A good spot or 5

The weather forecast keeps looking awful - snow, snow and more snow. So far though we've only had one big fall. With another day planned to go south the forecast looked bad, with the potential for snow showers from mid morning. I decided to risk it though and was defrosting the car at just gone 6. It was a new site for me today, Normandy Marsh. This is part of the series of lagoons and marshes along the south coast opposite the Isle of Wight. I got to the parking area about 8.30 after stopping off for a refreshing cuppa on the way. The skies did indeed look very threatening with clouds building over the Isle of Wight and a rather fresh wind blowing! Still, no use sitting in the car so I put on my full wet weather gear and set off. The walk is quite short to get you to the edge of the Solent and a series of marshy lagoons.

I had three species on my target list, all new for the year. The first I got almost as soon as I started going through the birds. This was a very smart greenshank feeding close by the path. They are medium-sized with a slightly upturned bill and yellowy-green legs. 

There were a number of other waders with it including the commoner relative of one my other targets, the common redshank. The difference in "jizz" is marked, with the redshank being dumpier and much shorter in the bill department.

As I made my way round the main lagoon I got to see a number of other waders including both godwits (black-tailed in the photo below), dunlin, curlew, avocet, turnstone and another year tick in ringed plover.

There were also quite a few brent geese flying in from their roost and little egrets were stalking the waterways.

The bird I was really after though was the spotted redshank. In summer breeding plumage they are incredibly handsome dressed in black with white spots. In Winter they are duller but still quite delicate in comparison to common redshanks. Their call is also different which is what initially alerted me to one dropping onto the edge of the pool.

By the time I got close it had gone to sleep! You could see its almost spotty plumage, the red/ orange legs and the hint of an eye-stripe.

Finally it woke up and showed its dagger-like bill. This is often the thing you pick out first as normally they are not this confiding. The weather was starting to change as well, and with the non-snow bearing clouds drifting off the sun came out and showed its plumage off nicely. Another day when if I had believed the forecast I would have stayed at home!!!!!

Finally I found my last target for here, a male scaup. This is a diving duck, superficially like the much commoner tufted duck but with a light grey back.

It was a long way off!!!

On my way out I came across two other spotted redshanks. One had decided to go into deeper water and was swimming!! The other landed on what it thought was a nice pool but was actually frozen leaving it looking rather confused!!!

That was the end of the fun for Normandy Marsh, a very successful trip. On the way back I stopped off at Acres Down. This is a hot spot for goshawks and they are just starting to do their display flights. I did see two but hey were a long way off as they so often are there. With them it took me to another 5 for the year and up to 160. That will probably be it for January so let's see if we can find a nice lifer or two in February.

There's no bunting like snow bunting

January is turning into a bird-fest. With the ability to frequently get out into the field I am already on 150 species for the year, 6 up on my previous record for January. There are still 3 days to go and I have quit a few common and less common birds to see. Today I set out to focus on one of the less common birds. It will be these that determine what the final list total will be, not how quick you can see the common birds. So with snow promised and not wanting to get caught out I set off early for the south coast. The first, and main target, was a Hume's leaf warbler. This is a small warbler, only recently split into a full species from yellow-browed. Normally you see them in late Autumn as they should be in Asia but do get lost on migration. They are common in their breeding range but uncommon here. One was discovered in Sussex, at Newhaven, around Xmas time. It did create a bit of controversy. For the first two weeks it was suppressed, and only a few locals who were in "the club" were allowed to see it. Then it got into the public sphere allowing everyone the chance to see it.
The site was a river bank opposite an incinerator plant with low scrub and trees. The morning was bright and sharp with frost. A short walk from the car got me to where I presumed it was normally seen. I was assuming it would be a long wait as there were no other birders and helping eyes. Their habit is to move fast through the trees feeding on insects and you often only get fleeing glimpses. My luck was clearly in though. Virtually as soon as I raised my bins to my eye a small bird flicked into the tree. Overall dull green - tick, eye-stripe - tick, wing-bars - tick and then it called - tick. I had got straight onto it. I was doubly lucky as for the next hour I saw it briefly only once more and heard it a couple of times. I did add peregrine falcon to the year-list as well, with one circling the incinerator chimney.

Two year ticks and the day was still young. My next stop was to another controversial bird, this one for two reasons. It was a rose-coloured starling, also known as a rosy-pastor. This is another bird which should be in Asia, but is much commoner over here than the Hume's warbler. It is controversial for two reasons. Its favoured location was a front-garden in Seaford, only 5 miles away. The owner of the garden has been getting a bit upset with the number of birders, especially those taking photos. He has children so I suppose he has a point but apparently it has got heated once or twice with rumours of damaged optics. The bird is also looking very unwell and seems on its last legs. I parked up carefully and joined another birder hiding behind a hedge two doors down from the house. The bird was sitting in a tree looking very sorry for itself.

This is taken with my phone as I didn't feel comfortable with a big lens. The bird barely moved so I left it but I doubt it will last much longer.
My third stop was for a nice safe bird, a snow bunting at Goring-by-sea further along the coast. The instructions were to look for an orange boat. This was easily found as were the four birders pointing bins and cameras virtually at their feet. As often happens with snow buntings, this was a totally confiding individual.

This is a female of the species. It spent the 30 minutes whilst I was there feeding on the beach and the path then going up onto the breakwater to have a groom.

Quite a few people stopped to ask what we were looking at and admired the bird. It was often flushed by dog walkers but came back to the same spot.
Finally I headed back to the big smoke to catch up on a gull. This one, a Caspian gull, has been present on a pond near Snaresbrook Magistrates Court since early Winter and is in its second year at least coming back. These are big gulls, like herring gulls, and normally found on rubbish tips or beaches. This one has been feasting on the bread proffered to the local gulls and picking on them as well.

They are quite close to herring gulls and can be hard to identify. Some of the points to look for are the bill, which is longer and thinner and the forehead, which is gently sloping rather than rising sharply and a clear white head with a very dark eye. In flight, the wing-tips have more black and less white, with tongues of white on the outermost primaries. It also helps that this is virtually the only large gull here and was beating up on the black-headed gulls for the bread proffered by a lady with two children!
That was enough for the day and I wended my way back home with 5 more year-ticks, all good birds especially the Hume's. Still looking for a nice lifer though.

Berry nice...

Some years are known as waxwing years. These are ones where these beautiful birds which nest in Scandinavia irrupt into the UK in large  umbers. This happens when their food source, berries, has a bad year. With their food running short they have to come across the North Sea to find their Winter food. Some years you may get hardly any waxwings though. Before Xmas, Scotland and Northern England had decent numbers, some flocks up to a hundred or more birds. With mild weather only a bare handful came south though. I saw a small flock in Norfolk in December but none have been really around here so far. Consequently, when a dozen or so birds rocked up in Hertford at the weekend they started to draw a good crowd. The weather today was glorious and clear so after the rush-hour had subsided I set off round the M25.
The newswires had them in the car park at Wickes. This may seem strange but it is a classic habitat for them. In supermarkets and industrial parks lots of berry-bearing trees are often planted. Waxwings love them and are also pretty forgiving when it comes to crowds and disturbance. When I got there a small crowd had already gathered in the car park but of the birds there was no sign. Fortunately Costa coffee on site supplied warming teas as we waited. The bush where they had been feeding still had berries and they tend not to leave till it is stripped. As time went on though we were getting increasingly concerned they had moved off overnight.  The crowd grew to about 20 and even Lee turned up but still no sign. Finally a black car came into the car park and pulled up right by us. "You lot after the waxwings? They're in the Meads Way industrial estate by the plumbers merchant" or words to that effect. Cue a mass exodus of birders and their cars, rather reminiscent of a Le Mans start. The other site was probably only 30 seconds waxwing flight away but 5 minutes drive. As soon as I got to the site I could see two things. A berry laden tree and birders with cameras and binoculars pointed at it. The flock had been located.

There was one tree and it was absolutely laden with berries. The waxwings initially were moving from a nearby tree onto it and gorging down  the berries.

As normal they did not seem to be too bothered by the gathering crowd, often perching in the tree above our heads before moving in to feed. There was a problem though - we were in a very busy industrial estate. Over the three hours of so I was there a succession of light and heavy trucks, workmen, grass cutters, Virgin Media vans and people going off to lunch arrived at the most inopportune moments. The birds kept being flushed off the tree and flying off a few hundred yards to wait till it got quiet. Once they did go back to Wickes car park but only for long enough for us to get back there before they left and came back to their berry tree. I wasn't too distressed about this as the Wickes car park was even busier and the photography was more challenging as well.

Back at their tree in the Mead estate they had another problem to deal with as well - a local pair of mistle thrushes. They clearly regarded the area as being their property and initially were very aggressive to the waxwings when they landed.

Eventually they seemed to realise that they liked slightly different trees and by the afternoon the thrushes had calmed down. A pattern started to develop. The waxwings would retire to a line of poplars a few hundred yards away. From there they could see the tree whilst they digested their latest meal. Every 15 minutes or so the flock, or a sub-section of them, would come back. Normally a lone bird came first and sat in the next door tree calling.

This was the sign for the others to come down and a frantic minutes gorging on the berries ensued before they flew back to their poplar trees.

As you can see, there have to quite acrobatic to get to some of the berries. They can gorge because they stuff the berries into their throat sac before flying off with it bulging like a bag of marbles.

As time was getting on and snow was threatened I gave in one final go for them coming down to feed. The light was so good it was a shame to leave. New birders were constantly arriving as well to join the 4 of us who had been there from the start!!

Eventually I dragged myself away and headed off. Another really good day with a cracking set of birds and a nice set of people to chat to during the quiet times!!! 144 for the year as well, equal best ever January with a week and half still to go.