A Birding Moral

Phalaropes are great. I've seen two of the three species, Grey, and as of last week Wilson's.
 Filled with an enviable (for us oldies, I'm nearly sixteen) and seemingly endless energy, they never appear to stop moving.  You'd think they'd be a nemesis to photographers. Not so. With Grey at least they're practically a photographers best friend, particularly if they're in Sussex. They seem to know no boundaries, being more than 24 inches away is out of the norm. A photographer would generally suffer from having 'too much lens'. And as we all know, photographers - generally - love complaining about not having enough lens. So too much? Basically unheard of. This was how both last year's Hove 'play-ground-paddling-pool' bird, and the recent bird on the Cuckmere  performed.  I went for the Hove bird, it was amazing. The Cuckmere bird was showing just as well, and in more natural habitat, you could bet your hat I was going to go! What's more you could be sure I was going to get the first train of the day there. It's practically guaranteed I'd walk the three or so miles from the station to get there before sunrise.  And you know what? It was down right certain the Phalarope would show amazingly.
 This was to be my third Grey Phal. The Hove bird, a hardly tick-able fly-by from a pelagic, and then this. Ignore the fly-by, this was going to rival the Hove bird, this one was going to be great. Wasn't it?
Nope. Nee.  Nein.
 The bird had moved from a small pool to what would probably be classed as a lagoon. In which it stuck to a single current and never came closer that 15-20 foot, more often 50. Terrible.  At the time I'll admit, to my shame, I was a little disappointed. A scarce migrant down to 20 foot, that should be amazing, shouldn't it?  In the moment, it didn't really seem so. There's a simple answer here - the Hove bird ruined it for me. Well, that and the pictures from the day before.

                                                             I mean it's not that bad


 Does this mean then, that unless my next Grey Phalarope is less than two foot away I'll be disappointed? Honestly, I hope not. How often do they show quite that well anyway?  I'm sure two in the last two years is just a coincidence.  At least with Wilson's it just needs to be within 500 foot, and Red-necked just needs to be there...
 The moral of this story? Never (ever), have expectations with birding.  Or, just make sure you go the day before.

A Quick Stint at the Marsh

Remember when this blog was true to its name and was about birds?  When scopes and telephoto lenses were a common feature? When I regularly complained about dipping, or less commonly, told of successful twitching? It seems to have been an eternity doesn't it...  But fear not, for on Friday, my scope having been recovered from hibernation and my binoculars having been dusted down, I went birding. Yes, you read that right, birding. A rather nice spot of local twitching to be precise. A bus, a train and a walk later (OK so maybe just local-ish) and we had arrived. Let's get the eyes back to looking at blobs in the distance, and what better way to start than with the Vange Marsh Wilson's Phalarope.
 There were half a dozen or so birders there already, so it wasn't long before one of them had got us onto the hyperactive speck that was the Phalarope.  Even at that distance there's no mistaking a phalarope! Although I wouldn't have been too happy to comment which species for myself...

Slightly closer, but by no means close, were three delightful, and oh so tiny Little Stint, scurrying around some sleeping Mallards.  A species I've wanted to see for a while now (The Stints, not the Mallards), so it was nice to get some reasonably decent scope views.

Asides from taking such stellar photographs, it was just good to be back in the field birding again, and with some great birds too!

Grey Phalarope

I've now gone to see the Grey Phalarope at Hove Lagoon twice, and both times it's showed stupendously.  Strangely the bird has taken up a temporary residence in a children's outside paddling pool, it makes more sense when you realise it's filled with rain water.  But how long will it stick around?  It's hard to tell, the Phalarope has been there since at least the weekend and although I'm certain it's finding plenty of food I imagine before long it will decide to continue on its migration.  It was probably on its way to the coast of Africa before it was blown off course by one of the many storms that hit our coasts. And so this tiny bird who was born in the Arctic, is now sitting in a paddling pool in Hove... Funny how things work out.

So it was I spent over three hours with the bird yesterday, and by the time I went home I was soaked to the skin from lying on a slightly damp floor, which caused me to catch just a small chill.  Worth it?  Oh yes.  Even after three hours I was still astounded by how well the bird was showing and how little notice it was taking of anyone.  As I mentioned in my last post I believe that it's apparent obliviousness to humans is due to it having seen very few, if any, during the course of its life so far.  Well that's certainly changed with the amount of people who've come to see it.
 The second time around there was actually some decent lighting which always helps, so I will admit myself to being perhaps a little trigger happy, but wouldn't you?

 The bird was showing so well it would have been rude not to get out the 18-55mm lens for a couple of wide-angles. I didn't think rare birds were allowed to show quite so well....

 I would say by now that you've seen enough to agree that this is one incredible little bird, it's come all the way from the Arctic to sit in a paddling pool and give superb views to everyone who takes the time to look.
 What an incredible start to the year so far, and it's only January.  Can it get much better?