Marazion Booted Eagle

I'm sure that all UK birders are already well aware of the long-staying pale morph Booted Eagle that has taken up residence just north of Marazion in Cornwall these last few weeks. What was presumably the same bird was first seen in Cornwall in October of last year for a couple of days before disappearing and it wasn't until the 12th January that it was found again over the pines just north of Marazion marsh. This time it was more reliable and has remained faithful to the same location ever since. Now, at over four hours away this was too far for me personally to want to to twitch so it was only going to be if I had some kind of alternate reason for being down in that neck of the woods that I might consider going for it. Sadly, such a reason was supplied with a sudden and tragic death of a family member down in Exeter. With the funeral due on Monday, and less than two hours from there down to Marazion, I had my reasonable excuse. So I decided to make a weekend of it and headed down on the long and familiar slog from Oxford to Cornwall on Saturday morning. The trip was as tedious as ever but had the added frisson of reports of the Eagle "showing well" in the trees from the railway bridge for over a couple of hours. Usually it was only seen circling over the pines or coming into or leaving its roost so to have it sitting in a tree for an extended period of time was most unusual. "Could it stay there until I arrived?", I wondered. In the end it left a good hour before I reached Marazion so I was left wishing I'd headed off at the crack of dawn instead of my more leisurely start.

I should say a bit about viewing locations for this bird. Since January it had remained faithful to roosting in the same set of pine trees, just to the south east of Bowgyheere Farm and just north of the A394 railway bridge. There were two viewing locations for seeing it. One was from the lay-by on the A30 just south of the Ludgvan Leaze turn off where the St Michael's Way footpath meets the A30 and the other was from the railway bridge itself. The former site offered a panoramic albeit distant view of the roosting pines, various farm fields and behind you the ridge where Ludgvan was located. The bird had been seen from this location at various random times of the day as well as when it as it left or came back to the roosting pines. On some days, it would sit in the fields or on a distant branch where it could be seen from the lay-by. On the other hand the railway bridge would only offer views of it leaving or returning to the roost though these views would be much closer. So having it sit out in the open as it had done that morning was most unusual. Fellow county birder NT who was already down there had reported crippling views of the bird for a couple of hours that morning though, as I said previously, it had left a good hour before I arrived.

Armed with all the above information, I had decided that the best chance of my seeing the bird would be from the lay-by. I wasn't so concerned about crippling photos - just a nice tick would do me. For this reason I opted for the lay-by as my viewing location so just after 1pm I pulled up there to find just one other car and a young couple camped out in the lay-by and scanning the area. I wasn't too surprised - with the Eagle having put on such a great performance that morning the only people who would be there would be late arrivals such as myself. We struck up a conversation to while away the time while scanning the vista. Gradually more people joined us in our vigil though it was slow going. One thing about viewing from here was the constant noise. It was deafening! Just occasionally there would be a brief lull in the passing cars and a few moments of blissful silence before it all started again. Scanning every passing bird meant that one soon got tuned into the different jizzes: Gulls, Buzzards and Crows were the main birds with an occasional Heron or Goose thrown in. 

This view became etched into my memory. The roosting pines are in the centre

As it started to get dark birder numbers fell again until it was just myself and a family of birders from up in the Merseyside area who seemed as keen as I was to see the bird. At around 4:30pm news came through on RBA of the bird again from the railway bridge and "showing well". Panic ensued and myself and the family party decided to head over there. I opted to walk (well more like run) down the St Michael's Way footpath and along the road whereas they got into their car and sped around to the other location. The trouble was the nearest lay-by to the railway bridge for parking was a good five minutes walk and in the end we arrived at the same time. There was no one else to be seen. A quick scan and I picked up a Buzzard sitting in the trees. Could this have been strung into the Eagle? It was impossible to tell. All we knew was the bird wasn't there and it had got too dark to see. Defeated and disconsolate we went our separate ways, vowing to come back tomorrow to try again. 

I trudged back to the A30 lay-by and drove down to Marazion beach to stare at the sea and drink some now cold tea from my flask and to have a bite to eat. Then I drove to Sainsbury's to pick up some food for the evening and the headed off to my Air BnB for the night. This was located just the other side of Marazion at Plain-an-Gwarry. It turned out be a very nice modern apartment annex in a wonderfully quiet rural location. With a small kitchen and lounge as well as a bedrooom it was perfect for my two night stay. I settled in for the evening, very tired after a long and fruitless day. I turned in early, hoping that I would be able to connect with this frustrating Eagle at some point tomorrow.

The next morning I was up and out the door early and back at the lay-by just before 8am. The Merseyside family were there already though the weather was dark and gloomy and it was hard to see anything. We set about our vigil once more though the gloom and the chilly breeze made it difficult and uncomfortable. A Curlew in the field and three Canada Geese flying past were the only points of interest. After a little while another birder turned up who had been at the railway bridge that morning. He reported that he had seen the Eagle leave the roost from the trees at around 8am. Apparently it had been on view for all of five seconds and only 3 out of the 6 birders present had managed to see it. The birding family then reported that they had seen something fly out low from the trees at around that time being mobbed heavily but it had been too dark for them to make it out. It must have been the bird! Guttingly, I had only arrived then and was still getting ready so I'd been too late. How frustrating! Incidentally, I'd been told from various other people that a bird of prey being heavily mobbed was a good indication of it being the target bird as apparently, the corvids largely ignore the local Buzzards.

Gradually other birders arrived and joined us. Chatting with the birding family they were equally frustrated. They'd probably seen it but views just hadn't been good enough. What's more they had to leave late morning to head back up north and it seemed that the bird had now headed out for the day. In the end they decided to head over to Hayle to try to connect with some of the local birds of interests there and I decided to join them. To be honest, by this point I'd had enough of the lay-by and of not seeing the Eagle and wanted to do something else and a nice bit of gulling would be the perfect antidote. They told me that they had inside gen that the Ring-billed Gull would hang out with the flock of Common Gulls at Lelant Station. Now, I was familiar with Lelant Saltings but had never been to the Station so I followed them in the car up towards St Ives and then down the aptly named Station Hill to a cute little station tucked in some trees by the bend in the river. From the platform  there were some reasonable close gulls to look through and it was quiet (no noisy traffic!) and out of the wind. What a nice contrast!

The others found the Spoonbill a bit further up the river towards the Saltings and I managed to find the Ring-billed Gull, more or less in front of us with the Common Gulls. It had been a few years since I'd seen a Ring-billed Gull so it was nice to catch up with one. Also on show was a Red-breasted Merganser, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a couple of Shelduck and the usual loafing larger gulls. Unfortunately the Glaucous Gull that had been around wasn't on show.

The adult Ring-billed Gull

 

 

After a while I'd had my fill and bade farewell to my northern friends and wished them a safe journey back. I couldn't face more time at the lay-by and anyway, it was going to be late afternoon that was going to be the prime opportunity to connect as the bird came into the roost so I wanted to do something else for a while. So I headed over to Pendeen to take a look at my old cottage there. Seeing it again brought up a weird mixture of nostalgia for past times and relief at no longer being responsible for the constant maintenance of the place. The scenery was just as stunning as before but I had a feeling that it all belonged to my past now. I decided to have a bit of a wander around to get a bit of exercise - I'd been standing around for far too long at the lay-by and it felt good to be on the move again. However, I didn't want to linger by Pendeen, partly because of the chilly wind so I headed over towards Kenidjack. Giving the wind direction, instead of going down the valley I decided to walk the other way up Tregeseal just to explore. I wandered all the way up to the moor there and back down again, finding a smart male Black Redstart on the roof of one of the houses for my troubles. By now the sun had come out and it was almost starting to feel pleasantly warm. 

The Black Redstart on the roof of "The Meadows"

Sometime after 2 o'clock I headed back towards Penzance and nipped in at Battery Rocks by Jubilee Pool to year tick Purple Sandpiper. There were about forty of them sitting out the high tide on the rocks there. Always a delight to see! Then I girded my loins and headed back to the lay-by for another session. Hopefully this time it would prove fruitful.

Roosting Purple Sandpipers

At the lay-by it was back to the same as before. Chatting with the birders, checking out any passing large bird that we could spot and hoping the Eagle would come by and give us all what we wanted. The birder from this morning who'd seen it at the railway bridge was there and we got talking. He spotted some Egrets in a very distant cattle field and we decided that they were probably Cattle Egrets. 

Above and below, lay-by birders

 

Some time after 4pm I got the sense that some people at the other end of the line (there were about ten of us) were onto something - they were looking very intently through their scopes. My companion next to me also called out the Eagle but the noise of the traffic was such that it was very hard to hear instructions. It was all over in a few seconds anyway. Three people had managed to see it as it had come in and I'd got a glimpse of something that could well have been it but it had all been too quick and now it was over. How frustrating! Those of us who had missed it decided to head over to the railway bridge on the off chance that it was still on view there. We arrived to find triumphant birders who'd been stationed there all starting to leave having had great views as it had come in, circled a couple of times and then gone into the trees to roost. It was not on view now and once again I'd missed it.

There was nothing I could do and I was stoical enough. Anyway, it was getting late and I was hungry so I headed back to Sainsbury's only to remember that it was Sunday and it was closed. Hah! I remembered this problem from before and knew that the Tesco's Express in town would be open so I nipped over there. There was a nice Starling murmuration of quite a resonable size over the main car park as I walked up the hill into Penzance. I found something suitable for dinner and then headed back to the AirBnB for the night. After having eaten I felt better and thought through my plans for the next day. The funeral was up in Exeter at 1:30pm and it was about a two hour drive. This would give me a bit of time for a last try for the Eagle tomorrow morning. With my accumulated experience over the last couple of days I decided that the lay-by was not the best site for my final attempt. In fact over the weekend the railway bridge site had consistently out performed the lay-by. On reflection, from what I now knew, my recommended tactics would be railway bridge for the departure and arrival from roosting and lay-by only during the day once it had left. In any event, I simply couldn't face the lay-by any more and the change of scenery would be a welcome relief if nothing else. Also, I'd learned the hard way that I had to be there earlier than I thought so I made plans to be there in good time tomorrow. Very tired from my efforts of the day, I turned in early and was soon asleep.

The next morning I was up and out the door by 7:15am. I parked up at a lay-by near the Marazion roundabout and walked back to the railway bridge ready for my last attempt. I was somewhat surprised to find that I was the only person there. Having multiple pairs of eyes would have been helpful. I kept my eyes peeled on the pines in case the Eagle should break cover. As I watched I heard a Firecrest calling in the valley beneath the bridge. A male and female birding couple arrived whom I recognised from yesterday afternoon as having been there. Just as they walked up he started scanning the trees and said "there it is!". 

"Huh???"

He was right! It was perched up in one of the deciduous trees out in plain view. I realise that in my keeness not to miss the bird as it came out of the pines I'd not actually scanned through the trees at all and had missed it sitting out in plain view - Doh! Anyway, there it was in all its Eagle glory, sitting there and no doubt wondering how it had managed to get so lost and find itself in cold England in the middle of winter. I took some video and basked in the relief of finally having connected. All the frustration and tension of the weekend melted away and I could relax. I couldn't believe how good the views of the Eagle were: instead of the distant speck over the pines, here it was close up and just sitting there nonchalantly. I put the word out on various channels and took some video. From the bridge its head was partly obscured but by walking up the road a bit it was possible to find a gap in the trees where it could be viewed without obstruction (thanks to NT for that tip!).

A phone-scoped phto of the bird loafing in the trees

A couple of other birders arrived on the back of my RBA submission whom I recognised as having dipped yesterday afternoon from the lay-by. They too were most relieved finally to connect like this. As I had seen the bird so quickly (it was just before 8am that it was first found) I decided that I had plenty of time and would wait to see it fly. After a while it did so but only to a nearly tree so it was still on view albeit a bit more distant and more obscured. Still, it was enough for me and I decided to head off to Exeter in good time. So it was back to the car, then after a brief nip back to Sainsbury's to fuel up I headed off on the long slog north towards Exeter.

The journey northwards was long and uneventful. Because I had plenty of time I had decided on a last birding effort. RSPB Labrador Bay was only half an hour from Exeter and apparently offered views of Cirl Buntings from the car park. "What's not to like?", I thought, delighting at the prospect of eating my lunch while watching these colourful Buntings. In the event, things didn't quite go according to plan. There was a howling gale blowing directly in off the sea up towards the car park hedge and no self respecting Bunting was going to be anywhere near those hedges. So I got tooled up and had a wander around. I met a birding lady from Somerset who was also looking and we teamed up. A quick phone call to NT who'd been the previous day in similar weather conditions gave me some guidance on where to look but to no avail. In the end I spent far too long searching and had to rush back to the car, change into my funeral clothes in the back of the car and then rush back to Exeter. I got there just in time and hurriedly wolfed down some lunch in the car park before joining the proceedings. The funderal and wake were as good as these things can be. At least it was a chance to catch up with some family members. 

At around 4pm I headed off on the final leg of my journey back home to Oxford. This last leg was very tiring with rain, the dark and the narrow windy roads of the A40 and the glare of on-coming cars making for difficult driving conditions and I didn't arrive back at Casa Gnome until after 7pm. Still, I'd got back safely and had had a great long weekend away with a stonking first lifer of the year under my belt. Despite the hard work involved, it had been a great trip away.

 

The Late 2024 End of Year Review

Somehow I've managed to make my 2024 end of year review even later than usual - I don't quite know how that happened. Anyway, better late than never! As usual, my birding year is divided into patch, county and national birding so without further ado let's kick things off.

Patch Birding

One of the reasons for delaying this review is that I have to do the Port Meadow patch annual review first and this was only published a few days ago. You can read the full Port Meadow Annual Review here so this will just be an executive summary.

The two previous years had been record breaking in terms of the patch year list so it was back to more usual numbers this year with a total of 141. It was a strange year in terms of the weather with a very wet spring and a blocking weather pattern over Spain keeping the migrants away for a long time. All this resulted in unusually low spring migrant numbers and meant that we missed some key waders that we might normally expect to get. Still the last few months of the year were very good with lots of fly-over patch gold picked up by a particularly keen patch worker who single-handedly brought the year list total up to a respectable total. 

The short list for the Patch Bird of the Year was as follows:
Grey-headed Wagtail (subspecies)
Spoonbill
Baltic Gull (subspecies)
Yellowhammer
Hawfinch
Kittiwake
Pink-footed Goose
Merlin
Yellow-browed Warbler
Siberian Chiffchaff (subspecies)

The award went to the Baltic Gull on the grounds that it was the rarest on the list.

The 2w Baltic Gull courtesy of Thomas Miller

On a personal level, this was the first year in quite a while when I didn't get a single addition to my personal patch list. Of course it's getting increasingly hard to add to the list given how long I've been birding the patch but it was a bit disappointing not to get anything in that respect for a whole year's patch birding.

 

County Birding

Continuing on with the "somewhat disappointing" theme, county birding this year was a very quiet affair. Indeed it was the lowest county year list total this centuary with only 201 different species seen across the county and personally there were no county life list additions this year. That's not to say that I didn't do any county birding away from the patch. Towards the end of the year there were some nice local scarcities that I went to visit including the two long staying Velvet Scoter pair up in Banbury and the one-day Snow Bunting at Farmoor - see the write-up here.

Above the Farmoor Snow Bunting & below the two Velvet Scoter at Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury

I also went to see the long-staying Black Redstart at Christ Church College, Oxford along with a Purple Sandpiper at Farmoor - write-up here.

The Farmoor Purple Sandpiper

There is of course the customary Gnome Studio's Oxon Birding Review video with it's usual, inappropriate music. These days what with copyright restrictions it's getting hard to find suitable music that won't have your video banned so I've resorted to the same music as I used a couple of years ago which is free to use.

 

International Birding

I'm going to sneak in an additional category here. I'm not known for birding internationally but in April I went to Tenerife on the back of my eldest daughter's work trip and managed to catch up with all the endemics that I wanted to see. I must say that I really enjoyed this trip - it was just the right combination of a family based holiday with some great birding.

The iconic Tenerife Blue Chaffinch

 

Not Birds

I didn't do so much of the non-birding stuff this year but I enjoyed a trip down to Kent finally to put Dainty Damselfly on my list. This now completes my UK Damselfly list, at least until we get another colonist species.

Male Dainty Damselfly

I also went up to Scotland in the summer finally to add Creeping Lady's Tresses to my orchid list.

Creeping Lady's Tresses in the Loch Garten Forest

National Birding

This is probably the category that I enjoy the most though my strict criteria for twitching (it must be reliable with a high chance of connecting and not too far away) means that I don't go on many trips these days. Still I managed six UK lifers this year (including Steppe Grey Shrike which is currently officially a subsspecies) which is about average for me these days.

Things kicked off unexpectedly early in the year with the discovery of a Northern Waterthrush down in Essex. Initially it was too unreliable for me to consider it but once it's habits had been pinned down it was easy enough provided one was on site for first light.

A blurry shot of the Northern Waterthrush taken in the half light of dawn

My next out of county sortie was totally left field. Who would have thought that an Alpine Accentor would turn up in a quarry in Buckinghamshire in May? It was a drop everything and go twitch with a challenging descent of a steep hill thrown in but totally worth it!

The Pitstone Alpine Accentor

My next national sortie wasn't until August when, en route to getting my daughter back from Aberdeen (via the Cairngorms) I stopped off for the Greater Sand Plover at Newbiggin in Northumberland. It was a great bird in a lovely setting. It was just a shame that I didn't manage to conenct with the Stejneger's Scoter on the same trip. Missing that still smarts as I write this.

The Newbiggin Greater Sand Plover

As part of taking my son off to Uni at York, I made a sortie by train up to Dunbar to connect with the Steppe Grey Shrike. A great bird in a very picturesque setting. With a Pectoral Sandpiper at RSPB Blacktoft Sands on the way back home, it was a good trip!

The Dunbar Steppe Grey Shrike

There was some classic east coast birding up in Yorkshire in October with Spurn and Flamborough both turning up some great birds. I missed the star attraction in the form of the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler but managed to catch up with Arctic Warbler finally as well as a nice supporting cast of Red-breasted Flycatcher, Daurian Shrike and Grey Phalarope. I did also manage to dip Icterine Warbler by five minutes which was annoying.

A blurry grab of the Arctic Warbler

My final trip of the year was on Boxing Day when an unexpected Yellow Warbler turned up in Kent quite close to where I was spending Christmas in Surrey. It was a no-brainer to go for it and fortunately I went on a day when it showed constantly. After the day I visited it became much less reliable and harder to see.

The Yellow Warbler courtesy of Thomas Miller

In terms of the much coveted Gnome National Bird of the Year I think it has to go to the Yellow Warbler. A bright yellow American Warbler on a gloomy winter's day - what's not to like?

So that was my review of the year. This coming year I expect will be more of the same. It's probably officially a bit too late to wish my readers a Happy, Bird-filled New Year but I'll do it anyway.

End of Year Mega: Yellow Warbler at New Hythe

The Yellow Warbler. All bird photos courtesy of Thomas Miller - see his great blog here

I'm sure I wasn't the only birder who's plans for Christmas were suddenly impacted by the discovery on Christmas Eve at around midday of a Yellow Warbler in Kent. This was a proper top draw Mega and only the second mainland bird this century after the one in Portland that was only around on the day of discovery (I know because I was waiting on news the next day). What's more, the distance was reasonble from Oxford - what was not to like? Of course there was the small matter of Christmas - the brownie point costs could be enormous and one would have to tread very carefully. Whilst some people were there on Christmas Day itself that was not an option for me personally and I put it out of my mind as best I could and got on with enjoying the family time and the feasting. We had gone to visit my Brother-in-law in north Surrey for the duration which just so happened to be more than half way to the Yellow Warbler location. I followed events on various WhatsApp channels (which these days are ahead of the more traditional bird news services) and decided that the bird had a distinct pattern of being more around in the afternoon. This meant that there would be no need for an early morning twitch. It was then just a matter of negotiating the tricky aspect of "getting time off " to go and see it.

On Boxing Day I was one of the first up. I was chatting quietly with my Brother-in-law and my VLW in the kitchen and I casually mentioned the Yellow Warbler and how it was so close to where we already were that it would be ridiculous not to go for it. In the end there was little opposition so I hurridly made a packed lunch and headed off sometime after 11am towards New Hythe. Unfortunately the traffic on the M25 was horrendous and I had to watch as the ETA on the Sat Nav kept creeping up. It's so disheartening when you drive for 10 minutes only to discover that the estimated time to your destination hasn't gone down at all. In the end the traffic started to ease as I got further east and finally at around 1pm I was pulling up at the location. I could see various birders' cars dotted around the place and chose to park up on a street near the car park to avoid having to fret about it closing. The news on WhatsApp had been positive for some time - the bird seemed to be on show more or less constantly. I hurried along the path by the mill stream towards the twitch line, meeting one or two birders coming the other way but thankfully not seeing any kind of mass exodus that might signify that it was all over. 

Finally I arrived at the twitch line where there bird was immediately on view, calling regularly and flitting around in one of the five Alder trees that were on the far side of the mill stream next to the sewage works. 

Typical views in the Alder Tree

 

The five Alder Trees which the bird favoured. You can see how gloomy it was on the day I visited

There were no more than about 30 birders present when I was there

With relief I followed the bird as it worked its way constantly through the trees. Thankfully its bright yellow colouration made it easier to pick out and it would ruthlessly chase off other birds so anything moving would usually be the target bird. While it was easy to see, photographing it on the other hand was a different matter. It was constantly on the move, the light levels were extremely gloomy  and it was almost always on the far (sewage works) side of the trees. I was hoping that it might drop down into the brambles in front of the Alders where it would be much easier and I could at least get some video footage from which to take a grab. However, it spent the entire time resolutely sticking to the back of the trees. It would occasionally disappear for a few minutes as it dropped down behind the brambles out of sight before emerging again a few minutes later.

When Thomas Miller visited there was some sunlight and it did briefly drop down to offer better views

The American Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a common New World Warbler that can be found throughout North and South American. Indeed I have seen lots of them while on family holidays there. However, it is a rare vagrant to this country with only a handful of records and only one previous mainland record this century back in 2017 at Portland. Fortunately this one was a nice bright male so more pleasing to the eye than the drabber females.  The general consensus was that the bird was sticking to the sewage works out of sight until it got warm enough that the insects were about in the trees. This was why it was mainly being seen in the afternoons. With warmer weather it would probably be on show more often. 

I stuck around for about an hour and a half following the bird's antics and hoping for a closer view but in the end I realised that I wasn't going to get one. So shortly before 3pm I headed back to the car and set the coordinates for my brother-in-law's. The traffic had eased and it only took an hour to get back to the family. They'd been out for a local walk and were in good spirits. I was soon catching up with them over a celebratory cup of tea. What a lovely bonus Christmas present the Yellow Warbler had been!

Still Keeping it Local: Oxford Black Redstarts & Farmoor Purple Sandpiper

Oxfordshire seems to be on good form at the moment. After my two recent local sorties in my previous post, I now have a couple more to describe. The first is a long-staying first winter male Black Redstart that has been hanging out on the southern face of Christ Church College overlooking Christ Church Meadows. This site has hosted several previous Black Redstart so it wasn't a great surprise to hear that one had again taken up residence. However, rather than the usual female type, this one was a very smart first winter male so I made a mental note to try to pay a visit. 

A stunning photo of the stunning 1w male Black Redstart courtesy of Thomas Miller

The general consensus was that early mornings were the best for seeing this bird. Despite this, Wednesday of last week I had an early afternoon meeting in the centre of town so I thought I would go on to try for the bird. It was a very gloomy afternoon where the light was so poor that it was hard to see anything. Myself and a young couple put in an hour or so of watching to be rewarded with some very brief views of a bird that was behaving in the right way as it briefly fed on the creeper that clung to the college wall. I only saw it face on and it didn't have the striking black face mask of the target bird and I hadn't seen it well enough to see it's tail. On the views I had had, I couldn't rule out a Dunnock so I left disappointed.

That same Friday, after several days of gloom, it was finally forecast to be bright and sunny so I thought I would get up early and have another attempt. I was on site at 8:25am where, in the company of DL, we spotted the bird leaving its roost in some trees just by the college wheelie bins, before, to our surprise it flew off across the path and disappeared on the flooded grass of the Meadow. Hmmm, that had not been what we were expecting. DL and AF (who had joined us) elected to walk down the path to try and find it while I decided to stay at the college facade and the bins. The others eventually returned with no luck and a few other people turned up. Before too long the bird was back, showing rather distantly on the side of the college and also in the large tree in the college garden. It then moved to the roof top where I was finally able to get a photo.

A rather distant photo of it perched on the roof of the college

I kept watching the college facade as the bird appeared from time to time. On one such occasion I noticed that it wasn't the usual male on the side of the wall but instead a female type. So there were now two birds! In hindsight, what I'd seen a couple of days ago and had dismissed as a Dunnock was probably this second, more infrequently seen bird. I hung around for a while longer enjoying watching these charismatic birds feeding in the bright sunshine before heading back home. The first winter male is still around a week later and the female type is seen occasionally though much less frequently.

The female type Black Redstart courtesy of Thomas Miller

 

The county's purple patch continued when on the following Sunday, in the teeth of Storm Darragh, EU managed to find a Purple Sandpiper on the shores of Farmoor Reservoir. This is a fairly rare county species. Indeed, apart from a couple of birds in August 2021, you have to go back to 2011 for the last county record. So, along with a number of other county birders, I braved the storm to take a look. The wind was so strong that, despite the bird being very approachable, I didn't linger long after taking some photos. It was a shame as it's was a lovely that showed very well at close quarters. After no more than fifteen minutes in its company I beat a hasty retreat back to the car.

Keeping it Local: Grimsbury Velvet Scoters & Farmoor Snow Bunting

Being a land-locked county, Oxfordshire isn't normally blessed with a plethora of rare birds. While places such as Norfolk, Cornwall & Shetland bask in heaps of top draw national rares, here in Oxon we have to be content with more modest fare. From past experience, good county birdage tends to go in fits and starts with some years producing nothing of real note at all while other years have rich pickings. This year there has been nothing of national import within the county apart from maybe the near miss with the Berkshire Booted Eagle that was seen in south east Oxon briefly on a couple of occasions. Still there have been a couple of decent "supporting cast" birds that have been interesting enough to tempt me away from my local patch.

The first of these was a pair of Velvet Scoters that turned up in the unlikely location of Grimsbury Reservoir up in the north of the county in Banbury. As this wasn't a county tick for me, having seen one at Farmoor Reservoir back in December 2013 I didn't drop everything to go and see it. I was very much expecting them to depart overnight but when they lingered for several days I decided to go and pay a visit. After all, the reservoir is pretty small so the views should be pretty good. So it was on a rather murky Saturday morning I pulled up in the car park and headed off to see them. Predictably, I picked the wrong bank to view from to start with and spotted them right on the opposite bank half way along the shore. So I had to walk all the way around, stopping for a brief look at a Dunlin that was posing nicely along the shore. 

It was a shame that conditions were so murky. That and the fact that there was a wire netting fence in the way meant that conditions were far from ideal for my superzoom camera but the photos came out passably enough. Certainly these were far far better views of this species than I'd had earlier in the year when I was at Musselburgh dipping the Stejneger's Scoter.

Above and below, the two Velvet Scoter

The confiding Dunlin

The two Velvet Scoter ended up staying 13 days in total, an amazing record for an inland county such as ours.

 

The second good bird of note happened on Thursday when, just after 2pm news dropped of a Snow Bunting on Farmoor causeway. Now, I'd half jokingly predicted to TM that we would have one this month. This was largely based on the fact that my only county sighting hitherto happened in this month at Farmoor back in 2009. 

With nothing else to do that afternoon I decided to go and twitch it and so battled through the traffic (and a closed-off slip road that warranted a detour up through Cumnor) to arrive at Farmoor just after 2:50pm. There had been no news of the bird since the initial report so I wasn't sure if I was going to have to refind it myself. I met up with BS and we started searching along the causeway together until we got news that it was still present at the far western end of the causeway. We hurried on to find it feeding happily on the main causeway road being watched by just a handful of county locals. 

By going down onto the reservoir edge and peering up over the wave wall it was possible to get nice close views of what is usually a pretty confiding species anyway. I love Snow Buntings - they are very attractive and appealing birds that are always a pleasure to see. I remembered that earlier in the year I had been watching a family party up on the summit of Cairn Gorm - very different surroundings from today! I took some photos with my superzoom but in the gloom in the end I opted to take some video footage, balancing the camera on the wave wall in order to try to keep it steady.

The Snow Bunting

and some video footage

Oxon's finest (and me) paying homage to the Snow Bunt, courtesy of Thomas Miller

 

After while it was starting to get dark so and we all started to leave. As the reservoir café was still open we ended up have a cup of tea and a good natter about all things birding. It had been a very pleasant local twitch.

Early October Yorkshire Birding

Any birder with their finger anywhere near the pulse of the national bird scene will be aware that there have been some good birds in Yorkshire recently. The star was of course the first UK twitchable Pale-legged Leaf Warbler at Bempton but there has been a pretty impressive supporting cast as well. Naturally my interest was piqued though, when the PLLW was first found, a combination of illness and work meant that I wasn't free to have a try for it. Judging by the photos of the scrum on the first day, this was no bad thing but I decided to clear my schedule for Friday and make a sortie up to the Yorkshire coast, hoping that at least some of the assembled goodies there would remain. Sadly the Leaf Warbler departed but there were still some good birds to be had. And so it was that on Thursday late afternoon I sallied forth in the Gnome-mobile on the long slog up north. My plan for the trip was first to visit Spurn before relocating to Flamborough, hoping to connect with some good birdage in both locations. The journey was difficult with various stoppages and traffic jams combining to add an extra half an hour to the predicted journey time. So it wasn't until sometime after 8 pm that I arrived at my AirBnB in Patringham, which was less than 20 minutes from the birding Mecca that is Spurn. The BnB was very comfortable and situated in a very quiet location and I spent some time chatting with my genial host before turning in for the evening.

The next morning I was up at 6 a.m. and after showering and breakfast I was out the door as the sun was rising at around 7 a.m. The forecast was for a lovely sunny day with little wind and there was some mist along the road towards Spurn. I arrived at the gate near the Warren with just half a dozen other cars there and parked up. My main initial target was an Arctic Warbler which was located "at the Narrows". This was a bit of a bogey bird for me and was the last of the fairly regular phylloscs that I still needed. As I was setting off I met a local coming the other way so I asked him where on the Narrows it was. He said that he thought it was near the high tide shelter and that he was going to take a look later on himself as he'd not yet seen it. So off I yomped on the 20 minute walk along the narrow strip of land south of the Warren towards the high tide shelter. There was no one else in sight on this beautiful morning and I was feeling optimistic as I covered the ground. This feeling was further bolstered by a tweet from the Spurn Bird Obs account saying that the Arctic Warbler was still present "at the Narrows" - most encouraging! 

I finally arrived at the shelter and took stock of the situation. Hmmm, this might be tricker than I anticipated. There was a clump of Sea Buckthorn right by the shelter. However, there were lots of clumps all spread out along either side of the path as well as plenty of cover towards the sea on the east side and the estuary on the west side. What's more I was the only person there - this could be difficult. I fired off a tweet back to Spurn asking for a more detailed location but there was no reply. So I wandered about, hoping to connect somehow though I was now starting to feel less optimistic.

Looking towards Spurn Point from near the collapsed road

Eventually a couple of locals turned up on their e-bikes. These e-bikes turned out to be a "thing" at Spurn with lots of the locals using them to cover the long distance across the Narrows in a hurry so as not to miss anything good should it come up on the short-wave radio that they all use. At last, re-inforcements! What's more they seemed keen to see the Arctic Warbler themselves so we joined forces. I asked if they knew who'd seen it that morning and they radio'd the person in question to ask him. The answer came back that it had been seen briefly as it flitted off the ridge down one side that morning somewhere between the shelter and the collapsed road. That at least narrowed it down and we began systematically to search. A flock of four Whooper Swans flew over - a nice year tick for me. On the estuary were Brent Geese, Shelduck, Redshank and Oystercatchers. Had I not been stressing over trying to find my target bird I would have been revelling in the beautiful surroundings.

Some of the Brent Geese on the estuary

After about half an hour with no luck, my two companions decided to give up and head further south towards the Point. This left me back on my own again and by now starting to feel despondent. Fortunately new reinforcements arrived in the form of SB and a companion, both from Oxfordshire. This proved to be the first in a long line of Oxon meet-ups that I was to have over the course of my trip. I filled them in on the target area and we all started searching again. While we were looking a Lapland Bunting flew over calling. This tallied with the report of that species flying over the Warren a little while earlier. Another birder joined us so that there were now four of us. During one pass along the ridge the last newcomber and myself spotted a small bird flitting out of the bushes and down the slope on the estuary side. We hurried over to peer down into the deep shade of the cliff. It was still there at the bottom though partially hidden. We scrutinised it closely - it looked promising: a small dark phyllosc with a super that stopped before the forehead. And yes, there was the wing bar, it was our bird! Excitedly, we called the other two over and tried to track it as it rapidly worked its way along the bottom of the cliff. In the end I decided that it would be easier viewing from the shoreline and scrambled down the steep slope. My companions were somewhat more circumspect about getting down but eventually found their way down too. The bird was working its way rapidly along the scrub in the side and base of the cliff. It was easy to follow but always moving rapidly. I tried to take some superzoom photos though it was moving too quickly so in the end I tried to video it instead. None of it came out though there were a few frames of video from which I could salvage some record shot grabs. This would prove to be another theme of the trip - all my photos ended up being remarkably crap! Not that I cared - at last I'd seen an Arctic Warbler! We followed in for a while until it nipped off somewhere.

Above and below, some blurry video grab record shots of the Arctic Warbler

The Arctic warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) normally inhabits either pure or mixed Birch forest, usually near water and breeds in Fennoscandia and the northern Palearctic. It is strongly migratory and winters in south east Asia. Apparently it also breeds in Alaska in North America. It is pretty much annual to the UK though is classed as a Rare, rather than merely a Scarce on RBA.

With my birding plans already somewhat thrown out by the length of time it had taken to convert the first target I decided not to linger but instead made my way back north towards the Warren. I'd been following the bird news that morning: a Dusky Warbler at the Warren (which would probably take too long to connect with given how skulky they are), a Little Bunting near the Canal (ditto) and a Barred Warbler at Easington (maybe worth going for). Hmmm, maybe it was time to head straight for Flamborough. I pondered this as I walked back along the beach. Near the Warren there was a huddle of birders and it turned out that a locustella had been seen in the scrub. So a net had been set up into which and they were trying to flush it. We all watched with excitment as the ringers worked their way through the scrub. Sadly they got to the end with no sign of a bird at all so they had to give up. Oh well, that could have been a wonderful bonus bird but it was not to be. So I headed on to the car, had a celebratory cup of tea and a snack and then fired up the Gnome-mobile and headed off towards Flamborough.

The failed locustella flush

After a tortuous 1.5 hours along endless back roads I finally arrived at my next location of Holmes Gut. Here another bogey bird of mine, an Icterine Warbler, had been lurking for a few days now. Could I finally connect with a second bogey bird in one day? I headed off to find a bunch of people staring at a Hawthorn tree intently - this looked promising. There I met two more Oxon birders: CM and CO. It turned out that CM had last seen the bird just 5 minutes ago as it dropped into the aforementioned Hawthorn. Could it be this easy? I watched and waited intently. However, as the minutes dragged by it started to looked like the bird had ducked down the other side. In any event the light was terrible: we were looking straight into it up a slight slope so it was very hard to make anything out that was hidden in the depths of the trees. Gradually the crowds drifted away and my two county companions also left. I decided to give it a while long and started to bird the 150 yard length of the narrow valley. 

There was a small sewage treament bunker at one end surrounded by Sycamores and some Sallows. At the other end was a little wooden footbridge and lots of deep cover. In previous days the bird had been reported anywhere between these two landmarks. By way of compensation there were a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers near the sewage works and, although furtive, they eventually offered some great views - actually the best I've ever had of this species. I even managed yet another blurry record shot.

Not a "classic" photo by any means of a Red-breasted Flycatcher

 

Apart from that there was an interesting Acro warbler that was never seen well enough to get any detail on. There was also no sign of my Icky at all. After a couple of hours (usually my tolerance limit for these things) I decided to go and try to see some of the other stuff that was nearby and to come back later on to give it another try. First stop was a drive of a couple of minutes towards the caravan site where an Olive-backed Pipit was lurking. A walk of a few minutes took me to a small group peering into the dark underbelly of a small copse of trees intently, looking for this skulking ground-feeding pipit. There I met NT and his wife (yet another Oxon connection). He told me that it had been showing well that morning but was now skulking right at the back and hadn't been seen for half an hour at least. So I gave it about three quarters of an hour or so but without it being seen at all. In the end I got bored (I've seen several already) and decided to nip over the Bempton to try to tick the 1w (presumed) Daurian Shrike that was there. 

So it was back in the car and then a 10 minute hop to the car park of Bempton. I tooled up and asked for directions from a member of staff, to be told it was half way along the Nature Trail just a few minutes walk away. I could see the crowd of birders by the hedge and hurried to join them. There I was told that it had last been seen about 10 minutes ago so I settled down to wait. At that moment an RSPB staff member turned up and asked us to move back onto the path. The twitch group had been standing on part of the meadow area of long grass in order to give the bird enough space. We grudgingly complied though this now meant that we were really too close and it was hard to see the bird on its usual perch at the back of the hedge. We all waited and waited but the bird seemed to have disappeared. Eventually I headed to the coast path and tried to look back up the other side of the hedge but I couldn't see it at all. In the end I gave up and decided to come back later on. It was all rather unsatisfactory and meant that I was now 1 for 4 in terms of my Flamborough birds with just the RB Fly converted.

I headed back to Flamborough and to Holmes Gut. I gave it a good while longer searching for the Icky though with no luck. Eventually I gave up again and headed off for another try at the OBP as that had been reported again on the news services. There I found that there had been one very brief sighting a while ago but it was still not cooperating. I gave it a little while before deciding I'd had enough for the day and headed off to Bridlington where I'd booked a hotel for the evening. This was where I'd stayed last time I came up to Bempton to see the Albertross and the Turkestan Shrike. It was fairly basic but I quite liked it. I had dinner there and then turned in for the night, hoping that things would work out a little better tomorrow.

The next morning, I was up bright and early. I had breakfast alone in the dinning hall as it didn't officially open until 7:30 a.m. which was too late for me. I was out the door just after 7 a.m. and headed back the short distance to Holmes Gut to try one last time for the Ickterine Warbler. Now that it hadn't been seen since CM saw it a few minutes before my arrival, it was looking increasingly likely that it had gone. Still, it was worth one more try. I arrived to find just one other birder there. There was a brief moment of excitment when we thought we had it, though it turned out to be the elusive Acro from yesterday and on our brief views we weren't able to make out anything more on it. One RB Flycatcher was still around and occasinally giving good views but that was about it. 

Again, I managed half the Flycatcher

We birded the valley intently as the sun gradually rose though to no avail. Indeed the Flamborough news feed seemed a little quiet this morning and it rather felt like there'd been a clear-out overnight. The OBP came back negative (though would eventually turn up again much later in the day), there was a Red-flanked Bluetail near South Landing, the Daurian Shrike was back and a Grey Phalarope from yesterday evening was still present in Bridlington harbour. 

Eventually I gave up and headed back to Bemptom to try for the Shrike again. It was in a similar location to before though this time was showing as I arrived. The RSPB had also relented and allowed some limited encroachment onto their meadow. The bird was sitting with its back to us at the back of the hedge so I took a few shots though, predictably, it was partially obscured by a twig and the results were poor. 

Yet another obscured photo! This time of the 1w presumed Daurian Shrike

There was quite a large crows present (it was Saturday after all) and I didn't linger but soon headed down to the coast to peer at the sea briefly (just some Gannets) before heading back to the car. 

The crows of twitchers for the Shrike at Bempton

Time was marching on and I had a lunch rendezvous in York with my eldest daughter and my son. He has just started his first year undergraduate Mathematics degree there and I wanted to see how he was getting on. I just had time for one more bird and decided to do the Bridlington Grey Phalarope as that should be rather straight-forward. It was a 20 minute drive to the harbour where I found the bird right at the far end in the entrance mouth to the harbour, being tossed around on the waves. On the one hand, it was nice to see a Phalarope in their natural habitat bobbing about on the sea. However, it meant that the views were less than crippling of what can often be a most confiding species. Still, it was nice to see and I was pleased to have made another connection after yesterday's dippage. 

The Grey Phalarope was rather distant though the light was good enough for a photo

For context, this it the mouth of the harbour. You can just see the white dot that is the Phalarope in the water near the harbour entrance under the turquoise boxes

Then it was time to head off to York. As I had feared, there were huge traffic issues, trying to get into York. Even using the excellent Park & Ride, the jams around the ring road were tedious. However, the bus service into the city centre was excellent and I had a lovely lunch with my children. Then we had a wander around the city for a while including along the city walls. It was all very picturesque though absolutely heaving with people. 

York cathedral looking very nice in the sunshine

Late afternoon I decided that I had to head off so we all said our goodbyes. The journey home was fine though I had to stop at a service station a couple of times for a reviving cup of tea and in one case a quick power nap. On the way back I reflected on my birding break up to Yorkshire. In the end I'd seen some decent birds and came away with one bogey bird at last having fallen. I could have seen more if I'd connected with everything but on the other hand it could have been a lot worse and on balance I was contented enough with my trip. I arrived home just before 9 pm, fed the cat and then relaxed at home after my big Yorkshire Adventure.