Dipper

A weeks walking holiday with the family in the Lake District kept me busy but still left me with a few opportunities for birdwatching. Top of my birding list, whenever I am in the mountains, is always the Dipper and this year I was fortunate enough to find a pair about a quarter of a mile from our cottage nesting underneath a bridge.

Dipper

They always appear to be such an active bird, constantly in and out of the water gathering food, and then flying back to the nest with mouths full of assorted invertebrates. They also seem very tolerant of people. This pair where nesting under a busy footpath with children throwing rocks into the river, where only a few minutes before I had seen the birds searching for food. Fortunately most people don't seem to notice nature happening around them and the nest in a shaded spot underneath a small bridge went unnoticed by the people passing by.

Dipper at the nest - The camera lies,
 the nest was much darker and harder to spot than this picture shows

Feeding the young

searching for food underwater

and on the rocks

Must be a lot of young to feed

It's a fascinating bird to watch as it walks or swims underwater looking for larvae or flies up and down its stretch of river with rapid wing beats just a few inches above the water.

Also on the river were a small group of Grey Wagtails. Not as close as I would have liked but at least this one kept its tail still long enough for a picture.

Grey Wagtail

Bassenthwaite Lake with its Osprey observation point was only a couple of miles away. Checking the map it did not look very promising. The nest site looked to be about a mile from the observation point and would be well beyond the range of my camera. Still there were telescopes provided at the observation point, it would be a year tick, and there was always the chance of a flyby.

Spot the Osprey - Camera view about the equivalent of a pair of 10X50 binoculars

Heavily cropped and a bit of a mess but it is a year tick

We saw the Osprey (just) through the telescope but there was no flyby. In fact the Osprey did not leave the nest and adjacent tree in the time we watched.  More details on the Bassenthwaite Osprey at http://www.ospreywatch.co.uk/ . There is also a public hide on the A66 that would give good views if the birds were fishing out over the lake.

Up on the hills there were plenty of Wheatears on show and they all seemed to be males. I had a go at getting pictures but they were all very skittish. Then early one morning I found this one sitting on the wall close by the cottage. He seemed a lot slower than the rest and looking at the picture you can see some form of wound on its chest, possibly caused by a pellet or some form of parasite. He still looks good though, so I just hope he made it up on to the hill and found a mate.

Wheatear

Avocets

Beautiful spring weather this morning, sunshine, clear air, and all the right conditions for photography. Just a pity then that the best bird of the day, the Avocet, is the one bird you really need overcast conditions for. Its a really elegant bird and great to watch but the camera just cannot cope with the huge contrast between the black and white in bright sunlight.

Avocet - Ferry Pool Pagham Harbour

Still with the birds going through their mating ritual and with the possibility of successful breeding pairs on the Ferry Pool it was worth getting a record.

Seeing off the other contenders

Female bending forward and lowering her head into the water in submission (or as an invitation?)

Mating

Followed by the kiss - touching bills

There were no real signs of the migration getting into full swing. The week has proved to be a bit slow and today was no different.We did see a few Wheatears but there were no picture opportunities. Chiffchaffs could be heard all around, and the usual suspects were much in evidence.

Chiffchaff

Linnet

Treecreeper 

Song Thrush

The warm weather today did see more butterflies on the wing so there should be some good picture opportunities soon and Dragonflies are not far away.

Comma

Dartford Warblers Revisited

I went to have another look at the Dartford Warblers today. Walking around the commons there were plenty of Stonechats visible but the Dartfords were a lot harder to find. It was possible to do a 360 degree scan and spot four or five Stonechat pairs sitting out on their territory but the Dartfords appeared to be covering a much larger area.

Having found a suitable spot I found the best way to see them was to sit quietly under a large gorse bush and wait for them to come to me. I still haven't got that perfect picture that I am looking for but it is getting closer. I just need the bird to slow down a bit, it moves a lot faster than my autofocus or my ability to do a manual focus.

Dartford Warbler

There did not appear to be much else about on the commons. I was hoping for a Woodlark but I could not see any sign of them. Everything that moved seemed to be a Stonechat.

Stonechat

I still haven't seen a Corn Bunting this year so in the afternoon I headed up to the Burgh. Their were good views of the usual Buzzards and Red Kites and I also flushed a few Grey Partridges but I could not find any of the usual small birds. Even the Yellowhammers were absent.

Red Kite

Hoopoe

The birding has been a bit of a mixed bag of late. There has been a shortage of waders for the first three months of the year and even the usual small birds seem to be keeping a low profile of late. I have not had many good picture opportunities recently and the birding seems to have all been a bit flat. Strange then that, when I check back, the week has been quite successful with five year ticks and one life tick.

Perhaps the most rewarding was catching up with the Cuckmere Spoonbill. This was my fifth attempt at this bird. Previous visits had involve a walk along both paths on the Western side and detailed scanning of the channels and ditches. Other than the White-fronted Geese I saw nothing, but on every occasion the bird was reported on the same day. This time we parked up on Seaford Head and scoped the area from a distance. Not a very satisfactory approach but we did eventually manage to pick it up over in the lagoon on the eastern side.

Other ticks that day were a Linnet and a Black Redstart at Tidemills and Kittiwake at Seaford Head. Whilst I managed distant record shots of all of these birds the only shot worth publishing is this slightly out of focus Skylark.

Skylark

Today I visited Kent and with the M20 passing within a mile of Snodland it seemed an ideal opportunity to catch up with the Hoopoe that had been reported there. I managed to park in the wrong place but after a short walk I eventually found the bird, although I only managed four shots before it disappeared into cover.

Hoopoe - my first in this country

Feeling flushed with success I thought why not try for the two reported Garganey at Allhallows, its only a few miles away. So I did, but without any luck. If they were there they were staying in cover or were both females that I was unable to separate from the female Teal. Then I thought, there is another Garganey reported at Restharrow Scrape in Sandwich Bay, this time a male, its only a few more miles away (65 to be exact). Can I justify the mileage, I don't really go in for twitches, but then this is not really a twitch.

I arrived at the hide only to be told  the usual, you should have been here ten minutes ago it was swimming around in front of the hide, and the guy had superb pictures to prove it. I eventually managed a brief view through the bins when it appeared in a gap in the reeds. If I was just a birder I could have gone home happy. Being a photographer, I wanted a picture and I was still sitting in the hide three and a half hours later when I had to finally accept that I was not going to get a picture in the dark.

A bit of a frustrating week as far as the photography goes, my only consolation, telling my birding buddy Dave about the Hoopoe and Garganey. It doesn't quite make up for his Capercaillie and Crested Tit but it helps.

Dartford Warblers

The weather forecast showed the coastal fringe being overcast today so we headed inland for a look at the brooks and commons. We didn't actually see a great deal.  A few flocks of Chaffinches and Goldfinches, a Bullfinch at Pulborough Brooks, a few Stonechats, a Yellowhammer, a Treecreeper, and a couple of Dartford Warblers. We looked in at Waltham Brooks but appear to have missed the Great Grey Shrike which was reported just after we left.

Picture wise it was a bit disappointing. I keep seeing Dartfords but they are usually distant or staying in cover. The next few weeks are probably my best hope for getting a good shot as they are more likely to be out in the open singing and marking out there territories.

Dartford Warbler pair

Stonechat

The Bullfinch was good to see but again it was staying in cover and giving very few clear views.

Bullfinch

A good days birding but I feel as though I missed a few picture opportunities along the way. Lets hope I get another chance.