I spent the morning of 7th November twitching a Little Crake that was found by a photographer the previous day at Linford Reserve. This was a UK and Bucks tick for me so a nice bird to see.
A very skulking bird, it didn't appear for about an hour after I arrived in the Otter hide. Plenty of other birders there enjoying the great views that the bird eventually gave.
A walk around the southern part of the lake and the riverside meadows. Photos taken with Sony RX10.
Goosander - A nice drake found earlier that morning by Adam Bassett. Rather distant and in light rain.
Meadow Pipit - About six of these were i the partly flooded meadow. Several landed in the bushes. This bird was not visible in the camera viewfinder so I just focussed on the bush.
Just trying out the flight capabilities of the RX10. The light is not brilliant this time of year but the camera focussed fairly easy most of the time. All of the photos below are taken from JPGs. I plan to look at RAW files at a later date.
Greylag Geese - Landing on the lake at Little Marlow
Black-headed Gull - Lots of these around so quite good to practice on.
Rook - The camera staying in focus as it flew past.
Magpie - At Cockmarsh. Focus maintained despite the background.
Black-headed Gull - taken from the Bounty pub garden but sadly the pub was shut
I took 16 photos of this individual in burst mode as it twisted around in front of me. The focus hold was pretty impressive.
I am still practicing with my camera and changing some of the settings as some were not correct.
Red Kite - A convenient bird to practice in flight photography on in S Bucks!
Nice markings on the upperparts on this Kite.
Black-headed Gull - I took a series of this individual as it flew in front of some houses on the far side of the Thames at Little Marlow. I was pleased to see that the focus held on the bird.
Great Crested Grebe - A juvenile on the Thames coming into winter plumage.
This rather untimely female type Smew was found on Dorney Wetlands in Berkshire on 8th October 2023 and was still present the next day. I visited the site on 17th October and was not expecting to see the bird but very quickly saw it on the main Jubilee River adjacent to Dorney Wetlands. I was not that close but maybe I startled it and it flew out of sight. However about 30 minutes later I refound it on one of the pools and viewed it somewhat closer from a screen.
Smew with Gadwall
The most recent record for Smew in Berkshire is Nov 2021!
Subsequently to my post someone managed to see a yellow ring on this individual, so it is clearly an escape and that explains the unusual timing.
What has become an annual event, my daughter Katherine and I spent a weekend at Spurn Point, arriving late on the Friday 29th September and leaving midday on the following Monday. We stayed at the observatory again, this giving us easy access to all of the main birding areas.
As we did not arrive until close to dusk we decided to try Sammy's Point and very quickly saw three Short-eared Owls. Rather bizarrely they appeared to be mobbing a black cat that had wandered into their usual area.
Over the next three days we explored many of Spurns birding hot spots. However the highlight was on our last morning while we were sea watching. Regular Spurn ringer Sarah Harris caught a nice Redstart which she showed to us. Then about half an hour later she caught a Red-eyed Vireo in the mist nets just 30 metres from where we were sea watching! Word went out and about 30 birders were present when the bird was released. There has been a small number of this North American species arriving into the UK but mainly on the west coast. This one managed to reach the east coast and was apparently in excellent condition with good fat reserves. It was the third record for Spurn.
Red-eyed Vireo - Bird of the weekend! A UK tick!
Redstart - Also caught at the Warren.
We walked the canal path several times and watched thousands of waders moving with the high tide. Many landed on the mud flats allowing some good wader ID practice! A few hundred Curlew landed fairly close allowing some photographs.
Curlew along with a few Bar-tailed Godwits flying along the Humber river.
Curlew resting in tall vegetation by the Humber at high tide.
Golden Plover - I estimated there to be about 8000 present. They flew high overhead until the tide receded and then landed on the mudflats on the Humber. One of the local birders picked up an American Golden Plover which we managed to see distantly. It's no doubt in the photo somewhere!
A Whitethroat along the canal path. earlier an Eastern race Lesser Whitethroat was ringed in Church Fields.
Two or three Guillemots were seen close to the bank along the canal path. This was taken early morning in poor light and looked fairly healthy.
Jack Snipe - This had previously been found by Bucks birder Harry Appleyard in the Canal Scrape. We called in late afternoon not expecting to see it but soon located it in low marshy vegetation.
A short video clip of the Jack Snipe
Pink-footed Geese - A small part of those seen.
Each day we paid a visit to Kilnsea Wetlands. The initial attraction was to se the American Wigeon that was there but there was plenty more to see. The most productive visit was late on Sunday when the tide was rising and a 1000 or so Redshank flew in with wings whooshing over our heads. There was always plenty of ducks, waders, geese, Egrets and gulls to see.
Pink-footed Geese - 5 with some Greylag Geese on Kilnsea Wetlands
A wider view of Kilnsea Wetlands. Quite a few Wigeon resting including the American Wigeon if you can see it!
This short video clip does show the American Wigeon
Little Egrets now very common here. Great Whites also seen.
Avocet asleep at Kilnsea Wetlands
Caspian Gull - Still uncommon at Spurn but becoming more regular. Initially seen on the ground.
Barn Owl - A very distant bird hunting at Kilnsea Wetlands. We had two hunting at the same time.
Each morning saw us starting with a seawatch for an hour or two. Plenty of Red-throated Divers and Gannets, two distant Arctic Skuas, several Sandwich Terns, a Shag were seen along with many waders. On the Saturday we saw several skeins of Pink-footed Geese, numbering several hundred arriving from the north.
These two photos were a bit of an experiment to see if I was able to photograph mid range birds while seawatching and confirm identify later. These Red-throated Divers prove that it is possible but as expected, not great photos.
Common Scoter also fairly distant.
A trip to the very end of Spurn Point was interesting but did not produce many bird apart from a good number of Wheatear.
Wheatears - This species was seen every day with 10 on one day towards the end of Spurn Point.
Birds of prey were rather scarce but we did see two or three Marsh Harriers, this one rather distantly in poor light.
Merlin - Rather distant on the beach near Beacon Pools.
It is always nice to see other wildlife and Roe Deer were seen every day. This one was fairly obliging.
Convolvulus Hawk Moth - This was clinging to a low post at the Warren. A new moth species for me.
A short video clip of Dolphins seen from the sea watching hide.
