Plastic Fantastic

Having twice missed a Ring Ouzel down the Nunnery Lakes Reserve yesterday, a before work visit today for another go was in order.  However, just as I was leaving the house, I received a series of text messages about an even better bird down the Lakes, a Red-crested Pochard, which is a first record for the reserve!  I headed down there and sure enough in with the few Tufteds on D Lake was a very gaudy looking drake Red-crested Pochard.  After I had wander down the rest of the reserve, sadly with no sign of yesterday's Ouzel, I got back to D to find the pochard had moved to E lake where it showed even better and I managed a series of phonescoped efforts for posterity.

The rain in Spain

Although it is winter, I'm not sure either of us quite expected Spain to experience the same sort of weather as has been battering the UK in recent weeks.  Having been successful in our quest to see an Iberian Lynx, we left the mountains of the Sierra de Andujar behind and heading for the Andalusian coast at the famous Donana reserve. On arrival at our hotel in El Rocio we were greeted by strong winds and driving rain, though thankfully the rain cleared and the wind dropped overnight leaving a single glorious day before the next weather front moved in bringing more wet and windy weather.
We spent the morning spent wandering round the marsh at El Rocio which unlike our last visit in Spetember 2012, actually had water in it!  The marsh was teeming with birds, wildfowl, in particular, Pintail and Shoveler were the most numerous but more colour was added with the flocks of flamingos, Spoonbills and Glossy Ibis, whilst the surrounding reedbeds held Fan-tailed and Cetti's Warblers and best of all, a pair of Bluethroat.

We then headed down to Donana for the afternoon, though access to this reserve is frustratingly restricted, a few hides overlooking former lakes is as much as you can see without jumping on one of the official guided tours.  Still, the area around the visitor centre is well worth a visit, Azure-winged Magpies by the dozen flock around as you eat your picnic, joined by bold House Sparrows, whilst a White Stork nest on the roof gives superb views of the displaying behaviour of these magnificent birds.

We returned to El Rocio in the evening, and were treated to singing Serin, confiding Black Redstart and a couple of Red-knobbed Coots among the Coot flock busily feeding in front of the hides, easily picked out by the blue tinge to their bills.

The Lynx Effect

Waking up to howling gale, low cloud and heavy showers wasn't exactly an ideal start to the day when going to look for a cat given their usual aversion to rain, and so it proved.  The morning was spent in the Sierra de Andujar looking in vain for Iberian Lynx, one of the rarest and most elusive mammals in the world with no success but in the evening, we persevered and went down to the bridge where the Lynx are often seen and as we got out of the car, a group of wildlife watchers waved us over with the news that they had just seen a lynx disappear into some scrub on the opposite side of the river.  Thankfully after an anxious 10 minute wait, the lynx appeared and walked along the side of the river and then sat under a fallen tree for the next half an hour, completely unbothered by the dozen 'scope and camera clad watchers scrambling across the rocks to get a better vantage point just 30m away.  After a good stretch, it carried on its way and vanished silently into the scrub.

Earlier on once the rain had stopped, a few birds did show themselves including many Azure-winged Magpie, a couple of Rock Buntings, Blue Rock Thrush, Hawfinches, Chough, many low-flying Griffon and at least one Black Vulture.

As was the case last time I tried to look for Lynx a couple of years ago, Red Deer were everywhere and also during the morning were a couple of Wild Boar, a Fallow Deer and a herd of Mouflon.

Crouching Jack

Jack Snipe are notoriously difficult to see, unless you happen to see one on a marsh bobbing up and down as it feeds, the only thing you ever see of one is as one flies from right beneath your feet as you walk through some wet ground.  The latter scenario happened to Nick Moran today as he walked by the river on the Nunnery Lakes Reserve with a bird flushing and flying away across the lake, almost certainly never to be seen again.  Fortunately and for no apparent reason, the bird decided to drop down and land out in the open on one of the fishermen's pegs along the edge of the lake.  At this time I was further down the reserve but thankfully the bird stayed put and we watched it through a 'scope  from across the lake as it crouched down.  Once Dave Leech had been down and seen the bird, I walked round and carefully stalked the bird commando-style and manged to take a few photos before backing off, leaving the bird still pretending it was invisible.

All isn't quiet on New Year's Day

Following an aborted plan for New Year's Day to be spent in the southwest, the day instead was spent around Thetford which dawned dull and grey.  Starting the year list whilst making a cup of tea, a few Lesser Redpoll were first up busily feeding on the nyger feeders in the garden, then a Wood Pigeon flew over and then a pale bird appeared with the redpolls which soon revealed itself as bird number three for the year - a Common (or Mealy) Redpoll.

After a quick breakfast, I headed to a local site in the hope of a Golden Pheasant and was amazed when before I had even turned the ignition off, there in front of me on the edge of the wood stood a stunning male Golden Pheasant.  Two good local birds already and it wasn't even 8.30 in the morning!
Next up before the weather made a turn for the worst and wiped out the afternoon was a walk round the Nunnery Lakes.  After a fairly fruitless hour or so, a bird on top of an Alder drew my attention, at first glance I thought it was a Starling but on raising my bins, the huge bill and white wing patch proved it was in fact a Hawfinch, a very scarce visitor to the reserve and only my second ever record there.  Remarkably, despite the blustery conditions it stayed on the tree top long enough for Nick to twitch it.

A bit further up near the hide a Mealy Redpoll with a single Lesser Redpoll was another unexpected bonus and with Water Rail and a Little Egret made for a great start to the year.

Going Dutch...

Every birder has one particular bird that they want to see above all others, be it an amazingly coloured Bird-of-Paradise or spectacular Andean Condor, but for me, that bird has always been Surnia ulula or the Northern Hawk Owl.  Unfortunately for a British-based birder, most owls have a difficult time crossing water so although Hawk Owls have turned up in Britain on just 4 occasions, the most recent back in 1983 on the Shetland Isles, and so the chance of seeing one is remote and a foreign trip is invariably required.  Hawk Owls are found in northern Scandinavia, though in winter do occasionally venture further south as their food becomes harder to find and a couple of weeks ago one such individual did the honorable thing of making it as far south as the city of Zwolle in the Netherlands, which from Norfolk is but a ferry crossing away.
Other commitments over the past weeks have meant I have had to suffer looking at stunning photographs of the bird on the internet, but eventually I found time, the ferry was booked and we were off, leaving Harwich just before midnight on an overnight crossing.  Being woken this morning at 6.30am to Bobby McFerrin's "Don't worry, be happy" was not expected or particularly welcomed but once docked and we found our way out of Hook of Holland, negotiated Rotterdam rush hour and got completely lost in Zwolle, we eventually located the spot and thankfully the owl was still present, taking shelter from the wind and light rain on a floodlight stanchion on a playing field.
Over the next few hours the weather improved and the owl became more active, even catching a vole within a few feet of the gathered photographers, and although it spent much of the time up in a tree which photographically wasn't ideal, it did eventually drop to a lower tree and posed for the crowd.  All in all, a quite stunning bird and well worth the wait to see one and the trip to the Netherlands.

Who's a pretty boy?

It's not very often since I started going on annual foreign trips that I get the chance to see a completely new species to me in Britain, so a flock of Parrot Crossbills in north Norfolk was a chance too good to miss.  With up to 12 of these irruptive birds having been present at Holt Country Park for a couple of weeks, I finally got round to going and as soon as I got out my car at least 5 birds were visible in the top of a tree in the car park, though soon flew out of sight.  Over the next hour, they did feed out of sight quite a bit but also showed very well, and although they spent the vast majority of their time in the pine tree demolishing the cones, one male virtually posed for the assembled crowd in an oak tree.

Even though they showed very well, at certain angles the large bill which is the main identifier of this species was not that evident and I do wonder how easy one of these birds would be to miss among a flock of Common Crossbills in Thetford Forest.  A flyover Red Kite was an unexpected sight here too.