December Mega's Part II - Brunnich's Guillemot - Portland Harbour - Dorset - 29th December 2013

An extraordinary find by Pete and Debby Saunders on Boxing Day in Portland Harbour had the birding community in a frenzy over the xmas period. Family commitments meant that I could not get away until the Sunday, the weather forecast bode well and decided to head down leaving early to get there first light. The bright winters sunshine welcomed us at Osprey quay and parked up in the same car park we used when searching the harbour whilst on a birding weekend at the end of November with Glen and Joe. Plenty of cars and birders around but initial searches drew a blank and was left admiring Great-northern Divers and Red-breasted Mergansers. Soon the shout went out and the bird was located in the next bay, so the stampede began and was soon clapping my eyes on the Brunnich's Guillemot before it did what it did for most of the time I observed the bird which was to disappear under water. The bird pretty much stayed faithful to the same bay and mainly in the shade of the sun, was also amusing to observe the behaviour of some birders as they chased the bird up and down the bay trying for closer views, we just stayed in the same spot and the bird occasionally popped up right in front of us. It was only when the tide started to drop that the bird decided to range further around the bay towards the sailing club where great views were had albeit a bit more distantly but looked stunning with the sunshine!
The harbour also hosted a good number of Great-northern and Black-throated Divers and a winter plumaged Black Guillemot gave good scope views a plumage tick for me and my first English bird so was also like seeing a new bird.
Was also great to see so many familiar faces, Gary T was there with his parents, John Chapple and 'Spider' were around from Cornwall and Scilly respectively, John busy with the video camera as usual. Several Sussex birders around too! my uncle, Bola and Chris Janman for starters.
We decided to leave the bird as it was disappearing for long periods amongst the moored up boats and checked ferrybridge where 2 Med Gulls were the highlights before deciding to head home to continue the xmas celebrations. Below are some of my record shots of a great bird that was a joy to watch.

 

 

Brunnich's Guillemot - Portland Harbour - Dorset



December Mega's Part One - Ivory Gull - Patrington Haven - East Yorkshire - 21st December 2013

For one reason or another, I managed to lose the 'bug' in 2013 and totally phased out of dashing across the country chasing rare birds and even found it difficult to motivate myself to see good birds in Sussex. I have been enjoying birding local sites in the minimal time my job allows in the hope of finding a goodie...all this changed when news broke of a small influx of Ivory Gulls into the country in mid-December, a bird that I had always wanted to see....the dream became reality when one of these beauties settled at Patrington Haven in East Yorkshire, was offered a space in the car and had to go...just had to do it! We arrived at first light after leaving sleeping Pulborough at 2am and soon received news that the bird was still present...we trudged along the track dodging the large puddles to the area where 50 or so birders had already gathered...the light was dim and was blowing a gale, my excitement was soon dashed when a passing birder announced that the bird had been down for a feed and flew out high and far into the estuary! We reached the crowd and was soon relieved as clapped eyes on the Ivory Gull as it perched on some rocks. Good scope views were had and high fives were shared..we had seen our quarry! The Herring Gull's were not letting the Ivory Gull settle and the bird was flying around a fair bit, before heading out around the nearest bank and doubling back and headed towards us crowd on the bank, the bird flew towards us getting closer and closer to the point that I just dropped my bins from my eyes and just watched the Ivory Gull float past me in slow-motion...I didn't even reach for the camera as was just enjoying the views and the light was too poor anyhow at this stage...maybe the Ivory Gull was coming down to feed, but soon decided to head back out into the estuary and eventually land on some rocks where it seemed to spend much of it's time. The Ivory Gull never did come as close again whilst we were there, perhaps it was just the pure volume of people that put it off, or just wasn't hungry, the bird gave excellent views throughout and was occasionally observed surfing the tideline with it's legs dangling down, was almost like watching a large white Leach's Petrel at times the poor photo below kind of illustrates this flying behaviour!

 

 

 

Probably some of the worst photo's of this particular Ivory Gull published but as we saw it

 

The general area was alive with birds, with spectacular flocks of waders including Knot and Golden Plover, to which a Peregrine was quite happy to spook quite often. After spending the best part of 2 hours watching my first ever Ivory Gull, we decided to leave as Gordon was keen to try for the Parrot Crossbill's in Nottinghamshire, it was one of those occasions where it would have been nice to see it come down to the rotting fish and get some decent pics, but that very close fly-by will live with me for a very long time...mission completed! 

 

 

 





Dusky Time!

Seems years ago since I went on a proper twitch and this one came completely out-of-the-blue, but don't they always? Chilling late on a Friday night, news filtered through of a probable Dusky Thrush in Margate Cemetery in Kent...present for the last 3 days!! The link to the website revealed a photo of a 'Redwing' which did not look right, then photo's from the day published and there it was for the public to see..Dusky Thrush..first twitchable bird in the UK since 1959!

The rest is history as they say, managed to grab a lift with Ad's  Bowley as everyone else was either there or 'on their way'...or just not answering their phones(already there)! :-) Got there in good time and the bird was sitting tight in a sycamore upon arrival, took me a while to get onto the bird but was quite a scene watching everyone scrambling and dodging gravestones and resting places to sneek a view. (more to follow)

 

Dusky Thrush - a very typical view whilst we were there!



Glossy Ibis @ Warningcamp

Enjoyed a good morning in the Arun valley, starting at Swanbourne, then the WWT followed by an encounter with a Glossy Ibis at Warnincamp..Sedge and Reed Warblers have arrived at the WWT, whilst hirundines were around in good number with Sand and House Martins and Swallows all seen. Pergrine Falcon's were displaying above the hangar, whilst Mediterranean Gulls were amongst the many Black-headed Gulls on site.



 



Widerscope Wedding

I was the last widerscoper to fall...had an absoloutley amazing day..thanks to all for your wishes...below you will see us birders that were present...there was a Peregrine up there you know!

(from left to right) my uncle Garry 'the monk' Messenbird, Seth 'the grubster' Gibson, myself 'the married one' , Glen 'no danger' Maddison, Gary 'the boiler' Thoburn and lastly Danny 'the pirate' Cooper

Taken by Mrs Sami Gibson!

 

 

 

 



Semi-p Record finally accepted!!!

#BBRCdecision :Ref.No 3881 Accepted-Semipalmated Sandpiper 22-August-07 Carnsew Pool, Hayle,Cornwall

News today from the BBRC, our record of our find way back in 2007 on a birding trip down to Hayle estuary has finally been accepted..seems my digiscoped images(those were the days)! clinched it..but to be honest, it was ticked off on my list ! a nice accepted find by myself, Seth Gibson and Glenn Maddison

Below is a couple of links relating to this records history

http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/articles/possible-semipalmated-sandpiper-at-hayle-220807/

http://www.cornwall-birding.co.uk/articles/semipalmated-sandpiper-hayle-220807-update/

http://www.freewebs.com/widerscoped/nick2007.htm - I had such an attitude back then :-)

 

Digiscoping days (N.Bond)



Slow Going!

With my impending wedding, the chances of getting out birding have been pretty limited, but to be honest I just got fed up with the weather, hours trudging around finding very little, hours after trying to warm up!! We need some sunshine!! Anyway, things brightened up somewhat the weekend of the 6th and 7th April, with the 6th seeing me head into East Sussex and an early morning start at Cuckmere, which despite the sun-rise it was bitterly cold with plenty of ground frost. Plenty of gulls were on the move eastwards, mainly Common Gull's but the odd Med Gull flew over mainly in pairs calling away and all adult birds. Along the river bank, plenty of pipit's and Skylarks were sheltering from the cold, then I almost trod on a Snipe...which flew a short distance in front of me before landing again..the give-away bobbing motion clinched a Jack Snipe, the bird then rather suprisingly flew low across the scrape and ditched in and out of view...just as the camera was focusing! Took a while to locate the Black-necked Grebe which was with the Little Grebes on the meanders, mainly as on the far bank two seperate dog walkers let their dogs run free and obviously disturbing the grebes which proceeded in doing their best to hide. The Black-necked Grebe was always distant, by now the cold had got to me and decided to walk back to the motor where I bumped into Mick and his daughter, a brief catch up and I was back in the car and continued east to Rye in the hope of catching up with a Kentish Plover. Seem to take an age to get here and parking up, soon bumped into several birders with no sign of any Kentish Plovers all morning! Cold easterles were making birding and scanning albeit difficult but it was soon evident that any Kentish Plovers were on view from the shelter at Lime Kiln cottage...good views of Avocet and Ringed Plover were had from here whilst a single Bar-tailed Godwit was also seen at the back of the pool, Med Gulls occassionally called as they headed over and Sandwich terns were seen flying around in the background. I decided to head sout and check the flat beach and took shelter from the old lifeguard building to scan the waders...scope attachment to my tripod had decide to break so was birding free-hand..a pale plover had passed my scope and looked good for a Kentish, tried desperatley to re-locate the bird and had raised the alarm to Mike and his partner..my suspicions were confirmed when Mike got his scope on the bird albeit a bit distant feeding amongst the Grey Plover...we managed to get other birders onto the bird, a nice male...just a shame it was not closer and the temperatures a little warmer! Nice to meet Dave Potter on site albeit not realising until reading his blog :-(
Headed back home via Uckfield where I saw what looked good for a Goshawk nr Crowhurst(diverted here en-route to Uckfield)!! circling above a pine forest!! nowhere to stop the car and diverted traffic behind, but was defo no Sparrowhawk nor Buzzard..dare not ask if any breed in the area!
The reason for visiting Uckfield was to meet up with Joanne Chattaway the editor of the Sussex bird report, to chat about the recent report etc..was great to see Joanne again and catch up exchanging views and sightings and walking away with 10 x 2011 bird reports to sell at the Arundel WWT gift shop, the first time they have sold them here as far as I am aware so will see how they go!
The following day saw a afternoon trip to the Arundel WWT and several usual birds were found, including Raven, Red Kite, at least 5 individual Buzzards and a Black-headed Gull that was ringed (right leg - white ring 2C33) so info sent off to Euring..also for the second week running a different Red Kite was hunting just east of the A27 (service station) in Arundel

PB re-visited

Been a while since I have been to Pulborough Brooks, but decided to give this a bash this morning especially as the sun was trying to make an appearance for the first time in which felt a very long time! Such has been my elusiveness from this site I was asked for my RSPB membership upon arrival and was greeted by Russ who joined us along the trail to the north brooks, proved to be a good choice as between us, we managed to see the Spoonbill depart southwards distantly, as we approached the hangar, well spotted Russ!, the north brooks held good numbers of wildfowl including Pintail, whilst moving around to Winpenny a single Chiff Chaff was feeding on the deck in the cattle field. Good number of Ruff were seen at Winpenny aswell as Snipe, a couple of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit. We saw 2 Little-ringed Plovers from Westmead and good number of Fieldfare and Redwing were still around. Good company around the reserve, I have missed this place!

One of the good number of Ruff

Fieldfare still around in good numbers

Distant record shots of Little-ringed Plovers



Goring Delight!

The bitter easterlies enabled me to bird from the comfort of my car today, and made a good choice with a good hour plus lost at Goring gap, where birds dropped into roost throughout my stay, Sandwich Terns were roosting with the regular gull flock, initially counting 26, they were gradually joined by more with the most I counted was 48. 3 Wheatears were found nearby sheltering out of the wind, 2 males and a female, whilst the gull flock contained at least 6 Med Gulls including a smart looking 1st winter bird. I had to leave for work as more birds were arriving so I would think that the Sandwich Tern roost would increase in number, according to Clive Hope , this could be a site record for roosting Sandwich Terns especially in spring!

Here you can see 2 adult Med Gulls along with a 1st winter with the Sandwich Terns

First Wheatears of the year

Sandwich Terns coming into roost



A Moth in March

Whilst cooking dinner, Jo noticed a moth doing it's best to scramble up our window...I potted it and this is the result........

 

 

 

Lesser Yellow Underwing

 

Thanks to all on the Widerscope facebook page for your comments, also to Glen, as you mentioned a moth id book really would be a welcome wedding present! This moth really shouldn't be on the wing at this time of year so perhaps it fell out of my wallet or something!! Either way a stunning moth and kinda feel guilty for releasing it into the cold..maybe it will make a hearty meal for a migrating Wheatear!





Patching Pond

The pair of Great-crested Grebes have started building their nest..hopefully the cold weather doesn't hamper their breeding attempt, 3 chicks were raised last year here. 3 Tufted Duck emerged but the 2 drake Pochard seem to have departed!



Local stuff!

Spent the last few mornings strolling a few local sites, very little to suggest that spring was on it's way, on Monday (18th March) gave Climping a good search and produced very little, normally a good spot for Wheatear but none found today, several Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipit's in off and Skylark's singing gave some hope of something to be found, 12 Sanderling were probably the pick of the bunch. A quick check at Goring produced a female Stonechat, not seen one here all winter so maybe a migrant? 6 Siskin's were also found in a housing estate in Angmering whilst dropping Jo off to work, not sure what it is called but it's the new estate near Worthing Rugby club?

 

The following day at Shoreham and Widewater was equally disappointing, small numbers of Meadow Pipit's arriving again raised hopes of finding some grounded passerines, not helped with the gravel extraction work taking place at Shoreham Fort at the moment.

 



A better mornings birding was had at Brooklands Park on the 20th, the weather had a wintry feel about it and so did the birding! A large gathering of Black-headed Gulls amounted to 104 birds roosting on the green, 3 Redwings and a Brambling at the north end of the park were un-expected but welcome finds, 2 Little Grebes were extremley tame in the sluice channel, some good habitat here, just wonder how often it is watched especially early morning? Moving onto Widewater, 5 Teal were on the east lagoon aswell as 2 Redshank and a Little Egret, offshore a hours sea-watch produced my first Sandwich Tern's of the year, both singles heading east as were Brent Geese, 104 counted in 4 seperate flocks, also noted was a small passage east of Common and Black-headed Gulls whilst at least 3 Great-crested Grebes were offshore..alas..no Wheatears

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ringed Black-headed Gull R3

Danny 'the Pirate' was visiting from Cornwall (17th) as our respective partners were on a Hen weekend in Brighton! We headed out with Shoreham being the first destination, but the strong southerlies and heavy showers were too much for our little girls so retreated to Widewater where we fared better, feeding the gulls with yesterdays left overs! Amongst the gulls, I noticed the chap below fly in, I am sure I have recorded this gull before here before xmas and also on the Adur, but never got a conclusive reading of the birds rings...any info on this bird would be greatly appreciated! I am sure Mr Fairbank will have seen this bird locally!

 

Black-headed Gull R3 at Widewater

 





2013 - Week 11 - Round-up

Birding time was very limited this week due to the dusting of snow which grinded Sussex to a halt in the early part of the week and my children and I fakking victim to one of the many bugs that are doing the rounds at the moment! Despite this, a large cold weather movement on the 11th, resulted in many Redwing and Fieldfare observed moving purposely west, a quick visit to Goring seafront (13th)recorded my first butterfly of 2013 in the form of a Small Tortoiseshell but although the sun was out, felt far too cold for butterflies! 6 adult Mediterranean Gull's were roosting in a nearby field. Hopefully some kind of normality will restore itself in week 12!

I also received an e-mail this week about the colour-ringed Waxwing I reported at Lewes on Boxing Day. Tony Cross from the mid-wales ringing group explained that the same bird had been photographed a lot further south on the 9th March...In Geneva, Switzerland...check out his blog to see his account of this bird...needless to say they are very pleased with the recovery!

http://midwalesringers.blogspot.com



2013 - Week 10 - Round Up

The dull cold weather finally gave way to some spring-like conditions with settled milder weather earlier in the week,  to dull, damp but still mild conditions towards the end of the week. Not a lot of birding done this week to be honest, the 5th saw us heading out and about around Shoreham and Widewater but very little seen here although a Peregrine was displaying around the Southwich power station, at Arundel, small signs of spring arriving with a pair of Peregrines displaying over the reserve and the Mute Swans prospecting nest sites..lots of gulls around at the moment and many Black-headed Gulls already in full summer plumage! A fantastic pair of Bullfinch's were showing well in the car park at Arundel WWT, on the 8th March, 3 Slavonian Grebes were seen from the shelter at Shoreham...in the murk but sea conditions were favourable, several Red-breasted Mergansers and a pair of Common Scoter offshore here aswell

 

 



 



2013 - Week 9 - Round Up

This week continued with pretty bleak conditions, with mainly low cloud and dull conditions with a biting north-east wind! This did not help the photography but with some hard work, some good birds were seen this week especially in West Sussex.

As previously reported, 2 Tundra Bean Geese were to be found in the Arun Valley, mainly viewed from the Black Rabbit pub (last seen on Saturday 2nd March) hanging out with Greylag Geese, good numbers of Red Kite seem to be moving around at the moment with 2 different birds seen at Bury Hill on the 27th Feb and a single over Graffham on the 28th

 

Red Kite - Graffham - 28th February

 

A visit to a couple of sites inland produced a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker which was pretty vocal but did not show well for the camera and finally managed to track down a Dartford Warbler and some Sussex Stonechat's this week and was nice to hear the Woodlark's defying the cold conditions and singing well

 

As I said, not a week for photography..hopefully it will brighten up next week!!



Distant Bean Geese at Arundel

After seeing reports of 2 Bean Geese seen this weekend at Arundel WWT, I thought there would be a good chance of seeing them in the Arun Valley today, a good vantage point is up at Burpham Church and as the birds have been observed associating with Greylag Geese and roosting in the WWT itself. In murky conditions, I found the geese flock miles off but just making out the 2 Bean Geese! Not the views you want, but confirmation that they are still here and at least viewable from here if nowhere else! I drove around to the Black Rabbit pub and was going to attempt to try and see them from here but plenty of roadworks etc going on so decided to move inland where a singing Woodlark showed well with another bird further in the distance! The paths have really dried out here since my last visit, although my daughter Robyn found one of the few puddles to fall in which meant a hasty retreat and not much else was seen or heard!!
There has been some debate about the Bean Geese at Arundel, with the general concensus that they are the 'Tundra' race by observers who had better views than I had!

A quick check at Patching Pond produced a second returning Great-crested Grebe so the pair is again re-united, and a drake Pochard, a bird I have not seen yet on this pond in my short time in checking it out...I'm hoping for something good here one day, looks good for Little Bittern or Night Heron!!

Red-necked Grebe - Worthing

I received a txt from Dave Smith informing me that he had just seen a Red-necked Grebe offshore at Marine Gardens, I arrived within half an hour and checked out the sea's further west as the bird had drifted this way..conditions for sea-watching were good with relatively flat sea and good light, although it was biting cold. I soon found large parties of Red-breasted Mergansers offshore and several loose flocks of Great-crested Grebes, all drifting west pretty quick. I phoned Garry who was on his way down and told him to look off Goring as I presumed the bird had probably drifted that far. Upon further scanning, there was good parties of auks moving through, mainly Razorbills, several Kittiwakes and Red-throated Diver. I noticed that the Great-crested Grebes had started to drift slowly east and I then picked out a single bird half-way out..a Red-necked Grebe offering good scope views and was quite happy fishing on the sea in front of me. I phoned Garry and he joined me to also get onto the bird..a good bird to get locally! there was upto 3 birds offshore here last year for a while so hopefully this one will hang around too..thanks goes out to Dave for the info

2013 - Week 8 - Round Up

I last saw the Durrington Waxwings on the evening of the 17th February with all 26 feeding nicely and sitting up on the telegraph just across the road from where we originally found them 2 weeks before. A lunch time visit to Burpham the same day had produced excellent views of 3 Red Kites in the winter sunshine whilst the Skylarks have started to sing! We visited some West Sussex heathland but this proved to be very quiet although Robyn enjoyed getting stuck in the mud along the water-logged paths. Covered the Shoreham area on the 18th which was very quiet, a summer plumaged adult Mediterranean Gull on Widewater was a nice find, roosting with 30+Black-headed Gulls. A quick sea-watch here, there was just 3 Common Scoter, 2 Great-crested Grebes and a Razorbill.

2013 - Week 7 Round up

The Waxwings were a permanent feature this week, locating occassionally away from the school in Clevedon Road here in Durrington. The birds were also observed fly-catching with some milder conditions and finally some sunshine..the birds were feeding on 2 small cottoneaster bushes in a front garden, I explained to the owners how lucky they were to have such visitors, they were only partially interested which I always find a shame! The birds became noticeably mobile towards the end of the week and even managed to see them down my road on the Saturday(16th), so was pleased to get them on the house list!
The Goring Gap Snow Bunting was also very confiding and was seen most of the week from the 13th, 2 Ruff on Shoreham Airfield were a site tick for me, with Bearded Tits and Avocets seen at Pagham, week 7 proved to be a very productive week with not only some good birds seen locally but good photo's obtained too which the brighter conditions helped...a lot!
At Patching Pond, I noticed that one of the Great-crested Grebes had returned in it's full summer plumage..bring on spring!!



 

 





Great Crested Grebe - in summer plumage and a return to Patching Pond this week



Snow Bunting - Goring Gap

Noticed on the SOS site there was a report by a local dog walker of a Snow Bunting on the beach at Goring Gap...went down to investigate and noticed Russ Tofts and a few other birders in attendance pointing and observing which I hoped was the Snow Bunting...



 



Bitterly cold at Pagham Harbour

Spent a few hours this morning at Pagham Harbour and started at Church Norton where I had the harbour to myself, soon realised why as was soon exposed to the wind chill factor once out on the viewing spit! the tide was out so plenty of the expected waders were on view and plentiful, a couple of Bar-tailed Godwit's showed nicely as did the leucistic Curlew. Moving round to the Long Pool, at least 11 Avocet's were out in the channel before being spooked by a Peregrine and the Bearded Tit's put on a good show(2 males and a female) in the reedbed by the very first bench as you walk out from the ferry pool. The ferry pool itself was smothered in Lapwing and at least 50 Golden Plover were counted amongst them. Had to pull myself away to get to work via the Durrington Waxwings which showed well in Salvington Road (photo's to follow)



Dark-breasted type Barn Owl(type) - Southease - East Sussex

This bird has been stirring up some interest recently, thrilled to see such a stunning bird, Barn Owls are always special and we were treated to a 'normal' type aswell! Can watch these birds all day and the photo's do not do the bird justice...poor light, fantastic views.....photo's....do the weather justice!