Snowy Owl in Norfolk!

10/03/18
We don't often day trip any more. It is always an excellent day, with 6 hours driving, with a long day in the field is always a little daunting..

Some birds are enough to get you off your backside though, a mythical bird that will be on your lips for weeks to come, and with the weekend approaching, boom. Snowy Owl in Norfolk! A hasty made plan, and we found ourselves driving around a familiar triangle at dawn, a short hop from the north coast where the bird had been seen the previous day. It had flown west at dusk, so my betting was Thornham Harbour for its reappearance. We slowly made our way north, checking the fields and beach before hitting the north coast road. As we drove through Thornham village, out came the hoped for tweet 'Snowy Owl- Thornham point!'.

2 minutes later, we were screeching to a halt in an empty RSPB Titchwell car park, and soon 'walking' up the track to the beach. A Woodcock got a brief passing glance and a pair of mating Common Frog were hastily avoided as we sped past.

A few cursory scans up the point oddly couldn't find any birders, but a large 'blob' perched up on a branch was a little curious. A couple of further stops and curiosity got the better of me, and set the scope on that 'distant blob'...

Massive, white and heavily barred!

The SNOWY OWL!!

Elated, we paced the rest of the distance to the beach, where we met a couple of birder already in-situ, watching the Owl at about 1km distance. What a beast!
Drying out from the heavy overnight/ early morning rain, she shook off the rain from her plumage and preened and stretched her wings. Over the next couple of hours, the crowd grew, and eventually the bird dropped out of sight at which point those who had recently arrived started getting twitchy. Anxiety grew and, leading on from a few 'forerunners' who had already managed to flush the bird onto the beach, a mass commute began. The Snowy sat comfortably in the open, and the twitch grew. Eventually, with few people remaining at the RSPB viewpoint, we gave in, and walked for closer views with the rest of the crowd.
With the crowd thoughtfully standing back and allowing plenty of room for the Owl, everyone managed excellent scope views and the bird slept here for the remainder of the day.

What a way to spend the morning!

 

Creatures of the night: Take 2

14/06/14

After having such a great time out looking for Nightjars a couple of weeks previously I quickly took an opportunity to head to the same site again in the hope for the same selection of birds. Feeling somewhat indebted to the generous deed from Liz, Rob and Luke back in April in a journey up to the Mynd for the Dotterel flock I was quite happy to return the favour and show them the location of some of our nocturnal species.

A pre-dusk walk around the same location followed before moving over towards the Nightjar site, and during so managed to find a number of Tree Pipits and a singing male Garden Warbler. Similarly to last time, a number of Cuckoo were partaking in their namesake and 'Cuckooing' regularly, and Willow Warbler were the most common warbler.

Our first target of the trip had failed to show which wasn't a huge surprise, but again with the light fading it was time to move onwards, and in doing so a surprise followed as 2 Mallards were roosting on the edge of the heather and gorse.

We arrived with time to spare, but soon our first Woodcock of the evening appeared, and then another, both roding in wide circles over the extensive heathland. A few gave a repeat performance of last time and flew straight over our heads. With the precursor event underway, and the horizon turning various shades of red and orange it wasn't long before one of our main targets piped up, and the same 'squeeky gates' from the pine plantation were the first indication that the LONG-EARED OWL'S were now active, but as last time, deep within the impenetrable wall of coniferous trees.

And then the NIGHTJARS piped up, first a brief chur like last time, the occasional contact call, and then the male started churring properly, and the reasons for his efforts were obvious, he was chasing a female!

Both birds were flying about us, the male in pursuit of the female, showing off his white flashes like the poser he was. He followed her every move, and they gracefully hawked moths and other flying insects from across the clearing.

(video from my previous visit)

With the light now getting very low, we took our leave,  but having walked only a hundred feet or so to the other side of the plantation, Rob spotted a silent shape flush of the path behind an area of trees. It flew down the side of the plantation where it was joined by another, which was hunting low over the heather bank opposite us. It was a pair of LONG-EARED OWLS! And actually showing well!

One sat on a fence post quite distantly down the track, flying off to hunt at the opposite end of the plantation, but the other flew in towards us and dropped into the low vegetation giving jaw dropping views of these elusive birds despite the low light. Once in the scope, the long ears were obvious as it sat on its catch, a minute or two passed, and following stare off and a few bobbing movements, this bird flew off low into the plantation, rounding off yet another great evening out looking for birds of the night!

MB

Nightjars be Churring!

31/05/14

It was as I was driving back through mid-wales I got a message asking if I wanted to meet up in a few hours and want to head off to look for some heathland specialities. With the weather looking as good, and as calm as it was, it looked a perfect evening for Nightjars, which would be our main target.

I had barely sat down back at home before I was on the move again, and I then went onto meet Mike, Mike's son and Jarad before continuing on. We had planned to arrive well before when the Nightjars would be churring, so went and checked out some habitat nearby.

Immediately upon stepping out the car, a sweet melody was ringing out from a lark high above us, proving to be my first Woodlark of the year. I was not expecting to find this species on this visit, as, despite them singing 'almost' year around, their main time to sing is early morning, so to have one singing at around 7pm on a calm sunny evening was unexpected.

Infact, I do think that Woodlark may be one of my favourite of all songs, perhaps even more so than Skylark, the notes and phrasing create a superb liquid sound that is very pleasant on the ear!

3 Tree Pipits were also singing away at various points around our walk but as the sun started to head down towards the horizon though, it was time to move our location. Soon after the sound of roding Woodcocks filled the air, silhouetted by the red sky. They were passing over at frequent intervals, and at one point 3 birds were up chasing each other at the same time!

We stood on a raised track some distance from a pine plantation, a likely location for a roosting Nightjar, but we were intrigued by a variety of 'squeaky' noises originating from said plantation, it didn't take long for us to figure out that it was juvenile LONG-EARED OWL'S, and there were at least 2 of them calling from in front of us. Sadly though, they proved impossible to see, so we went back to our task in hand.

But as we stood it got darker, and darker, and darker, and then a brief snippet of a distant Chur had me and Jarad having heard out first NIGHTJAR of the evening!

We moved out position, back onto the track on which we had walked through, and soon after, we were treated to stunning flight views of a male NIGHTJAR as it swooped around us, showing off his bright white tail corners and primary spots. We got literally binocular filling in flight views until it moved off towards the opposite side of the clearing.

But then it flew back in, and perched right on the edge of a Poplar tree adjacent to the track, and right out in full view, giving what can be described as no less than stunning views! Despite having been 'mocked' for carrying my scope across the heathland, it came in handy now, and I was able to scope it as it perched up, and churred his heart out until we decided to leave!

What an experience!What a way to spent a summers evening! Absolutely stunning!
MB

Dorset and Hampshire! Yellowlegs steals the show!

15/04/14

It was while preparing to head home to Dudley that I received a message from Mike W, saying that he was going down south tomorrow, and wondered if I wanted to join him in a long haul trawl across multiple sites!

Needless to say, it didn't take much convincing, and my plans about going home were quickly changed and I stayed over in Stourport for another night.

After an early pickup, it was an uneventful drive down to our first port of call, that 8 mile long peninsular that is Portland. 

As we drove through Chesil Cove, we quickly spied a Sandwich Tern as it flew across the 'Fleet' right next to the road! Certainly a good omen considering we hadn't even reached our destination yet!

Once we had reached the famous red and white striped lighthouse, we were informed that we had missed a 'fall' day, and there was little about landbird wise, so we headed over to the sea to look for moving seabirds!

I was quickly struck by how easy the seawatchers have it at Portland, as everything was passing close offshore, rather that the distant flapping dots I am used to! Needless to say, it made looking far easier, and many times it was much easier to just use my bins. A few small parties of Sandwich Tern passed, as did larger numbers of Common Scoter and Kittiwake. However, there were many more birds to look at, a couple of Puffin's were flying around, and one sat on the water briefly just off the bill among large numbers of both the two common Auks. 2 Red Throated Diver were moving close inshore to the  west of the bill also and a single Shelduck moved east. 2 early Whimbrel flew past, giving great views as they moved low east.

Large numbers of Hirundines were moving 'in off', which was stunning to see, some coming very low over our heads as they rose over the cliff.

What was more surprising however, was the 2 raptors which flew 'in off'. While watching Sandwich Terns passing, I picked up a small raptor low over the water flying directly towards us, and it was motoring it!

Very quickly, it was adjacent to us over the sea to the west, and that small brown raptor revealed itself to be a stunning female MERLIN!

Who could believe that! A female Merlin 'in off' the English channel!

Migration is amazing!

But that was not all!

Soon after I picked up another small raptor, just one more distant, and higher up in the sky, but still slowly making its way 'in off' from the south. With the sun shining, I could see glowing red 'trousers' on the bird, it was a HOBBY!

How amazing is that! Two migrant raptors, both arriving off the sea following a flight across the channel! 

Seeing so many bird arriving on our shores for the first time this year was simply stunning, and it is really one of the reasons why I know birding is such an amazing hobby (excuse the pun), what an awesome experience!

We then had a quick wonder around some suitable looking habitat on the Bill, but, as we had been told earlier, failed to find anything spectacular, a couple of Wheatear, a Stonechat and one each of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.

With half the morning gone, it was time to move onwards to Arne RSPB. We duly asked one of the volunteers about where to go to find Dartford Warbler, and she was very obliging and told us where we had a decent chance.

Sadly, following a couple of hours slog around the site, I was left very underwhelmed. The area we had been guided to seemed completely the wrong habitat for Dartfords, with very little gorse, and there was very little birdwise to keep us occupied. Obviously the cold and severe winter had had a profound impact on the Dartford population at the site, seemingly to the point where there are non!

It wasn't a hard decision to start heading back to the car, and it was while doing so that a male Stonechat perched on an area of Gorse. Knowing of a habitual trait of Dartford Warbler to follow Stonechats, we moved our position in a last ditch attempt to look for our target. A short while after, and a small, dark bird flitted up in the shadows of the lower branches of a bare Gorse bush. A little bit distant, I pointed my scope, and that dark shape morphed into a stunning long tailed female DARTFORD WARBLER!

How about that for luck!

As quickly as it appeared however, it dropped back down into the low gorse, but we both left happy.

Now we were moving further east still, crossing the county boundary to do some twitching. A Lesser Yellowlegs  has wintered at a small country park right on the coast at Lepe country park.

With the satnav plugged in, we got to our location easily, and having parked at the end of the car park, we quickly dodged our way down the path to the marshy pools, avoiding the numerous beach go'ers, dog walkers and French students!

We scanned the first pool, which looked an awesome bit of habitat, and soon after, the bright yellow legs of a  LESSER YELLOWLEGS could be seen through an area of Tussocks! Slowly, the bird made its way from its roosting area out into open water, where we had great views of this stunning transatlantic wader!

Coming into summer plumage, the mix of pale silvery grey head, neck and upperparts contrasted with white and black flecking, much better than some streaky juvenile! A real stunner!

  

As well as 'The Yank', this pool, held a single Ringed Plover, 6 Turnstone and many Redshanks.

Having had our fix of this stunning yellow legged 'beaut', it was time to move onwards to our last location of the day, Keyhaven Marshes, where another Yank wader had been wintering, but had been a lot more elusive.

A few (Islandica) Black-tailed Godwits were feeding and showing well in the small harbour, as were numerous Redshank, Turnstone and 3 Dark Bellied Brent Goose, a good start considering we had only walked a short distance from the car!

The pools were much more lively, the first of which we were treated to a stunning partial summer plumaged SPOTTED REDSHANK fly in and start feeding towards the back of the pool. Having birded past many Redshank, we failed to find much else of interested on this pool, but upon reaching the 2nd lagoon it was obvious more birds were on here. Nothing was immediately obvious on the pool, so while scanning the estuary, a small Tern appeared distantly, and on getting the scope onto the bird, it revealed itself to be a rather smart Little Tern!
A few small parties of Mediterranean Gull flew over east, all of them rather stonking adults, all glowing in the evening sunshine and their obvious white wingtips standing out a mile, making them look akin to an Egret in flight.
A single Little Ringed Plover was running around on the island, and it was while looking over this, a small wader scurried out from behind some tussocks of grass. Obviously much smaller than the LRP, it was obvious we were watching a Stint, and a scope view revealed my 3rd LITTLE STINT of the year

The wind had picked up a huge amount by this time (hence the wind noise), and with the sun starting to drop, it was time to head back to the car,but a scan across the saltmarsh revealed a few Ringed Plover among larger numbers of Dunlin.

 While walking past the 1st lagoon again, the Spotted Redshank had moved much closer, and we had great views of it as it fed fairly close into the track!

With 110 species logged for the day between us, we both left very happy having had a great days birding.

However, one last surprise came as a Woodcock flew over the car in semi-darkness as we neared Oxford! A bird I was not expecting to find for the day!
How about that, 111 for the day!
MB

Patch white out

5/02/12
A complete whiteout on the patch in the morning resulted in no birds been seen, so after some artsy fartsy images i headed back home to watch the feeders for abit.
To give an impression how bad it was, i couldnt see anything more that 4 metres in front of me!



And when i got back to the garden, the now daily Redpoll's and Siskin's were on the feeders

However, after the fog lifted, i headed out onto the patch immidiatly surrounding the garden, which, admittdly, apart from Siskins and Redpoll's was quiet.

But while walking through on of the woodlands i was watching a mixed tit flock containing Nuthatches when a large, dumpy pigeon sized snipe flushed from the undergrowth.

A WOODCOCK!

Usually i struggle to see this species on a year to year basis, despite breeding nearby, i just never have the time to go specifically looking for them, so i have to hope for a stray like this!

This was only the start of a good patch Run!

MB