[halftwo]

Ivory-bill surely?!!

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by halftwo

Ivory-bill surely?!!

lol! Great minds!

Take a look at this detail from the fieldnote I took (posted earlier)

[nickderry]

sounds like you had a great trip, apart from your fall. Poland is high on my list of places to go to after I had 4 Polish flatmates last year, and if the woodpeckers are as well behaved as the Grey Head and the Black, then I should try and get there asap. Those nutcrackers are great!

[halftwo]

Originally Posted by deborah4

lol! Great minds!

Take a look at this detail from the fieldnote I took (posted earlier)

Ha Ha! Hadn't noticed that in the thumbnail.
I was reminded of your comment re. uploading pics. today: got back & couldn't get the thing to work; camera ran out of battery; computer crashed; upload went, er, ...wrong...Finally got it to work before I threw the camera & 'puter out the door!!

[deborah4]

Pretty typical that I was away for the few corkers that have graced the local reserve recently because otherwise it's been an uneventful summer as rarities go. Anyway, not thinking of WBDs, Pec Sands or GG Shrikes, all long gone, I grabbed a few hours this afternoon at Pagham.

Not an awful lot of noteworthy stuff but first stop at the Little Ferry Pool produced 3 Avocet, Teal, Shelduck etc with rather careless bino scan, nearly too careless, just caught a small lone wader at very far side ... a long way away and took a few minutes to pin down, but pleased to add a UK Little Stint to the many I saw in Poland recently. Bizarrely, another on the way down the Long Ferry Pool channel much closer, so a few around I think. Usual stuff, Stonechat, Reed Bunting, good to see Wigeon and Pintail back in good numbers, a few Brent flying over, L Egret etc. Green Woodie shot across the fields and in the distance, a bevy, brace, or whatever you call about 10 Red Legged Partridge. Redshank in high numbers, Grey Plover with more of these at C.Norton and on Beach along with Turnstone etc. Peregrine on the Island, a few Curlew Sand and tons of Curlew.

Raptor of the day and well into double figures were Kestrel. Several families seen together, some great displaying going on with youngsters and air battles with some very bolshy rooks. Good to see they have bred well here this year.

A walk back through farmland from the Severals produced two Grey Wags, one of which looked to be a 1w bird, hanging around a farm. GS Woodie, Common Buzzard and lorry loads of Pheasant.

Oh forgot to mention two Swallow (very late and possibly youngsters from a second brood heading out for the winter)

Quiet few hours with usual passerine, gulls etc, very high and rather nippy winds kicking up this afternoon, also tide well out and could have done with a Scope but good to get out and pleasant afternoon.

(nice sunset too)

[matt green]

Originally Posted by deborah4

....nearly too careless, just caught a small lone wader at very far side ... a long way away and took a few minutes to pin down, but pleased to add a UK Little Stint to the many I saw in Poland recently. Bizarrely, another on the way down the Long Ferry Pool channel much closer, so a few around I think.

Well done picking out the Little Stint, Deborah ~ I really struggled over the summer picking off scarse waders among masses of Godwit, Redshank etc

(an beginning to think I should stick to Blue Tits and Greenfinches LOL)

Glad you managed to get out there

Matt

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by matt green

Well done picking out the Little Stint, Deborah

Matt

Thanks Matt - more a case of trying to ID a very distance tiny blob on gizz with weak binos - it was rather a long way away on the far bank of the pool. There were no other waders on the Ferry Pool at all so anything on it's own is always worth the extra effort although they are often with Dunlin, then behaviour, size of bill and their smaller size is obvious. The second one was easier With a half decent scope, there's no problem at Pagham but if the tides are out and you don't have a scope with you, the smaller waders can be a little tricky, especially in winter plumage (so be warned if you ever decide to visit!)

[joannec]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Not an awful lot of noteworthy stuff but first stop at the Little Ferry Pool produced 3 Avocet,



Raptor of the day and well into double figures were Kestrel.
)

I had a trip down to Pagham last week (after the WB diver) and saw the avocet too.....looked gorgeous against the setting sun.

Kestrels...LOADS about now. They seem to have had an excellent year in Sussex; all that rain has meant a plentiful food supply for the voles for the kestrels. Our resident pair successfully reared at least 2 young. (which are now being driven away by Dad.)

Joanne

[deborah4]

Wow! I've just took a peek at my garden - There's a GS Woodie on my peanut feeder! FIRST TIME EVER! A new garden tick

[halftwo]

Well done Deb, and welcome back!
It seems like a good day for garden birds (see my thread)
H

[paulwfromtheden]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Wow! I've just took a peek at my garden - There's a GS Woodie on my peanut feeder! FIRST TIME EVER! A new garden tick

Hi Debs, good stuff with the GSW. Hope you are feeling better now. GSW's are surprisingly common in South London, so we quite regularly get them, and more rarely, a Green WP.
I'll post on this subject again if an LSW turns up!!!! (Fat chance!!)
Had an adult and 1st winter Yellow-Legged Gull at Beddington yesterday which was quite exciting. No match for the SEO at Pagham last week-end though.
Paul

[JohnZ]

Hello Deborah. Welcome back and not before time !

[matt green]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Wow! I've just took a peek at my garden - There's a GS Woodie on my peanut feeder! FIRST TIME EVER! A new garden tick

Thats one natty little bird to get on your garden list, considering your urban locale!! ..if you've had it once you're bound to get it back again so brushes at the ready

Lets hope it got a good feed up before being bullied off by all those Herring gulls!!


Matt

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by matt green

Thats one natty little bird to get on your garden list, considering your urban locale!!

Matt

Glad you said that Matt, people may have been wondering why i was so excited about a GS Woodie. Honestly only have ever seen/or heard one pair in local area and that's in park about half a mile away and they've been there for several years, never seen any in this immediate area which is built up or beach (pebbles I mean not the tree kind). I believe it was a 1st year bird btw - perhaps just dropped in for a feed en route to elsewhere. The Greenfinches looked as gobsmacked as I did!

Thanks Paul - Mum gets GS and Green from time to time and never fails to let me know! (both at flat in London and on outskirts of Brighton) - don't think she has had them on the feeders though. (congrats for pulling out a YLG - I'm not going to mention the other thing at Pags grrrrh!)

Cheers H and John (nice to hear from you John, hope things are OK)

[deborah4]

HOVE SEAFRONT

Took a much needed bike ride in high winds along my local patch of beach this afternoon. LT Duck still on Hove Lagoon busy diving for scum. Made it to end of Basin Road and walked up to Westside of Shoreham Harbour. A few Rock Pipit, Purple Sands, Gannet, and terribly sad, an adult dead/presumably drowned Gannet washed up on beach entangled in blue drag net

Bumped into a couple of ladies with binos and asked them if they'd seen anything interesting (well you have to don't you ). They said they'd seen a large gull with white wing tips they couldn't identify with black tip on it's bill on the quay near the lock gate of the Boatyard. Checked it out on my way home. 1cy GLAUCOUS GULL - cycled back to where I'd seen the ladies earlier and congratulated them for picking out an ''unusual'' one!

Thanks for the heads up girls

[deborah4]

Well Drycopus has just informed me that a 1cy Glauc has been in the area for some time which I wasn't aware of.

Half of me is totally p*ssed off, the other half relieved that I Id'd it's age correctly (it's quite a pale bird for a 1w)

[matt green]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Well Drycopus has just informed me that a 1cy Glauc has been in the area for some time which I wasn't aware of.

Half of me is totally p*ssed off, the other half relieved that I Id'd it's age correctly (it's quite a pale bird for a 1w)

It's still a self found Deb!!!

As you say you had no idea it was already known about and in the area so well done for picking it off!!

It does take a huge amount of effort sometimes to ''find'' something as apposed to hearing about it from other birders...and the pleasure of coming across a quality tick on your local patch on your own without the use of pagers/gen from local birders is an enormous buzz!!

I was with a friend in suffolk a while back when we happen to chance upon a Pallas's Warbler...the thrill of finding it ourselves was far greater to if we had merely read about it on RBA and turned up in the car and twitched it (though I have to confess I probably would have walked straight past it it was a mate who picked up on it's call!)

Did you get any nice field sketches on it?

Matt

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by matt green

It's still a self found Deb!!!

As you say you had no idea it was already known about and in the area so well done for picking it off!!

It does take a huge amount of effort sometimes to ''find'' something as apposed to hearing about it from other birders...and the pleasure of coming across a quality tick on your local patch on your own without the use of pagers/gen from local birders is an enormous buzz!!

I was with a friend in suffolk a while back when we happen to chance upon a Pallas's Warbler...the thrill of finding it ourselves was far greater to if we had merely read about it on RBA and turned up in the car and twitched it (though I have to confess I probably would have walked straight past it it was a mate who picked up on it's call!)

Did you get any nice field sketches on it?

Matt

Thanks Matt really appreciate that response. Was feeling rather depressed - must be my worst birding experience of 2007 to be told on BF this evening one was already in the area. Got a really nice email from SoS after I apologised for the wording of my original email to sightings and congratulated the original finder - he said he had actually 'gathered' from my report, I hadn't been aware of previous sightings. (congratulated me on a correct ID and age too )

As for field sketches lol - I was out for a quick bike ride along seafront - had binos round my neck, no camera, no scope, no notebook or pens. Fortunately a couple of guys pulled up near lock gate and told me they'd bought a boat yesterday and didn't have a key, so I borrowed a scrap of paper and pen then sent them to the lockkeeper's office!

so here you are ... a real work of art n'est pa!! I nearly panicked I'd found a 1cy ICELAND as it was so pale but structure, size cf. BHG and bill pattern ruled that out.

[matt green]

Originally Posted by deborah4

so here you are ... a real work of art n'est pa!! I nearly panicked I'd found a 1cy ICELAND as it was so pale but structure, size cf. BHG and bill pattern ruled that out.

Top quality!!!

Matt

[deborah4]

GOODBYE BINS AND BOOTS

Well most of you I'm sure will be relieved that I've decided to finally end this thread!! I feel sad, there are lots of lovely birding memories for me over the past few years since I started sharing my birding exploits and I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing them and writing them up but it's hard work to keep going when interest of late appears to be largely one sided! For the many people that have read most of my reports but not posted, glad you found it interesting (I often see you lurking, so presumed you were interested!) - for those such as Matt and John etc who have consistently read and provided much needed feedback at times a big THANK YOU!

It's been a good year on the whole but with major setbacks from ill health has limited the extent I've been able to get about being reliant on public transport and most birding in my local area requiring a lot of walking to get from bus stops to good birding patches. However, I've salvaged some good memories from a fairly quiet birding year that has been dominated rather depressingly by work and study!. Most people that know me, know I don't twitch or list 'other people's finds' but prefer to find my own birds, so it was with a real buzz my self-found birds included two rarities this year on my local patches - first back in April with the first recorded GLOSSY IBIS in Sussex for nearly 30 years, then just as it was all about to go to pot the last few months, a quick jaunt out yesterday after several months away from the birding scene or visiting my local patch found me a gull I'd ID'd as a 1w GLAUCOUS GULL - a brisk cycle home with 'breaking news' was turned into an almighty low, of course, when I found out I've been under a rock for the past month and the gull had been around for nearly as long! Some of the fondest highlights of 2007 included sketching NUTCRACKER and a family of BLACK WOODPECKER I found during an autumn jaunt to Southern Poland - Two self-found lifers and a third in the form of HAZELGROUSE along with a self-identified PIGMY OWL and the haunting call of an URAL OWL, expanded my experience of wider European species list this year. Birds not so common here, BLACK REDSTART, RED BACK SHRIKE were easy pickings although neither lifers for me, were nevertheless a joy to see. WHISKERED TERNS, PENDULINE TITS, and LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS also a buzz although the latter, was seen earlier in this year on a local forest patch in UK which of course is always better!

Here's what I'd like to do in 2008: Sell my property, give up my shitty job, move to a birding paradise and just paint/study birds - well that was what I was daydreaming about on my way home from the local patch this afternoon ...

Here's what will probably happen in 2008: Still have the shitty job, still have no money to buy decent optics, still don't drive, still physically challenged!! ... A few more patch lifers/hopefully a few more self-found rarities with increased dedication to my local stretch of beach from the Hove Lagoon to the Shoreham Fort - (he he! Nothing like a good gull to revive the tired patch birder after 6 years of plugging away at BHGs and HGs!) A flying visit to Norfolk hopefully depending on whether I can talk someone into taking me to a few spots! A flying visit to France to house and dog sit for a week and that's my Annual Leave used up just about. Still, NO twitching ... NO pagers .... only self-identified and self found birds ....maybe.....!!!

And my last patch tick for 2007 on Shoreham Fort this afternoon: A very obliging and truly ensconced BLACK REDSTART - (but already knew one had been seen in the area so had my eyes open and also heard one at the Power Station back in September, so not sure how to count this one !!!)

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE AND GOOD BIRDING LUCK FOR 2008

[Vectis Birder]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Here's what I'd like to do in 2008: Sell my property, give up my shitty job, move to a birding paradise and just paint/study birds - well that was what I was daydreaming about on my way home from the local patch this afternoon ...

Here's what will probably happen in 2008: Still have the shitty job, still have no money to buy decent optics, still don't drive, still physically challenged!!

I gave up my shitty job in the summer, but with the result I have to find another permanent one next week!

If you could get yourself over to the Isle of Wight for a day's birding and change of scene, I'd be more than happy to drive you round. It's be no problem at all.

Sorry to see the end of the thread, maybe you could start a blog? It's be interesting reading.

[JohnZ]

Well I shall miss your thread Deborah and can only apologise for not responding more.

Missing you already !

[matt green]

What a shame..

Though being in the same situation as far as being a non driver and not living in the most rewarding of birding locations as far as local patching goes you have my full sympathies...sometimes this hobby of ours has a habit of demanding more time, expense and energy than one can devote to it so at those such times it's easy to feel a little despondent!

I hope you continue to enjoy you birding in whatever capacity you can manage, and occasionally let us know of your latest birding adventures in the new year. It would also be nice to see your art thread updated as and when you feel you have some new works you would like to share with us.

This old thread of yours has provided some good laughs and banter over the last year and half so it will be sorely missed!!

Best of luck to you in 2008

Matt

[teamsaint]

Hi Debs,
I've been lurking on here for months! I am sorry for not posting, but i still enjoy reading through your excellent reports, It is a shame you have decided not to continue. Good birding for 2008,
Tom

[paulwfromtheden]

Originally Posted by deborah4

GOODBYE BINS AND BOOTS

Well most of you I'm sure will be relieved that I've decided to finally end this thread!! I feel sad, there are lots of lovely birding memories for me over the past few years since I started sharing my birding exploits and I've thoroughly enjoyed sharing them and writing them up but it's hard work to keep going when interest of late appears to be largely one sided! For the many people that have read most of my reports but not posted, glad you found it interesting (I often see you lurking, so presumed you were interested!) - for those such as Matt and John etc who have consistently read and provided much needed feedback at times a big THANK YOU!

It's been a good year on the whole but with major setbacks from ill health has limited the extent I've been able to get about being reliant on public transport and most birding in my local area requiring a lot of walking to get from bus stops to good birding patches. However, I've salvaged some good memories from a fairly quiet birding year that has been dominated rather depressingly by work and study!. Most people that know me, know I don't twitch or list 'other people's finds' but prefer to find my own birds, so it was with a real buzz my self-found birds included two rarities this year on my local patches - first back in April with the first recorded GLOSSY IBIS in Sussex for nearly 30 years, then just as it was all about to go to pot the last few months, a quick jaunt out yesterday after several months away from the birding scene or visiting my local patch found me a gull I'd ID'd as a 1w GLAUCOUS GULL - a brisk cycle home with 'breaking news' was turned into an almighty low, of course, when I found out I've been under a rock for the past month and the gull had been around for nearly as long! Some of the fondest highlights of 2007 included sketching NUTCRACKER and a family of BLACK WOODPECKER I found during an autumn jaunt to Southern Poland - Two self-found lifers and a third in the form of HAZELGROUSE along with a self-identified PIGMY OWL and the haunting call of an URAL OWL, expanded my experience of wider European species list this year. Birds not so common here, BLACK REDSTART, RED BACK SHRIKE were easy pickings although neither lifers for me, were nevertheless a joy to see. WHISKERED TERNS, PENDULINE TITS, and LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKERS also a buzz although the latter, was seen earlier in this year on a local forest patch in UK which of course is always better!

Here's what I'd like to do in 2008: Sell my property, give up my shitty job, move to a birding paradise and just paint/study birds - well that was what I was daydreaming about on my way home from the local patch this afternoon ...

Here's what will probably happen in 2008: Still have the shitty job, still have no money to buy decent optics, still don't drive, still physically challenged!! ... A few more patch lifers/hopefully a few more self-found rarities with increased dedication to my local stretch of beach from the Hove Lagoon to the Shoreham Fort - (he he! Nothing like a good gull to revive the tired patch birder after 6 years of plugging away at BHGs and HGs!) A flying visit to Norfolk hopefully depending on whether I can talk someone into taking me to a few spots! A flying visit to France to house and dog sit for a week and that's my Annual Leave used up just about. Still, NO twitching ... NO pagers .... only self-identified and self found birds ....maybe.....!!!

And my last patch tick for 2007 on Shoreham Fort this afternoon: A very obliging and truly ensconced BLACK REDSTART - (but already knew one had been seen in the area so had my eyes open and also heard one at the Power Station back in September, so not sure how to count this one !!!)

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE AND GOOD BIRDING LUCK FOR 2008

Have enjoyed your field notes Debs, see you in 2008.
Happy new year
Paul