Dawn on the channel coast

 It was Rita my mother-in-laws birthday at the weekend. She lives in Weymouth so I took the opportunity of a morning to go birding. Eschewing a lie-in and a full English breakfast I headed out just before dawn to one of my favourite spots for birding - Portland Bill. The is a superb if sometimes bleak spot, jutting out into the English  channel. It can be a magnet for migrants and I have seen some nice birds there, probably the best being the great-spotted cuckoo in 2016.Generally though it is the seabirds which are the stars and I had a number I wanted to get onto my year-list. I pulled into the carpark as a beautiful dawn was breaking with the sun just touching the horizon.

Out to sea there were hundreds of auks flying past, mainly guillemots but a spattering of razorbills mixed in with them. A pair of ravens were flying around the lighthouse and rock pipits were pottering around on the rocks below the obelisk.

One of my targets were the purple sandpipers. Up to 9 have been present over the Winter but the two I saw were brief views of birds which did not want to settle.

Other year-ticks included gannets, kittiwakes and shags but all a long way offshore. I did also life-tick one of our aircraft carriers transiting along the channel.

I then moved back inland to Ferrybridge to look at the flock of Mediterranean gulls. Without doing an accurate count I would estimate over 100 on the mudflats. This is an amazing number of these recently arrived, now breeding residents. The flock can get even larger though, into the many hundreds.

In breeding plumage they have truly black-hoods unlike black-headed gulls which actually have brown hoods. Give it a couple of months and that will happen but now they have white heads with a touch of black smoking behind the eyes on them. They also have large bold-red bills and all-white wings. With practice they stand out as being very different from black-headed gulls. I also found some black-necked grebes in the harbour but they were miles away.

All in all a really good morning. I missed the full English at the hotel but the glorious sunrise and 10 year ticks more than made up for it!

First of the year

 Whilst it is all very well and good getting a good list of birds in January or in the year as a whole, the list most birders focus on is the life list. This is those species seen ever, normally within a certain geography. This could be your local patch, county, country, continent or even the whole world. Over here, it is the UK Life List which is the badge of honour. The BOU holds the list and at the moment there are 628 species listed as ever having occurred in a wild state here. The mega listers have seen close to or just over 600 of those, a pretty fair achievement. Over 500 puts you into the premiership but the next rank down of 400 gives you championship status. I'm on 395 so and so very close to getting my badge of honour. At the weekend one of the birds which has been seen by most other birders but not me cropped up in Somerset. Kentish plover is a bird I've dipped on many times before and is a bit of a bogey for me. This one is a returning bird, to the same area it spent a lot of time in last year so I gambled on it being there today.

Even by my standards I set out early, at 4.30, and was on site by just after 7, before dawn had even really broken.

The site was Burnham-on-Sea on the north Somerset coast, just along from Weston-super-Mare. In theory it was easy, you parked up on the road and the plover would drop in on the estuary below the sea wall. Kentish plovers are smaller versions of our commoner ringed plover. They used to breed here, hence the name, but that was many years ago. Now regular visitors they breed in areas like Portugal but are regular visitors to our shores. This one was ringed in Germany, told by the colour-combination of rings on its legs.

I quickly met up with another couple of birders, Dave Bradford and Wayne Glossop, both virtual friends from the Casual Twitchers WhatsApp group and we scanned the exposed mud.

The tide was low but rising and there weren't many waders around. With no sign of the plover we expanded our search range, with the assistance of a fourth birder. He got onto a flock of plovers a couple of hundred yards down the beach. We yomped off down the promenade and he was confident he had seen the bird in with a flock roosting near the tide line. Just as we got to them though a dog walker appeared on the beach and flushed the lot. The majority of them moved back to where we had been before, so cursing gently we headed back. About 50 plovers were feeding on the tide line as it came across the mud. For 30 minutes we scanned back and forth but nothing popped out as being different. No new birds were dropping in and a slight level of despondency set in. Where had it gone? The bloke who had seen it was sure it was there and he was a very experienced birder. Wayne was running out of time as he had to leave to go to work so was particularly keen to find it. The incoming tide was pushing all the birds closer. Dave tried moving along the promenade and suddenly the shout went up. He had the bird! Within a minute we were all on it but a bloody sparrowhawk came across the beach and spooked it! Fortunately it only moved along to where the main flock of plovers were. A short walk, a shorter panic and we were onto it again.

With it on the deck it really stood out as being different to the ringed plovers. It looked tiny in comparison, almost like a chick. It was also very pale, without the definite banding on the breast and an overall delicate "jizz". It was a long way off still and the light was pants but the photos show the difference. On the right angle you could also see the banding on its legs.

With the tide coming in and a few more birders joining us we were relaxed and happy waiting for it to be pushed closer to us. Then we spotted a bloody dog walker coming along the beach towards us. His terrier was off the lead and clearly enjoying itself. Some of our group shouted at him, but he looked at us, put his hands in his pockets and ploughed on right into the flock, which scattered to the seven winds!!! We watched them disappear into the distance. Bloody annoying but happens a lot unfortunately. Still, I had the lifer in the bag so was pretty happy about that. I could have waited to see if they returned, and indeed they did about an hour later, but I decided to try for other birds locally. 

My first target, penduline tits, were a no-show. I've spent more time not seeing them than any other bird, although I've seen them in the UK before no more than one occasion. I did get beards tit for the year list. 

My next stop should have been an easy one - a male ring ouzel next to a carpark at Brean Down. It was only a short drive to the beach past a number of caravan parks.

The ouzel was in the field next to this, which turns out to be a rather scrubby, muddy affair.

I pretty much immediately got onto a vey smart male ring ouzel feeding voraciously on the mud.

The males are incredibly smart, scalloped versions of our blackbird. The ring is incredibly prominent but in the right light the scallops are equally smart.

I have often seen them in the Spring to Autumn migration on there Chiltern hills but there they tend to be quite wary and elusive. This bird was really confiding and I got to 15 yards or so from it by kneeling down in the mud.

This bird will be moving north to go and nest in some mountains, possibly even in Scotland or Northern England.

After this I headed back home really happy. First lifer of the year, and two year ticks including the best views of a ring ouzel I've had outside of Scotland. Takes me to 396 UK species so 400 is getting really close.

 

A tale of fire and ice

 It was a rvery cold morning today, bright and cold with no wind. The lawn was white with first and the car took a it of defrosting before I could get out. I was only going very local, with a first stop to Cassiobury Park for the resident little owl. It was sitting out on its usual tree in gorgeous sunlight. Stupidly though I'd been downloading photos last night and forgot to put the card back in the camera so the only photo I could get was using my phone. The same applied to the stunning mandarin drake on the river. Ah well, you live and learn.

After that rather abortive start I went home and decided to have a walk round the aquadrome instead, which turned out to be a very good choice.The lakes were almost entirely frozen over, meaning the water birds were concentrated on the few open areas or resorting to standing on the ice. 

One such part was right by the waterski hut where large numbers of coot had congregated

It did mean that the available area was crowded and as usual the coots were pretty aggressive to each other. You could study their slightly ridiculous feet when they perched out on the jetty.

This is normally a very popular area for people feeding the birds and a good number of gulls were mooching about though no one was helping them out.

A large flock of siskins were feeding in the tops of the alders near the path. I studied them for a long time trying to find a redpoll in amongst them with no success. 

Land birds otherwise were in short supply, though some sparrows and a robin were perching out in the misty sunshine down by the farm.

The main sailing lake was where most of the waterfowl had gathered, mainly round the edges where their activity had kept a decent-sized patch of open water.

Even some cormorants had been attracted to come and try their luck fishing though I didn't see them catch anything.

In the margins a juvenile grebe was looking pretty fed up with life, not helped by its presumed parents getting a bit amorous and territorial out on the main bit of open water.

In the background here you can see female red-crested pochard. It was the males that really stood out.

Even in the weak slightly misty sunshine their extravagant crests positively shone. When they came out of the shade into the sun they almost caught fire! Often they lurk out of sight here but the ice had forced them to come right next to the path. 

They are not totally wild birds over here. There is a small breeding population which probably originated from escapes out of wildfowl collections. They are also topped up in the Winter with individuals from larger breeding populations in Germany and Spain. Either way they are spectacular ducks. 

A warming cup of tea was very welcome when I got home. The owl and the mandarin were two new year ticks but the stars had to be those red-crested pochards. Really brightened up a cold day.