How far?

Every Winter we get an influx of birds from the Arctic or Scandinavian regions to our shores. Some are totally unexpected whereas others are predictable. A classic for the latter group is the great grey shrike. Although never in large numbers we must get dozens over wintering on our shores. Many of them end up in the south on the heaths around London. They are carnivorous in habit, hunting for small mammals, birds, reptiles and insects from exposed perches. The heaths give them a perfect hunting ground. They also tend to be very site loyal, returning to the same patch year after year. This means that once they arrive they can be quite predictable. I often go for one on Thursley common but that seems not to have arrived yet. One has been showing well in Ashford Forest in Sussex. A number of people I know have already been for it so with a bit of time free and nice weather I headed out after rush-hour was over.
It was a gorgeous day when I finally got there, passing though the almost continuous roadworks once you got onto the M23! A small group of birders were scanning the site. It was a good-sized valley, with us on one side looking out across heather, grasslands and trees both in leaf and dead. The news was no show though! Although site loyal they can range over vast areas and you are looking for one bird. I set in for a potentially long morning. There was a dead tree near us which was described as "its favourite perch". The fact that two or three people were constantly under it hopefully pointing lenses at it I thought was not such a good idea though!!! One bloke said he had spent six hours by that tree three days ago and it only popped onto the tree very briefly so how can it be its favourite tree. I think I know the problem there but no point having a row so I moved off a bit down the ridge.
Two ladies then appeared round the corner. "did you see it?" they asked. They had seen it way off in the distance. After a confusing series of descriptions about lollipop shaped trees we worked out where they were looking. It was right on the far side of the valley, probably a mile away!!!! Through the 'scope you could see a bird perched out on a tree, swaying in the wind. With a bit of imagination you could call it as the shrike. It was clearly hunting, dropping off the perch then returning but was too far off to see if it caught anything. With the view so distant I decided to walk round the valley to get a bit closer.
It took me I suppose 15 minutes but eventually I got to an area of open grassland. You could see the shrike much better from here as it hunted from the trees.

 It was quite flighty though and without any obvious cover I couldn't approach too close to it. I watched it for 10 or 15 minutes but it didn't seem to catch anything of any size. It finally gave up and flew off strongly in the direction of where we were first. I went back to that area where the crowd had now reached about 20 in number. For the next two hours the shrike showed "well but distantly". This means it was normally massively far away and sometimes only pretty far away.

Once it came a bit nearer to us but again the sheer closeness and number of people near its "favourite" tree was madness. It flew straight past us and onto the far side. Other people seemed to get closer in the valley itself but it looked like you needed a good modicum of luck as it was very mobile.  It should be there all winter though so I may pop back and have another go later on, probably not by its tree though!!!!

The day after

One of my best days birding was three years ago when I got the weather right and headed to Cley. A combination of wind and rain drove large movements of birds onto the coast. Over three hours we had hundreds of assorted little auks, skuas and shearwaters. Foul weather but good birding. Over this weekend there had been something similar, a large movement of birds all along the East coast including hundreds of pomarine skuas and little auks. The weather still looked reasonable on Monday so I thought it was worth a try to see if I could catch the tail end of the passage. 

By the time I got to Cley about 9.30 the wind had dropped although it was still onshore, pushing anything out there a bit closer to the beach. About 15 people were already by the shelter on the beach but I quickly ascertained it was pretty quiet. A large flock of scoters were on the sea and when they flew you could occasionally pick out a velvet scoter amongst them - told by the white sing-bars seen in flight. I spent about 4 hours in all scanning the sea in good viewing conditions but only two things got the pulse racing.

First, the people to the left of where we were standing called out "white-billed diver". We all got onto a passing large diver, quite far out. We had already seen a number of smaller red-throated divers and a couple of larger great northern divers. This one did look very white in flight and was clearly a large diver. Was it a white-billed? Personally I'm not sure as I didn't get a good enough view and don't have as much experience of telling apart divers in flight. I'd already seen them earlier in the year at Portree anyway so I'll put that one down as a possible. 

Second was actually one of my target birds for the trip. One of our group of about 10 called out "little auk". I started to scan the sea expecting to see a small blob piling past us at speed. "no, settled on the sea, just beyond the breakers". 

Indeed it was, a small bird bobbing around in the surf only 20 yards off the beach. Little auks are relatives of our guillemots and razorbills and are normally found in the Arctic. In Autumn though storms can drive them south and then they gradually relocate north along the East coast. They are tiny   birds, about starling sized and normally you see them whizzing along over the waves. This was the best view I've had so far.

They are one of those birds with a cute expression, which again you don't normally see. It stayed for 10 minutes or so and then lifted off and carried on with its journey. We saw two others as well, one settled further out and another in flight.

Elsewhere it was pretty quiet with the exception of a group of 7 snow buntings on the beach.

They were very flighty and you couldn't get close to them. It was still half-term and there were numerous families walking the beach with their dogs. A metal-detectorist scanning the tide line kept flushing them as well. The slow autumn is at least ticking over!

The cat is in the bag

After the fun of the owl fest at Portland, today was the big day - the grey catbird at Lands End. This would probably be my longest twitch yet and I'd been metaphorically twitching to get to it for a few days. It is a real mega rarity. Only one UK bird before, in Anglesey, many years ago and that was not seen by many. This one popped up in a field near Sennen last week and caused a major twitch. It even got onto the national news with hundreds going on the first few day and over 4,000 by now. It should be in the USA and is only a short-distance migrant over there hence why it is so rare over here. Over the last week I had been seeing loads of social media posts from people going to it and posting some truly gripping photos. Finally I had a window of opportunity and so it had to be done. Of course, leaving it this late always has a risk. These waifs and strays will not stay for ever and there is no guarantee that a long drive will result in seeing the bird. Still, it was there the day before, feeding happily, so I had a very early night in Weymouth and was in the car just after 4 to head to the tip of Cornwall.

At least at that time of day the traffic was light and I got to the designated car park just after 7 with dawn only just faintly breaking. The landowner had opened up a field to park in and I was the third car in. I parked up next to one of them and said hello to the man sorting himself out. I discovered he had actually slept in the car overnight, so I offered him a coffee! Has name was Nick and very soon we were joined by the other overnight stayer, a local birder called Steve. This was very useful as he immediately gave us all the gen on where exactly to see the bird. It normally roosted in a patch of brambles in the corner of the field and that was where best to see it first thing.

The patch is behind the telegraph pole and we walked the short distance to it and scanned around. Lots of corvids, mainly jackdaws, were already up and about and a few smaller birds were waking up. As the crowd grew and the light came up there was no sign of the bird though. Steve confirmed it had been a late riser recently but as the clock passed from 8 to 8.15 to 8.30 we started to get worried. What if it had moved on or died overnight. It had never failed to be seen by 8.30 before and it was now 8.45. The crowd, now about 15 strong started to check other areas. There was no way it was in that bush. Nick had moved along the field as there were other viewing areas and we could see a small group on the other side of the hedge staking out its favourite feeding area. They were chatting and clearly not on it either.
Suddenly a call went up from behind me "its showing". Cue everyone gathering up gear and running the short distance to where one man was staring at a bush. There it was, sitting proud on a bramble as if it had no care in the world and didn't worry about the chaos ensuing around it. I got a good view though my bins before it dropped back down into the thicket. Nick came running up just too late and missed it though.

You could see the people on the other side were photographing it so most of us yomped the few hundred yards to get round to there. Within only a few minutes it popped back up onto a bush and stayed there for a minute or so allowing most of us, including Nick, to grab good views and shots of it.

It looks superficially like a blackcap - a dull grey bird with a very dark cap. It is much larger though, almost the size of a blackbird. It also has a really red area under its tail. In the sun the grey shone beautifully as it posed for us. It was just unfortunate that there is a bloody big twig right in front of it which is beyond my skills to clone out (and believe me I have tried!).
The reason it has been so site loyal is the food it is finding there - lots of juicy berries which it was wolfing down.
Over the next three hours we then played a game of hide and seek with it.

The cover was very thick and it spent most of the time out of view. You would then hear its call coming from deep in the bushes. Normally this meant it was about to either show or to move location. The reason it is called a catbird is that the call supposedly sounds like a cat. If you listed to one of the calls on the link below you can make your own mind up, but speaking as the owner of cats,   you need to have a big stretch of your imagination to make it into a cat call!!!!

Click here for cat bird call

Often the views you got of it were, how shall we say, fleeting as it peered out from behind the branches.

Other times it did sit out but it rarely stayed on view for more than few seconds. This meant you had to be lucky with where you were standing as it could appear anywhere!!
Finally by about 11 I realised I still had 300 miles to drive back so I left it to its berries. A really successful and enjoyable day .THe bird was there and behaving well, there was a really good and sociable crowd, the weather was kind and even the traffic  on the way back wasn't too bad! Winds are set for easterlies at the weekend so we may get wither Mary Poppins or some nice siberian warblers. I know which I'm hoping for!!!

Owls well that ends well

So far, this Autumn has been decidedly mixed. There have been a few tasty morsels. A lifer in the form of an ortolan bunting, good views of a wryneck at Landguard but otherwise birds have been few and far between. Even last weekend when I was in Weymouth it was ridiculously quiet. Even the things I went for disappeared - the rustic bunting was a "seen the day before" bird and I managed to miss ring ouzels and jack snipe amongst others. Over the last few day though I had been desperate to get away to see a mega rare, the grey catbird, at Lands End in Cornwall. Things like helping my nephew at a recruitment fair got in the way. Finally, with over 4,000 people already having seen it, I cracked and went for it, but more about that later.
As it was so far I staged my journey with an overnight stay with the mother-in-law in Weymouth. As I had plenty of time I diverted over to Portland before going to the house. First up I went to the Verne prison. This wasn't a custodial visit but ring ouzels had been feasting on the cotoneaster berries in the moat there. It wasn't at the best time of day when I got there and it was pretty quiet but I did manage to get onto the one remaining bird which was still coming out of cover every so often to have a feed. Whilst I was there I got talking to a local birder who said that the short-eared owls were showing well at the Bill. The weather was gorgeous and warm so I thought it would be rude not to nip over there and have a look. I got there by about 3.30 and walked up to the top fields where they are normally seen. There were already 4 or 5 other birders there staking out the grassy fields. Apparently they start to fly about 4.15 so I grabbed a suitable spot and settled in.

Almost spot on time, at 4.23 to be precise, myself and another 'togger saw a large brown shape lift out of the grass and drift towards us. SEO's will roost during the day on the ground, often in long grass. Then as dusk comes along, or even earlier, they will wake up and go hunting.

 For them this means quartering the fields looking and listening for small mice and voles. They then plunge down hopefully, for them anyway if not the vole, catching a snack for their supper.

Within a few minutes we had 4 owls all round us. There have been up to 7 on the island this Autumn but 4 was a stunning spectacle.

The spectacle lasted about 40 or 50 minutes before they seemed to drift off slowly away from the top fields to hunt elsewhere. A marvellous thing to see though and they were totally unconcerned by the people staked out watching them.

A good start to the trip and hopefully a good omen for the following day when the catbird was in my sights. An early night was in store for a very early start the following day. Fingers crossed!!!

Here yesterday, gone today

Lightning doesn't strike twice. After the thrills of the great white egret yesterday I set out today to carry on the good work. First stop was the WWF at Barnes. I was hoping for a jack snipe, which overwinter there and have started to appear. I got to the Peacock tower just after opening but the grazing marsh was still pretty dry. The vegetation was long as well. Both of those didn't help and despite the best efforts of myself and other birders all we could get were 4 dozing common snipe. I did find a rather nice female sparrowhawk in a tree near the hide which stayed still long enough for the odd photo!

By lunchtime I realised it wasn't going to happen, so I headed off back home. I thought I might try Maple Lodge again just in case the great white was still in residence. It wasn't. Nobody had seen it all day so it must have moved to one of the other local lakes. Even the little egrets weren't playing ball. I did spend a merry couple of hours in the hide with Len and Dave and a few birds popped up. The green sandpipers were flitting about the muddy margins, squeaking at each other if they got too close.

The herons were fishing the decreasing pools, although we didn't see them catch anything. Who knows, perhaps they are fishing it out now. They did put on one or two fly-pasts of the hide though.

Finally, there is a very tame robin in one of the hides, who comes in as soon as you open the flaps. He has learnt that people are more than happy to share their sandwiches with him....

Stormy weather ahead over the weekend so perhaps it might drop in a good bird or two somewhere near here. Lets hope!

A returning friend????

Go back, say, 15 years and egrets were twitchable birds in the UK. Little egrets were getting established in a small way and great whites were still really notable birds. I remember going to Rainham for my first GWE and being pretty pleased with that. Since then both have become much more common. Little egrets breed in good numbers and are no longer even notable on the bird apps. Great whites breed on the Somerset levels and elsewhere and are moving out of the rare group. They are still unusual enough to create a stir at many sites though. This included Maple Lodge, where we had one for a few weeks last Winter. Of course it moved on but only after giving a lot of people a chance to connect.
Today, with no great expectations, I went down the Lodge for the regular Thursday afternoon work party. I'm not sure why but I took my camera with my 500mm lens hoping to catch the green sandpipers on the mud which used to be a lake. As I got to the sluice hide, where there is still some mud, I saw a few little egrets fishing so I stopped for a look. Immediately I saw a larger bird on the water - a great white. It stood out on size alone, dominating its smaller cousins.

As well as the size, it has a large, yellow beak with a green eye ring. Their neck also has a a strange kink in it which is quite characteristic. I banged off a few shots and got the news out to the ML forum on Facebook. For the next 45 minute or so though I had it to myself.
Most of the time it prowled around but it did catch one large perch.

 It took it across to a stone island on the lake and tried to eat it. It really struggled, both with the size and the large spines perch have as well.

It kept trying to swallow it, then failed and gave it a bit of a wash in the lake and tried again.

There was no way it was not going to get that down, and it seemed quite satisfied when it did. It was not alone on the lake though, with 8 little egrets also feeding voraciously, and squabbling over the best areas.

The fish fest also brought in what I wanted to see in the first place, two green sandpipers as well as a kingfisher, so I pretty much got the set for the Lodge.

I had to leave it eventually to carry on fishing but it looked quite happy so hopefully it will remain for a bit longer. Not sure our fish population could stand it though!!!