Baglan Magnolia Warbler

I'm sure that every birding who is even remotely plugged into birding news knows by now about the unprecedented fall of American passerines over the last few days. The internet is awash with articles and blog posts about how the unique combination of weather systems at peak migration time has lead to a whole heap of them being dumped on the west side of the country. Magnolia Warbler, Canada Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Bobolink, plus numerous Red-eyed Vireos, the list just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Wales in particular got a good helping both on the mainland and on the scattered islands along the south west coast of the country. 

Now, I'd been watching all this with interested. Of course all these birds would be lifers for me (I even need Red-eyed Vireo still - that's how paltry my Yank passerine list is). However, the St Govan Mag would be nearly 4 hours away - beyond my normal comfortable twitching distance. So I watched from afar, thinking that this unprecedented opportunity would pass me by. However, a second Magnolia Warbler was found at Baglan (between PorthTalbot and Swansea) and at only two and a half hours away, it was certainly within my twitching range. However, this bird seemed much more elusive and indeed took several hours from first being seen until it even was able to be identified properly. However, from accounts within a twitching WhatsApp group it seemed possible to get reasonable views so when it was reported as still present the next day (Monday) I decided to go. However I had a few work things to sort out first so it wasn't until after 9 am that I was able to set off. The journey was uneventful and it was a little before midday that I pulled up in the rather unusual location of a dead-end side road in the Baglan Energy business park. I quickly tooled up and headed off the short distance to the patch of wasteland just off the road. 

The unassuming twitch location. The bird generally frequented the tree line at the back

I met a departing birder who said that he'd only seen it briefly twice in the two hours that he'd been there and that it hadn't been seen for half an hour. Hmmm, that wasn't sounding too great. However, I was there now and resolved to see how things played out. There were about 80 or so birders around, all staring intently into the dense wooded border to the wasteland plot at various points in the south west corner. A youngish birder seemed to know what was going on so I asked for details and he told me that the clump of Silver Birch and Sallows nearby was a good area to watch as it had been seen there earlier. He was watching it intently and low and behold, suddenly someone nearby called out the bird from that very clump. After a few moments I got a glimpse of something moving at the back. 

The crowd followed it as it worked its way to the right and I happened to be positioned in the right spot as it crossed a bit of a gap. Suddenly it was right out on a branch, side on and completely unobscured and I got a perfect view of it. It was only for a split second but it was enough to secure my tick.The main impression was of a Robin sized bird with a slate grey back with two white wing bars and a striking white eye ring and yellow underparts with some darker streaking. I looked at the time. I'd been there for less than 10 minutes, so that was a very fast conversion! 

There was no hope of a photo so here is the St Govan bird courtesy of Ewan Urquhart.
The Baglan bird had a more uniform grey back than this one.

Magnolia Warblers are usually to be found in the north east corner of the USA and Canda where it inhabits densely packed coniferous forests. They migrate south to southeastern Mexico, Panama and parts of the Caribbean. They are fairly common in this area and so their conservation status is "least concern". Of course, one can't help but think of the fate of this poor bird. Having been swept across the Atlantic by a weather system there was little hope of it getting back to where it was supposed to be. It always strikes me as a cruel irony that a birder's best birds are the ones which are most likely to perish.

Another of the St Govan Mag, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

There was a rather comical moment quite soon after I'd first seen the bird when we were all focused on one particular spot and one chap said he could see it. He gave particular instructions and said that it was sitting still on a branch. However no body else could see it and I seemed to be at the wrong angle. Eventually it was worked out that he was looking at a leaf! Apart from that, the bird then showed well on and off for the next half an hour or so, on one occasion coming out at the front of a Sallow I was watching again so I get another really good view plus plenty of glimpses. However, eventually something seemed to chase it off and it was gone and everything went quiet.

Peering into the undergrowth. The Silver Birch clump is just to the left of this

This lack of further sightings set off a gradual exodus. The large numbers melted away and those who were left started chatting or staring aimlessly around. It always amazes me how many passive or "zombie" twitchers there are at things like this. People who just stand around in one spot, not even looking for the bird but waiting for someone else to find it and point it out to them. I would have ideally preferred to have spent more time watching this bird so, along with a few other people, I did my best, wandering around and trying to find it. However, I couldn't even find the tit flock that it was associating with. It had all gone very quiet.

Late arrivals were turning up for the twitch so I knew that numbers of keener twitchers would eventually reach the necessary critial mass needed to relocate the bird but as this could take some time and as I'd already seen it well and had a bit of a journey still ahead of me I decided not to linger. Instead I headed back to the Gnome-mobile and set off for home. Having come down the A40/M5 route on the way there, this time the Sat Nav was saying M40,A420 so it would make a bit of a change from this morning. The journey back was uneventual and back at Casa Gnome I celebrated with my usual cup of tea, basking in the warm glow of a shiny new tick.

Addendum: Twitcher's Details
For those who might be interested in going, below is a map of the twitch area.
Park along the blue line
The bird's circuit is along the red line
The best viewing is the yellow circle of Silver Birch and Sallows

Upper Beeding Aquatic Warbler

Aquatic Warbler is one of those species that I assumed I would never get to see. Back in the day they used to be annual visitors to the UK and a trip down to Marazion in Cornwall in early autumn would usually find one. Sadly this species is in catastrophic decline globally and they are now real rarities in this country. When they do turn up it's usually just "trapped and ringed" and never seen again. So when one was found on Sunday early afternoon in a rather non-descript inland location in Sussex, I assumed that it too would vanish never to be seen again. However, it was seen regularly all afternoon and into dusk. That many sightings in itself was unusual and piqued my interest. However, having done so much driving recently I was too tired to contemplate a trip on Monday even if it was still around. So I watched with interest as it was seen all day the next day. Again this was almost unheard of for an Aquatic Warbler at least in my time of birding. By Monday evening I felt recovered enough to contemplate a trip on Tuesday morning on news. PL (of Ramblings and Scribblings blog fame) messaged me to see if I was going and wanted to join forces. He and I often need the same things and have similar constraints on how far we are prepared to travel so we often find ourselves at the same twitches. So we agreed to go "on news" the next day.

The next morning I was up far too early in anticipation of our trip. A bit of early messaging established that EU (of the Black Audio Birding blog) was also going so we all agreed to go together. EU got an early tip off from a WhatsApp group that the bird was still there before it hit the news services so we all set off for our rendezvous at a layby near the Oxford M40 services. Once we had all assembled, we set of in the Gnome-mobile for Sussex, a couple of hours away according to the Sat Nav. En route EU got more information from the WhatsApp group that the bird was being seen from time to time so it was with some optimism that we struggled our way around the M25 before heading down the M23 to deepest, darkest Sussex and our target of Upper Beeding. In the end the journey was uneventful and we arrived sometime after 10:30 a.m., parked up in one of the neighbouring roads and headed out on the footpath past the church to the river and then northwards along the bank to the twitch area.

We arrived to find a bunch of birders all strung out along a surprisingly long stretch of the river, all looking rather disconsolate. As we walked along the line I would ask them about the bird though it seemed that it had not been seen for about an hour. Towards the end of the line, someone said that "it was last seen in this general area". At last, some more useful information! We set ourselves up in this spot and started to scan the area. We were all watching from a rather narrow footpath, looking down on some scrub area that sloped down to the tidal River Adur. The habitat was long grass with some dead Umbellifers and Dock leaves and a few other bits and bobs. Of course, it was all rather dense vegetation with plenty of places for a small Acro to hide. We'd been there no more than a few minutes when a bird flew into a clump of plants. However it flew in rather high with a bouncy flight and when I lifted my bins it turned out to be a Reed Bunting. Just at that moment something else flew low across the bank into a tall clump of grass near where I had been looking. The flight jizz and the warm honey-brown tones gave it away as the target and I got a good enough view of it before it slipped deeper into the cover to be able to call it out to the rest of the birders there. They all duly converged on the area and a tense 20 minutes followed of watching this area and waiting. Finally it flew out again and down the bank though I happened to miss this. 

 

The Aquatic Warbler, the above two photos courtesy of Nick Truby

After this initial sighting the bird was much more cooperative and it was possible to track it as it skulked about from one location to another. It would regularly show with at least some flight views and could often be picked out in the vegetation if you happened to be at the right viewing angle. It would occasionally make it's "tack" call so that one could keep track of it. In general, there was no possibility of a photo so instead I just spent my time watching it and accumulating some reasonable views over the period of an hour or so. At one point it flew across the river and even sat still in one spot for long enough for me to attempt a record shot. In general, it would occasionally show itself reasonably well for a few seconds before slipping off again.

My one record shot of the bird across the river

As I mentioned at the beginning, Aquatic Warbler is in serious decline and these days most of the breeding population is confined to eastern Poland and southern Belarus with an estimated population of between 11 and 15 thousand birds. It was only recently that their over-wintering region was discovered in Senegal. They have a preference for short (12inch) wet sedge beds though habitat loss through land drainage has resulted in a serious decline to the point where they are the only internationally threatened passerine in mainland Europe.

The Aquatic Warbler, courtesy of Joe Tobias

After a while it all went quiet and the bird wasn't seen for quite a while. More people left and at about 1pm we too decided that we'd had our fill and headed back along the river to the car. After a quick stop off for some food for EU we headed back, guided along the A24 by the Sat Nav due to some accidents on the M25. We arrived back at the layby in reasonable time and all went out separate ways. It had been a very satisfactory twitch, and this elusive species, which I thought I would never get, was finally on my list.

Looking back on the remaining twitchers as we were leaving

Aberdeen Uni Run - Teeside Brown Booby

All too quickly summer was over and our younger daughter was off to university once more after a few years of living and working from home. After the trip up to Aberdeen in the summer to check things out, now it was time for the real thing. So it was that on Thursday morning we set off once more for Scotland. It turns out that Aberdeen University is actually the northernmost university in the UK and it certainly felt like it on the long slog north. Having last time stopped over in Stirling, this time we decided to stop off in Perth in a basic but functional Air BnB. After dinner in a local restaurant we had a wander around the town. The main point of interest is the River Tay and the main bridge which is lit up at night. By way of some background, historically, Perth is known as a location where the river could easily be forded on foot and the town grew up around this area. It is also close to Scone Abbey where the king of Scotland was traditionally crowned so it was also known as the capital of the country for a while.

Perth Bridge at dusk with its coloured lights

The next morning we set off in for the last leg of the journey up to Aberdeen. It was rather foggy to start with though this soon burnt off. It was about an hour and three quarters to the city. After last time when we had got stuck in a traffic jam at the southern end, we elected to take the bypass around to the northern side where the university was located. Once at the university, the drop off turned out to be far quicker than I had been expecting so after picking up the keys, then driving to her halls of residence, unloading the car and saying our farewells, it was only just after 11 am. Now, finally, it was time to think about some birding!

I had been following what was around quite closely on the week leading up to our trip. The Stejneger's Scoter had been lingering around at Musselburgh for several weeks but with a few days to go before the trip suddenly it stopped being reported. However, there was consolation in the form of not one but two Brown Boobies in the offing. The first was an adult bird that lingered at the Humanby Gap in Yorkshire coast for a day before being tracked northward along the coast The second was an elusive juvenile that was seen in the Firth of Forth on both sides of the river though seemed to be very hard to see and always distant. Neither seemed very easy in the days leading up to our departure. However, the Yorkshire Booby started being reported regularly in the Tees estuary in the Teeside area on the Thursday as we drove northwards, Would it settle down and remain there? To add to the mix an Icterine Warbler had been reported just half an hour north of Aberdeen the previous evening in a small hamlet near the coast. I pondered all this information after having completed the Uni drop-off. What to go for?

In the end I decided not to bother with the Icterine Warbler which turned out to be a wise decision as it was not reported again after the initial sighting. Instead I decided to head south and to see what came up on RBA as I neared the Firth of Forth area. If the Stejneger's or the Scottish Booby should come up then I would try for them. Otherwise I would push onwards for the Teeside one. The Sat Nav was saying that it would be a punishing five and a half hours down to South Gare from Aberdeen which would be a huge slog! There was also another factor to be considered. My eldest daughter was now living in Newcastle and I had promised to drop off some items of furniture for her new house. If I were really keen I could push on to South Gare and then head back up to hers though that would add even more time to the journey. What's more, there was one final factor to consider, namely the weather. After initial reports of the Brown Booby at South Gare first thing, it turned out that thick fog was hampering viewing so it wasn't possible to see it at all. I weighed up all these things as I drove southwards. What to do?

There was nothing locally on RBA by the time I reached the Firth of Forth area so by default I headed on southwards. Apparently the fog was continuing to make viewing impossible at Teeside and as I drove along the Northumberland coast I could see that there was a thick layer of heavy fog sitting on the sea itself though it stopped abruptly at the cliff top where the road was. What's more, I was starting to feel very tired after two solid days of driving so rather than push on to Teeside I decided just to head to Newcastle for the night. Hopefully the Booby would stay for one more day and the weather would be better tomorrow. I arrived late afternoon, exhausted from so much driving. We had a good catch-up, a nice walk around the local area and a tasty take away dinner. After all that I felt much better and fell asleep quickly that night.

My plan was to head off when I woke up to be on site reasonably early "on news". The previous day, viewing had been OK first thing but had got difficult mid morning due to the fog. By heading off quickly I hoped that I would make this viewing window should fog still be a factor. In the end I awoke to "still present" news with no mention of fog at all. I got up and was out the door by about 7am, hurrying southwards towards South Gare along roads that were familiar from previous visits to the North East. News continued to be come in of the bird being present en route to encourage me, though I couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous. After all this driving and having to follow the news from afar, would I finally get my reward? 

I needn't have worried! I parked up along the very busy road leading up to the lighthouse and joined various other birders hurrying towards the end of lighthouse. We soon came across the obvious "twitch arena" with a large crown assembled some fifty yards away. Suddenly someone next to me called out "it's on the Red Buoy 5 right there!" and sure enough there it was, on top of the nearest buoy right opposite where I was standing about 370 metres away (I measured it on Google maps!). It was as easy as that! 

 

In the end, the bird was on show constantly though often rather mobile. In between sitting on buoys it would fly around and often land on the sea to join in the feeding frenzy along with the Guillemots, Razorbills and Cormorants when a small shoal of fish would come to the surface. There were large numbers of Herring Gulls hanging around which would try to get in on the action though it seemed the fish were too deep for them so they would fight for scraps and seemed particularly aggressive towards the Booby, often chasing it too and fro. The Booby didn't seem to mind too much and would just fly off somewhere else. It often roamed all the way up to buoy 12 which was right in the distance (about 2km away) though it usually returned to the buoy right opposite us in the end.

 

The Brown Booby is a member of the Sulidae family  of Gannets and Boobies of which it is the commonest member. It has a pan tropical range where it live gregariously and hunts by plunge diving for fish in the manner I was seeing. They apparently only roost on solid objects rather than on the sea which I guess was why it liked the buoys so much.

The nominate "Atlantic" Brown Booby (pink area) is normally found in the southern hemisphere

After a while some of the local fisherman cottoned on to the idea of making some extra cash by offering boat rides for photographers to get closer to the Booby. We watched as these boats would take a few at a time to a much closer distance. To my mind the distance wasn't too bad though later photos on the internet seemed to suggest that they got a lot closer as the day progressed. The Booby didn't seem in any way phased by this and sat there happily on its buoy as the boat got nearer. Sometimes a boat went out when the Booby was right down the far end so some photographers would have paid their money but not got to see the bird up close at all.

Just some of the many Teeside Twitchers

 

There was not much else of note: a fly-over Red-throated Diver was notable and a few Meadow Pipits were knocking around where we were. One of the locals spotted a distant Eider on the far shore and also an Arctic Skua that I never got onto. There was a Whimbrel and a few Redshank knocking about but that was about it. Eventually I decided that I'd had enough and started to amble back towards the car. I stopped and peered in the various nooks and crannies along the way. I really like this area with it its run down feel and little harbours though it's a million miles from the wildness of the Cornish coastline that I know so well. Back in the car, I started to head off, stopping briefly at the last viewing point to chat with a birder who was scoping out the sand bar there. A flock of Barwits and a few other bits and pieces was all that was on offer. There was no more putting it off, it was time to head off home to Oxford.

A view of the Tees Estuary

 

There was one more factor to consider. As I'd been heading down towards South Gare that morning, news had broken back in Oxon of a Pallid Harrier that had been seen on Otmoor. This was a real county Mega and very gripping! What's more it was twitchable as, after it was first found, it was seen up until 10:30am that morning. Now it was long four and a half hours back to Oxford from where I was. "I suppose I'd better go and have a look for it" I thought. As the day and my journey home progressed there was no further news of it. Whats more, as I headed south the weather got progressively hotter and hotter. It had been a really pleasant temperature at South Gare but it was a humid 30 degrees by the time I arrived back in the county. I certainly did not fancy standing around on Otmoor in that heat so that rather than heading straight to Otmoor I went home instead for a well earned nap. This turned out to be a wise decision as the bird wasn't seen again that day. The next day I did make the effort to get out to Otmoor early doors but without success. One that got away clearly though I had my "booby prize" to console me. I will remember this trip not for missing the Harrier but for the success of connecting with the amazing Brown Booby at Teeside.

Low Key Family Holiday to Portugal

As the title suggests, this was a very low key, non-birding, family holiday to Portugal. On such trips I always bring my bins and superzoom camera and like to see what birds I come across en passant. We were staying in a town house in Sintra, a mountainous region to the west of Lisbon and on the border of the Park Natural de Sintra-Cascais, a large national park. We didn't have a car as there were so many things to see and do just in the local area so we made use of Bolt (an Uber-like private hire service) which is very cheap in Portugal. Most of our trips were to local palaces (which abound in the area) and their associated gardens. These were good to see and I was expecting to see at least some birdage in these locations. However, the main theme of the holiday was just how birdless it all was. I don't know if it is the extreme drought conditions which have driven everything away but it was hard work to see anything at all. Each morning I would sit with a cup of tea on the balcony of our property which is in a nicely wooded area, looking to see what I might see. 

The "Tower of Mordor" (Pena Palace actually), viewed from the house balcony

 

The list was modest to say the least. The highlight in the garden itself was a nice Firecrest which I would see most days. We looked out onto the mountain top of Pena Palace which was a nicely wooded mountain top. I kept expecting to see raptors of some kind over there but saw nothing. In fact the only raptor I saw the entire visit was a Buzzard one day at the Palace of Monserrate. In terms of garden fly-overs it was mostly Wood Pigeons with a couple of Starling species which I assume were Spotless Starling from the Collins distribution maps (Common Starling is only a winter visitor and marked "rare" on eBird for the region). Short-toed Treecreeper were relatively common in the area as were Nuthatch. There was a Blackcap one day (apparently resident all year around in the area according to Collins), with Jays, Tits and Great Spotted Woodpecker also to be seen. At night we would hear Tawny Owls calling nearby

Walking around town I saw quite a few Black Redstart and one morning saw a couple of Crag Martins. There were a few Swifts still around including a pair of what looked like Pallid Swifts. Apart from that the only hirundines I saw were a couple of House Martins. In one of the parks there was a small pool where various birds were coming for a drink. In a short time there I saw a Nuthatch, a Black Redstart and a Serin.

Black Redstarts were relatively common

One day we went down to the coast to meet up with an old family friend from Oxford. There, I saw a few Yellow-legged Gulls and a single Lesser Black-backed type of gull. I didn't get a photo of it and the Collins distribution maps would seem to suggest that it is usually a winter visitor to this area. In one of the local parks I came across something that I didn't immediately recognise and had to look up. It turned out to be a Crested Myna. This is a species of Chinese Starling that has been accidentally released in some other areas, such as Portugal where it has now established a feral population. According to Wikipedia: "[Crested Myna] was discovered breeding around Lisbon, Portugal in 1997. They are now established on both sides of the Tagus estuary to the west of Lisbon and also on the Setubal Peninsula". In fact, terms of most interesting species seen on this holiday, this probably takes the award. Another feral species that was present in numbers were the Ring-necked Parakeets that were to be found in Lisbon.

A stock photo of a Crested Myna, copyright the original owner

There were a few Odonata around including some Willow Emeralds, a Southern Hawker by the House and a few Keeled Skimmer.

What I assume is a Willow Emerald

A Keeled Skimmer

All in all I managed a paltry 34 bird species on my holiday list and that was including some dodgy ducks in one of the ponds. So quite a remarkably birdless holiday! I would like to have a proper birding holiday on the Iberian peninsula at some point as there are lots of good species to be seen.