Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Guillemots!

It would have been rude not to, seeing as it has come all this way and I was just round the corner. But in all honesty its a dull bird. Slightly darker head than a standard issue Guillemot, slightly thicker bill, a white line down the bill, otherwise your basic winter plumage auk. If instead of Brunnich's Guillemot being given full species staus it had been designated a sub-species I think about three people would have gone to see it.

But it wasn't all dull. There was a Black Guillemot, a very dainty bird easily picked out by virtue of being mainly white. Bizarrely, it is called Black Guillemot in the country where it is mainly white, and in the country where it is mainly Black it is called a Tystie. Should the scots vote for independence then we should rename this bird the White Guillemot.

And then a couple of Black Throated Divers. There is lots more in the harbour at the moment, but time was pressing ...

would I do this in MBYOW? Well yes if its round the corner, but I don't think I'd be going 200 miles for it. I'd prefer to see these in their natural habitat somewhere in the arctic.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Easiest Tick ever ... or was it?

For various reasons I found myself in Cambridge with 5 hours to spare which was 2 hours more than I had expected. I had planned on going to Wicken Fen but 5 hours is a long time to spend there so a quick look on birdguides and 50 minutes later I was pulling in to the car park at Lynford Arboretum and narrowly avoiding the scrum of birders. 51 minutes later I was being directed toward a stand of trees where a small flock of Common Crossbills was flitting around as apparently the target bird was popping in and out, and at 52 minutes bang! There it was, an irridescent raspberry coloured male with a pair of striking white wing bars on black coverts. A Two-barred Crossbill, just one of the 50+ birds to have invaded the UK in this year of Crossbill irruptions. It was a veritable piece of vivid tropical fruit in a bowl of apples. If only every tick was that simple. For the person next to me it was his 5th trip to see it. After that I wondered down the paddocks where some Hawfinches had been seen earlier. My luck had run out with just some more Crossbills and a Marsh Tit.

There was some speculation on whether this is genuinely a two-barred crossbill or is a variant of Common Crossbill, mainly due to the widths of the bars not being text book. And there was also some speculation that this is just the current trend to query absolutely everything. I tend to the latter. After all, this was not just a common crossbill with some white on the wings, it was a completely different colour; easily picked out from the others head on with no bars visible. And the wing bars weren't pale edges of coverts, they were strong and visible white patches.

But if it is a common Crossbill then its an even better tick than a two-barred crossbill, because in a year when there are 50+ 2bXbills in the country, we were looking at the one bird which is the rare double wing-barred raspberry coloured variant of Common Crossbill.

And thence to Wicken Fen. My first visit and I was quite impressed at the scale of the place, although if you want Short-Eared Owls then Burwell Fen out the back of Wicken is apparently the place to go. Bird-wise it was less impressive being a largely barren reed bed. A pair of Marsh Harriers, some Fieldfares, some Shovellers, and a distant small deer (Muntjac?) being the list. I left the Tower Hide before the Hen Harriers appeared and headed back to Cambridge.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Firecrests & MBYOW

don't go getting all excited. I haven't just seen one.

I did see one a few years ago in Hatfield Forest, and of course I've seen them at various costal watchpoints in the usual season,but its still a noteable bird for me. I feel I undersee them because I'm not familiar enough with the call to pick them up when they are around.

Firecrests are getting commoner, and by joining the dots I'd say they are getting commoner at quite a pace. Consider these three observations: Firecrests are widespread breeders in the west and north of Herts according to various local watchers. Firecrests are regular in winter at some local woods in NE London. In Dorset, Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens regularly has double figures of these birds.

They must be around here. So come MBYOW, I'm going to go looking for them. That's one more activity for the list.

Feeling smug

I've never knowingly seen a Pallid Swift. I thought I did several years ago on Rhodes, but then couldn't relocate it amongst the many common swifts with any certainty so it stayed off my Rhodes List, and I went away cursing my poor identification skills compared to those superior birders who effortlessly identify such birds.

Recently there's been lots of fuss on Birdforum about swifts appearing on the east coast. Are they Pallid or Common? Photos have been taken, measurements made, feathers counted, much zooming and rebalancing has gone on, and now we know that they are probably, but not definitely, Pallid Swifts. Suddenly I'm feeling inwardly superior about my earlier caution and generally quite smug.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Cleaning up on Portland

Regular readers of a previous blog will be aware of a standard type of post. The one where I go to Portland, have a great time, see some really nice Chiffchaffs, oh by the way others saw Albatross, Eagle, Hummingbird, but hey, it was great etc etc. Well not today!

I pitched up around noon after some local business and headed up the hill opposite the obs to where a small crowd was stood inspecting the very spot on the path where a Short-Toed Lark had been seen not very long ago. My general policy is not to hang around so I headed up to the top fields, and was admiring a party of 5 Stonechat when a lark flew over and landed further up. I got onto it and was soon taking in the general blandness and featurelessness that characterise Larks as a family. Its easy to agree with the sourrounding crowd on an id, but when you are faced with the bird itself its a different story. What are the particular features, or in this case lack of features, that characterise the Short Toed Lark? I remembered something about a neck or shoulder mark but there was nothing particularly obvious. Nevertheless I felt sure this was it - no streaking on the breast, no crest, slight russet cap, and most importantly it was feeding on the path. It was disturbed by holidaymakers and flew off, so I headed off to Southwell for a Yellow-Browed Warbler, noting a couple of Wheatears on the way.

Courtesy of helpful local birders I arrived at the line of sycamores hosting this particular siberian stray, and was soon pointed at a silhouette which promptly disappeared. We spend the next hour waiting for it to reappear but to no avail. The two birders there headed off, and I was about to do likewise when the YBW shot up from a bush and preceeded to give a specatcular performance out in the open at short range; hovering, flicking, constantly picking around leaves. Absolutely fantastic. It was over 25 years ago I last saw one of these, so probably not the same bird.

Back toward the Bill the Short Toed Lark had returned to the same point I last saw it. The id was now clinched by seeing the key identifying feature; an entourage of photographers who surely would not be wasting their time on a Skylark. We got ridiculously close, presumably not because the lark is by nature confiding, but presumably because this one, used to a life of being completely ignored due to its total featurelessness and overwhelming dullness, was now enjoying being the centre of attention.

Just time to get to Radipole for the Glossy Ibis, but would I get there before the North Hide shut to visitors? It closes at 4:30. Yes, that's right, its hosting a signficant rarity, its a Saturday, lots of RSPB members are keen to go and see it, but in the RSPB rules is rules and 4:30 sharp it closes. So I belted past 2 Clouded Yellow Butterflies and went off to Radipole, dashed to the North Hide and got into the hide at 4pm. The Ibis had dived into some reeds an hour before and had not been seen. Oh well, too much to ask to see all the birds on my list, so we stayed and chatted about this and that. A Water Rail walked casually along the muddy fringe of a reed bed, a couple of Wigeon dropped in, and as the man came to lock up we prepared to leave when suddenly serenely gliding past the open slots came the Ibis! Fortunately the chap contracted by the RSPB to perform the locking up had a passing interest in birds and we stopped to admire. I had been listening to a "clack-clack-clack" somewhere out left and had passed this off as a demented Stonechat, but the contractor then announced a Ring Ouzel on a bramble bush, so we duly admired this arrival - rarer than Glossy Ibis at Radipole, until we absolutely had to go. Note for future reference, remember that call! Ring Ouzels are apparently very chatty and love Brambles. Then just time for some more chat at the bandstand where in pristine low sunlight a hundred or so Mediterranean Gulls came through for a brief bathe before heading to the bay.

So, would I day like today fit into My Big Year of Wildlife? Undoubtedly yes. And quite a lot of them too. Right now, I think I could do a whole year of days like today."

Sunday, September 22, 2013

South Sawbo

My standard walk with D#2 - House .> Pishiobury Park -> Beckingham Palace (back of) -> Old Harlow -> Stort path -> cut through the boardwalk back to house. Highlights were Grey Wagtail on Southbrook just outside the house, Kingfisher making a welcome return dashing up the river, a Tawny Owl hooting, and then at 7:05 pm precisely something rather special.

Swallows had been present in good numbers along the river and over Pishiobury House, but over the field east of the Park they all seemed to congregate at once and swarmed all over the field and neighbouring area like a flock of huge flies. I tried counting - first 10, then in tens, then in hundreds, and the best I can do was between 500-1000. Just low, around and above, everywhere you looked.

It felt like I was watching something commonplace from decades ago, something that hardly ever happens now because numbers of all birds are much lower than they were.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Local - mid Aug to mid Sept

Following a summer lull I've been getting out a bit more. A quite impressive list too, if I'd actually seen the birds I'd been going for, but it turned out just a marginally interesting list.

18th August - Amwell (Hobby, Common Sandpiper, Red Kite x2) then King's Mead (Green Sandpiper).

24th there was much rain and a major fall on the E coast. I visited Amwell after all the action. There was a Garganey which was a very washed out buff, and a Wigeon. The next day I took a walk rund South Sawbo and had Lesser Whitethroat, Bullfinch, Blackcap, then over the Lower Sheering Road up towards Sheering itself there was Common Buzzard (a family party of 4), Spotted Fly and juv Whinchat.

26th August Hanningfield Res - 1 juv Black Tern, 1 juv Arctic Tern, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper, 0 WWBT!

1st September the new reserve at Thorley Wash held a Lesser Whitethroat + various commoner warblers, and a few Roach and a Pike in the river. Then a dog-walk in the afternoon in Pishiobury Park had a Spotted Flycatcher.

7th September repeat of the South Sawbo walk had uch the same plus 8 Skylark and 15 Linnets but no spot fly or whinchat.

7th pm at Rye Meads RSPB had 3 Green Sandpiper, 1 Snipe, 2 Wigeon, 2 Ruddy Shelduck, 2 Little Egret and a hobby.

14th September Pishiobury Park had another Spotted Flycatcher, then on ther 15th a visit to Pincey Brook (a flooded field near Hatfield Broad Oak) produced 30 Greylag Goose, some Teal and Snipe, but failed to produce the hoped for Ruff.

So, would any of this feature in MBYOW, given that these visits are often squeezed into an odd half hour when in MBYOW I'll have all day to go where I please? Well yes. Firstly, I expect there will still be a lot of squeezing in short trips. Then there's the context of the sightings. Local birds fit into a history of birds in that area, so sightings of, say, Meadow Pipit have a meaning in the local park they don't have on a day trip to Minsmere.

Finallyand for me most imprtant there's the views you get. Birds in the park, or for that matter at Rye Meads, are often close-too so you get good views. Watching terns at Hanningfield is a bit like watching bands at the O2, whereas local birds are like seeing bands down your local pub. Yes I was there, yes I can tick them, but did I really see them? The terns were dots in the distance. Perhaps the EWT should put big screens up and have remotely controlled cameras on a boat so we can all get good views. Although the Hanningfield list is the best, that's the one that probably won't make it into MBYOW.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

MBYOW??

If you had a year to do whatever you liked, no constraints, no places you had to be, how would you spend it? If you had complete freedom to go where you wanted, when you wanted, would you really take that opportunity? And if you'd spent your life thinking I'd really like to be doing X, and you got the chance, would you do it? And then the next question no-one can really answer; would it have been just what you wanted? Or would it turn out that really, it didn't hit the spot. That it was okay for a while, but it turns out you'd have been happier doing something else?

I've always been a birdwatcher, from getting an Observer's Book of Birds almost as soon as I could read, and looking up Oystercatchers and finding that yes they did occur in the Yorkshire Dales and I had just seen one, and then finding Waxwings on the way to school and just being blown away that such an amazing bird from such a distant part of the world could be here, now, on my street, outside my house. Then holidays in Northumberland with screeching terns, skuas, gannets plunging into the sea and a Bar-Tailed Godwit with surely the deepest brick red colour in all nature. School trips to Minsmere, Leighton Moss, with Bitterns creeping out of reeds, Marsh Harriers quartering reed beds and passing food in mid-air, then camping at Spurn Head in a freezing October and seeing a flock of Snow Buntings swirling and tumbling down a windswept beach like huge snow flakes. So I've always thought if I got the opportunity then I'd head off and do some proper birdwatching, maybe twitch a rarity or too.

But now I'm at an age when that opportunity might come, I'm not so sure. I've been increasingly aware that the best moments in wildlife watching aren't the moments you think will be the best, not the things on your list you are heading out to see, they are the ones you don't expect. That moment when boom! something drops into view, or a moment when a common bird stops right next to you. Seeing wildlife there and then, enjoying the spectacle, the colours, the sounds, the drama and then trying to understand what I'm watching, understanding what piece of the jigsaw puzzle of nature is in front of me. This, increasingly is what makes stepping out the front door, binoculars round my neck, something to look forward to.

So if that opportunity comes, how will I spend it? Would I want to spend hours on the road going to distant places to see rare birds, and then a few hours more waiting for it to pop out of a bush? Would I want to learn bird ringing or get involved in some other such activity to be part of expanding our knowledge? Would I want to spend it mainly in the company of others enjoying being in nature, or by myself? Or would it be easier and hence more realistic to just focus on all the wildlife that's around me here in East Herts with its valley, its Forests, and its gravel pits? And just birds,or butterflies, bats, dragonflies, plants, fish, ants, the lot?

I don't know the answers to these questions, so I'm going to send some time finding out. And when that opportunity comes I'll be ready for My Big Year of Wildlife!

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Knopper Gall

... so I should really know something about trees. I went off round the park and found Oak tree with acorns - no problem here - but one tree had these huge growths
some googling later and its the Knopper Gall, created by, and home of, the Knopper Wasp. And like much of our wilfdlife a recent arrival, first found in Devon in the 1950's. One tree had quite a lot, and the next one none at all.

Sunday, August 18, 2013