January bird race

Today, we met up with members of Team Helm past and present, for the regular New Year's big day along the East Sussex and Kent coast. Becca came down yesterday and stayed over so she could join us on the race. I should mention that she and I did a little birding yesterday despite scarily blowy conditions, and on a short visit to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve in the afternoon we had nice though distant views of a Bittern, and a breathtaking close encounter with a Sparrowhawk that nearly joined us in Grebe hide. But back to today, which dawned bright, sunny, fairly still and unseasonably mild, and stayed that way all day.

We met as usual at Nigel's house and had a one-hour vigil in his back room, watching the garden and feeders while Nige provided tea and breakfast like a superstar. Besides the commoner garden birds we added Nuthatch, Marsh Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker, but failed to find Treecreeper or Goldcrest. While waiting for Jim to show up, we walked down the lanes to have a look at the fields, and added Redwing.

Then it was on to Fairlight. An uneventful drive saw one of our three cars add Jay. We walked to the cliff and noted (with some alarm in my case) that quite a large chunk of it had fallen down since the last time we were here, though our 'viewing platform' remained intact. This is big enough to accommodate the eight of us (just about) and we scanned the sea and cliffs. It was veeeeeeeery quiet. The usual rafts of Great Crested Grebes were on the sea, with one or two Red-throated Divers, and a lone Guillemot showed briefly before diving and apparently never surfacing again. We also had some distant Fulmars, plus Oystercatchers on the beach.

It's always exciting waiting here as you never know what will appear around the corner of the cliffs. We have had good views of Peregrine and Raven here in the past, and after connecting with both just a couple of miles away on the same cliffs in Hastings, I was hopeful. But it was not to be. This male Kestrel appeared on the fallen-down bit of cliff and munched some prey, giving nice scope views but terrible photos.

On to Pett Pools, and we passed a 'herd' of Curlews on the way, before stopping just short of the first pool to examine some geese.

Sorry for the distant and badly composed photo, but it shows the four species that were present - White-front, Pinkfoot, Brent and Canada. In all there were 12 Whitefronts, four Pinkfeet, just the one Brent and plenty of Canadas. A few Greylags were feeding even further away.

A male Marsh Harrier was drifting about miles away across the fields, while this female gave us slightly closer views.

We went onto the beach, where the tide was well in and there was little to see, but further down the beach we could see what appeared to be a sizeable flock of small waders flying in anxious circles near the shore. We decided we'd try to get closer, and returned to the car to drive along to the furthest pool.

On this pool were armies of Wigeons, phalanxes of Teals, and platoons of Mallards. More unexpected were a distant quartet of Ruddy Ducks, and a Snipe (or maybe several Snipes) played hide-and-seek with us in a nearby ditch.

We went back onto the beach and to our joy found the waders, now settled and sleeping while they waited for the tide to go out. The flock was mainly of Knots and Dunlins, with a sprinkling of Grey Plovers, a Turnstone and a few Oystercatchers. We thought that was it, but looking at my pics I think the little fellow in the centre of this one looks very Sanderlingy.

On to Scotney, the massive gravel pit on the coast road through Camber. On the shore by our pull-in spot was a flock of some 50 Barnacle Geese (of feral origin), and among them one or two Emperor Geese (of very feral origin). Also a solitary male Pintail, but nothing else that was new.

We decided to stay out while the weather remained lovely, and went on to Dungeness, with a trip down the Dengemarsh road for starters. We paused en route to scrutinise the flocks of swans in the fields, but found only Mutes. However, we did score a pair of Red-legged Partridges.

Next stop was the ARC bit of the reserve, where we negotiated our way through a packed hide and found a pair of Smews, which almost immediately flew away. We tried not to take it personally. Somehow I fluked a sort-of in-focus pic of them as they left.

One photo, six species. (I think. Let me know if you can see more.) Also present in the duck department were Goldeneye and Shoveler.

From the ARC car park, on Mike's recommendation we crossed the road for a furtive look into the warden's garden, where we saw lots of Tree Sparrows in terrible light. There are four of them in this photo.

We went to the beach next, pausing on the way to pick up a distant Great White Egret on the new diggings, and had a look for the Glaucous Gull that we failed to see last time. It's been there for more than a year now, and I've looked for it several times and not seen it. Today was a repeat performance - in fact we didn't even manage to find a gull flock in which to fail to find it. We did have a few Gannets offshore though. From here we phoned through our lunch orders to the Pilot, even though it was about twenty past three.

We ate our lunch while the light slowly faded outside, and debated what, if anything, to do next. Nigel added up the list and found it was a reasonable 86, not nearly as bad as it had seemed, to be honest. But by the time we finished lunch it was getting rather dark. We went onto the beach - a bit further down than before but still no gulls. Then on to the reserve, where the board told us there was a Long-tailed Duck, but it was too dark by this point to make out much of anything. So we called it a day - but a really good day :)

Hooray for bank holidays...

... because New Year's Day itself was rainy and horrible. Today, though, was a beautiful sunny one, though there was a chill in the wind, especially in the wide open spaces of Sheppey which was where we went for a few hours this afternoon. It wasn't a stellar day for photos, so apologies in advance for that.

Last year I posted my very first photo of the year even though it was rubbish. This year's first is even worse, but it's always good to press that shutter button for the first time in a new year, and while the photo may not be much good the bird is lovely. Marsh Harrier through the car windscreen at the start of the Elmley access track.

The harrier did come a bit closer. In fact it was the closest bird we saw along the track. There was other stuff about but it was all distant.

Some of the other stuff. A mixture of Curlews, Lapwings and Starlings, all put up by something or someone but we didn't see what (or who).

When we reached the car park, we noticed four or five people scoping something off to the left, which turned out to be a flock of Fieldfares coming down to drink and bathe in a puddle on a track to one of the houses.

Being short of time (and lazy) we didn't go into the reserve but went back, to look in at a few more Sheppey spots before it got dark.

On the return trip along the track we found some slightly closer Curlews to admire.

We went down towards Leysdown then took the turn-off for the raptor viewpoint. We crawled down the lanes, noting Corn Buntings and Red-legged Partridges, more Marsh Harriers, and stopped to photograph two different Kestrels.

At the raptor viewpoint, the Great White Egret that has been hanging around the area showed briefly over the reedy ditch, and on the other side of the road a distant Hen Harrier bobbed up into view for a moment.

 We carried on towards the Harty Ferry Inn, turned round and pootled back again. On the way we saw a flock of some 20 Corn Buntings on an overhead wire, and watched another Marsh Harrier spooking a flock of Teals from the broad ditch on the west side of the road.

We went on to Leysdown, and paused briefly (it would have been longer if it had been up to me) to watch gulls at the sea wall, coming to hoover up some bread crusts being lobbed their way.

Although most of the gulls coming to this bready bounty were Black-headeds, there were a fair few Commons among them.

On the fields on the other side of the road, a flock of a couple of hundred Brent Geese were munching on some well-watered grass.

We finished the day at Shellness. We'd left things a bit late for much of a walk here, but we headed south for a little while, scanning the fields (in vain) for raptors. The beach was busy with waders though, with plenty of Oystercatchers, Curlews, Knots, Grey Plovers, Ringed Plovers and Dunlins all out on the mud (high tide not til 6pm, alas).

 A couple of distant long-necked things were dismissed by Rob as Cormorants but when I bothered to lift my lens I saw they were geese. However, I didn't realise they were White-fronts til I blew up the photo massively - pity we didn't get a better view.

I couldn't see a way to get closer to the waders feeding on the shore without spooking them, so contented myself with a long-range shot of a lot of Dunlins.

This lone Turnstone was on the path we were walking, both on the way out and back, scampering ahead of us but not by very far. It was too late now for anything but a super-noisy photo. Although many of the Oystercatchers we saw had lost their white winter 'collars' the Turnstone was still in winter attire, but you can see hints of chestnutty summer plumage beginning to appear.

Hastings highlights

This Sunday to Tuesday was a Hastings visit, and again I brought my camera as Monday morning's forecast was good. I got out early, perhaps a bit too early.

I went to the beach as before, the stretch where the fishing boats are in between the harbour arm and Rockanore. On the beach was a collection of various-aged Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. It was too dark at first for the birds so I took a couple of skyscapes, even though I had totally the wrong lens for this kind of thing.

 It looks cloudy, but there was actually only a little bit of wispy cloud on the horizon, just enough to detain the sunlight for about 15 minutes.

I was impatient to get photographing though, so took a few noisy pics while the sun was still hidden. The adult Great Black-backed is ringed, would be interesting to know where it came from but I'm not going to volunteer to rugby-tackle it and check the ring details.

At last, proper sunshine. Here's a streaky-headed adult Herring Gull...

... and a confiding juvenile, sitting on the Rockanore wall and hoping I'll go away.

This Jackdaw was one of a flock of about six, that came gliding down from the cliffs to begin a busy day of crumb-hunting in the car park.

Also in the car park, a Black-headed Gull that settled down in a puddle. I mainly took this pic to show my dad that there are still some Black-headed Gulls in Hastings Old Town in winter, though certainly way fewer than there were when I was growing up here.

After this, I decided to climb up Tamarisk Steps to Tackleway, and from there up the long set of steps that climbs to the top of the East Hill. I had no particular plans for what I'd do once I got there, but ended up just finding a spot to stand on the top by the lift, and waiting to see what came along.

Spotting a fast-moving and small-looking falcon, I raised the camera expecting it to be a Kestrel, but got a nice surprise - juvenile Peregrine. I suppose this is evidence of fairly local breeding? Or maybe not? We have seen adults just along the coast a bit in Fairlight.

I realised this was a Raven as it bombed past, and had that 'oh well, at least I got a photo' feeling as it disappeared along the hillside, out of view. But then, to my great joy, it came back, with another one.

The Ravens tumbled about together, while I willed them to come closer. This is another species we've seen at Fairlight, and I once saw one high overhead from my dad's street.

The Ravens did come closer. I kept firing off shots (though the camera kept stopping mid-burst, damn the slow write speed of my memory card!) and got a few OKish closer shots.

I saw the Peregrine once more, but got no photos to speak of. The other avian action was supplied by a party of maybe 10 Magpies, who kept flying up into the breeze and getting blown about.

Some of the Magpie photos look very strange indeed, capturing them from some peculiar angles as the wind played with them. Here's one that is at least recognisable.

An afternoon at Rainham

Another late post, but not quite as late as the last one. Rob and I went to RSPB Rainham Marshes on Saturday, where we met Becca. Rob was carting the Sigmonster around so when Becca called to say she'd arrived I went back along the trail to meet her, and Rob carried on, in an anticlockwise direction.

This Kestrel caught our attention as we made our way to the first hide, flying across to land briefly on a pylon.

The trail passed a very sheltered small pond where numerous Goldfinches and Chaffinches were bathing, then drying off in the thick bushes that surrounded the water. Pity they were all too tucked away for decent photos.

From the first hide, a very large flock of Lapwings plus a few Golden Plovers was on view, wheeling about and then settling on the banks and islands of the scrape. A few Teals paddled about nearby.

Looking along the trail to the side I could see Rob standing at a viewpoint over another lake, along with a bunch of other birders. We went to join him, and he broke the news that the Sigmonster wasn't working. The camera couldn't detect it, autofocus didn't work. We tried my camera body on it to no avail. So poor Rob had to carry what was now a useless 6kg lump around the rest of the trail.

We paused at a turn in the trail to look at a Peregrine, perched high on a sadly rather distant pylon. Then I looked down and saw an RSPB sign right in front of us saying that we should check the pylons for Peregrines. I guess we did that the wrong way round, then.

On to the fancy new hide, where Rob spent some time trying without success to get the Sigmonster working again, while Becca and I photographed the only nearby birds, a small party of Pied Wagtails. Further out, a quartet of Skylarks explored a muddy spit of land.

On the homeward stretch of the track now, we stopped to admire this Reed Bunting, one of a pair hanging around the reedy ponds, and I thought I heard a Bearded Tit call but couldn't see it.

Passing a reed-lined ditch, we stopped when we heard a pretty loud rustling from the opposite bank. The whatever-it-was moved along the bank and then emerged at the water's edge, revealing itself to be a very fine-looking Fox, and eyeballed us with no apparent concern before continuing on its way.

Just before the  last hide, a cracking male Stonechat popped out of the undergrowth and struck a series of photogenic poses along the fence-posts.

From the last hide, overlooking grassland and a narrow loop of water, there wasn't a lot to see except half a dozen grazing Wigeons and a depressed-looking Grey Heron. Not long after we arrived, the heron stalked about a bit and then flew off, so we left too.

Back at the visitor centre, Rob dumped the dead Sigmonster in the car and we walked along the riverbank a little way, before it got too cold and dark.

The foreshore was quiet but we did see a few Redshanks, plus this spectacularly well-endowed Curlew.

These four Shelducks leaving the reserve and heading out along the Thames seemed a fitting way to end a very enjoyable day.

Yes, we have no Bitterns

This is a very overdue post, from Friday 2nd December. I'm only writing it up now because I'm so sleep-deprived that I can't concentrate on my proper work, of which there is lots. But that's my problem, not yours. On the afore-mentioned Friday, I met Graham and Becca for a few hours' Bittern-hunting at Fisher's Green. I texted Graham from the train and he came to meet me at Cheshunt station, while Becca stayed in the Bittern hide. When we joined her, she had enjoyed good views (and taken good photos) of a Water Rail. Graham's and my failure to see this Water Rail became a bit of a theme for the day.

 Of course, most of the people in the hide were there hoping to see a Bittern, except perhaps this chap, who looked very fetching in his blue jumper. But we had limited patience and daylight, so we gave it half an hour and then hit the trails.

As we walked along towards the weir, noting GC Grebes, Gadwalls and Coots in the river and the odd gull overhead, Graham remarked that he would like to see a Redwing. As if it had waited for this moment all its life, this Redwing promptly appeared.

A Lesser Black-backed Gull. The weather was disappointing, we'd been promised sunshine (damnit) but the skies were grey for most of the day. It was also rather chilly, the autumn mildness finally gone. Poor Becca was suffering from a bad case of frozen toes, despite having four pairs of socks on.

Up at the weir, this Common Gull sat photogenically on a post. Numerous ducks swarmed in the water below, including plenty of Wigeons. Across from the river, a few Teals and Shovelers paddled across a flooded field.

A surprise among the wildfowl, a lovely female Goldeneye.

We continued along to the hide that overlooks the lake above the weir. It was good to see that they have added a second bench in this hide since my last visit. However, the view from the hide wasn't too inspiring, assorted wildfowl but nothing new for our day list.

On the walk back, the sun came out briefly and illuminated a flock of Fieldfares that flew between the lakeside trees, merrily dodging our lenses. This heavily cropped effort is still my best Fieldfare photo. Must try harder.

We put in a last stint at the Bittern hide, in fast-disappearing light (as this pic of restless gulls and Lapwings shows). No Bittern, but we did get some terrible views of a silhouetted and retreating Water Rail, ending Becca's Water Rail monopoly.

I spent a little while watching the feeding station at the far end of the hide, seeing Blue and Great Tits, Chaffinches and a solitary Robin.