Sea, Sand, Sun

With the promise of sun, I decided to head over to the coast after emptying the garden trap. Leicestershire couldn't be much more land-locked; anyone who does not believe or recognise the restorative pleasure of just a short time hearing the sea, breathing the sea breeze and walking on sand perhaps needs to live in Leics. for 52 years. Whilst we are the the middle of the Country, it's actually not too bad a run to get to the coast either side of the Wash. But, of course, the only drawback is that on a sunny day in the middle of summer everyone else wants to do the same thing. I decided that I'd head for Titchwell and combine a walk along the beach with some birding and rummaging around the dunes. The route was free of traffic until hitting a virtual brickwall immediately after the roundabout at Guyhirn. I managed to circumvent some of this with short detours through Wisbech and Kings Lynn, and then taking a rural route through Docking. All was great until the last 500m or so of roadway before re-joining the A149 at Brancaster where it was chaotic with beach-going families parking all over the place and blocking the roads. All time gained on the way was lost - and more. I arrived at Titchwell about an hour later than expected, but at least I was able to slide into a parking space easily and get out onto the reserve.

There were a few people around, though there were more carrying beach chairs etc than optics. I wandered around the boardwalks and had a look in Island Hide (Parrinder Hide still shut). Very few people actually birding or doing anything remotely in keeping with a RSPB Reserve. Social distancing was still very easy and people managed to observe etiquette and manners, so all good. Once I got to the end of the long walk to the beach, it was clear where everyone was. I've seen people using the beach whilst their other halves are birding etc, but I've never seen the beach here literally used as a beach! Beach tents, parasols, wind-breakers, chairs, pasty white bodies in the sea - the whole lot. It wasn't rammed in any way though, and groups of people were well spaced out which meant I walked another 1km or so to clear them all. But it's not like there is not much beach here ....

Inverts were few and far between in the dunes and on the beach. The only action really were a large number of presumably the same robberfly sp. that completely evaded scrutiny, plenty of Bee-wolfs carrying prey and a fair number of solitary bees nesting in the dunes. I turned a few logs but no interesting beetles. Just a couple of these ....

Dactylochelifer latreillii

It was blisteringly hot. I spent an hour or so on the beach before the sun burning my head and neck was no longer bearable. By then the sun was higher and photography from the hide and pathway was a bit more manageable though not everything was within range - a group of Spoonbills remained too far out. The camera seemed to struggle a bit with focussing through heat-haze, but I managed a few passable shots. More practice required.

Black-tailed Godwit

Avocet

Pied Wagtail

Lapwing

Little Ringed Plover

Most numerous of the waders was Ruff, with juvs and moulting adults present.

The best birding moment though was a group of juv Bearded Tits pinging their way along. One perched up long enough to get a shot.

Whilst around the reserve I manage to pot a handful of inverts to check out, including a sizeable horsefly from the inside window of the hide. I'd spent about three hours on the reserve and needed to head back to the car for coffee and a bite. I mulled over what would be the best option now, given that it was early afternoon and heading further along the coast was probably not a good idea for getting home in time to get the garden traps outs. I decided avoiding traffic delays on the reverse journey and having time to go to a couple of sites on the way home was a better move. An hour and a half later and I was parking up at Ketton Quarry. It was now very hot and humid, but some cloud cover had built up so at least I wasn't burning and sweating at the same time anymore. I spent an hour sweeping the ample flowering vegetation and easily managed to fill up more pots that I can quickly deal with. Very large numbers of Mirid bugs, including 100s of Phytocoris varipes, shieldbugs, other hemiptera and a few beetles too. There were hazards though: every sweep included a number of honeybees and bumblebees which needed to be let out of the bag before sticking me in it. I was also constantly harassed by Chrysops relictus.

Next I headed to Eyebrook Reservoir, where a Cattle Egret has been knocking about for a couple of days. I managed to find it milling about with cattle, before it flew up to perch in a tree. I managed to get a photo, sort of, whilst poking the camera through a gap in a bush.

Also good to see a fishing Osprey, Whinchat, Common Sandpipers, Ringed Plover and a Dunlin.

I got home a full 12hours after leaving, in time to eat and get the traps on. I should have been excited about that but, in truth, on the mothing front the garden has been poor this summer. But the previous night was good for other inverts and it looked to be another good night for that.

Waders

Yesterday we decided to head over to North Norfolk. 'We' means me, Nichola and all three offspring on a family outing, not me and some birding mates off to bash bushes looking for rare warblers and scarce autumn migrants. However it's hard to contemplate going to Norfolk and not lifting the bins at something avian, and so a good compromise site to visit for a couple of hours during the day at least was Titchwell - plenty of birds plus a beach and a nice walk. We'd then move on to a seaside town for some (not necessarily best of) British culture.

Titchwell has a reputation as being very 'dudey'. It is, but I don't care too much about that as I think it's a great reserve with some great birding potential, but I will come back to that bit shortly. I haven't been for c3 yrs so it was good to see the new Parinder Hide, and also new pathways opened up which I'd like to have explored a bit more. The freshwater marsh was alive with waders. Loads of them. One or two were even close enough to point the camera at. Others weren't but I did anyway. Hence here are a load of cropped dodgy shots of waders which there is no point in clicking as they won't go bigger.

Spotted Redshank - even moulting birds are spanking

Ruff

Black-tailed Godwit

Dunlin

Although not apparent from these few shots, most of these species were present as both moulting adults and as juves. Also seen were Ringed P., Curlew, Snipe, Greenshank, Avocet, Lapwing, Green Sand, Common Sand and Turnstone. Best though were a number of Curlew Sands and a Little Stint. And that's when it really hit me about the birding clientele at Titchwell, and some of the visitors there yesterday.

Nobody can be immediate experts on bird ID, and let's face it waders can be difficult sometimes, especially at distance in a big group. However what I can't understand is why people can't look at birds (that are close enough to identify through naked eyes) through their optics and correlate features they are seeing to a field guide and work it out themselves. That's the only way to learn how to recognise key features and subtle differences between species. But no, much easier to sit in the hide and constantly ask 'oh what's this little one down here' 'oh really, how marvellous, I've not seen that one before' etc. I've always been prepared to offer an ID, get someone onto a nice bird etc in hides, but you just feel sometimes that it's worthless with some people who patently have no idea what they are looking at. Even worse, whilst I was trying to grab a few poxy shots with my bridge camera, there were several people with big huge DSLR/lens rigs that were no doubt getting some great shots. Just that they had no idea what they were photographing. One particular couple were happily photographing the above Dunlin, which were part of a larger group with a couple of juv Ringed Plovers, whilst wittering about trying get the Curlew Sandpiper in the same shot (ie hadn't realised there were both moulting adult and juv Dunlin knocking about). Meanwhile in the hide another couple were photographing a Little Stint and Curlew Sand together before asking what they were.

Mind you if this was the only view you got it wouldn't be easy.

 

Aside from the waders, not too much else of note apart from a group of ten Spoonbills, nine of which are just about recogniseable in this distant grainy effort (which you can click for a bigger grainier effort).

Ruffing it - the 2011 Yearlist Kicks Off

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Before anything else - have a look at this. Notice anything unusual?

I headed out into the same grey gloom that we had yesterday, well before everyone else in the household was up and less than a handful of hours since we all went to bed. I had a few glasses of wine and whiskey last night, in amongst pigging my face with savouries and chocs, so an in-car coffee was just the job.

First task was to drive around the usual areas in the city looking for crested berry scoffing birds. I eventually saw a large flock wheeling about over the King Richards Road, and as I approached c150 of them dived down. As I reached Kirby Road, I could see that they had descended onto berry laden trees. Sadly, in a repeat of yesterdays effort they soon up and left once I stopped the car and grabbed the camera. I saw the flock again a few minutes later over the houses but I wasn't going to chase them - the conditions were pants for photography so no point flogging it today.

I then headed over to Watermead CP South - part of it is within the City Boundary and the North Lake is an accepted deviation to the boundary as it is all managed as part of the same park. Almost the first thing I saw was this:

This Ruff was loitering about during the harsh cold and snowy weather, but I was surprised to see it still here after the recent mild spell. Did you spot it in the first clip milling about playing hide and seek amongst the Canadas and Mute Swans?

Aside from this it was the usual expected fare, apart from lower numbers as surprisingly large chunks of the lakes are still frozen despite a few days of easily positive temps.

I ended up on 45 species for the day, with the Waxwings and Ruff being the obvious highlights. The gloomy drizzle probably accounted for the lack of any raptors. However despite even driving around a council estate for 15 minutes I failed to see or hear a House Sparrow today before having to head home!

Light was appalling, so here is a photo of the Ruff at the best settings the camera could suggest on aperture priority (1/50sec f/5.2 ISO400 - too slow for the fast moving bird in dull light) and then a few grainy/noisy shots forced at 1/500sec f/5.0 ISO1600 which I've photoshopped.

There are 4 duck species on the egde of the ice/water border - can you see them?

A few gulls loitering - but no Herrings.

Whilst in the wood I noticed this luminous orange fungi - I think it must be Orange Jelly Dacryomyces stillatus?