Blog

4th April 2008

I'm on an island today. Not that far offshore, but good enough, the Isle of Wight. This is the first time I have been on the island for about ten years when I sailed here from Langstone Harbour. I am working on some farmland so I am keeping my eyes open for livestock, the closest I get are a few dogs getting their early morning walks! The site seems to have a male Pheasant in every corner holding territory. Proving that raptors get up with the lark, a pair of Kestrels are being very noisy over their territory. Chiffchaffs are plentiful at the site and once the sun is up Blackcaps and Willow Warblers start to sing. Since they are so late I think these are migrant birds more worried about getting food than singing/holding territory. The site also has a pair of Yellowhammers, nice to see they are still holding onto some areas.

After work and after breakfast, I travel to some saltings where Black-headed Gulls are breeding. Here as expected I find Mediterranean Gulls and adding to the exotic mix a Little Egret as well! Some more Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers singing, best of all a female Bullfinch.

30th March 2008

I take the family on a trip to Holland Park to check nest boxes. I have not been to the site for many years and as a kid remember seeing an old bloke (probably my age now!), feeding a Jay from his hand! No joy on the Jay front but like so many places now Ring-necked Parakeets are present, they must have an effect on the eco-system soon? Creating better credentials on the bird front is a Song Thrush singing and I hear my first Blackcap for the year. This is quite late as I normally hear over wintering birds singing from late February. Also present and in song are Goldcrest and Coal Tit, but I have no joy trying to get sound recordings as there are too many tourists and families about!

29th March 2008

North London today and Queen's Wood. This is the best day I have had out in the field for a few days! A cloudless dawn! Very good. No wind! Even better. And a non stop chorus of bird song! Wow! Everything is singing! Before I get out of the car at 4.30am I can hear Blackbirds and Great Tits singing away. The site explodes with bird song. It is hard to concentrate on what is going on as my ears are bombarded with bird song. Fewer Woodpeckers and Song Thrushes are singing but these are replaced with Treecreepers and Mistle Thrush, the Blue Tits seem to have gone mad as well. I am taken aback when I bump into a Harris Hawk (which I knew was present in the area), he or she looks at me in the middle of the wood, calls and then disappears off! Several Nuthatches and Great Spotted Woodpeckers are sorting out nest sites and I find two of each investigating holes. A lovely day and the weather forecast thankfully was completely wrong!

In the afternoon I take my two daughters down to Warren Gorge, the eldest on her new bike, this isn't as clever as I think as she wheelspins mud up me as I get her out of the puddle! A bit of a mixture of seasons, three Lesser Redpolls, four Siskin and three Sand Martins. Nice, warm weather adds a pleasant feel to the day

28th March 2008

Back up in the Chilterms today and the weather is here to test me. I wake up at 2am hearing rain and it doesn't change too much. I arrive on site early and there is a little bit of rain in the air, this increases and I spend most of the day birding in the rain. I get a few dry patches and the heaviest it gets is drizzle, I have definitely been in worse. As ever as soon as it gets light the Red Kites appear calling and hunting. I never get bored looking at them, they are such good fliers. Pheasants are more prominent with several males holding territory, one must be very successful as he has four females with him!

26th March 2008

The weather does not like me currently! I am in south London and is it overcast but I carry on with the survey. Heading home I stop off at Danson Park in Bexley. A Black-throated Diver has appeared on the boating lake. The bird does not do too much, twice it flaps its wings, and the rest of the time it look upwards, quite unusual! It does not dive and I wonder how long it will last here. Obviously it heard me as it disappears from the site within a few days of my visit! Still it is a wonderful bird and I remember dashing home from my aunts in Surrey in 1992 to see my first bird in London bird.

22nd March 2008

My first field trip of the year and I am teaching people bird song. The site is excellent for woodland birds with Marsh Tits, Nuthatches, Treecreepers and at least two species of Woodpecker. It has been snowing and luckily for me it stops just before my walk starts. But I soon discover that this is where my luck with the weather begins and ends! As soon as I start my walk, we get a small amount of snow which gradually turns into a blizzard! We then get gale force winds - and to finish off hail! Despite the weather the group keeps going and I am able to get them to hear Green Woodpecker, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Marsh Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Jay and Wren. An enjoyable morning despite the weather, especially when the sun comes out at the end just as I finish my walk and everything starts singing.

21st March 2008

After a tip-off for a Brambling flock I head to Norsey Wood. I spend half an hour getting lost before deciding to head off to Minsmere RSPB, but just as I decide to head off I stumble upon the wood and the Brambling flock. They are feeding in the field opposite the entrance to the car park with c70 birds present. The majority are Brambling. Several of the males look very smart with the beginning of their summer plumage. The birds are quite flightly and the strong wind does not help me trying to get pictures. I only get one chance at a good flight shot when the camera lens decides to range and I miss the picture! There's always next time, I suppose. A Buzzard appears overhead and everything flies up. It is a pale bird and disappears as quickly as it appears. A local Sparrowhawk has the same effect on all the finches in the area. Brambling outnumber Chaffinch roughly six to one, it must be a good year for them as normally it is the opposite way round.

8th March 2008

I take the wife to Chelmsford town centre where a Water Rail has been feeding out in the open according to some recent reports I have read. I empty half a loaf of bread and nothing. Mallards, Moorhens, Mute Swans and a variety of gulls feeding but no Water Rail! So I switch to recording bird songs and a Collared Dove is getting into the mood. At this stage I look back along the river and pick up the Rail sitting right where I was just standing - but it is tucked right in, along the edge by the river! I start trying to attract it with another loaf..... out of a whole loaf it takes just two pieces! I get a couple of pictures before it is time to find the wife who has gone off shopping. Always amazing what you can find in the concrete jungle!

4th March 2008

Oxfordshire today and a lovely morning, I don't always work somewhere where you can watch sunrise and I don’t always have the time! Today is a day of all weathers, sunshine, frost, snow, rain and some wind! As if by magic I see some snowdrops and think how nice they are Rook when it starts to snow on me. This county is lovely with some wonderful scenery and just as good, if not better the birds. Red Kites are present and before it is 7.30am I have seen Red Kite, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Merlin. Who said warm sunny weather is required for raptors?! The first three were seen whilst it was still twilight and the Sparrowhawk was hunting through the woods. Lots of birds are singing and I log Treecreepers and plenty of Song Thrushes. I pass several Rookeries and they are all active with birds making lots of noise and working on their nests.

I stop in one village on the way home and take over two hundred pictures trying to get the perfect flight shot for a talk I am working on called The Difficult Dozen. I have also decided to rename my gull talk - The Easy Way to Identify Gulls.

1st March 2008

A long day of birding today. The southern end of the Lea Valley is always good and brings mixed gulls back great memories of my early birding days of getting very excited and making plenty of mistakes. It’s the only way to learn! Gull numbers are picking up with Common Gulls numbers building, this is always a good time for Med Gulls but I have no joy trying to find one today. Whilst some of the gulls loiter, one Lesser Black-backed Gull catches my eye and looks like a possible bird of the intermedius race, but the light is not good enough to work it out.

Winter Thrushes are still present on Hackney Marshes and I get some half decent shots of a Redwing perched, this has only taken me all winter do to! Overhead I pick up a Peregrine which circles around and Redwing disappears off to the south. As the day progresses more Cormorants fly up and down the Valley and at dusk hundreds of Herring Gull head up the Valley to roost on the large reservoirs. Compared to my last visit in February, this time they are mostly immature. A month ago they were mainly adults. I guess they must have left for their breeding grounds already.

27 February 2008 Ring-necked Parakeet

Early start in South London, way before dawn leaving home I can hear a distant Song Thrush singing somewhere to the southwest. When I arrive at the site it sounds like everything is singing, amazing. Forget working out breeding populations in April, February is the month to start in. More woodpeckers here included one bird using a weather vain to drum on. Introduced birds are the name of the game with two pairs of Egyptian Geese fighting over their territories and also investing nest sites in trees. Ring-necked Parakeets are present and one pair are excavating a nest hole. Four territories of House Sparrows here a species which is disappearing from our capital.

24 February 2008 Snowdrop

Back down to Southend with all the family this time, because I need some pictures of me feeding the gulls for a talk I am doing in March plus some scenic shots. We take two loaves of bread and with the help of my eldest daughter we feed them. The light is great and soon about one

hundred Black-headed Gulls descend. The wife is taking some pictures of us, she doesn't know too much about birds but manages to get a picture with a Mediterranean Gull just over our heads! I think I'd better take lessons from her next time. We all sit down for some ice creams, afterwards I head down the beach to get come action shots of Sanderlings feeding, most come out like mystery bird pictures with the head obscured!

Down to Rainham Marshes today for a guided walk with a small group including a participant from Sweden! We walk along the sea wall and everything goes up, well nearly everything! A raptor hunt ensues! A few minutes later and I declare they got up for no reason when I spot it! A Merlin flying high up the sky. Well it wouldn't be flying anywhere else would it now! I spot it below a group of Starlings. It drifted around and then dived down towards Dartford Marshes going into its typical hunting flight. Next up the Water Pipit, at least two birds present possibly more and one Rock Pipit. Reed Buntings are also feeding in the saltings with the males summer plumage coming through as the pale fringes to their heads feathers wear down.

We head into the reserve and a group of White-fronted Geese appear and fly right over our heads. The Lapwing fly up again but this time we think they have no reason as we again can't find anything that is spooking them. The new scrape is mostly frozen and a small group of Snipe are roosting up in the grass.

Down at Aveley Pools only one pair of Pintail are still present and I am sweating a bit as I still can't find any Stonechat our European visitor! Will the wind keep them feeding so low we don't see any?

Now we are at the Target Pools with masses of gulls present. More join in and we begin our search for Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls. I find a 2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull and we decide none of the other large gulls are Caspian. From the viewing platform I see an 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull and then enter into a discussion with Dave regarding whether it is or not! See

pictures. Whilst watching this I spot another large gull with pale primaries, not an Iceland or Glaucous Gull but very interesting none the less. This is possibly a pale 1st winter Herring Gull and I don't think a hybrid as it does not appear to have any other species in it

that I can see. We then find Stonechats! In the last kilometre back to the car park there are at least four birds including two different looking males, one bright with large amounts of white collar and the other dull with reduced white collar. A nice finish to the day. Oh yes we then see the White-fronted Geese sitting down near some Grey-lag Geese.

Hackney Marshes again and as the gulls fill up the football pitch during the twilight of dawn I pick out a very long billed large gull possibly a Caspian Gull! Before I work out what it is, it flies into a large group sitting down and I must head off to a job.

I return later on and Simon picks up an adult Ring-billed Gull flying around! We see it three times before I catch up with it disappearing to the south. Fieldfares and Redwings are feeding on the football pitches and up to four local Mistle Thrush are present which are also singing now.

I take my youngest daughter out s Siskin

hopping and on the way out pop into Warren Gorge EWT and I get a chance to photograph some of the Siskin that have arrived this winter in good number. A difficult bird to get pictures of today as there always seems to be a branch between the camera and the bird! A Lesser Redpol is also present but this is even harder to get a picture of! I should have known they'd be difficult once I got the camera out! Always fatal!

I head to my dentists in North London, my old stomping ground Tottenham Cemetery. Oh the smell of place, many a morning was spent wondering round this site in search of that great find. A great place for Pied Flycatchers and Wood Warblers in the spring and autumn with some luck. I walk around the pond where Siskins are present which indicate we have an influx in the area, as these birds only use the site when large numbers descent into London.

Hackney Marshes again today and this time in the masses of gulls heading south I pick up at least six Yellow-legged Gulls flying through. This number is probably the norm for this site but people may not have been out looking for them so early.

Dropping my oldest daughter off at Nursery I spot a few Fieldfare on a football pitch. I return past there and discover the site is covered in Fieldfare, my count reaches c800! I head back via Bulphen looking for more thrushes and find five Red-legged Partridge but they are shy of the camera and fly before I can get any sort of a picture!

A family trip out in the afternoon with friends took us to Southend. Here lots of good birds to pick up but no photographic opportunities. In the large number of gulls feeding on the left over chips I see at least one Mediterranean Gull and as we walk down the pier two Sanderlings fly over and Brent Geese with the tide. I can also hear Grey Plover calling out on the mud in murk.