Draycote Stroll

I decided to take advantage of the fine crisp weather and take a stroll around Draycote Reservoir on Sunday afternoon.  It was a beautiful afternoon, which quite surprisingly did not draw in the usual crowds of joggers, ramblers and cyclists to the site and we hardly saw anyone during our circuit.  Birding highlights included a drake Smew near the Valve Tower and a huge gull roost which had a mixture of Blackheaded, Lesser Black Backed, Greater Black Backed and Herring - I am sure there will have been other species there as well but I was with a non birder who does not hold the same interest in gulls as me.  Probably the highlight of the afternoon was the dramatic sunset and light, similar to the below photo captured a couple of years ago.

From a birding perspective, it turns out that I should have gone to Brandon Marsh instead, as two Bitterns were showing - Oh well, there is always next week.

Spanish Sparrow et al

After watching the Hampshire Bird news earlier on in the week, I contacted my older sister and invited myself to stay with her on Thursday and Friday so that I could go and see the Dark Eyed Junco in the New Forest and a Ferruginous Duck in Blashford.  It so happened to be a bonus that a Spanish Sparrow was then reported as well.

So, I travelled down on Wednesday night and after a short nights sleep emerged bleary eyed and made my way down to Calshot, arriving there at about 7:45am.  It was not long before the Spanish Sparrow showed, albeit briefly, before hightailing flying to a nearby garden.  As I wanted to fit in as much as possible over the day, I then drove over to Hawkhill Inclosure in the New Forest and again was fortunate enough to observe the Dark Eyed Junco pretty much straightaway.  The stars though in that area were the amazing Crossbills showing off just metres away (the best views I have ever had of them).  Next stop was then Harbridge to observe a Whooper Swan and then onto Blashford Lakes.  Blashford Lakes never ceases to disappoint me when I go there, as their feeders attract a great array of species including Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and Brambling to name a few.  After a brief walk to the South Hide and five minutes of scanning, I found the Ferruginous Duck asleep among some Pochards.  By then, I had achieved 3 new species within less than 2 hours, not a bad start at all.  I then decided to amble back the way I came but via Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes, both of which were slightly disappointing although I managed to clock a few nice species like Red Breasted Merganser, Eider, Grey Plover and Goldeneye.  As dusk approached I hightailed it to Blackwater Arboretum to watch further Crossbills and then Hawfinches coming into roost and the last port of call was the pond at Eyesworth to view the Mandarin Ducks there along with some obliging Marsh Tits.  Only dip of the day was Firecrest, which despite my efforts in different locations just evaded me.

The following day, I was accompanied by my Nephew, who managed to stay quite patient and unbored throughout the day.  As I had covered most of the Forest the day before, I thought I would go east and so we called by see a Cattle Egret in Warblington first of all and then to see 3 Purple Sandpipers at Southsea Castle.  We then made our way over to Camble Docks in Portsmouth to see if we could find an Iceland Gull that had been spending time around a fishery.  Unfortunately after waiting over an hour, we gave up and went to find something to eat and did a spot of shopping.  Before going back to the car, we thought we would try one further time for the Gull and were rewarded with distant views of it on top of a warehouse roof - new species 4 for me in 2 days.  Unfortunately, as locating the Gull had taken us over 3 hours, daylight was slipping away from us and we therefore decided to make one last port of call to try to see a Black Throated Diver at Eling but unfortunately could not locate.

So, overall, two fantastic days birding with only two dips and I returned to my birder's wife very happy indeed.  I was even happier when I discovered that she had bought me some Broadside Ale for my return.

Brandon Moonscape

After missing out on the Whooper Swans who appeared at Brandon Marsh yesterday, I thought I would try my luck at the Marsh and see if I could spot the Bittern as it goes about it's business at roosting time. We arrived at 3pm this afternoon and thought we would take the long route round the reserve to see what we could find.  It was not long before we came across a Tit flock containing Blue Tits, Great Tits, Long Tailed Tits and some surprise guests in the form of two gorgeous and very healthy looking Goldcrests.  Ten yards further on we came across a Treecreeper, who may also been tagging along in the flock.  To ensure we had full advantage of the remaining day light, we took a short cut to arrive at the main hide.  The view from this hide provided us with a mixed Gull flock (mainly Blackheaded and Common and about two Lesser Black Backed), Lapwing, Snipe, Shovellor, Pochard, Tufties and 4 Goldeneye.  As dusk fell, I managed to capture thise amateurish photo with my phone (all very atmospheric).  Unfortunately, the Bittern was otherwise engaged, however a Water Rail flew obligingly from one side of the reeds to the other thus reducing my yearly misses to seven (must do better).

Slimbridge New Year

After a nice albeit gentle start to my birding for 2012 on New Year's day, myself, my birder's wife and Capt Blackeye decided to brave the crowds at Slimbridge on Bank Holiday Monday.  On the way there, we popped by Court Lake in Frampton, which unfortunately had nothing interesting to offer us except brilliant sunshine.  However, I noticed (when I was back home) that Goldeneye and Little Egret had been reported from that location.

Slimbridge, as predicted, was absolutely heaving, mostly with young families and grizzly kids, who probably would have preferred being curled up in front of the xbox.  Undeterred, we ambled over to the Zeiss Hide, where the Bitterns had been putting up a daily rendition of Hamlet, but, unfortunately we arrived too late and they had retreated into the reeds for the day not to be seen again.  Besides the lack of Bitterns and secretive Water Rails, the birding from hide was not too bad and it was not long before we had secured the usual Slimbridge goodies such as Bewick Swans, White Fronted Geese, Barnacle Geese, Widgeon and Teal.  A short lunch in the South Lake then brought us Dunlin and Oystercatcher.  Unfortunately, the female Lesser Scaup that had been hanging around the Rushy Pen, had been scared off by some kind of disturbance earlier in the day and we were unable to locate from either the Robbie Garnet Hide or the Holden Tower.  However, between them, those hides gave us Merlin, Peregrine, Buzzard, Ruff, Golden Plover and Black Tailed Godwit.  I also managed to later on spot a female wintering Blackcap by the Infocus shop.

The day was ended with the usual Bewick Swan feed which is alway done so well by the staff at Slimbridge.  After totting up my efforts for the last couple of days, I notice that I am on a respectable 8 misses already - Dipper, Grey Wagtail, Common Crossbill, Lesser Scaup, Bittern, Water Rail, Little Egret and Goldeneye.

New Year

Happy new year to you.  We spent welcoming in the new year at a friend's house not that far from the Wyre Forest. Right from opening the curtains this morning, I was asaulted with a good array of species that included; Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Siskin and first bird of the year was Black Headed Gull.  I managed to pursuade our hosts to come for a walk along Dowles Brook in the forest, hoping to score the resident Dipper and Grey Wagtails, but unfortunately could not find either (the first two missed birds of the year).  However, I managed to find quite a few commoner species in the revolving tit flocks that were in residence along the old railway line.  The best bird of the day, though had to be a rather scrappy looking Raven croaking away at the top of a fir tree.  As I lagged behind my birder's wife and friends I heard a small look of Crossbill calling but unfortunately could not locate them.  Overall, not a bad start to the birding year and a bonus was that it did not start to rain we were safely back inside supping tea.