My bird of the year

Pegsdon Hills from the top

 

I hadn't visted Pegsdon Hills for a good few months since Saturday. It is one of my favourite places to go birding in autumn in Beds - it just has that air of something good always just around the corner. Over the years I've never found anything really special on the hills - the best I've managed have been a few Pied Flies, Merlin, and a Goshawk but nothing that really gets the heart pumping. In early September I'm really just looking for a Redstart or perhaps another Pied Fly, and half-expecting a Tree Pipit to fly over - its that sort of place.

So on Saturday morning I did my usual circuit - get up early and go straight to the few bushes around the trig point. I always start here as it often gets disturbed soon after dawn and I don't think the few bushes really hold birds very long. If you are lucky you may get a Whinchat or Tree Pipit on the fenceline below, or, more usually, some Wheatears on the south side where the rabbit warren is - and that's all I got on this morning - five Wheatears chasing each other around. They are always nice to see, so I spent a little while getting some digiscoped shots of one of them. I eventually tear my self away to have another quick look around the trig point bushes again - still quiet - so I amble westwards towards the middle valleys.

One of the five Wheatears near the trig point

The bushes were very quiet as I pass the terraces and the incessant mewing of a juvenile Common Buzzard came from the woodland in the middle of the site. A few Yellow Wags had gone over but precious little else - I'd not even seen a Red Kite so far this morning.

I began to wander down to the bottom of the hill, I could hear a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps on the opposite side of the valley I was on - a Whitethroat called too. I could see Andy Grimsey looking through the same mixed flock from the other side so I decided to head down to meet him.

We met in the bottom of the valley and stood looking up at the thick Elder bushes oppsite. They held a lot of birds - but mostly Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs, Long-tailed Tits and Blue Tits. We kept looking through the flock just in case it held something more exciting. After a while I noticed a Red Kite off to the left. What appeared to be a Common Buzzard was with it. I casually glanced at the birds through my bins, not really expecting to see anything out of the ordinary. The buzzard looked unusually dark. I quickly swapped to my scope. This was interesting. A very dark plumaged Buzzard, but with a stonkingly yellow cere! It had to be a Honey Buzzard! I made my conclusion know to Andy who was already watching the bird through his bins.

The views were great - no, better than great - outstanding for a Honey Buzzard! It was just a hundred meters away circling with the kite, in brilliant sunshine. Time to get the camera out. Both Andy and I began to fumble around for our cameras - Andy with his bridge camera, and I with my digiscoping kit. As luck would have it it headed our way and circled by itself just to the north of our position, before going in active flight off to our east and way past the trees - fan-bloody-tastic! I even had a little leap for joy.

Crippling Honey Buzzard views - real bird porn!

I even managed some video!

Success!

I popped in to check the terns on Derek's tonight and was delighted to find two of these dudes on the pit - Black Terns.  Until today I'd struggled to get flight shots with my GX7, but a spark last night meant that I decided to ignore the EVF and use a magnified viewer over my screen instead.  It seemed to do the trick - several decent keepers amongst the few hundred shots I took - a better rate than simply using the EVF.

Digiscoped with a Panasonic GX7, 20mm f1.7, Kowa 883, 25-60x.

Cetti's in the open!

This was so good I just had to write a post about it!  A Cetti's Warbler - digiscoped!  Broom's first Cetti's was only last october and now we currently have two birds singing around the site.  This was the first time I've really seen either of them well.  I just couldn't believe my luck when this bird paused in a flowering blackthorn just a few meters from me.  I had just enough time to rattle off about ten shots before it scuttled away again - this is about the best shot I managed.  Brilliant!

Panasonic GX7, 20mm f1.7 lens, Kowa 884, 25-60x eyepiece.

Penduline Tits

Sorry for not letting everybody know about these birds at Broom.  They were in a part we probably shouldn't have been on and which just wouldn't have coped with more than a trickle of birders.  Isn't it lucky we had that obliging bird at Priory CP late last year!  It's just a shame one certain birder has thrown his toys out of the pram for not knowing the instant these birds were found.  Can you guess who it is?

The Wood Storks eye

This is perhaps my favorite shot from Florida earlier this year.  I just can't stop looking at that eye!  I have to admit though, I've processed the image poorly, so I may go back and have another go at it sometime.

Wood Stork, Gatorland, Florida, January 2015.  Digiscoped with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD and 25-50x eyepiece.

Spotting flycatchers

Summer is here.  Or at least the Spotted Flies are back.  This year I've been fortunate to have a pair appear just behind my house - certainly not a bird I ever expected to have from my garden in the house I am currently in!  These birds aren't those, but they were taken not too far away.  They are a fantastic bird to practice taking images of.  The Panasonic GX7 really pulls out more detail than I have ever experienced from a digiscoping camera - I am exceptionally pleased with it.  So if anyone is dithering about what new digiscoping camera to get, look at one of these and the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens - awesome!

I love a good owl

Lovely views of this Barn Owl this evening near Cardington.  I was hoping for some flight shots but these will do.

And another weird chiffy

Another interesting Chiffchaff.  This one was at Broom GP.  I initially saw two birds in the willows - one dingy grey collybita type which was calling constantly, and then this bird.  I hadn't noticed it until I tried playing tristis song at the collybita bird (just to see if it would react more than anything else), and this bird popped out from the bottom of some willows and started flapping its wings and bouncing around the branches above me.  Unfortunately this bird remained silent throughout.

Plumage wise this is an odd bird.  From a distance it looks buffy and brown, with the only real green around the wings and tail.  Up close the green is much more evident, especially around the mantle, flanks and in the supercillium.  The two chiffchaffs in this clump also act differently - the collybita is often much higher up in the top third of the willows, but this bird is usually at the very bottom - usually in the bottom two feet, just above the water.

To say that chiffchaffs do my head in is an understatement!  As others have said, its redpolls all over again...

Another Sibe Chiff

At the same time I found the 'other' Siberian Chiffchaff at Marston Sewage Works I also came across this bird.  It is distinctly different - its more beige and buff in colouration, without the greyness of the other bird.  The wings and tail, although tinged green, aren't nearly as bright as the other bird, and it also has a light wingbar.  This bird is also much more confiding and spends more time in low vegetation.  It has also been silent on every visit - or at least I haven't seen it call, or been close enough when it has.

On close inspection there is some yellow in its plumage - however this is only visible in the images above.  None of this yellow was visible in the field.

More shots of this bird by Neil Wright can be found on the BedsBirds blog here.

So, should both birds be labelled 'tristis'?  One bird looks good but hasn't called, and the other bird looks good (but more contrasting) and has a slightly strange call. Hmmmm.

Dartie

Wonderful little birds - Dartford Warblers.  Even better when you can see them just a few miles away from home.

That Chiffchaff again

I bumped in to that Sibe Chiff again today - it really is a looker.  Still doesn't sound quite right though...

There are more shots of this bird by Mike Lawrence on the BedsBirds blog here.

Iffy Chiffy

Looks ok for tristis, doesn't it.  Its a nice shade of grey-brown, with green restricted to the wings and tail.  That's all well and good, but now listen to it...



It's not the 'classic' tristis peep.  It sounds a lot more like a collybita.  I wonder, what do grey abietinus sound like?  Do they exist?  And if they do exist, would they look and sound like this?

There is currently an interesting discussion on the Surfbirds forum of a similar bird from Sweden.  The video shows a grey tristis type chiffchaff calling like a collybita.  The thread can be found here.

Casper the Gypsy

I like a good Caspian Gull.  This was a nice surprise on Gypsy Lane East (Broom GP) this afternoon.  Although we usually have a good autumn gull roost, Caspo's are still pretty rare beasts.  It's only my second Caspian Gull in Beds this year, and the previous year was a blank!

Lapo

A few shots of an obliging Lapwing at Broom GP today.  Great birds with one of the best calls around!  They even have eyes in the back of their head...

Digiscoped with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD, and 20x eyepiece.

Cyprus in March

A few images from two weeks in west Cyprus in March 2013.  All digiscopd with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD and 20x eyepiece.

Cypriot Yellow Wags

Cyprus in March is a great time to watch early season migration.  The Yellow Wagtails were especially impressive with a huge variety on show.  The commonest was Black-headed (feldegg) with a good smattering of Blue-headeds (presumably flava rather than beema), and Grey-headeds (thumbergi).

There were also a bewildering variety of presumed hybrids and integrades.  The more you looked at the wagtails on show the more your head melted with the sheer assortment of shades, colours, and patterns on offer.

Digiscoped with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD, 20x eyepiece, and cobbled-together adapter.

Some Owls

Little Owl

Tawny Owl

I've done a bit of 'Owling'  in the last few weeks.  These are the best of my efforts so far this winter.  Both were taken within 100 meters of each other on the same evening.  They were digiscoped with a Nikon V1, Swarovski ATS 80 HD, and 20-60x eyepiece.  They're not the sharpest shots ever, but were taken without flash on a windy night, so fairly pleasing.

Kite delight

Red Kite near Southill

These things are now pretty widespread around Bedfordshire.  However there are still pricks who go out and try to poison them - take a look at the Hexton incident.  That link is particularly galling as Red Kites were becoming a wonderful feature of nearby Pegsdon Hills; one of my favourite places to go birding locally.  Both kites and Ravens were slowly getting harder to see around the hills and now we know why.  Really makes my blood boil!

Rumper

I had a quick trip up to Grafham Water this morning to see this lovely Red-rumped Swallow.  When I first arrived I couldn't see any birders or the bird.  A quick walk on to the dam and something flicked up from my feet - the swallow!  It flew around for a while and landed no more than around 8 feet from me.  It gave stunning views for around four minutes until a blundering cyclist came along to within a few inches of it and it flew off towards Plummer car park.  Luckily we relocated it flying over the road between the dam and the car park a while later, and still giving fantastic views.

The sound of spring

Paul H and I popped up to Paxton Pits this evening to see the Nightingales.  Only a handful of birds are in already but one of them performed admirably for us.  Wonderful birds.  If you want to see and hear Nightingales then Paxton Pits is most definitely the place to go.

(Blimey - it's amazing what else you find out when Googling 'Nightingale' - my post isn't about "a care home for older Jewish people", nor a "goth rock, now progressive/AOR metal/rock band from Örebro in Sweden", or a gay nightclub, or even somewhere to go and get "classically stylish clothes for mature women in sizes 10-34 including wide fitting shoes" but feel free to follow the links in case you've arrived here accidentally)