Window to Wildlife

On a beautiful sunny morning, we set out at 7AM for Hampshire, aiming to beat the heat of the day. Our first location was Farlington Marshes, a lovely reserve just off the A27 adjacent to Langston Harbour and offering a range of habitats with scrub and grassland, pools, scrapes, ditches and reedbeds. The tide was high, so few birds were around the harbour, but instead there were plenty of waders pushed up onto the pools.  As we entered the reserve, a Green Woodpecker took flight  from the grass and a Greenfinch sang from the top of a scrubby  bush. The scrubland was surprisingly quiet overall, but should fill up with autumn migrants in the coming weeks.  We followed the circular walk around the reserve, and spent some time scanning the pool from the harbourside path. There were good numbers of Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits at varied stages of moult resting here, with a smattering of busy Dunlin, a cluster of smart Oystercatchers, a few Grey Plover, still spo...

 This was a sociable event, meeting with Bernie and Steve at the car park, and taking Sue and Clive in our car. We had barely got settled when a couple of birds drifted over the forest, and Bernie quickly confirmed they were Honey Buzzards. We were able to watch them for several minutes and were delighted to observe their impressive display flight with frequent overhead wing clapping. It was fabulous. We spent the morning here relaxing and chatting in the sunshine, scanning the skies. I had somehow managed to forget my binoculars, so was disappointed not to get decent views of a juvenile Goshawk which drifted across the valley, and I was unable to pick up in my scope. There were several appearances of Common Buzzard,  and Raven and Red Kite were also seen over the valley. After a short time we again picked up Honey Buzzards interacting as they circled over the trees climbing high into the clouds,  finding a minimum of five birds, and observing another superb wing clapping...

 It's that time of year again! Our annual pilgrimage to see the Bonaparte's Gull at one of my favourite reserves, Oare Marshes in north Kent, this time visiting a little earlier than usual to try to see the target bird with it's summer hood, hopefully making it much easier to pick out. With a high tide, we hoped to find the bird showing well on the East Flood rather than needing to scan vast expanses of exposed mud by the slipway, its other preferred location. We scoped the area carefully, struggling somewhat with the low early morning sun inhibiting our visibility. A fellow birder confirmed it had been seen that morning, and after some time I spotted the bird sat on the nearest shingle spit, it's black bill and darker grey back distinguishing it from the nearby Black-headed Gulls. Bonaparte’s Gull With our main mission accomplished, we took our time to scan around the flood area, and as always there were plenty of waders to be seen. Lapwing loafed on the banks and Avoc...

 This afternoon we were just sat at home debating about taking mum out for a drive somewhere, when news came through of a Caspian Tern on the RSPB reserve on Shoreham town centre. We immediately changed our plans and dashed round to the Norfolk Bridge, from where the bird was immediately visible amongst a flock of Black-headed gulls and a couple of Little Egrets. It looked enormous in comparison to the other birds, with a black cap and a disproportionately large orange-red bill, like a carrot stuck on a snowman!  The bird stood in a small channel and bathed for a few minutes, splashing and flapping in the shallow water. It then dipped down behind the saltmarsh, but we were able to change our position to view this amazing bird again, before it relocated to the main river, near the tollbridge.  There was quite a twitch of local birders, this being only the third sighting in the area, the last in May 2001. It was our first UK sighting of this species, although we had seen th...

We were leading an Sdos outing to Acres Down in the New Forest today, taking a group of fourteen members on a minibus. The birds were not at their most co-operative, but nevertheless we had an enjoyable day. in a beautiful, peaceful setting.  A couple of Redstarts were seen soon after we arrived, flitting between the trees and bracken, and flashing their red tail distinctively. Several Stonechat showed well throughout the morning, and we also had good views of Meadow Pipits carrying caterpillars, so presumably feeding young. We picnicked overlooking the trees on the ridge here, and a Wood Lark flew over, singing beautifully as it dropped down into the vegetation. A probable Tree Pipit was also seen. Sadly, there was no sign of any Goshawk or Honey Buzzard, but we had plenty of Common Buzzard and Tony had a Sparrowhawk in the scope.  After lunch we took a stroll through the wooded track, where Robins and Blackbirds were active, and a Song Thrush hopped along the lawn. Ian also ...

 Tim’s birthday today, and he wanted to explore a fairly new local nature reserve at Waterhall on the South Downs near Brighton. This is the site of a former golf course, that has been left to rewild, with a variety of footpaths traversing the area. There is much grassland with many wild flowers, and areas of scrub and hawthorn hedgerows. Cattle are used to graze the area and improve biodiversity. This wasn’t the greatest birding location I’ve visited, but was interesting as a ‘work in progress’. It certainly looks a hotspot for autumn migration later in the year. We encountered several species of Corvid, together with Song Thrush and most of the  regular bird species you might expect in this sort of habitat. We found plenty of Whitethroat and a couple of Blackcaps. Probably the best bird was a singing Yellowhammer which flew in to the top of a nearby bush and proceeded to loudly advertise his presence to the local ladies. Brilliant! Yellowhammer After our walk we headed to Mi...

 Another family bird trip, and the chosen venue of Ashdown Forest is always a high risk strategy, offering specialist heathland birds, but also the prospect of seeing very little. I shall never be allowed to live down the visit to see ‘dead cert’ Brambling which all scarpered the day we visited! Unfortunately, today was one of the less birdy visits. The highlight at Ashdown was a family of Common Redstarts active around the base of a substantial beech tree. We could hear a ‘hweet’ call and were discussing the options of Chiffchaff/Willow Warbler/Chaffinch as the likely source. John then called up the Merlin app on his phone, and it came up with Redstart. I had no idea they too made that sort of call. No wonder birdwatching is so difficult! Armed with this information we put a bit more effort into finding the calling bird, and this was rewarded when we found adults and ‘begging’ young flitting between the lower branches and the ground. Elsewhere we could hear Cuckoo calling but fail...