Monday 14 July 2008

Beaulieu Road Station, New Forest, Hampshire, 13/07/2008

Warm, bright with sunny spells, from 11am.

Parked up at Decoy Pond Farm & walked out along the railway line into mixed heath & woodland.

In first clump of gorse closest to the train line: Crow, Magpie; the first of many Stonechat seen throughout the walk; Great-Spotted Woodpecker busy on a dead shrub; many Chiffchaff foraging lowdown, most notably around a chainlink fence; juvenile Robin & Great Tit.

Onto the heath area & a very fruitful patch of burnt gorse bushes: Linnet & Goldfinch in usual small groups. A couple of unusual-looking yellow-green birds were also briefly perched on the burnt wood, & they didn't immediately suggest greenfinch due to colour & small bill, they looked almost serin-like; after reference to various resources & internet photos, as well as unlikelihood that they were serins, decided on juvenile Greenfinch.

Continuing towards the wooded area where the path deteriorated so much I had to turn back, however my mind was easily made up when a Hobby was spotted sitting on a dead tree on the wood's edge, back towards the heath. It perched between enthusiatically hunting insects, behaviour which included soaring & a couple of impressive stoops. It was then joined by a couple of soaring & calling Buzzard which came up from the woods before floating out of sight.

Continuing to lap the around the burnt out gorse: the usual stonechat in good numbers; suddenly a distinctively-profiled bird perched atop one of the branches immediately identified as Dartford Warbler, a new species. Another was seen later & its distinctive 'tchurr' call was also heard from nearby unburnt gorse foliage.

Also in the unburnt foliage: Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush & a Roe Deer, which stared at me before bounding away.

Cutting through the burnt area again, the hobby was still on its favoured tree, green woodpecker & nuthatch also heard from afar. Looking back into the burnt area more sturdy-looking pipit perched & then flew off, enough of a glimpse to identify Tree Pipit.

Heading back to the car through the pines: Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Treecreeper & Pied Wagtail near the car.

A modest number of heathland birds, with a couple of specialists, in particular dartford warber & hobby.

20 species seen, 1 new.

Milford On Sea & New Forest, Hampshire, 12/07/2008

Bright, cloudy, occasionally sunny. From 11:30am.

A trip to the New Forest's coast as part of a weekend away, & a nice walk out along Hurst Point, though I didn't get all the way to its end.

In the car-park: Black-Headed Gull, Herring Gull.
On the marshes opposite the sea-wall: Oystercatcher, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Little Egret, Mallard.
Whilst on the beach flying out to sea: Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Great Black-Backed Gull.
Far out at sea near the Needles formation of the Isle of Wight: Gannet - groups & individuals diving for food.

A pretty unremarkable collection of seabirds but noted because of the unexpected gannets, presumably part of breeding colonies around the Isle of Wight's cliffs.

11 species, none new.

Whitten Pond, New Forest.
From 7:30pm. A quick evening stroll around the pond, for usual Woodpigeon, then a lone, pale-looking Kestrel. On the other side of the road, for Stonechat, & a lot of pipits, a few pale-looking & low down in the heather making almost cricket-like calls, Meadow Pipit. Later a lone bird perched high in a tree, making different calls, probably Tree Pipt.

A35, New Forest.
From 10:30pm. Night-time visit for owls, which was unsuccessful, though a couple of whistling Woodcock overflew.

Monday 7 July 2008

Roydon Common, Norfolk, 04/07/2008

Weather: sunny but cool, dusk to darkness. From 8pm.

After Titchwell a trip to Roydon for dusk.

From the car-park in the agricultural field on the other side of the road a Buzzard perched in the hedgerow before flying off & also the distinctive song of a woodlark could be heard though not seen coming as it was from the other side of a clump of trees.

Heading up the path: singing Yelowhammer & Meadow Pipit; male & female Stonechat on bushes at different sections of the path.
After taking up a viewing position & waiting for sunset: Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow, Black-Headed Gull, Curlew, Swift, House Martin & Stock Dove.

Towards the back of the common next to the agricultural land a foraging Kestrel, probably taking some of the larger insects that were numerous as the sun set; as I watched a scimitar winged bird also briefly appeared, much larger than a swift & a possible hobby but it didn't stay visible for long enough & the light was not good enough to tell for sure.

Finally the sun set & no sooner had it than the main draw of the summer heathland habitat revealed itself: up to a dozen Nightjar at various points on the common along the path. One even flopped onto the path in front of Kim & I where it sat apparently checking us out, much to our amazement, for a minute or so before taking flight again. We also had close views of flying birds, with the males showing distinctive white wing patches. The main activity seemed to be near the car-park where there is a stand of trees, so next time we can sit cosily in the car & wait for dark.

13 species, none new.

RSPB Titchwell, Norfolk, 04/07/2008

Weather: Sunny, warm with a pleasant cool breeze. From 10:40am.

In the carpark: Woodpigeon, Robin, Chiffchaff, Blackcap.
Visitors' centre feeders: House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Chaffinch; in nearby bushes, Wren.

On the way up the path to the Island Hide, on marshes to the left: Little Grebe, Coot, Mallard, brief Redshank, Mute Swan, Little Grebe, Lapwing.

Continuing up the path & suddenly a large brown bird flapped over the path in front of Kim & I, an unmistakeable Bittern, a first at Titchwell for me, all the more amazing to me that I had recently seen one for the first time at all at Minsmere last month. It flew into the freshwater reedbed near to the fen hide & out of view.

Also in or over the reedbeds: Reed Warbler & Marsh Harrier, a brightly-coloured male joined by a female.

On the fields opposite the freshwater marsh: Skylark, Reed Bunting.

On the first freshwater marsh/scrape area: Ruff, still in remnants of breeding plumage, as were others seen later; Avocet, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Black-Headed Gull.

Into the Parrinder Hide: Grey Heron in the distance; a very close young reed warbler being fed by its parent; a usual brief glimpse of Bearded Tit in the nearby reedbeds; Canada & Greylag Goose with young; Black-Tailed Godwit all in russet breeding plumage; Teal, Pied Wagtail & a lone Common Tern; six fairly distant, roosting black waders were Spotted Redshank again, like other waders, in breeding plumage.

From the left-hand side of Parrinder Hide: Starling, Herring Gull, Moorhen; an active small wader foraging on the shore of a nearby island was an obvious Common Sandpiper, my first for many years & a species I was hoping to see on this visit; Dunlin again in dark-bellied breeding plumage.

Heading to the beach: Cormorant flying out to the sea; singing Meadow Pipit & Little Egret amongst the marshes opposite the hides; Swift & House Martin zipping about.

On the beach, out at sea: good views of Sandwich Tern, crashing into the waves for food, a large tern & again a species I haven't seen for many years; a lone Great-Crested Grebe; a small group of Eider, out towards Brancaster beach.

After a couple of hours enjoying the sunshine, Kim & I headed back to the car-park passing the reedbeds where we had excellent views of reed & Sedge Warbler; finally back to the car-park & a singing Chiffchaff.

47 species, none new.

Little Owls on the A10, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, 03/07/2008

An evening drive up to Norfolk & as dusk settled on the outskirts of Ely, amongst mixed agricultural & scattered wood land, a small, plump bird alert & perched on the top of roadside tree was spotted which seemed immediately to be an owl. I swung the car back round & parked up in time to see it fly over the road & into some trees on the other side of the road, where another could be seen again perched on top of an even higher tree. The flight was distinctive with rounded wings & quite a small bird which identified Little Owl rather than the much larger & more arboreal tawny owl. I have seen a little owl on a stretch of the A10 before perched on a sign, yellow eyes prominent so I'll be keeping up my watchfulness since then after this latest sighting.