Moatlands Gravel Pits, Berkshire

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Sometimes I'm just ever so slightly ashamed of myself. Currently stupidly busy at work, and in spite of whining about just how much I have to do, one hint of a dry day and a meeting-free morning, and off I go in pursuit of a juvenile long-tailed duck which has been resident at a local gravel pit for the last fortnight.

In my defence - it only took an hour, I only took a short lunch-break, and I went with a PhD student and we spent the time discussing her thesis plan (I'd technically call this working - nice work, but still working). And to show that it was pretty awful and therefore not skiving at all, juvenile long-tailed ducks are actually not that charismatic, unlike their grown-up counterparts, and Moatlands is right next to the M4 and therefore not high on my list of 100 birding sites in Berkshire I must visit before I die. Perhaps the feeling of guilt is just a transference of shame for heading out on an undeniable local twitch - walk to duck, see sea duck, leave duck. If I'd gone in the evening I could at least have defended being there by suggesting that I wanted to scan the gull roost, but even that's about as transparent a justification as any. Gulls (with the obvious exception of the white winged ones) are just not that inspiring and so make rubbish excuses for birding inland waters.

I am a bad birder. And I didn't even bring my camera, so I am also a bad photographer. I must learn to live with the shame of it all. Now - that serin at Rainham sounds tempting...

Dungeness, Kent

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A rare day off resulted in a very early dash to the Kent coast. Sunrise over the shingle was a spectacular blaze of colour, but that didn't last long. Soon the forecast rain was bucketing down, and combined with the near-gale force winds meant that while I lugged the camera around, it didn't see the outside of the camera bag. I started at the ARC pit, where a pair of penduline tits had been reported yesterday. Most birds were keeping their heads down, with water rail and a hunting marsh harrier the highlights. Apart from that, there were good numbers of pintail, gadwall, teal, shelduck and wigeon, as well as Cetti's warbler, sparrowhawk and the usual gulls. A couple of hours split between the hide and the end of the willow trail (where they had been reported), failed to find them.

I moved on to the power station and climbed up the shingle bank, walking into the rain whipped about by near gale force winds. The breakers rolling onto the shingle shoreline disturbed gulls and little else. Watching out to sea was only possible from the lee of the sea-watching hide. No sign of any sea ducks, and apart from black-headed gulls little was on show. I didn't last long, and headed back to the ARC pit in the vain hope of seeing the penduline tits.

An hour's wait in the driving rain while staring at a large patch of reedmace proved wet and fruitless, so I decided to head to the Boulderwall Farm pit, to see if the glossy ibis were in view. The wind still threatened to blow the tripod and scope over - this shows how fierce the wind was, and it didn't take long before it was impossible to see through any optics. A ranger driving through put up the grazing wildfowl, gulls, crows and lapwings, and apparently the ibises, but yet again I failed to connect - very frustrating. This was the third time that I've tried to see the glossy ibises at Dungeness, and even though they've been around, luck hasn't been with me.

So, a bit of a failure on the birding front, getting cold and drenched into the bargain. Still - better out there than stuck inside!

Ash Ranges, Surrey

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A couple of dank, chill hours on Ash Ranges meant that the camera stayed at home - rubbish light and open heathland are no place for lugging 10kg of kit pointlessly around. I was hoping to take advantage of a lull in the army's training schedule to see if any of the heath's winter visitors were in place.

No sign of the great grey shrike (a recently reported one may just have been on passage - feels a bit early for the winter resident to me) and no decent raptors either, but there were a few Dartford warblers 'dzeeet'ing from the heather. These are my first since the late winter snow, which killed off my local population. A passing birder suggested that their breeding bird survey on the Ranges has seen the population fall to 10% (from 200 pairs) of its previous level, and it seems to me as if the Dartfords in peripheral locations were wiped out. Apart from that there was a large flock of greenfinch (over 70 birds), plenty of meadow pipits, and a pair of crossbills flicking about in the pines were the birds of note.

First time out in three weeks - I needed to stretch my legs and find a little solitude - and there's little in Surrey that compares with the views from Crown Prince Hill over the rolling heathland.