Fudge, Blyth's, Shorelark, Rosy Pastor, Black Red and the rest of the highlights

So, 3 months behind, I think it is time we got this show on the road right?!

I will start by saying this will not be a run down of every days birding I had in November, but simply the highlights, or anything I think of note.

18/11/14

A break from coursework and revision led me around to Parkes Hall Pool, which, despite being quiet, I managed superb views of a Grey Wagtail feeding on the track

22/11/14

With the quarry on patch having flood it is quickly becoming one of the highlights from a visit to the patch (spring is approaching, watch this space!) and it has been producing a steady trickle of decent birds (mostly at a patch level). On my first scan I picked up 3 dabbling ducks on the forever increasing size of the water body. 2 Wigeon and a Teal, all females but all unusual on a patch standing. The Wigeon were only the 2nd and 3rd I have ever seen on patch so to say I was chuffed was an understatement! 

23/11/14

Wanting to check for the presence of the dabblers again, I quickly headed up to the quarry, but the ducks had disappeared. However, a Gull flock had started to develop, and a little bit of scanning pulled out a patch mega!

A 1st winter Mediterranean Gull had joined the flock!!

No less than a patch first, ecstatic! 

25/11/14

Gulls have featured prominently this winter. Most of my birding exploits have revolved around visits to Chasewater for the roost, and I have managed a number of highlights. On an evening at Chasewater, I managed to locate 3 Willow Tits among a tit flock on the eastern shoreline of the reservoir, a much enjoyed record considering how rarely I see them! The roost didn't hold anything that make your hair stand on end, but an adult Mediterranean Gull and 4 Yellow-legged Gulls were worth getting cold for!

 

29/11/14

Following a session on patch, I heard news that the adult male Black Redstart was still showing at the Birders Store in St Johns, Worcester, and it would have been rude to have not made the pilgrimage to see my first 'Black Red' of the drake variety! Great views were had as it flicked around St Johns church, never remaining still for more than a few seconds, making digi-scoping difficult! What a stonker of a bird though!

 

 

30/11/14

The next day was a dirty twitch down to Bristol where an adult Rose-coloured Starling had been residing. After a very unpromising start, being surrounded in dense fog for nearly 3 hours, eventually it cleared, and as soon as it did, low and behold, a striking black and 'white' Starling flew over our heads from some distance away. It dropped into the bushes next to us, where we had brief, obstructed, but good views in someones garden. Unfortunately, some t**t with a camera then thought the best option was to climb a fence on someones private property and flop their lens over the top, flushing the bird and it then not showing for a further 3 hours. Luckily he left a soon as he did honestly, I can imagine a few words having been traded if he had stayed more than 20 seconds after committing his offence. 

 

3/12/14

Nothing hugely of note, but there was a nice close female Goosander at Sheepwash.

 

7/12/14

A work party session at Upton Warren included some pre, and post work birding, where a Green Woodpecker showed insanely well from the hide. During our work, we undertook a Snipe count, in which 8 Jack Snipe were counted, among 20 or so Common.

8/12/14

A pair of Ring-necked Parakeets were showing 'rather well' at a local park.

9/12/14

A reconnaissance trip to Chasewater/ Stubbers Green for a forthcoming NGB day the following weekend turned out rather well! Stubbers had a good number of Gulls, including a fine adult Yellow-legged Gull, as well as a 2w bird.

But the main interest was witnessed from the south shore of Chasewater, where quite bizarrely, an adult Bewick's Swan was feeding/ roosting among the Mute Swan, dodgy domestic hybrid geese and ducks! My first for the WMBC region, and honestly something i really was not expecting to see on my visit that evening!

The roost was rather quiet, but of very large size, the highlight being the 4 Yellow-legged Gulls again.

13/12/14

The NGB Gulls day came, but Gull wise it was rather disappointing at the 'day sites'. A 'near adult' Yellow-legged Gull the pick of the bunch at Stubbers, but our day was to get much more interesting/complicated once we arrived at the south shore, Chasewater for the roost.

Pretty soon, James panned onto a rather strikingly obvious Gull, which seemed to show many characteristics of Ring-billed Gull! Significant discussion followed, and I don't think a true, and agreed answer was ever found. Was it 'the' hybrid. Was it a backcross? Was it a pure RBG? Who knows. You win some you lose some.

In my opinion, I believe it to have been A hybrid, but not 'THE' hybrid. But what do I know.

Our main aim for the day though was Caspian Gull, and we were obliged by a rather pretty and outstanding 2nd winter near the jetties, which we managed very good views of. For the 3rd visit running, we managed to pick up 4 YLG.

14/12/14

A rather 'spur of the moment' trip took place the following day as I decided to join 3 of my companions from the previous day (and another NGB) as we headed north. Spending the night at Zacs house, we made the quick journey to Rossall Point at dawn, where on our first walk down the beach managed to 'find' a female Snow Bunting, which was showing so closely from the concrete path the whole did didn't fit into the scope at minimum zoom!

An Eider was out on the mudflats when I got a call from the group who I had become separated with. They had found our target. A few seconds after, running across the dunes with 2 scope/tripod combos on my shoulders I lay it down on the bowling green/ picnic area to be treated to stunning views of the Shorelark that has been wintering there! What a way to start the day!

Moving east, we drove to Pugneys C/P where we waited for our target to come out of the grass. With some coercing from the local patchworker and finder of the bird, up came the bird with a loud and very obvious call from the tall grass. A couple of further flight views were had, but to say I was impressed would be a lie. I would have much preferred to have studied it on the ground. However, there was no doubting what it was, it called like a Blyth's Pipit, was smaller and lest robust than a Richards, and had the 'dodgy' tail that made the bird so distinctive among the Meadow Pipits

 

16/12/14

Me and Matt met up to try to refind the hybrid Gull from a few days previous, starting at Stubbers and finishing at Chasewater. In between these two sites, we dropped into Ryders Mere, where an immature Great-Northern Diver had been found earlier in the day. A first visit for me to the site and I left impressed.

The roost at Chasewater was decent, we managed to locate the 'known' RBG hybrid quickly, which destroyed any optimism over our find a few days before, but the roost held a 2w Caspian Gull (not the same as we had seen), an adult Mediterranean Gull and 3 Yellow-legged Gulls. Not too shabby!

 

20/12/14

I had not visited Chelmarsh reservoir for some time, so with a free evening I headed over. The Gull roost was very impressive, being the largest I have ever seen it, with the flock extending almost 3/4 of the length of the reservoir on the opposite shoreline. A little bit of scanning paid of with 3 Yellow-legged Gulls. It was while scanning I heard the rather bizarre sound of a Ring-necked Parakeet calling in the woodland behind us, and as we left, the corvids flushed out of the woodland, and so did the Parakeet!

See the below photo, the left hand bird out of the top 2 is the Parakeet, trust me!

 

 

21/12/14

I was scanning the quarry on the patch when some commotion behind me had me noticing a small brown falcon motoring across the paddocks behind me. On getting my bins onto the bird, it quickly showed itself to be a stunning fem/juv Merlin! A first for patch for me. A flock of mixed winter flushed was feeding in the paddocks, and once they re-settled gave really great views in the sun.

 

30/12/14

The last 'day out' of the year. A female Ferruginous Duck had been found at Slimbridge the day before so I headed down with Mike in the hope of catching up with it. Catch up with it we did as it warily swam and circled on one of the captive pens after being relocated by one of the reserve wardens. It flushed off to the south lake later.

 

 

It however does seem to enjoy being among its close relatives on the captive pen as it associates with Baer's Pochard and its behaviour has changed somewhat since it first arrived. Many people are binning it as a plastic but I can't help but wonder if it is just a case of 'copycat'? Would you leave if someone was throwing you free food at regular intervals during the day?

A rather enjoyable bit of winter birding was had around the site, with all the regular species, including this rather menacing looking Buzzard!

 

 

My last birding  exploit followed on the way back, as we dropped into the somewhat of a rarity hotspot of Pitville Park, Chelthnam, where we managed stunning views of a male Dartford Warbler, which was showing uncharacteristically well! Much to both mine and Mikes delight, as our previous bird at Arne RSPB earlier in the year had been nothing more than a glimpse of a female in the dark shadow of a gorse bush! What a treat!

MB

Dorset and Hampshire! Yellowlegs steals the show!

15/04/14

It was while preparing to head home to Dudley that I received a message from Mike W, saying that he was going down south tomorrow, and wondered if I wanted to join him in a long haul trawl across multiple sites!

Needless to say, it didn't take much convincing, and my plans about going home were quickly changed and I stayed over in Stourport for another night.

After an early pickup, it was an uneventful drive down to our first port of call, that 8 mile long peninsular that is Portland. 

As we drove through Chesil Cove, we quickly spied a Sandwich Tern as it flew across the 'Fleet' right next to the road! Certainly a good omen considering we hadn't even reached our destination yet!

Once we had reached the famous red and white striped lighthouse, we were informed that we had missed a 'fall' day, and there was little about landbird wise, so we headed over to the sea to look for moving seabirds!

I was quickly struck by how easy the seawatchers have it at Portland, as everything was passing close offshore, rather that the distant flapping dots I am used to! Needless to say, it made looking far easier, and many times it was much easier to just use my bins. A few small parties of Sandwich Tern passed, as did larger numbers of Common Scoter and Kittiwake. However, there were many more birds to look at, a couple of Puffin's were flying around, and one sat on the water briefly just off the bill among large numbers of both the two common Auks. 2 Red Throated Diver were moving close inshore to the  west of the bill also and a single Shelduck moved east. 2 early Whimbrel flew past, giving great views as they moved low east.

Large numbers of Hirundines were moving 'in off', which was stunning to see, some coming very low over our heads as they rose over the cliff.

What was more surprising however, was the 2 raptors which flew 'in off'. While watching Sandwich Terns passing, I picked up a small raptor low over the water flying directly towards us, and it was motoring it!

Very quickly, it was adjacent to us over the sea to the west, and that small brown raptor revealed itself to be a stunning female MERLIN!

Who could believe that! A female Merlin 'in off' the English channel!

Migration is amazing!

But that was not all!

Soon after I picked up another small raptor, just one more distant, and higher up in the sky, but still slowly making its way 'in off' from the south. With the sun shining, I could see glowing red 'trousers' on the bird, it was a HOBBY!

How amazing is that! Two migrant raptors, both arriving off the sea following a flight across the channel! 

Seeing so many bird arriving on our shores for the first time this year was simply stunning, and it is really one of the reasons why I know birding is such an amazing hobby (excuse the pun), what an awesome experience!

We then had a quick wonder around some suitable looking habitat on the Bill, but, as we had been told earlier, failed to find anything spectacular, a couple of Wheatear, a Stonechat and one each of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler.

With half the morning gone, it was time to move onwards to Arne RSPB. We duly asked one of the volunteers about where to go to find Dartford Warbler, and she was very obliging and told us where we had a decent chance.

Sadly, following a couple of hours slog around the site, I was left very underwhelmed. The area we had been guided to seemed completely the wrong habitat for Dartfords, with very little gorse, and there was very little birdwise to keep us occupied. Obviously the cold and severe winter had had a profound impact on the Dartford population at the site, seemingly to the point where there are non!

It wasn't a hard decision to start heading back to the car, and it was while doing so that a male Stonechat perched on an area of Gorse. Knowing of a habitual trait of Dartford Warbler to follow Stonechats, we moved our position in a last ditch attempt to look for our target. A short while after, and a small, dark bird flitted up in the shadows of the lower branches of a bare Gorse bush. A little bit distant, I pointed my scope, and that dark shape morphed into a stunning long tailed female DARTFORD WARBLER!

How about that for luck!

As quickly as it appeared however, it dropped back down into the low gorse, but we both left happy.

Now we were moving further east still, crossing the county boundary to do some twitching. A Lesser Yellowlegs  has wintered at a small country park right on the coast at Lepe country park.

With the satnav plugged in, we got to our location easily, and having parked at the end of the car park, we quickly dodged our way down the path to the marshy pools, avoiding the numerous beach go'ers, dog walkers and French students!

We scanned the first pool, which looked an awesome bit of habitat, and soon after, the bright yellow legs of a  LESSER YELLOWLEGS could be seen through an area of Tussocks! Slowly, the bird made its way from its roosting area out into open water, where we had great views of this stunning transatlantic wader!

Coming into summer plumage, the mix of pale silvery grey head, neck and upperparts contrasted with white and black flecking, much better than some streaky juvenile! A real stunner!

  

As well as 'The Yank', this pool, held a single Ringed Plover, 6 Turnstone and many Redshanks.

Having had our fix of this stunning yellow legged 'beaut', it was time to move onwards to our last location of the day, Keyhaven Marshes, where another Yank wader had been wintering, but had been a lot more elusive.

A few (Islandica) Black-tailed Godwits were feeding and showing well in the small harbour, as were numerous Redshank, Turnstone and 3 Dark Bellied Brent Goose, a good start considering we had only walked a short distance from the car!

The pools were much more lively, the first of which we were treated to a stunning partial summer plumaged SPOTTED REDSHANK fly in and start feeding towards the back of the pool. Having birded past many Redshank, we failed to find much else of interested on this pool, but upon reaching the 2nd lagoon it was obvious more birds were on here. Nothing was immediately obvious on the pool, so while scanning the estuary, a small Tern appeared distantly, and on getting the scope onto the bird, it revealed itself to be a rather smart Little Tern!
A few small parties of Mediterranean Gull flew over east, all of them rather stonking adults, all glowing in the evening sunshine and their obvious white wingtips standing out a mile, making them look akin to an Egret in flight.
A single Little Ringed Plover was running around on the island, and it was while looking over this, a small wader scurried out from behind some tussocks of grass. Obviously much smaller than the LRP, it was obvious we were watching a Stint, and a scope view revealed my 3rd LITTLE STINT of the year

The wind had picked up a huge amount by this time (hence the wind noise), and with the sun starting to drop, it was time to head back to the car,but a scan across the saltmarsh revealed a few Ringed Plover among larger numbers of Dunlin.

 While walking past the 1st lagoon again, the Spotted Redshank had moved much closer, and we had great views of it as it fed fairly close into the track!

With 110 species logged for the day between us, we both left very happy having had a great days birding.

However, one last surprise came as a Woodcock flew over the car in semi-darkness as we neared Oxford! A bird I was not expecting to find for the day!
How about that, 111 for the day!
MB