A Trip to Germany and a Cornish Hawfinch

Despite having just returned from the Far East it was time to head off again to Heathrow Airport on December 2nd for a short break to Cologne in Germany courtesy of free flights with British Airways using our Avios points. I really just felt like spending a few quiet days at home but once we were on our way I soon got into the spirit of things and had a good time away. The drive up to Heathrow was uneventful with golden plover, lapwing, fieldfare and redwing seen in the fields by the A303 along the way in the continuing cold weather but there was no sign of any red kites (although I did see 2 birds on the drive back home to Plymouth on our return on December 6th).

Cologne was as lovely as always, the Christmas Markets were great and we ate and drank too much and spent a fortune but it was worth it. There were patches of snow on the ground and on rooftops when we arrived at Dusseldorf Airport but it soon disappeared in the light mizzle which was a shame. Not much in the way of wildlife was seen as expected on a short and city based break but I did see some birds including buzzard, pheasant, grey heron, starling and kestrel on our train journeys to and from Dusseldorf Airport and to and from Aachen, while in Cologne I saw sparrowhawk, Canada goose, common gull and cormorant amongst others. The highlight were the ring necked parakeets which noisily roosted in trees by the Christmas Market near Heumarkt every night, there must have been around 50 birds present with a lot of bird poop underneath the trees on the pavement. Each morning they noisily congregated in trees near our hotel, making flying sorties overhead in small noisy groups before dispersing which was great to watch (and hear) - love them or loathe them, they certainly caught the attention of people passing by.

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

 Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

Aachen Cathedral Mosaic

With 2 very busy days at work on our return I really needed a proper wildlife fix on Sunday 10th December and so I headed off to Plymouth railway station to catch the train to Dawlish on a sunny but cold and blustery morning. I had been awake and out of bed early but dillied and dallied and missed the first train of the day at 08:40 which I soon regretted as on arrival at the station it was packed with travellers, trains were delayed and (stinky) Crosscountry trains weren't running due to a strike. With my 10:09 train being increasingly delayed on the notice board I realised I would miss the connection at Newton Abbot to Dawlish and decided to abandon the trip -  I wasn't expecting to get my money back for the ticket but it was refunded without question which I was very pleased about. I wasn't sure what to do instead but with a hawfinch being reported the previous day at the China Fleet Club near Saltash I decided to head out there on the bus for a look around.

On arrival at the Club some birders were peering into the trees but there had been no sighting of the hawfinch. I was at least able to get a bit more information from them about where it had been seen the previous day and I left them to their search and walked over to the nearby putting green area for a look around where I did manage to get the briefest view of a hawfinch flying off between the trees - not the views I was hoping for but at least I had seen it, and only my second UK sighting of one.

I decided to walk on to the bird hide for a quick look as the tide was beginning to ebb with a plan to return to the putting green later for another look around. From the hide there was a nice selection of birds roosting on the saltmarsh - redshank, dunlin, curlew, black tailed godwit, lapwing and 7 avocets representing the waders, wigeon, shelduck and teal representing the ducks, lesser black backed and a great black backed gull amongst the herring and black headed gulls and a distant view of a nice glossy ibis roosting with little egrets on the river bank opposite the hide.

Glossy Ibis from the hide with Little Egrets (Honest!)

China Fleet Club Rainbow

Back to the putting green and there was no sign of the hawfinch and just as I was about to give up and go home I had a good flight view of one whizzing over the tree tops. It briefly landed in a tree before disappearing from sight but I was very pleased to get a better view. I decided to stay for a bit longer and I had a few more flight views as I walked around the area which were good but frustrating but eventually I found it feeding in trees with greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches where I managed to get some very good views despite the fading light - a very nice bird to see in what has been a bit of a hawfinch influx this autumn - and there may well have been more than one bird present.

 Hawfinch - record shot

Hawfinch - record shot

Hawfinch at China Fleet Club - courtesy of @ChrisBuckland6 Twitter

Other birds seen were goldcrest, 2 jays, a buzzard, long tailed tits, a little grebe with a female tufted duck on the lake with mallard and moorhen, a chiffchaff, a male bullfinch, redwings, song thrushes, blackbirds, robins and 3 mistle thrush.

And so not a bad day out despite the bumpy start.

Three Egret Heaven at Ham Wall

Saturday 13th May and it was off on a coach trip to RSPB Ham Wall near Glastonbury in Somerset with the Plymouth RSPB Group on what may well be the last coach trip for the group as nobody is willing or able to take on the role of treasurer meaning the group will have to fold. I had originally planned to go on the DBWPS trip to Lundy this weekend but opted for Ham Wall instead (cheaper and less hassle) and I'm very glad I did.

It was sunny but breezey, cool in the wind and out of the sun but quite hot in sheltered and sunny spots. It did become increasingly cloudy and on the drive back to Plymouth at the end of the day the forecasted rain duly arrived.

On arrival we had the option to join the warden on a guided walk off the public paths but myself and my mate Mavis decided to head off on our own to find our own birds. We started with a nice singing male whitethroat in the car park hedge and walking along the path to the viewing platform we heard blackcap, chiffchaff, willow warbler, garden warbler, reed warbler and Cettis warblers singing. The deep resonant booming of a bittern could be distantly heard from the platform and we managed to get brief flight views of 2 birds flying over the reed beds, a new bird for Mavis. From the platform we also saw 2 great white egrets, pochard, 2 great crested grebes with 2 large young, at least 8 hobbys hawking for insects over the reeds, swifts, gadwall and tufted duck.

 Mallard and Pochard

Mallard and Pochard

 Great White Egret

Great White Egret

We carried on along the path towards the new Avalon hide situated right out in the reed beds but took a short detour first on the advice of a passing birder to a nearby small viewing platform overlooking a scrape where we found 2 little egrets, a very nice glossy ibis preening and a very smart male garganey feeding nearby, my bird of the day, along with lapwing, coot and mallard.

 Glossy Ibis

 Glossy Ibis

 Garganey

 2 sleeping male Garganey with Glossy Ibis

Garganey

From the hide we watched a male and 2 female marsh harriers hunting with 2 mid air food passes seen by the male to the female, hobbys hawking overhead, a bittern flying over the reeds, 2 great crested grebes with 2 small young, bearded tit groups bouncing over the reeds including a few males, a tawny owl chick perched outside its nest box and 2 gaudy male ruff feeding on the mud.

 Tawny Owl chick

 Marsh Harrier over the reed bed

Marsh Harrier

We walked back to the small viewing platform where the glossy ibis was still on show along with a male teal, 2 male shoveler and now 2 male garganey. Mavis picked up 3 egrets flying towards the scrape which turned out to be cattle egrets in breeding plumage and at one point we had little-, cattle- and great white egret all on view together.

Cattle Egret

We walked back to the car park and crossed over the road to Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve and visited the new tower hide overlooking a scrape where around 30 black tailed godwits were feeding. Also seen from the hide were more marsh harriers, hobbys, a bittern, great white egrets, 2 greylag geese with a gosling and a male wigeon. Mavis again picked up 3 cattle egrets flying towards the scrape with one coming in to land by a little egret, presumably different birds to those seen earlier.

Common Blue Damselfly

 Four Spotted Chaser - a new dragonfly for me

 Blue Tailed Damselfly

Azure Damselfly

With time running out we walked back to the viewing platform at Ham Wall where we watched a bittern having a tussle with a great white egret flying over the reeds, a little grebe, our only moorhen of the day, marsh harriers, hobbys, swifts and swallows before it was time to get back on the coach for the journey back to Plymouth - but what an amazing days birding we had had.

Grey Seals at Looe and a Glossy Ibis at Bude

I wasn't expecting much in the way of wildlife sightings with Mum and nephew Jack staying for a few days but while out and about I managed to find some interesting stuff with a few surprises too.

Saturday 6th August and we headed down to Looe by train, a bargain at £3.85 return each as we were travelling on a Group 4 ticket. I have never travelled along the branch line from Liskeard to Looe before and it was an interesting and scenic trip with a common sandpiper, a grey wagtail and lots of little egrets seen along the river. There was also lots of Himalayan balsam growing by the trackside, very pretty but very invasive and detrimental to native flora.

Himalayan Balsam

Looe was very busy with lots of tourists despite the cloud and mist (but calm and warm conditions). We decided to take a 45 minute boat trip around St.Georges Island and I was intrigued by the Skipper stating that he would feed the seals on the trip. The boat was glass bottomed and we saw a few compass jellyfish and various fish (pollack and wrasse according to the Skipper) as we travelled over the seaweed beds around the island but the highlight was indeed the seals which came to the boat to take mackerel offered to them, raising themselves up out of the water to eat the fish.

Grey Seal

Grey Seal and Turnstone

Gret Seal taking mackerel

Grey Seal

Grey Seal

I enjoyed a bit of rock pooling with Jack on the main beach and we found the usual stuff - prawns, shanny and anemones - but a squashed and dead oak eggar on the footpath was a surprise.

Shanny

Oak Eggar

Sunday 7th and we headed off to Bude for the day for Jack to indulge in a bit of body boarding. The sea was choppy with some worrying rip tides and currents but Jack (and David) had a great time in the water. I was more interested in the Manx shearwaters flying north offshore towards Lundy in the strong winds and I am 99% sure I picked out a Corys shearwater too, closer to shore than the Manxies and noticeably larger with paler and browner looking upperwings which were angled back as it sheared across the waves but brief views only as it banked out of the waves before dipping down again and being lost from sight.

Water levels at Maer Lake were still low but despite scanning around I couldn't find the reported wood sandpiper but the reported glossy ibis was showing well if a little distantly along with a black tailed godwit, curlews and oystercatchers.

Glossy Ibis, Maer Lake

The toilet blocks held 2 single dotted waves along with a small fan footed wave and a single meadow brown was seen along Maer Lane.

Small Fan Footed Wave

Monday 8th August and we headed off to Wembury for the day. A sanderling along the main beach was a surprise as it fed along the shoreline at high tide totally unperturbed by nearby holiday makers. It was surprisingly easy to overlook or lose track of as it fed unconcernedly down to a few metres with its cryptically patterned plumage affording it some camoflague amongst the pebbles and sea weed.

Sanderling on Wembury Beach

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

A bit more rock pooling turned up more prawns and more shanny along with cushion starfish, corkwing wrasse, hermit crabs, a compass jellyfish, a chiton species and snakelocks anemones.

Cushion Starfish

Snakelocks Anenome

Corkwing Wrasse

Compass Jellyfish

Chiton Sp.

Tuesday 9th August and it was off to Dartmoor for the day before Mum and Jack headed off back to Bristol. Along the River Dart beautiful demoiselles, brown trout and silver washed fritillaries were all seen while a quietly singing willow warbler was heard. The fritillaries were very smart looking but very active and difficult to photograph but I managed to snap 1 worn individual and I also got a shot of a very worn high brown fritillary too.

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

Brown Trout

High Brown Fritillary

Silver Washed Fritillary

After a cream tea at Badgers Holt which was actually very nice we had a quick walk at nearby Sharp Tor where a male wheatear showed well before it was time for Mum and Jack to head off home, it having been a nice but tiring visit with some interesting sightings along the way.

Wheatear