A week in Devon

As has been the theme for the last few autumns I tend to have a weeks hols in Devon in Sept allowing me a week to relax with Louise and the dog and not worry about what's being seen in Kent!!
2006 saw a Paddyfield Warbler at Seasalter that fortunately didn't show to the masses and I survived that year. 2007 saw another Paddyfield this time at Bockhill which I managed to get home for on the Sat afternoon and enjoy this mega bird. 2008 was the year of the Zit as Mr Burton kindly found a Fan tailed warbler whilst I was driving through Plymouth,this time distance beat me and I dipped! 2009 well would you believe it, Mr Tufty was still fresh in my mind whilst Cockles the Booted Kite tormented me as I enjoyed a relaxing day at Beesands to the constant sound of my mobile and the dog barking. Fortunately this time the bird was re identified as a Black Kite and even though the incredible Zit had made another appearance at Pigswill Bay I manged to enjoy my time in Devon, relaxed, good pasties, ice creams, a well deserved break from work and some good birds thrown in as well.
Stonehenge is always a good sight as you drive along the A303 and this time I thought we'd stop to pray to the Zit Gods and another Kent tick...............NO CHANCE

Incredible as it may seem a quick peruse of the Birdguides website revealed that 6, yes SIX Messy Ibi has made landfall at Seaton, Devon home of the Haig and top seawatching spot. As we drove through Chard, Somerset, the place name rang a bell but I failed to remember why to start with. On arrival at Seaton the Glossy Ibi were on view feeding with Curlew and following the recent Stodders bird were a welcome sight and well worth the A303 diversion. Mr Haig was not on view though and it was then that I realised that Chard was the home of the Egret, a Great white only 12.3 miles away. Following a last look at the Ibis as they flew off on route to Duffy's friends house Dorset, I noted that a large white camouflaged brimmed has was on view, a good move in the superb sunny weather. In the absence of a white hat though the small child has hidden himself under a coat to avoid the harmful UV!

The Seaton 6( part of)

The GWE at Chard initially proved hard to locate on the small Chard Res, and it became apparent that a big white gleaming Heron on a small Res isn't always easy to find, but persistence paid off and I located this monster of a bird that was doing better than the local danglers and their fishing rods

Of course the punishment for all this 'holiday' birding was a detour back to the Hee Haw Sanctuary at Sidmouth, which allowed me and the dog some kip whilst Louise had her donkey fix. Once at home in our cosy cottage near Kingsbridge we had a superb cream tea and sat down to watch yep, you've guessed it ........... the X Factor.

The week passed by and was very enjoyable bar, Mr Zit, Blocky the Beagle and a couple of Wryneck dips.
This Dotterel at Bolberry Down, my favourite locality in Devon, I just need to move nearby and I'd be out birding all the time at this great migrant locality home to many a missed rare I expect.

One day we visited Port Isaac, home of Doc Martin and as can be seen from the pap shot above (the Doc wasn't it) the inquisitive tourists trying to take a peek into The Docs house!
Hawaii 5 dog
Port Issac, busy, hot and very touristy.. Dipped Martin Clunes.
A great sign, a no longer constipated dog drops a pebble.
Gadwall at Beesands, another great locality, and another mega place to live, much nicer than Slapton ..........and free parking!
A surprise find one evening off South Huish, a corking adult Red throated Diver just offshore
A Merlin at Bolberry defeated following a scrap with a Peregrine

The Peregrine and prey, in heavy morbid moult (certainly it's last few moments of life). Bolberry, Soar and Bolt Head all great areas superb for migrants with Whinchat, Wheatear, Tree Pipit, Restart, Spotted Fly and the no show Wryneck!

The Royal Oak Pub, Marborough home of Twiggs and Wright way back in 1986 following a Bonelli's Warbler that we twitched in the August

Sunset looking towards Rame
Another surprise and another Ibis, my eighth this year and a good bird at South Huish following an initial dip in the morning
Rocky's Cafe, South Milton Beach !!! No comment

A day out at Wembury and this excellent little Pink Stink with the Starlings

Viewed from Tintagel, Lundy an island I've visited a few times and seen Ancient Murrelet, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, not a bad trio of birds over 3 trips !!

Davidstow airfield, Cornwall MEGA . A Ringed Plover shows well



The long staying Baird's Sand at the airfield (not totally deserted) as we kept being buzzed by small planes as well as an HGV driver having lessons, still a cracking bird though and my first Yank wader at last at Davidstow. Ans so, back To Kent to the delights of Pigswill Bay........but that's another story.

Can anyone join the Tufty Club!

Sept 16th ..... 1100 am. There I was happily working away when suddenly the mobile vibrated violently in my pocket, with a breathless and very vocal Gibbard on the phone..............
TUFTED PUFFIN OARE MARSHES ON THE SWALE NOW !

Now then, my initial reaction was oh well no chance of getting off work but then I thought about it for another millisecond and said ..........I need this afternoon off .
Incredible as it may seem it was granted and the next 70 mins were spent in amazement as I carried on working until the time came to leave and drive down the A2 to Oare. On route I already knew the trail had gone cold but carried on regardless passing a certain Mr LGRE on the way and finally made it to Oare parked up with no problems at all and joined the small gathered crowd looking for the bird in the hope it would come back out of the Swale and reveal itself.

I settled down out of the wind with Tony Morris and later on joined by Gary T, Guy and others unaware of the crowd of hopefuls growing behind us . Many years ago lots of us I'm sure would have belonged to the Tufty Club, but today was a day that only the Magnificent 7, Murray E Wright (the name was so near to my own) and 6 visiting birders feasted their eyes on this Pacific top drawer bird.
It soon became apparent that birders were arriving from near and far, all points, East South, North and West and the crowd waited and waited........ but no Mr Tufty. All in all a bleeding cold day, but a memorable one for missing surely one of the rarest and bizarre birds to appear in the UK, and yet see so many old friends from my heavy twitching days that all was not lost .

Above we see on the far left Stephen Message, paint box at the ready, but it wasn't to be. John Clements looks down at his feet and drowns his sorrows, whilst Jack, Nigel, Jerry and a very cold looking Marcus look on. Johnny T peers above Mel Billingtons' head with Ron to the right.

The Oare approach road on an unusually busy day, note that the field on the right had to be opened for cars, whilst Mark Golley keeps his hands warm
Filby is NOT amused
Stu Piner and Chris Batty keep a careful vigil whilst the cyclist remembers great stunt artists like Evil Kenevil, attempting to cross the Swale on a bike!
Filby clutches his road map, and many now know where Oare is !
Steve Webb, blurry, out of focus, not as a result of poor camera craft but his ability to get from A to B in no time at all

Finally Brett and Paul enjoy their afternoon out in Kent, Somerset and Yorks, left behind in a hurry
Anyway, not to worry there'll be another!!

In the meantime, here's the Tufty Club
http://www.tuftyclub.org.uk/

An Old friend returns to the Valley

Sept 6th, 'eons ago' was a day to remember for many reasons in a fun packed day in North and East Kent. On the evening of Sept 5th I received a phone call from a fisherman 'dangler' at Wagtail Farm, St Nicholas at Wade informing me that he seen, described and identified a bird he felt was a Glossy Ibis......... and yep , he was dead right. I phoned a few birders that evening to keep a look out for the Messy Ibis in case it reappeared in the Wantsum or Stour Valley and sure enough early on the morning of 6th Marc Heath phoned to say it was at Grove Ferry. Keen to see a 'new' Glossy Ibis in Kent and especially at the old haunt of the celebrated Stodmarsh birds of the 70's to 90's I headed East to the marsh hide at Stodmarsh and was soon watching this superb bird with a small group of birders.

We tend to forget that it's been a long time since there was a gettable GIB and I don't mean Gastro intestinal bleed in Kent, and by the modern powers of communication not seen when we were freezing to death in the evening years ago waiting for the Ibi to flew into roost at Stodmarsh, Josh was guided to the correct spot to savour this superb bird.............Little did we know there were more to come in the UK though!

Josh limbers up for a new bird

Meanwhile back at the hide, Martyn still struggles with his height in the hide whilst Alan realises his put the wrong lens on to photograph Brenda. The elbow on the RHS is from an unidentified left arm, answers on a postcard.
Happy with the Ibis I was on my way back to the car park to go home when news broke of a Zitting Cisticola at Pegwell, a bird I'd not seen in Kent and shortly after I joined the crowd to watch Spotted Flies, Blackcap, Chiffs, but sadly no Zit............ oh well It's probably gone anyway!
Later on I ended up at Cooling Castle checking out some weddingy stuff 'briefly' before enjoying the last 20 mins of the birdfair at Bromhey. A strange day, Glossy Ibis, empty Pegwell, lots of wedding bits on show and cracking views of Norman Mccanch at Bromhey, an excellent year tick.
Can autumn get any better!

A day at Dunge

Way back in 1977 when I first picked up a pair of bins and established which way to look through them I would never have thought that 32 years later I'd still be birding, through different bins though, at birds that quite simply we used to dream of in Kent let alone all seen the same morning!!
Little Egret, Hobby, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard, Great White Egret, Garganey, Red-backed Shrike and Raven in 3 hours birding! Of those Red backed Shrike would have been easier in pre egging times in Kent but the others esp the Egrets were as rare as hens teeth!
A walk out to Hookers from the RSPB reserve car park soon found us watching the long staying Red-backed Shrike, whilst nearby the GWE put on a good show and a Raven kindly flew overhead.

The GWE just waiting to be cut into a thousand pieces by Kent's' latest marshland attraction............so scenic !
A Mallard posed nicely for the camera whilst Goliath tip toed into view
The RBS posing nicely for the crowds, a superb bird and evidently a master at catching food
A Raven and plane illustrating just how big these corvids are. A welcome return to Kent for this species after 100 years absence, hopefully they will become a more familiar sight in Kent now and the future.

One Good Tern..........deserves another

Ok, so I've e been busy and today I was accosted by the blog police, or should I say James 'Romperstomper' Hunter that my blog was out of date. Therefore to satisfy said parties I decided to leve my beloved Pegwell Bay, an area I've become very familiar with of late and go home to crank up the PC.
Saturday 29th Aug, yep that long ago I made an early start to open my eyes and check the time on the alarm clock, but was rudely awoken by Guy Bailey informing me he was about to venture into Dibley Land and did I want a lift.
Soon after 0830 I was heading into that scenic corner of Kent, Dartford and off round the M25 to Farmoor Res in Oxfordshire via a few Red Kites in the M40 cutting.
On arrival we were informed that there were only 2 Terns left on the Res, and they were both distant dots, a pale one and a dark one. Job done, tick them off and back for breakfast would be the school of thought for some but a quick walk to the causeway to join the small assembled crowd worked in our favour as the birds were viewable this side of the earths' circumference and superb through the scope.
An American Black Tern 'and' a White winged Black Tern together, what a treat, sadly the icing on the Dibley cake, Black Tern didn't fly in until we were back in Kent.
It was a good opportunity to study this taxonomic no hoper with a WWBT and my first ever visit to the Oxfordshire coast.

A landscape photo of WWBT, Coot, GC Grebe, Cormorant and Tufted Duck, copies available on request.
Th main event, Surinam Tern, a rare sighing in the UK and well worth the visit.

WWBT, Yankee Tern and a large overripe apple on the res.Highlight of the trip me old mate, John Dixon sporting his trademark jacket, (wonder if it's the same one from 1984? ) and beard (same as back in 84, a bit like Triggs broom). I spent many an hour with John twitching in the 80's and In Florida and on Scilly where we shared a flat, tricks, stories but strangely enough he never shared his Belgian fudge cake at Longstones,...it doesn't show though !!

Happy now James can I do some proper work now!!!

Jim Bowen's RSPB reserve

Way back in Sept 1977 I started big boys school and shortly afterwards discovered rambling, not the speech type like this blog but the walking type visiting Magpie Bottom near Fackenden Lane, Shoreham, and then later on Cliffe Pools a short distance from home and with Graham Nicholls my French teacher and the newly formed Wildlife Club, birding as it's now known. The visits to Cliffe opened up a whole new World of excitement complete with SEOwls, Harriers, huge numbers of Waders and Linnets!!! Yes, Linnets which we thought were rare and used to stay hidden next to some bushes in the hope that one may come along and land near to us, we we're new to this birding game!

Little Egret once very rare in the UK, I remember missing oneat Cliffe in the late 1970's early 80's!
I've called Cliffe RSPB 'Jim Bowen's Reserve' as that's how it seems to be at the moment with the Bullseye catchphrase, 'This is What you could have had' ! having missed a Pacific Golden Plover a few weeks back and on Sunday a White-winged Black Tern that decided it would fly off with it's 40 tern mates to pastures new shortly before I arrived. Cliffe has a great history of some cracking birds and I've found some good stuff myself but this autumn they seem to refuse to stay put or reveal themselves to me when I get there. Cliffe is a great reserve, it just needs more coverage in order that it's full potential can be seen once again.

I'll keep plugging away on the North Kent marshes watching the birds fly away before I get to them in the hope that the 'dip' will soon end and the highs be reached once again. Fortunately with the art of modern technology and a mountain bike the area can be covered quite well and with ease
The day that Cliffe RSPB fully fledges as a reserve will hopefully come soon and the evening jaunts for the wader roost and who know waht will re kindle the great days of a bygone age.

Elmley RSPB, Kingdom of the Raptors

Living in Kent and especially North Kent we're very fortunate to have some great RSPB reserves, home to huge numbers of birds in some quiet corners out on the marshes and over the years have had their fair share of rarities. One such reserve is Elmley RSPB, and on entering this reserve along the new motorway entrance track, well I say motorway, it is nowadays compared to the late 1970's when it was like driving 'or cycling' along a dirt track complete with the Big Dipper ' a frequent occurrence' and Land Rover style manoeuvering around the potholes...........happy days!!! Over the years I've seen Wryneck, RB Shrike, Cattle Egret, Dotterel, Sharp-tailed Sand, Semi-p Sand, oodles of Marsh Sands, White-rumped Sand, countless Pecs, Stilts, Oriental and Collared Prat, etc etc and not forgetting the ever popular Pallid Harrier. But today I was looking for Montagu's Harrier, and it would appear to be a good year this year, with many sightings in Southern England. On arrival I casually wandered past the Asio invisiblis that lives in the orchard at Kingshill to a small group of birders looking at an empty piece of marshland. Fortunately it wasn't long before both the juv and the 2nd sum Monti's put in an appearance and showed well at times as the following photos will show, 'don't get too jealous' of my photographic prowess!

I eventually reached the hide known locally as Southfleet, one of the nearer hides and much nearer than Spit end ' the Carn Near of Sheppey' or Swale Hide. I have many memories of Southfleet or the double decker as we used to call it where I've been fortunate enough once again to tick off such celebs as Bill Oddie, Frank Thornton 'Mr Peacock from Are You being served and of course not forgetting Gibbo, the Meteorologist!! As a double decker it had a certain appeal to it, cramped, creaky, and in a big twitch on a sunny day a certain sweet smell of stale sweat and Darth Vader heavy breathing as the hordes arrived breathless from their long walk and the car park. Today though was predicted to be a HUGE high tide with possibilities untold, and luckily on arrival I secured my position in the hide before it filled up.

Lapwing, Ruff and a Red box, mega
A scenic shot with incidental Montis' 2nd sum bird as can clearly be seen with the barred tail, grey washed head, white inner primaries

A close up of the juv Monti's clearly showing it not to be a Pallid and ample identification points can be seen in this piccie.
Elmley is a mega spot for Raptors, with at differing times of the year and historically, 4 sp of Harrier, RL Buzzard, White-tailed Eagle, and great place to see Peregrine and Merlin. In the next blog we'll visit another fantastic RSPB reserve in North Kent, or Jim Bowen's Reserve as I like to call it?