Boom: Emptying the Skies trailer

I'm excited to see Jonathan Franzen's documentary about the horrific annual slaughter of birds in the Mediterranean making its fist appearances. He chose to premier it in Britain because we're the "bird-craziest country in the world"...I hope it's huge and stokes old fires and ignites new ones.

Check out the trailer here http://vimeo.com/67906317

Bee-eater trapped on a limestick
Photo via CABS http://www.komitee.de/en/projects/cyprus

CABS on Franzen and 'Emptying the Skies': http://www.komitee.de/en/actions-and-projects/species-protection/emptying-skies

Photoblog: Secret South London

Not a lot of people know about Hutchinson's Bank, well that's the impression I get whenever I'm there. It is, in a way, a blessing, as it is home to a number of rare, fragile species of flora and fauna, surviving cautiously on the nutrient poor soils of this fragment of chalk valley. But equally, these are just the kind of places Londoners should know about.

Strange though that this isn't really London at all, it isn't even 2013 (if you ignore the rumblings of the planes overhead and the breakers yard visible between the trees from the top slopes) It's a wild place, a dot on a map where the only wavy lines are contours, not roads. It used to be an ocean and in some ways, it still is.

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages) 

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis), above on Birds-foot trefoil

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viclifolia)

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)

Greater Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus angustifolius) not in flower

Common Blue...how we remember you

Photos: Friday June 7th 2013

Nightjar at Mereworth 3/6/13

Some footage of a churring male Nightjar at Mereworth Woods on Monday evening:

I've made several trips to Mereworth this week, with this species in mind. It was fantastic to track this individual down at a site I've heard has been less productive in recent years. It took some patience to find the spot but on my second visit I'd worked it out and spent an hour watching and listening to one of our most unusual and elusive migrant birds.

At first there was just the sound, that unmistakeable loud chuurrring cutting though the trees, then...silence. But soon enough, from my position at the edge of a clearing of a commercial forestry site, a dark shape, bolted into a nearby tree and the sound resumed. It perched in the open for a while on a dead branch, sometimes swooping off to catch a moth or some other nocturnal insect with a rapid movement of long, pointed wings. Several times it flew off and began again elsewhere but it came back on its loop to its favoured branch in a blink a you'd miss it fashion.

Being largely crepuscular (I love that word), this bird occupies an odd fragment of the day, the hours as dusk descends and dawn breaks, often the hollow between. Like clockwork, each night this bird began churring at around 9.35pm and carried on until 10.10pm when it paused. I even tried the 'hankerchief' trick but only succeeded in cracking myself up. Those superb early views soon became silhouettes, which soon became just whirring noises in a still night.

It's not too often I find myself in the woods after dark, maybe I should do it more often. Here there was a chance to admire other secretive species too - a roding Woodcock squeaking overhead and bats along the woodland edge. Even little things grabbed my attention, like the trees creaking and a Robin's half-song that pierced it all.

A stirring experience and an amazing bird, one of the highlights of the year so far.

Active forestry work helps create Nightjar habitat like this: large clearings with a mix of young-growth scrub, bare areas and  mature trees

Pines at dusk

Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) Mereworth, Kent, June 2013

Cuckoo for Cliffe

I had planned to go the badger demo at Millbank on Saturday morning but as it was, when Saturday morning rolled around the last place I wanted to be was central London. I spend enough time there. I think it's great that it went ahead, also that we remember how things used to be before 38 Degrees came along; friends tell me it was fun and 'the vibe' was positive so that's all good. But if I was there in spirit, my body was 30 odd miles down river, drifting around Cliffe Pools.

There's no doubt that Black-headed gulls are ruling the roost at Cliffe this spring and the noise and commotion across the causeways is really something. Numbers certainly look higher than the last 2 years at least, somewhere north of 600 individuals perhaps. There were a good few chicks on show already. In among them, Avocets are conspicuous with a lot of calling, general aggro and a couple of fledglings already learning the ropes on the mud. The other noisy neighbours are the Common terns, again in strong numbers (c50 pairs) on the radar islands. Throw in a couple of Mediterranean gulls and it's a pretty amazing sight at the moment.

Further round, Allen's pond was fizzing with activity too. Best of the lot was a Nightingale behaving like a Spotted Flycatcher, continually darting out from the cover of a Buddleia with a flash of its reddish tail. In fact, all the birds were at it - Robin, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, a female Blackcap looked like she'd bitten off more than she could handle with a damselfly though. The only thing missing from this party was a Spotted Flycatcher behaving like a Spotted Flycatcher.

The highlight of the afternoon though was probably this Cuckoo perching happily on brambles along the track by the Black Barn viewpoints:

This was one of at least three birds present, with two more together in scrub briefly near the Thames VP  - one of which flew straight across in front of me, over the sea wall and presumably across the river to Tilbury. There was one more nice surprise, this female Wheatear lurking in the grass along the no entry track:

Get a move on love..! 

Between tides and the mid-afternoon lull, it was a pretty good couple of hours really. And thankfully nothing like central London.

Which way to Millbank?

Hi Roller!

If you'd have told me when I woke up on Saturday morning that at approximately 3.44pm that day, I'd be looking at a Roller, I'd have given you the slap your lies deserved.

So here are a few digiscoped record shots of Hampshire's stunning, 'drop everything and leg it', Roller - taken at Broxhead Common at approximately 3.44pm on Saturday afternoon. What a fantastic surprise it was to see this stunning bird...just one of many highlights from a brilliant weekend out west.

Did I say it was stunning?

Dusky Thrush and a Brecks blitz...

Ok, you probably know the deal by now - news went out late on Friday that a Dusky Thrush had been found in Margate Cemetery, the first twitchable individual since 1703 or something. I did a double take when the news buzzed through on my phone early on Saturday morning and lay there for a moment unthinking...until I realised what I should be doing. Arriving in Margate just before 8am, there was already a decent crowd of 70 odd staring rapturously at an ornamental pine in the middle of the cemetery and BAM...there she was - a female Dusky Thrush perched at the top. Incredible. I think the bloke who piled in behind me summed it up best, "f**k (gasps)...F**K!" A minute or two later, the bird flew down into cover between the headstones and continued to show but from denser trees and scrub. After another half or so of shifting positions I was happy with my lot and left it to the ever increasing hordes, of which there were loads by then.

No doubt much debate about the birds' make up will follow but, never having encountered one before, I noted that it looked slightly 'thrushier' in its general jizz compared to a Redwing and more washed out than any pictures I'd seen before. The excellent views showed up the breast band/streaking and some well defined wing tracts. What a score it was by a local patcher, I reckon he did well to find the bird, confirm its ID with help and then stand back to watch the mayhem unfold. And I wonder what the bird makes of Margate, it's a bloody long way from the forests of eastern Asia.

Dusky Thrush record shot, Margate Cemetery, Kent, 18/5/13

After the Thrush I did what everyone else there did and headed along the coast to Reculver to have a look for the Montagu's Harrier that had been hanging around the oyster farm for a couple of days. Word was it was showing well, which happily turned out to be a considerable understatement as the bird drifted up and down the old sea wall near to where I stood, I barely ever get views that good of Marsh Harrier. Feeling pretty chuffed with things I carried on along the wall over the fields to see what else was about. With clouds of insects in the air, I was half thinking about the male Red-backed Shrike that had been present the day before and how good conditions were for it when not more than 50m further I watched as two linnets flicked into a hawthorn bush, on top of which perched a...Red-backed Shrike! Jeez. What a bird and what a morning.

Drifting homewards, I detoured off just before Gravesend and after a fairly massive walk round Shorne Marshes, managed to scope out the Cattle Egret amongst the livestock. True, it was still about half a mile away but I had to earn at least one tick that day. A couple of Common terns and a nice male Wheatear along the sea wall was the icing on an epic bird-shaped cake.

Following my highly original jaunt on Saturday, yesterday I headed up to Suffolk, mostly with the Red-footed Falcon that's found Lakeheath Fen to its liking in mind. Typical of a hot May weekend, the Lakenheath car park was a mass of buses and bumbags but I managed to shuffle along to the New Fen viewpoint where sizeable crowd was gathered. Oddly, the majority seemed more interested in pointing an 8ft long camera lens at anything with wings than the falcon and more than once I overheard one of the MANY hobbies dashing by being passed off as the red-foot, followed by clickclickclick, but whatever. Pretty soon the Red-footed Falcon did turn up and it put on a blinding show right in front of us. In fact when it drifted off twenty minutes later, there was a distinct sigh from the crowd, much like when the credits roll at the end  of a decent movie and reality resumes. Nice. Point and click, some for the scrap book:

Red-footed Falcon (m) (Falco vespertinus) - a really smart bird,  Lakenheath Fen, 19/5/13

Following up the Red-foot with a majestic Common Crane that flew past Joist Fen, several reeling Grasshopper warblers and a Bittern that passed so close I couldn't focus my bins in time, it was an excellent few hours in the Suffolk sunshine. Half an hour with the Weeting Heath Stone Curlews, Spurs put in their rightful place and it was a very happy drive home.

For a weekend that began in a cemetery, it sure was one to remember.

A Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) in the Lakenheath woodland (digiscoped)

Orange-tip butterfly (m)

RSPB Lakenheath Fen

Above average

Well what a rubbish day that was. Nothing really out of the ordinary at all...

From top:

1. Dusky Thrush, Margate Cemetery
2. Red-backed Shrike, Reculver
3. Montagu's Harrier, Reculver
4. Cemetery crowd paying respects (sort of)

Ok, so maybe an above average day. More tomorrow, when I've stopped shaking.