Denhall Lane, Dee Estuary

American wigeon 1 male
Wigeon 200
Teal 200
Pink-footed goose 300 over

Year 256 (American wigeon)

I'm still picking up year ticks with surprising regularity, I don't want this year to end. The American wigeon showed really well in the early morning sunshine, it's green mask looking almost iridescent.

I've always had a soft spot for Denhall Lane, it was one of the first places I went to on the Dee many years ago, and the walk from here to the Decca pools is probably my favourite part of the Dee.

The views are at their best here as well, this is Moel Famau from Denhall Lane.

Tanners Lane, Hampshire

This morning I was at Tanners Lane for first light, on the Hampshire coast, to have a last look at the brents before I returned home this afternoon. There was a decent sized flock of about 800 birds, but no sign of the black brant that was reported from here two days ago. It's always a great experience to watch brents though, and this was a place I've never been to before, with good views over the Solent to the Isle of Wight and the Needles, so it was well worth the effort. There were also plenty of waders, in particular dunlin and grey plover.

Most spectacularly, while I was watching the brent goose flock, they suddenly flew up in terror as a goshawk appeared from nowhere and briefly chased them. Awesome! I've never seen any bird of prey chase geese before! Ironically, the name goshawk comes from the Old English name "goose hawk", but I'm not sure if that is because of its size or its habit of preying on geese. I found at least one photo on the internet of a goshawk eating a brent goose.

Last week it was pale-bellied brents in Ireland, this week it's dark-bellied brents in Hampshire, but wherever they are, brents always present an impressive spectacle.

A view over the Solent to the Isle of Wight and the Needles.

Lepe Country Park, Hampshire

Lesser yellowlegs 1
Redshank 2
Ringed plover 30
Dunlin 20
Turnstone 30

Year 255 (Lesser yellowlegs)

Lesser yellowlegs and Redshank. Guess which is the yellowlegs....

Ringed plover and Dunlin.

A supertanker in the Solent at dawn.

Hayling Island and Langstone Harbour

I took a minor detour off the A27 and drove the mile or so to Hayling Island, and ate my lunch overlooking Langstone Harbour. It was a gloriously sunny day, and the light was perfect, allowing me excellent views of 500 Dark-bellied brent geese, 50 Red-breasted mergansers and a nice selection of waders, including Greenshank and Grey plover.

Worthing pier

I nipped down to Worthing Pier for the last hour or so of daylight today, in the hope of seeing the probable Pacific Diver which has been there for the past couple of days. No luck with that, and I didn't see any species of diver, but I did at least see a Red-necked grebe from the end of the pier, along with at least 100 Great-crested grebes, 10 Red-breasted mergansers, a Little egret and some Turnstones.

Worthing pier.

I was treated to a wonderful sunset from the pier.

 

 

Giant Puffball

I found this puffball growing in a field near Bognor Regis today. From the size of it I assume it's a Giant puffball Calvatia gigantean, but they are usually white. However, it's probably just an old specimen. It was about the size of a size 4 football.

Eccleston mere

Goldeneye 1 male
Willow tit 1
Pink-footed goose 200 flew over
Teal 1 male
Tufted duck 8 (3 males, 5 females)
Kingfisher 1

Baikal teal, Crossens marsh

Baikal teal 1 male
Long-tailed duck 1 juv.
Wigeon 5000
Golden plover 500
Little egret 10
Peregrine 1
Merlin 1

At last today I got the opportunity to see the Baikal teal which has been at Banks / Crossens marsh for a week, and what a great bird it was. I think that we must have had better views than most this week, because though I initially started out on the bank at Banks, it soon became obvious that the better views were to be had from Marine drive. Here it was no more than about 75m away, the light was good (quite sunny this morning) and we were sheltered from the wind so the scope could be used on maximum zoom to see the finer details.

It was almost like it was intermediate between a Wigeon and a Teal, in plumage, size and it's feeding action. I didn't see it graze the grass like a Wigeon, but neither did I see it much in open water like a Teal, rather it always seemed to stick to the edge of the water. It had a head and breast which were clearly from the Teal family, yet a body which could easily have belonged to a Wigeon. Despite some initial doubts about it's parentage last week, it seemed to me to be a pure Baikal teal. The only doubts I had on seeing the initial photos were head shape (which appeared too round) and the lack of black line on the face. However, today I could clearly see that the head shape was spot on, with a little bump at the back, and the black line is now starting to appear on the face, presumably as the bird moves towards full breeding plumage later in the winter.

A really stunning bird, in a great location, it's the fifth for Britain.

UK Life 395, Revised Year 254 (Baikal teal)

I'm quite pleased with these digi-scoped photos, taken at about 40x magnification. You can clearly see that the black line on the face is starting to appear, and if anything it was even more obvious on the other cheek.

What are you all doing over there? It's here, right in front of us! Birders watching from Banks.

Wigeon, teal and Baikal teal at Crossens marsh. This photo is taken at 12x magnification without the telescope, and the Baikal teal is almost dead centre, on the edge of the water, facing left. It's more or less in exactly the same position as the digi-scoped photos at 40x (above). What a difference the telescope makes!

Dundrum, County Down, Northern Ireland

Inner bay and surrounds
Grey-bellied brant goose 1 adult
Dark-bellied brent goose 1 adult
Pale-bellied brent goose 300
Grey plover 20
Dunlin 200
Little Egret 2
Greenshank 1
Wigeon 500
Teal 500
Bullfinch 1

Irish sea
Common scoter 300
Red-throated diver 2
Razorbill 10
Guillemot 10
Red-breasted merganser 20

The status of the brents always seems a little uncertain to me. I'm never sure what to count and what not to. The rule of thumb I adopt is, black brant (nigricans) is a separate species to dark-bellied (bernicla) and pale-bellied (horta) which are races of a second species. But where does grey-bellied brant fit in? Some folk reckon that it's an intermediate between horta and nigricans, possibly a hybrid, but in many respects it's more like a washed out nigricans so maybe it's a subspecies of black brant. Perhaps it's even a species in its own right, making three species of brent goose (or even four if you count bernicla and horta as separate species!). Complicated stuff!

So, making up my own rules and counting Grey-bellied brant as a race of black brant, we come to the following conclusion.........Year 252 (Grey-bellied brant goose)..... give me a break, I went all the way to Northern Ireland to see this bird, I've got to be able to tick it somewhere!

Pick out the brents! All three races of brent seen today are in at least one of these four photographs somewhere. The pale-bellied and dark-bellied are easy enough to spot, but the grey-bellied is a different matter! Answers on a postcard.....

 

 I didn't have much time to spare today, but desperately wanted to try for the grey-bellied brant, so I arrived at Dundrum for first light and was rewarded with a stunning sunrise over the estuary, and my first sight of brents.

Dundrum.

Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland

Ring-billed gull 1 adult
Black guillemot 3 all in winter plumage
Eider 2
Goldeneye 2
Shag 1

Year 251 (Ring-billed gull)

My first Ring-billed gull for a few years, and I was delighted to see it at Carrickfergus harbour.

Ring-billed gull (below) and Common gull

Winter plumage black guillemot. Comes as something of a shock when you're not expecting it!

Carrickfergus castle and harbour. A wonderful setting for a Ring-billed gull.

Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland

Scaup 16 (8 males, 8 females)
Black guillemot 3 all in winter plumage
Eider 6
Red-breasted merganser 100
Goldeneye 10
Redshank 20
Curlew 5
Turnstone 10
Hooded crow 2