Hornemann's plus American Buff-Bellied Pipit.....

On Saturday the 15th of December my dad and I travelled up to he Suffolk

Coast in hope of seeing the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, a rare bird on the mainland that had been frequenting a stretch of beach at aldeburgh! After minutes of arriving we had good views of the bird feeding on the beach and the sun was just starting to break through! 

This really was a monster bird, a true arctic redpoll unlike the 'coue's'! We stayed on site for roughly 3 hours and the bird was rather flighty moving up and down the beach, my photos are not as good as I hoped and the views certainly wasn't like what people had in the first week but I'm pleased with the shots that I managed.............moving on we headed straight back down south towards home stopping off a the queen mother reservoir for the American buff bellied pipit that had been found! We arrived approximately 2 hours later and started the long walk around QMR! And if you thought nothing could show better than the redpoll you were wrong, this pipit showed stupidly well sometimes just feet away however it was really hard to photograph.
1. It moved so fast
2. The light was terrible
And 3 you were always looking down on it! Only other bird of note there was only a LTD and we then headed for home as the rain hammered down........

24-11-2012 - 6-12-2012 (week off)

From the 24th of November I had 6 days holiday to take so I thought I would take it from the 26th onwards as my birthday was the 25th. To be honest I didn't do much long distance birding I just stayed in and around Hampshire as my girlfriend needed a few lifts to work therefore I visited Needs ore and the New Forest a lot.Ill keep things fairly short and just mention the best birds and try to add the odd photograph!

Needs ore highlights included 1 'Slavonian Grebe', 1 showy 'Great Northern Diver', 'Firecrest', 10 'Common Scoter' and a pure white 'Grey Plover' which was interesting to say the least.




Meanwhile in the New Forest there was no real highlights, it was just nice to photograph some of the woodland birds. 'Marsh Tit', 'Brambling', 'Great tit' etc plus the 'Mandarins' and some 'Goosander', the latter near enough impossible to photograph.




On the 3rd me and Jess after she had finished work quickly drove down to Longham Lakes in Dorset for the 'White Rumped Sandpiper' that had been present for a day or two.
On arrival at around 11:00am the bird showed well but distantly in blustery conditions on the Island in the South lake, that to be fair is all there is to say about that bird and we then headed for the Avon floods where a 'Glossy Ibis' had been seen along with the Usual 'Great White Egret'.
We arrived just after midday and immediately could see the 'Glossy Ibis' feeding actively amongst a few 'Black Tailed Godwits'. Also the 'Great White Egret' was easy enough to pick up albeit distantly. Only other birds of note there were 4 'Green Sandpipers', c30 'Common Snipe' and a 'Kingfisher'.
After this we briefly popped into Blashford Lakes HWT and looked at some nice 'Brambling' and then took a slow drive home..........




Today I had made specific plans with Jess to check out some Rowan trees literally minutes away from my house to look for some 'Waxwings'. I have been visiting over my week off but to no avail so when I recieved a text from Ashley Howe saying '' 11 waxwings, Hedge End at Havendale'' I was immediately pissed off as that is exactly where I was going, however I had a lay in and paid for it!!!
Nevertheless they are stunning birds so we popped down and took a few record shots which I hope to improve over the coming weeks.

We then took a slow drive to Eyeworth pond and again I took the opportunity to photograph the woodland birds once more before I went back to work, 2 'Goosander's' were nice but as normal wary and kept their distance.