America meets Essex - 11th November 2023

My BEB day out in Essex did not go quite according to plan and with not enough interest I aborted mission.  However a dinner invite from the Jacksons in Thundersley had me deciding late on Friday night to just head down that way and see what I could find.

I had a good run down and started my day at Goldhanger where hopefully the tide would still be coming in.  Siskins and Goldfinches flew over as I was getting my boots on and there was a light Wood Pigeon movement south-west.  Several Goldcrests were feeding win the conifers.

It was cold but sunny and there were already sunbathing Calliphora vicina on the Ivy and a check of the same Bramble clump as last year revealed three moth leaf mine including Ectoedemia rubivora.

Ectoedemia rubivora

The grumbling of Brent Geese reached me as I got to the river wall and I could see them glinting in the awkward sun.  The stubble field held Lapwings, Starlings and a few small Gulls but something spooked the field beyond putting some Golden Plovers, Rooks and Skylarks into the mix before it rippled across the closer field.

Golden Plover

The Black-heads and a few Common Gulls came low overhead and with them a small gull.  The underwing confused me initially and caught me unawares and it was immediately lost into the glare of the sun over the river.  The cogs whirred but it took a few minutes (no idea why!) before I suddenly twigged that it had been an adult Bonaparte’s Gull.

Bonaparte’s Gull

One of those elated but frustrated moments.  I think that it may be only the third for Essex after the two inner Thames birds that were seen between Rainham and Creekmouth.  I put the news out but as yet it has not resurfaced.

Poorly controlled dogs were a feature of the walk with hounds running through the fields – unsurprisingly there was nothing to put up.  One such dog walker even asked why there were not lots of Brent Geese in the fields this winter…

Turnstones were chittering around the seaweedy margins and I could have sat and just listened to them and the tewing of Redshanks, whistling of Curlews and the background Brents.  The river was rising and calm and the wavelets slapped softly on the concrete.  I just needed to remove the shrill dog whistles, ‘chatting’ hounds and shouts of ‘Poncaby-Snuffle-Flumps III come back’ and it would have been quite idyllic.

There were not too many waders roosting on the retreat but amongst the shimmering flock of Dunlin there were a few plump Ringed Plovers, Turnstones, Redshanks and Grey Plover and a few Knot and Oystercatchers whizzed upriver towards Maldon.

Dunlin and Ringed Plovers

Dunlin

The Blackwater itself was quiet and the light challenging but I still found nine Red-breasted Mergansers, 30 Great Crested Grebes and fine partially summer plumaged Great Northern Diver which spent quite a bit of time snorkelling.

Rock and Meadow Pipits nipped back and forth along with a flew scissor tail flicking Reed Buntings, Linnets and chirruping Skylarks while Cetti’s Warblers sang and chattered from the Dyke.   A female Marsh Harrier was pursued by some Rooks and a Kestrel hovered above the river wall.  Two Green Woodpeckers bounded along the hedgerows between Oak trees as I ambled back checking for more leaf mines before a well-earned cup of coffee.

Parornix anglicella

Stigmella oxyacanthella on Hawthorn

Phyllonorycter oxyacathae

Tischeria ekebladella

Stigmella aceris

From here I poodled back up to Abberton and stopped at the small Billets screen where I bumped into Margaret and David Whitfield.  Nine red-head Goosanders were seen in two groups all using the same technique as the Great Northern Diver to look for prey.  Three female Goldeneye and a drake Pintail were noted but there were no other duck and no wild Swans yet with the Mutes.  A single Redshank was feeding near the dozing Lapwings while a Great White Egret stalked along the bank.

A party of Long-tailed Tits bumbled through the golden Field Maple leaves alongside the road and a Buzzard watched from a telegraph pole.  The Whitfields suggested we all go and get a coffee in the centre and so we headed that way and sat in the warm watching a Red Kite circle by and a Moorhens and a Great Spotted Woodpecker around the feeders.  A Cetti’s Warbler was seriously alarmed in the bushes outside and with a little patience it came out and posed although we did not see what had so annoyed it.

Cetti’s Warbler

A cursory glance out of the centre window at a raft of Pochard would change the course of the whole day.  The light was great and although they were a fair way off I though it was worth a look.  Perhaps I could find a Ring-necked Duck or a Lesser Scaup given the bumper American season we have been having.

My second scan suddenly produced a strange but familiar head profile with a huge ski-slope profile of a black bill.  Surely that was not a Canvasback? The birds were milling around and I had it in view for some time. It was bigger and heavy, clearly paler than the Common Pochards, sat higher in the water, had a long thick neck, pointy head and that amazing all black bill that narrowed towards the end.  I am allowed to say this but the fact that the Whitefields could look in my scope from that range and pick it out from the group made me even more sure that I had indeed got a drake Canvasback.

At this point the whole flock got up and dispersed in several directions and I had no idea where it had gone.  I phoned three of the immediate, in theory, closest birders and put the news tentatively out on the local WhatsApp group.

Canvasback - a few little extra notes to add to this quick doodle late last night

We set off to search from the hides as there was no point in looking at the distant flock shimmering off towards Wigborough.  From Island Hide a Great Northern Diver loafed not far out but there were no Pochard.

Stan Davis and Ed Bateman were in the hide and Bradders soon arrived.  They headed back towards Gwens and we went towards Hide Bay.  Again there were no duck save a few Wigeon and heaps of Gulls which included quite a few Great Black-backed and a fine 1w Caspian but it was the Red Kites that repeatedly produced the ‘wows’.  An adult and immature constantly patrolled the area just in front before occasional sorties out to harass the gulls for any titbits that they might have found.  Certainly one of the closest Kite performances I have ever seen. 

Red Kite

A male Stonechat was perched up on the dead weed tops and two Chiffchaffs called from deep within.  I could see duck heading back towards Gwen’s so we wandered back and joined the three lads to sift the incoming birds.  A feeding frenzy soon developed and I can’t ever remember seeing such a boiling mass of synchronised diving duck. Just how any of them could see anything under the water but a thrashing mass of legs and beaks is beyond me.

Pretty sure the Canvasback is in the middle back - big head!

We were sure that it was not with them when Stan thought he may have seen it close in with some of the birds taking a breather. A few seconds later and it drifted into view for just a couple of seconds. I was so relieved that I had not been seeing things.  Over the next forty minutes we all saw it on numerous occasions in the madness of the feeding melee but usually for no more than a second or two at most.

Stan Davis

Stan Davis

One of mine - obscured but you can see paleness of the upperparts and flanks and the long neck and bill

It always appeared bigger and heavier than the Pochards and the thick neck, big head and that amazing bill made it leap out once you had got your eye in.  There was no way that any judgement could me made about mantle colour at this stage as when feeding none of the duck fully emerged from the water with just the front end visible before the next frenetic dive.

Dick Jeffree

Amazingly my random melee shots coincided with it being above the water

A few other Essex birders arrived and once they had all seen it I left them to it and ambled back with a big smile.

Back at the centre I saw a female Marsh Harrier heckling the flock and all 300 or so got up and spread out once again.  Heading around to the Layer Breton causeway added seven Cattle Egrets with cows at the junction and although there were plenty of Aythyas between the causeways we could not find the Canvasback in the lowering light.  A Great White Egret flew across on lumbering wings and Grey Wagtails headed off to roost while a Kingfisher rounded up and magnificent day back on some of my old Essex stomping grounds.

It was great to catch up with Annie and Barry over dinner and in that increasingly small world in which we live, the adjacent table had Bob and Jean Fraser on it.  Bob used to be a vol at RSPB Rainham Marshes where we worked and they now live in Worcester…  what are the chances?

I had a good run home from there and was welcomed back by an amazing starry sky as I reached the darklands north of Woodbridge.

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Today the Canvasback was playing hard to get for the assembled birders but eventually gave itself up between the causeways.  This is the first since 2002 and only the 8^th for Britain pending acceptance and on that note I have, as expected, seen some ‘anti-duck’ bashing on line but to be honest this often happens with almost anything in Essex, not just ducks.  I have no idea on what they are basing this but my primary concerns were whether it was actually a Canvasback, whether we would re-find it yesterday and if possible were there any signs that it could have been an escape.  I have had two confirmations today that both legs were seen (I presume when preening?) and it lacks any leg irons.

One from Matt Turner today showing the contrast with a Pochard - and the little gular bulge that I noticed when I first saw it

And a fine short video clip from Dave Andrews

Let’s hope that it stays for the winter now and gives other people the chance to encounter this imposing brute of a duck.

Lowestoft Life - 7th November 2023 - A taste of a Waxwing winter to come

I tried moth trapping overnight but for the first time it was completely empty leaving me with a day pottering around the house catching up on jobs but the lure of those mobile Waxwings that were roaming around Oulton at the weekend had me heading out with the camera. Apologies to the Cullums and Colgates for what comes next...

Ten minutes later I had ten funky punky Scandi visitors feasting on Rowan berries and flycatching in the sunshine.  It was cool but they warmed up the day no end.

Given the number piling into the Northern Isles and Shetland I doubt very much that we have seen the last of this most special of visitors this winter.

Who knows, I may even get some over my house?!

Lowestoft Life - 31st October - 5th November 2023

Halloween was quite a bright day so I pottered down to Pakefield Beach. Ten Long-tailed Tits foraged with some Blue and Great Tits and a couple of Goldcrests but no stripy sprites were to be found.  There were plenty of Robins though and a single brief Mealy Redpoll and the Blackbirds were still coveting the few Haws left.

Blackbird

Robin

Wood Pigeon

Goldfinch

Wood Pigeon

Nerines seem to be a very popular Suffolk late autumn flower bed species and there were still several banks of gleaming pink.

Back at home the first Long-tailed Tits moved through the front of house Limes and the moth trap held four Light Brown Apple Moths, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Silver-Y and Rusty Dot Pearl with both Common and Beautiful Plumes in the garden herbage while Eristalis tenax and both Bombus pascuorum and terrestris were on the last of the Yarrow and Purple Toadflax.

A Chestnut from my garden on the 27th 

and an Oak Rustic from Antony's

Four adult Mute Swans whistle winged over the house late afternoon adding another to the growing list.

The 1^st November dawned very windy as the start of Storm Ciaran made its way up the Channel and I spent a very productive session from 0930-1000 down at Pakefield Beach sheltering in the lee of the big Sycamore.  Birds were moving and two imm drake Goosander and a Guillemot close along the beach were both PB ticks and I finished with 179 Dark-bellied Brent Geese, 24 Wigeon, six Teal, male Mallard, five Scoter, 54 Gannet, and a good selection of waders too with 262 Dunlin, 37 Knot, Purple Sandpiper and Curlew.  Eighty Starlings arrived in off along with a single Skylark while 20 Greenfinch were foraging on the beach were there were a few less dog walkers than usual.

The storm hit overnight but the urge to look at the sea was overwhelming and Antony and I were at the Links Road car park by 0950 on the 2nd November and but jauntily positioning the car we were able to have the windows down and scan the raging sandy brown sea from the comfort of the car while the rain lashed down and the wind shook the vehicle like a tenacious last autumn leaf .

Little Gulls were the ‘thing’ for the session with at least 81 seen getting blown north over the frothy cappuccino waves.  Many seemed to be coming from just behind us and I think they were being pushed slightly inland from Ness Point (where the breaking waves were towering over the sea wall!) before fighting back to the sea half a mile north. Everything else was going south and we notched up three Kittiwakes, Med Gull, Red-throated Diver, 22 Brent Geese, 12 Scoter, six Shelduck, seven Tufted Duck, five Golden Plover, Grey Plover, two Dunlin and six Knot.  The effortless way that most of these birds battled into the wind was a joy to watch.  A ball of 200 Starlings made it in but only just, skimming the waves to reach landfall – another miraculous journey accomplished.

Later on I gave Pakefield Beach a go between 1530 and 1550 before torrential rain forced a retreat but I did see my first local Yellow-legged Gull – a third winter and five Little Gulls and a Common Scoter headed south.

The day after a big storm is often the time to find the windblown strays so I dragged myself down to Pakefield Beach and was ensconced at my spot by 0655.  It was still windy but there was little moving but it was worth my hour with a cracking 1w female Velvet Scoter flying along the beach and into the bay.  She was not the Mutford Lock bird as she was paddling around Hamilton Dock at the same time.

Velvet Scoter

A 1w Caspian Gull flew by and six Little Gulls twisted in and out of the waves along the sand bar while out to sea there were literally hundreds of Cormorants heading out to feed somewhere to the south and I reckon at least 600 were present. Three Wigeon and a female Common Scoter were also seen along with two juvenile Brent Geese that were initially on the beach before relocating to the greensward on top of the cliffs where they fed amongst the dog walkers with no fear whatsoever.  Hopefully they would know when to move off.  They were very approachable and the storm must have separated them from the their parents leaving them without their invaluable survival advice.

Brent Geese

Brent Geese - Antony Wren

Both Mealy and Lesser Redpoll were seen along with two Siskin, ten Meadow Pipits and a bounding Grey Wagtail.

Back at home a vocal Grey Heron was new and a late female Tachina fera was briefly potted so that I could look at claw to last foot segment ratios to discover if I had found the almost identical species recently found in Suffolk!

Tachina fera

Tachina fera

Saturday was an entertaining friends at home day which allowed some time to pop out for a while this morning.  We started at Mutford Lock where the female Velvet Scoter conveniently flew in as we turned up and put on a star performance for us along with an immature Shag that we subsequently found out is an Isle of May colour ringed bird.  A Kingfisher dashed under the bridge and a Little Egret was trying to follow the movements of the Shag along the shore in the hope of fry being pushed to within striking distance.

Velvet Scoter

Velvet Scoter

Shag

Little Egret

On to Links Road for a look at the sea which was flat calm.  A few Gannets and Cormorants were all we managed for our efforts along with a single Curlew and Brent Goose and a calling Snow Bunting that snuck past us.  Several Med Gulls were loafing around as usual.

Ness Point only held the roving Bird’s Eye Turnstone flock but no Purple Sandpipers and we were then lured away to look for a flock of local Waxwings that had already moved once again but I am sure that they will settle in this winter given the numbers drifting south at the moment.

Turnstone

A cup of coffee at Carlton Marshes and then a walk down towards Peto’s.  The marsh was lacking in any wildfowl at all which was odd but we did see a few Lapwing and a single Snipe along with quite a few raptors with five female type Marsh Harriers, three Buzzards, two Red Kites and a Kestrel. 

A Cetti’s Warbler called and a pair of Stonechats were flycatching from a bramble clump where the ginger backs of Chinese Water Deer grazed without concern.

Two Great White Egrets slow chased each other across the marsh as we said our farewells to the North Kent Lesvos Massive.

Fireworks were followed by some local Aurora chasing and either our eyes and phones were rubbish or it was hiding from us as all we found was a fantastic snaking Milky Way stretched across the heavens.