Wry-not!

Saturday morning was the usual work-party at Maple Lodge. Reserve was quite quiet, probably reflecting the slightly balmy weather we're having. A few migrants around by Long Hedge - chiffchaffs and blackcaps in the bushes. Good numbers of little grebe families around as well, still feeding well.
What was nice was a hobby hawking for insects over the reed bed. Too lazy to walk round to get closer to it, so these are a couple of really cropped in images together with another appalling shot of a kingfisher, which was much in evidence.

 

In the afternoon I went out with Judith to Incombe Hole to go for a wryneck reported there. Lovely day and spectacular views of the Chilterns. No sign of the bird though, although i'm not sure we were even in the right place as there were no other birders around!! Still, the butterflies were nice.

I'll have a cream tea please

We're really getting into this "almost retired" lark. This afternoon, we nipped out to pick up a parcel in Hemel, and I suggested a trip to Wilstone afterwards which was quite near. Judith had never been there before.

Not much around apart from 2 common sandpipers, year list tick and probably the latest I've ever got them. Good numbers of little egrets and herons as well as the usual lapwings on the bar. Still a few common terns, including some juveniles and a single ringed plover pottering around.
The fields adjacent to the reservoir looked good and ready to get the harvest in.

On the way back we stopped off at the farm shop next door. Really good stock, lovely looking fresh meat, fruit and veg and a TEA SHOP. Along with the other retired people there we di the "ooh, I'll have a cup of tea please" and even indulged in the cream tea!!!

It's going to be really hard in December when I go back to work!!!

Birds were all around

Two days down in Weymouth/ Portland at the start of the migration with quite a few nice birds around should have been good, however family business limited the time in the field. I did manage to pick up a few nice birds - whinchats and tree pipits which were new for the year list, good numbers of dunlin and sanderling at Ferrybridge, lots of gannets passing the bill. Also, picked up curlew sandpiper, ringer plover, greenshank, barwit, little and common tern at Ferrybridge.
At Durlston Head there were good numbers of swallows passing along the cliffs and phylloscs (cc and ww) were calling in the bushes. Someone claimed a greenish that day as well but I couldn't see it!
At the bill very early on Wednesday the highlight was the very large number of yellow wagtails (over 100) and wheatears, together with more linnets than I've seen in some time and rock pipits. Managed to miss all the good birds though (ortolan, wryneck, ring ouzel, Balearic shearwater).
I'll leave you with a picture of the little owl in the obs quarry looking a bit coquettish!!

2-bar blues

First proper birding day in ages. Early start, leaving at 5.15 to the sound of rain pouring down and Judith asking if it's really the right weather to be going birding (I also had a day in Stratford watching Hamlet offered!). The night before was a toss-up between Suffolk and Norfolk, but, hey, doesn't Norfolk always win that one.
So, 7.15ish was first stop at Wolferton to not see golden Pheasant AGAIN. I think those birds are mythical nowadays. To be fair, I had only given it about one cup of coffee when bird guides came online to report white-rumped sand at Snettisham - barely 10 minutes away!! Quick change into my boots and a dash off to the  car-park. Hadn't been there in ages, and I'd forgotten how far the far hides are. The tide was falling as well, and as I was walking clouds of waders kept flying over into the wash to feed. Not feeling good. First hide, two people who weren't much help "I think it was over there but i'm not sure" pointing to about 500 dunlin. I could see some serious kit pointing out of the Roost hide so I tromped over to there and the guys got me onto it quickly. Luckily it was preening and showing its rump otherwise god knows how you'd pick it out.

 

The top two are heavily cropped in, but show the bird preening and showing off its rump. The larger one gives the problem - can you spot the white-rump!!??

Quite a few other birds as well to add to the year-list including spotshank, curlew sandpiper, sanderling and knot (yes, 1st of the year) as well as arctic skua offshore.

 

Next stop was Holme, not for a bit of sea-watching but for the tree-sparrows by the public toilets at the start of the track. I noticed them last time and they are still there in the hedge. Then onto Titchwell. Nothing particularly rare around, but little stint is always a nice bird. There were 12 spoonbills on the freshmarsh. Amazing you only comment about them in large numbers now. Also picked up greenshank in good numbers on the beach. as well as eider mooching around.

Last stop was going to be Cley, but birdguides came up with 2-bar crossbill still showing at Lynford. There are numbers around and a group of 6 was around in Norfolk but not relocated. So, as this was a lifer and on the way home, I packed up and shot over to there. Got there about 2.30, bird reported about 1.15. Three birders on site, including one local. No news since last sighting. To cut a long story short, we waited for about 3 hours till heavy rain set in. Good numbers of common crossbills flying over and occasionally stopping to feed, but not a sniff of the 2-bar. Hopefully when the weather changes we may get that predicted influx of them, and there's always Scotland to come!

Migration watch at Staines

well, a bit of over-claim but an early start down to Staines to try for black tern. As ever at this time of year the most abundant wildlife is the mosquitoes - clouds of them hovering around and settling on anything that stays still for more than a minute.
Still, after 10 minutes scanning the south basin I turned round and did pick up a single juvenile black tern over the north. Feeding quite actively for about 10 minutes then disappeared. Also got a ruff pottering along by the bank, and an overfly redshank. Did hope to get little gull as well but couldn't pick any out from the gulls, which were down in numbers from normal, and only one pair of common terns left.
Hoping to get to Minsmere on Thursday which will really get the year list going I hope.

Yellow-leg conundrum

Quick trip out to Little Marlow today with Judith. Main target was yellow-leg gull, with possibility of a wader or two. Pretty quiet when we got there, only a few large gulls mooching about. Lots of black-headed gulls and nice numbers of lapwings though. Also a few of the resident (?) Eygptian geese hanging about. No waders though.
Most of the large gulls were sitting down in the grass, and my id skills aren't up to 1y michahellis. Finally got one adult though, standing in shallow water, and in close proximity to both argentatus and fuscus for comparison. Nice yellow legs, mantle in-between the other two in colour. Happy with that and it makes 2 year list ticks in two days now i'm back in the UK!!

Back to work

Well, not really, but back to the work-party at Maple Lodge. Everything seems really green and lush, and the reed-bed is really overgrown. They finished off the new walkway whilst we were away.
Not much by way of birds. A few blackcaps eating the berries on Long Hedge, parakeets and a pair of nuthatches visiting the feeders outside clubhouse. Most of the duck still well in eclipse but teal, shoveler, pochard, tufty and mallard all present and a couple of broods of dabchicks.