Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 8 24-April-2016

It's been almost a month since I last visited the Lakes. I've not been elsewhere, I simply haven't had the time. Still, I made up for it by seeing several new birds. I'm still trailing behind Martin, but at least it made for a very nice morning out.

The main fishing like was very, very quiet, which was strange, as I expected it to be bustling with life. There were only a few Tufted Ducks swimming about and I must of saw around 3 Great Crested Grebes, far fewer than normal. Even the Coots were not massively active and I probably saw 20 in my entire time there.

A very wet Great Crested Grebe.

The bushes on the other hand were bustling with life and I saw Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Wrens, Blackbirds and Magpies. I heard some young birds, possibly Reed Warblers in the reedbeds, but it was impossible to see where they were and I certainly didn't want to disturb them.

Moving along to the back side of the main lake I saw my first Blackcaps on patch. A male and a female. Sadly they were deeply in the thicket so it was hard to get good shots. Moving along I then found several Chiffchaff and a pair of Reed Buntings, my first of the year.

The back fields were surprisingly empty with around 20 swan, 4 Canada Geese and 5 Greylag Geese.. There were a few gulls but they were far too distant to tell what they were.

Moving on to the south lake I was immediately greeted by a small group of house martins hawking for flies. I also saw my first of several swifts, although a local mentioned they'd been at the lake for a couple of weeks now.

My first Swift of the year!

Moving along the back of the lake and things quietened down again. There were a handful of Mallards, some more Chiffchaff and the odd Robin. It was relatively quiet until I got to the Jackdaws which are always in resident in one of the woods. I scanned it for Nuthatches and Treecreepers, but had no luck. There were no woodpeckers around either.

The final stretch of walk was relatively quiet, although a Buzzard showed up and paced me as I walked up, never letting me get within 50 feet of it. I spied some more Greenfinch a small flock of Greenfinch and a pair of Gadwells.

A relatively heavy crop of a Buzzard. Doesn't look too bad though.

A chat with a local dog walker produced the buzzard again, although he was now being mobbed by two Carrion Crows. There was a small group of ducks and Canada geese on the south island, but nothing of any real interest.

A pair of Canada Geese

An overcast Greenfinch. Doesn't look too bad.

Buzzard flyby.

The harassed Buzzard.

All in all a solid morning and I'm now up to 55 total birds for the patch.

Week 28 26-10-2014 Birds Spotted: 1

Sorry for no update last week but I'm being hit by the harsh reality of the British weather.

One thing I've noticed about creating a blog around bird photography is that you need half decent light in order to stand any chance of getting a half-decent shot. With the weather being largely terrible for the past couple of weeks, I've had less and less opportunities to get out. And once' I'm out the light has generally been so poor I've been forced to use higher iso levels that I'd typically be happy with.

Still I did manage to get one new bird in the past two weeks of general pain and suffering, so let's take a look at it.

Dartford Warbler

I've had so many near misses with this elusive little bird. Every time I've been to Arne, I've heard them, but never been quick enough to get a photo of them. A quick tail flash is all I've normally seen, and I was giving up hope of getting a half decent shot as the weather turn.

Still a visit to Arne on Saturday saw my luck was in and the distinctive churring alerted me to the nearby warbler. I was able to get a good 20 feet towards him (or her) and it showed no signs of being scared. In fact it hung around for a good 3 minutes and only flew off when a young family came close.

This gorgeous bird is only found in a few locations in the UK and Dorset is one of its hotspots. Noted for its long tail, buff breast and red eye markings, it's a very distinctive warbler that has a distinctive churring call. It's very rare due to its limited habitat and there's thought to be just over 3,000 breeding pairs.

This is the closest I could get, around 20 feet away, which shows just how small it is!

And here's a crop of the little fellow.

So that's it for birds this week. I'm now up to 120 photographed birds with another 152 left to find.

Spotted what I suspect is a Meadow Pipit.

A fuzzy Long-Tailed Tit in flight.

A Mistle Thrush. As noted earlier, the day was overcast for the most part :(

A selection of geese and waders at Middlebere.

I also went to Stanpit late Sunday afternoon, but the light was even worse, which made for some pretty disappointing shots.

A group of Brent Geese.

Another that refused to pose for me :)

A group of Lapwings.

Lapwings in flight.

The back of a Redshank.

And a Cormorant.

Week 22 14-09-2014 Birds Spotted: 2

So it's been an interesting week for me this week.
I invested in a pair of binoculars and joined the Christchurch Ornithological Bird Group. I'm keen to meet up with people who share my passion for birds and was looking for someone to occasionally go birding with (it gets quite lonely see).

Anyhow I meet up with Mark, who was kind enough to take me around some of his favourite haunts at Hengistbury. As a result of his good ear for identifying bird by their song and his general knowledge I was able to see no less than five new birds: Yellow Wagtail, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap and Sparrow Hawk. Unfortunately, I was unable to get photos of many of them, which leaves me in a quandary with regards to the blog. Do I include birds I see, or just the ones I photograph. I'll stick to the original plan, but will now keep a separate list for total birds.

So let's move onto the new birds we've got photos of this week then.

Lesser Whitethroat.
Okay so the picture is terrible, but this is a Lesser Whitethroat. Honest.
It's smaller than the Whitethroat, with a more masked face (which you can't see here). We identified it by call and it was generally staying deep in the trees, refusing to surface. It's a relatively common warbler with around 74,000 breeding pairs throughout most of the UK. It's a summer migrant like many of our warblers and will be heading home by mid October at the latest.

Not the greatest of shots admittedly. So consider it a record shot only.

Snipe

I returned to Hengistbury Head the following day, hoping to maybe get photos of the birds I had seen the previous day. While I saw none of them, I did see a Kingfisher hovering for food and this delightful bird. I'd been following a Kestrel, when my eyes were drawn to the Snipe. It had a very erratic flight (possibly due to the nearby Kestrel) and eventually dived into some marsh ground. It was quite a distance away but more than near enough for a solid ID.

Snipes are relatively shy wading birds that like to skulk around. They are relatively common with over a million birds wintering here each year. They are suffering from falling numbers though, meaning they've been placed on the RSPB's amber list. I'd just been talking about seeing one of these on a forum this very morning, so am more than happy to see it cartwheeling through the sky.

It's a 100% crop, but there's no mistaking what it is.

Here's a shot of its underside. Again, a 100% crop. Note the large patches of white.

So I'm now on 117 spotted birds, 113 photographed birds, with 159 left to find.

Here's some of the other birds I saw over the weekend.

A Chiffchaff on the hunt for food.

A Carrion Crow on the roof of the visitor centre.

Goldfinches resting.

A Great Tit in the same bush as the Lesser Whitethroat.

A juvenile Stonechat.

A Robin in Christmas Card pose.

A low-flying House Martin.

A Speckled Wood. Thanks Marianne!

A Magpie.

A Green Woodpecker.

Which flew to a nearby tree.

It wasn't until I'd processed this Magpie picture that I saw the Green Woodpecker.

Some bird watcher I am!

A very distant Kingfisher.

A Jay flying overhead.

Cormorant flying over the head.

We saw this little fellow on the Sunday. Shame about the Mallard in the background.

And here he is hovering. Stunning little bird. He ended up attracting a small crowd.

Starlings are everywhere.

The Kestrel that disturbed the Snipe.

A juvenile male House Sparrow. Thanks for the id Marianne.

Little Egret and some Mallards.

Another Kingfisher shot? Go on then.

Week 21 07-09-2014 Birds Spotted: 3

So we're now into September and migration season is in full swing. Taking the moment to look up into the sky for a few moments has the chance to reward you with a new passing bird, while your local haunts are bound to have new species there, especially if they are close to water sources.
I was still on holiday this week so I've had the chance to do a bit more birding than usual. My first trip was to Hengistbury Head where I was on the lookout for migrants. I wasn't disappointed...

Wheatear
I've been hoping to see one of these thrushes for a while now and my trip didn't disappoint. The Wheatear is a summer migrant, spending several months with us before returning to central Africa for the winter. It's a gorgeous looking bird with a distinctive black stripe on its face and a slightly orange breast. While there are around 240,000 breeding pairs it is still found on the RSPB's amber list due to rapidly falling numbers. Regularly seen between March and October, I saw a pair of birds on one of the cliff tops. I managed to get a few quick photos before they hit the beach and eventually flew out to sea. Here's hoping they made the trip safely.

A clifftop Wheatear. Note the black stripe and the white one above that.

A more distant shot of the same bird on the beach.

Wigeon

My second new bird was a flock of Wigeon. Due to it being migrant season, every time I saw a flock of birds fly overhead I'd take a shot in the hope it would be something new. My tactic paid off as I was rewarded with what I thought were Teal. The large amount of white on the wings is a  dead giveaway that it is in fact a Wigeon (something I found out on the ever helpful Birdforum.net).

The Wigeon winters in most parts of the UK, flying over from the likes of Russia and Iceland, it's a medium-sized duck with a yellow forehead and pink breast (although these are possibly in eclipse plumage.

The large white wing markings indicate Wigeon, not Teal.

The rest of my trip was relatively uneventful, although I saw some nice Stonechats and Wigeon. I also met a lovely chap called Phil who I spoke to for around 10 minutes and pointed out some new bird locations for me.

Anyway, here's what else I saw.

There were plenty of Stonechats around. Here's a juvenile.

A pretty male.

And another juvenile.

A male Linnet stopped by the Natterjack Toad pond.

As did a Meadow Pipit.

And a female Reed Bunting.

Shelduck flew overhead.

And so did a Jay.

Little Egrets were taking advantage of the tide being out.

Looking for suitable fish to eat.

A scaring off the other Egrets.

Noisy thing!

I spotted a Long-Tailed Tit.

Who had a fall out with a ChiffChaff.

Hiding in the bushes upon losing.

And here's the obligatory Pigeon shot.

I then took a trip down to Queen's Park golf course to see if the Grey Heron was there.

A Magpie greeted me on the way to the pond.

No Heron, but I did see a Moorhen.

And a young Moorhen attacking a Terrapin.

I then took another trip to Hengistbury Head on Sunday, getting my third bird.

Warning! Record shot alert.

Water Rail

This shot was taking with my powershot on maximum zoom so it's terrible. It's good enough to show this amazingly secretive bird though.

Although they are on the green list with over 1,000 breeding pairs I've never seen a Water Rail. They stick to reeds, which can make them very difficult to see. A little smaller than a Moorhen, they're notable for their long beaks and distinctive walk. I was looking at a Little Egret and saw this sneaking behind it, clearly on the lookout for food. I've heard them in the past (they have a distinctive squealing call like a pig) but this is a lifer for me. Now to get a better shot :)

It's a terrible shot, but it's definitely a Water Rail.

So that now puts me on 111 birds, with another 161 still to find.

Female Reed Bunting.

Carrion Crow.

Little Egret fishing.

And one that landed about 20 feet in front of me.

A 100% crop of Lapwings, Little Egrets and Black-Headed Gulls.

Flying Lapwings.

A young Stonechat.

And an Adult.

A curious Starling

Hungry House Sparrow.

A thirsty Meadow Pipit.

More Wigeon.