27/11/2015 East Head near Chichester Rain stopped play!

Friday 27th November 2015
East Head, nr Chichester, West Sussex

Nine of us braved the wet conditions and made our way to East Head.  Unfortunately the weather deteriorated until, after almost 2 hours, we decided to call it a day.  Nevertheless we managed to get in some birding.

• Brent Geese dominated the scene, as you would expect here at this time of year.

• I missed a Mediterranean Gull at the start but managed to catch up with it at the end.

• As we walked along the sands we saw 30+ Sanderlings at close range - wonderful!  Later on we caught up with 8 Red-breasted Mergansers, including one close, stunning male.  Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ringed Plover and the odd Turnstone made up the shore birds.

• An over-wintering Sandwich Tern made a welcome sight. 

It was nice to get out, albeit for a short while, and see some lovely birds by the sea.




Today's species list:
Black-headed Gull
Brent Goose
Dunlin
Golden Plover
Little Egret
Mediterranean Gull
Pied Wagtail
Red-breasted Merganser
Ringed Plover
Sanderling
Sandwich Tern
Shelduck
Turnstone
Woodpigeon

21/11/2015 In Cumbria birding with friends and family Barnacle Geese in their hundreds!

Saturday 21st November 2015
Anthorn and Campfield Marsh

Sue and I spent the weekend in Cumbria visiting family and friends.  It was only possible to fit in one day of birding -  Brian, Kenny and myself headed to the north west corner of the county to Anthorn and Campfield Marsh on the Solway Firth coast.  The weather was cold but dry with clear skies.  To the west was Criffel, pick the Scottish hills on show and to the south east were the snow-capped Lake District fells with Skiddaw gleaming in the sunshine. 

• The star item had to be the Barnacle Geese, with well over 1000 of them on the estuary from Anthorn round to the nature reserve at Campfield Marsh. 

• At the lovely village of Anthorn we also saw Golden Plover, Dunlin and a Knott.

• Pick of the birds at the feeders at Campfield Marsh was the Tree Sparrow.  It's nice to see these birds flourishing in Cumbria.

• On the path down to the hide we saw Bullfinch, Goldcrests and a couple of Fieldfare.

• From the hide, the pick of the many birds on show were the Pintails and Goosander.

Our target bird was the Snow Goose but try as we may we just could not find it among the Barnacle Geese.  One of the volunteers at Campfield said it tended to split it's time between the English and Scottish sides of the Solway and we were probably just unlucky today.  We were happy with that until, on the way home, we stopped to chat to a couple of other birders and discovered that they had seen the bird earlier - among the Barnacle Geese!

A terrific day out in one of the most beautiful settings you could wish for! 

Today's species list:

Barnacle Goose

Black-headed Gull

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Buzzard

Carrion Crow

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Collared Dove

Common Pheasant

Coot

Curlew

Dunlin

Egyptian Goose

Fieldfare

Gadwall

Goldcrest

Golden Plover

Goldfinch

Goosander

Great Crested Grebe

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Grey Heron

Greylag Goose

Herring Gull

House Sparrow

Kestrel

Knot

Lapwing

Little Egret

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Nuthatch

Oystercatcher

Sanderling

Shelduck

Shoveler

Snipe

Starling

Teal
Tree Sparrow
Tufted Duck
Turnstone
Wigeon
Woodpigeon

Total = 50

14/11/2015 Sevenoaks Country Park and Bough Beech with the Ashdown Bird Group

Saturday 14th November 2015
Sevenoaks Country Park
Ashdown Bird Group

Never having been to the Sevenoaks Country Park before, I was mightily relieved when Shaun decided that the outing should go ahead, despite the atrocious weather.  7 of us braved the rain and we were rewarded with over 3 hours of decent birding.

• 3 species of geese were seen - Greylag, Canada and Egyptian and the usual duck species were seen on the water.

• Waders were sparse but we did manage to spot Snipe and Lapwing.

• A small flock of Siskins seen in the alders near the visitors centre was the pick of the woodland birds. 

After relocating briefly to Bough Beech in the afternoon we added Shelduck and Great Black-backed Gull to our species list, bringing our total for the day to a respectable 43 species.




Today's species list
Blackbird
Black-headed Gull
Blue Tit
Canada Goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Coot
Cormorant
Dunnock
Egyptian Goose
Gadwall
Goldfinch
Great-crested Grebe
Great-spotted Woodpecker
Great Tit
Greenfinch
Grey Heron
Greylag Goose
Herring Gull
Jay
Lapwing
Little Egret
Long-tailed Tit
Magpie
Mallard
Mistle Thrush
Moorhen
Mute Swan
Pheasant
Pied Wagtail
Pochard
Robin
Shelduck
Shoveler
Siskin
Snipe
Teal
Treecreeper
Tufted Duck
Wigeon
Woodpigeon
Wren

11/11/2015 Ferring Beach with the Brighton & District RSPB Group

Wednesday 11th November 2015
Ferring Beach
Brighton & District RSPB Local Group

15 of us spent a smashing 4 hours birding on the south coast, just west of Worthing, at Ferring.   We started walking west from the car parking area at Sea Lane/Marine Drive along to the BlueBird Café before turning inland and following the east bank of the river (Ferring Rife).  We crossed to the west side at the bridge and returned via East Kingston and Kingston Lane.

The weather was mild with temperatures into the mid teens.  Conditions were, however, blustery, particularly along the sea front.

• We saw more birds at the very start of our walk than at any time after.  They were in the field just north of Marine Drive and only 100 metres away.  They were all sea birds, sheltering from the strong breeze.  They included good numbers of Common Gull and Black-headed Gull.  There was a single Great Black-backed Gull and a few Herring Gulls.  Close by there were good numbers of Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover and Starling and a single Dunlin.  When we returned, 4 hours later, most were still there but there were a few more Black-headed Gulls and 20+ Sanderlings had joined the wader group. 

• A small flock of Brent Geese flew west as we started walking towards the café.

• The walk along Ferring Rife was quiet but we saw a lovely Grey Wagtail as we crossed the bridge to start the return leg.

• On the west side of the river we enjoyed good views of 4 Little Egrets and a succession of good views of a Jay in splendid plumage.

• Along Kingston lane we got excellent views of 3 Red-legged Partridges.

Another delightful mid-week walk and a chance to meet up with Reg, from the Shoreham birding group, after a long time. 





Today's Species List
Black-headed Gull
Blackbird
Blue Tit
Brent Goose
Carrion Crow
Chaffinch
Common Gull
Common Pheasant
Dunlin
Dunnock
Goldcrest (h)
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Tit
Green Woodpecker
Grey Heron
Grey Plover
Grey Wagtail
Herring Gull
House Sparrow
Jay
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Little Egret
Magpie
Moorhen
Oystercatcher
Pied Wagtail
Red-legged Partridge
Ringed Plover
Robin
Sanderling
Starling
Turnstone
Woodpigeon
Wren
(34)

04/11/2015 Caspian Gull at Dungeness

Wednesday 4th November 2015
Dungeness, Kent
with Paul and Alastair

At the end of my shift yesterday with Weir Wood Reservoir Conservation Group, Alastair told me about a Pied Wheatear that had been reported near Felixstowe in Suffolk and we agreed to go and twitch it today.  In the meantime Paul expressed an interest so we agreed to travel together with an early 08.00 start. 

By the time we had negotiated our way through Tunbridge Wells news came through that the bird could not be found so we resorted to plan B and travelled to Dungeness with our target bird a Caspian Gull that had been seen there earlier in the day.

• We couldn't find the reported juvenile bird with a red (Polish) ring on the beach but Paul managed to spot an adult male Caspian Gull among a mixed group of gulls from Makepeace Hide on the nature reserve mid-afternoon.



Adult Caspian Gull
Library picture

It's nigh on impossible to have a bad day at Dungeness and today was no different with winter wildfowl arriving early.  Some of the highlights are given below:-

• A couple of "redhead" Smews, my first of the autumn/winter were seen from Scott Hide.  These birds have arrived early!
• Also from Scott Hide, a couple of female Goldeneye were seen.
• My favourite was a female Ruddy Duck - most of my previous sightings have been of the male variety.
• a lovely female Goosander was a welcome sight.  These birds are quite rare in our neck of the woods.
• A couple of Black Redstarts were seen.
• At least 2 Great White Egrets appeared during our brief visit.
• There were at least 3 Yellow-legged Gulls on the water, viewed from Makepeace Hide.
• A smashing male Pintail flew by then landed on the water to provide us with additional beauty.
• The usual suspects were there,of course, Little Grebe, Great-crested Grebe, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Mallard, Mute Swan and Marsh Harrier.
• I managed to miss a Kingfisher on 3 occasions.
• On the sea we saw a couple of Guillemots and several Kittiwakes.

Considering the lack of activity across the country today, we did very well!












Additions to BUBO UK 2015 List of Birds:
Caspian Gull    (270)

270 equals my total for the whole of last year, which I thought would be unrepeatable!