Another morning on the patch

We're all as keen as mustard at the moment, hordes of us out on the Flats every day at dawn. Today wasn't quite the day as yesterday, but how could it be? A Yellowhammer was about the best of it, though the day started with yet another Ring Ouzel. Or the same one, I have no idea, they all look very similar. I've seen somewhere between four and six in the last week, depending on whether you count each daily sighting as a new bird or not. Always early, and always vanishing sadly. Couldn't even get a photo of this morning's one, it was flightier than a Great Blue Heron. I think I'm on about 80 for the year, with a pile of winter species missed, so it's not going too badly really. Oh, and there was another Wheatear. It would be rude not to share it.

Halycon Days

I confess to loving patch birding. At this time of year. I've been out early every day for the last couple of weeks and it has been building and building. Whether any future day this year will top today is another question, but the patch is on fire. Today was exceptionally good, though it took a while to warm up. As has been the norm for every day this week, I met up with Dan, Nick, Bob and Marco on the patch, as well as Barry (hereafter known as "Hero") who has been coming over now that it has got good. We wandered around not seeing a huge amount, though a couple of Wheatears and Swallows made themselves known, as did the year's first Whitethroat. As we meandered around the Pub Scrub we got a message from Tim (hereafter known as "Legend"), surveying in the Old Sewage Works like wot a proper birder does, saying that he had a reeling Grasshopper Warbler near the allotments. Marco, being the proud possessor of transportation, showed his true colours and cycled off immediately. He did ask to be fair, but for myself, Dan and Nick it was a longer slog over there. As we neared the OSW, a message came through from Hero, who had a Red-legged Partridge near the Vizmig Point. Whaaaaat!!!!! Two patch lifers at opposite ends of the site! The Gropper a massive gripback from Nick, the Partridge an even massive-er gripback from Bob! What to do? Charge around like nutters basically.

The Gropper had apparently reeled for quite a few minutes when Legend had found it, but was now only doing the occasional burst, but that was enough. We soon located it in a bramble where it gave killer if brief views, and without Bob present! I then hoofed it back over towards the Flats for the Partridge, but unfortunately Hero hadn't stuck with it and in the brief time I had I couldn't find it - it was probably in the long grass somewhere. Nervously departing from the patch, it was no surprise when the boys sauntered over some time later, and laden with armfuls of paninis and litres of coffee managed to pluck it out in roughly the same place. I meanwhile put in a fulfilling day at work, but managed to leave at a vaguely sensible time to give it another crack, tweeting a request that all able-bodied patch-workers join me so that I had the best possible chance. A short wander around the Skylark area produced zip (although every Mistle Thrush got the blood racing!), but an inspired decision to try the Alex scrub found me come face to face with it pottering around under a goalpost on the main playing fields - it had stayed all day! Having fallen two behind Bob in as many days, this was almost karmic. It didn't last of course, as Bob was in the OSW reeling me in (did you see what I did there?), but still, it's a big grip back on the boys at the top, and it came out of nowhere. Bob and Dan joined me marvelling at the Partridge, still feeding in the open, and I dashed home to get a camera as the light was fantastic - I actually jogged and it really hurt, so I drove back. Happily the bird was still there, as was James, albeit briefly as he was off to the Gropper. I threw gear all over the place but swiftly put the kit together and got a couple of low shots before the light went - a sublime finish to the day. I've had a celebratory beer now, but remain incredulous at how today has panned out. When patch birding is good, it can be totally exhilarating!

The best way to see Lady A

Well it ended up being a two tick weekend. After successfully getting from London to Southampton within the four hours that the Greater Yellowlegs was present (skillful stuff this twitching lark), the next day I bagged the last Lady Amherst’s Pheasant in Beds. Heard only, but what a stunner! The delicate coughing noise it made was like the sweetest music you can imagine. Much like Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Lady A’s is a bird that is much better heard than seen – especially the gaudy male. If you see it, it’s basically confirmation that it’s completely plastic, I mean no real birds actually look like that. No, thankfully this one remained hidden in a thicket for the entire four hours of my vigil, making its presence known frequently and often. Each time it squawked I crossed my fingers it wouldn’t be closer, wouldn’t be about to cross the open ride, but fortunately it remained faithful to a part of the wood that nobody could see for the entire time. Some brief trepidation when a birder stood a bit further back and higher up called it, but I managed to convince myself that I was only seeing a Wood Pigeon perched in a tree, so avoided that particular pitfall. Others weren’t so lucky and have deluded themselves out of a tick, whereas mine remains as pure as the driven snow. Yet more people were unlucky enough to have it strut into the open a few hours later, and then again at last knockings, but I’d left by then, thrilled by the whole experience of not seeing the bird through a wire fence but having it call every two minutes from somewhere nearby. So a hugely profitable weekend. Had it been the other way around, and the Greaterlegs been heard only and I’d seen the Pheasant, I’d be looking at a total write off - a bird that sounded like a Greenshank and a bird so fantastically colourful it couldn’t possibly be genuine. As it was, it was a complete tick fest from start to finish. I love it when a plan comes together.

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!