Birdwatching in Britain: Glossy Ibis

There seems to have been a mini invasion of Glossy Ibises into Britain over the last week with around half a dozen birds present. Last Thursday I caught up with one at Stodmarsh in Kent, the first time I have seen this species in Britain. However, I have seen plenty of them in India and Thailand where, at Bueng Boraphet, they seem to be increasing in numbers quite rapidly.

The amusing thing for me was that while quite a number of bird watchers were all concentrating on this UK rarity I was more interested in some of the commoner British species; I was particularly happy to see Cetti’s Warbler and Reed Warbler, birds that I hadn’t seen for over 2 years.

The Glossy Ibis was a nice bird to see, but it was a bit far away to photograph, instead here is a photo that I took in Thailand back in March.

Glossy Ibises
Photo by Nick Upton

British Butterflies

One thing I have noticed over the last few weeks in the UK is how many butterflies are around. A walk around farmland and nature reserves seems to reveal a plentiful supply of butterflies of a variety of species. A few years ago the EU changed agricultural subsidies so that they would only paid if some simple conservation measures were taken. These measures include not trimming hedgerows in the bird breeding season, leaving unsown strips around field boundaries and planting seed and nectar mixes for birds and insects. I have heard that the measures for birds are having some success but it is quite obvious that butterflies are benefitting considerably and I am now seeing more butterflies in the British countryside than I have for very many years.

Today I got this shot of a Comma and the photos that follow have all been taken in the last couple of weeks.

Birdwatching In UK: A Day at Dungeness

Back in the UK it is always nice to catch up with some birds that I haven’t seen for ages due to being in exile in Thailand. Having been back for a few weeks and already met up with most of the commoner birds I decided to head to the shingle headland of Dungeness on a hot, sunny day yesterday.

I didn’t get there at prime time, arriving somewhere around 10.30am but there were still some nice birds to see on the RSPB reserve. With migration beginning now in earnest there were lots of Whitethroats, Wheatears and Chiffchaffs to be seen and a couple of Whinchats were also amongst the migrant flocks. The star though was an incredibly tame Red-backed Shrike. This species was once a common breeder in Britain but is now pretty much relegated to passage migrant. This was only the 4th one I have seen in Britain and even managed to get a couple of photos.

Red-backed Shrike
(Photo by Nick Upton)

Red-backed Shrike

(Photo by Nick Upton)

Another very uncommon species that was present at Dungeness was a Great Egret, only the second I have seen in UK but a very common bird back in Thailand. However, several Marsh Harriers, a Hobby, a Sparrowhawk and a Sedge warbler were nice birds to see.

Seawatching

After leaving the RSPB reserve I spent an hour outside Dungeness nuclear power station watching sea birds on the warm water “patch”. In that brief time I managed to see a number of species that I haven’t seen for quite some time; these included 1 Arctic Tern, several Sandwich Terns, 1 Arctic Skua and 1 Great Skua but in the warm sunshine I started to feel sleepy so left for a cold drink.

Back on the Reserve
I had an hour left before I needed to go home so I went back to the RSPB reserve where I had heard a Black-necked Grebe had been seen. Sitting in a hide it didn’t take long to locate this bird which had only a little of its black neck remaining but it put on a good show. 2 Black Terns were also great to see and Ruddy Duck was another year tick for me.

All in all I had a really nice day at Dungeness and this is a really good time to visit. 5 Clouded Yellow butterflies were also really nice to see although rather frustrating as just as I was about to press the botton on my camera to photograph one, it flew away. That’s wildlife I guess.