Sunday 23rd February 6 more year ticks.

Started off at Newhaven Tide Mills flushed several Snipe and eventually a Jack Snipe from under my feet. Number 1 in the bag I set off to Littlehampton and within 10minutes number 2 the Kumleins Gull came into view.



Kumleins Gull



Kumleins Gull

Kumleins Gull

Nearby the 2nd winter Glaucous gave good views (not new for the year seen one at Dunge)

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

Next stop was to Gosport to catch up with Wally the Ring-billed Gull at Walpole Park, it took an hour to find him and sudenly appeared from  nowhere.

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Off to get number 4 at Westdean Woods the Little Owl was in his usual tree at Stapleash Farm, I could even see him from the car. He posed for a couple of shots then hid away.

Little Owl

Little Owl

Now for Number 5 having been to Rye on several occasions to see the Drake Greater Scaup without success I went to Greatham Bridge and straight awaygot onto this female although distant

Greater Scaup

Greater Scaup with Tufted (left) and Pochard (right)

Finally number 6 a Short-eared Owl showed almost immediately as I walked onto Beeding Brooks

Short-eared Owl



Short-eared Owl


What a day!

Monday 17th February On a Twitch

A twitch to the border of Wilts and Gloucester on Monday gave another year tick of

 Ring - necked Parakeet flying over the M25 in Surrey

 

Along the M4 at least 7 Red Kites plus a couple more at Marshfield our destination

A short look around and Bob found the Red-tailed Blueflank

A stunning bird also seen Raven and Grey Wagtail

Raven

From here we went to the Cotswolds Water Park to see the breeding colony of

 Red-crested Pochard 17 were counted

 

Our final stop was Netherton Bottom near Andover a quiet corner of Hampshire where all the usual woodland birds were seen plus Red-legged Partridge but best of all a calling then singing Willow Tit

Netherton Bottom

Thanks Paul for the guiding, and Bob for the company.

Sunday 16th February The Thames at Tibury

A trip to the northern shore of the Thames at Tilbury, where Paul has been surveying the winter high tide roosts was so unlike birding in Sussex. As the tide came in the wintering waders were pushed closer together until the mud disappeared.

At least 670 Avocets, a thousand or more Dunlin plus grey Plover and Shelduck squeezed together.

Then the Avocets took flight once the mud was flooded.

An amazing sight.

Twitching Hampshire Tues 4th Feb 2014

 

 

Set off for Hampshire twitching at 7.30am only to find the car immobiliser was immobilising the car, changed over to the truck only to hit long queues through Bexhill road, and then stationary at Polegate, arriving at Pauls half an hour late. Thanks to Bob we swapped cars and with Christine and later Chris we were at Pennington Marshes by 11.30am. A little more than hour of scanning the floods all we could find were 2 Ruff, 1Snipe, 2 Curlew, plus Dunlin, most species of common ducks and Lapwing but no sign of the Long-billed Dowitcher. Cutting our losses we headed for Lepe where the Lesser Yellowlegs was showing well and much closer than when we saw it in December.

 

 

Lesser Yellowlegs



Lesser Yellowlegs

Moving on into the New Forrest we went for a walk along Bishops Dyke looking for Great Grey Shrike but the heathland was birdless, so a visit to Blackwater Arboretum for the Hawfinches should have been a dead cert. But it was going to be one of those days they didn't show nor did much else. A good day out and many thanks to Bob for driving.