After a bird survey in Fareham I headed to the Hook with Warsash Local Nature Reserve to see a Yellow-browed Warbler that is overwintering at the site. The bird showed fairly well and relatively quickly as it travelled with the local Long-tailed Tit flock. I had never visited this site before and I spent a little while enjoying the small number of waders and wildfowl present on the falling tide.
My eBird checklist for the visit can be seen here.
Today I visited Chatsworth Cross on Madeira Walk on the seafront at Eastbourne for a Hume's Warbler that has been present since 14th January. Hume's Warbler is British tick for me despite there having been 170 records of the species in Britain to the end of 2019 with a further three records in Ireland to the end of 2018. The bird showed almost immediately on my arrival foraging in Holm Oak just off the pathway. During my time on site it spent most of time foraging very actively in Holm Oak. It would give frequent bursts of rapid calling but would go quiet for 5-10 minutes at a time and would then be very difficult to track. I managed to obtain a few sound recordings but only poor photographs in the lowlight and breezy conditions.
My eBird checklist and sound recordings can be viewed here.
Today I headed to North Hampshire to the Loddon Valley to the north-east of Basingstoke. A tailless Richard's Pipit had been present in a wet field in the valley bottom for a few days as well as a few Jack Snipe. With the use of my thermal camera I soon found a couple of Jack Snipe but despite criss crossing the field on several occasions the Pipit eluded me. My eBird checklist can be viewed here.
Sarah, Tobias and I spent the weekend in Norfolk. It was fairly slow going bird wise but we enjoyed walks at Titchwell, Cley and Holkham and stopped at Welney WWT on the return journey. Highlights were a 1st year Iceland Gull at Cley, a single Snow Bunting at Holkham (we couldn't locate the main flock of 80 birds) plus of course the large numbers of Pink-footed Goose that provide the soundscape for many walks. At Welney we saw eight Tundra Bean Goose, several hundred Whooper Swan and two Cattle Egret.
My eBird checklists can be viewed here:
Sarah and I made a short visit to Slimbridge while staying in our cottage in the Cotswolds today. There were large numbers Golden Plover, Lapwing, Wigeon and Teal present and 120 Bewick Swan. We spent quite some time just watching the sheer spectacle of so many birds. These were regularly hassled by either a Peregrine, Goshawk or Marsh Harrier putting all the birds into the air in a massive swirling mass. As we left a Glossy Ibis showed well on the approach road.
My second attempt for the Belted Kingfisher which had been present in the area since 8th November ranging between Brockholes Lancashire Wildlife Trust Reserve, Withnell Fold and from 20th December at the current site on the River Darwen. I first visited on 21st December but failed to see the bird. Today, I set off from Cowley in the Cotswolds at 04:30 and was at the parking spot within the village of Roach Bridge at 06:45. I sat in the dark in my car for a while and then a few birders passed with torches so I got my kit together and headed to the view point over the River Darwen at 07:15 and still in the dark. I got a good spot overlooking the river and waited for the light to rise. More and more birders joined the few gathered birders and eventually all the front row spaces overlooking the river were taken, the next contingent of birders began to line up behind. Eventually there were around 200 birders and as the sun began to rise the birds began calling and eventually the distant rattle of the Belted Kingfisher joined the chorus at around 08:15. To my left a birder picked the bird up perched high in an Ash tree and after a clamour trying to get to a position to view the bird a birder to my right picked the bird up in his scope and eventually let me have a quick look. Sods law, for me the bird was behind a nearby Ivy clad Oak but after a bit of shuffling and adjusting of the tripod legs I was able to see the bird. It was perched surprisingly high above the river almost in the canopy of an Ash and could be seen distantly but well as it bobbed its head and raised its tail. Over the next hour or so the bird moved between the original trees and then to closer trees where it was difficult to see behind the dense scrub as it perched in trees over the river, eventually it perched in the open and I managed to get a clear view through the trees with a smaller scrum of birders albeit that I was perched on the very edge of a very muddy and slippery slope. Here I managed by best views of this fabulous bird as it perched more or less in the open and back to us. After 15 minutes or so of watching the bird here it flew down river and I decided to head for home at around 09:30. The traffic was thick on the M6 driving south but I was eventually back home at Cowley by 12:45.
There have been five records of this species in Britain and four in Ireland as follows:
United Kingdom
Southern Ireland
I had another Dormouse survey near to Dorchester today and so opted to head to Portland for a couple of hours before hand. Compared to my last visit on the 15th it was dead with very few migrants present. I walked from the main car park up the West Cliffs, through the Top Fields and down to Culverwell and then spent sometime at the Observatory Quarry. The Wryneck was still in the observatory quarry but otherwise there was very little, I recorded not a single Chiffchaff and overhead passage was non-existent. My eBird checklist for the morning can be viewed here.
