Out for a duck

New year, new list! We are now into the third week of the year so its time to get the year list really moving. I've already had a couple of good ticks (dusky and yellow-browed warblers) as well as a good selection of commoner birds. It had left me just over 100 species and a target for the end of the month is 150 so I needed to get a shift on. Yesterday was southern Norfolk yielding a good list including Taiga and barnacle geese, marsh and willow tit, hawfinch and common crossbill. Most of the birds were a long way off and not photographable but I did run into a nice flock of about 50 brambling at Lynford arboretum. It left me on 123 species for the year.

Today was set to be an even bigger day down in Dorset. A very early start got me ahead of the traffic to Portland Bill just as a very grey day was dawning. As ever when a new year starts you have to look at every bird as it might be new. So, before I had even reached the cliffs I had raven and rock pipit to add! The sea was relatively flat for Portland but there was a lot moving. Large flocks of gulls were feeding offshore and in amongst them were a few gannets. Shags were also feeding closer inshore and both razorbills and guillemots were going to and fro. Six new species within about 10 minutes! Not much else and with a busy agenda ahead I didn't bother trying to find fulmars and kittiwakes but moved off up the island to Church Ope Cove. This has had a pair of overwintering black redstarts. It was a steep walk down to the beach huts but when I got there one of the birds, the female, was pottering about on the hut roofs. Smart bird but I couldn't find the even smarter male. No time to rest and look for it though!

The next stop was Portland Harbour, specifically Sandsfoot Castle. The harbour is known as a good place for overwintering grebes and divers. Recently the numbers have been dropping though, possibly as it is now so popular with water sports enthusiasts. Initially all I got were the mergansers which are quite common. Together with two other birders we finally managed to get onto one great northern diver, one Slavonian grebe and 4 black-necked grebes. All were a long way off so no photos. I also added a few Med gulls at Ferrybridge.
All of the birds so far were nice to get but were not "good" birds which I had left till last as I headed back into Weymouth. The first of these was a ring-necked duck which has been present at Radipole since before Xmas. Rather than being near the visitor centre it has been lurking in a channel along the side of the reserve opposite the tennis courts. This can make it hard to find as there are large dead areas it can feed in. Viewing is from a series of fishermen platforms which do not jut out far into the channel. The first three yielded nothing rare, just tufties and pochards. The fourth though gave a very different, smart duck lurking in the reeds.

Some birds are really well named but this one is not. It is a duck for sure but it does not have ring on its neck! It has one on its bill instead. They are uncommon rather than rare over here, with a number present in the UK at the moment but still a very good bird to get.

The photos are not brilliant as most are through the reeds but you can see it is really smart male with pale flanks, glossy domed head and that well-marked beak.

It finally started to come towards me but just as it was pulling round the reed edge a little grebe came out and spooked it back away from me! With time going on and one bird still to see before I had to go and visit my mother-in-law for lunch I headed off.
Last stop was at Lodmoor for another long staying bird. This one is a Yankie wader, a lesser yellowlegs. They are uncommon but regular over here and one you really want to get on your list. A short walk along the path by the side of the reserve got me to its favoured area. It was not there but its friend, another long-stayer was.

This is the much commoner ruff. A reasonably common bird but still another year tick for me. Apparently it and the lesser legs normally hang about together. Sure enough within a few minutes a long-legged wader dropped onto the far side of the pool.

They are really smart looking birds, with long yellow legs, a dagger-like beak and a mottled back. It only rested there a minute or so before it flew a bit closer to me.

This shows off its plumage a lot better together with its clearly defined white-rump. It fed on the pool for a few minutes before disappearing off behind some reeds leaving the pool to the other birds there - snipe, lapwings and dunlin.

A really good day as I headed off to do my duty with my mother-in-law. 14 new species to the year taking me to 137 but with a whole load of common birds still to get. A lifer or two would be nice or is that getting greedy.

Up close and personal

Most birding seems to require long trips out and distant views of small birds in a bush. The dusky warbler in Weymouth is a case in point with fleeting views of a very small bird in a bush over a hundred yards way!!!It makes a nice change therefore to have something which is not only close to where I live but a very attractive subject. Three short-eared owls have taken up Winter residence on an old landfill site no more than 3 miles from my house. I've been before but in poor light so when the day dawned brighter I decided to give it another go.
I got there just after 2 with broken cloud and a chilly wind blowing. There were a few others on site already but the owls weren't up yet. It was pretty quiet but the local kestrel was trying to keep the vole population in check!

We kept scanning the fields and about 2.20 the first owl was spotted coming up off its daytime roost. They just hunker down in the grass then suddenly appear.

This one was up hunting almost immediately, quartering the fields then diving down onto an unsuspecting small rodent.

Within 10 minutes a second bird was in the air and then finally the third one joined them.

Generally they appeared to tolerate each other quite well though one did perch up onto a small post nearby and called as if it was getting a bit territorial. They don't breed here though and will be gone in a few weeks to their breeding grounds up North.

They also used the bushes and trees as perches from which to go off hunting, giving the assembled crowd the chance to see them a bit better. They never let you get very close though so next time I think I may take my hide by one they seem to favour!

The other residents of the site were not too keen on them though. Firstly the crows kept hassling them whenever they flew too close.

As the light was starting to go a red kite, quite common around here now, drifted over and that created a major stir. Two of the owls set off to drive it away. They were almost too close, right over our heads. A great sight but challenging to photograph as you could not get both in focus at the same time.

By now it was getting towards 4 and the light was fading fast. The owls were still hunting and drifting over the scrubby grass even coming right over my head at one time.

Beautiful birds and a superb afternoon in good company as well. No doubt about it, I will be back.

Goose for Xmas

Despite saying in my last post that I wasn't in the mood for twitching, I cracked today. The weather was good so I went East to go and top up my year-list. The target was near Norwich, the combined reserves of Strumpshaw Fen and Cantley and Buckenham Marshes. In reality they are really one area divided by artificial boundaries into one marshy, reedy area.
My target was a species only recently granted that distinction. Up to a couple of years ago bean goose was one full species with two sub-species - tundra and taiga. For listing purposes you therefore only needed one of them. The powers that be then decided that they were different enough to warrant upgrading to full species level. That of course means that there are two ticks available each year. I already have tundra, from Dungeness early in the year. Taiga I do not have - yet. The combined Cantley/ Buckenham area is a known wintering ground for them and one where I have seen them many times before. I timed my journey well and got there as dawn was starting to break. The two reserves are a large wet, swampy area with the river running at the far side. It is a magnet for geese in the Winter and you could see and hear skeins flying around.

Most of the birds were of the common or garden Canada goose variety. Mixed in amongst them were greylags and the less common barnacle goose, most of which are feral down south but still tickable!! As you can guess, they were all in the middle of the marsh and a long way off.!!!!

Closer to the path were large numbers of ducks including wigeon, feeding in large herds on the lush grass.

It took a lot of looking but eventually I managed to get onto the taiga bean geese, mixed in amongst the canada geese. Not easy to see and a long way off though.

Massively cropped in, the taigas' are the two plainer geese in the middle. They have a characteristic dark head with a long bill tipped with orange. After a bit, and for no particular reason, the three of them took off and moved out of sight down the marshes.
Their legs, if you can see them, are orange, not pink. This helps separate them from the closely related pink-footed goose. When I moved later on to Cantley there were hundreds of these in the fields, feeding and occasionally taking off in giant flocks wheeling around before coming back down to feed.

FinalIy I dropped in to Strumpshaw Fen, only a mile or so down the road. It was very quiet on the wildlife front, not helped by it being work-party day and a number of bonfires covered the fen in smoke. The only highlight was a lone bittern from one of the hides. It only showed once then disappeared into the reeds.

A nice day out, good weather and spectacular sights. Will that be the last tick of the year? Xmas always seems to drop in a surprise rarity - blue rockthrush, Brunnichs guillemot, Blyths pipit - so hopefully not!

A few bits and pieces

The year is rapidly coming to a close. There aren't any lifers around to go for, not even ones requiring long drives to tempt me. I should be hopping around the country topping up the year list but I can't seem to get the enthusiasm levels up for a 3 hour drive to see a bird on a stick I've seen many times before. I'm sure it will all get going again in the New Year when the list resets but for now I've been pottering more than dashing.
There have been both barn and short-eared owls at Woodoaks farm, only a mile away from me. I've been four times now but they only show either very early or very late when the light is, well, dark!

This is the best photo I managed to get. Horribly dark at the time. I saw them very early one morning and have dipped twice in the evening when they either didn't show or showed after I gave up and went home!
The farm is really good though for wildlife generally. They leave large areas of set-aside by the arable and sheep fields which in turn attract good numbers fo small birds. Whilst waiting for the owls to not turn up I got some good views of reed buntings

and stonechats. The latter were particularly showy sitting up in the sunflowers and cabbages left by the field edges.

The top two are of a female and the lower two are the more brightly marked male of the species.
I also managed to find a small flock of long-tailed tits in the woodland edge, balancing on the twigs to find food.

So, no rare or unusual birds or even any year-ticks but some nice birds all the same.