Quite Franklin my dear...

Three years ago I probably got a life tick at Blashford Lakes, but I don't count it. A rare American larid, Franklins gull, was appearing in the evening roost. I got there in good time and sat in the hide as it both got dark and filled up with literally hundreds of gulls. The gulls were right at the far side of the lake and even though I stayed till dark and other people claimed to have seen it I couldn't make it out. Not even half a tick. Since then I haven't had a chance to get a grip back on that one. Two days ago one dropped into Radipole lake car park in Dorset just before dark. Initially it was identified as another Yank, a laughing gull. This is equally as rare but is one I have already seen. Quick though it changed into a Franklins gull as photos were studied. No sign the following morning but it dropped in again in the evening. So, today had me barrelling down the M3 to Weymouth.
I got there way too early, just after midday. The car park at Radipole lake is a magnet for gulls. The lake offers food and washing facilities for them and they come onto the car park to dry off and loaf around. There were already over 50 gulls and 6 birders on site.

The previous two nights the Franklins hadn't arrived till 3 so we agreed it would a long wait. We had a good chance to study the other gulls though which were mainly black-headed

and Mediterranean gulls.

There were a couple of common gulls mixed in as well

but the larger gulls were not really coming in apart from a few herring gulls.

As the clock moved on towards three more gulls and birders started to arrive and the flock topped out at well over 100 birds and 25 birders. They were constantly moving, often flying off when disturbed by walkers or cyclists but always returning. At 2.45, the flock took off again and flew around us. The bloke next to me called out "its there" before they started to settle. I quickly got onto a much darker bird as it landed - the Franklins had joined the flock much earlier than normal.

We had been discussing the finer points of its identification in case it arrived - the dark legs, the dark bill. In practice it stood out really well. It has a mantle closer in colour to a lesser black-backed gull and was totally different to the other small gulls.

 This gives a good comparison shot. The size to a black-headed gull is similar but you can clearly see the differences in leg, bill and mantle colour as well as the black semi-hood. Look at that eye make-up as well.
It spent only about 5 minutes on the deck having a good preen.

Suddenly the flock got spooked and they all lifted off taking the Franklins with them. It rose up and headed off towards the bay where it roosts.

We all waited for 10 or 15 minutes but it showed no sign of returning so I gathered up my gear and headed off before the traffic got too bad. Another lifer and a good one to grip back after the dip at Blashford. Still a few weeks to go this year, wonder what else might drop in???

The world in black and white

I love those crisp blue days you can get in Winter. The light can be stunning and photography is a joy.  What you also get though are those days when it never seems to get light. A blanket of dank, grey cloud descends and you know it will be a "record shot" day with high ISO settings and grainy images. Still, doesn't mean you shouldn't get out there and with Autumn rapidly moving to Winter there were still a few targets to go for. With a day to go and find things I set out to go North, up to my old stomping ground around Peterborough. The first and main target was Holme Fen near Yaxley. This is part of the great fen project, a large area of "rewilded" land replicating the older fen habitat. Lots of open land with dotted woods and dikes. It is maturing nicely and has become a very good spot in winter for rough-legged buzzards, These are winter visitors to our shores and are one of the species which can have good and bad years. This year already seems to be a good one with quite a few present both on their normal over-wintering areas and on newer patches. Holme Fen is a known hot spot for them and one or two have been sighted and showing well for the last week or so.
I got to New Fen Drove near Yaxley about 8 with a bit promise in the sky. The cloud was broken and some weak sun was pushing through. I started scanning the fields and ditches looking for large raptors. I quickly got onto both common buzzard and red kite as well as good-sized flocks of lapwings. Rough-legged buzzards are slightly larger than our common ones though not noticeably so.  They have longer, narrower wings, a distinct white base to their tail and can be very white on their breast. They also have a slightly different jizz in that they hover when hunting rather than gliding down off perches.
After only 15 minutes or so a man pulled up in a van and pointed out to me where the RLB both is normally and also was about 5 minutes ago!!! The birders grapevine working well there and nice of him to stop. It was only a few hundred yards away but mainly it was looking in the opposite direction to the one I was looking in!!! I relocated and almost immediately got onto two or three raptors in the far distance, one of which was clearly hovering and showing white. It was almost certainly the RLB but not a good enough view to be sure. The public track by the gate where I was parked lead straight to it so I gathered my gear and set off. The weather was changing by the minute though and by the time I got closer to where I had seen it the clouds had come over and it was very gloomy.

The area was pretty open, rough scrubby land with a few sheep dotted around as well. It was clearly popular with raptors as a marsh harrier popped up from the nearby drain and drifted away from me.

For 30 minutes though I had no sign of the RLB anywhere. I was beginning to wonder if I had imagined it and the harrier had confused me at that distance. Another scan of the fields though and I picked up two large raptors in flight. One was a red kite but the other was a nailed-on RLB!!!

They were both some way off and it was now not only dark but getting a bit misty. You could easily make out all the ID features for the RLB as it was chivvied by the kite.

It was hovering, or at least trying to when the kite allowed it, it had a distinctive white-patch on its tail, a stunning grey-white great and its wings looked much longer and narrower, more like the kite than a buzzard.
It finally gave up and settled down onto a spot where you could see it a bit better.

The two-tone nature showed it to be a juvenile rather than an adult bird. After a short rest it tried its luck hunting again but this time local kestrel decided it was in the wrong place and started to attack it.

This was too much for it and it moved away further down the fen. You could see it still in the distance but it was now over a mile away. As the light and weather was only getting worse I called it a day for this visit and after a very pleasant chat with a local birder moved off to the great city of Peterborough. Target here was at Ferry Meadows where a red-necked grebe has been consorting with the local great-crested variety for a week. This was an easy twitch - pay the car park fee and it was a 2 minute walk to the lakeside where you could see both 5 birders and 6 grebes mooching about in the middle of the lake.

This shows you both birds for comparison, both in Winter plumage. The red-necked is smaller, dumpier. shorter necked and has a yellow not pinkish bill. The cap on its head goes down over its eyes as well. Whilst I was there it stayed in the middle of the lake giving itself a good grooming.

It can come really close to the shore when its feeding but not today. I gave it about 45 minutes but if anything it was drifting further away so I gave it up and headed off. Another good day though for birds, some of the best sightings I've had of rough-legged buzzard and even it the photos aren't going to win any awards it was really good to be out and about.

So it begins....

Some years it doesn't happen at all, some years it can be ok and some years can give you hundreds. What am I talking about? Waxwings. These exotic looking birds breed in the boreal forests of Scandinavia and Russia. In Autumn and Winter they will migrate but only small distances and most do not reach our shores. If, however, their food crop of berries have a poor year then they are forced to migrate in search of it. This results in what is know as a "waxwing year" and large numbers appear on our shores. This year looks to be one of those years with flocks of 100 or more birds already appearing in Scotland. This is typical as they come in via Scotland and then migrate within the UK down south.
I was on a day-trip to Norfolk after two other targets (more of them later) when a report came in of 3 in a village called Kelling, which was only 15 minutes drive away from where I was. As I had already seen my target duck I packed up my gear and headed off. Kelling is a small place on the main coast road and the birds were reported as being by the tea room. I didn't need to find this though as when I got to the village a large group of birders were staring at a tree.

Sitting in the top were three characteristic shapes. Waxwings are pretty much unique on our shores (forgetting a couple of uber-rare cousins) with that crest. In colouration they look muted but have gorgeous highlights. They are normally found where berries occur and often appear in supermarket carparks after cotoneaster berries. Normally they tolerate people well, as this trio did.

For most of the time they just sat up in their tree looking around. Unfortunately this angle together with the really dull sky didn't make for outstanding photos. Occasionally they flew down into the courtyard behind them to feast on the berries, much to the confusion of the lady who lived there. She came out to tidy her cold frame and was greeted by a row of paparazzi lenses!!!!

They just plucked off the berries and swallowed them whole. They would then move back to their tree presumably to let them digest a bit before repeating that all over again.

So why are they called waxwings? The reason is those red-tips to their wing feathers. They look like they have been dipped in wax - which clearly they haven't - but it is a good story. These only occur in adult males like the one in the photo above. The other two birds were juveniles and lacked this. Hopefully this is the start of seeing more of these stunning birds. A flock of a hundred birds in a Tescos car park nearby would be nice....

So what else did I see whilst I was there? My two targets for the day were a duck and a DNA-split chat. Firstly, I went to Sheringham for a king eider. These are rarer relatives of our common eider, annual in small numbers but normally way up North. This moulting male had been in residence off the lifeboat station for a couple of days. I parked up and walked along the promenade to where a small group of 'scopes were pointing out to sea. On flat seas I quickly got onto the only duck out there but it was a long, long way off-shore.

It is on the photo above honest, in the middle!!

Massively cropping this in you can see it is a duck! It is a 1st winter so moving into adult plumage of which you can see a bit. The general structure is eider-like with a much more bulbous beak (trust me on that one!). Over an hour it attracted a stream of admirers as it dived frequently in search of food but if anything it drifted even further away so I never got any decent photos. It did keep us amused though as each new arrival had to be pointed to where it was, not easy on a flat featureless sea!!!
My other target was a Stejnegers stonechat. This is a recent split of the eastern race of our common stonechat. It was close to the other two birds at Salthouse. I walked down the lane to where half a dozen birders were studying a distant bush (there's a theme here!!). I only had to wait a few minutes before a small bird popped up onto a branch.

It is a chat, so cousin  of our stonechats, but has certain subtle plumage differences. To identify properly though you need DNA and poo had been collected from it and sent to Prof Collinson for analysis!! To my mind they look a bit like a cross between a stonechat and a whinchat. It was a pretty windy day though and this was as good a view as I got. It spent the rest of the time I was there low down in reeds giving only subliminal views at best.
So, a good day overall. Three new years ticks and who cannot like a waxwing. I'll leave you though with a couple of shots of some ridiculously tame turnstones on the promenade by the eider. Apparently they eat chips from the tourists!!