The Colne Estuary (Essex, Monday 4th February)

On 4th Febuary I found myself staying with friends down in Essex after a gig at the Barbican in London the previous night. We were due to stick around until after lunch so I decided to make my way down to the Colne Estuary. Based in Wivenhoe near Colchester, my mates are fortunate enough to live right by the Colne Estuary, not far off from  the fantastic Fingringhoe Wick reserve. The Colne Estuary around Wivenhoe and Fingringhoe is  is particularly fantastic for waders in the winter months, and the saltmarsh has also held Glossy Ibis in the recent past. Walking south from the village itself in the direction of Brightlingsea sees you pass through an area of deciduous woodland which is reliable for Nightingale in the spring and summer months. I have heard this species a couple of times here but astonishingly have not been lucky enough to see one there as of yet. Once you are beyond the woods the estuary becomes more extensive, allowing views towards Fingringhoe on the opposite side.

With only an hour or so available to bird the area, I decided to not go any further than the edge of the woods, about a mile south off Wivenhoe.  At first I occupied myself by working through a 400+ strong group of Dark Bellied Brent Geese. My efforts to dig out a hrota were in vain, but seeing Brents in these numbers is always a fantastic experience when you are a NE Scottish birder that never sees them from one day to the next locally. Aside from a few small assortments of Dunlin and Lapwing, there was not much else going on until I got beyond the woods and the estuary opened up. This was where all the wader action was, as I quickly connected with a flock of 80 Avocets roosting by some 200 Dunlin and 150 Redshank. One of the things I love about Essex birding is its large wintering flocks of Avocet; such elegant birds and just a great wintering species to have in decent numbers. Not a great deal of other places you can go in the UK to find such flocks. Whilst you can take them for granted after a while in Norfolk to a certain extent, they have an even greater buzz to them when you see them down in Essex. That made the day, so I headed back towards Wivenhoe pleased. As I approached the village, a female Marsh Harrier showed a treat and a Stock Dove flew over.

Whenever I am in the area I am always reminded of how much I’d love to have the Colne Estuary as a patch. It is certainly brimming with potential for rare waders, wildfowl or a scarce Ardea. In the past I’ve had Turtle Dove from my friends’ back garden, something I’d love to still be the case but probably isn’t any longer unfortunately. I am hoping to visit again in early April to allow for chances of connecting with a Nightingale or two, which arrive there as early as the second week of that month, so there may well be a post on how I fare in that respect within the next couple of months. I leave you with some photos of the estuary and prime Nightingale habitat…

the tightly knit flock at the back are all Avocet, a good 80 or so (4/2/13)

The Colne Estuary, looking towards Fingringhoe (4/2/13)

the estuary near Wivenhoe

Nightingale territory. Woods by the Colne Estuary, taken after a failed attempt at pinning down a singing individual in April 2011

Thanks for reading,

Joseph

Parus And Parakeets

I realise I’m a bit behind at the moment, after what I can only describe as an amazing autumn of birding with trips to Shetland (Part 2 of that trip report can soon be seen in the post above this on the homepage) and Norfolk both being successful. From 13th-26th Oct I wasn’t in Aberdeen, with most birding being done in Norfolk. I did manage a bit of birding away from the aforementioned county, namely at the beginning of the holiday in Durham and briefly in London mid way through.

On 13th Oct I stayed the night with Simeon Grundy down in Durham, planning to go birding with him and Andrew Kinghorn the next day. When Andrew arrived at the door at 8:30am that morning I was glad to see he had another recruit with him; Michael Murphy, a young birder I had not met until this point. The day was spent being given a tour of  a few Teeside sites and at Rainton Meadows NNR looking for an emerging Durham speciality – Willow Tit. This was all after an early morning visit to Lambton Pond, an inland pond near the River Wear which looked promising for waders but was a little high and thus held no more than a few Lapwings scattered around its periphery. Wandering down to the River Wear itself was productive, finally producing my first Dipper of the year, a vocal bird seen zipping from one end of the river to the next.

Lambton Pond, Durham (14/10/12)

Onwards to Rainton Meadows, where we found ourselves spending far more time in search of Willow Tit than we had imagined. The hour and a half or so that we were there was very frustrating, with Andrew and Michael both struggling to believe that this normally very easy to see species was being so recalcitrant. A couple were heard distantly early on, but did not materialise, and this seemed to be the case with tit species in general. I had to wait until the last minute before I went off on my own accord and finally connected with a single Willow Tit calling from a tree top, which I managed fleeting arse-end views of as it flew from one tree to another and out of sight on my approach… I was relieved to have finally seen this species, but was disappointed by the amount of effort put in for very minimal reward. Also in the area were at least 15  Lesser Redpolls, two Siskins and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. Hopefully I will fare much better here for this species in the future.

The rest of the day was spent being shown round Teeside, where we took in both Salthome RSPB and Hartlepool Headland. Salthome reminded me of Strathbeg but in a slightly flatter and uglier environment, with fantastic reedbed habitat and pools with scrapes but both a factory and Middlesborough looming tall in the distance. The reserve did not produce anything particularly noteworthy, but was not without good numbers of commoner species, highlights including 5 Golden Plovers, 4 Pintail, Little Egret and a nice Marsh Harrier; a reserve I hope to visit again in the future. With time becoming limited before my train, we headed to Hartlepool Headland for the last hour. As we passed through Seaton Carew, Andrew and Michael were in hysterics about a rather smart winter plumaged Meditarrean Gull they pointed out on a lampost as we drove past. This Med Gull has apparently been favouring the same lamppost on a more or less daily basis for several years and can easily be seen on almost every occasion that you pass through the area; old habits die hard!

News of a stonking male Pied Wheatear on Holy Island got the others excited, aware that they could go for this after dropping me off at the station back in Durham. I did my best not to let this put a downer on the day and enjoyed a brief seawatch with Michael and an amble round Hartlepool Headland, taking in the Doctor’s Garden, the Bowling Green and other famous mig hotspots here. I managed to eek out a few Goldcrests, whilst offshore 4 Great Skuas and an Arctic Skua headed north, with both Red-throated Diver and 3 Common Scoters on the sea for good measure. I was duly dropped off in Durham, heading southwards towards Norwich. It was great to see all three of the lads and to be shown some of the best sites in the Teeside and Durham region; I will look forward to birding the area with them again.

the lighthouse at Hartlepool Headland (14/10/12)

At the beginning of last week (22nd Oct) I spent the day in London for only the third time ever, taking in a few of the famous landmarks that I was yet to have seen. Hampstead Heath was no such landmark, but was paid a personally necessary visit. I had not bothered to catch up with Ring-necked Parakeet before this point, and was hoping I’d see a good few on the heath without much of a problem. I was successful, managing 10 Ring-necked Parakeets within half an hour. One flew low overhead more or less the moment that we entered the heath, but views were fleeting. I hoped to find a sizeable group feeding in the trees, and it didn’t take me long to trace a group of 9 (5 males) by the lake after hearing their pretty squawks reverbertating across the heath from far off. I spent a good 15 minutes admiring them as they hung lazily from twigs and branches and feeding, conversing with each other loudly from time to time.I left them to it after a short while, heading off to take in St Paul’s and the Tower of London amongst other landmarks. A worthwhile little stop.

***

As a result of actually making the effort to get myself to the right places for the first time, I had finally managed to catch up with two bogey species of mine. These two occasions were only part of my wider birding experiences in Norfolk during my October holiday,where things became a little bit tasty… For more on that, stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,

Joseph

Foray To Frampton (Lincolnshire, 19th July)

19th July marked the marathon journey back home to Aberdeen after three weeks away. As the journey was completed over 2 days by car, I was given the opportunity to visit Frampton Marsh RSPB in Lincolnshire so as to break up the journey; much more appealing than stopping off at a tacky service station. The reserve is conveniently a few miles off the main A17 road, so we didn’t have to go very far out of our way to get there. Frampton Marsh was a reserve I’d always wanted to visit, and it lived up to its fame as a great reserve for the hour or so I was there. A nice starting bonus on the way down to the reserve was a Yellow Wagtail flicking across the road in front of the car, my first of the year. It’s always special to come across Yellow Wags, not only because they are declining nationwide but also because you don’t see them year on year in NE Scotland (where they are a scarce but annual passage migrant), thus its not often I get the pleasure of seeing them.

This was the start of a productive and very worthwhile visit to Frampton. I stationed myself at 360 Hide, which as the name suggests impressively allows for 360° views of the different pools and scrapes on the reserve, and at very close quarters.I had come to the reserve with the hope of connecting with a long staying summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe, a bogey bird of mine. I found out when I arrived that it hadn’t been seen for a couple of days. 25 minutes passed with no result despite scanning all of the scrapes, and with time trickling away I became confident that the bird in question simply wasn’t on the reserve. Instead I decided to turn my attention to a group of waders that by some vegetation at the back of the southern scrape, new in since I had arrived. As soon as I trained the scope on the waders I caught a glimpse of something diving to the left of them just in front of the vegetation. I casually presumed it was one of the numerous Little Grebes, but was delighted to be proved wrong as it emerged and revealed itself to be the summer plumaged Black-necked Grebe.

All previous tension duly alleviated; it was a great moment to clap eyes on this species for the first time.  Far more intense a feeling though was of overwhelming admiration for the bird in question. What an outstandingly beautiful bird it was, in my eyes the most exquisite of the grebes in summer plumage. For me, the contrast between the jet black head and neck and the golden, delicately plumed ear coverts make Black-necked Grebes look that little bit more fantastic than sumplum Slavonian Grebe with their extensive punk hairdos. This particular individual was starting to moult into winter plumage so was a little dingy around the flanks (rufuous mottling here was not extensive as on a full sumplum) , but overall it still looked stunning.

As it had clearly just emerged from the vegetation, it was at first quite distant. Eventually it came within 50ft of the hide and associated with a few Tufted Ducks, at which stage I was able to make the most of it. This also gave me the opportunity to get a range of digiscoped and DSLR shots, but this was difficult as it was continuously diving and didn’t come any closer. What a superb bird though; I didn’t think my first Black-necked Grebe would be in sumplum. Retrospectively, that makes the occasion all the more memorable.

Black-necked Grebe, Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire (19/7/12)

A bit dingy around the flanks, but otherwise in fine sumplum fettle.

There were other birds of interest around. Amongst the group of newly arrived waders (mainly Lapwings) were 50+ Black-tailed Godwits and 30 Dunlins, whilst a few Ruff and Avocets were also scattered around. 6 Great Crested Grebes included a downy young bird, whilst a Little Egret was foraging within a few feet of the hide. The walkways were heaving with Acros, namely 15+ Reed Warblers and 5 Sedge Warblers, most affording great views right by the path. I didn’t have time to have a look over The Wash, where undoubtedly hundreds more waders were. Nonetheless, the short detour to this fantastic reserve was well worth it; I’ll definitely be going back.

view across Frampton Marsh

Thanks for reading,

Joseph