Eastbourne Bonaparte’s Gull

Don’t think I’ve ever been to Eastbourne before… and given how painfully slow the drive down there was this morning, I probably won’t be rushing back! But a certain dainty little American gull made it more than worth while for Rich and me today, showing extremely well at times, inside minimum focus range for the big lens boys.

Not really too much else to say about it, so I’ll crack on with a few pictures:

Good to see Steve A, Richard and Mick down there as well – the latter gets top marks for effort in getting down to gull’s eye level! I’d expect nothing less!

Arctic Norway & Finland Trip Report (March / April 2012)

… and about time too, I might add!

Several people have been asking me recently about the trip I did with Jono and my Dad up to the far north of Finland and Norway last year – I guess Tormod’s speaking tour around the country with Martin Garner may well have much to do with this! The trip feels like ages ago now, but the memories are still fresh and fantastic. We saw some stunning birds, beautiful landscapes… and actually didn’t have to spend that much money (in what can be a terrifyingly expensive part of the world) to do it. Nor did we come across many other birders, or need a guide to find most of our target species – if you’re prepared for the weather with good gear, it’s not a difficult proposition to do an awesome self-drive trip.

So, here’s the long-awaited trip report, which includes details of the logistics as well as the birds. Click on the grosbeak to open… very topical right now, given events on Shetland!

Also, for a recap on other photos from the trip, browse my previous posts >here<.

If anyone wants more information about any of this, don’t hesitate to leave a comment with your contact email address here, and I’ll get back to you.

Dip-dippity, dip-dippity, dip-dip Dip-per!

No prizes for originality this weekend – Jono and I trod a predictable path to Thetford yesterday, for the long-staying Black-bellied Dipper. No apologies for that, though, since it was absolutely superb! Very confiding, and brilliantly charismatic. We stayed at least three hours, and I could’ve happily been there longer still.

As is usually the case with Dippers, its favoured area was shady and rather dark, so photography wasn’t easy… I might well be tempted back on a brighter day. But I’m pleased with a few of the shots, and the whole experience was a great antidote to work and stress in London.

One of the great things about this bird was the amount of behaviour you could watch, up close and personal, and attempt to capture on film (OK, disc!). It was feeding pretty voraciously on some sort of larvae (anyone know what? please comment if so), which had to be extracted from black twig-like shells, before being swiftly despatched.

And then, in quieter moments, he was… preening and stretching…

… swimming and bathing…

… yawning and blinking…

… and even singing! Ok, no photo of this – but here’s a recording from the excellent Xeno Canto archive, of a Scandinavian bird wintering near Amsterdam:

All in all – a stunning little bird, and well worth the trip. Anything I see this year will have to go some to beat it!

Any other birds this weekend? Yes, actually quite a bit! The notebook includes Long-tailed Duck (still on the Girling Res in N London – wish I could get close to that, it’s a cracker), Black Redstart, Great Northern Diver, 3 Slav Grebes and at least 4 Velvet Scoter on the Blackwater, and a typically distant and mobile Great Grey Shrike in Herts, where there was also an excellent array of old-fashioned farmland birds: Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and Grey Partridge in abundance. If only more of the countryside was managed the same way…

Finally, this Grey Wag was rather confiding at Rowhedge near Colchester… often a companion to Dippers on picturesque breeding sites, this one was in less salubrious surroundings, around puddles on a derelict wharf!