12/11/2023 Abberton Reservoir, Essex

Canvasback: There's no other way to spend a Sunday then twitching a rare bird with good friends. This time it was a trip to Essex for a bird that hasn't been seen on our shores for over twenty years. 

Native to North America these birds have a well-established breeding population through central Canada, north through the middle of the continent into central and northern Alaska.

Here is a nice comparrison between our own common pochard and the yanky canvasback which shows that male canvasback have a wedge shaped chestnut red head and neck, a long black bill and black breast.

The bird gave us a bit of a run around as during the morning it was flocking with over 200 common pochard and it wasn't until they dispersed across the water and landed on the smaller reservoir and began feeding. 

Apologies for the poor record shots, all taken at some distance and through my scope, far from ideal. 

 

08/11/2023 Linford Lakes Nature Reserve, Buckinghamshire

Little Crake: News broke the night before of a  with some images following the first reports of a little crake showing incredibly well right infant of the hide at Linford Lakes. Luckily I was already pencilled in for a survey near Kettering so wasn't too far from the bird.

After making preparations to start early I headed down when I was finished. Linford Lakes is a permit only nature reserve and thankfully Simon Nichols and the other volunteers arranged access and worked hard to get folk to man the gates and take donations. 

The reserve is ideal for bird and wildlife watchers, photographers and for those who enjoy nature and the unique environment that is found at the reserve. When I arrived the bird was on full show, albeit further over into the reedbeds and not right in front of the hide like it has been.

Can't complain though as crakes are typically known to be shy, skulking birds. 

These smart little birds breeding habitat is reed beds in Europe, mainly in the East, and just into western Asia. This species is migratory, wintering in Africa.

08/11/2023 Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire

Red-headed Bunting: These birds breed way over in Central Asia where it is common throughout most of its range and migrates south to India for the winter. Although this individul has found itself on the Yorkshire coast. 

A particularly tricky bird to pin down on ID as in their winter plumage they can appear similar to their cousins the black-handed bunting.

Fortunately DNA was collected by the way of a feather and sent over to Dr Martin Collinson, a renowened scientist who carries out analysis on bird DNA and has a big part to play in the identification, and sexing of rare and scares birds that find their way on to our shores. 

The DNA results confirmed that the bird was indeed a red-handed bunting, and pending a review from the British Ornithologists Record Committie (BOURC) this could well be a first for Britain. 

05/11/2023 Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, Kent

Solitary Sandpiper:  This small inconspicuous wader should be halfway on its annual migration between Canada and Central America.

Instated its annual migration has been disrupted by strong westerly winds and storms which has brought it all the way to Kent.

The bird has remained pretty settled and has been here for over a week now, but with work commitments and the baby not being too well with a virus I have been unable to go down until this weekend. 

Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve (NNR), is located just outside Canterbury between Stodmarsh Village and Grove Ferry Picnic Site and is one of the largest seedbed habitats in the South East. The reserve consists of reedbed, open water, and grazing marsh with some wet woodland.

Upon my arrival I headed over to the Reedbed Hide and parked myself on the standard hard wooden benches that you find in bird hides, you know the ones that soon turn into a medieval torture device after a few hours of sitting on!

Eventually a small sandpiper comes flying in low over the hide landing on the area of cut reed in front of the hide. To everyones disappointment this turned out to be a green sand. But with a bit of paitcence and a numb back site the solitary dipped in and started to feed on this cut reed infant of the hide. 

It was good to compare both the green and solitary sand side by side in the same area. The solitary was smaller, greyer then the green sandpiper which has a distinct contacts been the upper and lower parts. 

the solidarity sands legs are typical a dull olive but this bird had almost yellowish legs with spotted striped upper parts of its tail. 

I was blown away by how well this bird was showing for us, all the other previous sightings had been mixed with dissent views. 

After seeing this bird I will be double checking any green sands I stumbled across out in the field, you never know.