Up early and headed inland for a spot of local birding in the hope of finding Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and to see what else I could find. Started off at Waltham brooks, a very cold morning I arrived a little too late to catch any owls flying around but a nice fly-over Red Kite drifted over and small flocks of Fieldfare were buzzing around by the water treatments. Here I was hoping to find the 'tristis' type Chiffchaff which has been over-wintering here, I managed to see a Chiffchaff but this was no Siberian type and despite spending some time here I found to locate the 'tristis'. A look at a inland site for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker proved negative, good to bump into Gordon Beck and Jake Gearty there who both had the same idea. Myself and Gordon came away empty handed, but we put in some time to find this elusive bird. Jake arrived after us and connected with one on the other side of the wood from where I was searching, that's birding for ya!
27th February 2016 - London 're-visted'
Had the opportunity to return to my old haunts in South west London today, with my daughter Robyn in tow, took full advantage of exploring the WWT at Barnes which is mostly known now as WWT London. Ring-necked Parakeets were around the entrance on the lakeside trees and Robyn enjoyed feeding crisps to 2 Robins by the main entrance, 1 of these was a strange looking bird with no tail and black and white striped belly (will upload a pic soon) and perhaps this Robin is a fan of the nearby Fulham football club!. As with last weekend, the wind was hampering any birding and just the usual species were observed with no sign of any Bitterns which would have made the visit worthwhile. Plenty of new enclosures and collections to keep Robyn occupied though but the Otters were asleep and not on display today! It was only a brief visit so not a huge amount of species seen, a pair of Pintail and 11 Fieldfare over was probably the highlights but good to re-visit a site that I have not been to now for over 8 years and a first visit for Robyn. We spent the rest of the day at the Natural History Museum where the extinct Great Auk and Dodo looked mighty impressive!
Ring-necked Parakeet - they love SW London !
Another bird doing well in these parts - the Egyptian Goose
London / Barnes WWT
20 & 21st February 2016 - Weymouth and Portland
Spent the weekend at Portland Bird Observatory for what was a bit of a Widercoped re-union and the first time in 3 years that we have all got together !
I picked Seth up in Southampton and headed to Blashford Lakes for first light, disappointed to find gates locked and all hides locked so restricting our birding somewhat. We spent the best part of an hour checking out the woodland and the main lake from the viewing mound behind the Tern hide. A large flock of Siskin above the woodland hide created a explosion of noise as they called and sang, Coal Tits were also vocal and typical woodland species were picked up here. A couple of Bullfinch were seen scampering away as we walked the car park of the Tern hide. From the viewing mound a distant Grebe was most probably the Slavonian Grebe that has been reported from here but was too far off to clinch for certain. 2 Egyptian Geese were on one of the scrapes but bemoaning the lack of access we got back in the car and headed for Portland, our destination for the weekend.
Radipole was our next stop and a nice flock of 13 Mediterranean Gulls were in the car park and a quick trek around the reserve produced 2 Marsh Harrier's, Bearded Tit, Water Rail and many Cetti's Warbler's. The famous Hooded Merganser is still knocking around since turning up 8 years ago and was showing well by the visitor centre.
Next destination was Portland harbour and we viewed from Sandsfoot Castle picking up 7 Black-necked Grebes, several Great-crested Grebes and good numbers of Red-breasted Mergansers. The wind started to pick up by mid-morning and we took to the shelter of Osprey quay to continue a scan from a different angle but produced very little. By now the others started arriving with Glen and Gary freshly in. Nothing of note was seen from Portland Castle and birding conditions worsened and was very windy at the bill as we dropped our luggage off at our digs for the night at Portland Bird Obs. We decided to head inland as felt it might be more sheltered there and had a good couple hours at Lodmoor with Gary finding a Spoonbill and a different Marsh Harrier flew over the reserve and promptly disappeared. No real numbers of waders were to be seen but a Kingfisher and a large flock of Lapwing kept interest going.
Another scan in the harbour produced a Slavonian Grebe and a Great-northern Diver but no sign of the flock of Black-necked Grebes we had seen from here earlier in the day.
We retired to the obs prepared for the night ahead, a table for 8 has been booked for the 8 Kings....to be continued......
Widerscoped re-united - photo courtesy of Glenn Maddison
On the Sunday, several were struggling from the night before and the weather was struggling too, strong winds made birding around the bill very difficult where some time was spent scanning the sea, highlights being a Bonxie moving through in the races and Fulmar, Guillemot and razorbill all added to the trip list. Some respite mid-morning allowed for a Firecrest to be heard in the garden and 2 Chiff-chaff's seen. We spent some time searching Chesil Cove and Portland harbour but little was to be found, a single Black-necked Grebe from Portland Harbour was little compensation for the effort put in, weather really did not help. It was a little more sheltered at Radipole where some time was spent photographing some of the Med Gulls that were present in the car park here until chased of by a kid on a scooter! The Hooded Merganser was showing well again in it's regular spot, a Water Rail showed pretty well by the visitor centre and a Marsh Harrier was seen again at the north end of the reserve. By now, majority of the group had split up and dispersed for their journeys home.
Was a good weekend and catch up with the old widerscope crew...the facebook page is still going strong as the website has died, but is still worth a read if you haven't done so already! Thanks to Martin and the Portland crew at the Bird Observatory for putting up with us all for the weekend, hopefully back in April!
16th February 2016 -
A morning visit to Arundel WWT produced plenty of Buzzards above the hanger enjoying the winters sun, with at least 7 individuals on display. 5 Redpoll were seen and 2 Firecrest were also seen on the reserve, proving very popular with photographers. Being half-term and a sunny winters day, the reserve was heaving with people so made a sharp exit. Stopped by at Patching pond on the way home to find the Great-crested Grebe was present in it's full breeding plumage, hopefully they will breed here again this year.
On the birding front, very quiet this time of year although a Glaucous Gull was seein off Shoreham fort today, maybe the Goring bird re-locating.
8th February 2016 -
The advanced 1st winter Glaucous Gull was still in the fields at Goring Gap this afternoon, sheltering from the stormy winds.
7th February 2016 -
3 Mediterranean Gulls were seen on Littlehampton east beach with one bird sporting full summer plumage. At Goring 8 Stock Doves were noteable feeding in the fields just offshore
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