Raptor Weekend

I snatched a spare couple of hours on Saturday morning to go down to Fisher's Green in the Lea Valley to see the Red-Footed Falcon. It was as easy as birding can be; park, walk about 50 yards to the large group of people with telescopes, and look at the target bird cruising up and down in front of us. Conveniently a couple of Hobbies were there for comparison. I couldn't detect any difference in flight between the species, except perhaps the Hobbies had deeper wing-beats, but the RFF was a fairly clear first year female, with a brownish tinge on the upper wings, and the body being mainly buff with a hint of red. Otherwise it was a text-book bird, as can be seen from the "Mystery photo" in the previous post. Other birds were singing Cetti's Warbler, Pochard, Gadwall, lots of Common Terns.

Then Sunday was the bird-count in Hatfield Forest. We had lots of common woodland birds in our section, including a breeding pair of Kestrels and a Sparrowhawk, and then a Common Buzzard near the lake and a fantastic Turtle Dove in the Bush-End church yard. The highlight was a raptor picked up by Steve high over us. It was clearly a Kite, but we were denied a clear diagnostic view of the tail. Both Red and Black are possible as some of the latter have escaped from London Zoo, and I wouldn't like to choose between them on this view.

Mystery bird

yes, its another crap photo.

More SLRS, Trimm's Green

Went to SLRS this morning with Kevin whilst D#2 was at cricket practice. Fairly disappointing list - just a Greylag, up to 6 Lapwing, young Coot (4), Canada Goose (3) and Mallard (lots), and a selection of local birds such as Kestrel (dropping on prey and carrying it off), Sparrowhawk, Heron, and a few standard birds. For the first time in a couple of months, no Gadwall.

Then in the evening back to Trimm's Green to take some photos. Of course everything was long distance, just a couple of apologies for photos here. I hope to stick a photo-essay on this area on Dipperworld at some point, but not today.

Did I mention I have a new scope?

I dropped D#1 off at 4:30 at her friend’s house, and went up to Trimm’s Green to have a look for any passage migrants. I spent about an hour enjoying the afternoon sun and scanning distant horizons - the M11, Hatfield Forest, and distant villages are all viewable from here - without luck, but had more joy in the immediate vicinty.

There were a pair of Red-Legged Partridges right next to the car and 2 more over the road in Lysander Park (so called because the RAF flew Lysanders out of here for SOE during WWII). 2 Corn Buntings singing from a couple of trees, 3 Yellow Wagtails on various wires, 10+Linnet, and a Stock Dove. Then from the southern perimeter road on the road to Allen’s Green, another pair of Red-Legged Partridges and at some enormous distance shimmering in the heat haze a pair of Grey Partridges - my first for this patch. I had to eliminate Turtle Dove first, believe it or not, but that orange face and the fact that they walked like partridges gave it away.

There is no way I’d have got these without the new Kowa 883. The precision on zooming to 60x is fantastic, and at 20x birds just spring to life. The new scope did cost me a species, however, as the uniform buff breast of a female Wheatear perched on top of a distant dung heap morphed into the finely streaked breast of a Skylark as the eyepiece wound up to 60x.

Wall Wood

had a quick look round Wall Wood (not West Wood as previously posted). The recent coppicing has produced an open green wood - very atmospheric. Not much on show today, however, apart from some standard woodland birds - Great Spotted Woodpecker, singing Lesser Whitethroat and cuckoo, and a few bedraggled heads of Early Purple Orchids.

Local Warblers at SLRS

back to local reality round SLRS. Still a disappointing lack of waders, but had Greylag Goose, 4 Canadas and 3 Gadwall. elsewhere there was a Sedge Warbler in the marshy bit by the river, 6 Whitethroats, a Lesser Whitethroat singing from the top of a hawthorn, and a Garden Warbler singing from the next hedgerow, so all the common warblers in now. Swifts over too.

Back in the garden, this monster.

Christening the new scope - Portland sea-watch 4th May

I managed to snatch just a couple of hours in an Easterly wind at the bill, 6:15-8:45 on Sunday morning. I stuck myself next to some regulars watching by the lighthouse, which proved to be an excellent decision as they called out everything going past and unlike me knew what they were looking at.

The sea was covered in birds. Everywhere you looked there were Manx Shearwaters; flocks sat on the sea, long lines arching up over the waves, certainly numbers in the many hundreds. The locals were unimpressed, recalling recent days of thousands of Manxies. There were plentiful Kittiwakes, Gannets, Fulmars, and Commic terns joining in this feeding frenzy, and Guillemots and Razorbills were sat out on the sea.

All this activity made picking up birds moving through tricky, but before long a dark phase Arctic Skua moved through close in, then Commic Terns moving through with loose flocks of 4 Black Terns, then 6, and a 1st summer Little Gull too. A dark phase Pomarine Skua with a nice set of spoons came through next, my first for many years. Then a bit of an interlude where we had 21 Common Scoter, and 3 Whimbrel. But not much else. One of the regulars had been texted that a male Hen Harrier had flown south onto the island, and after quarter of an hour someone checked the top fields - and there it was! We got distant but clear views as it slowly made its way out to sea.

Back onto the sea, and 3 Velvet Scoters came through close in. These didn’t get the attention they deserved as a shout of “Roseate Tern” went up. One was with a feeding flock of Commic Terns mid-way out. A lifer for me, it was clearly paler and slighter than the others, quite easy to pick out, and to my eyes seemed more fluttery. If I’d been on my own I might have struggled with confusion with Little Tern, but someone took me through the relevant features. And apart from a pale-phase Pomarine Skua that was more or less it.

This was the first real test of the Kowa 883. Everything was crystal clear and bright, and zooming in still gave a lot of details. It was a nice change not be struggling at distance. I can’t recommend it enough.

Weymouth Weekend

I went with Steve, D#2, and Steve's son to Weymouth for the weekend, arriving at 10am and heading straight to Lodmoor. I’d told Steve that Lodmoor never failed to produce some good sightings, but as we headed round it began to look like today might be the day to draw a blank. We had the first of many Cettis out in the open, a couple of Oystercatchers, some nice Sedge Warblers, but it was desperate stuff until Steve picked up a Whimbrel on the flashes at the sea-ward end of the central path. And then a Wheatear, then about ten more wheatears. They looked fantastic in the sunlight - any day with Wheatears on the list is a good day,.

An agitated Greenshank called loudly over the reserve, dropped in, and then continued on its way. A Whitethroat sang, and just as I was telling Steve it still a bit early for Common Terns here a couple of Common Terns dropped in. Then from the viewpoint a couple of egrets - with orange bills! We had fortuitously connected with a couple of the Cattle Egrets which have been round this area for most of the winter.

Well satisfied we headed to the exit, only to be met by an approaching birder who dispensed with the formalities and simply shouted “hoopoe” at us several times, and then finally “have you got the Hoopoe?” As if I might have one secreted somewhere on my person. By now birders were appearing like Starlings round a fat ball, and it became clear that a Hoopoe was showing round the other side of the reserve. We contemplated going, but we’re both still Hoopoe’d out after last year’s local bird, and decided that the Sum of Human Happiness would not be increased by us charging round the reserve, and the boys deserved a bit of fun time on the beach.

The rightness of the decision became apparent as we were soon sat atop the shingle of Chesil beach at Ferrybridge marvelling at the fantastic panorama before us in the baking sun. The boys were charging up and down the shingle bank, and bit by bit a few birds drifted by. Another couple of Whimbrel, c20 Common Scoter, a lone Brent Goose, and on the Fleet side, some Little Terns, Sandwich Terns, Ringed Plovers, and Dunlin.

Finally we headed down to Portland. It was quiet by local standards, but for us visitors from landlocked counties, Portland Bill is always a treat. Apart from yet more Wheatears and a couple of spanking Stonechats, we had local specialities such as Kittiwake, Gannet, Shag, Fulmar, and offshore a couple of Manx Shearwaters were cruising the waves. A flock of c40 Whimbrel went east followed shortly by a couple of Sandwich Terns, and that as it for the day. We took the boys off for a well-earner curry at the excellent Weymouth Tandoori.

Sunday was a different matter altogether. The bright sunshine of Saturday had gone, and by the time we got to Portland there was dark cloud around and a spectacular display of lightening and thunder off shore. There were Gannets close in, brilliant white against the heavy green sea - a fantastic sight! The locals were much less impressed as there was a dearth of seabirds moving, and D#2 was convinced we were all about to die from a direct lightening strike, so we were soon heading off to an open space between the beach huts by the obs where we joined a line of birders getting some crippling views of a male Serin, a first for me in the UK, and a first for Steve and the boys anywhere, feeding on the floor with some Linnets. Looking like a pale Twite that had mistakenly had its top half sprayed luminous lime green, it picked and fussed for a few minutes and then flew off. Serin, along with Ortolan Bunting and Melodious Warbler is a bird I'd always assumed I'd miss at Portland; the ringers and locals snatching occasional glimpses and occasional visitors like myself always too late to the party. To get stunning views like this, was a delightful surprise.

We took in some first rate views of the obs quarry Little Owl, and headed for Radipole to finish the weekend's birding. We got a fantastic display of commoner summer birds. C40 Swifts, good numbers of hirundines including Swallows and Sand Martins sitting on reeds opposite the Buddleia Loop viewpoint, and Cetti's and Reed warblers sat out in the open singing away (I assume that the Reed Warblers were so brazen as they have just arrived and are claiming territories; soon they will settle down to the serious business of raising young and go largely unseen through the reed beds).

We added Common Sandpiper and Long-tailed Tit to the list and I got a brief but sadly unrepeated view of a male Bearded Tit. We didn't connect with the pair of Garganey, but seeing as back home that's a common bird we weren't too disappointed. We stopped off for a couple of hours at the World's Biggest Tank Collection, then headed back finishing on a trip total of 81 (including some seen only from the car on the journey).