Nightingales aplenty at Fingringhoe!

The blog title says it all, really. This morning my wife and I drive up the A12 with the sole aim of hearing (and hopefully seeing) at least one Nightingale. EWT Fingringhoe Wick is famous for its stock of these singing skulkers, and is as reliable a place to see them as they come. After the anticipation,  it ended up being a bit of an anticlimax! It went something like this. Parked car. Got out of car. Hear Nightingale. Walk to bush heard from. See Nightingale! Yep, the whole process from parking to seeing pasted less than the time you're supposed to brush your teeth for. We had good views of at least 3 different singing males, and heard 8 overall on the day!! My favourite bit of the reserve however, is the estuary, you get cracking views from three separate vantage points and two hides. Despite the gloom and drizzle, sightings included Curlew, Bar Tailed and Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Golden and Grey Plover (year tick), Great Crested Grebes and best of all, the first Whimbrel for the year as well!!!! Deciding to walk the scrubland for Whitethroats, we saw Chiffchaffs and. Blackcaps in good numbers, but none of our target birds. Hearing a calling cuckoo was bonus, however, with the rain strengthening we were unable to locate the bird, and made do with cake from the visitor centre instead!
As we were so close, it seemed rude not to have a scan from the Layer Breton Causeway over Abberton Resevoir. So a short drive later, and I was looking at soaring Swallows, Mallards and Greylags begging for food (had none, sorry) Tufted Ducks, Mute Swans and ooh, what's this, slightly different duck (not uncommon at Abberton, it's teeming with hybrids), female, diagnostic pink spot on bill and dark nape? Female Red Crested Pochard!!!! Year tick number 4 on the day, 151 total. By this point the rain had got silly so it was home to chocolate and Breaking Bad!!!

Windy Minsmere!

After being forced to work Good Friday, I finally loaded up the scope and bins and trekked to RSPB Minsmere, in search of last years nemesis, stone curlew. Infuriatingly I would dip, AGAIN, but this time was made all the worse because people did actually report seeing them that morning! It wasn't all bad though, as willow warbler made its way to the year list (at last!) with great views from the trail before North Hide. On the scrape there were gulls, gulls, and more gulls! There was also a spotted redshank, and quite a few swallows. But with the wind getting up, we decided that rather than walk down to the beach, we amble through the woodland to bittern hide. Lots of butterfly action of the walk, with peacock, small tortoiseshell and small copper in abundance. There was also many blackcaps in the shrubbery calling. From the hide, we heard a booming bittern, but had no sighting, but the greylags and little grebes kept us entertained! Making our way back to the car park we stopped to look at the feeders, and were rewarded with our second year tick in the form of a marsh tit,  flitting back and forth.
Disappointed not to see the stone curlew, but they'll probably be on site for a while longer, at least until my next visit I hope!!!

Dawn in Dungeness

13th April was the day set for the RSPB 'Booming Bittern' dawn walk. With our alarm clock set for 3 am(!), we rose groggily and set to the journey south. The day started off to a flyer (pun definitely intended) when a Tawny Owl flew across the road before we'd even left Brentwood! Hoping if was a positive omen, and startled awake we arrived at the car park just before 6, had a coffee and, together with 25 others, took a lovely stroll around the reserve. The sunrise was gorgeous, off a beautiful pink glow to the air, and spirits were raised even more when I spotted a singing Sedge Warbler, perching and diving around the brambles for another year tick. Marsh Harriers were spotted hunting from Denge hide, as well a pair of playful foxes! Upon leaving the hide, we were treated to more stunning views of  Cetti's Warbler, and heard the familiar 'bottle blowing' BOOM of the Bittern!! Ambling round to hookers pits for views of  Bearded Tits and a male Marsh Harrier sky passing a frog to his mate!! Sausage rolls and coffees awaited in the visitor centre, rounding off a brilliant morning!
Year List 145.

Lazy Birder!!

I'll admit it. Catching up almost 4 months of birding and listing is going to be a major drag. So I'll start from here and give you weekly highlights of my trips through England's green and pleasant land!
Yesterday the wife and I went to Rainham Marshes. We (she) had other commitments in the afternoon so it was to be only a flying visit. I proposed the Marshes because it's A/ local and B/ a Grasshopper Warbler had been spotted on Friday pm!!
I didn't hold my breath, but on arriving promptly at 9:30 for opening. In the wonderful sightings book, there it was : Grasshopper Warbler - 12/4/14 - Bus Stop. I enquired to the delightful Howard Vaughn as to where I could find the skulker, and he gave surprisingly specific instructions. 5 or so birders were already present, and told us that they had heard the bird "reeling"! We waited for any sign for half an hour, spotting a Yellow Wagtail and Grey Heron being mobbed by a Lapwing. I tracked a Blue Tit into a bush and saw another bird flapping about in the shrubbery, lo and behold.... GRASSHOPPER WARBLER!!! A life tick for me!! It flew down behind a dip and reeled on and off for a couple of minutes, but with time an issue (and re-finding the bird proving tricky) we wandered into the Cordite store for what was, hands down, the greatest view of a Cetti's Warbler EVER! It perched, three feet away, and blew apart my eardrums with it's insanely loud song! Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs aplenty rounded the trip off nicely, and I ended the morning on 143 birds for the year!

New Year's Day is better than christmas. It's better than my birthday, any bank holiday Monday or any other holiday we celebrate in the UK. I dare say it's better than the holidays we jealously covert that our American cousins indulge such as Independence Day or Thanksgiving.
For me, the best is good old January the 1st, the day when a new year list begins!!! Suddenly birds that you had (through no fault of your own) become complacent about, are marvellous! Typical comments on this fine occasion are "oh look, a Dunnock!" or  "cool, Greenfinch!". I'm not being derogatory about these birds, it's just the way of things, a Blackbird in December can't compete with a Snow Bunting.
But alas, my 2014 year list began as 2013 had, at my own kitchen window, surveying my garden! The first bird ensnared by my gaze was a Blue Tit, followed quickly by a Starling. By the time my wife had dressed for the day and announced she would rather go out than sit in the kitchen, I had accrued a list of 14 birds! The pick of the bunch, a flyover Sparrowhawk!!! It has to be said, that these are my absolute favourite bird, with their perma angry look and generally aggressive demeanour. Inquiring as to where she had in mind, she announced South Weald Country Park. It's local, beautiful and chock full of woodland birds and wildfowl. I told her she had to drive, so I could try and add another couple of birds to the list on the way. Which I did! 3 to be precise. Mistle Thrush at Shenfield Common, Pied Wagtail by the cathedral and Feral Pigeon in the high street! Upon arriving at our destination, on a fine bright day, we quickly added Jackdaw in the car park, before heading to the lake. I was very chuffed to spot a drake Goosander in amongst the Mallards and Tufted Ducks. The resident Great Crested Grebes were located, but curiously there were no geese. NONE! Ambling to the woodland, we ticked the elusive Treecreeper and Jay. After walking by the conservation lake, adding Common. Gull, we were pleased to nab a Redwing just before returning to the car! This was particularly special, as it was new to the patch list! Final count on day one is 33 species!!

Year Listing.

I, like many other birdwatchers, love indulge in the art of year listing. Most of  you who happen across this blog and decide to read on, will know what this is. However, to the uninitiated, it is as simple as this. You see a bird, you 'tick' it off the list. You may do in any number of ways, but I'm old school, so I simply write it in a note pad. Today's date is March 25th 2014, and my list stands at 130. It was 129 until, looking through it, I noticed a clerical error. I have seen many, many Brent Geese on at least 3 occasions and not listed them! SCANDAL!!! But it gave me another tick, so problem solved!! 130, it must be said, is not a mind blowing number. The hardcore listers will scoff and say, "I had that in two days". My response is thus, well done....  :-|

My early posts will be about bringing the blog up to date, do that my listing goes live (so to speak).

Incidentally, 2014 is only my second year of listing. Last year I ended with 166. If you think that's bad, I can explain. I lost three months due to knee surgery (and subsequent blood poisoning), and for the first two months of the year I didn't have a scope! This year I'll be happy to beat last years total, do that is my goal!

Next Post - New Years Day!!

My first blog post!!!

This is it, I've taken the plunge. No going back now. I am..... a blogger! I join countless legions of bloggers before me, talking about all range of subjects from topical politics to what they have for dinner each night. This blog will be about birds. I'm not the first (not even close!), won't be the last, and certainly won't bring anything new to the already countless bird blogs out there. The only unique facet is that it is MINE!!
All I'll be talking about are the places I go in my quest to see our feathered friends. I'm not a twitcher (not that there's anything against it) but I mostly pick locations for birding based on
1/ are there actually birds there?
2/ is the weather half decent?
3/ somewhere to answer natures call?
4/ not a million miles away?

I'll try and get some photos going as well, they always go down well. So read on,  hopefully you'll enjoy!!!