07/01/2017 Stodmarsh NR for Harriers and Water Pipits.

Saturday 7 January 2017
Stodmarsh NR near Canterbury, Kent


Up at 04.30, on the road by 05.00 and onto Stodmarsh NR by 07.00.   Why?   Dead easy - I wanted to see the Hen Harriers as they left the roost area.

My viewing point was the lampen wall near the Tower hide.  The harrier's roost in the reed area adjacent to the wall looking out towards the Grove side.  I had read about this on the KOS site and it appealed to me immensely.




The weather was quite mild, but damp,  causing the Harriers to leave just after 07.30 - later than on the previous day.

• First to show was a Marsh Harrier.  Others followed at regular intervals over a 30 minute period

• Interspersed with this departing group were at least 3 ringtail Hen Harriers.  There was no sign of any of the males that are currently roosting here.

• Next stop was the Marsh hide where a Water Pipit was seen yesterday.  I joined 4 others from KOS and soon they alerted me to the aforesaid pipit as it flew to the right of the hide.  A little later, 4 were seen flying some 50 metres directly in front of us.  When they landed I managed to get good scope views of one of them.

I left at 10.30 to get back home for lunch before heading off to the Amex to see the Albion beat the MK Dons in the FA Cup.

I was really pleased with my time management today and delighted to find the target birds.  This will go on my calendar as a "must do" event every year.

06/01/17 No Luck

Friday 6 January 2017
Ashdown Forest

• Tried again today to see the Great Grey Shrike at Gills Lap, the Crossbills and the Brambling at Old Lodge but dipped on all 3 counts.

• The only consolation was the sighting of a couple of Ravens and 6 Long-tailed Tits at Old Lodge.

05/01/17 West Rise Marsh and Ashdown Forest

Thursday 5 January 2017

I needed to stay local again today so I targeted the Long-tailed Duck at West Rise Marsh for the morning session and the Great Grey Shrike at Gills Lap in the afternoon.

West Rise Marsh

• The Long-tailed Duck was very obliging, appearing smack in the middle of the lake and in superb lighting.

Ashdown Forest

I met up with Shaun for the afternoon session.  

• We dipped on the Great Grey Shrike at Gills Lap. 

A tale of two halves with nothing to show for the latter except for a wren sighting!

04/01/17 Staying Local - Pett Level, Newhaven and Dungeness

Wednesday 4 January 2017

A late start today! 

Tarring Neville, Newhaven, East Sussex

• I made the short journey to Tarring Neville and had an instant success with the 2 Cattle Egrets that showed well in the field adjacent to the west side of the A26.  They were about 30 metres from the grazing cattle.

Pett Level, East Sussex

• Next stop was Pett Level where I quickly found the Bean Geese, close to the Canada Geese. 
• I returned at the end of the day and I was directed by a visiting London birder to the Pink-footed Geese away in the distance.
• There was also a small flock of Barnacle Geese which were resting on the grassy ground.  

Camber, East Sussex

• The splendid Red-necked Grebe on the small pool just before you get to Camber was a welcome bonus.

Kerton Road, Dungeness, Kent

• The Stejneger's Stonechat was very active today in the area to the west of the quarry.  There was a particularly keen photographer who was constantly disturbing the bird as he tried to get the perfect image.

Another fabulous day, this time much nearer home.  My year list total is creeping up and now stands at 63.

03/01/17 Twitching: Blue Rock Thrush, Dusky Thrush and Waxwings

Tuesday 3 January 2017

I just couldn't resist the chance to twitch the Blue Rock Thrush at Stow-on-the-Wold and the Dusky Thrush at Beeley in Derbyshire.  With fine weather, it was a no brainer.

Stow-on-the-Wold

• The Blue Rock Thrush was sitting nicely on top of a chimney near Fisher Close as I arrived, in complete contrast to last time when we had to wait a long time to get a sighting.  The number of birders present was only about 25%  of the previous visit so the whole experience was much more comfortable.

• On the way I managed to see at least 3 Red Kites on the M40 - my first sighting of this species in 2017.

Beeley in Derbyshire

• I was in Beeley just after 1 p.m. but the village centre was deserted.  I finally got into the action when I found the Dusky Thrush and the birders at Pig Lane, a couple of hundred metres north of the centre.  It was on the ground in a field and perched on a fallen branch from a nearby tree.  It was further away than I would have liked, nevertheless the views were excellent.

Because this bird showed immediately I still had time to do a third twitch.

Chesterfield in Derbyshire

• As luck would have it, I picked up news on RBA of Waxwings in Chesterfield so I thought I would try for them after I had seen the Dusky Thrush.  I arrived about 2 p.m. at the Victoria Working Men's Club, as advised by the alert, and there in a tree in the gardens adjacent to the club car park were at least 8 of the 18 Waxwings reported earlier.  Not a bad way to bring up 50 species for the year. Incredibly there was no-one there to share my excitement with! 

Another 9 species added to my year list, with 4 really special ones, to make this a truly wonderful day, fully justifying the 400+ mile round trip.  

02/01/17 Staying Local - Short-eared Owl and Rose-coloured Starling

Monday 2 January 2017

I decided to avoid the crowds today and stay local.

Crawley

The Rose-coloured Starling was showing superbly mid-morning at Beachy Road.

Horse Eye Levels

After lunch I made my way down to Horse Eye Levels to be in good time to see the owls.  After a very wet day yesterday I was confident of a sighting today.  

• Just after 2.30 p.m. the first Short-eared Owl appeared, flying close by.  It then landed on the ground and I was able to get a really good view.
• About 10 minutes later 2 of them flew by, again offering great views.

• As I made my way to the car I got a third sighting - this time a single bird flying in the field to the south of me.

• There were no signs of any Harriers, Hen or Marsh.

I only managed to add 6 new species today but 2 of them were rather special and my afternoon on the Pevensey Levels was awesome.

01/01/17 New Year at Dungeness

Sunday 1 January 2017
Dungeness

Spent the morning at Dungeness.  The weather was wetter sooner than expected so conditions were not great.  I bumped into Andrew early on and we went round together.

Although my species list only reached the mid-thirties, there are some really good birds on it.

• Pride of place went to the Long-eared Owl which showed splendidly at the dipping pool by the visitor's centre.
• The Ring-necked Duck showed well on Cook's Pool at Boulderwall Farm.
• Andrew picked up on the Slavonian Grebe on Burrowes from Dennis's Hide.
• On Walland Marsh the 29 Bewick Swans showed well.
• Other interesting sightings included a redhead Smew on Burrowes, a drake Goosander at ARC several Goldeneye and, of course, plenty of Tree Sparrows at the feeders on Walland Marsh.

We were so pleased to see some rare birds today after missing out on the Steineger's Stonechat and the Caspian Gull at the start of our visit!