Once bittern

Tales of the unexpected continue, with nightshift and tides preventing the opportunity to head to Holy Island for the UKs' 5th Siberian Accentor (!) and Isabelline Shrike, a Brucie-bonus in the form of a Bittern at St Mary's Wetland - paraded itself remarkably well, just wish I'd had the bigger lens!

Waders and bits at East Chevington

After a failed attempt to get common rosefinch on the county list this morning (Seaton Sluice), I headed to East Chevington for a few hours.

The north pool was very busy, with the main quarry, white-rumped sandpiper on show throughout the visit along with a good variety of waders - 25+ ruff, 10 black-tailed godwit, bar-tailed godwit, dunlin, ringed plover, redshank, lapwing, curlew, 3 little stint, snipe, 1 curlew sandpiper, some fly through sanderling and redshank.

A few pintail were amongst the teal and a single black tern occasionally came down in front of the viewing area.

From the edge of the reed bed the spotted crake continues to show intermittently, but the star of the visit was a suprise bittern that walked along the edge of the eastern shore, crossing the "crake bay".

Tried some digi-images to mixed results...

White-rumped Sandpiper

Black Tern

Fronts, feet, bits and a nun.

First stop up the coast was Woodhorn - a large flock of pink-feet contained a 1w white-front and a single barnacle. Further back, the grey-lag flock contained four Greenland white-fronts - assumed to be the returning birds.

Cresswell was fairly quiet, though a glimpse of the bittern was useful, if somewhat unsatisfactory.

The chip-stop at Amble was a joyous affair, while East Chevington eventually gave up the female smew - cryptically lurking on one of the distant islands on the north pool.

2010 - Review July - December

July 2010 was enlightened with a self-found Cramlington tick - a cracking hobby that ended up spending a week or so touring West Hartford, Arcot and probably Wallsend Swallow Pond. The image above was taken at Arcot, when the hobby spent and hour or so hawking insects over the pool. A cuckoo was also seen during the visit, my first in Cramlington since the early 1990s'!

The first part of August had been spent in Malaysia on a fantastic trip taking in Kuala Lumpur, the Cameron Highlands and Pangkor Laut. Many a good bird was seen, but it was upon my return when the star of August appeared - in the plain, unassuming form of syke's warbler at Hadston!

Another month, another tick - September provided what is probably destined to be my last UK newbie for 2010 ~  a distant sharp-tailed sandpiper in Cleveland. A bit of a quickie this one, with a quick visit prior to a late-shift at work. I managed to miss the good fall of September 2010, so I was lucky to be able to get the most significant bird of the month.

I visited Cleveland again in September to see the obliging woodchat shrike at Hartlepools' Croft Park...

October 2010 was great - with a steady stream of rare's brightening up the north east coast. I make no apology for another slice of the St Mary's red-flanked bluetail - a stunner!

So November came, dark nights descended on the north and birding became limited ~ Waxwing arrived in great numbers and a squacco heron spent it's last days on the unlikely setting of the River Wansbeck in Morpeth town centre. Bird of the month for me was the woodlark on Inner Farne. A tricky bird to catch up with in Northumberland, this was a county tick for most of the hardy souls who made the crossing at the end of November.

December arrived somewhat early this year ~ time flies and birding for me was very limited. The bittern at Cresswell is probably the highlight, tho I suspect there may be some more interesting species for me to see in the last few days...

Bitter(n)ly Cold

You ain't seen me, right!

I received a phone call from CB early on Saturday afternoon, he had arrived a chilly Cresswell Pond and found that the bittern was squatted low in cut reeds immediately in front of the hide. Too tempting to miss, I headed straight up. To my delight, the bittern had remained put ... and it continued to do so for the next 2 hours!

Amazingly camouflaged in the reeds, the bittern was very tricky to see with the naked eye - the bird was flat to the ground, and only occasionally moved its' head as it looked around.

As the light faded late in the afternoon, the bittern became more active (well, it lifted itself up a bit). High ISO had to be utilised (up to 1600) and exposure was down to 1/40th for the last image taken... Annoyingly the bittern never quite came out of cover, and the majority of images taken include the obligatory "reed in front of beak".

Nonetheless, it was great to be back out with the 500mm ... all images today were without the use of any extender ~ a quick scan through the RAW images seems to suggest that the repair has been successful. Phew!

Six whooper swan came into roost 9on the frozen expanse that is usually the pond), a water rail squealed behind the hide, and as we left, a barn owl was hunting over the dunes. Woodcock were seen in flight over the car on both journey to and from...

Pratincole on the list...

It was an early start today - departed at 04:20 and by 08:20 was pulling up to a windswept field in north-west Norfolk... just as the pager confirmed that the target bird was present.... black-winged pratincole.

Phew!

I'd sweated for a week (again working nightshift) hoping that this would stick... and it did. Always a relief when the journey is a bit longer than normal.

I've experienced bad dips before - the red-necked stint at in Cambridgshire stands out; as negative news was posted as we pulled into the car park - the journey back was painful... especially as pallas's grasshopper warbler was evidently available on Blakeney Point when we reached Doncaster! Anyhoo... I'd not seen BWP before, so it constitutes my second new UK bird of 2009.

The initial views of the bird were below average - the bird was distant and not doing much, pretty much just sitting on the ground, and the weather was dull, cold and windy. Chat was good with fellow birders - meeting old acquaintances met previously on Scilly, and more familiar faces from the North-east.

By 11:00 hunger had set in, so a trip to Titchwell RSPB was called for. A Cheese and ham toastie showed much better than the pratincole, although it did not linger... On the reserve itself a bittern was booming, 3+ marsh harrier patrolled the reedbeds, avocet and black-tailed godwit were plentiful and there were tonnes of swift!

Refreshed(ish) I headed in the direction of home (not holme!), with another stop at the pratincole site. The first person I saw was Adrian Allen, another Northumberland birder... who more sensibly was taking in the pratincole as part of a holiday in East Anglia rather than a day trip from Northumberland!

By now the sun was shining - and what a difference this made to the bird - now more active, running short lengths across the ploughed field, stopping and standing "to attention", bobbing it's head frantically, and better still - flying! What a cracking family pratincoles are - like over sized swallows! We were treated to one very close fly-over, with the pratincole calling to make sure we knew it was there! Many photographs were taken, one of which is presented here...

The journey back was tedious - part of the A1 was closed south of Retford - 2 hours were spent in a traffic jam - boo!

The downside of twitching - journey back + traffic jam...

Barn Owl & Bittern

I finished work by two this afternoon, so after a quick cup of coffee and a change of clothes I headed north to Druridge Bay.

Druridge Pool was quiet, although I did bump into a chap who had just seen a bittern fly south along the ditch near the budge screen. Cresswell Pond was more productive, with three whooper swan in fields to the north of the pool, a barn owl hunting over the dunes, water rail on the pool edge and a quick view of bittern dropping into the reeds near to the hide at dusk (how many bittern are in the bay this winter?). Coupled with some chat with AC (essential travel tips) and BB, a very nice afternoon was had.

For the photo-buffs out there, all images of the barn owl were taken at dusk with a Canon 1DIII & 500mm IS, handheld @ ISO1000... Still lovin' that camera...!

Snow & Bitter(n)

Spent a couple of hours in the Cresswell area on this dull and cloudy afternoon. The drive from home to the pond was good - I managed to bump into the snow goose (not literally) just north of Linton - now associating with a couple of thousand pink-footed geese. A bit too distant for photographs, so I headed on.

At Cresswell it didn't take too long for a bittern to show, albeit briefly, in the north reeds. Frustrated at last weeks efforts I decided to walk along the road and chance a flight shot. The stonechat above was photographed by the pond outlet. A little over an hour later the bittern did fly - but frustratingly for me, across the pool to the reeds to the west of the hide. Further to the frustration, I could not get the camera to lock focus on the bird... many expletives followed! Meanwhile the pink-footed geese flew over - a great spectacle, enhanced by the presence of the snow goose - picked out as they landed in fields west of Bells' Pond.

Thinking it was all over, I headed back the car. A chance look up and across the pool found me scrambling to put the tripod down and get the camera switched on - the bittern had took flight again... and was heading straight for me! Indeed, the bittern flew straight past and dumped itself into the reeds to the east of the hide. Great viewing despite the very poor light.

Two bitterns and two owls

It was a lovely bright winter day today so I embarked on a trip up to Cresswell after lunch. 1 waxwing over the road at Ellington was a good start but I didn't manage to locate the snow goose south of Druridge (I drove past the area 10 minutes after it had been reported with pink-footed geese).

Pretty much the first bird seen at Cresswell Pond was a bittern! Feeding along the edge of the reeds at the north-eastern edge of the water - too distant for photographs but very good prolonged views. Water rail were squealing frequently and there were healthy numbers of lapwing, golden plover, teal and wigeon. The Druridge pink-feet did a fly-over after a micro-lite had disturbed them, but still no sign of the snow goose.

As the afternoon progressed and the light faded a single barn owl was out hunting over the dunes - Cresswell has a good track record for this species and they're always nice to watch. A quick qlance across to the south east corner of the pool revealed a second bittern - standing out on the reed edge! A quick jump up to the camera provided 4 record shots to be taken, none of which are much good as I'd taken the convertor off earlier and the light was fading rapidly (excuses, excuses) ... oh, and the buff brown toned plumage blends in quite well with phragmites reedbed!!

Heading back to the car I recieved a text from Steve Holliday - he was watching a short-eared owl at West Hartford, and more grippingly for WH regulars - water rail. SH had also had iceland gull and snow bunting at Blyth - so my plans for tomorrow are developing nicely.

After packing up the camera/tripod I decided to drive up to the northern car park to have another quick look at the barn owl - which flew less than 10m past the car - brilliant! With the success of the afternoon in mind I decided to pop into West Hartford, arriving at 16:15 in virtual darkness but just in time to catch glimpse of the SEO - only the second this autumn/winter so far - no sight or sound of the water rail but hopefully it will stick for the winter.