A young Peregrine visits

A young Peregrine visited the farm today, and spent a few minutes tassling with one of our Common Buzzards. Presumably from one of the three or four so pairs within ten kilometres, Sutton perhaps being most likely.
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The last thing I twitched

Last Saturday. The male Red-backed Shrike in Hayes (Middlesex). Been a bit lazy with this blog lately I know. Mainly because there's been little to put on it and I've got a lump of work to do before my annual holiday, which is in a few days and will be very exciting, no doubt. I'm spending a week and a bit in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly doing almost non-stop seawatching/pelagics with Liam.
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Spoonbill and another grip off

Last Friday I left on news for the Spoonbill at the London Wetland Centre. It showed well on gravel on the main lake. Nice to see a smart adult, especially as it was in London and Surrey, which is the main reason I went. When I arrived it was feeding well and put on a good show but soon returned to the stereotypical Spoonbill thing of sleeping. A nice life. I have photos that were taken with my phone (because my compact camera is broken) but sadly my mobile is also now broken. I also still can't process files from my new SLR. Annoying.

A week ago on Wednesday Ian and I were trudging around the edge of Banstead Woods in the evening as hailstones the size of walnuts nearly knocked us out... for some reason. Roy had a smarter idea and was watching from near Canons Farmhouse. What does he go and do? Only perform another big-style grip! A Little Egret. Flying over him having flown roughly from where we were. For pity's sake not again! I think this is the first time I've missed a bird I need for the patch while actually being on patch. There's only one previous record of Little Egret, a bird in a temporarily flooded field in a wet spell of 2008 so it's quite something for CFBW. Roy does it again. Another one I'll have to grind back some day.

An uncommon Common Tern

Common Tern. Still can't edit/convert pics from my new camera to put on here so still waiting on shots from the weekend, I only managed to get this one on by taking a screenshot of the pic in my image viewer program

I haven't been getting much sleep lately and had to stay up late again last night so waited till late morning before I doddled over to the patch. On arrival, it looked like there was a reasonable amount of settled rainwater following the recent persistent precipitation so I went straight to Bog Field to see if any wader habitat had been created. Viewing the 'Main Pool' which goes in and out of existence is now very difficult because of growing crops and hedgerows but I couldn't see anything upon a quick look. Just to make sure, I clapped my hands once and immediately heard what sounded like a Green Sandpiper call once. Sh*t! I had a massive hedge in front of me and couldn't see anything. That was it, gone, not heard again or seen. I'm 95% sure it must have been a Green Sand but I'd want to hear it call clearly at least a couple of times to put down this significant record in the books and I'd want a visual to tick it.

Pretty miffed, I started down the lane. I had barely got beyond Canons Farmhouse when I picked up what I instantly recognised as a tern flying south-south-west. I didn't manage to get a firm ID on a 'Commic' Tern I had last May so didn't want to balls up on this opportunity too... I didn't... phew, a Common Tern bagged and photographed! Being a dry site any tern is a real mega and a very good bird to get under the belt. I soon forgot about the probable Green Sand, but not for long; I gave it a couple of hours for the bird to hopefully return but I had no such luck. I'm sure I'll get another stab at one before long.

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!
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A swift twitch

I ended up going by train (for a change) to New Brighton today for the Little Swift. As a public transport hater it wasn't pleasant, but it got me there. I'm now pretty knackered.

Andy Holden put me on the LITTLE SWIFT when I arrived. It kept distant over the river most of the time but, in the near-on two hours I was there, did come very close on about three occasions (sometimes whizzing low over the crowd's heads). I find swifts and hirundines to be some of the most amazing birds so I really enjoyed watching this exciting bird hawking around - it's been on my special wishlist for some time. The large white throat and rump really pierced the hideous industrial backdrop. The square-ended tail also helped pick it up, as well as, of course, the bird's smaller size. Slightly more subtle cues I picked up were that it seemed to flap more rapidly at times than Common Swift and tended to glide on bowed wings. A thin white leading edge to the 'arm' was also noticeable at times. The wings were shorter and slightly fatter than on Common Swift - this was especially noticeable on the 'arm' when the bird paused and fluttered in the air (as Common Swifts do). The inevitable happened and a House Martin was called as the bird at one point by somebody :-)

Little Bittern

Great to finally see one of these gorgeous little herons today (and in the LNHS area!) on the river by Stocker's Lake. A female bird, the LITTLE BITTERN showed well just across the narrow stretch of river, creeping around in the reeds, suddenly lashing out at small prey items (usually little fish) and performing right out in the open for a few minutes at one point.

Canons Farm Grip-off Wetlands

WATER!!! And WATERBIRDS!!!

This year waterbirds have totally and utterly screwed me over at Canons Farm. First hit was a Whimbrel which Steve Gale had in April, this was shortly followed by an absolute killer record of Roy Weller's of two Black Terns flying through. I was frustrated about the first but a few people will be able to tell you how utterly gutted I was about the terns. A bit of relief and I actually saw a few good patch birds. Today I thought I had little to worry about, going to college, as surely nothing would turn up in June. Several pools have been resurrected, actually becoming more impressive than they were a few weeks ago, but time of year surely meant they couldn't do much damage. Then a call came through from Roy this afternoon 'I've got a wader', turning into 'It's a bloody Green Sand, I've just flushed it'. Buggeration. I rushed over there as soon as I could, hoping it had come down again to one of the many small pools but exhaustive searching yielded nothing.

Waders at Canons Farm are absolute golddust. Woodcock and Lapwing are the only ones that you can expect to see any numbers of, and the latter is sporadic and always notable, with months between sightings sometimes. A proper wadery wader, and on the deck too, is an opportunity not to be missed. Sorely disappointed, I am, but there was nothing I could do about it. These things happen. I'd rather Roy recorded it and it went down on paper than it went completely undetected. Quite an extraordinary record really, and a reminder that these pools really can deliver the odd treat - who knows, maybe Garganey or Wood Sandpiper (or better) could happen if the floods occur at the right time of year and under the right conditions. Very well done to Roy - he played it right, coming to see if anything was on the pools, and it payed off!

I did see a flock of ten Mallards on one of the pools, though. My highest on the deck count. Also a Grey Heron flew up from next to Piddly Pond. A Hobby flew low over the farm.

Kent

Last Monday I took Alex Bowes for a day birding in Kent, we didn't find anything great but a selection of interesting birds were seen. We started at Dungeness where about half a dozen Manx Shearwaters and a Black Tern were the highlights plus Cuckoo, Hobby etc. Grove Ferry and Stodmarsh produced two Turtle Doves, about four Cuckoos including a hepatic bird, a Barn Owl, at least one Bittern, three drake Garganeys, a couple of Bearded Tits, a Common Sandpiper, three Wigeons, plus a handful of Ringed Plovers, Greenshanks and Redshanks.

All photos from Grove Ferry/Stodmarsh...

hepatic female Cuckoo

normal female Cuckoo

female Bearded Tit

Garganey

Turtle Dove

Rolling on up

Today a trip up north was a great success with the ROLLER showing very well (although looking very wet) - nice views flying, feeding and resting so cheers all round. Also called in on was the Marsh Warbler at Blacktoft Sands RSPB which gave itself up far more easily than the bird at Rainham that I tried to see yesterday - sadly this bird flew out of view just as I had my finger on the shutter! Two lifers in a day... cool!

Roller

The patch has, as expected, been slow. Loads of ruddy Red Kites, great birds but when's my Honey-buzzard coming? Got another view of the Legal & General Tawny Owl juv on Thursday, a lot more mature and very adult-like now.

Tawny Owl

Also last Saturday (26th), Ian and I popped down to Northward Hill RSPB for the Greenish Warbler, we heard it but didn't see it. This bumped my heard-but-not-seen British list to two, giving Bee-eater some company. We did, however, score with the two White-winged Black Terns at Stodmarsh later in the day, where a Bittern boomed, a Cuckoo called and Hobbies hawked around us while a Little Stint and a couple of Wood Sandpipers were nice in the wader department.

White-winged Black Tern(s) - can't remember whether these two pics are of the same or diff birds, doesn't matter...

Also very very late but I never got round to mentioning a little trip to Oxfordshire involving my mate Liam back on April 28th, where the Dotterel at Balscote and the flock of six White Storks at Standridge were successfully twitched.

White Storks, Standbridge, April

Dotterel, Balscote, April (little did I know...)

This got the pulse racing momentarily at Staines Res back at the end of April - beware!!!