28th February - Hi folks I'm still here!

Sorry for the dearth of postings of late, but the simple reason is I have not been out birding lately Workload has been very high, but more importantly my poor dog Phoebe has been very ill. For those of you who have met Phoebe will know that she is such a likeble dog full of boundless energy. However she took ill on 17th February and by the 20th she was needed a blood transfusion! Yep serious stuff, she has been diagnosed with a blood disorder called Immune Mediated Haemolytic Anaemia (IMHA), this is basically where her immune system attacks her red blood cells. Worrying times at the moment, though she is stable at the moment. For those interested, you can keep up with her progress on her own blog called Phoebe's Progress.

On a more positive note, Through the magic of Youtube I have just added a video clips section to my website. Don't get too excited the clips are not that great (taken with the Nikon Coolpix 4500) but you can tell what they are supposed to be!

Anyway, I hope to have some birding to report soon as I am off work all next week yae!

18th February - Bean Goose

Well I was sat at home feeling sorry for myself as I had not managed to get out birding so far this weekend, then my phone rang. It was Craig, he was phoning to tell me that Darren had just found another Bean Goose in with the Pink-footed Geese flock at Anthorn (of course had I checked my phone messages I would have already known this!). Anyway Craig was on his way to pick me up so we could go and see the bird!
...................meanwhile I received another text from Darren to say the farmer had just deliberately flushed the geese (I swore)! Anyway Craig was already on his way, so when he arrived we went to look anyway!
We decided to check Oulton first, nope no sign! Then Saltcoats, nope no sign. We did see 20+ Whoopers Swans in a field between Lessonhall at Saltcoates though! Next we decided to check the fields around Newton Arlosh. Still no sign of any large numbers of geese, though there were 160 Whooper Swans in the usual field between Anthorn and Angerton. This was becoming a wild goose chase (sorry, I know - just couldn't resist it!). We did a quick scoot around the Whitrigg Triangle, still no geese!
We took the road towards Anthorn and then wahoooooooo there was a pile of geese in a field viewable from the Longcroft - Anthorn road.
We jumped out of the car and started scanning the 1000 or so Pink-footed Geese. There were a few Barnacle Geese amongst the Pink-footed Geese. I found that there was a Pink-footed Goose with a neck collar. Then as if by magic Craig picked out the Bean Goose. The goose stood out quite strikingly with its darker back and bright orange legs! We has reasonable views of the bird before it sat down and began to roost!
We began scanning through the rest of the geese, when Nick turned up. After a short time Nick was also watching the Bean Goose as it woke up and began feeding! Nick also located one of these odd genetic throw backs, a Pink-footed Goose with orange legs!
Another car pulled up alongside us, it was one of those small 4x4 jeep things. I thought it was going to be the farmer coming to give us a bollocking (for no particular reason, I just have an innate guilty conscience). Anyway it wasn't, it was a just a local bloke who was interested in what we were looking at. Nice fella too!

11th February - A family day out!

Not much birding done today! We had a family day out to Trotters Animal Park. Not many wild birds there, but I did see a Treecreeper in the Eagle Owl enclosure!
Next up we went to Whinlatter Pass for a walk and so the kids could have a play in the play area. Not much bird-wise here, though a flock of Siskin feeding in the larches was pleasant. Also several Crossbills were a bonus, year tick in fact!

10th February - Lesser Scaup

After another stress-filled week at work I had to get out birding! With no serious rares to go for we ( me and the family) decided to take a trip to Caerlaverock WWT for the afternoon.

We saw some Barnacle Geese and Whooper Swans in fields en-route. On arrival we made our way to the observation hide that over looks the Whooper Pond. Here we got excellent views of Wigeon, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Ducks Mute Swan, Greylag Geese and funnily enough Whooper Swans!, Oh yes birding on the edge!! It was not long before I picked out the female Lesser Scaup that was present for its second consecutive winter. This bird showed exceptionally well as it dived, preened as roosted on the pond. I managed to get some reasonable shots of the bird, despite the crappy light! We had a brief look around the reserve before heading to the visitor centre for our lunch and then off home

4th February - Frozen Gonads - Part II

Well after a marginally better nights sleep in the car, I stepped out of the car and did a few star jumps to help thaw out my balls! After a toilet stop I and a brush of my teeth I was ready for another days birding! First stop was Titchwell, hoping for Black Brant. On arrival there was no sign of the Brants, but plenty of other birds to see. The pick of the waders were Avocet, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Spotted Redshank. A nice Marsh Harrier gave some good views. A brief seawatch produced three drake Long-tailed ducks.....nice! The Cetti's Warbler gave a burst of song (note I say The, like there is only one, or I know him personally - I think his name is Cedric, though I am not really sure as I think the conversations I thought I had with him were in my sleep deprived head). I met a birder who had travelled down from the North East, though there was no sign of the Little Gull (hmm)! We got nice views of a Brambling on some nuts (not mine) by the visitor centre.

After some scran, we made our way to Thornham again to get more spondicious views of the Lesser Yellowlegs.

Next up was the long trudge to the pumping station at Snettisham. I estimated it was about a 375000 mile walk, as I wore out four pairs of boots and one pair of knees by the time we got to the pumping station. The long walk was worth it (sort of) as we got amazing (ly distant) views of the long staying Black-eared Kite!

After more views of the Kite we decided to head back towards Cley to look for Black Brant. I had been reliably informed by super birding information service Birdnet that there had been regular Black Brant on the Pitch 'n' Putt course at Wells. On arrival there were no geese on the course, however a quick scarper up the banking revealed that there was a largish flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese on the saltmarsh. We begin scanning through them to try and locate the Black Brant. Before we could check them all, the flock took flight and they landed on the pitch 'n' putt course. It was not long before Craig picked out the Black Brant amongst the flock. We got excellent views of the bird and a good opportunity to get some half decent pictures! This was an excellent finish to our birding for the trip, all that was left was the journey back home!

3rd February - Frozen Gonads - Part I

After a freezing night trying to sleep in the car I got up defrosted my balls and we headed up to Chosley drying barns. Here we had nice views of at least 50 Corn Buntings, plus a few Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and a single Brambling! Next up was a trip to Thornham to look for the long staying 1st winter Lesser Yellowlegs.

On arrival there was no sign of the Lesser Yellowlegs in the areas that the bird had been favouring. However a flock of c30 Twite was quite good, until some numpty with a long lens flushed them! We checked the flooded fields nearby for the Lesser Yellowlegs, most of the floods were frozen and there was still no sign of the bird. The high tide had probably pushed the bird into some creeks on the salt marsh out of view. I decided to go back to the car for some grub and then decided to check the creek next to the road. After a few minutes I heard a wader calling not to dissimilar to a Greenshank, the bird landed in the creek just 10 yards or so from me, it was the Lesser Yellowlegs. The bird showed exceptionally well in the creeks both sides of the road, allowing some really great photographic opportunities! Also in the area was a sizable flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese.

After we had watched the bird for some time, we headed off to Titchwell. Here we saw the usual assortment of waders, including Black-tailed Godwits and Ruff. We also had nice views of Marsh Harrier and Little Egret. On the sea there was a small group of Common Scoter. On the passerine side there was a singing Cetti's Warbler, Siskin and Long-tailed Tits along with the commoner species. A flock of Dark-bellied Brent Geese came into the pools, but there was no sign of the two Black Brants that had been frequenting the reserve. The bonus was when Craig picked out a 1st winter Little Gull!

We then headed along the coast and visited a few sites, including Saltholme where we got some nice views of c30 Snow Bunting!

To round off what had been an excellent days birding we went back to Thornham for another look at the Lesser Yellowlegs!

A nice meal in the Lifeboat Inn and a couple of pints before heading back to the car for a nights sleep was a very pleasant end to the day!

2nd February - Pacific Diver

Kath dropped me off at Craig's just after 0745hrs and we soon left and were on our way to Penrith. We had a quick stop off at Penrith and were then on our way to Farnham Gravel Pits near Knaresborough. It was a tense drive until around 0930hrs when news on my pager confirmed that the Pacific Diver was still present. TFFT! After a fairly traumatic drive through Harrogate we found the car park at the Gravel Pits, paid our tenner and legged it to the waters edge. There was a fair few birders present, and it was not long before we were watching the UK's first (and possibly the Western Palearctic) Pacific Diver. Again TFFT!

I was quite amazed how distinctive this bird was. It was a very small diver, appearing not much bigger than the Great Crested Grebes that were also present on the Gravel Pits!

We got excellent views of this bird as it ranged all around the gravel pit, the bird would show to 10ft or so at times. I managed to see all of the distinguishing features on this bird including the vent strap!

This bird was great to watch, I even managed some reasonable record shots with my digiscope set up!

Aside from the bird in question, it was nice to see some familiar faces, that I had not seen for a while! We continued watching the bird until about 1600hrs. Amazingly we had been watching the bird for over five hours! Well we got our moneys worth that's for sure!

We were on our way south to Norfolk for the weekend, hoping for some more rares to feed our rarity obsessed mental condition!

We arrived at Holme in Norfolk just after 1900hrs, Craig set his tent up on the luxury camp site (well a field with a small shed in it anyway!). We then found a pub for some food!

The pub was the Lifeboat Inn at Thornham. The food was excellent and the beer went down well too!