The Goose Chase

Saturday dawned bright and sunny at Birdingsometimes HQ, so I took the decision to head inland for a potter with some wildfowl. First stop was Whittle Dene, where a female smew had been reported recently. Annoyingly thick fog had failed to clear, and I could barely make out four tufted duck on the lower reservoir, never mind a smew! Next up was Grindon Lough – thankfully void of fog, but also void of Greenland white-fronted geese and tundra bean geese too! A couple of hundred Canada geese were the best that was on offer, with forty common gull to boot. The fog was a bit weird here – while the Lough was fog-free, a chance look from the road just north of Steel Rig on the roman wall (a good spot for the Greenland white-fronts when they’re not on the Lough) was worthless, as visibility was less than ten meters…    Driving past Grindon two fox were noted.


Enough was enough, so I headed back east, via Prestwick Carr and West Hartford. Both were pretty much bird-less, so news of bean goose sp. north of Bell’s Pond was enough to keep me moving. En-route I stopped at Woodhorn for a better look at the four Greenland white-fronted geese … I’m still smarting at my failure to look at them properly last week!

At the bean goose spot I bumped into Steve and Phil, and we spent a pleasant half hour or so scanning the goose flock. Steve eventually picked up the bean goose – it transpired that it was a tundra bird - my first of this bean goose form in the county, ;-). Also present: eight barnacle geese, a heap of pink-footed, several grey-lag and Canada… including a weird pale bodied bird. A small flock of twite were feeding opposite. No chance of photographs today, it was a very dark and grey afternoon. MSH arrived and I continued north with him up to the corner at Druridge in an attempt to get a better look at the tundra bean ~ no joy there, but it was good to catch up with tales of birding and travel.

Steve and Phil had already departed south, and a text confirming the presence of two SEO at West Hartford gave me a pit-stop for the journey back home, but all I could manage was a tribe of long-tailed tit.

And that was that.

White-front revisited

Mike Hodgson got some images of the white-fronted geese at Woodhorn yesterday... the images clearly show that the birds are of the greenland race rather than eurasion. I should have looked more closely on Sunday...

The White-front

Another snowy weekend in the north-east, so Saturday was spent processing some 2009 images of birds in Northumberland. It was nice to reflect on some of the birds seen and photographed, and had I had my wits about me I could have posted some here last December.

This afternoon was spent up the coast, starting with a look at the four eurasion white-fronted geese at Woodhorn - feeding with twenty or so grey-lag geese on fields inbetween the south pool and railway line. EWFG are always good to see up here, more typically I'd see the small flock of greenland birds that frequent the Grindon Lough area (saying that, I do hope to get there this week to catch up on the remarkable flock of 12 tundra bean geese that have joined them recently).

Next up was the Chevingtons - both East and West. None of the target birds were seen, a buzzard was as close as I got at West, and grey heron was the closest at East. The north pool wat East Chevington was ice free and supported a mix of great black-back, herring, common and black-headed gull, along with wigeon, mallard, teal and goldeneye.

Further down the coast at Cresswell the pond was 60% frozen, so the curlew, oystercatcher and redshank were all stood in the middle. A few goldeneye were present with mallard, teal and wigeon, but there was no sign of barn owl, something I had hoped to photograph in the snow.

Cresswell Pond

The coastal road was entertaining to drive on as it was still covered in compact snow - the photographs today illustrate that, with two views at Cresswell and one further down the coast enroute home via Lynemouth (you can see the power station... haunt of the wintering hume's warbler a few years back). We don't see snow on the beaches too often in Northumberland! The curvy nature of some of the pictures is due to the attempt to utilise "panarama" mode on the mobile phones' camera.... it not arty!

South to Lynemouth / Newbiggin

West Hartford Jack

It was a bleak day in the north-east and it would have been easy to pop down to Blyth to tick off the second-year iceland gull that has been loafing around the south harbour. I chose instead to head to West Hartford for my first real thrash of the site in 2010.

With cold-weather gear on and some wellies I set about tromping through the wetland~field south of the pool. I was not disappointed, with 27 common snipe, 1 jack snipe (a species with an amazing ability to remain invisible up to a foot step in front of the bird!) and 3 grey heron.

On the pool, the ice free water held a respectable quota of duck (by West Hartford standards...), with roughly 35 teal, 20 mallard and, more impressively, a pair of gadwall - my first here for a few years. Still not having any luck with water rail... one day, one day...

With that I headed back home via the Horton Burn - no sign of the kingfisher today, but a moorhen was zigzagging across the water and five long-tailed tit moved through the hawthorns.

Bewick's Swan, Newsham

I took the opportunity to have another look at the two bewick's swan at Newsham near Blyth this afternoon - a decision that I should have made earlier in the day as the light was terrible!

The two birds were reasonably obliging and were prepared to stand their ground with the mute swans when the dog walkers headed down the track.

Given the distance of the swans the 2.0 extender was used with the 500mm lens, and in an efort to try and bring out some of the white plumage from the strong back-light and resultant shadows, exposure compensation was bumped up to +2/3.

However, I still could not eliminate shadow (as the sunlit parts of the swan were strongly lit and already buring out), but the results are ok as a record, all considering.

As it's a week of nightshift ahead, I'll have to hope that the flock remains in the vicinity so I can try a morning visit.

Black-throated Thrush

It was an early start today as there was the important business of securing a uk-tick ~ a black-throated thrush has conveniently been feeding in a small garden in Newholm, a village just west of Whitby, North Yorkshire. The pager service confirmed that the bird was there as we passed Scaling Dam, and it was with some relief that the bird was feeding in the well stocked garden upon our arrival.

Pity the weather was so bad - it was very overcast and raining heavily. This mean't that light was very poor for photography, so high ISO had to be utilised (1250!) as flash was not really an option.

The results were pleasing, perhaps enhanced by the confiding nature of the bird. Having fed at the "house end" of the garden (approx 12 meters away, the image with the thrush facing left on top of feed and snow depicts this position), the thrush suprised us all (the massive <20 crowd...!) by flying down to "our" end of the garden and proceeded to feed on suet / apples kindly placed out by the home owner.

Fantastic!

I managed a couple of images at ISO640, which helped reduce noise, but all in all the camera, albeit wet, performed really well.

One of the residents came out and offered us all cups of tea, which was very kind. Hopefully birders present will continue to behave and make the correct impression to this community.

If you are heading up/down to see this bird, please give generously to the RNLI collection!

Red Grouse

It was another bitterly cold day in the north-east of England, and this red grouse could surely feel the nip! This individual was photographed early afternoon on the North Yorkshire moors, near Commondale after a cold but successful morning near Whitby... more on that next!

The afternoon finished as well as the day had started, when CB picked up two bewick's swan (a county mega these days) near Blyth - a quick hop into the car and the two birds were being grilled within minutes of the call from STH. Great stuff.

Cape Town ~ final post!

Speckled Pigeon

Hadeda Ibis

Laughing Dove

Cape Wagtail

At last, the final Cape Town post.

A few more of the common birds to feature on the trip.

The speckled pigeon was photographed under the hotels' canopy, it appeared to have a nest up there. This was a very abundant species, and is colourful at that.

The hadeda ibis was photographed on the edge of the golf course at Green Point - they're subtly colourful. Often seen in small foraging groups and quite bold.

The laughing dove was photographed on the waterfront and was barely noticeable as it fed quietly between the boulders.

Finally, cape wagtail. A common resident and seen throughout our visit. These birds can move real fast - it was quite a challenge to get an action shot! Probably more interestingly, this shot was taken just after the UK comedian Jimmy Carr had walked past, en route back to his hotel. I guess it was a highlight of his trip passing us photographing cape wagtail?!

South Africa was a wonderful trip, certainly a place I'd head back to.

Robben Island Circular

Crowned Cormorant

Cape Cormorant


White-chinned Petrel

As I mentioned earlier some pre-booking of excursions would have been wise, as we were unable to get onto one of the Robben Island landings during our stay. As a compromise we took a "round the island" cruise on a rather smart catamaran. Highlight of the trip for me was the opportunity to see a few more bird species while taking in the views of Robben Island and Cape Town/Table Mountain.

In the Victoria and Alfred harbour hartlaub's gull, cape gull and swift tern dominated the proceedings, while offshore the birding got a bit more interesting.

My first african penguin encounter was relatively quick into the journey, with many parties noted throughout. Cormorant species were also available - teams of cape cormorant flew by, with lesser numbers of crowned and bank cormorant noted. Flocks of african sacred ibis commuted between the mainland and the island, I assume there is good feeding to be had there.

Rounding the island our boat put up a single white-chinned petrel - a few record shots were rattled off... and it was not to long after that when the first cape gannet appeared.

Arctic skua and common tern were reminders of home, although the warm blustery conditions were not!

Hartlaub's Gull

.... a couple of images of hartlaub's gull, a very common endemic resident. Photographed on the Victoria and Afred Waterfront.

Kirstenbosch non-capers

Some additional images from KBC, with (from the top) african dusky flycatcher, karoo prinia and helmeted guineafowl. Strange to be posting images from sunny days as it continues to be dark, cold and starting to snow in the north-east of England...

The flycatcher and prinia pictures were taken in a corner of the gardens that was a hive of activity - the cape batis and cape white-eye images in the previous post were taken at the same spot, just up from Camphor Avenue where we had failed to locate the gardens resident spotted eagle owl. Also present here were cape robin-chat, hadeda ibis and lesser double collared sunbird.

There were many signposts in the gardens warning children not to chase the guineafowl as they had a reputation to retaliate! I'd have loved to have seen that as we saw many a guineafowl running frantically away from kids screaming "get it!!!!" throughout our visit.

Next up will probably be some mop-up species to complete the trip, focusing on birds from around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town.

Kirstenbosch Capers

More images from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - all "cape" birds. From the top: cape batis, cape francolin, cape bulbul and cape white-eye.

I had expected the photography to be much easier than it actually was at KBC, and did not have any luck with sunbirds nor sugarbird.

The cape batis shot was literally a grab shot as this bird flicked past and the cape white-eye and bulbul were record shots as they tended to keep high up (bulbul) or feed actively and too close! (white-eye). The cape francolin was much more obliging, stopping off for a dust bath inbetween feeding with its' family.

Kittlitz's Plover

A walk along the beaches on the Atlantic coast west of Cape Town found us watching a family of kittlitz's plover - a very dainty and attractive species. The juveniles (two) had an uncanny knack to disappear under the seaweed and were actually very difficult to see as they scuttled across the shingle.