breasted Mergansers