Lockdown Birding

Like many others I didn't see lockdown as a problem. I have a garden, there are birds, butterflies and a wealth of macro photography opportunities with the insects that inhabit the garden. It would be a chance to increase my knowledge of the natural world and would open up new areas of interest.

I was wrong. The birds have been limited to the usual half dozen or so garden regulars. Flyovers have been few and far between and of course don't really give picture opportunities. There have been a few butterflies through but other than the Holly Blues none have stopped to pose for a picture. There are  some flies and hoverflies around but nothing like the varieties I had expected to see. It seems almost as if I see the same three or four insects in the same location every day. I knew that Hoverflies could be territorial but assumed that this was just for a short period as they moved through an area. Do they establish long term territories?

One from the garden - not the smartest looking Blackbird that I have ever seen but the song was wonderful 

I usually take my daily exercise along the seashore when the tide is out. There is never anyone close and the sense of open space and freedom is invigorating. In these times I am truly fortunate in living just a couple of hundred metres from the sea. Unfortunately birdwise it has been a bit disappointing.

Sanderlings on Worthing Beach

There are flocks of Turnstones and Sanderlings along the tide line, the occasional Swallow, House Martin and Sand Martin going over, but I seem to have missed the Wheatears and where are the sea birds. This should be peak migration time but I have seen little sign of any Skuas, Divers, or Sea Ducks going through. Are they in lockdown as well or have they all gone up the west coast route this year?

My first Swallow of the year 

My longer walks have given me a little more variety. Ferring Rife was full of bird song, Reed Warblers, Cetti's and Blackcaps but also a lot of dog walkers. Few birds were displaying but I did get decent views of a Whitethroat.

Whitethroat

Widewater also had some decent birds on offer with Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Dunlin on the lagoon. Looking out to sea was not quite as interesting with nothing seen flying through or sitting on the sea other than a few of the usual gulls.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Whimbrel walking through what looks like Sea Campion flowers

Dunlin

And a couple of shots from before the current restrictions, both taken at Brooklands Park, a Pochard and a Song Thrush.

Pochard

Song Thrush

It's good to get a few decent pictures and to be able to produce a blog again. The opportunities are all around me, I just have to manage my expectations and see the beauty in the common species rather than go looking for the exceptional.

Grey Phalarope

Only my second blog of the month. It's been a tough Autumn with very few interesting birds about and even less in the way of photo opportunities. The Grey Phalarope dates all the way back to the first day of the month at Bough Beech Reservoir. 

Always a great bird to see but there was nothing much else about so I thought I would hold it back until I had some other pictures to add to it. Here I am at the end of the month and I am still struggling to come up with anything else.

So here are the best of the rest.

Jay on Holm Oak at Church Norton

Kestrel at Kithurst Hill

Blackcap - Kithurst Hill

Reed Bunting Pagham North Wall

My first Fieldfares of the year - Pagham North Wall

Whimbrel - Church Norton

Common Darter

Not much to show for a months birding although I did get to see the Rustic Bunting at Wanstead Flats. Just too much good weather, the birds seem to have gone straight through Sussex without stopping. Lets hope the current cold snap brings a few Winter goodies.

Selsey Bill Seawatch

I am still not totally convinced on the merits of seawatching but with the forecast for today promising a favourable SE wind I thought I would give it a go. I am now the proud possessor of a copy of "Flight Identification of European Seabirds" and I needed to put some of the theory into practice. For me that means getting a picture and being able to study the identification features at home.

I picked Dave up just before six and we headed down to Selsey Bill, which would offer the chance of closer encounters and better pictures opportunities than our own bit of coast. We should have got up earlier, the dedicated seawatchers had been hard at work for an hour or so when we arrived and we had just missed a Pomarine Skua, our key target for the day.

First bird through was a Cormorant. Not really what we were looking for but a good opportunity to check out the camera settings and flight shot techniques.

Cormorant

We then had a steady trickle of the more common birds through, Terns, Divers, Kittiwakes and  Whimbrel, with the occasional, more interesting, Skua species. Perhaps not as good as we had expected but enough to keep the interest.

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Common Tern

Kittiwake

Whimbrel

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture of the Little Tern. We also had Black-throated and Great Northern Diver through and Common Scoter.

Black-throated Diver

Common Scoter

Lots of Gannets feeding off shore but these three seemed to be travelling with a purpose.

Gannets

Light and Dark Phase Arctic Skuas but no Bonxies that we could see.

Arctic Skua (Dark Phase)

Arctic Skua (Dark Phase)

Arctic Skua (Light Phase)

And in the end we did get our Pom although it was a long way off and it was difficult to identify until we saw the tail feather spoons.

Pomarine Skua

Large crop of the above showing spoons

We headed for home mid afternoon, happy that we had seen most of our targets. There were still a good number of the hardened seawatchers waiting for more Poms to come through and they had their reward when four went past, close in, late in the afternoon. Great video on the Selsey Blog, not sure who took it but I believe the term used now is Respect.

Close on eight hours of seawatching and I actually enjoyed it. I could become a convert, although I am not sure I could maintain my enthusiasm all through the winter.

Info    Phase or Morph  -  which term should I use. I found the following definitions:-

Phase
noun – traditional (becoming archaic): a genetically determined variability of coloration among individuals of the same species without being attributable to, associated with, or determined by subspecies, race, or geographic population.


Morph

noun – (1) biology: a recognizable group, distinctive for some specific attribute of form or structure, within a species; (2) an individual of a recognizable group within a species known for having two or more groups distinguishable by form or structure; (3a) ornithology: a group or an individual within a species known to vary by form or structure; (3b) an individual bird distinctive for a specific permanent plumage color within a species known for various genetically determined plumage colors that do not vary by age, season, breeding condition, or geographic subspecies status.


Chromer

noun – (Kevinism) an individual bearing a specific, permanent coloration that is one of two or more color variations typical of the species and not attributable to genetic mutation or defect or to age, season, breeding condition, geography, or subspecies status.



So perhaps it should be Chromer, although I am not sure that I would be allowed back into seawatching circles using such language!

Snow Buntings

Tuesday was overcast and threatening rain. Picture opportunities would be limited so we decided to visit a few local sites and add a few ticks to our year list.

First stop was Pagham North Wall. We live in hope, but this was as disappointing as we have seen it. Two Coots, a couple of Mallards and a Shelduck on the breech pool. This used to be one of the premier birding locations in Sussex but not any more. There were lots of birds out in the harbour but nothing really unusual. Dave did eventually find a small group of Bar-tailed Godwits, a good year tick, but they were a long way off.

Next stop was East Head. There had been a Snow Bunting here since the end of last year but now a second bird was being reported. Strange how they always appear here. It's probably the seeds from the Horned Poppies that grow on the head that attract them but I like to think that they mistake the near white sand for snow.

Whatever, the snow idea worked for me. It was a dull day so over exposing to get a picture you end up with a scene something approaching snow. Perhaps it makes the birds feel at home

Snow Bunting on artificial snow!

and searching the strand line for food

There were a good number of Skylarks on the head with a number of them seeming to be pairing up and involved in territorial disputes. You just wish there were some way of telling them that they are wasting their time. This is dog walkers central and as the weather warms up the place will be overrun with our four legged friends.

Skylark

Next stop was Selsey Bill. We were hoping for a brief sea watch and sight of a few of the vast numbers of birds that have been passing the bill over the past few days. We were a little disappointed. Not only were there no birds but there were no sea watchers either. A most unusual occurrence.


We also drew a blank at the Coastguard Station. The target was a Black Redstart that had been in residence for a good few days. It had been seen that morning but had gone by the time we got there and has not been seen since. We did however get to see a Grey Seal that had hauled itself out onto the beach and seemed to be enjoying a siesta.

Grey Seal

Church Norton gave us sight of the over wintering Whimbrel that had eluded us on the past couple of visits. The sky was really turning grey by now so the picture quality is not very good. However you can at least see the crown stripe.

Whimbrel

Heading for home, we called in at the Burgh. Scanning from the triangle we had hoped for a Grey Partridge or perhaps a Corn Bunting. No luck with those although we did have three or four Red Kites flying close and a rather large Raven on the manure heap. I fired off a few dozen frames in the hope of getting a half decent record shot but the light had gone and the pictures all ended up being deleted.

Black Redstart

South Africa has spoilt me. It hardly seems worth going birding unless I am going to get ten life ticks a day and get good pictures of them all. There also seems to have been a dearth of good birds around Sussex of late. Elsewhere in the country there are reports of Alpine Accentors, a Pelican, and along the east coast a raft of rarities but nothing in my area. It all seems very flat.

To be fair, things do seem to be picking up, Long-tailed Ducks, Grebes, and Goosanders are starting to appear along the coast, and although I have yet to see any of them, the enthusiasm is begining to return.

A couple of trips out this last week gave me a lot of birds but nothing really unusual. There were two Black Redstarts on Pagham Church roof .....

Black Redstart

and a walk around Pagham Lagoon gave me a Golden Eye and a couple of  Pintails. The later I am told are unusual for the Lagoon.

Goldeneye

Pintails

An hour or so on the North Wall finally gave me decent views of the Bearded Tits that had been reported there but I could not get any pictures of them. That also meant that by the time I got round to Church Norton the tide was way out and the light was starting to go. I skipped the walk down to the beach and settles for this Whimbrel in the harbour.

Whimbrel

The good news is that the Waxwings seem to be moving southwards.

Kittiwake

I have been out gathering year ticks over the past week. That is, see the bird and move on, rather than stand and wait for the right picture opportunity. However, I have still ended up with a few pictures that are worth putting on the blog.

One of the key birds I was looking for was a Little Gull. I was standing in the right place, just by Southsea pier, a juvenile Little Gull had been seen a few minutes earlier, and this bird was sitting just off the beach. The risk is that we see what we are looking for and not what is actually there. It looked good, but then, the bill was the wrong shape, the dark collar on the back of the neck looked wrong, and it should have had black cap of some form. It's actually a juvenile Kittiwake but it had me fooled for a while and I had to spend some time delving through books on gull identification once I got home to be sure.

Therein lies the real benefit of bird photography. You get a second chance to check the identification. Without that I could easily have made a mistake.

Juvenile Kittiwake

Juvenile Kittiwake

Fortunately we caught up with a Juvenile Little Gull a couple of days later on Climping Beach. It was too far away for a picture but at least that time I had a lot clearer idea of what I was looking for.

It's hard work but I think I could actually get to like juvenile gull identification.

Other gulls spotted whilst we were out were Common and Mediterranean. The first at Arundel Wetland Centre and the second on Climping Beach. However, with Waldo failing to return to Gosport, there is no easy Ring-billed Gull this year.

Common Gull

Mediterranean Gull

The Wetland Centre also gave us ticks for Goldcrest and Firecrest. As you might expect there were a couple of decent Goldcrest shots but all the Firecrest pictures were blurred.

Goldcrest

Farlington Marsh gave us distant views of Bearded Tits but there was no chance of a picture. Fortunately the ever present Stonechat popped up to have his picture taken.

Stonechat

And, finally a trip to Church Norton didn't give us the views of a Spoonbill that we were looking for but we did get to see an overwintering Whimbrel that was hunkering down out of the wind.

Whimbrel

It has not been a bad start to the year but there are still a few of the winter birds that I would like to find before they head off to their summer grounds.