Shorelark

Reculver had been looking to be worth a visit for a few days. Shorelark, Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, and Desert Wheatear had all been present and showing well. Unfortunately other commitments had kept me away over the weekend, so Monday it was pick up Dave and head over to Kent to see if there was anything left. From reports it looked as though the Lapland bunting had gone but we were hopeful of the other three.

Delaying to the Monday was good in one respect in that whilst there were a few birders about we had missed out on the twitch that would have taken place over the weekend. Unfortunately we had also missed out on the Desert Wheatear that appeared to have moved on overnight. I was not too worried at this, the year tick would have been nice but we had good photographs of this bird from one that had turned up at Worthing in October 2012. The Shorelark was the main target of the day.

A walk along the sea wall from Reculver Castle towards Coldharbour Lagoon soon found us in the right area but with the usual message of "its just flown you should have been here ten minutes ago". We only had a short wait before it returned and gave good views and with the clouds clearing we also had good lighting, a rare combination.

The Snow Buntings proved a bit harder to find but we eventually caught up with them.

There was a large supporting cast of birds just off the sea wall and plenty of picture opportunities.

Dunlin

Juvenile Ringed Plover

Stonechat

Turnstones

Cormorant

Kestrel

Early afternoon and we set off for home with a planned stop off at Oare Marshes. There was the nagging suspicion that the Desert Wheatear would turn up just after we left but overall we were happy with pictures that we had managed to get.

Oare marshes always gives you plenty of birds to look at, so much so that it is often impossible to get a decent picture, but what you do get is a great atmosphere. As you open the car door a wall of noise hits you and there is continual movement as birds move around and squabble for the standing room that is in short supply and flocks of different birds swirl overhead.

Standing room only

Pintails against a wall of Waders

Black-tailed Godwits in flight

It was a long way to drive for a non twitcher but we had a great days birding. Reculver is a place I will be going back to. It has the one thing missing along the South Coast, the sun is over your shoulder when you are taking pictures out to sea.

Glaucous Gull

We were back at Littlehampton today. There had been fleeting glimpses of an adult Glaucous Gull on the last visits. It appeared to be in summer plumage with the grey and white  translucent wings that gave an elegant appearance and would give really good pictures. That is providing we could find it again. There had also been an adult Little Gull reported which again would take nice photographs.

We did find a Glaucous but not the one we were looking for. This was a juvenile and whilst already looking big it did not have the same elegant appearance that you would expect from the adult.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull on the right

and on the beach

We waited a couple of hours to see if a Little Gull would turn up. There seems to be a lot about this year but I just do not seem to be able to connect with one. There were a few other birders there who where mostly interested in the Kumlien's Gull but having done that to death over the past few days the Turnstones proved to be more interesting.

There were hundreds of them there both on the West Pier and feeding on the beach. They almost seemed to be lining up on the pier to play chicken with the big waves rolling in. They would sit packed together, head down into the wind and leave it to the last second before the wave struck to take to the air.

Lining up waiting for the next wave

There must be more comfortable places to wait for the tide to go out.

Early afternoon and we decided to move on. The Little Gull would have to wait for another day. Instead we went up to Stapleash Farm to have a look for the Little Owls.  It was good to see that they are still resident there although we only managed to pick out one.

 

Little Owl in its "usual Tree" see below

The Owls rarely give a clear view but for once the strong wind was helpful, blowing all the branches out of the way to give a brief clear view.

Little Owl

A good day but we still need that elusive Little Gull.

If you are interested in finding the usual tree see my blog of 9th January 2013.

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