It's not very often I respond quickly to news of a scarce bird appearing, thats just not my style. So after a morning thrashing the patch finding nothing out of the ordinary, the decision was taken to head over to Upton Warren on the way back to my Dudley home. Only a small diversion.
The reason being a juvenile Wood Sandpiper had been found, and it didn't take long before this stunning wader was feeding and showing well in the delta not far from the hide. It spent much of it's time out of view on the back of the channels but when it did come out, its speckled white mantle and flight feathers gleamed in the evening sunshine. Bliss.
An added bonus was the appearance of two juvenile Mediterranean Gull's which spent the evening side by side feeding and preening on one of the islands on the flashes. It was great to see them strutting their stuff in the same scope view which allowed for plumage differences to be scrutinized, and it became obvious that one of the birds was metal ringed. Sadly not a Darvec and therefore it was impossible to read it from that distance, meaning we will never know where it came from.
12 Green Sandpipers remained, as did 3 Common Sandpipers and small numbers of Curlew and Snipe were dotted around the flashes.
For many years, Spoonbill has being somewhat of a glaring omission from my British list, having missed 4 county birds in the last few years, including one by a painful 5 minutes, (meaning i would have been on site and walking to the hide when it flew through), and a further 5 in my journeys around the wider country.
However, a brief flypast of an adult Spoonbill back in May at Titchwell RSPB proved to me that these mythical creatures did actually exist, so, with slightly more optimism i headed down to Slimbridge WWT for the long staying bird with my curse now broken.
And it was straight to the South lake, and as soon as entering the hide, the stunner of an adult SPOONBILL greeted me towards the back of the lake perching on a stump. Initially asleep, it occasionally woke up, revealing the spatula of a bill that the bird possesses.
Still in partial summer plumage, the bird was obviously heavily moulting into its winter plumage. As you would expect for a species more accustomed to southern climates, the bird was irritated by the somewhat crap weather of the day, with heavy rain and cloud.
2 Ruff and a partial summer plumaged Golden Plover joined the 130c Black-tailed Godwit.
Hearing that the juvenile WOOD SANDPIPER was showing on the Rushy, we headed over there, where we hid in the hide from the worsening rain, but the Wood Sandpiper was indeed present with 5 Green Sandpiper.
After a check of the Zeiss Hide, where we saw the 8 Avocet, a Pintail, and the Wood Sandpiper flew in and joined us.
A scan from the Holden Tower revealed a adult DARK-BELLIED BRENT GOOSE, with 6 Ringed Plover, 10 Dunlin and 6 Common Tern, so then we moved to the Middle Point, with the rain having now ceased.
From here, following the heavy rain, we witnessed a period of vis-mig, and in 2 hours, a total of 42 WHIMBREL flew past the 'hide', all of them calling as they went, a few of the birds dropped down onto the mud briefly before continuing off south. Similarly, a juvenile MEDITERRANEAN GULL flew past us as it headed downriver, but this bird seemed to drop down onto the Saltmarsh. A party of Blackwit (40 birds) were on the estuary, before being flushed and flying off back towards the Center. 4 Little Egret were located out on the mud also, and with the growing number of Gulls, a juvenile YELLOW-LEGGED GULL was picked out on the edge of a sand bank.
What a way to finish April! With a trip down south into the stunning county of Somerset to visit the recently publicized birding hot-spot of the Avalon Marshes
Neil Duggan (@NeilDuggan80 on Twitter) had again offered the trip, and i gratefully accepted, knowing of a whole host of amazing birds present in the area at the time. Pied Billed Grebe, Black winged Stilt, Whiskered Tern, Woodchat Shrike, as well as all the residents. It'd be a good day!
Arriving at the parking spot as Ashcott Corner, nestled between two fabulous extensive reedbed reserves, one owned by the RSPB, Ham Wall, the other by the Natural England, Shapwick Heath NR we took the unanimous decision to head straight to the 2nd viewing platform on the RSPB side. The walk up was incredible, as only a few meters onto the reserve we had already clocked Cuckoo, Marsh Harrier, and numerous Cetti's Warblers!
Our walk along the track was constantly, and i do mean CONSTANTLY followed by Cetti's Warblers, with easily 15 counted in the time we were on site, and that was only the Ham Wall side, they were everywhere!
A Grasshopper Warbler briefly reeling near the first Platform.
At the 2nd Platform, we were informed the Pied Billed had been heard singing a little earlier, but to cut it short, we didn't see or hear it throughout our visit, which was a huge shame.
But then again, there were loads of amazing birds.
3 Marsh Harrier were hunting the reedbeds, one of which was a stunning male. But here is one of the females.
Initially, we could only pick up 1 GARGANEY, but as time went on, it became apparent that there was infact 4! All of which were drakes, and all looking absolutely stunning! Even despite the distance, i managed a couple of shots which i am happy with.
After a bit, someone called out they had two 'pale' Sandpipers, and upon getting onto them confirmed that 2 WOOD SANDPIPERS were hunting the margins. The distance was around the same to that of the Garganey's, but with a Sandpiper, it was a fair bit harder to get a picture, but i tried, and i got a few in which you can tell is a Wood Sandpiper, you just have to trust me.
Do you see it?
As can be seen with the direction the scope is facing, every decent bird was tucked up in the far right hand corner, exactly where the Stilts had been the previous day, but had now departed.
At least 4 BITTERN were around, 2 of which were seen. One of those flypasts gave stunning views for around 30 seconds as it flew the entire length of the pool. However, the true birder i am, i chose to savor the moment rather than grab the camera. So here is the distant bird:
Added to this, an amazing supporting cast was present. 5 Little Egret flew through, as did single Ringed Plover and Dunlin. A male Yellow Wagtail was on the islands and another Cuckoo was heard calling.
Conscious of the time, we headed back to the car, stopping at the 1st Platform again as a giant white bird was sitting there!
GREAT EGRET!
This was one of our targets, so was great to see up so close, its green lores and black bill contrasting to the plain yellow of the Grimley bird.
The bird strode around in the shallows while i took some footage. But again, we had to move on.
A very last minute decision to head onto Shapwick heath to check the first pool was rewarded almost immidiatly with another stunning flight view of a Bittern, of which again, there were at least 4 birds. The others 'booming' from within the reeds. 2 WOOD SANDPIPER were present on the mud as we arrived, much closer than the Ham Wall birds, so the scope went up immidiatly but once up, i aimed the scope, and there was nothing. A few seconds later i was informed they had flown...
A female Garganey was picked out among the ducks. Wader wise, 62 Blackwits were stunning to see and a lone Dunlin.A Little Egret was also hunting the shoreline.
We had received news that the Woodchat Shrike was showing again near Chew Valley Lake, so we decided to drop in there before Neil had to head back to his sons Cricket match.
Pulling up, we walked to the crowd, and what i did not expect to see was a WOODCHAT SHRIKE perched up on the hedgeline just on the other side of the fence, a mere 30ft away! Initially obscured, the bird emerged in full view, and gave absolutely unbelievable views as it dropped down onto the gate to feed. Is there anything to say other than Wow!
We had literally scope filling views as the bird perched on the hedge, occasionally dropping down to the floor (which was even closer than the hedge) to feed.
With our out and out highlight of the day seen, we decided to head back, where i was dropped of at Upton Warren to have a quick look there before i headed home. The flashes was quite bar the usual, so i headed to the Moors, which had 2 Dunlin and a Green Sandpiper. Not too much longer after the Dunlins flew out north. Vismig!
All in all, a total day tally of 98 Species, so close to breaking the 100 barrier!
An awesome days birding, despite bad behavior of the 'rares' that didn't cooperate!
28/08/12
Our annual late August visit to Slimbridge was held today, and it combined with the presence of a decent rarity. I had been keeping a fairly close eye on the bird reports from the @Slimbridge_Wild Twitter page and the WWT website, and i was quite dissapoined that the Wader flocks that usually build up at this time of year on the estury had not really materialised, combined to that the fact that high tide was just as the centre closes, i knew that esturine wader's might not be noted.
And i wasnt wrong!
Just starting on the way down i was checking twitter when a new tweet popped up, Spotted Crake and Long-Billed Dowitcher showing from South lake hide. Awsome, be there in 40 minuites!
We arrived to a rather full south lake hide, and i was informed that the Crake hadent shown, and the Dowitcher was hidden amongst the sleeping Godwits, of which there was a 200 strong flock of!
We stayed in the hide for about 1 1/2 hours hoping the Crake would show or the Dowitcher would emerge. Eventually, the LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER did wake up, and walk from behind a Godwit, showing itself briefly before heading back to sleep.
On this, we decided to wander.
Wood Sandpiper has been abit of a bogey this year, and i havent caught up with one. However, one had been showing from the Robbie Garnett hide for a few days now, an easy tick and run, surely?
NO
Combined with the Crake, these two birds were the most stuborn birds of the whole day, and we spent hours looking for both!
We walked up via the Rushy, where i quickly spotted a female GARGANEY dabbling with the Teal. Briefly, it swam into the close bay in front of the hide, and i was treated to great views of this migrant duck as it swam around briefly, before swimming back with the rest of the Teal.
From here though, it briefly went downhill. We stopped off at the Robbie Garnett hide, and spend a good hour looking for the Wood sand, apparently it was frequenting a small 30ft stretch of the shore that was hidden by reeds from the hide!! Ahhhhhh.
We then moved into the Holden Tower, were a brief, distant flypast of 30 Dunlin was the only esturine wader activity of the day!
We dropped into both the Robbie Garnett (Still no Wood sand) and the Rushy (Garganey now at the back), where 2 PINTAIL were showing right at the back of the pool.
While walking through the 'Birds of a suspect origin' sections of the centre it became obvious that most of the birds from the Zeiss hide had been flushed while we were just heading over there!
We scanned the Lapwing flocks, and picked out a few RUFF and a GREENSHANK, most of which then landed on the South lake. Anyway, we continued our journey to the Zeiss, were i had my dinner that i had prepared, a nice Cheese and Ham Bagguette, lovely.
As expected there wasnt much birdlife here as much of it had been flushed, however, initially, 3 RUFF were grounded among the Lapwings.
But, just about when i was finishing my Bagguette, a further 4 RUFF flew in, giving us a total of 7 birds infront of us. A single GREENSHANK was also here. Scanning through the flocks of Duck was quite uneventful, no Wigeon, no Pintail.
Thinking i might try my luck at the Crake again, and to now be able to get some photos of the Dowitcher as the sun had moved slightly away so hopefully the birds wouldnt be silouetted.
Well i'll just say what happened, another hour, another no sign of the Crake, and my worst nightmare was unfolding, the Godwit flock was still sillouetted! But i though i cant leave without at least a record of the Dowicther, which wasnt showing particularly well.
A very nice number of Waders were on the South lake, and it was great to be sifting through the large numbers of Lapwing and Black-Tailed Godwit's, picking up RUFF'S, GREENSHANKS 80c Redshanks and Green Sandpipers. and of cause, the LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, which was now feeding.
As i said, most of the wader flock (Including the area with the Dowitcher) were in strong sunlight which was bouncing off the water, and i could only get backlit shots of the birds.
Hoping the light would be better later in the day we left so that we could walk to Middle point, stopping at each hide on the way up. The Garganey had now dissapeared, and a longish stint in the Robbie Garnett one again revealed no Wood sand.
However, this Hawker sp Dragonfly was showing on reeds infront of the hide, another 'Odonta' (I believe thats how you spell it to add to the digi-scoped list!
We walked down the Holden Walkway to the Middle point, stopping halfway to view from a gap in the hedge where you could see some of the 'invisible shoreline' where the Wood Sand was. And amazingly, we could see the WOOD SANDPIPER! However distant, but still, i finally got it, about 4 hours after first trying to see it!
It was obvious there wasnt going to be any waders other than a few distant Curlew on the estury, however, i find that the Middle point 'hide' is a nice place to have a sit down, you really do think your miles away from civilisation, and , with it being a 'wall to wall' blue sky day, it was a nice place to just have a nice stop and wait.
We noticed abit of commotion over the dumbles as the Curlews and the Gulls 'got up', and i quickly scanned over there and saw a 'Buzzard' circling quite high up. After abit, i looked again, as i wasnt particularly certain over its ID. And by now, it had came closer and it wasnt just a Buzzard like shape now. I quickly noticed its tail looked strangely long, and its wings sightly odd, but i couldnt tell why. But the bird was still sillouetted.
I thought that the bird looked 'odd', so decided to call to 'get onto this Raptor'. By now though i had glimpsed a pale head, and called out MARSH HARRIER!. The bird then proceeded to circle above our heads, by which time i'd got the bird in my scope, and i enjoyed great views of a new species for me! Tick 1 off the 'Bogey List'
The bird, then slowly dropped lower as it flew past us, over towards the 100 acre, dropping down behind the tree line.
A very large Gull flock was developing on the mudflats to the north, however way to far away to ID, and 2 LITTLE EGRET's were also showing far to the north. However, we got lucky as another LITTLE EGRET had chosen to hunt the small pool just infront of the viewpoint.
2 PEREGRINE were flying, and perching around on the mudflats.
Moving up to the slightly higher viewpoint behind us on the Seawall, we scanned the fence lines, and i picked up 3 WHEATEAR, which is always a nice addition to the day list. I again looked to the north, and i picked up the MARSH HARRIER hunting low over the reeds at the 100 acre area that you can see. A few more views were had as it moved back and forth over the reeds.
I wanted to have one last look for the Crake on the south lake, and to cut a long story short, the bird didnt show again untill after closing time, by which time we had arrived back home. The LONG BILLED DOWITCHER was still showing and feeding, but slowly became less active.
The wader flock had grown further since we were last here, and the 230 Black-Tailed Godwits were joined by, 3 Greenshank, 80c Redshank, 3 Ruff, which was a nice little list.
An afternoon visit to the lakes produced a Pair of ARCTIC TERN with 8 Common Tern on Engine Pool, also a single Greylag Goose, On Windmill pool there was an extremly showy drake Mandarin. A couple of Photos below
Upton Warren
As i Predicted the previous day, early morning i had a text to say that a summer plumages Bar-tailed Godwit was at upton, so we headed to where the bird had been seen at the moors, However on entering the hide i was greated by the news that it wasent there, However this Looked Up then i spied my 3rd and 4th ARCTIC TERN of the day and year feeding over the pool.
They did land on occasion, but always at the back of the islands and always into the sun, after some time watching the terns we decided to head to the flashes, but while walking back we decided to stop in the 'secret garden' to see if anything was in there, we walked up and suddenly a Roe Deer burst out of the bushes and sprinted towards the road, we heard it clicking as it scuttled across the pavement and towards the north moors, we decided to go and have a look, but after about 10 mins we gave up and had another brief check of the garden.
But when leaving the agrden underneath the oak tree i spied a flock of birds that i thought were pigeons passing over, however they where flying dodgy, so up went the bins and i was absolutly extatic to see a stunning flock of 27 BAR-TAILED GODWITS flying over, i scanned through the entire flock to check they all were bar tails and they were, all with the wedge up their back and the upturned bill, quite a proportion of the flock contained red males, but there was also quite a few female/winter birds, the birds reached the powerlines over the paddocks and started circling giving brief hopes they would fly back, but they never did and continued north. I quickly informed everyone who i knew on site, But everyone replyed that they hadent even seen any flock of any bird fly over!!
When we reached the crowd in the carpark at the flashes i mentioned it again and they were wondering how they had missed them, we wroked out that the flight path of the birds would have them following the A38 across the transmitter field (therefore out of view of the flashes hide), across the sailing pool (where no birders where) and then across the back of the eddy, and behind the east hide at the moors, this line equels up to the direction they flew across over the paddocks, being in very high spirts we headed down to the flashes, where when reaching the bench, the WHIMBREL from yesterday flew across in front of us and landed at the back of the flashes again.
On entering the hide it was obvious the stars of yesterday had remained, with both WOOD SANDPIPER and the WHIMBREL remaining, but more wader passage overnight had resulted in a few more waders. the waders list is below (including breeders):
4 Oystercatcher
16 Avocet
8 LRP
Lapwing (??)
1 Wood Sand
1 Green Sand
2 Common Sand
1 Redshank
1 Bar-tailed godwit (the bird from the moors earlier in the day, so 28 birds seen)
2 Curlew
1 Whimbrel
4 Snipe
Not a bad list i think tbh, the Godwit remained at the back of the flash throughout and fed in the sewage works field with the whimbrel ofternly, the F White wagtail remained in front of the hide
A set up pre run for the UW all dayer went very weel, and waders were moving big style, i had decided to visit upton 3 days in a row (thurs Night, Friday from around 2pm-7pm and for the saturday roost, and my increases upton regiem had rewards)
I dropped into the flashes first as all the Big birds were reported on that side, and i was exeptiannly relieved when all 3 of the birds had remained, WOOD SANDPIPER, WHIMBREL and a GREENSHANK!!, and that mentioned, this being spring, all were in stunning summer plumage, however, all but the Greenshank were right at the back of the flashes, after some time watching them i picked up a wagtail over the back, and a scope view revealed that i was watching a female WHITE WAGTAIL.
(Female White Wagtail)
The hide remained crowded so i was about to head up to the moors when the Wood sand flew towards us and landed in the channels just to the right of the hide briefly before heading back to the rear of the flash. I took some photos. (Wood Sandpiper)
I then walked over to the Moors via the Education reserve, adding Lesser Whitethroat, Willow warbler, Whitethroat and blackcap to the day list, however i failed to find the Garden Warbler.
Compared to the flashes, It was very quiet at the Moors, however everyone was looking skyward as a marsh harrier flew over before i got there.
After some time on the Moors seeing not much, i decided to walk to the flashes again before my dad picked me up so i can wait for the thunderstorm to drop some waders, however, the thrunderstorm never materialised, and infact, it got sunnyer. But that did help when the Greenshank came closer;
(Greenshank)
On the walk back to the flashes i found the male Garden Warbler singing.
