26/02/2020 Great Northern Diver at Newhaven Harbour

Wednesday 26 February 2020
Newhaven Harbour

• Just had enough time to get down to Newhaven Harbour for the high tide at lunchtime and twitch the Great Northern Diver.  The bird was showing really well from the west quay, despite the constant patrolling of the motorised survey boat.

22/02/2020 Goshawk and Woodlark at Acres Down in Hampshire

Saturday 22 February 2020

10 of us from the East Grinstead RSPB Local Group ventured down to Hampshire for our annual visit to Acres Down and Blashford Lakes.  We were rewarded with a fine birding experience, despite the awful weather.

It would have been easy to call the trip off, with a forecast of strong winds and more rain in the form of showers.  However we were determined to get out and about after being virtually grounded for weeks by the recent persistent poor weather conditions.

Acres Down

 

We targeted goshawk and woodlark at this venue. 

When we arrived at 09.30 the weather was at its worst with rain and a strong breeze - hardly conducive to looking for birds on the exposed slopes. A treecreeper seen in the car park and a very loud, singing song thrush provided some inspiration to get started despite the odds.

Up on the slopes we initially had very little to shout about, with a dunnock, a few meadow pipits and several goldfinch the pick of our sightings. 

A passing local patch birder was sceptical about our chances of seeing goshawks and suggested we descend into the valley below where he had seen crossbills and hawfinch.  We duly took the advice but after a while where we saw a treecreeper but little else we decided to return to the top again. By now the weather was improving, coinciding with a change in our luck. 

• Near the top we heard a superb woodlark singing away almost directly above us in the sky.
• Shortly afterwards we saw a magnificent female goshawk flying quite close to us.  Soon afterwards the male showed up too and we were able to enjoy their display routine for several minutes.   Not long after we sighted a third.

After lunch at the car park we moved on to our second venue at Blashford Lakes

Game on!

 

 

 

Blashford Lakes
 

Blashford was clearly looking the worse for wear after the floods over the past few weeks and wellies were the order of the day here.  We parked in the very wet north car park near the Tern Hide, spending time in the hide before walking over the road to visit the other hides.

• We soon spotted the goosanders, way over the far side of Ibsley Water - a female and 2 drakes. 
• There were scores of pintail present as well as a superb drake goldeneye, lots of pochard and the usual suspects.

At the very least we had seen all our target species!

Over the road the flooded paths were being reopened and we were able to visit Ivy South Hide, Woodland Hide and Ivy North Hide.

• We saw fewer birds than normal from Woodland Hide but we did see nuthatch, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, dunnock, greenfinch, coal tit, blue tit and great tit but there were no woodpeckers around, no siskins and no redpolls.
• On Ivy Lake we added gadwall and mute swan to our day list.

Pleasant and tranquil  - and the sun was shining!

A much needed outing and one we all enjoyed.

03/02/2020 Dartford Warbler

Monday 3 February 2020
Ashdown Forest, Sussex

I saw my first dartford warbler of the year on the Ashdown Forest this afternoon, just before it started raining.

01/02/2020 London Wetlands Centre with Mark and Elizabeth

Saturday 1 February 2020
WWT London

I like to visit this site at least once a year looking for bitterns and jack snipe.  Last week, whilst at Arundel with Mark and Elizabeth they expressed an interest in going as they had never been before.  Thankfully it was dry and mild but the strong breeze would prove problematic.

• As we entered the centre we were greeted with the sound, then the sight, of ring-necked parakeets flying around. I stopped counting when I reached 20.
• 2 water pipits had been reported regularly recently and after a thorough search of the grazing marsh, Mark spotted one of the to the left of our position in the Peacock Tower hide about 75 metres away.  It was near some rocks on the edge of the pool and showing well as it moved around.
• Mark also picked out an Iceland gull on a nearby island on the main lake and we were able to tick off all the pertinent ID features as it preened away.  What a terrific bonus!
• Bitterns did not show today - not for us, nor for any of the many other birders who were looking.  The feeling was that they stayed deep in the reed bed to keep out of the strong breeze that was blowing through the reserve all day. 

We also took in a couple of talks as we wandered round.

• One was on the plight of Bewick swans, the iconic bird for WWT - in front of 2 very obliging captive birds! 
• The other was on short-clawed otters where Todd and Honey, the captive species, entertained us at feeding time. 

courtesy of WWT London



 

 

Just the job!

 



 

 



 

28/01/2020 Out and about locally

Monday 27/01/2020
Newhaven

• I saw my first fulmars of the year, by the cliffs on the west side.

Tuesday 28/01/2020

• After several attempts, I finally got to see the mandarins on Weir Wood Reservoir. 
• In the afternoon I ventured down to Shoreham Harbour to catch up with 2 purple sandpipers.  It was just an hour after high tide and they were showing quite well on the wooden structure at the end of the pier - despite the awful weather that came in suddenly!

25/01/20 Firecrests at Arundel

Saturday 20 January 2020
Birding with Mark and Elizabeth Y

Alan P and myself were invited out for the day by Elizabeth and Mark Y.  Unfortunately, Alan was ill so did not travel. 

We spent the morning at Arundel WWT and Swanbourne Lake before moving on to Burpham and The Burgh. 

It was a mild cloudy day with little or no wind.

 

Arundel WWT and Swanbourne Lake

The last few days have provided a bonanza for photographers at Arundel WWT with firecrests showing well at close quarters.  That is how it was for us with at least 3 and probably 5 appearing regularly throughout our stay.

courtesy of wildlife_uk and twitter



• Nearly all our time was taken up with the firecrests but we did get round the reserve to see most of the usual suspects and the captive wildfowl from around the world.
• We looked for mandarins on Swanbourne Lake but had no luck.  There were far too many visitors for them methinks!

Burpham and The Burgh

• We had lunch at Burpham before viewing the 3 bewick swans in the valley below.
• On the Burgh, try as we may, we were unable to find any short-eared owls or hen harriers.
• We did however see red kite, kestrels, a merlin, a marsh harrier, several ravens, buzzards and a barn owl.
• Mark had a cracking view of a grey partridge in his scope and this was probably the stand out view of the afternoon.

An excellent day out!

 

 



24/01/2020 Scaup - finally!

Friday 24 January 2020
Combe Haven, Hastings, East Sussex

Scaup is one of those species that tend to get under my radar so I hadn't seen one for a year or two.  Thankfully a drake and 3 females had been seen in the nearby Hastings area and it was a no brainer for me to go down and have a good look.

• I tried yesterday afternoon but failed miserably - I couldn't even find the pools where the birds were!  Coombe Haven Country Park was a new venue for me and I took it for granted that all I had to do was turn up and walk to the pools.  Not so - this is quite a difficult site to get round and by the time I got on the correct path it was getting late so I abandoned ship and went home, disgusted with myself for being so casual.
• Thanks to an excellent reference on Facebook from Jake Gearty I was able to plan my route for today. I was there bright and early but the birds weren't!  Try as I may I could not find the scaup nor any tufted ducks that they would normally associate with.  There were lots of lovely pintails, coots, wigeon, teal etc but no scaup. 

• Around mid-day I checked on RBA and they had moved to a pool north of the A2690.  On Twitter I learnt that it had been posted by Matt Eade so I texted him for the grid reference.

• 20 minutes later and I was finally watching the beauties, exactly where Matt had said.  They were idling away in the middle of the water completely oblivious to all that was going on around them.

courtesy of Matt Eade and Twitter



My toughest twitch so far this year but well worth the effort!