Garden Waxwings and Stock Dove

 I wondered if my imagination was playing tricks on me earlier in the week, when I thought I could hear Waxwings 'trilling' somewhere in our garden vicinity.
And then on Saturday there they were, six magnificent Waxwings sat at the top of a tall Spruce Tree in our front garden. The tree is taller than the house, and also visible from the back garden which is where George, Lewis and myself watched them from. These are the first garden Waxwings for at least a decade. On this occasion no pictures I'm afraid.

Even rarer, a Stock Dove has followed in the foot steps of our Summer Turtle Doves and joined the local Wood pigeons for a daily seed feed. This is the first Stock Dove in 18 years to feed in the garden. Around Shadoxhurst Stock Doves are present as a breeding bird in just small numbers, but there has been notably more Stock Doves wintering in the area this autumn.

Stock Dove, photographed from the kitchen window.

Waxwing roadside casualty

 

My sister Skyped me this morning to show me a freshly killed Waxwing, it was from a flock of 400 birds in Burton, Lincolnshire. It had been hit by a car, but was still alive when she picked it up. The winter's Waxwing invasion, has seen the birds desperate act of feeding on roadside berries taking its deathly toll. Sadly, 2 hours later, I too was picking up another Waxwing casualty from a flock at Hamstreet that are also dicing with death along the hedgerow of the very fast A2070. Coincidentally the bird I picked up was a beautiful male - just as my sister had found. It had a broken neck but was otherwise was unmarked - very sad. I weighed it at 70 grammes.

The birds at Hamstreet are depleting the Hawthorn berries rapidly and yet the flock is still building in number, there were at  least 50 + birds at Johnson's Corner today, with more birds feeding in the hedge towards the Kingsnorth turn-off on the A2070. Hopefully the Waxwings will soon be visiting our gardens, with just Sparrowhawks to contend with.

 

To cute for their own good, Waxwings have little fear of people or cars

Don't disturb the Harriers

Might as well be stood there with a gun

I stumbled across a bunch of birders at Walland Marsh today. They were standing and talking with little concern for the Harriers (or was it a Crane?) they'd come to see. I asked them to stand down from the brow of a bank overlooking a close-by Harrier roost. The same view could be had from simply taking 10 steps down the bank and out of the flight-line of incoming roosting birds. As I walked away, I saw that no one had moved. So a big thumbs down to all those birders who were there - and you were noisy, too. When you hear that the roost isn't used by Harriers like it used to be in the past, you might know the reason why.

Anyone visiting Walland Marsh reserve should not park their cars beyond the field gate (I suggest the pub car park), and never walk on top of the perimeter bank for the same reasons the RSPB put up signs for children saying 'please do not stand on top of the bank'.

November Swallow

This morning at daybreak a Swallow made a purposeful dash across the garden to quickly disappear to the south.  This made Swallows present for the last eight months in a year when we think that despite the weather, Swallows locally had a good and extended breeding season.

Back in October a flock of 200+ Fieldfares took a low pass across the garden with the aid of a strong Northern wind on the 27th. Unusually, on the 10th, a flock of Greylag Geese flew North over the house instead of roosting on Romney Marsh. Single Yellowhammers have started to return to the garden for seed and Wood pigeons are feeding young, with no regard for any formal breeding season.

Greylag geese

A rare September garden Brambling

Undeserved, this Brambling. A confession, on Saturday morning I stood at the back of the garden practicing 'birds in flight' shots with a new camera. So thin on the ground were any birds, that turning around in frustration while walking back to the house, I snapped anything at all - including this small brown thing was sittiing high on the top of our garden spruce. It was only only when I looked at the pictures on screen later, that I realised that we were looking at our third garden Brambling and first autumn record in 16 years.

Sparrowhawk makes a splash

Yesterday, at the back of the garden, I cut-back an overgrown Blackthorn tree that had smothered one of the ponds. I cut it back heavily to let in some light, but I left one branch to over-hang the pond. I figured it would be good for Sparrowhawks and possibly Kingfishers. At the time Sian chuckled at this...
..so today, cleaning our mountain bikes on the deck 130 feet away from the pond, a superb male Sparrowhawk took to trying out the new perch - as predicted!. We all watched it from some distance, as it seemed very inquisitive about the pond itself. To our pleasure it dropped down onto the pond edge. I made my way down the garden and spotted the bird again this time leg deep in water. From behind a small conifer and armed with my new camera, I used the flip down LCD screen whilst taking pictures with the camera high above my head. I got a few lucky pics, but frustratingly the exciting ones of the bird bathing were partly obscured by garden foliage in the path of my lense.  But, never mind, I'm convinced of the attraction of my designer perch, and hope we'll have the Sparrowhawk back again soon.

Juvenile Gannet sits it out at Dungeness

 
My first early morning birding trip down to Dungeness point for sometime was, I hoped, going to be a morning of rich pickings. However, the morning soon turned out to be dominated by just one lonesome and magnificent juvenile Gannet.

Walking the shingle ridge by the the fishing boats, there wasn't a great deal to see - just a dozen or so Gannets closely following a group of Porpoises was the only interest. But walking on, and in my path with camouflaged brown plumage and sleeping posture, a solitary Gannet awaited me. I wasn't far from nearly walking straight into it before it raised its ruffled head and stopped me in my tracks.

The young Gannet appeared weak and was going nowhere and I felt concerned for the bird's safety - especially as it wasn't going to be long before Saturday morning dog walkers would be wandering across the shingle ridges.

I sat with the bird for some time taking pictures and contemplated what I was going to do with it next. Looking back behind me a small group of fisherman were having breakfast on the beach after a long night's fishing. They kindly gave me an 8oz Whiting which I offered to the starving Gannet. As I approached the bird, holding the fish out, it immediately started begging for food with its beak open wide. Down dropped the Whiting, head first, swallowed in one move. I then offered Squid and Mackerel to the Gannet, neither of which it would swallow.

I decided that now with some food down it's neck I'd try and float it back to sea. With the help of a friendly visitor to Dungeness we caught the bird, clasped its beak tightly and took it down to the shoreline. Despite an incoming tide, our lonesome Gannet was quickly swimming out to sea and out of harm's way. In fact, within a minute, it was just a speck in the distance and back in the company of a passing party of feeding Gannets.

Interestingly, last weekend, 200 miles up in the North Sea and, to be more precise, in the Humber Estuary, my sister and birding buddies watched a large group of juvenile Gannets unusually flying off-course and close to the Humber Bridge.

Story and excellent photographs here:
http://pewit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/bridge-gannets.html