Goring and Holmethorpe Sand Pits

A seawatch from George V Avenue produced a Fulmar, 21 Dark-bellied Brent Geese (13 west), seven Red-throated Divers, a Great Crested Grebes, 16 Gannets, a Kittiwake, 37 Razorbills/Guillemots and an adult Mediterranean Gull.

On the way to Cornwall, I stopped at Holmethorpe Sand Pits where the juvenile Black-throated Diver was showing at last knockings on Mercers Lake.

Juniper Top/Bramblehall Wood, Richmond and Holmethorpe SPs

I'm not one for whistle-stopping but planned a three-site tour for the day. I started by parking at the Whitehill car park and Mickleham, hearing Hawfinches calling as soon as I opened the car door. Making my way to a reasonable viewpoint over Bramblehall Wood, around 20 birds were showing in the trees on the other side of the jumping field. I began to wonder whether I wasn't quite in the right place for big numbers, and/or was too late, but at 08:35 I looked back at the trees to see them brimming with Hawfinches. I took a quick photo but as soon as I started to try to count the birds they exploded into the air and revealed that the numbers were immense. They disappeared to the east too quickly to get an accurate count, and I was a little too stunned to try to make sense of the numbers but there were easily 300+. Five minutes later, up to 100 more flew in the same direction - at the time I remained cautious and kept the count at 300+ but seeing Steve G's count of 420 the next morning vindicated my true feeling that I had seen in excess of 400 birds. With such a spectacle, the figure is by the by. At least four Marsh Tits were also noted, including a couple of singing birds.

Hawfinches

I moved on to Richmond where Franko kindly helped me see the eastern-type Lesser Whitethroat around his garden, along with Tony Q. In the afternoon I picked up Josh B to head to Holmethorpe Sand Pits for an experimental check of the gull roost there, yielding a 2CY Yellow-legged Gull.

eastern Lesser Whitethroat

2CY Yellow-legged Gull

Holmethorpe Sand Pits

A walk around with Kojak, putting the world to rights, we came across a couple of Siskins, eight Wigeon, nine Snipe, 18 Yellowhammers, two Reed Buntings, a Meadow Pipit and 15 Lapwings of note.

Recent stuff

Lots and lots to be getting on with so just a quick catch up on what I've been up to this month.

A trip to Scotland on 10th and 11th didn't go as well as planned, with a speeding ticket and no American Herring Gull in the Campbeltown area, although we did find the drake BLACK DUCK at Strontian.Other highlights from the trip included two Snow Geese, three Iceland Gulls and good numbers of Greenland White-fronted Geese.

Drake Black Duck at Strontian with female Mallard

Snow Geese with Greenland White-fronted Geese near Tayinloan

Greenland White-fronted Geese near Campbeltown - the skeins were a breathtaking sight and sound

Last Thursday saw me connect with my 400th British bird, the GREAT SPOTTED CUCKOO which was discovered at Giltar Point near Tenby. I've especially wished to see one of these since I was about ten so I was delighted to catch up with one and it was such a spectacular-looking thing, a great one for 400.

Great Spotted Cuckoo at Giltar Point - number 400!

Just before the Scotland trip, the 9th provided some good birds near to home in Surrey with two summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebe on Mercers Lake, Holmethorpe Sand Pits and a Firecrest found by Paul Goodman in Banstead Woods, the species is surprisingly rare at CFBW and this was my second sighting there. The grebes were a fantastic addition to my local area list.

Black-necked Grebes on Mercers Lake, Holmethorpe Sand Pits

Firecrest in Banstead Woods, a cracking find by Paul Goodman

A drake Pintail was something of a surprise at the Ouse Estuary Project reserve at Newhaven today.

Drake Pintail at Newhaven today

Drake Pintail (second from right) at Newhaven today

Recent

My computer has crashed and consequently I'm struggling to organise things and dealing with photos is impossible at the moment (doing this on my phone) so that's why I haven't put anything on here lately. More for the sake of maintaining a searchable record for myself than anything else though (as I'm too crap with time management to keep a database going so often just search my own blog for my own records), I feel I ought to issue a quick text-only update.

Things have been very slow of late and despite putting in 86 hours since last Friday my haul for the patch in this period has been a single Chiffchaff on April 2nd and two Red Kites on March 30th, which (although the kites were superb) is a paltry return for efforts and reflects the astonishingly delayed migration at the moment. I've been on two other trips, one on March 24th to Farlington Marshes where Jamie, Liam and I enjoyed the RED-BREASTED GOOSE, a Spoonbill, about four Wheatears and a couple of Chiffchaffs, plus Black-tailed Godwits and impressive numbers of Dunlins, Grey Plovers and Bar-tailed Godwits. Other highlights included Black-necked Grebe, Red-breasted Merganser, Marsh Harrier and the number of dark-bellied Brent Geese. The other trip was a dip on April 1st at Papercourt Water Meadows (Pallid Harrier) but we were treated to a long performance by three Barn Owls, often in the same view, plus three Mandarins and a Chiffchaff or two, while Reed Buntings sang and a small flock of Wigeons grazed. Also, Sunday 31st, a quick visit to Holmethorpe was rewarded with the adult Little Gull on Mercers Lake, a Little Ringed Plover on Water Colour Lagoon 2 and a singing Chiffchaff plus Grey Wagtail and the Great Crested and Little Grebes, a Shelduck, a drake Shoveler etc.

I hope the better weather improves local birding soon!

Three shades of grey and more owl action

 

A spur of the moment urge triggered a brief visit to the Water Colour Lagoons at Holmethorpe this afternoon, being rewarded with finding an adult Yellow-legged Gull in with the Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls! Back at Canons, the male Stonechat and Wheatear were still kicking around Reads Bottom and the Barn Owl gave another spectacular fly-past in the last of the daylight for six observers.

Some photos

From the last week.

Common Buzzard today in Lambert's Shaw, by Buzzard Field (Canons Farm) - one of two birds, the other individual is a darker bird with almost uniform brown underparts

redhead Smew yesterday at dusk at Holmethorpe Sand Pits

Red-legged Partridge on Thursday in Broadfield (Canons Farm)

Goosanders on New Year's Day at Pennington Flash

First-winter Spoonbill on New Year's Eve at Marshside

Long-eared Owl at Marton Mere on New Year's Eve

This weekend

Should have pics to illustrate this post but some file issues with the NEF images, hopefully sort out soon (got pics of Quail!)

There's not been a lot happening in birding terms for me since the Little Swift. The highlight has probably been the Gannet at Walthamstow Reservoirs, my first for London and also a visit to Elmley Marshes RSPB last Sunday which involved finding a Quail (see later in this post for a re-visit).

I was looking forward to my friend Liam coming down from Manchester for the weekend for an excuse to go trucking about a bit, plus a bit of his great company. We started off with a visit to the patch yesterday, not really producing a lot but it was my last chance to bid farewell to and thank Fiona and Stella for their help on the patch over the last year; they're moving away this week.

After CFBW, we made a little trip to a site near Epsom for Red-legged Partridge but didn't find any... so poor Liam continues to need RLP :-). We did see a Peregrine and a Hobby there though, which was cool (latter being a yeartick for Liam, they don't get many up north). Next, Holmethorpe for a quick look at the drake Red-crested Pochard which was still there... not a bad local bird.

Final trip of the day was a local site for Nightjar which was successful with a very curious male bird singing and circling around us about half a dozen times in the short while we were there. This bird afforded both of us our best views of this fascinating and unique British bird.
Today was very productive. A trip to the New Forest was planned and we had an idea of what we wanted to get, and a bit less of an idea of how much the weather was going to hinder these expectations from being realised. I had told Liam that Goshawk were easy at the site we were visiting and I had seen them on each of my visits so was half-expecting a blank on that front but within half an hour of arriving we'd seen about three different Goshawks, including an adult and juvenile females. This was the first lifer of the weekend for Liam. A Gos is a really distinctive bird, even with the naked eye at an okay range you can be quite confident (and correct) that you're onto one. I always love seeing them, truly powerful and wild things.

The odd Crossbill and several Siskins flew over while a couple of Common Buzzards flew about; we also managed to locate a single Tree Pipit and were treated to a bit of a surprise when two Hawfinches passed us (tick for Liam). We perched ourselves up at the 'viewpoint proper' and enjoyed further views of Goshawks - it was then that the third lifer of the day for Liam flew over - a Woodlark... at last! Liam's approaching 300 for Britain and still needs a fair pile of common-ish stuff so is doing well.

We were watching a close Common Buzzard when I noticed a different-looking raptor way above it. Honey-buzzard wasn't my first thought so I let my guard down and had a closer look at the bird (I'd been saving Honey-buzzard as a joint British/patch tick at CFBW so planned to avoid looking at any elsewhere, having got beyond the point of being pig sick from dipping every time I've tried for them at various sites in the past) - as soon as I whacked it up to 60x it did the butterfly/wing-clapping display of a Honey-buzzard - happiness and disappointment at once, I'd done myself out of getting a British lifer at CFBW! I've seen H-b in France and Italy before but have always had awful luck with them in this country and it had got to the point where I had given up some time ago. Of course it was destined that the one time I didn't really want to see one I would. Never mind, it was done and dusted the moment it performed the display flight so I got on and enjoyed the sight as it drifted past us, in view for about ten minutes, rising, wing-clapping and then slightly descending 12-15 times in total. A really cool bird. Liam's fourth lifer of the day and my first (and only).

Ian texted that he was enjoying great views of the Quail that I'd found last weekend at Elmley Marshes so we decided we'd go. It was quite a smooth journey and we arrived to join a little gathering of birders, the Quail sang straight away and was in our scopes almost as quickly. Wonderful! These were my best ever views of this ruddy tricky bird that I've had. Love these cryptic, dinky, secretive little wet-my-lippers. Talking of wet, it suddenly became very much such in terms of weather so we went home. Liam had now seen five new birds today/this weekend and I'd had one plus many other nice birds - we make a good team! Cheers for the company, Liam, see you in Cornwall in a few weeks for lots of seabird specials!
Video best viewed by switching resolution to 1080p and putting it to full screen if you can

Kites

I was near The Scrub and contemplating aborting the visit as rain started to set in this afternoon when I picked up a beautiful and wholly unexpected pair of Red Kites as they slowly drifted past in the inclement weather. It started getting heavier and I called dad to see if he'd pick me up and give Holmethorpe a quick go before going home.

Red Kites

My main quarry was the Scaup - I'd gone to see what was probably the same bird a few weeks ago but opinion briefly swayed to it being a hybrid. I went to see it again anyway just in case it was a different bird. On arrival, the first bird that caught my eye was a large, white-winged first-winter gull. Its bill was reminiscent of Glaucous Gull but was 'dirty' and less clean-cut in appearance. Alas, it was a either a hybrid or a northern Herring Gull. I couldn't find it again when I went round to the other side of the lake to get a better look but I did succeed in picking out the first-winter drake Scaup - yay local area tick! It's an interesting bird, having a little extra but slightly faded black on the nail of the bill (which is the reason for questions being raised as to its purity) but apparently this is fine for a first-winter.

Scaup

I had spoken to Graham James on the phone and he told me that Gordon Hay had had a second-winter Iceland Gull at Spynes Mere (EDIT: apparently an advanced first-winter). Neil Randon also texted me saying it was still present pretty recently so I dashed over there quickly, picking it out easily enough. Light was fading and I had been about an hour (which is the longest my dad wanted to wait) so made tracks. A good day of local birding.

second-winter Iceland Gull (EDIT: apparently an advanced 1w)

A nice day at Holmey

Avocet

A call from Gordon Hay informing me of two Avocets at Holmethorpe caused me to abandon my vigil at Canons this morning and wave my arm in front of the 420 bus. I scored, of course, and spent the rest of the day there as I had a sore foot and it was a long way to walk back to wait for a slow bus . . . and it was very nice and there were lots of birds. Two Little Ringed Plovers were gorgious, showing on Mercers West Pit along with the Avocets and a pair of Green Sandpipers. The pair of Shelduck at Spynes Mere were nice to see, too. It was alive with migrants, relative to Canons, with a few Swallows and Sand Martins around. Two Willow Warblers sang but the biggest surprise was hearing a Sedge Warbler at Water Colour!

Red-crested Pochard

The day ended nicely. Just as I was walking to my dad's car the drake Red-crested Pochard which has until now evaded me dashed past.

In pursuit of a wild goose

the three Stonechats

Ian and I were doing Canons in the morning where three Stonechats lit the day up even more than the weather (in addition to 3 Canada Geese and 2 Mallards for me, before Ian got there) when I got a text from Johnny Allan and a call from Graham James telling me that there was a White-fronted Goose at Holmethorpe. I needed this for the local area and Surrey (I'm trying to get a bit more enthused about the latter) and Ian needed this as a lifer so we headed over straight away.

White-fronted Goose

After parking up at Mercers CP we found Kojak and the first-winter White-fronted Goose feeding with Greylags and Canada Geese in the field just south of Spynes Mere. It was a neat bird in good condition. It was unringed and its wings were perfect, plus it was a first-winter so this bird is falling onto my lists like a piano coated with setting cement.

White-fronted Goose

Ian had to go but I stayed on and walked about with Kojak. The pair of Shelduck on Spynes Mere moved over to Mercers West Pit and a Green Sandpiper was showing on Middle Pit with a Grey Wagtail not too far away. A Common Buzzard flew over as did a Sparrowhawk. A handful of Great Crested and Little Grebes were around along with a handful of Shovelers, Gadwall, Teal, Tufted Ducks etc. Two Common Snipe were easy to spot at Spynes Mere where an amazing three Little Egrets gave themselves up. My first Chiffchaff of the year was great to see around the edge of Mercers Lake.

Thanks Graham for this great find and to Ian and Kojak for the lifts.

Promise fulfilled

Smew

I made a promise to myself a few weeks ago that I would find the time to head down to Holmethorpe Sand Pits to check the place out properly for the first time and get Smew for my London/local lists and Goldeneye for my local list. Last week I found a Smew at a private site that was incongruously in my local listing area but not in the LNHS recording area (by about 150 metres), plus Goldeneye was had not been resolved so a visit to the famed pits was still in order.

Goldeneye (female on left, 1st winter on right)

I did Canons from 8.00am to 1.45pm and was not rewarded with anything special . . . again. I still haven't seen Little Owl or Lesser Spotted Woodpecker there this year (I fear that the local specimens of the former may have been killed off by the harsh conditions late last year); last January was equally birdless. Only forty or so days until the first migrants come!

Dad dropped me off at the Mercers Lake car park shortly after 2.00pm and a very kind dog walker took the trouble to show me directly to the best place to view Mercers West Pit and Spynes Mere (two Alsatians Canons lady should take a leaf out of her book). I was busy counting over a hundred Lesser Black-backed Gulls when Kojak joined me. Shortly afterwards I picked up a female-type Goldeneye and Kojak suggested we walk round and view the north end of Mercers West properly, we did so and I picked up two redhead Smew flying in. Here the Goldeneye was joined by another, the pair consisted of a female and a first winter. We diverted on our way back to Mercers Lake and succeeded in seeing the Little Owl just south of Spynes Mere. Mercers Lake had lots of gulls, particularly Black-headed. We lightly scanned them, not picking out anything exciting before deciding it would be best to head off. It would be so easy to miss a Bonaparte's Gull. My two targets bagged!

Little Owl

I had stayed at Holmethorpe much longer than I intended and by the time dad was driving me to Godstone for the Bittern it was almost dark and I couldn't find any point of access anyway, I'll probably give it another go tomorrow.

Fudge Duck

I was on a downer at Canons Farm and Banstead Woods today after missing 2 Golden Plovers (a mega patch bird, the second record - found by Roy Weller) until I got a phone call from Steve Gale letting me know that a female Ferruginous Duck was at Holmethorpe Sand Pits.

I rang dad up and jumped in the car, risking missing another good patch bird, and within half an hour I was on site and walking towards the flooded area that the duck had been seen on.
After a bit of scanning I was on the female FERRUGINOUS DUCK, my 262nd British bird and a world lifer too - and it was in London! I walked back to sort out accurate directions for someone and when I came back the bird had disappeared. Graham James arrived on scene and eventually he got onto it and we managed to watch it at the back of the flooded area for a while but it was elusive and very difficult to see when it was hiding in the shade behind foliage. We got onto a couple of Common Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk which were enjoying the brief spouts of nice weather.Graham left and the bird showed a bit better, I waded along a flooded path to see if I could get better views from the other side, and I did, managing to get pretty close. Annoyingly it tucked its head back and it seemed like its mind was set on having a good snooze; the bird only ever lifted its head very briefly when I was close to it.

This is the closest thing to a BB rarity that I've seen within 10 miles of home.