July 24, 2007
Briefly back in Blighty
I just spent 10 days back in the homeland, working with the clever people at Silwood Park's Centre for Population Biology. Given the less than inspiring weather forecast, I left bins and scope in France, but bought the camera just in case. While hurtling past Pitsea on the A13 I idly wondered if the Spoonbill might be visible as a big white dot in Vange Marshes - no sign of that, but I did spot birding pal Neil's car at the roadside. A few texts later and we arranged an early morning (6am on a Sunday - ugh) visit to my old stomping grounds of Fleet Head. Just before going through the first of many gates we spotted a Little Owl (Cheveche d'Athena) a few fence-posts down. My delight at seeing the bird (my first in at least 5 years) was somewhat subdued when scope views revealed it had a manky eye.
I've seen Burrowing Owls with similar problems that appear to be able to survive without difficulty, so fingers crossed he won't meet the same fate as another well-known owl I read about this week ;-)
Declining farmland birds seem to be holding their own in the area - several Corn Buntings (Bruant proyer) and Skylarks (Alouette des champs) were singing, and it was fun to see 'yellow' Yellow Wagtails (Bergeronnette printaniere) again.
The return shorebird passage is in full swing - we noted a few Common Sands (Chevalier guignette), a Spotshank (Chevalier arlequin), Whimbrel (Courlis corlieu) and a couple of groups of Black-tailed Godwits (Barge a queue noire), resplendent in their summer plumage.
This young Lapwing (Vanneau huppe) may well have been born in the area.
A flight of 5 Little Egrets (Aigrette garzette) would have been unheard of in my visits here as a teenager...
And now a quizbird: can you tell what it is yet? (Answer at the bottom of the post)
In the estuary I spotted this small patch of cordgrass (Spartina sp). Western Europe has its own native cordgrass (S. maritima), though this has been widely replaced by S. anglica, itself a product of hybridisation with S. alterniflora introduced from the US. Given the proximity of Fleet Head to Foulness, one of the last UK strongholds of S. maritima, this may be the genuine article. Sorry, perhaps not of immense interest to anyone reading this, but I did devote 2 years of my life to Spartina invasions in the western US...
I spent most of my evenings in London, where Ring-necked Parakeets (Perruche a collier) appear to have colonised Putney. While much of Britain endured devastating flooding, London enjoyed some positively balmy evenings.
The demon drink drove me to an emotional karaoke performance in Leicester Square...
... but at least I stopped short of pole-dancing on the underground...
... or donning a floral bra!
And the answer to this week's quizbird is (drumroll)... Sedge Warbler (Phragmite des joncs)!
Thanks to Neil for repeatedly surrendering his scope to my digiscoping whims.
Posted by rjhall at July 24, 2007 10:55 PM