Feeding my twitching habits

It's that time of year again, Spring migration is kicking off and me and many others are stuck inside, watching countless reports of birds come in on the phone. Never the less, I have managed to loosen the chains slightly and on Saturday I was able to catch a lift with Ian Bennell to see the long staying Greater Yellowlegs in Hampshire. On arriving the bird was still showing which made for an easy tick, and enjoyable observation. Whilst looking at it I compared it to it's smaller cousin, the larger, more muscular body gave the bird away instantly and it seem to largely resembled a Greenshank, with it's upturned bill and strong streaking.

Greater Yellowlegs

Following my second to last exam, my mother offered to drive me to a local twitch, if I put in a good amount of effort into my exams. I was absolutely thrilled when a Red-necked Phalarope arrived on Broom GPs, a bird I had hoped to see since I first opened a field guide. The reserve had a surprisingly good environment, with habitat for many interesting migrant. Which has been seen in its recent history, starting with a White-winged Black Tern and Temminck's Stint (which is incredibly good, for an inland patch). The Red-necked Phalarope although distant, showed nicely only being disturbed by a resident Redshank, which appeared to be a racist :).

Gypsy Lane, East Pit

Red-necked Phalarope

3 Woodpecker Day

Having woken up at 5am my brother and I cycled off to Withey Beds, near Croxley Green to try our luck seeing the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which had been frequenting the area. We arrived shortly before 7 o'clock, and were greeted by a deep fog which was slowly settling in, making viewing conditions difficult.

However, we persevered and explored the small reserve searching for good drumming trees for the Woodpecker. A pair of Treecreepers provided entertainment for short while, seemingly chasing each other and drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers excited us frequently to no avail. Throughout our wait, other birders joined us searching for the Lesser Pecker, and by 9:30 or so the fog had lifted. Kindly another birder told us its favored drumming tree and we waited close by for the bird, eventually at quarter to ten I saw a small Woodpecker fly in, I instantly recognized it as a Lesser Spotted and pointed it out to the others. We had good views of it for a minute or so before it flew on encouraged by an arriving birder.

We waited a little longer to see if it would reappear, but evidently it had continued on its circuit around the area, so we moved on as well. We looked around Croxley Common Moor for an hour or so, were my brother and I picked up a Ring Ouzel flyng from the moor northwards. I first picked it up by call, but almost dismissed it had it not been for my brother who saw it at the same time. Returning home, we were both relieved to eventually have ticked off Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the UK, which had been up until that morning a 'boggy bird' for both of us. I'm not even going to attempt a 4 Woodpecker Day (not in Britain anyway).

Purple Sandpiper, Southsea Castle

The day was originally planned so as to see the Dusky Warbler at Chichester GPs. However, this fell apart due to the strong winds. Neither the Ring-billed Gull at Gosport or the Dusky Warbler showed themselves which left our spirits dampened. Yet the Purple Sandpiper at Southsea Castle showed very well and allowed for some entertaining pictures.

and others...

Dungeness Cattle Egrets

Chris, Paul, Samuel and I headed down to Dungeness to try and get the year list of to a good start. Our first stop was at the Cattle Egrets, at Denge Marsh Road. We connected quickly, and moved on because of the rain. We then stopped off at Horse Bone Farm, were we saw both Bewick and Whooper Swan along with a small group of Tundra Bean Geese. Then we were off to the RSPB reserve, where we saw Smew, Goldeneye and Pintail along with the common winter wildfowl. I also managed to locate 2 Firecrests, which were a nice addition to the day list and on our way out we saw a Great White Egret. So far quite a successful day. Our next stop was at the patch were we had a decent sea watch with a large number of Red-throated Divers and Guillimot flying past. To finish off the sea watch we had a Bonxie fly close past. Finally as day light was running out we stopped off again at the Cattle Egrets for a second go at photographing them. They showed amazingly, undisturbed by the noise of our cameras quickly filling our memory cards. Unfortunately the light was awful and I had to push my ISO up to 800 and still only got a shutter speed of about 1/100 of a second. All in all I was lucky to get any pictures. But the day did get my year list up to 71 species.

Digi-scope of the Penduline Tit, at Meadow Lane GP, Bedfordshire (kicking myself I didn't have my camera with me)

New Year's Top 5!

Well, I'll try and keep it short this year so I've narrowed it down to 5.

5

During my hectic exam period, a very unusual record of a Lesser Yellowlegs appeared at College Lake. A bird I had long been wanted to catch up on. That afternoon, I set out, with my camera, and managed to see the bird. It still feels like a bit of a surreal day, just thinking about it now.

4

One of my favorite birds, a day with a Turtle Dove is a day to remember. Hopefully something we won't have to remember in nostalgia.

3

Not much to say about this bird, I guess it was a case of right time right place, that being in Germany. White Storks are definitely something to behold.

2

I couldn't do a top five without including the Grey Phalarope at Hove, it was more of the photographers bird than a twitchers.

1

And lastly, my top of the year, an absolute astonishing bird...

WRYNECK!!!

What a bird they are. I could go on for years of my love for Wrynecks, but I'll sum it up in one phrase for all our sake's, mottled, mesmerizing camouflage.

Oh, and have a Happy New Year!