31/07/20`5 Little Stint and Wood Sandpiper at Dungeness>

Friday 31st July 2015
RSPB Dungeness

I returned to Dungeness to "twitch" a Little Stint and a Wood Sandpiper just as the England cricket team were winning the third test at Edgbaston this afternoon.  In glorious sunshine I responded to a cue from Rare Bird Alert reporting a sighting of these 2 species.

• At ARC Hanson I soon found the Little Stint on one of the islands, to the right of the tower from the hide.  It was then a pleasure to watch this tiny bird go about its business.




Little Stint
Library picture

• Also present was a lovely female Ruff and 3 Black-tailed Godwits.

• I looked high and low for the Wood Sandpiper but couldn't find it. I was then in two minds as to whether I should go round to the Screen Hide or to look for it on the main reserve.  Taking the advice of Tony Greenland, who I had just met at the hide, I went on to the reserve.

• At Firth Hide my efforts were rewarded when the bird appeared some 40 metres to my left, on a small island. For a short while I doubted whether it was the Wood Sandpiper but just then Plodding Birder arrived and looked through my scope and confirmed my sighting.

Wood Sandpiper
Library picture

Another fine Dungeness visit with 2 year ticks, lots of birds to see and less than a handful of people around.  Nice to meet up with Plodding Birder and one of his associates Tony Greenland.




Additions to BUBO UK 2015 Bird List:
Little Stint   (234)
Wood Sandpiper   (235)

• The little stint is a tiny wading bird with a short straight fine black bill and medium-length black legs. It is brownish-grey above (grey in winter) and it is very white underneath. Autumn birds have two pale stripes or 'braces' down the back. It does not breed in the UK, but is a passage migrant, with most birds being juveniles seen in autumn. It is much scarcer in spring, when small numbers of adults are seen, and a very few birds spend the winter here, most migrating to Africa. Often seen with feeding dunlin.

• The wood sandpiper is a medium-sized wading bird, with a fine straight bill, yellowish legs and a conspicuous long white stripe from the bill over the eye to the back of the neck. In flight, it shows no wing-stripes and a square white rump. A passage migrant in spring and autumn, breeding in Northern Europe and wintering in Africa; a few pairs breed in the Scottish Highlands. The flooding of some previously drained traditional marshes in Scotland may help this species in future.

30/07/2015 Oare Marshes and Curlew Sandpipers

Thursday 30th July 2015

Oare Marshes, Kent

Having missed the Little Stint at Dungeness by a day, last Saturday, and the Wood Sandpiper at Castle Water (Rye), yesterday,  also by a day, I jumped at the chance to visit Oare Marshes NR in Kent where a Little Stint and 2 Curlew Sandpipers were seen yesterday.  The weather  conditions were favourable with no rain and 19C temperatures.

 

• I still had no luck with the Little Stint and, by all accounts, neither did anyone else today.  However 3 superb Curlew Sandpipers showed well on the East Flood from the hide. 

 

Curlew Sandpipers
Library pictures

 

• A Spotted Redshank was also close  to the sandpipers but it spent most of the time asleep.

 

 

A smashing three hour visit!  Just like at Dungeness and Rye, earlier in the week, there were thousands of birds to see, including the odd species to keep my year list "ticking" along.

Addition to BUBO 2015 UK Year List:

Curlew Sandpiper   (233)

• Similar to a dunlin, but in autumn it looks cleaner and paler with a white eyestripe. It has a longer, more down-curved bill than a dunlin and will feed in slightly deeper water. Deep chestnut breeding plumage unmistakable in spring and summer. In flight it shows a bright white rump.

• Curlew Sandpiper breeds on the tundra of Arctic Siberia and is strongly migratory, wintering mainly in Africa, but also in south and southeast Asia and in Australasia, travelling a distance of over 15,000km. 

• The number of Curlew Sandpiper turning up on our coasts are largely dependent on the summer's breeding productivity and the weather conditions during migration.  The numbers of Curlew Sandpiper passing through Britain pales into insignificance however compared with the numbers passing through the near continent, with the German part of the Wadden Sea hosting up to 27,000 birds. 

• A visit to a coastal marsh in August through to September should provide you with the opportunity to pick out one of these birds, though small numbers do turn up at inland sites too.

25/07/2015 Spotted Flycatcher and Yellow Wagtail

Saturday 25th July 2015

RSPB Broadwater Warren Visit  (a.m.)
Ashdown Bird Group


11 members were given a guided tour of this burgeoning RSPB site by Alan Loweth who impressed us all with his enthusiasm and expertise.  He pointed out a great variety of flora and fauna over the course of the morning.

It was interesting to hear of the continuing restoration work which has so transformed the area, which now consists of approximately 450 acres split almost fifty/fifty between woodland and heathland, having previously been largely given over to conifer forest.

• Alan explained that there were approximately 50+ dormice resident in the Warren, making use of the many dormice boxes provided, and that the Warren was the only U.K. reserve with such a number.

• We had hoped to see adders and grass snakes, but despite Alan checking nearly all the refuges, none were seen.

 

• There were plenty of butterflies about, including green veined white, silver washed fritillary, small blue, red admiral, gatekeeper, small copper, speckled wood, and many meadow browns. Other interesting insect species noted included a spider with its funnel web, a long horned beetle believed to be Strangalia maculata, and a handsome Dor beetle. Dragonflies seen included a fine male Emperor.

• Pick of the birds was the Spotted Flycatcher seen briefly in the trees at the end of our tour, close to the car park. Also seen were a Tree Creeper, a Grey Wagtail, Buzzards, a Kestrel and a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Scotney GP nr Lydd in Kent
Eager to make use of the good weather, I decided to spend the early evening at Scotney Gravel Pits.  What a good decision that turned out to be. 

• The target bird for me was the Yellow Wagtail and it wasn't long before I located several among the sheep in the fields at the rear of the farm .

• As a bonus I also saw a pair of Spoonbills, several Corn Buntings, an Egyptian Goose and a superb Little Owl (looking out from the first building on the farm).

RSPB Dungeness
I even had time to visit the nature reserve at Dungeness before heading home at dusk.  As you would expect there were lots of birds around including several waders.

The highlight had to be the summer-plumage Knot seen from the Hanson ARC hide.


It's good to be back in the thick of things again - surrounded by lots and lots of birds!


Additions to BUBO 2015 UK Bird List:
Spotted Flycatcher  (231)
Yellow Wagtail   (232)

 Spotted Flycatcher

• Spotted Flycatchers feed on flying insects, such as bees and butterflies, but also berries in the autumn.  They sit quite upright on an exposed branch, flicking the tail and watching for insects flying passed. Consequently, you often see them flying out from a tree and back again in a circular path.

• The Spotted Flycatcher is a summer visitor usually arriving in the latter half of May and departing at the end of August. Their wintering grounds are in tropical Africa, south of the equator.

• The Spotted Flycatcher population has declined by more than half in the last 25 years and so this is a Red List species. This decline may be due to problems in their wintering grounds and changes in woodland management in Britain.

Yellow Wagtail

• Yellow Wagtails are summer visitors from the African continent and spend their summer in pastures, meadows, marshes, riversides and arable fields, and usually near freshwater.

• Yellow Wagtails can often be found around cattle and horses, feeding on the invertebrates, such as flies and beetles, that the livestock disturb with their hooves.

• The Yellow Wagtail is a summer visitor (March-September) that winters south of the Sahara, Africa

• Their numbers have fallen by over 80% since the 1970s possibly through changes in farming practices. Consequently, the Yellow Wagtail is an Red List species of conservation concern.

20/07/2015 Ospreys in Cumbria and Red Kites on M40

Monday 20th July 2015
Coming home from Cumbria

For the last couple of days I have been tracking my eldest son Peter as he and his friend Steve tackled a sponsored Lands End to John O' Groats Bike Ride.  This meant visiting family in Runcorn, Cheshire and Workington, Cumbria to rustle up support as the lads biked close these respective neighbourhoods.

• On the way back from Cumbria this morning I stopped at the lay-by on the A66 at NY227 255, popped up the bank (all of 5 metres) and looked over towards the Ospreys nest some 400 metres away eastwards towards the  Skiddaw fells.  Incredibly 2 adults and 1 chick were showing well with one adult perched on a dead branch a few metres from the nest along with a chick with another bird in the nest.  A few minutes later the chick took flight and flew down the lake in a northerly direction and out of sight.



Osprey
Library picture

Osprey Chick
Library picture

• On the M40, later on that afternoon, I was privileged to see 15+ Red Kites including 5 at the Oxford Service Station and another 10 further south.  All this on a day which was blustery, damp and overcast.  This spectacle never ceases to amaze me and it always spices up the arduous journey up north to see my family. 

Not bad for a non-birding trip up north!

03/07/2015 Squacco Heron at Southease in East Sussex

Friday 3rd July 2015
Southease near Lewes, East Sussex

I managed to push my UK Life List total one step closer to the magical 300 when I made the short journey from home to Southease, on the River Ouse, to see a Squacco Heron.  This was reported first by Chris Barfield.

I was just settling down to watch TV from Wimbeldon and the ladies 3rd round tie  between Heather Watson and Serena Williams when I got a call from Bridget and Paul to say the heron had been reported at Southease.  Within 30 minutes I was watching the bird along with about 20 other birders.  I even managed to get back home just in time to see the end of this classic match.

• The bird was showing well some 5 metres east of the waters edge.  The bright sunshine provided the best possible light to show it's awesome plumage.  For fully 30 minutes we watched in admiration with the Heron changing position only once to walk closer to the water.

Squacco Heron
Library picture

• Eventually it flew about 50 metres NE, over a bank, down into the long grass and out of sight.  At this point we decided to leave, thankful for such good views of such a lovely bird.

Squacco Heron
Library picture

 

 

 

 

Yet another excellent bird to visit Sussex in 2015 - the last one being seen as long ago as 1950! 

 

Not a "lifer" for as Sue and then Paul reminded me we had seen it in Extremadura in the spring. 

Addition to BUBO UK 2015 Bird List:
Squacco Heron   (230)

Addition to BUBO UK Life List of Birds:
Squacco Heron   (294)

• It is of Old World origins, breeding in southern Europe and the Greater Middle East. 

• The Squacco Heron is a migrant, wintering in Africa.

• It is rare north of its breeding range.

02/07/2015 Nightjar Update.

Thursday 2 July 2015
Ashdown Forest
Nightjar Update



Since my first sighting on 12th May, I have made over 20 visits to the forest, seeing Nightjars on every occasion.  Most times, but not all, I have also seen Woodcock in the preceding 30 minutes.

Hindleap

This has always been my favourite location but this year I believe we are one pair down on usual and this has changed the situation somewhat. 

• With a bigger territory for the sole pair it has become more difficult to predict their whereabouts. 

• Earlier in the season they were to be found down the hill on the west side of the path. 

• Latterly they have been found at the top of the hill in the usual tree and surrounding area.

• I have also noticed that they are churring later than expected, currently by 20 to 30 minutes.  This makes it more difficult to view them in good light.  2 nights ago for example it was 22.10 before the birds appeared and started churring - 50 minutes after sunset.

• Woodcock numbers have remained healthy with as many as 10 sightings at peak times although they are currently down to 1 or 2 at the end of the season. 

Airstrip

The stand-out location for Nightjars this year has to be the Old Airstrip with up to 4 pairs of Nightjars thought to be present.  Some of the views have been truly wonderful. 

Woodcock numbers here have, however, been low and in 4 visits I have only seen 1- and that was today.

• A saunter down the Airstrip from Long car park, just after sunset,  could not fail to produce a sighting of a Nightjar.

• The Airstrip seems to act as a line of symmetry for the Nightjars with an equal chance of seeing birds on either side of the track.

• The birds here also appear at "normal times", which together with the open aspect of the land guarantees the best lighting conditions.

Other sites

I have also had regular sightings of Nightjars on my patch at Churlwood.  I also visited Mill Brook East where we saw at least 2 Nightjars.

Nightjars are clearly flourishing on the Ashdown Forest!