Last December I paid a visit to Suffolk to twitch the redpoll trio - arctic, mealy and lesser. Three ticks in one go. With the new year list to add to, the same opportunity was presented as they were all still being reported. As with most of this Winter, the weather looked pretty grim but hey, thats what I've bought all this wet weather gear for, so another early start got me to Hazlewood Common just after 8.30.
There were already 4 other cars in the small car park and I could see a knot of birders studying the bushes near the white cottage. This is where the flock normally transits through in between excursions into the set aside field with its flower heads full of delicious seeds! I pulled on my gear and walked the 30 yards or so (if only all twitches were this easy on the legs) to join the others.
As soon as I got there two things were immediately obvious. One was that even though we were now an hour or so after sunrise it was one of those days when it was never going to get light. Second, there were a lot of birds moving around, flying into the hedge and from there back and forth into the field. The problem was going to be telling what was what. The three different redpolls are all pretty similar and are on a continuum of colour from brown (lesser) through grey (mealy) to almost white (arctic). Either extreme are easy to tell apart, but the mealy (or common) redpolls can overlap the other two. This became a cause for tension over the next hour or so, but I'll return to that in a bit.
First, let me try and show the problem. This first bird is the lesser redpoll, which is actually the commonest in the UK.
It has an overall quite brown colouration and a reddish tinge to its breast as it moves into Spring. It is also slightly smaller and more delicate. Most of the flock of probably 30 or more birds were of this type. There were reckoned to be 2 mealy redpolls and 1 arctic in with them.
These next two photos are reasonable candidates for mealy redpolls. They are lighter in tone, tending towards grey on their streaked flanks but still with a nice light coloured belly. As the flock was constantly moving and rarely sitting still it was hard to tie them down.
Finally you had the one arctic in with them, in the photos below. This is a very white bird, with little streaking on its flanks and a clear white rump, if you could see it. When you saw it though it really stood out, and this is also the rarest of the three and so he prize catch everyone wanted. On a very dull day mealy redpolls also looked very white compared to the lessers and a lot of "discussion" was provoked around which was which.
Now for some reason, I appeared to be nominated as the leader of our little group. Partly because I had seen the birds before and had photos and also because I am getting to be reasonable experienced and happy to put my opinion out there. Also the fact I early on pulled out an overflying merlin gave me kudos. Quite early on we had a very light coloured bird perch out in the open. Everyone else gave it the "there it is" and fired off some shots. I looked at my shots and there's and said "mealy" much to everyones disappointment but they eventually agreed. Over the next hour we split up and followed the flock both in the tree and the ground. Each time a light bird appeared, sometimes the arctic, most times not, everyone came to me for confirmation of identification. This is when it started getting a bit heated. One bloke claimed he had seen the arctic in the hedge, and this was his only view at that time. His mate said it was a mealy and brought the photo to me! I confirmed "not arctic" and it slightly kicked off. The conversation went along the lines of "it was a bloody arctic, not the one in your photo", "no it wasn't, same bird, you've not seen it yet", "yes i bloody have, i'm having it".... At that point as I realised I was going to get involved in arbitration I used a rain shower to make my excuses and leave before they came to blows! Still, I got some good views of it whilst they were arguing!
After that I carried on along the Suffolk coast trying to see the list going but the weather was getting increasingly awful. First of all I moved to the coast to North Warren where there were flocks of both white-fronted and barnacle geese feeing on the marsh, albeit at extreme range!
Both numbered about 150 birds. The white-front geese are true winter visitors, and are classic grey geese but with a clear white patch on top of the bill, which with a bit of imagination you can see. The barnacles are almost certainly feral birds, part of an increasing self-supporting population in the south of England.
Next was a trip to the lake at the end of the marsh where I saw a couple of dozing female goosanders and then onto Dunwich beach where I managed to locate a single twite on a windswept beach. as well as some more snow buntings. For what I thought would be my last stop I moved into Essex to Abberton reservoir for over-wintering sew. These are small diving ducks with the males being a beautiful white colour and could be seen from the causeway.
I fully accept the fact you can barely see birds let lone make them out in these photos, but there were 5 females and one male on the lake - th male is in the middle photo!!
I was just packing my gear up and having a coffee when I checked my phone and saw that a ring-necked duck had been reported at a reserve, Abbotts Hall Farm, only 5 minutes away. I nipped over there and a very helpful lady in the Essex wildlife centre pointed me in the right direction, which was a 20 minute walk away. With the light falling rapidly I found the hide and lake next to it. The duck was soundly asleep in the middle.
It is in the lower right of the picture above. Superficially like a tufted duck, also in the picture, it has a grey not white flank and although you can't see it here, a ring on its bill. It never woke up!
With the light almost gone I headed back to the car and home. A really good if tiring day and the year list up over 110. Need to keep cracking on though as last year I had 144 in January which I think will be hard to match, but lets try!!!
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