This month has been my busiest yet at Uni so finding the time to write my blog post has been quite hard. This blog post will therefore include a little summary of each visit I made during the month, including quite a few colour ringed mute swans. Nov 4th - Hengistbury Head Now that the clocks have turned birding has become increasingly hard and thus today when I left at 3pm I had forgotten that it was going to be dark before I had done any meaningful birding. When I reached Wick I headed down towards the area of flooded grassland where a few Snipe and Teal are usually pottering about. The Teal today were fast asleep in the fading light, however something else caught my attention and eventually it screamed as a second chased it out of cover and they flew fighting with each other until one tumbled into a fence post and lost its grasp. Much to my surprise they were in fact Water Rails and eventually I had counted at least 3 birds wading around the grassland. I stood and waited for a little while and eventually one came out in the open right next to me seemingly not minding my company at all. I watched as it paraded through the long muddy grass and watched as it gracefully plucked little insects off the surface of the mud. What stunning little birds they are. This was unfortunately all I really saw on this visit as it was pretty much pitch black by the time I had reached the other end of Wick which was a shame. Above: Colour Ringed Mute Swan E5S Below: Black-headed Gull Above and Below: The best I could manage of the Water Rails in the poor light conditions. November 5th - Hengistbury Head I have to admit that I headed down to Hengistbury the following day in the aim of hopefully finding something of use, however as my luck would have it the area was rather dull with at times only Stonechats for company. A few Darties were around in some unusual places, however otherwise everything was as normal as I headed along the headland. Above: Male Stonechat I then headed right down to the end of the headland and upon looking back I could see that a large flock of around 250 Lapwing had taken to the sky and were literally spiralling higher and high until they were just tiny specs in the sky heading North West and inland. Shortly after this a small flock of 11 Black-tailed Godwits flew over at a decent height heading into the Solent having been a bit lazy and cutting across the headland. They looked as though they continued their decent and landed somewhere over in the general direction of Hurst Castle Spit. This was definitely a day of movement, however although there were the numbers in the sky the amount of birds on the deck was one of the worst I have seen in a while in any location. I then headed down along the Mudeford Spit and along here found a few sheltering Oystercatchers and also a few Turnstone as well, but it still looks as though I am going to have to wait a while for a lifer in the form of a Purple Sandpiper to appear. Apparently the Mudeford Spit is a great place to see them, however as of yet I am still yet to prove this. Above: Oystercatcher Above: Turnstone I then headed up through the Woodland towards Wick finding 2 Chiffchaff, 4 Firecrest, and 10 Goldcrest. An Adult Med Gull and a pair of Sandwich Tern were also a nice addition to the day tally. I then headed through Wick finding yet another colour ringed Mute Swan. As well as seeing the Male Marsh Harrier, 8 more Chiffchaff, 3 Reed Bunting and the rather fluky discovery of a female Bullfinch as it erupted from a bush just off to the left hand side of the entrance gate as I opened it. All in all another decent day spent on the headland. Above: Mute Swan S2U November 7th - RSPB Rainham Marshes Reading week saw me head back to London for a few days of relaxation and also it gave me a chance to see my family, friends, Arsenal, and also visit my patches. A rather hit and miss day in terms of weather was what greeted me at Rainham. However it was nowhere near as bad as it had been forecast to be.... yet! My customary river watch first thing lead to me watching an almost empty river bar the odd few Black-headed Gulls that drifted up the river which given the wind direction was all too frustrating. A few Curlew were about along the sea wall and as I eventually reached the visitor centre a quick scan of the reserve saw me get onto not one, but two Short-eared Owls tussling with a pair of Marsh Harriers over the numbers. This was a great sight to be hold as the owls would gain height before folding their wings and stooping down onto the Marsh Harriers, before the Marsh Harriers would do something similar. Eventually after about five minutes of this oddly graceful duel the Short-eared Owls disappeared presumably having lost leaving the Marsh Harriers to hunt over the marsh sending Ducks and waders up in all directions. All this time a Male Stonechat had joined me on the sea wall and was happily catching insects from the bush next to me. Above: Short-eared Owl along with a photo bombing Goose Below: Male Stonechat I then went in to the visitor centre and joined the Wednesday walkers. We decided to head out to along the sea wall to see if we could see the Short-eared Owls however the wind had picked up a lot in the 10 minutes that we spent inside and thus the Owls were nowhere to see. We did however have a few Avocet in the bay and 2 more Male Stonechats near the Dragonfly pools. A good plethora of Ducks was to be had from the Ken Barret hide as well as a couple of Marsh Harriers. A few Snipe were also around, including a pair which seemed to be displaying to each other. On to the Ken Barret Hide and here a Grey Wagtail showed extremely well alongside the Teal, Snipe and also a Ruff. I have to admit that I thought that the Grey Wagtail hadn't left and when I got up to shut the window of the hide it flew out from right up against the building. Above: Drake Teal Above: Pied Wagtail Below: Grey Wagtail Above: Ruff The day wasn't finished yet with a Goldcrest in the woodland my first here for a while. The weather then started to take a turn for the worst and so we all retreated to the visitor centre. After lunch a joined some of the others on the balcony sheltering from the wind and rain and watching the river for any goodies that might be on offer. At around 2pm a monstrous squall came through and I have literally never seen anything like it in my entire life as all of a sudden birds started to appear everywhere coming in off the Thames for shelter. This included a swirling flock of around 280 Dunlin which came in off the Thames and gave us a run for our money trying to ID them as the light and general visibility were atrocious. After the rain lessened birds started to come of the reserve and head back out onto the Thames Lapwing streamed off the reserve, before a shout from Howard in the visitor centre sent us running. We all stopped and stared in awe as the whole horizon was covered in one long line of Black-tailed Godwits. There must have been almost 700 birds or possibly even nudging 1k. The whole line of the sea wall between the tip and the visitor centre had the Godwits crossing so that's about a miles worth of Godwits heading off the reserve. These birds must have been migrating over the land when this squall occurred as I only saw 1 bird on the reserve which was from the Ken Barret Hide. It was quite something to see and to be honest they looked shattered as they dropped onto the mud on the opposite side of the Thames for a rest and some food. The mud literally turned black there were so many waders. What a sight and it wasn't done yet as a steady trickle of around 40 Curlew flew off the reserve followed by the Avocet and also a flock of 17 Golden Plover which were an excellent addition to the day tally. Since there was a small gap in the rain I decided to head to the station and catch the train back home. November 10th - Totteridge Valley Well to say that the Owl evening went to plan would be a lie. Those who joined me for the pre walk enjoyed the best of the weather it has to be said as for the vast majority of it we were dry. A Bullfinch and the odd Mandarin Duck and Teal were the main highlights as well as a Firecrest which was heard, but couldn't be located amongst the Goldcrest at Darlands. The weather deteriorated quickly and I could tell that this was going to be a horrid one. We headed up to the Orange Tree where a quick rest bite from the rain was gratefully appreciated as was the Hot Chocolate that I had. Those that had joined me and got soaked had left by the time the others had arrived for the main walk and to be honest I was already too wet to care so I headed back out with the newly arrived and before too long we were soaked again. We headed straight down towards Darlands Lake where an almighty flock of 25 Mandarin Ducks had gathered including 17 Stunning Drakes. Teal numbers had also increased with 8 birds now on the water and 6 of them being Drakes. Just before we left the Mandarin Ducks headed into the trees at the back of the lake presumably ready for their roost. While we were there a Woodcock erupted from the trees at the back and flew across the lake quickly off in search of some grub. The only thing else of note was the fact that despite the weather at Folly Farm we did manage to hear a Little Owl which was someway of consolation, but I guess I shouldn't really be complaining as in this sort of weather we were lucky to see or hear anything. Finally at about 5pm we gave in and with the sound of Redwings heading over us to their roost we squelched back up to the orange tree and headed home. November 14th - Poole and Baiter Park Since the reading week trip I hadn't had a great deal of time to head out birding and thus I grabbed the chance to Head to Poole for the last few hours of daylight. I was somewhat surprised when I got there and saw a flock of Canada Geese and Oystercatchers feeding on the playing fields. It was an odd sight seeing the Oystercatchers running in and out of the boundary tape. Moving on and it was just more of the regulars for a while. This was useful as the main reason I had come out was to see if I could find any interesting Mute Swan colour rings as they are easy to read and also because I have also started to notice a small pattern to do with the location of the Swans every time I see them. Am I surprised, no not really but when you consider that they will move if the weather is harsh I might have to hope that a really bad spell of cold weather occurs if I am to find anything particularly unusual Mute Swan ring wise. Above: Mute Swan SLR Below: Mute Swan R5T Above: Black-headed Gull I continued down towards the Café and here I had 11 Little Grebe and the Drake Mandarin Duck. This particular Mandarin Duck is a big deal as they are quite rare in this area and I think it is the only one seen this year in the area. It was first seen on the 3rd by me and I presume it will stay the winter. Mandarin Ducks aren't actually native they were introduced possibly as early as the 1930s and have since then rapidly spread and increased in population to the current 2,300 pairs. The vast majority of this population does however occur in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Counties of England however they can occur pretty much country wide. Its interesting that in its native range birds tend to migrate south in the winter and there is some evidence to show there is some migration in the British Isles and so this bird in Poole park could be an example of this, however at the same time it could just as easily be another bird that has hopped the fence. Above: 1st Winter Mute Swans Below: Mandarin Ducks The 3 drake Goldeneye were still out in the middle of the lake. however with the light now starting to fade I decided that I should head over to Baiter to see what was about. Honestly there wasn't an awful lot a few Shag were mixed in with the Cormorants heading into roost offshore. An interesting duck flew past which could have been a Scoter, but the light was really poor as I was looking straight into the sun. Closer to the shore a Little Egret was parading around trying to get one last catch for the day and a few family parties of Brent Geese were resting on the water close in shore. As well as this a truly stunning sunset was had as it set over the Purbeck Hills in the distant turning the sky what I think was a deep shade of purply red, either way whatever colour it was, it was stunning. Above: Little Egret Above: The Brent Geese and the Black-headed Gull November 17th - Hengistbury Head Well today wasn't a complete disaster, but it wasn't the best since I decided that a Twitch was on offer. A Snow Bunting had been seen right at the end of the headland and it was showing well. I knew that with it being a Saturday it was unlikely that it would still be there when I got there. Sure enough despite a 2 hour search we couldn't relocate it. It was all bad though as I had a few good birds such as the 7 Red-breasted Mergansers which passed offshore. A few Common Scoter were also around and one flock also had a lone Teal with them which was a bit odd. Dunlin moved East as did a group of Black-tailed Godwits and a few adult Kittiwake. In the end I decided to have a quick look to see if there were any interesting waders, however the only thing of note were a few Oystercatcher, a Little Egret, and a few Turnstone in their usual place. Just as we started the walk back to the Bus a Water Pipit flew over calling which was a good patch and Dorset tick. Since the light was fading I wasn't surprised when we reached the woodland that birds had started to flock in for the night. 4 Brambling came in from high calling and dropped into Redpoll Wood. Also in this location the right hand side of the path was full of life with at least 20 Goldcrest in one mega flock. I managed to count 32 Goldcrest in total as well as a couple of Firecrest. That is some count and I am sure that it is something to do with the wood being the warmest and most sheltered place on the woodland for birds to spend the night. With the light fading I decided to call it a day and headed back to Bournemouth. And so this completes part one of my November round up. I will just quickly apologise for the sheer length of the blog post. And so in summary my patch list for Hengistbury Head is still ticking along nicely and I have had a few forgettable days and also a few unforgettable days, but that's just birding for you. The thing that keeps me going out and birding is the hope that I will have more of those unforgettable mesmerizing days, such as the Rainham Wader spectacular or the Ghost of Halloween from the last blog post.
Of course at the time of writing I know exactly what happens next in my birding tales and I am really excited to be moving on to writing the next couple of visits up. Stay tuned for them in the coming week!
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AuthorI have been a birder since I was 8 however only really started to be able to go out to places by myself in Summer 2016 (Blame the parents) My blogs will be from all over the place, but mainly from RSPB Rainham Marshes and Totteridge Valley! Photography done by Samuel Levy aged 18. ArchivesCategories |