Minsmere October 2020

After a very quiet and rainy week for birds locally, a trip to Minsmere was something I'd been looking forward to for a while! I got the train from Liverpool st at 9am and was at Saxmunham station by 11 where I met Henry who gave me a lift to a heath near Minsmere where we met with David Walsh. After fifteen minutes walking David pointed out a group of Stone Curlew! My first lifer of the day! Despite being distant, we had some good views through David's scope! Also for comparison, there was a regular Curlew wandering across the heath for some reason beyond my inferior human understanding. I'm sure it had some kind of smart curlew reason.... It was great to see the Stone Curlews; such weird birds!

After that David drove us over to another area on the edge of Minsmere or Dunwich and left us to look for Crossbills. I was feeling pretty hopeful and wandered out with Henry hoping to see them all happily perched in the tree. Unfortunately it wasn't that easy! After fifteen minutes wandering the eerily quiet heath, I realized this might be more difficult than I thought! Aside from the occasional Goldcrest there was nothing to see or hear for miles around. A distant Lesser Redpoll calling got me excited for a second until I realized it wasn't a Crossbill. We kept wandering down the path; I hadn't been birding on an actual Heath for a long time and the landscape was a refreshing change from a London park with all it's stunning pinks and purples as well as so many pine trees (another thing I don't get much of down here). Just as I was lost in thought and happily eating my sandwich, the sudden "Jip-Jip" call snapped me out of daze. We both looked up to see two Crossbills bobbing across the horizon and dropping into some distant trees. With my sandwich still in my hand I couldn't get the best views so I was glad when Henry spotted the pair perched in a tree about 80 meters away. We spent a minute watching them before they began to call again and flew over us into some much closer trees. There we had some nice views of the yellow 1st year bird although the bright red male had sadly disappeared out of sight. Another Crossbill went flying over and behind us a Dartford Warbler decided it wanted some attention and began wandering around and calling! All this at once was just amazing! The Crossbills didn't stay long although we were visited by two more fly-overs a minute or two later. A bit more wandering produced two more Dartfords and two fly-over Siskin (one of my other favorite finches along with Bullfinch and Crossbill).

After a successful two hours we made the fairly long walk to Minsmere and arrived an hour or so later. A look around the scrape started off quiet and quickly took a turn for the worse: rain! We sheltered in the hide for a bit watching all my favourite ducks like Pintail and Wigeon until I got bored and suggested we leave being stupid as I am. As with most of my geniusly impulsive ideas it didn't go well and soon we were hiding under a tree in even worse rain. Again, probably not my best decision ever. When the rain eventually lessened a bit after half an hour or so we stopped by the reedbed to try and photograph the Bearded Tits. Despite calling in the reeds for ages we only had a single flight view although I suspect that may slightly be due to the Sparrowhawk which continuously made some incredible hunting passes (although still nothing on one absolutely incredible hunt I witnessed on Parliament hill a few weeks before). Suddenly I heard an odd call and looked up to see 3 Snipe flying overhead. As common as they are, they're one of my favourite birds in the world and any day I see a Snipe is good day seeing as I don't see nearly enough living in Camden. I might even go as far as to say they were my favourite bird I'd seen all day so far... They certainly cheered me up from being soaked to the skin anyway. Finally as we wandering back, we bumped into David again who offered to help find me a Caspian Gull; something I'm much to lazy to try and ID myself and have therefore never seen. While sitting back in the hide I spent some time trying to watch the birds on the opposite side of the water but my binoculars had taken a bit of a beating from the rain and didn't give me much more than blurry shapes in the murky dusk light. I did manage to see one Green Sandpiper wandering about in the dark. Suddenly David exclaimed that he'd found a Long Tailed Duck! I jumped up and frantically tried to find it before remembering my binoculars were useless. I had a look through David's telescope and was amazed to see the beautiful long tailed duck ,fresh out of the artic, bobbing on the muddy water among mallards and teal. Long Tailed Ducks were a bird that had always fascinated me being both an amazing black & white duck from the artic and an incredible sea bird that survives the bleak winters wintering out on the North Sea. Having never seen many sea birds, that added extra wonder to it! We decided to walk around to the other side of the water seeing as the duck was about 200m away. Halfway there, we were distracted by a Barn Owl! We gave it a quick look before heading on to try and refind the duck. By now it was almost dark and I didn't expect to get much of a view of it. However when we arrived at the the east hide we were amazed to see it drifting about meters away from the hide! It was amazing to see such an amazing sea bird so close especially as I'd always expected to see my first as a tiny speck out among the waves. We had some amazing views of it swimming about until it was too dark to see. What a day that had been! We drove back to Henry's house to warm up slightly before I got on the train and had (for once) a smooth and easy train journey home (although a little damp)! 

(On the downside all my A level chemistry & Biology work that I'd brought to do on the train sadly did not survive the rain)

I didn't take many photos that day so I won't bother adding them to this blog. Maybe I'll borrow Henry's & add them later...

Hampstead Heath October 2020

On the 1st of October I did a nice early watch from Parliament hill but only managed a few large flocks of House Martin (130 in total) and 3 Linnet.

On the 2nd I made some kind of insane attempt to watch from Parliament Hill in the pouring rain under some kind of delusion that I might see something good. I didn't. One lost Red Kite was a nice surprise but didn't make up for the soaking.

The next day I avoided watching from Parliament hill early (of course now the Gannets and Kittiwakes start turning up). I went out at around 10am when the rain eased a bit to look for Yellow Browed Warbler. No luck of course but I did manage my first Greylag Goose since the Spring resting on the ponds and another fly over Lesser Redpoll. The real surprise came when I was at home trying to do some work when I received a message from another local birder asking me to ID something. Before I tapped on the video I was expecting to see a distant video of a single little bird flitting around or calling so I was shocked to see an enormous flock of Siskin in the video erupting from the trees! It was more than I'd ever heard of on the Heath so I gave up working and jogged over to have a look. On arrival the sight was amazing. Huge numbers of finches feeding in the birch trees above us and frequently bursting into incredible flights. There was a fair few Lesser Redpoll in among the Siskin too which gave some stunning views. I spent the next hour just watching the spectacle; there were so many feeding in the tree you could hear them rustling like the breeze and a steady drift debris from the trees fell like snow from the tree. My final count was 200! (185 imaged + estimations of whatever wasn't in the photo). It was a truly incredible spectacle to see in 21st Century London!

6th October: 25 Swallow, 20 House Martin, 90 Meadow Pipit and a few other common migrants from Parliament hill

7 October: After a relatively slow watch we were surprised to see a group of 10 Crossbill "chip-chipping" their way West over the hill. A nice few 30 Swallow and a single Sand Martin were nice too!

8 October: 1 Redpoll and 1 Redwing over Parliament hill

10 October: A decent watch from dawn, 145 Chaffinch, 70 Meadow Pipit etc

11 October: Superb morning with the first hundreds of Redwings passing through as well as a pair of incredibly high Snipe heading North! I also had a probable Yellowhammer heard and there was a single Stonechat by the ponds.

12 October: My first ever Hawfinch flew North over Parliament hill before school as well as 350+ Redwing!

13 October: A few hundred Redwing and plenty of common finches

14 October: Brilliant morning! 3 Brambling flew over (my first ever) and I heard my first Skylark for the Heath. On top of that I had well over 300 Redwing and a possible Ring Ouzel.

15 October: 4 Brambling, Skylark, 240 Redwing etc over Parliament Hill

16 October: Probably the best day of the month: 3 Brambling, Skylark, 180 Redwing, 140 Chaffinch in the morning and a Marsh Harrier over in the afternoon! As a final bonus I had at least 30 Redpoll in Kenwood!

17 October: 200+ Chaffinch, Little Egret, Skylark, 100 Redwing, 60 Fieldfare and some other nice birds from Parliament hill.

18 October; A bit of an odd watch from the hill. We spent most of the morning watching a distant line of blue sky slowly drag it's way towards us in the hope there might be a few nice birds moving through it. Then as if by magic, when the gap in the clouds arrived, Pete called out to us and I looked up to see what looked like a large Sandpiper frantically rocketing shooting south! I desperately tried to get a picture and despite the focus doing its best to try and take a photo of the sky I managed a single photo! Then someone exclaimed "oh no it's actually a falcon". Of course it wasn't but I still stupidly put my camera down to check. Once it disappeared it Pete told me it was a Plover sp but he didn't know which. Luckily my photo showed it to have clear underwings to confirm it as Golden Plover! Probably the best bird of October! Other than that we also had 2 Collared Dove, 2 Skylark and a hundred or so Chaffinch.

The rest of the month had very poor weather and the winds were blowing the wrong way so I had very little and towards the end of the month took a break from watching from Parliament hill super early. The only good days were the 22nd which produced 3 Crossbill and  the 24th which gave us 1600+ Woodpigeon (1000 from roost and 600 Migrating)

In all a good month with a slightly disappointing end. Hopefully when the winds switch I might get something good in early November though!

Hampstead Heath September 2020

 September was an exciting month with some great migration including three new birds for my list on the Heath and some bonus panic with fly over waders! I didn't get out early much like I am at the moment but still got some quality sightings.

1 September: Some eye-burning skywatching for osprey from Parliament hill. Managed 8 Buzzards at insane heights as well as a brilliant pair of Hobby hunting for much of the watch. Also a Spotted Flycatcher in Kenwood

2 September: 10 Swallow N over Kenwood

5 September: Garden Warbler near the back of Pryors field and a Buzzard. The first Meadow Pipit of the Autumn flew over Kenwood

6 September: 4 Yellow Wagtails flew over Parliament hill early on. Later on I managed Wheatear and a buzzard from the bog. Late in the evening I had Peregrine, Buzzard, 6 Siskin, 2-3 Spotted Flycatcher and a probable Pied Flycatcher in the West Meadow.

7 September: 10 Meadow Pipit over Parliament hill and chat sp on the bowling green.

8 September: An incredible four Spotted Flycatcher in the Kenwood Birches & a large flock of Siskin sharing the trees!

9 September: 120+ House Martins over Pryors Field & 85+ Siskin in the Kenwood Birches!

!0 Septmeber: A great day for migration with 112 Meadow throughout the day as well as 6-3 Wheatear, 3-4 Spotted Flycatcher & 2-3 Whinchat flying over/ landing on the hill. Also 55+ Siskin, 2 Yellow Wagtail and my first Collared Dove for Hampstead Heath flying over! 4 Sand Martin also

11 September: Stonechat and 15 Siskin around the Sphagnum bog

12 September: 2 Meadow Pipit and another Collared Dove over

13 Septmeber: 2 Sand Martin, Buzzard,30 House Martinm 3 Swallow & a Yellow Wagtail over Kenwood.

16 September: 42 Meadow Pipit, 10 Swallow, Wheatear, Red Kite S, 4 Siskin and some Pied Wagtails over Parliament Hill. A pair of Teal on Hampstead no1 in the evening also.

18 September: Feeling a bit ill and couldn't really be bothered to go birding. Did anyway and what a reward! As I walked down towards the concrete thing I use to view the Hampstead Pond, a small wader shot past in a blur of clockwork wings! I noted the white wing bars as it shot off into the distance. It then surprised me by circling back and calling loudly! A common Sandpiper! What a nice surprise! Also on the pond was one of the teal from earlier in the week and a Spotted Flycatcher wasn't too far off either.

20 September: 5-6 Buzzard over Kenwood.

21 September: 40 Meadow Pipit over and a Hobby flying South over the gorse area. 27 Siskin flew over near the boating pond too

22 September: Another great morning! Groups of 12 & 2 Crossbill flew South! Also migrating were Redpoll, Red Kite, 3 Linnet, 7 Swallow, 70 Meadow Pipit and my last Yellow  Wagtail of the year. There was a Stonechat in Kenwood too.

23 September: The second last Spotted Flycatcher of the year flew over Parliament and briefly landed early in the morning. Otherwise it pretty quiet. Then later in the day I received a message of a Firecrest near Parliament hill! I rushed out and after half an hour I found it maybe a hundred meters from where it was initially seen! It showed great despite the rain! I got soaked however! Another great new bird for the my Hampstead Heath list!

27th September: Two mystery waders flew over which you can read about in my previous blog. Also the first 3 Redwing of Autumn.

28th September: The last Spotted Flycatcher was in Cohens field and a Redpoll flew over Kenwood

Firecrest, Crossbills & Sandpiper, a great week of birding!

September 18th: I wasn't feeling great so I didn't go out early as planned. There wasn't anything on the hill so I headed down to the ponds to try and find the "interesting" teal I'd seen a few nights before. Within seconds of me wandering down to the concrete drainage thing I use to view the pond, a tiny shape shot out past me! I barely registered the clockwork like flapping wings and the blurred white wing bars as I frantically tried to get a conclusive ID. It dashed towards the wooden "raft" in the middle of the pond and for a blissful second I thought it was going to land. Instead the it kept on flying out of sight into the shadowy corner of the pond. I stood there puzzling over it, the only thing it could rationally be was a Common Sandpiper but I just wasn't satisfied with my views of of it. Then suddenly the whistling call of a Common Sandpiper stopped me in my thoughts and I looked up to see it rocketing over the rooves of the houses and then across the pond before disappearing! I've wanted to see a Common Sandpiper on the the Heath all summer so it was a relief to finally find one! What an awesome bird!

September 22nd: I hadn't planned to go out but having received a message from another birder that there were a fair few birds moving over Parliament hill, I got up and ran over to the heath. There were already plenty of people out enjoying the weather, dog walkers, joggers and a few people heading off to work. I arrived on Parliament hill at 7:30 and was greeted by plenty of meadow pipits shooting over the hill as well as two of the other local birders, Pete & Reuben. We stood and watched for a while as birds continued to fly over: a red kite drifting north, a yellow wagtail also heading north, siskins and a constant stream of meadow pipits. After a fifteen minutes, I noticed a wide group of meadow pipits rocketing south towards us. I called the others to them and as they got closer we all suddenly realized! A brief flash of the bright red males shooting across the path was all we needed to see, accompanied by the oddly quiet "chip-chip" call; they were crossbill! I lowered my binoculars to make a quick count and came to 12 before they disappeared. They had flown just above the ground, straight across the path, surrounded by people! Completely unexpected! 

A few more birds passed over in the next half hour but nothing amazing. Then suddenly, there it was again! "Chip-Chip-Chip!" I looked up and saw two more crossbill shooting over us calling loudly and happily. I wonder where they are now and where they came from. They could still be hiding in some quiet corner of London or they could have flown non-stop across the channel and found themselves in the Alps by now. It really is amazing the things you see here.

I continued on towards Kenwood where I was pleased to see my second Stonechat of Autumn perching on the wire fence around the Sphagnum bog. Always a brilliant bird to see! I also glimpsed my first Lesser Redpoll of Autumn shooting over the trees in Cohen's field. Not a bad morning before school (online school🙄)

23 September: I headed up Parliament hill for a bit in the morning but there wasn't much to see although it was cool to see a Spotted Flycatcher migrating over the hill and land briefly. I had a look around other parts of the heath but there wasn't much to see. Later in the day I was at home doing some chemistry work when I glanced at my phone to see Pete had found a Firecrest on Parliament hill! I quickly ate my lunch and dashed out. On first inspection there was nothing there, nor on the second or third inspection. But eventually I found a big mixed flock of tits and warblers. I spent a while searching through them without much luck. Then somehow, I lost track of the whole flock! Now it was really starting to rain too. I Spent a while wandering around searching without luck, even checking much further up the hill. After a damp and slightly annoying half hour, I decide to give in and head back. Then as I was wandering back I heard the sounds of the flock and looked up to see them in a oak tree. I decided to have a half hearted look. after a while a spotted a "crest" species hopping about in the Oak. I still wasn't particularly hopeful so it was a shock when it turned around revealed it's white eye stripe and stunning orange crest! I stood there in shock for a second as it disappeared before I jumped around and celebrated a bit. I was surprised when I looked up again to see it still flitting about and showing off. Of course now the rain started to bucket down on me but I still managed to get some good views of the little gem for a few minutes. It really is a perfect bird, one of my absolute favorites! What a brilliant day

  

August Birding on Hampstead Heath

 August birding Hampstead Heath 2020

August has been an absolutely brilliant month! I wasn't around for all of it so I missed out a little but I still found four new birds for my Hampstead Heath list! I'll go over a few highlights from month day by day.

The first week of August was pretty quiet as expected but I did see my first Willow Warblers of the Autumn. I also picked up a few other warblers like Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat. On the 7th three Yellow Wagtails flew over Parliament Hill. After that I headed off to Norfolk for a bit.

On the 20th of August I headed over to Kenwood to have a look for flycatchers. At first glance there was nothing to be seen so I decided to spend some time photographing the Willow Warbler that were piling in from out of the woods. Then just at the moment I'd forgotten about seeing a flycatcher, a stunning Pied Flycatcher hopped out in front of me! It gave a few good views before I rushed off to get my GCSE results. 

Pied Flycatcher

On the 22nd I found my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year in Kenwood

On the 23rd I went out to search for a tree pipit as they were arriving all over London. But after several hours the only one I saw was a distant view shooting over the playground that I wasn't 100% sure on. Later in the afternoon on a casual walk with my family, we flushed a pair in the Kenwood bog which then perched nicely for a few photos! 

Tree Pipit

The 24th was also a very exciting day! After a relatively boring walk up to Kenwood, I immediately found a warbler flock just up from the pond. As I was looking through it, a male Common Redstart hopped into a dead tree nearby! It gave me a few brief views before disappearing back into the bushes. Next I found another Pied Flycatcher with the same flock as it moved closer to the bog. Another mystery flycatcher sp added some excitement as well as my first shoveller of the Autumn

Common Redstart

On the 27th of August I saw two Spotted Flycatcher and a Crossbill flew NW over Cohen's field. I also had one possible Wood Warbler on Parliament hill: "Initially picked up with some willow warblers, the bird seemed to have a brighter yellow throat relative to the rest of it's body. It also had a fairly uniform white underside. However it looked slightly small compared to what I'd expected and did not have the shiny, almost metallic look I've seen in photos. Before I got a photo, it flitted away and didn't show again". (My description, could have been an odd willow warbler of course!)

The 28th was certainly the busiest day of the month. Migrant birds included Wheatear, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, Whinchat, 2 Hobby, Little Egret (very rare to land), Peregrine, a probable Garden Warbler, Common Buzzard, Flycatcher sp and my first Grass Snake on the Heath for two years was a nice bonus

Northern Wheatear

Whinchat

Little Egret

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On the 29th August I flushed the first Teal of the year (a scarce bird here). Other nice birds around included two Wheatear, Siskin, Peregrine, Yellow Wagtail (Fly-over) and a spotted Flycatcher

Eurasian Teal

On the 30th of August a Siskin landed on Parliament hill.

In all it was a very exciting month and there looks to be a good autumn ahead! The Pied Flycatchers (and others found by other birders) were the first records I know of for seven years! What a great few weeks of birding! It was a shame not to find any sandpipers however.

Oare marshes

Oare Marshes, August 2nd 2020

I’d been meaning to visit this reserve for quite a while but because of lockdown i wasn’t able to visit in spring. However my visit in August was by far my best days birding in 2020!

As we began to walk along the river out of Faversham I was already scanning for any waders but without luck. In the fields on the side of the path something caught my eye and I yelled “sparrowhawk!” To my brother.  But as I watched it seemed a bit odd and I suddenly realised I was getting my first proper view of an adult cuckoo! Not a bad start! At the reserve entrance we were greeted by a yellow wagtail and a pair of hobby rocketing about. I was a bit annoyed to hear my parents had seen a pair of bearded tits perched in front of them though! Continuing along the river wall I picked out common sandpiper, whimbrel and with a bit of help a few bearded tits in flight. 

Whimbrel

Eurasian Hobby

While My family stopped for lunch, I headed to the car park to see if anyone had found the bonapartes gull. Unfortunately they hadn’t. I spent the next hour or so searching through waders in the company of two helpful and more experienced birders. Or more accurately I stood there while they found me curlew sandpiper, Ruff, Greenshank, Water Rail, Snipe, Little ringed Plover, Turtle Dove and much more!

Golden Plover & Dunlin

Spot the Curlew Sandpiper!

Then a marsh harrier put in an appearance and sent the waders up in the air which was pretty impressive! I headed back to the river wall to find my family where I saw plenty of Yellow Wagtails and Linnets as well as black tailed godwits feeding out on the mud. We walked along towards a pool which I’d been told was good for grass snakes although not expecting to see any. When I arrived I was amazed to see two young grass snakes barely a foot long each, basking and swimming about among the weeds in the company of Marsh Frogs! Although Marsh Frogs are an introduced species I do love them as they add a bit of a southern vibe to the Kentish marshes and lets face it, they’re awesome! We watched the snakes for half an hour while yellow wagtails streamed overhead and corn buntings sang in the distance. 

Grass Snakes 

As we walked back along the sea wall a med gull flew a few metres over my head which was a nice surprise. At the car park I sat down for a bit and scanned across the mud absent-mindedly not expecting to see much. Imagine my surprise when I came across the moulting bonapartes gull! 

Bonapartes Gull

What a stunner! The walk back gave me a few ringed plover and an oystercatcher (my second favourite wader!).

What a brilliant day it had been; no fewer than four lifers while surrounded by some of my favourite animals like Grass Snakes and Hobbies. I definitely plan on going back in autumn!

May 2020 birding Hampstead Heath

May has so far been my most exciting month of birdwatching here on Hampstead Heath! I finally pretty much managed to get the hang of skywatching or “vizmig” and learned to identify most finches and other migrant passerines by flight call although I’m still missing a definite tree pipit! The beginning of the month started well with two hobby on the 2nd of may as well as house martin and a huge arrival of swifts. I even had a very high up bird which may have been an osprey but oh well. The next few days also brought the first six common terns of the year, a pair of Reed Warblers as well as  kestrel and little egret from my flat!

There was also quiet a few peregrines about with three sightings in the beginning of the month. Another hobbywent over my flat on the 9th and yellow wagtail flew over on the 12th.  Greylag geese made a few appearances too which are still uncommon here. The best bird of the month was a crossbill that flew over Parliament hill on a windy bitterly cold morning at 6:30am on the 13th. Luckily I managed to record the call to be identified later! The second half of the month was quieter with the highlights being a long staying pair of common terns, kingfishers showing occasionally, seven great spotted woodpecker nests and a sparrowhawk nest which unfortunately appeared to be destroyed by magpies only a day after I first saw it. When Kenwood reopened I had hobby, willow warbler and brilliant views of the new common buzzard pair!

Two other possible good birds which got away to soon were an egret sp which flew over at a ridiculous height and a possible female redstart which disappeared before I could get a real look!