Lunchtime at Maple Lodge

After spending the morning working on a presentation at home and seeing England humiliated AGAIN by the Australians at cricket decided I needed cheering up. I still hadn't got redpoll this year and they had been reported with the growing siskin flock.
It was actually very busy down the reserve as there was a visiting flock of birders. I nipped past them whilst they were studying the area round Teal Hide. I did spot Geoff Lapworth though who put me onto the siskin flock in the paddock. When I got there the flock was in two or three groups feeding high up in the alders. They were reasonably mobile, not being helped by a kite flying over and moving them on. After about 20 minutes I guess, including playing redpoll calls over my portable speaker, I got nothing more than male and female siskins. I would guess the flock in total was well over a hundred.
Finally I picked out a different looking shape high up in the trees to the left. Light was against me so I couldn't definitely call it a redpoll but it looked right. Moving closer I could see another group of 5 or so birds lower down. Now, without the light burning out the colour I could make out the red forehead, lighter belly, streaked flanks and larger size. I took a few record shots, all at a reasonable distance so not great but clearly lesser redpolls.

Not much else around but i did find this rather nice wren down by Rotunda Hide.

Up to 127 for the year, and tomorrow with a work-party day i'm targeting grey wagtail and reed bunting...

Well that was surprising

Being a work day i wasn't thinking that i would be doing much birding. I had a presentation to Mars in the morning though on Galaxy advertising, which went surprisingly well, in the middle of Slough industrial estate. This isn't an area you automatically assume will be full of birds!!
On getting back to my car though, a flock of about 20 pigeons flew up from one of the roofs as a scimitar-shaped bird flew through them. I'd heard that peregrines nested on the cooling towers but i'd not seen them before. this looked good though although it promptly disappeared towards the towers. I quickly drove out and round the estate to get to the bottom of them and there it was - a peregrine staring down quite crossly at me!!!
As it was then lunchtime and my drive back took me past Staines reservoir i thought it rude not to drop in. Black-necked grebes are almost resident and Slavonian was also there but i was after a male scaup which was still not on my year list. Tow other birders were on site but neither had seen it. As ever, it was cold and most of the birds on the south basin which was choppy with the wind and you had the (weak) sun in your eyes. We spotted a small grebe in with a group of about 20 tufted ducks. Whilst 'scoping that i spotted a strange tuftie - pale back not dark. We'd lucked out and got the male scaup. I left the others trying to make the little grebe into a slav and headed home. Tow year-ticks on a work day.
Then i really finished well. I was walking in through the door and i glanced through the lounge windows to the river at the bottom of the garden and there was a distinctive large creamy-coloured bird. Male (and female) goosanders frequent the river most years although this year they are very thin on the ground and i hadn't seen one. This one fished vigorously in the fast flowing stream for about 20 minutes.
3 year ticks in one day and all nice ones to boot. Takes my total to 126. Should i start talking about a big-year? Hard without Scotland scheduled though.

Sunday morning stroll

As the weather was looking fair, myself and Judith decided on a short walk round the lakes. Generally it was pretty quiet. There were reasonable numbers of the commoner species including drake and female goldeneye but i couldn't find any goosanders or smew. I did pick up one year-tick though, the resident red-crested pochards including one particularly handsome male.

Work-party Saturday

As usual, Saturday = Maple Lodge work party. With the day length still quite short i only have time for a quick walk round before getting going but it was noticeable how wet everywhere was. The stream was flowing like a torrent and areas normally dry or damp were under water.
I set out with a purpose though as there were still a few year ticks i needed which should be easy to get. First one popped up well enough by the sluice. A group of about 4 or 5 goldcrests flitting around in the bushes. Nearby in the alders i also got onto a feeding group of, perhaps, 20 siskins. I didn't have time to grill the flock for redpolls which is a task for next Saturday!!
Going round to Rotunda i got my third bird, the Cetti's warbler, or at least one of them, which have been present for some months now. Fingers crossed for breeding in the spring if a female pops in.
Rest of the morning was spent clearing up three large trees which had come down over the stream. As we finished about 20 minutes early we popped down to Shell hide. One or two green sandpipers had been frequenting a wet area in Lynster's field. It took about 5 minutes but we finally got on to one. Very distant but clearly it pottering around by the pool.
Nice morning, nice company, good work out on the tree-sawing and 4 year-ticks. What not to complain about....

Thanks Dave

In email chat with Dave (Simms) he mentioned a group of mandarin ducks in Ickenham by the park off Swakeleys drive. This is pretty much one of my routes home and we finish at 4 on a Friday. So, with the traffic on the A40 not too bad i got there with still a glimmer of light in the sky. Only a minute or so's walk and you could make out what i guess was 8 birds, males and females. Looked wild enough to me!!!

Winter wanderings

My last day-off for the Xmas break and with Judith at work another opportunity for a bit of serious year-listing. After the south coast yesterday, and with the weather forecast set fair, I went east to Norfolk. Main targets were the winter waders and geese but my first stop was to try and get Richards Pipit. This is a bit of a bogey bird, as I have missed it on at least 4 occasions. It looks like a typical pipit - brown job - but is much larger than meadow pipits being almost thrush-sized. They are also very skulking.
One has been present at Kelling for some days so this was my first stop. I arrived as a storm blew over, so I got wet which was compounded by stepping onto what I thought was dry ground only to find myself knee-deep in swamp. To add insult to injury 90 minutes of searching in the company of three locals didn't turn up anything more than a few bullfinches in the hedge and a pair of stonechats.
So I now reverted to plan A, get some year-ticks. Quite quickly on the road towards to Titchwell,  I picked up pink-footed goose, white-fronted goose and Egyptian goose. The track towards Holme NOA gave up the usual tree sparrows in the hedge.
I was interested to see how badly Titchwell was harmed in the recent flood. Luckily it seems to have escaped relatively unscathed. The boardwalk to the beach is destroyed and the eastern dunes seem to be about 15 feet lower but otherwise the hides and marshes are all ok.
Bird-wise it produced all the usually expected birds. Waders included both godwits, sanderling, knot, lapwing, curlew, redshank, spotted redshank, ruff, grey and golden plover and dunlin. Ducks were pretty much all present, with the largest numbers of very smart pintails I think I've ever seen, probably around a hundred. On the sea common scoter numbered over a hundred, with flocks flying past frequently, and a small group of 3 velvet scoter showed well off-shore. Other highlights were a water pipit pottering about on the mud and a marsh-harrier cruising the marsh. Water rails were well represented and showing very well - I probably saw 4 or 5 individuals and one very well.
Together with a few common birds seen for the first time my year total stands at 107. Just shows what a bit of effort can do!!

Off and running

Another year starts as does the tyranny of another year-list! 1st of Jan was a total dead loss, the weather being so horrible the closest I got to going out was taking out the rubbish! Still, nuthatch and coal-tit on the feeders were nice.
So, the 2nd promised decent weather which meant I could get some decent ticks. Choice was south coast, enabling me to combine a bit of birding with a trip to see Rita, my mother-in-law, and exchange a hat Judith bought which was too small at a shop on Dorchester!!!!
Clearly, the first stop was Portland to see if the Brunnich's guillemot was still there. It wasn't seen the day before and despite about 30 'scopes on site from 7.45 to 9.30 it didn't appear. By the time I've got home rumours are now flying that it has been found dead!!
The supporting cast was pretty good though. In no particular order it offered up the long-staying black guillemot, all 3 divers (black and red throated as well as great northern), all 5 grebes (great-crested, little, red-necked, black-necked and slavonian), red-breasted merganser, brent geese, gannet, kittiwake, dozens of med gulls and turnstone. Also got all the common gulls.
Close-by were one old favourite, the hooded merganser at Radipole Lake. This is a controversial bird, as it has been rejected as an escape, but LGRE and the 400 club still tick it, so I thought I might as well have it. Further down the road in a very wet park was a lone glossy ibis stalking around.
Things went a bit pear-shaped after that. Two common cranes were touring the fields west of Dorchester but I couldn't pin them down.
My last stop was Brands Bay near Studland Bay. I was there in November for the surf scoter which was still lurking around. Surprisingly here were no others borders around and it was a big bay. After 30 minutes searching I had come up with more grebes and divers, avocet, turnstone, shelduck and wigeon but no scoter. I was about ready to call it a day when I spotted a diving duck in the distance. It was the surf scoter but was horribly far-off. On the heath I picked up Dartford Warbler, which seem to be very numerous here, stonechat and mipit. Whilst waiting for the ferry a chiffchaff was in the bushes.
All this left me on a grand total of 76 species, so a good start to the year.