Wood You Believe It?

I do love Wanstead.  A migrant hot-spot within walking distance, what's not to love? Sure, it's probably one of the high causes as to why my patch produces oh so little, but I really can't complain. It's like a second patch almost, but with the twist that it's actually quite good.  Last year Wanstead got a Blyth's Reed Warbler, I got a Gadwall.  You see what I'm getting at?  Maybe I should just make a permanent transition of my patch... I'd probably end up missing the Squirrels.
 The routine morning check of Twitter showed once again that the dedicated Wanstead crew had another great find, a Wood Warbler.  A rare bird in London, and perhaps another site mega.  As soon as breakfast was eaten we were off.
 Half-an-hour later we arrived to the news it was still there, and to hear it a second or so later.  It seemed it would be that kind of a day. Turn up, see it, done. That joy was not to be. Try it more like this: turn up, hear it, search for ages, hear it again. Despite it tormenting singing with some regularity, it just didn't seem to fancy being seen. A Garden Warbler early on was our only consolation. It made one think fondly of finding a Cetti's Warbler.
 After three hours of canopy staring, it's trill finally began to come from lower down.  After a slightly tense few minutes where it managed to hide in a small patch of branches a small bird flew to the left into an Oak, where it finally showed, revealing that stunning yellowness of a Wood Warbler! Whoo, what a weight off the shoulders!  It showed for a good thirty or so seconds, so I managed to grab a couple of record shots before it disappeared.  Incredible bird, worth the wait.  It probably would have been quicker to go to Wales...

Wanstead Water Witch

After several days of patch birding, a day out at Wallasea and of course, after all the new year celebrations, the third was intended as a day in.  These intentions however were very much gone by the afternoon. As I absent-mindedly scrolled through an endless stream of tweets, I saw a report from Wanstead of a Black-necked Grebe. A 'wow' was uttered. Hmm, Black-necked Grebe, a local mega, just a twenty minute walk away... what to do, what to do? Don't you just hate these hard decisions? Well, a few things came up, but an hour later I decided to try and see it in what remained of the  daylight.  Not that it was ever really light that day - a particularly gloomy winters day. But by now the reports had changed, it was re-identified as a Slavonian Grebe. My enthusiasm was not hindered, Slav Grebe is an equally incredible bird locally.
 Initial views after reaching the park were pretty distant, but it was there, standing out with its bright red eye and white flanks. Apparently it had been showing close-in earlier on, so we hung around for a bit. Eventually, after coming under the hassle of Black-headed Gulls, it began to work its way towards us. To cut a relatively short story shorter, it came to within just about 10 foot away, where, after realising I'd set the focus limiter to 8.5 metres, I managed a few noisy images.

I wasn't quite happy with the shot, so duly the next morning it was back to Wanstead. Again the light was rather, well, horrible, and the Slav didn't show quite as well.  Having a limited amount of time to spend there I had to leave with nothing better than the previous days'.
 But yes!  Luck was with me - makes a change- and the grebe was still there come Thursday. So this morning I went back for thirds, and with some actual light!
 Ah, but now it had decided to be tricky. Finding it took a small while, and getting close to it took near on an hour.  It eventually got settled in under some fallen trees, where lurked an astounding abundance of small fish. Despite often prolonged close views, getting a clear shot wasn't easy, and when there weren't branches in the way it was either just too far for a shot or in the shade.  Thankfully, there was one lucky moment where it suddenly popped up in good light and close. I got a couple of frames and then it was under again.

A fantastic little bird, I mean look at that eye! A first for the park, and a lot easier to connect with than the last Wanstead mega I got.
 Now, if only it would come to the patch....

Bring out the Bunting

I was just packed and ready to hit the patch this morning, when a well timed check of twitter brought some surprising news - Lapland Bunting at Wanstead Flats! Showing in grass near Alexandra Pond.  Well... I didn't go to the patch.  With our direction turned to Wanstead we made haste. A twenty minute walk later and I realised this wasn't going to be all that easy.  There was really rather a large amount of grass. Long, long grass.  After rather pointlessly staring into the grass, a bird started circling, expecting a mipit I pointed the camera its way.  I'm not sure I've ever been more delighted to be wrong - I was watching a Lapland Bunting!  It circled a few more times then dropped down into the middle of the field.  Buzzing with excitement we joined another birder and again, began hopelessly searching for it in the grass. And so progressed the afternoon, with a couple more brief flight views of this delightful little bird.  There ended up being seven of us looking for it, yet still we could not pin its location on the ground. With little happening it ended up just being four of us left searching for it. Again we had brief views as it flew in the direction of the ditch it was originally reported from but alas, despite scrutiny of every patch of grass it could not be found. A master of disguise.
 I'd seen it, and got a few poor shots of it in flight, that was good enough for me! So we started to leave, that's when it showed up darting down into the grass. Backtracking, we began again scanning the grass, but this time it paid dividends, I spotted it a few metres away. What a beautiful bird!  I managed to grab a couple of record shots before it flew off and began circling again calling as it went. It showed on the ground a couple more times before heading for the other side of the field.
 Fantastic views of a fantastic bird, and my second lifer in less than twenty-four hours. Happy?  That sounds about right...

Ring Ouzels

You may have noticed that recently, I haven't got much birding done.  I won't bore you with details about the reasons, of which there are many, simply, very little has been close enough.  And those that have been, well they don't tend to stick around.  This - you could say- unproductive time was broken today with a not so unproductive visit to Wanstead Flats.  I was on the search of Ring Ouzels, another rather common species which I somehow had previously missed, a 'tarts tick' if you will.  Just twenty minutes after arriving we had success.  There at the top of a bush was a male Ring Ouzel.  Distant, but the white crescent and black body showed nicely. It was joined by a second, and the two flew to a (thankfully) nearer bush. Not quite near enough to get anything more than a  record shot, but nonetheless they were pleasing views.  The Ouzels showed on and off in the same bush for the next hour or so for which we were there, among many false starts from Blackbirds who were sharing the same bush.
 A lifer always makes a day productive, and although no, there was not a great deal else about, it was undeniably a success...

It's a fun Hobby

More warblers at Wanstead Flats, with a Garden Warbler around for the last week it didn't seem in a hurry to go anywhere.  So a quick trip on Sunday was... well surprisingly more successful than I had expected.  My first House Martin and Swift of the year wasn't too poor a start as we headed into the 'brooms' to look for Whinchat. That drew a blank, but a Hobby flying past was rather a surprise.  It showed again and much better this time as we headed to look for the Garden Warbler.  Not the usual setting to see one!

 The Garden Warbler was easy enough to find, its constant singing gave it away just a bit.  It didn't show too badly either.  Admittedly yes, it showed terribly for a photo, but it gave nice, reasonably close views....

Wanstead Warblers

Another 'tricky to see' Warbler... how many are there?  With miserable weather predicted for the weekend, Thursday afternoon was spent at Wanstead Flats watching Lesser Whitethroats. Well... more like trying to watch. There were several of them singing so how hard could it be? Not as easy as would be hoped.  I got to grips with their song pretty quickly, then it was just a case of locating one.  When, after thirty minutes or so I did get a proper view of one, it well, did a very convincing job of looking like a Common Whitethroat.  Even sitting out in the open, how it did such a convincing job I don't know... it was just a little confusing.

After that they behaved much more like Lesser Whitethroats, even doing a bit of skulking! Cracking little birds though, and a nice local lifer.

Patch neglect

It is with a heavy heart that I admit I have somewhat neglected - forgotten even, to visit my patch of late.  It has been a good five weeks since I last set foot in park, and to the extent of my knowledge it has stood un-birded for all that time. Now I'm not that much of a patch birder, I don't do patch year-lists or even a patch-list -although I think I should- however I still feel ashamed for having left it for all this time.  To make it worse I visited Wanstead Flats three times over the course of three days last week.  It was worth it though....

Despite the rain.

Bright sunlight.

And amazingly tame Kestrels.

Although I have no problem whatsoever with Kestrels being tame.  Frankly the opposite as I'm sure the case would be with any wildlife photographer.  This individual bird allowed me to slowly make my way around the tree to a better shooting angle and hardly paid any notice to me. The Whinchat was also quite calm with me approaching, but the lighting was abominable so the distant shot was the best.  However I'm not complaining, no sir.  For that wee bird took my year-list to a nice round number of 160.  Definitely worth the rain.