White Fronted Goose Stevenage

 Bit of a drag at work this week with only a few people in, and basically tidying up loose ends. So I was browsing social media as one does to while away the time and nearly fell off my chair when I saw a photo of a juvenile Russian Greater White Fronted Goose half a mile away in the town centre park. There has been a bit of an influx inland at some odd locations recently, but I wasn't expecting one in the middle of town.

I had a bit of frustrating wait until knocking off time and was wondering how to get there as parking and traffic in the area isnt good, but luckily I got a message from Tom Spellar that it was at Fairlands.

A quick scan of the main lake after I arrived revealed a flock of Canada's with a smaller goose on the far bank so I headed there and was able to confirm it was the White Front. Unfortunately, but not unexpected, a dog walker scattered them and most swam into the middle, luckily a few were heading to the east bank and I was able to get a few snaps with the phone. Nice easy twitch, and my first county White Front for some time.

And Now Another Post

 Just like buses.

Yesterday I tried to have a walk around Fairlands Lakes. Having located 15 Siskin and the Kingfisher I thought I was on a roll then torrential rain arrived and I was forced to give up.

Today couldn't have been more different. Bright sunshine blue skies and mild. I decided on a walk around Aston End despite knowing it would be very muddy and treacherous in places. I started off at Chells Manor and walked down the river to the ford then returned via Aston End and home. 

Much of it was uneventful-lots of Robins, a few tit flocks in places and singing Skylarks, plus a few Buzzards and Red Kites. Thrushes were around of course with small numbers of Redwing Blackbird and Fieldfare, but not the numbers I have encountered recently. 

Because of the muddy conditions it was slow going so I decided to miss the High Wood detour and carry on down to the ford. A large flock of birds east of Lords Farm proved problematic. There were a couple of Skylarks, but a dozen smaller birds were with them. I thought at first they might be Linnets and Yellowhammers but they were far off and hidden from view in the furrows of winter wheat. Eventually I decided they were Meadow Pipits, several of which had been heard earlier moving south along with some Pied Wagtails. I was just about to carry on when I heard a loud tew. Hoping it might be a Bullfinch I searched the blackthorn and was very surprised when a warbler popped up with a prominent eyestripe. Confused, wondering why a Sedge Warbler would still be here, when it emerged the plain, pale grey buff, fine black bill was odd, but when I saw the greenish edges to the wing feathers I connected it with the call and realised it was a Siberian Chiffchaff. This was pretty much proven when I played the calls of various Chiffchaffs-it only responded to Siberian. Unfortunately like the few I had seen in the past it was hyperactive and in the three or so minutes it was in view I couldn't get it in the camera viewfinder.

The rest of the walk was something of an anticlimax, but I did eventually find a female Bullfinch, which has been a bit elusive this year despite my many surveys of the area.

And i was also lucky to get a clear spell this evening so the refractor came out and I got another view of Jupiter and Saturn.

Still Here

 It's been some time since I last wrote anything here. The last half of my holiday coincided with the governments tier system coming into effect, and while it would be possible for Colin and I to meet up somewhere, we wouldn't be able to travel together without social distancing (?). So any long distance twitching would be doubly expensive, not exactly environmentally friendly and we would put ourselves at increased covid risk.

So i went back to my furlough routine of gardening and local walks. A couple of times I drove out to Wallington in the hope of getting the Merlin (and Hen Harrier and Short Eared Owl are up there as well) but so far without success. There have also been a few Amwell visits where the Crossbills have shown a few times but I have yet to see the Bittern and Red Crested Pochards that are usually present.

Locally the weather has made things difficult recently with plenty of rain at times. The Beane is now flowing which is good to see but run off from the fields has made the going very soft along the footpaths. The winter thrushes-mainly Redwing with some Fieldfare and Blackbirds are starting to increase but I have found it rather tough trying to track down finches and Buntings. In early November I located a large Chaffinch flock at Aston Water Tower with a couple of locally scarce Brambling, but since then its been very quiet with only a few Yellowhammers in the hedges. Fortunately Siskin seem to be visiting Fairlands Lakes at times, and the Kingfisher is still there too.

On another topic, the 115mm refractor has been dusted off again and I have had a couple of views of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Very low in the sky once it's dark enough to pick the brighter Jupiter up atmospheric dispersion and turbulence have made things difficult to put it mildly, but earlier this evening (19th December) I got a pretty good sequence of which this is probably the best.

October Holiday Part 2 Lammergeier

 The vulture is still around. Having departed Derbyshire it was eventually located in Norfolk, disappeared again and then a few days ago was seen in south Lincolnshire around Spalding and venturing into Cambridgeshire at times. It has been mobile at times pitching up in odd locations and at one point roosted in a tree on an industrial site. Yesterday it spent much of the afternoon north of Thorney, roosting in a roadside tree and on one occasion disrupted traffic by feeding on the road!

Early start again today, and we arrived at 0715 to find a row of cars parked and a small crowd beyond. Luckily the verges were wide enough for the cars as there had been problems yesterday with bad parking. I was expecting to see the vulture perched a little way off, I wasn't expecting it to be one of three trees right by the road at the exit of a local farm and birders standing underneath looking up!. We stayed a bit further back and had stunning views as it was lit by the rising sun. The digiscoping kit worked quite well with the Z7 camera.

I was fiddling with the camera and missed it flying off over the field but managed to grab a couple of poor flight shots. We were horrified to see it drop onto the road in front of an approaching car. Luckily it was a birder who managed to stop and prevent other cars passing until it had flown into the field. Apparently it had picked up a flat rat.

The views in the field were pretty good though a bit distant and after a brief flight settled down to feed on a bit of rabbit rather closer to us. With a cold wind picking up and cloud building up I was resigned to spending a lot of time watching it in the scope on the deck. Colin threatened to go back to the car for a coffee but held off for a bit which was fortunate as it took off and we got amazing flight views. By now it had gron a full tail but the wings were starting to get a bit tatty.

My one regret about our trip to the Peak District to see it was not seeing it in flight (and barely seeing it at all over half a mile away on the cliff) and once it had moved south I wasn't' really expecting to see it again, and certainly not as well as we did today. Despite it's status as an introduced species (but wild bred and after several generations) its got to be my bird of the year.

October Holiday Pt 1 Norfolk

 My usual  holiday started last weekend-the usual October fortnight.

My first chance of a trip was on Sunday 4th. Ideally it would have been to Hartlepool for a Masked Shrike. I had missed the first two records due to ill health, and despite misgivings Colin and I decided to go for it, but with apparently poor restricted views and zero social distancing we bailed and headed for Norfolk instead. Not a bad idea as much of the east coast was covered in. migrants all Saturday. Unfortunately as it turned out a lot had departed overnight and the Shrike showed well all day with a better behaved crowd.

We got to Titchwell not long after first light with only a couple of cars in the car park. There were a lot of thrushes heading east overhead with smaller birds like Siskin, pipits and a nice Crossbill.  There were a few Blackcaps and tits feeding on the car park apples and I glimpsed a larger pale warbler which could have been Garden or possibly Barred. There were also several Bullfinch as well. 

We headed off round the Fen Trail in the hope of migrant chats etc but it seemed a bit quiet. There were a lot of Song Thrush, Blackbird and Redwing in the trees but smaller birds were hard apart from a few Chiffchaff and crests. Dunnocks and Robins tried their best to be Redstarts and Flycatchers. At the end of the trail at Willow Wood I found and eastern (probably Siberian) Lesser Whitethroat-the first I'd definitely seen, but it was too far from the camera. Over the pool and reed-bed masses of hirundines were feeding-mainly House Martins but lots of Swallows and a few Sand Martins as well.

Walking up the bank, the usual assemblage of waders and wildfowl were on the marsh, but Colin found a Swift, so I alerted the guys following us but they had already had a message from further ahead. We got closer and became rather excited as the scope views seemed to show a brown bird with a pale throat-all signs of Pallid Swift, which being October is pretty much the expected Swift. Unfortunately close views put paid to that idea and it turned out to be Common-very unusual at this time of year.

The sea didn't produce much. There were hordes of gulls and waders feeding on razor clams trhat had been washed up on the previous weeks storm, but the south easterlies meant that there were few birds passing offshore apart from a couple of Gannets and a flock of Wigeon.

After lunch we headed to Burnham Norton. It was a bit showery and windy and the small crowd part way down the track had not had a sighting of the Barred Warbler for some time. A couple of Blackcaps and some Redwings were feeding in the bushes and again Robins and Dunnocks tried hard to be rare. Further down on the dunes, the reported Radde's Warbler hadn't been seen since early morning, so we gave up and headed to Holme instead.

I havent been to the NOA observatorty for a few years, so it was a bit of a shock to see the state of the wooded dunes after recent years storms with large open areas where we had in the past seen things like Little Buntings, Flycatchers and chats feeding in and under trees. What the open areas did provide though were many more hirundines, and some more Swifts! We may have seen a dozen in total and I guessed that storm Alex had brought them up from the Mediterranean.

The dunes otherwise seemed quiet so we went into the reserve which offered more sheltered feeding areas. Sophie directed us to the Heligoland trap  where the Blythe's Reed Warbler was lurking. While waiting we also checked the birches and pines opposite, and patience produced three Yellow Browed Warblers, a female Pied Flycatcher, Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests, and my second Siberian Lesser Whitethroat (this had been trapped and ringed). Eventually the Blythes Reed also showed-as I had only seen various bits of two birds previously it was nice to have a whole one for a change, out in the open and not skulking as typical. One couple had spent several hours over two days before they got to see it so we were rather lucky.

Norfolk Shrikes and Flycatchers

 After a couple of quiet weekends, I was out and about with Colin again on Sunday. The generally north easterlies of the previous few days made a trip to north Norfolk rather tempting.

As usual now, we left early and reached Warham Green near Wells around 0800. It was cool and there was still a very nice breeze that really made me feel that it was going to be a good day. I haven't been to Warham for many years, maybe not even this century and while the approach track and parking seems to have improved it was very much as I remembered as we headed west along the coastal path. Bumped into a returning Ian Bennel who had already had a good few hours out. he mentioned a Redstart near where we met, but I never saw it. WE joined the small crowd in the field and waited. Lots of activity in the hedgerows with Dunnocks and tits darting in and out, ticking Robins and regular flyovers of waders and wildfowl escaping what I later heard was an incredibly high tide.

We were waiting for a 1w Brown Shrike-my second of what was once incredibly rare but is more or less expected in autumn these days, probably more down to a greater understanding of it's difference to the Red Backed/Isabelline complex than an increase in numbers. It took a while for it to show for me and while the scope views were fantastic it was a bit too far away for the 100-400 lens on my Lumix (I was intending to have the heavier Nikon gear plus digiscoping adapters but the usual backache put me off).

After a very enjoyable time with the Shrike we headed to Wells Wood and it's very expensive car park which was fortunately rather quiet as it was still rather early. We met up with a few other birders and walked along the southern track stopping just past the dell and scanned the cattle field fence and it didn't take long for the Red Backed Shrike to show. Again a bit too distant.

The next hour or so was spent in and around the dell and meadow trying to find the Red Breasted Flycatcher with Ritchie Gannon and co. We were directed to a wooded sandy ridge which had a couple of nice sunny spots but birds were hard to locate. A long and frustrating search for a pale bird eventually turned out to be a female type Pied Flycatcher- a nice year tick but not our target. A confused message from Ritchie got us out into the meadow and an increasing crowd of birders. There was a very big tit flock moving around and with it were a number of Chiffchaffs, a Willow Warbler and some crests. 

Colin and I decided to head to the dell and it's Yellow Browed Warbler, not realising the meadow crowd were watching it (or another). After a brief rest on the bench we reached the dell and met Penny Clarke who had been in the woods since the early hours and it turned out that there wasn't much in the area now. Things had certainly got a bit quieter as it warmed up and the wind had also dropped. She did give me pointers for the Red Breasted Flycatcher which was ranging widely along the wooded edge to the meadow and our sandy ridge. 

There was a small crowd tucked now and after a short wait we got to see the flycatcher low down but rather obscured for a few minutes. It moved about 50 yards west where another group got close views and was expecting to return to our area but it seemed to vanish. There was a suspicion that a very aggressive Robin was keeping it moving. I went to stretch my legs in the meadow in the hope of seeing it from that side and then ducked back into the wood again, just as the Flycatcher appeared above me and then posed quite nicely in a small birch. The back lighting was a bit harsh but I got one or two rather nice shots. 

 We didn't linger, the woods were now heaving with crowds of holiday makers, dogs were everywhere and there wasn't much sign of Covid precautions, so we came home. Fortunately I got back in time to catch almost all of the final stage of the Tour de France, not that that affected my decision to return-honest guv.

Norton Green Chats

Popped down to Norton green for an hour this morning. The place hasn't had the usual coverage this year with lock down etc, but over the last few weeks the regulars have been reporting migrants. Whinchats Wheatears and Yellow Wagtails have been recorded over the last week so it it would be worth a visit.

Tony Hukins car was there when I arrived and I eventually met up with him. The usual access point on the bank is terribly overgrown, as is much of the track along the top so it was tough going. When I got to the open section on the west side I could see someone scoping the female Wheatear with Tony approaching. He hadn't seen much else unfortunately so we decided to scour the large rose dominated scrub in the middle. There wasn't a greta deal happening, although sunny and warm, there was a bit of a chilly northerly breeze which seemed to be keeping things down.

One Whitethroat was the best I could manage, with the occasional Robin, Wren and Blue Tit. On a couple of occasions we had brief sightings of 'something' perched up in bushes which inevitably disappeared the moment we noticed them and could never be pined down, so it was very frustrating. However after about 40 minutes we headed back to the open area and I got a good but brief view of a Whinchat in a small rose patch which then disappeared. Despite a thorough search of this tiny patch there was nothing. 

The mystery was solved when I decided to watch the Wheatear for a while, and saw a second bird with it. How the Whinchat  managed to elude us and then appear in the open 50 yards away I don't know, but there it was on the ground feeding happily. I got a couple of record shots.