Patchwork Challenge Trip 4 (22nd January) 51 Birds

I was unable to get out this weekend due to work, so here's an update from last weekend instead.

I'm going to keep it short because there was very little of note to report. It was absolutely freezing, but not enough to tempt out any Water Rails, so I feel I'm rapidly missing my chance to see them until Winter.

The Egrets were too far away for good shots, so here's a Grey Heron.

There were the usual assortment of geese and gulls on the fields and the three great white egrets were still to be found. Annoyingly I saw no trace of the Fieldfares that Dominic had spotted earlier in the week and I couldn't find Mediterranean Gulls either. I scoured what felt like hundreds of Black-Headed Gulls, but couldn't spot any at all.

A small flock of Long-Tailed Tits was the highlight of the walk. They were everywhere!

The only stroke of luck came from finding a pair of Shovelers on the lake which I discovered when I was processing my photos. The highlight of the walk was discovering a flock of 20 Long-Tailed Tits that were feeding along the path on the far side of South Lake and a Buzzard getting mobbed by a Carrion Crow.

It's an awkwardly lit shot, but I still quite like this Buzzard image.

It's a heavy crop at long distance but the chestnut patches of the Shovelers are easy to see.

And here it is being mobbed by a Carrion Crow.

Patchwork Challenge Trip 3 (15th January) 50 Birds

New bird blow out!

Birding is all about opportunities. Sometimes they are fortunate, sometimes they are happy and other times they big, but every now and then they are missed and fleeting. Sadly, this falls squarely in the last two examples...

I was in town shopping with the family when Martin Wood tweeted that he'd seen a large number of Pintails over at Longham. If you're not aware, Pintails are incredibly dainty ducks, which are typically identified (on the males at least by they're long tails). "I'll go tomorrow", I told myself and thought no more of it.

There were plenty of Teal about on the lake but no Pintails.

I reached Longham around 8.20 on Sunday morning and paid little attention to the car park as I wanted to find those ducks.I reached the south island and eagerly scanned it for the large number of Pintails that had been spotted there the previous day. Damn, nothing. Oh wait up, there's a small group of Wigeon mixed in with a small group of Teal. Bird one of the day.

Walking up the cause I paused briefly to marvel at 12 Little Egrets which had been flushed by a dog walker. Joining them was a Great White Egret , making it the largest flock of Egrets I've seen here in the last few years.

No Pintail, but I did spot some Wigeon.

I scoured the bag area of the fields where there was a large number of Mute Swans (30) and around 60 Canada Geese with the odd Greylag thrown in for good measure. I tried scouring the flock for rarities, but my binoculars weren't really up to the task. I crossed the stile and tried to get a little closer and saw a Dunnock, my first of the year. I then found a small flock of Long-Tailed Tits, with a straggling Goldcrest following them. I excitedly went to take a picture of it but I couldn't focus as it was too close. Darn.

I walked around the back of North lake in the hope of Water Rails and Bullfinchs, but despite careful searching I found neither. I did flush a Wagtail, but it was too low to see what sort it might be. As I approached the style that leads to Green Lane two Collard Doves alighted on a telegraph pole. I then located the wagtail and was delighted to discover it was a Grey Wagtail, so that was another new bird.

I saw plenty of Wood Pigeons, as well as these two Collard Doves.

I approached the open field by the boathouse, hoping for a Green Woodpecker, but the pastures where relatively empty. I did spy a Buzzard on one of the fence posts on the second field, making it my first raptor of the year. It had been lightly raining all morning and I began to head back to the car park, but something made me head to the causeway again. I passed blackbirds, great tits and chaffinches and spotted the odd Magpie and Carrion Crow, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

I had a moment of excitement on the causeway as I thought I had located a Water Rail moving along the bushes, but after much scanning it turned out to be a Song Thrush. I checked the island again, but the Pintails were still nowhere to be seen, so I continued my walk and found a solitary male Reed Bunting halfway up the causeway.

A poor photo of a well-hidden Reed Bunting.

As I reached the back field I found a pair of Stonechat and willed them to fly closer so I could get a half decent picture. Sadly, they did not oblige. After a while I strolled across the back of South lake where I spotted what I think are Roe Deer. I've never seen them before and didn't even realise they were  local, which made for a nice treat. There was a small group of herring gulls on the lake, including a couple of Great Black-Backed Gulls, my tenth and final birds for the day.

As I headed back to the car park a small duck flew over me which may have been a male pintail but it flew too far out into the lake for me to check it with my binoculars. I really need to consider saving up for a scope of some description...

TOTAL BIRDS SEEN = 50

I've had a few requests about not finishing the post with a long list of every bird seen so far, so I'll look at a new way of doing this going forward.

Patchwork Challenge Trip 2 (8th January) 40 Birds

Chasing more birds

Martin Wood, who also takes part in the Patchwork Challenge at Longham is ill at the moment so it's given me an opportunity to potentially pull ahead of him. I generally need it, as he's an excellent bird watcher who spotted 95 species last year to my 74. Get well Martin and I'll see you on patch shortly.

The weather was absolutely lousy when I reached Longham and plenty of mist was rolling across the lake, making any identifications at long distance rather tricky. The car park was relatively quiet but I did see Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Chaffinch and other small passerines. There was nothing in the adjoining fields though.

I purposely used a low shutterspeed on this Great White Egret to create a sense of movement.

I immediately spotted one of the Great White Egrets fishing and decided to walk around North Lake,. leaving the causeway for later. I spotted a second great egret fishing with some little egrets and flushed a grey heron which was on the other side of the boat house. I checked the horse fields but saw nothing unusual.

I stopped to chat to some of the local fisherman and discussed the Egrets with them. They also mentioned they were trying to get access to the second lake, which is the first I've heard of this news. I feel there's enough room on this one for them, but I'm not a fisherman, so didn't push the point.

Little Egrets are always common around the lakes and are dwarfed by the Great Whites.

Walking to the corner of the lake I scanned for Bullfinches but again saw nothing. The hampreston fields behind the lake were also devoid of birds, with not even a Rook or Carrion Crow to be seen.

By now I was on the back of the lake scanning the ditches for snipe, woodcock and godwits, but aside from a sizeable flock of Wood Pigeons, found nothing of note. In fact the back fields in general were surprisingly quiet with only a small number of Mute Swans (15) and no geese or gulls. The fields aren't really flooded either, which might have explained the lack of birds.

I spent ages watching this Great White Egret fish. This is my favourite shot by far.

I stopped for a good twenty minutes to watch one of the Great White Egrets fish and then carried on my trek. I heard Blackbirds, Magpies and Robins, and saw plenty of Wrens, tits and finches, but nothing I hadn't already seen. In short it was proving to be a bust.

The causeway was equally quiet, so I made my way down to some viewing spots of the large island on South Lake. I was immediately rewarded with a small flock of Lapwings. I find viewing of this island very difficult as you really need a scope, but I can at least check pics with my camera.

I could really do with a scope to view the birds on this island. You can see the Lapwings though.

There were a large number of gulls on the railings, as well as a Great White Egret, which was rather odd to see, but they were all Black-Headed. I didn't bother checking South Lake as the rain was starting to come down again, but I did notice a general lack of gulls when the lake is normally heaving with them.

The front fields yielded a large number of House Sparrows, making them my second new bird of the day. Feeling a little invigorated I once again walked along the path by the boathouse, hoping for a Green Woodpecker in the nearby field. I didn't spot one, but I did flush a Moorhen, which flew off to the far side of the lake, making my third bird of the day, and the 40th of the year. It's going well so far...

House Sparrow were my second new bird for the day. I'm not far behind you Martin!

Lots and lots of Black Headed Gulls. I shot at f11 to get as many in focus as possible.

I love how photogenic Great White Egrets are.

An unusual resting place for one of the Great White Egrets.

The Birds Of Longham 2017
Robin
Carrion Crow
Mistle Thrush
Blackbird
Great White Egret
Magpie
Coot
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Tufted Duck
Mute Swan
Cormorant
Little Egret
Wrens
Great Tit
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Wood Pigeon
Feral Pigeon
Mallard
Pochard
Redwing
Long-Tailed Tit
Starling
Chaffinch
Song Thrushes
Canada Geese
Black-Headed Gull
Herring Gull
Jackdaw
Gadwall
Teal
Snipe
Pied Wagtail
Coal Tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Lapwing
House Sparrow
Moorhen

Chasing The Green Wing Teal And Lesser Yellowlegs

My first twitch of 2017 (149 Birds seen)

I shouldn't be a bird watcher. The reason I say this is because I hate getting up early in the morning. I find it hard to get up, I don't like the cold and it just makes me grumpy.

If you want to chase birds, you need to be up early as that's when they are most active. The early bird catches the worm, and the early bird watcher hopefully spots the good birds - that's how it should go anyway.

Because Martin Wood was ill, I decided against heading to Dorchester for the Rose-Coloured Starling and instead tried going after the Green Wing Teal and Lesser Yellowlegs which had been staying at Lytchett Fields and Bay.

Birds aren't obliging at Lytchett. This Pied Wagtail is the closest I got in two hours.

It's a long old walk to the site and even longer when you are carrying a heavy 600mm lens and tripod. Excitement spurred me on though and as I walked through some really muddy areas I was glad I grabbed my boots.

Upon getting to the site, I suddenly realised that I had no idea what the two birds looked like. I mean, I knew roughly what they looked like, but I'm pretty ropey when it comes to waders and felt panic starting to set in as I started to scan the groups of birds on the football field-sized area.

Now it's worth noting that while Lytchett Fields is a cracking site for birds (nearly 170 were spotted there in 2016, it's no good for photograpy really. It's a nature site first and foremost and if I'm honest, that's how it should be. It's designed for scopes and I don't have a scope, so I started feeling pretty stupid as I futilely scoured the fields.

My first ever Spotted Redshank I've photographed. Their plumage looks amazing during the summer.

Within 10 minutes of getting there, resident birder Ian Ballam showed up and started to give me useful advise on what I should be looking for. Typical Teals have a white horizontal stripe, whereas the american bird has vertical strips. Armed with this useful advice I scoured the fields... And found nothing.

We walked over to the adjoining field looking for the Lesser Yellowlegs. Ian has spotted it most of the times he's been at Lytchett and within minutes he found the bird and gave me incredibly useful directions to it. I couldn't get great shots, but what I managed makes it clear it's the bird and that will do for me. The Lesser Yellowlegs is typically found in America, so they are big news when they turn up in the UK. Pleased with the discovery we returned to the original field, looking for the elusive Teal.

The Lesser Yellowlegs is dead centre at the back of the reeds.

"There it is" Ian excitedly exclaimed. "It's swimming directly behind the marker"! Chest heaving with excitement (because it is exhilerating when all is said and done) I managed to locate the bird with my lens and took a few record shots. The vertical stripes were easy to see and you could instantly tell it apart from the other teal. It's a cracking looking bird, but it's a shame it didn't come closer. Oh well, there will be other opportunities.

Here's my record shot of the Green Wing Teal. The vertical strip is clear to see here.

We stayed for around another 40 minutes, and I was rewarded with my third new bird of the year, a Spotted Redshank. Again, it was far away, but Ian was on hand to help with identification as it's far harder to tell apart from other shanks when it isn't in its summer plumage.

That gave me three new birds for my life list, two of which (the Spotted Redshank and Green Wing Teal, are both suitable for qualification in TGBBH). Needless to say I was very happy with how things turned out.

Ian was ready to go looking for an American Wigeon, which had been spotted over Upton way, but the poor light and lack of confirmation (there were rumours it could be a hybrid) made me decide to head back to the car and visit my mum instead. 

While I won't go on many big twitches this year, I did enjoy this one and it's easy to understand why people chase birds all over the country. I've decided it's not for me though, as I'm far too lazy. If any Hoopoes turn up at Portland though it could be a different story...

These are my first new birds since May 2016, which is pretty disgusting when all is said and done. I'm now at 149 birds with 149 to go.

Record shot of the Lesser Yellowlegs, yellow legs apparent.

Another Teal shot, directly showing the difference between the two ducks.

Patchwork Challenge Trip 1 (2nd January) 37 Birds

While I enjoyed last year's Patchwork Challenge, I found myself flagging at certain times of the year and I eventually trailed a long way behind local birder Martin Wood, who also patches at Longham Lakes and has his own blog.

This year is going to be different though, so I made a concentrated effort to get out of bed early and I was at the lakes for 8.20 in the morning, which is a pretty good effort for me.

Things got off to a cracking start in the car park with the lovely trill of one of many, many Robins that I would see on my 2 and a half hour walk. A quick walk over to the adjoining horse field got me three Carrion Crows and two Mistle Thrushes, which were patrolling a second field for food.

After a few worrying minutes I found the Great White Egrets

Of course, my real target for the day were the overwintering Great White Egrets, which would mark my first two-pointers for the year. I rapidly crossed the car park to the lakes, passing a couple of Magpies and Blackbirds, and spying a fair number of Coot on the North Lake.

As I walked up the causeway I could feel my breath quickening as I couldn't see any sign of the egrets. I spied Little Grebes, Great Crested Grebes, Cormorants, Tufted Ducks, and Mute Swans, but the Egrets weren't where they normally were. Just as I was starting to think I'd missed them for the year, a call up above alerted me to a Little Egret, which was quickly followed by one of the Great Whites!. Following its trail, I soon spotted the remaining two birds, and carried on with my walk.

There were lots of Robins on patch. This image made it onto the official Springwatch twitter feed.

The hedges along the back of the lake yielded fiery Wrens, a small party of Great Tits, a lone Chiffchaff and a Blue Tit. I walked down to the far corner hoping for Bullfinch, but they weren't to be seen. I did find Wood Pigeons and a small flyby of Feral Pigeons though.

Mallards where on the far side of the North Lake and I also discovered around 16 Pochard, with several red-headed males amongst them. Walking back behind the south lake I met some birders who suggested combing the trenches for waders and rails.

Cormorants were everywhere. You can see the Pochards and Great Crested Grebes in the background.

I didn't say any, but I did find a couple of Redwings, a small party of Long-Tailed Tits and a lone Starling and female Chaffinch. I also spotted some Song Thrushes in the back field as well as a flock of Canada Geese, a smaller group of Mute Swans, and a smattering of Black-Headed Gulls and Herring Gulls. There were plenty of Jackdaws in Samual's Wood, but I saw no new passerines, which was a little disappointing.

The small island at the back of South Lake yielded 3 Gadwall (I'd later see a total of 17) but my walk back to the larger island was largely uneventful. A small number of Teal were roosting, as well as around 4 Snipe. Pleased with my total, I headed back to the car.

A pretty lousy image of one of the many Redwings I saw.

I spotted a Pied Wagtail probing around in the car park and decided to try the adjoining field one more time. There were a large number of Redwings around so I decided to walk along a smaller path to see if the group held Fieldfares within it. It wasn't easy traversing the path, but I found my first patch Coal Tit, Goldfinch, and a pair of Greenfinches too. I met up with yet another birdwatcher who confirmed that the flock didn't hold any Fieldfares and that they typically arrived in February.

All in all, a pretty good start for the year and I'm currently ahead of last year's record of 24 birds by a comfortable 13.

Current patch total = 37

Here's the list in full
Robin
Carrion Crow
Mistle Thrush
Blackbird
Great White Egret
Magpie
Coot
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Tufted Duck
Mute Swan
Cormorant
Little Egret
Wrens
Great Tit
Chiffchaff
Blue Tit
Wood Pigeon
Feral Pigeon
Mallard
Pochard
Redwing
Long-Tailed Tit
Starling
Chaffinch
Song Thrushes
Canada Geese
Black-Headed Gull
Herring Gull
Jackdaw
Gadwall
Teal
Snipe
Pied Wagtail
Coal Tit
Goldfinch
Greenfinch

It's time for an update!

I'm currently in the process of updating the blog and finding ways to maintain my overall quest as well as have another stab at the Patchwork Challenge this year. I managed to spot 73 birds at Longham Lakes last year and am determined to beat that this year.

I'm also going to try and be a bit more pro-active when it comes to both blog updates and getting new birds in general as I've really been impressed with the work Tim White has been doing with both his photography and his excellent blog. I missed out on quite a few easy birds last year, for no other reason than I'm really lazy.

I'm going to try and change that going forward, which should hopefully maintain my interest as well as bring my people to the blog. I'll finish off with an image I took the other day. Look for an incoming patch update shortly.

This Great White Egret was taken with my SX50 Bridge camera, but I do love the lighting.