Vis Mig close to home

This morning as I was walking the dog I got the impression there were a few birds on the move and a timely call from Frank Cackett found me heading approx 2 miles South of Northfleet to a high point that I found a few weeks ago to be good for scanning for visible migration.

The area overlooks a number of fields and to the North lies Northfleet, Gravesend and the A2.

The two sessions I spent today proved to be pretty rewarding with rarely a dull moment and always something of note to count.

First session (1055-1210), second session (1550-1650)

Chaffinch 290 all moving West often in small groups, 129 later on

Siskin 1, 6 in the afternoon

Redpoll 4

Fieldfare (as pictured 'poorly' above) 24, another 26 in the afternoon

Redwing 124, 98 in the second session

Mipit 2

alba Wag 3, 2 later on

Skylark 9, only 1 later on

Starling 459

Grey Wagtail 1

Yellowhammer 2

Jay, possibly a local bird.

On the raptor front, the day saw a cracking Peregrine this afternoon, 2 Common Buzzards, 3+ Kestrels, and 3+ Sparrowhawks. It would be interesting to know the full scale of the movement today and numbers involved, clearly across quite a broad front.

Essex Shrikes and the Bishopstone skulker vs the Young Ones

Raddes' a great bird but not worth jumping off the cliff for

As has become typical over the past 15 years or so there are 'expected' birds that appear in the autumn and those that you dream about turning up........generally they don't! As the years go by the dream lives on but the same old favourites keep appearing with that 'rare moment' of a five star rarity in Kent turning up, but not for long.

The spate of westerlies ending up being the 'Alder' of the day with an Alder Flycatcher, the first for Britain and Ireland making landfall, 'just' near Lands End. A hoped for visit to the far end of the UK last Friday didn't quite work out and instead I went to work as per usual. Friday night and scouring the Internet for gen for the weekend was brightened up with news of a Lesser Grey Shrike near Rettendon, South Essex. A visit on the Saturday ended up being a good day with stunning views of the Lesser Grey Shrike feeding alongside the busy road and nearby at Hanningfield distant but good views of a Velvet Scoter and a Black-necked Grebe. Whilst here I found out about a Great Grey Shrike just South of Braintree and within an hour I was on site enjoying this superb bird feeding at close range despite being lost and asking several locals including a 'village idiot' where Thistley Green was?

Sunday morning dawned misty and calm when suddenly a message from Derek Smith appeared on my mobile. RADDE'S AT BISHOPSTONE

Five minutes later I was hurtling down the A2 and 30+ minutes later at Bishopstone Glen where fortunately the Radde's Warbler made a couple of brief but close appearances allowing me to finally enjoy 'watching' a whole identifiable Radde's in Kent. This was my seventh attempt over the years but perseverance pays off in the end. It was a tricky bird to see and was seen very little later on despite much searching and attempting to listen for it's quiet call above the 'sounds of Bishopstone' with kids, dogs, walkers, cyclists and cliff climbers. Radde's is a good bird in the SE but the cliff climbing looked decidedly unsafe.
John Cantelo was evidently getting some hot news on birds or the announcement that Sats tests for 14 year olds had been scrapped.

The Lesser Grey Shrike in Essex
Great Grey Shrike in Essex
The crowd at the Lesser Grey with The Young Ones passing by on their way to see Cliff http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mVSlWD1yYA0

Another typical autumn in Kent !!

As is often the case in Kent, September and October are dominated by South- westerly winds, but as a special treat for 2008 we had some Easterlies......hoorahh. The only trouble being I was still in Cornwall and due back at work on the Monday!! The brisk drive home from Rame on the Saturday to the birdless playground complete with BMX bikes and burger van 'that is Swalecliffe' was extremely un productive as the Fan tailed warbler decided it did not want me to tick it and promptly flew whilst I was roughly passing Stonehenge!! I did manage to see a Sedge Warbler and Whinchat though plus the gathered post twitch crowd, all six of us worked the slopes from Tankerton back to Swalecliffe but the bird was no more. The Sunday found me missing Honey Buzzards as they appeared to outnumber Buzzards and passed overhead, though the Paws in the Park Dog show at Paddock Wood was ample compensation for missing a second for Kent and numerous HBs! With the easterlies continuing and the East coast up North awash with rares JT and myself ventured into that dark and distant corner of Kent. Certainly by the end of the day it was either a case of jumping off the cliffs at North Foreland as above or moving to east coast to be nearer to the action. If there was a PGTips that had flown onto the clifftop grass as above, would you jump though?

Despite a full days birding Reculver and North Foreland, the best we could muster was good counts of Redstart, Whinchat, Wheatear and Buzzards plus bird of the day, Yellow-browed Warbler in the trees at Reculver caravan park. Evidently we may have to change our tactics at Foreness in order to find rare birds, maybe the above mode of transport is the answer to locate those low to the ground skulking rares that lurk in these parts. (what a good way to bird Elmwood Avenue) The Saganauts were out in force and the Saga Hound, but sadly no rare Shrikes or mega rare Warblers or Flycatchers in these here parts.
It had a been a long day and the Whinchat pretty much sums of the autumn in Kent so far if weekends are the only time to get out, though I did manage to see an Osprey at Stoke Saltings, a Wryneck over in Essex at Rainham RSPB, such a great reserve.
Another trip out to East Kent saw us watching this superb Red backed Shrike in the allotments adjacent to Margate cmy. Steve Tomlinson has watched this area for many years and turned up some good birds, as cemetries and allotments often do. To keep track of the recent sightings seehttp://steve-tomlinson.blogspot.com/ A typically autumn bird in Kent, but it would be better if we had a good steady trickle of rare birds to see in Kent as with the NE or Shetlands. Foreness and East Kent are clearly under watched and there is plenty of good habitat to check, though easterlies in Kent are often very hit and miss hence the absence of rares. Historically if you look at the rarities recorded at Foreness/Margate the list is endless, with Isabelline, Woodchat, Great Grey and Red-backed Shrike, Booted Warbler (2), Aquatic Warbler, Radde's Warblers, Pallas's, Yellow browed and Dusky Warblers. Rustic Bunting, Pied Wheatear, Trumpeter Finch, Red-throated Pipit, Alpine Swifts, the list goes on.........

Could this autumn in Kent get any better?
Will the birds 'only' appear mid week and fly before the weekend?

The highlights from Cornwall

Finally found some time to attempt to update this blog, it's raining, I'm on call, there's no birds about unless you're in Galway or abroad and better late than never. My weeks holiday in Cornwall was conveniently timed to miss a Grey Phal at Bough Beech, a Fan-tailed Warbler at Swalecliffe, and too early to enjoy one of most wanted photographic targets at close range, Buff breasted Sandpiper!

News of a Buff breast at Davidstow a mere 40 mile aways found us having a day out in North Cornwall enjoying the persistent rain, high water levels at Coliford Lake and my first ever visit to Davidstow airfield, home to many a good wader over the years and a known hotspot for Buff breasts. As you can see from the photo above the military were on site presumably also looking for Yank waders or just simply enjoying the many facilities that this great site has to offer. The old Control tower was the place to be but sadly despite much searching there were no Yanks around, (they waited until I got back home to Kent a week later)! For photographing waders though this is a superb place where you simply drive around and slowly and carefully approach the waders that can then be photographed at very close range.

This Dunlin was one of many scattered around the airfield, if only it was a bit rarer, the photo opportunities here are excellent.
This Ringed Plover was also completely relaxed at our presence and allowed a good many shots to be fired off.
Fortunately for our Sheepdog, he was very much under the impression that we had come to 'SheepWorld' as the Sheep also very very approachable and despite the two hours or so spent driving around the airfield we never heard a sound from him, he was mesmerised by all the Sheep.
Back on the Rame Peninsula, a pleasant day watching the oats coming in and out of Devonport allowed for mega close views as HMS Talent shows above, that's the name Louise gave it after grabbing the bins off me and checking out the crew!
A visit to St John's Lake, a good place to see Med Gulls, though we've got plenty of them in Kent, still a good bird to see and watch from the car as you cross the ford towards Milbrook.
Despite many early mornings spent wandering around looking for migrants, this was the best I could come up with, a Ring Ousel that was present for two days near Rame Head. I also saw Tree Pipits, Crossbills, Redstart, stacks of Chiffs, the resident Ravens, Buzzards and plenty of Yellowhammers as seen below.

It was always a pleasure of an evening though to be able to relax in our farmhouse and enjoy watching the Badgers from the warmth of the living room, as well as Foxes and most memorable a Tawny Owl. What an excellent week, shame about the Yank waders!!

A blast from the past

As keen as ever I awoke before first light from the slumbers of our farmhouse ready to venture into pastures new and hopefully find some good birds. The walk took me across a few fields and towards the coast where a few Wheatears, a Whinchat and several Chiffs were seen. A few hours wandering the area before getting back for breakfast revealed potentially what a great area this would be to have as your local patch. Much of the habitat was very Scilly like, and I'm sure with time and effort stuff would be found in ideal conditions. Once I'd met up with Louise again we spent the remainder of the day wandering the area and getting to grips with the various parts of the Rame area. I decided to visit the church at Rame as the sign indicated it was open. An excellent little church full of character and very well maintained, I spent some time here before I heard 'voices' and on opening the door I was greeted with, 'Barry Wright' what are you doing here? Low and behold, it was me old mate Dave Allan, not the comedian that would have been a challenge nowadays but the ex Kent birder from Thanet with his wife Mandy.

Dave explained that it was bit surreal seeing me come out of a church of all places as I'm happy to look at them but ceremonially avoid them! The last time I saw Dave was in 2002 at Plymouth for a Ross's Gull and we had done many twitches together in the 1980's and early 1990's with Dave Gilbert another Thanet birder. Dave now lives in Torpoint and was out for a Sunday stroll.
A great day seeing old friends, getting to know the geography of the area but little did I know that less than a mile from the church there had been three Dotterel that day in the same field I checked late that day, but I certainly never saw them, maybe they'd already flown or I was simply bird blind!! We'll never know.

I remember it well !

July 1985, and four very young and keen birders head West to Dawlish Warren and the chance to see a Lesser Crested Tern. Fortune was on our side as the bird was on view from the main hide and we had good but distant views through our 'top of the range' fledgling twitcher scopes. That was over 23 years ago now and that intrepid quartet were Marcus and Andrew Lawson, Pete Morris and myself the driver. If my memory is correct Andrew and Pete spent the night in the local pub up the hill corrupting a very young Marcus at the time whilst I slept in the car roughly to the left of where the photo below was taken. I remember seeing the zig zag wandering trio return to the area opposite the car where they settled down in the local sheltered accomodation, yes a 'shelter' with their Millets special sleeping bags! The scene in the morning that I have a slide of somewhere was entitled 'Dawlish Dossers'.
The reason for my visit this time though was a brief stop to see the Semipalmated Sandpiper that had been present for a few days and luckily I got great views. My birding skills also allowed me successfully fail to see an Osprey fly overhead and a Wryneck that was hiding away in the scrub.

Incredibly you can see the semi palmations, webbing between the toes in the photo above. A very grey bird but a cracking bird to see at such close range. Despite only a few visits over the years to Dawlish I've managed to see Great spotted Cuckoo, Lesser Crested Tern, Surf Scoter and another Semi pee, Semipalmated Plover in virtually the same spot as the Semi pee Sand, a great place.
with the rain now lashing down we headed off to our cottage for the week, just a mile from Rame and with a fantastic view (Rame Church is in the far left of the picture). This really was a great place to stay with stunning views of Badgers, Foxes and a few nights a cracking Tawny Owl was on view on the back fence from the kitchen or in the trees outside the bedroom.

Holiday in Cornwall, the forgotten corner !

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last weeks, or for some maybe a blessing that I'd stopped posting!! Just spent the last week in Cornwall 'just' concentrating on the aptly named 'forgotten corner' of Cornwall, the Rame Peninsula.

I simply cannot praise this are highly enough, a great area scenically, to relax in, enjoy the local wildlife and plenty of prime migrant habitat to keep you permanently wondering what's lurking in the area. Hopefully I'll return to the area again and find a rarity as despite my early morning wanderings I didn't hit the jackpot. Historically birders will remember Rame for Wilson's Warbler, the only British record and more recently a Bluetail and Chimney Swift. At nearby Penlee, a Parula was present many years ago also. This area has great potential but I guess has few birders living close enough to be able to thoroughly cover all the areas in favourable weather conditions. Other than the Isles of Scilly, this has got to be the best part of the UK I've ever visited.

When time allows in the next week or so I'll expand on the trip with some piccies of birds and stunning scenery!