Old Lodge - Parrot Crossbills

After three days at Old Lodge, Dave and I eventually caught up with the Parrot Crossbill flock. The pictures we got were not particularly good. The birds stayed distant in the tops of the trees, there was a lot of movement, the light was poor etc. - I always have a good excuse.

Was it worth standing around in the cold and rain for all that time? Of course it was, a year tick, a Sussex tick, and a bird I may not see again locally for a long time. It's just a pity that it kept me away from home and all that decorating that needs doing!!!

For once I was glad that there were a number of other birders present. I did see a couple of males with the big bills that I was expecting on Parrot Crossbills but there were also Commons present and the pictures I got were not as  definitive as I would have liked. If I had returned home with just the pictures you see here I would have had my doubts over what we had actually seen. Fortunately there were some real experts present and if they were happy to confirm Parrots in the flock who am I to argue.

A good year tick but it only makes me more determined to get some decent pictures of them. One day they will be at head height, on the outside of the tree, in sunlight ...... it does happen but its very rare.

Glaucous Gull

Wednesday and Thursday were disappointing birding days. Plenty of sunshine had been forecast but both days were overcast. Worse than that, I could not find any birds. Not entirely true, Tide Mills had Redshank, Cuckmere Haven had hundreds of  Canada Geese but there was no sign of the Spoonbill or Kingfishers I was looking for. Old Lodge had a few Chaffinch but again no sign of the Crossbills, Parrot Crossbills, Siskin, or Bramblings that had been reported there. Two days birding and I had just one poor shot of a Kestrel to show for it and no year ticks.

Probably the biggest disappointment was twice missing the Glaucous Gull at Shoreham Harbour by just a few minutes.

Friday was to be a day indoors catching up on a few jobs but by 10.30 when an alert came through for the Glaucous back at Shoreham Harbour I was ready to go. A quick trip along the coast and I had missed it again. I was told that it had flown out to sea, it could be hours before it came back. I would have gone home to get on with the jobs before I was missed but fortunately I stayed to talk to a couple of other birders and was still there when it flew back in a few minutes later.

Flying in

Clearly different to anything else on the beach

Playing with its food

Probably a Second Winter bird

For comparison below is a shot of a third winter bird taken at Dungeness last year. Bill turning yellow, more colour in the wings and a more brutish look about it.

Third Winter Glaucous at Dungeness last year

Home for lunch and then flushed with my success I headed up to Warnham NR to see if the Mealy Redpoll would put in an appearance. No luck with that although there were a number of other small birds about including this colourful Lesser Redpoll on the seed feeders.

Lesser Redpoll

The rain was starting up again and the light was fading rapidly. I strayed for a while practising hand holding the camera at half a second exposure just in case the Mealy turned up, before eventually heading home in the growing gloom. A poor week but at least I had the Glaucous.

Goosander

Another morning spent padding out the year list. This time we went up to Petworth Park to tick off the Goosander and Egyptian Geese. Neither were playing ball. The Goosander was on the usual lower lake but was mobile and seemed determined to stay as far away from us as possible. We settled for distant shots rather than chasing him around. I assume that he is the same bird as last year but he seems much more reticent about having his picture taken this year.

Goosander but a bit distant

 
The geese are usually on the same lake or in the tree at the south end of the lake. This time all we could find were two out in the park close to the deer. We intended to get pictures as we made our way back to the car but they took off and did a flyby to inspect us before disappearing into the field on the opposite side of the road. I would normally be happy with the chance to get them flying, but this time the camera was not ready and I was a bit slow seeing the opportunity, so no pictures.

There are a lot of old trees in the park and we are always hopeful of finding an owl in one of them. No owls this time but there were Treecreepers everywhere.

Treecreeper

This is a bit of a bogey bird for me. I see them often enough but I have never managed to get a good picture.

We still had a couple of hours of the morning left so we dropped in at Pulborough Brooks. We had a walk down to the West Mead hide but the path was flooded beyond that point. I had seen the pictures but you get no idea of the volume of water involved until you sit in the hide and look out over the brooks. It was like being on the coast. As you would expect all the birds were on the far side of the water probably a mile or so away. We had to be content with a few Fieldfare and Redwings feeding in the bushes close by the hide.

Fortunately one of the Fieldfare came into the open to dispute territory with a Blackbird and I managed to get a couple of pictures.

Fieldfare

There being nowhere else to go we retired to the cafe and sat out on the terrace with a bacon baguette and a cup of tea whilst we added a few more year ticks from amongst the birds using the feeders.

Hove - Grey Phalarope

I had just decided to pay a visit to the Gull roost at Goring when an alert came through for a Grey Phalarope on the children's paddling pool at Hove Lagoon. It seemed a bit unlikely. The pool is in a really busy area, it was a Sunday afternoon, and the first dry day for a long time. It would be packed with people, children, and dogs, and it was probably the last place I would think of looking for such a bird. Still, if there it would be a year tick and its not a bird I could guarantee catching up with later in the year.

I am glad I went and my thanks to whoever put out the alert. It was a great bird to see and it seemed to have no fear of people or dogs.

Grey Phalarope

It was overcast and drizzling by the time I got there so the pictures were never going to be brilliant but I did get a few record shots. It was not too difficult, as the bird was quite happy feeding only a few feet away from the gathered watchers. In fact I would have been better off with a smaller lens as most of the time I found myself having to back away from the bird to get the big lens to focus.

It did go out on the larger lagoon a couple of times but kept returning to the paddling pool which is only a few inches deep. They do seem to favour walking around in shallow water when they are feeding over having to swim on deeper water but I am not sure what food it would have found in the paddling pool.

On the way home I called in to Widewater to see he Red-breasted Mergansers. The weather was even worse by then and pictures were very difficult. They have been there for a few weeks now but I have yet to see them on a decent day.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Still, getting a picture of one catching a fish made it worthwhile.

Red-breasted Merganser with fish

 The gulls were out over the sea and seemed to be having a great time with the wind and waves. There is probably a lot of food being washed up and there were certainly more gulls on the sea at both Hove and Widewater than I would normally expect to see. Great to watch but all the action made it very difficult to spot anything unusual amongst them.

2014 and a New Birding List

2014 is with us and for those of us that keep year lists it brings a fresh start. The need to hunt down those last few birds that you know you should have seen in 2013 has disappeared. You start again with a clean sheet and every bird counts.

We had planned to get the year off to a good start by being out birding on New Years Day but, given the poor weather, we had to defer it to the Thursday. We were after quality not quantity and had a list of target birds that we wanted to pick up early in the year before they disappeared. Top of that list was the Lesser Yellowlegs at Lepe Country Park, so we started our day there and worked our way back along the coast.

Lesser Yellowlegs in early morning light

Redshank and Lesser Yelowlegs

Although not chasing numbers we did still manage to see over sixty different birds on the day. It seems odd having to look out for the more common birds such as Tits, Robins, and Sparrows but this time of the year they all count and are all greeted enthusiastically. Although, having missed one earlier in the day and fearing that he had fallen behind, Dave's cry of joy at finding a Mute Swan was perhaps a bit over the top.

Long-tailed Duck was on our list with a possible stop off at the Hayling Island Oyster Beds on the way back. However, we were lucky enough to find one in the entrance to the Beaulieu River and it gave much closer views than you normally get with the Hayling bird.

Long-tailed Duck

With crab for lunch

The only real disappointment on the day came when we stopped off at Stokes Bay but could not locate the long staying Yellow-legged Gull. However, we had better luck with another long stayer at Walpole park in Gosport where the Ring-billed Gull "Waldo" has returned for what must now be its eleventh or twelfth year.

Waldo

There is always a bit of initial confusion in picking the Ring-billed out from the Common Gulls at the same location. The clincher is the yellow eye and slightly more aggressive look.

Common Gull

We spent the afternoon at Pagham North Wall ticking off some of the usual waders. There were thousands of birds there although with the tide high in the harbour and with the fields north of the wall flooded the birds were often distant. We were just starting to think of going home when we were tipped off to a pair of Whooper Swans on Ivy Lake Chichester. This is a bird that I missed completely last year so it was worth the quick diversion on the way home. We got there just in time to get a record shot before the light faded completely.

Whooper Swans and Canada Goose

After a couple of weeks away from birding due to the weather and Christmas commitments it was great to get out again. There is so much I want to see before the end of the month - I just need it to stop raining.