Anal Appendages . A day out in Suffolk!!

Last weekend news was just breaking of a rare species of Dragonfly in Suffolk, Willow Emerald 'Lestes viridis'. I finally decided that I needed a break from Kent and indeed Kentish scenery and it's litter bugs. I guess the above would come in handy for a re-greasing a Morris tripod before taking it out on another outing! Saturday 15th August broke and off I sped to Suffolk with a car load of keen Odonata twitchers, ie. just me.... The 91 mile drive to Butley in East Suffolk was reasonably painless and I parked at the indicated locality for the short walk to the site. On arrival there were two other birders, Alan 'Huey' Lewis taking a break from puring scorn on Slender-billed Curlew records on the internet and Mike Duffy another Hants birder. After a few initial strings we found the big one, Willow Emerald followed by another 6 or so individuals hanging virtually motionless in the tress above the ditch allowing up close and personal views of the all important 'anal appendages' and pterostigmas the gritty bits of Odonata ID, none of this tertials and scaps terminology with birds. Following a photo session with the Willows and recording a few other Dragons in the area I wandered off to Orford Ness where eventually a Montagu's Harrier cruised by, tough the big white and obvious birds known as Spoonbills remained invisible. Flushed with success I headed back home to enjoy the delights of the money grabbing Dartford Tolls resulting in a seven mile tailback on the M25. Fortunately I paid £1.50 each way to enjoy this Great British experience made even better by the grotty, dirty, small almost insignificant signs on the bridge. saying 'Welcome' to Kent the Garden of England, what a joke, as you look ahead and see a highly polluted concrete jungle that is North West Kent!

Russell Gardner spots something good on Mikes back!
Huey, and Craig discuss the finer points of anal appendages!
Lestes viridis ' what a corker'
MEGA and my 41st species of Odonata for the UK. Stiil need to see two in Scotland plus some more vagrants!

(RBS) Royal Bank of Shrike

Situated East of the River Medway and North of the well watched and visited New Hythe lies the village of Wouldham, a small village nestled next to the river and with fantastic views across to the West and Halling marshes. Fortunately a birder lives there, Ian Shepherd who also has notched a fair few good birds on his local patch over the years testament to the efforts of a birder diligently checking his area and having the thoughtfulness to allow others to see the birds he finds. A singing Pallas's Warbler in the spring, Pec Sand in the autumn, Grey headed Gull of unknown origins plus Red-rumped Swallow and Leach's Petrel. Incredibly this year he found a second Red backed Shrike hot on the heels of the autumn 2008 bird and as it just so happened to be on route from Northfleet to the Ashdown Forest I went and had a butchers 'so to speak' . Often distant it showed well in exactly the same bushes as the bird I didn't see in 2008.

Prime Shrike habitat complete with typically Kent decor, white polystyrene and copious amounts of Moo pooh!
The RBS, the smaller brown fuzzy object .
A close up out of focus in the heat and dung haze taken through the scope and a dust screen.
A stop at Bough Beech on the way to the Ashdown Forest produced lots of birders, and this Little Egret, in fact more birders than the week before when there was a rarity here? The Ashdown was quite bird wise but we had a nice picnic none the less

Marsh Sand at Bough Beech, pulls in the crowds

Thursday 6th August 2009 was a red letter day for Bough Beech and indeed West Kent when a Marsh Sandpiper decided to make land fall at this West Kent hotspot. Found late on in the day accompanying Greenshank news of this this gem of a wader allowed very little time to get to see it and the 20 min journey from Dartford to Bough Beech came and went in a flash. The weather was atrocious, the light was failing rapidly and I was concerned that there would be limited parking on site due to the immense rarity of this stunning wader. As the car taxied in to an available parking spot next to the other 4 cars!! I had a quick squint through Miles' scope and sapped up the moment of this cracking bird. As you can see above there was limited viewing as the crowd numblers steadily stayed stationary, and indeed Miles and Sylvia were well dressed for the occasion.

The 4 Amigos, comprising two saganauts one of whom has appeared to have fallen asleep standing up, the other is full saganaut regalia and Arsenal branded water absorbent footwear. Josh looks on as Gary has a rummage for his keys I hope!
Big Mick recalls the Beeeaters at BB as the light improves and we take a break from watching the Marsh Sand
PHOTO of the YEAR................ showing the size comparison to a Greenshank. The black splodge on the right is a rain drop one of many migrating through at the time. An excellent twitch, good company including Steve Webb . Bring it on, what will turn up next. Copies of the Marsh Sand photo are available for printing if anyone wishes to have a copy for their notebook, framed or unframed.

Blackwits and Halfwits .North Kent Birding!

Birding in North Kent is certainly an experience whether it be, dodging the traffic, the crowds, soaking up the atmos and the clean air, enjoying the stunning views complete with three local power stations, or negotiating piles of rubbish. North Kent has it all. In terms of birdlife though it's a gem of a place to bird though with a long list of rarities to it's name and a great spot to see birds migrating up the River Thames. Property can be hard to find at times in sought after localities and some have even chose to live locally but bird elsewhere to find richer pastures and more scenic sites.

Allhallows, gateway to the North of Grain, a mega place to bird if only birders would take the time to venture out here instead of sticking to better known localities.
The North Kent marshes looking towards St Mary's and Coombe Bay complete with local seating facilities thoughtfully left by the locals awaiting tenancy

Swanscombe marshes, another gem of a place as viewed from Galley Hill Swanscombe. The habitat here is getting better all the time ans surely it's only a matter of time it is graced by a rarity once again as has happened before with Glossy Ibis and Marsh Sandpiper in bygone times.

The CTRL pool at Swanscombe, awaiting a rare wader!

The recent star attraction at Swanscombe, this sumptuous female Red crested Pochard that graced the pools for a few days in August and attracted a crowd of TWO birders including me! Better than a gaudy Bee eater anytime, like the Murphy's I'm not bitter!

Snipe, first of the autumn at Swanscombe

Blackwits, up to 27 have been at Swanscombe in the last few weeks, noisy, graceful and a pleasure to watch. All they need now is a rarer cousin to join them!

Spring and Summer in a nutters shell !!

Ok then as I've got way behind was the art of blogging I've just spent an hour or so digging out some pix from the past 4 months !! The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!
Let's deal with the ugly first or should I say stunning bird as would have been the case if the grasps of the NHS would have allowed me, 'not be working that hallowed Weds in July' ! Generally speaking over the years I've been reasonably lucky with seeing birds both locally and further afield but sadly a variety of factors meant that 'the NHS show must go on' and a potential evening trip to Bockhill was potentially called for........ The bird sadly couldn't wait for me and departed at 1337 much to the disappointment of those with more flexible jobs or living too far away from that migrant tepid spot, Bockhill. Still that's two records for Kent now 20 years apart, I'll get the next one. But in the style of Bullseye the photo above is from Israel, 'this is what you could have had' !! Well done to the Old boys, Tony and Jack true testament to their efforts in the fields and the desire to forget sport on the box and find some fellow birders a MEGA in Kent. 'Shame the Bee eater and the finders couldn't coincide with the weekend. Of interest Bockhill has got to be one of the most picturesque localities in Kent to dip a bird and I've been fortunate enough to dip Arctic , 3 Radde's , a Barred Warbler, numerous Pallas's, an Icky, and best of all a Nutcracker!!! though I was in South America at the time so it doesn't really count. Such is the locality of Bockhill it's a great place to see the blades of grass or twigs frequented by long gone rarities but on the other hand we do get to know about them all, and that is a quality to behold and may it continue with lots more rarities up the proverbial Chantler sleeves yet !

Following a trip to Cameroon now well and truly blogged to death I managed to see some good birds in the spring with a superb pair of Ring Ousels at Preston near Wingham, found by wandering around specifically looking for Rousels and Wagtails! A purple patch at Stoke Lagoon and a Purple Heron at Crossness allowed me to see a not so showy Purple Heron eventually after 2 hours or so, emerging from the reeds of picturesque East London and a surprise find in the form of a very photogenic Spoonbill at Stoke whilst looking for a not so showy or photogenic Great White Egret! The Spoonbill didn't hang around and the GWE remained very elusive at times ! In fact these southern Herons seem to be getting decidely common in the SE these days, no longer is GWE a major UK rare.

Above we see a deserted beach near to Aberdaron on the Lleyn peninsula, in fact deserted of people, dogs, and even birds that, despite gorgeous sunny weather, we had it all to our selves for a week in June yet further along the coast little did we know that a Royal Tern also had peace and quiet for a while on these beaches until someone stumbled upon it at Abersoch...........If only it had turned up here a week or so earlier. A bit tricky to catch up with at times this eluded most birders who travelled to see it and for some was yet another dip to contend with this summer, despite being big, white and with a stonking luminescent bill, though not always apparent off the Welsh coast!
Wales was good though with Wood Warblers, Choughs galore, ridiculous numbers of Painted Ladies and mega auks at South Stack pre-Simon King and Springwatch. In terms of rarities I found bugger all, not a single thing bar a Marsh Harrier on the first day!!

The Spoonbeak at Stoke
Whitey the elusive GWE
A surprise find over woods near Canterbury were these two Spoonbeaks. At this site I've now seen Spoonbill, Grey Heron, Little Egret and White Stork!!! Not bad for a viewpoint over a wood in East Kent!!

An early Thursday morning in April following a restless night's sleep found me at Dungeness along with many others waiting day break and The Alauda enigma............ Sure enough the call went up, the legs moved into action and I suddenly remembered I wasn't 21 anymore as I was for the Roller in the New Forest in 1987 when a similar surge happened and we scored heavily. CRESTED LARK laid to rest on British soil, so near yet so far at Calais these Larks do NOT like crossing the Channel. Duly scorched and grilled I drove back to work and the panic was over. The last twitchable Cresty was at Landguard but that stayed only a matter of hours whereas this individual spent nearly a week at Dunge!

Mr Evans fresh in from the Western Palearctic awaiting 'more' views of this elusive sod of a Lark.

Another day dawned in Kent and another Kent tick, this time in the shape of Black-winged Pratincole at Reculver. Following a message early am about a Probable Collared Pratincole at Reculver, my lust for Prats was undiminished and I decided to travel down to look for this bird which as fortune would have it turned out to be a Black-winged, MEGA ......job done, special thanks to Marc Heath for finding this crippler and then amazingly re locating it at Grove Ferry later in the week.............Incredible!!

Above we have Team Lawson in hot pursuit !
A pram tick !!

Way back in 1984 there was a Collared Flycatcher at Northdown Park, Margate and this remained the only one I'd ever seen in the whole World!!! Therefore when news of an Eastern Bonelli's at Portland broke I cadged a lift with Andy A and headed down to Dorset. Sadly the EBWarbler had gorne but the Collared Fly put on a great show and I caught up with lots of old friends, some very OLD!

Rarer than Collared Fly, Dave Brown on a twitch out of Kent, captured on film for the archives!
Portland, yet another lighthouse in the same week at the Dunge double.

The main real reason for going to Dorset to see the LONGggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg staying Hooded Merg at Radipole, a corker of a bird and hopefully 'finger's crossed' a UK tick !! Elusive to start with I was wondering whether I'd left it too late to see this bird, ie 18 months!! but fortune was on my side and it appeared for the gathered crowd of 6 birders!
The Crossness Purple Heron

One of the Preston two!
So what will Autumn 2009 bring, will it be as good as 2008 in Kent and the bird bonanza. At the time of writing the long staying Hooded Merg is still in Dorset and the 'plastic' Falcated Duck is still up[ the road at Broadditch. Long live the Ducks!! Keeping with the quacker theme a bonus yesterday with a Red crested Pochard at Swanscombe CTRL still present today and a site tick.

Papal Power, Pick a Farties and Bushshrike bonanza

Well I've finally decided to make this my last post on Cameroon and get back up to date with sightings in North Kent and elsewhere in Kent since early April this year!!! Better late than never! The trip to Cameroon had been a roaring success and we're all very grateful to Michael Mills of Birding Africa for achieving a massive 590 species, over 130 personal lifers, some much wanted birds I've always dreamed of seeing and an opportunity to travel in safe, friendly part of West Africa. Out stay at the ranch had been superb from start to finish and as we waited at the rain station in Ngaoundere for the overnight sleeper to Yaounde we kept hearing rumours of problems on the line further South the arrival of the Pope in Yaounde and road closures, none of which bode too well for the journey South and connecting with Simon's UK flight back home............Doom had descended upon the troops!!
An overnight stay in town and an early morning visit to the Adamawa plateau allowed us to see some good birds but there was still the constant nagging doubts that we we're losing time, birds and having to potentially review the plans! We did manage to see a few new species for the trip including House Martin, Black Cuckoo, some cracking views of Fox Kestrel and a colony of Red-th Bee eater.

Finally all was looking good, we had our tickets, our reserved cabins, paked lunches and as we bid farewell to our drivers and guide Victor, the train rolled out of town and started on it's 15 hour or so journey South! It was going to be a long night! Ian looking pretty chipper above as we move a few hundred metres nearer to the South and another bag full of Endems! The journey was tedious to say the least but an experinece in itself as we stopped at many stations throughout the night and saw typical West African life. The only near miss was as we neared Yaounde Ian was taking some touristy snaps and a local evidently knowing that typically there would be tourists on board took a swipe at Ian with a long plank of wood narrowly missing his camera but turning it of......evidently a regular event in the hope of getting some tourist valuables......BEWARE

Our visit to a Picathartes site a few hours out of Yaounde initially drew a blank as the birds refused to show despite a long long wait in a cave and sitting very still and quiet. Fortunately for Volkert he'd stayed lower down the mountain at another site and scored heavily with crippling views of the Picatharties. Still there was always tomorrow!
Next morning we approached the village once again but our efforts were curtailed briefly by heavy overnight rain and a muddy road that had become decidedly dodgy to drive along. Eventualkly the vehicles got out of the mud, we rebuilt the bridge and tracked down our guide once again for another assault on the mountain, out final shot! Did we see it though?
Our second attempt at the Picathartes knoll allowed a few of us to get reasonable tickable views, but following a rest in the forest and a sweat bee feeding session we had amazing, dare I say it incredible views of a pair of Picathartes, one of the World's most exciting and spectacular birds that entertained us for over 30 mins at a range of only a few metres. MEGA

Flushed with success we headed off to various other sites Mt Oku, Lake Awing and reached our final destination the legendary Mt Kupe and Bakossi Mts home to Mt Kupe Bushshrike, a highly endangered species along with Green-breasted BushShrike and other megas such as Crossley's Ground Thrush and White th Mountain Babbler
This Yellow-throated Bold eyed Tree Snake showed well in the canopy in the Bakossi Mts, a huge snake with glistening black scales.
Before we could access the Bakossi Mts home of the Bushshrikes we had to endure a ceremony with the local village to gain permission to enter the forests. This involved taking a swig of alcohol, buying a crate of beer for the locals and a bottle of whisky!!
One of the most amazing non-avian finds in the Bakossis was this frog, with a target on it's underside but the upper parts appear nothing special as below

Walk into the Mts and Mt Kupe, following a huge breakfast at Lucy's Guesthouse, a very friendly and welcoming place to stay in Nyasosso village home of the Bush Shrike
The birders and guides cover up from the sweat bee onslaught, one of the more annoying and endless experiences of birding at Kupe!
Bakossi Mts, home to Gren-breasted and Kupe Bush Shrike, two range restricted megas that most of us managed to set eyes on having made the pilgrimage to a bird I had wished to see for over 15 years!!
Banded wattle eye endemic to Cameroon and very rare, seen well at lake Awing, along with Cameroon Sunbird below


A mega trip, I passed the 6000 mark for species of birds in the world, so only 4000 or so to go now!! Great company, and I would recommend Birding Africa without hesitation if you're thinking of visiting Africa. Birding Africa

http://www.birdingafrica.com/