Lunch time raptors

All day sunshine today and windless air were perfect conditions for our local Buzzards to 'cruise' around their territories. Cycling from Shadoxhurst on a circular route through Cold Blow, Capel road and Bromley Green I saw 4 pairs on the wing in eight miles. Back in the garden, a pair of Kestrels have been showing well, and so too hunting Sparrowhawks, but sadly I've yet to see their dashing display flights so far this spring.

Behind the garden in the muddy field, there are still 2 Little Egrets mostly stood motionless, just a week ago there was a peak of seven. With the field drying and the earth worms retreating deeper into out of reach, the Little Egrets will not be around for much longer this spring. Still there's plenty of other birds, Fieldfares, Redwings and Meadow Pipits are are passing through in varying daily numbers and local Jackdaws are stealing horse hair presumably for lining their nests.

Alicante birding and walking 2015

Last week's family trip to the Alicante area gave just a few occasions to do a little bit of bird watching. Compared to our visit two years ago (same time of the year) there were far fewer commoner migrants making their way north. Just an odd Swallow and Sand Martin and a widespread sprinkling of Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs soldiered through. Alicante area has a serious drought situation and the surrounding counrtryside has little replenishment to offer for passage birds moving through - there's little greenery to be seen away from the irrigated Orange Grooves. Walking in the mountains behind Benidorm, the temperature was considerably colder than on the coast, and whilst there were plenty of wild flowers and Almond Blossom to see, I didn't see any insect activity in six hours of walking, leaving me to marvel at the audious travels our spring migrants are presently making.

For those that have some 'real' bird watching time in Alicante, there are some great bird reserves to visit at this time of year, especially El Hondo. Even on our brief visit here, plenty of raptors on the wing even in winter.

http://www.spain.info/en_GB/que-quieres/naturaleza/espacios-naturales/parque_natural_de_el_hondo.html

For speed and camera fun, my favorite area is La Manga at San Pedro salt pans near Murcia. Here, Flamingos, Avocets, and Stilts can be very confiding. Our visit this year was a little disappointing, with less waders and Slender Billed Gulls around, and the higher water levels on the more accessible viewing areas displaced the birds tmaking them more difficult to photograph. Still, the mixture of exotics such as Greater Flamingos and large variety of waders, gulls and terns is a fantastic spectacle to see, even in February.

View over-looking San Pedro salt pans.

Black Winged Stilts are common and confiding here.

Kentish Plovers were never far away on the salt pans and beaches.

Ready for the breeding season, a Little Egret on the beach.

Juvenile Greater Flamingo.

On my two brief visits the adult birds were just a little too distant for more dramatic images.

Sub adult Booted Eagle

Away from casual birding, we walked in the Crevillente area for one day and also for a day in Quatretondeta, both easy drives from Alicante. Both areas are spectacular with very few visitors - you feel you have the mountains to yourself.

Lewis, high in Crevillente mountains. No sign of the resident Bonelli's Eagles this time.

The 'flash' of water in the background is the El Hondo nature reserve, a 1200 hectare reserve

The limestone peaks of the Quatretondeta mountains.

In February, Gorse is in flower, but the temperaturewas not warm enough for insects.

Els Frares pinnacles at Quatretondeta.

Bird-wise, Choughs on the peaks, Cirl Buntings below, little else in between. Bird of the day was a male Hen Harrier that worked its way through the Almond and Olive trees.

Little Egrets - a little closer to the garden

The rain and mud continues on and on. But one small change to witness, the two Little Egrets have now been joined by a third bird. 

As I sat in my old ramshackled shed (my hide) with seemingly nothing to see, two of the Egrets flew into their favourite field that backs on to the garden. Just for once they crossed the half-way line walking closer and closer to me. In the poor light and drizzle this is as good as its going to get trying to photograph these shy birds.

Kingfisher a rare garden visit

On Wednesday night through to this morning we received a lot of heavy rain leaving our garden and surrounding countryside covered in flashes of water - the field behind the garden with perhaps a quarter of its acreage under inches of water.

Making birdwatching even harder was the heavy and dark looking sky which hung over for most of the morning. Still, there were plenty of finches and thrushes around the dryer parts of the lawn and also a bird sitting on the garden fence with, it seemed, not a care in the world for the pouring rain. Expecting to see another Redwing through my binoculars, it was quite a surprise to find it was a Kingfisher!
I decided not to disturb the bird with any photography as it occasionally plummeted into the pond for food (newts/insects?). The bird stayed for at least half an hour and I managed just a distant image through the window. Just the second Kingfisher I've seen in the garden and perhaps with two good breeding seasons and frost free winters behind them, Kingfisher populations are expanding again.
 At the same time as the Kingfisher visit, the Little Egrets were present just behind the garden too, so quite a sight for inland Kent and some miles away from a significant water site.

From the kitchen window in the pouring rain, a record shot of our second garden Kingfisher in 20 years

New Grey Wagtail and Little Egrets return

The end of 2014 to the present day has seen a new visitor; a very attractive Grey Wagtail, trawling through the water-sodden field at the back of the garden. I can't remember if I've seen a Grey Wagtail in our garden vicinity before, so I'll count this one as the first for the garden officially. The water-logged pasture field resided by sad looking 'farm yard' horses has become an annual event now, and whilst its not a particularly seasonal picture, it certainly is attracting plenty of birds. These include plenty of Redwings, 2 Mistle Thrushes, Pied Wagtails, Chaffinches, Yellow hammers, a handful of Common Gulls, 20 Mallards, 2 Moorhens a regular flock of 20 + Meadow pipits, as well as the two regular Little Egrets.

The Grey Wagtail has been visiting the back garden and field edge for 10 days now, so I hope for the chance of better pictures soon.

Yellowhammers have built up to a flock of 8-10 birds

In the drizzle and murk, our daily Litle Egrets search out the Earth worms.

Watching Starlings at Dungeness RSPB

Dungeness RSPB December 8th including 5 Little Egrets.

Yesterday evening, at Denge Marsh, looking across the RSPB reserve, I could see a modest flock of Starlings wheeling across the sky performing a murmuration before roosting in the reed bed. So tonight, with a nice sunset predicted, I thought I'd walk along the approach track at dusk to see if the Starlings would repeat the show.
As the sun began to set, a Starling show looked promising with compact flocks of several hundred birds arriving and circling the reed bed. Looking over towards the Lade pits many more Starlings were in the sky, some thrillingly flying over me at nothing more than head height, to join the reserve roost. But just as things were looking good, the birds settled to roost quickly and the great show I'd seen the night before wasn't to be.
I looked back once again to the birds over the Lade area only to feel the whoosh of a thousand-odd Starlings leaving the RSPB reserve returning to roost there.
In the semi-darkness there were plenty of other bird activity with two fly-by Ravens, Great White and Little Egrets and a Barn Owl hunting along the approach track. Water Rail, Golden Plovers and Cetti Warblers called away in the background as I returned back to my car.

Grey Phalarope at Dungeness

It seems many decades ago since I last saw a Grey Phalarope and so I'm very happy to find this one along the shoreline at Dungeness. At sea and at first sight, it appeared as just another dull diminutive wader, until it dropped down on top of the swell, spun around searching for surface plankton to eat. And that's the clue to a Phalarope, no other wading bird will naturally behave like this.

My one hour's sea watch came in a little window of sunshine amongst many storms that never seem to be far off the coast at the moment. See pic below.