Friday, July 23, 2010
I think that I may have been in the wrong patch this morning. I got uncommon birds and a patch tick par excellence.
The tides have been high at lunchtime this week, so the only good birding is in the morning. Obviously, this being this particular patch, good birding means that the birds that are not there at lunchtime are there in the morning. Which is fine. It's a patch, and that's what it is all about. Or is it?
I got to the river this morning, spied a couple of Grebes close in and some gulls. So far, so really very normal indeed. Then a Common Sandpiper flew past calling, and it was close in. That'll do me. Waders on this patch are very hard to come by so I was more than happy to try and follow this shivery winged rarity for half an hour or so. Except that as I turned in one direction, I heard a familiar call behind me. If I was at Cley, I wouldn't think twice about it. Well maybe to check if something rarer was with it, maybe with spots. But in the context of the patch I knew this was special. I was stopped in my tracks and the adrenalin started to flow. It called again - tyu-yu-yu - "holy shit I've got a Redshank". There have been reports of one in the same borough, but just up river so I was hoping against all hope that one might come past, but as I spun round and eyeballed the foreshore there were five. FIVE! "Holy shit - there's five Redshanks". Five lovely little patch ticks all in a row. I was staggered. And still am. Of course, they flew off. Record shots below.
Bloody hell. I'll go and look for this sandpiper then. Two wader species in a day. Remarkable. I got further down river and didn't find a sandpiper, but did find a Yellow-legged Gull. And there was a Common Tern, and a summer plumage Common Gull (niiiiice..).
What
is going on? It's like the birding equivalent of
Once In A Lifetime...
You may find yourself birding in a half decent patch
You may find yourself in another part of the Thames
You may find yourself in a beautiful patch, with a beautiful tick
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Oh yes.
This patch is now officially on fire. Common Sandpiper swiftly followed by a returning Yellow Legged Gull. Why do I say returning? Becuase likes to sit on this bouy. Just like it did before.
64 for the year. And climbing.
Yesterday there was a Red Kite over the Wetland Centre. I think it's my turn now. That or something else year ticky or patch ticky. Anyone seen a funny looking Lapwing?
A Gull doing returning.
A Gull doing taking off.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The picture below shows two gulls. That much we can agree on. I can verify that the gull in the rear of the photo is the resident Yellow Legged Gull. The beady eyed bugger in the foreground goes into the dodgy pile as it is showing some Caspianesque features (here we go again). Now the probability of me taking a photograph in Fulham of both of the above is remote – if it were a photo of the two suggested above this would make Fulham a Gull hotspot. Not very bloody likely methinks dear reader.
The first photograph was taken on Tuesday, when I took a fair few photos of the Dodgy Gull (DG) but when looking at them later on I deleted most of them because it wasn’t leggy enough. But yesterday it was still there and it still looked funny. So, of course, I got stuck in again.
But what bits are dodgy and what are not? Remembering that this is in moult and Caspian is split from YLG not Herring...
Beady eye
Parallel(ish) bill
Long forehead
Pear-shaped head
Longish neck
Weak gonydeal angle
A bit busty
No significant tertial step
Long gape line thing
Not aggressive to YLG
Hint of tertial step
Legs a bit too red
Not overly dark mantle
Bill not really long enough
Little marking on nape
Not leggy enough
I'm guessing that some readers fell asleep when they got to the words 'tertial step'.
Anyway in summary, it's probably just a funny Herring Gull. But I haven’t a bloody clue. It stays in the dodgy pile for now.
Any ideas??
Monday, August 03, 2009
Many of you may have bought the latest issue of 'Birdwatch' - the one with the egret on the front. It seems to have inadvertently become a tribute to Patch Birding. Which is good. The Punkbirder column is all about the importance of patch birding (the essence being 'who do you think finds the rarities in the daft places then?') and a chap called Rich Bonser has the first of two articles on 'Fringe Birding' which also leans towards birding in the less well trodden path (good it is too). Regular reader(s) will know that I am essentially a patch birder and will remain so, although I have been on twitches planned and otherwise, they are essentially unsatisfactory. With all this in mind I have dedicated this week as National Patch Birding Week. I'm sure you have to apply to some Quango to get these things verified, but sod it - it's not like anyone is going to read this...
So what will NPBW entail? Not much beyond the scope of this blog I reckon, but I will try to impart some of the magic of patch birding to the masses. I will update you on what is going on in my local patch, show how rewarding the local park can be, and introduce you to my first patch - Surlingham Church Marsh. I may even yack on about some important patch birders from history and maybe point out a few of the recent birds that have popped up in unlikely places (from memory, I'm not going to trawl through the interweb records to work it out). So there is plenty to er, look forward to dear reader. Hell, I might even go and see how the mentalist coots are doing on the shopping trolley.
So let's start with Fulham shall we? Although there was a misidentified gull last week (no bloody surprise there), which was reckoned to be a Yellow-legged Gull, it didn't reappear. However, the bird from the previous week (and I reckon the bird that was here for most of last Autumn) is still knocking about and being very yellow legged. These pictures were taken on Thursday, and the bird was also in the area on Friday.
A Yellow Legged Gull doing posing for the camera
A Yellow Legged Gull doing walking.
That's enough from me for now, there was a Purple Heron at the Wetland Centre over the weekend, I'd better go and see if it has decided that Fulham is a little nicer than Barnes...
