A pre-Xmas surprise

With Xmas plans well in place I thought my birding year had pretty much finished. I was going to be taking a day off to go year listing today but I had to do an emergency dash down to Weymouth to help out the mother-in-law with her central heating (another story and don't ask me about British Gas!!). I ended up staying overnight and a plan was hatched. An hours drive along the coast an olive-backed pipit had been found in a park in Exmouth. This is a lifer for me and number 4 in the most-wanted-list. I've dipped on 3 or 4 occasions, normally in Wells wood in Autumn! It was found on Monday in strange circumstances. A bloke looking for a rare aphid on an oak tree spotted it hopping around. Fortunately he was also a good birder and realised what he had found. It was twitched on Monday and was there all day Tuesday, feeding on insects in the leaf litter. So, I got up early and hit the road about 6.30 to head west. I got to the park just after 8 and parked up in the birds favoured area.

It was only a hundred yards from the road and the pipit was apparently favouring these two trees, finding lots of insects to eat underneath them.

By 9 there were 6 or us looking but of the pipit there was no sign. I had chatted to birders who had seen it the day before and they said it was hard to pick out in the leaves so we spread out and carried on looking. Finally one of our crew spotted it and we all congregated underneath the spreading oak tree. I could see why it was tricky to see in the dull light (it is in this photo honest!).

It is a small bird, about sparrow sized and basically brown. The leaf litter and long grass kept it out of sight as well.

Gradually we worked out a pattern for it - feeding, then flying up to the tree, then coming back down again in a different patch to feed some more.

Olive-backed pipits should be in Asia from the Himalayas, Nepal, China even Japan. It is a typical pipit, with a greenish-brown back and a heavily streaked belly. It has a very strong supercilium and pronounced double wing-bar. Whilst we were there it didn't call or make and vocalisations. 

Over the next 45 minutes the crowd grew to a dozen or so as the pipit carried on its breakfast. It was really confiding and showed no sign of us or the assorted dog-walkers worrying it.

By now I had got my cameras on a low tripod and was kneeling in the grass to get a low angle shot of it. There were two issues here. First. being so low meant it was often behind tufts of grass or leaves and partly hidden. Second, it was petrifyingly cold and I was losing sense of feeling in my fingers, making it hard to use my favoured back-button focus. I didn't give up though and gradually it came quite close to where I was kneeling.

Finally with both my knees and fingers giving out it seemed to get bored and flew off across the park. I waited for a bit but as it didn't return and I had a long drive back I packed up and headed off home. This makes it 12 lifers this year, a pretty good haul, and 258 for the year, just above average.  I can't imagine any more lifers but then I wasn't expecting this one. 

Climb every mountain

 I remember as a small boy, when I was first starting getting interested in birds, that one in particular seemed very exotic to me. Not a colourful finch or a large raptor but the alpine accentor. Basically a sparrow with a bit more  colour, closely related to our dunnock. They are not super-rare over here with 37 or so records and are quite common in Europe in the high Alps. I really wanted to see one but so far had not managed it. So, when the phone pinged yesterday with one in Suffolk I changed plans and decided on a dawn raid. It roosted overnight in a Martello tower near Aldeburgh but they have a habit of clearing off overnight. I was in the car at 4am and on site by 6.30 with a weak sun just lightening the sky. 

There were already a dozen cars there and I could see the faint outline of birders by the tower. I had a very quick coffee and joined them to stare into the gloom!

It was really dark but by 7 you could start to make out the area where it roosted overnight. These were taken later in the day. On top of the pipe you could make out a shape which another birder with an IR-scope could see was a bird.

By 7.15 it was light enough to make our that it was indeed the alpine accentor and that it had not departed overnight., Gradually it stretched its wings, had a scratch and then was gone round the tower towards the beach, where it had been feeding the day before.

The beach was narrow with boulders where the path dropped down to it. By now there were over 50 birders on site and we spread out to try and locate the bird.

After a nervous few minutes when we thought it might have just headed off it was spotted feeding near the path just beyond the metal gate.

It as some way off and the light was still pretty poor. Still, it was definitely the bird so the assembled crowd relaxed a bit as it looked pretty settled. For the next 30 minutes it gave us a bit of a run around as it moved along the edge of the path and the boulders by the beach. 

You could now start to see the salient features of its plumage. Superficially like a dunnock, it had a reddish wash on its breast and flanks and white spots on its wing feathers as they cross on its back.  It was feeding well and seemed quite relaxed as the crowd grew. It was a bit of a scrum as the path wasn't very wide and we were 4 or 5 deep initially. This created the obvious problems of those at the back being blocked by those at the front moving. Slowly the crowd spread onto the beach and some went down and behind the bird so we had a bit more space. 

Having eaten up well for its breakfast it then decided it was time to get its plumage sorted. It moved down onto the rocks by the path and started showing really well and much closer.

Once it had got its feathers sorted out it spent a few minutes flying up and down the rocks and the beach, having a bit of a peck round but without much real purpose.

This also meant that the assembled crowd of birders were kept fit as they followed it along. Most of the time it only moved thirty or forty yards, often back to where it had been and giving those who stayed put incredibly close views. 

Finally, it much have felt peckish as it flew up and onto the path where it split the crowd into two groups and fed on seed right between them. Initially it kept lurking in the grass where it played a bit of hide and seek with us.

Fortunately it decided to come right towards the group I was in, pecking at the dried seed heads as it came. 

Thinking I was being clever I had dropped the tripod legs down to get a better angle for the photos. It also meant I was not in there way of those behind me as I was kneeling down - on gravel! After 5 minutes my knees were killing me and to be honest I was quite pleased when it flew off towards the tower!

It had given some stunning views and for most people, including me, this was enough and the crowd thinned as people headed back to their cars and home. I'll leave you with a quick video of it feeding on the path.

Click here for video

A brilliant day, a lifer and a lovely bird as well. Good craic with the assembled birders on site as well. Let's hope it's not the last lifer of the year but if it is, its a good way to finish!!!!

An Autumnal trip to Minsmere

This Autumn has been incredibly mild. With more nice weather forecast we decided to have a quick trip across to Suffolk to go and visit one of our favourite reserves, Minsmere.  We left early and got there with the car park almost empty. A quick coffee and breakfast and we set out for the circular walk around the scrape. I first came here in the mid 70's on family holidays, in the days when avocets were rare birds! It's changed enormously since then and continues to evolve. With the almost complete dry-out of the central scrape over the summer, the RSPB were doing lots of work. This included a giant yellow digger reshaping the pools and a new walkway through the reeds to the east hide. It will be really good when finished but for us meant there were hardly any birds around on the scrape.

It is still a gorgeous place to walk round and we did manage to come across a few tasty morsels! A group of 4 bearded tits were feeding on gravel by the path near the sluice.

It was two gorgeous males, with their extravagant moustaches, and two females. 

This video gives you an idea of their busy behaviour (click on link).

Bearded tits feeding on gravel

We watched them for a few minutes till they flew off, "pinging" as they went.

Th other highlight was at Island Mere hide. This is the best place to see bitterns and was very popular with standing room only in there. A great white egret was posing nicely just outside. Only a few years ago and this would have attracted a crowd of eager twitchers. Nowadays they are increasingly common breeders and regularly spotted across the country. 

It did do a brief fly-around but seemed to like the area in front of the hide which it kept coming back to.

The stars though were three bitterns which were quite active. One initially popped its head up right outside the hide!

It soon flew a short distance though into thicker reeds where it disappeared!

It was then joined by two other birds which flew in to join it!

Of course, once they flew in they disappeared from view. We left them to it and pottered off to go and have fish and chips in Southwold and visit my favourite cheese shop near Snape Maltings. No rare or unusual birds but a really nice day in the warm Autumn sunshine.