Once Bittern.....

Thursday 16 June 2011

A quick hour (well normal length hour) down at Titchwell before opening the shop resulted in a great birding encounter. I'd heard that adult Bitterns had been seen at the reserve flying over the track, but on arrival found myself looking at no less than four young Bitterns. Double click on images to see the superb stary eye. You wouldn't want to be a frog walking past one of these !

 and more to the point, watching four young Bitterns with only two other people. Not an experience you would normally associate with the more visited reserve in Britain. The benefits of getting up early.

 The adult female flew over the track and I was expecting it to come in and feed the young, but it was flying to another nest, further away, so presumably a different adult.

 That said these hungry youngsters were alert to the prospect of incoming food and it was necks up as anything flew nearby, in this case it was a Tufted Duck that alerted them.

 After about thirty minutes of watching these fantastic birds they all slowly crept into the depths of the reedbed. I walked back to the car, and in nearby field a solitary Hare was sat enjoying what was to be the last real sunshine of the morning. What a start to a day's work.

Go Gigrin go........

Beginning of June

So it was a great forecast, I had the projected day off and a trip to Gigrin Farm in Wales was planned. I've been wanting to go there for ages and even though in focus holds an annual event there, I've never been. Gigrin Feeding Station was started in 1993 when a few Red Kites were wintering and roosting in the area. The birds were fed and numbers rose from around a dozen to the now staggering totals of about 250 in summer and some 400 plus in the winter.

I mentioned it to Tom "of Cuddesdon" and he rapidly re arranged his patients for the target day, not so much I feel as he relished the opportunity of photographing Red Kites, as he lives just outside Oxford and they are continually either over his house or his allotment, but rather he couldn't bear the thought of me going on my own, such a considerate chap (!).

Arrived and around 1.30pm and a few Kites were about in the distance. Then as it approached 3pm more and more arrived. Below are a few pics, as I took so many I haven't processed them all, but this to give an idea. If you haven't been there, go ! It's bloody amazing !

 The birds gather and thermal round the site, then as the tractor fires up they start to get closer, much closer........

 fantastic masters of flight, a slight twist of the tail, tuck of the wings and they can drop immediately

 not really looking at me, though it felt like it !  but scanning for food

incomming as they say......more on this later. I think clicking on the images will bring them up larger.

Found out !

Ok the secret is out, I never did like that boat to Lundy and anyway this WAS important, so I flew from Norfolk to Lundy......and all because.......well it was a first for Lundy

the evidence caught on camera.... Incidentally the Trumpeter Finch was seen at the beginning of June on the north Devon coast.

Absent from post

So that's the end of May and I posted nowt, not very impressive so I am starting off June with a short retrospective. " I shall never twitch Lundy " I said, and for thirty three years this has been true. But after spending eight days there in May and leaving with a Little Ringed Plover (not literally) it was somewhat of a disappointing trip and particularly hard work in the force seven easterly that prevailed for three days.

So it was a bit galling to hear of a Trumpeter Finch arriving on the island just a week after I had left. Still, abiding by the thirty three year tennant of not twitching I manfully struggled on as I uploaded other people's pictures of the Finch onto the Lundy Birds website. It was just too much so I went, left home at midnight and was back the next day by 5am -  a little jaded I have to say, but a real hoot.......

 a nice enough crossing to the island, although a few passengers were sick. Rumours of a Black Wheatear a Black-eared Wheatear, Woodchat Shrike and possibly two Trumpeter Finches, were taken on board by this seasoned traveller as exactly that. Fellow birdwatchers, about fourteen however were predicting a great day. I told them if we came away with one Trumpeter Finch that would be good enough.

 Despite being older and less fit than many of the accompanying birders I was first up the hill and first to Quarter Wall - I was bloody impressed with that ! But where was the Finch ? As I arrived it flew down the path and over my head !

Ok someone say it...... 

and then it was nailed ! A great little bird on a great little island

 Got some great views and heard it singing - sun came out wind dropped - happy days

 The next twitch didn't fare so well. A quick blast to Welney, only thirty minutes this time, resulted in a dip of the Bluethroat, just a Reed Bunting in the "throats" favourite patch.

And back at home the garden has been productive with a brood of Robins fledged from a nest in the porch, these Blue Tits in a nest box and the Swallows have returned to nest in the garage and pooh all over the cars.

 Last saturday a visit to Rutland produced some close views of the Ospreys.

April's kicking off .....

The calm tranquility of west Acre scrape was once again the scene of considerable "grief' while quietly watching a couple of Moorhens, a third bird started to swim deliberately over.....I knew there was going to be trouble.

 and all the while a resident Oystercatcher watched on, probably best out of it .

And just yesterday a quick visit to the RSPB Titchwell reserve after work produced some twenty White Wagtails, a bunch of Yellow Wagtails, Peregrine, three Little Ringed Plovers and these two fantastic Garganey. A floating eyestripe it really is.

West Acre Blues....

Found the missing card ! But having thought it was lost I had built up the image quality in my mind and sadly on finding the images I find they are not as good as I remembered them. Still it's a start, well a Kingfisher, and next time I may not be quite so shaky and excited. And next time it just might, it just might sit on that stick. However on this day it was in high speed mode with three circuits of the pool, a hover by the post and then it was off.

 making the first of three fly bys

Red in the bill makes it a female, males have an all black bill.

Other blues involved a couple of quiet visits........so please take note, as I've said before the place is best avoided !

Catching up....

Sunday 29 Novemeber

As Led Zeppelin would say,.... it's been a long time since the rock and roll...., but for me it's been a long time since I added anything to my blog. A summer of gardening took it's toll on the birding, and autumn daylight, or lack of it, and the onset of winter have also combined to reduce my activities.

So first thing this morning I decided to get into work early and go vis Thornham where the Northern Harrier was seen the day before. This bird has been around for a good few weeks with it's true identity unknown and it's been flying around as a "probable Northern Harrier" - I had'nt seen it fly past the shop or my garden ! so decided to make the effort, especially as it was nailed two days ago as a definite Northern Harrier, and there is a head of steam by some to split it from Hen Harrier, so what the hell I thought, haven't twitched anything for years and it's only two miles form the shop.

I left home, and, with it -6 degrees. Slow going as the roads were very slippery. These Grey Partridges at the side of the road looked pretty frozen.

An unpleasant experience - not the drive to the coast, not the -2 degrees on the coast, not the 25mph northerly wind, but part of the assembled crowd. To start I bumped into a couple of very nice local people, some birding and a couple of others wondering what the fuss was aboout. I told them about the Harrier and they seemed genuinely pleased and inrterested. So here I stood (near the crowd) and waited.

Not for long as it happened, as the bird emerged from the reeds and flew around, at distance for a good five minutes. I was at this point stood on my own and not with the crowd. I even managed a couple of snaps, the bird looked as though it was in Lincolnshire it was so far away.

And so I moved a bit and ended up near the Coal Barn with about five other people. Ten minutes later cars were turning up and disgorging rugged up birders. Some were difficult to see as they were "camoflagued up".

Up to now it had been quiet, cold and really quite nice. Then we were treated to the life and times of some bloke who'd just got back from the American Coot in Ireland and.......so it went on. I was reminded of why I don't do this sort of thing, twitching that is, not visiting Ireland. Another five minutes and I'd had enough of his opinions of the previous "Northern" being a better bird than this.... his year list of 330... what sort of pies he liked best etc etc - I left.

Found myself down by the creek and spent the next ten minutes with these chaps....

Balck-tailed Godwit

Wigeon

and a Little Egret - time ticking on so off to work.

Wednesday 17 November

Just leaving for work and heard a bird in the garden,  similar to a Robin's call, but more piercing. I knew it wasn't a Robin, knew I'd heard it before, but just couldn't remember what it was. But hang on it was coming from the top of the Silver Birch tree. And there it was a chunky finch....a Hawfinch ...Bloody hell I went nuclear ! Shouted for Sam and Tom, had another look the dashed to the car for my camera. Running back in I managed a brilliant flight shot as I saw it disappear overhead and towards the road. I gave chase but my slippers were taking on too much water, so gave up. I kept smiling all day. A great garden bird.

and here it is, clearly showing it's bulky body shape, massive triangular bill, big head and short tail. Epic !

It wasn't over yet and at Flitcham I found eleven Waxwings in the hedge. At last I wasn't the only person not to have seen one in Norfolk this year.

A couple of trips to West Acre scrape have yielded a Water Rail and Kingfisher, but currently lost the card I took those pictures on. It'll turn up...I hope.