Last twitch of the year

Monday was my first opportunity to go for the Brunnich's so I arranged to meet PB and MC at 7.00 am. I was a bit late as the alarm hadn't gone off, but as the plan was to drive through the awful weather and arrive as it cleared around 12.00, there was no rush. We stopped for breakfast and a drink and again for a comfort stop and to fill up. We arrived around 11.30 to a grey sky with patches of blue beginning to show, although it was still very breezy. A birder pointed us in the right direction and as we walked along the quay, the bird was showing really close but a little way ahead. By the time we got level it had swum a little way out.








We watched it diving and coming up a fair distance away and then we lost it. We stood around a eventually relocated it across the other side where it disappeared into the naval base. Just as we decided to go and have lunch it was refound and it headed back into the marina. The sun had appeared by now and we had much better views but it went behind a boat and reappeared well right by the breakwater and then headed back into the naval basin.

















We decided to go and look for the Hooded Merganser at Radipole and then the Glossy Ibis. The merganser was with a flock of tufted ducks right in front of the visitors centre and the ibis gave good views in the play park. We then headed home after a thoroughly enjoyable day.



















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Walland and Dungeness

The drive down to Dungeness across the Marsh was very wet with shallow areas of flooding on many parts of the road. The fields around Fairfield church had lots of pools as did many of the fields. At Baynham Farm the feeders held a few Blue Tits, Great Tits, Tree and House Sparrows with 2 Moorhens and a dozen Chaffinch in the feeder cage, otherwise there was little birdlife other than the Bewick's Swans from Caldecott Lane.
The water levels are so high now that many of the dykes and sewers and the moat and desert are flooding.
After a quick drink I worked my way back across the marsh first stopping at ARC both the south end and the Hanson hide. No sign of the black-throated diver but a Great White Egret, quite a few Goldeneye, lots of other ducks and a pair of Marsh Harrier.

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Trip to Holland

As the Hawk owl was still present after our return from India we decided, with PB to make the trip on Wednesday, which looked like the best for weather. We looked at times and due to various commitments the earliest train over I could make was 11.15pm on Tuesday, followed by a two hour drive before I had to stop for some sleep in a service area.
Waking up around 6 we managed a cup of tea before driving on to Zwolle. The day dawned bright and sunny until we left the motorway when it became misty, for the rest of the day!
We found the owl site and were soon watching it on top of a pylon in the mist.


A bit of patience and it flew closer onto the substation poles. It was really alert, searching round. At one point it flew down and caught a probable beetle in the grass. The owl spent some time flying to different posts, including flying down the fence line to a post about 10 feet away, completely unconcerned by the 10 or so photographers pointing cameras. It was almost too close for the lens!









The owl then flew across the road into the park before returning to the trees and lamp posts along the road.






It eventually flew further down the road and we decided to go and look for a Pygmy Owl in a wood a little way away. We put the coordinates into the sat nav but there was problem as it did not take us to the right area. However, following directions from Dutch Birding we eventually found the right place only to be told it had flown about an hour before after a photographer had tried to get too close.
There was a very interesting difference in the 2 groups. At the hawk owl, which has been around a while, it was mainly photographers with only 3 pairs of binoculars and 1 telescope in sight but at the Pygmy owl it was all birders.
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Back home

Returning from a great trip to Gujarat, India, it was interesting to see the changes over a fortnight. The real surprise was how many trees still had their leaves although it was December, and the beautiful colours.
We said goodbye to Patrick on Saturday and then had a look round with a visit to Scotney for the Long-tailed Duck plus Marsh Harriers and then a visit to the RSPB reserve where we saw a drake Gooseander and then a wander across Walland Marsh for the 37 Bewick's Swans.


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