Went to my favourite whorologically named mid-north Essex village today. Fingringhoe, located just along the road from Fistupslut, has been host to a glossy ibis for yonks. It wasn't playing ball today but a ringtail hen harrier more than made up for that.
The harrier was amazing. I mean, they always are - any bird that looks totally fucking awesome and pisses off the vast majority of posh land-owning nob types is pretty amazing in my book - but this one was really good.
We were scanning across a small scummy pond to the saltings beyond, hoping that the ibis would pop up when all the little grebes in front of us dropped under the surface as one. The harrier appeared as if from nowhere and bombed around the tiny area immediately in front of us for several minutes, at times coming so close that it didn't fit in the bins, let alone the 400mm lens. Eventually, the harrier noticed we were present, shat itself, and did an impressive about-turn so close we could almost smell it - I estimate about three or four metres from us. Then, brilliantly, it forgot about us, or decided it didn't care, came back, and settled in the grass for a while before resuming its hunt and moving off back onto the saltings. Probably one of the all time favourite birding moments, and certainly not one I'm going to beat in a while.
These last two are only here to show the under/upperwing a bit better. I had pegged this bird as an adult female, rather than a juv, based on the apparent lack of buff tones on the body and under the wings, and on the small(ish) lighter area on the upper inner wing. However, the streaking on the body appears to stop halfway and the upperwing (see pics 4 and 5) looks more juv, to my eyes at least, and I've now got it down as a juvenile bird. If I'm wrong - and I probably am - please do let me know!
Nothing else lived up to the harrier. Waders waded, (knot, dunlin, curlews, godwits, avoce...zzz) bullfinches squeaked pathetically, a kingfisher did the usual disappearing blue arse thing but in leiu of an ibis nothing trumped the hen-harrier-in-the-face experience.
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| Note amazing use of blurry post compositional device |
A quick stop at Abberton on the way home provided a stomach-churning display of disgusting shitty waterfowl and precisely fuck all else.
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I've been tweeting a lot about kittiwakes recently. I even blogged about them.
This is because I've seen a lot of them recently, mostly in Grays. They are exactly the kind of dross bird at a "traditional" seawatch site like Pendeen, Sheringham, Dunge, etc that is pure gold at a newer, less established site, like Grays. Even better, they are exactly the kind of bird I was getting all excited about when we moved into this flat back in July.
At the moment, I'd go so far as to say they are approaching predictable. There's a good chance - like, a properly good chance - of picking one up behind almost any vessel coming up the Thames on a rising tide. And again, predictably, you can often see them going back down, too. Literally as I write this, one just went upriver. On Boxing Day we took a quick walk further out at East Tilbury and with no effort at all picked up at least 8 birds, most coming downriver behind a Cobelfret vessel. It would probably be fair to assume there are a reasonable sized group hanging around in "our" section of the Thames. All but one have been adults.
This is because I've seen a lot of them recently, mostly in Grays. They are exactly the kind of dross bird at a "traditional" seawatch site like Pendeen, Sheringham, Dunge, etc that is pure gold at a newer, less established site, like Grays. Even better, they are exactly the kind of bird I was getting all excited about when we moved into this flat back in July.
At the moment, I'd go so far as to say they are approaching predictable. There's a good chance - like, a properly good chance - of picking one up behind almost any vessel coming up the Thames on a rising tide. And again, predictably, you can often see them going back down, too. Literally as I write this, one just went upriver. On Boxing Day we took a quick walk further out at East Tilbury and with no effort at all picked up at least 8 birds, most coming downriver behind a Cobelfret vessel. It would probably be fair to assume there are a reasonable sized group hanging around in "our" section of the Thames. All but one have been adults.
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| Kittiwakes are brilliant. |
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