Hot Legs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T95RxJsZ3O4&app=desktop

I bumped into Mark Peck in Tescos on Friday night, fortuitously, as during our birding banter in the dairy aisle he said there'd been a Lesser Yellowlegs at Welney during the day!!  We decided to do a family visit the following afternoon which went pretty well.  The American vagrant had not been seen which led to some pretty focused and intense searching.  I did find an unseasonal Greenshank amongst the Black'wits and I had quite a few interesting waders that all revealed themselves to be Ruff.  The girls all went back to the visitor centre for coffee and cake and I just kept looking.  Walking back from Lyle Hide I heard a Redwing like seep and looked up, I was surprised to see not a Redwing above me but a chunky and well marked Hawfinch flying over - a Fen mega.  I was a happy chappy but not perhaps as elated as I should have been as I was still to see a Lesser Yellowlegs in the Ely10, managing to enjoy an April bird on the Bluntisham side of the Washes at Berry Fen and miss it on it's short visits onto the Washes proper.  

I had just popped into the observatory on the way back to check the diving duck when all the waders took flight, a tremendous spectacle in itself, I heard the Greenshank calling and thought to myself "If I were a Yellowlegs I'd be drawn in by that call"  I looked around for the Greenshank which was over the main lagoon and it was joined by a smaller bird - check square white rump, check general Tringariness, check general well  protruding feet beyond the tail - Get In.  I was happy I'd found the Yellowlegs.  Back in the café my good cheer must have been evident as Erin made me a congratulations card.

I returned on Monday to see if I could secure some better views, there were birds everywhere and it was good to catch up with Mark Groom and his son Jasper enjoying the spectacle.  A Spotted Redshank was doing what I'd hoped the Yellowlegs would have done and was showing off picking at the water through the wildfowl.

The next day what was surely "our" Yellowlegs turned up at Cley and turned out to be an exceptionally confiding bird. At the end of a very quiet October half term week we took a trip to the coast and I enjoyed some great views of the Yellowlegs.  Just a little further down the track an equally confiding male Stonechat was just lovely.

Do It All Over Again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kFuSfXPvYs&app=desktop

Having been waylaid by the Bushchat I was lucky in having another chance to try Gypsy Lane, I met Mark H at the top of the lane and we picked up where I left off yesterday.  We weren't much further than I'd got yesterday and Mark's appointment with the Bushchat was called, he'd not been able to go yesterday.  I carried on and reaching some tasty looking sycamores promptly found a sprite.  It looked like a Pallas's but I didn't get a clear view of either the rump or central crown stripe.  I followed it for a minute or so before it melted away.  Mark returned within the hour having seen the chat very well indeed and we continued our methodical work.  After a couple of hours working around the corpse and willows we headed out towards the last cover beyond the seawall.  

On the bend by a reed fringed slack a muddy coloured warbler flicked through the nettles, it looked good straight away for a Dusky Warbler and we followed and lost it from nettles to bank and then a slightly longer flight view as it crossed a ditch and into the reeds.  This was going to be really hard - if only it had called......the phone came out and Mark got Xeno Canto to do the work.  A couple of Dusky "thcucks" and then a response - it was a Dusky and calling well whenever prompted with the playback.  We were patient but it seemed an impossible task to see the bird in the dense vegetation which we could only view from the bank.

We moved around to view the bushes within the reedbed hoping it'd move to these in time.  A few movements were the inevitable Robin and then a full on sparkling lemon and lime Pallas's Warbler hovering and zipping around took our complete attention - a fantastic bird and worthy distraction.  We didn't hear or see the Dusky Warbler again and returned to look around the mature wooded fen to the east of the path.  The habitat was amazing, we probably shouldn't have been there but at every turn it felt we could find something epic - we didn't, but it was electric birding.  When we did return to the path a birder had just seen "the" Pallas's we commented that it had travelled quite a way - he was unaware of the bird out on the marsh and we were only 25ft from where I'd seen my sprite in the morning, I've taken it as confirmation of the first bird.  We'd worked the area for almost 7 hrs with clear success, however I wasn't going to finish the day without a Bluetail and there had been 3 around Holme dunes just a few miles up the road.  

We were only there for an hour or so but what started with satisfactory views of 2 birds ended with fantastic views of one of them right by the path as we departed.  They're just the best - enigmatic, characterful and subtlety exotic.  Good enough for the 5yr, Eve, old to draw.

 

 

The last I saw in the UK was the stuff of dreams - Rich Baines and I left his house, one of the coastguard cottages on Flamborough Head on a bright, late October dawn, to start a days birding.  A Black Redstart flicked off the path outside the house - the radio crackled "you're going to want to see what's in this bag", the mist nets were up in a back garden across the road so we walked over to meet Ian Marshall on the drive, willing for whatever it was to be drawn from the bag to be mega....and it was -  a Bluetail in the flesh (and feather) just inches from our noses.

There was time for just another bird before heading home and a quick trip to the wayside at Thornham revealed the 3rd Pallas's Warbler of the day - a very showy bird right by the path in the sueda by the car park.  The day drew to a close and the winds were due to swing west for the rest of the month.

Bonkers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMjVsXE4DRM&app=desktop

The wind had turned Easterly on Friday and bits and bobs had started turning up - the 8 striped sprite, gorgeous Pallas's Warblers had started a flurry and Red Flanked Bluetails having had a bonza breeding season in their westerly frontier, were also arriving.  I want to find one of those for myself so opted to start early on Saturday morning on the under watched but briliantly positioned Gypsy Lane between Titchwell and Brancaster.  I checked around Titchwell Church at dawn and then started down the lane.  I'd been in touch with Ben the day before, he and Rich were heading towards Warham and Stiffkey, I'd commented "enjoy the hoards" a phrase that would haunt me for the rest of the day.  I'd slowly walked 100 metres of the lane, I'd forgotten quite how good it looks for autumn migrants and moved very slowly.  Just before 8 I got a message from Birdo - was I on my way for the Bushchat??  What The Force!  

A quick check of the bird news revealed the startling news that a Rufous-tailed Bushchat had been found just after daybreak at Stiffkey.  I decided to stick to plan and keep looking for a Bluetail but with each step I found myself unable to focus and observe, my mind was wandering ceaselessly to whether I could afford to play this cool.  Another 10 minutes and I broke, trotted to the car and got myself down to Stiffkey.  

It was already bonkers when I arrived, I managed to squeeze myself a parking spot amidst the snaking lines of cars along both sides of the narrow road.  Joining the crowd there was an odd scene before us.  The tide was very, very high yet the bird had flown from the hedgerow where it had shown well out to a small island of sueda.  Opinion was split as to whether it had stayed there or flown further out to the far ridge.  Long and short there were plenty of twitchy twitchers assembled but on the edge.  Shouty arguments, accusations of stringing and general bad vibes were evident and then the patience broke.  10 then 20 then 30 folk started to edge out along the submerged path desperate to get looking for the chat.

The original patch of sueda looked the only reasonable proposition to me so I decided to grill this from the now emptying bank top.  As the tide dropped the birders spread widely across the saltmarsh and out to the furthest ridge, I kept focused on the good looking spot.  Something moved flicked up and down again and the birder who'd gone to that patch of sueda's bins went up, stayed up and then he waved his arms.  The ensuing scene was carnage - a sopping, sploshing, sliding, jogging beige army honed on the spot from all sides and all distances.  It seemed to have dissappeared again, but then a blur of movement, a big cocked tail a top the sueda and jerky movement here, there and gone again.  A bit later it sat out for longer, motionless.  The crowd had got ridiculous the distancing was non- existent and the sueda was virtually surrounded. 

 

Having seen the bird and with no desire to join the hoard, I decided this was not for me and went for a look at the Pallas's Warblers in the wood.  I saw one of these well and drunk it in beneath the oaky canopy.  As I left birders were arriving from Yorkshire and the crowd had got even bigger - it made the national news for the wrong reasons with the police threatening social distancing fines.  I was due in Cambridge by 1 so slunk off having done little birding, seen a mythical blocker and feeling like I'd let myself down not sticking to the plan.  In fact the best bit of the experience was relaying the ridiculous scenes, the wading out, slips and mud baths to Rich, Ben and Jono as I drove home.

Here's Mark Hawkes video of the Bushchat from the next day.

At One With The Birds (again)

Our Birdo weekender, once again based at Flamborough, started prodigiously.  After 12 hrs of following the Lammergier between fields and copses along the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border Mark H finally saw the bird in Cambridgeshire. Ben and I pootled along in the late afternoon on our way North and saw the beast roosting in a roadside tree.  It was an awesome sight.  A great weekend was immortalised in a little video I put together and on Jono Leadleys @BirdingDad blog

http://birdingdad.blogspot.com/2020/10/team-birdo-annual-weekender-flamborough.html?m=1

Spryte Flight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqtnLFMDRdg

Part of the daily routine now at work is an hour most mornings managing the staggered and distanced arrival and departure of 700 or so kids and adults through the school gates.

As I walked across the playground to open up the gates a Chiffchaff hueeted from the sunsoaked ivy clad ashes that border that side of the school.  "Shame it's not a Yellow-brow" I thought.  Almost in synchronisitous response the feisty "tzuuuet" call of a Spryte pierced the air, calling a couple of times.  I had to get on with the job in hand and unlocked the gates for the afternoon pick up, perhaps the steady flow of folk through the playground encouraged it and the Chiff to move on as I heard nothing from either of them again.