The number of potential birds to tick on your life list can go up each year by a couple of different means. First, it can be if a real rarity arrives on these shores, like the brown booby in Cornwall this Summer. Secondly it can be when a species with a number of races is subjected to DNA analysis and becomes two or more full species. In past years stonechats were simple but now you can have three different full species ticks - our common stonechat (Saxicola rubicola), Stejnegers stonechat (S.stejnegeri) and Siberian stonechat (S.maurus) plus a few even rarer species not normally seen here. I've got two of the three but so far the Siberian version has escaped me. Partly this is because it can be tricky to tell them apart without DNA evidence from poop samples. However an eastern race (stejnegeri or maurus) has been in Suffolk for a week or so and the assorted experts have decided it is good enough on visual evidence to be a Siberian version. That being so I had to go and make sure I got it before it departs.
The site directions were to a new reserve for me, Hollesley Marsh, right next to the prison there. The road takes you through the prison to park behind it with some of the inmates working in a greenhouse area. There was a weak sun but it was very chilly so I pulled on full warm-weather gear and set off on the short walk to where the bird had been seen.
The site was basically a seawall separating a flooded field from the tidal estuary. The bird was in the Winter flood on the field. Another birder was already there and had seen it earlier. What we were looking for was a very pale version of a stonechat, almost more like a whinchat. There wasn't a lot else about but I quickly got onto a common stonechat. Within 5 minutes or so we saw a much lighter bird about 50 yards in the reeds.
It is exactly in the middle of the picture above, sitting on a stick in a very stonechatty way. For 10 minutes it refused to come any nearer. From reading the inter web this is fairly typical of it. Another birder joined us and we started gossiping rather than looking! The bird, clearly upset we were not paying it any attention, decided to join us and suddenly appeared right next to us!
It is a 1st winter male and has a very cross look on its face. It was very pale especially when you compared it to the other stonechats around, who were fortunately ignoring it.
It spent only a few minutes feeding near us, presumably grabbing small insects and spiders for its breakfast.
Finally it flew back to the rear of the marsh and for the next hour or so, as more birders arrived, it stayed there.
There wasn't much else around, though a marsh harrier did quarter the field causing everything to get their heads down.
By now the sun had disappeared and a light mist was setting in. It was getting really cold and any light there was for photography had totally gone so I headed back for a reviving coffee. So, the 8th lifer of the year, taking me to 380 against the stricter BOU list or 392 against Lee's 400-club list (for instance BOU has brent goose, Lee has dark-bellied brent, light-bellied brent and black brant all separated). So, next year with the wind behind me I should get to 400 on one list. Who knows, December still might drop in one or two more surprises. The hermit thrush relocating from Scilly to Hampshire would be nice!
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