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.

Brandon Marsh

In order to escape the pre - Christmas dash,  I thought I would go over to Brandon Marsh and just sit in a hide and be peaceful.  It turned out to be a beautiful day with the light being fantastic to examine the gull flock closely.  Unfortunately, there were no unusual species to be found but there were good numbers of Common Gull amongst the many Black Headed Gulls.  A Sparrowhawk flew over the Lapwing flock on a couple of occasions which made them quite jumpy but other than that everything was very peaceful with the usual ducks, which included two Goldeneye.  The Water rails round the reserve seemed to be quite vocal and the Snipe numbers seem to be increasing with a count of 8 in total (although I am sure I missed a few).


On returning home and checking my records, it appears that I have not missed as many birds this year as I claim and have had one of my best birding years to date.  Most notable birds that I have missed this year have been Little Tern and Tawny Owl.  Others I have tried for but missed have been Bean Goose, Cattle Egret, Grey Phalarope, Mealy Redpoll, Nightingale, Pectoral Sandpiper and Turtle Dove.  Oh well, there is always next year.


I hope everyone has a good Christmas and a great 2012 birding year.


Below are some of my memories from 2011:-

Norfolk Weekend

Thursday 1st December

After completely forgetting to spot the Cranes that have been hanging around the fields opposite the Big Chillout Cafe on the way up to Norfolk but clocking some of the 1200 Whopper Swans in the area instead, we arrived at Titchwell with the breaking news of a Western Sandpiper at Cley Marshes.  My birder's wife was in shopping mode, so I left her and our friend in the Titchwell shop while I went to look for the Mealys that had been seen on and off around the centre.  Unfortunately, as time was at a premium and the light was not that great, all I could manage to find were some Lesser Redpolls.  To some, this would be disappointing, but for me they were a good spot, as I had not managed to catch up with any this year until then.  As lunch was beckoning, I managed to persuade the others to have lunch at Cley and then I left my birder's wife with the car keys and asked her if she could check into the hotel and pick me up later, which she kindly agreed to do.  After buying my permit, I made my way over to the appropriate hide and squeezed in amongst the crowd and was soon watching the flighty litte Sandpiper, which was amongst some Dunlin.  I will admit that I am not as educated on birds as many birders in the hide and therefore did not really find this new lifer for me that exciting, although a day later, a friendly birder did put the spot in perspective by stating how amazing it is that this little bird was only in an egg a few months earlier and had travelled sooo far.  After spotting the Sandpiper, I retreated into the other hide next door, which was far less frantic and after scanning for the Green Winged Teal, could not find it anywhere.  Fortunately, someone managed to put me onto the bird which was right on the other side of Pat's Pool and hardly visible at all.  As I had some time to spare I thought I would then go and find some Bearded Tits and came across some as I walked to the beach.  Unfortunately, my birder's wife's mobile was not taking calls, so I took the opportunity to walk to Salthouse and was rewarded with close views of a Guillemot on the sea along with two Common Scoters and a flock of Snow Buntings around the Salthouse Beach Carpark.  After about 30 dropped calls due the appalling mobile reception, I managed to meet up with my birder's wife and we retired to the hotel for a swim, sauna and a spin in the jacuzzi closely followed by a pint of Adnams and a great meal - Not a bad day at all really.

Friday 2nd December

After the successes of yesterday, I was in a buoyant mood and was optimistic for the day's ahead birding.  We started the day off with a bit of sea watching, which produced a couple of Little Auk, quite a few Little Gull, some Guillemots and the flock of Snow Buntings.  We then tried to locate the Cattle Egret that had been in the area for a week or so, but could not find it.  The same thing happened with the small flock of Tundra Bean Geese that were supposed to be around Weybourne. To break the day up from constant birding, we popped back to Cley and had a look round the shop and then at the Brent Goose flock in a nearby field, which produced one Pale Bellied amongst the Dark Bellies. As time was then marching on and the days are a lot shorterwend then popped back to Cley Beach for some further sea watching which did not produce anything unusual except for the famous Lee Evans (who was presumably in the area to see the Western Sandpiper).  We then retreated back to the hotel for another Sauna which really helped to warm us up after the freezing wind on Cley beach.

Saturday 3rd December

I thought I would try my hand at some further sea watching but gave up after some inconsiderate git plonked himself a foot in front of me thus blocking my view - Thanks for that!!  I thought I would try again for the Weybourne Bean Geese but they must have seen me coming and scarpered.  The rest of the day was spent shopping in nearby Holt and at Blickling.

Sunday 4th December

All good things have to come to an end and after 3 days and nights doing the things I love to do, birding, eating and drinking, we made our way home.  This time, I did not forget to take a mile detour to view the Cranes - awesome!  Two hours later, to welcome us home into Warwickshire, the heavens opened and blessed us with some dismal weather (I am glad that it happened then and not during the weekend though).

Slimbridge Saturday

On Saturday I thought was about time that I paid a visit to Slimbridge. After discussing with my birder’s wife, we agreed that she would stay at home and go shopping (for my Christmas presents) and I would go to Slimbridge with a friend, Capt Blackeye to try and score her some species not yet notched up for the year. After just over an hour from leaving home we arrived at Slimbridge to find the car park absolutely heaving, maybe people were hoping to find the stars of Autumn Watch loitering around the canteen? Our arrival time was just after high tide which allowed us to score our first target species, Golden Plover, not just one bird but about 900 along with hundreds of Lapwing and a decent sized flock of Linnets. We then spotted our second target bird, White Fronted Goose and decided, as we were on a roll to rush over to the Zeiss Hide to try and nail a Bittern for Blackeye. Unfortunately, after an hour’s wait, there was no sign of even one of the two that had been showing the past few days. We were entertained though by the comings and goings of the Lapwing, Dunlin and Golden Plover all of which seemed to be constantly spooked by the gusty conditions. As, any discerning Birder would do, I decided to check Birdguides to see if there was anything good in the vicinity only to notice a Little Stint had been reported from the exact same hide 5 minutes earlier. This kind of behaviour really annoys me, there were only 5 birders in that hide on the upper deck besides ourselves, so it must have been one of them. What I cannot understand is why report the bird on Birdguides if you are not prepared to share it with others in the same hide? Clearly that person was one of the many grumpy birders that we encounter on a weekly basis who go round with long faces. I know birding can bring out the solitary in all of us and it is a chance to be on our own in this mad world, to unwind and relax and for me, that makes me happy. If birding makes you so miserable, why not give it up and give up some hide room to someone who actually enjoys their hobby? Rant over. Anyway, after all that, myself and Blackeye could not locate the Little Stint so we decided to give up and made our way to Frampton to see if we could find any Goldeneye or Goosander on the lakes there. The day was definitely working out to be the namesake of this blog, as the only thing we could find on the lakes were Coots and Tufties. We decided to return to Slimbridge for the remainder of the day to continue to miss the Little Stint, Bittern and a Sanderling. We completed the day at the swan feed with James performing his swan feeding duties, much to the delight of Blackeye and I phoned my birder’s wife only to discover that she had been shopping solid for six hours – I must have a lot of presents!

SEO'S at Otmoor

After a flying visit down to Hampshire on family business yesterday, I thought I would pop into Otmoor on the way back to try and finally see my first Short Eared Owls for the year.  After many failed attempts at Brandon Marsh and failures on  my Scottish trip this summer, I was not optimistic.  However, as it was a very mild mid November day, the fresh air and stretch of legs after an hour's drive were a least to be a pleasant experience.  The first hundred metres did not disappoint with good views of a Buzzard busy on his thermals closely followed a few minutes later by a Red Kite.  The feeders did not have that much activity but some scattered seed a bit further on was attracting a fair bit of attention with many Chaffinch, Blue Tits,Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting.  I greedily hung around hoping that something like a Brambling may appear in amongst the Chaffinch flock but, alas not this time.  As I ambled down the track heading towards the (newish) wetlands hide, I clocked a Kestrel and a Peregrine - I was at least having a good raptor day.  The view from the hide itself was not that inspiring so I continued back the way I came from and started down the footpath toward the reedbeds screens.  Halfway down I encountered a few birders looking at the distant horizon and immediately noticed what appeared like a bird of prey being mobbed by some corvids.  The other birders who had scopes confirmed that it was a Short Eared Owl and there were two others around as well.  Strangely enough, I was not that elated at the spot even though I hadn't seen a SEO for over a year, perhaps it was the fact that they were hundreds of metres away.  I decided at that point to head back to the car and back home to my birder's wife.  The way back to car did provide some closer views of the Owls including one being mobbed by a Kestrel.  All I need now this year is to try and see a Tawny, which is another owl species that has evaded me for several months.

One I didn't miss

On the odd occasion, I do actually achieve a bird that I had bothered to jump out of bed to see and today was such an occasion.  My working week turned out to be non eventful, pretty much as usual and main thing that kept me going was the weekend and the possibility of trying for the White Rumped Sandpiper again at Rutland or just going for a nice stroll at Brandon Marsh.  However, with autumn kicking in for good (finally) and Christmas looming on the horizon, there were added pressures of clearing leaves and buying Christmas presents.  So, this morning after supplying my birder's wife with her weekend cup of tea in bed, I reacquainted myself with my old friend, Mr Rake and set to the front garden.  After putting away Mr Rake, hopefully for another year, I went inside and found my birder's wife had returned from her travels in the land of Nod and urshered her to my car with her binoculars round her neck so that we could travel up the M69 and M1 to try for a bird I have always wanted to see and never really got round to (before now).  This is probably the nearest I would normally find myself to a twitch (to me, a twitch is to venture out with only the desire to see the target bird) and this trip did not disappoint.  After an hour's journey, we pulled into the car park just before the entrance to Attenborough NR, squeezed into a parking space and walked the short distance to the nearby Sailing Club.  Out target bird was a juvenile Squacco Heron who was not being that obliging and was obviously becoming camera shy to the 30+ other birders who were also there.  Even I managed to obtain a record shot and after watching it do nothing much for 20 minutes, we proceeded back home via Fosse Park in Leicester for some Christmas shopping.  Not a bad haul then for the day, I not only managed to clear the leaves but also managed to see a fantastic bird and keep my birder's wife happy by going shopping.