Sabines Gull

Martin Standley August 10, 2015

having never seen a sabines gull before news of a showy individual at an inland flash near Manchester proved rather tempting.

Prompted by a tweet from Flamborough birder Andy Hood I set off early on Saturday morning.

The drive over was pretty uneventful low cloud eventually giving way to glorious sunshine.

After parking up I had a quick look at one of the maps-I knew I had to be near Horrocks hide, as it turned out it was the one nearest the car park only a hundred yard walk.

I saw a small group of photographers and birders focussing on something close to the bank-surely this could not be it?

Upon closer inspection it was! a sabines gull not more than 10ft from the bank!

I got some shots of it low down in the water at firs,then some in sunshine and after that it performed magnificently flying by at head height, coming occasionally to bread and then feeding just off shore on tiny insects.

After a couple of hours I was on the way back.

A stunning rare bird and the photos don't do it justice.

Patrington Haven

Martin Standley July 21, 2015

Its been a while since I last went to Pat Haven and I have to say its been a bit disappointing over the last few years as the lagoon has slowly filled with silt making it rather unattractive to waders.

After a bit of a reconnaissance mission on Sunday I went back last night to a likely looking spot and set up my bag hide and waited for the incoming tide and hopefully a few waders.

The key to getting the birds to come close is ensuring they feel safe so it helps if a few gulls or other birds settle close by giving the waders more confidence.

firstly a few gulls landed (black-headed and great black blacked gull) followed by a little egret and a curlew.

Then a shell duck landed in front of me then without warning masses of dunlin and redshank were swirling around and landed within feet! a few wary greenshank also came in as well as my target species-summer plumaged knot.

Unfortunately they didn't hang around that long.Then a monster downpour came and thankfully i didn't get too wet then as the night wore on the wind dropped and peace and tranquility broke out!

Just a note of caution when visiting Patrington Haven, it is not easy to get close to the birds.In fact its very difficult.It requires a combination of high tide, the right light, the right place and most importantly ensuring there is a safe way back to the bank without getting cut off by the rising tide.It is also muddy and chest waders, a groundsheet and bag hide are the other essential items of kit.

Chambers Farm Wood

Martin Standley July 14, 2015

I had a cracking afternoon at Chambers Farm Wood at the weekend. I had a small list of target species with purple emperor at the top so set off with high hopes.

Directions were to head for the log piles on the way to 'Five ways'-quite easy and upon arrival there was a very nice chap by the name of Dave (sorry I didn't get your surname) who told me lots of information about the place while we waited for a purple emperor to arrive.

One had been seen that morning so it looked promising.

After a bit of a wait one came down from the canopy did a few circuits at low level and eventually landed in front of us in one of its favored spots.It only stayed for about 10 seconds before flying off and despite waiting around a while longer it never came back.

There were quite a few white admirals on the wing but never landing close enough for a good shot, there was also plenty of ringlets and meadow browns along with the odd red admiral, comma and the three white species.

Just before I left I had a look in the butterfly garden and there were a couple of stunning moths in the form of hummingbird hawk moth and broad bordered bee hawk moth.

In nice afternoon light they posed quite nicely albeit they were flitting about and needed a high shutter speed to capture the detail.

All in all a nice afternoon-i'll pop back later in the summer for a crack at the hairstreaks.