Sunday 11th January Heading West avoiding the crowds

Sunday started with a cold, breezy and sunny morning but there were 10 vehicles at the Lesser Yellow Legs site at 8.00am changed my thought of heading to Dunge and decided to go and find my own birds and try out some more with my new compact camera.

 

Setting off at 10.30 I headed for Newhaven to see if any Jack Snipe were where I saw them last year. Sadly after an hour of stomping around all I could find were a pair of Stonechats, 40+ Goldfinches, numerous Skylarks and around 5 - 8 Common Snipe. 

 

 

Last years Jack Snipe site

I decided to move on further west to see the Red-breasted Mergansers at Widewater. Pulling into the car park 2 pairs were immediately obvious with the males competing for the females.

As usual all were having a bad hair day

Next on the agenda was to find the female Common Scoter, although having seen many as brown blobs on the sea I wanted to see this one up close. The gathering of birders soon gave away its whereabouts, and gradually she swam towards me where I was able to get some exceptional views.

Looks Grumpy

With all that in the bag I went to Shoreham Harbour and on the middle jetty there were 2 Purple Sandpipers and a couple Turnstones on the beach

Turnstone

Purple Sandpiper

Finally heading back to the car a Rock Pipit called and flew overhead eventually landing some distance away.

Rock Pipit

Belgium Day 2 - 5th January 2015

Setting off from Namur we had neither lost or gained in the Casino of Hotel Beauregarde. A good breakfast we set off as dawn broke only to hit heavy traffic around Brussels. Our first stop today was at Wondelgem -The Long Fields just north of Ghent. With plenty of Bullrushes (reedmace) it was a hard task to track the Pendulines down but with the help of a local we found two.

The Long Fields Wondelgem

 

Our next stop was at Uitkerke aature reserve overlooking the marshland where thousands of geese were grazing, the majority were Whitefronts but also found Barnacles and a single Pink foot. A bonus was male and ringtail Hen Harrier plus Beardies calling in the reeds. Also a large number of Kestrels.

White-fronted Geese 

 Our final stop before the Tunnel was at Oye Plage near Calais. Heading out of the dunes onto the beach we found a flock of 8 Shorelarks (I have only ever seen singles) A great end to a fabulous couple of days


Shorelark in bad light

 

 

Thanks to great company from Paul Bob and Sandra

 

Twitching in Belgium Sunday 4th January 2015

A quick decision on Saturday to change the Eurotunnel booking for next week to Sunday (tomorrow) was agreed by all and at 6.00 we set off for Belgium. Straight onto the shuttle we arrived 5 mins ahead of time and sped the 200 miles through fog and mist across France and Belgium to Dinant.

On arriving there were many birders where I asked that fatal question that will haunt me forever

Ou est l'oiseau 

 

The lady birder looked at me in disgust thinking I was taking the p*** but then I said Wallcreeper she kindly gave us directions. On arriving at the "wall" we told it had flown north. After a time we walked towards the Citadel and there it was on the brick wall. Having had good scope views it flew.

Hearinf that it roosts on the Citadel we climbed the thousand steps and early afternoon we got some more cracking views before it flew again. Thinking we had done well we decided to head back to the original rockface  where it flew over our heads and landed close by giving us even better views.

By 4.00pm it climbed further away so we said can't get better than that so we headed to the hotel in Namur.

Dinant (from the Citadel)

The Citadel wall where we first saw the Wallcreeper

The "Wall" where we got the best views

Wallcreeper

Wallcreeper Belgium Sunday 4th January 2015

More photos of the Wallcreeper

New year New list Jan 1st 2015

I tried to leave home at dawn only to be held up by a puncture. What a start to the year. So dogs walked around the roads, spare fitted I set off at 10.30am.  Stopping off at Pett Pools for a quick look for the Yellow Legs but no joy - a lot of shooting over the pools yesterday probably sent it on its way.

Stopping off at Scotney I soon found the 2 Black-necked Grebes and the 1st winter drake Scaup.



Drake Scaup

 Next stop was at Denge Marsh for the 2 Cattle Egrets - both were seen but one was more on show.

Cattle Egret

On the reserve from Dennis's Hide 1Great White Egret, 1Little Egret, 2 Redhead Smew, 2 Gooseander, 3 female Goldeneye, loads of Shoveler and Tufties.
At Hanson Hide apart from a couple of Marsh Harriers, Shellducks and Comorants it was birdless until a Chiffchaff appeared and a couple of Kingfishers.



Kingfisher


On the way home I stopped off on Walland Marsh finding the herd of Bewick Swans and single Whooper Swan plus one of the 3 Bean Geese reported earlier. Further along the road I added kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Fieldfare, and Pheasant to my new list.

 



Bewick and 1 Whooper Swan

West Sussex Monday 29th December 2014

On a very cold and frosty morning 6 of us met at Arundel, first stop was at the Water Woods where we found a couple of Firecrests, Goldcrests, Marsh Tit and Coal Tit. From here we headed to

 Iping Common

 

 

Amoung the trees we found Reed Buntings, Gold and Chaffinches, a stunning Yellow Hammer,

On entering the clearing Simon found the Great Grey Shrike which gave great views through the scope

Great Grey Shrike

 

From here we went to West Dean Wood where the pair of Little Owls were out warming themselves.

 

Little Owls

A walk up to Monkton Farm produced the usual woodland birds, but back on the corner near Stapleash Farm after some waiting we had 6 Hawfinches.

 

Heading back to Arundel we called in to Barnham Brooks seeing the adult and 3 juvenile Whooper Swans, then at Arundel the Bewick and 3 Black Swans

A Good Weekend - 20th / 21st December and more SEOs

Saturday pm went over to Horse Eye Level for another look for the Richard's Pipit and dipped again.

However 4 SEOs and 2 Ringtail Hen Harriers kept me entertained till dusk but only 1 came close to photograph. 

 

Sunday morning a couple of hours spent on Walland Marsh saw 100's  of Fieldfares but very skittish and always silhouetted against the milky sun.

Fieldfare

My prime target was the Whooper Swan which I finally found in the flock of 28 Bewick Swans. Also of note were the 4 Tundra Bean Geese.

Herd of Bewick Swans, 4 Bean Geese (centre) and Whooper Swan (second from right) 

On Dengemarsh the 2 Cattle Egrets were close to the road by Wraxhalls, but 1 went behind the hay stack as I arrived

Cattle Egret

At Scotney I couldn't find the Scaup or Black-necked Grebes and the weather deteriorated, the feral Barnacles were close to the road

Barnacle Goose

Scotney Geese