Parrot Crossbills

Difficult decisions to make this week. Do I chase after a Sussex Tick with the Black Guillemot at Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne or do I go looking for a decent picture of a Parrot Crossbill and a possible life tick in the putative American Horned Lark.

Unbelievable really. Having gone through nearly two months with little of interest in the Sussex area we get three good targets up on the same day.

It was a no brainer. The Crossbills and Horned Lark were a bit further to travel but either one was worth going for. Lets just hope that the Black Guillemot is a long stayer.

I would love to be able to show you a picture of the American Horned Lark. We did see it, feeding on the ground as we approached, about ten metres away, but it had flown before I managed to get the camera out. It returned later but this time to its favoured area of wall, on the western side of the  northern reservoir, about 200 metres away. You could make it out through a scope but there was no chance of even a record shot.


We were luckier with the Parrot Crossbills, a flock of sixteen or seventeen birds. They did at least give some close views although they seemed to be able to time it perfectly to arrive as the sun went behind the clouds and depart as soon as the light improved. We also had one spell of over two hours when the birds went missing. It was really cold waiting for them to return, take some extra layers if you are going to look for them.

The location was near Camberley at Wishmoor Bottom in the Swinley Forest, at the back of the Royal Military Academy. Park at the top of Kings Ride and follow the track north for about half a mile. When you see a black and white barrier on the left take the  right turn and walk about forty metres and then turn left. Another hundred metres on this track and you are in the right area. Look for the crowds around one of the pine trees.

Not so convincing as a Parrot Crossbill

A touching moment - pity about the light

Challenging conditions and difficult birds to photograph but these are better than anything I have managed to get in the past. It's just great to be amongst the birds again.

On the downside, no record shot of the American Horned Lark. That brings to nine the number of birds on my list of seen but not photographed.

Glossy Ibis

Went to Medmerry today, to have a look for the Glossy Ibis that has been present there for a few days.

It is frequenting a fenced off building compound, complete with workers and heavy machinery, on the Bunn Leisure Caravan Park just outside the South East boundary of the Medmerry Nature Reserve. It seems a strange environment in which to find the bird. There is a rough grassland area and a few puddles and it is obviously finding food but it is difficult to see why it would favour this over the vast wetland areas over the fence in Medmerry.

It seems to be completely unfazed by the work going on around it or by the birders and photographers that visit, so there are some good picture opportunities

This is a juvenile so it hasn't really had a chance to learn that it needs to be wary of people. Particularly as this is a popular dog walking area.

It spends most of its time searching for food in the long grass but we were fortunate to be there when it came out to drink at one of the puddles on the path outside the compound.

I am always surprised how large this bird looks in flight and in pictures. Perhaps we have a preconception based on the larger members of the Ibis family or perhaps it's all in the legs. It is actually quite a small bird but with large wings. Here is another shot taken a couple of years ago at Dungeness of a Glossy Ibis along side a juvenile Black-backed Gull.

Quite a few other birds around today but very little that was posing for a photograph.

Stonechat

Black-tailed Godwit

A good day out, nice weather lots of birds to look at and even a couple of decent pictures. Things are looking up.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The birding and bird photography always seems to go through a bad spell when I come home from a trip abroad. You move from seeing new and unusual birds every day back to seeing all the home front supporting cast with just the occasional bird that raises the interest levels. Except, this past month, Sussex seems to be devoid of anything really interesting. Even regular trips up onto Cissbury Ring have failed to see me connect with the usually reliable Ring Ouzels up there.

I have been out and I have seen lots of birds but it seems as though, most days, I come home without bothering to take a single picture and it has been six weeks since I did my last blog post.

A trip to Pulborough today to see the Pectoral Sandpiper has motivated me to start blogging again. The pictures were not good, the Pec Sand stayed at the back of the pool and a distant brown bird against a brown background is not the easiest of subjects but hey, it was enough to get me going again.

Pectoral Sandpiper

The bird was to be found in front of the West Mead hide, on the mud at the back right hand corner of the pool. I watched it for about an hour and went back later in the morning for another go but it seemed to be faithful to this area and was not going to give a better picture opportunity.

Pectoral Sandpiper

There wasn't a great deal more to look at around Pulborough. Duck numbers were stating to build on the West Mead pool but the North Brooks were mostly empty of birds, with some major re-profiling work going on there.

Shoveler

Wigeon

Needing some more content for the blog I then looked back over the pictures I had taken over the past few weeks. Nothing special but not quiet as bad as I had remembered.

Black-tailed Godwit at Pagham North Wall

Chiffchaff at Brooklands Park

Common Sandpiper  in the Ferry Channel

Looking for somewhere sheltered to roost

Distant Spoonbills at Pagham North Wall

Wheatear  - Pagham North Wall

Wheatear - Pagham North Wall

Migration now seems to be well underway and the bird numbers are picking up. The clear, cold and crisp day of winter may be few and far between but they are by far the best for taking photographs. All we need now are some good birds.

Turtle Dove

It's always difficult when you get back from an overseas trip. You have an intensive week sorting out all the pictures and publishing the blog and then it is back to reality. There is no more finding ten life ticks a day. You just hope for the chance of a year tick or perhaps an exciting shot of a common bird and that very much sums up how it has been this past week.

My first days birding back in England doesn't look too bad on paper but seemed incredibly slow and unexciting on the day. On the 12th we did our usual circuit of Pagham Harbour. Nothing much had changed. Too much water in the Breech Pool so mostly ducks and no repair to the Ferry Pool so not enough water and very few birds.

On paper it gave me two year ticks, Whinchat and Spotted Flycatcher. All very distant and no chance of a picture but I suppose I should be counting it as a good day. Picture wise it was saved by a few Dragonflys that we found just south of the pumps at Ferry Creek. They were mostly Common and Red Darters but there were also a couple of Migrant Hawkers.

Migrant Hawker

A return a few days later and at least the North Wall was showing signs of life. A good few Bar-tailed Godwits and Redshanks out on the creek along with returning Wigeon and Teal and a few distant Pintails.

Four noisy Greenshanks flew into the back of the Breech Pool and we found three Spotted Redshank amongst the Godwits at the other end of the pool

Four Greenshanks on the Breech Pool

Spotted Redshank

However, the bird we had come to see was a ridiculously confiding juvenile Turtle Dove. It had spent a few days by the Visitors Centre at Pagham completely unfazed by the people around it. Even having read reports of the birds behaviour it still came as a bit of a shock when you realised how easy it was to approach.

Either it has spent a lot of time around people that have been feeding it or it has never seen a human before and does not realise how dangerous we can be.

Lets hope it picks its migration route carefully.....

.....or those brave hunters on the island of Malta will have another easy target.

Australia (1/8) Melbourne

Birding off the patch! We have just arrived home from another great holiday, a tour of Australia, courtesy of Riviera Travel.  We were over there for 21 days and clocked up around 6000 miles on internal travel. Add that to the 21,500 mile return trip to Aus and I have some serious carbon offset to address. Our trip, shown below, included the Darwin loop.

I have to say though, a great holiday. A small group, well organised, nice people and best of all cheap(ish). I couldn't get anywhere near the price when I looked at doing a similar independent tour.

OK there were some downsides. I didn't get as long for birding as I would have liked and sometimes we were moving on before I had even got the camera out. However, for us, holidays will always be a compromise. That is between my wish for birds, butterflies and all things nature and Sue's belief, strange as it is, that there are other things in life worth doing and to be fair that doesn't just mean shopping as I may have suggested in the past.


So, onto the birds. There are about 850+ different species in Australia with around 45% of those being endemic. I managed to see and photograph around 130 in the time I was there although some of the photographs are (a lot) less than perfect.

We arrived in Melbourne late evening and I was out in Fitzroy Gardens next to the hotel in the predawn light looking for my first exotic.

Blackbird

Not exactly what I had expected but I could at least hear some unusual bird calls from the surrounding trees.

Common Myna

Common Myna, better but still not a new bird. I could see assorted crow and Raven type birds but in the early morning light I couldn't really be sure of an identification. Then my first new bird Australian Wood Duck.

Australian Wood Duck

With the light starting to improve a few more birds appeared from the shadows. Rainbow Lorikeets, colourful in the low light but stunning once the sun comes up.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Australian Magpie

It wasn't until a few days later that we realised that the Magpie was the source of the flute like calls that we could hear as a constant background to our time out birding.

Magpie Lark

Red Wattlebird

Little Pied Cormorant

Later that day I took a walk through the Yarra Park for a look at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Lots more of the birds we had already seen but a few new ones as well.

Noisy Miner

Pied Currawong

Spotted Dove

Eastern Rosella

The next day was a bit disappointing. We had a trip organised out into the Dandenongs with a ride on the Puffing Billy steam railway up to Emerald Lake, a noted birding location. We saw a good few birds from the railway including Crimson Rosella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, and Laughing Kookaburra but with a lot of people around they were keeping their distance and picture opportunities were limited. By the time we got to Emerald lake we had heavy rain but I managed a few shots of some rather wet birds and the steam railway was some consolation.

Crimson Rosella

Grey Curawong  -  I think!
 grey throat, less defined bill hook and white tipped flight feathers

Purple Swamphen

Arriving back in Melbourne we still had a couple of hours before sunset and the rain had stopped so it was a quick walk through the park and over the river to the Botanic Gardens.

Australian Raven

Bell Miner

Pleased to get the Bell Miner. We could hear a few of them ringing away in the bushes but they were hard to locate, very territorial and aggressive and always on the move.

Pacific Black Duck

Silver Gull

Long-billed Corella  "Cut Throats"

Our second day in Melbourne draws to a close and in the morning it's time to move on. So much still to see and we hadn't even managed to get out to the Water Treatment Plant at Werribee, the Poo Farm in local terminology, with a bird list of 284 species. Truth be told I didn't even have the courage to raise the possibility with Sue.