August 2012

The wader theme continued into this month with a splendid moulting adult Curlew Sandpiper at Pennington Marshes (4th) that still had a nice amount of red on the breast. The sea was comparatively much quieter with just 3 Manx Shearwaters from Milford-on-sea the same morning despite some promising looking winds. Remarkably Junes Night Heron also reappeared in the same place along Lower Pennington Lane, much to the delight of those who missed it first time round (Alan Lewis), but remained elusive with its wing only on view.

Highlight of the day came from inland, with a last ditch attempt for Honey Buzzards in the county just before I headed off to Greece. The weather wasn't ideal; reasonably strong winds and heavily overcast with a good chance of rain early afternoon but Lee and I gave it a couple of hours anyway. Nothing. Not even a Buzzard or Goshawk, but just as we were packing up a large bird of prey flew in from the far right, classic arched winged profile as it swung round and continued across the valley where it then decided to land on a conifer providing us with the best views of a Honey Buzzard either of us had every had. The light-phase male balanced for a good 5 minutes before dropping down into the canopy. Unfortunately neither of us thought about grabbing a couple of shots before it did so!!

The wind and rain gave way to glorious sunshine the next day and enabled me the opportunity to try again for another of my targets this year; Purple Emporer. I visited a site already stacked out where I had previously seen a good candidate but all too briefly, this time however I managed several good views of a female not only in flight but also perched! Also of note were several Silver-washed Fritillary.

Then it was time for my annual summer holiday somewhere hot (Emma's choice) to top up the tan. This year we went to the island of Kos in the Aegean Sea for two weeks. Emma got a great tan, I'm still pasty white but I did see some nice birds. Its the first time I've done any birding around the Mediterranean region so it was nice to gen up on scarce and rare passage migrants to Britain as well as seeing 5 new species that are relatively standard fair for the area. Birding sites are few and far between on the island, especially in the summer months when the wetlands at Psalidi are dry, but the saltpans at Tigaki though mostly evaporated had just enough to attract a good mix of birds. I visited several times in the second week by cycling the 10km from Kos town to get there for first thing or dusk. First up were 3 Spur-winged Plovers (6 on the last day) on the western edge of the saltpan, an adult Bonelli's Eagle flew over Old Pyli, and several Cretzschmar's Buntings visited the only freshwater stream to the saltpan to drink. Eleonora's Falcon whizzed overhead at various places on the island (6 together on the last morning) and surprisingly I only saw one Black-eared Wheatear on the eastern side of the saltpan; a species I expected to see a lot more of.

The final week of the month produced some rather strong winds up the English Channel, so inevitedably eyes were on the sea. Unfortunately things were not as exciting as I had hoped with only 2-3 Balearic Shearwaters lingering offshore. The only other highlight was an Osprey fishing in Langstone Harbour and a juv Curlew Sandpiper on the main lagoon on the final day of the month. Good news though, things are definitely heating up, with the hurricane season now in full swing inthe States I expect a wave of Nearctic waders in the next few days!

July 2012

As everybody is fully aware, this summer has been pretty naff, a non-starter in many respects with the more than familiar wind and/or rain making an appearance most, if not everyday! I have however used this to my advantage, and so have been working every hour physically possible in order to fund my final year at uni, the big autumn birds and forthcoming trips. I am ashamed to say that this has limited my time in the field to near nothing so I have seen very little (as have most this time of year), but July still hasn't passed without at least one highlight!

I have never been very successful with 'orange-billed' Terns in the past, having missed or dipped all of them at least once, missing the Mudeford Elegant, dipping the Suffolk Lesser Crested in 2005, and both the Welney Caspian and Welsh Royal in 2009, so when news broke of another Caspian Tern in Norfolk I was more than cautious before dashing off. Infact I didn't dash off at all, and left it to the following day. Throughout the day the bird had been typically mobile commuting between sites on a 10 miles stretch of the River Yare but always seemed to return to the same pool at Buckenham Marshes.

I teamed up with Dan Houghton the next day (19th), who had also managed to wangle a day off work. Leaving about 90 minutes before any news we were already half way there when confirmation it was still in the area was received. By late morning we arrived at Buckenham Marshes and walked the short distance to the pool by the old windmill where we immediately clapped eyes on the Caspo dwarfing the Black-headed Gulls.What a beast! The bird slept for a good 30 minutes before becoming more unsettled when it then left high in the direction of Strumpshaw Fen. Walking back round to the car, we waited for the bird to come back along the river and hopefully over our heads. It didn't disappoint and did exactly that, providing us both with very impressive views!! 

The rest of the month was predictably very quiet and traditional breeding birds that I usually see in the New Forest this time of year ie Honey Buzzards were very hard and seemingly non-existent at at least one normally reliable site. Things did actually pick up a little on a county level in the last few days of the month with a Red-backed Shrike at Cheriton - unfortunately I was at work and it had already departed by the time I got there the next morning. Wader passage was also on the up with firstly a Little Stint on Fishtail Lagoon, Pennington (28th) and then a Pectoral Sandpiper appearing on Normandy Lagoon (29th) with another Little Stint, and a single Wood Sandpiper on the Shoveler Pools. The Pec quite possibly being the same unidentified bird I saw drop in distantly with 6-8 Dunlin on Fishtail on the 28th, before it flew off over the seawall literally seconds later. This early wader movement is likely to relate to the poor breeding season they have had with birds moving South earlier than normal, from our point of view at least some autumn passage is underway!

June 2012

June immediately got off to a great start, but not with what you'd expect!! Whilst cleaning the thousands of sun scorched flattened flies from the front of my car from various trips last month, a Hawfinch began to call from the Oak trees behind my house before flying off towards a larger copse about 1/4 mile away on the morning of the 1st constituting the second garden tick of the year.

Thankfully last months male Black-winged Stilt at Pennington made yet another appearance, this time with the company of a female. I was eager to add this to my county list after missing them previously due to more important birds (Orphean Warbler and Baillon's Crake), on arrival both birds were actively feeding, but extremely vocal on the Shoveler pools.

Shortly after, I went to chat to Tim Parminter (Pennington Patcher) who was looking for the Glossy Ibis that had been seen that morning; no sign but an old chap approached us early afternoon informing us that he had seen a Night Heron. Being the sceptical sod I am, I was not expecting anything to come of it but nonetheless walked round there to investigate. Viewing was limited and so only a fraction of the fishing pool was visible but lo and behold, smack bang in the middle of the only open gap was a stunning adult Night Heron. And potentially the first twitchable bird in the county since the early 90's, so indeed another addition to my county list! News was distributed to all the locals as this was clearly going to be a popular bird and within the hour a small group had gathered, this was my queue to leave but not before checking Lower Pennington Lane again where I managed to briefly catch the Glossy Ibis walking back into the long grass! 

Wind and rain bought about a dozen Manx Shearwaters into the bay off Hurst on the 3rd, the Night Heron and Stilts were still on show; the latter getting abit of grief from visiting birders climbing the near bank to the pools preventing them from feeding close.

Whilst chatting to various other Hampshire birders at the Heron, I joked how a Marsh Warbler would be very much appreciated as again the last twitchable individual was yonks ago. But admittedly I wasn't expecting to wake three days later (5th) to see a report of a probable male singing at Harbridge, I dashed down there to immediately hear the bird mimicking Blue Tit, Great Tit and Linnet just metres away from the car, and was pleased to confirm it was one! The rain soon settled in but the Warbler still sang intermittantly at close range, showing occasionally as it perched up in the reeds, displaying most of the subtle characteristics and chasing neighbouring Sedge Warblers. The sound recording below is relatively poor quality, people talking, passing cars etc but not bad considering it was done with my phone and should come in handy when the finder submits their description.

Later the same week the winds increased to quite some strength with heavy overnight rain, attentions turned to the sea where I was once again hopeful of connecting with a Hampshire Storm Petrel. Small numbers had been at Portland and Hengistbury the previous day, with 16 still lingering off Hengistbury the following morning (9th). The Milford shelter failed to produce anything other than a fly-by summer plumaged Great Northern Diver, so Lee and myself went round to Hengistbury (Dorset) where there were half a dozen still feeding around the lobster pots, we immediately tracked back East onto the Hampshire side of the border where it took abit of time for us to pick one up from Chewton Bunny but we both eventually managed distant views of possibly 2 different birds! Whilst down that way it would have been rude not to drop in to see the Black-winged Stilts still in situ with the male showing reasonably well. Later the same day we went into the New Forest and found 4 roosting Nightjars without too much effort, including this amazing male.

Since then however, things have gone quiet as the Spring seems to have fizzled out and the summer lull has taken over, not helped further by the abysmally wet weather we have been experiencing. I have also started back at work for the Summer which has prevented me from getting out in the field as much as I'd like to, prefering the option of staying in bed as I work lates. The latter factor seriously messing me up when a Little Swift was found early afternoon on the Wirral (22nd), literally minutes after I had arrived at work. I knew immediately I wouldn't be able to leave so had my fingers crossed that it would linger for the remainder of the day and even roost. And that it did!! I finished work at 21:30, went home, had some food, showered, filled up the car, met Dan Houghton and Mick Fuller and we were on our way to arrive before first light.

Four hours later we arrived in darkness but could still see the Pier House (where it had reportedly roosted) relatively well because of nearby street lamps and could clearly see a swift sp that was either horizontally roosting or dead on an exposed ledge. Fearing it was the Little Swift we hoped it was just roosting but it didn't look very healthy either way. Minutes later someone then spotted the Little Swift roosting on another ledge several windows along with its large white rump exposed, squared-off tail with a small notch in the middle and pale fringes to the wing feathers all clearly visible at this point.

It was clearly getting restless as it began to flick its tail and occasionally lift its head, after two hours of light it then took flight with a low overhead display before joining the other Common Swifts over the Mersey where good comparisons could be made in terms of flight technique and overall structure. These photos are far being the best out there! Furthermore, the unhealthy horizontally roosting Swift eventually got up for a short fly before returning to the same position shortly afterwards.

Having had our fill by 7am, we headed back down South, driving straight past home to Bognor Regis (West Sussex) where three White Storks were still in situ. All showed well at range with about 20+ Grey Herons. These White Storks are most likely the remaining birds of the flock of nine, originally found in the Midlands that have since been touring the country for the last two months - yet all have avoided Hampshire so far!

May 2012

We (Lee and I) had had the birdrace pencilled in for the 2nd for a while as time was running out before I went to Romania. Although weather conditions still looked better for the weekend at least it was dry. We started just after midnight and again made the same mistake as last year by not giving the Forest the attention it deserved before it got light. Our hit rate during the morning was good until we started seawatching which was a waste of time, at this point we knew no records were going to broken so pretty much gave up and only visited a couple of sites afterwards to get Lee some year ticks. We were back at home by 17:30 but none the less finished on a respectable 134 (I think).

Remarkably last months Flycatcher was still available at the South Landing at Flamborough Head, it had been trapped and ringed with feathers collected for DNA analysis, so one way or another this bird was going to get sorted out! Although it still didn't look totally right and it's extremely unlikely to be an Atlas from the recent weather conditions in my opinion, I cracked!! Many people had already been to see it and were bigging it up, so to cover my ass thought I had better go pay it a visit for insurance sakes encase it is ever accepted as a first for Britain. Leaving late morning on the 3rd (once I had recovered from the birdrace), I met up with Rich Bonser near Lincolnshire for an evening assault. On arrival the bird showed well for a short spell and we very quickly hopped back into the car to head south again. Time to wait and see what the DNA results say...(Image provided by Rich).

First thing the following day (4th) I flew out to Bucharest, where I met up with the lads (Paul Mitchell, Dan Sencier, Rob Brumfitt & Ryan Deal) who drove across Europe in the donated Land Rover. We then drove to Ojdula where we met Paul White of the Transylvania Wildlife Project as this was going to be our base for the next 2 weeks. We spent many long days in the field trying to find what we could; large mammal sightings were few and far between, but evidence of their existence in the near area was clear with tracks and scat from Deer, Boar, Fox, Badger, Wolves and Bear found fairly regularly.

It took 12 days before we got our first truly wild (in the sense it wasn't baited etc) Brown Bear sighting. An known young male seen running away from us through the trees where unfortunately only half the group managed to connect. A little frustrating to say the least!! Whilst trying to relocate this bear we stumbled across a very large male about 20 metres away, we were down wind but it still knew we were there and so ran off over the ridge. We tried following it to get some footage and caught up with it very quickly, this time it seemed more aggitated as it swayed its head from left to right. Within a flash it then decided to charge at us, thankfully this was just a bluff as it soon changed direction and ran off through the trees but was enough to make me go weak at the knees. We definitely wasn't going to persue it further!!

 Amongst a good number of woodland species recorded I also managed several lifers including: Lesser Spotted & Short-toed Eagles, Black, Syrian & Grey-headed Woodpeckers, Ural Owl, and Sombre Tit. Highlights such as Black-headed Wagtail, Scop's Owl, Nutcracker and migrating Honey Buzzards were all a joy to see/hear again, while Bee-eaters, Red-backed Shrikes, White Storks, Golden Orioles and Hoopoes were far more numerous. After months of stressful planning, it was great to finally be there, and what an enjoyable experience it was too, with a fantastic group of people! (Also, whilst in Romania I received the DNA results of the Flamborough Flycatcher; surprisingly revealing it to be 100% Pied. Just goes to show the variation of these 'black and white' flycatchers doesn't it?!).

No sooner had I got back through the front door, was I out again (20th). Alan Lewis had managed to find his second Woodchat Shrike in Hampshire in the space of two weeks - anybody in Hampshire would know that that is quite an achievement. The Woodchat Shrike showed well completing a regular circuit around bushes just a short walk from the car park at Martin Down. This was only the second Woodchat I have ever seen in Hants. Note in the video clip how the Shrike manages to keep its head perfectly still from time to time.

Tiredness was taking its toll after I had a sleepless night in the airport the previous night and so as a result I fell asleep infront of the TV. Eventually pulling myself together I made it up to bed where I was hoping for a 10+ hour nap. Within 10 minutes of dozing off I was rudely awoken by the pager's MEGA alert and a phonecall from Dan Pointon alerting me to the discovery of a Cream-coloured Courser that evening in Herefordshire. Well that was it, how could I sleep knowing that was there. I literally jumped straight out of bed, into the car and began driving - teaming up with Dan and Josh Jones enroute. We arrived at dawn where it didn't take Josh long to relocate it on the golf course at Bradnor Hill at 04:45!! There was only 12 people there for the first few hours of light as most had already gone to bed when the news was released and most were probably still in bed while we were watching it. The adult bird looked very unimpressed and abit bedraggled but still what an absolute stunner. Never did I envisage seeing a Cream-coloured Courser just 8 years after missing the Scilly bird, this has made my year already!

Very inconveniently I had an exam in Carlisle on the 25th which coincided with a singing male Baillon's Crake at Malltreath Marsh, Anglesey. The both mornings I couldn't make it the bird was seen briefly, but it didnt show once over the three days I was there despite singing regularly during the evenings and early mornings. None the less it was nice to listen to and spend some time at various seabird colonies on the island with Curlew Sandpiper and Black Guillemot as additional year ticks. Baillon's Crake is very quickly becoming my bogey bird after dipping one previously in Ireland earlier this year, and getting a very brief view of a dark Crake sp on Shetland in 2008 that was more than likely to be one, it looks like I am going to have to be patient and wait for a more obliging individual.

In the meantime I went back over to Sheffield to spend some time with Emma as originally planned, before popping back up to Carlisle again to do my final presentation on Romania (28th). On the way home I popped into Huggin Carr (South Yorkshire), I had been wanting to pay the Hatfield Moors area a visit ever since Emma started Uni at Sheffield but never got round to it, so as Emma has only 3 weeks left of Uni I thought I had better get in quick to see the adult summer plumaged Red-necked Grebe that returns there every year. It showed nicely in the late afternoon sun with 4 Black-necked Grebes and a number of breeding Avocets. Once back in Sheffield I promised Emma a nice day out on Tuesday (29th), this very quickly changed when news of an Orphean Warbler broke at Hartlepool Headland (Cleveland). Remarkably the same place as the White-throated Robin almost a year ago!! This was another extreme mega that got the pulses racing, being the first twitchable individual since the Scilly bird in 1981 so basically everybody needed it. When trapped and ringed the bird was raced as the Western form 'Hortensis' and given a fat score of zero, this was evident on arrival as the bird hadn't moved from the same branch it was released on for 3 hours with its eyes closed and 'catching invisible flies'. Eventually it perked up a little and began to move about foraging for food but I feel a negative outcome was inevitable! Undoubtedly an incredible month - surely June can't keep the momentum going?!