An idiot at Upton!

The title of the post refers to me! It's only that I hadn't charged the battery for my camera, so couldn't take any shots of the Whooper Swans when we went on Monday, just to prove we were there though took a photo from the Water Rail Hide on my phone.

We had a nice few hours though, with the 4 Whoopers showing well, 4 Little Egrets milling around and 3 Snipe on the island in front of the Lapwing hide (seen in the distance in the above photo)

A brief bit of excitement ensued as a Sparrowhawk blasted through the feeders by the Water Rail Hide, not catching anything though. A Water Rail was heard but not seen.

There were of course tons of Coots, with a solitary male Wigeon preferring their company to any of the other ducks that were about. It was nice to see quite a few Pochard about along with the other ducks, Tufted, Shoveler, Teal and Mallard.

A kingfisher put in a supersonic appearance flashing across the water in front of us, blink and you'd have missed it.

Both Great Crested and Little Grebe were also in abundance all now in winter plumage.

So our full list for two hours, just at the Moors, we didn't venture over to the Sailing Club or Flashes this time:

Blackbird

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Bullfinch

Carrion Crow

Coot

Cormorant

Dunnock

Great Crested Grebe

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Greenfinch

Grey Heron

Herring Gull

Kestrel

Kingfisher

Lapwing

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pied Wagtail

Pochard

Reed Bunting

Robin

Shoveler

Snipe

Sparrowhawk

Teal

Tufted Duck

Whooper Swan

Wigeon

Woodpigeon

Wren

A Meander Around the Isle of Wight

We have just returned from a short get away to the Isle of Wight, I have never been before although Tina has albeit some 40 years ago! Things have changed....

We started off with a day out to the Needles, somewhere that I'd always wanted to see, unfortunately the weather wasn't great, very dull and a bit windy, but we still had a good time and a nice walk, with a Stonechat,

and a Spitfire showing well!!

I din't have the big lens on the camera when it flew by and we were also in the Cafe at the Old Battery, so it was taken through a mucky window, looking in to a mucky sky!

A bit of sunshine to show off the Needles would have been nice.

We also saw Raven, Kestrel, Skylark add Meadow Pipit as we walked along with the coloured sands/rocks.

The next day the weather wasn't good, the morning started very wet, so we went to the National Trust reserve at Newtown as it reportedly has three hides, it in fact only has two the woodland hide is apparently now inaccessible. But we mad the best of it and went the first hide about a 20 minute walk from the car park, past some lovely Dahlias!

The hide no 1, viewed from hide no 2!

The top deck of the hide is accessed by a ladder, so beware! We went up for hopefully better views in the murk. So we did get some good sightings, from the reserve; Turnstone, Grey Plover, Godwit, Little Egret, Redshank, Dunlin, Brent Goose, Grey Heron, Teal, Wigeon, Shelduck, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Cormorant and Ringed Plover.

As we walked to hide 2, (as seen from hide 1!)

a Buzzard showed itself,

as well as Collared Dove and the usual hedgerow suspects.

Our last full day took us in lovely sunshine to the RSPB Reserve, Brading Marshes. Not a lot was seen to be honest, but it was a lovely walk.

After a few hours on the reserve, which I think is definitely a work in progress, paths a too far from the water to see much and a distinct lack of viewpoints/benches, we drove into Bembridge and had a great very late lunch at the 'Best Dressed Crab' cafe. The seafood sandwiches were superb! Plus a bit of Birdwatching from the Cafe/Houseboat:

We followed this with a drive upto Culver Downs and had the pleasure of watching a Peregrine attacking two Ravens, It was so good I forgot to take a photo!

So that was our brief sojourn down to the Isle of Wight!

Upton Warren on a Blustery day

Well no posts for ages and then three in quick succession! I'll put it down to Birding Therapy!

So Thursday afternoon saw us motor down the M5 to Upton, I cant believe our last visit was in April and it's only a 25 minute (traffic permitting) drive away. Very remiss of us!

We had been tempted by the reports earlier in the week of a Jack Snipe about, but of course forgetting there was a work party at the Flashes this week, where it had been seen for a few days meant that there was no sign!

As I said it was our first visit in quite a while and the state of the Flashes after out hot summer was still a shock, even though I had seen photos, it was quite desolate. Apart from a few Teal, Mallard, Three Grey Hersons, there was only the large flock of Lapwing, with heads down out of the wind.

This was one of the three Herons that turned up, but being a dull day the photo doesn't door this great bird justice:

We stayed about an hour with only distant Buzzard and Kestrel adding much interest.

We walked back to the car park and drove over to the Moors, enjoying the smooth ride on the newly tarmaced track. We only ventured to the Lapwing Hide as we did need to get home to run a few errands, however we did stay longer than planned and got caught in the rush hour traffic.

So the Moors was its busier self with plenty of Gulls, the odd Canada Goose, Cormorants and two Little Egrets showing well, but again poor light for photography, but here you go;

There were also plenty of Little Grebe about,

 but I think in all the years we have been birding, this is the first time I have seen one just sitting at the waters edge.

Like the Flashes there were plenty of Lapwing about;

sometimes getting a bit agitated along with the Black-headed Gulls.

As for ducks, in addition to the Mallard, there were again a number of Teal, some Shoveler, Tufted Duck and a few Gadwall. I had a fleeting view of a Kingfisher as it raced away from us, but sadly Tina didn't see it. Up to the point we left we had not seen any small birds at all, but picked up a few as we dipped into the new hide on the way back to the car.

In the end we totalled 33 species for 3 hours, not bad when I thought we weren't going to make 20!

Haden Hill Park

Went for a short walk at Haden Hill and Corngreaves NR on Tuesday, the weather was glorious, but the whole place seemed devoid of birds. We hardly saw anything although a couple of Buzzards put in an appearance:

apart from that, just Woodpigeon, Magpies and Crow, with Mallard and Moorhen on the pool. That was it! Apart from a Squirrel with a gobstopper!

and some gorgeous trees of course.

Rainham Marshes

It's been a fair while since I have posted, indeed it's a fair while since we have done any birding, for a number of reasons that I won't go into here!

Anyway last weekend saw us head down to London to look after and run the Tap Room at our sons brewer in Bemondsey (see the link on the home page) As we had to pick up the keys on Thursday as he was going away that left us a free day on the Friday, so we toddled off to RSPB Rainham.

The weather was glorious, unlike the Saturday on the Beer Mile!

Also this was the first outing since my camera and 500mm lens were both repaired, it was actually pretty quiet out on the reserve and the reported Pectoral Sandpiper from earlier in the week was no longer about, just plenty of Collared Dove and Hous Sparrows to start with, although this Little Grebe showed nicely a little further along the circular walk:

We had been told that the Bearded Tits, or should I call then Bearded Reedlings now, had been showing near the Rifle Butts, we bumped into a chap who had seen them a few minutes earlier, but no promises! Then a kind South African gentleman took us to where he had seen them and within a couple of minutes there they were:

We stayed for about thirty minutes watching their antics, taking time for a coffee of course. I have quite a few photos that I will add to my Flickr albums shortly.

So we walked on to the large hide overlooking the pools, there wasn't a great deal about apart from the Teal;

We had a late lunch there before continuing around the reserve, watching the Lapwing;

and admiring the Marsh Frogs;

So back to the centre where some Starling and Collared Dove showed well and a final cuppa before heading back to Bow.

Not a huge list but well worthwhile:

Bearded Tit

Black-headed Gull

Blue Tit

Buzzard

Carrion Crow

Collared Dove

Cormorant

Goldfinch

Great Tit

Greater Canada Goose

Grey Heron

Greylag Goose

House Sparrow

Jay

Kestrel

Lapwing

Little Egret

Little Grebe

Long-tailed Tit

Magpie

Mallard

Moorhen

Mute Swan

Pheasant

Shelduck

Shoveler

Starling

Teal

Woodpigeon