Sunday 22nd March

Started today in Chichester on leaving my flat we had a look to see if we could see the Peregrine on the cathedral after a quick scan I found the male sitting on one of the lower turrets.

Our next stop was The WWT at Arundel on arriving at the car park one of the party picked up on a Common Buzzard flying over head, We then walked around the reserve birds seen included Shell Duck, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Black Headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Coot, Moorhen, Mallard, Cetti’s Warbler heard only, while we had lunch in one of the hides we had a Sparrowhawk No water vole or Kingfisher on this trip.  Just as we where about to leave we had 4 Common Buzzards over head.

We then decided to show one of the party the Wild Daffodils up on the south downs on arriving at the spot where we parked after a short walk along the the path I spotted a bird of prey over the trees to our right this turned out to be a Goshawk, We then continued along the path and we found a few daffodils by the side of the path as we got further along the path we had more flowers in the woods and at a clearing we found some more not as many as we have had in the past I think we might have been a week early to see the big display that you get there 

Here are a few pictures of the Daffodils 

Saturday 21st March

Spent the afternoon having a short wander around part of Pagham Harbour first stop was the ferry pool not a lot of waders as the water level was high did find 2 Avocets and a female Garganey, Our next stop was Church Norton where we had a walk round through the fields to the shore line where we found a Red Necked Grebe and a Sandwich Tern, In the harbour we had Curlew, Black Tailed Godwits, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Turnstone.

Other birds seen included Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Green Woodpecker, Rook, Jackdaw, shellduck,  lapwing, Mallard, Teal, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Great Tit, Blue tit, Black Headed Gull, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Great Crested Grebe, and 3 Chiffchaff  singing

All finished of with a nice meal and a few pints

Sunday 15th March

Spent a very pleasant day at Rainham marshes (RSPB Reserve) The main object was to see if we could see the Iceland Gull that had been about for the past week, We did a complete circuit of the reserve and a very pleasant day was had plenty of ducks still about a few waders and lots of gulls which after a long search we did find the Iceland Gull.

This is a reserve that I will be visiting again and hope it turns up some goodies in the spring and autumn

This trip was by car but it does look easy to do  by public transport

Saturday 28th Feb Forest Of Dean / Slimbridge / Frampton

Today 28th Feb 2009 was our trip to the Forest of Dean we had arranged to leave my mates at 7 o,clock at about 1/4 to our other fried phoned to say they where feeling unwell so we set off just the two of us we had a plane for the day and we stuck to it and what a day we had

Our first port of call was The New Fancy Watch Point in the forest of Dean we arrived and climbed up to the watch point for Goshawk our target bird for the day after a short while we had Raven, Crossbill, then one of the other people looking said I have have a Goshawk sitting in a tree and what a view the best I have seen Goshawk in a long time, We then had 4 more birds in the air displaying what a start to our day we also had Common buzzard.

We then had a look at the feeders in the car park where we had Brambling we then had a short stroll looking for Willow Tit but with no luck then it was back to the car and as we passed the feeders a willow Tit flew of.

Our next stop was Cannop Ponds where we had Grey Wagtail, Mandarine Duck, Goosander, we also had a look at the bridge for Dipper but no Luck but we had been told of another site which was our next stop where we did find Dipper thanks to a screaming child who moved it from under the bridge now has we had seen most of the species in the forest we then headed for Slimbridge where a American Wigeon had been seen we then had a look to see if we could find my mate a Water Rail this is a god site to see them but no luck, I did have Spotted Redshank. we also had a nice Sparrowhawk sitting on a post very close, Our next stop was Frampton for the Long Eared Owl that had been present for most of the winter as we where driving into Framptom we came upon a group of people watching something at the side of the road this turned out to be 22 Waxwings very nice indeed then it was onto the spot for the Owl, when we arrived we where the only people there but after a short while some one else turned up and said you need to walk past the reed bed and look back (this turned out to be information from the previous day) while we where watching for the Owl  my mate finally got his water rail after a short while  a local turned up and said your looking in the wrong place and put us on the bird after watching the Owl for a while we then had a short walk where we found a distant Short Eared Owl 

So all in all a very pleasant birding day

21 Feb 2009

Bit late updating my blog been a bit busy over the last couple of weeks

report for Sat 21 Feb 2009

My mate gave me a call on Friday night and said do you want to do some birding in Sussex tomorrow as I had decided yo stay in Chichester for the weekend I said yes 

We arranged a meet up just north of Chichester on the Saturday our first stop was Goring

to see if we could see the Waxwings that where there we only had to wait about 20 minutes 

and the 10 birds showed well this was a new Sussex bird for me, Our next stop was Widewater at Shoreham to see if we could see the Black Rerdstart that had been there in the week but no luck, Our next stop was the East arm of Shoreham Harbour for Purple Sandpiper but no luck here either we then stopped at the power station to have a look and see if we could see a Peregrine we found the Female sitting on the rail at the top, Next we headed for the Pannel Valley in seach of the Great Grey Shrike this is a site that we had not been to before we where quite impreesed with this site and we will be visiting again we had a good selection of duck Marsh Harrier but no Shrike by now the light was fading so time to call it a day

Weekend 14th &15th Feb

Saturday 14^th Feb

Back  home to London for the weekend had a arranged a day trip to Norfolk with me mate when we looked at the weather decided to cancel. So instead on Saturday 14^th me and my mate and and another good friend headed south first stop not far from where I am staying in Chichester. We headed for west witterings to see if we could see the Red Breasted Goose on the way down it came on the pager that the goose was in the harbour just north of East Head we decided to park at the church and not the car park (as I know this site quite well it turned out to be a good move) we walked through the church yard and then across the caravan park to the road we then turned right and then onto the harbour as we were crossing the green towards the harbour edge my mate picked up on a lone goose flying across from the right and said that’s it and we had good views of the Red Breasted Goose flying around it did a circuit and landed back with the Brent geese that it had been with (Now that is what you call luck being on your side) We then had a look at Snowhill mash where my mate found a jack snipe in with the common snipe other birds seen in this area, Redshank, Black Headed Gull, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Ringed Plover. Our next stop was Dell Quay where we had Little Egret, Red Breasted Merganser, Kingfisher, Grey Plover, Lots of Dunlin. Redshank, Black Tailed Godwit, Grey Plover. We then decide as time was on our side we would have a look at thr great deeps on Thorney Island we walked out to the deeps and had Little grebe, Great crested Grebe, Brent Geese, Golden Plover, on arriving at the deeps the water level was high but we did find 8 Greenshank, wigeon, Pintail Duck, Common Buzzard, and on the way back Yellow Hammer, there where also lots of Skylarks. 

We are now on a bit of a twitching mood we had other sites we wanted to visit So our next stop was Beaulieu Road Station in the New Forest. Here we where looking for the Great Grey Shrike we walked down to denny wood but we where spread out after a while I spotted the Shrike flying across only one of the other in the party got on it this was the only sighting I had I also had a lone woodlark.

Our next stop was to Black water Arboretum to see if we could find Hawfinch this is a new site for us we arrived at about 10 past 2 we wandered down to the arboretum and spoke to a locale who told us the best place to wait then at ¼ past 3 the first birds started to arrive we ended up with 8 Hawfinches in the tops of the trees and some very good views of the birds. We also had info on another site in this area for a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker but did not have time to have a look as one of the party needed to be back in London by 6 o’clock, we did a quick walk around the arboretum where we found Treecreeper so it was back on the motorway London Bound

But all in All a very nice day bird watching and a few new sites to our list

Sunday 15^th Feb

Today me and my sisters and one of the sisters god child headed of to the area around Christmas Common in Oxfordshire to see if we could see any Red Kites as we travelled along the M40 we had 15 Kites by the time we turned of at junction 6 we then headed for a site that I know to see if we could locate any Willow Tits after a short walk we found a Willow Tit then as we returned to the car I heard another  one calling after a short time I located it by now we have had 40+ Kites some just over our heads and one sitting on a post as we parked up but as another car went by the Kite took off. We then had a look at some other sites that I know in the area and by the time we left we had 60+ Red Kites plus 4 Common Buzzards, Sparrowhawk & Kestrel, We Also had some Redwing sitting on top of a bush, 

Quite a nice day out

Sunday 1st Feb

Not done any birding over the past week, but did have a Little Owl near Ford disused airfield on Thursday morning seen from the bus

Saturday 24th (Isle Of Sheppy)

Decided to spend the weekend back in London I was not going to do a lot just wanted a nice relaxing weekend but my mate phone do you fancy a afternoon on the Island ( the Island being The Isle of Sheppey) this is one of the best winter raptor watch point in the south of England

We set of from my house at 11-30 and on route we had a quick look to see if we could see Waxwing but no luck

Then it was on to the Island we drove straight to Capel Fleet we stopped at the first corner where we found a buzzard sitting on one of the mounds of rubbish
At first we thought it was a Rough Legged Buzzard but it turned out to be just a common buzzard which was the first of 4 common Buzzards we had, then some one come up and said that the chap on the corner was watching the Rough Legged Buzzard just down the road so off we went to have a look and yes the R L Buzzard was flying around this was 1 of 2 that were present. We also had 2 ring tailed Hen Harriers , plus 8+ Marsh Harriers we also had White Fronted Geese

Then it was of to the raptor watch point on route we had Corn Bunting this was my 100 species of the year on arrival at the watch point we had a pair of Peregrines and more marsh Harriers and a immature Merlin sitting on a fence post we stayed here for a while watching raptors plus golden plover, and Red Legged Partridge

Our next stop was at the church and a walk down towards the swale reserve we only walked a short way down the track when we both picked up on the Hooded Crow and had excellent views of the bird sitting on top of a bush ( When I say excellent views in birding terms I mean Cripperling views the best we have seen here for quite a while) which was good as I had forgotten my boots so no need to get my feet wet

Next stop was at Harty Ferry thought we might find a Little Egret here but no luck but we did find the Great Northern Diver that had been seen from Oare marshes the other side of the swale the bird was a long way up river but we still had good views of It

Then it was back to the raptor watch point soon after arriving we had 2 Short Eared Owls plus 2 Barn Owls and more Marsh Harriers, plus the female perigrine was still about We then drove back along the road and found 1 of the Short Eared Owls Sitting on a post

No Little Owl and still no Redwing

So all in all a very good afternoons birding on the Island

Raptors for the day
Rough Legged Buzzard…………………………..1
Common Buzzard…………………………………..4
Marsh Harrier………………………………………..40+
Hen Harrier (ring tailed)………………………….4
Peregrine……………………………………………….2
Merlin……………………………………………………1
Kestrel (on route)…………………………………..6

Owls
Short Eared…………………………………………..2
Barn Owl………………………………………………2

Plus a few other good birds

This is why It is one of the best winter raptor watch points but remember it is not always as good as this we where as you say B***** Lucky

But I do Have a Habit of having good birding luck on my side as some of the up and coming reports from some of my past trips will prove

So keep tuned I will be posting more now I am back into a routine

Update

Not been updating that much of late due to the fact that I have been job hunting now back at work so will be updating more

Last weekend spent 2 hours on Saturday sea watching at Selsey Bill a very cold 2 hours but I did manage to see a few good birds Red Throated Diver, Black Throated Diver, Gannet, Common Scoter and Guilemot

On Sunday spent a very pleasant afternoon at the Witterings I will do a blog on this site at a latter date birds seen included Brent Goose, Red Breasted Merganser, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover, Golden Plover, Slav Grebe, Black tailed Godwit and a Little Egret

Tiger in India

As I have said in the past I will be putting some of the pictures and Video that I have taken over the the years First off is a short video of the Tiger in India 2003
Please note all my videos are taken with a camcorder any movment in this clip is due to the jeep moving away from the Tiger