Blacktoft Sands

We did think about going to Flamborough Head in search of the Rustic Bunting, but overall dampness made us wimp out of that idea and instead go somewhere that promised hides. Embarrassingly, this was my first ever trip to this RSPB reserve on the south shore of the Humber, and we only stayed an hour (if that) because the rain was so bad (and only visited two hides). However, it's clearly a good place to go on a better day.

There was a feeding station by the car park, and a closer look at it revealed a Tree Sparrow. Then I noticed a big interpretation sign nearby about Tree Sparrows.

We went to the first hide, overlooking a lagoon, and found some Shovelers on what looked like deepish water. They were mostly males, shedding the last of their eclipse plumage.

The next hide overlooked a shallow lagoon, festooned with feeding waders. The distance (and hideous light) meant my photos weren't very good but here they are anyway.

A Dunlin. One of about 20, some with blacker tummies than others.

It's a horrible photo but it's the first Spotted Redshank I've seen this autumn. On its own, feeding in deeper water than the many Common Redshanks.

Another blog newbie, distant but very pretty Curlew Sandpiper. It was a tiny speck in the frame - thank goodness for the 300mm f4 and its super-sharpness.

There were maybe three or four Marsh Harriers cruising about beyond the lagoons, looking damp and miserable. I include this photo of one for completeness.

All at sea

We had a nightmare journey to Bridlington on Saturday night. This photo was taken by Rob at some point during our two-hour wait in stationary traffic on the M25. We arrrived at about midnight, when I remembered to call the RSPB office to check if the cruise was going ahead. The recorded message revealed that they hadn't yet decided, and to try again at 7.30am.

A troubled sleep later (not the fault of our accommodation, which was lovely) I called again and this time the recorded message brought happier news - it was going ahead. We dressed, breakfasted and hurried to the harbour under dismal skies and moderate rain.

The boat set off at a fair old lick and and it soon became clear that standing at the front brought maximum soakage for us and, more importantly, our optics. However, staying under cover and peering through the rainy windows wasn't an option. I shoehorned myself into a space on the deck at the back, after mortally offending someone by daring to sit in the empty space next to him close to an open window (oh dear).

Great Black-backs of all ages gathered around the chum line. We soon had an entourage of some 50 gulls, nearly all of them GBBGs.

Rob was standing at the back opposite me photographing them. I drew his attention to an enraged-looking Kittiwake overhead.

A few smart juvenile Kittiwakes joined the adults, each one prompting excited calls of 'Little Gull!' from nearby birders, followed by embarrassed apologies.

Soon there were Gannets around, hanging photogenically in the breeze as they waited for their opportunity among the gull melee.

Many were in messy subadult plumage.

The juveniles of the year were striking in their all-dark plumage.

This poor individual had what looked like a bit of carrier bag caught on its lower mandible. As the upper mandible was free, presumably the bird was able to feed normally.

Not all the birds were interested in the chum line. Close inshore there were rafts of Shags.

Further out  - auks. The announcer called out Razorbill and a single Puffin, but all Rob and I saw were Guillemots.

This Bonxie did a quick, dutiful fly-past, preventing the trip from having to be renamed the 'No-Skuas-or-Shearwaters Cruise'.

We then got an alarming announcement that a force 8 gale was coming and we had to cut the trip short. We began powering back towards the harbour, going through some major choppiness on the way.

The way back saw no new additions except for a few Fulmars. Someone upstairs called a Leach's Petrel, but I think he was the only one to see it.

We made it back to dry land about noon, in freshening winds and just as much rain. All in all it had been fun but spoiled by the weather. I'd like to do another one on a better day though.

On the way home we called in at RSPB Blacktoft Sands, and looked at some wet and miserable waterfowl. I'll put the pics from that in a new post.

Twitchtastic

Today I woke at 7.30am, made a snap decision to twitch the juvenile White-winged Black Tern in Hyde Park, and was on a train at 7.59am. Got to the park just before 9am, where it was sunny and very pleasant, with plenty of stuff to photograph if I had no luck with the tern. I had forgotten to bring a spare memory card but I wasn't overly worried. Ha...

The tern was exactly where it was supposed to be, sitting on a post under the bridge across the Serpentine/Long Water. I went over for some distant photos and was wondering whether to get some 'looking down' pics from the bridge when it took off and flew towards me.

It was a cast-iron nightmare to photograph in flight. Quick, up and down all the time and almost completely unpredictable. Soon I had half a memory card full of whitish blurs, plus the odd sharpish shot.

Its routine was to feed for about 20 minutes, then return to its perch to doze and preen for about the same amount of time. The bridge gave great views, if a bit top-downy.

A stretch of the wings and a vigorous shake-out meant it was almost time for take-off.

A luckyish shot of a 'dipping' moment (it would be an unqualified lucky shot if it had been in focus...)

There was other stuff to see in the park too, but I was running out of time - and space on that one memory card. For the first time ever I actually deleted some of the hopelessly blurry pics (this is normally an 'at home' job) to free up some space.

Big female Sparrowhawk, luckily not in the mood for a marsh-tern breakfast.

Two Coots making love not war, which makes a change.

Female Tuftie pretending to be asleep on almost completely still and perfect water, by some fluke. It turns out that 'still and perfect' isn't all that intersting to look at, without a good reflection.

and finally... this cheeky munchkin got up on the back of my bench and tapped me on the shoulder, while I was sitting deleting blurry WWBT photos. Then he spotted a nearby picnic and rushed off to pillage it.

An arty post

I've done a bit of painting and drawing lately, some of which will go in the new book (there's a chapter on sketching and artwork). Here's a sneak preview...

I did this Meadow Pipit gouache painting for a friend, and the original is in the post to her as I type.

Also done for a friend, a watercolour male House Sparrow. There might be a bit of gouache in there too actually.

A foray into mixed media - this Whinchat was done in line and wash, with a bit of coloured pencil for good measure.

A quick-and-dirty pastel painting of a Sika doe. Not sure I like this. Maybe it should have been less quick and more dirty.

Line drawing of a Four-spotted Chaser, in which I forced myself to do some proper cross-hatching for the shaded bits rather than just, well, scribbling.

Banded Demoiselle pencil sketch. Scanned this in as a 'colour picture' and the paper's come out pink, but I don't really mind.

Another quickie - Sparrowhawk in watercolour.

 Baby bunny in pastel.

Cliffe-hanger

Rob finally made it to Cliffe Pools RSPB for a brief post-work visit on Saturday, and reported that he'd seen 'nothing much'. Given the state of the tides when he went I wasn't completely surprised, but I had a rootle through his memory card and found a few items of interest.

First up, this Little Egret. Going by the sequence of photos, it flew briskly up to him then struck a series of bizarre mid-air poses for him as it went by. Rather like my little niece when she spots someone with a camera (apart from the mid-air part).

A flock of waders, which Rob photographed 'because they were there', not realising he was bagging a new species for the blog. They're Greenshanks, IDable by the solid dark wings, pale heads and bodies, and rather heavy-looking, medium-length and slightly upturned dark bills among other things.

And a flock of roosting waders, which I checked eagerly for anything that wasn't a Redshank or a Lapwing (or indeed a Coot) to no avail. Lovely evening light on them though. Imagine if it was high tide and there were another 1,000 waders of 30 different species in this photo...

The light had almost gone by this point, but just enough remained to furnish this Lapwing with some gold highlights.

I hope Rob can be persuaded to return to Cliffe another day when there's a high tide to push the waders off the river and onto the pools, but the days are rapidly getting shorter...

We have booked our tickets for the 'Skua and Shearwater Cruise' this coming Sunday. I should have finished the current book by then (the writing part at least) so it should be an up-cheering experience all round.

Odds and sods

It's been a sad week for Team Wildside - our lovely cat Pickle was put to sleep on Friday. She will be very sorely missed.

Rob went to work today at the Chatham site and took his camera with him, so fingers crossed there'll be some photos from Cliffe Marshes later on. Meanwhile, here's what I saw at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve this morning. It was sunny but chilly, with a bit of a breeze up.

From Willow hide, not all that much to see (no Kingfisher, no wagtails, no Green Sandpipers) but some of the Teals had obligingly come quite close to the hide. Check out this young lady's excellent speculum.

Over on the far bank were more Teals, plus one non-Teal - an eclipse drake Wigeon. Now there's a sign of impending winter if ever there was one. I thought I'd have to make do with a very distant record shot as the Wigeon appeared to be fast asleep on the bank, but then he woke up and swam a little bit closer, allowing for a slightly less distant record shot.

On leaving Willow hide, I paused by the path to attempt to photograph Long-tailed Tits in awful light. Why? Why do we do these things to ourselves? Anyway, it sort of paid off this time when I noticed a Treecreeper making its way up a nearby trunk. I only ever seem to see these fantastic birds when I've stopped to look at something else. Unusually, it didn't slip around the back of the tree and I got a few photos, mostly blurry because of poor light and camera shake. Still, they're my first vaguely recognisable Treecreeper pics so I'm happy with that.

On the way back I decided to walk the West Lake loop for the first time. It's a narrow path, close to the shore, and shrouded in vegetation most of the time. You do get to go quite close to the half-submerged tree favoured by roosting ducks (Tufties and Pochards) and Cormorants. I met several parties of Long-tails on the way and managed a passable photo or two.

I took a look at both feeding stations before heading home, and at the second one was rewarded with a nicely posing Dunnock, after missing a chance at a Nuthatch.

Overall, it was very quiet today. No sniff of a Kingfisher, no warblers (apart from Chiffchaffs), no waders, no raptors. One lonely House Martin heading south. Still a few darters on the wing, plus one Comma and one Speckled Wood. I suppose when autumn kicks in properly we'll start to see some new stuff. Meanwhile, I'm hoping we can go away next weekend, so watch this space...

Oh, forgot to say - new teleconverter arrived on Friday. So maybe it wasn't as out of stock as they thought it was!

Knole in September

I set the alarm for 6.30am today and set off for Knole Park. It was just getting light - the streetlamps were winking off as I went by, and sunshafts lasered through the trees down on Seal Hollow Road. First surprise of the day was that the 'hole in the wall' door into the park had been replaced - gone was the semi-rotten one and in its place a spanking new affair with a fancy locking mechanism. Nice.

Knole being very hilly, much of it was still in shadow when I arrived, hence this somewhat Serengeti-esque Fallow Deer shot.

Many of the does had fawns in tow, quite well-grown now but not beyond needing the occasional deer equivalent of a cuddle from Mum.

As usual, there were lots of Green Woodpeckers about, probing the many anthills and flying off with peals of laughter whenever a hapless photographer with no teleconverter got within half a mile of them. To get good Green Woodie pics I'll have to either sharpen up the fieldcraft - a lot - or find somewhere else to photograph them.

But Jackdaws - now you're talking. This one flew in a big lazy loop within comfortable photographic range, then did it again in case I'd missed him the first time. Besides the many Jackdaws, there were also plenty of Jays in the park, most of them busily ferrying acorns to and fro.

Close to the house, a party of Mistle Thrushes was moving about between the trees. I think there were five of them. They 'rattled' to each other as they flew, but without the same machine-gun force of the anti-predator rattle they produce in the breeding season.

There was some evidence of migration. About 40 Swallows went over in dribs and drabs - all the ones I got a look at seemed to be youngsters with no long tail streamers. I heard the reversed 'weehoot' call of juvenile Chiffchafffs in a few places, and heard one Willow Warbler delivering a very hesitant and melancholy song.

Not a migrant. This handsome boy was strutting about close to the house, and was quite unperturbed when I walked up to him and started taking pictures. Unless that's an expression of shock and outrage.

The park is full of Ring-necked Parakeets, shrieking away and flying among the treetops on those long falcon-like wings. I did take sharper photos than this but I really like the mad tail action.

Smaller birds were around but difficult to photograph. I saw and heard numerous Nuthatches, a couple of Great Spots, the usual tits and finches and several Pied Wagtails, one of them furiously seeing off first a Skylark then a Meadow Pipit. When the leaves drop things will get a bit easier. It will also help when I have my teleconverter... but since they just called to let me know it's currently out of stock, I guess I'll be waiting a while longer.