Introducing 'The Cowboy Birder'

For anybody who is kind enough to read this blog and have enjoyed the content, I would like to introduce you to a new blog I will be writing in the future - link below.

http://thecowboybirder.com/

If you take a look at this new blog there is a brief explanation and the reason behind the new idea - I hope you enjoy my new alter ego!

My plan is to continue to write about nature conservation and environmental issues and topics on here, with 'the cowboy birder' aimed more at my birding exploits and the birding scene in general.

All comments welcome.

'Ickle Bittern'

After writing about my first steps into digiscoping in my last post, the perfect chance came about this week to use the new equipment and finally get some decent photos on this blog, with the news of a Little Bittern near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire on the river Colne, apparently giving very close views.

My first attempt to see this small Mediterranean cousin of our Bittern came on Wednesday evening after work, but this ended in failure as the Little Bittern was playing hard to get, having last been seen in flight around 3pm. I stayed until 8.30pm looking for the bird up and down the river but eventually had to give up and headed back to the car, where I found I was lucky not to have my car locked in the car park overnight, as a park warden was locking the gates for the day!

Nice man unlocking the gates - Sorry!

With no further news on Thursday or Friday, I thought the bird had moved on or had possibly been predated but then on Saturday morning I heard it had reappeared back on the same stretch of river apparently giving exceptional views. A quick check with Mrs Brown and I was off! Forty-five minutes later I was watching the bird catching and feeding on stickle-backs, less than twenty metres away from me - what a little stunner! And fully justifying its name, although 'Ickle' Bittern would be a more appropriate, standing less than 40 cm tall, half the size of a Bittern!

Here now was my opportunity to get some great photographs, good light conditions, barely a breeze and with a willing subject I quickly set up my tripod and scope, I fumbled through my bag feeling for my camera and adaptor ready for some amazing digiscoped images, pulling the camera from the bag I realised in my haste to get away I had left my adaptor at home!! I think b*llocks was the word I muttered under my breath as I was surrounded by long lenses and the sound of clicking cameras - once again left green with envy I would just have to enjoy everyone else's amazing photo's on their blogs!

Although a lesson learned in terms of 'less haste more speed' when exiting quickly to see a bird, the most important thing on the day was that I did see the bird, not at a distance, briefly or deep within cover, but excellent, close up and obliging views, which surely is the primary objective whenever you go birding.

You can enjoy many good photographs of the Little Bittern on any of the blogs I follow but if 'nice' scenery is more your thing, here's a photo of the River Colne!!

Picturesque - But not a Little Bittern!

Digiscoping - first steps

My first foray into digiscoping (apart from some pretty awful iPhone scoped images) occurred over the weekend. A family weekend away to the North Norfolk coast was the perfect excuse to try out a recently purchased Swarovski UCA (Universal Camera Adaptor) attached to my scope, in order to photograph waders on the foreshore.

The two photographs below of Sanderling in their summer breeding plumage, wading in a shallow salt pool left by the lowering tide were taken on Holme beach and were probably the best of a fairly mediocre cluster of photographs I took on the day. To be fair, the light conditions were poor with overcast skies and a stiff westerly breeze to contend with, which shook the tripod causing vibrations to the camera and made focusing on a moving subject quite difficult - this was probably not the best day to choose for trying to get acclimatised with the new digiscope set up!

On the positive side, I was pleased with my first efforts (you can identify the birds and they are almost in focus!) and the digiscope set up worked how I had hoped. Setting up the equipment was quick and straight forward and I liked having the option to switch between a standard digital camera or a digital SLR if I wished to. A balance rail attached to the tripod, particularly if using an SLR camera, would be a necessity to prevent all the weight being at one end, whilst also increasing stability. With time, practice and better weather conditions I hope to improve on my initial efforts, only time will tell!

 

Set up:

• Swarovski HD 80mm scope
• 25-50x wide angle lens
• Sony Cyber-shot 13.6 mega pixel camera

Apart from the opportunity to test the digiscope, I was also aware that something of interest could potentially turn up while I was in Norfolk, and I didn't have to wait too long before I received news (thanks Hawky) of a Blyth's Reed Warbler (basically a Reed Warbler with a better song) at Warham Greens. This is probably not the best looking of birds and had it not have been so close to where we were staying I may have given this bird a miss, but I'm glad I didn't, as listening to its song alone was worth the short trip.

Brief and distant scope views of a Black-winged Stilt at Cley NNT reserve, viewed from high up at the visitors centre overlooking the marsh was also good to see, it was just a shame this bird was so elusive as this would have made a great subject for digiscoping...maybe next time!

Diamond Jubilee weekend

The four days of Jubilee celebrations have come to an end and I've hugely enjoyed sharing the occasion with family, neighbours, old friends and new friends! And despite the rather disappointing weather for the time of year, nothing could dampen the spirits of all involved and everybody I spoke with seem to have had a jolly good time - with large amounts of cake, burgers, sausages and alcohol consumed, leaving a lot of people including myself feeling a little jaded and in the need of a good detox.

Jubilee street party in full swing

Taking advantage of the additional time off, I was up early on Saturday morning and heading towards Rainham RSPB reserve and Wennington Mound (affectionately known as Serin Mound to the regular birders) to try and see the Marsh Warbler which had been singing from this location the previous day. Arriving shortly after 6am with already half a dozen birders on site, I didn't have to wait long before I heard the Marsh Warbler break into its incredible mimicking song.

The list of birds which the Marsh Warbler incorporates into its song is truly amazing and one of the few birds I was happy not to see very well, as its song definitely makes up for its rather drab Reed Warbler like appearance. In the 3 hours I stood on the Mound listening, I tried to note the number of other birds songs/calls I could recognise amongst its broad repertoire:

House Sparrow
Swallow
Blackbird - A random alarm call mid song
Nightingale
Skylark
Blue Tit
Starling
Linnet
Yellow Wagtail
Greenfinch
Whitethroat
Sedge Warbler
Blackcap
Great Tit

And in addition I've heard other accounts of the bird giving the calls of Cetti's Warbler, Bee-eater, Little Tern and Quail.

The link below is from the Rainham Marshes RSPB website which has an excellent recording of the Marsh Warbler in full song - have a listen and see how many birds songs/calls you can identify?

http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/rainhammarshes/b/rainhammarshes-blog/archive/2012/06/02/who-shall-i-be-today.aspx

If you plan to visit the Rainham RSPB reserve to listen to the Marsh Warbler, please respect the bird by keeping your distance and do not attempt to get any closer than the arranged viewing point. The Marsh Warbler is a very rare breeding bird in the UK with estimates suggesting there are possibly only between 5 - 10 pairs in the UK and any unnecessary disturbance will scupper the slim chance of this bird finding a mate and potentially breeding on the reserve - if Marsh Warbler's were to breed at Rainham this would be a great success story for the RSPB and this east London site.

Other birds of note whilst overlooking the marsh at Wennington Mound were at least 3 Cuckoo's, a reeling Grasshopper Warbler, Hobby and a distant singing Corn Bunting. Thanks also to Dominic Mitchell who got me onto a second summer Yellow-Legged Gull which would have been easily overlooked.

Gunpowder Park - Lee Valley

The weekend of the 19th/20th May was one of the BTO wetland bird survey (WeBS) monthly count days and I popped over to Gunpowder Park to count the wetland birds, at the same time I took a few photographs of the habitat on offer, including the wetland areas I will be counting in the coming year. The park is managed and maintained by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and a lot of the planting is still relatively young in terms of growth as the park was only opened in 2004.  In those 8 years the native hedgerows have established well and in time the newly planted trees will also mature, only adding to the changing and developing landscape. More about the nature reserve, including directions and a really useful map can be found on the link below.

http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/nature/nature-reserve/gunpowder-park/

Just to give you a overview of Gunpowder Park and some of its charm, below is a selection of photos showing the type of habitat and wetland on offer if you were to plan a visit.

The main entrance to Gunpowder Park can be located off the A112 Sewardstone Road, just off the M25 at junction 26.

  

Main entrance and car park 

The view south from the top of the Cob Fields

Open grassland - Skylark country

Osier Marsh - main lake

Osier Marsh - small lake

Cattlegate flood relief channel part of the River Lee

Maturing native hedges along a bridle pathway



Although not the best time of year for counting our wetland birds (the winter months are a more important time for the WeBS counts, when the birds are not breeding and are more numerous in number), I did manage to see a small selection of wetland birds which you would expect at this time of year on the water around Osier marsh.

• 1 Grey Heron
• 2 Gadwall - (1 male & 1 female)
• 11 Mallard
• 1 Little Grebe
• 3 Moorhen
• 1 Coot

Interestingly there was one small duck on the main lake which was either a female Teal or Garganey, it was in the furthest corner partially hidden by the reeds and over hanging trees and only gave the briefest of views, before frustratingly disappearing out of sight. This would have been a good record of either bird, if only I could have had a better view...!

Cream-coloured Courser - my wait is over

I wasn't going to write about the little bit of twitching I did this week, purely because it was never my intention to fill these column inches with rare birds; this is because when I decided to start writing a blog the concept was more about the environment and conservation, but occasionally there are exceptions to the rules - and this exception was in the form of a Cream-coloured Courser!

This bird and me have previous history...

Just to give you a little bit of background to this tale, where I grew up in Essex - only a stones throw away from the glorious mudflats and creeks of the river Thames in Pitsea, I started my new found interest in birds, joining the YOC (Young Ornithologists Club) and learning the basics of ornithology as a young impressionable teenager. Around this time in 1984 a Cream-coloured Courser was found on Hadleigh Downs (now part of 2012 Olympic mountain bike course) only a 20 minute drive from where I lived. At the time I was far too young and inexperienced to ever appreciate and understand the magnitude of this sighting, let alone have the ability to recognise one of these birds - I was far too busy trying to separate Reed from Sedge Warbler. However, the slightly older birdwatchers I would come to meet and know in the coming years around this part of Essex would always talk about this amazing bird from the deserts of Africa, and from then, the Cream-coloured Courser assumed a somewhat mythical status within me and I kind of grew up hoping but never really believing I would ever see one of these birds grace our shores. That is until Tuesday evening in sunny Herefordshire, on the hills and valleys of England highest golf course at Bradnor, after a drive of almost 4 hours, traveling 180 miles (thanks Jono) and a wait of almost 28 years, there stood before me, giving exceptional views in the most idyllic of settings was a spring adult Cream-coloured Courser....truly astounding!

As I stood watching and enjoying the bird for all its magnificence - almost Egyptian pharaoh like, with the small crowd that had gathered alongside my fellow birding companions for the trip, Jono, Sean and Tim, I felt a sense of closure, having achieved a small goal I had sub-consciously set myself almost three decades ago... it's amazing how birds, animals and wildlife in general can effect and shape our lives in very different ways.

The mythical Cream-coloured Courser

Many thanks to Jonathan Lethbridge (Wanstead Birder) for kind permission to use one of his fine photographs.

East London excites!

I thought I would let the dust settle before writing about this week’s exciting events. On Wednesday morning I received information of a Melodious Warbler having been seen and heard in Leyton (E10 - London), after digesting the news and confirming the sighting was genuine I planned to try and see the bird that evening after work.

A Melodious Warbler is an infrequent visitor to UK, typically seen in the spring or autumn around the usual coastal birdwatching hot-spots like Dungeness, Portland or Languard with around 50 birds recorded most years. But somehow this particular bird on its way to breeding grounds in Central/Western mainland Europe after wintering in Sub-Saharan Africa overshot its usual route and landed in deepest East London! This is only the 8th time a Melodious Warbler has ever been recorded within London’s boundaries.

After a mad dash in the car after work with two young children in tow - my wife had already made plans to go out that evening (typical!), we reached the location at around 6.30pm. Following a short wait with several other birders, somebody picked up the bird in a nearby hedge, alongside the volleyball courts (which are being used as practice courts ahead of this years 2012 Olympics). After brief but good enough views and with the two restless children edging closer and closer to a busy main road, I decided to cut my losses, happy I had seen the bird and headed the short distance home.

One of my two children, who enjoyed the adventure.

What struck me most about seeing the Melodious Warbler wasn't the bird itself (although very nice) was the location in which the bird had chosen to spend a few days. Although nicely fenced off so nobody could walk through the area, this overgrown patch of rough ground was no bigger than a decent sized back garden with long uncut grass, mature hedge plants and a couple of medium sized trees, all squeezed between a row of terraced houses and a tennis court (temporarily a volleyball court) and very close to a main road in the middle of the urban metropolis that is the East End of London - amazing!

I did notice this green but unkempt area seemed to be an absolute haven for midges and insects, which is the perfect diet for this type of bird. This, coupled with the secure fencing which obviously keeps people and other animals out thus reducing the amount of disturbance, must all have contributed to the birds choice of location - but still of all the places for a bird like this to show up! Which only goes to prove how important these small green urban oasis are for our towns and cities, not just for this rare bird but far more importantly for the micro ecology which occurs in all our gardens and parks, supporting not just our birds but the insects, bees, butterflies and wildflowers.

As I write this I have just returned from seeing a Bonaparte's Gull on the foreshore of the Thames in Barking Bay, a very rare American Gull, with this potentially being the 1st ever record for London.....Wow - what a week East London is having! They say good things come in threes - whatever could turn up next in!?!?

House Sparrow

Doesn't everybody know what a House Sparrow looks and sounds like? Well, hold that image and that familiar chirping sound, because at current rates this ever present bird of our streets, parks, hedgerows and farms is another old favourite in trouble, and will potentially disappear in the next 25 years if nothing is done about it soon. Alarmist? exaggerated? well possibly, but we need to keep this bird at the foremost of our minds and take action now, if we are to not lose this popular and often taken for granted cockney favourite. The plight of House Sparrow has been well publicised in recent years with numbers thought to have plummeted nationally by up to 71% between 1977 and 2008 - now there's a statistic which should set off alarm bells.

It's not possible to point out the exact reason for their decline in urbanised areas like our gardens and parks, but extensive research in the last 10 years has given one or two indicators why this might be.

• Reduction in the availability of favoured food, either for adults or chicks or both.
• Increased levels of pollution.
• Loss of suitable nesting sites.
• Increased prevalence of disease.
• Increased levels of predation.

In three of the five bullet points above we could at least try to assist the House Sparrow, and with all of our concerted efforts we may not reverse the decline but could stabilise existing numbers in urbanised areas for future generations - below is my 3 point basic action plan in helping the House Sparrow.

• We should all continue to feed House Sparrows by ensuring our seed feeders are topped up not just in the winter months but right through the important spring and summer breeding months - I would recommend seeds over bread, which is far more nutritional for the adult birds and will make up some of the diet of the young birds along with the much needed aphids, insects and caterpillars.
• Think twice about using your car, reducing your number of car journeys - do you really need to jump into the car to collect the daily newspaper or to collect one or two grocery items which you may have run out of at home? It's far healthier for you and better for the environment to walk to shops when possible, or wait a little longer for your missing groceries on your next big shop. If we all reduced our car journeys by 10% to 15% this could make a significant impact on pollution levels in our towns and cities.
• Sparrows are communal nesting birds and love to nest in small groups on our houses under the eaves or guttering, between slipped tiles on the roofs in older Edwardian/Victorian houses but sadly these types of properties are few and far between and modern houses and the materials and methods of constructing new houses has reduced many nesting opportunities - therefore why not invest or make a Sparrow terraced nest box for your house? Even now it's not too late to put up a nest box and if it's unsuccessful this year, there is always next year. These can be purchased directly from the RSPB shop, available on this link.

 http://shopping.rspb.org.uk/rspb-sparrow-terrace-nestbox.html

Male House Sparrow - Seed feeding 

Female House Sparrow - Seed feeding

I am very fortunate to have House Sparrows nesting in my street but I'm lucky the street I live in is a row of Edwardian houses, perfect breeding grounds for Sparrows and there is a small population of around a dozen birds in my area, they will often come to the birds feeders in my back garden to eat the seeds. The thought of losing the sound of chirping Sparrows in the morning or the noise of three or four birds tussling and squabbling over a mate in the breeding season would be a travesty and a real loss if this sound were to ever fall silent.

A recommended read

I'm not a huge reader - more of a bedtime reader, however I've just finished reading a book which I couldn't put down and would thoroughly recommend.

Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo written by Michael McCarthy is one of those books which you must read, whether you are a nature enthusiast or not. The basic premise of the book is the story, survival and the plight of our Spring-Bringers, from Cuckoos to Nightingales, Turtle Doves to Spotted Flycatchers, Swifts to Wood Warblers, basically all those birds which we so look forward to seeing each and every spring and there lies the problem - for how much longer will we be seeing these birds arrive each year on our shores?

The author meets with a variety of people for whom these Spring-Bringers mean so much to in different ways, from the experts who study individual species to Julia the County lady with her Hunter wellies, array of gardening books and walking sticks in her umbrella holder, who had heard a Cuckoo at her home in the Ashdown Forest in Sussex on the day of her daughters' birth at the end of April, and every year since then on or around this date for 15 years, until 2007 when that expected sound never happened and the call of the Cuckoo fell silent, and the feeling of loss that Julia felt, being absolutely traumatised - like her life blood was being taken away.

Michael McCarthy also tries to understand and discover the reasons why these birds are in such steep decline from habitat loss, persecution, shifting weather patterns and global warming, with some startling statistics. By 2007, forty one per cent of Britain's Swifts had failed to return since 1994. Thirty-seven percent of the Cuckoos. Forty-seven per cent of the Yellow Wagtails. Fifty-four per cent of the Pied Flycatchers. Fifty-nine per cent of the Spotted Flycatchers. Sixty per cent of the Nightingales. Sixty-six per cent of the Turtle Doves. Sixty-seven per cent of the Wood Warblers. All gone already in thirteen years with the remainder on the slopes of decline!

When did you last see or hear a Cuckoo?

I purchased my copy of the book from Amazon for a very reasonable £5.99 including free delivery, this seems a very small price to pay for such an important and enlightening read.

North-East London RSPB Local Group

If you have no plans this evening, why not pop along to the North-East London RSPB local groups monthly indoor talk - Details below.

Indoor Talk by Chris Goodie on "Finding Jewel Thrushes".

Date:  Tuesday 7th May at 7.15pm
Location:  Snaresbrook Primary School, Meadow Walk, South Woodford, E18 2EN
RSPB Members £2.00, non-members £2.50, school children free

Chris Goodie's recent book describes (with great charm) his unique feat of successfully seeing within one year all 32 species of Pitta Thrushes. They usually live on wet forest ground in Asia, Africa and Australasia - not that in a dark forest they are particularly easy to see, despite the varied and brilliant colours of their feathers that makes them something of an obsession with birdwatchers.

You may like to put in your diary the next meeting, on Tuesday 12th June when Richard Pople introduces us to the "Birds of Morocco".

Perhaps we can remind you of the coach trip to the RSPB reserve at Pulborough Brooks, organised by the Havering RSPB Group on 26th May. It is a large and varied reserve with a particular civilised visitor centre and the water meadows should be just the place for waders and wildfowl, with the summer migrants now back in the woodland. The coach costs £15 and leaves Romford at 7.30am, returning at 7pm, but you have to book in advance if you want to get on, so telephone 017 0855 8399 or 075 2300 7282 or email thewriter27@hotmail.com to fix a place for yourself.

David Littlejohns
Publicity Officer, NELondon RSPB Local Group

Threatened birds lose nests in floods

After making a small plea in my previous post to continue feeding our garden birds during this very wet breeding season, the RSPB have since reported on another issue regarding flooding on many of their reserves, with catastrophic impact to some of Britain’s already-threatened wildlife. 
The information provided below is from the RSPB's latest news page.

Three day weekend ahead

The bank holiday weekend is upon us and after a busy week at work with little time for getting out into the field, I for one am champing at the bit to get out there and enjoy some of the sub-Saharan migratory birds, which have been flooding (pardon the pun) into the UK over the last week.

With more rain than you could wish for over the last week or two, the annual spring bird migration started slowly, with the typical early arrival of Wheatear, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Swallow and the odd Willow Warbler arriving safely back on our shores. These are now being backed up by large numbers of Swifts crossing the Channel, followed by House Martin and to a lesser extent Sand Martins - national reports of Sand Martin suggest numbers are considerably down at this stage compared to previous years and have become a huge worry in terms of their numbers nationally, lets hope this is just a blip! Common Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethoats have both been seen locally on Wanstead Flats, with up to 10 Wheatear, Yellow Wagtail and a couple of Whinchat also seen here in the last week. Reed and Sedge Warblers are calling from the reed beds at Rainham Marshes with Cuckoo and Turtle Dove reported here as well - both these birds continue to struggle with sadly fewer and fewer sightings each year, with the BTO advising their decline is still not improving. I'm yet to hear of any reports of Spotted Flycatcher - although expected anytime now, but history shows these are one of our last breeding summer visitors to arrive - and if I was them I would be in no hurry, especially with our current weather!

Once out in the field, I shall be using my listening skills to try and hear the song of a Grasshopper Warbler - one of the few species of migratory Warbler which has shown a slight increase in numbers in the last decade. Often difficult to see deep down in the scrubby Hawthorn they are usually first found by hearing their distinctive song, best listened for around dawn or dusk, it has been described as sounding like a fisherman's reel being wound in or like an alarm clock with outs its bell!

Let's hope the sun comes out over the weekend as all these birds, along with our regular garden birds rely heavily on natural food resources which are more prevalent when the sun shines - such as all types of flying insects, arthropods, minibugs and caterpillars, all needed for their survival and to feed their young at this time of year. With the persistent rain only adding to their troubles, reducing the number of hours in the day they are able to feed - I hope future records don't show that the spring/summer of 2012 was one the poorest years for our small breeding birds. It is advisable to continue to feed your garden birds through the Spring and Summer and not just in the Winter, especially if first broods have failed, as the adult birds will be grateful for an easy meal to help them quickly refuel and keep their strength up for feeding a brood of hungry mouths. It might also be worth considering mealworms at this time of year, which are ideal for recently hatched young (that's if the Woodpigeon's don't get there first!). There could still be a silver lining to this wet spring, birds are very resourceful and shouldn't be underestimated as most will try to raise a second brood if the first brood fails, so all is not lost, just yet...

What ever your plans this bank holiday weekend, don't go far without your waterproofs! And spare a minute to feed our feathered friends at this often forgotten, but busy time of year.

BTO - WeBS Count

A month or two ago I contacted the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) regarding taking part in their Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) to see if I could contribute, and whether there was a vacant site local to where I live, where I could count the Wetland bird species. I was initially informed the lakes, reservoir's and wetland areas in my immediate vicinity already had volunteers in place for counting the waterbirds, but further to my initial response I have now been contacted by Cath Patrick - Senior Conservation Officer regarding a potential new site which isn't currently covered on the survey, this is at Gunpowder Park in the Lee Valley and may require surveying in the future. We have put a date in the diary and are planning to check the site's WeBS viability in the next couple of weeks - you can expect further updates from me in the future should the initial survey be a success!

The principal aim of the WeBS count is to record and monitor non-breeding waterbirds(herons, ducks, geese, gulls, waders etc) in the UK, identifying population sizes, trends in numbers and mapping there distribution.

If you are interested in assisting the BTO in the surveying of a site local to where you live, I've pulled some information from the BTO website to try and give you an overview of the process and the requirements needed in volunteering for this survey.

What type of counts are carried out?

There are two main counts which make up WeBS, the Core Counts and Low Tide Counts.

Core Counts - is the principal scheme of the Wetland Bird Survey. Counts are made annually at around 2,000 wetland sites of all habiats; estuaries and large waters predominate.

Low Tide Counts - despite involving only a relatively small number of sites, estuaries collectively represent the most important habitat for wintering waterbirds in the UK.They are also inherently different from the thousands of inland sites counted for WeBS.The influence of the tide means that the birds have to be much more mobile, both within and between sites. WeBS Core Counts on estuaries have, in general, been based around high tide roosts. Although important in themselves, roost sites are usually secondary in importance to the manner in which waterbirds make use of a site for feeding. Therefore, information gathered about these sites at high tide will only provide part of the picture.

Core Count Priority Dates

2012
15th January	12th February	11th March
8th April	20th May	24th June
22nd July	19th August	16th September
14th October	18th November	16th December
2013
13th January	10th February	10th March
14th April	12th May	23rd June
21st July	25th August	22nd September
13th October	10th November	15th December

What is required?

The survey involves visiting a local wetland site once a month throughout the winter, counting the waterfowl there.  Counts from all months of the year are necessary but the main period for the volunteer counters is concentrated from September through to March.

What skills are required?

Anyone can take part, even beginners to birdwatching. Unlike many bird surveys, to carry out WeBS Counts, you don't have to know bird songs or calls, just the ability to identify common waterbirds.

WeBS runs a number of 1-day and weekend training courses, centered on teaching bird survey techniques. If you are interested in a course, check the BTO website at the foot of this page for training dates and further information.

How is the survey organised?

The survey is organised via a network of voluntary Local Organisers (LOs). The LO will give you more information, and will be able to allocate you a WeBS site to count if there is one available.

How do I get involved?

To register for WeBS, contact your Local Organiser or the WeBS Office - all the information you need is provided on the BTO link below.

Where are the survey sites?

A WeBS site can be any wetland area, be it an estuary, lake or reservoir to a river, stream or even your local village duck pond.  Many of the larger sites are regularly counted, but vacant sites do appear from time to time, even counts from small waterbodies are still important. 

How do I return my data?

WeBS Online is the easiest and most convenient way to send your data to the BTO.  Alternatively, you can send back completed count forms to your LO.

You can find out more about taking part, training courses, vacant sites, results, data and the history of the BTO and the WeBS surveys by clicking on this link - There is also a very good questions and answers page to assist you.

http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/webs

Patch-less Birding

In bird watching terms the definition of a "Local Patch" is: Local - meaning you can walk, cycle or drive a short distance to, and Patch - an area of bird friendly habitat with either woodland, scrub, fields, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or even the sea, which you can visit on regular intervals throughout the year, noting and counting the birds which occupy any pre-determined boundaries. The list of birds which frequent these spaces could be limitless and it really depends on how much time and effort you can afford to give up in pursuit of patch birding, with the list of birds seen at your chosen site ultimately dependent on your current choice of residency, whether this be a flat in an urban city environment or a cottage near to a coastal marine habitat. It's been said many times before but watching and finding birds on a local patch is probably the most rewarding and at times the most frustrating type of bird watching which, in equal measures ensures patch birding is part of the essential make up of every birder!

Since picking up the bins again and getting off my backside, I've been looking, almost searching for a local patch I can visit regularly in hope of watching birds within a stones throw away from where I live. The problem I have come up against is where? From where I currently live nothing really stands out as a potential "local patch", some people may say this is quite negative as even a local park or even a school playing field could be deemed as an ideal place to start but as a teenager growing up on the coastal fringes on the east side of the river Thames. Without realising it at the time, I was spoilt with the type and variety of birds to be found, from waders on the foreshore to warblers in the reed bed, wildfowl in the winter and Raptors on passage. This has only added to my dilemma as if I was to watch a local playing field I fully expected to get bored fairly quickly due to the limited habitat for encouraging new birds into an area and the repetitiveness of seeing the same birds each time I visited the site - it is only so often you can count the number of Common Gulls amongst the Black-headed gulls or note the number of Robins you have seen on a given day!

So, purely for selfish reasons and my own sanity I've decided to give the school playing field a miss and have drawn up a small short list of possible "local patch" contenders:

Wanstead Park/Flats - By far and away the stand out contender, I can't walk here but I can cycle or drive, a good selection of habitat is on offer with ponds and lakes, broadleaved woodland, large open fields with pockets of scrub and gorse. However this is already well watched by a good band of birders, who do an excellent job of recording the birds at this site, and I wonder do they really need another pair of eyes pursuing that Wheatear?

Highams Park Lake - This has potential with a good size lake surrounded by a small broadleaved woodland and open parkland. But having visited here on several occasions, it has yet to inspire me with not much return in the way of birds despite frequent visits, and this has now turned into one of those nice places to visit with the family as it has a great children's playground!

Connaught Water -  Another good size lake surrounded by mature woodland in the centre of Epping forest but once I've circled the lake and counted the Mandarin ducks what next - buy an ice cream? Unfortunately this too has been discounted, based mainly on its own popularity with a large number of visitors all trying to utilise a ridiculously small car park!

Knighton Woods, Epping Forest - This is a small pocket of mature ancient woodland with a couple of small ponds, its always been an enjoyable walk round especially if you own a dog! All the woodland bird species you would expect to find are here, but it's limited in terms of keeping you interested and so would I get out of bed on a cold, wet February morning just to see another Great Spotted Woodpecker - I'm not sure I would!

Rainham Marshes - This really has it all in terms of habitat and diversity of birds on offer but it's not exactly local to where I live and I would also have to rely on the A406 not being full of traffic! This site is already massively watched from dawn to dusk, which is not surprising considering how much money the RSPB has ploughed into the reserve turning this area in to a huge success.

So these are my "Local Patch" contenders, I'm sure there are other areas locally I haven't yet discovered or I have overlooked but these are my current choices. If you have any recommendations not too far from where I reside in Woodford Green and which meet the terms of the definition above, please let me know?

What to do next? Up route the family, change the children's schools, find a new career and move to the coast in pursuit of the perfect patch to watch birds - not just yet... For now, I think I will in the short term continue to chase Wheatears around Wanstead Flats with the other birders, whilst enjoying the company of like minded people, and live in hope of seeing and contributing to finding something which possibly hasn't been seen already!

As a footnote to this blog entry - I was on Wanstead Flats with Jonathan Lethbridge on Saturday morning which, probably due to the persistent rain was surprisingly quiet, with very few dog walkers, no footballers and no sign of any oddballs! (apart from two birders, in full wet weather gear, pursuing an odd calling Lesser Whitethroat). I did however see my first Wanstead Ring Ouzel, along with returning Hobby, Swifts and Lesser Whitethroat! All of which only added to my conclusion that Wanstead Park/Flats is the current stand out "Local Patch" contender.

The decline of an old garden favourite

A busy agenda almost put paid to any plans of venturing out this weekend, with family visiting and my eldest sons 6th birthday party on the horizon. I was up against it in terms of finding a small window to escape the house for a couple of hours, but late Sunday afternoon after surviving the birthday party and building my second Lego creation of the weekend - a fine twin winged Bi-plane. I hot footed it over to Wanstead Park for a quick check of the lakes in hope of seeing any returning Swallows or Martins. Once at the park and putting my best listening skills to the test, I soon picked up the song of a Blackcap, Chiffchaff and then a Willow Warbler. It was when I was listening to the Willow Warbler I could hear the rustle of leaves in a patch of sparse brambles behind me, at first I dismissed this as probably a grey squirrel searching for last autumns buried acorns or even a blackbird turning over the leaves in search of earthworms or slugs, but as the rustle continued I became a bit more intrigued and couldn't resist trying to find who or what was creating this noise! As I walked closer to the area I could see the leaves moving, half expecting a blackbird to give its alarm call and fly out of the brambles I was surprised to see what looked like a mammal - a rat was my first thought but as I got closer and moved a few old leaves and twigs to my surprise a hedgehog appeared, sniffing its nose in the air! This spiky little fella probably only recently out of winter hibernation seemed to be oblivious of me standing within only a couple feet and instead of curling up tightly into a ball upon discovery, carried on searching through the fallen leaves, presumably looking for his next meal. After watching him forage for a couple of minutes I lost sight of him as he went deeper into the undergrowth - although I could still hear him.

It's not until you notice something you haven't seen for a while, whether this be a mammal, bird or insect that you stop and try to remember the last time you did, and I tried to recall the last time I had seen a hedgehog, thinking back it must have been over two years ago on a farm in Norfolk - which just goes to show how scarce these once common garden mammals are becoming!

We have all read or heard stories in the press about the loss of wildlife in our gardens due to the lack of habitat and change in gardening methods effecting our bees, butterflies and song birds, however hedgehogs are equally in decline. Through our paving of once grassed front gardens to create driveways to enable us to park our beloved cars onto, making stronger boundary fences for our back gardens using bricks or wooden fence panels to ensure that perfect divide between you and the neighbouring garden, or the preference to have a tidy and well kept plot with manicured lawns and perfectly weeded flower beds but unfortunately conforming to these ideas has only added to the decline of natural homes for hibernating hedgehogs, thus reducing their natural food resources and hugely restricting their movements between our gardens in the quest for food - I'm as guilty as the next person but unfortunately this has had a huge impact on our much loved spiky friends.

So what can we do? "Hedgehog Street - City of Wildlife" is a great initiative to gets us home owners thinking about hedgehogs, not just individuals but whole streets and even communities potentially coming together to create homes and habitats hedgehogs require to thrive and make a welcome return to our gardens once again.

I urge you to take a look at the link below and read all about Hedgehog Street and the work they are doing in trying to increase awareness of the plight of hedgehogs by encouraging us to change the way we see our gardens. See if you can't make a small change to the way you garden or maybe next time you think about repairing that broken fence panel, leave a small 15cm gap to allow a hedgehog to come and go or even better still, replace that wooden fence with native hedging plants like Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Hazel, Birch and Beech all of which, in time, will not only benefit commuting hedgehogs but also create cover, homes and food for all kinds of visiting garden wildlife.

http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pages/hedgehog-street.html


I couldn't resist adding a couple of pictures of my wonderful Lego creation - I secretly had fun building it!

Take off!

Engines on

Titchwell - rarely disappoints

No visit to north Norfolk would be complete without a trip to the Titchwell RSPB reserve. Some of its early charm may have been lost as it has grown in popularity over the years, with an estimated 140,000 visitors a year making this the RSPB's busiest reserve, but even with the increase of human visitors our avian visitors continue to be impressed with the diverse habitat on offer; from the ever maturing trees and hedges when you first arrive around the car park, the broadleaved trees as you follow the trail towards the visitors centre or the vast freshwater reed bed when you walk along the wooden boardwalks towards the main footpath which continues up past first the freshwater lagoon and then the brackish saltwater lagoon and finally the tidal marsh, before arriving at the sand dunes and the beach with the North sea staring you in the face. Titchwell really has got it covered when it comes to habitat with more plans afoot to extend the reserve creating even more trails and another freshwater lagoon to the east. All of this along with its excellent facilities and array of birds on show, it's no wonder Titchwell continues to grow in popularity.

I started my visit early and despite a less than optimistic weather forecast I was determined to make the most of my opportunity, arriving at a virtually empty car park just before 7am with light rain in the air I passed a fellow early starter who had camera and large lens in hand and was already returning from the marsh - he hadn't actually come to Titchwell for the birds but in hope of seeing a glimpse of the Chinese water deer which have been seen on the reserve, up until then I thought these were just Muntjac deer but my friend kindly explained the differences, the most obvious one being the large protruding tusks in the adult bucks. Unfortunately his visit had been unsuccessful and the deer had eluded him and his camera this time!

Adult buck Chinese water deer

I had hoped to spend more time around the car park (not something I usually do) checking the trees and bushes for summer migrants, this area is often overlooked as visitors head directly for the comforts of the visitors centre but the rain started to get heavier and apart from a couple of bravely calling Chiffchaff's and a small party of Siskin, there was very little else on offer. I made it quickly to the Fen hide overlooking the freshwater marsh, at this point the heaven's opened and I was thankful for the dryness of the hide. I had hoped to see the marsh harriers circling the reed bed but along with most of the other birds they were sensibly taking cover, conscious of the time and despite the rain I decided to cut my losses and head for the recently built very 21st century Parrinder hide which overlooks both fresh and salt water lagoons. I remember the old wooden Parrinder hide which may be more to the liking of the traditionalist but I like the new modern design of hides which are less bird hide these days, more "outdoor educational classrooms" with increased space, excellent visibility and various displays and information on show. I made my way along the main path with woolly hat pulled down below my ears and with the persistent rain ever increasing I did question my decision to come out today because at this point I hadn't seen very much, even raising my binoculars into the cold driving rain seemed more and more of an effort! After finally making it to the shelter of the hide and decamping of my wet clothing there were one or two good birds to be seen with a nice selection of waders on offer, first up was a smart almost full summer plumage Spotted Redshank and then this was quickly followed by Ruff, Black-tailed Godwits, Ringed Plover, Curlew and of course several Avocets. A distant female Red-crested Pochard was a nice surprise and Swallows and a single House Martin flitted over the lagoon, a couple of continental White Wagtails amongst our Pied Wagtails was as a nice comparison and were good to see.

The contrasting old and modern style of bird hides

                                
The thought of continuing my route along the path to the sand dunes and the sea didn't really wet my appetite in the current weather conditions, although a braver soul may have been rewarded for their efforts as sea watching in this weather may have produced some good birds - my thoughts were more of breakfast and a hot bath! I spied an opening in the dark clouds and may be a brief respite in the rain, I decided to make a dash for it back in the direction of the visitors centre. This brief stoppage in the weather had the desired effect on the birds as I picked up a distant pair of Marsh Harriers over the reed bed and two Wheatears along the footpath, freshly in from their wintering grounds. Summer visiting Sedge Warblers started to make their noisy rambling warbles within the reeds without yet revealing themselves and their identifying parachuting displays. I then heard the distinctive "ping, ping, ping" of Bearded Tits fairly nearby as then a male bird climbed the reeds and showed off its black moustache contrasting on its pale grey head. Then lastly as I walked the wooden boardwalk through the reeds and vegetation the unmistakable sound of a Cettis Warbler caught my attention as it exploded into song in the dense undergrowth up ahead, this usually difficult bird to see kindly showed itself to me for an all too brief couple of seconds before disappearing again. Continuing my dash back to the car before the next deluge of rain came, the Chiffchaff's were still calling as the car park began to fill with the steady stream of visitors keen to see what delights Titchwell could offer up!

Was it worth getting up in the dark and looking for birds through steamy binoculars with the lenses covered in rain drops ...........you bet it was!

More about the reserve at Titchwell and Chinese water deer can be found on these two links.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/t/titchwellmarsh/
http://www.bds.org.uk/chinese_water_deer.html

North Norfolk

I've just returned from a family holiday to one of my favourite parts of the UK - north Norfolk and its wonderful coastline. I feel I have a special affiliation with this part of the world as when I first left school I spent a summer working with the RSPB at their Titchwell reserve as a voluntary warden, most of this time was spent maintaining the reserve for the public with a couple of excellent projects to keep you busy. Like the time we created habitat for bitterns by wading up to our waistline into the reed bed, cutting the reeds down below the surface of the water to create small open pools within the reeds for bitterns to feed, or sitting in a one man hide in shifts of up to four hours, overseeing a nesting colony of little terns on the shingle beach (sadly gone now) or trying to build up the natural sea defences by increasing the height of the sand dunes by laying cut down branches onto the existing dune in hope this would build up the height over time and protect the salt marsh from the rising tides, all of these activities were under the watchful gaze of Norman Sills (warden) who had a never ending passion and energy for conservation. After leaving Titchwell, Norman went onto manage the RSPB reserve at Lakenheath to continue his good work, anyone who has visited Lakenheath can see what a great success he has achieved - I look back fondly on the efforts of that summer and despite the hard work I found the whole experience rewarding and educating.

Although family commitments reduced the amount of time available for birdwatching in general I did manage a surprise visit to the NNT Holme reserve after finding out our planned trip to Brancaster had to be postponed due to the hide tide covering the only road to the beach! We spent a couple of hours on the beach with the children collecting shells, crabs and digging holes in the sand. Whilst walking along the shoreline we unfortunately discovered a dead Bar-tailed Godwit which by the looks of things had been deceased for some time! And this wasn't the only dead bird we found that day, we also found an adult Fulmar in pristine condition which after closer inspection looked like it had died from natural causes - we decided to bury the bird in the sand as I did my best to explain to the children the bird would go to some kind of 'bird heaven'.

The skull of the long deceased aforementioned Bar-tailed Godwit

All the time we were on the beach I kept a close eye on the skies and picked up my first swallows of the spring heading north closely hugging the Norfolk cost line, Sanderlings were still in their wonderful white winter plumage running up and down the sandy shore, looking out to see there wasn't much movement apart from the odd flock of Bar-tailed Godwit and a distant large flock of Brent geese. We decided to make tracks and head back to the car as the northerly breeze in off the sea kept the temperature's low and we were all starting to get hungry! On our way back to the car park through the sand dunes we flushed a couple of Wheatear's and as I approached the bushes around Gore Point, whilst still keeping an eye out for any arriving summer migrants I noticed a thrush shaped bird sat up on one of the bushes - RING OUZEL! a male, fantastic, after watching the bird for only a matter of seconds and kindly handing my bins to Mrs Brown for a quick look a second bird arrived and then quickly disappeared into cover, deciding to move around the bushes for a better view 'chuck', 'chuck', 'chuck' came the call and THREE birds flew out of the cover and headed in the general direction of Hunstanton further along the coast - what a great end to a day on the beach, especially as I had been on Wanstead Flats the previous weekend looking for a Ring Ouzel without success.

I've since found out there had been a decent influx of Ring Ouzel's over the last few days along the north Norfolk coast with up to seven birds seen together at Cley and several other birds dotted along the coast - Still nothing beats the thrill of finding your own birds!

Easter Holidays

It's the last day at work before the four day Easter long weekend and I'm contemplating what to do! Summer migrants have been relatively thin on the ground recently, probably due to the northerly wind and the return to wintry cold weather conditions which we have been experiencing over the last couple of days, with only willow warbler and swallow having been reported locally at Wanstead Flats to add to the recent arrival of Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Wheatear.

I recently enjoyed a talk by the 'Urban Birder' David Lindo on his life and travels, including growing up in London and in particular the joys and rewards of 'patch' birding with his local patch being Wormwood Scrubs. He described the time when he said to himself  "Today I will find a Ring Ouzel on the patch" and as he walked his usual route around Wormwood Scrubs, low and behold as if by magic one appeared before his eyes! This all sounds too good to be true but in all probability this is not as unlikely as you might think. Ring Ouzels are passage breeding migrants from the thrush family (Turdidae) and breed in the higher grounds of Scotland, Wales and northern England having spent the winter months in the Mediterranean regions. On route to their breeding grounds in the spring they have to stop to feed and this is when you have an outside chance of seeing one of these birds on your local patch! The birds love open ground like playing fields or parks surrounded by bushes or trees for cover and will stop over for a day or two to feed before continuing their journey north, they can be particularly difficult birds to see as they can be quite nervy and will often quickly take to cover if disturbed, when in the open they can be seen on the ground in the grassy fringes of a field feeding in the same way you would see a blackbird or song thrush feeding, looking for grubs, insects or earthworms in the grass. The autumn gives you another chance to see these birds away from their usual breeding grounds, perhaps even more of a chance than in the spring if it has been a successful breeding year, as there will be a greater number of birds moving south with juveniles in tow, stopping again to feed on route before heading on to warmer climates.

Next time you are over the park with children or grandchildren in the spring or autumn and you see a blackbird feeding on the ground just take a moment and have second look to ensure you haven't just found yourself a Ring Ouzel!

Male Ring Ouzel

So, to start my Easter weekend and in the words of David Lindo "I'm going to find a Ring Ouzel on Wanstead Flats tomorrow" - We shall see!


For more information on Ring Ouzel's, please check this excellent website out http://www.ringouzel.info/index.html

The sound of summer

Cuckoo? Willow Warbler? No.......The Swift is my sound of the summer..

Of all of our migratory summer visiting birds the Swift is usually one of our last to arrive with most birds first seen towards the end of April or the beginning of May, having travelled over 4,000 miles from their wintering feeding grounds in Central and Southern Africa.  At first these elegant masters of the skies silently arrive almost unnoticed but as more birds arrive and their numbers start to increase that familiar sound of a piercing scream fills our skies once again as birds re-equate themselves with former partners, or previous non breeding birds vie for the attention of a potential new partner as they race past at breathtaking speeds. Once the short breeding season is over and the juveniles have fledged, adults and juveniles join together in a noisy and acrobatic display in the skies above flocking together in 50 or more before their all too brief summer visit is over for another year and, as the end of August approaches, they start to make their return trip south again for warmer climates and better feeding grounds ahead of our cooler autumn weather and once again our skies fall silent for another year.

Where I live in a Edwardian terraced street in north-east London, where the houses were built more than a century ago, I'm lucky enough to see these birds every year as they breed and make their nests under the eaves, in a gap in the wall or under a broken or slipped tile. Unfortunately, due in main to the modern methods of building new houses and the materials used, these enigmatic birds are at risk with recent research and studies showing their numbers have plummeted alarmingly by 50% over of the last 20 years with estimates suggesting there are now less than 50,000 breeding birds left in the UK.

With this in mind I decided to make a couple of Swift boxes, the easy part was constructing the boxes the difficuly came when I had to install the boxes under the guttering of my house on the north or east facing wall 60ft high!

To install the Swift boxes I looked at a couple of options, Plan A was to contact a roofing friend I know and borrow a set of long ladders and scale the side of the house but after surveying the site and for my own personal health and safety it was decided this was a bit too risky, especially due to the narrow lean of the ladders and the slope the house sits upon!
It was then decided to put Plan B into action - open upstairs bathroom window, lean out carefully and attach the boxes to the underside of the fascia board beneath the guttering, probably not the best location available for the boxes but a lot safer, but even this position caused its own problems and I had to settle with installing the boxes slightly lower than first planned! There was a Plan C which involved calling the local fire service - probably not the smartest of ideas!

The boxes are now up and as I patiently await the arrival of our summer visitors, I can reflect upon the sounds of last summer and hope the boxes will be successful in attracting a breeding pair of Swifts this year, but should the boxes be unused this summer I still feel a sense of achievement in at least trying to make a difference no matter how small.

For more information on Swifts and building your own nest boxes
  http://www.londons-swifts.org.uk/ is an excellent resource.

Urban Butterflies

The Comma butterfly is one of our winter hibernators and can usually be seen towards the end of March or early April as spring temperatures begin to rise but with this unseasonally warm weather it has encouraged a few to leave there dormant state a little early this year and I've been lucky enough to see Comma's over the last two weekends, with this stunning little beauty with its ragged wings photographed in a friends garden on Sunday afternoon.

The butterfly gets its name from the only small white marking on the underside of its wing, which resembles a comma!

A little drummer boy!

I managed to get out and spend a couple hours at Wanstead Park on Saturday morning in hope of finding early summer migrants and wasn't disappointed with a least 6 singing Chiffchaff and 3 Blackcap but the highlight of the morning were the resident Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers! These are usually difficult birds to see but were very obliging this morning with single birds seen on three occasions and one particular confiding individual giving excellent views from a well known drumming post.  Now is probably the best time of year to see these little birds as the trees are not yet in full leaf and the bare branches make it easier to locate a bird once you have picked up the sound of the drumming which plays an important part of claiming a territory and attracting a mate.  The weather continued to be dry, bright and sunny which I was hoping would encourage a movement of raptors thermalling as the temperature increased throughout the morning but after a couple of hours looking towards the skies my only success was a single Buzzard heading in a westerly direction.

A report from JL (The Wanstead Birder) of an unusual leucistic duck resembling a female Mandarin/Wood duck was worth a view and I made my way over to the shoulder of mutton lake before leaving the park and was not disappointed to find the bird still there and showing well, after observing the bird for 10 to 15 minutes it didn't strike me as being of the tame variety & was acting like a genuine wild bird either keeping to the centre of the lake or close to the reeds and overhanging trees away from any passers by and looking rather uneasy all the time I was there - It will be interesting to see if any conclusions on this bird are made in the future!

Spring Sunshine

The weather for the weekend looks good with a warm south - south easterly breeze and clear conditions over most of the UK  -  I think I could be on for a raptor or two thermalling over the garden.  A little too early for a Hobby but a very good chance of a Buzzard and an outside chance of a Red Kite and we can all dream of an Osprey!

I've been looking for a window of opportunity to set up a blog for some time, having been inspired by some very good local bloggers, who with the aid of some excellent camera equipment & fine written word, have made my enjoyment of reading and viewing their photographs a real pleasure which in turn has inspired me to pick up the bins and camera again after many years in the wilderness.

Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.