A whole heap of it!

Wagtails are difficult. Yellow wagtails are especially difficult. There are numerous races, sub-species, forms and colour variants which make a simple task much harder. For a start, our pied wagtail (Motacilla alba alba) is not actually the nominate species, which is the white wagtail (Motacilla alba) of mainland Europe.

This smart chap is a race even though we think of it as our species! The yellow wagtail complex is totally mind-blowing. As per pied wagtails, our yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava flavissima) is a race of the nominate European species (Motacilla flava). Then you add on numerous colour variations like blue-headed, grey-headed, Channel, black-headed and ashy-headed. All of these are just races though and not pure species.
You then add into the mix another entire species - the Eastern yellow wagtail (Motacilla tschutschensis). Thus was previously another sub-species of our yellow wagtail but is now upgraded to full species. It is basically Asian but also drifts across to Alaska. Then to complete the complexity, as for our Western yellow wagtail, it has numerous races including the Alaskan or blue-headed wagtail (Motacilla tschutschensis  tschutschensis).
All of which is a long-winded way of saying that one of them has taken up residence in Norfolk. They are very rare over here, although some of this may be that they are overlooked. I saw my first and only one of the presumed nominate species in Suffolk last year. This Alaskan bird would be new and could be a potential armchair tick in the future so was the ideal first stop on a swing through Norfolk with Judith.
The site was north of Sedgeford at an attractively described dung-heap! Yellow wagtails do like these as they attract lots if insects. We got there just after dawn though it could hardly be described as light, with heavy cloud cover. A quick coffee and I scanned the dung-heap but nothing was showing. Three more birders turned up and after 10 minutes a potential candidate was spotted but it was flushed and flew off!. A nervous 5 minute wait and finally it popped up on top of the pile of, well, you know what!

It was  very smart bird, more like a grey wagtail than a pure yellow one. Clearly different to the Suffolk bird and seemingly pretty happy with its breakfast. It only stayed a few minutes before flying off so we packed up and headed off elsewhere as half a dozen other cars turned up.
It was one of those days more about getting the year list up than stopping for photos, which wasn't helped by the dull-grey skies. One highlight was the ever-present flocks of ping-footed geese in the fields and the skies.

Titchwell delivered on most of the expected waders and ducks though we dipped on a sleeping woodcock by 20 minutes. By the time we got to where it was, it wasn't there anymore. This did become a theme of the day! Otherwise spotted redshanks were a good tick.
Next was Holkham and the marsh for the overwintering shore larks. Two blokes in the car park had seen them and said they were showing well. We got to the roped-off area and quickly found the flock of snow buntings, mobile over a wide area of the marsh and beach.

Try as we could though there was no sign of the shore larks. Two promises of easy-to-find birds and both gone AWOL. The sea was heaving with birds though, especially a large flock of scoters, numbering well over a thousand. Tricky but I did find a few of their rarer velvet cousins amongst them, identified most easily in flight by a white wing-bar, as per one in the photo below.

With a bit of imagination you can even see the tear-drop mark behind its eye!!

Final stop was at Wells for the long-staying rough-legged buzzard. This one was easy, sitting in a bush near the quay.

Would have been nice to see it fly but the afternoon was getting on and two guys at the buzzard said a black redstart was showing in Wells itself by the chandlery building. I think you can guess what happened. Three from three with people telling us a bird was there and in each case it had cleared off. Next time I'm not going to ask anyone if anything is around as it clearly puts a jinx on things. There were a few turnstones eating chips by the quayside as a compensation.

Not a bad day overall. 28 new birds for the year list including the two rarest targets for the day. I'll still be struggling to get to the 160 mark I had by the end of January last year but it's a good start.

Back for another bite

Before Xmas a black-throated thrush dropped into Whipsnade zoo. It attracted many hundreds of admirers and generated a nice income stream for the zoo from all the entrance fees - including ours!! It hung on and on, feasting on the cotoneaster bush by the childrens' Hullabazoo area, past Boxing day and into the New Year. Cue not a new stream of admirers but the same people now coming back to get it onto their 2020 list! It is estimated that by now the bird could have generated over £40,000 in revenue to the zoo.
I finally cracked today and set off for a repeat pilgrimage to Whipsnade. I got there at 9.50 just before it opened and joined the queue of mixed twitchers and grandchildren on a day out! I parked up and headed off on the short walk to the favoured area, where 10 people were already pointing 'scopes and cameras at the tree. Early doors though and the only sign of life was a lone mara snootily observing us from under the tree.

I was deep in conversation with a fellow twitcher, who turned out to be a zoo keeper from the 70's and 80's, when 4 people came and joined us. The bird had turned up in a neighbouring tree and was studying its potential breakfast.

It posed nicely for 2 or 3 minutes allowing everyone to get a good look at before it flew the 5 yards to the berry-laden tree. Well, to be precise the tree was berry-laden but was getting more depleted every day as it munched its way through them.

For 5 minutes it was blown around in the strong wind, heartily tucking into the berries. It would pluck one, position it in its beak, then throw back its head and swallow it.

Either it became full or the few children around spooked it and it flew off, disappearing for 20 minute or so. Then, as before, it reappeared in the nearby bush before returning for a mid-morning snack.

With it settled in again I decided to leave and go after two more year ticks relatively nearby. First was a great-grey shrike at Brogborough lakes, some 20 miles away. The location had been described to me by my zookeeper friend and that it could be quite distant. He wasn't wrong. The bird was in a hedge I guess half a mile away!!!!

Its on top of the hedge to the right of the telegraph pole - trust me!! I didn't want to go chasing it across muddy fields so I left for my third target. This was a ring-necked duck at Great Barford. These are becoming relatively common if not numerous in the UK now, being more readily found in the USA.
After a bit of confusion I found where it was lurking, a small gravel pit across a muddy sheep field. It was associating with the resident tufted ducks with whom it seemed on quite friendly terms.

Confusingly they don't have any obvious ring on their necks but do have a very pleasingly marked bill and a pointy head. I followed it round the lake for an hour or so but the whole flock were quite wary and swam off if either myself or any of the other birders got too close to them.
With the skies starting to darken and rain promised I headed back to the car. Three good year ticks, especially the thrush. One week into the new year and I'm up to 69. Not bad and a trip to Norfolk should get that up to 100. I would say a lifer would be a nice start to the New Year but I've already got one - an armchair tick of Hudsonian whimbrel. This was a full species, then became a sub-species but is apparently a full species again. So, I can tick it again!!!

An early birthday treat

So far this year I've not done too badly on the listing front. After a good start I tailed off a bit mid year on my year list but before today I was one behind my best ever total. More importantly I had managed to get 8 lifers. Not as good as many years  but by definition this gets harder each year as the new ones are getting increasingly harder and rarer. With my birthday coming up and a trip out promised I was looking to see what I could go and find. Initially it was going to be a trip on spec to Norfolk but then on Thursday news filtered out of a potential lifer, a black-throated thrush at Whipsnade Zoo!! It was actually found as a result of someone putting up a "what is this strange bird" photo and thus creating a major twitch. On the Friday it was elusive in poor weather and on Saturday was seen early doors then went AWOL after lunch. Still, there seemed a good chance of it sticking for Sunday and of course it is a nice place just to visit anyway.
We got to the entrance 15 minutes after it opened at 10 and news had already come up of it being seen near Hullabazoo. Having parked up it was only a short walk to the area. I'm not sure how well the assorted crowd of middle-aged blokes in camo gear and 'scopes went down with Judith though. Fortunately the zoo has lots of other attractions so she went off to inspect the nearby aquarium whilst I worked out what was occurring. The bird had been seen but then flew off before I got there. We all watched one berry-covered tree for 15 or 20 minutes but apart from a couple of blackbirds and redwings there was no excitement. Gradually the crowd of 30 or more started to spread out to inspect other areas as it had been reported as ranging widely. Finally, only 4 or 5 of us were left. I could see Judith had come out of the aquarium. I gave her a thumbs-down signal and she started looking around the back of the buildings to see if she could find it.
Suddenly a call went out as someones phone bleeped. "they've got it by the railway". There then ensued one of those very amusing sights as the assorted twitchers, joined by others now arriving from points distant, gather up their gear and half-ran, half-jogged off in search of the bird. It was only a few hundred yards and a crowd had already gathered looking at a grassy area with a flock of thrushes feeding on the ground. I immediately got a view thorough someones 'scope and the bird was in the bag.

It was feeding right next to a road with people and cars coming past it. Realising it might flush at any minute I grabbed some quick photos of it at reasonably long range.

It was a very smart bird, clearly larger than the redwings it was associating with. The black and grey patterning stood out well as it fed vigorously. Judith finally arrived and got onto it as well just before the whole flock lifted off as one of the resident wallabies came out of the hedge and spooked them!
We took that a sign to go and have a look at the rest of the zoo rather than stake out for a better view.
It was a cold day but we had some good performances from the animals in the collection including 4 wolverines, albeit being mainly asleep but as least on show.

The big paddocks are always good for showing off the associated larger animals. The central paddock  is actually the same size as Regents Park Zoo so gives them lots of room to breathe.

On the smaller side, the red panda was actually showing well, mainly because it was being fed as one of the keepers was giving a very instructional talk about it.

One of the good bits about Whipsnade is the way you have lots of animals wandering around semi-wild. As well as the wallabies you see lots of maras pottering around. These are basically large Patagonian guinea-pigs with a very cute expression on their faces.

As we were leaving we went past the flamingo pool. The light was just going but the low sun lit up their pink feathers very nicely.

The most amusing encounter though was on the drive through Asia. Ahead of us a car was being held up by 4 camels. They stopped right on the road and just looked at the car as they chewed the cud.

They really gave you the impression that they knew exactly what they were doing. They held us up for no more than 5 minutes but it was well pitched to be just long enough to show who was boss!!

Overall a very enjoyable day. A lifer, a nice lunch and a good day round the zoo. So good in fact that we joined the zoo so we can go back next year when the weather might be a bit better. Who knows, it might even be in January if the thrush hangs on and I need it for my 2020 year-list!!

A cold waif and stray

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!