Lesser Spotted Failures

Sunday 16th.  Lesser Spotted Failure #4 (JK#8).  06:45-11:45 with John King at another LSW site produced 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a singing Mistle Thrush (lovely song that I enjoy more every time I hear it), 2 Marsh Tits, 3 Coal Tits, 2 Nuthatches, 2+ Treecreepers and 2 Siskins. A glorious afternoon walk around Cissbury with Megan was almost birdless as was an evening low-tide visit to the Adur.  Nice as Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers are, and they are very nice, I think over 15 hours is more than enough to spend looking for them, even though I've not now seen one for two years. Hopefully a decent forecast next weekend will make a seawatch a more attractive option, right now a strong NW would be!

Saturday 15th. Lesser Spotted Failure #3 (JK#7). A poor forecast for seawatching so John King and I decided to try again for LSW.  John had looked unsuccessfully on four mornings at a site near Burgess Hill.  We to the site of previous failures and stayed from 06:55-13:00 but not a sniff.  Two Firecrests were again present, 30 Redwings and 2 Coal Tits.  I even missed a Treecreeper that John saw.

Friday 14th.  A single Meadow Pipit on Southwick Beach.

Thursday 13th.  Front type puncture within a minute of leaving home so went to work on my spare bike - much harder work with all terrain tyres.  Peregine on the Power Station chimney.

Wednesday 12th.  My bike was making clicking noises on the way to work.  I stopped 2-3 times but couldn't see the cause.   When I got to work I noticed the front wheel's rim was cracked.  On the way home it disintegrated after a mile or so and I had to half carry the bike to Moulscoomb and take it home on the train.  Fortunately I had a spare front wheel at home.

split rim on my front wheel

even Mavics are not immune from such failures

Tuesday 11th.  Peregine on the Power Station chimney.

Sunday 9th.  Lesser Spotted Failure #2.  07:30-10:00 with John King.  We heard one distant drum soon after arriving but nothing further although 2 Firecrests were some compensation. Perhaps we should have started earlier but I'd been up at 04:00 the previous morning going to Hythe and couldn't face another early start.  Later we distantly saw the two Black-necked Grebes and female Scaup at Greatham.  An afternoon walk up Anchor Bottom with Megan produced a single Raven and at least 4 singing Sky Larks.

Philippine preview to cheer me up:

Hythe, Dungeness and East Sussex (8 March 2014)

Saturday 8th.  With the Chinese Pond Heron appearing more often, if not more regularly, its identification becoming more certain and it having occurred in various places as a vagrant, albeit still nowhere very close, I decided to make a second visit to look for it.  I arrived at Turnpike Hill at 06:30 ready for a long wait.  There were 5 other cars there when I arrived and 3 had left by 07:30, presumably to try Redbrook Way.  I had a good vantage point and was comfortably sitting down so I decided to stay in situ until at least 09:00.  A pair of Mandarin flew around a few ties to keep me interested and at 08:17 the Pond Heron flew in over me and landed in a tree above the children's play area.  It remained on view, initially close then on the other side of the main road until about 08:55 when it dropped from sight.  Excellent.  I headed to Dungeness, anything else a bonus as was walking around a birding site rather than a housing estate.  80 Brent Geese and 17 Teal flew east in a half hour watch by the patch where a single Mediterranean Gull was seen.  200 Great Crested Grebes, 20 Guillemots and 2 Razorbills were on the sea. The two Black-throated Divers were on the New Diggings and a red-head Smew on the east end of the ARC, a Marsh Harrier and Great White Egret on the walk to the viewpoint but nothing in the reeds there other than invisible Cetti's Warblers.  Nine Tree Sparrows were around the feeders at he reserve entrance but I failed to find the Emu let alone the Glossy Ibis further down the road.  The Black-necked Grebe was on Scotney, probably just in Kent, 2 Mistle Thrushes were the only birds of note at the Bittern viewpoint at Rye where more Cetti's were heard.  Pett Pools was quiet with 160 Curlew in the fields and 200+ Wigeon. My final stop was Filsham Reedbed boardwalk and Combe Haven.  More Cetti's were heard but I only flushed up a Snipe in a plodge around a wet field that some years ago I had seen a flock of Water Pipits in.  The fields further up the valley were flooded so I headed home into the setting sun, happy not to have spent all day in Hythe!

Chinese Pond Heron at Hythe, slightly obstructed view through a nearer tree

I moved to get an unobstructed view and it turned its back

or tucked its bill behind a branch

a smart bird all the same

powerful feet

it then flew further back, across the main road, but it did give a head-on view

it also appeared to show some dark feathering on its right shoulder

one of two Black-throated Divers on the New diggings, the other remained asleep

sparrows at Dungeness, the Tree is "HJ"

Great White Egret from Dungeness entrance road

Small Tortoishells at Filsham

Monday-Friday 3rd-7th.  A Peregrine on the Power Station chimney a couple of times, Mistle Thrush singing and Herring Gull A4AH at the University some days.

Pagham and Lidsey (02 March 2014)

Another day in West Sussex with John King who I met opposite Brooklands after visiting there (Water Rail and 2 adult Little Gulls), the Adur (red-head Goosander opposite the airport) and Widewater (2 divers E). There were 8 Mediterranean Gulls at Goring Gap including a Belgian/Dutch bird 3C66.  We continued to Pagham Lagoon and the harbour entrance overlooking the Spit.  We saw 3 Goldeneye (one drake), at least 164 Mediterranean Gulls, the first-winter Iceland Gull, two colour-ringed Herring Gulls (an unread North Thames bird and one seemingly from Suffolk) and 3 Sandwich Terns.  We went on to the North Wall where the pair of Whooper Swans spent much of the time asleep.  We returned via Littlehampton but the tide was high and only 2 Mediterranean and the second-winter Glaucous Gulls were seen although we aborted after 10-15 minutes when we heard the Glossy Ibis at Lidsey had been seen again.

Goosander on he Adur by Shoreham Airport

one of the recent Widewater birds?

Little Gull on Brooklands, pretending to be a Wrybill

difficult to resist going back for more

colour-ringed Mediterranean Gull 3C66 at Goring Gap

it is in its tenth year having hatched at Noordelijk Insteekdok, Oost-Vlaandreren, Belgium on 26/05/2005.  It was seen at Le Portel in August 2005, Wissant in September 2005, Le Plaitier d'Oye Plage in May 2006, Le Portel again in July 2007 (all Pas-de-Calais), Noordelijk Insteekdok during April-June 2008 and West Hayling LNR, Hants in March 2010 and February-March 2011

Herring Gull VPT, ringed as a chick on Havergate Island, Orford, Suffolk on 7 July 2013

Mediterranean Gulls on the end of Pagham Spit

most were adults

but not all

they certainly outnumbers Black-headeds

Two of three Sandwich Terns roosting with them

Iceland Gull on Pagham Spit

the paler patch in the centre of its breast was often more noticeable than it appears here.  Perhaps some form of oiling or chemical spillage? 

Whooper Swans at Pagham North Wall

Glossy Ibis at Lidsey

synchronised feeding, almost