May Update 2012

It has been a good month so far with some very good birds. The run of good luck started right from the beginning after I received a text saying a Cattle Egret had been seen at Summer Leys. It was getting dark when I was told but despite this I shot over to the site (meeting up with the county bird recorder Mike Alibone when I was there) but unfortunately after a thorough search we couldn't find it. The following morning it was relocated and watched by various people pretty much all day, so straight after work I jumped in the car and made my way over. The bird was being very mobile and kept flying from field to field but luckily another birder had told me the fields it liked to frequent so I headed to the first place and couldn't see it. I walked across the road and walked along the Nene River along Hardwater Lake scanning the banks but could only find Little Egrets. Luckily I turned around just in time to see a birder was standing by the road trying to get my attention and after legging it back saw the Cattle Egret in the field where I had initially looked - it must have flown in as my back was turned. This was a fantastic looking bird as we don't often see Cattle Egrets at the best of times but to see one in all the breeding refinery like this was a real treat! The pics are Iphone digiscoped and really don't do it justice but trust me it was gorgeous.

My next day off work was the 4th and I turned my attention to a certain Black Winged Stilt that had eluded me over the last few weeks. One was located in Oxfordshire a short time before and it then went to Rutland Water before heading to a place in Lincs near Peterborough and then setted at Frampton Marsh. This was another lifer for me but I couldn't really warrant driving all the way to Frampton to see it, but it disappeared from there and the next thing we know a Black Winged Stilt is sighted at Paxton Pits in Cambridgeshire. This was good as it's not that far for me so first thing in the morning I'm in the car heading for the Cambs border. The whole country had suffered a deluge of rain in the weeks leading up to this weekend which caused a lot of localised flooding. This meant the normal route along the side of the reserve to the field east of the Pumphouse Pit was impassable, so I had to divert up to the other end and come in from the Buckden. It didn't take long to reach the area and a quick stop for directions from smiling birders coming the other way (they had already seen it!) got me to the place I needed to be and right infront of me busily feeding away was the Black Winged Stilt. Nobody can really decide if this is the Frampton bird or a different individual, infact this was the main topic of conversation while I was there but I wasn't too bothered about that - I just enjoyed the view!

After this I headed up to Leicestershire with a Savi's Warbler on the hit list. This bird had been found in the morning near the Lapwing Hide at Rutland Water and by driving up the A1 didn't take me long to get there. the area the warbler was reeling from is a small patch of reeds on the other side of a 6ft fence, which didn't bother me to much as I'm tall enough to see over the top of it but the other guys had to stand on a section leaning over slightly. It was reeling like mad when I got there and I managed a quick glimpse of the bird while it was creeping about in the reeds. Then as it moved further into the reedbed I moved along the fence and was greeted almost straight away by a view of the Savi's Warbler reeling away right out in the open - sometimes there are benefits to being tall. I headed back to Northants after this and went to Summer Leys to see if the Cattle Egret was still about. 2 Black Terns on the main lake was a nice bonus before I bumped into Big Jake who mentioned a Great White Egret had paid the reserve a visit earlier that day. So parking up at Hardwater Mill (where I had seen the Cattle Egret a few days before) I walked along the river towards Mill Lake. A Hobby flew gracefully overhead and as I reached the banks of Mill Lake a large white bird could be seen wandering along the reeds - the Great White Egret was back in the same place we had seen it a few weeks ago! As I walked back the Cattle Egret came onto land on the bank Hardwater lake too, this was amazing I had a Great White Egret to my right and a Cattle Egret to my left!!!
The following day was the trip to Minsmere I had planned for a while. A couple of friends of mine, Julie and John came with me and we were not to be disappointed. A few days before our trip a Long Billed Dowitcher had been found on a reserve near Bury St.Edmunds and as it was on the way it was definitely going to be the first twitch of the day. The directions weren't very clear which lead to us starting off at completely the wrong end of the lake but after we soon realised our mistake we made our way to the area we needed to be in. There right out in he open with a head under it's wing was a sleepy Long Billed Dowicher! Good stuff but we wasn't going to leave until we got a better look at it so we waited patiently for it to wake up. Luckily it did after about 15 minutes and fed along the shoreline giving some great views at quite a close distance. Bizarrely it slept right out in the open but when it fed it did so under cover so getting pics was a bit hit and miss. John Friendship Taylor managed to get this one with it was ducking and diving in and out of the vegetation.

And I got this one shortly after it had woken up and was having a preen.

From here we went to the RSPB's brilliant reserve at Minsmere. Straight from the car we went to see the Wryneck that had been reported recently as this was a lifer for John. It was being a bit slippery to start with but luckily a couple of birders had seen it n a completely different place to the one where everyone else was looking and we saw it high up in a tree. After this we had a wader around, on the scrapes not much was happening to the recent flooding but a few Little Terns and a summer plumage Knot were nice additions. We walked along the beach and up to Dunwich Heath where we had the most amazing and prolonged views of Dartford Warblers I think I have ever had. The weather wasn't too good so my hopes weren't high but after finding a small dip 2 Dartfords could be heard singing away and after a short search could be seen showing really well.

One of the birds flew and posed quite comically almost doing the splits between 2 pieces of Gorse and luckily quick off the mark John Managed to get this pic!

We walked back to the reserve proper and this time got some really good views of the Wryneck showing back it had previously been reported in a large open area with a large gorse bush in the middle. Despite the attention it was getting it was remarkably well behaved and showed well the whole time.

Then to the Reddbed hides for unbelievably close booming Bitterns - one must have only been 50ft away from the hide at one point and despite the noise in the hide from the many birders the noise was quite loud! Marsh Harriers were of course putting on a good display as they always do here and Water rail were squealing in the reeds. When we came out of the reedbed area we went to see another couple of unexpected additions to today's list. We had heard rumours of Stone Curlew being seen nearby and as it's a pair I am not going to tell you exactly where but it's not on the reserve itself. We found the area without any problems and it was a nice surprise to see a male Ring Ouzel in the field too. John Taylor took this great photo of the Rouzel while I ran up the field to locate the Stone Curlew.

 
After enjoying good views we headed back to the reserve and enjoyed the rest of the day wandering around, had great views of a Black Redstart in the car park after John spotted it on a fence and going to places no one else would cos we were the only people wearing wellies (remember the flooding) before settling down at dusk to enjoy the serenade of booming Bitterns. Here's a pic of Julie and John having a paddle - this was the only way down to some of the hides!!

The latter half of the week didn't go so well. I missed a Dotterel by an hour but got good views of a Nightingale at Polebrook Airfield.

It's best to view to vid above full screen and on the highest quality - you can just see the Nightingale in the middle and after the first burst of song it moves slightly up and left before flying right down to the bottom and out of sight before carrying on singing. I returned to Polebrook the week after and also managed to add Turtle Dove to the county yearlist there which along with a lovely looking Little Stint at Summer Leys mid week now bring the list up to 151. Great stuff, now lets see what the rest of the month has to offer!

Northamptonshire Yearlist Update 20th April 2012

Apologies for being a bit quiet on here recently but pretty much all of my spare time has been spent building up the year list. Just about every evening over the last few weeks has seen me shooting off somewhere straight from work to see a new bird that has been found. The last update I posted regarding the yearlist was on the 20th February and I am pleased to say I am starting to get up some good numbers. Most of the time has been spent catching up with birds that I have missed due to working full time and with the exception of Brent Goose, Crossbill and Curlew I am pretty much on target. Since my last update good county birds have been Slavonian Grebe, Avocet, Little Gull, Garganey, Bittern, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Pink Footed Goose, Great White Egret, Common Redstart, Ring Ouzel, Arctic Tern, Black Redstart and the latest Pied Flycatcher which brings the current list up to 127 species so far seen this year. The Slavonian Grebe took some work as it was very mobile as did the Great White Egret which has been present for a while but keeps flying up and down the Nene Valley making catching up with it a nightmare. I got very lucky with Bittern as I only had to wait half an hour before it crept out onto my side of the reeds at Summer Leys giving great views of it fishing, and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which flew right in front of me and landed on a branch just 20 feet from where I was standing. The Ring Ouzel was a sigh of relief too and they had turned up while I was in Norfolk chasing a Hoopoe (see previous posting), and although I did bird the area the following morning my cold had started to get quite bad so I had to give in and head home. Luckily a very helpful young lady (Kirsty) tweeted me in the afternoon to say her and her partner had found one so I shot straight over and connected. Here's a pic taken by her partner Jon Philpot.

                                                                                                                                                   Jon Philpot

The Black Redstart proved to be quite easy too as it flew up on top of a post as I walked away from the car after getting the tip off of it's location from local county birder Eleanor Mcmahon and then the Pied Flycatcher was showing very well too at nearby Daventry Country Park. Unfortunately I'll have to leave this post there as the suns shining and I've got some birding to do, sorry it's a bit rushed but duty calls! I'll be updating again as quick as possible!! Good birding all.

Serin and Hoopoe at Waxham

Us birders often have what are known as "bogey birds". These are birds that seem just out of our reach a lot of the time and they vary from birder to birder. My previous bogey was Firecrest and it seemed that until last year there was a conspiracy against me in the Firecrest community to avoid being seen by me at all costs! Luckily though a trip to Lynford (see previous posting from last year) managed to get five of them with good views of three, so at that point my next bogey target turned to the Hoopoe. This is an exotic looking bird which comes to Britain quite regularly and to be honest shouldn't be that hard to see, but they have eluded me constantly for years. The last one I went for was in Norfolk and after driving all the way there it flew off - literally as I entered the car park! So as the news broke that one had been seen at Waxham in Norfolk I was in two minds whether to go. I kept an eye on the reports to see if it was hanging around and after a few days of it's presence I decided to go for it. I picked Pete Bateup up on the friday evening and we drove over to Kierans house near Norwich, after a few beers and a curry we hit the sack after setting the alarms for 5am. We found ourselves standing on the dunes at 6.30 in the morning the following day waiting patiently for the Hoopoe to appear. The area is a holiday camp with a selection of caravans to the left of view and a large open field with two buildings to the right - this open area was where the bird had been feeding. A Ring Ouzel was feeding away at the top of the field which did take our mind off the Hoopoe for a minute or so but then back to scanning the area. I have to admit I did have a sense of defeat right from the start as it had become very mobile over the last couple of days and my previous history with chasing Hoopoes was dire to say the least. To add to it I had woken up with a stinking cold so standing up here in the wind and the frost was getting difficult. I decided to head back to the car to stick some more layers on and while I was trying to find my gloves I got a text from Kieran saying simply "RING ME NOW". The Hoopoe had taken advantage of my absence to fly into the field (told you it was my bogey bird, it must have waited for me to leave!!) I ran back to our position to be greeted with a fantastic view of the bird feeding out in the open in glorious sunshine! Get in at last a Hoopoe. I put the news out on Birdguides to say it was still here and after a while a few more birders popped over to admire it too. Then as we were all looking at the target bird another birding was looking through the large Linnet flock that was also feeding in the field before exclaiming "Ive got a Serin in here", we all swung around the scopes and sure enough a male Serin was feeding right in the middle of the Linnets. Fantastic stuff, what a little gem to be seeing in this fabulous sunshine! I stuck the news of the Serin straight onto Birdguides and I'm pleased to say it hung around for a while given great views and sometimes coming in quite close but unfortunately the staff at the holiday camp were starting to wake up and a car drove across the field scattering the flock in all directions with some of the birds heading into the sand dunes and this was the last we saw of it. As we left quite a few guys were heading in to hopefully see the Serin with a guy saying he had heard it on the way and another 3 guys saying they'd seen it flying over the sand dunes. We wished them all good luck with finding it and made our way back to the car but not before recording a quick clip of why we came here in the first place.

We were in a bit of a loss as to where to go from here as apart from Ring Ouzels everywhere there didn't seem to be much out of the ordinary kicking about. We popped to Cley and got great views of Ringed Plovers and Avocets sweeping their heads back and forth through the water feeding away and then popped just inland to see a small party of 6 Ring Ouzels and then we went to the pub for a beer and lunch. Then to Titchwell which again was quite sparse, nice flocks of Sanderling on the beach and a lovely Spotted Redshank showing right next to the path.

The day was now drawing to a close and we decided to head inland even further now to try and see a large flock of Ring Ouzel that had been reported at Syderstone Common. With the help of Oliver we got to the area we needed to be in and were greeted with the sight of a staggering 13 Ring Ouzels. 20 had previously been reported but we could only count 13 but still up until today I had only ever seen one in my life and already today we had counted 20 in different locations in Norfolk.

We started to head back after this spectacle, it had been a very good day with 2 life ticks in it for me too! You can never get tired of coming to Norfolk though and the added bonus of having good friends to bird it with too makes the day even better. To celebrate the Hoopoe and Serin sighting we took a group shot on the sand dunes at Waxham. Pete Bateup on the left, Kieran in the middle and me on the right.

An Unexpected Trip To Norfolk - 3rd March 2012

It was an odd day today. The original plan was a quick trip down to a site in Bedfordshire for Firecrest and then to spend the rest of the day in Northants to try and catch up with a Hen Harrier. Things didn't go to plan though and by 3o'clock in the afternoon I found myself standing on the beach at Titchwell in north Norfolk! John Taylor was joining me today and we had planned to visit a site down near Ampthill in Bedfordshire to try and find a Firecrest that had been reported mid week. We spent an hour or so scouring the area in an effort to see it but unfortunately to no avail, as we had got here quite early in the morning I started wondering if a trip over to Lynford Arboretum in Norfolk would be a good idea as Firecrest are pretty reliable here and over the last winter there have been some sizeable Hawfinch flocks in the paddock as an added bonus. We decided to go for it and just over an hour later we arrived at Lynford car park. A Firecrest could be heard singing near the road but we decided to head over to the paddock first as the Hawfinch are quite mobile so they should take priority in case we missed them. We didn't have to wait long at the corner of the paddock before I managed to find one concealed in amongst the branches of the Hornbeam Trees before it flew off, luckily 3 Hawfinch then returned not long after and we got some cracking views of them perched up in the tops of the trees. The trees around the small bridge near the paddock were playing host to quite a spectacle too, they were full of Crossbill with some of the birds coming right down to eye level with Lesser Redpoll and Siskin flocks thrown in too. We birded the whole of the site after this but once again drew a blank with a Firecrest sighting. We heard at least 3 but the weather was overcast and quite windy and it seemed everything was keeping it's head down. By the time we got back to the car we still had the whole of the afternoon ahead of us so we then decided to head up towards the coast. The drive took us through a lot of back roads with some nice views of Buzzard and a quick stop at Chosely Barns got us good views of 3 Corn Buntings in the hedgerows with mixed Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting flocks. The picnic area of Titchwell RSPB Reserve was the next stop with a scan through the Lesser Redpolls to try and find the Arctic Redpoll that has been here for a while. A group of birders were already on it so after looking in the direction they were looking picking it up was easy as a white bird was busy feeding up in the canopy.

Then we had a quick bite to eat in the cafe and then headed down the path towards the beach. Pintail, Shellduck, Spotted Redshank, Avocets, Bar and Black Tailed Godwits were all easily seen on the way but it was the sea that was most rewarding with Long Tailed Duck, drake Scaup, Red Breasted Merganser and a close in Velvet Scoter spotted by John with a load of Goldneye. Lots of Sanderling were running up and down the beach with Knot, Dunlin, Oystercatcher and a few Bar Tailed Godwit along the shoreline too. A Marsh Harrier was spotted quartering the reedbed as we walked back to the car which was a nice end to our visit. As we were running out of time at this point we decided to start making the drive back home and as we had to pass the infamous Wolferton Triangle I thought we may aswell take a look down there. This area is home to Golden Pheasant, and I have tried to see one quite a few times but never had any luck. All the advice is to get here at dawn and drive around the roads hoping to glimpse one, but despite this I decided to give it a shot anyway. We drove along the north road and didn't see anything, then we turned and drove up the south road without seeing anything here either. I then went over the A149 and checked these backroads aswell before getting back to the north road of the triangle and giving it another go. As we slowly drove around a bend John spotted a long tailed disappearing into the undergrowth and as we pulled up nest to the area we could just make out a golden head creeping around in the thick vegetation. So I drove down to village and turned around heading back to the north road again, driving slowly along and luckily I managed to see the Golden Pheasants head poking out from under a bush. I pulled over, turned the engine off and switched off the lights before opening the window and sticking my camera out. We were then treated to an amazing view of an incredibly elusive bird! Getting any view of these cracking creatures is a privilege but to have one this close infront of us was something else entirely. As we sat there in the car he came right out and fed along the side of the road, the only downside though was it was starting to get dark and the lens on my camera couldn't cope with the poor light so the photos didn't come out too well but here is a record shot. The video I took though is a different matter and really shows off the birds plumage and is worth taking a look.

A brilliant end to a nice day out, even if it was a bit unplanned! Thanks also go to Kieran, Oliver and Rob who are Norfolk birders and through a few phone calls gave me some advice regarding Lynford and Titchwell.

Corn Bunting At Summer Leys - 20th February 2012

Back to earth today after yesterdays exploits a it's back of coarse the Northants Year List. I forgot to mention in the previous post I saw a Tawny Owl just outside Salcey Forest as I drove through at 3am bringing the year list up to 94. One of the birds that has been floating around for a while but I haven't had the chance to see yet was a Corn Bunting at nearby Summer Leys Nature Reserve. So I met up with another mate of mine in the shape of Pete Bateup and we proceeded to try and find the bird. It has always been seen with a Yellowhammer flock which is about 200 strong so we knew if we found that we had a chance of seeing the Corn Bunting, but our big problem today was once again the weather. We found the flock just south of the double decker hide and started to search through them but the wind was really starting to blow and as the birds were so flighty it started to become very difficult indeed. A few Reed Bunting could be seen in the flock as it moved back and forth from the field to the trees and back again before eventually I finally saw the Corn Bunting half way up a tree along the side of the path - very much a needle in a haystack job!! After a very short while it flew and the obvious size difference could be seen in comparison to the Yellowhammer. An added bonus to was the presence of 6 Grey Partridge in the field next to the reserve bringing the current list up to 96. Unfortunately at 96 it stayed as there was very little else on the reserve and it was getting dark so keeping within tradition as to whenever I find myself birding with Pete we went down the pub for a pint and a chat, and very nice it was too!

The Epic Twitch, Yellowthroat, Spanish Sparrow and Dark Eyed Junco All In One Day - Sunday 19th February 2012

Yesterday afternoon while I was trying to dry out after the Pitsford soaking I received a phone call from Kieran, a close birding friend of mine. He offered me the chance to join him and a few others to see the recently discovered Common Yellowthroat in Wales as they were passing where I lived and just so happened to have spare seat in the car. As I have already mentioned in this blog I had originally decided this year to stick to Northants but the promise of a new mega and the soaking I received yesterday made my mind up to go with them. So my alarm went off at 3am and I crept out of bed trying not to wake my better half, got in the car and drove to the pick up point in Finedon, a couple of hours later and we had reached the area where the bird had been found and by 7.30ish we were climbing over the stile and walking up to the now famous hedgerow. Twitching can sometimes be a test of patience more than anything else and after a long drive you can end up waiting for hours in order to see the bird you are after in a desperate bid to make the long journey worthwhile. Today though thankfully wasn't one of those days and within minutes we were all on the bird getting fantastic scope views as it crept about in the grass with it's bright yellow chest almost glaring in the bright mornings sunshine. Now to say this was a result is an understatement, not only had we seen the reason for coming here but we had seen it straight away so by 8am we had the whole day to play with. The next bird we went for was Bonaparte's Gull in Cardiff but our luck suffered a temporary setback here. As we climbed the bank from the industrial estate to get down to the shore we suddenly realised the tide was out, in fact it was out a long way and all the gulls were distant. Despite this we searched for about an hour before calling it a day and then went off to the next bird on the hitlist - this being a Lesser Scaup. So we pulled up at Cosmeston Country Park and after a quick scan from just off the car park we easily found the Lesser Scaup. This bird is a textbook example of the species with a dark grey vermiculation along the back, small pinch on the back of the head and an all blue bill with the exception of a tiny black nail at the end. An added bonus was a ringed Whooper Swan standing on the side of the water next to the car park. As it was standing right out in the open you could read number on the ring on it's leg and with a little research I have discovered it was ringed in January Worcestershire and is believed to be Icelandic in origin (number Y59, BTO number SS8778). You can even read the number in this photo.

After this we popped over to another site to try and find Dipper but despite a thorough search we failed to locate one so we returned to the car with another twitch in mind. This being the unthinkable prospect of heading down to the south coast to go for the Spanish Sparrow. By now it had gone midday but we knew if we got down there quickly enough we were in with a chance and perhaps even the Dark Eyed Junco in the bargain at the same time, but again it was a gamble as the Spanish Sparrow was know to go to roost fairly early and by 3pm was elusive. After a quick chat we decided to go for it so jumping in the car we headed down to Calshot in Hampshire. Soon after we had arrived we were told the bird had flown about 1/2 an hour previously and the presence of a large female Sparrowhawk in the back garden of one the houses was keeping all the birds heads down so we split up and waited. After about 40 minutes we were told that the Sparrowhawk  had departed and soon after this the birds started moving again. I should have pointed out earlier that this site is made up of a large hedgerow along the side of a road with a block of terraced houses starting at the road and going down the hill. The bird has been spending a lot of it's time in people back gardens but seems to be doing a circuit of the area along with all the other House Sparrows so when they started to trickle into the hedge I was standing next to it was very encouraging (the even present threat of dipping is always at the back of you mind when twitching) and within minutes the chap next to me gave me a nudge and whispered "there it is". I couldn't believe my luck, it had landed in the hedge right next to me and just sat at the top singing away in bright sunshine allowing me to get a few pics of which this is the best.

What a cracking bird?! We knew we only had a short period of daylight left so we jumped in the car again and headed to the New Forest this time hoping to see the Dark Eyed Junco. We found the car park and located the fallen pine tree where the bird had been frequenting and again waited. We were told it had been spending the day flying around with a few Reed Bunting and a quick look up showed something we didn't want to see - in the tree above us the Reed Buntings looked to be going to roost. This was a really bad sign as the light was now starting to fade and I think everyone there had everything crossed hoping it would show one last time. There seemed little movement at all before a few birds flitted about, a Chaffinch here and a Robin there before Kieran exclaimed he had it in the foliage of one of the fallen trees. We were all on it quickly and got spectacular views (even getting a pic, see below) before it flew closer and fed on the ground infront of us.

After this we did have it mind to go for the nearby Ring Billed Gull but the distance to be driven and with darkness falling (not to mention the long traffic jams through some roadworks) it became clear that it would happen so we started the drive home. I have been birding for 7 years now and I can honestly say today was one of the best days out I have had in this obsessive hobby in all that time. Only one day from the past comes close which was a couple of years ago when in the autumn me and Kieran were battering the north Norfolk coast and just seemed to see everything we went for. It was a cramped day with 5 big lads squeezed into a Honda Civic but that all adds to the fun and today will not be forgotten in a hurry. Also of coarse many thanks to Oliver Reville, Robert Smith, David Norgate and Kieran Nixon for letting me join them on this epic twitch!

Pitsford Reservoir - 18th February 2012

The year list is coming along quite nicely and although I realise I'll find it very hard to compete with the other year listers, particularly the ones who have retired and are free to see birds whenever they wish, I'm still going to give it my best shot if nothing else just to see how many I can reach. With this in mind I headed to Pitsford Reservoir today hoping to see the long staying Slavonian Grebe. This bird I first saw last year at Grafham Water in full summer plumage and since then it has done the roads before finally settling down at this location. I have watched it gradually moult from sum plum into winter so this bird and I aren't exactly strangers. ecently it has relocated to the south side and after a brief email conversation with a local birder called Neil McMahon I headed out to see it for the year. The day started quite nicely although the forecast had predicted heavy rain by midday but despite this I decided to give it my best shot. I started by walking down to the dam and across onto the far side, I trudged along the shoreline and into the vegetation with the hope of flushing a Jack Snipe but to no avail. A pair of Dunlin on the shore proved to be the highlights here as I walked further around the bay to meet a pair of Redshank busily feeding on the headland. I scanned and scanned picking up constant Little Grebe and Great Crested Grebe but no Slavonian. The wind now was really picking up and the birds were being driven into the bays on the south side so I carried on checking every bird I could find eventually picking up a cracking drake Smew in with the Tufted Duck but still not was I was after. By now I had reached the causeway and a Ruff was a nice surprise feeding just off the road and a redhead Smew on the north side was also found. By now the weather had turned really bad, light rain had developed into heavy rain and the temperature had dropped low enough to turn some of it into sleet. I had now had the delightful prospect of a 3 mile walk face first into this barrage of ice and water back to the car. I kept scanning though throughout, trying hard not to loose the reason for being here in the first place, I checked everything but no Slavonian Grebe could be seen. By the time I had reached Pintail Bay I was soaked to the skin and absolutely freezing cold, which in a way was the least of my worries as more importantly my optics were covered in rain drops and making a good viewing of anything near impossible. As I walked around the corner to be able to view the water off the Yacht Club I managed one last scan and picked up a Grebe, slightly larger than a Little Grebe but smaller than a Great Crested with white cheek panels and a black cap. I asked myself  "could this be it finally?", but in answering I had to admit with the state the optics were in and the distance of the bird there is no way I would be happy to say I had seen it. I am listing just for an experiment and not to win a prize so despite being 90% sure it was the Slavonian I will do the honourable thing and leave it off the list - well for now anyway! I will be coming back though for a better look!

The Cold Snap

The last couple of weeks has seen the temperatures plummet in Northants with snowfall one weekend followed by an unbelievable frost on the following weekend. The only plus side to it was they luckily happened when I had time off work so I could grab a few pictures. The biggest downside for me though was it meant the birds were quite rightly keeping their heads down in the cold so the year list was put on hold for a bit. The weekend at the beginning of February saw the snowfall with quite a sizeable load falling on the Saturday night and as |i felt it wise just to leave the car on the drive I took a walk into Salcey Forest. Bird wise it wasn't too bad despite the inclement weather with more Nuthatch than I can ever remember seeing in one place - there must have been at least a dozen along the 5 mile walk. Also Marsh Tit in good numbers and the added if rather enexpected bonus of a Raven flying overhead. I had really bad luck with the light though and had to make do with taking pictures of the patterns the snow had made as landscape seemed a bit drab in the fog. Anyway here's a couple of results.

The weekend after this saw temperatures drop to the lowest point for nearly 30 years. My first stop was Pitsford Reservoir hoping to see the Slavonian Grebe for the year tick but it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to happen this morning. The cars thermometer was reading -13c and as a very thick fog had formed you couldn't even see the bank let alone look for birds on the small areas of ice free water. So with this in mind I jumped back in the car and headed for higher ground, hoping the fog will have lifted herem and concentrate on using the stunning (if not very very cold) morning for some photography. The area I chose was Twywell Hills and Dales and as the sun shone through large ice crystals started to form on the vegetation in front of me while I walked around. It was one of the best examples of hoar frost I have ever had the privalege to witness.

Iceland and Glaucous Gulls at Ditchford - 4th February 2012

Today was a tad spontaneous as I had originally decided to head over to Fermyn Woods to see if I could find any Hawfinch. Due to lack of time I had then decided to change my plan and go to Stanwick Lakes with the intention of going to Ditchford later in the day to try and finally catch up with an Iceland Gull which so far this year had eluded me. From the direction I was coming from you have to pass just to the south of the Ditchford complex on the A45 and whenever I do I can't help a quick glance down to see if many Gulls are about. Today I did just that and the whole area was completely white with Gulls so with another change of plan I took the next junction and found myself parking up and heading into Ditchford. I have tried numerous times this year to finally see an Iceland Gull and so far I have failed despite everyone else it seems connecting, but today it looked good, in fact it looked very good. due to the recent cold weather most of the lakes were frozen over and this is always good for gulling as the birds stand very nicely out in the open allowing you to see all the features needed for an accurate id (one of the problems with Gulls swimming on the water is you can't see their legs). So after a quick scan of the Fishing Pit I headed over to view the Waterski Pit which was full of birds all nicely spread out. A few minutes later another local Northants birder, John Taylor, arrived to say that he had just seen an Iceland Gull on the Fishing Pit. How on earth did I miss it? I was looking at the same pit not 10 minutes beforehand but I certainly couldn't find it. One of the problems this time of day seemed to be the amount of raptors in the air trying to find the odd thermal and Red Kites and Buzzards were flying overhead causing chaos with the Gulls which kept flying up before landing and then flying up again and this is what was happening on the Fishing Pit while I was scanning- well that's my excuse anyway. Anyway John and me started scanning the birds on the Waterski Pit and it wasn't long before I found a snowball of a bird rolling around in the water that was free of ice - here at last was a second winter Iceland Gull. It did put on a nice show preening and then flying before landing again and preening once more. Also john managed to find a fantastic drake Smew swimming with the Goldeneye. After watching the Iceland for a while we moved on to see what else was about. The small pond on the other side of the viaduct was completely frozen over, as was the ground so there wasn't much point in looking for waders so we headed over to the viaduct pit but a brief scan couldn't find much out of the ordinary. Back to the Waterski Pit it was and a quick scan almost immediately awarded us with a second winter Glaucous Gull, and then I had a look to the right and found another! In fact at one point both Glaucous Gulls were in the field of view of the scope at the same time. John noticed a wader flying overhead which he managed to get his scope on and this turned out to be a Black Tailed Godwit. As we moved further down the Iceland could be seen again this time preening itself on the ice. Unfortunately I never really took pictures which is a shame as the birds were showing very nicely but the truth is it was so cold it was actually painful to have hands out of gloves for long and as the birds were moving around a lot keeping up with them trying to digiscope was a nightmare. Anyway I got the bird I was after and despite not being able to feel my hands and feet due to the cold I left a very happy man indeed!

Wednesday 25th January 2012 - Northants Year List Coming On Nicely

The first month of the year is now nearly at an end and although I haven't been out too much, mainly due to it still getting dark very early, my list of birds for Northants is increasing steadily. This year is the first year that I have embarked on a year list, and to keep it local I have decided to keep it all in Northants. I have done this for a number of reasons, firstly as the price of diesel is getting higher and higher the cost of twitches all around the country is getting silly and as I have a wedding to pay for I thought it would be a good idea to limit costs a little, and secondly keeping things local gives you the incentive to look harder at your own local patches. This a lesson I learnt when I did the BTO atlasing for the Finedon area. Here was a site around where I lived, in fact right on my own doorstep, and I am ashamed to say I probably knew more about the birds in Norfolk or anywhere else for that matter than I did these perfectly within walking distance. When I started to become interested in birds I very quickly caught the twitching bug and spent most of my time off tearing all over the place to see rare birds, but the question I have to ask myself is "did it make me a better birder?" and the answer is no it didn't! I had the idea to do survey work when I thought it would be a good idea to put something into the hobby, not knowing at the time it would teach me a valuable lesson in birding. When you are looking for birds on your patch you realise that it can limit what you are going to see so in order to make sure you don't miss anything you go through each bird individually to make sure you know exactly what it is. I see all too often when out birding people will see a flock of Wigeon or Teal wintering on a reservoir and will then walk away happy that they have seen a flock of Wigeon/Teal - what seperates the dedicated birders from the rest is instead of just walking away go through them all methodically, and when you have done that go through them again, and then again from a different angle. This way if there is an American Wigeon or Green Winged Teal in amongst them you will be the one to find it. Anyway I am drifting from the point here a little. Last week a female Scaup was discovered during a WEBS count by a local birder at a place called Wilsons Pits near Rushden. So last Sunday this was the first stop and I am pleased to say I only had to walk 25 yards from the car before I was onto it. Back in the car and then over to Ditchford Gravel Pits in the hope that I would see one of the Iceland Gulls that have been reported. The whole of this complex of pits is populated by horses from the local traveller sites and I think them must be able to smell the extra strong mints that I always carry in my pocket, they certainly seem partial to them anyway.

Unfortunately though despite a 3 hour search no White Winged Gulls could be found, in fact some reason the whole place seemed quite barren of birds considering previous trips I had made here. So I had to give in and concentrate my efforts elsewhere. From here I moved on to Barnes Meadow Wildlife Trust Reserve near Northampton. As you may have read in a previous posting this place is a paradise for Snipe and as I had managed to see one not long ago I decided to come back and try for the year tick. The site is a flooded meadow with lots of shallow margins and the technique is to put your wellies on and wade through the mud to see what flies out from beneath you. It can be a bit hairy at times and you can spend more effort freeing yourself from the sticky mud than looking for birds but in a childish kind of way it is quite fun. Again though another let down, despite the fantastic habitat (see pic below) the best I could manage was 2 Common Snipe.

Moving on once again I went over the road and into Clifford Hill Gravel Pits. The highlight here was a pair of Peregrine putting on an amazing display in the wind above the lake. The wind was starting to really blow by now and keeping the scope steady was a nightmare, but I was rewarded with one of the best and most prolonged views I have ever had of these magnificent birds. I had a good look through the vast flocks of geese but nothing other than Canadas or Greylags could be found. I finished the day at Cogenhoe Mill and the surrounding fishing lakes but again couldn't find anything out of the ordinary with the exception of the wintering pair of Green Sandpiper. As I drove home I received a couple of texts alerting me to a couple of White Fronted Geese that had been found at different ends of the county so my next day off (today) I headed to the closest one. This is the bird at Fawsley Park near Daventry. I have to confess this is an area in which I had never birded before and driving through the very quaint villages and countryside made me wonder why I had left it so long to explore this area. I made my way to the park, which is on a country estate, and found the 2 fishing ponds the bird has been seen on. It had been associating with Canada Geese and I did find a flock of these but they were feeding on a hill so any birds down the other side I couldn't see. A couple of very chatty fishermen pointed in the direction I should head for a better view and within 20 minutes or so I was enjoying very good views of the White Fronted Goose as it fed along the bank before flying into the middle of the pond for a drink.

As I walked back to the car I had to admire the area I was standing in, I may very well return at some stage to give the site some birding justice as I think could have spent the whole day here quite easily. The stately home and the church seemingly in the middle of nowhere set amongst the grounds was quite picturesque.

A nice touch at the end of my visit was a Nuthatch calling from the tree above my car, and showing really well in the branches. From here I headed to Pitsford Reservoir in the hope that I may be able to connect with the Brent and Pink Footed Goose. Once again though another dip. I'm not too disheartened though as this can be the trouble with working the hours that I do, with the early dark nights ruling out after work birding and not being able to get out at the drop of a hat! When a bird gets reported you sometimes just can't get there in time. Anyway despite a very thorough search of all the geese flocks south of the causeway I simply couldn't find either of the birds I was after. Hopefully they will re-appear and I will be able to get them again (I have seen them at Clifford Hill last year, in fact it was me who found the Pink Foot but this is a year list at the moment so those birds don't count). I spent the rest of the daylight hours walking around the north side of the reserve. Some fantastic flocks of Teal and Wigeon are here but not much else that I could see. The water levels are very low at the moment and if you look at the picture below the bridge you can see at the bottom of the frame is normally under quite a few feet of water, in fact I can only remember once seeing the water this low and that was many years ago.

Despite this though I had a nice walk round and as it was getting dark a few of the mammals were starting to emerge. This area is quite large and not too many people venture around to the far end as it's getting dark so perhaps this was giving the local Muntjac Deer population a false sense of security. I counted five in the end with at least 2 of them not paying any attention at all to my presence until I got too close for comfort, and a Hare in the field next to farm near Scaldwell Bay rounded the day of quite nicely. So far the year list has hit 81 different species, all in Northants obviously which can be frustrating as I work in Bucks which means any birds seen down there I can't count, but anyway here is the current list (in no particular order)

1 Bullfinch
2 Blackbird
3 Collared Dove
4 Carrion Crow
5 Woodpigeon
6 Lapwing
7 Starling
8 Great Tit
9 Gadwall
10 Mallard
11 Wren
12 Coot
13 Black Headed Gull
14 Wigeon
15 Goldeneye
16 Shovelor
17 Tufted Duck
18 Mute Swan
19 Fieldfare
20 Green Woodpecker
21 Cormorant
22 Common Gull
23 Pochard
24 Moorhen
25 Golden Plover
26 Dunnock
27 Reed Bunting
28 Chaffinch
29 Great Spotted Woodpecker
30 Little Egret
31 Greenfinch
32 Kestrel
33 Red Kite
34 Grey Heron
35 Glaucous Gull
36 Robin
37 Common Buzzard
38 Yellow Legged Gull
39 Pheasant
40 Great Black Backed Gull
41 Lesser Black Backed Gull
42 Herring Gull
43 Long Tailed Tit
44 Greylag Goose
45 Canada Goose
46 Goosander
47 Goldfinch
48 Ruddy Duck
49 Long Tailed Tit
50 Blue Tit
51 Shellduck
52 Pintail
53 Smew
54 Tree Sparrow
55 Pied Wagtail
56 Redwing
57 Yellowhammer
58 Short Eared Owl
59 Magpie
60 Egyptian Goose
61 Meadow Pipit
62 Little Grebe
63 Great Crested Grebe
64 Jackdaw
65 House Sparrow
66 Rook
67 Caspian Gull
68 Sparrowhawk
69 Scaup
70 Marsh Tit
71 Common Snipe
72 Peregrine
73 Green Sandpiper
74 Barn Owl
75 Skylark
76 Jay
77 Nuthatch
78 White Fronted Goose
79 Goldcrest
80 Red Legged Partridge
81 Teal

Adult Glaucous Gull at Ditchford starts the new year off nicely - 8th January 2012

With this being the first opportunity of the year to get out birding I was hoping I could make it a good one. I started the day at Summer Leys Nature Reserve where a Bittern had been reported recently and on a few occasions had showed well to the people lucky enough to be around at the time. This morning wasn't one of those days though unfortunately and despite an hours searching I couldn't locate it. It has apparently moved to a small reed fringed pool but the wind was quite strong and numerous dog walkers were letting their pets run riot in the area so if it was here it would have quite rightly kept its head down. So I decided to abandon the search in order to try and find other Northants birds in the area.

My next stop was Ditchford Gravel Pits which is well know in the winter for producing some very good Gulls. It's the Glaucous and Iceland hotspot of the county mainly due to the local landfill site. A mate of mine, Steve Fisher, has found 1st and 2nd winter Glaucous Gulls over the last few weeks and according to reports they were still in the area. When I parked the car another car pulled up behind mine and it turned out to be another Northants birder John Taylor. As he was also here for the Glaucous Gulls we started walking together up to the ploughed field which had a nice large flock of birds loafing around in the middle. We has only just started scanning through when John picked up a gorgeous adult Glaucous sitting right infront of the crowd. It was a stunning bird and was a good sighting for a few reasons. Firstly it was the first adult I have seen as all my previous records have been 1st year birds and secondly this bird hasn't been reported before so it was a new one - a nice self find for John. Shortly after we had picked it up a Lesser Black Backed Gull spooked it into flying a short distance, I did manage to get it again but it was right in the middle of the crowd this time and was lost from view quite quickly and we never managed to find it again after that. I just wish I had a quicker finger to get a pic of the bird before it cleared off. Despite searching we also couldn't find the other reported 1st and 2nd winter birds but we didn't leave too unhappy as the adult had more than made up for that. Also at the front if the crowd we found a nice contender for adult Caspian Gull. Very plump breast with long bill and a small dark bullet hole shaped eye set forward in the head. We couldn't see the legs unfortunately as it was standing in a rut in the ploughed field so I won't be ticking it but it was a very interesting Gull to see.

The next stop was Pitsford Reservoir mainly to get a few year ticks. Trees sparrows were there in quite large numbers with a flock of at least 50 birds around the feeding station. A few Goosander were kicking around the mouth of Holcot Bay as were 4 Pintail. Also 2 Shellduck were feeding in Walgrave and off the fishing lodge a pair of Smew with a drake and redhead From the feeding station I noticed a Commom Buzzard fly down from a tree and catch something before flying back up again. We located it in the other side and got lovely views of it ripping a rat apart before swallowing the back half down in one. It's quite a sight to see that beak in action as it made quite short work of the poor rat taking quite large chunks off it it one action. After its meal it wiped it's bill clean on the branch it was standing on before starting its vigil again, no doubt looking for more rats.

A visit to Bluebell Farm near Maidwell was next on the agenda to year tick Short Eared Owl. Even from getting out of the car at the farm itself 2 Short Eared Owls could be seen in the field opposite. Me and John walked around the whole site getting fantastic views of owls on posts and in hedgerows. We also bumped into another local guy, Keith Tinworth, and together we worked out there were at least 12 Owls over the complex and as we hadn't counted a couple of fields there were probably more than that. As we stood in the field back where we had parked the cars another chap turned up, Mark Skinner, who's a local birder/photographer. I've been friends with Mark for years on Facebook so it was good to finally meet him. All in all a good day, met up with some people I hadn't seen for a while and some very good birds into the bargain too.

The following day I nipped over to Clifford Hill Gravel Pits to see what was about. 10 Goosander (4 drakes), 2 Goldeneye, c.200 Lapwing, Egyptian Goose and 15 Meadow Pipits. The total count for the weekend was 59 species over 2 days so the Northants year list has started nicely.

A Few Tips, Free Bird News and Better Birding With An IPhone - 27th December 2011

I am quite often asked when I meet up with people out birding where I get my information from and how I am sometimes lucky enough to get some of the images I have in the past. I have decided to put everything I do in this post in a hope that perhaps it will help others to achieve the same and use the latest technology to help them become better at watching wildlife here in the UK.

Technology has advanced so much over the last decade that it has been quite hard to keep up with it, but it is very easy to use it to our advantage so long as we know what we want to get out of it. I now use an I Phone4 and to me it is a tool to help me in my hobby. No longer is a phone just a phone, it's a device that constantly streams information and I will admit that sometimes I need it and sometimes I don't but nonetheless the information is there straight away whenever I need it - literally at arms reach. I am sure that other smartphones will do the same job but as this is the device I have been using for a while, this is the one I shall be referring to in this post.

Free Bird News
Information regarding birds and other wildlife has been the lifeline to many people who want to enjoy the "unusual" but aren't quite in the "clique" as they say. By this I mean in birding and any other wildlife watching it can be quite hard for people new to the hobby to see unusual things may turn up. A lot of bird sightings used to be passed word of mouth so if you didn't know the right people then you may only hear about it few days later, by which time of course the bird had normally vanished. To some extent this is still the case but luckily nowadays things are slightly different. Most bird clubs have their own websites with regular sightings pages - and this is the first tip - bookmark all of these in your surrounding area and visit them regularly. The down side to this is these sites are quite often updated at the end of the day so the next tip is to get yourself a Yahoo account and then search the Yahoo Groups for all birding groups in and around your area. When you join, normally after they accept you, set up your account so you get an individual e-mail for every single posting (this means when someone posts on the group you will receive an e-mail showing the posting). Then on your phone go the e-mail account settings and type in your Yahoo details, ie log in on your name and password and hey presto! All the e-mails from all different groups will be sent to your phone whenever you need it. I personally have all the Northants, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire and North Bucks e-mails now sent straight my phones e-mail account so after pressing a couple of buttons they're all there. The likes of Birdguides and Rare Bird Alert get their information through these too so by checking it regularly you can get the info you need before they do.

Subscribing to Bird Info Services
The likes of Birdguides and Rare Bird Alert have been invaluable to a lot of twitchers and birders who want to "tick" or learn from rare birds. I tend to only "twitch" birds I can learn from, what I mean by this is I normally only chase birds that may turn up on my patch so I have more of an understanding of what I am looking at - I twitch to hopefully become a better birder. Of course this ethic can all go out the window when things like Sandhill Cranes arrive in Suffolk but as a rule I try and stick by my principles. Over the last year Birdguides and Rare Bird Alert have released I Phone Apps to give out rare bird news and in my opinion they aren't really worth spending the extra subscription on. I will say that after trying them both the rare Bird Alert App is a hell of a lot better than the Birdguides App, there is much more info at your finger tips with RBA - but to me the crucial thing is you can't access either of them without having enough phone signal to get onto the internet. So what is the problem? I hear you ask, just have a look when you have a better phone reception. The thing is though, if you have better signal why not just bypass the phone app and go onto the website itself? This is the main reason why I tend to use Birdguides News. Its not because of when the news "breaks" so to speak it's because I find that more information is displayed better on my phones display than RBA. Both the Apps when you subscribe to them only offer the limited info on the Apps themselves as oppose to the whole websites information which the I Phones Safari web browser is more than capable of coping with itself. So in short I find it better to subscribe to the site itself and just use my phone to browse that.

Bird Identification
One thing I will say in Birdguides favour though is their Identification App of British Birds is absolutely superb, with excellent photos and illustrations - but for me most importantly is the inclusion of the birds songs and calls. This feature to me is almost worth the money alone - which is about £12 from the App store. Also I like to save bookmarks of a few websites on the Safari browser - one of the best being Birders Playground. this site is set up by a photographer who has one of the best selections of Gull photos I have ever seen in one place, with a lot of the birds seperated by age which makes comparison easy in the field (so long as you have the signal of course). I have also put the British Bird Songs cd's  onto my phones music library which has also saved the day a couple of times in the field when a call is heard that you don't recognise. A few birders I know also attach a speaker to their phone in order to either use the Birdguides Id App or songs recorded onto their music library for the purpose of tape luring - I remain open minded to this but obviously it depends on your individual politics in such matters if you use it for that purpose or not.

Navigation
The I phone has a very good internal mapping system but it has one major drawback - it uses the internet to load up the maps which is quite often not much good as birds tend to turn up in "out of the way" places where a phone signal is non existent. This can be overcome however, but at a price. Download the Outdoors GB App (about £5) and then go into the store - from here you can download Ordnance Survey Maps. A 1:50 size map for a region will set you back about £10, but this is A LOT of mapping. The regions you buy can be things like the whole of the East of England etc. I have downloaded onto mine the East of England and the East Midlands, this has cost me about £20 but if you pop into your local outdoor shop and ask for the separate maps it will cost you a hell of a lot more. As Northants is my own county I have also bought the Northants 1:25 map too - these are a lot more expensive at £30 but again the way to look at it is if I were to buy the maps themselves £30 would only get me 2 of them whereas here I get them all. Of course these aren't really much good for orienteering or of course if your phone breaks of runs out of battery you'll be lost but for  and navigation you need to do thats not too demanding these are perfect. The maps are saved to your phones memory too so you don't have to worry about signal and also the phones GPS will show you exactly where you are on the map and what direction you are travelling in. It is in effect a handheld GPS system that would normally set you back a few hundreds of pounds all for about £50.

Digiscoping
Another big bonus with these, or any other smartphone, is the camera. Phone cameras used to be very basic but gradually this is now not the case. There's is 2 ways I approach digiscoping with the phone but lets make this clear I am not going to win any awards doing it - I just do it for record shots so if you do want fantastic results it would be best to get a proper set up. The first technique is to simply activate the camera and place it over the eyepiece of the scope, you will normally have to zoom in tad to get rid of the dark ring around the lens. This will take a record shot of what you want but one I thing I have discovered is the second technique. The HD video recording facility I find takes better images than the still camera itself so what I do is set the camera up in video mode and place it over the eyepiece again, zoom in and start to record a video of the bird. Then when you taken the video you are happy with open it up in VideoPix (another App from the App store), this App lets you capture freeze frame images from moving videos. This is great as you can playback the video in slow motion until you find the composition you want and then just press a button to save as a picture. You can then or course use your phones e-mail service to attach the pic and e-mail it to the county recorder or put it on facebook etc in seconds after actually seeing it. Here is an example of a digiscoped picture of a Glaucous Gull taken using my old phone (Sony Ericsson Vivaz) to show what results you can achieve with a little patience.

If You Have A Scope Use It
Sounds simple doesn't it? Sometimes though it is easy to get lazy and thoughts start going through your head that it won't be worth lugging all that weight around so you leave it in the car. This is what happened to me a few months ago. I had a walk around Harrington Airfield in the morning with a friend of mine and didn't see much to exciting so we then went to a local reservoir and had a long walk around that carrying the scope and from there we went and had a couple of beers in a local pub. When we left we decided to pop back to Harrington Airfield just to kill a bit of time if nothing else and as I'd been carrying my scope about all day and was no doubt a little bit lethargic after a lunchtime pint I left the scope in the car. Stupid mistake as this was the time I found a Great Grey Shrike, which posed very well in front of us on a number of occasions before more people turned up and it became very mobile after the that - the moral of the story is though if I had my scope with me I could've digiscoped some superb pics of the bird but as I was lazy and left it in the car I haven't got any to show you.

In conclusion this post just shows some of the many ways technology can help you in your hobby. If I find out any more you'll be the first to know.

Dark Bellied Brent at Clifford Hill Gravel Pits

A certain bird has been eluding me lately, that being the dark bellied Brent Goose that has been seen at Clifford Hill Gravel Pits near Northampton. I have never seen a Brent in Northants before and as Clifford is one of my local patches it was going to be a good patch bird in the bargain too - but despite my best efforts I haven't been able to find it despite 5 attempts so far. As the nights are getting dark so early now at this time of year I'm limited to weekend visits only as a pop in on the way home from work wouldn't now be feasible until next year. So despite not seeing it on my previous attempts I wasn't going to give up, and after spending the morning getting stuck in the mud at Barnes Meadow again looking for Jack Snipe (I didn't see any this time) I made my way over the road to Clifford Hill. All the Geese were in their normal loafing area at the south eastern side of the lake so I made my way over and luckily enough just to the right of a small group of Canada Geese was a small black Goose busily feeding away. Finally here it was at last, hooray! I got a quick digi clip just for the records.

As you can see the bird is a juvenile, with the lack of a white neck band but nevertheless it was nice to finally get it. In my defence there has been so much happening recently with Short Eared Owls and Great Northern Divers (see previous posts) so most of my birding time has been spent elsewhere, and the geese here are very mobile and commute between here and somewhere else. It seems that luck plays a large part in finding the geese here. After watching the Brent for a while I wandered further along the bank to see if anything else was about in the goose flock and soon I had noticed another different looking goose fast asleep with the Greylags. It didn't take long to realise it was a Pink Footed Goose, then it got up after a dog walker got too close and wandered about for a bit allowing me a couple of pics before it went back to sleep again.

I did return here the following day (Sunday 27th) but unfortunately couldn't find the Pink Foot. The Brent was still around but mobile and was also joined today by the Egyptian Goose that I'd seen a few weeks ago. It would be nice to find out exactly where these geese commute to and from as rarer geese in the future will probably be easier to find instead of just relying on pot luck. Never mind that will be for another day.

Great Northern Diver in Milton Keynes and a Lifer in Northants - 17th November 2011

The news came out yesterday that a Great Northern Diver had been found at Caldecotte lake in Milton Keynes and as I had a day off today I thought I'd pop down to take a look. I've seen them many times before in Scotland but I've only had one down south (Pitsford Reservoir a few years ago) so it felt like a good time to catch up with one again. The bird has been fishing in a small bay on the north eastern side of the water almost in the middle of a housing estate and luckily it was still there this morning. So I found myself pulling up along the road to have a look myself. At first it couldn't seen but as anyone who has spent any time looking for Divers will know they can be surprisingly difficult to spot - due in main to the fact they spend a lot of time fishing underwater. In fact it took quite a while to finally see it, and when I did it had come up right where I had started looking in the first place so I must have walked passed it while it was submerged. I'd estimate it was spending at least a minute underwater and then only surfaced for about 8 seconds before diving again, and to add to it the bird would swim a long way underwater so it rarely comes back up anywhere near it dived. This makes getting a clip or pic a difficult and frustrating business - especially if you are like me and is trying to digiscope it by putting a phones camera against the eyepiece! Anyway I persevered and came up with a few results. Apologies for the camera shake in the clips but it was quite a chore getting these, at least they're short. Quite pleased with the photo - not bad for an IPhone.

From here I popped up to have a look at a new birding site for me. Jack Snipe have been one of my bogey birds for years so I had a word with a local guy who told me about a reliable site. Barnes Meadow is an area just south of Northampton and is a Wildlife Trust Reserve that I had never visited before even though I pass it every day. So with wellies on I made my way into the reserve and started to wander along the margins or the wetland hoping to flush a bird. Normally flushing anything is strictly against my birding ethics but unfortunately one of the only ways of seeing Jack Snipe is to do just that. They are renowned for not flying until you are nearly on top of them and when they do they only fly a short distance before dropping down again. I walked around the outside before moving into the middle trying to judge the depth of the vegetated and very muddy water so as not to get a bootfull while all the time trying to keep an eye open for anything flying up. Then as I started walking into a very heavily vegetated part a Snipe sp. flew up about 4 feet from me, flew a short distance before landing 25 feet away. Despite watching where it landed I just couldn't get the binoculars on it and as I only saw the birds back when it flew I tried to get a better view. I've heard that Jack Snipe tend to run a short distance when they land so where they dropped won't necessarily be where they are when you go back. As I walked into the place where it landed I managed to flush it again but this time it flew around me so I managed to see the short bill as oppose to the long bill of the Common Snipe. At this point I decided to leave, I'd seen what I wanted so there seemed little point in disturbing them any further. Jack Snipe at last so it was a worthwhile afternoons work, despite getting covered in mud.

Blueberry Farm Short Eared Owls - 13th November 2011

A local patch of mine has been playing host to an amazing amount of Short Eared Owls recently. Blueberry farm near Maidwell in Northants is a raptor hotspot due in main to the Hawk and Owl trust and the local landowners working together to provide suitable habitats. It has been famous most years for wintering Short Eared Owls as the fields have been left as set aside and are cut to the right lengths at the right times of year. A talk with the landowner is very informative and it makes you realise just how much work can go into a conservation project even though sometimes it may look simple. Anyway as I have said this year has been absolutely exceptional with the sheer numbers of Short Eared Owls currently here. I popped here a couple of weeks ago with Pete Bateup and bumped into another Northants birder Keith Tinworth - just standing in the one place we had at least 10 Short Eared Owl, 4 Kestrel, 2 Buzzards and a Peregrine. Keith and I agreed to meet up again this week with a hope of perhaps seeing the Long Eared Owl that has been reported here too. Unfortunately we never did see it though a very dark bird had us racing into the next field at one stage only for it to become clear it was only a trick of the light. Short Eared Owls though are literally everywhere on the complex and it really is an incredible sight to see so many. Keith did a count while I was trying to digivid one and he managed to get a total of 12, which is currently believed to be a county record at one location. When we arrived on site we another nice surprise as we watched a Short Eared Owl and a crow have an altercation, it was only when we noticed to Crow in question was bigger than the Owl we realised it was in fact a Raven. Anyway here's a couple of very shaky clips of Owls flying and one of a preening bird in the bushes - they won't win any awards but they area a nightmare to keep up with!

Also nearly forgetting to mention, earlier today I received a text from Bob Bullock saying 8 Bewicks had been found at Summer Leys Nature Reserve so I shot over here before making my way to Blueberry Farm. It was the first time I'd seen them in Northants so was a good addition to todays sightings.

Dolphins at Chanonry Point - 29th October 2011

At the end of October I took my better half Desica up to Scotland . She had never been to the highlands before and as I've been a few times chasing the local wildlife I decided to spend most of the week doing the tourist stuff and sightseeing showing her around. A very good friend of mine, Matt Whitelocke, lives up here and was good enough to put us up for a few days and take us round all the best places to see. Despite this mainly being a relaxing break we couldn't resist the opportunity of perhaps seeing the Dolphins near Inverness. I have been up here before but unfortunately in vain, and Matt tried a few times before finally seeing them earlier this year - so it was with a fairly unoptimistic heart we decided, after taking Desica shopping in inverness, to head out here just on the off chance they were about. We initially popped to the Dolphin and seal watchpoint just across the bridge but nothing could be seen from the vantage point so we took the drive out to Chanonry Point. This area is a small headland going out into the Moray Firth and makes an excellent viewpoint to observe the water for and birds or cetaceans. A Grey Seal greeted us not long after our arrival as it headed around the point and as we were scanning the area around us a photographer approached  and asked if we had seen anything as not long before he had seen a few Dolphins breaching right out in the middle of the water. We looked towards the red buoy he had mentioned and within minutes 5 Dolphins were breaking the surface and putting on quite a display with one or two clearing the water a couple of times. We were lucky enough to watch them for 10 minutes or so before they dived and disappeared from view. We spent a bit of time chatting with the photographer who said he'd been waiting up here for 4 days waiting to see them which goes to show just how lucky we were to get the views we did -then he stopped talking, looked shocked and pointed towards the water just off the beach, we spun around just in time to see 2 Dolphins coming up for air just 25 feet from us as they swam around the point. They came up another 3 times as they made their way along the shore line giving incredible views. It was an incredible moment and was doubly good as Desica isn't into wildlife watching so it was good to show her one of the reasons I do what I do and I am pleased to say her reaction to the moment showed that she enjoyed the experience too. This was also my first sighting of Dolphins in the wild and I have to say I was very surprised just how big they were, it turns out these are the biggest Bottle Nose Dolphins in the world. To add to the incredible wildlife around here the scenery was stunning and the moody weather and gradual sunset made for awe inspiring landscape. In all a very enjoyable trip!

White Rumped Sandpiper and an American Wigeon at Rutland - 23rd October 2011

Today I nipped across the border up into Leicestershire. Rutland Water can normally be relied upon to come up with the goods bird wise and it's always worth keeping an eye on sightings there. Recently a White Rumped Sandpiper has been seen here and luckily it has hung around long enough for me to get a day off work and finally get up there and see it. It has been feeding around the Lapwing Hide so when I arrived I made my way straight there as it looked like quite a lot of people were here for exactly the same reason as I was. On entering the hide I could see a number of waders feeding along the shore - mainly Dunlin with a few Ringed Plover and Redshank. The bird I was after at a glance looks quite like a Dunlin with the exception of it's short bill, pale supercillium and very long primary projection (in fact when this bird bends over to feed the wing tips can flap around behind it's tail almost like tail streamers!) and a long attenuated body. To the left of the hide the wader could be seen closely following a ringed Plover. It was a very nice bird to get to see for two reasons. Firstly it was a lifer and secondly (and in fairness more importantly) it is was I like to call an educational bird - as in its a confusion species and can be easily overlooked, especially when feeding with Dunlin, so I'm hoping that by seeing this one I'll make sure I do not overlook it when I am patching in the future. I managed to get a couple of digipics and a very shaky vid in the wind.

Another nice bird to see from the same hide was a drake American Wigeon. It is believed this is the same bird that was present here last winter and if so it is nice to see it back as it is a cracking bird. It was showing very well right in front of the hide but unfortunately because of the rare American wader on the shore it wasn't stealing the limelight as it was last year.