A Three Egret Day!

We happened to be passing Marshfield RSPB reserve near Southport, Lancashire during the late afternoon and we stopped off for 20 minutes just before dark.  The hide was just closing but I could still see seven Little Egrets fly off from one of the meres, to go to roost.  Scanning to where there were a few cows, there were three Cattle Egrets busily feeding.  I thought that was the end of the Egret watching, but as I got back to the car a large white bird flew over.  A Great White Egret flying to roost!  One had been seen on the marshes along the banks of the River Ribble, so not too surprising.  But who would have predicted seeing three Egret species in a day in the UK, twenty years ago!

Sorry no photos.  Too dark.

A few (Thousand) Pink-feet

A visit to my daughters in Lancashire allowed me to visit Martin Mere WWT reserve.  It happened to be late evening opening so that the Pink-footed Geese could be seen flying in to roost.  I arrived about 16:30 on a dull afternoon and had a quick look from the hides near the entrance so see what was around.  The answer was hundreds of wildfowl including Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Shelduck and several hundred Whooper Swans recently arrived from Iceland.
The light was very poor so the quality of the photos was affected,

Whooper Swans - Presumably a family party.

Then onto the "United Dairies" hide which offers a good view of the meadows were a large number of Pink-feet were already present, with some also on the main lake.

Pink-footed Geese - Just a small part of the flock present.  What I did not know that lots more were about to arrive!

As I was scanning the Pink-feet I heard a huge flock flying in and past the hide I was in.  I managed to video the geese on the ground and those coming in.  The numbers involved were anybodies guess but the Wildfowl and Wetlands numbers suggest that over 30,000 are currently using the reserve.  I can well believe it!  They streamed past me, past the birds on the ground, did a U-turn and came into land, joining those already on the ground, or on the lake.  An amazing spectacle.

These birds winter here after breeding in Spitsbergen, Iceland and Greenland.

The video above is not the best quality I have to admit.  It does go out of focus a few times but I could not change the settings while the action was going on and I only had one shot at it.  The other large flock that came in were much larger and in semi-darkness.  I feel it gives an impression of the overall spectacle.

Grey Heron - Watching the geese arrive.

Apart from the geese I did see a single Barn Owl, a Marsh Harrier and two Hares.  Well worth the visit.

Surprise Scaup

I was out shopping when Dave Cleal called to say that he had found a juvenile male Scaup at Little Marlow GP, my local patch.  I had not seen a Scaup on the lake for quite a long time, so I was reasonably keen to see this bird. I could not get down there until about 16:45 and the bird was still in the same area, not far from the cottages, regularly diving for food and preening.

While the bird was preening it raised it's legs out of the water and I noticed that the bird was un-ringed, which is encouraging as it suggests the bird is not an escape from captivity. The bird was in a transitional plumage with areas of the barred back showing through what was a juvenile plumage.  The head was very rounded with no sign whatever of a tuft.  The bill was fairly large, greyish with a black nail and no sign of any white behind the nail.

Greater Scaup (click on photos to enlarge)

Jackdaws - The roost has increased over recent weeks to about a 1000 birds.  Just a small part shown here.
Photographed about 17:45 with birds still arriving.

Twitch to Yorkshire

I don't often go twitching but the recent large number of birds down the east coast, following the prolonged east winds, turned up some real crackers.  I bumped into Graham Smith the previous day at a local Yellow-browed Warbler twitch (which failed) and heard he was travelling to Easington in E Yorkshire to see the Siberian Accentor that had been present for a few days.  This was a second for the UK, with the first only being a few days earlier on Shetland.

So Graham, Martin and myself set-off about 6:30am in the hope that the bird would remain and at about half way through out drive we had news that it was still present.  So a sigh of relief all round!  When we arrived the bird was showing well down to about 6 feet range, feeding on a driveway that was covered with moss, etc.  As we were travelling on a weekday, which was several days after the initial find, the numbers of birders present at the site was perhaps 20 or so but with a steady stream of admirers arriving from time to time.

The bird breeds across Siberia with the closest area being in the northern Urals!  So a long way from home.

Siberian Accentor - Easington, East Yorkshire

After we had seen the Accentor we walked half a mile of so to where the next rarity was.  In a ploughed field next to the coast, an Isabelline Wheatear had been found the previous day and had fortunately remained overnight.  The bird was fairly distant for much of the time and it was very windy, hence the photos are rather poor.

Isabelline Wheatear 

The wind was blowing across the field towards us, so for much of the time the bird was facing away from us!

The species breeds much further east in Turkey and further east well into Russia.  The species is very rare in the UK  but seen most, but not every year.

The same field as the Isabelline Wheatear also contained two rather distant Shore Larks, a good number of Skylarks and some Song Thrushes.  We had heard that we could get better views of Shore Larks from the car park of the Bluebell Cafe at Kilnsea, so we then moved there and were immediately rewarded with excellent views of these smart birds.

Shore Lark - One of the two present near the Bluebell Cafe.

Click on photos to enlarge.

The birding did not end here, as we headed to Alkborough Flats where the UKs first Western Swamphen had been present for several weeks.  The weather was poor, very windy and rain from time to time, plus it looked as though the water level was higher than when earlier photos were taken of the bird.  So we dipped on the Swamphen (not seen by anyone that day), but we did see about six Barnacle Geese on a distant grassy area, five Marsh Harriers hunting and a variety of wildfowl.  An excellent site.

Little Marlow

A fairly uneventful late afternoon walk around the lake.  Wildfowl numbers are gradually building up, as are gull numbers.  A few Chiffchaffs are still around.  The only waders were several hundred Lapwings and a Common Sandpiper.  No sign of any Snipe (or recent Jack Snipe).

The gulls provided the most interest with five colour ringed gulls on the sand spit at one point.  Two Black-headed Gulls (from Denmark and the Netherlands), two Lesser Black-backed Gulls (from the Netherlands) and a Herring Gull (probably from the UK).

Kestrel - This bird was looking for prey items from the power cables which run across the fields to the north of the lake.

Yellow-legged Gull - This adult is currently a regular visitor.

Black-headed Gulls - I was rather surprised tp find two colour ringed gulls stood next to each other.  Both had white rings and I did initially wonder if there was a family connection but have since found out that is not the case.  "White 507" was ringed near Copenhagen, Denmark in March 2011, so is now 8 years old.  It has been at Little Marlow GP several times since 2012 (see blue line on map below).  "White EA4F" was ringed on the small island of Griend which is in the Netherlands (see red line on the map below).

Lodge Hill

Lodge Hill resides in a valley between the Chiltern hills at Lacy Green and Bledlow Ridge.  It is surrounded by farmland with access only by footpath, so is relatively undisturbed.  It holds an excellent mixture of woodland, scrub and grassland and does attract good numbers of migrating passerines. I decided to pay a visit to see what I could find.  Some of my better photos are below:

Stonechat - One of a probable five that were present on the SE slope.

Red Kite - Not surprisingly, a common species.
This one appears to be in the middle of it's moult.

Long-tailed Tit - One of a mixed flock that contained two Chiffchaffs.

I also saw Meadow Pipits, Yellowhammers, Skylarks, Bullfinch, Buzzard and heard Marsh Tit and Siskin, plus a mixture of Corvids and Gulls.

Gibraltar Point

After the Bucks Bird Club trip to Norfolk was cancelled, my daughter Katherine and I decided to return to what was an annual birding trip, at Gibraltar Point, near Skegness, Lincolnshire.  We stayed at the Links Hotel, which was a short drive from the reserve (a National Nature Reserve!).

Saturday started off with SW winds, so the early morning seawatch was poor for moving seabirds, but amazing for waders seeking solid ground at high tide.  An estimated 30,000 Knot (the wardens estimate) swirled around in front of us before landing on a sand bar right in front of Mill Hill!  Also present were countless numbers of Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Grey Plover, Dunlin, Turnstone and Sanderling.

Knot - some of the 30,00 swirling around just after dawn.

Some of the Knot and other waders at the high tide roost, with various Gulls in the background.

Late afternoon the wind turned Northerly and the late afternoon was good with lots of Gannets and Sooty Shearwaters, until increasingly heavy rain forced us to seek shelter.  The rain continued for several hours and at dawn it was dry and the wind still coming from the N.  We joined Kevin (the warden), local birders Nigel and Stewart at Mill Hill to watch a lot of seabird movements, including a Bonxie and an Arctic Skua, plenty of Sooty Shearwaters and Gannets, Eider, Common Scoter, etc.  Overhead Kevin picked up a calling Lapland Bunting and Tree Sparrows, while Redpoll, Bramblings and Redwings.  Kevin also picked up a Yellow-browed Warbler calling a short distance away but we failed to see it.

We later found out that no less than six Yellow-browed Warblers were caught and ringed and later still an estimated 22 were present on the reserve!  Katherine and I actually saw six and heard a couple more.  Unfortunately none were photographable.

We also visited the freshwater areas of the reserve at Tennyson Sands and Jackson Marsh, where photography was a little easier.  A surprise find was three Bearded Tits which we watched fairly distantly and then saw them fly off towards Jackson Marsh.  This was a surprise to the warden as they are not regular here.

Tennyson Sands - Some of the birds on this part of the reserve, including Spoonbill, Black-tailed Godwit.

Little Grebe - There were probably 20+ Little Grebes on the freshwater areas, including this individual
which repeatedly stood up, which is rather odd for  Grebe.

Avocets - Some of the group on Tennyson Sands

Spoonbills - These three were present on the Saturday 
but only one remained the following day. 

Curlew Sandpiper - This individual had an injured leg which may explain
why it was still present and it's companions had departed.

Greenshank - One of an influx of six birds on Sunday morning.

Pink-footed Geese - some of the 22 seen from the Tennyson Sands hide.

Kingfisher - Seen from The Mere hide.

Little Egrets - 15 on the salt marsh.

Stonechat - One of two photographed from the impressive new visitor centre.

The new Visitor/Information Centre is certainly impressive.  It is raised up to avoid flooding (that destroyed the old accommodation blocks) so the cafe/shop level is one level up.  Then there is an upper level which is open and gives great views across the reserve.  Higher than we could ever see before.

The new Reserve Centre

View of the old Coastground Station from the new centre.

View of the old Reserve Centre garden from the new centre.