Waxwings vs Mistle Thrush

Whilst enjoying the Bearded tits in Hyde Park, news came through of a small flock of 9 Waxwing feeding in a rowan tree just outside Guildford. Not really breaking news, especially considering this year's massive influx of birds into the UK, but if there was the chance of a photograph or two, I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass.

Arriving along a quiet lane in Peasmarsh this morning, there was no sign of any Waxwings, or anyone looking for Waxwings. It seemed as though it had just been a brief, one-stop visit, before the birds continued to better food sources elsewhere. Still, since the Rowan in question had quite a few berries left on it, I decided to give it a little while longer just in case they returned. With the thought of central heating and good cup of tea becoming ever more appealing, I was about to call it a day when, low and behold, enter Waxwing A...

and B...

Straight out of nowhere and down onto the Rowan bush... Jurassic Park!

In no time at all, the full group of 9 birds had descended; taking it in turns to feed on the slowly diminishing crop of berries before returning to digest them in a nearby tree.

They stayed for most of the afternoon, and everyone was having a good time, until...

Enter Mistle Thrush...

Mr. Thrush doesn't like other birds eating his berries. Mr. Thrush has protected his berries all winter, and won't stand to see them all gobbled up by a group of pink punks. In fact, Mr. Thrush is so angry at the Waxwings, that he decides to sit in the same tree as them- making lots of loud noises- and chase them away whenever they try and land on his beloved tree, until they finally give up and fly off.

What a grumpy old bastard.

P.S. Apologies if you came here, after reading the title, expecting images of Waxwings brawling with a Mistle Thrush. Probably a bit of a let down for you.

Central London's First Beardies

It's not everyday you get to hop off the Piccadilly line in central London and be within a minutes walk of witnessing a birding 'first', but that's exactly what I found myself doing today on a very snowy, windy morning in Hyde Park, where central London's first Bearded tits have been spending the past week.

A rather retiring species normally associated with vast expanses of reedbeds along the East coast, Bearded tits are one of the last birds you'd expect to discover in a park in the centre of London, and yet these two remarkable gems seem to be quite at home in a tiny patch of reeds bordering the The Serpentine lake, feeding on seed heads within feet of the path, and providing a great opportunity to get up close to this species in an unusual location...

Both birds display a BTO ring on their legs, so hopes are high that, by piecing together the code on each ring, we can shed a bit of light into the history of this pair.

Even casual passers-by stopped to take a look, once it had been established that they were indeed looking at a bird (who would have thought that the phrase"there's a lovely pair of tits over there" could be taken the wrong way?), and by the end of the afternoon- despite the snow and wind- a steady stream of admirers had gone back home/to work with more than satisfying views of these two little beauties.

Firecrest... 4 years in the making

Every birder has a bogey bird. That one species that, no matter how hard you try, just likes to bugger off whenever you get within a mile of it.

With me, its the Firecrest. Ever since eagle-eyed patch birder David Campbell (click here for his blog, and here for his patch blog) found a wintering population along a small wooded path on his local golf course down in Banstead back in 2008, they have been back to the same spot every year since- as have I to see them, and year upon year, I've failed miserably. David would shrug it off at the time as bad luck, but oh no, this was something deeper. This was something personal between myself, and a vaseline tin- sized bird that was trying its utmost to stay off my radar.

And so the winter of 2012/13 descended, and as expected, the bastard Firecrests returned to their favourite location on Banstead golf course. However, instead of rushing down at the first hint of news, I chilled with a cup of tea (or a beer, one of those two). If there was ever a time I was going to see this bird, it would be in the New Year (fresh start, clean slate blah blah... all that cheesy crap), so I waited, and waited... and a few hours later, headed down there.

It was freezing on arrival, but there was still a lot of bird action going on. A flock of Long-tailed tit were slowly making their way down the path, and I stopped momentary to enjoy their acrobatics as they moved overhead with a very bright looking, funny crested, shorter tailed Long-tailed tit following behind- wait a minute- that's no Long-tailed tit, that's a... a... Goldcrest. So close.

A further 20 minutes of staring at bushes followed, before a sudden burst of squeaking from a holly bush deep within the shrubs grabbed my attention. It sounded like a Goldcrest, only louder, and much more insistent. After another lengthy period of time, a strong white eye stripe and flash of vibrant yellow finally came into view to clinch my first Firecrest... gotcha! As is compulsory, I fired off a few dozen shots, before realising that the camera was set to 'manual' mode, and every image had come out horribly over-exposed. Shiiaattt! A flick of the dial later and a miracle happened- the bird stopped and perched on one of the most well lit branches along the whole path, and this time I was ready for it.

Alas, most of the 50 odd images that came out were too blurred/too dark, but I managed the one keeper above, and my index finger got a work out too, which was nice. Win win.

Chaffinch... and some other bird

So there I was right, down on Bookham Common behind the train station, first outing of the year, casually photographing a perched female Chaffinch in the morning fog, when all of a sudden some fat bird comes streaming in, beak and all, lands right on top of the Chaffinch and ruins a perfectly good photo.

 

Hawfinches have no self-respect. It's a good thing they're scarce and elusive, otherwise I fear this could become a more serious issue for photographers.

Seriously though, if you are thinking of heading down to Bookham Common to photograph Chaffinches, make sure you don't go looking in the large trees behind the train station first thing in the morning, because you might come across a Hawfinch.

2012... in pictures

So, 2012 in the bag, and instead of writing one of those long, boring review of the year, I'm going to take the easy way out and just post a few photos from the different months, including a few never-before-seen images that hid themselves away on the SD card for much of the year (exciting stuff, eh?).

January (summed up in one photo)

Crow- somewhere boring

February

Fieldfare- Garden

Bushy Park sunset...

March

Reed Bunting- Richmond Park

Wheatear- Richmond Park

April

Ring Ouzel- Staines Moor

Redstart- Richmond Park

May...

Whinchat- Bushy Park

Grey Heron- Bushy Park

June

Small Elephant Hawk-moth- Garden

House Martin- Richmond Park

Tawny Owl- Bushy Park

June

Roesel's Bush Cricket- Thames Ditton

Red-belted Clearwing- Garden

August

Toadflax Brocade- Garden

Straw Belle- Box Hill

September

Little Owl- Richmond Park

Migrant Hawker- Stoke's Field

October

Evening fog over St Agnes- Isles of Scilly

Buff-breasted Sandpiper- Isles of Scilly

Wryneck- Isles of Scilly

American Golden Plover- Isles of Scilly

November

Stonechat- Thursley Common

Great Grey Shrike- Thursley Common

December

Short-eared Owl- Staines Moor

Great Grey Shrike- Thursley Common

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Have a good'un!

Back With the Shrike

With some free time back on Sunday for a bit of casual birding, and no particular desire to twitch a slightly weird looking Rock Pipit at some outer-London reservoir that everyone seems to be going mad about, I headed out on a crisp, quiet morning down the A3 for a day's worth of birding in the south of Surrey, the plan being to briefly stop off at Bookham Common first thing for Hawfinch, before spending some time with the long staying adult Great Grey Shrike at Thursley Common.

 

As expected, the first part of the plan didn't come together, and there were no Hawfinches to be found in their 'usual' spot behind Bookham train station. Luckily, the Shrike was more reliable, showing well; though distant, as it actively hunted throughout the aptly named 'Shrike Hill', perching only briefly to survey the area, before moving on again...

 

 

Highlight of the day came in the form of a pair of Dartford Warbler, both of which popped up from nowhere whilst photographing a bunch of Stonechats below Shrike Hill. This species was hit hard by a devastating fire on the Common a few years back, but 2012 has seen the return of a small, localised group of birds. Fingers crossed they make it through the winter.

 

 

Urban Owls

Lens and camera both safely back in hand, where better place to get back into the swing of things than the luscious, rolling countryside of Staines where no fewer than four Short-eared Owls have been kicking about at Staines Moor- real gem of a urban patch situated in the shadow of the roaring M25.

My only previous Short-eared Owl experience was a brief view of a dot about a mile away, over at QEII reservoir last year, so to watch four Owls confidently hunting in broad daylight was quite surreal...

Must have taken the wrong exit off the M25 at some point...

Patch Birding

Both the beloved camera and lens combo have been away from my grasp for about two weeks now, getting themselves serviced and checked after incidents involving mud on Scilly. On the upside, its forced me to do some proper local birding with a pair of binoculars (apparently birdwatchers are supposed to use them?) down at my local patch, Stoke's Field- a place so overlooked, that if you don't own a walkable dog within a mile radius, I can guarantee you wouldn't have heard of the place. Surrounded by the A308 on one side and a housing estate on the other, Stoke's Field basically consists of a few muddy paths trodden into a two or three hectares of woodland, with a small grassy hillside at the top- it's so small, you can quite easily walk the entire site in about 15 minutes.

 

I've think I've mentioned it just once before on this blog- a few years back- which considering the fact that it's not even a two minute walk away from my front door, gives a bit of a bad name to the idea of regular patch birding. Anyway, I've been visiting more frequently this year, and just the other week notched up a brief flock of 15 Crossbills making their way high over the hill (it doesn't have a name), as well as a Woodcock back in March, and a pair of Mandarins on a 'pit' of water, which I think might be a pond.

 

However, the real breakthrough came last week, when a pair of stocky finch dropped down into a large sycamore whilst I completed a normal circuit of the patch. Looking down at me were two stunning male Bullfinch, only my second in the London area, after a few isolated records in Bushy Park in the last couple of years...

 

 

Admittedly, they can be locally common birds, but to see them in such an urban setting, just minutes from my own back garden, in such a familiar setting, really highlighted what I've missed about patch birding... I won't ever abandon you again, my beloved little Stoke's Field.