The Wanderings Birders

Purple Ronny

2006-05-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

This evening we went with Twitcher Teasdale for the Purple Ron at Twitchwell. We met up with fellow Team Bowell member Marc Read whilst standing around waiting for the Ron to pop up, who informed us we would probably be waiting quite a while. And indeed we did, about an hour and half, though that is nothing compared to last year where we were sitting at Cley all afternoon and evening and didn’t even see the blighter.

Thankfully this one decided to leap up, flap around a bit, do a massive crap, nearly land in a tree, miss and fall back down the reeds again. Purple Heron in the bag!

The only other bird of note was a male Garganey which was sat on the freshmarsh; it was about the only bird that didn’t seem bothered the presence of a Fox wandering around in circles looking for eggs.

We finished the evening off with a stop at the local chippy in Sunny Hunny. Nice!

Pendulinus in the Bagus!

2006-02-05T13:54:00.000-08:00

Way back in December (or was it November? we forget), the wandering birders ventured down’t south for a rare bird called a “Sociable” Plover (or something like that). The bird however, was about as sociable as fish is to a man with a fishing line and bate (nice analogy eh?) and we failed to see it in the limited time we had.

Anyways, the long and short of it is that not only did we ‘dip’ (that’s what birder’s say when they miss something for those not in the know out their in the blog reading land) on the Unsociable Lover (as we have named it) but we also dipped on Remiz pendulinus (that’s Penduline Tit for those who don’t know Latin bird names... And that’s rare in

Britain

for those of you who don’t know about birds in

Britain

) – flippin’ 5 of them (or more perhaps!) in a flock!

The Plover disappeared never to be seen again but earlier this week the Tits returned, out of the blue (or out of the reed mace you might say). The place this all happened of course, Rainham Marshes, RSPB reserve. Unfortunately the reserve is closed to the public at the moment, whilst preparations to make it into some super site are going on.

Guided walks take place every Wednesday (at 9am sharp- fact fans) and a special walk took place yesterday (Saturday) for birders to get to grips with the Tits (as it were), and around 70 did indeed get to grips with the Tits (in a manor of speaking). Howard Vaughan (from the RS of PB) was kind enough to arrange access and indeed even to alert us to the re-emergence of these Tits during the week, for today.

So, setting off around 6.30am (or half past silly-a-clock as it should be known) the wandering birders plus my Dad, Ray headed down to Rainham. Dan Williams met us at the gate (whom Howard also granted access, rather kindly) and shortly afterwards (about 8.15am) Howard turned up and let us in.

It wasn’t long before some birders already on the site had jammed into the flock of 4 Penduline Tits and we soon managed to get on at least 2 males and a female. Tan-tastic pop pickers!

The group made their way round to the other side of the reeds were we rewarded with some excellent scope views of at least one pair, actively feeding just over a drain from us. Below are a couple of record shots (first of a male then of a female) I got (heavily cropped!).

Penduline Tits, Rainham Marshes RSPB, London.
© William Bowell

As well as these superb birds, we also recorded the reserve’s second Cetti’s Warbler and an absolutely stonking male Black Redstart which was very confiding at times and definitely the best plumaged bird the wandering birders have seen in the UK- no diggidy, no doubt!

Next was Southend-on-Sea where we quickly located the adult Ring-billed Gull which has been frequenting this shoreline for many a winter, but equally quickly lost it. We had around 8+ adult Med Gulls and one 2^nd winter as well as the usual Turnstones trying to gorge our eyes out.

Our last stop of the day was Grafham. We were gonna stop at Needingworth for American Wigeon, but no positive and only negative reports led us to not bothered. It was there however; if only it had been reported!

We bagged the Red-throated Diver but little else.

A class day though worthy a blog mention!

Posted by Will

Ducking and screeching

2006-01-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

What a crap winter it is for the East Coast this winter?! Such early promise of beauties such as Buff-bellied Pipit (yep we saw that!) and Ross’s Gulls (ok, so Pipits are that wonderful but it was a mega and is really a birder’s bird- in that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, gosh now we are going all profound like and rambling, so moving on…), but where are the easy to twitch, lingering wonders like Lesser Yellowlegs (remember that?) and Arctic Redpoll?!

Hmmmm… on second thoughts there is an Arctic Redpoll (or three?!) in Suffolk and the Gulls and Pipit have been good enough to keep us going, so why on God’s green earth did we feel the need to travel down’t south to Londinium (as Catatonia would say- hello to all the 90’s music fans out there) to tick off a dodgey duck and escaped parrots, today?

Because people there is nothing dodgy about the Broadwater White-headed Duck and certainly nowt wrong with the very self sustaining Ring-necked Parakeets (even the BOU tick’s ‘em!)- that’s why! Both Roger ‘The Dodger’ Teasdale and I had been eyeing up this potential double (yep- tarts to the end) for ages (well weeks) and so Roger kindly drove Josh and me down to Broadwater this morning (ably co-piloted by the occasionally asleep Ray Bowell aka: my Dad).

Arriving in good timing (a little over an hour and bit I think- not sure as it flew by thanks to Roger’s humor), we set off along the very muddy track to where the Duck usually hangs out (like a chav- in fact they look kind of chavish in a duck type way; I digress). Our nerves (of steel) were put to rest when a local informed us that it was still there… oh and a Red-crested Pochard.
Red-crested Pochard, Broadwater GP, Bucks.
© Josh Jones

We stopped at the Pochard flock and Josh quickly picked out the corking male Red-crested Pochard which was strutting it’s stuff, or rather just sat there, lazing it out. Surprisingly enough, this was a year tick for me; surprising cos we live right next to a sustainable population and I really should have ticked them off by now. We continued down the muddy track and in among a hundred or so Ruddy Ducks I jammed into the white-beckon of a White-headed Duck. It was awake and fighting off male Ruddy’s (thus proving they can hold there own… oh and by the way Ruddy Duck was a year tick for me as well) but not for long as it clearly excelled itself after 5 minutes and remained asleep for the rest of our visit. A British tick for all four of us- nice start!White-headed Duck, Broadwater GP, Bucks.
© William Bowell (top) & Josh Jones (bottom)

Roger, Dad and I all hung back and showed some local beginners the WHD whilst Josh continued onwards and found a further 2 Red-crested Pochards in the Pochard flock (both females) and blasted them.

Walking back to the car park we found a flock of Siskins feeding in the alders. We had already heard Green Woodpecker from the WHD spot, but now we had two Great-spotted Woodpeckers loosely hanging onto the tail feathers of a Tit flock. Roger did the business when he picked out a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker (or Lesser pecker if you like). Another year tick for me- what a super site!

With no time to spare we moved onto Wraysbury, where the sharp eyed Josh immediately caught sight of 3 Ring-necked Parakeets. A struggle to get everyone on them, we need not of worried as we found several others, deeper in the town. Another lifer for Roger, Ray and Will- but not so for Josh, who had cheekily ticked off a couple of singles that he has had in his garden before now.

Unfortunately these screeching birds were very camera shy, so after a while we decided to make our way home- mission was indeed successful. One more port of call was on the cards though- the female Ferruginous Duck near Bedford just had to be done.

We arrived to find a couple leaving with negative news- not helpful at all, in finishing our day on a high. The Aythya flock revealed no Fuddy (or Fudge if you prefer), but Josh picked out a drake Pochard X Tufted Duck that did a rubbish impression of a Lesser Scaup to entertain us for seconds. Failing to bring my scope out the car (school boy error), expecting it to be easy, I couldn’t really scan the Aythya flock as it was too far away for my bins, so checking elsewhere I located the Fuddy swimming around the reedbeds on the northside, away from any ducks and being rather elusive. Ferruginous Duck, Elstow CP, Beds.
© Josh Jones (top) & William Bowell (bottom)

Josh managed to slaughter it digiscoping style as you can see from his results. It proved a tricky bird for the DSLR set up so my results were less than brilliant. However, it was a surprisingly nice looking bird in the strong evening sun, making some superb reflections with the reeds. I know it’s hard to get excited by brown ducks- but this was definitely more than some brown duck in the evening sun and was an excellent way to round of a day.

Posted by Will

Norfolk 4-5/1

2006-01-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

Recently I (Jones) have been suffering from pneumonia so have done virtually nothing aside short local trips. However, my strength is finally coming back, and mum and I decided to go down Norfolk for a couple of days - giving me the chance to get some 'fresh air'.

The afternoon of the 4th was spent in the Cley area. First port of call was Kelling Water Meadows, where the Eurasian Bittern walked around in the open in the cow field just to the south of the main pool. It was very odd to see a Bittern in the middle of a field hunting amongst cows, with no cover whatsoever around it, and an easy way to secure this sometimes-difficult species for the year.
Next we moved down the road to Salthouse, where the highlight was a Purple Sand on the pool by the carpark. Sorted out common waders here like Ruff, Knot, Snipe etc, as well as a flock of Snow Buntings flying around. Offshore, a Black-throated and several Red-throated Divers provided interest, as did Guillemots and a Razorbill.
The regular flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese revealed two Pale-bellied Brents opposite Walsey Hills, but no Brants.
Then it was on to Stiffkey, where mum left me for an hour or so. Highlights here included Bramblings, Blackcap, male Hen Harrier, Ruddy Duck, but no hoped-for Green-winged Teal amongst the hundreds of Eurasian.
By the time we reached Holkham it was almost dark, and there was no sign of the Black Brant. However several thousand Pink-foooted Geese were noted, as was a Barn Owl and a few Eurasian White-fronted Geese.

5th
A relatively late start saw me back at Holkham; this time in the park. After a while, a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was eventually located just east of the monument with a tit flock, which contained both Nuthatch and Marsh Tit. Also, Jays were heard calling. I wandered down to the lake, which was full of gulls. Two Meds were located; and adult and an advanced first-winter. An adult Yellow-legged Gull was sitting on a post on the opposite side of the lake. There were also 12 Barnacle Geese here; presumably the source of the birds often seen with Pinks. I then wandered down to the Gap, where I distantly 'scoped a small flock of four Shore Larks towards the eastern end. I couldn't be bothered to get closer, so went back to the Brents by Lady Anne's drive. The adult Black Brant was showing well with at least four hybrids amongst the flock, some looking fairly reminiscent of nigricans. I grilled the extensive flocks of Pinks, and was well rewarded with an adult Greenland White-fronted Goose and a single Tundra Bean Goose. However there was no sign of the Ross's X Pink hybrid.
Eventually I got cold, and I met up with mum and my aunt, and we journeyed to Titchwell. The scrapes were pretty dead, although two Bearded Tits called from the main reedbed, as did a Water Rail. A lone Avocet was on the Brackish Marsh. The sea provided the most interest with the highlight being a Black-necked Grebe. At least one Slavonian was also noted, as was a Long-tailed Duck, several Red-breasted Mergansers, 6 Velvet Scoters, several thousand Common Scoters, and two Eider. Also cleared up on a couple of easy waders like Ringed Plover and Bar-tailed Godwit.
We then headed up to Choseley, where Corn Bunting was added to the year list. There was no sign of the Little Owl however, though a big flock of Pinks was impressive.
It got dark, and then we went home.

New Year in not so north-Norfolk

2006-01-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

2006 started in Norfolk for me as usual, but due to recent ill-health Josh remained in the Peterborough area with a Caspian Gull under the belt.

Usually I do the North west Norfolk traditional spots on January 1st scoring a comfortable ton with relative ease, but this year, for a new challenge it was decided that a few Peterborough birders would hit the delights of East Norfolk to see if that could offer us the hallowed century.

Setting off from Deeping, with Roger “the Dodger” Teasdale (or ‘Twitcher Teasdale’ as the wandering birders also know him) joining my Dad, Ray and I, at 6.30am, Mute Swan was the first bird of 2006 as 3 swam down the Welland in streetlight.

Joining the Williams’s at their Norfolk pad near Felbrigg at 8.00am was excellent timing with a wee diversion to Cley, kindly hosted by the Norfolk constabulary, who seemingly put away their cones blocking the main Cromer road as soon as we passed (it did gain us the only Buzzard of the day mind!). Bob and Sue Titman also joined the crew and a pleasant walk round Felbrigg notched up near 50 species with Woodcock, Marsh Tit and Water Rail being the highlights.

After some excellent bacon butties, thanks to kind hospitality of the Williams family, we headed onwards towards Happisburgh for some mid-morning seawatching, but soon turned back on ourselves when we got ‘the call’ from John Furse alerting us that yesterday’s Ross’s Gull was back at Cley!

Thankfully it was still there for us to enjoy, but we could only stop briefly, a traffic jam was forming in the car park and we couldn’t spend all day watching this lifer for all- including Trevor the biggest lister among us!

All though brief, our views were excellent as it crawled down the sea wall towards Eye Pool and then flew towards and landed 40 feet away before being chased off by a Black-headed Gull. Unfortunately the only half decent shots I got were when it landed back on the top of the seawall in the poor light.
Ross’s Gull, Cley Coastguards, Norfolk.
© William Bowell

After a pointless walk to a frozen solid Hickling Broad which only gave us Long-tailed Tit, we finished the day at Stubb’s Mill. It was an awesome end to the day with at least 30 Marsh Harriers coming in, with at least 3 Merlins buzzing about, 3-4 Barn Owls and 2 Hen Harriers, peaking with a superb backing track of Bewick’s Swans until there was only just enough light to count 29 Common Cranes ‘gronking’ in- the last bird of the day making it a respectable 85 species for the day! Absolute magic!

We all finished the day with several bottles of wine and chili and jacket potatoes with some rather scrumptious puddings that even the sternest dietician couldn’t resist! Many thanks to Trev and Jane for their hospitality (as ever!) and to everyone else for their excellent company!

Happy New Year to everyone- from the Wandering Birders!

Posted by Will

A Shrike's short tale

2005-10-01T05:41:00.000-07:00

Lesser Grey Shrike, Spurn Point, East Yorks, 01.10.05. © Josh Jones.

It was inevitable I suppose; a Lesser Grey Shrike sat on Spurn head with no tail, deemed unfit to carry on and try and get back on track with its migration, sat there for a week no less and we had not paid it a visit. Something had to give.

In the end it was our nerve and a rather hurried pace from south Lincs saw us at the head in 3 hours, ably driven by Chris Orders (thanks Chris!) this afternoon. Stephen Menzie was our ‘man on the ground’ and had been all morning and some of the afternoon; he informed us that a) it looked like a Hamster on the deck and a Bat in flight and b) it had gone missing since 1.30pm. Things weren’t looking good when we rolled up at just before 5pm.

Thankfully some twitchers informed us the blighter was sat on the beach and had been for just the last half an hour! Nice! We made our way to join two other birders and watched the Shrike having a whale of time with wasps on the tide line before jumping onto the various bricks and wire on the edge of the dunes.Lesser Grey Shrike, Spurn Point, East Yorks, 01.10.05. © Will Bowell

The other birders left us and we managed to get reasonably close to the Shrike without flushing it. Eventually after about 15 minutes it decided to go for another feed on the beach. After getting what ever it was after it landed on a bush. Chris, who was behind the wandering birders whistled to draw our attention to a Kestrel hovering above it. Little did he know that seconds later the Shrike would be letting out a loud ‘chack’ as the Kes squashed it!

We didn’t see it fly off with it, but on the other hand didn’t see the Shrike fly off either, we ran like mad to the spot in the hope of being able to scare the Kestrel off it’s victim. Alas there was no sign, just a pile of feathers!

Lesser Grey Shrike feathers, Deeping St James, Lincs, 01.10.05. © Will Bowell

There of course has been no further sign of the Shrike and we couldn’t find any remains. You can’t help but feel sorry for the poor Shrike, especially when the tail actually looked like it might have been growing back. Guess it looked just too much like a rodent for the Kes to resist!

Besides the Shrike, the wandering birders have been up to quite a bit of twitching and a full report of what we have seen will follow soon.

Norfolk 17/8 - 19/8

2005-08-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

Red-backed Shrike, Kessingland, Suffolk, 19.08.05 © Josh Jones

Blimey! Seems ages ago that the wandering birders went birding together; we've barely had any spare time to do so of late what with Josh sunning himself in France during the second week of August and Will getting wet with other RYLA's at Grafham at the beginning of the month, its been hectic!

A gab in the shenanigans towards the end of the month has meant we can concentrate on what we love the most- migration. This past week's weather forecast looked hopefully for Wednesday and Thursday so early on Wednesday morning we headed off to Norfolk for a slice of the action.

We never expected a deluge of migrants, a trickle was we hoped we would be in store for with a tasty scarce drifter such as a Wryneck to make it all worth while. However our morning walk along Blakeney Point failed to produce more than drip of migrants with the highlight actually being a Black Guillemot zooming east on a mill-pond sea.Ruddy Shelduck, Cley NWT, Norfolk, 17.08.05 © Josh Jones

The Ruddy Shelduck were still at Cley, this time hanging around with a dodgey Pink-footed Goose among the honking Greylags.

Titchwell produced a Piedy and Spotted Fly during a couple of visits but the highlights were the waders. Curlew Sandpipes showed well at times and an exceptionally confiding adult Wood Sandpiper was top notch on Thursday evening.Wood Sandpiper, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 18.08.05 © Josh Jones
Wood Sandpiper, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 18.08.05 © Will Bowell

The climax to the last few days came on Friday when we headed to Suffolk for a true drifter- a Red-backed Shrike. The directions were naff but we eventually found a birder watching this elusive juvenile and Josh got some mungus shots! For more photos taken during the past few days, see our Bird Gallery by clicking here.

Red-backed Shrike, Kessingland, Suffolk, 19.08.05 © Josh Jones

Dowtwitching and other photos

2005-08-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Long-billed Dowitcher, Rutland Water, Rutland, 09.08.05 © Will Bowell

A one day wonder; the above Long-billed Dowitcher found by Steve Lister yesterday tempted Will out for a quick evening twitch, but the bird appears to have gone now. It remained rather distant for the DLSR set up even with converters so the above is just a record shot of this first official record for the county of this rare American wader.

Below are some other photos taken by the wandering birders during the last two weeks.Ferruginous Duck, Fen Drayton, Cambs, 07.08.05 © Will BowellHouse Martin, St Neots, Cambs, 07.08.05 © Will BowellPectoral Sandpiper, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 05.08.05 © Josh JonesMediterranean Gull, Deeping Lakes NR, Lincs, 02.8.05 © Josh JonesCattle Egret, Brampton, Cambs, 30.07.05 © Will BowellCattle Egret, Brampton, Cambs, 30.07.05 © Josh JonesRed-necked Phalarope, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 29.07.05 © Josh JonesLittle Gull, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 29.07.05 © Josh JonesArctic Skua, Thornham Point, Norfolk, 27.07.05 © Josh JonesYellow-legged Gull, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 26.07.05 © Josh JonesLittle Egret, Cley East Bank, Norfolk, 26.07.05 © Josh JonesYellow-legged Gull, Cley NWT, Norfolk, 26.07.05 © Josh Jones Curlew Sandpiper, Salthouse, Norfolk, 26.07.05 © Josh Jones

Tern Fest!!!!

2005-07-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sooty Tern, Cemlyn, Anglesey, 23.07.05 © Will Bowell

During the weekend in Wales, we enjoyed something of a Tern fest at Cemlyn. As well as the Sooty Tern there was also an adult Roseate, breeding Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns. Today a few more Tern Galleries have been added to our Bird Gallery at www.wanderingbirders.com. Click on the photos of the birds for their galleries.
Roseate Tern, Cemlyn, Anglesey, 23.07.05 © Josh Jones
Arctic Tern, Cemlyn, Anglesey, 23.07.05 © Will Bowell

Keeping track

2005-07-26T08:31:00.000-07:00

Regular visitors to our blog can now keep track on what's new on our main website by clicking on "latest website updates" in the right hand bar.

Bee munchers and mucky Terns- all in a weekend's work for the wandering birders

2005-07-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Its only been a chuffin' week since it was commented on here about our lack of long haul twitches we have been on this year, but along comes the next weekend and to prove they are like buses, two come along at once! Mungus!

The first one was the inevitable, unmissable long drag to Anglesey which not only scored us Sooty Tern but also bagged us Storm Petrel (a tart's tick we both needed!) and a bucket load of year ticks. You can read about our wild Welsh weekend (complete with pictures!) by clicking here.
Sooty Tern, Cemlyn, Anglesey, 23.07.05 © Josh Jones
Sooty Tern, Cemlyn, Anglesey, 23.07.05 © Will Bowell

Today, on the kind offer of a lift from Chris Orders we headed to the West Country near Hereford where we had learnt over the weekend that Bee-eaters were breeding. Over 3 hours after setting off from the Deepings we were enjoying our first scope fulls of Bee-eater as it sat on a hawthorn. Top notch! A long drive but well worth it for this British tick for us all!
European Bee-eater, Hampton Bishop, Herefordshire, 25.07.05 © Josh Jones

This rainbow coloured pair apparently have two chicks inside their burrow on the banks of the River Wye and since this watch point has only just started being advertised this weekend, there wasn’t much of a mid-week crowd today, but a constant flow enjoyed this extremely rare sight in Britain.

They were very active hunting near constantly, but occasionally resting on favoured perches allow for Josh to nail it even though the light was absolutely shocking. Sometimes its easy to forget how much magnification digiscoping gives you compared to DSLR but today was a classic example of when digiscoping is best and even Will resulted to it- but didn’t do nearly as half as well as Josh.

European Bee-eater, Hampton Bishop, Herefordshire, 25.07.05 © Will Bowell

Click here for our Bee-eater Gallery.

The drive home took a painful four hours but well worth it and thanks to Josh’s navigation it didn’t take any longer.

Our thanks goes to Chris Orders for the taking us- ta mate (as ever!)

Invasion of the larus sp: melanocephalus and flying Carrots!

2005-07-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Proper long haul twitches for the Wandering Birders seem to have been a rare event this year (some might say 'as rare as bird's teeth'), with most of our twitching taking place in our native East Anglia. Both of us are very much reliant on the ever generous lifts from our parents and local birding pals so getting to see some of the 'big ones' can be quite challenging.

The recent Sooty Tern was very tempting with the Wandering Birders planning a trip to Anglesey for some weeks already, but alas we didn't succumb for this mega rarity. As the old adage goes 'one good Tern deserves another' and a report of a presumed Lesser-crested Tern at Cromer on Saturday 16th morning seemed far more obtainable than the other ultra rare Tern that others had ticked off during last weekend.

However, the Tern had flown off in the early hours and couldn't be relocated, so Will headed off to work in the hope the bird would be relocated the following day, and Josh headed for a year tick in the form of a yank- Pectoral Sandpiper- a scarce and regular visitor to Norfolk and the UK in general.
Pectoral Sandpiper, Welney, Norfolk, 16.07.05 © Josh Jones

Few waders are as confiding as Yanks, but this one seemed to be the exception that proves the rule as it hung at the back of the scrape in front of the main hide. This was Josh's 6th Pec Sand in the UK (all in the last 3 years) and he did well to get these excellent shots of this ace adult.

Pectoral Sandpiper, Welney, Norfolk, 16.07.05 © Josh Jones

More photos of this bird by Josh can be found here.

After adding Pec Sand to his ever growing year list, Josh headed towards North Norfolk to try his luck at relocating the orange billed Tern. Arnold's Marsh at Cley NWT is a well known top spot for rare Terns and it seemed likely that the bird could turn up there; alas it didn't, although an hour after Josh left the site, the Tern did fly along the coast, towards Blakeney Point from the east! Josh found a single Little Stint in with the 200 odd Dunlin and Med Gull at Salthouse- this species seems to be doing extremely well this year with birds at particularly every site along the East Anglican coast!

Saturday night saw Josh and Will make plans with Will's Dad, Ray, to head for Cromer and sit it out until the bird flies over the pier. An early start wouldn't be necessary as we needed to make sure the bird would still be present.

A lousy night's sleep was soon broken for Will with a phone call at 6.40am from Bedfordshire's bright young thing and ace bird finder, David Roche, who called to alert him that the Marsh Sandpiper briefly reported in the wee small hours the previous morning at Minsmere RSPB in Surffolk was back! A quick text to Josh saw that he too was awake and plans were quickly made for the potential of a double twitch, depending on the Tern.

The flying Carrot was reported at Cley and Cromer at something past silly-a-clock and by 9.15am we were on our way to Cromer. The traffic was awful and very slow approaching Kings Lynn and Cromer we had to take several detours to avoid being sat in a hot car going no where fast. A call from John Furse told us the Tern's day hang out place had been located and the bird was at Waxham sitting pretty on sea defences!

Sunday drivers are surely one of the most annoying breeds of driver to encounter on an urgent twitch where speed is of the essence?! Today was no different and the combination of slow drivers and long thin Norfolk roads meant that full pace could not get us the tick and we would have to hope it would wait for our slow arrival. We only just managed to park near the bird and late comers had to park on the main road (if you can call it that) making it a long walk for the prize on offer.

Our arrival coincided with John's and we ran to the beach, where we could see the gather twitchers and more importantly the rocks offshore that the Tern was on! Insurance ticked from some distance we headed to where the beach was closest to offshore rocks (still some 450 yards away!). The Lesser-crested Tern was sat among the Common and Sandwich Terns and showed superbly for it's admirers, occasionally taking flight when disturbed by idiots on fast things on the sea.Lesser-crested Tern, Waxham, Norfolk, 17.07.05 © Josh Jones
Lesser-crested Tern, Waxham, Norfolk, 17.07.05 © Will Bowell

Too distant for DSLR, Josh kindly allowed Will to use his digiscoping set up and they both got some pleasing result considering the heat haze and distance. Will also managed some poor records of it in flight to prove that it has a grey rump (as oppose to white i.e. Elegant Tern). Most if not all those present were now convinced the bird was indeed a Lesser-crested Tern and soon reports missing out the 'presumed' were coming from pagers and mobiles.

Lesser-crested Tern, Waxham, Norfolk, 17.07.05 © Will Bowell

More photos by the wandering birders of this bird can be found here.

This bird was extra special for the Wandering Birders, especially Josh as it meant he had reached the hallowed 300 mark on his UK list at the age of 15 years old! And what a special bird to reach it with- only the 9th Lesser crested Carrot ever to reach our shores and not only that, one that was proving tricky to catch up with! It is a very impressive achievement to reach 300 at 15 years old- here's to 400 by 18!

Also on the sea defences offshore were a Whimbrel and two juvenile Mediterranean Gulls. Yet more evidence of the strong increase of Med Gulls along this year came when (after some persuasion from John- thanks!), Ray drove the Wandering Birders towards Minsmere and going through Great Yarmouth we had a superb adult low over the A12!

Minsmere was packed out and apparently 15 minutes prior our arrival the flippin' Marsh Sand had flown off towards West Scrape. After walking all the way round the reserve to West Scrape we were about to call it a day when a Bittern flew up. During the chaos of everyone trying to get on the Bittern, David phoned Will with news that the Marsh Sand was back viewable from the public hide.

The West Hide emptied pretty quick and brief but excellent scope views of another lifer from the Public Hide were supplemented by brief views from East Hide. Another lifer for both the Wandering Birders and a cracking way to finish a fabulous day!

Thanks as ever to Ray for driving after a week that saw him cover South Africa and Spain! Also thanks to John and David for the constant flow of gen! Much appreciated as ever!

Gallery updates

2005-07-15T03:03:00.000-07:00

Regular visitors to our wandering birders homepage will have noticed we have recently updated and revamped our Moth Gallery, this is in preperation for when our Moth Traps are in action later in the month. The Galleries have been split into Trapped Moths, Moths attracted to house lights and General Moth Gallery (i.e. Moths seen when out and about). We have also added new Moths to these galleries.

Grey Dagger, Langtoft © Josh Jones.

The Butterfly Gallery has also been updated with a Marbled White and Essex Skipper photo. Our Bird Gallery now features a whopping 113 British species and is growing all the time so well worth visiting regularly.

Please bookmark www.wanderingbirders.com

Barnack Hills & Holes

2005-07-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

Marbled White, Barnack Hills & Holes, 14.07.05 © Will Bowell

With Chalkhill Blues just out down south I decided to try my luck at Barnack Hills & Holes in a brief morning bike ride. Unfortunately there was non, but Marbled Whites were everywhere (see above pic) but as usual they were playing hard to get. Click here for more Butterfly pics.

Will

Norfolk action 10/7

2005-07-10T23:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend saw Josh craftily bag the KP at Breydon Water (see below post), so with nothing to go for (other than a certain Tern on Anglesey which we had no chance of getting for!) there was nothing for it- the KP could no longer remain an embarrassing gap on Will's list, it had to be added today.

Like any bird, the longer you leave it the more likely you are to fail so there was an of anticipation as Will entered Chris Order's car. They eventually got to Great Yarmouth North Beach where the bird had been found to hang out during high tide at 11am. At first there didn't appear to be any birders about but a glance through the heat haze saw three pairs of binoculars trained towards the same area. They had to be on it!

Meanwhile Josh was well on his way to Cley with 15 Crossbills at Sandringham along the way. It was a pretty quiet day for JJ, but flyover Crossbills at Titch, Arctic Skuas and Yellow-legged Gulls kept him entertained. He was also extremely lucky to get this shot of a Bittern at Titchwell.

Bittern, Titchwell, Norfolk, 10.07.05 © Josh Jones

Back at Yarmouth, Chris and Will had reached the twitchers but soon learnt that the KP had just flown. Confusion reined as no one seemed to no which direction it had actually flown. After a brief search of North Beach Chris and Will happened across 4 Med Gulls. Armed with cameras at the ready they quickly approached these scarce Gulls but were quickly called back by a birder armed with a dog whistle, indicating the KP was back!

A quick run to the spot where more twitchers had arrived and they were on the bird and a lifer was bagged for both. Unfortunately, Little Terns and fellow beach users ensured that no one could approach the bird at close quarters, but everyone enjoyed good scope views as it sat on a shingle bang and hunkered down in the loafing Little Terns. Below is a shocking record shot taken in the heat haze at some distance!

Kentish Plover, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, 10.07.05 © Will Bowell

The Little Terns were loafing in large numbers on the beach.

Little Tern, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, 10.07.05 © Will Bowell

Norfolk Wader Duo, 3/7

2005-07-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Josh and his Dad decided to have a day out together (something they haven't done for a while!) in Norfolk. First port of call for them was the Kentish Plover that had been present on Breydon Water. However, it hadn't been reported so far on the day, and it was a bit of gamble going. Luckily, the gamble paid off, and the Kentish was found feeding by the main channel from the south wall, by the rugby club.

Just before ticking off this bird, Josh had received a phone call from Will who had received a phone call from David Roche, who had just found an adult White-rumped Sandpiper on the freshmarsh at Titchwell (phew!), and so the plans for a relaxing day's birding were trashed by this find.
By mid-afternoon, Jones senior and Jones junior had ticked the bird off, and it was the younger Jones' second British tick of the day. The bird was enjoyed in the company of Titchwell volunteer warden Marc Read. Then it was on to the Lifeboat pub where a relaxing (and well-deserved) pint was to be had.

Meanwhile, the other half of the wandering birders, Will, was at home. He fortunately managed to get a lift off local birder Chris Orders to the White-rumped, which they enjoyed until it flew off at about half-seven that evening, never to be seen again.

Yet again, Norfolk comes up trumps!

Josh.

It's a Moth Trap! Part 1.

2005-07-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

.....or is that a Crazy Frog Trap?!

Over the past few days Will and his Grandad have been busy making two Moth Traps for the wandering birders. Both are at the above stage, so not quite complete.

Whilst taking the above photo Will disturbed this fella who is living under the boards outside his back door (there until our new path is built).

Common Frog, Deeping St James, Lincs, 29.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Hopefully the moth traps will be up and running in a few weeks.

Unfortunately the Frog is now in very much an ex-frog as it accidentally got squashed under the board.....R.I.P Crazy Frog.

Dipping, but not on a Dipper

2005-06-26T21:45:00.000-07:00

Dipper, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Not being able to face another boringg' Sunday in Norfolk, the wandering birders went inland today; towards the mighty Derbyshire/Staffordshire Dales and the year ticks it had to offer.

Our first stop of the day was the impressive valley of Dovedale. The main target here was Dipper, which going on past experience we thought would be plentiful. Unfortunately though we only saw about two pairs and non of them were easy to get photos of.

The first bird we saw though, was by far the easiest with it sitting nicely on a fallen tree over a waterfall. Unfortunately though the light was either top poor or too strong; even when underexposing to the max the light was bleaching out the white, presumably the light being reflected off the stream was the main reason for this.

Dipper, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Josh Jones

Once this beaut had flown we headed along the river with numerous encounters with Grey Wagtails and Redstarts, all difficult or in the case of Redstart, impossible to get shots of. It was just that kind of a day.

Grey Wagtail, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Will Bowell

We were both quite amazed at the numbers of breeding Grey Wagtails on the small stretch of river we walked, though it's quite obvious as to why they are spreading to places like around us, away from traditional breeding haunts.

Grey Wagtail, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Another highlight of the walk were four female type Goosanders which tended to sit in the shade (told you it was that kind of a day!), but we did manage to get something on these beasts (or beauties).

Goosander, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Goosander, Dovedale, Staffs, 26.06.05 | © Josh Jones

We spent all morning in the valley and it was most enjoyable, if a little frustrating, but our next and final task of the day was even more frustrating- Red Grouse year ticking!

Swallow Moss used to be a top spot for Black Grouse, but sadly they have died out, but back in 2001 Will had a Red Grouse there, so presumably they are still there and the habitat is certainly vast enough. Unfortunately though despite extensive searching, there was just no sign of any Grouse, infact the only bird of note was a couple of Curlew.

More frustration was to come once we got home when we found out that a Purple Heron had been reported in the morning at Tittesworth Reservoir- the Reservoir we could see from the moors near Swallow Moss! Bugger! It was definitely one fo those days.

Dig that crazy bill!

2005-06-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

From Birdguides.com this afternoon:

Curlew sp, Minsmere RSPB, Suffolk, 17/10/04. The controversial bird from autumn 2004 has been confirmed as a Eurasian Curlew by DNA analysis.

Nuff said....!

Actually, although the wandering birders had felt all along that it was indeed a Eurasian Curlew it would have been nice if it hadn't have been, not just for the tick but for day we saw it on. Not only did we have a Yellow-browed Warbler and more Beardies than you shake a stick at on the long walk to the Curlew, but after seeing the bird and deciding it was rather uninteresting, we went and payed our respects to the Baird's Sand on the reserve.

We then moved our way along the broads dipping on Glossy Ibis and finishing the day after a quick pint in a nice pub on the north Norfolk coast, at Titchwell RSPB. It was a great way to finish the day with Roseate, Arctic, Common and Sandwich Tern all on the beach and Common Crane roosting on the Brackish Marsh! All rather brilliant..... and all because of some runt Eurasian Curlew!

One good tern.....

2005-06-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

As part of work experience with English Nature, Josh has had to study the Common Terns at Grummit's Scrape, on Nicholas Watts' land. So this evening both wandering birder went down to the hide with Will's camera and went for the flight shots with JJ getting the most pleasing shot of one with a fish.

Common Tern, Grummit's Scrape, Lincs, 24.06.05 | © Josh Jones

Will on the other hand only spent about a minute with the camera (the whole point of going was for JJ to take some pix for a project) and didn't get a great deal.

Common Tern, Grummit's Scrape, Lincs, 24.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Not much else was noted, the Oystercatcher young continue to grow and a male Sparrowhawk flew through.

More photos can be found here.

So cute....

2005-06-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Recently, a pair of Oystercatchers hatched two young at Baston & Langtoft Pits (Josh's local patch), and are doing well. The usual Oyc pair are proving themselves to be good parents, and as this photos shows, they are doing well.

Oystercatchers, 21.6.05, © Josh Jones

Hopefully both will fledge - I will keep you posted!

Josh

What you lookin' at?!?!

2005-06-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

With an afternoon to spare and no where to go, and Josh in Norfolk, I wasn't overly sure where to go today, but the Long-eared Owl spot I visited last Thursday seemed worth a shot for insects more than anything. I wasn't really expecting any more views of the Owls and was some what surprised to find three chicks calling in the heat of the day.

At first they seemed distant and I was pretty sure that they wouldn't be on show so continued to watch the local Red eyed Damselfly and Four-spotted Chaser happenings on one of the drains. Eventually we wandered half heartedly up to where the squeaking had taken place, they started up again and to our surprise we clocked a couple of orange eyes staring back at us a mere three and half metres away.

Long-eared Owl, Peterborough, 18.06.05 | © Will Bowell

After moving back a bit and enjoying the sight of a LEO out in the open I decided to take a few shots, having to move back to allow my 500mm lens to do the action. In hindsight, I should have gone straight for the small lens 'cos it was that close I only got the head in my 500mm! I blasted a couple of hand held shots before putting it on the tripod, by which time the Owl decided to flap a couple of beats and head for cover!

This is the more mature of the three and I am impressed to see how much it has moulted into more adult like plumage in the past two days! To see what it looked like two days ago click here. Still, it ain't no looker yet; as Josh put it, "the adults are sexy, the chicks are cute but these are in the spotty teenage stage". It even has the rebellious punk hair with a few quills poking through in the making of 'ears'.

We didn't see much else other than a few Scarce Chasers and a single Marsh Harrier but still a great afternoon of local action.

Will

Here's looking at you kid!

2005-06-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

After a rather busy day in Peterborough and Deeping, a brief but productive walk round a local site was just what the doctor ordered!

The highlight was the target Long-eared Owls, of which I was rather hoping for some hunting shots of the adults if I was lucky, but instead I had to make do with the usual "in bush" shot, only this time with the squeaky gate chicks.

Long-eared Owl, Peterborough, 16.06.05 | © Will Bowell

At first there appeared to be just the onesqueakyy gate, but moving round a bit soon revealed a second, younger bird.

Long-eared Owl, Peterborough, 16.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Nice!

Back looking for the adults, all we could muster was a single Barn Owl and Little Owl. This smart White Ermine was nearly a gonna, but thankfully I spotted it and got the shot.

White Emine, Peterborough, 16.06.05 | © Will Bowell

Will

Pyramidal Orchid and website updates.

2005-06-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

Pyramindal Orchid, Deeping Lakes LWT, Lincs, 12.6.05 | © Will Bowell
Hopefully we will get more pix once it actually comes out into flower....

Birds Gallery
On our website, www.wanderingbirders.com, we have just uploaded a brand spanking new Birds Gallery featuring 93 species. It includes photos taken from all over the UK- from the Outer Hebrides to the Cornish Valleys, including a number of rarities. Please take a peak, and if you enjoy it then please feel free to leave a comment in our guestbook.

Southern Spain Trip Report

2005-06-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

You can now read a trip report by myself, about a long weekend's birding in Southern Spain in late May. It includes photos of birds, insects and landscapes.

Friday 20th May 2005 > GO
Saturday 21st May 2005 > GO
Sunday 22nd May 2005 > GO
Monday 23rd May 2005 > GO

Will

Relaxed Norfolk, 5/6

2005-06-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

A slightly slower pace to our Norfolk travels today, after last weeks wanderings from the Jones' Norfolk pad, we took a day trip with Will's Dad today in the hope of nailing Bittern to the year list.

We started off at Titchwell RSPB which seems the better choice these days with connecting with Bittern, we spent most of the morning sitting around waiting for one to show, with a few pieces of entertainment along the way. From the Fen Hide we enjoyed excellent views of a couple of Beadies sat on the tops of the reed, preening and a few Marsh Harriers were knocking about as well.

Eventually we moved out onto the main track which seems the best spot for viewing Bittern as you have a greater field of view. Along the boardwalk a few Southern Marsh Orchids were out along with Ragged-Robin.

Southern Marsh Orchid, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 5.6.05 | © Will Bowell

Ragged-robin, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk, 5.6.05 | © Will Bowell

From the main track Josh located a couple of adult Med Gulls (on call!) as they flew over- nice one! The most bizarre sight was a pair of Corn Bunts coming down for a drink in the middle of the reedbed- both the wandering birders have never seen this before and presumably these are birds from nearby Choosley Barns. A Marsh Harrier alerted us to a brown bird in the reedbed, which was clearly a Bittern. Eventually, tired of the hassle from the male Harrier and a few Black-headed Gulls the Bittern lifted out the reedbed revealing blue lores proving it to be a male.

The bird flew ever closer to us, and plopped down into the reeds out of sight- crackin' views of an ace bird!

We then moved onto to Salthouse where the weather was pretty changeable, going from sunny to peeing with rain in seconds. The wandering birders spent most of the time blasting a Meadow Pipit and a confiding flock of Dunlin.

Meadow Pipit, Salthouse Marsh, Norfolk, 5.6.05 | © Josh Jones

Dunlin, Salthouse Marsh, Norfolk, 5.6.05 | © Josh Jones

Dunlin, Salthouse Marsh, Norfolk, 5.6.05 | © Will Bowell

Stay tuned for more pix in our newly designed Bird Gallery due to be released later this week!

Norfolk, 30/5 - 2/6

2005-06-03T09:42:00.000-07:00

A good few days in Norfolk were spent this week, with the wandering birders generally based around Cley (after its recent run of scarcities and rarities). To sum the few days up, the word "quality" would have to be used, rather than "quantity".

We drove down late in the evening of the 30th, stopping for Nightjar, which was a year tick for Josh. Bill Oddie-style hankie waving and clapping really did the business for excellent views. Dudey!

The next morning we began at Titchwell, which was generally dead apart from good numbers of Swifts, 11 Little Gulls and a drake Garganey in quite poor plumage. A thrashing of our 'little spot at Thornham' produced little of interest.

Little Egret, Norfolk, Thornham, 31.5.05 © Will Bowell

Spending the afternoon at Cley produced some good birds, but no year ticks were to be had. Birds included the Collared Prat, Temminck's Stint, and a smart Spoonbill flying by. However, in six hours, there was no sign of the Purple Heron.

Cley at sunset © Will Bowell

Another lie-in on June 1st turned out to probably have been a good idea. On our way to Cley (we were going to walk Blakeney Point), we had a phone call while we were in Stiffkey to say a White Stork was circling over the reserve. Josh's Mum put her foot down and we were away. Thankfully, the idea to pull up onto the hill at Morston proved to be a good one, and we got superb views of the White Stork as it flew low west just to the south of the village. A good start to the day!

Blakeney Point was rather quiet, with just a Wheatear and a few Arctic Terns noted. We walked back in the pouring rain hardly looking beyond our feet. If only we had looked further...

Back in the car on the way to Wells, we had a phone call to say a Short-toed Lark was on the Point, around a mile west of the Coastguards. Bugger! It must have come down in the rain...
We grabbed a quick bite to eat and raced back to Coastguards and set off along the point. Around the wrecked boat at the Marrams, Will flushed a pale bird which he immediately recognised as the Short-toed Lark. We then obtained good flight views as it flew around the sueda bushes, and it called twice. Josh then located it feeding with a Skylark on the deck, and we obtained superb views. It was just a shame it was raining and the light was shocking!

Short-toed Lark, Norfolk, Blakeney Point © Josh Jones

So 2 year ticks, including a lifer - you can't grumble at that... and the coasthopper journey back to Thornham comes highly recommended!

On 2/6 we did very little aside pootling around Titchwell. All the usuals were noted.

Blackbird, Norfolk, Titchwell © Josh Jones

All in all, another excellent few days. Surely this run will come to an end soon....?!

Another new gallery added and subscribing

2005-06-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't been on our main website www.wanderingbirders.com, why not check it out now? We have recently added a Landscapes gallery which has interesting Landscape shots from around Europe at the moment- we should be adding more as the weeks go by.

Some of you who have subscribed to our diary (i.e: this blog!) may have noticed that you haven't been receiving any posts- but rest assured that should be fixed now!

For more information about this diary and our website in general please click here.

Pratting about, 29/5

2005-05-29T12:15:00.000-07:00

After trumping around last week(end), the wanderers have been pratting about today. A fairly late start saw us down in the brecklands for Stone-curlew, a year tick for Josh.

Next it was onto Great Ryburgh, where Honey Buzzard was bagged relatively quickly, and a first of the year for Will's dad Ray. Also about were a few Hobbies and Sparrowhawks.

Our main base for the afternoon was to be Cley, just in case the Purple Heron put in an appearance - which it didn't. However we were in for a cracking few hours. On arrival a first-summer Caspian Gull was located on Pat's Pool. Our converse with John Furse at Cley visitor centre was cut short by the reappearance of yesterday's Collared Pratincole. As we headed for this (on Blakeney Freshmarsh), 3 Common Cranes thermalled over the village slowly heading inland.

Common Crane x3, Cley, Norfolk | © William Bowell

The pratincole was initially just out of sight on the deck, but got up on a few occasions and showed superbly in the 'scope. White trailing edge, chestnut underwings and forked tail were all seen well.
On returning to the visitor centre, we relocated the Caspian Gull, but little else was seen.

Our last stop of the day was for Montagu's Harriers - we obtained superb views of a ringtail.

What a magnificent day, and as ever thanks to Ray for driving!!

Another Gallery added.

2005-05-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Privet Hawkmoth, Langtoft | © Josh Jones.

Check out www.wanderingbirders.com/wildlifephotos for some Butterfly and Moth pix added today.

Trumpet... finally!

2005-05-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

With being away at the weekend, an'all, Will was hopeful the Trumpeter Finch would stick around for a quick twitch on Thursday. Thankfully it remained and he obtained excellent views and not so excellent pictures.

Trumpeter Finch, Landguard Point, Suffolk | © William Bowell

You can now subscribe!

2005-05-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you who visit this site regularly and want to know when the diary gets updated you can now subscribe, and get e-mails when ever we update! See side bar to the right and get subscribing! :)

Trumping about, 21-22/5

2005-05-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

Another May weekend comes to pass, and despite southerly(ish) winds, there wasn't really much about. Still, it was an improvement from recent weeks. News came early on the Saturday of a Purple Heron at Cley, although no further sign was half-expected. However dipped on it by two minutes in the evening.

The other exciting news that came in on Saturday was of a Trumpeter Finch in Suffolk - however no chance of getting for it until Sunday.

Saturday started well with Honey Buzzards at Great Ryburgh, then a Woodchat Shrike in the rain (lifer) at Cromer.

Woodchat Shrike, Cromer, Norfolk © Josh Jones

Salthouse produced a Little Stint in the massive thunderstorm, and then what was easily the biggest shock of the day - a pale phase Pomarine Skua at middle distance of Titchwell in the evening!
However, a dip on the 1st-summer Purple Heron at Cley dampened things a bit.

And so Sunday dawned. We didn't set off from the cottage until 10, heading down to Landguard NR in Suffolk for the Trumpeter Finch. And what a bird! By the looks of things it had been showing very well on Saturday, but it kept distant on Sunday, with only a poor record taken at distance and strong winds:

Trumpeter Finch, Landguard NR, Suffolk © Josh Jones

Finally, a breckland wood revealed Willow Tit for the year on the way home, but a dip on Stone Curlews means another trip will be have to made specially for them. Overall, a good weekend - 6 year ticks and 2 lifers ain't bad!

Josh

Spanish Birding: Day 4

2005-05-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday was pretty slow birding really, and although the White-rumped Swifts were magnificent, there was still some quality birding waiting for us on Monday, our last day.

We spent the day in the Serrias around Grazalema, enjoying the many sights this productive area had on offer. Our first stop was at a small village called El Bosque, which gave us a superb vantage point over the valley.

El Bosque, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

The flowers of course attracted insects with Small Copper being among the many butterflies noted.

Small Copper, El Bosque, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Outside the village the first Black Wheatear was sat high up on a rock, while below it a singing Melodious Warbler and Serin were found. There were also a few insects here.

Melodious Warbler, El Bosque, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Cleopatra, El Bosque, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Royal Burnet, El Bosque, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

As the heat of the day picked up, our past couple of day's experiences taught us things tend to slow down, not so at Villaluengo Pass. One of our stops here produced some brilliant birding and excellent insects as well. At first there seemed little to look at, but as we had learnt from the White rumped Swift and the Saltpans, a bit of time pays and soon the area was alive with birds.

The highlights included a pair of Western Orphean Warblers found by Katie (poo poo-ed at first by myself- sorry Katie!) which showed incredibly well in the shelter of one particular bush. Western Subalpine and Sardinian Warblers were also in the area and Katie and myself had excellent views of a singing Western Olivaceous Warbler.

A couple of Chough flew across one of the peaks, and Katie also found a flock of Alpine Swifts which eventually reached a peak of 7 birds, nesting in one of the cliffs near some Crag Martins. A couple of Rock Buntings gave brief and unsatisfactory views and another Blue Rock Thrush with a Black Wheatear showed briefly.

The butterflies were easier to photograph.....

Marsh Fritillary, Villaluengo Pass, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Morrocan Orange Tip, Villaluengo Pass, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Las Covezuela was also pretty good with incredible views of calling Western Bonelli's Warblers- a good call to remember for back in the UK.....

Western Bonelli's Warbler, Las Covezuela, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Three Dartford Warblers were just outside Grazalema and a perched Short-toed Eagle was good to see. I also saw the only Nuthatch of the trip, here.

On the road to Zahara de la Sierra, we stopped off at the first mirandor which gave us excellent views of Rock and Cirl Bunting.

Rock Bunting, Grazalema Mirador, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

At Puerto de las Palomes was one of our last stops before the airport, and it provided yet another magic moment for me.

Puerto de las Palomesr, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Puerto de las Palomesr, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Not only did we have spectaular scenary surrounding us, but above us swarms of Pallid Swifts were swirlling in there thousands- I have never seen anything like it before! In among them Griffon Vultures seemed to appear from high above us, and gradually got lower and lower. And below our feat, masses of Hummingbird Hawkmoths and a single Broad-boarded Bee Hawkmoth were feeding on the flowers. Throw a couple of Stonechats and a singing Rock Bunting in the mix and you have a brilliant way to finish the trip!

Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Puerto de las Palomesr, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Griffon Vulture, Puerto de las Palomesr, Spain, 23.05.05 | © Will Bowell

The last bird of the trip, just like the first was House Sparrow as got on the plane at Jerez and the trip list totalled in at 139, with 40 of those being lifers for myself (I know- what a tart!).

My thanks to Brian Stone for inviting me along, and thanks to Brian, Katie and Tony for there excellent company! Cheers guys!

Day 1 >>>
Day 2 >>>
Day 3 >>>

:: wanderings ::

Spanish Birding: Day 3

2005-05-22T11:55:00.000-07:00

With a lot of ground to cover, we headed south pretty smartish on Sunday. It wasn't long though, before the temptation to stop kicked in, when an old ruined building complete with nesting storks was spotted.

White Stork, Spain, 22.05.05 | © Will Bowell

The Laguna da Medina was the first official stop of the trip down south, for Crested Coot. Not the most inspiring tick of the trip that was for sure, but still good to get under the belt and the bird and insect life around the lagoon made up for the lack of it on the lagoon itself.

Great Reed Warblers were croaking everywhere, and would come out and show extremely well, but unfortunately I didn't get any shots of them. Reed, Sedge and Cetti's were also noted. A Nightingale showed briefly, and a couple of Stonechats were sat on the fence. A pair of Little-ringed Plovers were the only ones we saw during the trip.

As we continued our journey south, swirls of Griffon Vultures we saw soaring over the hillsides near Medina Sidona were hugely impressive. Eventually we reached the coast and arrived at Tarifa for a quick stop which produced a few Cory's Shearwaters in the Med and a Lesser Kestrel was knocking about the castle towers. Meanwhile, Yellow-legged Gulls were good for photos.

Yellow-legged Gull, Tarifa, Spain, 22.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Heading inland a bit, we found a massive mixed flock of House and Spanish Sparrows on our way to Santuraio de Nuesta Señora de la Luz. Here, we also got fabulous views of male and female Montagu's Harrier on a nest change over. This was meant to be one of our prime birding spots, unfortunately it was also a favoured area for the locals and strong winds blasting across the valley made staying longer than it took to consume an ice cream pointless, so we continued our way along the valley making regular stops.

Woodchat Shrike, Spain, 22.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Black-eared Wheatears and Woodchats were regular along the CAP2213 road and one of our stops produced a Monarch Butterfly for two of the group. But the ultra highlight for myself, came when at one stop a Swift sp circled over and suddenly dipped down revealing a white arse! In fact there were two of them- White-rumped Swifts! Pure magic and luck since we had been told they hadn't turned up yet at the publicised, regular breeding sites!

White-rumped Swift, Spain, 22.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Above is a poor record shot of one of the birds, with some terrible glare from on the sun, but at least you can see the white on the head and white rim to the secondaries!

Since these were one of the targets of the trip we watched them for a good long while. They mixed freely with the flock of Common and Pallid Swifts, but would every now and again break away from the flock, occasionally with a Pallid hanger-on. They're jizz was completely different to the Pallids and Commons; White rumpeds seem slimmer and more slender. Superb things!

Other birds on show here included a confiding Tawny Pipit and a hovering Short-toed Eagle.

The Ojen Valley was pretty productive with several Thekla Larks were feeding in a field with a Tawny Pipit. More Black-eared Wheatears aligned the roadside fences here, joined briefly by a smart male Serin.

Our final stop of the day was for Swifts, but alas, just as we were warned, non were in. A couple of Griffons and Lesser Kestrels were sat on the cliff though and some singing male Blue Rock Thrushes were equally welcome sights.

Day 4 >>>

Day 1 >>>
Day 2 >>>

Spanish Birding: Day 2

2005-05-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

A not so early morning walk round the accommodation again, produced 1 Little Egret and Grey Heron over, several pairs of Crested Larks, Goldfinch, a single Red legged Partridge, House Sparrows by the bucket load and a couple of Iberian Yellow Wagtails (Motacilla flava iberiae), but the highlight for me was the flock of 10 Common Swifts and 10 Pallid Swifts which came through.

Pallid Swift, Alijar, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

After breakfast (which we learnt the night before through hand gestures and broken Spanish we could make ourselves- it was toast all round!) we headed off for some proper Spanish birding action. On our way to the Bonanza Saltpans we had a couple of Red-rumped Swallows fly past the car and a single ring-tailed Montagu's Harrier. A couple of Cattle Egrets sat in a field with a Common Kestrel, House Martin and Swallow also seen.

The Bonanza Saltpans proved to be a fantastic stop for us, with waders being extremely numerous- including breeding Kentish Plovers.

Kentish Plover, Bonanza Saltpans, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Black-winged Stilts, Greenshank, Dunlin, Little Stint, Sanderling, Grey Plover and Ringed Plover were also recorded. A few Gull-billed Terns were flying along the river and raptors were plentiful over the Doñana woodlands. Black Kites numbers probably reached well over 60 birds up at any one time and Booted Eagles were also fairly numerous. The major raptor highlight was a Spanish Imperial Eagle which I picked up as it drifted along slowly on near flat wings. A local birder who we happened across (or rather he happened across us) confirmed the id- he even offered us to show us around the Saltpans, even though we basically communicating in broken Spanish, German, English and of course through the use of the trusty field guide!

Other birds scored from that one spot included a flock of distant 70+ Greater Flamingos, 95 Glossy Ibis, 80 Spoonbill, Little Egrets, 20 Slender-billed Gulls, Yellow-legged Gulls and more Iberian Yellow Wagtails.

The Slender-billed Gulls were truly stunning, with several showing some nice pink flushes. They're feeding antics made for some interesting photos.

Slender-billed Gull, Bonanza Saltpans, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Eventually our elected Spanish guide moved us along with a few stops before the next major scan producing a close Little Egret.

Little Egret, Bonanza Saltpans, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Where our guide took us to was fantastic for Terns with more Little Terns than you could shake a stick at and a single Black Tern and Gull-billed Tern, but no hoped for Audouin's Gull.

Little Tern, Bonanza Saltpans, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

As we made our way back towards Sanlucar for lunch we found a nice family party of Sardinian Warblers on the fence by the track but other than that it was more of the same really.

After a buying our lunch from a local store we headed out through the Algaida Pines in the heat of the day, with little of interest other than more Black Kites overhead. Eventually we reached a dry area which was excellent for Larks with heaps of Crested Larks moving about. By lucky fluke, a Roller was sat on the overhead wires in front of us, unfortunately though only Tony managed a shot- an excellent shot of it just taking off! The rest of us had to make do with a Woodchat Shrike which only Katie really got anything on it (click here), whilst Brian and Tony snapped a great Swallowtail (click here).

The Larks were proving to be pretty frustrating as they kept on flying into the heat haze and we couldn't get enough on them to be sure of anything; let alone our target of Lesser Short-toed! We carried on along the rough road towards the back of the Saltpans in the hope of some easier Larks further along. Another chance encounter, this time with a superb male Spectacled Warbler raised spirits further in the increasing mid-day sun.

Finally we seemed to hit it lucky when Katie and Brian had a Greater Short-toed Lark on their side of the car, and Tony and myself had one on our side of the car. They weren't Lesser's but they were a start! Katie balanced her digiscoping kit on her knee in the back of the car and produced a fine shot which can be seen here.

Travelling along further and another stop produced another Greater Short-toed Lark on Brian and Katie's side of the car, but apparently nothing on ours... or was there?! I could see something which looked vaguely Lark shaped and looked like it was moving, but only slightly. Eventually it moved a bit more- yep, it was a Lark, but which one? Brian got out and got his scope on it, whilst I balance mine on the back window revealing a short, stubby, finch like bill- Lesser! Jackpot!

Brian took a couple of record shots of it, as it sat there singing, eventually moving into thicker stuff. See his record shot here.

Pleased with finally nailing Lesser Short-toed Lark after it seemed so hopeless at the beginning, we carried on to the back of the Saltpans for a quick bite to eat (bread role and crisps brought in Sanlucar). There seemed little of interest at first, with just a line of Coots and Yellow-legged Gulls to keep us entertained, but a better look at the Gulls revealed another wanted bird for the trip- a 2nd summer Audouin's Gull!

In high spirits, we headed back through the pines on another fruitless search for Azure-winged Magpies. Here we recieved at text from Steve Dudley and Josh saying that a Trumpeter Finch had turned up in Suffolk- damn! But not to worry, there wasn't much we could do about it really, so we just looked up and enjoyed displaying Booted Eagles and low flyovers from Black Kites as they headed to their nests and flock of 5-6 Griffon Vultures heading over. Nice!

On the Laguna de Terelo we picked up a good few White-headed Ducks (see pic below), a Tree Sparrow, Black-necked, Great-crested and Little Grebes.

White-headed Duck, Laguna de Terelo, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Our plans to head north for some more wetland type species was severely in jeopardy when we hit a long road, which was in bad nick making for a slow route. Thankfully, a Collard Pratincole appeared on a bank by the side of the road, followed by another, and another....and then a Purple Heron.... and then a Grey. We decided we probably wouldn't make it to Brazo del Este, so stopped and watched the amazing sight of 50+ Collard Prats flying out of a field after a low flyover Black Kite put them up. Thrilling!

Purple Heron, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Collard Pratincole, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

As well as the Prats, which let us get reasonably close to them there were a few Great Reed Warblers croaking from the reedbed and Zitting Cisticola was calling loudly behind us, with a couple of Red-rumped Swallows in for good measure, it was a good place to stop.

Further along the beaten track, we happened across a few Woodchats, a flyover White Stork, Turtle Dove and more Crested Larks.

By now evening was upon us, and things were clearly cooling down enough for more bird activity so we headed back towards the Laguna de Terelo. However, despite Tony's excellent navigation skills and Brian's brilliant driving, we ended up getting lost somewhere in Sanlucar. It has to be said we did get lost on more than one occasion during the trip, usually with spectacular results and this time was no different!

Luck rather than judgement and navigation skill saw us at what is now known in all our notebooks at the "Hidden Pools of Sanlucar" (which Brian christened). It was a great spot with over five Little Bitterns sat around one of the pools, one of which when taking off nearly knocked us all out! An immature Night Heron also took off from out of sight and a couple of elusive Purple Gallinules eventually showed reasonably well.

Little Bittern, Sanlucar, Spain, 21.05.05 | © Will Bowell

Eventually we made it alive to Laguna de Terelo and saw plenty more White-headed Ducks, 3 Red-crested Pochards and hords of Egrets and Herons on the island. The highlight for me was a flock of 5 Squacco Herons which appeared from nowhere in front of the hide, top notch!

Yet again there was no sign of any Azure-winged Magpies in the Algaida Pines, but there were a few bits and bobs of interest including another Spectacled Warbler, Sardinian Warblers, Short-toed Treecreepers and Blue Tits. The highlights from our search before dusk for the Azure wings, really were the Spotted Flycatcher, flycatching by the track, a Wryneck which only I managed to see as it flew off into the pines and a Long-eared Owl, sat right out in the open, but spooked by us and quickly disappeared!

We arrived in the clearing at dusk, in anticipation of one of our big targets- Red-necked Nightjar. It wasn't long before Tony and myself picked one up singing, half heartedly, and it wasn't long after that before they were all in full flow. About 8-10 birds sang around us, which is pretty good considering we could only hear a small part of the clearing. We enjoyed incredible flight views in the half light and after dark, incredible views in the torch light. One bird even sat singing above us on the observation tower! Smart or what?!

A magical way to finish a superb day!

Day 3 >>>

Day 1 >>>
Day 4 >>>

Spanish Birding: Day 1

2005-05-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

Trip Report to Southern Spain, by William Bowell
Participants: Brian Stone, Katie Fuller, Tony Parker and William Bowell

Everything seemed to go swimmingly well on the Friday afternoon; arriving at Stanstard early and landing at Jerez slightly earlier than scheduled brought hope of a spot of birding before nightfall. Our first bird on touch down was House Sparrow quickly followed by Spotless Starling. Despite our early arrival the car hire unfortunately held us up considerably so the remaining daylight was spent in grounds of the airport where we clocked up a few Common Swifts flying about just before dusk, Feral Pigeon, Wood Pigeon (one of the very few we saw during the weekend), Song Thrush, Nightingale, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls flying over and a Blackbird. We traveled to our accommodation at Alijar near Sanlucar in complete darkness with not even an Owl in front of headlights seen.

After a quick unpack we decided to take a look around the grounds of accommodation with torch light barely needed for it was almost a full moon. Still, it did help in the finding of a Scop's Owl sat calling on one of the barns in the wee small hours. Nice one!

Day 2 >>>

Day 3 >>>
Day 4 >>>

Croaker!

2005-05-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

Great Reed Warbler, Willington GP, Beds | © Josh Jones

With Josh targeting a good year list this year, the wandering birders needed to go and collect the Great Reed Warbler at Willington GP in Bedfordshire. As we approached its strip of reed we were soon reminded how loud the 'Croaker' is as it sang deep from its reedbed home.

We stayed close to where it was singing from in the desperate hope that it would shimmy its way up the reed stem, but alas it failed to do so. But just as we were about to leave we saw the reeds bend a bit, and could hear it had moved to the edge of the reeds so ran round to the other side of the pit and enjoyed wonderful views of it (and JJ got the above shot).

Our first 'Croaker' was ticked at Deeping Lakes NR (back in the good old days when the pits were good, and it was called Welland Bank Pits) in 2001 so its on our local area list- but the views weren't quite as good as the Beds bird...

GPOG Bird Race 2005

2005-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

For the past few years we have been taking part in the Greater Peterborough Ornithological Group annual bird race and this year's plans were set for a teen team to join the other three teams of clinically insane GPOG members taking part. Unfortunately thought, due to a number of events the two other teens lined up to join us couldn’t take part, so we were left with half a team missing and some big shoes to fill. Step forward Gareth Jones and Ray Bowell- our Dads- to join 'To String a Mockingbird'!

GPOG rules state that at least three members of the team of four must identify the same bird for it to count in the 24 hour period of 6pm Saturday (14^th May) and 6pm Sunday (15^th May). The winning team is the one to see the most within the confines of the Peterborough Bird Club recording area within the time specified. Each team can choose their own starting point but must finish at the Williams house for the post-race banter and BBQ to celebrate the various fortunes.

One of the keys to scoring a reasonable total in the bird race is of course careful planning and hours of recce-ing, right? Wrong! We did virtually no recce-ing and still managed to notch up a good total. And as for planning, it was essential on the first night but for the Sunday it was abandoned almost as soon as we set off!

Our campaign started off at the very end of Central Drove, Nene Washes where we quickly kicked off with the usual washland species with the few bonus’s on offer this year. Garganey was one of these expected, but needed bonus birds; we flushed one and found another on our walk up to the end of the drove before the 6pm starting time, but weren’t hopeful of connecting with them on the way back. We needed not to worry as after a lengthy search of one particular pool we found a male asleep trying not to be noticed and another flew over the cowshed pools.

Other bonus species included Pochard, Marsh Harrier, Avocets and Little-ringed Plovers. A quick Grey Wagtail and Common Sandpiper, and we were on our way down south for the hoped for Grey Partridge, which duly obliged along with its French cousin.

Crepuscular species are crucial to a bird race so our last stop of the night was Woodwalton Fen, where all four teams ended up. We were the first team to arrive and on the drive down Will commented on how last years Little Owl that we got on a barn here was a “One hit wonder”; seconds later he shouted “Little Owl!” as one bounced up the telegraph pole next the track leading up to the reserve!

As we stood scanning the fen from the bank outside the reserve and listening for any other species on offer two other teams approached on the track- the Owl still on full view we were rather worried the ickle beast would be seen by all, but just as they got near the end of the track it disappeared. Lucky?! Eh?!

In the reserve itself, we somehow managed to get rather lost, but thankfully back on track we added Nightingale, roding Woodcock, Garden Warbler, Long-eared and Tawny Owls- but missed a ring tailed Harrier, which flew through the reserve whist we were lost. Unfortunately it was never really positively identified by the team who saw it, so didn’t get added to their count.

The only Owl we failed to connect with was Barn Owl- we could have gone to a nest site, which would have been slightly off route for home, but we gambled and hoped for a chance encounter on the way home (we see them all the time usually!). But there’s always……

The next morning…
A 5.50 start at Baston/Langtoft GP secured us a Greenshank- we were one of two teams to get this species, and in the end it was passage waders that did the business for us. We also scored a Dunlin which no other team got; a huge surprise to us considering we managed to get one at BLGP, one at the Nene Washes and then presumably the BLGP bird at Grummit’s Scrape later!

With no Barn Owls flying about around Baston Fen we headed towards Deeping Lakes NR in the hope of one there, or a Hobby. Both failed and we only really added common species here.

With only the two pairs of young ears hearing the Gropper last night at WWF, it was a change of pace at Bainton GP, with Lesser Whitethroat en-route at Maxey. We eventually secured a reeling Gropper along with Bullfinch and Hobby.

Since the Ruddy Duck cull began they have been increasingly more difficult to find in the PBC area, but there is one site which are nearly guaranteed. I say nearly- cos basically we failed! We did manage a Goldcrest and a Spotted Flycatcher at the entrance, but no matter how long we waited the Ruddy Duck didn’t show!

Southey Woods got us our 100^th species by 9.30am with Marsh Tit, Coal Tit and Treecreeper being the highlights. Apparently there was a Spotted Flycatcher here as well- but we didn’t need it!

With a Sparrowhawk chasing a pair of Hobby at Castor Hanglands, the list was increasing but there was not a squawk of a Jay to be heard- a top site for them in the PBC area, and if that wasn’t going to produce one where would? Not to worry as one happened to fly in front of our car on the way to Southwick Nature Reserve! Top stuff!

Red Kite and Buzzard scored the 105 and things looked set to continue on a high but a slow patch set in and everyone was feeling the pressure as Kingfisher and Nuthatch failed to perform. We knew that missing four breeding species would be disastrous for our chances of winning, so missing Nuthatch and Kingfisher was not an option!

A stroke of luck though saw a Kingfisher quickly followed by a calling Lesser spotted Woodpecker! Amazing- especially since the latter is incredibly difficult to pin at this time of the year!

With a couple of washland species still needed we headed on a high to Eldernell where the Tree Sparrows were duly ticked off and a male Ruff (in no real sign of moult)- another species no other team got!

We finished the day dashing around like headless chickens looking for Ruddy Duck and Barn Owl- which we failed on both in the end, but the highlight of the race was to come from another team’s find: Fulmar! It looked a rather sorry sight by the time we got to it at Langtoft West GP. Martin’s team did well to find the poor sod, as it is on arguably the worst pit in the Deepings area, which generally gets naff all on it!

The race finished at Trev and Jane Williams’ house with the traditional post race BBQ, our team finished on a respectable 112 (one off the all time GPOG record!) and to our amazement we were crowned the new GPOG champs with the ‘501’ team (Martin Coates, Dan Williams, Bob and Sue Titman) scoring 109, ‘Just a Hobby’ (Trev and Jane Williams, Neil and Eunice Parker) scored 107 and finally the ‘Wandering Wrinklies’ (Roger Teasdale, Mac Bell, Brian Lawrence, Malc Holley) scored 97. All in all a respectable finish for all!

Thanks to Trev and Jane for putting up an excellent BBQ and everyone for taking part- great race!

Quiet in'it?!

2005-05-11T03:37:00.000-07:00

Those of you are reading this who are linking to the e-mailing group, peterbirder will have realised it has been pretty quiet on there for the past few weeks. Could the northerly cold winds be having that much of an effect on the local birding spots around Peterborough?

Well the answer is quiet possible yes, but there are certain birds that some of us have been spying of late that we dare not mention; for example Little Owl, Grey Partridge and Long-eared Owls- all mythical birds that highly sort after for a few. Who are those few? Well they are of course GPOG members taking part in the annual bird race this coming weekend!

The wandering birders' team ("To String a Mockingbird", with the two wandering birders and their Dads as team members) has no particular plan, and the inevitable recce-ing has been restricted to our local patches only! So do we stand any threat to the other teams? We shall see........ results will be announced on here next Monday!

Stilted and Stunned!

2005-05-11T03:02:00.000-07:00

Really, for the past month, Will has been feeling especially unlucky, with his patch not really performing the way it should and over all being unable to get to Norfolk when the migrants were flooding in. Yesterday on the kind invitation of Chris Orders, Will ended up in Norfolk for the afternoon, at Titchwell in northerly winds when clearly any passage wasn't on the cards and the chances of finding something good were slim.

Luck would have it though, that Josh rang Will just as they were starting out the walk to the beach, "You do know there's a Stilt Sand at Burnham Norton don't you?" "What? No! You are joking aren't you?". He wasn't, and Chris and Will made there were rather quickly to the spot that saw Josh and Will add Issy Shrike and Dick's Pipit on their lists back in 2003.

Running to the spot, Chris and Will managed a good five minutes or so of brilliant views wonderfully lit, but unfortunately it was just out the range of DSLR, though if JJ was about he would have nailed it digiscoping.

Stilt Sandpiper, Burnham Norton, Norfolk | © William Bowell

Thinking he had all the time in the world to take decent photos, Will didn't check his settings and unfortunately most of his photos came out dark and were on the wrong settings! After five minutes of watching it the bird flew up and away with 4 Dunlin, it seemed to be going high, but then came down further along the coast. It looked like it came down on the pool that held Blue-winged Teal a few days before, so we decided to go and have look for both, with the Stilt Sand relocated but unsurprisingly no sign of the Teal.

As we were walking back news reached us that the bird had gone again! Bugger!

Will really does need to thank Josh for his call, for if we had waited for the text alert to come through we would not have had the views we got of such an ace bird, or worse still could have missed it- thanks JJ (just a shame he never got a chance to see it, but I hope it will be relocated)!

Lesser Scaup

2005-05-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the kind generosity of Josh's Mum, the wandering birders were able to hot foot it down to Rutland Water this late afternoon and finally tick off a proper Lesser Scaup. This comes a few months after the putative 1st winter female at Farnborough Hall in Warwickshire, which we made the long and tedious journey to see.

The Warwickshire bird seemed to have quite few irregularities about it, such as the big blue bill and rounded head. However this Rutland bird is an altogether more average looking thing, with no such little niggles to be made about this bird. It hung around a male Tufted Duck at the back Lagoon 3 (so very distant!), which it appears to be paired (the Tufty not the lagoon) with and there was certainly a bit of displaying and chasing going on.

Lesser Scaup, Rutland Water, Rutland | © Josh Jones

For such a brief visit, we actually saw and heard quite a bit, with a couple of 1st summer Goldeneye still hanging on and Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler singing among the other warblers and migrants. Good numbers of Swift and hirundines, reflect what we have been seeing on our local pits in the past few days- but no Alpine Swift or Red rumped Swallows yet; they will come to us!

Wheatears over the past few days...

2005-05-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

There was a superb fall of generally Greenland Wheatears over the bank holiday weekend...

.
Wheatear, Baston + Langtoft Pits 26th April 2005

Wheatear, Thornham Point, Norfolk, 30th April 2005

Josh

Whiskered Tern

2005-05-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Whiskered Tern, Hockwold Washes, Norfolk/Suffolk | © William Bowell

With Josh rushing back from a hot weekend's birding in Norfolk (more on that later), and Will rushing to the Whiskered Tern with Mac Bell (thanks for the kind lift Mac!), it was more luck rather than judgment that Josh managed to catch up with Mac and Will and hitch a lift for this potential lifer.

They arrived at Hockwold Washes RSPB reserve in the late afternoon, but were soon on to the Whiskered Tern (lifer for Josh, Norfolk tick for Will) as it hawked insects over the main flash. At first it appeared to be associating with Common Terns, but they were soon belting off down the river (and did so several times). After a while the wandering birders moved round to the bank which overlooks the Oriole Plantation, where the light was better and occasionally the Tern would come closer and even hawked over the plantation a few times! Unfortunately it never really came low enough for decent shots, so only records were obtained.

Whiskered Tern, Hockwold Washes, Norfolk/Suffolk | © William Bowell

Whilst over the flash, Josh amazingly managed a digiscoping record shot of the tern- not bad for a distant, fast moving tern!
Whiskered Tern, Hockwold Washes, Norfolk/Suffolk | © Josh Jones

The Golden Orioles were calling quite a bit, but seemed distant and non-viewable, but then just as we were about to leave, a sudden movement came from the masses as they all flocked to one spot- at the centre of which was Lee Evans. He called the birds, and they obligingly came to the edge of the plantation including a stonking male, right out in the open (giving the best views the wandering birders have had at this site of Golden O's for some time!).

A couple of Whimbrel flew round and there was a movement of Swifts, which were the only things of note really- a great afternoon's twitch though and once again thanks to Mac for the lift!

Ringing at Ferry Meadows

2005-05-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

It didn't look all together favorable when I got up at half 3 in the morning to the crashing of an almighty thunder storm (of which all those who were awake to witness it, said it was the most amazing they have ever seen!) but as it turned out my introduction to world of ringing turned out rather brilliant. I have been interested in getting into ringing for quite a number of years, but it wasn't till JJ got into last year I discovered anyone can.

Along with Bainton Gravel Pits, Ferry Meadows is dubbed as being among the best constant effort site in Britain (praise indeed) and for a first visit for the season an unprecedented amount of birds were processed! Chris, Daniel and Katie (of Bogbumper fame) were all on site long before me ("trying not to be electrocuted", as Katie put it), but thankfully the storms cleared by 5 just in time for my arrival.

Whilst waiting for them to return from the first ringing round I watched a group of Common Terns fish the Nene and a Blue Tit which bearing a ring on its leg- a nice introduction to what was ahead!

On returning from their first net round, the Bogbumper said they had something special for me- and indeed it was; a first catch for the ringing site- Jay. It certainly took a few chunks out of Daniels fingers, but here is a photo from just before it got a chance!
Jay, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

The next net run and tagged along and saw at first hand how much work not only goes into extracting the birds from the nets but also getting to each net! It was pretty darn muddy (up to to the knees in places) and not at all easy to walk. Incredibly a Kingfisher was in one of the nets- one of three for the whole day! It was fascinating to see their incredible threat display- crest raised head turning slowly two and throw with beak slightly open.

Chris and the team at work (Katie holding Sedge Warbler), Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

Other birds caught during the day included Wrens, Dunnocks, Robin, Sedge Warblers, Reed Warblers, Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, Willow Warblers (oddly no Chiffys), Great Tits, Blue Tits, Treecreepers, Reed Buntings and a pair of Bullfinches.

Sedge Warbler, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

Whitethroat, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

Garden Warbler, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

Bullfinch pair, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

Willow Warbler, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

And of course everyone's favourite....

Kingfisher, Ferry Meadows, Cambs | © William Bowell

All in all a rather thrilling but tiring morning- and it actually gave me a surprising buzz (more than I expect anyway!). Thanks to Chris and the team for their patience.

Will

The Friday Twitchers Club

2005-04-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Josh is currently galavanting around in Norfolk seeing some nice falls of nackered migrants on their onward journey north. Will had his turn yesterday when he officially joined the Friday Twitchers Club- Roger Teasdale and Mac Bell (local Peterborough Bird Club members who are renouned for their mid-week twitching).

There was a faitle flaw to the plan though, they were twitchers with out anything to twitch so had to settle with the usual stuff in Norfolk. It was very poor. Wheatear's, Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler, Swifts and Common Sandpiper were probably the highlight (yes, folks THAT bad!).

Light was good though so a few snaps had to be taken.

Wheatear, Snettisham Coastal Park, Norfolk | © William Bowell

Gadwall, Titchwell RSPB, Norfolk | © William Bowell

WPB's Deepings Birding Theory

2005-04-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

It is Josh's job to update the blog regularly, but you will have to excuse the lack of recent adventures featured here; he has been busy with revision (that's when he's not birding of course!). Local birding has been taking our main focus, mainly 'cos the only places we can get to in a week day evening are patches within three miles of our houses!

We did do a spot of twitching for Yank Wigeon in Cambs (a rare event indeed [twitching in Cambs, not twitching in general]!) which we successfully saw and was a lifer for myself and a year tick for Josh.

Josh has been doing extremely well on his patch recently; Redstart, Waxwings, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Arctic Terns, etc have all been recorded within the past couple of weeks by Josh at Baston/Langtoft GP. My patch, has been going through something of a slump recently. But I have a theory.... for Deepings birding

WPB's Theory on Deepings area Birding: If one site is doing well then the rest will almost certainly be empty on passage. This is because passing birds generally get grounded at the same time and therefore at the same location (pot luck where though). If that location is being disturbed then they will carry on their passage north to the next spot.

This theory has been proved right, time and time again. For example all this week Deeping Lakes (Welland Bank Pits) has been pretty dead but for the odd Wheatear or Warbler. BLGP has, however been buzzing. In the past it has happened the other way round. This evening it was Deeping Lakes turn as it had Common Sand, Dunlin, Gropper, 2 Arctic Terns and a Whimbrel! All good birds to be recorded here, and I dare say if Josh had done BLGP he would have found the long staying Green Sand and Spotshank but little passage (actually other than the Arctic Terns and a single flyover Yellow Wag) there was very little vis mig this evening.

The Whimbrel was right next to the path and since it is a rare event to get them on the deck in the Deepings area I got a record shot taken at 8.40pm (basically the dark!), through a 26x eyepiece of a Leica APO 62 (so not the greatest light gathering in the world).

Whimbrel, Deeping Lakes NR, Lincs | © William Bowell

Hopefully both patches will continue to do well.

Will

New Galleries

2005-04-26T03:18:00.000-07:00

Some new galleries on wanderingbirders.com

Mighty Midget!

2005-04-20T05:55:00.000-07:00

After a busy weekend for the wandering birders (more of that to come), I had a non-birding afternoon in Norfolk with my parents. On the way home we dropped in at Titchwell RSPB, where my absolute favourite species; Little Gull, were showing incredible well. A pair of adults (both in moult) were zooming round people's heads, most people didn't really appreciate them just passing them off for Black-headed Gulls.

Here are a couple of hand-held (and manually focused due to AF not performing in the poor light) record shots.

There wasn't much else about but Curlew Sandpiper was another highlight.

Will

A Weasel is weasily recognized.....

2005-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

...and a Stoat is stoatally different.

This mad Stoat ran across the road at Blatherwyke this morning as Will and his Dad drove through the village, after gorging on the raptor fest over the Lake (well I say Lake..... its a dried up puddle at the moment).

Buzzards and Sparrowhawks were ten a penny, and as for Red Kites, they were getting to the point of being boring! The Lake, despite being a mass of mud, had no waders on it! All it needs is a few Dunlin on it and hopefully the rest will follow.

At Eyebrook a 1st summer Little Gull was the highlight and at Rutland a pair of Ospreys sat pretty, eating fish on the nest.

Getting Shorty..

2005-04-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

A Short-toed Treecreeper was found at around midday on Wednesday 6th April at Bradwell, Essex. It proved too much of a temptation for the wandering birders, and thanks to Josh's mum very kindly giving the duo a lift, they had ticked the bird off within 5 hours of it being found. A superb British tick, and a real rarity outside Kent.

Short-toed Treecreeper, Bradwell-on-Sea © William Bowell

Thrilled to have seen such a fabulous bird, we headed to the 'Norfolk pad' in high spirits.

Over the next few days we saw a few decent bits 'n' bobs, not many photos due to strong wind however. Among the highlights were House Martin, Cetti's Warblers, plenty of Swallows, Wheatears and Long-tailed Ducks and Velvet Scoters off Titchwell.

Marsh Harrier, Holkham Freshmarsh © Josh Jones

Spotted Redshank, Titchwell RSPB © Josh Jones

BLGP

2005-04-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Sightings from Baston + Langtoft Pits this evening:

2 White Wagtails
1 Med Gull
1 Yellow Wagtail
1 Swallow
500+ Sand Martins
2 Green Sandpipers

..plus all the usual waders.

Josh.

Ring-necked Duck

2005-04-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

One of the wandering birders managed to catch a lift with Gary Heath for a rare twitch into Cambs for the Ring-necked Duck this early afternoon. Josh had already added this to his year list with one in the west country back in March, but Will was more than happy to his fourth ever RND in the UK (all of them males, this one being the first he's seen sporting a proper neck!).

The news coming through on the pagers was pretty poor, with word being that it flown on to the main reservoir from the lagoons, then news coming through immediately after saying it flown back onto the lagoons. Confusing. Needless to say, Gary and Will managed to eventually find it on the lagoon it was first located.

© Will Bowell Grafham Water, Cambs, 05.04.05.

Having no converters was pretty crap, so Will had to make do with some pretty awful record shots, but at least the last one shows the ring round the neck- if you squint.

Welcome to our Diary!

2005-04-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

About the Diary
Due to technical reasons, we have had to move our diary to blogger. We are told by our good friends, the bloggers from south of the mighty Welland, that blogging is easy and quick to use, so hopefully we will be able to chart our birding adventures more easily from now on for your enjoyment.

This blog will include many of bird photos and our general birding adventures from the UK and abroad. Occasionally there may well be a few macro shots of insects and a few Landscape and Animal photos for good measure!

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Homepage
If you have enjoyed the photos here, then please don't forget to visit our homepage http://www.wanderingbirders.com/ which contains galleries and trip reports among other interesting things.

You can keep track of any updates going on in the main homepage by clicking on the "latest website updates" in the right hand list of links.

cheers
The Wandering Birders
Josh Jones and Will Bowell

Norfolk 3/4

2005-04-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today was spent in North Norfolk, in search of a few migrants. First stop was Wolferton for the traditional dip on Golden Pheasants. However, for once, thanks to Josh by chance crossing the road to look on the other side, we had a corking male. A lifer for us! A nearby site produced Tree Pipits, Woodlarks, 3 Crossbills and a Goshawk all in a 20-minute spell, which for the area was quite something.

We then moved on to Salthouse where we encountered Sandwich Tern for the year and a couple of Wheatears on one of the hills. Reports were coming through of plenty of migrants on Beeston Bump, so thats where we next headed. On the ploughed field we managed 2 Black Redstarts, 3 White Wagtails, 8 Wheatears (including a Greenland-looking bird) and plenty of Meadow Pipits.

Wheatear spp, Beeston Bump © Josh Jones

Quite pleased with our haul of migrants, we headed back to Titchwell hopefully to see a few good birds. We heard Sedge Warbler, and saw and heard Cetti's Warbler. Offshore we had a few Long-tailed Ducks and a couple of female Velvet Scoters, but nothing outstanding.

Snipe, Titchwell RSPB © Josh Jones

Avocet, Titchwell RSPB © Josh Jones

And so a good day came to an end, with four year ticks for Josh and more for Will, not to mention plenty a good migrants such as the Black Reds. Top day.