A Brit abroad

Peregrine, RBMerg, YLGulls

A fun couple of days. I was able to catch up with the central Cambridge Peregrine in much sunnier weather yesterday, again sitting up on the spire of the Catholic Church. While preening it briefly revealed the a black ring on its left leg, so hopefully we should be able to trace where it came from.

Today I joined James Hanlon for a brief jaunt out to Fen Drayton for a lingering Red-breasted Merganser, a Cambs tick for us both.

A couple of hours' gulling failed to produce a Caspian or a white-winger, but we did manage a fine adult Yellow-legged Gull at Long Drove Cottenham...

... and a second bird whose plumage suggested 3cy, but a dark bill with a pale tip more typical of younger birds.

At Milton tip we picked up a third bird, a regular-looking 2cy (lower right).

Hopefully I now have my eye in for future gulling excursions!

More from Tybee Island

I finally got my photos back from my first digiscoping efforts with the CoolPix P5100 - can't wait to use it again next year! An approachable Red-shouldered Hawk in the North Beach parking lot.

Patriotic Boat-tailed Grackle.

A lovely juv Painted Bunting.

Indigo Bunting and Song Sparrow.

Belted Kingfisher

My first US Lesser Black-backed Gull, together with a Great Black-back.

Gullzilla

Caspian Tern

Willet in the surf.

Preening American Oystercatcher.

Piping Plover with Sanderling.

Plenty of Ruddy Turnstone, but where were the Purple Sandpipers?

November birds around Cambridge

A couple of weekends ago I cycled to Wicken Fen via the excellent new cycle track from Lode. I finally came across a decent-sized flock of Golden Plover (around 400), but scanning through them the best I could in strong winds failed to pick up anything more unusual. I wheeled my bike along the quagmire that is Wicken Lode, pausing only for a Stonechat and some pretty views of the wintering Teal and Wigeon.

The best bird of the day was a male Hen Harrier high overhead in Swaffham Prior village.

Following some heavy rain, a flooded field across the river from Grantchester meadows has proved attractive to masses of corvids, gulls and Lapwings.

A couple of the Carrion Crows present had white wing patches.

Among the three commoner gull species were single Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls.

Some high counts of note so close to the city centre included 5 Teal and 9 Grey Herons. On the passerine front, I counted a dozen Linnets, a single Lesser Redpoll that came in to drink at the river, and at least 40 Pied Wagtails among the Meadow Pipits.

Winter thrushes were present in good numbers - here's a Song Thrush and a Redwing showing its red wings.

On Lammas Land I ran into this extremely confiding Kestrel.

The Goldfinch flock in the alders contained several Siskins.

One of many Goldcrests around town at the moment.

Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Sparrowhawks can frequently be seen perched on various buildings around the city - this one rested briefly on Queen's College roof.

But the biggest surprise of the week was noticing an extra gargoyle on the Catholic Church, which turned out to be a Peregrine!

Hopefully it will stay around for the winter; there are certainly more than enough pigeons to feed on.

A twitchy day in Lincolnshire

After a ridiculously late and boozy Friday night I found myself questioning the wisdom of getting up at 530am to go a-twitching in darkest Lincolnshire. However, my time in the UK grows short, and it seemed like a good excuse to spend some 'quality time' with my long-suffering birding pal Neil. Our quarry was, of course, the Steppe Grey Shrike, a distinctive and rare visitor to UK shores. Following a long and windswept hike out from the Donna Nook car park, we were soon treated to decent views of the bird feeding along the back of the field. Eventually, and somewhat inevitably, a photographer broke ranks and walked the field edge to get closer to the bird. The crowd collectively held its breath, for fear that the bird would be flushed far and away, but luckily for everyone it flew back towards us.

It fed almost constantly while we were there, and spent much time pursuing its prey on foot. Having seen many a Southern Grey Shrike in France, I was impressed at how differently this (sub?)species looked and acted.

Once we'd had our fill of the shrike, we began the trudge back towards Donna Nook, and were pleasantly surprised to see a couple of Ring Ouzels among the more regular winter thrushes. They were surprisingly hard to spot as they sat immobile in the middle of bushes, but we eventually got good scope views of this 'frowning' bird.

Several Dark-bellied Brent Geese were feeding close to the footpath, and Neil eventually got me onto a striking Pale-bellied cousin from Greenland.

The geese flushed, as did most of the other waterbirds present, as a Peregrine flew by.

This was the first sizeable flock of Red Knot I'd seen in years - guess I've lived inland for too long.

Some other birders kindly pointed out a distant immature Glaucous Gull. We were able to track it all the way to the Grey Seal colony, where much better views were obtained. The pale iris and pink tip to the bill age it as a second-winter.

Luckily our visit was timed ideally to coincide with the pupping season, and we enjoyed great looks at some cute newborns...

... and their rather less handsome parents!

Those for whom cooing over baby seals was all too twee could content themselves watching Herring Gulls tearing into seal placentas.

While tucking into a well-deserved Lincolnshire sausage bap, news of a Radde's Warbler almost sent us racing towards Spurn, but after the early start we decided instead to head for home... that is until news broke of a Desert Wheatear at nearby Saltfleet. A U-turn in a lay-by (much to the chagrin of the lady who had stopped there to answer a call of nature behind her car door!) and back we went to the coast. Here we were treated to excellent views of my first Desert Wheatear since 1995, a hyperactive female, in the last of the daylight.

Precocious photographers aside, the day was delightful; with excellent performances from my two new British birds a host of quality bonus birds (and mammals) and some much-needed sunshine to boot. At the grand of age of 30, I rarely find myself indulging in hastily-organised long-distance twitches, but from time to time it does have its charms...

Tybee Island: a tale of sun, sea, skimmers and stupidity

I spent the Hallowe'en weekend on lovely Tybee Island, the nearest bit of GA coast to Athens at a mere 4.5 hours' drive away! I stayed at the Lighthouse Inn bed and breakfast, a very convenient location for birding the North Beach area and breakfasts to die for. On arrival I had planned to race off to the beach, but the welcoming owners Stuart and Susie sat us down on the front porch rocking chairs with a glass or two of wine - a welcome change of pace! Their dog, Artie, was already dressed up for the Hallowe'en celebrations.

I got to the beach just in time to see some flyover Brown Pelicans...

... and the beautiful sunset.

Next morning I got up early to look for shorebirds before the beach got too busy, but the tide was out and I saw little other than Ruddy Turnstone and Sanderling. A few Bottlenose Dolphins were feeding surprisingly close to the shore.

These striking Gulf Fritillaries were abundant.

The beach parking lot was filled with noisy Boat-tailed Grackles.

After breakfast we headed to Fort Pulaski to coincide with high tide. The area boasts expansive Spartina alterniflora marshes, which are home to three hard-to-see species of saltmarsh sparrow.

On arrival, a sparrow was sitting up in the Spartina, and I just had enough time to clinch the ID as my lifer Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow before it flew. The bird flew much closer to me and into low vegetation, but proved impossible to relocate. Over the next hour I had occasional glimpses of up to 3 Seaside Sparrows, another new bird, but these proved to be equally shy. Other marshland birds heard but not seen here included Clapper Rail and Marsh Wren - indeed the only bird I managed to photograph here was this Palm Warbler!

Several Forster's Terns were perched on the bridge over to the fort, offering splendid views from the car.

At the fort itself there were several groups of Savannah Sparrow. This race seems much more richly coloured than the birds I used to encounter in California.

I spent the afternoon exploring the lush green squares of Savannah - this is the Mercer House, made famous by the book Midnight in the garden of good and evil.

Back on Tybee, I had a fine dinner of shrimp 'n' grits and key lime pie at AJ's, watching Belted Kingfishers and Black-crowned Night Herons at dusk.

On Sunday I headed out to the northernmost tip of the north beach, via a boardwalk over a small swampy area. Unfortunately mosquitoes were still very much in evidence, but on the bright side I found the area to be very birdy. A little pishing encouraged the birds out of the bushes - Gray Catbirds, Carolina Wren, Song Sparrows and numerous Myrtle Warblers were the first to appear, followed by a female Indigo Bunting and this, a female or immature Painted Bunting, only the second individual I've ever seen.

However, the best was yet to come - a small Spizella sparrow which had given frustratingly brief views finally popped up just next to the boardwalk, allowing me to confirm that there was no line between the eye and the bill, and that therefore I was watching my lifer Clay-colored Sparrow!

I finally made it out to the beach where a huge mixed roosting flock of gulls, terns, skimmers and shorebirds was assembling. Scanning through the commoner species (Herring, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls, Royal Terns and Black Skimmers), I was able to find smaller number of Caspian, Sandwich and Forster's Terns, a couple of Great Black-backs and my first US Lesser Black-backed Gull.

The skimmers put on an amazing show, and I was able to watch them at very close range as they flew along just offshore, dipping their lower mandibles into the water to feed.

A large (migrating?) flock of Tree Swallows swirled in a tight ball over the beach, and occasionally came to rest on the sand.

As the tide got ever higher, good numbers of shorebirds began to assemble. The Ruddy Turnstone flock contained a few Dunlin, Sanderling and a single Red Knot, but unfortunately no Purple Sandpipers (this being the only regular wintering site for them in GA). Other species present included several American Oystercatchers, Black-bellied Plover, and a few each of Semi-p Plover and Willet. On the walk back to the hotel I was lucky enough to run into a single Piping Plover roosting with a Sanderling.

It is here that I'm embarrassed to confess to an act of extreme stupidity. My poor old fuji digiscoping camera has never been the same since falling out of a canoe in France, so I treated myself to a shiny new Nikon CoolPix P5100. The roosting larids and shorebirds made perfect targets for getting to grips with the new camera, and I took well over 100 shots that morning. However, somewhere between the Piping Plover and the beach parking lot, the camera managed to fall out of my pocket without me noticing, and in spite of immediately scouring that stretch of beach it was not to be found. I left messages at the beach cafe and the police station before reluctantly leaving, assuming my less than a week old camera had met with a watery grave. In fact, when we were a good 2 hours' drive away from Tybee, the police called to say that the camera had been handed in! Said camera has now been posted to what will be my future address in Athens, but my idiocy means that I'll now have to wait until next year to get out and use it. Watch this space for more photos from Tybee!

Georgia Botanical Garden

This excellent site is about a 20 minute cycle ride from where I'll be living next year, and along with Memorial Park (less good for birding but on my doorstep) looks set to become a regular haunt of mine. I encountered a few very confiding Red-shouldered Hawks.

This Hermit Thrush, freshly arrived for the winter, showed well in the parking lot.

As usual, the Beaverpond Wetland provided much interest over my 3 visits to the site, with winter visitors including Swamp Sparrow and a single Palm Warbler. Both Winter and Carolina Wren were present.

A pond turtle basking in the late morning sunlight.

The real treat, however, was watching this River Otter fishing and grooming for a good 30 minutes.

Other birds seen along the river trails included Myrtle, Pine and a late Magnolia Warbler. The power line cut-through yielded a Field Sparrow among the Song and White-throated Sparrows, plus numerous Eastern Bluebirds and Northern Mockingbirds.

Athens in the fall

... beats the English autumn hands down!

I have just got back from a 10-day visit to my future home of Athens, GA, in time to see the Hallowe'en mania...

... and the beautiful fall colours. This is Memorial Park, just a short walk from my house of next year.

As in England, Jays were busy caching nuts for the winter.

I cycled the greenbelt to Sandy Creek Nature Center, which was teeming with Carolina Chickadees and kinglets of both flavours, and more unusually, 2 Pine Siskins. I had good views of this Brown Thrasher on the bike ride out.

This Red-tailed Hawk is a regular fixture on the large antenna close to the house.

Roving flocks of Robins are doing a good job of stripping the berry bushes.

While walking the Birchmore Trail, I was surprised to come across a scolding Winter Wren, and a very urban White-tailed Deer.

These two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers chased each other around tree trunks before trying to murder each other on the lawn!

The ever vocal Tufted Titmouse.

An inquisitive Eastern Towhee.