Long-tailed Duck

A small window in the weather gave me the opportunity to twitch the female Long-tailed Duck reported to be in the lagoons at the Hayling Island oyster beds. As I parked up I could see three birders in the distance, peering into the gloom. Lifted by the possibility of the bird being present my walking pace increased. As I approached I received a cheery wave from Russ Tofts who informed that the bird had just disappeared, had the jinx struck again?? Not a bit of it, some minutes later he relocated the bird - thanks Russ.  The bird was fairly mobile, so in the company of another birder, I moved further out on the sea wall and found it feeding closer to the wall in the adjacent lagoon, giving me the chance to obtain some decent record shots.



 

An all too frequent view



The heavens opened ..... time to go.

Some time later I was joined by  the "Financial Birder",  see his cracking blog here. Unfortunately the bird had disappeared so Jeff made his way further along the coast. I wandered off with the intent of looking for the Little Owl but changed my mind and re-joined Jeff who immediately located the bird. Although it came toward us it never came as close as previous. Nice to meet you Jeff.

The stygian clouds that had been dumping masses of rain on Fareham and Portsmouth arrived over Hayling and it was time to beat a hasty retreat home. I did have a quick look for the Little Owl by the old railway track but nothing found .....one day!

Update:

I received information from Jos Hooijmeijer of the University of Groningen that "Ruff B1WAWR" was ringed on the 1st January 2001 in Southwest Friesland and that my sighting report on the 25th September 2013 at Oare Marshes was the first received for this bird.

 

Another mystery is the fungi that I photographed close to Budd's Farm Sewage Works, none of my fungi books, including the latest Collins output, have anything similar. If you have any idea I would be grateful for an answer.

  

Goosander

The plan for today was a leisurely start followed by a trip to Widewater  at Shoreham to capture the reported Goosander. Imagine my surprise as I opened the bedroom curtains to check if the rain had abated, there on the fence "Stumpy" the "one-taloned" juvenile Sparrowhawk. I made a dash downstairs for the camera and Liz gently opened the window so that I could get a clear shot. God knows what any neighbours who saw the performance imagined. I noticed that I first photographed this bird on the 22nd August so the loss of talon hasn't prevented the bird from obtaining food so far - will keep an eye out for it through the winter.

 

Anyway, around midday the weather brightened as promised and I sped off to Widewater. Initially the bird was in hiding but soon emerged and performed the usual feed, preen and snooze routine that is normal behaviour for sawbills.

 Usual suspects at Widewater.

Then on down to Groyne No.4 at Ferring where the recent gales have flattened out the shingle so there are no 'shelves' for the birds to roost upon. Out in the gull roost were sprinklings of Great Black-backed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls and 50+ Ringed Plovers. Then back home for tea - birding is on the up again!
 
 
 

Grey Phalarope and Kingfisher

A day out with two great looking birds. First the Grey Phalarope that had been reported at Newhaven Tidemills.  No problem finding  the bird thanks to two friendly birders who were already on it as it fed in the eastern part of the creek. Whilst the tide was out the bird was happy to feed a bit then rest for a while and then feed again. It had no problem finding lugworms and it certainly isn't short of food. When the tide came in and the mud was covered the bird became flighty, retreating to the far side of the creek and eventually disappearing.

Next up was an obliging Kingfisher, another bird that wasn't going short of food. However, photographing it when it dived for fish was virtually impossible and none of the flight shots that I obtained were truly in focus.

 

Within the large flock of Canada Geese that were present - two singletons, a Bar-headed Goose and a Greylag Goose.

Yellow-legged Gull

I suppose I must count myself fortunate that I have at least some pictures after a very disappointing day's birding. I managed to dip on three of the four birds that I expected to see.

I started on what was a glorious autumn morning in the New Forest, sunshine and virtually no wind but with a light overnight frost - perfect. I parked in the forest car park adjacent to Beaulieu Railway Station, being the second car there was a good sign and I had many hectares of the forest to myself.

Following a fairly long walk I found the pool just on the edge of Denny Wood Inclosure  where a Great Grey Shrike had been reported yesterday. Two hours patient waiting gave me the sum total of a flyby Buzzard, three ponies and distant views of a Kingfisher. The latter being totally unexpected in the middle of a vast area of heathland. On the long walk back to the car park the Raven, hidden in the trees above the busy railway line, was mocking me.

Kingfisher in the middle of the forest

On to my second target - the Red-breasted Goose that has been reported daily at Sturt Pond or New Lane close to Milford on Sea. When I arrived it was obvious that not a single goose was present. Again I hung around waiting for something to develop. I was entertained by a huge flock of Linnets, probably 100+. Regularly a small party would splinter off the main group and visit one of the roadside pools for a quick wash and brush up.

Thirdly the long staying Long Billed Dowitcher at Pennington Marsh - a familiar tale - "should have been here an hour ago". This, coupled with the fact that parking was a nightmare, left me feeling very deflated.  I cut back through the forest and had my lunch parked next to the River Avon at Ringwood. I followed this with one of my favourite drives through the forest - turning off the Fordingbridge road at Blashford Pits and making my way back to Cadnam via Linwood, Cadman's Pool and Fritham. None of the usual suspects - Fieldfares and Mistle Thrushes are yet present in any numbers, in fact, apart from the browning bracken the forest still has a summer look to it.

Finally, desperate for a photograph, I sought out another long staying bird, the Yellow-legged Gull at Battery No.2 on Stokes Bay sea front in Gosport. Usually the bird roosts on the grass just over from the beach road, this time it was on the waters edge at Browndown spit. At least I managed some decent record shots before it relocated back to the greensward. I found the bird again at close range but before I pressed the shutter a dog walker spooked it and I lost sight of it.

Common Redstart

No birding today or so I thought. I had spent most of the morning sorting out bits and pieces on the computer, catching up with bird sightings and the most important task of all - filling the feeders. I also updated the SDOS garden bird survey, thinking that this week was fairly sparse and that we had had nothing more exotic than a Chiffchaff  recently. Some time later I had a call from Liz, she isn't a birder, informing me that in the garden was "a red bird with a black head". Grabbing the camera I headed for the sitting room and the patio doors. Sure enough sat out in the middle of the garden a Common Redstart  and it was coming closer, in fact too close for the lens. However, I did manage to record, albeit through glass,  our fifty-second garden species of the year and the seventy-third of all time. As I updated the garden survey again I also noted, due to the commotion on the front lawn, that the Carrion Crow count had risen to four, though only three posed for the camera.

 

 

Glossy Ibis

Standing on the North Wall at Pagham on a warm sunny morning, a light southerly breeze at our backs,  all we needed was some exotic bird to liven up the proceedings. Sure enough Martin picked up an incoming Glossy Ibis and managed to capture it in flight prior to it landing at the rear of Breech Pool. The bird remained for at least 15 minutes, time enough to obtain some record shots of a fairly distant subject. Then off it went, climbing rapidly and heading north. I optimistically predicted that the bird would return and lo and behold after about an hour it landed only feet from its previous location, remaining an even shorter time than before.



 

Glossy Ibis gives the impression of being a large bird - not so.

Almost unmistakeable in flight

Apart from the GI the pool was fairly quiet, a lone Shoveler, a single female Pintail, a Ruff and the usual Wigeon and Teal. Oddly enough no Snipe to be seen on the pool though we were treated to a flyby just before we left.

On arrival we had been greeted by a Grey Heron standing sentinel by the sluice, a Magpie stood watch whilst we were there and as we left a pair of Collared Doves watched us go.

A Knock-kneed Bent-necked Hernshaw

 

 

 

 

 

A short visit to the triangle in Peppering Barn Lane gave us excellent views of several Red Kites and a Kestrel, a covey of a dozen Grey Partridges provided the flyby.