Birding Braunie

After rains of biblical proportions, it was nice to see a clear sky this morning coupled with a warmish air. This meant I could steal an hour at South Fambridge before beginning the working week. You sometimes get a good feeling about birds in terms of quality and quantity and this morning as I opened the car door I knew it would be good. The air was full of birdsong and small LBJs were hopping from tree to tree – difficult to know where to look as so much was happening. One hour is a long time if you’re stuck in a boring meeting or saddled with someone who just wants to tell you about their new ipad app (probably should point out that I possibly bore people in the same way about birding) But one hour with so much potential like this morning is like a nano second to me. Sunny South Fambridge About five minutes in and the quintessential sound of spring in the shape of a Cuckoo could be heard somewhere across the fields. A quick scan of the tops of the trees and bushes revealed...

There are many famous people I admire, artists, musicians, sports players, political leaders and film stars. The list would be filled with people everyone knows but there would be one person on that list that perhaps would confound most. Guy Taplin. Who’s Guy Taplin? Well, he was one of the finest 20th century observers of birds. His observations weren’t in the form of lists or photographs and he probably didn’t go around chasing rare species. He basically turned driftwood into birds. Guy Taplin I certainly hadn’t heard of him even though I love art and I love birds. It was only when a friend at work gave me his book as a Christmas 'Secret Santa' that he came to my attention. That was some SS, quite special. His life story reads like a roller coaster. He left school at 15 and got sacked from most of his jobs. He destroyed over £2000 of stamps by pouring water into the stamp drawer when he worked at the Post Office. Feigned madness so well to get out of national s...

Another lovely start to the day and it was either do a slow amble around a couple of the smaller pockets of reserve that are part of the Lea Valley or do the Marathon. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my running shoes  so the hiking boots have it. Dunnocks. Why can’t every bird behave like a Dunnock? They sit in the open, let you get quite close and don’t mind having their picture taken. I’d take my hat off to them if I had one. Dunnock There were a lot of birds singing. Whitethroats, Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and a single Willow Warbler . It took me a few minutes to locate the Willow Warbler as it was high up in a willow and unlike the Dunnock , was half hidden behind foliage. Eventually it moved out enough to be seen properly. Willow Warbler Sewardstone is usually good for Cuckoos but not today. Not even a call could be heard, maybe in a week or two this will change. Another absent friend is the Nightingale. They are fairly common just up the road in the Holy...

Most of you won’t remember or will have never seen the TV ad for Maxwell Tapes of a guy sitting in an armchair and playing a music tape recorded on a brand called Maxwell. he puts it on and is blown backwards in his chair with his hair nearly being ripped from his scalp. Not sure what the point of the ad was but if you ever wanted to experience a similar effect, a trip to Rye Harbour, yesterday, would have given it to you. Rye Harbour, flat as far as the eye can see. Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is between Hastings and Dungeness on the coast of East Sussex. It is a huge triangle of land made up of shingle and saltmarsh and home to many rare flora and fauna. But all I know is, it’s bloody windy. Rye Harbour is, regardless of the weather, a great place to see Terns. Common, Sandwich and Little Terns all breed here in varying numbers and even in the prevailing gale, I could hear their cackling cries high above me.  Time for a nice map. A map I made my way to the Ternery Pool ...

Following on from my last blog, I started thinking about all the less attractive places us birders like to frequent for the quality of the birds. If you have read my last blog or even just looked at the pictures, you’ll know that I featured an Iceland Gull at the Rainham landfill site. This is clearly not the sort of place you’d want to take a picnic or a place you’d want to impress your other half with by spending the day there with them. But there’s no denying the quality of the birds, if you’re into gulls at least. So this got me thinking about all the other 'unusual' places I have visited in the pursuit of birds and here are a few that I’ve managed to think of. Dungeness Nuclear Power Station. This isn’t that unusual as it is one of the country’s premier birding hotspots. There is a bird observatory and an RSPB reserve just a stone’s throw (and there are plenty of stones to throw) away. But around the station itself, it is often possible to see Black Redstart, Firecres...