Dorset Bird Break Weekend

Friday 6th - Monday 9th November (99 species - 183 for year)

I've been doing the Heights Hotel Bird Breaks for a number of years now. Spurred on by an offer at Bird Fair of a free Sunday night room, I returned this weekend for my fifth visit. Having been previously in February, April, May & October, I thought I'd try an October visit this time. The weekend is led by local birder, Bob Ford (@bobthebirder) and we were a small group of six.

Friday

Heavy rain meant that I had to curtail my original plan of stopping off en route at RSPB Arne. As I approached Weymouth, the omens weren't great with driving rain and thick mist. Thankfully by the time I reached Portland, the rain had stopped even if the mist hadn't disappeared. By the time, I reached the Bill at around 2pm, that had gone too and I was able to fit in a couple of hours birding. The most visible birds were rock pipits, which were numerous. I stopped to watch some oystercatchers on the rocks, when a turnstone appeared followed by a pair of purple sandpipers trying to appear inconspicuous. A walk around the fields revealed a stonechat, a pair of kestrels then a very close, confiding raven who allowed some excellent views.

Saturday

The forecast for Saturday morning was heavy rain that was due to clear by lunchtime, so we made our way to RSPB Arne, where we could at least shelter in the woods and hides. The woods in the windy conditions were bird less, but from Shipstall Hide, there was a good selection of waders & ducks to be seen including no fewer than 14 spoonbills. Heading back to the car park for lunch, we watched the feeders whilst we ate and were rewarded by a male and two female bramblings. We headed out to Middlebere in the afternoon. It was too windy for dartford warbler, but there were lots of waders to be seen including avocets and a spotted redshank, which allowed close comparison with common redshank. Raptors were well represented with both buzzard and kestrel, but the undoubted highlight was a fine ringtail hen harrier that drifted across the reeds, my first since 2012.

Sunday

The day got off to a good start with a fly by peregrine falcon at breakfast.

We spent the day birding locally staring off with a short sea watch at the Bill. No skuas, but I added a couple of year ticks by way of razorbill & shag.  We also had a flyover brambling and sparrowhawk. A walk through the beach huts rewarded us with views of a female black redstart and migrant chiffchaffs & blackcap, before we stopped in the Observatory, where warden Martin Wade was able to show us a redwing, which he had just caught in the ringing nets.



A walk around the Top Fields failed to give us the hoped for short eared owl, but there were a number of stone chats and our only reed bunting of the weekend. At the quarry next door to the Observatory we were delighted to see the little owl was in his usual spot. I made my first attempt at phone scoping.

 

 

The afternoon was spent at three different sites. At Ferrybridge, there were an impressive number of brent geese and red brested merganser was a year tick. Lodmoor RSPB added several common birds to our weekend list plus a female marsh harrier. We didn't get to Radipole RSPB until just before dusk, so spent our time at the visitor centre, where we just added common gull to the weekend list.

 

Monday

 

En route home, I decided to visit two new reserves in Hampshire. Blashford Lakes near Ringwood was my first stop This is an impressive little reserve. From the first hide, a peregrine falcon zipped past the hide window and two goldeneye were a welcome add to the weekend list. From the woodland hide, I also added treecreeper plus another year tick in lesser redpoll. With osprey & bittern recently seen there, this is certainly a reserve I shall return to.

 

My final stop was RSPB Farlington Marshes near Portsmouth, where it was blowing a gale, which didn't bear well for my hoped for target species. A local birder didn't give me much hope as headed disconsolately back to the car park, but I persevered around the sea wall, where eventually some movement on the marsh caught my eye. It was a couple of rabbits but as they headed along the bank of a stream, they surprised my target bird, a fine short eared owl, which gave some great close up views on the ground. It eventually flew a short distance, which put up all of the nearby brent geese, which was an impressive sight in itself - a fine end to a terrific weekend,

 

 

 

 

Sussex Weekend

Saturday 3rd - Sunday 4th October (41 species - 171 for year)

it's been a quiet few weeks on the birding front due to work and other commitments plus a dodgy back last month, which caused me to abort a trip to Tring Reservoirs, where a green sandpiper was the solitary decent birds in the one hour I managed there.

This weekend I was at my parents in Sussex. Saturday's birdwatching was to be at Weirwood Reservoir. However, the morning's fog was slow to clear meaning views were limited at best. A calling kingfisher and possibly the largest flock of Canada Geese, I've ever seen were the only birds of note. There must have been a couple of hundred geese at least.

The birding highlight of the weekend came whilst watching Final Score, when a year tick in the form of a marsh tit appeared on the fence outside the sitting room window.

Sunday I headed up to Old Lodge, which gave me my first real opportunity to try out my new Swarovski scope. It was a beautiful sunny morning and birds were out in good numbers. The first one I saw was an overflying mistle thrush followed shortly by a family of stonechat. Great spotted and green woodpeckers were around as well as a mixed tit flock - blue, long tailed & coal plus some goldcrests and a solitary chiffchaff. The highlight was a large flock of thrushes - mistle & song but careful searching revealed several redwing too, my first of the autumn. The rest of the walk was quiet save for a kestrel.

The photo below is of the Konik ponies recently released in the reserve.

Birdfair 2015

I made my second ever visit to Birdfair this weekend, this time spending both the Saturday and Sunday there to take in as much as possible.

Last year's Birdfair was especially memorable for me, as I won the holiday competition being run by Birds & Nature Portugal, which I took back in March. It was great on the Saturday to meet Bernardo Barreto, our guide for the first part of the trip, together with Joao Jara, who heads up the business. Both great guys. I also dropped in and saw Bob Ford, who runs birding weekends based out of the Heights Hotel on Portland. I booked myself a weekend there in November, getting the Sunday night free of charge.

There  were some interesting talks on potential birding destinations - the Baltic coast in Germany, Varanger in Norway and the Gambia. I also spent some time in the authors forum listening to Charlie Elder, author of Few & Far Between and Mark Avery & Keith Betton, authors of Behind the Binoculars. The latter interviewed a personal favourite of mine, birdwatching great Ian Wallace, who is always great value to listen to. Needless to say I bought both books - Charlie Elder particularly was a lovely chap.

Having stayed overnight at a Days Inn on the A1 near Peterborough (not bad despite the poor reviews on TripAdvisor), I was back on site again early on Sunday.

The day started with a talk by Ruth Miller & Alan Davies on their new book The Joy of Birdwatching. They're always very entertaining to listen to.

Talks on potential birding destinations covered France (poorly delivered as he was late) and Costa Rica. Young South African birdwatcher, John Kinghorn was inspirational with his account of his Southern African Big Year of 803 species. Nick Acheson of Naturetrek performed admirably after his projector broke down to inspire us with his attempt to see all of the world's big cats.

I paid a visit to David Lindo's stand to pick up a copy of his new book Tales from the Concrete Jungles, which he very kindly signed for me.

I then finished my Birdfair experience on the Swarovski stand, where courtesy of the good folks at Viking Direct, I purchased a new ATS60 scope with a 25m-50m eyepiece at a very attractive price.

A footnote. On both days I wore a distinctive t-shirt designed by @yolobirder to raise funds for the hen harrier protection campaign.  It was great to spot a number of other wearers, and to get positive comments about it from so many people. My picture has since been tweeted by Dr Mark Avery and 'Henry' the Hen Harrier, whose head I  got to try on. For further information, please visit www.henharrierday.org and sign the petition to ban driven grouse shooting here

All in all, another excellent & enjoyable event.

North Norfolk Weekend

With the quieter summer months, I haven't done much birding of late. The one highlight was a year tick of a corn bunting whilst walking along the Ridgeway near Sparsholt Firs in Oxfordshire in July.

Friday 31st July - Sunday 2nd August (101 species - 170 for year)

With Jennifer visiting her family in Ireland, I took the opportunity to spend a few days in North Norfolk in search of some year ticks. I based myself in Blakeney at an excellent new B&B called Number 58, A reasonable price and the most amazing breakfast.

Friday

I started the day at RSPB Lakenheath. Sadly the golden orioles no longer breed there, but it's still a lovely reserve. On the walk down from the visitor centre, I saw both green and great spotted woodpecker.

The latter posed obligingly for a photo. I then had a lovely lengthy flight view of a bittern heading across the reed beds. At New Joist Fen another bittern showed well in flight and the family of common cranes were bugling close by, but sadly never came into view.

The new mere hide gave me a super close up flew of a third bittern in flight as well as this obligingly perched kingfisher.

I then moved onto the NWT reserve at Weeting Heath and had some reasonable close up views of a single stone curlew. Little else around other than a blackcap in the pines and a couple of juvenile kestrels,

En route to North Norfolk, a likely looking field yielded grey partridge and a close up singing yellowhammer.

I finished the day with an evening at another NWT reserve, Cley. This yielded a distant barn owl and a supporting cast of waders including whimbrel, greenshank, green sandpiper and my first ruff of the year. On the sea, numerous gannets were fishing just offshore.

Saturday

Saturday turned into something of a marathon with twelve hours of birdwatching. I started on the seawall at Burnham Overy Staithe, but this was disappointingly quiet bird wise - a few buzzard, curlew and egyptian geese to add to the weekend list, but little else. Cholesey Drying Barns was similarly barren - just a pheasant to the weekend list.

Titchwell RSPB was much more productive. A little stint and curlew sandpiper were in close proximity and enable comparisons with both each other and the nearby dunlins. From Parinder Hide, the eight spoonbill were visible, but I just missed seeing the wood sandpiper, which was to remain hidden during my visit. Someone claimed one of the eclipse moult ducks looked good for a garganey, but I wouldn't want to have put any money on this. On the beech were a couple of knot, whilst an obliging chinese water deer was a nice bonus on the walk back.

Time was moving on, so I headed down to Snettisham RSPB for the early evening high tide. Just as I arrived, a swirling flock of 1,000-2,000 knot flew overhead - the sound of their wingbeats startlingly loud. The tide came in quickly with a hugely impressive cast of thousands of knot, oystercatcher, godwits, sanderling, turnstone and some stunning summer plumage grey plover. It was quite a sight.

With darkness rapidly approaching, I sped the short distance down to Sandringham Forest and a well known spot for watching nightjars. A couple of London birders were already in place and we didn't need to wait long before a pair gave good close flight views. The supporting cast was a flyover woodcock and a hooting tawny owl - a great end to a super day.

Sunday

After Saturday's marathon, Sunday was always going to be a much quieter affair. After another enormous breakfast, I popped down to Cley for another visit. There was another curlew sandpiper on Pats Pool, whilst several snipe were weekend ticks. On the East Bank, the bearded tits stayed hidden, but I joined a couple of local birders to go through the tern flock, where eventually we found a single arctic tern.

It was getting seriously warm now, so my final stop was the raptor watch point at Swanton Nowers. Some honey buzzards had been seen for a few days a couple of days earlier, but sadly they had not lingered nor apparently bred locally, so I dipped on these. Compensation came in the form of a high flying red kite passing through.

All in all a successful weekend, but a few omissions I would have expected to have seen - little gull, little tern, wood sandpiper, red legged partridge, corn bunting, both song & mistle thrush, jay, spotted redhank, hobby, turtle dove, jay, bullfinch. Another time.

A Weekend in Sussex

This weekend was spent at my parents. My bird watching on Saturday was focused on Weirwood Reservoir followed by a circuit of Old Lodge. On Sunday I visited a new Ashdown Forest site - the Old Airstrip near Chelwood Gate. I  added two year ticks. However, a review of my list revealed, I'd missed counting a couple species earlier in the year, so my revised year total is now 157 species.

Weirwood Reservoir (20 species, 156 for year)

This was always going to be a short stop of half an hour or so to pick up an easy year - and so it proved. The water levels have fallen and started to reveal some mud at the back of the reservoir, where I soon picked up three green sandpipers. There were also impressive numbers of great crested grebe (easily 100+) and a number of female mandarin ducks lurked in the margins. A garden warbler sang in one of the car park trees and two treecreepers gave good views. There were several common terns and black headed gull numbers seemed to building.

Old Lodge / Old Airstrip (26 species - 157 for year)

From Weirwood, I headed up to Old Lodge for a circuit. it was a warm sunny day, and the birds were generally fairly elusive. Over the horse paddocks a large number of juvenile swallows were flying. A hovering buzzard quickened the pulse slightly, as it reminded me that it was one year ago exactly that we were graced by the short toed eagle just up the road at Gills Lap. in the valley, a whitethroat was calling and a healthy looking fox trotted up the path ahead of me. As I headed around the back of the reserve, I found a female redstart and a lone tree pipit was on the telegraph wires just before I headed up the hill back to the car park. From the top of the hill, I had two common buzzards overhead with at least another six in the distance.

With rain forecast, I decided to try a different part of the forest for a change and paid a visit to the Old Airstrip near Chelwood Gate. This was last year's Short Toed Eagle's other feeding area, It was fairly windy and rain wasn't far away, but the area looks to have good potential for birding and merits a return visit. Linnets were perhaps the commonest bird. A lone skylark sang over the heat and I soon came across a pair of stonechats. The bird of the morning, however, was a couple of flyover common crossbills calling loudly. Heading back to the car park, a song thrush sang loudly and several greenfinches were also calling - perhaps surprisingly not a bird I see that often on the forest.

A Year Tick

Little to add recently, but I did manage a year tick earlier this week in a most unlikely location - Baker Street Station. A grey wagtail has been keeping me entertained, whilst I wait on Platform 3 by calling from nearby rooftops. I have seen them here before and wonder if they might have a nest in the vicinity.

Scotland Weekend

I've been neglecting my blog lately, but a free Sunday afternoon has finally given me a chance to update it. June has been a barren month bird watching wise, only one addition to my year list with a common guillemot flying past the ferry as we neared Newhaven last weekend.

Friday 22nd - Thursday 26th May - Scotland (67 species - 152 for year)

However, the undoubted birding highlight recently was a trip to the Cairngorms in Scotland with my walking group. Although the main aim of the weekend was primarily walking, there was lots of opportunities to include some great birding, and I managed to add another twelve species to my year list.

Friday

Thursday was mainly a travelling day, but a stop at the renowned Inshriach Tea Rooms provided the first wildlife highlight. This is primarily a garden centre, but it has a great café and you sit facing out onto an impressive array of bird feeders. Coal tits and a great spotted woodpecker provided the birding highlights, but the star of the show finally made an appearance with this lovely red squirrel:

Saturday

Saturday was to be our main walking day with the plan being to start from the Cairngorm Ski Centre and see how far we got. Little did we realise, that this meant an ascent of Ben Macdhui, Scotland's second highest mountain.

As we set off from the car park, I soon picked up my first year tick with a close red grouse, that quickly flew away. Ad we climbed towards the corries and the plateau, I picked up a distant ptarmigan. However, any disappointment at the distant view was swept away with a succession of close up encounters of a bird that had previously proven difficult for me to see.

As we struck out for the summit, the going became rockier and there were several large snow fields to cross. The views from the summit were spectacular, and an added bonus were the large numbers of snow buntings flitting around the summit cairn.

As we descended, I caught sight of three low flying dotterel , a life tick for me. It got even better as we crossed the plateau and a pair flew in front of us and settled a short distance away. A great day.

Sunday

After the heights of the previous day, it was a more relaxed day today and a chance to explore the Caledonian pine forest around Loch Garten. Down by the loch, a spotted flycatcher was feeding and a redstart briefly alighted in a nearby tree. A flock of siskins noisily passed overhead, and as we pressed deeper into the woods a crested tit could be heard calling. Just before the car park, a goldcrest came down to head height to give great views.

Monday

Monday was spent in possibly one of my favourite places in the UK - the Findhorn Valley. There's always a frisson of excitement as you enter the valley and head up the dead end road. At our first stop, a common tern was fishing along the river, but a small group of visiting birdwatchers drew our attention to a lovely fishing dipper.

Towards the end of the valley we took a stroll up a hillside spotting a mountain hare and startling some feral goats.

Lunch was spent at the car park at the end of the valley where a very kindly guide from Aigas was able to point out a very distant golden eagle to us. We then headed over the spectacular Farr Road to drop into Loch Ruthen. The slavonian grebes were very distant compared to when we holidayed just up the road from here in 2013. A cuckoo could also be heard calling.

Tuesday

Our final day was a travel day, but we dropped into Loch Insh on the way back, where we were lucky to get good views of the pair of nesting osprey. This is a much better view of them, than you get at Loch Garten.

En route back to Edinburgh airport, there was still time for one final year tick with hooded crow in a field near Loch Leven.