Monday 21 March 2022

Old Lodge with Garry and the Ashdown Bird Group

Friday 18th March pm

After our very successful goshawk experience this morning, 7 of us relocated to Old Lodge for the afternoon session where we had a few interesting birds show up:

  • Pride of place for me went to the woodlarks as they sang out boldly during their display flight.
  • A couple of Dartford warblers arrived on the scene.
  • I saw my first lesser redpolls of the year; they looked absolutely stunning in the bright afternoon sunshine.
courtesy of Alison Playle

courtesy of Alison Playle


courtesy of Alison Playle

  • Other birds seen included chiffchaff, goldcrest, nuthatch, treecreeper, siskin, stonechat and raven.

Another set of interesting birds to add to Garry's already impressive day list


 Year total - 152

Saturday 19 March 2022

Goshawks

Friday 18th March

Ashdown Bird Group


A lovely morning spent with 8 friends from the Ashdown Bird Group.  Garry, my youngest son visiting from Australia, was guest of honour for the day and boy did he do well - a first ever shared birding event.  

We were searching for Goshawks and we found them!

  • We soon heard then saw the male goshawk in the valley below us.  It was perched on a deciduous tree for a long time.   It took flight before landing again in the same area.

courtesy of Alison Playle

  • Of particular interest was the altercation between the goshawk and a couple of crows, the scenario captured brilliantly by Alison in the images below.

 
courtesy of Alison Playle


courtesy of Alison Playle


courtesy of Alison Playle

                                                                                                                    courtesy of Alison Playle


  • Also seen was a lovely kestrel

courtesy of Alison Playle


  • ... and a fabulous sparrowhawk

                                                                                                           courtesy of Alison Playle



  • Charles was looking through some photographs of the buzzards that we saw when he noticed  some ID features that suggested one of them was a female goshawk, the partner of the male we had been watching all along.  This turned out to be the case, adding further to our sense of achievement.
courtesy of Charles Waters

  • Other birds seen included marsh tit, chiffchaff, meadow pipit, coal tit and long-tailed tit.

Wow!   What a great day to share with Garry!

 Year total - 151

RSPB Broadwater Warren, Sussex

14th March 2022

RSPB Broadwater Warren, Sussex


4 of us from the Ashdown Bird Group co-opted Kevin to guide us round this lovely local RSPB site.  

We had no luck at all with the target species - lesser-spotted woodpecker - but we did have some superb sightings of other species by way of compensation:-
  • Star species for me was woodlark, my first of the year, which we heard then saw, soon after we abandoned our lesser-spotted woodpecker search.  It was flying high above us and gave great views.
courtesy of Alison Playle
  • Not far behind was Dartford warbler - we saw 2, obviously a pair getting ready to breed.  The views were, again, superb - they were barely 20 metres away from us.
  • A yellowhammer is always good to see.
courtesy of Alison Playle

    • Also seen were great spotted woodpecker, meadow pipit, reed bunting, buzzard and stonechat - all looking superb today.
    courtesy of Alison Playle


      courtesy of Alison Playle

        • A real bonus were the fallow deer we saw.
        courtesy of Alison Playle

          courtesy of Alison Playle




            A splendid mornings birding!

             Year total - 151


            Sunday 6 March 2022

            With Mark and Elizabeth Rye Harbour and RSPB Dungeness

             Saturday 5th March 2022

            Martin and I joined Mark and Elizabeth and their friend for a most welcome visit to Rye Harbour NNR.  It was a bit colder today but it was dry and calm.  The reserve was teeming with birds so we were confident of seeing something special today - we did!

             

            The target species were green-winged teal, Iceland gull and spoonbill.

             

            •  It didn't take long to find the green-winged teal - it was associating with the other teal in the channel by the visitor centre.  The best views were when it was swimming around.  It spent most of the time out of the water  however in the nearby vegetation but it was nearly always in view.  A very well behaved bird, with its characteristic vertical white bar across the side of the breast.

            courtesy of David Campbell on Twitter



                                                       
                                  courtesy of KevEllse on Twitter                    



            • Not long after, a fellow birder drew our attention to the Iceland gull.  It was initially just a head view, as the bird was behind a grassy verge on Flat Beach, but it soon took flight and we were able to get excellent views to confirm the ID.

            courtesy of Garry Wotton on Twitter


            • Things were going rather well with other species too with plenty of golden plover, ringed plover, dunlin, snipe and avocets around, just to add a bit more flavour.
            • I saw my first Mediterranean gulls of the year while looking for the Iceland gull.
            • Surprisingly, there were at least 4 Sandwich terns showing well;  they surely must have returned weeks earlier than normal. 
            • After lunch we headed out to the Salt Pool to look for the long-staying spoonbill.  It wasn't there when we arrived but a few minutes later I saw it fly in and land in its usual place and from there on we were able to enjoy excellent views.

            courtesy of Martin Jeffree
                                                                                                courtesy of Martin Jeffree





            We then headed off to Dungeness NR for the late pm session.

            I was hoping to find more hides had been opened but it was the opposite - a further 2 hides had been condemned since my last visit.  Apparently the plan is to provide more "lookouts".


            • I managed to see my first sparrowhawk of the year, it was having an altercation with a carrion crow. 



            Rich pickings at Rye Harbour - wonderful!

             Year total - 150

            Thursday 3 March 2022

            Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve with the Ashdown Bird Group

             

            Sunday 27th February 2022,

            Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve

            Ashdown Bird Group

            (12 members present)

             

            Trip Report

            There was a really good turnout today and we were, once again, fortunate to have mild conditions throughout as we moved around the reserve. 

            There was a real buzz among the group as they contemplated what was ahead.  Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve would not normally feature on our programme and most of us hadn’t been here before or, if we had, it was a long time ago.

             

             

            There were no obvious target species.

             

             

            We set off from the visitor centre on the clockwise route round the reserve, finishing around 13.00

             

            ·         The most surprising aspect of today’s walk was the number of species seen.  We managed to record at least 53 which was way above our expectations.  None of them were in any way rare but, collectively, they contributed to making this a rich birding experience.

            ·         Another surprise was the size of the reserve.  It was much more extensive than most of us thought and goes some way to explaining the high species count.

             

             

            On the Water


            There was a good variety of birds on or by the water, from cormorants, greylag geese, Canada geese which tended to dominate the scene to the more graceful teal, gadwall, pochard, tufted duck, mallard, great-crested grebe, little grebe, coot, moorhen and shoveler. 


            We did see some, but not many, little egrets, oystercatchers, grey herons and lapwings.  Kevin sighted a kingfisher and a few of us saw the 2 Egyptian geese.

             

             

            Gulls

             

            As expected, there was a good gull presence with the black-headed variety the most abundant, many of which were already showing signs of moving into summer plumage with the brown hood forming. 

             

            Herring gull numbers were significant and there were a couple of common gulls and lesser-black backed gulls around but we did not see any great black-backed gulls.

             

             

             

            Woodland Birds

             

            There is a good area of woodland around this site and this is reflected in the birds we managed to record as we moved through. 

             

            ·         Star bird was probably the singing, male chiffchaff that we heard, and then saw, near Willow Hide. This was probably an overwintering bird rather than a very early migrant.

            ·         Earlier, Alan N heard a treecreeper.

            ·         Other notable sightings included nuthatch, long-tailed tit and great-spotted woodpecker.

             

             

             

            In the Sky

             

            ·         A couple of buzzards and a red kite caught our attention for a while. Later on, we saw a couple of kestrels.

            ·         Pick of the corvids was magpie.  I agree with Bob R; the flock that we saw flying over the East Lake must have been one of the largest for some time and they looked majestic in the sunshine.

             

            .

            After lunch, 7 of the group moved on to Bough Beech reservoir where they managed to add marsh tit to the species count (shown in yellow on the list)

            ,

             

                                  


             

             

            There were 53 species seen today; they are listed below:-

             

            Species

            Species

            Blackbird

            Kingfisher

            Black-headed Gull

            Lapwing

            Blue Tit

            Lesser Black-backed Gull

            Buzzard

            Little Egret

            Canada Goose

            Little Grebe

            Carrion Crow

            Long-tailed Tit

            Chaffinch

            Magpie

            Chiffchaff

            Mallard

            Common Gull

            Marsh Tit

            Coot

            Moorhen

            Dunnock

            Nuthatch

            Egyptian Goose

            Oystercatcher

            Gadwall

            Pochard

            Goldcrest

            Red Kite

            Goldfinch

            Redwing

            Grey Heron

            Reed Bunting

            Greylag Goose

            Robin

            Cormorant

            Rook

            Great Crested Grebe

            Shoveler

            Great Spotted Woodpecker

            Song Thrush

            Great Tit

            Stock Dove

            Herring Gull

            Teal

            Jackdaw

            Treecreeper

            Jay

            Tufted Duck

            Kestrel

            Woodpigeon

            Pheasant

            Wren

               CoalTit 

             

             

             

            This was another very enjoyable visit!

             Year total - 144