bittern and bearded tit - finally!!

[Sprout]

just back from a week in south lakes and spent 2 days at leighton moss. we saw 7 new-to-us birds, including a wonderful 2-3 minute aerial display by a bittern (most unusual we were told by a very knowledgeable person in the hide) and an even more wonderful (for me) 10 minutes or more watching 5 bearded tits at the grit trays. i have to say, i thought both the bittern and the bearded tit were going to elude me for years, so to say i'm delighted to have seen both is a real understatement!
the 5 other new ones we saw were a great white egret, guillemots, a knot, a barn owl and a sparrowhawk. the guillemots took us ages to identify as we weren't expecting to see them and thought they were ducks - doh!
yet again, the experienced birders/twitchers/bird watchers/what ever you want to call them, didn't let us down and shared their vast knowledge with us, willingly answering our questions, pointing out birds we would have missed (knot), and letting us look through their scopes at the great whites.
off to conway rspb next wednesday to see what we can see, but i very much doubt we'll see anything as wonderful as the bearded tit or bittern.

[Jim Ford]

Images - we must have images!

Jim

[david156]

Well done.
Sounds like you had a great day.
Bearded Tits are my favourite and this is a good time of the year to see them. I'm lucky being in Norfolk because there is a fair few in this area.

[captaincarot]

we were there yesterday, saw neither the bittern nor the bearded tits. apparently they were on the grit trays half an hour before we got there typical.
and it's the third time we've been looking for them up there.
did you manange to see the snow geese, that were up there you could see them from the eric morecamb hide but needed a scope to get a look at all.

i saw one definite, never seen a bittern ever.
but well done on your sightings

[Sprout]

jim, we're in the process of treating ourselves to a scope and all the paraphinalia that goes with it, to enable us to take photos and post them here. it may be this side of christmas, or maybe not, but we've both been googling away this afternoon to see where the best buys are. need to do a bit more research before we finally take the plunge.
david, we didn't see any when we were in norfolk in september, most disappointing. i'm sure we'll be going again next year, and now we know the best time of year to catch the little blighters at the grit trays we stand a better chance.
am going to have a bash at capturing a bearded tit on canvas over the week-end......don't hold your breath though!

[david156]

Originally Posted by Sprout

jim, we're in the process of treating ourselves to a scope and all the paraphinalia that goes with it, to enable us to take photos and post them here. it may be this side of christmas, or maybe not, but we've both been googling away this afternoon to see where the best buys are. need to do a bit more research before we finally take the plunge.
david, we didn't see any when we were in norfolk in september, most disappointing. i'm sure we'll be going again next year, and now we know the best time of year to catch the little blighters at the grit trays we stand a better chance.
am going to have a bash at capturing a bearded tit on canvas over the week-end......don't hold your breath though!

one of the best places to see Beadies and Bittern in my opinion has to be Minsmere RSPB in Suffolk. Takes me about hour and half to get there but try to make it a least once a month. You never know what you might see there.

[simon taylor]

Excellant story Sprout. I'm up there for a week in April next year staying in Silverdale. I'll be making a trip to Haweswater as well for the Goldie....

[pammosley]

Great sightings Sprout, it sounds a great place, just a bit too far for a day trip for us. Good excuse for a weekend away

[Sprout]

captaincarot, we were in the eric morecambe hide on wednesday, and that's where we saw the great white through someones scope the snow geese were pointed out to us, and we did have a brief look through a scope but to be honest i really couldn't say that's what i was looking at, just looked like a big white bird to me. also, a number of people in the hide didn't seem convinced that they really were snow geese, thought they may have been some sort of ferral bird. we're not anywhere near knowledgeable enough to comment really, and all i can say is that i saw three big white birds which were completely different in shape to the great white.
simon, we stayed at meathop fell, just down the road from silverdale. we were hoping to get up to haweswater too, for half the week, but the weather was appaling, lots of roads closed due to flooding, so we stayed put at meathop. we're planning on getting up there in the spring ourselves though have you seen the golden eagle yourself?
pam, it's a lovely part of the world, and we've only really just discovered the south lakes. grange over sands was interesting as there are a load of funny looking ducks and geese on the lake in the ornamental park/gardens there, not native ones but very interesting none the less.

[ChrisJB]

Originally Posted by simon taylor

Excellant story Sprout. I'm up there for a week in April next year staying in Silverdale. I'll be making a trip to Haweswater as well for the Goldie....

You'll have a beefer Simon, the Silverdale area is a delight, as is Riggindale, where the lonely eagle lives.

Regards, Chris

[simon taylor]

Originally Posted by ChrisJB

You'll have a beefer Simon, the Silverdale area is a delight, as is Riggindale, where the lonely eagle lives.

Regards, Chris

Hopefully it wont be lonely too much longer. It'll be a sad day if it passes away without a mate as that'll effectivley make them extinct in England

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by simon taylor

It'll be a sad day if it passes away without a mate as that'll effectivley make them extinct in England

It'll please the landowners and their gamekeepers. One they can tick off their list - hen harriers next!

Jim

[rossy]

well done sprout just read what you saw at leighton moss ill be back for the illusive bittern glad you achieved your goal. only just captaincarrot the best time for the beardies is 8 30 till 10 30 am if you go again . rossy

[captaincarot]

Originally Posted by rossy

well done sprout just read what you saw at leighton moss ill be back for the illusive bittern glad you achieved your goal. only just captaincarrot the best time for the beardies is 8 30 till 10 30 am if you go again . rossy

we got there at quarter past 9 and hung around till nigh on 10 but a bloke turned up and said they had been showing down by the hide so we shot over there asap. funnily enough they had heard we were coming on the grapevine and scarpered sharpish. to put sprouts sightings into context, we've been to leighton moss 3 times this year and stayed all day, we've seen neither bearded tits or bittern at all in any of the 3 visits, so to see both is a right result.
though on our single visit to blacktoft sands we did see the bearded tits
as for the snow geese, i came to the conclusion i was definitely looking at one, precisely because it wasn't all white but it did have a bright white head. it had some of the blue colour in it's body feathers. there were possibly another 4 but they were partially concealed from us by vegetation so those 4 white blobs won't be counted.