Lac du Der

Last week (13-15^th November) I joined Phil Smith and Pete Wells on a jolly to Lac du Der to see the cranes and hopefully a few of the other local specialities. Lac du Der is just south of St Dizier which in turn is south west of Reims. To get there takes around 3.5 to 4 hrs driving from Calais so it’s not too far for a midweek trip or long w/e.

We arrived there just after lunch on the Wednesday and went straight to the W/SW bank of the lac to see what was happening.   Out on the lake you could see a line of cranes on an island and overhead there was a constant movement of cranes – it seems these were taking advantage of the sunny weather to move on. In amongst all the toing and froing a few cranes flew past at close quarters but most of the time the cranes are high and/or distant:

Craanes

Whilst my main interest was in the cranes there were a number of great white egrets around one of which kept walking to just in front of us (30 – 40 yards away) though once there he lost his nerve and flew off a couple of hundred yards only to walk back to in front of us again.

Great white Egrets

In the meantime Pete was scoping the lake finding a 30 odd strong flock of Bewick Swans and a small flock of goosander:

Goosander

Bewicks

The only downside of the afternoon was the spectacle of the cranes returning to the lake for the night time roost – it didn’t occur; well it did occur but all the birds came in from the north of the lake – the opposite side to where we were. None came past us.

Still it great day.

Thursday was going to be our only full day in the field and was going to be spent around the Foret d’Orient and associated lakes searching for woodpeckers ( black and middle spotted) and hawfinch.

The day started very overcast but on the way to the Foret we crossed an arm of the Lac du Der just south of Eclaron on the D 384. The sight there caused us to stop and walk back to bridge – the river, which was about as wide as the Stour,  was full of herons/egrets and cormorants. Phil made it 44 great whites egrets, 1 little egret and 3 or 4 grey herons and hundreds of cormorants. They started flying off downstream as we approached but the sight was amazing:

Cormorants

The most GWE  I could get in frame at one time. Also a few coromorants.

As we drove on we kept on encountering flocks of cranes feeding but normally they were distant and when they weren't they would fly off if you stopped:

Sadly as we reached the Foret d’Orient the rain started and continued all day which effectively ended the birding though we did visit a hide over-looking the lake and got a few more trip ticks.

Our last day (well half day) was spent in the forest just north of St Dizier near Trois-Fontaines. Again it started over cast but slowly the sun started to emerge. The forest can only be birded from the logging tracks as there are no paths though it though we were lucky in that hunting wasn’t allowed on Thursdays – I was told it was boar hunting that occurred there.

First off things were very slow with only buzzards and marsh tits being found but eventually we found 3 woodpeckers ……unfortunately all were great spotted. Finches were in short supply though a couple of fly-by probable haw finches were seen. What was not in doubt was the id of the male hen harrier and peregrine falcon that flew overhead.

A move to slightly close to Trois-Fontaine proved to be very  beneficial in that a flock of finches came out of the wood and landed in a nearby hedgerow – it contained at least half a dozen bramblings. Whilst watching the finches a nuthatch was heard calling in the wood.  A small bird flew across to the hedgerow and I was expecting it to be the nuthatch but it wasn’t ……..it was a lesser spotted woodpecker:

Brambling and Chaffinch

Lesser spotted woodpecker

A few hundred yards away as we were walking another logging track Phil spotted 3 haw finches (as I got on them they flew off),  then moments later Phil found certainly 1 and probably 2 middle spotted woodpeckers. I spent what seemed like several minutes trying to get on it/them and the moment I did it flew off……..bloody typical.

That was that really as it was time to go.

So quite a productive trip even though birding was pretty much restricted to the first afternoon and the last morning. Whilst the cranes may not be there in the numbers we saw a trip in early spring when the woodpeckers are drumming would certainly be worthwhile – it should make them a little easier to locate.

So thanks to Phil and Pete for inviting me along, to Pete for doing all the navigation and Phil for sleeping quietly in the back of the car.

Snow buntings, shore larks and litter

Angie is getting better now so much so that she is away for the w/e with friends so today I was free to go where I wanted. Given how little seems to be going on in east Kent I went to the Bay ….it was a welcome change from the Rifle range and the “Toilet Block” and it had the added attraction of some snow buntings being found there yesterday.

I saw nothing between the poly tunnels and the beach - I took the footpath across the fields rather than the track so as to start my beach walk by The Lodge.

I hadn't gone too far when I flushed a snow bunting from the landward side of the beach and as I followed it onto the beach I spotted  Adam, camera in hand, 30 yards away – he was with the rest of the flock.

I didn't join him because I had some near me and allowed me to get pretty close – in fact one ran past me only 3 yards away. Normally Sandwich birds are pretty skittish.

How do you like your snow buntings....with or without litter

Eventually one of the snow buntings flew up and the rest flowed; they flew north up the beach. I joined Adam and we had a slow stroll along the beach hoping to re find them.

We didn’t actually see a lot else as we made our way north but a female stonechat seemed determined to keep up with us and it was accompanied by a robin and then a couple of chaffinches.

As we were opposite the Prince’s new club house we started finding reed warblers and it was whilst we were checking these out that we spotted 3 shore larks.

Shore larks and littler

We tried for some time to get close but typical of Sandwich shore larks they ran away keeping the distance between us to around 30 yards. 

This continued for quite some time but then they took to the air and flew past us flying towards the sea and looking for all the world as if France was their next stop.

Time was getting on and the sky was darkening so we started to walk back. Half way back the shore larks flew past us and landed 50 yards away. Needless to say we tried again to get closer and needless to say we failed - they moved further north back towards where we  first found them.

We resumed our walk south where we found a lone snow bunting and 200 yards further along I found the initial flock only now their numbers had grown to 11.

More litter

I probably spent another half hour with these crawling around on the damp shingle before the threatening weather forced me to give up……..just in time as it happens as the heaven opened just after I got to the car.

The only thing to spoil what was a very enjoyable morning was the amount of litter and plastic on the beach. It tends to collect in amongst the stranded rafts of sea weed which is exactly where the snow buntings and to a lesser extent the shore larks seemed to spend most of the time – over 50% of the shots I took of the snow buntings have littler in them.

Kingsdown Update

For the last 3 weeks my birding routine has been pretty samey – the first hour or so each morning I pop down to the beach at Kingsdown checking out the rifle range and the toilet block bushes. After that it’s back home to do the nursie bit for Angie who is recovering after an operation.I suppose I should be grateful because it was because of this routine that I was on the rifle range for the Pallas’s warbler 2 weeks ago. However it is getting a bit repetitious.

Whilst at home I have been keeping an eye on the garden and have been fortunate enough to see a black redstart (juv) and a grey wagtail this week. The latter visit the garden most years but the black redstart was a garden tick though it took me a minute or two to work out what it was. The bird was in an unusual setting atop a 15-18 ft high tree which totally threw me and the imagination ran wild for a few seconds…………I could only see the head and I was excitedly thinking juvenile red breasted flycatcher was a possibility until it flew towards me. The flight and subsequent sight of the tail shattering my flight of fancy.

Since the Pallas’s the sea front patch has been pretty quiet. A firecrest was on the rifle range for several days but wouldn’t show and the only other things of vague interest were the pair of stonechats and the male kestrel who is getting increasingly tolerant of people.

The brents seem to be permanent fixtures now (at high tide) and if you are careful you can get pretty close.

Yesterday there was a flock of long-tailed tits by the steps up to the golf course and I refound them (or another flock)  later by the toilet block.

Today, Steve Rayaert and I found a blackcap and a goldcrest along the base of the cliffs and whilst we were on the footpath a fieldfare appeared on the range itself. With the fence in the way we took no further notice and continued to the end of the footpath and moved onto the range to take some pictures of the brents.

Brent geese

We’d just decided we’d had enough of the brents when the fieldfare re-appeared. It must have just come in because it allowed us to get within 10 yards or so of it and it hopped closer as It was feeding.

Fieldfare

Steve departed for Sandwich and I went to the public loos again and heard a firecrest calling. After a lot of waiting it transpired there were 2 of them and eventually one poked it’s head out of the foliage for 0.5 of a second.

Firecrest - typical view

Firecrest

So a nice variety of the more common stuff but no sign of a red flanked blue tail or dusky warbler………yet.

Pallas's Warbler at Kingsdown

The weather forecast suggested the day would start foggy and damp but first thing the sun was out, it was quite warm and there was no wind……….unfortunately there were no birds either or at least no birds around the Kingsdown toilet block (other than a few chiffs and tits).

All this was to change. 

The cloud rolled in, a light mist descended, the temperature dropped, I moved to the rifle range ………………………………and I found some nice birds.

No sooner had I gone through the metal gate on the rifle range when I flushed a ring ouzel which flew up onto the cliff face then moved into a small tree 100 yards into the range. 

Ring ouzel

As I moved down the range another ouzel was flushed and it joined the first one

I tried to get closer. 

The adult male had had enough and flew up onto the cliffs towards the southern most end of the range but the second remained in the tree. From a photographic perspective the bird was in completely the wrong place with a twig right across its face but I think the twig hid me from the bird and I managed to get quite close (by ring ouzel standards).

Whilst photographing the ouzel I had seen several small things flitting around the same tree and eventually I put the bins on to them…………..2 chiffs and what I thought was a yellow browed warbler.

All thoughts of the ouzel disappeared and I moved closer hoping for a shot or two of the “YB” - a bird I rarely see let alone photograph.

Pallas's warbler

The” YB” was constantly in motion and I followed it’s movement though the camera lens  firing off shots every time it was in the open. It was during one of these flits I saw a vivid flash of pale yellow. The yellow browed was a Pallas’s!!!!!!

Not much of a shot (!) but the pale rump of the Palllas's was obvious

Whilst what I was doing didn’t change my anxiety level had.

The light was very poor and despite ISO 640 I still only had around 1/100^th sec so I needed the bird to be still for a moment or two and eventually I struck lucky.

Only shot I managed showing the crown stripe

Nice!!!!

After a couple of minutes the bird disappeared into the scrub and although I saw it a little later I didn’t manage any more pictures.

That’s not the end of the story though because in the same area were a pair of stonechats and whilst we were waiting for the Pallas’s to re-emerge a firecrest moved in then out again and disappeared down the track. 

Stonechat

The firecrest was the only bird to show when the sun was out.

Firecrest

All in all a very pleasant morning only a few hundred yards from the door.

Shore larks and Snow buntings

I had to be In Thanet today so this gave me the excuse I needed to have a look for the snow buntings and shore larks reported yesterday.

I arrived at Minnis Bay at around 8.00 and joined the legions of dog walkers strolling along the prom/sea wall west towards Reculver. Fortunately most only go as far as the gate across the path which was just as well as a few yards past the gate I found the 2 snow buntings feeding on the 2 or 3 feet of weed covered beach that hasn’t been eroded (more on that later). When I spotted the buntings I was all of 8 yards away so I set up the camera and moved closer for some pictures (this is no exaggeration). The light was rubbish so I upped the ISO to 640 so as to get 1/200^th. I took loads of shots in part because I love snow buntings and in part to the excessively high failure rate I was achieving. I know they don’t look like it but snow bunts are rarely still and any movement resulted in a total blur.

After a few minutes of enjoyment one of the dog walkers decided to  let her dog walk along the 2 feet of beach top remaining and right under where I was sitting photographing the birds. Just how un-thoughtful can people be? She didn’t have a white stick so she must have seen me photographing the birds. Fortunately the birds flew out over the sea and returned just a few feet from where they started.

At this point I dropped down onto the beach to get some eye level shots. They weren’t quite so happy about me getting close when on the beach but seemed happy with 7-8 yards.

Eventually even I tired of taking their picture so wandered off towards Cold Harbour in search of shore larks and seeing lots of mippits and  chaffinch on the beach and up near Cold Harbour a large flock of linnet and goldfinch (400?) plus a few brambling.

On the wader front there was a flock of 60 or so ringed plovers, 20-25 turnstones and a group of 8 grey plovers.

At  Cold Harbour there were a pair of stonechats but the most notable thing was the level of erosion the shingle bank there is suffering from. The top of the bank is now only 3 feet wide at it’s eastern end and another storm or two could see it completely washed away. A lot of the beach along the whole stretch between Minnis Bay and Reculver  is disappearing so I Googled “Erosion at Minnis bay” and all I could find was this (it wasn't dated so I don't know how current this line of thought is)

http://www.se-coastalgroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Statement_4a14.pdf

To summarise it says that the current short term plan is to try and maintain the current beach and sea defences but over the long term this is unsustainable due to the lack of material to rebuild the beach . The beach  would therefore be surrendered under a “Managed realignment” creating salt marsh (with the loss of the Oyster Farm etc) with the maximum extent of the ingress being the seaward side of the railway. The beach is disappearing at quite a rate so this could happen pretty soon.

At Cold Harbour I turned round and retraced my steps but this time I found the shore larks about level with Plumb Pudding stables. They were on the wider part of the beach top but as they saw me approaching on the road they dropped down to the lower beach. I sneaked out onto the top part of the beach and managed a few shots before they’d had enough and flew off west.

Mike Gould had joined me by this time and he too managed a few shots.

I told Mike about the snow bunts so he walked with me back towards the gate –  the snow  buntings were still there. A few more shots then it started to rain so we both departed. This was just as well as I got a phone call from the wife asking that I come and collect her from the hospital.