Back Home - Brandon Marsh and Slimbride

After adding so many new birds to my 2013 year list over the past few days, I became slightly obsessive today and did a couple of twitches:-

1/  To finally see my first Whinchat of the year (after trying in masses of places but never being able to find one).  Thanks to http://www.boatbirder.com/ who reported the bird at Brandon Marsh while I was still in bed (my excuse is that I had done a long drive the day before).

Blurred Whinchat

 2/  To finally see my first Little Stint of the year (which is another species that has eluded me till today) at Slimbridge (a cracking little bird, definitely worth the drive).  The below photo just shows how small these birds are when compared to a Lapwing.  Slimbridge was good for birding today with decent numbers of waders including, Redshanks, Black Tailed Godwits, Ruff, Little Ringed Plovers and Lapwing.

Little Stint and Lapwing

Black Tailed Godwit

Days 3 & 4 - Pembrokeshire

Both mornings of our 3rd and 4th days in Pembrokeshire were dominated by sea watching from Strumblehead and in the 5.5 hours I spent, I managed to see the following (with help from the experts who keep http://strumbleheadseawatching.blogspot.co.uk/ updated):-

8 Arctic Skua
3 Pomarine Skua
8 Common Scoter
1 Bonxie
1 Turnstone
Many Manx Shearwaters
Many Common Porpoises

So, finally after many hours of sea watching, I have finally managed to see my first Poms - Hurrah!

Day 2 - Pembrokeshire

Last Wednesday on our second day on Pembrokeshire, we decided to spend some time on the Marloes Peninsula, famous for being the gateway to Skomer Island.  We opted not pay a hefty £42.00 round trip fee to visit the Island and instead walked out on the cliffs of Martins Haven.

Chough

Martins Haven is such a fantastic place.  As we walked through the bracken, we disturbed flocks of Linnets and were scolded at by Stonechats.  The rocks and cliff edges had Rock Pipits and Chough (a maximum count of 12 at one time) and the rocky beaches in secluded coves had seal pups lounging on the pebbles.

We decided to stay in the area for the whole day, also making a trip to Marloes Mere, which held Lapwing, Little Grebe and loads of Swallows (unfortunately the long staying Glossy Ibis had decided to relocate to Somerset a couple of days before).

At dusk, we decided to visit again and witnessed a fantastic sunset over the Irish Sea where there was small rafts of Manx Shearwaters waiting for darkness to fall before flying back to Skomer.

The Gower and Day 1 of Pembrokeshire

Last Sunday, after a celebratory 70th birthday lunch in Bath with my birders wife's first cousin once removed (confused? I am), we made our way to The Gower to visit some friends.

The following day on Bank Holiday Monday, our hosts took us on a 6 mile walk along the top of The Gower at Whitesands, which is a beautiful stretch of beach bordered by pine woods.  Unfortunately, as I was the only birder present, I didn't manage much birding but did manage to find a flock of Dunlin which had three Curlew Sandpipers attached to it.

Lesser Yellowlegs

On Tuesday, we left at 8am to make our way to Pembrokeshire for a 4 day holiday.  As we were virtually going past the door of the Llanelli Wetland Centre it seemed to be a no-brainer not to visit, especially as we knew a Lessor Yellowlegs was still present.  I thought it would be easy to find the bird but it turned out to be extremely difficult, as there were decent sized flocks of Redshanks, Black Tailed Godwits and Greenshanks all asleep and tightly packed together.  It was not till a passing Sparrowhawk (1.5 hours later) stirred up things and the birds scattered thus finally revealing the Lesser Yellowlegs.

We then spent the rest of our day travelling across Pembrokeshire, took in St David's Cathedral and walked to St David's Head.

A visit down south

On Saturday morning, when I saw that there was a Long Billed Dowitcher, Curlew Sandpipers and a Little Stint all at Pennington Marshes in Hampshire, I was soon on the phone to my sister asking for a bed for the night.

It seemed to take ages to travel down to the South Coast but I was fortunate when I arrived as there was a car parking space in the small car park.  A swift walk to the sea wall and it soon became obvious where the Dowitcher was skulking (due to the number of birders peering down at it).

Long Billed Dowitcher and a Snipe

I then scanned the Dunlin flock and came upon the two Curlew Sandpipers straightaway.  The last bird I needed was the Little Stint and unfortunately despite an extensive search and a drive to Keyhaven and back, all I could find was Common Sandpipers, Little Ringed Plovers, Ringed Plovers, Black Tailed Godwits, Curlews, Ruff, Greenshank and loads of Dunlins.

This morning, my nephew fancied coming out with me and very kindly drove us down to the marshes so I could look for the Little Stint again.  The Dowitcher was putting on a good display and had attracted another Warwickshire birder, Dennis who I seem to bump into everywhere, except at home. Unfortunately, despite another search, I could still not find the Little Stint, so that species will just have to evade me this year for the time being (just like Whinchat).  Surprise sighting today was a Water Rail and a Weasel running between two reed beds (no wonder the Dunlin were flighty)

Long Billed Dowitcher

An after work twitch

Thornton Reservoir, Leicestershire

As news broke a couple of days ago of a juvenile Night Heron sighting at Thornton Reservoir, I could not resist the temptation tonight of zipping up the M69 to view the bird, as I have fond memories of seeing an adult last year at Pennington Marshes (in Hampshire).

Despite the rush hour, it did not take us long to reach this small reservoir in Leicestershire and what a charming place it is too.

We followed a friendly birder who directed us to the inlet where the bird had been feeding, but soon found that the bird had decided to fly to its usual roosting place.  After a five minute walk, we joined a growing crowd of Heron admirers and were soon looking at the obliging bird as it sat not that far from the waters edge on the other side of the reservoir in some vegetation.  It had obviously tired itself out with all that feeding on froglets and busied itself preening before tucking it's head into it's chest for a snooze.  I managed to obtain some record shots as the light started to fade.

Night Heron

Night Heron

Night Heron

Night Heron