County Megas!

I've got to be honest, I've had some real luck over the last couple of weekends, seeing some fantastic Northants scarcities.

It all started with a visit, along with my good mate Dave James, to a site looking for our first ever Northants Adders. The cold weather and cloudy conditions were hardly conducive for finding reptiles but still we gave it a good go!

First of all though, we were pointed to some rare Northants flora, in the shape of the 'Yellow Star of Bethlehem'. This is a tiny, stunning little thing on the forest floor, so easily missed.

After trying several spots for the Adders, we went back to one particular spot around 1 o'clock. After a brief search, Dave struck gold, finding a dozy male Adder curled up in the undergrowth. It obligingly sat there for a few minutes, knowing full well we were close-by. It then slowly but surely made it's way back into cover and that was that! How an earth we managed to see one with the weather how it was, I will never know. Brilliant!

The next day, I paid a visit to a site close to Northampton to look for Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. If there was a morning to look for them, this was it with a bit of sun and not a hint of wind. Was still though a bit of a long shot.

Initially there was no sign, however I soon latched onto both Great Spotted & Green Woodpeckers, the lesser's bigger & far more numerous cousins.

While enjoying a Great Spotted drumming, a more higher pitched and frequent drumming began in the oak tree next to it...Lesser Spotted Woodpecker! Boom!

For the next 15 minutes or so I enjoyed some excellent views of the bird, drumming frequently and calling a couple of times. Eventually, it melted away and I left with a bloody big smile on my face having witnessed a now very rare sight in the UK.

On Friday (27/03) I took a walk around Grimsbury Reservoir after work as it looked like a pretty stunning, sunlit evening. Having seen very little, I walked back towards the car when I got a text saying a Ring Billed Gull had been found at Boddington Reservoir by Gary Pullan. Panic!!

I got to the car at about quarter past 6. Let's just say I was far from shy with the accelerator and arrived at Boddington in around 15 minutes! I briskly made my way along the path towards a handful of birders some 200 metres away. Despite quite a lot of the gulls moving off north, amazingly the Ring-Billed Gull remained and Gary had the bird in his scope in what was now seriously poor light. It was though, just about possibly to make out that bit chunky bill. Dreadful i-phone scoped photo below taken at 18:50pm!

Birds on the move

The last couple of weeks has seen spring migration rumble into action. Chiffchaffs have gradually repopulated wooded areas. I've had up to 8 at Grimsbury Res in recent days and probably at least 7 singing at Boddington Res back on Saturday (28/03), despite the cloudy and blustery conditions!

I've been giving Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury a bit of battering most days, either before work or on my lunch break. Amazingly yet another adult Kittiwake, (the second of the month) made an appearance on Tuesday (24/03), found by Gareth Blockley.

I also had my first and only Sand Martin to date, on 19/03. Other decent birds for the site have included a unexpected Mandarin, a pair of Teal, flyover Peregrine, a Coot (a site rarity!), Lesser Redpoll & a White Wagtail.

Dorset

Last Friday, (13/03) Em and I travelled down to Dorset for a few days. While not birding related, I of course managed to squeeze in a few birds!

On the Friday, we had a look at Durdle Door; such a stunning place, however a very bloody cold one while we were there! A couple of Peregrine were zooming around here and at least 4 Stonechat were flicking around between the car park and the beach.

The next day, (Saturday 14/03) after spending a bit of time in Dorchester, we weaved our way through Weymouth and visited Portland Bill and the Bird Observatory. Here, for pretty much the only flipping time all weekend, the sun came out!

Here a female-type Black Redstart was busying around on rough ground close to the lighthouse and plenty of Guillemots, a Gannet and several Shags were offshore. Several Rock Pipits were also foraging around the rocks down by the shoreline.

A quick visit to the Obs to have a look at the book shop was well worth the visit. We had great views of a Firecrest silently foraging around the trees in the Obs garden, along with a presumably migrant Chiffchaff. Firecrests have to be one of my favourite birds; an absolute masterpiece in miniature!

On leaving Portland, a quick 10 minutes at both Portland Harbour & at Ferrybridge delivered few birds of note other than several Red Breasted Merganser and a few Shags. Here, it was also the chance to reminisce, remembering watching the Brunnich's Guillemot several of us enjoyed in the pouring rain, back in 2013.

A walk along Chesil Beach near Abbotsbury revealed my first Red Throated Diver offshore, together with a Great Crested Grebe and several migrant Chiffchaffs in nearby scrub.

On Sunday, (15/03) before going back home, we drove to Poole Quay and got the boat out to Brownsea Island. Such a cool place; must be well nice on a sunny day. There was though a right old chill in the air, with lots of cloud. A walk around the island revealed cracking views of at least 6 of the resident population of Red Squirrels. So much better than our invasive Greys! Thankfully Brownsea is a Grey-free zone! Long may that continue.

Birds around the island included several very vocal Ravens cronking away almost constantly, several Dark-Bellied Brent Geese, a small group of Red Breasted Merganser, a female Stonechat, reasonable numbers of Siskins and a couple of Shag.
Most interest on the bird front though was on the lagoon at the western end of the island. Here, birds from the hides included a Spotted Redshank, 2 Greenshank, around 100 Black-Tailed Godwit, c.50 Avocet & 7 Pintail among other things.

After a bit of food at the cafe, we hopped on the 4pm boat and reluctantly headed for home.

The first murmur of Spring

On Saturday (07/03), I had the day free to myself, so I spent my time visiting several sites around Northants.

In rather cloudy, cold and windy conditions, I started first thing at Lings Wood looking for Lesser Peckers. No luck and not overly surprising given the weather!

Next, I drove down the A45 to Summer Leys where, after a bit of gloom, the sun soon burnt through. On arrival, a big female Peregrine was pointed out to me, chilling on the grass close to wader bay! Surprisingly, everything carried on with their daily business around her, that was until she headed off when pandemonium broke loose! A largely obscured Great White Egret was in the vegetation to the left of wader bay. A drake Pintail was feeding with Shovelers close-by, while good numbers of Wigeon included a striking leucistic bird. A pair of Oystercatcher were also present, asleep on Brayshaw's bund.

Birding the other side of the reserve from the lane, close to Chestnut corner, a total of 3 Little Egret were visible. 3 Chiffchaff were actively feeding in the hedgerow by the path. Two of the birds were soon singing away in the sun competing with each other. No sooner as this happened, a couple of Brimstone butterflies decided to appear, floating past me and out of sight. For me, there and then Spring 2015 had begun!

A pair of Mute Swans were bossing it along the lane close to the feeding station, standing their ground and hissing at any passers by which made for a pretty funny sight! Walking along the lane, a second Great White Egret flew over the lane from Pete Wilde's lake & onto the reserve.  A Peregrine soon appeared above me, soon joined by another. They performed an aerial and very vocal tussle pretty high up, before slowly heading off south.

I had a look at Pitsford Reservoir from the feeding station with photos of Tree Sparrows the main aim. Closeby, between here and the causeway, the trio of White Fronted Geese were showing really nicely preening away together with the local Greylags.

As usual there were good numbers of Tree Sparrows and despite me running out of camera battery without a spare on me, I managed to get a few decent shots. There were also several Brown Rats foraging the seed with the birds seemingly unfazed by their presence!

I finished the day with a walk around Borough Hill, Daventry plus a visit to the gull roost at Boddington Reservoir. Sadly both yielded very little of note.

Kittiwake!

I hadn't given Grimsbury much of a go recently for one reason or another, however my motivation to keep at it improved drastically after finding a smart male Stonechat during my lunch break on Wednesday (04/03), as well as hearing the Willow Tit & a Chiffchaff and seeing 3 Goosander (1 drake).

On Friday (06/03) I went down, again in my lunch break to have a look at the Otter footprints Gareth Blockley had found in the mud down along the river. In the bright sun I head down the East side of the reservoir and began scanning through a flock of around 20 gulls sat out relatively close-in on the water. Amongst the handful of Black Headed Gull & Common Gulls was something different. With a clean white head, pure yellow bill and small black tips to the wings...an adult Kittiwake! Great find!

Having stuck the news out, I enjoyed it for a short while, getting a few snaps. It looked pretty settled when I left and was pleased to hear others saw it too later on. Turns out to be the 3rd sire record.

A wander to the west

On Sunday (01/03), Andrew Dove, a fellow Northants birder, joined me on a trip across to South Wales and Gloucestershire with a few targets on the agenda.

After setting off early, we took the 2-hour drive to Cardiff, to Forest Farm nature reserve, off a leafy lane in the NW suburbs of the city. Here, for the last couple of weeks or so a Little Bunting has been providing fabulous views, coming down to seed. The species is one of the far east and should currently be wintering in southern/south east Asia. So a long old way off course!

After trawling around a bit, we eventually found the utility shed thing turned into a hide! We lay in wait with great optimism having seen on the internet how well the bird had been showing. In the meantime, we enjoyed a Grey Heron finding a plentiful supply of frogs!

I have to say we started to get a bit twitchy with plenty of birds coming down to the food, including several Reed Bunting, but still no Little Bunting. Eventually though it popped out from some recently cut brushwood and began to show, all be it rather illusively. But pheww, Little Bunting in the bag & my first lifer for quite a while.

After disappearing for a while, it did come back and began to show fairly well, although it did have the habit of feeding behind a single tuft of f**kin grass for the majority of the time!

Time was now pressing on so after getting our fix of Asian bunting, we drove into the centre of the maze that is Cardiff city centre. Eventually we made it through to Cardiff Bay and to the area by the ice rink. Here we hoped to latch onto the long-staying drake Lesser Scaup which had spent the last few winters in the local area. It immediately looked like we were to be out of luck with tonnes of yachts out on the water. However looking a short way along to a small bay, a small flock of Tufties could be seen close in-shore. Promising!

After walking a short distance along the waterside walkway, we began scanning the flock. In no time we were chuffed to be onto the Lesser Scaup, asleep very close in, and with the sun behind us. It did spend a lot of time asleep but thankfully, occasionally brought his head up. Smashing bird in immaculate plumage, a real stunner, showing the nice purple sheen to the head. They certainly were far better views than my first one in Cornwall early last year.

A couple of kayakers soon came close by and that was that as the flock shot off across the bay to the Cardiff Bay wetland.

After a bit weaving in and out of the docks, we eventually got to the area near to the water works, where the regular Bonaparte's Gull often resides. In the smallish bay here there were plenty of Black Headed Gulls about, but definitely no Bony's. Still, we'd done very well so far so couldn't really complain! Birds here included a flock of 16 Pintail, several Curlew, Oystercatcher and Turnstones.

It was now early afternoon and it was time to leave Cardiff and drive back west to Slimbridge, just under an hour away. After a very straightforward drive back over the Severn Bridge we arrived. In next to no time, we were enjoying fabulous views of several bugling Bewick's Swans. Brilliant! They were very vocal and were performing lots of wing flapping; a sure sign they would soon be wending their way back to Russia. In fact only 2 or 3 days previously, there had been as many as 130 birds present. The maximum count on Sunday was 65, so they were very much in the process of migrating back east.

We walked round towards the Holden Tower, stopping off at most of the hides along the way. The first, overlooking the marshes was by far the most productive. I was very excited to see a flock of Pintail right in front of the hide. Wow!! You very rarely get to see wild Pintail this close, so this was a real privilege. They are also my favourite duck so I was very much in my element!

Other birds seen from here included several more Bewick's Swan, around 150 White-Fronted Geese, 2 Cranes from the Crane project and good numbers of Wigeon and Pochard in particular.

A flock of Lapwing were disturbed by something and amongst them were several Dunlin. On them landing, I had a scan through, revealing one of the wintering Little Stint. Very nice!

By now, an horrific storm had swept in and for the next 45 minutes or so it was wall to wall torrential rain and wind. We dashed over to the Holden Tower without getting too wet and had a further scan from here. As hoped, the female Ferruginous Duck was showing well on a small pool, together with several Tufties. We got great views despite the conditions, as she came ashore and just sat there preening.

Eventually, the storm passed so we finished the day back with the Bewick's Swans, again getting fabulous views in the early evening sun. Wicked end to the day!