Hastings seafront

I just got back from visiting my dad in Hastings. Having noted a good weather forecast for today, I'd brought my camera. Things were looking fairly bright by 8am so I headed out for an hour or two, to point my camera at the gulls and anything else that came along.

A nosy neighbour watched me go by. This blue Persian is one of a trio of very fancy cats that live opposite my dad. The other two are a gorgeous seal-point Siamese and a bizarre-looking Oriental red tabby, but sadly neither of those two were out today.

Some of the fishing boats that live on the beach between the harbour arm and Rockanore (when not out fishing). After this I switched to the big lens and took pictures of the Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls that hang out here. And a Turnstone.

Pity this last one is so noisy. My fault, I'd stopped down to f13 for something, and then forgot to switch back. Damn.

The last piccies I took were full-frame portraits of this very approachable Herring Gull, who was sitting on a 'no bathing' sign and offered me a look at his profile from both sides.

This is my patch - it ain't much, but I like it

Sunday 13th was a beautiful day - sunny, still and surprisingly warm. I went to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve for a couple of hours in the morning to make the most of it.

Here's some of that sky, with a Black-headed Gull pointing out the bluest bits. I took this from the viewing mound, from where I could see lots of gulls on the islands in front of Tyler hide. I decided to go to Willow hide first though.

I took this on the way. Sunny it may have been, but everywhere was still very wet from the heavy fog of the last few days.

A typically shy and furtive Jay kept dodging my lens all the way down the trail, until I finally managed to grab a shot just by the turn-off for Willow hide. Other woodland birds were being rather quiet, though I heard the wheezy notes of Siskins overhead.

From Willow hide, the lake was busy with assorted wildfowl, including four Wigeons.

There were also quite a few Teals, though they mostly stayed in the shadier areas.

A Kingfisher dashed in and landed in the willow on the island, where it sat for a while before speeding off again. Then I noticed (at the exact moment that the other occupant of the hide pointed it out) a big Fox walking along the far bank. I only managed to catch its tail and one hind leg before it disappeared behind the island, but what happened next was interesting. A flotilla of Canada Geese paddled quickly over to the bank where the Fox was, and they loitered in the water there, looking towards the bank. I didn't see the Fox again, and the geese eventually dispersed.

While all that was going on, three Shovelers (a drake and two ducks) appeared around the corner, and settled down in the shallows for a long preen. There were also plenty of Gadwalls and Mallards plus the odd Tuftie.

A Cormorant swam by, then struggled into the air and flew away. You don't often see Cormorants on this lake, they much prefer the larger East Lake. Maybe that's where he's off to.

The lone cygnet from this year's breeding attempt is still around, though now looking very grown-up in almost white plumage.

I moved on to Tyler hide after that, and stayed for a little while, mainly because I thought I could hear the occasional 'eyow' from a Mediterranean Gull among the constant 'skeeearrs' of the Black-headeds.

A tiny sample of the gull flock. No Meds in there, just a couple of Commons. I did scrutinise the whole flock but without success.

Another big flock - part of the 100 or so Lapwings that treated us to a nice flypast. Speaking of flocks, I must have seen a thousand Woodpigeons going over today, in small and large flocks, all heading south.

I was reflecting earlier on the many species still missing from my 'patch list'. Well, I'm pleased to say that I knocked off one of the more embarrassing ones today. Yes, that's a Little Egret, though my camera settings  have turned it into a white blob. Must take a look at that.

Grey skies at Bough Beech

Yesterday was the last day before the clocks went back. We got out for a couple of hours in the afternoon, to Bough Beech where the forecasted 'sunny intervals' had become more like 'sunny glimpses'. So brace yourself for some noisy grey photographs... but at least the birding was a bit better than last time.

The water was even lower than ever. These sheep were on the reservoir side, grazing among some long-drowned tree stumps that are normally covered in water.

On the other side, there were a few dozen Teals in the various pools and channels. Not long after we arrived, a microlight flew over quite low and spooked them.

The flock took off and made several circuits over the water. In typical Teal style they flew packed closely together, with fast twists and turns, generally giving the impression of waders rather than ducks.

At one point the whole flock whooshed directly overhead. I nearly fell over backwards trying to get photos of them, was amazed to find one or two were sharp and included a whole bird rather than just a slice of one.

As the Teals finally settled back down, there was another commotion over the trees - an unfortunate Common Buzzard had attracted the attention of the local corvid gang.

There wasn't all that much else going on. A few flights of Mallards, the odd Black-headed Gull, Cormorants, a pinch of Meadow Pipits and a couple of juvenile Grey Herons. I cropped this photo quite tightly, because I had to brighten it so much to recover any detail on the backlit bird that all the nice cloud detail was completely burnt out.

Here's some of the aforementioned cloud detail, with bonus Woodpigeon flock.

We moved on to the visitor centre, in the hope that the feeding station was up and running for winter. It was, and was attracting a healthy clientele.

Besides Goldfinches and Greenfinches, there were also Chaffinches, House Sparrows, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits and Collared Doves around, but I didn't see any Bramblings. I'm sure there were a couple there, though - there were birds feeding on the ground but the grass is still too high to see them easily.

The fallen apples (the feeding station is in an orchard) must have been the draw for the many Fieldfares around, but none of them wanted to pose. This Great Spotted Woodpecker landed on a very close tree, but refused to edge around the trunk for a full view.

By now it was about 5.20pm and getting pretty dark - though by 5.20 today it will be completely dark. It's always a bit depressing when the clocks go back - but I suppose the lighter mornings are some compensation.

Fallow Deer rut

I got to Knole Park about 8am this morning, and walked up towards the house. I met several dozing bucks on the way - almost trod on one of them which gave us both a start, and I spontaneously apologised to him. At the top of the hill as you reach the house is a small circular copse of trees, and as I got close to this I saw that there were four or five bucks lying down around it. I carried on past and then looked back.

You can see how close together they were. Even though nothing was going on, I thought things looked promising and decided to stick around and see what happened.

 After maybe 10 minutes, a couple of the bucks stood up and started walking about, and one of them began to roar. Or bark. The call is a deep, abrupt, thumping grumphing 'humph' sound, and as they call their huge Adam's apples bob madly about.

These two up on the hilltop started looking as though they meant business.

With very little in the way of preamble, they got down to some antler-jousting, while the other bucks all watched with great interest.

Soon there was activity everywhere. All the bucks were roaring, and several had broken off into pairs, sizing each other up before deciding whether or not a fight would be necessary.

These two did the 'parallel walk' down from the hill, coming towards me rather fast. I backed off, not wanting to get in the way (and not wanting them to get too close for my long lens).

Finally they turned and went head to head.

A full-on scrap was soon underway, the top buck forcing his rival downhill (and towards the access road, but I don't think that was deliberate).

Finally the weaker buck accepted he was beaten, and ran away towards the house. The victor turned and headed back up to the hilltop.

Enter a doe, from the south. The only one I saw in the vicinity of the rut, she ran right in among the bucks around the hill...

... and positioned herself at the side of the most successful of the bucks. He continued to pace around and roar, periodically returning to the doe to make sure she was still there, while one by one the other bucks lay down. After 20 minutes of furious activity everything was pretty much back to how it had been at the start.

A distressingly high proportion of my photos were blurry. I'd taken so many though that I did get a few that I was happy with, but I'm seriously thinking about going back tomorrow.

The rut is on! Sneak preview...

About time too. I visited Knole Park this morning and am pleased to report that the Fallow Deer rut is underway at last. I took about 700 photos in the space of 20 minutes. Here's one of them. Proper post to follow...

Rye Harbour (again), October 2

Now for the Sunday post. I was off to my dad's for a couple of days, so we drove down via Rye Harbour, which is not exactly on the way but nearby. The original plan had been to go to Pett Pools, but because it was another absolute scorcher of a day, I figured the place would be full of beach-goers, who wouldn't necessarily appreciate having an 800mm lens pointed in their general direction. So Rye it was. We went to the Bittern viewpoint first, noted that the light was all wrong, and moved on to the beach reserve. We only got as far as the Steve Denny hide, and were there til pretty much dusk.

The sun was shining beguilingly onto the Little Grebe family, three of which were snuggled up together asleep when we arrived. They woke up after a while and swam about in a fairly relaxed manner.

One of the three Brents has departed since Friday. The two that remained were doing much the same thing as they had been on Friday, swimming lazily about and getting their frontages very wet as they dipped and upended, gradually drifting closer to the hide.

I heard the squeaky-gate call of this Sandwich Tern coming from behind us. It flew over, the wrong way for pictures, but then decided to come back again.

Gulls on the move. Most of these are subadult Great Black-backs.

This Carrion Crow, like yesterday's Common Buzzard, was panting in the heat, poor thing.

Gradually, the growing shadow of the hide took away the sunlight on the water in front of us. One of the Little Grebes chose this time to come and fish right in front of us. It looked at us askance when it heard a shutter click, but was otherwise quite relaxed.

When light levels had reduced us to shutter speeds of 1/200th or less, it was time to go back. I took a photo of the sunset on the way - this gives a clearer picture of how dark it was than the next two photos do.

A few gulls were floating overhead, then Rob picked up a couple of bigger birds. As they came closer, it became clear that they were Common Cranes. I did my best to get some steady shots at woefully slow shutter speeds as the stately pair beat their way through the evening gloom, heading due south.

A great way to end the day, and as far as I know these were not previously 'noted' individuals.

Actually, even that wasn't quite the end. As we walked through the caravan park, a raptor flapped by. I took some photos, just for a laugh, of what looks like a very well-fed Sparrowhawk.