South Coast End Of March - 2013

With some time off over the Easter Weekend I got the chance to get back down to the South Coast to Pennington & Keyhaven Marshes hoping to catch up with a few species that I had missed throughout the winter on my year list.

The first big surprise was spotting a Little Egret feeding not to far from the main car park with a bigger white heron like bird next to it, a second look and a scramble for the camera confirmed it as a Spoonbill, a stunning bird not all to common in these parts, and one I have never had the luxury of seeing in closish proximity.

After managing to walk further down the path to get level with the bird some disruption caused it to take flight, circling the marsh and flying back straight over top or our heads. Definitely well worth the 40 mile drive alone.

Plenty of other Little Egrets could be seen all along the marsh, with feeding birds close to the sea wall every 200-300 yards or so.

A fair few Brent Geese remained close in off of the sea wall, and were occasionally joined by the odd group of incoming Wigeon. Oystercatchers drawing our attention with their loud alarm calls, regularly skimmed over top of the waves as we made our way down the seawall path towards Lymington.

On route from the English channel Pennington proved a good spot to see some spring migrants, with Chiffchaff's galore feeding at the waters edge alongside each and every pool around the reserve.
Another surprise whilst watching a Great Crested Grebe feeding off of the sea wall was the emergence of a lone Slavonian Grebe starting to loose its winter plumage.

The Red-breasted Mergansers still appeared paired up in the same spot as where I saw them on my last visit in January, although this time the male took flight from the small spit of land where the female sat. A stunning duck and really streamlined.

As always a small area of pebble and beach was left from the incoming tide and 20+ Turnstone waddled up and down the shoreline feeding.

A species I was keen to catch up with this visit was the Spotted Redshank, having somehow missed the wintering group earlier in January, this time however I was soon comfortable I hadn't miss identified the bird for the common Redshank. And even managed some relatively close photographs as 6 or 7 birds fed on the small shallow lagoon.

Throughout the winter I had been desperate to get close to some or our gorgeous wintering duck species. Usually feeding in large flocks on the flooded ground, getting close without disturbing the group had proved quite tricky and unsuccessful. However I found myself able to view a small group of Wigeon and a couple of pairs of Teal at fairly close proximity.

All winter I have had a fairly good success rate on seeing Goldcrests and also seeing them close up. Today was no exception as we spotted a pair in a isolated bush right next to the footpath. A couple of minutes wait and they both showed them self for some photos.

With some great birds in the bag at Pennington, we headed back across the New Forest to Blashford Lakes a slight detour on the route home. Straight away picking up another new migrant species for the year as 5 Sand Martin hurried across the large expanse of Ibsley Water.

A brief pit stop in the woodland hide showed all the usual resident woodland species and also a couple of rosy looking Common Redpoll, a lone male Brambling and some very smart looking Siskin.

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Shropshire - 2nd Feb

A weekend visit to the beautiful county of Shropshire beckoned at the start of the month, and hopefully a visit to Gigrin Farm just over the border in Wales, that never came to fruition so I left Nat asleep and was off to find myself some of the local hotspots.

I had been reading on the Shropshire Ornithological Societies bird reports about a fairly showy Green-winged Teal at Polemere a small reserve about 20miles away on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, having dipped on the Blashford one the weekend before this seemed a logical place to start. I must admit on arrival I expected something a little bigger, on first appearances Polemere NR is nothing more than an flooded farm pond, with a hide plonked on the horse paddock over looking the water.

And to be honest thats exactly what it was, but what a haven for wildlife. Positioned right in the middle of some arable farmland, just a few trees and a couple of hedgerows surrounding it. I could instantly see a fair few Teal, Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Coot, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Tufted Duck, Canada Goose & a lone domestic farm Goose all from the comfort of cushioned seats and a carpeted hide.

The sun was pitching in quite nicely on the water and certainly helped in searching for that special Teal. I guess in total around 250 Teal graced the farmland water a lot less than the 2000 or so the week before at Blashford. But after a good hour and a half of continual Drake Teal scanning, nothing more exciting than a common Teal Drake having a good stretch and wing flap presented itself.

Drake Teal

From Polemere I ventured north east towards Venus Pool, a reserve I have heard quite a lot about on various other blogs and websites. Run by the Shropshire Ornithological Society I was quite surprised by the amount of cars in the car park, as I headed the short way down the lovely clean gravel path to the first hide. 2 White-fronted Geese instantly presented themselves 60 yards or so from the hide in amongst the Greylags. My first new Year tick for the weekend. (and my last), unfortunately the amount of cars made sense now as the hide was bursting with Photographers, an unusual occurrence for me, usually there are a lot more twitchers.

So no room to squeeze in and get a photograph. The other hides where a lot quieter and I soon picked out a drake Pintail asleep on one of the islands. Plenty of Lapwing continuously flew off and circled before coming back in to land back on the spit they just left. They were soon joined by a large flock of Snipe, a good 65-70 strong mimicking the Lapwings behaviour.

The woodland bird feeding station was quite a site, with a ridiculously large number of common garden birds visiting the various feeding stations present. A shame the trees blocked out so much light to prevent some decent photography. Nice to see a good dozen or more Greenfinch making light work of the sunflower seeds.

After a bit of a do at home on Saturday night, Sunday morning required some fresh air, with Nat in tow this time we decided to have another crack at Polemere for the GW Teal. Fair to say not a lot was different than the day before other than the arrival of a pair of Goosander and 3 Snipe. Still no Green-winged Teal!

Having the topic of my photography brought up at Saturday nights party, I was told of a place we should visit for some easy access to Fallow Deer. And although I've said in the path I think this is cheating a little bit, I decided to go with the flow and do the same as everyone else. It's not like I am going to pretend they were wild animals!

Attingham Park is also on the outskirts of Shrewsbury and just 2 miles or so away from Venus Pool, home of a very large herd of Fallow Deer that are fed at weekends during the winter. Having arrived a good hour before the scheduled 'feeding' time, I said to Nat it would be good if we could get some shots before they all disappear off to be fed. How I rued those words. We followed the signs to the deer park seemingly walking miles and miles before eventually coming across the 300+ strong herd in the field not to far from the car park.

A good 3 mile looped walk if only we had gone the other way. With 10 mins or so to go until feeding time I quickly tried to pick out some single subjects, trying to capture one individual as a natural photo rather than the massive huddle that formed as a few visitors tried to get closer from all angles. It's fair to say I took exactly 7 photographs before a Pickup full up with sugar beat arrived and led all the deer away down the hill to near enough the car park and main house.

This seemed remarkably idiotic to me as a good 60 people stood waiting a top the hill, having walked through shitty muddy puddles and soggy waterlogged parkland to be told they would have to walk all the way back through it again straight away.

Then to make matters worse the deer were fed in a small gully, meaning only there heads could be seen as they enjoyed there daily food. It just made me think what a bunch of idiots the National Trust staff at Attingham Park are. It was a real shame the light was so dull as this location minus visitors and idiotic staff had a lot of potential for some nice shots.

Fallow Buck

Fallow Buck

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First's For Me - 27th Jan

So I get a message late on the saturday afternoon from Joe at - This Isn't Portland Birding asking if I fancy going for some unusual Hampshire visitors the next day. Bewick's Swan, Tundra Bean Geese & Green winged Teal all possibles. With the sun out and shining by midday we arrived at the Avon floods at Harbridge, after geeing himself up Joe did manage to drive through the puddle that flooded the road, and we quickly found our way around to a roadside field covered in Mute Swans.

Ditching the car on the side of the road we were soon peering over the 5-bar gate into the corn field beyond. Turns out the dairy farmer was also present spreading the field in a fresh covering of cow shit. As if the smell of the country wasn't enough to contend with, a chainsaw started in the hedgerow on the opposite side of the field causing the majority of the Swans to take flight and disappear. I did manage to pick out 3 Bewick's in amongst the blur of white. I must admit the sound of 35 or so Swans wingbeats at close range is quite something.

The Bean Geese had been seen in the same field the night before, but no sign on this occasion so we spent quite a while scanning the distant floods, and trying to pick out the Greylag & Canada Geese to no avail. Plenty of Wigeon, Teal, Lapwing & Starling all making use of the extra waterways.

We braved the flooded road again and parked up on the Bridge to have a good look from a different angle. The Bewick's reappeared no more than 70 yards away and gave some nice views, my first outside of the Slimbridge grounds.

Giving up on the Geese we drove the mile or so down the road to Blashford Lakes, Joe had spent the majority of Saturday afternoon scanning for the Green-winged Teal so thought we would have another bash from the Ivy north screen. Finding a GWT in amongst c.2000 other Common Teal isn't an easy task, and after an hour or so we gave up. Plenty of Canada Geese, Gadwall, Moorhen, Coot and the odd Pochard also on the Ivy lake.

Walking back towards the car we picked up the two Black-necked Grebes on the Rockford lake, at a relatively viewable distance along with some more Pochard, a dozen or so Goldeneye and a lone Kingfisher. The pathway back to the car also brought a couple of Bullfinch the male look stunning a top the nearest tree.

From one side of the Forest to the other, I had been meaning to visit Mercer Way in Romsey for some time in the hope of seeing the wintering flock of Hawfinches. Numbers logged on GoBirding had peaked at 35, so hopefully the chance of seeing my first had pretty good odds. We turned up in the middle of this housing estate and headed over to a small park area of rough grass and a few trees beside the canal. I must admit I wasn't overly confident that the UK's most illusive finch would be here in abundance.

Spying a group of birders over the far side we headed over, they were watching a Brambling low down in the brambles by a nearby puddle. Joe's finely tuned ear soon picked up the call of some birds in a small clump behind us, so we left the small group to there brambling and soon picked up 4 or 5 Hawfinch in amongst the trees. Its not until you see this bird in the flesh do you realise how huge they are. Several came and went, flying in and out ever 2 or 3 minutes, occasionally dropping down to drink from a muddy puddle.

Unfortunately getting photographs isn't the easiest, although they were quite prone to sitting proudly on the branches of certain trees, there always seemed to be a lot of debris in front of the bird. So no clean photographs, and I apologise for the quality of this one but I had to post, my first ever Hawfinch!

Hawfinch

So not a bad day out all in all, 2 new 'Lifers' for me in the form of Black-necked Grebe & Hawfinch, and Joe even managed to catch up with the Green winged Teal a week or so after. Joe's GWT

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Bickerley Common - 13th Jan

Goldcrest

We are only 20 odd days into the new year and already I have quite a considerable backlog of blog posts to write. After 2 weeks of solid rain and a dismal saturday, awaking to sunshine on Sunday morning was quite surprising. With no solid plans and Nat down for the weekend, a quick decision was made to try the other end of the South Coast.

Camera, Bino's and warm weather gear packed and in the car on the way to Ringwood. For the past month or so reports have been almost daily regarding a Great White Egret and Glossy Ibis on the Avon floods at Bickerley Common, just outside of Ringwood. This was the first port of call an as we pulled into the rather destructive car park (pot holes everywhere) I stopped a couple of Birders as they walked back to their car. Ibis showing well at a distance but no sign of the Egret. Typical as I have never seen a GWE, but 1 out of 2 can't be bad.

Their is a causeway that runs across the width of the meadows and acts as a great elevated platform to look out either side over the swollen river and flooded meadows. The usual smaller bird flitted between the path side trees. Wren, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Blackbird & Dunnock all seen within metres on the path.

Some nearby 'pip-ing' got me searching and I soon picked up half a dozen Meadow Pipit on the stems of the long grass glistening in the bright morning sun. They were quickly joined by a pair of Stonechat, a species I didn't expect to see in such a damp habitat.

As the river meandered out of sight, two large flocks of feeding Canada Geese came into view, with numbers I would guess in excess of 150. The odd Mute Swan preened here and there dotted about across the floods. A White dot in the distance got my attention but too far away to clarify, a passer by saw me checking it out and informed me it was the GWE. Maybe my luck was in, but after getting a little closer 200 yards or so further down the causeway I confirmed it was a Little Egret after all.

This stop for a better view brought me my best views to date of a Goldcrest, as an invading group of Long-tailed Tits descended on the nearby tree, a pair of tiny Goldcrests joined them. I am quite pleased with my photographs, however catching them in the light was a bit of an impossible task shooting towards the sun. They move so fast!

Goldcrest

Finally reaching the main bridge over the meadows, I soon picked up the Glossy Ibis on the far side feeding with plenty of Teal. The shallow water was covered in feeding birds with Teal, Lapwing & Black-headed Gull spread all over the area. A great start to the day, and good to get a Glossy in the notebook!

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A Dorset Bird Saturday - Sep 12

After promising myself to be more frequent in my blogs again I find myself a month behind|! Apologies to all.

Other than the Short-Billed Dowitcher Dorset didn't overly have alot to offer in the exciting bird stakes. Radipole Lakes, House Sparrow population thrives on the discarded bread that the kids chuck off the bridge for the Ducks, however getting on the right side of the light to capture a picture of the extremely close Sparrows proved a little bit of a problem, the walkways in late september as well as being adorned by the buzzing of Dragonflies were aloud with the call of Cetti's Warblers, all the way along the reed beds they could be heard although I didn't see one of the illusive little Brown Jobs.

Large skeins of Canada Geese kept coming in to land on the water around the reserve and the sounds of honks in the sky would get me looking skyward to see another skein incoming above the surrounding chimney pots.

With the path to the hide closed due to flooding we made a slow walk back to the car, pausing to watch a Mute Swan swiftly hurtle up the water to intercept an interloper.

Cormorants 

House Sparrow 

Mute Swan on Patrol

After a grabbing a quick bite to eat and a paying for an extortionate car parking ticket we headed around RSPB Lodmoor, the Car Park already delivering a couple of birds, Black-Headed Gulls swooped low looking for discarded lunch, unsuccessfully returning to the nearby telegraph poles looking for the next target. More surprisingly a couple of Carrion Crows hobbled around on the ground, youngsters I presumed, but not a bird you see up close that often as there countryside cousins are rather crafty and cautious.

All the way around the Marshy ground and scrapes of the Lodmoor reserve, Grey Herons along with the odd Little Egret poised motionless waiting for fish, a couple fairly close to the pathways and seemingly not a bit bothered by the passer byes. The main scrapes seemed empty of many wading birds except quite a few Lapwing, either in summer plumage or juveniles they stalked slowly around in the shallow water, enabling quite a few nice reflections. 

The only other bird seemingly enjoying the shallow water was Teal, lots of odd pairs popped up all the way around the reserve. We did get a brief glimpse of a Marsh Harrier as it lifted up from the middle of the reed bed, doing a quick circuit and disrupting the majority of the gulls before returning back out of sight.

Black Headed Gull

Carrion Crow

Grey Heron

Lapwing

Drake Teal

By the time we had left Lodmoor and taken the scenic route around to RSPB Arne the light was starting to fade and the weather changing for the worse, not a lot showing close up, but Advocet, 
Bar-Tailed Godwit, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Teal & Mallard all showing out on the Middlebere Chanel.

I did manage a new tick on the species list for 2012, when we made it round to the hide overlooking the salt marsh and distant Poole Harbour beyond, a juvenile Spoonbill could be spotted stood amongst a group of 13 Little Egrets.

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