Monday 27th January Warnham LNR

Met Bob mid morning, and he kindly drove me to Warnham N.R. My first visit, a look over the lake and then onto the hide with the feeders. Our target was a Mealy Redpoll eventually it came to the feeders meanwhile we enjoyed the other birds.

Gold Finches

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Nuthatch

Female (left) Male (right) Lesser Redpoll

Possibly 2 Mealy Redpolls

Mealy Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

Mealy Redpoll

Saturday 25th January SWW Dungeness

A good day at Dungeness but I cant think of a day when it wasn't. Started off looking at the sea, hundreds of auks mainly Guillemots but a few Razorbills were seen, Kittiwakes passing through, a few Little Gulls, loads of G.C. Grebes lots of R.T.Divers but best of all a flock approx. 30 Common Scoter contained 1 Velvet Scoter. Then Paul picked out an adult Caspian Gull on the beach.

 At the patch hundreds of Gulls - Simon spotted a Med. also a couple of Little Gulls.

 

  On the ARC pit two male Smew with 6 or more Redheads and one female Goldeneye close to Hanson Hide.

Female Goldeneye

Next we visited Walland Marsh where there were 40 plus Bewick Swans and then onto Scotney for another look at the Long-tailed Duck and the 2 Bean Geese

Bean Geese

Bean Geese

At the back of Scotney approx. 50 White Fronted Geese - an area that appears to be overlooked.

Dorset and Devon 20-21st January

 

Paul Bob and I set off for a couple of days in Dorset and Devon, picking up a Green-winged Teal at Sopley in Hants on our first stop. Next was Poole Park for a Scaup but couldn't find it but saw these Siskins  (my first of the year)

 

Siskin

Next stop was Portland Harbour where the Black Guillemot was immediately found by Paul. Although distant gave good scope views. Also Razorbill, Shag, Common Guillemot, Black-throated and Great-northern Divers

Black Guillemot (bottom right)

Razorbill

Shag

Then off inland to Chesslebourne for the two distant Cranes, once again good scope views

Distant Cranes

Staying overnight in Paignton at breakfast we were watching a Shag and G.N. Diver, then set off to Broadsands where a birder put us straight onto a Siberian Chiffchaff and told us where to wait for the Cirl Buntings. within a couple of minutes they came to feed on the seed he had put down.

Cirl Buntings

Cirl Bunting

On to Berry Head past Brixham where the White-billed Diver had been seen recently and despite a good search there and in Brixham Harbour couldn't be found. We did see plenty of Fulmars some starting to nest

Fulmar

Fulmar

Gannet over Brixham

We then went looking for a Cattle Egret but couldn't find the cattle either, then onto Dawlish Warren for a Bonapartes but the wind was getting to near gale force and very few gulls around but did find a Slavonion Grebe before heading back to Sussex, a great adventure whats next?
 

Snow Buntings Tues 14th Jan. 2014

 

 

A glorious winters day with bright sunshine I headed for Scotney Water in search of the reported Bean Geese turned a blank (later reported at Dunge reserve) but I find the Long-tailed Duck in the Kent part of the lake.

 

Next stop was to Camber where I eventually found the 4 Snow Buntings

 

Snow Bunting



Later on at Rye 2 more long-tailed Ducks plus the usual ducks and waders, at the Woolpack Harrier roost 9 Marsh Harriers roosted.

Grey Phalarope 7th Jan. 2014

Arriving at Hove the heavens opened as I got out the car but managed a few shots of the Grey Phalarope which stayed for just over a week on the kiddies paddling pool

Grey Phalarope

After this I picked up Paul and went to Arundel. A walk around Swanbourne Lake was birdless, up at the Burgh likewise other than a couple of Red Kites and Wood Pigeons. Arriving back at Widewater to see 6 Red-breasted Mergansers, we met Ian and Brenda who told us of the Glaucous Gull .that had just flown off. A search of both sides of the harbour drew a blank

Distant R B Mergansers

In Shoreham Harbour one of two Purple Sandpipers were on the inner beach

Purple Sandpiper

Sunday 5th January 2014 Dungeness

A morning visit to Dungeness in search of the Humes Leaf Warbler in the dessert trapping area proved fruitless as my wellies leaked and prevented me wading through the floods. So I spent some time on the beach looking amoungst the gulls for a Caspian Gull which didn't happen. But on the sea were plenty of auks incl. 1 Razorbill. 

On the reserve one of 4 Great White Egrets was at the southern end of the ARC

On new Diggings I found one of the Black-throated divers, and a couple of red-head Smew. On Burrows a couple more RH Smew, a Black-necked grebe and a couple of RH Gooseanders

Red-head Gooseander

At the entrance a couple of dozen Tree Sparrows were around the feeders. On Walland Marsh I couldn't find the Bewicks

Tree Sparrows

Holland 29th - 30th December

 

An early morning start, and taking the 7.20 Eurotunnel got the 5 of us to mid Holland by 12.00 Dutch time the new Tom Tom got us to the exact spot just outside Rotterdam where we got our first twitch. The Bufflehead.



Our main target was the Northern Hawk Owl usually much further North in Finland. By 2.00pm we were in the outskirts of Zwolle and soon found the crowd of 40 plus watching this Owl

 

 

After a couple of hours we headed for our Hotel for a good nights sleep.

 

 

Next morning up early before daylight, and after breakfast in the carpark Paul found a couple of Hawfinches, meanwhile the others spotted a Black Woodpecker fly over, which was our next target.

Somewhere in a wood somewhere in Holland it wasn't long till we got stunning views of Black Woodpecker.

Black Woodpecker

Our next target was a Baikel Teal which would have been a first for Paul let alone for the rest of us, but it wasn't to be. We then started heading for home seeing hundreds of Barnacle and White-fronted Geese.

650 miles round trip we arrived back in Fairlight at 8.00pm after a couple of hours delay at the Calais terminal.

White-fronted Geese