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.

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 15 and 16 23 October and 6 November 2016

23 October 2016
My trips are getting more and more infrequent, meaning I'm not getting the luck Martin has been getting.

Speaking of Martin, I finally met him for the first time since the challenge began. He's a lovely chap and it was nice to finally meet him and his son after reading his blog entries for the past 10 months. He mentioned a Snipe that had been spotted on the island, so I said my goodbyes and headed off with my friend Chris.

No luck on the island, so we continued with our walk, seeing the usual coots, grebes and tufted ducks. It wasn't until we reached the back of the second lake that my luck began to hold out. We saw plenty of Autumn ducks, including Shoveler, Teal and Wigeon, which were the first since January for me. As we continued around we flushed a small flock of Meadow Pipits, my first new birds for a while. We scoured the small island for the Kingfisher that Chris had seen several times, but has continued to elude me, and I lucked out again. We did spot a male Stonechat though, my first for the year here.

As we headed for the car pack we tried the island to see the Snipe, but again, nothing was there. As we were leaving it flew past us, easy to tell due to its flight. A few moments later a female Sparrowhawk flew fast and low through the car park.

06 November 2016

Headed out today as Martin had used his new scope and spotted two Egyptian Geese on the big island the previous day. Annoyingly, I didn't see them. In fact I didn't see much of anything except for about 150 coot, 50 herring gulls and lots of winter ducks. I was with my wife and daughter who were complaining of the wind and the cold, so I wasn't able to do a thorough scan like I wanted to.
Oh well, there's always next week.

A very distant Little Grebe.

Lazy Cormorants.

Mute Swan

I'm now at 66 species for the year, which is pretty terrible if I'm honest. I was hoping to hit a 100 birds, but year's end, but at this rate I'd be happy with 70 :P

I do wonder if I lose out by not having access to a scope like Martin, but he's a lot more regular than I am, which means he has more chance of seeing stuff :)

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 14 25-Sept-2016

No new birds, but it was nice to go out.
I headed off with a friend who had never been to Longham before and we immediately flushed a Green Woodpecker that was feeding in a nearby field. There were lots of Great Crested and Little Grebes about, and we also spotted a hovering Kestrel. I thought I spotted my first Sparrowhawk too, but as neither of us could identify it with 100 per cent certainty, it's not being included.

Pleased with this Green Woodpecker :)

There were a few gulls about, but mainly Herring, with the odd Black-Headed Gull for good measure. No Little Gulls, despite an intensive search for them. Ducks in general were quite scarce, with just Mallard and Tufted Ducks present, which was a little disappointing.

Black-Headed Gull flyby. Boring.

Still on 62 birds for the year, which isn't the best, but I still managed to have a nice day :)

Patchwork Challenge - Longham Lakes Visit 13 18-Sept-2016

Yes I know, it's been a terribly long time since I've done an update.
Life has gotten in the way and if I'm honest, a death of decent sightings on previous trips have put me off writing about them.

I'm back though, and massively behind Martin, but today was a decent little day, and it's given me the bug again, so I'll try and get more solid updates going forward.

When I got to the actual lakes there were a large group of people, around 20 or so who must have stumbled onto the lake as there were no cars in the car park to support them. They were a pain in the ass, talking loudly, scaring stuff and paying no heed to other people. As I was taking photos at one point a stone made a huge splash in front of me scattering the birds I was taking images of and causing me to say some harsh but deserved words to the gentleman that threw it.

It was a fair way away, but crops quite well.

I hung back, leaving them to pick berries and go about their annoying ways and soon found some nearby grebes again.

I started walking along the back of the second lake but the midges were swarming like anything, getting in my mouth and generally being bothersome, so I gave up and instead made my way to the small pathway that separates the two lakes.

Coots are always plentiful at Longham.

As I reached the final corner of lake two I was attracted by a rustling in the reeds by me. Before long, a small brown bird flew off and hung around some reeds about 20 feet from me. I tried phishing and eventually it came forward, enough for me to see it was a Sedge Warbler, my first for the year at Longham. Not a rare bird, but a lovely looking one all the same.

Not the best shot as he was in reeds and it's handheld at 600mm, but not bad either.

I wasn't on patch long, roughly an hour and there wasn't much else of note, but I did enjoy myself. I'm still a long way behind Martin, but with migration period upon us, there's a chance I might be able to close the gap between us.