A consolation prize

I set off very early in  the morning with the idea of seeing a red-spotted bluethroat. This is a rare Siberian vagrant but there have been decent numbers over here this Spring. This one had been singing its little heart out near Weybourne in Norfolk for a couple of days. It was still present early evening the day before so I figured it had a reasonable chance of hanging on. I got to the car park about 7.15 and yomped along the cliff path where the bales of hay and an old pill-box were. Two birders, including local celebrity birder Penny Clarke, were already there. Well, one of them was leaving as the bird had not been since dawn! I hung around for an hour or so with Penny but it had clearly done an overnight flit. This is only about a mile away from where I dipped the greater-spotted cuckoo last week so this bit of coastline is not doing me any favours.
There wasn't a lot else of rarity value around so I mooched along the coast for a bit hoping it or something else might get found. Eventually my phone alert went off with something to get the interest levels up. Two black-winged stilts at Wells. They were at the same pools where I had seen the wood sandpipers last week so I knew the location and headed straight off, luckily getting one of the last car parking spots.
There were already 20 or so people on site and I headed off to join threm. The stilts were showing very well.

They are a true pair - the male is in the upper photo. It had a much darker back and a set of head and face markings. The female in the lower photo has an almost brown back and a clean white head.
They were mainly feeding away on the marsh but the locals, especially the avocets who had chicks, were not so keen.

 Although they kept getting moved on they never went very far. Stilts used to be very rare birds in the UK but have been moving North with the changing climate. In recent years they have bred successfully in the UK and with this being a true pair you must hope they will settle down here. They certainly are going to be trying as at one point the male mated with the female.

 Mostly though they were pulling insects off the surface of the water and feeding.

With a long journey ahead of me going back home I left them to have a post prandial snooze (them not me). Looking at posts later they hung around till about 6 then flew further long the coast to Holme where they spent the early evening. Hopefully they will find somewhere to nest but they do need to keep away form existing colonies I think!

Is it or isn't it?

With a lot of the commoner migrants now in the bag I've got time to concentrate on some of the rarer birds. First off the block was a bird I didn't think would stick around. Whilst I was sunning myself in California a Baikal teal was taking residence on the Nene Washes near March. These can be a very controversial bird, as with any ducks, as they are popular in collections. It was keeping well away from people and had no obvious rings or wing-damage so the great and the good paid homage and ticked it. I saw one four years ago in the same area and this got through the committees to be allowed as a wild bird so this one should hopefully get the same treatment.
Anyway, it was still there so I had to go on the trip up to the north of Peterborough. The bird had been reported as present and showing well only two hours earlier. The car park put me onto the river bank about 300 yards from where two birders were already scoping a pool. I yomped down to them but it wasn't on show. Apparently it had been on view but a marsh harrier spooked everything and it hadn't been seen since.
For about half an hour we grilled every duck on the pool but despite our hard work the assorted teal, mallard, shelduck, gadwall and shoveler did not turn into their rarer cousin. Another birder eventually joined us. He was in a rush as he was a local on his lunch hour  and so was very disappointed with our news. He set up his scope and almost immediately came out with "there it is"!!! Somehow we had missed it directly in from of us. In our defence it was a long way off!

This is the view we had taken with my 500mm and uncropped. Look at the size of the swans!!!

Same image cropped on. Can you see the teal? Quick clue, it seemed to have a very close friendship with a male wigeon. Once we twigged this then it became a bit easier to find the teal though it was often hidden away. It is the far left duck in the photo below. You can see one thing, it is very small compared to the wigeon and the gadwall next to it.

 It is hard to see in these photos but it is a very smart bird with a striking facial pattern. You can see why it is so popular with wildfowl collectors!!!

 It has a bold yellow stripe behind its eye and a gold spot over it.

 We watched it and its friend the wigeon for about 30 minutes before it finally walked off into the grass and went to sleep.

A lovely duck and a nice twitch but I will have to wait to see if it becomes called a kosher or a plastic bird. For now though I'm 'avin it!! As a bonus two cranes also flew past us whilst we were watching the teal adding to the year list.

Getting back on the horse

After a really good start to the year I had a bit of hiatus in twitching as we spent 4 weeks in Northern California. Coming back there has been lots to catch up on. I had already been out and about and got a lot of the commoner migrants such as this reed warbler and yellow wagtail.

A surprise was a pair of black terns which dropped into the aquadrome and caused a quick trip away from getting the garden back into some sort of shape.

 This was on the same day as a pair of stilts dropping into a local reserve adding another year-tick. Again they were a one day wonder though if you read my next post you will see this was a bit of an amuse bouche!

Finally a trip to Norfolk added three classic Spring migrants. A trip of 6 dotterel were in their favourite field inland from Titchwell. They were really difficult to pick out in the stony field and I was glad someone helped me find them. Can you find 5 in the last photo?

There was also a pair of Temmincks stints on the scrape at Cley. These are tiny waders but fortunately were reasonably close to the hide!

 Finally a pair of wood sandpipers were on the new pools west of Wells. This was a new reserve for me and it looks very good. Easy access and a pair of shallow pools just inside the seawall. Lots of waders already there including redshank, avocet and common sandpiper and some clearly nesting already.

The wood sandpipers were very elusive though and kept to the reedy margins so the photos are a bit iffy to say the least. Still, a week after getting back the year list is on its way again though I'll struggle to catch up.