St Margaret's on the WEB

There's a new site on the WEB about the village of St Margaret's. I've copied a brief description from the site that encompasses the essence of this new resource:
" The Archive
The archive contains about 12,000 items and has mainly been collected over the last 30 years by the Honorary Archivist of the Society, Mrs Ruth Nicol with assistance from her son Keith.

In 2011 the Society set up a project to catalogue the collection and to make it more widely available to the public. A group of volunteers are listing the collection and scanning in images on a regular basis and we hope to add new material to this site every month."
I've added a link on the "Local Information" list on the right hand side of this blog

Has Spring sprung at last?

A walk along the cliffs today and then round Bockhill Farm was my first visit since my return from holiday. It was also the first time that I felt that spring was really here, especially as a Blackcap was singing as I left the garden. Even then the wind did pick up a little as the afternoon wore on and in all truth the number of birds around was a little disappointing.

Of course it is always good to see and hear Whitethroats back. Their song may be a bit scratchy but it's cheerful and after the massive crash in population between 1968 and 1970 it is a relief each year that they return. That crash was caused by climatic conditions in the Zahel region but the other "songster" that pleased me today has declined because of conditions in the UK.

 

Despite the lack of hedges and huge areas of Oil Seed Rape (beware if you suffer from Hay-fever!)  one or two Corn Buntings are still hanging on here. One was singing from somewhere in the Oil Seed Rape near the cliff top as I walked down the path, although I failed to locate it, and another or possible the same bird flushed from the other side of the field as walked the path by the Freedown. Also singing above the field were a couple of Skylarks and one or two Swallows passed overhead. Along the Droveway a Lesser Whitethroat gave its rattling song as I walked by. A quick look at the sea from the bay failed to find any passing groups of Pomarine Skuas but unexpectedly a Shag was fishing just out from the Bay. Was this a late winter visitor or something more interesting?

Waders or Shorebirds?

Like most birders, although I love watching all birds there are particular families and groups that I like the most.

In my case it is waders.However if you are birding in America and say waders they think that you mean big things with long legs that stride around in the water like this Snowy Egret.

This White-faced Egret would also get the label of a wader in Los Angeles. But although I've nothing against Herons, Egrets, Ibises etc, it isn't these that are my favourites.

Go down a size to the members of the order Charadriiformes, without the Gulls, Terns and Skuas and that's them. Waders in the UK but Shorebirds in the States. After Rob and I met up, him from the land down under and me from the UK, our first destination was the Marina Del Ray, close to the airport and a good spot for waders (shorebirds).

A small lagoon behind the coast had a good flock of small waders. Most were Western Sandpipers, a mega in the UK but easy to watch down to a few feet here.

Amongst the Westerns there were a few Least Sandpipers, these are Little Stint sized and always identifiable by their yellow legs (unless they're covered in mud!.

One or two Willets were also around. A bit larger that a Greater Yellowlegs (or a Greenshank) they are heavily mottled in the summer, but really stand out when they fly and display their striking black and white wings. The western birds are larger and longer billed than the eastern birds, and it is likely that these two sub-species will be split as they seem to be distinctive species.

Almost making one feel at home this Ringed Plover look alike is a Semi-palmated Plover. With its feet in the water it isn't possible to see the palmations, but rest assured they are there!

Out on the pier the main target of this short detour from our route to San Diego was waiting for us. We first saw a few distant Surfbirds and cautiously watched them from a respectable distance. Slowly edging nearer. Only when we got to close to focus (well almost) were we sure that these birds were totally oblivious to our presence. I'd only seen a small group in juvenile plumage before, and they were new for Rob.

On the rocks, keeping the Surfbirds company were a couple more Least Sandpipers, often disappearing amongst the rocks on the side of the pier.

Back on the beach we were definitely in more familiar territory with large groups of  Sanderling running up and down the beach in time with the waves, and with then numbers of Godwits.

The Sanderlings may be the same but the Godwits certainly aren't These stunning Marbled Godwits, acquiring their eponymous plumage are quite confiding, allowing much closer approach that Bar-tailed Godwits along the Kent coast.

More Willets were also strutting their stuff, and against a more sympathetic background than the muddy lagoon they did look quite striking, reminding me a little of the pattern of a Greenshank as it develops its summer plumage.

There were one or two Western Sandpipers loafing around on the beach, sometimes looking a little lonely.

This one seemed to have solved the problems of solitude and joined the Sanderlings in a spot of Line Dancing.

Later, on our way to San Diego we found these two American Avocets also having a quiet practice, perhaps avian "Strictly" is on the way!

Blue Connections

There's a strong connection between Dover and the USA, where I've been birding this month. A trip to the cliff top car park by the Monument finds you parking next to the Bluebirds Tea Room. Because, as I've written before, the 1941 song was penned by American composers Nat Burton and Walter Kent they were unawre that Bluebirds didn't occur in the UK. Although the Bluebirds weren't around, there were of course plenty of American Servicemen who helped to keep the Dover Straits open.

We saw two of the three Bluebird species that are so dear to the hearts of the American people. The Western Bluebird above is found nesting only in the western third of States and southern British Columbia. It is mainly a bird of  farmland and orchards.

Unfortunately this picture was taken through a glass window, so it doesn't do the bird complete justice. Mountain Bluebirds are what the name says, birds of the mountains, again in the west of the North American continent. In the breeding season they are normally found at over 5000 ft but in the winter they descend to open lowlands and deserts. The third species, the Eastern Bluebird, has a much larger range and can be found in much of the States, east of the Rockies. It is in decline, due of course to the follies of man, who introduced House Sparrows and Starlings to North America. These now compete for the tree nest holes used by the Bluebirds. There are a large number of nest boxes now put up specifically to help these birds.

Back in the UK I was pleased to see this stunning Yellow Wagtail at the Restharrow Scrape yesterday. We may not be able to offer competition to the Bluebirds but the Yellow Wagtail will hold it's own in a beauty contest with any of the American Orioles.

This Hooded Oriole has chosen a rather nice background against which to display his finery.

Grousing in the USA

A tour of Colorado with Rob, my number two son to see the Grouse and Chickens made a great break from the non happening migration season here. Mind you, if you thought that it was cold here, at Loveland Pass (11994ft) it was Zero degrees Fahrenheit  ( -17.8 deg C) with winds around 40 mph. Not only did I find it hard to walk at the altitude, it was also the coldest conditions I've ever been in!

We started at a Lesser Prairie Chicken lek. These are rare birds and the lek is at a fair distance. Great through a telescope and I'm sure an expert digi-scoper like Pete (no.1 son) could have got some decent pictures. I contented myself with some fantastic scope views. These American Grouse all know how to dance, but this species didn't get the first prize.

Next were the Greater Prairie Chickens. In this case we were much closer and the owner of the ranch they were on had placed a couple of cars in strategic positions to be used as hides. They start their dancing before it's light and we were lucky, in that they continued well into the dawn when the light was better.

No Grouse in this picture, the lek was just beyond the distant fence, not a photo opportunity but good scope views from a hide. The birds in question here were the fairly recently split Gunnison Sage Grouse. This lek has a hide and is closely supervised by volunteers they only occur in the Gunnison Basin and the species was only recognised as recently as the year 2000. The current population is around 750 birds and it is critically endangered due the habitat loss. We were very fortunate and watch about 12 birds lekking (eight males and four females) for around 90 minutes. Previous days they been disturbed by a coyote on one day and a Golden Eagle on another.

 This one proved tricky. The group were in two small "buses" and we cruised suitable habitat in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP looking for them. I was lucky enough to see one through the trees and the driver managed to back the van up for several people to see it. Unfortunately it wandered into the trees before the second group got on to it. Next came a brilliant spot by a group member, Alison (an American male with an unusual name!). He saw one on a hillside a long way off and by magic it flew over to the road we were on and started to feed on the new shoots of a nearby busk. By an act of contortion I managed to get my camera to the right angle for a couple of pictures out of the open front side window of the bus.

Another very distant photo, taken from one of Rob's videos of two Sharp-tailed Grouse in the snow. These guys won first prize for dancing, and although they were distant they were absolutely fantastic, looking like clockwork toys rushing across the ground. It is hard to believe that the Native American tribes weren't influenced by these birds in the development of their music and dances. The full video can be seen on Rob's face-book page here. These guys won the prize for best dancing and choreography.

The last, but by no means the least of the grouse was a fantastic lek of Greater Sage Grouse. Around 42 individuals came to the party in the snow and the females seemed to have eyes only for the boss who held the central territory of the arena. He demonstrated his superiority by inflating his air sacs and strutting his stuff. Eat you heart out Jordan, these are the real thing, OK they're masculine but no silicon is involved!. I have a lot of pictures of the trip, most to throw away but hopefully a few to post here or on my Flicker site.