Bradders Birding Blog

A path well trodden…

2012-01-15T18:13:00.001Z

… leads to Hampshire this week, thanks to the presence of a Spanish Sparrow in a coastal village and a Dark-eyed Junco nearby at Hawkhill Inclosure in the New Forest. I followed it early on Saturday morning, picking up Jono, Nick and James en route, and arriving at at rather chilly Calshot around 7.30am to find a crowd of no more than 100 people. Hot bacon rolls showed very well (though briefly, as you might imagine) and shortly afterwards, so did the target bird – my first UK lifer of 2012. I rather liked Nick’s description of the black patterned underparts: “like it’s wearing a dodgy hand-knitted jumper”.

After a leisurely cuppa, dispensed from the enormous Thermos given to me for Christmas, we headed up into the New Forest where a heavy frost was still lying on the ground. Once again, our timing was good as the junco appeared almost immediately we arrived, feeding in and around two fallen trees with numerous Chaffinches and Reed Buntings. Several Crossbills were also seen in the same area, including a couple of stonking red males.

Next stop was to be Blashford Lakes, but missing the turn gave me the opportunity to take a quick look at a large herd of swans at Harbridge – at least 150 Mutes, two family parties of two adult and one juvenile Bewick’s, and a single adult Whooper. Back at Blashford, we quickly located the adult male Ferruginous Duck. Not for the first time, this sparked off a conversation about whether it’s definitely a pure individual, given the atypically rounded head shape (which was constant, all the time we were watching). There’s a bit of debate online >here<, though it doesn’t reach any firm conclusion. Despite the head, the rest of the bird looks spot on: pure white iris; reasonable bill pattern; white belly clearly demarcated. If it is a hybrid, then it must be an F2 or F3 backcross – first generation Pochard x Fudge are way more obvious than this.

Another considerably commoner and less controversial species of duck gave good views while we talked Aythya – I reckon Gadwall are a bit under-rated. And it give me a chance to use a favourite word: check out the vermiculations!

As you see, they even do synchronised swimming!

The other talking point at Blashford were the utterly useless windows in what were otherwise a couple of very nice new hides. Someone in their infinite wisdom has evidently decided that fixed glass windows are a good idea – I would beg to differ! They have a marked blue tint, and looking through them at anything other than a perfect perpendicular angle basically reduces quality optics to little better than milk bottles. Needless to say this meant there was a bit of a scrum to get near the one or two windows that actually opened, to have any chance of taking sharp photos. An enormous shame, since the bird feeding station was attracting Lesser Redpolls, Siskin, Nuthatch, Treecreeper, and a pair of Great-spots… but thanks to the windows, I have no photos to show you.

Final stop was Blackwater Arboretum, on the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive. This is a regular roosting site for Hawfinch, and from about 2.45pm onwards, there was a steady stream of sightings to give Nick his first views of this rather awesome bird. Unfortunately for the photographers, they invariably perch pretty high up, and this combined with fading light made life difficult… but here’s a record shot nonetheless.

This afternoon, I’ve been for a wander at Rainham – still generally very quiet, though a confiding male Reed Bunting was quite smart. At the end of the day, a couple of Short-eared Owls were seen hunting on the silts, though they apparently had a Sunday afternoon lay in and only appeared when the light had all but gone. The pic below was taken last weekend, at high ISO in similarly gloomy conditions. Cracking birds, though – look into those eyes!

Tenerife & La Gomera scenery

2012-01-05T17:10:00.000Z

Simply amazing… undoubtedly one of the highlights of the trip.

The obvious place to start is around El Pico del Teide, a volcanic peak and the highest point in Spain. The surrounding area is a National Park, and the igneous rock formations are extraordinary…

The last eruption was just over 100 years ago, and some of the solidified lava flows from this and previous eruptions are very much in evidence. We took the cable car to within 200m of the top (you need a permit to reach the summit), to enjoy enormous views in wonderfully clear air. The first shot is looking out along the north coast of the island…

…followed by one looking SW over the crater of xx, to La Gomera beyond…

… and finally looking back down at the crazy landscape in the park below.

From almost everywhere on the island (and indeed many places on La Gomera), the conical peak of El Teide dominated the view. This particular example was my favourite, though, taken just above a cloud inversion.

Approaching Tenerife on the La Gomera ferry also gave spectacular views, putting the beachfront holiday development and associated urbanisation into perspective. The volcano is lurking behing the much smaller peaks in the foreground!

And finally, we were treated to some pretty decent sunrises and sunsets… this one was taken from Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera (while I was failing to spot any Little Shearwaters returning to land!)

Tenerife: some more common birds

2012-01-04T20:12:00.001Z

First up, one I forgot from Fuerteventura… Great (Southern?) Grey Shrike of the race koenigi. These were relatively abundant on Fuerteventura, and we saw quite a few on the other islands too. In some cases, individuals were pretty spectacularly tame, showing down to under 10m. Relative to the birds I’m used to in the UK, these were notable for having a particularly dark grey mantle.

The Blue Tits were superb value again (note that the wingbars have disappeared!), and we regularly noted a very Crested Tit-like purring call.

This last shot was taken at Las Lajas, the best known Blue Chaffinch site, where the chaffinches and various other birds were attracted in to drink from a dripping tap and adjacent puddle. Another regular visitor was this Great Spotted Woodpecker – the local race was particularly dusky grey underneath:

Around the laurel forest, Grey Wagtail were fairly common, and again relatively confiding. I don’t recall getting this close to one with a camera in the UK.

And finally, the much-maligned Rock Dove. On Fuerteventura, some biggish flocks were heavily tainted by Feral Pigeon influence, containing some really grim looking piebald birds. However, on Tenerife and La Gomera, though, we did run into a few candidates for pure birds – this rather dozy individual was one of a pair at Las Lajas again.

Tenerife & La Gomera: the specialities

2012-01-03T07:19:00.000Z

We roll on, out of the Fuerteventuran desert and into the steep laurisilva forest on Tenerife and La Gomera. There are relatively few species of birds here, but they are generally of interest – a few endemics, and some distinct races of common European birds.

Perhaps the best known endemics are Bolle’s and Laurel Pigeons. We spent quite a bit of time standing around at various vantage points over the forest looking for these – they tend to be gloriously picturesque places in their own right. It wasn’t too difficult to get reasonable flight views of both species (though La Gomera is clearly better for Laurel – I only saw one on Tenerife), and the distinctive tail patterns make ID pretty straightforward on all but the briefest of views. However, seeing either species perched up for scope views is quite a mission, and though I did manage it in the end, neither were close. Now, excuses made, here are the photos – Bolle’s first, then Laurel:

I think these are known as ‘record shots’!

Never mind – another Canarian endemic species showed rather better. Blue Chaffinch inhabit the pine forest around 1200-1800m above sea level on Tenerife, and are pretty easily encountered around various picnic sites – we also found a couple around a bar/restaurant high up in the Teide National Park! I never quite got the killer shot I wanted, since they were very reluctant to come out of the shade, but this is OK…

The local tintillon race of Chaffinch is also worth mention, since they’re so smart.

Canary Islands Chiffchaff has only recently been split as a species, but after spending a bit of time looking at (and listening to) them, they seem quite different to ‘our’ collybita birds in various regards. As with many island-dwelling species / sub-species, they have a longer, thinner bill, and the face pattern is dominated by a strong supercilium, rather than an eyering. The primary projection is also very short, accentuating the length of the tail. Finally, the song is really distinctive – a very halting, spiky series of notes, recalling Cetti’s Warbler as the Collins says. Here’s a couple of pics:

The Chiffchaffs were absolutely all over the place, feeding low down a lot of the time rather like a Wren would do here. Another very common bird, yet still new to us was the Canary itself. These were smarter than I’d expected, and the sound of groups of birds calling and singing was very easy on the ear.

Fuerteventura Scenery

2012-01-02T07:09:00.000Z

Before I plough on with Tenerife and La Gomera, it would be rude not to post a few scenic pics from Fuerteventura. There are some great landscapes there (as long as you don’t mind sand and stones!), especially in the mountains around the beautiful village of Betancuria and Rio Palmas, where most of these were taken.

Fuerteventura: Common birds… and a mega!

2012-01-01T07:52:00.000Z

I mentioned before that we targeted a few sites with fresh water on the island, since these tend to pull in a variety of species, regularly including rarities. One of sites was the pool at Rosa de Catalina Garcia, which had just produced the goods in a big way just a few days before our arrival: a vagrant Allen’s Gallinule from sub-Saharan Africa, and something of a Western Palearctic mega.

On arrival at the site, we found a predictably large number of Canarian twitchers – none, and just one guy who’d travelled from Germany! He’d seen the bird the day before, and after about an hour’s wait, it reappeared and showed well for a few minutes, often climbing around a few feet up in the reeds. Never particularly close, this is the best shot I managed. It really was that bright blue!

Catalina Garcia held a number of other decent birds, including a 1w/fem Blue-winged Teal, a Spotted Crake, and a remarkable range of waders over a couple of visits : Little Stint, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, 4 Black-tailed Godwit, Black-winged Stilt, 2 Ruff, up to 18 Little Ringed, a few Ringed and a Kentish Plover, a couple of Dunlin, and a few Common Sandpiper. And I missed a Yellow-browed Warbler, and a Eurasian Bittern which had been seen a few days earlier! All this around a pool no more than 100m across…

Another (rather less spectacular) lifer was bagged easily on a brief wander outside our hotel on the very first morning: Berthelot’s Pipits turned out to be pretty abundant in any suitable habitat, including rough ground earmarked for further development, and even around mirador (viewpoint) laybys – so no habitat shortage there! At times, these were coming closer than my 1.8m minimum focus distance.

A few other pics of relatively common species now – first, an almost hand-tame Raven at another mirador. Not a bird you often see particularly close (leaving the Tower of London aside).

Ruddy Shelducks were all over the place on Fuerteventura. The first breeding record on the island was not long ago, in 1994, but a small population has clearly built up – our peak count was around 120 at Embalse de Los Molinos. There was also an apparent roost gathering of 25+ at Catalina Garcia late afternoon.

The common sparrow on the islands is Spanish – smart birds!

Next, perhaps a bird you wouldn’t have down as common – but Spectacled Warblers were also all over the place, usually picked up initially by their rattlesnake like call.

And finally, one of my favourite birds of the trip: Blue Tits! When you go out of your way to see these in a different context, and they’re strikingly different to the regular British race, you realise just how good value the whole species is – if Blue Tit was rare in the UK, it would pull an enormous crowd!

These are all the degener race found on Fuerteventura. In addition to the very dark blue cap and darker mantle shown by all birds on the Canaries, this race also shows a wing bar, similar to the African ultramarinus race that occurs in Morocco.

Fuerteventura: Desert Specialities

2011-12-31T12:15:00.001Z

OK, so the title gives the game away for anyone still puzzled by yesterday’s mystery photos. The ever-observant RB had it right: Suzanne and I spent Christmas in the Canary Islands. And the mystery bird? If you can’t work it out from the destination, I’ll return to that later in this post…

Over 12 days, we toured around quite a bit, starting with four days on Fuerteventura, then taking an internal flight over to Tenerife. In the middle of our stay here, we took the RO-RO ferry over to La Gomera and spent three days here over Christmas itself.

We’ll write up a full trip report with site details and a complete trip list ASAP, but in the mean time, the next few posts will concentrate on the best photos from the various islands.

Fuerteventura, as the image above suggests, is largely covered by stony desert and low rocky mountains; fresh water and therefore anything more than low-lying scrubby vegetation is at a premium. We spent most of our time either searching for desert speciality species, or checking the few areas of water where the range of birds was wider. The few coastal resorts are a bit grim, so although we stayed in a suite in one of these (Caleta de Fustes), we were out and about pretty much all day every day.

Although we spent a good few hours seeing not a lot, in the end we managed to clean up on all the ‘target species’ in one magic session on the plains near the Embalse de Los Molinos. First, as we drove in down the dusty approach track, a few Cream-coloured Coursers were running alongside:

I reckon these are just superb birds – always on the move, charismatic, and often pretty confiding for photos. They also look and sound great in flight, so when you’re stood in the middle of nowhere and pick up a few flying over it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Arriving at the end of the track, I was delighted to find a raptor perched out on the plain – a lucky encounter with a Barbary Falcon. It clearly showed rufous markings on the back of the head, and had a paler mantle tone than would be expected of Peregrine, though I gather hybrids are now thought to occur on the islands.

But I’d seen coursers and falcons before, in Morocco, and my number one target proved harder to find. We had already looked unsuccessfully at Costa Calma and la Oliva for Houbara Bustard, before I started scanning the rocky plain east of the reservoir, more in hope than expectation. These wandered into view…

My initial thought when I found the first bird was of some sort of weird domesticated turkey-type creature, before the brain kicked in and I realised that Houbara really are that small! Over the course of the next hour or so, we determined that there were at least two pairs of bustards wandering around in a fenced goat enclosure. Although they remained too distant for good photos, and disappeared all too easily in what appeared completely open habitat, scope views were excellent on a rather grey and cloudy day.

While standing around enjoying these, a couple of groups of Black-bellied Sandgrouse flew past – bonus! Large flocks of Lesser Short-toed Lark also buzzed around, easily a hundred strong.

On the reservoir, waterbirds included close on 200 Coot, 120+ Ruddy Shelduck, 6 Teal, 2 Wigeon, Green and Common Sandpipers… and two rather less expected visitors from the USA: female Ring-necked Ducks.

These had been around for a while, so I couldn’t claim genuine surprise, but American vagrants are always good to see in Europe. Apparently a Lesser Scaup had been seen a few days previously, too, but we couldn’t find this.

On our way back out of the site, we paused to scan the hordes of sparrows by the goat farm in Las Parcelas, hoping for one more desert species. It took a little while, and we only saw two, but eventually Trumpeter Finches were found and photographed.

And finally, what of the mystery bird? Yesterday’s pic illustrated a female Canary Islands Chat. In fact, this one:

These are actually the most notable species on the entire trip, in a world listing context, since they’re only found on Fuerteventura, and the total population is apparently not very well known – less than 20,000 individuals, and possibly much less. (See info from BirdLife International, illustrating the variance between different survey results.)

We encountered these at a number of sites, including Embalse de Los Molinos, the Barranco de Gran Valle on the Jandia peninsula, Barranco de la Torre, the Fimapaire valley east of La Oliva, and finally Vega de Rio Palmas, where the most confiding birds posed for these photos. While the females are strikingly pale, almost grey and white, the males are very smart – rather like you imagine a cross between a Stonechat and a Whinchat would look.

Back home – but from where?

2011-12-30T10:56:00.001Z

After a late night arrival in the UK, eventual escape from the UK’s shambolic passport control system, and a mercifully painless drive home, Suzanne and I are back from a fantastic Christmas break. I’ve taken at least 600 photos, and Suzanne a similar number, so it might take a while to get them properly organised!

So in the meantime, here’s a couple of snaps straight out of the camera that illustrate the main reasons for our choice of destination: awesome scenery (this shot taken on Christmas Day!), and a few noteworthy birds to see.

Question is, for those who don’t know, where did we go (and what’s the bird)? Leave a comment if you can guess…

Stats for 2011

2011-12-11T21:25:00.001Z

After a weekend primarily concerned with catching up on sleep, working through a Christmas party hangover, and drafting an economics essay, I’ve been feeling the need to engage in something vaguely bird-related this afternoon. So I’ve been updating my records, keeping track of the rarities and scarcities I’ve seen in 2011. Although the year’s not out yet, I reckon the chances of seeing much more are pretty slim, given our plans for Christmas, so I’ll get in ahead of the inevitable flurry of ‘review of the year’ posts…

2011 was another acceptable year for British lifers, with 11 new species finding their way onto my list, taking the total up to 426 (BOU). Things were surprisingly quiet through the spring, though White-throated Robin and Roller in the space of a week got things ticking along nicely. I was pleased to see two long-awaited ‘tart's ticks’ fall in midsummer, too (Cory’s and Western Bonelli’s). Unlike last year, Shetland didn’t hit the jackpot in September, but the Yankee double-act on Scilly were both stunning. The autumn has been remarkably protracted as well, and a couple of late bonuses got me into double figures:

Lesser White-fronted Goose	2-Jan-11	Buckenham
Rufous Turtle Dove	26-Feb-11	Chipping Norton
White-throated Robin	7-Jun-11	Hartlepool Headland
Roller	13-Jun-11	Hollesley Common
Western Bonelli's Warbler	4-Jul-11	Arnfield Reservoir
Cory's Shearwater	9-Jul-11	Porthgwarra
Black-and-white Warbler	17-Sep-11	Lower Moors
Sandhill Crane	4-Oct-11	Boyton Marshes
Northern Waterthrush	28-Oct-11	Lower Moors
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper	19-Nov-11	Chew Valley Lake
Western Sandpiper	2-Dec-11	Cley

11 ticks is pretty much par for the course – just below my average for the last nine years. What that actually reveals, though, is that I must be twitching more seriously and travelling further for new birds these days, since you’d naturally expect to see less and less each year as the game gets harder. Not sure how long that trend will continue – having twitched Scilly twice this autumn, I’m not sure there’s much further to go!

But extending the data sample beyond just lifers, there’s a few more insights to be gained. First, it reveals a few notable ‘multiples’ in 2011: 18 Yellow-browed Warblers (Shetland clearly still good for something!), 17 Sabine’s Gulls and 13 Grey Phalaropes (both boosted strongly by an excellent Pendeen seawatch). Then there were 4 Cattle Egrets, and 3 each of White-winged Black Tern and Woodchat Shrike. And my first Western Bonelli’s Warbler was followed by a second just a few weeks later… how often does that seem to happen?!

So where have I seen all these birds? Along with day-to-day records in an old-fashioned notebook, I keep track of all rarities and a range of other ‘notables’ in an Excel spreadsheet. (The list of species recorded is influenced a bit by my east coast background, so things like Balearic Shear and Storm Petrel are on there, alongside scarcities like Lapland Bunting and Yellow-browed Warbler). This makes it very easy to summarise where I’ve seen the decent birds. This year, the number of records per county looks as follows. (Note that The charts indicate ‘species days’ – so loads of Poms somewhere on a single date only counts as one).

But I haven’t always birded from Shetland to Scilly each year – compare to the overall totals, since I started birding. (This includes only the counties where I’ve seen more than ten notable birds):

No prizes for guessing which county I grew up in! I’m quite surprised that there’s such a gap between Norfolk and Suffolk (since as a kid, it seemed that we were down at Minsmere every other weekend)… but the spreadsheet never lies. It does illustrate how much you can see with a few trips to Scilly or Shetland, though – relatively few days birding there in the autumn really racks up some quantity. Continuing on a similar theme, the next chart looks at the best sites through my historic records:

Check out Rainham! Better than Minsmere, Porthgwarra and Dungeness! Unsurprisingly this isn’t a particularly accurate stat – it’s simply boosted by multiple days with Caspian Gulls, Penduline Tits and Serins…

But Cley genuinely is head and shoulders ahead of everywhere else: the only significant multiple here is Temminck’s Stint (seen at least one here five times, including two triples). It’s clearly delivered plenty of real quality, as well, with no less than eight lifers over the years. Minsmere comes second with six, and Titchwell with five.

Finally, it’s interesting to break the records down month by month. The chart below shows lifers on one scale, and rarities and scarcities on the other. No surprises here – there’s a notable pick-up in spring, especially May, and a bigger one in autumn. (It’s also clear you should go on holiday in March!) In the autumn, you can see a slight difference in trend between lifers (which peak later, in October), and other ‘notebook padders’, peaking earlier in September.

In the wilds of Thurrock

2011-11-27T18:10:00.001Z

Been out to the east of the London area this afternoon with Paul H, primarily to count waders as part of Dave Morrison’s co-ordinated high tide roost survey. The saltmarsh and industrial structures generally hold fairly large roosts, and with a particularly high tide predicted, we were hopeful for a decent selection of birds.

Thurrock should definitely be classified as an urban site. It certainly lacking in classic wilderness scenery, though compensation is provided in the form of an extensive selection of graffiti on the river wall. Amongst the repetitive primary colour ‘tags’, a proportion of the panels are quite impressive.

And the entrance to the site features the most bizarrely contrasting pair of buildings you could imagine – St Clements church, and the enormous Proctor & Gamble factory looming behind it:

Once we’d made our way along the river wall, out of range of the sweet smell of Persil, and past Stone Point, we picked out a wader roost site on the south shore. Numbers weren’t anything spectacular (c350 Redshank, c100 Dunlin, 25 Curlew, 8 Oystercatcher, c30 Lapwing, few Snipe, Water and Rock Pipit), but in ridiculously warm sunshine for late November, life wasn’t feeling too bad at all.

And then Paul found these three little beauties!

Snow Bunting is not an easy bird to catch up with in the London recording area, and these were a tick for both of us (when I’d eventually managed to clap eyes on them!). Apparently my 226th in London, though I maintain I’m not really trying on that score – schlepping an hour each way round the M25 to the west London reservoirs, or crawling through to Beddington or the Wetland Centre, for species that I see regularly elsewhere doesn’t exactly float my boat!

Happy days… particularly for Paul, since he had had the foresight to put wellies on, and was able to splosh out for closer, on-the-deck views. My best photos shown here are pretty terrible, but I think you can expect something much better on his blog later!

Eastern Black Redstart, Margate

2011-11-13T18:58:00.001Z

A day of many colours in Kent: black and red are obvious from the post’s title, but then bright green, flaming orange and gleaming white followed on, all set against glorious blue skies!

I made an early start to arrive at Palm Bay just before 8am and quickly found a small group of birders who confirmed that the Eastern Black Redstart (phoenicuroides) was still present. The first Black Red I clapped eyes on was a regular bird, showing well in the early morning light:

But then ‘the boy’ appeared, and proceeded to show superbly to just a few metres – it favoured railings and the seaweed-covered beach just east of the Jetski Safari office, sometimes flicking up above our heads to rest on the cliffs. It was repeatedly aggressive towards any other Black Reds that came nearby, perhaps appearing a fraction larger in direct comparison? As the sunshine strengthened, the intensity of the rufous underparts seemed to grow… and the rate of motor drives firing certainly did!

After filling my boots (and memory card) with the Redstart, I moved just down the road to check some local sites for migrants. First stop was Northdown Park, where I didn’t find much other than numerous Ring-necked Parakeets. They’re hard to resist, though – very smart!

And just down the road, I tried out King George VI Memorial Park on the clifftop at Ramsgate (brought to many birders’ attention when Andy Lawson and Rich Bonser searched the site and found a Bluetail on a rainy day a few autumns ago). The ivy-covered trees and holm oaks along the clifftop path held at least three Firecrests – for the second time recently, I spent more time than I intended trying to get photos, without really getting the killer shot I wanted. They’re just too quick!

After an hour or so checking the scrub around the old hoverport at Pegwell Bay, I headed south to try for some photos at Dungeness. My main target was the very long-staying Glaucous Gull – after a bit of research this evening, I reckon tomorrow will the first anniversary of its arrival at the site! I’ve not got a good track record with this bird, having missed it numerous times while looking for other things, but this time it was only too easy, soaring around over the fishing boats looking out for a free meal.

The remainder of the daylight was spent checking the ARC pit, noting a redhead Smew and a Long-tailed Duck, plus good numbers of Golden Plover.

What did YOU come here looking for?

2011-11-07T23:05:00.001Z

Just been idly scanning the search terms that people use to hit my blog, primarily from Google. Most make good sense – I have indeed written some words about:

Shetland bird blog [alas, no more of this for another year]
“isabelline daurian shrike 2011 norfolk suffolk kent” [well, I photographed one in Shetland and saw the one in Kent]
“pom skua 6th november cley” [though I still maintain the bird I photographed wasn’t one!]
“catharus thrush in flight” [no photos from me on that one, but <gloat >seen a couple this autumn </gloat>]

Stretching back a little further into the archives, we find:

birding blogs Texas [alas, no more of this for several years in all probability]
African Fish Eagle
Malawi Mammals
real Roadrunner [and I threw in the cartoon version for ID clarification]

All searchers no doubt very satisfied with my elegant prose thus far. But we move on down the list and find a few less obvious options:

“14 point Red Deer alive” [fortunately I haven’t highlighted the location of one, since I suspect it might be doomed otherwise…)]
“Birds of Thailand – grouse” [doesn’t ring any bells – though sounds like a cryptic crossword clue]
“a lot of parakeets in the wild” [my photos of just two were probably a disappointment]

And then we move onto the real quality. First, I wish Jono would just bookmark my site and stop Googling for it:

“attractive sheep”

Yep, really. Happily I am not on the first page of results for this specialist search term, though this post may well elevate my position in the rankings. Still, there’s no such thing as bad (baaaaa-d?) publicity: ewe never know who’s going to be reading your ram-blings. (Sorry – I’ll get my ~~fleece~~ coat.)

And then, finally, we reach the ‘just plain insulting’:

“bad photography examples”

I’m not on the top ten there, either, though it’s still something a little short of flattering. If that was YOU typing in the search box: I hope you were satisfied… but if not, please come back later. I’m sure I have plenty of material right up your street!

Getting Skua’d

2011-11-06T20:46:00.001Z

Had a decent day up in north Norfolk today – seems like I’ve barely spent any time there at all this autumn, very unusual for me. With a fresh northerly blowing, seawatching was clearly the way to kick off, and I arrived at Sheringham around 0715 to find the shelters fairly full already. Fortunately there was a space next to Phil (complete with stylish stay-on-sock telescope case) and I was frequently grateful for his sharp eyes and regular calls of good birds. Having done quite a bit of seawatching already this year, only one species was new – Little Auk, of which I saw two fly past and one on the sea briefly. I also missed at least another couple. The photo below was taken at Cley a bit later on as it was diving in the surf.

Over the course of nearly four somewhat chilly hours, there was plenty of variety as birds passed constantly. In particular, there was a heavy passage of wildfowl from east to west, including a few species not noted for being seen at sea:

8 Pom, 9 Arctic and 21 Great Skua – plus a few unidentified Arctic / Pom types
9 Little Gull amongst hundreds of Kittiwake
2 Red-necked Grebe
6 Shag
Manx Shearwater – one distantly east
Long-tailed Duck – I picked up one of these trying to sneak through unnoticed, heading west with three Teal!
8 Red-breasted Merganser
3 smart drake Velvet Scoter west
294 Shelduck west – probably the biggest passage I’ve noted on the coast
9 Pintail
8 Gadwall
6 Goldeneye
5 Shoveler
9 Tufted Duck
41 Eider, many adult drake
21 Pochard
several hundred each of Teal and Wigeon
and last but not least 3 Avocet!

Quite a list!

After a much-needed hot drink and bite to eat at the Cley visitor centre, I popped down to the beach to look for the reported adult Pom Skua, hoping for some photos. It was still present, and showing well:

But hang on… is that ringing any alarm bells for you?! The bird looked quite barrel-chested and heavy in flight, though I had a few doubts in the field about the bill and the plumage features around the head and neck, but assumed that the ID was watertight and didn’t question it. Probably should’ve done now I look at the photos, because it’s got to be an Arctic, not a Pom!

Note the small pale area above the bill (a feature of adult Arctic that I’d never registered before checking Collins this evening), the fact that the black cap doesn’t extend down below the bill, the lack of any real breastband, and the almost uniform bill, which I reckon isn’t strong enough for a Pom. Leave a comment if you have any additional thoughts on the ID, especially if I’ve got it wrong!

After grabbing a few dodgy photos of a Little Auk drifting east, and taking a brief look at the Cattle Egret in Blakeney, I decided to turn my attention to passerines (and get out of the wind!) in Wells Woods. Just after parting with a disappointingly large sum of money for the carpark, a familiar (if somewhat dirty) car pulled up nearby driven by John F. Once he’d constructed a sandwich using some bacon from an Amazon package (they deliver everything these days…), we headed out in search of Sibe megas.

Heading towards the west side of the static caravan site, we got off to a good start as a familiar trill registered quickly enough for me to shout “Waxwing!” as it flew over our heads and into a tall tree. Another sign of winter coming soon…

Certainly not the greatest photo, but hard grey skies weren’t helping matters! Once Mr Bombycilla had headed inland, we proceeded to see… not very much! Lots of Redwing and Blackbird, and a handful of Goldcrest, but not a lot else. These Grey Partridge are quite regular in the area, but it’s not a bird I see all that often, so took a few snaps.

I’ll add just one final photo (setting the quality bar even lower for future posts!), taken yesterday on Sheppey in the drizzle. Standing on the raptor viewpoint, a lady pointed out two egrets in the adjacent field. Raising my bins I was surprised and delighted to see that they were both Great Whites! Annoyingly my camera was in the car, and by the time I’d legged it down to get it, they’d taken off and headed towards Shellness… so this is the best I got. “WOW", I hear you say. Not.

Getting crafty

2011-11-02T20:57:00.001Z

The nights are drawing in, the autumn migrants are slowly fading away to be replaced by winter visitors, and the blogging silly season is upon us.

Cast your mind back to last December…

The more attentive amongst you may recall ‘Robin the Twitcher’ making a brief appearance on these pages, having emerged from some festive wrapping paper, fresh from ever-clicking knitting needles in Norfolk. Here he is again, swotting up on some light reading in preparation for an exciting winter at the tip in Rainham, and considering a few foreign trips for the winter:

Clearly when he puts the bins down and poses for the camera, he’s far better looking than the average twitcher. Just watch out for him at the next mega, ladies.

Recently, Robin has acquired some friends. This little chap (yet to be named: suggestions?!) has kindly baked me a birthday cake, though somewhat rudely continues to remind me of my age whenever I walk into the house each evening. Thanks for that, Mum.

And just a couple of days ago, I discovered a new species to science in my front room! The Orange-headed Silky-winged Vaguely Paisley Owl (as its affectionately known) tends to favour exposed low-level hardwood perches, and although currently looking somewhat lonely, I suspect a colony may become established in the near future. Vocalisation not yet recorded, but the bicoloured wing panels and fetching eyelashes are thought to be diagnostic.

This fine beast is the work of my long-suffering and very talented wife, in a short break from working on a major cross-stitch project… getting on for 100 hours worth so far. Clearly this is far more productive and sensible than chasing around the country in foul weather hoping to see little brown lost birds and gain ticks on a pointless list… or so she tells me!

Commissions are available!

On Fire on the Scillies…

2011-11-01T21:38:00.001Z

Just a few pics from a cracking weekend in the southwest – we wondered whether pausing for the Firecrest photos had cost us the Northern Waterthrush, but happily the main attraction showed nonstop to a tiny group of delighted birders for 20 minutes later on Friday night! As usual, some of the common birds on the Scillies showed fantastically well (too close to focus on at times), and the scenery is always stunning.

The only way…

2011-10-23T21:24:00.001+01:00

…is birding (in Essex). Thankfully, I didn’t go down to Cornwall where I would’ve dipped a Scarlet Tanager.

Too tired to write anything meaningful, but suffice to say I enjoyed a leisurely day out around Essex – there was even time for beer! Spent all morning working The Naze – so much great habitat – then Abberton and North Fambridge this afternoon. Sounds like we probably missed the big egret coming in ‘the wrong way’ tonight, but not to worry: the sunset was worth it on its own.

Slavonian Raptorcy

2011-10-18T21:44:00.001+01:00

I have no idea how I’ve missed it for the six weeks since it was first posted, but (thanks to a link from Pete Moore’s blog) I’ve finally stumbled across this latest comedy offering from Gyr Crakes. It’s pretty cleverly done, and had me laughing out loud (to the bafflement of my wife). Absolutely superb… especially considering the backdrop of bitching, moaning and pseudo-politics going on elsewhere in birding on the net.

So no apologies for reposting this video if you’ve already seen it elsewhere: it’s a reminder that birding is supposed to be fun, for goodness sake!

PS: Challenge: can you write out the lyrics to this version?

A very happy birthday!

2011-10-16T21:56:00.001+01:00

Plenty of great birds today in glorious weather, and opportunities to say hello to a number of friends!

Jono and I started off at Thorpeness in Suffolk – it’s a good site for gauging what’s on the move early morning, has turned up numerous good birds recently, and offered options to move north or south up the coast. Plenty of finches were on the move, including c15 Redpolls and a few Siskin and Brambling. In the bushes, a few Blackcaps darted about in and around berry bushes but a vocal Yellow-browed Warbler refused to show more than briefly.

Shortly after leaving here, I received news of a Booted or Sykes’s Warbler at Landguard, no more than half an hour away. JL needed Booted, while I would still like to see Sykes’s properly after awful views of the skulking Channerwick bird before the ID had been clinched last year… so, a win-win situation! On arrival, the bird was showing superbly well…

The bird has swung to and fro throughout the day between probable and definite Booted. I’m far from expert, but still reckon it’s the latter, because:

there’s a lot of contrast in the tertials
the bill doesn’t look long enough to me - I’m also pretty certain it has a faint dark tip to the lower mandible (though this was hard to discern in the field, and Sykes’s can show it anyway, I believe)
the primary projection doesn’t look particularly short, nor the tail particularly long – the bird generally felt quite well proportioned to me
the head pattern also favours Booted in my view – super clearly extends back behind the eye
and finally, it always felt rather warm toned, albeit in strong sunshine – my sense is that Sykes’s tends to be rather greyer, colder toned on the mantle

Couple of relevant links and pics – check out tertials in particular:

There – I’ve nailed my colours to the mast, though would be interested to hear what others reckon. If I’ve screwed it up, then I’ve learned something along the way!

Our next move to East Mersea took in two rather less difficult birds to identify. A Glossy Ibis, noted for their incessant spinning while feeding:

…and a Grey Phalarope, with an abnormally long bill, I thought:

Excellent. Though for one twitcher, the other birds in the area were simply too much to resist, and he departed somewhat hastily after no more than 3 or 4 minutes on site:

Blimey, we thought… something must be good! Well, certainly not good enough to persuade me to run (and besides, in my fourth decade on the planet, I may not physically be able to any more, who knows?), but still very very nice: a Pallas’s Warbler at Bradwell. We turned up to find no-one really looking for the bird, let alone at it, but happily in a stroke of ~~sheer brilliance~~ birthday luck I found it (or it found me) within the first couple of minutes, and we enjoyed great views as it fed in small trees. Awesome birds, absolutely tiny, and so smart in a very stripy sort of way. I make it my sixth in the UK, only the second I’ve heard to call (a soft upslurred ‘boiiing’, like a distant quiz show buzzer) and the earliest date yet. Take that: stats, done.

Finally, we played the game of chance that is the Dartford Crossing on a Sunday night, and won! Our prize came in the form of the stunning adult Isabelline Shrike at Cliffe. Unfortunately, this wasn’t particularly close, but in still and crisp conditions, views were superb at 60x. “Always go and see shrikes”, said my chauffeur. In fact, said my chauffeur at least a dozen times while I was extolling the virtues of small stripy phylloscs in remote locations…

Anyway, thanks to all the folk who’ve wished me Happy Birthday or just said hello today – I apologise to anyone who expected a Rob Martin-esque find somewhere along the coast, but that’s setting the bar a bit high!

The last bird of my twenties…

2011-10-15T20:52:00.001+01:00

‘Just’ another bluetail… my fifth in the UK. (Pleasantly surprised by the pic, given it was 1/50 at ISO 2500!)

Tomorrow, a new decade of birding begins – hoping for something good to kick it off!

Final day on Shetland – going out on a high!

2011-10-06T18:42:00.001+01:00

[I’d hoped to post this a bit earlier on this week… but better late than never!]

We crammed rather a lot into the last half day on Shetland, before returning home to London on Sunday afternoon. The highlight was clearly a superb Isabelline Shrike (or Daurian, if you like), which Howard found as I was driving slowly through Levenwick this morning hunting for somewhere to park the car and start looking!

The following timeline summarises the rest of the morning, and hopefully illustrates how good the birding can be on Shetland when ‘it’s happening’…

0720: everyone’s all packed up, and we’ve departed the excellent accommodation at the Old Decca (see http://www.selfcateringshetland.com/)

0735: arrive Fladdabister – bit of speculative wandering around, then moved down towards Ocraquoy where yesterday’s Red-breasted Fly appeared to have been replace by our second Pied Fly of the trip. Already lovely warm sunshine, and no wind whatsoever. Heaps of Redwings still around, suggesting it’s a good day to be out searching!

0815: driving just south of Cunningsburgh when the Alpine Swift comes on the pager again from nearby: we stop for a quick look back up the coast, but get distracted by awesome scenery and heaps of Harbour Porpoise surfacing in flat calm water – somewhere between 50 and 100 animals involved.

0830: stop at Channerwick for a look round – find at least six, and possibly seven Yellow-browed Warblers feeding around the single sycamore of happiness, plus two Dunnock, the first for the week! Exciting times…

0920: heading for Levenwick, to check gardens, crops, irises, the quarry… only question is where to start, where to park the car

0925: driving along slowly, Howard calls out for me to stop: “That looked like a shrike!” He jumps out, relocates the bird on a garden wall: “Looked really pale”… and as it turns round “It’s an Isabelline!” – happy days! I reassemble the scope and tripod from the suitcase, put the news out, and after a bare minute viewing, the bird sets off on a series of flights southwards, with us in pursuit. Fortunately it settled down near the Southpunds junction, and a crowd of about 30-40 birders builds up to admire it.

Here’s some video, taken by Hugh Harrop:

1015: With the shrike showing more distantly, and conditions still looking excellent for more birds, we make a relatively swift departure, heading down for the area that’s felt most ‘birdy’ through the trip: Brake, Hillwell and Quendale.

1030: arrive Brake, get out of car

1032: Pager alerts to Citrine Wagtail just down the road at Quendale - excellent!

1035: Shortest twitch in history, move the car about quarter of a mile, and start admiring the wagtail! Say hello to newly arrived London birders Vince & Dick.

1050: wander back through Brake, casually note the Pallid Harrier flying past and a Whinchat, but probably pay more attention to 3 smart Siskin on the wires – further new arrivals.

1130 – 1300: head on down to Sumburgh, check out the quarries, drystone walls and nettles around the farm, the hotel garden, the gardens at Grutness and various bits and bobs in between… but despite considerable optimism, nothing else notable before we leave.

1300: into the airport, and spend a nervous afternoon hoping we don’t get a mega alert from the islands we’ve just left!

Great views of Virkie, Sumburgh and Scatness as we took off, though:

More quality on our last full day

2011-10-01T20:33:00.001+01:00

There was clearly an arrival of new migrants on Shetland today, with Redwing in particular streaming in in decent numbers. Our day included at least half a dozen Yellow-browed Warblers, a juv Red-backed Shrike, a superb Olive-backed Pipit on the roadside verge at Brake (while two Pallid Harriers remained nearby), and awesome views of the Alpine Swift at Cunningsburgh. At one point it switched from feeding in big loops relatively low over a hillside to heading out high above the harbour… at which point we realised it was being actively pursued by a Merlin! Fortunately the swift was sufficiently quick and agile to avoid becoming lunch!

Bird of the trip: mind-blowing Jack Snipe!

2011-09-30T21:16:00.001+01:00

Almost immediately after getting out of the car this lunchtime at Voxter, near Brae, Howard called out: “Jack Snipe!” and we turned round, expected to see one fly a short distance away from us and drop straight into cover. Instead, it flew at waist level towards us, between us, and dropped into the short grass a few feet away!

For the next half hour or so, it wandered around on the edge of a shallow pool and the adjacent grass, utterly unconcerned by our presence – presumably a freshly arrived migrant that had never encountered people before? Many birders have stories about fantastically close views of this species, and indeed we’d all seen them pretty well before… but this was nothing short of astonishing. As it walked around, feeding intermittently throughout, it wandered up to us, past us, around us, and ultimately over us!

Despite having dipped the Great Snipe further south earlier in the morning, I think we all enjoyed this experience far more than the more distant, brief view we had expected of the much rarer variety.

Words simply can’t do justice to how stunning this little bird was: but I’ll have a go with some of the many pictures…

(Note that you can actually see my reflection in the bird’s eye in the final shot above!)

Videos to follow when we can upload them!

Assorted bits and bobs from the last couple of days

2011-09-30T20:17:00.001+01:00

Apologies to anyone checking the blog daily for the lack of an update yesterday – we only got back from Unst at 10:30pm, after birding til dusk and then enjoying a great meal in the Baltasound Hotel with Martin G and his Shetland Nature group (feat. Nick Croft of Wanstead fame).

Our birding on Unst started immediately we drove off the ferry at Belmont, looking for the recently found Black-headed Bunting. This gave us the runaround for while, before Jono and I walked the perimeter of the stubble field, and found it down near the shore on its own. After a while, it moved back up to join the sparrows below the house, where it showed well.

Next stop was Uyeasound where, as well as checking a number of promising gardens and crop fields, we enjoyed a very striking Lesser Whitethroat, possibly of the eastern race halimodendri. Every time it popped up in front of us, one or other of us commented for the umpteenth time on just how strikingly sandy brown it was above (if anything, warmer toned than the photo suggests). The mask also appeared more diffuse than we’d expect on a regular curruca; there was very little contrast between the mantle and the nape, and Martin later pointed out that the bill appears rather fine and ‘spiky’. Finally, the primary projection is relatively short, with only six exposed primary tips beyond the tertials.

Certainly none of us had ever seen a LW looking like this before, so the comments above may be off the mark… if you have any thoughts on this bird, please leave a comment.

From here, we headed on north up the island through Haroldswick, where a juvenile Peregrine singled out a Lapwing from a flock and rather mercilessly appeared to play with it for the sheer hell of it!

Our final stops were Northdale (smart juvenile Hen Harrier, an elusive adult Bluethroat, Yellow-browed Warbler), and Norwick – one of my favourite birding site in the UK. We didn’t find or see anything particularly noteworthy, but it really didn’t matter: by this time, the wind had completely died, and over the sound of the surf it was still enough to hear Chiffchaffs’ bills snapping as they sallied out after insects. And we had the entire place to ourselves, not a soul there. Magic!

Today, we made a somewhat painfully early start to be down at South Voxter by 7am in the hope that yesterday evening’s Great Snipe would still be present. To cut a long (and tediously squelchy) story short, it wasn’t, so we returned to base for a spirit-lifting fry-up mid morning! Rather shockingly, we hadn’t seen a Barred Warbler all week, so news of a relatively showy bird at Busta House (thanks to Dave Acfield) persuaded us to go for a look. Happily, this didn’t take too long to find, unusually clambering around high up in the sycamore canopy, showing a lot of the strongly marked chevrons on the undertail coverts.

Having spotted a ‘new’ plantation on the map at Voxter (just east of Brae), we just had to have a look… and ended up speechless at one of the most extraordinary birding encounters I’ve ever experienced. It’s worth a whole blog post (and a lot of photos) on its own, so you’ll have to check back later to find out what it was!

We broke our return to Lerwick at Kergord, where in addition to the now-expected selection of Yellow-browed Warblers, I was delighted to find two male Hawfinch feeding discreetly in the leaf litter. Again, it was so quiet that you could them crunching seeds!

Arctic Redpoll, North Mainland

2011-09-28T21:51:00.001+01:00

A rather twitchy day today, initially on Whalsay in the morning with cracking views of the Little Bunting at Vaivoe (though we also found a brief Rosefinch there, too). Prompted by news from the mainland, we headed up to the Urafirth area again, first for a stunning adult drake Surf Scoter in Ronas Voe and then the reported Coue’s Arctic Redpoll.

At the time, I wasn’t absolutely convinced about the ID as a pure Arctic, and I suspect we may see something on Martin Garner’s blog on this in due course. However, having looked back through the photos, I’m tending to be more positive again… but rather than comment in detail myself without having done my reading properly, I’ll simply post a selection of shots showing various features.

Please leave a comment or drop me a line if you have any constructive suggestions regarding identification!

He’ll be baaaaack to see ewe you soon…

2011-09-27T20:02:00.001+01:00

First, click here, for some suitable background music.

Take one bird photographer.

Place on remote chain of islands.

Add strong non-migrant-friendly winds, subtract any birds of note.

Observe many more farmyard animals than birds.

Cue amusing conversation.

JL: “Hang on guys, stop! Wait!”

DB: “Eh?” [assume rare bird has just appeared]

JL: “That’s a really attractive sheep.”

DB: “WTF?”

JL: “No, really… it’s cute.” [motor drive fires] “I wonder if it will let me stroke it?” [not sure if the word was actually “stroke” – it was very windy, so I may have misheard.]

Apparently not: access denied.

(By the way, we haven’t seen much today – three Yellow-brows in Kergord, Slav on some random voe, a single Knot, 8 Whooper Swan, that sort of thing).

But Jono continues to have a distant, wistful look in his eye…

Nearly, but not quite…

2011-09-26T21:47:00.001+01:00

Just a quick update today, since I’m pretty tired… obviously too much birding

We headed up to North Mainland this morning, starting off at a new, and rather promising, site near Urafirth. A small shelter belt near a garden had held a Coue’s Arctic Redpoll yesterday… but although it was still present, I only got untickable views of what was presumably the bird in flight! Some excitement was provided for quite some time by a rather pale looking acro that skulked around in low bushes, and tended to hold its tail cocked (somewhat banana-like, perhaps)… but when it eventually gave itself up for photos was shown to be ‘just’ a Reed Warbler. Shame!

From here, we moved north to Isbister, where a big Common Redpoll of some sort of north-western persuasion was feeding with House Sparrows. Note the typical backdrop to a Shetland bird:

After popping back into the previous site (no Arctic Redpoll, and couldn’t be bothered to wait around for a Barred Warbler in very windy conditions), we headed out to Esha Ness, where a Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been roaming around for a few days. Unfortunately, it appeared to have done a bunk, with several birders failing to find it. Some of them hadn’t seen any Snow Buntings either, but we managed to find a fantastic flock of just over 100 wheeling around and feeding on the short cropped turf. Brilliant birds, and presumably newly arrived on westerlies.

We had a brief look around the Sullom Plantation with nothing better than a Sparrowhawk and a Chaffinch, before moving down to the Busta House Hotel garden in Brae. Again, I’d not looked here before, but really liked the sheltered sycamores and long grass underneath – feels good for a rarity. We didn’t manage that, but I quickly picked up a very smart Wood Warbler – always nice to see, and not a common bird on passage.

Final stop was the plantation at Eswick, where we clearly heard the reported Red-breasted Flycatcher, but failed to see it. Just about sums up the day – a case of nearly, but not quite!

Blue & Grey

2011-09-25T18:49:00.001+01:00

Better day today, with some decent views of good birds. Oh, and Jono arrived this morning, but I guess you never get everything to go your way…

Having collected the filthy crane twitcher from the ferry terminal, we swiftly headed out the door in a southerly direction. First stop was Brake, determined to see the Pallid Harrier at our third attempt. Birding here started pretty well in relatively still and sunny conditions, with a couple of Tree Pipit calling overhead, a very close Yellow-browed Warbler in long grass by the road, and I found another Rosefinch which circled overhead calling. The single Whinchat from a couple of days ago had found a couple of friends, and a Garden Warbler briefly had me going near the farm… but all this perhaps suggested that a few new birds had arrived. Howard and Dad had brief views of the harrier as it moved up the valley from Loch of Hilwell, and after waiting a while for it to emerge back into view, it showed fairly well perched up on a post across the valley.

We took a lengthy walk from the mill at Quendale, initially out onto Garths Ness (of Yellow Warbler fame), then around into the burn to the west, and up and over into the iris beds above Quendale. Despite much iris bashing (and an annoying pipit that determinedly stuck to the bottom of the burn gully, didn’t call, and took a while to be definitively ID’d as a Meadow), we didn’t find much until reaching the main iris bed with a dense nettle patch above. Here, we found the now-predictable Yellow-browed Warbler with a Willow Warbler mate, and then Howard called out “what’s the bird on the fence?”. “Bluethroat!” was my happy answer from a higher vantage point – a smart bird, though it promptly buried itself in kale crop when the big lenses were primed… These shots are from Howard’s point-and-shoot, but you get the idea!

Moving on from Quendale, we worked at a few patches along the east coast of south Mainland: the quarry at Levenwick, Channerwick, the Swinister Burn at Sandwick, and the trees around Hoswick village. Sum total from all of these was not a lot, and by about 4pm we caved in and drove north to look for the Lesser Grey Shrike near Laxo! This showed very well in the sunshine, a full adult with large black mask extending onto the forehead, and a rich salmony wash on the underparts. Superb!

Slow going in southerlies and sunshine

2011-09-24T20:02:00.001+01:00

Lovely day today, but not setting the world on fire in terms of birds!

We headed north from Lerwick to check out a few patches around the Vidlin area. Lunna and Swining both had single Yellow-browed Warblers, and a redpoll of some flavour flew south calling, while at Vidlin yet another Merlin perched up in front of us briefly – we’ve seen at least one of these daily so far.

Down at Kergord, we found at least four more Yellow-broweds, and a noisy Pied Flycatcher at Upper Kergord. Other less scarce birds making it onto the trip list for the first time included 21 Woodpigeon, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Siskin and a Song Thrush! Exciting times…

Jono joins us tomorrow, having filthily twitched a certain large North American bird near Aberdeen en route. I guess you’ve heard of a swear box… well, we’ve decided we’re going to have a ‘crane box’, so he has to fork out a pound each every time he mentions it.

In the absence of any bird photos of note, here’s some nice scenery from Lunna and Vidlin. Note the general lack of passerine migrant habitat!

Another day, another Catharus thrush…

2011-09-23T21:02:00.001+01:00

Following news of a possible Hermit Thrush on Fetlar yesterday afternoon, it was a straightforward decision to head up north today. Dad and I hadn’t visited Fetlar last year, so at the very least we’d get an island tick! After much confusion with baffling ferry timetables and vague booking office communication, we eventually ended up on Fetlar around 1030, having seen a couple of Great Northern Diver, a few Common Dolphin and innumerable Black Guillemots en route.

The bird had been reported from the West Manse at Tresta – a fantastic looking little copse of sycamores, representing easily the biggest area of cover on the island, and the site of the Taiga Flycatcher a couple of years ago. Immediately on arrival, a Yellow-browed announced its presence loudly, before flicking around above us nicely. Surprisingly, there was only one other birder present, and the four of us split up to view into the garden over the wall from various angles. Quite early on, a ‘very interesting’ bird flew rapidly along the top of the inner wall, too fast to get any real detail, but looking good for a small dark thrush. Frustratingly, though, we couldn’t find it again in getting on for two hours. However, we did get a few similarly brief views of an elusive male Redstart, making us wonder about reports of birds with a rufous tail! The only other birds present were a couple of Blackcap and a Willow Warbler, besides the Yellow-browed.

Needing a change, we wandered across to another nearby leafy garden, to find another Yellow-browed, then headed up the road to Houbie. Plenty of Blackcaps in evidence around here, and I was pleased to find a couple of Common Rosefinches feeding in weedy vegetation with sparrows along the beach near the community centre. I went exploring up the burn – no surprise to find yet another vocal Yellow-browed and a Lesser Whitethroat here. A pale warbler near the post office disappeared without trace, and in deteriorating weather we headed back to Tresta.

After a bit more time here, and less than an hour to our ferry departure, we were about to give up when something popped up out of dense vegetation and onto the wall around ten yards in front of us: cue some gibbering and pointing… “Grey-cheeked Thrush!” It sat there unmoving for at least a minute, giving us time to take in all the features, then realise that both cameras had been left in the car due to the rain… Doh! I’ll save the description for BBRC, but suffice to say our views didn’t leave any room for doubt.

Over the next half hour, we saw it three more times: once perched slightly further away on the same wall (along the north west side, close to the house), and then a great view in flight across the garden showing the classic black and white striped underwing. We still couldn’t get a photo, but left for our ferry more than happy!

Shetland 2011 starts here

2011-09-22T20:02:00.001+01:00

Here we go then! Hopefully this will be the first of a series of daily blog posts from Shetland, where I’m spending 12 days birding with my Dad and Howard, based just outside Lerwick.

After arriving in Sumburgh yesterday lunchtime in driving rain, and a few bits of birding in the afternoon (highlight two Merlin at Wester Quarff), we made a proper start to birding in south Mainland today – an obvious destination, given the news of a Swainson’s Thrush being found late in the day in a birder’s garden in Boddam. Although we’d seen last year’s bird at Levenwick, it’ll be a sad day (or possibly an astonishingly good day for megas!) when I don’t go to see a Catharus thrush just down the road!

We arrived on site (a housing estate!) around 8am to negative news and a gradual drift of birders away from the site over the next hour. Fortunately, though, the bird was relocated in a particularly densely vegetated garden, and eventually popped out onto next door’s lawn giving great views, but only time for a poor photo:

From here, we moved down to the Quendale area, initially taking a look for the Pallid Harrier near Brake. No joy here, but a Whinchat was rather smart and showy, and two Ruff briefly raised our hopes. We arrived at the water mill to find at least two Yellow-browed Warblers and a Willow Warbler, while a Green Sand flew over – shame about the white rump… A pretty lengthy thrash up the valley through the iris beds produced nothing more than a couple more Willow Warblers and a couple more Whinchat, while the first few Twite of the trip buzzed around overhead.

After a brief stop at Mainlands to pick up lunch (HV gave top marks to a Chicken & White Sauce Pie), noting a massive juvenile Peregrine scaring the hell out of everything within a mile or two, we headed down to a rather breezy Sumburgh. Nothing much on the head itself, and it was sufficiently quiet for some members of the party to resort to photographing ‘golden rabbits’!

Back to birding, we found a rapidly disappearing Redstart in the second quarry, then a Garden Warbler and several Blackcap in the thistles down towards the farm. Grutness had a single Goldcrest, and a bunch of Twite showed really well:

Return to Quendale late in the afternoon gave us only a very brief view of what might have been the harrier, and a drive round Spiggie produced 7 Whooper Swans, 2 Goosanders, 80 wild Greylags and 4 Pink-feet. Not bad for a start…

More of the South Fambridge Wryneck

2011-09-12T20:16:00.001+01:00

Couldn’t resist posting more of this cracking bird – I’ve spent a bit more time post-processing these, so hopefully they have a bit more impact than the previous couple, which were basically straight out of the camera. Let me know what you think!

Distant and elusive… I don’t think so!

2011-09-10T21:36:00.001+01:00

Bit of a long day today, starting rather badly when I set off for yesterday’s Sharp-tailed Sandpiper in Cleveland, only to receive the dreaded ‘no sign’ message at 7.30 (though many thanks to whoever put this out early – it helped me at least!). By this time I’d reached Newark – about 140 miles from home – so was basically in the middle of nowhere. After spinning out a McDonalds breakfast for far longer than it deserved, in the hope that the Sharpie might be relocated, I headed over to Collingham pits near the River Trent. For a landlocked county, 2 Pectoral Sandpiper, 4 Curlew Sandpiper and a Little Stint in Notts is probably an excellent haul… but it wasn’t really much consolation!

In the absence of any positive news from up north, I bailed out and headed back home, with a slight diversion to look for a Wryneck near Southend. Good choice! After a bit of stealthy creeping about, I ended up lying on a concrete path with an unconcerned Wryneck feeding no more than 6 feet in front of me… brilliant!

I’ve not had time to work on many of the images yet, so there will definitely be more of these to come!

As if that wasn’t good enough, I’d had a couple of calls about an adult Sabine’s Gull on the KGV Reservoir, where I’m fortunately a keyholder. Would’ve been rude not to go for a look, I thought. It was a long 45 minute walk right up to the far NW corner of the north basin to see the bird, but once again, it was wonderfully obliging.

Again, more pics to come in the next day or two… but right now, I’m exhausted!

Rails and Reptiles

2011-08-29T16:53:00.001+01:00

Had a pleasant wander around Rainham this afternoon – nothing mega rare to report, but a few nice bits and bobs. A Peregrine was perched up on the usual pylon pulling its lunch apart, while 5 Greenshank and two juvenile Black-tailed Godwits were on the small amount of mud surrounding Aveley Pool. All along the northern boardwalk, Common Lizards were sunning themselves… these were taken with the 100-400mm lens, wish I’d had the macro with me! Note that the bigger individual of the two has lost his tail somewhere…

Further round towards the Targets, the highlight was a wonderfully confiding family party of Water Rails. I can only recall seeing small young Water Rails once or twice before (given that they’re usually buried away deep in reedbeds), but these obviously hadn’t read the script and were content to run around pretty much in the open!

Briefly back to Butterflies

2011-08-28T19:52:00.001+01:00

Had a cracking day in Norfolk with the usual suspects (details on all their various blogs), featuring great views of the Western Bonelli’s Warbler, an occasionally obliging Red-backed Shrike, Red-necked Phalarope amongst a Cley wader spectacular, and finishing up with about 20 Lesser Whitethroats and a Pied Flycatcher at Warham Greens. Anyway, the internet already has enough words on that subject, so let’s move on to today.

I’ve probably mentioned here before that I’ve almost seen all the native British butterflies now: at the start of play today, there were four remaining. Only one of these occurs within 100 miles of London, though: Brown Hairstreak, a scarce insect that spends most of its time high up in ash trees. Given the forecast was for decent sunny intervals, Suzanne and I headed down for a look at Steyning Downlands in West Sussex.

The best time to see BH is around the middle of the day, when females descend from the treetops to lay eggs on Blackthorn and Bullace. Although it’s getting a bit late this year (with most butterflies having emerged early after the exceptionally warm spring), we managed to find one rather battered specimen, which showed briefly for a few photos:

We also encountered a contrastingly pristine Comma on the way back to the car: stunning!

A superb late Sunday roast was devoured at White’s Bar & Kitchen, just down the road, before we headed up to take in some classic South Downs scenery at Devil’s Dyke, high above Hove.

Pelagic participants and petrel pursuers

2011-08-17T20:49:00.001+01:00

In case you’re still not bored after all my photos from the pelagics over the weekend, here’s a quick post to highlight the blogs and websites of the other guys that we shared a boat with – all great company and a good laugh. Some of these sites have already been updated with images from the weekend, and those that haven’t probably will be soon!

I’ve probably missed a couple of people due to not knowing names etc – please leave me a comment if so, and I’ll get you added!

From the Scillies:

Bob Flood and Ashley Fisher organise all the birders’ pelagic weekends: this is their Scilly Pelagics blog
Joe Pender is the skipper of the Sapphire, and takes great photos too: Sapphire Pelagics blog

From the south:

Jake Everitt’s Sussex Nature blog
Matt Eade’s Seaford Birding blog

From the north:

Phil Woollen’s Wirral Birder’s blog
Jason Atkinson’s Tale of Two Halves

From somewhere in between:

Richard Stonier’s photography website

And, since it would be a bit dull to conclude a post about photographers without any photos… have another Great Shearwater!

Scilly Pelagics 2011: part 2

2011-08-16T22:05:00.001+01:00

Sunday 14 August

Another day, another pelagic trip! This time, we headed out past St Agnes and Annet, and continued about 10 miles south. Once again, the sea state had improved, and in increasingly sunny conditions, it was really pleasant out on the Sapphire. We spotted another trawler in the distance, and opted to take a look through the masses of gulls around it before starting to put out chum of our own.

Single Great and Sooty Shearwaters were quickly picked out, and to everyone’s delight this time the Great Shear hung around for photos… no apologies for several images of this brilliant bird!

The Sooty also showed very well though inevitably took something of a back seat, given its companion!

After a while, we reluctantly headed away from the trawler, and put out a bag of the infamous ‘rubby-dubby’ (basically mashed fish, bread and cod-liver oil) to slowly disintegrate and build up an oily chum slick behind the boat. However, we only pulled in a surprisingly low number of Storm Petrels. Despite this, the chum produced another highlight of the trip – a couple of Blue Sharks were attracted in and got hooked, landed and tagged.

The first was relatively small, but the second (pictured above) was a bit of a beast – at least five feet long, and probably weighing in at about 140lb! It took 25 minutes and several failed attempts to land it, and even then was quite a handful to keep under control on the deck.

After a struggle, the shark vented its frustrations by sinking its teeth into a wooden bench (!), giving Joe and Paul the opportunity to tag it, before releasing it back into the ocean. Check out the teeth!

In the absence of many petrels, we headed back to the trawler for seconds on the Great Shear, and then the return trip to St Mary’s was enlivened with a pod of around 50 Common Dolphins feeding on a shoal of fish, and bow-riding beneath the Sapphire.

Monday 15 August

With the whole day to spare before the late afternoon sailing on the Scillonian, we set out for a walking tour of St Marys, initially heading around Old Town Bay and then along the coast path below the airfield towards Porth Hellick. Just past Giant’s Castle, and mid-conversation, a familiar sound caused me to break off… a faint “prrruuuk, prrruuuk” could only be a Bee-eater! About 30 seconds of frantic sky-scanning, and then we found it, hawking lazily above the pine plantation, then heading around over the airstrip towards Old Town and out of view. We put the news out, and soon heard that many of the other birders had picked up the same bird from Old Town Cafe as they ~~wolfed down fried breakfasts~~ diligently scanned the skies for migrants.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, with no other birds of real note on Scilly. The Scillonian crossing yielded 2 Balearic and 1 Sooty Shearwater, half a dozen Storm Petrels, a Basking Shark (or at least, its nose), a couple of Sunfish… and, possibly, a distant Orca! Several of us spotted a very tall black fin to the north as we approached Porthgwarra – it was far too brief a view to be certain, but no-one could think what else it could’ve been, given that the fin appeared basically vertical, rather than curved as in e.g. Risso’s Dolphin. Definitely in the “one that got away” camp…

Scilly Pelagics 2011: part 1

2011-08-16T21:00:00.001+01:00

After last year’s excellent trip to Scilly for the pelagic trips on the Sapphire (details >here<), Dad and I decided to do it all over again… and certainly weren’t disappointed! We scored with both big shearwaters, Wilson’s Petrel and Sabine’s Gull, plus excellent views of Storm Petrel, Sooty, Balearic and Manx Shearwater, plus a host of marine wildlife including a monster Blue Shark! Throw in a couple of tasty Mediterranean landbirds, and great island scenery, and you’ve got a great trip. Here’s a quick run-down…

Thursday 11 August

Left London early doors, and had an uneventful drive down to Penzance. Brief look for the lingering Black Kite in rather poor weather, before heading down to Porthgwarra in a moderate SW wind (via a typically superb pasty from McFaddens in St Just!). Birders already present at PG had seen both Great and Cory’s Shearwaters early on, though things had gone a bit slack. Fortunately, one more Cory’s languidly sailed past on bowed wings at about 1.40pm – the first lifer for Dad, though a bit distant beyond the Runnelstone buoy.

During the rest of the afternoon, we logged about 10 Sooties, 5 Balearics and c500 Manx Shearwaters, 3 Puffin and a single Storm Petrel. Also had a good chat with Tom McK on Seawatch SW duty. I’m increasingly convinced that the viewpoint these guys use from Gwennap is actually better than the traditional spot on Hella Point.

We doubled back slightly to reach our overnight accommodation at Perranporth – the hostel here commands a fantastic view, though the weather wasn’t exactly favourable!

Friday 12 August

Another early start, this time heading down to catch the Scillonian crossing from Penzance. Birdwise, this was pretty quiet, with only a couple of Stormies and about 50 Manx Shears to show for two and a half hours looking. Regardless, it was great to get back onto the Scillies, and after dropping our bags off at The Lookout B&B in Porthcressa, we headed up island. On arrival at Helvear, it wasn’t surprising to find a bunch of other birders present looking at the juvenile Woodchat, as it hunted off hawthorn bushes behind the farm. Too far for decent photos, though.

By 5pm, we’d joined most of the birders on the quay, ready to head out onto the Atlantic for the first time. The weather was drizzly and overcast, with a fresh SW breeze and moderate swell – ideal! Once we’d steamed out a few miles past the tip of Peninnis, the engine was cut, and some chum thrown out… and after just a few Stormies had come in to feed, the shout of “WILSON’S!” went up and our target bird glided past the back of the boat at only about 30 metres range!

The photo above illustrates most of the key features:

distinct silvery covert bands
very long legs, with feet protruding beyond the tail in flight, and often dangled onto the surface while feeding
very short ‘arm’ (inner wing), and long smoothly swept-back ‘hand’

In direct comparison with European Storm Petrels, Wilson’s is clearly a little larger, and the mode of flight is pretty distinctive – the latter tends to glide for long periods, while European flits around with flicky wingbeats, rather bat-like. Finally, the underwing is completely dark, lacking the white lining shown by European.

This individual showed on and off for quite a while, treating us to some stunning passes no more than 5 metres from the back of the boat as it went moved in and out of the slick – you could see all the features without lifting your bins! The weather wasn’t great, though, and as time passed drizzle was replaced by steady rain… lovely! As we headed back in towards the harbour, a trail of around 30-40 Stormies followed in our wake, and photos subsequently proved that there had been two different Wilson’s around the boat during the evening. Pretty fortunate, considering that these were the first records for several weeks!

Saturday 13 August

This time, we headed out towards Seven Stones reef, site of the Torrey Canyon disaster in 1967, for another session of' ‘drift and chum’. The sea state had calmed down a bit, making things more comfortable (for most people, at least!), but birds were initially at something of a premium. We managed a few nice singletons, though… first, a rather distant adult Pom Skua, and a Sooty Shearwater were seen, and then a Balearic Shearwater followed the boat for a while, occasionally plunge-diving into our wake for food:

Fortunately not quite everyone was watching it, though, since a Great Shearwater chose this moment to effortlessly sail past – things were looking up! A mile or two further out, Joe spotted a French trawler, and it was decided that we should move in to take a look. Unfortunately the Great Shear wasn’t to be found in the melee around the trawler, but a stunning adult Sabine’s Gull was considerable compensation:

Throughout the day, we saw about 40 Storm Petrels, and a few Bonxies came to investigate the boat, causing havoc amongst the gulls, Fulmars and Gannets. All of these resulted in plenty of activity for the photographers, though grey skies weren’t ideal!

Not so grim up North

2011-08-02T21:35:00.001+01:00

OK, so first things first: about those two rings... here are the complete images (two of the best from the weekend, so it might be downhill from here, I’m afraid)

So, that placed me at Bempton Cliffs on Saturday evening, having a lot of fun taking photos. Much earlier in the day, we’d started out looking and listening for the now long-staying Western Bonelli’s Warbler in Derbyshire. Scenery: fantastic. Bird: a complete bugger. In about three hours, we heard it sing precisely once, and I never set eyes on it. Thankfully, I’d seen it a few weeks back when it first got reported, but for the other two guys this was not a good start!

Next stop was Blacktoft Sands, where our mood was brightened by the continued presence of a Marsh Sandpiper. A really elegant bird, recalling Wilson’s Phalarope in some ways, it gave excellent scope views, but always a bit distant for my lens…

After a brief delay caused by an unhappy car (which will hopefully be fixed tomorrow), we continued up to Bridlington, sourced a bargain £25 B&B, and then on to Bempton. I took A LOT of photos, most of which have just gone in the bin – but here’s a few more that I like.

First, another Tree Sparrow – this time a juvenile, still showing the yellow gape, and looking somewhat more House Sparrow-like at this age with some grey on the forecrown and less clearly marked pattern on the face.

And now on to the main event: the seabird colony. Let’s start with a decidedly average photo of one of the reserve’s specialities:

We saw loads of Puffins, though none particularly close. It appeared that most of the other auks (Guillemots and Razorbills) had left the cliffs, since virtually all the birds whizzing in and out below us were Puffins. That left us taking photos of Gannets of various ages…

… and Kittiwakes:

The interactions between territorial birds on the cliffs were great to see – in particular the three individuals above (a pair and their neighbour) appeared to be constantly having a row about something!

The juveniles are really smart birds, too, strikingly patterned black and white as illustrated below. (Though somehow a surprisingly large number always seem to turn into Sabine’s Gulls when they move south…)

The next day, after a sunny but uneventful visit to Flamborough (does anyone know where the ‘regular’ seawatching site is here, by the way? We couldn’t find it…) we trundled south to the Welbeck raptor watchpoint in Notts. Very shortly after arriving, first one, then two Honey Buzzards lifted up above the treeline, and proceeded to give us excellent views on and off for over an hour alongside up to six Common Buzzards – certainly more obliging than the Norfolk bird/s have been this year.The male we saw appeared especially pale, and coupled with the species’ distinctive shape and flat-winged mode of flight, this was really easy to pick up.

Final stop was a slight detour out east to Frampton Marsh, where various waders gave us the runaround amongst vegetation on the scrape. Can you see a Pec Sand in this photo? For a long time, we couldn’t either – this was a GOOD view!

Excellent weekend all round, though – thanks to Nick and Jono for providing great company.

Give me a ring…

2011-08-01T15:55:00.001+01:00

(Or at least a comment) If you can guess what the following two birds are, and where I took their photos this weekend – both on the same RSPB reserve.

Answer later in the week when I’ve finished working my way through several hundred more images, perhaps finding a few more rings in the process…

Creatures of Myth and Legend

2011-07-27T23:05:00.001+01:00

Just a quick update, lacking in photos this time, linking together a few oddities from an enjoyable weekend’s birding in Norfolk. Aside from lots of routine bits and pieces, over the course of the two days…

I did see no less than 5 Turtle Doves in a couple of hours – these have sadly got pretty rare in the last few years (partially as a result of Mediterranean folk shooting the hell out of them), and I’d not seen one anywhere in the spring. But then a whole heap all came along at once… happy days!
I did see two cracking Montagu’s Harriers… but I can’t tell you where
I did not see a Cory’s ~~Fulmar~~ Shearwater that apparently flew past Sheringham while various people were studiously watching the same bit of sea, and yet failing to see it… maybe everyone missed it,or maybe not?
I did not see a Little Stint at Cley, despite rather a lot of people arriving in the hide while I was there, describing a fresh juvenile Dunlin, and leaving contentedly
I did not see a Savi’s Warbler which some people might previously have told you about, but others suggest they shouldn’t have done.
I did not see an Osprey clutching a damn great fish which must’ve flown directly over my head. And that was definitely real, I’ve seen the photos!

All part of the fun…

Pleased to meet you!

2011-07-16T10:59:00.001+01:00

Just returned from a quick venture out this morning, before heading off to a wedding this afternoon. I popped up to have a look at (or, more often than not, a listen to) the Common Rosefinch that’s holding territory near Fowlmere in south Cambs. It was almost constantly singing (a jaunty wolf-whistle, a bit like the title of this blog post), but didn’t show often or for long. In far from ideal weather, this was the best shot I managed when it did perch up in view.

Probably not the most exciting bird you’d ever see, but there it is! Hopefully we’ll be tripping over loads of them on Shetland in the autumn, but passing them by in the search for rarer things…

To complete the online experience, you can enjoy the sound in your living room, too! (Courtesy of Xeno Canto; not the Fowlmere bird)

The Web... some stats!

2011-07-04T19:37:00.001+01:00

Nothing to do with birds, but I saw this rather cool graphic earlier today, and thought it was worth sharing. It illustrates the mind-boggling volume of information that is shared on the net in just one minute! How did society ever exist without it?!

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers

Texan Hummers

2011-07-01T20:12:00.001+01:00

Been meaning to post this for ages, but somehow never got round to it: a few shots and video sequences of some more avian highlights from Texas. We saw three species of hummer: Ruby-throated, Buff-bellied and Black-chinned.

And here are the movies…

High Brown Fritillaries (and some pubs) in Devon

2011-06-29T20:26:00.001+01:00

Once again, apologies for the lack of recent updates: just not been out and about very much lately! However, Suzanne and I returned to London on Sunday night after an excellent weekend away in one of the few National Parks that I’d never visited previously: Exmoor, and the North Devon coast.

We set out early on Saturday morning, heading along the predictably tedious M4 in rather murky conditions, to arrive in a drizzly Lynton by about 9am. (Hmm… not really selling this yet, am I?) Undeterred by this typical English summer weather, we headed out for a walk through the nearby Valley of Rocks, with wildlife starting to feature in the form of two screechy young Peregrines, Stonechats and lots of feral goats! Fulmars wheeled around the cliffs below us and a few Gannets sailed past further out… definitely not in London now!

The major target of the trip for me was to catch up with High Brown Fritillary, an increasingly rare butterfly in the UK, which only has a patchy and localised distribution. As well as Devon, they only remain in pockets of South Wales and southern Cumbria. One of the best sites is the Heddon Valley, west of Lynton, in a large area of National Trust land. Access is by minor roads, north from the A39 near Parracombe, or east from Combe Martin. Parking, unusually for an NT site, is abundant and cheap, and even more happily, adjacent to a decent pub: the rather impressive Hunters Inn. When we arrived, there was still rain in the air, and besides, we were getting peckish… only one thing for it!

One very large jacket potato, and one local cheese Ploughmans later, we (st)rolled down the valley to Heddon Mouth, through oak woodland beside the river… quite idyllic (though still lacking in sunshine). In brief bursts of sunshine, a few fritillaries appeared over more open areas of bracken, but too far away for an ID – Dark Green and High Brown are very similar in pattern, and pretty much identical in structure. Down at the mouth of the river, seabirds were to-ing and fro-ing from breeding colonies on the cliffs: Guillemots and Razorbills in particular. A couple more young Peregrines chased overhead, giving superb views.

Feeling pretty tired after the early start, we checked into our luxury accommodation on Exmoor:

… before heading out to pub number 2: the Royal Oak, in Withypool. Pork Belly with a Cider Cream sauce… mmmm!

As we’d hoped, the next morning dawned–crystal clear, with deep blue (almost!) cloudless skies. We returned to Heddon Valley, and I’ll let the pictures tell the story for a while…

A rarity.

Not too terrible a place to spend an hour or two…

The target – will have to return for better photos!

Dark Green Fritillaries

… and finally some coastal scenery.

Oh, and there was a third excellent pub on the way home: The Rock, in Georgeham. I was most disappointed to see Doom Bar on draught, and Roast Beef on the menu.

Tick ‘n’ Roll

2011-06-13T23:27:00.001+01:00

If ever a photo utterly failed to do justice to a bird, this is it.

But photography aside: Roller – what a bird! I’ve wanted to see one of these in the UK for ages, and the lure of one in Suffolk on a sunny summer evening was way too strong to resist. Messrs Hawkins and Monkey felt the same way, and we were on our way by just after 5.30, for once with the A12 traffic on our side. Little more than an hour later, we arrived, and the Roller showed non-stop for a couple of hours, never particularly close, but giving excellent scope views… perched and preening for long periods, then spectacular in feeding mode as it sallied high and low after insect prey. Simply awesome – could’ve happily watched it all day, no exaggeration.

As the light started to fade, we too sallied high and low for food (of the Woodbridge fish-and-chip variety) and, like the Roller, met with considerable success. Near the end of our al-fresco dining, Paul got buzzed by a rather spectacular stag beetle, which landed on the house opposite. I happened to have a macro lens with me, and I think it’s fair to say that the following result is slightly better than the previous shot…

PS – the beetle was a lifer as well!

Dainty Damselflies, Isle of Sheppey

2011-06-12T16:52:00.001+01:00

Paul W and I made a successful trip down to Kent yesterday lunchtime for another new species of Odonata: Dainty Damselflies, which were only rediscovered in the UK last summer after going extinct here in 1953. They were located in three sites, and since one of these has public access, details have been released.

The site involves a few small pools underneath the new Isle of Sheppey high-rise bridge (the A249), surrounded by rough grassland. Turn off just before the start of the new bridge, go over the old bridge, and aim to park in a gateway on the LHS after about 150m – there’s room for about four or five cars with care. Once you drop down a short but steep bank, you’ll see the pools about 50m ahead of you. The Dainties seem to be favouring the area around the second pool from the left. This map might help…

On arrival, we heard that up to four males had been seen earlier in the morning, but had disappeared with the arrival of thicker cloud and a few spots of rain. Fortunately, this soon cleared, and we could start searching through the relatively small numbers of Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselflies. After about 30 minutes, Paul located a smart female Dainty in grass NE of the pool, which showed well for photos – click to enlarge:

The first image is the best one, and shows a number of distinctive features:

rather long, pale pterostigma (longer than they are wide)
thin black spur on the side of the thorax forming an inverted exclamation mark
relatively thin antehumeral stripes, compared to Common Blue
extensive black on segments 3-7 tending to a point at the top: ‘rocket-shaped’
very pale off-white legs – not sure if this is significant or not?
small size compared to Common Blue also noted

A short while later, a male was also located. My shots of this aren’t quite as good, but (hopefully!) still leave no doubt, illustrating:

almost entirely black segments 6 & 7
pattern on S2 is usually like a wine-glass – a U shape connected to a black band below (similar to Variable Damsel). On this individual, there was no connecting ‘stem’… though this feature is apparently very unreliable
mushroom shaped pattern of black on S3
black H pattern on S9, like that on an Azure (but where a Common Blue should be plain blue)

Finally, by way of variety, here’s an impressive cricket of some kind… waiting on an ID for this one!

Race for Life

2011-06-10T18:27:00.001+01:00

Suzanne here, I’ve hijacked the blog for a good cause…

A couple of years ago I completed the Race for Life to raise money for Cancer Research UK and this year I’m doing it again. However, as an additional challenge I’ve undertaken a logistical nightmare and registered 60 Brownies, Guides and Guiders from the Buckhurst Hill District to do it with me. Next I have to ensure that amongst thousands of pink clad women in fairy wings we all manage to meet up and stay together! I really can’t think about that yet, for now I’ll concentrate on fundraising…

Please visit my page and compensate all of my stress by supporting a fantastic charity and don’t forget to GiftAid it!

Sponsor me!

White-throated Robin, Hartlepool… on my list!

2011-06-07T21:54:00.001+01:00

Irania … a Latin name that appears to spark quite some excitement for a lot of British birders. There’s only one member of that genus: Irania gutturalis, the White-throated Robin, a summer migrant to Turkey and areas to the east, with two previous records from the UK. Neither were twitchable. And with the spring apparently going out with a whimper, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see one any time soon.

Happily, I was wrong, though – birding’s constant ability to deliver massive surprises is one of its many attractions, and the pager message early yesterday is a classic example. I imagine a fair number of people suddenly got taken very ill on their way to work just before 9am… though not me. (Maybe I have too many principles to be a top notch twitcher?)

It sounds like yesterday’s events in Hartlepool were bizarre yet entertaining: although the bird was generally showing in a garden enclosed by 3 metre-high walls, this was nowhere near enough to deter a few hundred ~~rabid~~ enthusiastic twitchers! Check out a couple of videos that set the scene:

And the photo on BirdForum of a guy standing on his mates’ heads while he leans on the wall is absolutely priceless!

Anyway, despite the prospect of mad shenanigans, I managed to provisionally secure a day off… and then upgraded it to definite when positive news came through early this morning. I really hadn’t been expecting the bird to stay, but no complaints! Drive up was very straightforward (250 miles @ 50mpg in just over 4 hours, for those who care about such stats), and we were delighted to find the infamous Doctor’s Garden was open for visitors – many, many thanks are due to the local birders for getting this organised. What’s more, the bird showed almost immediately on the lawn – never really close enough for my 400mm lens, though:

It was very charismatic as it moved around – considerably bigger and paler above than the Bluetail which was originally advertised, with a rather long and strong bill that reminded me of Isabelline Wheatear. I enjoyed a chat with Ash Fisher of Scilly pelagics fame, as the bird flicked in and out of the adjacent Allotment Garden, and motor drives periodically fired. The Doctor’s Garden was easily big enough for the crowd of less than 100 birders to spread out around the edge, and with the bird showing regularly people were coming and going throughout.

After about 90 minutes, we’d enjoyed excellent views and, in the absence of anything else noteworthy nearby, opted to head back home – very well pleased with a completely unexpected mega bird. I hope it’s still around for a few more days so others can catch up with it… but given that there appears to be no access to the favoured garden tomorrow, it might be a struggle to connect! I’d also be surprised if the bird lingered much longer, but then again I’ve already said that birding throws up surprises pretty regularly, so who knows…

Recent news…

2011-05-18T21:08:00.001+01:00

Been a bit slack with the blog lately, so here’s a quick photographic update.

Over the Mayday bank holiday weekend, I had an early start in the Brecks one morning, and found a small number of these gaudy creatures:

Then headed out to the coast to twitch a Woodchat Shrike and this White-winged Black Tern, amongst commoner spring migrants:

… and then a small detour on the way home took in these four cracking Black-winged Stilts.

More recently, I’ve spent a lot more time than is healthy here:

Yup, that’s Cley (and one of its specialities). The less said about that the better, though, so let’s move quickly on to a showy Shore Lark.

Common Nighthawks at Anahuac

2011-05-07T19:51:00.000+01:00

Couple of photos that I meant to post earlier… we saw at least half a dozen Common Nighthawk one afternoon at the far end of the Anahuac reserve. They were roosting on the gravel road, presumably having recently come in off the sea, and with a bit of patience allowed fairly close approach. The intricate patterns on each feather are extraordinary!

What do you get if you cross a tame Treecreeper with a mint humbug?

2011-05-07T11:31:00.001+01:00

Answer: lots of nice photos! As if you couldn’t guess, this is a Black-and-white Warbler, photographed in Port Aransas as it fed contentedly no more than a couple of metres from a small group of impressed birders.

Suzanne’s Favourite Lumix Photos from Texas

2011-05-06T18:57:00.001+01:00

I thought it was about time I shared some of my photos from the trip before I head out to the Birders’ drinks to drive all over East London dropping the Boozy Birders home…

They are certainly not my favourite birds and I also took lots of flower and dragonfly photos but these are the ones that I want to share for now. They’re the ones that remind me what Texas was like for me. There will also be lots of links to my bird videos to follow. I discovered that this was the one thing that I could definitely do better than David. I think they’ll have to wait until my time is my own again once the kids go on study leave next Friday though.

Brazos Bend – my favourite placeSnowy EgretYellow-crowned Night-heronSome kind of Swallowtail!Aransas National Wildlife RefugeMenacing Croc…Wild TurkeyBrown Pelican Laughing GullRoyal TernParadise Pond, RockportBlack and White WarblerUnimpressed Great-tailed GrackleGreen JaySwamp RabbitWe really wanted to know what the Pelicans do but alas they did not perform for us…Tricoloured HeronSanta Ana National Wildlife RefugeRuby-throated HummingbirdLost Maple State Park Concan Bat Cave 187 miles on one long straight road to HoustonHoustonRoseate SpoonbillEastern KingbirdCommon NighthawkWilletMulberry-stained Blue JayMulberry-stained Lizard!WG Jones State Park, managed woodlands for Red-cockaded, Red-headed and Pileated Woodpeckers

Meep, meep!

2011-05-04T20:32:00.001+01:00

Remember this?

Well, in Texas we saw the real Roadrunner – and they’re almost as charismatic as the cartoon version. Here’s a selection of their many poses…

PS – here’s a very long distance hazy record shot of Mr W. E. Coyote. And no, he didn’t get the Roadrunner in real life, either.

Dodgy warbler photography

2011-05-01T16:46:00.001+01:00

One of the main attractions of Texas for a birding holiday was the glittering array of north American wood-warblers that pass through in spring – surely one of the most attractive families of birds in the world. We weren’t disappointed, with great views of a wide variety of species along the coast at well-known sites like Boy Scout Wood, Smith Oaks, Sabine Woods and South Padre Island. However, at all of these, photography was pretty challenging: warblers are almost constantly on the move, through dense vegetation, shaded from very strong sunlight!

Fortunately, one of the species I particularly wanted to see showed very well at South Padre Island: Northern Parula. The first two images are of a female, while the third looks like an adult male, complete with eyeliner!

Other species were not quite so obliging, but they’re such superb birds, I feel compelled to show you the photos anyway!

American Redstart – stunning!

Bay-breasted Warbler – one of the scarcer species at High Island

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Magnolia Warbler – although this shot doesn’t do it justice, this was probably my favourite Dendroica

Prothonotary Warbler – we completely missed these on coastal passage, but found one easily in a breeding area inland

Yellow-throated Warbler – several times I picked this species up by song, sounding a bit like a Willow Warbler

OK, not a warbler… but White-eyed Vireos were another regularly seen (and even more regularly heard) passerine while warbler-hunting

And finally, one more warbler and one more vireo: this time, speciality breeding birds in the Hill Country. The entire world breeding population of Golden-cheeked Warbler (estimated at just 21,000 individuals) lies within the boundaries of Texas, dependant on habitat rich in ashe juniper and live oaks. Walking the East Trail at Lost Maples, we had no trouble finding at least 10 singing males, some showing pretty well (though again, better to watch than photograph!)

Also at Lost Maples, we found a pair of Black-capped Vireos on the plateau. These birds favour dense scrubby bushes with scattered trees, and although vocal, tend to remain hard to see. They’re thought to be even rarer than the Golden-cheeks, with a world population of 8,000 individuals breeding from Texas into Mexico.

One good tern…

2011-04-30T17:54:00.000+01:00

…deserves several more. Following on from yesterday’s Royal extravaganza, here are some more Texan terns. First up, something familiar from home: Sandwich Terns.

Another familiar bird from Europe, but one I wasn’t really expecting to see in good numbers on the coast: we came across several groups of 50+ Black Terns, pausing on their northward migration. Individual birds could be found in just about any state of moult between full winter and full summer plumage… this one is at the former end of the scale.

We also came across a few Least Terns, with birds showing particularly well off the jetty at Quintana. The light was very harsh during the middle of the day, which made it difficult to get good sharp photos, especially of predominantly white birds!

And finally, something very unfamiliar, a bird that I’d been really keen to see: Black Skimmer. They proved to be pretty widespread and easily seen along the coast. The most showy and approachable birds were at Rockport beach, where you can drive alongside them.

A Royal occasion

2011-04-29T19:42:00.001+01:00

No, not that Royal occasion – there’s more than enough web space ~~wasted on~~ devoted to today’s events in London already! Staunch Republicans can read on in safety.

In Texas we encountered Royal Terns all along the coast, frequently showing very well in nice light for photography. Suzanne will testify that I spent quite some time enjoying them… but I think the results are worth it! These were taken in Rockport and Port Aransas.