Willow Tit

It is usual on our journeys north to have a stopover to try to find something different, this time Martin had come up with RSPB Fairburn Ings near Castleford in Yorkshire. The Willow Tits come to the feeders close by the visitor centre and as it would be a life tick for both of us we couldn't turn down the opportunity. So at 0500 we set off north for our week in Scotland and arrived at Fairburn sometime before 10:00 and I noted that our first Willow Tit was spotted by Martin at 10:04 - not bad.

The locals were somewhat puzzled by our antics, standing next to the feeders, cameras at the ready, they must have thought something good was about.. Several times we had to explain that we didn't have the bird in Sussex and that we were keen to record them. Additionally, there were plenty of Tree Sparrows, another bird scarce on our patch and the friendly Bullfinches visiting the feeders were something I hadn't witnessed before. The fact that we were ignoring a Smew elsewhere on the reserve compounded their amusement.

I don't like photographs of birds on feeders but this time I will have to make an exception as these birds were a bit quick - a raid on the feeder and then vanishing in a few seconds. Lots of receding bum and bare branch shots.

Before we left I studied the British Birds article on the "Separation of the Wiillow Tit and Marsh Tit in Britain"  and it basically boils down to song and bill markings. The Willow Tit has an unmarked upper mandible and the Marsh Tit has whitish marks on proximal area of upper mandible. Ha! - no matter - as we were reliably informed that there are no Marsh Tits in the vicinity and every bird on the reserve carries an individual ID. Simples.

Nice to meet Lee who put us on to the feeders next to a nearby viewing screen, at least we could sit down there and a constant stream of Tits, Reed Buntings, Greenfinches and the ever present Tree Sparrows coming to the liberal amount of feed, kept us entertained.

 

Great to visit another RSPB reserve where the staff are friendly, keen to help with location information and where the policy seems to be to get the birder close to the birds. Unfortunately our fixation on the Willow Tits meant that we were unable to visit other parts of the reserve but it is certainly one for the future, being ideally located adjacent to the A1.

Bempton's Other Birds

Of course Bempton provides outstanding views of other cliff nesting species. However, most visitors want to see Puffins - well they are cute and charming. There were plenty flying in and out of the lower cliff but not so many on the tops and never that close. Just about every nook, cranny and small ledge had a resident of some sort, again black and white birds presenting a challenge for the camera. The birds that really interested me were the Tree Sparrows, nothing like the flighty residents at Dungeness, these birds are almost tame, approximately 100 pairs occupying the plentiful nest boxes at the visitor centre. I would really like to have brought a pair home with me.
 

Guillemots

 

Puffins

Not going far on those wings.

 Razorbills

 

 

 

Feral Rock Dove

 

 



 

and my favourite - Tree Sparrows

 

 

A Day at Dungeness

Last week we postponed our visit to Dungeness, so today, in what promised to be perfect birding weather, we set off  eastwards in some pretty dense traffic. There is a bonus on the longer car journeys when Martin drives, in that I get to bird spot before our destination and Martin concentrates on the road ahead. However, this time on the the roads via Bexhill and Hasting birds were absent but on the marsh approaching Rye, Martin espied a field full of white objects - Geese?  No Martin - sheep or as they will be in known in future - "Woolly Geese".

The birding day augured well, as we parked in the ARC car park at Dungeness a well timed flyby of the day's first Marsh Harrier kicked us into gear.  From the hide we managed to find Red-top Smew, Great White Egret and Goldeneye. Cetti's Warblers and a Water Rail were sounding off in close proximity to the hide but neither showed themselves. With lots of ground to cover we took a stroll round to the viewing screen, where hawk-eyed Martin spotted a Bittern creeping into the reeds. Lots of waterfowl on view including even more female Smew but not a drake to be seen anywhere.

A local birder had tipped us off to two Black-throated Divers present on the New Diggings so, after a short interlude to view the Tree Sparrow flock at Boulderwall, we headed south down the road. Unfortunately no BTD were present but out on the southern end of ARC a Great White Egret posed perfectly. Back to the reserve with another pause to try and obtain a better Tree Sparrow shot.



Today they didn't want to come out from cover

At the Visitor Centre the recent sightings board showed that a Black-necked Grebe was present on Burrowe's, probably viewable from the Dennis Hide. Here we spent some time scrutinising every bird in sight, unfortunately resulting in failure. We moved on to the Firth Hide where a another huge number of wildfowl were scanned for something unusual, then an obliging female Goosander swam unconcerned to a position directly beneath the hide window and was duly recorded. 

 

Undeterred and somewhat buoyed up by the Goosander encounter we paid a visit to the Makepeace Hide where yet again Martin's keen eyesight paid off with distant views of the Black-necked Grebe. By now we were fairly happy and on a roll, where next? I was keen to get back to Scotney to scan for some geese but we agreed for one more go at the BTD, as we passed New Diggings, there in the corner as predicted, were two Black-throated Divers. Unfortunately in my haste to get the camera out I had inadvertently switched to manual mode and proceeded to take a series of blank images of a bird that you don't often get close to. Ah well - perhaps another day and no doubt Martin's shots are pretty good.

All I could salvage from a disaster.

Our visit to Scotney was a bit of an anti-climax, the huge numbers of geese were on the fields beyond the far bank of the pit, too far to view even with the scope. Scanning the roosting Lapwing flock revealed just 8 Golden Plover and precious little else. Our final visit was to the Colonel Body Memorial Lakes at Pett Level where we encountered yet more Marsh Harriers. It is odd that sightings of these birds, along with Glossy Ibis and Great White Egrets fails to give that pulse quickening episode that they used to. Thankfully Martin suggested that we have a quick look over the sea wall, out on the flat calm sea were rafts of Wigeon and Great Crested Grebes, careful study of the birds in between revealed Slavonian Grebe and Black and Red-throated Divers.

Finally on the way home, more passenger seat birding gave JACKDAWS, a bird that Martin refuses to put on his list, and a Buzzard. We ended the day with a total of 56 species and a substantial number of year ticks - another great day at Dunge.

Cetti's Warbler

I guess that if you blog about birding it would be easy to just report successful days out and omit the failures. Of course this depends upon your yardstick of success, Yesterday Martin and I travelled to Dungeness where, in birding terms we had a great day, for me a failure as I ended up with an awful lot of bad photographs.

We arrived at the ARC side of Dungeness at about 0800, no other cars were in the car park and we found the ARC hide to be empty and had it almost to ourselves for the next two hours - bliss! There was a sharp westerly breeze and I expected the birds to be sat in the lee of the hide - wrong! - the birds, mainly ducks were spread far and wide. First up was a distant fly by of a Marsh Harrier then another, then another. I reckoned on a least ten sightings, probably more. At one time we had four harriers in sight at the same time and another where three and a Buzzard were present, albeit at a distance.  Next to arrive on the scene was a Great White Egret parading itself in front of the empty viewing screen, meanwhile an amorous Goldeneye was performing a fantastic display ritual to some uninterested ladies. Whilst all this was happening we had a flyby of a Kingfisher close to the hide windows, then Martin spotted a distant Bittern landing in the reeds of the far bank, the bird remaining in view at the edge of the reeds for some time.

I could hear a Cetti's Warbler calling in the reeds to the right of the hide and decided to investigate, opening the right hand side window I was amazed to see the bird foraging in the scrub immediately below the window. Talk about being frustrated, my lens far too big to get focus, for the first time I was asking a bird to move away. Anyway what usable shots I managed to get are shown below.

An eccentric head throwing display that didn't do a lot for the two females watching.

Having had more Kingfisher, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier flybys and yet another Bittern we left the hide for the car park. On the trail a birder just in front of us flushed both the GWE and a Bittern from adjacent pools.  Next port of call was Boulderwall Farm, just over the road, home to the most famous flock of Tree Sparrows in Kent. I had guaranteed Martin close up shots of them on the feeders by the farmhouse. To my amazement not a bird to be seen and my credibility out of the window, then slowly, two or three at a time the birds began arriving from a bush across the road. They seemed to put off by the strong breeze but eventually they showed.
The GWE or should I say 'a'  as there are 7 of them reported to be in the area, flew by and landed in the pool next to the road. So, leaving Martin with the sparrows, I nipped onto the road and managed a record shot.

Why do Bitterns always crash land?

A really smart bird

A quick call in at the Visitor Centre and then away to Scotney Pit where there were monstrous amounts of wildfowl, all viewable from the comfort of the car. Despite much searching we found no hidden rarities, though we did get a Ruff roosting on the bank with three Redshanks. Before we left, a flock of Barnacle Geese, probably more than 30, arrived and landed on the grass. These are the usual residents and in with the flock were three Emperor x Barnacle hybrids that I had seen last year. On the far bank we spied yet another Marsh Harrier, they seem to be everywhere.

Making our way back to Eastbourne we paused at the "Colonel Body Memorial Lakes" at Pett Level, similarly filled with large amounts of wildfowl, oddly enough the Shoveler were more numerous than at Scotney. Oh and a Marsh Harrier quartering the far bank.

The Bonaparte's Gull at Princes Park had been reported as being present during the morning, but of course during our vigil it didn't show

So there you have it - a paradox - great birding - poor photography. The true measure of the day is that when Martin dropped me off at home I thought "What a great day - when are we going again?