Monday 4th April
Taking an earlier train to the one I was planning for meant that I was in Sandwich an hour early. Hiker me decided to walk the half hour trek from the station to the observatory with about 15kgs of clothes and equipment on my back. it seemed longer from the glorious yet punishing heat of the sun. I was greeted at the observatory by Sorrel Lyall and George Dunbar, two fellow NGB members and my companions on this trip. I sorted out my stuff while we waited for the other participant, Sophie Barrell, to arrive. Then, Sophie and I had a tour of the premesis, That evening we went out for a walk around the Elms for firecrests and then to Worth Marshes to find the short eared owl.
Showing posts with label twitching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitching. Show all posts
Saturday, 9 April 2016
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Twitching in Hampshire and Dorset - 12/3/16
Saturday 12th March 2016
The long billed dowitcher is a strange bird. A cross between a snipe and a sandpiper with an elegant body but such a long thick bill. This bird seems a bit funny to me.
My best friend Oli picked me up at 7am and he drove to Keyhaven Marshes in Hampshire, a long 2 hour drive through Dorset and into Hampshire. A short walk through the fog produced gulls, mute swan, mallard and blackbird. further down the path is an area of gorse bushes. Darting around these bushes was a pair of Dartford warblers. A short stroll took us to the lagoon there. We stopped to look at a little egret. Suddenly, in flew the long billed dowitcher. After much confusion I locked eyes on it. A dog came running towards us and we thought it might fly away, instead it came closer to the path. Passing Oli my binoculars (my scope was already set up on the tripod), I shuffled down the bank onto a lower river's edge, clutching my camera. I got 5 meters from it! 5m from a rare bird. Not everyday that happens. This was why I love birding. Here's a photo of it:
We then drove to Blashford Lakes. Parking there was interesting as Oli misjudged the distance and we crashed into a wall, slightly denting the car (whoops!). There we heard two green woodpeckers and saw gulls, little grebe, mallard, pintail, shoveler, teal, great crested grebe, Egyptian goose, Canada geese, cormorants and a slavonian grebe (another first for me).
Next, we drove to Lodmoor in Weymouth to see the Spoonbill where we saw lapwing, marsh harrier, tufted duck and my first cetti's warbler (finally!).
The long billed dowitcher is a strange bird. A cross between a snipe and a sandpiper with an elegant body but such a long thick bill. This bird seems a bit funny to me.
My best friend Oli picked me up at 7am and he drove to Keyhaven Marshes in Hampshire, a long 2 hour drive through Dorset and into Hampshire. A short walk through the fog produced gulls, mute swan, mallard and blackbird. further down the path is an area of gorse bushes. Darting around these bushes was a pair of Dartford warblers. A short stroll took us to the lagoon there. We stopped to look at a little egret. Suddenly, in flew the long billed dowitcher. After much confusion I locked eyes on it. A dog came running towards us and we thought it might fly away, instead it came closer to the path. Passing Oli my binoculars (my scope was already set up on the tripod), I shuffled down the bank onto a lower river's edge, clutching my camera. I got 5 meters from it! 5m from a rare bird. Not everyday that happens. This was why I love birding. Here's a photo of it:
We then drove to Blashford Lakes. Parking there was interesting as Oli misjudged the distance and we crashed into a wall, slightly denting the car (whoops!). There we heard two green woodpeckers and saw gulls, little grebe, mallard, pintail, shoveler, teal, great crested grebe, Egyptian goose, Canada geese, cormorants and a slavonian grebe (another first for me).
Wednesday, 3 February 2016
NGB in Norfolk - January 2016
At the end of January 2016 I was fortunate enough to visit Norfolk in a Trip with Next Generation Birders. This was set out to be an exciting weekend of twitching. I was expecting to see 100+ species of birds.
Friday (29th) was mainly spent travelling. Leaving my home town of Yeovil at 8am, I travelled to London Hammersmith on Berry's Superfast Coach (a double decker too!), caught the tube to Victoria and caught the 12 o'clock National Express Coach to Norwich. I narrowly caught this coach because I was late to the coach due to a combination of delays and a lack of adequate signage between Victoria tube station and coach station. On board the coach I met two great naturalists, also on their way to Norfolk, Caleb and Gideon Knight (http://earlywormbirder.blogspot.co.uk/) (who, if you're wondering are cousins). The journey's birds consisted of kestrels, magpies, starlings, feral pigeons and pheasants (one was road kill). That evening we took the bus to the Best Western Brook Hotel where we would be staying. There we met the great naturalist that is Jonathan Scragg (@scraggybirder on Twitter). That night we visited the bar at the University of East Anglia where we met the rest of the NGB clan. We played pool over pizza and alcoholic beverages (ciders for me seeing as I'm from Somerset).
On Saturday, we went to Flitcham to find the pallid harrier, which we missed, Holkham for the Shore Larks (dipped that but saw twite for the first time), Titchwell where I saw a ringed robin, redshank, lapwing, black headed gull, little grebe, and ringed plover to name a few, Horsey for rough legged buzzard (which we missed), and finally to a hen harrier roost on the north coast. We had cracking views of hen harriers plus a pair of barn owls. On the way to Titchwell we flushed up a woodcock near the road. Roadside birds included crows, partridges (both grey and red legged) and pheasants. That night I watched telly and ordered in a Chinese takeaway to eat in the hotel room.
On Sunday we waited to see how many people weren't hung-over and fit to bird. Then we went about the day's birding, firstly in Great Yarmouth where we saw a humungous Glaucous Gull and a Mediterranean gull (both of which I have never seen before). Then we went to Breydon water to look for Lesser Yellowlegs. We didn't see it but did see a great pair of bearded tits and a lot of ducks, gulls, and waders, including knot, lapwing and some 25,000 teal and a whole island made of 35,000+ widgeon. I have never seen so many widgeon in my life. Finally we tried to go for
the pallid harrier but missed. Hen harrier, Egyptian goose and brambling were spotted however, along with hearing a very loud marsh tit. Sunday evening was spend travelling home on the train from Peterborough to London, tube through London and coach home. On the train home I felt scruffy and underdresses wearing my hiking clothes and boots whereas everyone else was wearing suits and on their laptops.
The total bird count for the weekend was 65 species and 17 new species for my life list.
So yeah, it was a great weekend. maybe even the best weekend in a long, long time.
Friday (29th) was mainly spent travelling. Leaving my home town of Yeovil at 8am, I travelled to London Hammersmith on Berry's Superfast Coach (a double decker too!), caught the tube to Victoria and caught the 12 o'clock National Express Coach to Norwich. I narrowly caught this coach because I was late to the coach due to a combination of delays and a lack of adequate signage between Victoria tube station and coach station. On board the coach I met two great naturalists, also on their way to Norfolk, Caleb and Gideon Knight (http://earlywormbirder.blogspot.co.uk/) (who, if you're wondering are cousins). The journey's birds consisted of kestrels, magpies, starlings, feral pigeons and pheasants (one was road kill). That evening we took the bus to the Best Western Brook Hotel where we would be staying. There we met the great naturalist that is Jonathan Scragg (@scraggybirder on Twitter). That night we visited the bar at the University of East Anglia where we met the rest of the NGB clan. We played pool over pizza and alcoholic beverages (ciders for me seeing as I'm from Somerset).
On Saturday, we went to Flitcham to find the pallid harrier, which we missed, Holkham for the Shore Larks (dipped that but saw twite for the first time), Titchwell where I saw a ringed robin, redshank, lapwing, black headed gull, little grebe, and ringed plover to name a few, Horsey for rough legged buzzard (which we missed), and finally to a hen harrier roost on the north coast. We had cracking views of hen harriers plus a pair of barn owls. On the way to Titchwell we flushed up a woodcock near the road. Roadside birds included crows, partridges (both grey and red legged) and pheasants. That night I watched telly and ordered in a Chinese takeaway to eat in the hotel room.
On Sunday we waited to see how many people weren't hung-over and fit to bird. Then we went about the day's birding, firstly in Great Yarmouth where we saw a humungous Glaucous Gull and a Mediterranean gull (both of which I have never seen before). Then we went to Breydon water to look for Lesser Yellowlegs. We didn't see it but did see a great pair of bearded tits and a lot of ducks, gulls, and waders, including knot, lapwing and some 25,000 teal and a whole island made of 35,000+ widgeon. I have never seen so many widgeon in my life. Finally we tried to go for
the pallid harrier but missed. Hen harrier, Egyptian goose and brambling were spotted however, along with hearing a very loud marsh tit. Sunday evening was spend travelling home on the train from Peterborough to London, tube through London and coach home. On the train home I felt scruffy and underdresses wearing my hiking clothes and boots whereas everyone else was wearing suits and on their laptops.
The total bird count for the weekend was 65 species and 17 new species for my life list.
So yeah, it was a great weekend. maybe even the best weekend in a long, long time.
Friday, 6 November 2015
Glossy Ibis
I recently went down to Seaton in Devon to see a pair of glossy ibises. Took some photos but the ibises were too far away to photograph them. Also saw a barn owl, pheasants, teal, mallard, curlew, little egret and lapwing.
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Me birding in Bristol
Me birding in Bristol