Archive for January 11th, 2009
11th January 2009, Sunday
11th January 2009, Sunday
More Birders than birds
Sunday 11th January. Arrived at Pett Pools at 7am ,pools still mostly frozen, with large numbers of geese on the pools 138,Canadas, 80,G.L.Geese,50,W.F.Geese. Wigeon were plentiful with at least 300 either on the pools on the marsh or flying around, Teal,Gadwall,Shoveler,Mallard. I left Pett for a trip to Scotney and Dung. Scotney was completely frozen on the Sussex side, but on the Kent side there was 100s of wildfowl keeping the water free, the best being a party of 6/8,Scaup,10,Pintail.At Lydd there were 30/40 Bewick,s ( only 3or4 imms the rest were adults) and 1,Whooper Swan ( adult), I think this bird has been in the area since 12/10/08 when I saw it in company with Mute Swans on Scotney. I was walking from the hide on the Arc Pit when my phone had a text message on it, Cliff stating there was a King Eider on the sea just off shore at Pett, needless to say the road from Dung to Pett became Silverstone, dont you find when you want to get somewhere, there,s always someone that gets in the way. Cliff was on the sea wall when I got back at Pett, he said he hadn’t seen the duck for sometime. John Trowell and I spent the next couple of hours looking in vain. We both left for home thinking what might have been, never thinking we would get another bite of the cherry, when at home, I’d just had my lunch when another text came, it had been seen again, this time both of us saw The KING EIDER. Thanks Cliff for your texts.
Good bird watching Pete Rouse
11th January 2009, Sunday
King Eider - a first for Sussex
A 10 o’clock phone call from Cliff Dean had me heading for Pett Level to see a new bird (for me and for Sussex). When I got there the bird was moving out to sea and was a long way off, into the increasing waves and into the low sun … and was soon lost from view. But with the wonders of digiscoping I can share this rarity with you - the image below has been manipulated and is far better than the view I got down my scope! UPDATE @ 14:40 bird in view again close inshore in region of Pett Pools.
