A tale of two halves

Home: Wanstead
Up at 5.45, on the Flats by half six. Four hours later and I was wet, cold, and had seen just a single Swallow. And a topless woman who was bizarrely trying to change her clothes behind a bramble. Sheltered from the road, yes. Sheltered from an active London patch in mid April, no. It wasn't pleasant, it was just weird, but I suppose it was different, and a patch tick to boot. After such a great morning on Friday, when not only did I find a male Ring Ouzel but also saw my first Sand Martin and Yellow Wagtail of the year, a number of us were very excited about Saturday morning, especially with the prospect of early morning rain. In the event the rain didn't materialise until mid-morning, and Wanstead was more or less a bird free zone. I abandoned the patch as the rain got heavier, and when the sun came out gave it another go. This time I saw one fewer Swallow, and two fewer other things. I was on the way home when Bradders rang.

Away: Hampshire
A Greater Yellowlegs had turned up at Titchfield Haven. Interesting.....would it stick, and more crucially, it was it a real one. People may remember that Greater Yellowlegs Greenshank is a species that has caused me a little bit of angst in the past, but I am now older, wiser, and far more circumspect. Any reports of this species need to be thoroughly checked out, researched, critical questions asked..... Wooooo! A tick! So I said to Bradders that we should go, and immediately. He agreed, and guessing that might be my response, in fact just happened to be in the car and on the way to my place already, so it really was quite convenient that I wanted to go. To cut a long story short, the drive was easy (for me as the passenger), the bird showed instantly and amazingly upon arrival, and was flushed by a Sparrowhawk and flew off miles away about half an hour after we got there. In other words an exemplary twitch in all respects, the brick wasn't even needed. Twitching a Greenshank is still one of my most amusing birding failures, but nonetheless it's good to finally get this one. Especially after the long-staying bird at Strathbeg left a couple of days before I was due to go for it.

Fossil hunting!

At the weekend I was nearly a top Wanstead lister, joint on 140 with Bob. By Monday I had been relegated to third place by a Rook, and was stupid enough to then mention in print that Bob still needed Green Sandpiper. Well that was a clever move, because guess what, he doesn't any more....Talk about hero to zero, in the space of a few days I'm adrift by two species, with the prospect of more to come. Two species is the number of patch ticks I got in the whole of 2014! Anyway, the point is that the stupid Wanstead Park development plans might not be so stupid after all. Proposal 1I, if you recall, was to chop down some woodland in order to reveal a couple of small pointless mounds and carry out an archaeological dig. I scoffed at the time that this was a silly and pompously grandiose project designed only to satisfy 2.3 local history buffs, but now I find myself a firm backer. It might require a slight change to patch listing rules, but all those species that Bob has seen and none of the rest of us have could be revealed in the local fossil record! So a trowel and a brush have been ordered, Tony Robinson is on his way, and I'm going to break out my Tilley Hat as we remove the first layer.

Grip back

Seriously, many congrats to Bob on his latest addition, he and I both know that you can't beat a good patch tick, it's part of what keeps us going. And in his case that's been a very long time indeed ;-)

Galleries

I managed to spend some time over the long weekend sorting out all the image files from Florida, and rather than post them all on here ad infinitum - this is a blog about Wanstead after all - I thought I'd just take a screenshot and post a link. If you follow it you will get lots and lots of photos of Waders, Herons, Owls, Ospreys, and even Gulls. If you don't, you won't, so it's all pretty simple and binary. Click for bird photos, hit your back button for whatever it was you were looking at before this. I can heartily recommend the former, but in all good conscience am not able to comment on the latter, though if it was via a link from somebody else's blog it is likely to be a better option. Sorry, I mean WTF, you mean you read other blogs? Pfffffff.

A weekend in Florida - part 2

Day 2
An advantage of staying local mean an extra hour and a half in bed, which I gratefully took. Nonetheless, I was up before the dawn and off to Little Estero Lagoon, only a mile or so away on foot. I wanted to start at the eastern end so that I could walk the whole length of it with the sun behind me, and in contrast to the previous day, it looked like it was going to be fabulous. Although there wasn't the magical sunrise I had been hoping for, after a while the light was simply fantastic. Now I know why Arthur Morris has such an amazing back catalogue. OK, so there might be an element of skill in there too, but with such incredible light and such cooperative subjects, I honestly believe it wouldn't be possible to take anything other than a decent photo. So if you hate the ones that follow, all I can do is apologise.

The beach was busier than I was hoping, mainly shell collectors who appeared not to notice me lying on the beach, and were more than content to flush every single bird I was photographing, but I was in a good mood and let it lie. These, afterall, are my countrymen, and in any event the birds soon settled only a short distance away. Grey Plover, Wilson's Plover, Sanderling, more Herons and Egrets. Fantastic, and I ended up spending a good few hours there before returning for a great breakfast at a local grill. Wet and covered in sand I probably didn't look the greatest, but my dumb and contented smile probably let me in. Lots of coffee, lots of fresh orange juice.

I had a quick shower back at my hotel before checking out, and with the light quite harsh drove up to Cape Coral, mostly in a large traffic jam. Once finally there, I drove around the streets using my previously marked-up map looking for Burrowing Owl nests. They're usually marked by PVC posts sticking out of the ground and a wooden t-bar (for perching). Admittedly it wasn't the greatest time of day for it, but I managed to find two occupied burrows in different parts of the town. The harsh light meant that their eyes are really shaded but what can you do? Basically every place I went to I would have wanted to have been there at dawn, or at sunset, but on a two day trip that's a little challenging.

After doing as much as I felt I could with the Owls without staying until the late afternoon, I went a little further north to Placida, another location that seemed very promising. Specifically I went to the little pensinsula adjacent to the Boca Grande causeway. In actual fact it wasn't that great, or at least it didn't have all the Pelicans I was expecting. So instead I went birding for a little while, picking up a stonking male Hooded Warbler, before finding a fabulous Green Heron fishing from a mooring line. Getting a decent angle was tough, but I got there in the end after the bird swapped perches.It was able to extend fully vertically from the rope to the surface of the water, hanging there like a bat, quite incredible to witness!

When the sun finally went down I grabbed a few slow-exposure Osprey shots and then had a wonderful seafood dinner at the nearby Fisheries restaurant, complete with a couple of ice-cold and alcohol-free beers. Life is good. And then I hit the road up to Orlando, punctuated by another restful sleep on the back seat, ready for my early morning flight back home. Via NYC, so more photos to come! In summary, if you're stupid enough, Florida makes a pretty damn fun weekend away!

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?