Bit of a Dow-twitch

What a fab day's birding yesterday was! I arranged to give both Dan & Gareth a bit of a grand tour of Northants. Gareth unfortunately couldn't make it in the end, so Dan and I headed off early-ish towards Northampton.

We started off at a traditional Lesser Spotted Woodpecker site. After a bit of a mooch about, we failed to locate any sight nor sound, though a nice selection of the standard woodland species, plus a Red Kite overhead.

Next up, was a stroll around Clifford Hill GP on the edge of Northampton, somewhere I haven't been for quite a while, but is always likely of having something of interest. Sunday was no different.

The place was holding a pretty decent amount of wildfowl, with particularly good numbers of Wigeon, Pochard, Shoveler & Goldeneye. Dan was pretty envious already, as his local area of south Warwickshire has very few waterbodies to bird, with Draycote the only standout site to bring in any numbers or variety.

After a walk along the southern edge we were just about to head back to the car when I managed to pick up a distant winter-plumaged Black Necked Grebe. Excellent little find! On our walk back we managed to get better views, however still pretty distant as you can see from the extremely grotty photo below!

   


















We next moved on along the A45 to Summer Leys to have a quick look about and to hopefully catch up with both the Great White Egret & Scaup. We soon caught up with the female Scaup. We however only managed to find a couple of the Egret's smaller cousins. Oystercatcher and 3 Shelduck were also seen, as well as the usual stunning views of several Bullfinches at the feeding station.

We were then thinking it was time to give Rutland Water a go to see the Long Billed Dowitcher that had been there for the last few days. First though, we gave Stanwick GP a bit of a go, to give us both a bit of that gull fix that we're always craving for. It was also hoped we could catch up with the adult Glauc that had been about recently.

Low & behold, the eastern end of the main lake had a decent gathering of big gulls. No Glauc, but in no time at all, we managed to bag 2 lovely Capsian Gulls, a brute of an adult and a really striking 1st-winter. The adult soon disappeared unfortunately, however the 1st-winter performed really nicely until we left (bird in flight: Pic 1 & just left of centre: Pic 2).

Buoyed by a couple of nice finds so far, it was time to reward our efforts with the Rutland Dowitcher. A trouble-free drive complete, we arrived at Egleton Nature Reserve, Rutland.

Absolutely starving by this point, it was pretty disappointing to find no cafe but just flapjacks and crisps (think they're missing a trick here!). The coffee machine wasn't exactly co-operative here either, producing nothing more than a cup of frothy milk for Dan, much to my amusement!

After all this shenanigans, we ambled off to the Shoveler hide, over-looking Lagoon III. The hide was surprisngly empty, with only a couple of people there, though I guess being Sunday afternoon, most had already made the trip.

We were soon enjoying great scope views of the Long-Billed Dowitcher. It spent quite a bit of time lurking in the muddy, vegetation on a small island, probing away for food in very similar fashion to the handful of Snipe alongside it.

 

Having taken in the Dowitcher and all it's features, it was nice to enjoy the good number of other birds about in nice light. These included a distant pair of Scaup at the back of Lagoon III, a Curlew, Several Pintail, Shelduck and a nice selection of more common wildfowl.

We had a bit of a look at the adjacent Lagoon IV too, from a couple of the hides. A few more nice birds on offer here including a drake and 5 very energetic female Smew, constantly diving for food. Two of the females came pretty close at times and afforded some very decent views.

Dan also picked up a nice juvenile Peregrine sat on one of the islands. Some enjyable scope views were had, as the bird just sat there chilling, with everything seemingly largely oblivious to it's presence. A few more Pintail and Shelduck here too. A large gathering of gulls appeared to hold very little so with the light still good, we decided to finish our day looking at the North Arm of the reservoir, involving a short drive along the road. The walk back to the car produced a couple of resident Egyptian Geese, surprisingly the only ones we saw.

A scan of the vast North Arm eventually picked out the 3 long-staying Black Necked Grebes, alongside the single Slavonian Grebe, all very distant. A Couple of Dunlin flew over calling loudly and Dan picked out a couple of grazing feral Barnacle Geese close to the far shore. Goldeneyes were in particularly good numbers here too.

There was though no sign of either the Great Northern Diver or Red Necked Grebe that were apparently present somewhere, though we couldn't be greedy! That drew an end to a fabulous day's birding.

Quick look about

Didn't get to do too much birding over the weekend but did get out for most of Saturday (20/02) morning. Having stayed at my parents near Northampton Friday night, I stayed local to there.

I fancied a go for Jack Snipe as hadn't as yet caught up with any so far this year. Pretty much the best site locally is Barnes Meadow Nature Reserve and is just less than 10 minutes from my parents. Before heading there, I took a look at the adjacent Delapre Lake / Hardingstone GP. A drake Scaup was here earlier on in the week and it's always worth a look. Nothing out of the ordinary today though, with the usual 15-20 Gadwall, a couple of Wigeon and plenty of Tufties

Barnes Meadow was though more productive, with nice views of at least 2 Jack Snipe and around 5 Common Snipe.

I finished my birding with a visit to Summer Leys to take a look for the female Scaup that had been around for the last few days. I've been birding Summer Leys / Earls Barton GPs since I was just 8 years old, it was one of the first places my dad took me to watch birds. As a result, I do have a bit of a soft spot for the place and do hold a bit of a site list too. Scaup was a new bird for me there so was pretty keen to catch up with it.

With time pressing I headed straight for the screen hide / Feeding station area to track it down. There was a nice range of all the usual common duck species but despite plenty of Aythyas about, I could find what I was looking for. Eventually, I picked her up in the scope distantly coming out of the bay near to the feeding station, female Scaup, nice one!

  



















I headed round to get a better look and indeed got some pretty decent views as it continually dived for food. I then had to drag myself away as I had other plans back home. Ideally, I would've stayed to have a better look around, but nevermind!

Sheppey

Well, well, well, terrific day out on Sunday (14/02) on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent with Dan, Gareth & Al. This was a new area for most of us however Gareth has done quite a bit of birding there previously and was therefore our 'designated guide' for the day.

After a pretty routine and straightforward journey, we arrived at the southern end of Sheppey and the substantial Elmley nature reserve. The track to the reserve car park runs right through the reserve and so we were initially able to do quite a bit of birding from the car. This was welcome as the wind chill outside was nothing short of savage!!

Several Marsh Harriers were soon on show, hunting the surrounding Marshes (including a bird with green wing-tags 'P4' and 1-2 males), Lapwings were showing brilliantly at point-blank range, right next to the car and there were also pretty good numbers of Black Tailed Godwit feeding in the wet grassland and roadside pools.

We had a bit of a scan, not too far from the car park seeing a few bits, but nothing outrageous. There were impressive clouds of Wigeon in the distance, as well as further impressive numbers of Black Tailed Godwit and a sizable flock of Golden Plover. A male Peregrine sat out on the marsh pretty much the whole time. I did attempt to point this out to a very stringy so-and-so so next to me only to be treated with a sarcastic response so we left him to it to find it himself! 

The distant river held around 10 Avocet and big numbers of Dunlin & Shelduck. We continued to take in several more Marsh Harriers drifting about, as well as a pale Buzzard chilling on a post. We'd pretty much done the place to death and the howling, bitterly wind was also taking it's toll! We had similar fare to before back along the entrance track, with the addition of a Ruff and several Redshank.

We then moved on to the north of Sheppey and to Sheerness / Minister. Not the most aesthetically pleasing place I've ever been to if I'm absolutely honest but thankfully the place did hold one jewel it's rather scabby crown, in the shape of a lovely Shore Lark! The walk along the beach here in fact was pretty nice, with several Sanderling, a Turnstone, several Ringed Plover & Oystercatchers milling about too.

Eventually, we tracked down the cracking little Shore Lark, feeding amongst beach debris sheltered pretty close to the sea wall at the top of the beach. Over the next 20 or so minutes, we enjoyed some fabulous views, possibly my best ever of the species. It just busily went along it's merry way, completely unperturbed by our presence. It eventually decided to try somewhere new and took flight further east along the beach and that was our cue to leave, but what a treat! As Gareth went to get the car from down the road, a nice adult Med Gull cruised overhead, another nice addition to the day.   

After a quick-ish loo stop, we ventured on to the far eastern end of the island to Shell Ness for a wander about. Here, I was really, really hoping to catch up the long-staying Richard's Pipit. This big brown sibe has been a serious bogey bird for me for many years, always evading my grasp. Surely not now?! We began walking along the path, atop a large, grassy bank, grilling anything that flew up. After around 150m, a Meadow Pipit flew up followed by a noticeably larger, longer-tailed bird that flew away from us and dropped down a short way further along the path. That had to be it, but wanted better views to be sure. Approaching the area it had previously landed, up it went again, followed by that super distinctive 'shreeep', sparrow-like call...bingo, Richard's Pipit! Over the next 15-20 minutes, we ended up getting some really great views of it on the deck as it moved around the long grass on the side of the bank. Dan also managed to find us a nice Merlin sat on a large pile of spoil in a nearby field. Shell Ness was treating us well!

The marshes further down the path were full of wildfowl and certainly kept us occupied for a little while. We enjoyed several White Fronted Geese, a Barnacle Goose, numerous Wigeon & Dark-Bellied Brent Geese from the path, before moving on to the hide to grill everything in more detail out of the wind!

A few waders gathered as the tide came in on the nearby estuary. All appeared to be either Dunlin & Grey Plovers. There were also a good 15 Pintail, together with numbers of Wigeon, Gadwall and Teal. The numbers of White Fronts was impressive with in excess of 200 birds, as well as ths similar numbers of Brents. A couple of birders entered the hide and we decided to leave to make the raptor roost over at near by Capel Fleet. We got half way down the steps out of the hide, before having to rush back in again as the call went up of a male Hen Harrier heading through, wahhh! I eventually got onto it and we all enjoyed brilliant views as it headed across the marshes and off west, into the distance. Exciting stuff!

The walk back again produced the Richard's Pipit several times, which called nicely heading off over our heads, back east along the path. The Merlin also appeared, sat in the field before vanishing again.

The drive to Capel Fleet produced a couple of roadside Stonechat, while a quick look at the sea revealed a flyby Med Gull and a handful of Knot.

The raptor roost at Capel Fleet was fun, however was a horrifically freezing experience as the wind-chill cranked up a notch! Birds seen included a male Hen Harrier seen only by Dan and a ringtail seen only by me, as well as at least 20 Marsh Harrier (including at least 2 males), 1-2 Merlin and 1-2 Buzzard.

It was then time to defrost and head for home, drawing to a close a brilliant day full of laughs and great winter birding. Thanks again Gareth for driving & guiding!

Recent outings

The weather in recent weeks has been pretty horrendous, with storm after storm ploughing their way across the country, consisting of high winds and torrential rain. As a result, birding has not been a massively enjoyable experience and photo opportunities have been limited.

On a more positive note, I have still managed to catch up with a few nice birds, while there are now plenty of signs that spring is not all that far away. Snowdrops have been out now for a while now, quite a number of daffodils are also emerging and several passerines are in song and holding territory too, with Song Thrushes particularly conspicuous at the moment.

   

















On Sunday (31/01) I headed out with Dan Watson & Gareth Blockley for a bit of a tour of several Warwickshire sites local to Dan. A stomp around looking for Jack Snipe at Lighthorne Quarry was fruitless however we did have as many as 60 Common Snipe.

A visit to farmland near to Barford (just south of Warwick) produced the welcome and increasingly rare sight of large flocks of finches and a few buntings. Here, there were up to 20 Brambling, including the odd cracking male, several Lesser Redpoll and hundreds of Linnets. Sadly no hoped for Corn Bunting though.

'The dump' close-ish to Dan's house failed to reveal any Caspos or white-wingers with best being a 1st-winter Yellow-Legged Gull.

We finished up at Draycote Reservoir for a bit of a bash at the gull roost. We ended up with a really nice selection of birds, though most were distant in very dull, dreary conditions.

The roost itself contained a lovely 1st-winter Caspian Gull & an adult Glaucous Gull in near darkness! Other birds present included a drake Smew, single female-type Scaup & a juvenile Great Northern Diver towards the dam end.

Saturday (06/02) was a virtual write-off with 50mph winds and heavy rain, however I did pop over to Daventry Reservoir to see the recently-found Green Winged Teal to get out of the house. Sadly though I failed to catch up with the bird, only managing to see about 30 Eurasians. Nevermind!

The next day, (Sunday 07/02) I again teamed up with Dan & Gareth, together with Gareth's friend Allan. We had a good look round Otmoor first of all, always an enjoyable place to visit at all times of the year. Shortly after leaving the car park, it was cool to see my first ever tiny Brown Hairstreak butterfly egg nestled on the side of a twig.

Most of the birds were clustered around the 'Big Otmoor' area of the reserve where there were great numbers of Wigeon and Lapwing together with a flock of around 1000 Golden Plover, while a Little Egret put in an appearance from the main hide and we also had a couple of decent views of Marsh Harriers.

We wandered up to the first screen and were treated to further great views of a cream-crown Marsh Harrier both hunting and perched.

Around 3pm we departed to finish the day at Farmoor Reservoir in the hope we may turn up something in the gull roost. Before we began sifting through the gulls we were distracted by the two long-staying juvenile Great Northern Divers which showed well in the SE corner of F1.

Dan managed to find a nice 4th-winter Caspian Gull, which was nice, however other than that there was nothing else of note. Very surprised we didn't manage to locate at least a Med Gull, with 100s of Black Headed Gulls present. Still, fun day out all the same!