A Spoonb ...... Waxwings!!! : -)

When I got a text from Ian 'Steve's dad' Waite this morning at about a quarter to ten telling of a Spoonbill at Coronation Corner I was a bit gripped. I thought I was probably going to miss it as I was about a third of the way to Southampton. Why? I was on another attempt to successfully twitch Waxwings. Some had been visiting a couple of spots in the city for the last couple of days and Southampton's a bit, ( only a bit mind), nearer than the Midlands. Somehow I managed to talk Rob into driving me there, he spends all week driving so I assumed he'd refuse, but he muttered something like" I can't think of a better way to spend my Sunday than to stand around on a housing estate looking at some bushes!" When we arrived at our destination there were a group of about ten or so birders there already, I approached one, he gleefully said " They were in that tree about twenty minutes ago" and here it is:

Tree and bushes that sometimes harbour Waxwings, see how the locals have thrown a bicycle tyre into the tree to give us something to look at when the birds aren't there. So thoughtful.

Fear not. I'm not going to only show pictures of empty trees this time because after about half an hour's wait a birder beckoned us from over the other side of the main road. After crossing the road in a safe and sensible manner I proceeded to RUN toward the assembled birders. Success!! The Waxwings were visible in a large oak tree, pretty distant with the sun behind, I'd optimistically gone without my scope today thinking they'd be just feet away, but at least I'd seen some, it was quite a big flock too. I took this distant snap. I love the crazy quiff!


I thought I'd try and get to the other side of the tree, with the sun behind me a bit more and I'm glad I did because here the Waxwings were coming down into some small bushes about 15 feet away, I got some great views, but unfortunately No great photos. I was just trying to focus on a bird for my first stunning close up when a Sparrowhawk sped in sending the whole flock on it's way. I pressed the shutter anyway and got this awesome shot! At least I had chance to count them, there were 32 and they were my first ever! Fantastic!

Rubbish photo but it's of WAXWINGS!! A bird I've been longing to see since I got my first bird book over thirty years ago.

At the back of my mind I was quietly hoping the Spoonbill would still be on the river when we got back and sure enough there it was, easily visible from the speeding car. Once at home I picked up my scope and rushed back out to see it. I took a few snaps and even though Gav has posted an 'ample sufficiency' of superb snaps on his blog a few more can't do any harm. This was only my third ever Spoonbill. A very good day, very good indeed! :-)

Feeding...

..... running...

.... glaring.

Oh, one more thing. On the way east on the A31 you pass the grounds of Charborough House surrounded by one of the longest brick walls in England. Along this wall is 'The Stag Gate' which is obviously a gate with a statue of a stag atop of it. Not that unusual but if you look closely at the stag from some angles there's something not quite right. I took this photo as we drove past at some speed but you may be able to see the anomaly.

Can you see something wrong with it? It's got FIVE legs!

Apparently after the statue was erected it was noticed that from Charborough House itself the stag looked to have only three legs, which would never do obviously!! So a fifth leg was added and then four legs could be seen from the house... the landed gentry sure had some pressing issues in the nineteenth century.

Three Days - Three Ducks and a Dipper

I've had quite a quiet time of it over the last few days but have managed to catch up with a few duck year ticks that I missed earlier. Firstly on Wednesday, I saw the flock of 11 Gadwall on the sea from the Yacht Club. There were also three Kingfishers and a Common Sandpiper in the harbour, which was partially frozen over! I took a few photos of the frozen estuary too but both Steve and Gav had already posted some on their blogs, so I didn't bother sticking mine on! Well at the time anyway. Here's one of the river, unique because it also shows a staggeringly scarce-ish Tufted Duck.

What a Scoop

Partially frozen harbour - On the wall in the background just below the red life-belt holder was one of the three Kingfishers.....

See.. told you so.

Could Thursday have been any more exciting than that? I hear you thinking. Well Yes, because I got great views of the female Goldeneye that Steve had spotted off the seafront, she was literally a couple of feet off the beach at times, but just wouldn't stay put long enough to have her photo taken. I did try a look at Lower Bruckland Ponds too but before I got out of the car I knew they were still frozen and duck-less because ...well...take a look at this.

The local Brucklands' residents were leaving home - and they had decided to walk!

Today I couldn't get out until after lunch and then had to pop to Colyton on an errand so incorporated a dogwalk into this trip. First I went to Colyton WWTW to see how the Chiffchaffs were getting on. Not good is the answer, there were only about half a dozen of them feeding on the filter beds. A large fall in numbers. There's really no getting away from the fact that many of them will have succumbed to this prolonged freezing weather :-(

Whilst here I met a couple of birders who told me they had just seen a Dipper on the southern reaches of the River Coly. Thanks for the info folks! :-) I just had to extend Rex's walk and take a nice amble along the banks of the Coly. As soon as I got there I could hear a Dipper singing and I soon spotted him about one hundred metres south of Coles Mill. He was pretty difficult to approach at all closely, most probably due to Rex, who was 'ratting' along the bank. I did manage to get a couple of snaps but they're not much cop due to the lack of light, "raise the flash" the camera said, Yeah right! Anyway here's what I managed:

Nice bird to get on your yearlist, they're always on the Coly somewhere I reckon. There's just lots of it to look along!!

Two Black Redstarts were still in the harbour area today. A female type on the Trevelyan Road rooftops (and in my garden) and a young male around the Canoe Club/dinghy rack area.

Not long before I had to go out to work this afternoon I got a text from Gav telling me of a Pochard on the river, viewable from The Farm Gate if I was interested. Was I!? I'd missed it once already. Not only was I desperate enough to twitch a Pochard, I even left the house without putting on any socks first! My feet got a bit cold! I felt a tad on the sad side, deservedly so I think. Whilst at the Farm Gate Gav told me about his meeting the finder of the Spoonbill and related the man's gripping account to me in the minutest detail. What's the good of getting a right good 'gripping off' if you can't selflessly share it with others? I was suitably gripped.

Snowy Owl .....Or a Big White Blob

After weeks of procrastination, yesterday I finally decided to 'grasp the nettle', 'take the bull by the horns', 'bite the bullet' or any one of a hundred other idioms and make the six hour round trip to Zennor and the Snowy Owl. I tried to muster up a car load of birders but only Bun was able to come, he'd even seen it before but was still keen to see it again! We set off at 5:00 AM hoping to arrive at daybreak and this is almost exactly what happened. We arrived at 7:45 and it was only just beginning to get light, which was good because it gave us time to break out the flasks for a pre-twitch coffee. It certainly wasn't a very popular bird today. While we were waiting in the car a single birder turned up and that was it! The three of us made our way for about a kilometre over the boggy moorland until the owl was spotted sitting out on a large rock.

Smiling faces all round as scopes are directed towards their target which was only feet away!...

.... About 1500 feet away!! The Snowy Owl was on that hillside over there! I'll zoom in a bit....

There it is! Look!! Right in the centre; that white specky blob just below the horizon, you can see it...*squints*.
OK I'll zoom in more...


Tah-Da!! A much bigger blob. Actually (if you enlarge this) you can see that it's got eyes and a beak and everything!!

Seriously though we did have very good views through our scopes and the rising sun really made it stand out nicely. It was awake and looking around, a truly awesome bird!! It really doesn't matter that this is the best photo I could get because it just so happens that I got a lovely Christmas card from Steve, with a Snowy Owl picture on it and it's an almost exact representation of the Zennor bird. Take a look:

Our scope views looked exactly like this...OK, not exactly, obviously the eyes were open more and there was just a smidgen less glitter!!

The views on our way back to the car were simply stunning:

Looking to the Southwest from Zennor Moor. The colours were gorgeous!

We watched the owl for around an hour all told, leaving at 10-ish and were back in Seaton for 1:00PM. This was my first 'self- driven' twitch and it went very well indeed so I'm sure it's not going to be my last!