fantastically bonkers day in the Cuckmere, 9/4/2010

It didn't look like a good day for birds in the Cuckmere. The wind was light S/SW, and by the time I arrived the world and several distant relatives of its had trampled every square metre of my precious patch. Things didn't look very promising at all for the first half an hour, with a pair of Shelduck and a solitary phyllosc (probably a Willow Warbler) the highlights. Things picked up a tiny bit on the east side around the meanders, with this unusual escapee among the Canada Geese.

With the addition of the Bar-headed Goose, my spirits were lifted somewhat, and they went a notch higher with a distinctive wailing 'peeuw' call that I heard from the river. After two minutes of patience and some attempts to call it out (it was a call farly easy to mimic), I got a brief view of a Little Ringed Plover. However, a dog plundering through the saltmarsh sent it back out of view, and it didn't look like it would come out again. Around the back of the scrape, during my first look, I saw a Wheatear and a pair of Stonechats. 2 White Wagtails were feeding on the edge of the scrape, and a Swallow was hawking over the scrape and the surrounding fields. From here I went to check the sea, and I found this dot offshore.

believe it or not, this is indeed a Black-necked Grebe! It was so distant, I only managed to ID it after zooming in on the photos a huge amount, and even then I could only tell it apart from slav grebe by shape. It was a summer-plumaged bird, usually one of the finest sights in birding, but sadly, no matter what angle I tried to look at it from, it was constantly in Silhouette. After taking all these photos, my camera had run out of battery, I didn't think this would be a problem, as I doubted I would see anything much more interesting during the rest of the day.

However, by now it was about 3.00, and a lot of people had eft the Cuckmere. I walked back up to the scrape, and was looking at the White Wagtails again when I turned around and noticed something sitting on a fencepost about ten metres away. On my first look, I could see it was a Pipit, and an odd one at that, with a striking supercilium, an all-black beak and a greyish coloured head. It dived down into a ditch, but reappeared, and this time I got an excellent view for about 15 seconds. I noted that it had a browny-grey back and wings, long legs and a long tail, and a breast with a few pale streaks on the upper breast, but otherwise the breast and throat were very clean white. I had now narrowed it down to Water Pipit or Scandinavian Rock, but luckily I had the old Collins Field Guide with me. What I had seen ooked very much like a typical Water Pipit, but in the book was an illustartion of a rare variation of Scandinavian Rock which was very pale and grey. The illustartion showed it to have a dark malar patch, and when the Pipit appeared again, I checked, and it lacked that patch, leaving me with quite a clear cut Water Pipit! However, before long it flew off, showing white flanks to the tail, another good marker for this species. It called now as well, a sharp, explosive 'tseeeeep', very similar to Rock Pipit but subtly higher-pitched and more drawn out, giving a more evocative feel. Following this, I frantically searched all the small creeks and floodwater around the Scrape. The number of White Wagtails around was now at least six, the Swallow was hawking the fields again, there were plenty of Meadow Pipits, 5 Snipe were flushed from one of the islands on the scrape by a goose plondering through the grass, and a Little Ringed Plover showed well on the scrape. But in all this madness, I couldn't find the Water Pipit, and eventually gave up, heading back up the river towards Exceat Bridge. I heard the other Little Ringed Plover calling away from the river, but it wasn't immediately visible, and I couldn't be bothered searching for it again. However, at ht epoint were the meaders started, a pipit flew up from the bank of the river and landed on the shore of them, uttering exactly the same call as the Water Pipit I had heard earlier. It was indeed the same bird, and, at a happy distance and with no one else nearby, provided good views for five minutes, n the company of a Meadow Pipit and a Reed Bunting. There wasn't much else to look for now I had all the major details, but I piad more attention to its shape. It had proportionately longer legs and tail than the accompanying Meadow Pipit, and had a longer-necked, slender, more upright stance, similar to Richard's Pipit.

Walking back up the river, over the bridge and up Chyngton Farm, I saw the Bar-headed Goose on the meadners, with another Swallow and two Sand Martins hawking above. Two juvenile gulls n the meanders proved to be a Great Blackback and a Yellow-legged, with a nice comparison between the two easy. Finally, I saw two more Swallows over Chyngton Farm, and a group of 7 Shelduck feeding together in the fields below, before heading home pretty much on cloud nine!

Garganey, a Glaucous and everything else!

After a successful seawatch this morning, I had had my birding 'fix' for the day, which included two year-ticks and loads of other good birds at Splash Point. However, that all changed thanks to a phone call from my dad. Apparently there were two Garganey showing very well on the Ouse Estuary Project! I'd spent almost everyday around there in late March 2009 without seeing one! I rushed down as fast as my bike could carry me, and upon getting there the Garganey were showing brilliantly. It was two drakes in all their beauty, hanging around with a flock of Teal. My best photo attempts are below;

Also present on the wetlands were 60 Teal, 30+ Snipe, a Lapwing and a Curlew. Winter obviously isn't quite over yet. While I was there, dad mentioned there were five Mediterranean Gulls in the gull flock on the floodwater. Almost immediately, I heard the cooing, Eider-like sound of one, and picked out one in the 200 or so gulls. I then noticed something else flying overhead. It was biscuit-coloured, with a creamy-pink bill and blackish-brown speckling, and it looked quite big. In the back of my mind I thought "Glaucous Gull", but I had just found a possible Yellow-legged Gull in the flock, so I put it out of my mind, convincing myself I had seen a Herring Gull looking odd in the light. Anyway, the Yellow-legged Gull turned out to probably be a juvenile Great Blackback (though I'm not totally convinced, and if I find it does look like a Yellow-leg or Casp in the gull books I'll put a picture of it on here). But getting back to the story, Mum and Dad had gone to sainsbury's for the shopping, and I was currently at home. So imagine how annoyed I was when dad rushed through the door, saying he had gone back to the Ouse Estuary and seen... a Glaucous Gull!!! We got down there, and checked through the gull flocks, to no avail (although I did manage to see four Mediterranean Gulls). Still, I am now sure I saw the Glauc before, and since I cathink of no reason why a bird you only identify a few hours after you've seen it shoudln't count, it now goes on my year list, which, with the addition of Garganey as well, is now on 114!!

Finally, a quick two pictures, of flocks of Brent Geese flting very close inshore at Splash Point this morning.

14 Feb 2010-Bittern and some other stuff

I didn't expect much birding today on mother's day, but sometimes you can get really surprised!

I started at the Cuckmere, with some of the pictures I took shown below.

In the Cuckmere Valley between Charleston Reedbed and Litlington, totals of 60 Wigeon, 30 Teal, 7 Redshank, 5 Snipe, 2 Shelduck, and a possible Yellow-legged Gull with the gull flocks, a record shot of which is shown below.

This gull was seen with a small flock of Common and Black-headed Gulls just south of Litlington. Dad and I decided it was probably a juv Herring Gull, but it didn't look quite right, and may have been a Yellow-legged. Comments welcome on it. If it was a Yellow-legged, it wold be the second good gull around here this March, after the Glaucous Gull seen by Steve Dawson at the start of March

After this, and at the slight annoyance of mum, dad got a phone call from Nick Pope, who had found a Bittern at Deans Farm Pond (actually a flooded field) with some reeds around the edges. As ridiculous as it sounded, when we got there, the bird was showing very well. I got a few record shots, but the evening light, the bitterns camoflage and my shivering hand in the cold evening all made a steady and focused photgraph a less than easy task! My best effort is shown below.

Note* A better photo of the Bittern can be found on Matt Eade's blog

Arundel WWT

Dad went to Arundel today to buy a new scope, happy news for me as I can now inherit his battered old one for seawatching this spring! (hardly perfect but a good scope would cost about £600 at the very least.) Seeing as he was going to the WWT reserve anyway, I decided to go along and see what was around. Wild birds were hard to come by, 2 Buzzards displaying over the wooded hill by the car park, 3 Snipe from one of the hides and a few Reed Bunting in the reedbed were among the best, while two singing Cetti's Warblers from in here were at long, long last a year tick, my first since 17 Feb(!!!) and taking my sussex year list up to 107. While many 'real birders' may not be too interested in visiting Arundel just for the wildfowl collections, I personally don't care if they have their wings clipped, it was still brilliant to see adult male Spectatcled Eider, Harlequin Duck, Scaly-sided Merganser, Red-breasted Goose, Nene Goose, Phillipine Duck and many others, while the seaduck enclosure gives brilliant views of the afromentioned Harlequins and Mergansers, along with a rare chance to see Common Scoter and Long-tailed Duck up close.

17 Jan-Cuckmere Haven and Seaford

In the Cuckmere today I found a female Scaup. (left). Identified from a female Tufted Duck by several factors, but the most obvious one is the white face. Present on the river at first, but flushed upriver and seen again in a flooded field North of Exceat Bridge, then flew South again, I then saw it on the river briefly, before it appeared to fly out to sea. However, I met up with Les Bird soon after, and we again saw it on the river 100 metres south of Exceat Bridge. Here Les got several photographs, one of which is shown left. After a while it was flushed onto the meanders, where it stayed with pairs of Tufted Duck and Pochard. Also in the Cuckmere area 3 Brent Geese, 15 Little Grebes, 500 Lapwings, 50 Curlew, 30 Redshank, a Grey Wagtail, a Little Egret, small numbers of Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting, Fieldfare and Redwing, 200 Teal, 150 Wigeon, 8 Snipe in the watermeadows Sout of the A259, and a Woodcock flushed from a flooded field a mile North of here.

Here the Scaup is on the left, with a pair of Pochard on the right and a Little Grebe in the background with a small sprat in its mouth. Taken on the meanders. Thansk to Les Bird for these two excellent photos.