Numbers three and four

OK, so these two photos are not quite up to the standard of the last lot I posted, but that's due to the two bird theory which I'm sure you've heard about. Not the two bird theory where you make a complete howler and then say "oh, that's not the bird". Nor the one where you miss a rarity but somehow see another. No, this is the one where both birds look at you, and then at each other as if to ask "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" and then fly off miles away. It's a well known fact that single birds are easy to photograph, whereas when they have company they're utter pigs. Pigs that fly though of course, and often some distance. So it was with these two, numbers three and four for the patch this year, and I got my ass handed to me.

That was the story of yesterday, along with my first Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Swallow and Buzzard. Today was even more fun, with my first patch Rook since 2009, an event so exciting I failed to photograph it, and then a Peregrine. Sadly I was at the park with the kids when the Red Kite went through, but such is life. This flurry of activity sees me hit the dizzy heights of 72 for the year. I am definitely a laggard, as in addition to Nick who is determined to see everything, both Bob and Dan seem to be on a bit of a mission too. Indeed the Rook was a full fat patch tick for Bob, which sees him overtake me in the local listing rankings (all six of us....). And while he still has a bevvy of absolute sitters still to see like Green and Wood Sandpipers, I need to somehow claw back Pallas's Sandgrouse (1863), and Archaeopteryx. Anyhow, must dash, there is more Florida to sort out.

I was able to prove how cool I was by calling out a 787-9 from the vizmig point, Virgin's G-VNEW (which indeed it is)

A different perspective

I've popped this on the WansteadBirding blog too as it's a lot more topical, but here's a rare view of the patch from the air. I was on one of my ridiculously unnecessary flights back from Florida this week, and the plane out of City Airport banked right over Wanstead as it headed off towards Dublin. You could pick out almost every feature of the place, individual spots. As I looked out of the window I was listing them - Stone Curlew there and there, Lapland Bunting there, Slav there, Goosanders there there and there, White-fronted Goose there, and so and and so forth. I traced my normal route, I marveled at just quite how large it is and how we need a lot more coverage and that it's amazing we find anything at all. Now of course all this would be less meaningful without a photo but luckily I managed to get a snap out of the window with my tablet, and it has come out remarkably well.

A weekend in Florida - part 1

Logistics

·        A three day trip in late March (28^th – 30^th) with the sole aim of photographing extremely tame Herons, Egrets and Waders, as well as taking in a bit of early migration. I had wanted to go to Florida for a long time, as I greatly admire the bird photography of Arthur Morris, and this is his patch so to speak. I wasn't disappointed, and I now see in part why his photos are so spectacular. It was however rather busy as I had not realised it was Spring Break in the US, which meant that the population of every State east of the Rockies and north of Georgia had gotten in their cars and driven to Florida....

·        An extremely complex and stupid routing whereby I took nine flights when I could have taken just two in order to benefit from a sale fare out of Dublin. I quite like flying, but still. It also gave me an afternoon in NYC to see a suite of different birds, followed by an overnight flight back to London City Airport and straight into work. Zero jet-lag at any point, which was a bit of a result.

·        Car hire via Avis was a lovely Ford Fusion, very comfy and a nice big back seat for me to sleep on.

·        I did skimp on the hotels somewhat, with just one night booked on the Saturday at Estero Beach. Good thing I had booked as it was rammo everywhere. On Friday and Sunday nights I just slept in the car wherever I was, and showered in the various airports I visited.
·      Used my phone for navigation but this wasn't necessary really, everything was well signed.

·        Research was fairly brief due to lack of time, but as it was just me that didn't really matter. I used Artie's SW Florida site guide, and followed my nose. There were birds everywhere.

Laughing Gull at Estero Beach

Itinerary

Day 1: Flight arrived at Miami via NY at about 11pm, and I was on the road very quickly. I slept in the Everglades for a few hours and was at Ding Darling Reserve on Sanibel Island for dawn and spent the morning there. Midday at Blind Pass Beach, the afternoon at Sanibel Fishing Pier, and then the late afternoon session at Little Estero Lagoon.

Day 2: Dawn and all morning at Little Estero, Cape Coral in the afternoon, and Placida for the rest of the day.

Day 3: Early morning flight from Orlando to NY via Miami gave me four hours in Central Park, and an opportunity to buy some new clothes as most of mine are falling apart.

Main Sites I went to

Ding Darling NWR - a fantastic wetland reserve, though not that good for photography as many of the birds were too far out. You drive a one-way loop, stopping as you like.

Blind Pass Beach - between Sanibel and Capitiva, good for roosting waders though my timing was poor.

Sanibel Fishing Pier- incredibly tame Egrets hang around waiting for handouts. Good migrant scrub.

Little Estero Lagoon - a series of lagoons between Fort Myers Beach and the strip of hotels, fabulously tame birds.

Estero Beach - plenty of roosting waders

Cape Coral - Burrowing Owls!

Placida Fish Restaurant - Ospreys and Pelicans, with plenty of decent scrub to find migrants in.

American White Ibis

Day by day account

Day 1
After sleeping in the Everglades and a decent breakfast at all-night diner near Fort Myers, I found myself at the gates of the fabled J.N. "Ding" Darling  National Wildlife Refuge. This is a place that I have known about for many years, but never had the opportunity to go. To say I was excited doesn't do the word justice. It doesn't open until 7.30am (and be aware it's closed on Fridays), but I was first in the queue and that's about the time it gets light anyway so not a problem. Once the gates opened it's simply a question of paying your $5 and then walking or driving the four mile loop trail. Being in America, I chose to drive it, as did almost everyone. There are huge pools each side, and they were teeming with birds. Willet, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Pelicans, the list goes on and on. Not a great deal was close enough in for the camera but I didn't care. It was fabulous, and supposedly is a shadow of its former glory. All I can say is "wow", it was phenomenal. For starters it was teeming with fish, jumping out of the water, flurries, shoals - the Egrets were having a field day. Bigger fish too, Ospreys catching enormous great things with ease. It was just first class habitat. The Spoonbills were sadly right at the back, and indeed although I saw several birds over the weekend, they were always the furthest away. I'll have to go back - shame.

Tricolored Heron

I drove the loop a few times, seeing new birds each time, including a decent selection of Warblers - Parula, Black and White, and Palm. A pole nest had an Osprey with nearly fully-grown young, and overhead an Anhinga zipped past. Gradually it became busier, and once it had got to the point where I had to identify birds for groups of geriatric US birders it was time to move on. I left the loop for the final time and turned off to the right, towards Captiva. I stopped at Blind Pass beach, which is where Sanibel joins Captiva, and spent literally 45 minutes getting parked - the place was heaving. I knew, as I finally headed off down the beach, that it wasn't going to be great and so it proved. Way too many people - I found three Willet, all of which were repeatedly flushed to buggery by all manner of human activity, and try as I might there was no spot on the beach which was empty. So much for my Skimmers and Terns, so I headed back to the car and back towards the Sanibel Lighthouse.

Once again it was nearly impossible to get parked, and the place was rammed. The fishing pier did have the incredibly tame Egrets that I had heard about, but with so many people around I wasn't feeling the love so I just did a bit of casual birding - the usual fare really, though a Frigatebird was pretty cool, and the only one I saw all weekend, as was a Lesser Black-backed Gull.

I got stuck in a huge jam on the way back to Estero/Fort Myers Beach, my base for the evening, but eventually found Little Estero Lagoon. A gem of a place, a bit mucky, but with the muck and the slime came fewer people - hurrah! More incredibly tame birds, including a Reddish Egret, a bird I'd been hoping to see for its amazingly fishing style, a skipping, dancing, hopping chase through the shallows. None of this slow stalking, it was all that and more, incredible, and the photos don't do it justice. There was a Palm Warbler sat on the sand, and I did a bit of wader photography on the beach that was so enjoyable I decided that I would start here again tomorrow. The other choice had been the Venice Rookery, but that was nearly a two hour drive and after my back seat slumber I needed some proper rest. 

A welcome shower, dinner at a great seafood grill, a couple of beers and a good old-fashioned deleting session saw the evening out. Camera ready by the door, what would the next day bring?

Given up already?

Can it be said that after the first Wheatear of the year it is all downhill? Of course not, but I did temporarily abandon the patch for some sunshine and some different birds. Variety is the spice of life, although I recommend you don't head to Florida if it's culture you're after. However if it's Herons and Waders, game on.

More, much more, to come in the following days, but I was remarkably productive in a very short space of time. Sleep, food, and personal hygiene were all deprioritised, and entirely minimal quantities of each sufficed. Lying in mud, sand and puddles, and seeing a shed load of amazing birds were however raised to the top of the agenda. And it was brilliant, as birding abroad always is. 

Wheatear Question

Question: How many Wheatear photos is too many Wheatear photos?
Answer: Nobody has any idea as we have never yet got to that point.

It was still there this morning and so this selection is specially for the Kent boys, who quite frankly need to up their game in the images of spring Wheatear stakes. They must have had loads, whereas we in Wanstead have had just one. We are however smashing it to bits on a daily basis. Hours have been devoted - we want that trophy from Steve G, and whilst not wishing to declare the contest over just yet, we feel we have a very strong chance indeed. Also, I have two blogs, and I'm putting them on the other one too.

The post we've all been waiting for...

Specifically this post here, and look what it has on it! I've been missing these guys for the last few months, and indeed missed them earlier this week when work got in the way of birding. This morning however I had the time, and who should I bump into but this little chap. Yes, the Wheatears are back. I've been eagerly following news from Portland and other coastal hotspots, and the initial trickle started a couple of weeks ago, but with no big build up as yet. Various London sites had singles, and Wanstead's turn came about mid-week. Not sure if this is the same bird or not, but on a cold March day it warmed the soul.

Priorities and how to get them completely wrong

As a nation we are failing to get our priorities right. This is a bold statement, but one that is very easily proven by the use of two very straightforward examples. One is national news, the other is not. In fact the very fact that the first is national news is yet more proof that the country we live in is immensely screwed up. It is that Jeremy Clarkson, the boorish host from Top Gear (if you do not know of it, it is a TV program about cars featuring three grown men doing mostly stupid things, and that appeals to people with the mental capacity of eleven year olds. And actual eleven year olds), has been suspended from the BBC for an altercation with a producer, and that the remainder of the current series has been scrapped. If you will pardon me for saying so, this is not news, or at least, not headline news, even though I did proclaim that there is not enough good news around just the other day. More telling is that fact that a petition for his reinstatement was immediately started and at the time of writing has garnered over 520,000 signatures. By contrast, Mark Avery’s petition to ban driven Grouse shooting has 21,212 signatures. As is stands, this means that nearly 25 times as many people would prefer that Clarkson, an outspoken, loutish and frankly rude-in-a-mildly-amusing-manner TV presenter, comes back to the show, than would like to see Hen Harriers quartering elegantly over English moorland from where they have been relentlessly eradicated by generations of criminal gamekeepers and their employers. How can this be even be possible?

Unfortunately Hen Harriers are not obnoxious and do not frequently antagonize and insult other countries and cultures. If they did they'd be a lot more popular and we might be able to preserve them.

Hen Harriers are awesome creatures, majestic. When you see one, as I have been lucky enough to on many occasions, though admittedly not in England in the summer, your spirit is lifted. Especially if it’s a male, slender with silvery wings tipped with black, gliding effortlessly along hedgerows and ridges. This experience is now really only available in winter, or in Scotland. I’ve said it before, but it is a complete travesty that so many areas of eminently suitable habitat are so sterile and lacking Hen Harriers. We all know why that is, but in case anyone isn’t clear, it’s because of money. Grouse Shooting is big business, and Hen Harriers might reduce the numbers of Grouse available to be shot, and thus the amount of money that can be earned. I know it sounds perverse, but that’s the way it is – people will actually kill one bird in order to protect another bird so that it can be killed later. And so for years gamekeepers, almost certainly with the full knowledge of the landowners, have quietly knobbled almost every single Hen Harrier nest in the entire country, along with many other birds of prey. Some no doubt fail for other reasons, weather, predation, sheer bad luck perhaps, but most are at the hand of man. The stats are incredible, hundreds of suitable territories, single figures of birds, four breeding pairs. It’s not right and it shouldn’t happen, but it does, and there is a massive lack of political willpower to do anything about it. There are reasons for that too, and they mainly have to do with cronyism and that the current set of politicians holding the reins of our dear country quite enjoy field sports, and in some cases own the land it happens on. Various people in conversation are doing a brilliant job to raise awareness, Hen Harrier Day for instance was a great success, but this morning the BBC have devoted more time to this Clarkson business than they ever gave to that Norfolk keeper clubbing a Goshawk. The coverage on my office TVs can only be described as blanket. And you can see why that is – only twenty thousand have signed the petition to ban driven Grouse Shooting, and half a million want Jeremy back on TV. As a media organization you pander to the masses, I can see that, but it is pathetic that more people care about what and who is on TV than care about wildlife. Though frankly if he was given his job back thus ending this hysterical coverage and limiting him to an hour a week, I might sign it too.

Which brings me to my next point, and one I care about possibly more than Hen Harriers – my local area. Wanstead Park is on the "At Risk" register. I assume this means it is at risk of having any value for wildlife completely eradicated, as there is now a management plan for it. The Corporation of London is working with a number of civil and citizen organisations to identify and prioritise opportunities for capital investment and potential changes in management. Now that would be all well and good if any of the plans were focused on wildlife and birds. They're not. They're focused on restoring 17th century landscapes and welcoming local people and visitors from further afield. Call me a thuggish boor, but I don't want local people and visitors. Local people are the problem, or some of them are. Those that let their dogs run out of control and shit everywhere. Those that dump tons of rotting bread on the sides of the lakes. Those that fish illegally. Those that sleep there and cause the management to cut back vegetation to prevent them doing so. I could go on. Instead let's look at a few of the various things on the table.

1D. Create a visitor hub. Includes a cafe. Great, might put the Little Tea-Shop of Happiness out of business and attract more people. FAIL

1E. Conserve the Grotto. The grotto is a stupid Victorian heap of rubble with no practical value whatsover. A folly for good reason, a complete waste of valuable money. Dynamite it I say. FAIL

1F. Reveal vista along Long Walk. Need I say more. The minute you say reveal what you actually mean is chop stuff down. This may mean restoring the various aspects that the original landowner could see from his enormous pile, but please, the house was sold brick by brick to pay his gambling debts. Not a single morsel stands, what will sweeping views achieve exactly other than less habitat? It's a bit like the Friends of Wanstead Parklands chopping down a lovely little copse that could have held nesting birds in order to reveal a few Bluebells. WILDLIFE FAIL

1G. Open up other views. See above. WILDLIFE FAIL

1H. Reveal Mansion site; selectively clear vegetation to open up views. See above, are you sensing a pattern? WILDLIFE FAIL

1J. Reveal the Fortifications. Selectively clear.......WILDLIFE FAIL

1K. Improve paths and access. Yup more people. More dogs. More litter. More noise. Did somebody say fewer birds? FAIL

1I. Reveal North Mount (Warren Wood) and South Mount (Chalet Wood). Reveal in the sense of chopping down parts of Warren Wood and Chalet Wood I suspect. Has the benefit of being able to carry out archaeological investigation. If you were thinking that this is all some kind of egotistical project from a bunch of history buffs, you might very well be right. WILDLIFE FAIL.

1L Improve all main entrances. Clear vegetation to, you guessed it, open up views. FFS. Sorry, I meant FAIL.

1Q Improve the integrity and appearance of the historic water bodies. Selectively clear vegetation to open up views. Views. We don't want bloody views, views are sterile. We want wildlife. FAIL

1R. Reveal islands in Perch Pond. Selectively clear.............AAAAARGHHHHH!!!!

1S. Management of the Plain. Selective removal of encroaching trees and scrub. SEE ABOVE.

1U. Improve links with the River Roding; selectively clear vegetation to open up views. FUCK OFF!!

As far as I can see there is one decent wildlife-friendly proposal, which is 1C. Restore Heronry Pond. Re-line pond to stop water leaks; restore channels and islands on southern edge and introduce new wetland and marginal habitats along edges of ponds and islands. SUCCESS.

Those are just some of the immediate priority ideas. There is a whole long list of longer-term priority items, 13 to be precise. Eight of them involve the words "selectively" or "clear", or in one case a more overt "push back woodland edge". And there are a further eight plans labelled as possible aspirations. Of these, four involve restoring views, and one is extending a car park all the way down to the norther edge of Heronry!! So there you have it, the future of Wanstead Park, sponsored by Stihl. Other makes of chainsaw are available. I don't know who's genius idea this is, but they're clearly obsessed with returning to the 1800s. Probably some decrepit history nut who remembers it 'back in the day' and whose grandmother once worked as a scullery maid in 'the big house'. Wanstead in 2015 is not about returning to the time of Jane Austen, admiring sweeping vistas that a long-gone palace had, it's about saving what little decent habitat is left. The priorities of this plan are massively wrong, and combined with the slash and burn tactics on the Flats, are a huge disappointment that we will all come to regret.