Birthday Boy !

I turned 50 something again today and thought I'd post a photo of the birthday cake my very clever daughter Adele baked me.

Another soaking for the "Boxer" boys !!

I think Wayne has said it all in his earlier post,whilst the weather stayed dry for the walk through the woods,along the causeway and out on to the saltmarsh true to form it started to rain as soon as we were able to get on the birds which initially were quite difficult to find. I haven't birded in such miserable conditions for a long time and daren't have got the camera out of it's bag until a lull of no more than 2 mins allowed me to get a few shots of the Buff breasted Sandpiper. I can't say that I'm particularly happy with the photos which will just go down as "record" shots. I did manage some good views of the Pectoral Sandpiper and the briefest of views of the White rumped through Rob Taylor's 'scope (cheers,nice one Rob !!) but the conditions were totally against photography. I seem to recall a similar morning up on Garreg Lwyd in the Black Mountains whilst looking for Dotterel several years ago which gave birth to the name of this blog and I'm sure that this won't be the last occasion either ! I'll just have to make sure that I use the new waterproof lens/camera cover that I invested in this week next time.

Grafham Water

I'd noticed on Birdguides the adult Sabines Gull and juvenile Grey Phalarope that had turned up at Grafham Water which is only 5 mins or so off the A14 not far from Huntingdon and an easy diversion. We called in on the way up to Norfolk but the weather was so wet that we didn't even get out of the car. I hoped all week that the two would stay around and that I could get them on our way back and both birds duly obliged. An added bonus was that they were both together near the dam wall only a 5 min walk from the car park and visitor centre. I left Teresa having a cuppa and soon found the birds which showed down to 6' !! The weather was too sunny and I had to dial in varying degrees of exposure compensation and the choppy water near the shore made the phalarope something of a challenge to photograph,still I was pleased with some of the photos that I managed to get.

Norfolk-Sept 2011

Having decided not to go abroad on holiday this year myself and Teresa enjoyed a week in a cottage at Cley. The weather was generally kind with very little rain although most days were quite windy which tended to keep the Beardies down in the reedbeds at both Titchwell and Cley and being south-westerly and not north-easterly was totally in the wrong direction. Rarities were very thin on the ground and September was probably the worst in many years for the county. I got out with the camera every day and did catch up with some nice birds,a feeding Sandwich Tern at Cley,Bearded Tit at Cley,Yellow Wagtail at Cley,Barn Swallow feeding late brood young at Cley,nice group of 7 Curlew Sandpipers at Cley,Common Sandpiper at Cley,Marsh Harrier coming in to roost and Barn Owl both near Burnham windmill. I also managed to get my first pics of Yellow legged Gull which in company with a Lesser black backed Gull provided a nice plummage comparison.

Weekend Wader Round-up

The TM notched up his 250 this summer, but he’s not one to rest on his laurels! And so it was, with a bunch of Nearctic waders settling in Glamorgan of all places, the Boxers headed west on Saturday for a mixed collection of ticks - Life, Wales and Glamorgan.

Naturally, it p*&%ed down for most of the morning, but nevertheless with some effort and perseverance we managed to connect with the Buff-breasted Sandpiper and one of the Pectoral Sandpipers. A Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper were added to the morning’s crop of wader treats.

Alas, despite a couple of possible glimpses we weren’t able to clinch the White-rumped Sandpiper. Will this be the TMs bogey bird for years to come? He’s missed two in Glamorgan now.

With Saturday’s news that the Gwent American Golden Plover had stayed for a second day, Sunday jobs were completed in record time, and a last minute trip for high-tide was possible. The TM and his Dad took little persuasion that West Usk Beach was a better place to be than the Scrub! We arrived at the Lighthouse Pub and set off east to see a trickle of satisfied birders returning. It was showing well, but had retreated a little as the tide encroached.

We arrived to find our CR in situ, who obliged with great scope views of the moulting adult. Tunnocks all round! The leggy plover remained until we left, and we ticked Curlew Sandpiper and Sanderling amongst the Dunlin and Ringed Plover flock.

A satisfying weekend, and the TM marches onwards to 300!

(Images of varying quality may be inserted by Randy Grouse and JJ Imaging).

Oh Dear!

Have a look at this. It's the trailer for the new 'The Big Year' movie (based on the book by Mark Obmascik of the same name). You'd never say it it anything at all to do with birding!! And what the hell has Steve Martin done to his face?!? (By the way, when you click on it you will go go a pre-trailer trailer for a completely different film . . . only last about 15secs)

250 for The Twitchmeister

Geth (aka The Twitchmeister) reached a birding milestone today. An Arctic Skua flying past Porthcawl during a seawatch this morning was his 250th UK tick.

Unfortunately for all present at the seawatch this particular Arctic Skua was nowhere near as close to us as the one which Jeff saw yesterday at Ogmore (see images in blog below).

Also unfortunate for all present was the fact that they had chosen to seawatch in Glamorgan.

I can honestly say that there were more birders seawatching (Jeff Slocombe, Martin Bell, Martin Bevan, Phil Hill, Colin Gittins, Peter Morgan, Paul Tabor, Geth and me) than there were birds actually seen out at sea. But of course, seawatching at the Public Shelter in Porthcawl has one thing that Porthgwarra or Strumble Head don't offer - the background whiff of sewage from Welsh Water's Irongate Pumping Station.

Nevertheless, a historic day for the boy birder no matter what the surroundings.

Arctic Skua:Ogmore Estuary

Myself and Peter Morgan popped down to Ogmore late morning today in the hope of catching up with the recently found Little Stint in better light than I had managed to photograph it on Thursday evening. We walked the riverbank down river from Portbello Island but the stint was nowhere to be seen,a migrating Wheatear posed at a distance but was flighty and some loafing Cormorants provided a nice photo opportunity. We decided to have a look a little further up river and after crossing under the bridge to the sewage works we picked up a nice Little Egret in flight which provided a brief photo opportunity.

As we got back to Portobello House and the car to make our way home the 200-300 roosting gulls all took flight in mad panic and in amongst them causing havoc was a juvenile Arctic Skua !!

Peter managed a few shots but I couldn't get on the bird with my camera before the skua and gulls all disappeared down river towards the rivermouth.

We jumped in my Jeep and followed picking up the skua from the west end of the main car park overlooking the rivermouth,it was still terrorizing the gulls and was chasing a Black-headed Gull in particular.

We dashed down the slipway and both managed some record shots of this superb unexpected bird.What a bonus after a very quiet couple of hours when the only other two birds of note were a pair of Common Sandpipers,just goes to show how unpredictable birding can be.