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.

Mega rare, mega views....

Along with what seemed like the rest of the birding world, I took the pilgrimage down to Portland harbour for the Brunnich's guillemot. First twitchable mainland bird ever and a major blocker for many. This is similar to our common guillemot but normally lives in the Arctic. Diagnostic features are a larger and bulkier body with a white "gape".
An early start got me to the harbour by about 7.45, and there were already well over a hundred on site! The bird had been seen in the marina, so a nice sheltered spot. Viewing was along the path by the side of the jetty. As I arrived the bird was just disappearing around the corned and I didn't get onto it on time. A very anxious 30 minutes passed as the bird was not seen. Gradually the crowd spread out covering most parts of the marina. A few false alarms, mainly a razorbill and a supporting cast of great  northern divers kept us on our toes.
Finally, there it was. It was fishing and diving actively, giving everyone the chase around. It was quite amusing really. The crowd was spread out over I would guess 200 yards or more. It would appear, stay up for about 15 seconds then dive. The crowd would gather, wait for two minutes, and then the bird would reappear 50 yards away. Repeat over the next hour!!!!
Most of the time it was quite close in, but never on the surface for long. As a bloke next to me said "it's rendering a quarter of a million pounds of 'scopes redundant" which basically was true!!!
I took a lot of photos, most of which were of a birds arse disappearing under the waves but a few were ok.

 

Amazingly, as well as this, there was winter-plumaged black guillemot in the harbour as well, which I had already got in Scotland, but was a first in England for me.

Not satisfied with this I then went off down the coast to West Bexington where a glaucous gull had been reported on the beach. This needed about a 10 minute yomp along soft shingle. Another two birders had it about a quarter mile away. It stood out, very larege and very white. No signs of black or grey on the body. We then lucked out. Saving us a further yomp some dog walkers flushed it and it flew straight over our heads and settled on the mere.

One lifer and two year-ticks, so not a bad end to the year!! 

Well that was unexpected....

End of my first week back at work (god, commuting, aaaaaggggghhhhhh) and I was looking forward to getting some fresh air. Saturday morning so as usual down Maple Lodge for the work party. Weather was a bit dull but not too cold for December. got down to the reserve about 7.30ish as it was getting light for a quick look around. Very quiet. Few winter thrushes around, mainly redwings I think, a family group of goldcrests, 2 kingfishers on Clubhouse lake, otherwise not a lot beyond the usual.
Main tasks for the morning was the nest box survey - checking the boxes for signs of nesting, clearing them out, repairing damaged ones etc. Generally we had a very bad year, I think. Only two boxes had obvious signs of young - eggs, feathers etc. A lot had nest material in, but nothing else. I suppose we cant really say whether that was a failed nest or just a very tidy but successful one!!!
Anyway, unexpected 1. occurred when we were near Teal Hide. A small woodpecker flew overhead and landed in the top of a tree about 50 yards away. It immediately looked different to a great spot and I got Derek and Colin, who were with us, onto it. Luckily Colin had bins with him (mine were on the tractor some yards away) and he lent me them and I could see it was a lesser spotted woodpecker. These are much smaller than the great spots, being between a small starling and sparrows in size. They are also really uncommon now, and even when about hard to spot. The leaves off the trees helped! I had a year tick for this, but it was a heard only and only a probable at that so nice to convert to a full-blown definite!!!
In the afternoon I couldn't go out birding as we were getting our Xmas tree and then doing a bit of shopping. I did have one giant stroke of luck though. For the past week a Cackling Goose has been in the valley, around Maple Lodge. These are also known as lesser Canada geese, and are similar to our common Canada geese but are MUCH smaller, almost duck sized. I did have quick look for it on Lynsters Lake but nothing doing. In the afternoon though, with Judith driving the car we just got to the roundabout by Maple Cross when I saw 4 birds flying low over the road. Three of them were Canada geese, the other was TINY. Goose shaped but a miniature version - the cackling goose. In flight it looked no more half the size of the others it was with. Judith confirmed the sighting, even though she was driving and swerving slightly!!! A great stroke of luck, these geese have only recently been split as a full species and this being a full life tick.
Just goes to show you should never stop looking.