Sabine's Gull ~ Dungeness, Kent - 05.08.12

We headed for Dungeness, with no target birds just to have a good day out.

Decided on the Arc Pit first trying for some waders but only the usual.

News on the pager of a Sabine's going over the beach at Rye was promising, so we headed towards the patch !!

We were getting our gear out of the car when a call from Martin ( thank you ) saying that Dave W has the gull on the beach near the Patch !!!!!!

A short walk along the ridge and there it was, a nice adult bird moulting out and way out on its own and resting in the tide line ...

We watched at distance, until it flew and began feeding close in, time to move and get some images !!!

Sabine's Gull

Note:  The bird has a cataract in it's right eye !!

The bird went and joined the mass of gulls near the patch and we went to the cafe ... We were hoping that with better light in the afternoon that maybe some improvements could be made but we stayed till early evening without any more sightings ..

Kittiwake

Sabine's Gull ~ Startop's End Reservoir, Buckinghamshire - 04.07.12

Really wanted better images of this gull species, so at first with dodgy weather and not many images coming on the web, I waited on the 2nd !!
Imagining it to be distant due to No images appearing ... 

The weather improved slightly on the 3rd but I still stayed at work, that evening better images came on-line ...

The 4th and the forecast was the same as it's been dull, the pager kept reporting all-day that it was still there, so by mid-afternoon, it was to much to take so a couple of texts went out and before long Me & Kev are on our way !!

The directions that we had were wrong but we got there eventually, and at first the 1st - summer bird was asleep out on a raft ... Not for long !!

It was feeding so close to us that the 500 wouldn't focus !!

A shame that the light was so poor, the views more than made up for it though.

Sabine's Gull ~ 1st - S

It vanished later in the week !!

Northern Eider - ssp. Borealis ~ Seahouses, Northumberland ... 02.06.12

This stunning drake really stood out from the other Common Eider drake's in the Harbour at Seahouses, Northumberland.

The bird was smarter with sharper markings, and the nape colour was more vibrant. The bill structure seemed shorter in length, with a roman bump on the culmen and bright orange compared to the dull green of the Common's.

Not always visible especially when wet were the "sails" on the scapulars but a few times were visible.

The main flock would come in when ever someone had bread and would stay loosely in the harbour, as for the Northern it would drift off back on its own out towards the harbour mouth.

There seems very little written about the Ssp. Borealis i've had a search and so far haven't found much.

So for now its a Borealis type bird..

Northern Eider

Hopefully the more experience birders with this species will share there knowledge !!

Either way a smart looking bird ...

Sailly Bray, Crecy Forest, Le Crotoy & Parc du Marquenterre - Northern France ~ 21.04.12

Come rain or shine, no matter what we were going to France, pick-up was 03:20am and by 08:00am we was at Sailly Bray in light rain !!

Sailly Bray is a well known site, in between Nolette & Bonnelle on the Rue du Marais and is a great site for Bluethroat. All the small birds weren't showing themselves in the rain and who can blame them we never got out the car !!

Richard spotted a Hen Harrier, as it came closer it looked very pale and was leucistic.

Hen Harrier

 

With our main target not showing and the rain getting harder we moved on to Crecy forest.

Forêt de Crécy

 from Nouvion take the D111 towards Crecy-en-Ponthieu and you go right through it just take any of the tracks off in either direction, Here Black Woodpecker was the main target yet the rain just got even harder, but eventually eased off and was on-off showers we didn't see or hear the Black and had to settle for G.S.Woodpecker.

We did have some quality birds ...

Crested Tit ~ Hawfinch

Marsh Tit ~ Short-toed Treecreeper

Finally the weather started to change for the better and we headed for Le Crotoy on the D4 - Rue des Mouettes is some roadside pools mainly Black-headed Gulls but a pr of Garganey was a bonus.

Garganey

Nearer Crotoy is a track signed " Etang de Peche " this looked really promising, a quite hidden away lake.

White Wagtail ~ Redstart

Nightingale ~ Yellowhammer

With clear blue skies we now headed for Parc du Marquenterre which is well sign posted and even though it was late afternoon about 4-ish still had to pay full price to get in !!

By now the sun wasn't in our favour and where the Spoonbill's were landing to collect nesting material was into the sun, so had to make do with fly over shots ..

Spoonbill

 

Pochard

Mallard

White Stork

Here we never got any further than the scrape area which held very few birds.

Another last chance look in at Sailly Bray as the sun was shining alas no Bluethroat not for me, Kev had one !!

finished off with ...

Corn Bunting

Some new sites which we've now had a recce at for next time !!

 

Kumlien's Gull - 1st. W ~ Ardglass Harbour, County Down, Northern Ireland ... 05.02.12

Kumlien's Gull

What a absolute beauty !!

The plumage of a 1st. winter bird is exquisite, subtle markings on the coverts and then fading out through to the primaries, slightly heavier markings on the scapulars make for a real stunner !!

I've tried to capture this in the images

This bird showed well all day ..

Kumlien's Gull ~ 1st.W 

See i told you !!

A beauty