Birding Braunie

Having a few days off before the Christmas break allowed me to indulge in a bit of last minute birding. And rather than create separate posts for each trip, I am lazily putting all the highlights into one post. 14.12.2011 Amwell Gravel Pits At the northern end of the Lee Valley, Amwell is a good place to find wintering ducks and bittern. Birds seen: siskin, goldeneye, wigeon, shoveler, gadwall, great crested grebe, common gull Great Northaw Wood Ancient woodland in Hertfordshire Birds seen: nuthatch, common treecreeper, coal tit, marsh it, great spotted woodpecker, tawny owl (heard only) Mammals: muntjac deer 17.12.2011 Connaught Water Local lake on the edge of Epping Forest Mandarin duck , Hooded Merganser (unknown origin) Mandarin Duck Mandarin Ducks

Following the blustery day at Rainham Marshes, the following day was calm, sunny and reasonably mild. The plan was to visit Fingringhoe Wick and Abberton Reservoir. Fingringhoe is on the Colne esturary and can attract a range of wintering ducks and waders. There was also still a long-staying Glossy Ibis which eluded me so we’ll skip over that one. Most action came from the esturary. There were 18 r ed-breasted Mergansers on the water with small flocks of Brent geese . Avocets, curlews, knots and dunlins ferried back and forth with redshanks and lapwings adding their voices to the scene. A single Slavonian Grebe drifted slowing up river providing another highlight. Pretty Map Brent Geese Red-breasted Merganser Slavonian Grebe From Fingringhoe Wick, I headed over to Abberton Reservoir. Abberton Reservoir is famous for a slightly different type of bird. In 1943, the RAF used Abberton reservoir as a practice run site for the Lancaster bomber and the bouncing bo...

This is the first of two back-to-back birding trips this week while using up my annual leave. Nothing was going to stop me, not even a little breeze coming in from the SW. Okay, so it was more than just a little breeze, more a mini hurricane to be dramatic. I hedged my bets and opted for the safety of Rainham Marshes. This wasn’t because it’s sheltered because it isn’t. It is however not far to bolt for home if the weather gets too much. The Thames from Rainham Marshes Fuck, it was windy. I walked along the sea wall west towards the landfill site scanning the sea for winter ducks. The wind nearly blew me over a couple of times and viewing through a scope was difficult as the wind turned my eyes to pools of water. Teal and Wigeon bobbed about probably having fun but not sure. The fun ended though when a Peregrine Falcon in the shape of an air to sea missile dived down towards the unsuspecting wildfowl. Luckily, the falcon, probably suffering from the wind in it’s eyes like me...

After four days of cutting branches from a few trees and ridding the garden of every leaf in Woodford, I rewarded myself with a trip to Fisher’s Green in the Lee Valley. The weather had been uncomfortable with that irritating mizzle that soaks you without it feeling like it’s raining. But yesterday was great. Blue skies and a mild, shirtsleeve-ready temperature made for perfect walking conditions. I’d seen enough trees for one week Fisher’s Green is very popular and forms just a small part of the Lee Valley. It is also a strong link in a long chain of reclaimed gravel pits that now act as an important home for a vast array of wildlife including, the growing-in-numbers Otter to the elusive and rare-breeding Bittern I don’t expect to see otters or bitterns although I have seen the bittern here on many occasion. The fact is, the bittern is the shy, retiring type and a bit of a dab hand in the disguise department. Fisher’s Green does everything it can to help you see on...

It’s always a gamble. Deciding the day before about where to go bird-watching is a bit like putting your house on a horse. You can check previous days activity via websites etc. You can try to be all meteorological about it and check wind directions, the chance of fog, rain, low or high pressures over Scandinavia, blah, blah, blah. Or, if you’re like me, you hedge your bets. lady luck for me takes the shape of North Norfolk. The North Norfolk coast can kiss my dice anytime. You just have to never expect to win the jackpot. Holme NOA Nature Reserve I placed my first bet on Holme-next-the Sea. The reserve is a maze of dunes with a belt of pines that faces the North Sea and a magnet for migrants. A 50/50 bet was the Pallas’ Warbler that had made itself at home in the buckthorn for a couple of days. The early morning fog hung low over the sea and dunes and a fine mist dampened the skin but it was unseasonably mild and still. A few early birders were looking for the 'Sibe' ...

Famdabidozy. Finally found the Wryneck at Fambridge. Phew. All this week I have been on a quest ti see the Wryneck along the seawall at South Fambridge. Fact is, I have seen this species on a few occasions in the past but having such a enigmatic bird so close to work has motivated me to use my early spare time to seek out this unique bird. Call it a quest I suppose but some may call it a fixation. Fair enough but the truth is, I have seen so many wonderful birds here and it would seem South Fambridge is a rather under-watched 'patch'. I mean it’s no RSPB reserve with hides and tempting sausage rolls along the way, but just a romantic section of countryside that snuggles up against a tranquil river estuary coupled with an expanse of arable farmland. But most of all, its the birdlife that really attracts. In some ways, it makes you think anything is possible. For example, two relatively scare birds, the marsh harrier and the corn bunting; they’re there , you just have to ...

Working in Rochford has its moments but not many. Unless you a member of a mobility scooter club or look forward to being poisoned by the odd Indian restaurant or two, there really isn’t much to get excited about.  Even the local Sainsburys appears to have  ended it’s Meal Deal deal. So why the duck do I get to work 2 hours before anyone else??? There’s a couple of reasons for this – both lame. One. The traffic at that time is light and this saves me a good 30 minutes as well as fuel. Secondly, I get stuff done. No phones ring. No one demanding work and most of all, I can raid the Haribo bowl without anyone knowing. No, it’s okay, they don’t read my blog. Come to that, I’m not sure anyone does. So, this isn’t very healthy. The Haribos and the driving are making me fat or fatter. I used to walk a good 45 minutes every day to tube stations etc and today I walk nowhere. Until a wryneck turned up down the road. I didn’t know it was down the road until I looked th...

With my year list languishing down in the near pathetic, I bit the financial bullet and fuelled the car up for a trip to Cley in Norfolk. On paper, the plan was sensible as Cley Marshes usually produces a good number of birds to fatten any weedy year list. With a blustery north-ish wind, my hopes of a bag full of seabirds was high, as well as a previous day list of sightings including red-backed shrike, wryneck and Balearic shearwater to whet the appetite. My routine is always the same at Cley. Park at the East Bank and do an anti-clockwise sweep around the reserve. The strong winds prevented any bearded tits showing but their presence was noted by the ting-ting calls coming somewhere deep in the vast reedbeds that swayed heavily in the gusts. Spoonbill flock Spoonbills In the pools, east of the East Bank, around 20 spoonbills were feeding. Cley regularly attracts these amazing waders with a small colony recently becoming established a few miles up the coast. At the...

Normally by now, I would have had a couple of trips to Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent apiece under my birdwatching belt for this year. Not by design or dementia (the latter feels too close for comfort) I have missed my regular trips to some great birding hotspots and replaced them with local, 20 minute-away trips. This isn’t because I have reached that sober moment when all that matters is my 'local patch' but more perhaps because, subliminally, I can’t afford the cost of the fuel these 200 mile round trips require. (Cue the violins) Actually, forget the violins – I’m not unhappy. I am in fact lucky. There are some great places close to home that many a birder would travel 100 miles to visit. The whole of the Lee Valley plays host to some great birds. Smew, Bittern, Black-necked grebe, Little ringed plover and Nightingale to name but a few. The Thames Gateway also has some impressive sites too. From The Naze all the way down to Rainham Marshes there are places to see waders, rapto...

They say nothing in life is guaranteed. Not sure who ‘they’ are but they’re wrong. I know this because every time I visit Weeting Heath, I see stone-curlews. These are rather scarce or to be precise, rare British breeding birds. I have covered these characters before in a previous blog but my birding year would never be right if I didn’t see them in this wonderful habitat. Weeting Heath At 6.30am I’m still blurry-eyed and the thing about Weeting Heath is that it appears to be home to the entire country’s population of rabbits. These rabbits have a special talent. They do pretty good impressions of stone-curlews. Of the two hides, the first one produced nothing but rabbits and a mistle thrush. Normally, this position throws up a couple of the stones but not this time. And although the landscape is flat, it does have a distant ridge that drops away and you always think what if the birds are all down the bottom? That would be game over. The second hide overlooks the west side of t...

On a beautiful spring day, Thursley Common emits a magic unique. The warm sun radiates off the sandy trails and the perfume of pine hangs in the air. A flat landscape of low heather and gorse is framed by pine trees. within this areas of mire play host to dragonflies and damselflies, a key part of a Hobby’s diet. The hobby is an elegant falcon, smaller and slimmer than a peregrine but no less impressive. Hobby, courtesy of Wiki (my camera is elsewhere doing a fine job for my daughter for the next month) Two of these fast-flying falcons passed overhead hunting for food on the wing. I had missed seeing these wonderful birds last year so this was a good start to a 3 hour visit that was only going to produce 20 species but it would be quality not quantity at Thursley. My basic route takes me around the perimeter of the reserve which on this occasion meant treading over some perilous planks and thick tree branches which had been thoughtfully put down to act as pontoons over the mars...

There was blood everywhere. One of the hazards of making your own photo adaptor out of a toilet roll tube is the need to cut it to the right length for your lens so that it just touched the eyepiece of your telescope. This idiot thought it would be best to cut the dotted line he had drawn in mid air so as to not squash the tube. Alas, although this worked for the most of it, the final slice took the very sharp scalpel away from the tube and right across the now yelping idiot’s thumb. Unlike my thumb, the adaptor was now the perfect length and once again, average photos were now possible. Two Tree Island at 6am Two Tree Island is a fantastic place in the spring, especially at 6am. Normally, I would expect to be alone at such an ungodly hour but due to the arrival and prolonged residency of a night heron, the car park was already filling up. I had previously tried for the heron but every time I arrived, it was roosting in reeds out of sight and could stay hidden for hours. So, as I...

The day had started well enough. Clear skies and a warming breeze were the order of the day as I drove down to Oare Marshes en route to Dungeness. Oare Marshes Oare Marshes sit snugly on Kent’s eastern side, set against a backdrop of the Swale estuary and close to ye olde town of Faversham. The marshes are made of of two distinct areas. The east flood is viewable from the road and can provide close views of a number of wildfowl and wader species. Between this and the estuary is a pathway that takes you around the pools that are fringed by reedbeds. The reeds were alive with sedge warblers and bearded tits. Both these species were establishing their territories and were actively flying back and forth, low over the reeds. Their activity precluded me from getting any photos so I kept my homemade adaptor in my pocket – or so I thought. From the west flood, an area that is more secluded and usually quieter there were wheatear and a few lapwing. From here I took the coastal road to ...

Should have known it. Going to Landguard in Suffolk for a MEGA was destined to be a disaster. I had only been saying (and joking) at work how staring a a bush for an hour or two – when the bird you want to see, isn’t even in it – was all part of the 'fun'. Well I’ve changed my mind. Spending Saturday morning looking for a short-toed treecreeper, a little bird, no bigger than a mouse that blends in with tree bark and is elusive at the best of times is no fun. Needless to say, after a couple of hours, my eyes, mind and feet began to wander. I know, I thought, I’ll go and watch some birds that I can actually see and keep an ear out for any orgasmic shouts that come from die-hard birders if it was located. Landguard is another one of those weird places that rare birds love. It is a finger of land that juts out beside Felixstowe at the mouth of the River Orwell. Back as far as 1540, the area has been utilised as a military defense against sea invasion. Landguard Fort was built...