Your local Patch/Reserve. (1 Viewer)

[Fozzybear]

Thanks Val, don't know what they year will bring but hopefully will be a good one for all of us. :t:

Not on my patch but in the little local nature reserve behind where I work I saw my first Chiffchaff of the year, singing away at the top of a tree. Lovely!

 

[Fozzybear]

Had a rather unusual visitor on my patch this weekend. A local member of birdforum discovered on the little pools on the north meadow yesterday morning a Glossy Ibis! :eek!:

I found out yesterday evening when he posted it on the essex birding section so went out first thing in the fog and found... nothing. I went back out a few hours later when the fog had cleared and bumped into another local birdforum member and we scoured the area with no luck but then about 2pm he got a text from the guy that found it originally to say it was back feeding in the same spot so I dashed over and saw it! Very, very bizarre to see an Ibis on my little patch next to a town (well, city now!) in mid-Essex. Even more bizarre when some kids came from the pub next to the meadow and scared it up (grr!) and it flew around over the meadow for a bit with very lazy wingbeats, looking ever-so exotic, before dropping back down to another part of the meadow. |8.|


I got some distant photos, it was very heat-hazy (look at the grass at the top of the first one in particular!) but they cleaned up ok on the computer. Not Chris Packham quality but decent record shots for the conditions. Was relieved to see some were sharp as I was worried my old lens was packing up again - last time I went out and saw the Hen Harrier it was giving blurry shots and these ones looked blurry on the screen (hard to see in the bright sunshine though!). Would like to get a better lens really if I can find one I can afford!

 

[palval147]

Briliant sighting, Fozzy. I saw one at Lodmoor Weymouth, some years ago now, they do look very exotic for our wetlands.:-O
Either that bird has a ring(s) on it's leg, or someone had put it in plaster.:-O

 

[Wendy Morris]

Wow! Nice one, Paul.

 

[Fozzybear]

Not a bad species for my patch list! :king:

Yup, it's a ring - the guys that originally saw it at Maldon (east of here) read the ring as White 8J9 and the data from that is apparently:

Ringed Coto Donana (El Rocio) 08/09/2007 (though I've found another website showing a ringing date in May that year!)

Resighting: Huelva, Spain, 45kms WSW 02/04/2010 

Resighting: Borth, SW Wales 02/02-23/02/2012 

Heybridge, Maldon 4/3-11/3/2012-latter is the last date reported to the 
Spanish ringing scheme

 

[palval147]

Brilliant you know where it came from & where it's been, Fozzy. Quite an old bird then & very well travelled.|=)|
Wonder if it will get home? I always feel sorry for vagrants, do any ever get back where they should be?

 

[Kits]

What an exciting find, Paul!

 

[Fozzybear]

As I understand it the Glossy Ibises are doing a weird winter migration thing and coming to the UK from Spain and so-on! That being the case this one 'should' find it's way home I hope.

Not always reliable but I found this mention in wikipedia:

While generally declining in Europe it has recently established a breeding colony in Southern Spain, and there appears to be a growing trend for the Spanish birds to winter in Britiain and Ireland, with at least 22 records in 2010.

I think the news is out on the rare bird services now, though when I went today there was one local BF member and another guy I didn't speak to. I don't imagine there will be hordes of twitchers descending on the place though as I don't think it's a REALLY rare bird to see in the UK.

 

[Wendy Morris]

There are still 2 residing at Radipole Lake in Weymouth, Paul. They've been noted there, on and off for much of this month.

 

[palval147]

One of those, Wendy, is possibly one we have seen, if it Winters there regularly, must have brought a mate with it. They do seem to be a long lived species.

 

[Fozzybear]

There are still 2 residing at Radipole Lake in Weymouth, Paul. They've been noted there, on and off for much of this month.

One of those, Wendy, is possibly one we have seen, if it Winters there regularly, must have brought a mate with it. They do seem to be a long lived species.

Very cool - good that there are multiples around. Would be rather cool if they started staying to breed. :eek!:

The one here is said to be still about today so am about to head over there with my camera to try for some closer photos as my last ones were from the other side of the river! Just been cleaning my camera lens and checking it on the garden birds (and having a quick look for updates on BF) before I go.

 

[palval147]

I hope you found it, Fozzy?

 

[Fozzybear]

I hope you found it, Fozzy?

I did, and it's still there today apparently though got rather fed up with a twitcher and one photographer when I was there yesterday and didn't bother going over there today. I tend to like quiet birdwatching without other people around anyway so watching a bird with others around (especially when they're so clearly looking at you as an assumed bad guy or acting in a stupid manner) is not really my thing... I just about put up with small crowds at nature reserves but love it when those are quiet and I can walk around the reserve or sit in a hide without others around.


I did get some pics yesterday, closer than before but I deliberately kept my distance to avoid disturbing the bird even though others on the Essex birding part of the forum had said they'd crept up to within just a few metres of the bird without disturbing it. I posted the pics in the Essex Birding thread but didn't have time to post here I'm afraid. Not sure if this link will work, if not let me know and will repost the pics here (will add some others when I get on my computer, I don't have the pics on my laptop):

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2400031&postcount=1086

Walking home across the meadow tonight I saw loads of Bee Flies (and had one in my garden this evening too :t, Comma and Peacock butterflies, a Cormorant perching in a dead tree and Reed Buntings in the bushes by the brook along the south edge of the meadow.

 

[Wendy Morris]

It works, Paul. Thanks for sharing. Just hoping that the Radipole pair may stay long enough for me to see them.

 

[Fozzybear]

Hope so Wendy - will keep my fingers crossed for you.

Have sorted out a couple more pics of it stalking about on the grass here...

 

[palval147]

Those photo's are brilliant, Fozzy, in a couple I can read it's ring number too.:t:

 

[Fozzybear]

I was really pleased that I could make out the ring numbers in some of them - I hadn't expected that. They came out well considering they were cropped right in almost to pixel level! When that lens works it does work really well, but it's really showing its age and is difficult to use and unpredictable. I'd love them to bring out a new version with the image stabilisation and focus speed of my smaller 70-300 zoom lens as I'd probably snap one up even though it'd be somewhat pricey!

Not sure what photos the guy that scared it got! Probably one of its bum as it disappeared into cover! Almost took a photo of the guy to put up on the forum but I'm not that mean.

 

[palval147]

I hope he got nothing, Fozzy.|})|

 

[Kits]

Those are stunning photos, Paul. :t:

 

[Fozzybear]

Those are stunning photos, Paul. :t:

Thanks very much! Really pleased to have managed to get some better pics than the first lot, which were fine as record shots but really affected by the distance and heat haze.

I hope he got nothing, Fozzy.|})|

I hope so too, though unfortunately that probably means the others with him didn't get to see it either. I don't like putting others down but it's dumb actions like that which give photographers a bad name and if I wasn't so polite (and shy) I'd have asked the others if he was with them and if so then asked them to him it was my patch he was on and that I thought he was a complete plank... or very much ruder words to that effect!