Lists and a Good Day's Local Birding

In general I find county birding rather frustrating. Especially in a land-locked county such as Oxfordshire where the winter months can drag on. Finally, come spring you get all exciting about the mouth-watering Rares that are going to come your way but instead of course all the really good stuff is found on the coast. And don't get me started on the frustrations of a county list - I find it really difficult that one can go so long without a county tick even when, as a relative new comer to the scene, one is languishing near the bottom of the county league table. And then when you turn your back (or go down to Cornwall in my case) that's inevitably the time when all the good stuff goes through. I even keep a list (to torment myself) of what I've missed in the county through being away. Currently I'm on three gettable ticks missed for being in Cornwall (Red-necked Grebe, Purple Sandpiper and Red-throated Diver) and one because I was out all day with my VLW (Manx Shearwater).

I have this theory that the smaller the birding area that one is considering, the more frustrating it can all be. For example, if I really want to get a new tick on my UK list then I can at present relatively easily do this if I put in sufficient time to travel to twitch something. On the other hand, for my county list, there's nothing I can do to increase it other than to try to find something myself. And as for a patch life list, I don't even keep one: that way madness lies I feel. I'm reminded of Johnny Allan, a mad keen Surrey patch lister who packed it all in after missing the first Long Tailed Skua for Surrey which turned up on his patch, whilst he was there and he didn't see it - it's enough to push anyone over the edge. I generally like lists that you can keep ticking along easily so a patch year list is a good one that I work hard on. I include sightings from other people (i.e. a pan observer year list) so that there's less of an issue if I personally miss something. Thus it is that I have sought solace from the pain of county life listing in the world of Patch birding. I can get excited about finding a good bird for the patch which is why, if there's nothing exciting elsewhere in the county, you'll generally find me on Port Meadow wandering around looking to add that Patch Year Tick. The advantage of this is that I do put in a large number of hours per week on the patch and so I do manage to find the occasional good bird when it does turn up. Fortunately the patch is good enough that it will attract the occasional Scare or Rare and it's this outside chance as well as the Patch Year Ticks which keeps me going day in and day out.

I suppose that there is another issue which is the "maturity" of one's list. What I mean by this, is that I can easily go and find a new bird for my national list because I've not been birding that long so there's plenty I still "need". For seasoned birders this isn't the case and I expect that, like me for my county birding where my list is more "mature", they're waiting around for something they need actually to turn up. By that argument you'd probably expect a Patch life list to mature even more quickly so there'd be longer waiting around but as I don't actually keep one I can't really comment on this.

Anyway, time to talk about some actual birds. This spring has been a rather unusual one. The horrible cold weather that stuck with us for so long clearly held back the early spring migrants so that now that it's finally gone there's been a wave of migrants hitting the county with the normally early migrants coming in with the later birds all at once. This has, dare I say it, actually made for some quite good county birding as well as some fantastic Patch birding. Pied Flycatcher is a really hard bird to get in Oxon, sure a few are reported each year in the county but they are almost all untwitchable. Last year one finally stuck around at Farmoor for lots of county birders (including myself) to get it on their list (see my write-up here). Thus when Tom Wickens found one by the Thames behind the Oxford ice rink on Thursday evening, it wasn't quite the huge deal that it would have been last year but nevertheless a very nice bird. As it was so late, only a few people twitched it that evening and I think that everyone (including myself) just assumed that it wouldn't be there the next day. So it wasn't until mid afternoon when two keen student birders (Alex Martin and Liam Langley) decided to check it out that it was discovered still to be there, happily flycatching away. They kindly gave me a call and I came down to have a look. It had found a convenient tree that had recently fallen into the water which made an ideal perching spot from which to make flycatching sorties and it was remarkably confiding, unconcerned by people standing around watching it. As it was constantly on the move it was hard to photograph but I managed a few successful shots with my Canon SX30 camera which came out OK. 

After I put the news out a few more people managed to twitch it and even some people surprisingly high up the county league table managed to add it to their county list. In fact I was chatting to Ian Lewington about it and he confessed that before this year, where as County Recorder he was called to a private garden to check one out, he'd only ever seen one in the county which he'd found himself so they really are county Megas from a twitchable point of view. It just shows what an unusual spring we're having that there have already been three separate ones reported in the county. Incidentally Wood Warbler has the same untwitchable county status as Pied Fly so I'm formally putting in a request to the Birding Gods for one now.

Later that same afternoon I went for my daily check of the Patch. I'd met up with Tom Wickens, who is doing a county year list (it's getting quite competitive with Peter Law hot on his heels). In addition Tom does some sort of strange month listing where the average across all months of the year should be more than 100 birds or something. Anyway, he was keen to get a Redstart on both these lists and mirabile dictu Port Meadow was actually the place to get this species this year. Redstart is certainly less than annual on the Patch and in fact until this year I'd not personally actually seen one on Patch at all. But this year there'd been a wave of inland passage across the country and fortunately Oxon was getting in on this action. Burgess Field, the former tip turned nature reserve that adjoins Port Meadow, has always looked great for this species but up until now has never delivered on this promise. However, this year there'd been four found in one day and several other days of one or two which might be different birds so it was suddenly producing them in spades. So there we were looking for Redstarts and in the company of Liam Langley we soon found one at the apex of what I call the Triangle field, a triangle-shaped area bordered by hawthorn hedges on two sides. Shortly afterwards we found a second one half way down the field and then I spotted a Pipit sitting as calm as you please in the hedge. It was very cooperative, showing down to about 10 yards so we gave it a good grilling and I tooks some snaps. The upshot of it was that it was a Tree Pipit, again not by any means a rare bird but they no longer breed in the county and usually are only seen as a calling fly-over in the spring or autumn so it was great to get such close views and also to have the opportunity of wrestling with an ID problem as without calling you have to know what to look for to separate it from Meadow Pipit. So three great birds all within 50 yards of hedgerow.

The Tree Pipit

For those who are keen on the ID points they are:
1). Breast streaks get finer down the flank - this is the diagnostic measure that I usually use in the field
2). Two toned underparts: yellowish breast and flanks vs. white underbelly
3). Pinkish tone to the legs cf. yellowish for Meadow
4). Median coverts with strong whitish tips
5). Hind claw wasn't particularly long in the field though hard to see in the photo.
6). Quite a strong bill compared to the more delicate bill of a Meadow Pipit.

Incidentally, I recently purchased "Advanced Bird ID Handbook" by Nils van Duivendijk which is great for things like this. It doesn't have any illustrations but it's very useful for listing all the key ID criteria. Well worth getting.

So, a good day's county birding all within five minutes of my home. Going back to my original theme of national vs county vs patch birding, as I've been writing this up I've realised that of course the key to all birding is the relative scarcity: Redstarts aren't that big a deal in the county but I get really excited seeing one on my Patch; Pied Flycatcher and Tree Pipit aren't rare birds in the country but they're localised and happen not to occur in Oxon so one can legitimately get excited when one does see one. This of course extends to national birding: Hoopoes for example are always exciting birds to see in the country but on the continent they're not that big a deal. Birding all boils down to relative scarcity: how unusual is it to see that bird in that location. "No Shit, Sherlock!" I know but it puts it all into perspective. In fact I think it was Badger who said that Balearic Shearwater is probably the rarest bird globally that we seen in this country. By that measure, seeing a Balearic Shearwater on the Patch would be the pinnacle of birding achievements!

Another Quiet Cornwall Interlude

Once again a summary of a quiet trip down to Cornwall, taken from my Pendeen Birding blog.

Monday 1st & Tuesday 2nd April: Pendeen & Marazion
Well, I'm back down in my beloved Cornwall for another visit, this time with my VLW and our six year old son Luke. We're down to do some exterior decorating on the cottage as well as sort out a few bits and pieces and also to enjoy our favourite county some more of course. The decorating we're doing because the quote that we got from our builder (the reason for the last visit) was so large that we thought that for that price we could do it ourselves. On the birding front, there didn't seem to be much about in the county of late and with the family in tow as well I wasn't expecting much birding action. Nevertheless there's always something to see and I was hoping that at least I might be able finally to catch up with a Ring Ouzel in the county if nothing else.

We had family over for the Easter weekend itself so it wasn't until Easter Monday that we were able to get away and because we'd not had time to prepare before hand it wasn't until after midday that we finally set off. The traffic was rather busy and at one point we even opted for a detour around Bath and Bristol as there were signs reporting jams on the start of the M5. Thus we didn't arrive until late afternoon, where after a brief stop for some essential provisions we headed straight for the cottage. As I was unpacking the car I was surprised to spot a smart finch hopping around in front of the terrace of cottages next to our place. Closer inspection revealed it to be a smart male Brambling nearly moulted into proper summer plumage - very nice! A stroll at dusk down to the lighthouse and I just managed to make out the distinctive tail of a Wheatear flying off into the darkness.

The next morning I made no attempt to get up early and go birding but instead opted for a bit of a lie in with a cup of tea chatting to my VLW. It was nice and sunny outside and forecast to stay like that all day - much needed after the depressing greyness that we've had for so long. After getting up I made a quick stroll around the cottage area and down to the lighthouse where I found three Wheatears hanging about near the road but little else. There was alas also no sign of the Brambling. Next it was on with the work: to start with we had some new garden furniture to assemble (the last metal set had rusted away within a year so we'd bought a hardwood set instead this time). Then it was time to get up on to the roof of the building to see how windy it was. Fortunately, despite the forecast it didn't seem too bad and certainly good enough to do some painting so I passed the next few hours hanging over the edge of our roof using a roller to paint the walls of the top of the central tower part. Given how exposed the whole place is I was using proper lighthouse paint which hopefully would stay on longer than the conventional paint had done. I kept my bins and camera with me the whole time in case I should hear something good but the only distractions were a couple of Ravens and a couple of Buzzards.

Always a sign that spring is finally on the way

By lunchtime I'd managed to put a first coat on all around the top of the building where the paint had been coming off. After a mercy dash to St Just to pick up some tin foil to wrap up my brushes (Pendeen stores had run out), we had lunch and then decided to head over to Penzance for some food shopping and to see if we could score a tea somewhere. We were just sitting in the Renaissance Café munching on a brownie where an RBA text came through reporting a Garganey at Marazion. My VLW agreed that we could head back home "via" Marazion and so we finished off our refreshments and headed off. There I found Phil and Hiliary at the viewing point admiring the sleeping duck. They've finally made the move down here full time and were enjoying their first full week as Cornish residents. We chatted for a while, saw the Bittern very briefly and then I had to head back to the family who were waiting in the car to go home.

 

 Garganey is a Cornish tick for me

Back home I went for a brief stroll down towards Portheras beach before dinner. A Black-necked Grebe had been reported there yesterday but although the tide was right in all I could find were a couple of Shags and a Guillemot. Whilst walking down I got a text from back home in Oxfordshire saying that a 1w Ring-billed Gull had been found in the Farmoor roost by Nic Hallam. Whilst it's not that big a deal down here in Cornwall, back home that's a real county mega and I was suitably gripped off by this. I later found out that it had been seen briefly just by Nic and that Badger & the Wickster who were even already there at the reservoir didn't manage to see it before it flew off. So well and truly untwitchable and my emotional equilibrium was restored. 

As a nice bonus, at the end of the day the Brambling put in an appearance again and I was even able to take a few shots through the cottage window of it. A very nice end to what had turned out to be a nice albeit low key day.

 It's nice to see a Brambling more or less in full summer plumage

Wednesday 3rd April: Pendeen

Today was a very quiet but productive day - in fact it was quiet throughout the county with little of note on the pager and even yesterday's Garganey had moved on. The weather was beautifully sunny and out of the keen wind it was even warm! Once more I had a lie in and then did my morning rounds about the cottage, this time in the company of Luke who wanted to get out for a walk. There were two Wheatears along the road to the lighthouse today and on the lighthouse itself I found a lovely female-type Black Redstart but apart from that there was little of note.

A record shot of the lighthouse Black Redstart

The entire day was spent in painting the outside of the building, at least until the wind strength got up to the point where it was no longer safe to balance precariously on a ladder and try and paint. One benefit of being outside all the time was that one could hear the local birds: 2 Ravens today and 3 Chough were the highlights. After a cup of tea with our neighbours we went for a walk down to Fisherman's Cove (though apparently it's actually called Boat Cove) where I found a lovely Sandwich Tern hunting just off shore. I had a go at photographing it with my Superzoom and whilst the results weren't great you can at least tell what it is!

Pendeen Sandwich Tern

Thursday 4th April: Pendeen & Men-an-Tol
It's been another quiet day today. The weather wasn't as nice as yesterday with lots more cloud and the wind was stronger and in a north-easterly direction, making some of the exterior decorating tasks rather tiresome. Lying in bed this morning with my tea and chatting to my VLW I managed to see the male Brambling out of the window - a nice start to the day though I only managed to photograph the back of his head. 

 

Dunnock and the back of the Brambling

My morning rounds found very little of note apart from the two Ravens again and the Sandwich Tern close in off the Watch. The wind was so strong down by the lighthouse that it was a struggle to even breath so I didn't linger at all. After that we pottered around the cottage doing various DIY tasks and I bumped into John Swann and a friend at the bottom of the garden. They came in to have a look for the Brambling but it's very elusive: despite being around the cottage most of the time I've only seen him for a couple of minutes each day. It turned out that it was they who'd reported the three Ring Ouzels at Men-an-Tol the previous day and as I still need it for my Cornish list I took careful note of where they'd seen it. They soon wandered off to look for the Black-necked Grebe from a couple of days ago at Portheras beach and I went back to my chores.

One of the Ravens being watched warily by a Crow

Late morning we needed to pop over to PZ to run some errands.We picked up a couple of pasties whilst we were there and went back via Madron and stopped off at Men-an-Tol. Given the wind, Luke and my VLW decided to stay in the car, eat their pasties and listen to the radio whilst I when on an Ouzel hunt. Despite carefully scouring all the fields I drew a blank. On the way back I found a field which had large numbers of Wheatears in as well as a single Golden Plover and in the distance I managed to spot a variety of Thrushes which looked promising: there was a single Song Thrush, four Fieldfares, a couple of Redwings, a pair of Blackbirds and a bird which flew directly away from me and down over a dip which migh have been an Ouzel though I couldn't be certain. Despite trying to view the field from all angles I couldn't relocate it and with my family in the car growing impatient I had to admit defeat. We headed back home to do a few more tasks and then wind down for the day.

Later that evening a single Ouzel was reported at Men-an-Tol on RBA so I may well have to make a return visit tomorrow.


Friday 5th April: Men-an-Tol & Chyandour

Lots of decorating today but not much birding to report. My morning Pendeen rounds revealed little more than the two Ravens still hanging about. All of the morning and some of the afternoon was spent in finishing off the various outside decorating tasks that we had as this was to be our last full day down at the cottage. By mid afternoon this was all complete and it was time to head off for some non-decorating R&R. My VLW wanted to do a spot of shopping in PZ so I dropped her off and then Luke and I went back to Men-an-Tol to have another look for the Ring Ouzels. There'd been a "no sign" report first thing this morning but with little else around on the peninsula at present I thought that I might as well take a look. On the previous visit the two ploughed fields (the first two fields on the right as you walk up the track) had been full of birds with all the Wheatears and Thrushes on the first one and loads of Gulls on the second. However, today they were completely birdless. We walked up as far as the start of the moorland checking the fields on the left and right assiduously but the only bird that I saw was a single Golden Plover (presumably the same bird that I saw the other day). 

We went back to Penzance and as we had a bit of time left before our rendezvous with my VLW, Luke and I walked along the sea defences at Chyandour to look for the Black Redstart. There was no sign of it and the only things I could find were a couple of Turnstones on the rocks and five Common Scoter off-shore (two males and three females). We met up with my VLW and then went off for some tea and cake before heading home to pack, ready for leaving first thing tomorrow morning. That evening, to rub salt into my wounds, a tardy "still present" message came through for the Ouzel at Men-an-Tol for midday. I must admit that I do find that Ring Ouzels can be right little so and so's when it comes to twitching them - they seem to be very good at hiding!

Chyandour Turnstone

Saturday 6th April: Buttermilk Hill
Today it was a case of getting up early, finishing off packing and then head off back home. Of course typically today was by far the best weather of the week with lovely sunshine and for once very little wind. I have found that after a while the incessant wind does start to get to you and it was a relief finally to be out of it. We actually managed to stick to our plan reasonably well and left the cottage by nine a.m. I had managed to persuade the family to take the scenic route along the North coast and to allow me to stop off at Buttermilk Hill briefly to have a last try for a Ring Ouzel. It was a perfect morning and I would have loved to have had enough time really to explore properly but instead, with the others waiting back in the car I had to be quick. I yomped up to the saddle between the two hills and found the pond which I had been told was a good area to try. Sure enough there were four black thrushes loitering in the area but they turned out just to be Blackbirds. I went up to the summit and scanned the far side for movement but found nothing other than a few mipits. An impatient call on my mobile from my VLW told me that my time was up and I made my way back down to the car, reluctantly having to accept that I'd not managed to catch up with this species on this trip down. We made our way back to the A30 and after stopping off to buy lunch sandwiches at a convenient supermarket headed off north and back home. En route I got a text from Dave Parker telling me that there was a Ring Ouzel on Buttermilk hill late morning! I just laughed - clearly the birding gods didn't want me to see one on this trip and I just had to accept that. Oh well, they'll have to keep until another trip down here.

Reflecting on the trip on the way back home, it had been a rather low key affair from a birding perspective but then I'd been expecting that anyway: there'd not been much around to go for and the weather and the time of year combined to make it all rather quiet. I had in fact been extremely lucky to be around when the Garganey had turned up at Marazion: this species is quite hard to get in Cornwall (it was a tick for Cornwall visiting veterans "P&H" i.e. Phil Taylor and Hiliary Mitchell too) and it only stayed the one day so that had been a real piece of luck. The Brambling had also been a lovely bird to have around the cottage whilst we'd been decorating so there'd been some nice highlights to the trip. We'd not quite managed to finish all the exterior decorating so I should be back down fairly soon when there's some nice weather and the cottage is unoccupied. This should give me another chance to chase after Ring Ouzel which has now been promoted to the status of a Cornish bogey bird for me.

Bird of the Trip: the Marazion Garganey popped it's head up for all of five seconds 

whilst I was there. Fortunately I captured it on video, hence this rather crappy 

grab which at least allows you to see it's head properly.

Arctic Fudge

As you will have noticed from the lack of posts on this blog, apart from regular visits to my local patch at Port Meadow, I've not been out birding much of late. It's all down to the weather of course, this horrible grey bone-chilling coldness that's sitting over the country at present, keeping the spring out. Nevertheless, spring vagrants had started to battle their way to our shores despite the weather: the first trickle of migrants had started with the odd Wheatear, a few Sand Martins, a Black Redstart and a Ring Ouzel appearing in the county. In the country the first overshoots had started to arrive  with a Red-rumped Swallow and a Hoopoe (that subsequently died) on the Scilly, a Bluethroat and a Kentish Plover (the latter a bogey bird for me) down at Portland. So, despite the weather, things were actually starting to kick off. 

It was with this backdrop that news broke on Monday morning, via the Badger Text Alert, of a possible Ferruginous Duck on Otmoor that had been found by one of the wardens. The warden had been adamant about the ID but had only seen it briefly. Team Badger set off to investigate. Myself, I'm a bit more of a lazy twitcher: unless it's close by or on my patch I'll wait until someone else (often Badger) has checked it out first before setting off. Of course this will mean that I'll miss a proportion of birds but as my twitching brownies points are limited I have to be selective. A couple of hours go by, I'm staring out of my office window at the freezing coldness and hoping that the bird isn't found or it turns out to be a Tufted Duck or something. No such luck: Badger called to say that it was a Fudge Duck but it was very elusive, skulking around in the reeds. "Oh, and it's absolutely freezing out here", he added. Bugger! Now, I don't actually need Fudge Duck for my county list thanks to a sighting that I had a few years ago on Port Meadow. Now, it's not on any official records so perhaps it's time that I tell the story and perhaps actually submit the record. It was the autumn of 2007 and I'd only just taken up birding again. I was down on Port Meadow by Burgess Field gate looking through all the ducks with my ancient binoculars that were all I had back then. Whilst I watched a duck flew in, landed close by and started swimming actively through the other ducks. I remember it to be a really striking bright mahogany colour, not like anything that I'd seen before. I had just enough experience to think that it might be a Ferruginous Duck though I'd never seen one. It stayed for less than ten minutes before flying off. Back then I didn't know anything about reporting sightings etc so it just quietly went on my list. With hindsight I never checked anything like the undertail coverts or the nail on the bill etc so I didn't rule out any hybrid possibilities but at the time to my inexperienced eye it looked just like the one in my new Collins bird book when I got back home to check. Since then I've seen others out of county but that sighting has stayed on my county list. With that "unofficial" tick hanging over me I felt that perhaps I should make an effort as an "insurance tick" against my then-inexperienced ID. Thus it was that I packed my gear into the car, put on as many layers as I could physically wear and set off for Otmoor. Of course the bird was right by the second screen, as far away as possible and by the time I'd yomped over there I was actually feeling quite warm in all my layers and had to unzip my coat. En route I'd seen a lovely Barn Owl sleeping out on a post behind the feeders though Peter Barker later informed me that it had been there all morning so perhaps wasn't too well. I met several people coming back from the duck including Dave Doherty, Bark and Paul Greenaway, all who had successfully seen the bird.

 The car park Barn Owl - not looking well

Up by the second screen I found Terry Sherlock, Badger, Roger Wyatt and an unidentified birder all huddling behind the screen and looking cold. It turned out that the bird had been seen three times in total: twice in the last channel before the second screen and once in front of the screen though it had flushed when the rest of the gang had rushed up to see it. I joined them in staring at the water by the second screen for a while with the wind blasting straight into the screen and through the viewing gaps in an unforgiving manner. Unlike Farmoor and Port Meadow, Otmoor is full of hiding places for birds and it could be skulking anywhere in the reeds and with this wind would probably want to remain hidden away in their shelter. It was a Herculean task - I wondered just why I'd bothered to come out.

Terry, Badger and an unknown birder

After a while Roger went for a walk to warm up. I chatted to Badger about this and that and then Roger hurried back to ask if we'd seen the bird as he'd just flushed it from close by. Doh! we'd been too busy chatting and had missed it. I blamed the cold for my lack of concentration. A short time later I was getting too frozen so decided to go for a stroll to warm up and Roger joined me. We went to stare at the channel again where it had been seen most often. Of course viewing was difficult and restricted and one had to move around to see different parts of the curving channel. Roger told me that actually he'd flushed the bird from a smaller side tributary between us and the screen. At that point the unidentified birder came towards us and flushed a duck from the same tributary. He then rushed up to say that that had in fact been the Fudge Duck and this did indeed tally with what I'd seen in flight. We managed to see it in the channel briefly and Roger rattled off a few shots though it's back was to us, it was distant and it quickly swam out of view. We called over Badger and Terry and we all stood around, chatting and staring at the channel. Now that I'd actually seen the bird I was more relaxed but also starting to think about home, food and warmth. Paul Chandler came and joined the throng. The duck showed no immediate sign of reappearing and so I decided to head back to the car, meeting the Wickster and Peter Law coming the other way en route. I nipped in to the New Hide to scan Ashgrave for the White-fronted Geese but couldn't see them. Apparently there is a hidden section of the field where lots of the birds congregate so they almost certainly were there but out of sight. Back by the feeders the Barn Owl was still there, poor thing! I reached the sanctuary of the car and sped off home, happy to be out of the cold.

 

Thank heavens for Badger (c) and his digiscoping - here's what all the fuss was about

I later learnt that the bird wasn't seen again that day after my sighting so I'd been lucky and with my unofficial tick now backed up with a proper (albeit brief) sighting I could relax. Let's hope it sticks around and is more co-operative so that those who want to can get to see it. For myself, I hope that the next one of what is a rare bird in the county is found in warmer conditions with easier viewing.

A Brief Trip Down to Cornwall

Once again below is an amalgamation of my posts from my Pendeen Birding blog with some minor additions for a more Oxon-centric audience.


Sunday 24th Ham Wall RSPB, St John's Ford & Rosenannon Downs

It seems like far too long since I was last down in Cornwall. Even though from a distance things seem rather quiet down there I still miss the great birding and anyway it can't be any quieter than it is back in Oxon of late.With a few bookings coming up in the cottage in March I needed to come back down to meet up with the builder to discuss a couple of small projects, basically some minor weatherproofing jobs that needed to be done. It would also be an opportunity for me to do some cosmetic work on some of the damp patches that we still have at present. In the days leading up to my arrival I'd been keeping a weather eye on what birds were down in Cornwall as well as looking out for anything good that I might like to drop in on en route (which is a very flexible concept in my book). The Pied-billed Grebe at Ham Wall RSPB in Somerset had conveniently stayed around for a while now and was only a short detour from the motorway so I marked that down for starters. In addition there were quite a few birds around that I still needed for my fledgling Cornish list which I was keen to try for. To start with there was a drake Green-winged Teal at St John's ford near Torpoint which looked tempting and I thought that I'd stop off at Wacker Quay to look for Avocets whilst I was going that way. If I had time I was wondering about seeking out some Cirl Buntings and there was also the possibility of Short-eared Owls at Rosenannon Downs over towards St Columb Major. So plenty to play for just in getting down to Pendeen.

I set off at around 8:15 on Sunday morning and with the roads nice and clear I arrived at Ham Wall at around 10:45 a.m. I was just getting tooled up when I met a posse of Oxford birders just returning from paying homage to the Grebe themselves. Apparently, in the absence of "enforcer" Bark who normally ensure that everyone is present and correct, the Otmoor Massive had snuck off to more productive counties! Not only was the Badger Birding Crew present, namely Badger, Andy Last and Elemen Terry (though sans "Two Eyes" who was duck hunting on Uist) but also Klackers and his wife Shirley were there and Steve Jennings had been and gone already. A sad indictment of Oxon birding in February unfortunately.

Myself and Klackers at Ham Wall with the Gnome-mobile 

in the background (c) Badger

We chatted for a while and then the BBC headed off to Exeter to look for Cirl Buntings whilst I set off to find the Grebe. Ham Wall is basically a large bank of reed beds and pools on either side of a central path with viewing platforms and hides placed along the route.  It was still very chilly with a really biting cold wind so I was wrapped up really warm. I walked as briskly as I could towards the second viewing platform with Glastonbuy Tor in the distance watching over proceedings. As I hurried along I heard my first Cetti's Warbler of the year calling from within the reeds, sadly it's become a rather rare sound in Oxfordshire after the recent harsh winters. There were only half a dozen or so birders at the second screen but the Grebe was on show when I arrived and someone soon got me onto it. Unfortunately it was rather distant and it insisted on loitering right at the back of the open water but despite the near-continual tripod-shakingily bitter wind I was able to make out all the salient features. A Marsh Harrier floated by in the distance and there was the usual mix of Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and Little Grebes dotted around the place. Presently the Pied-billed Grebe disappeared from view for about ten minutes before it turned up again and I watched it until I started feeling too cold. After that it was a brisk yomp back to the car and back on to the motorway towards Cornwall.

Given how far away the bird was and how much the tripod was shaking

 this rubbish record shot is actually a pretty good achievement!

Peter Law got a better shot of the Grebe a few days earlier (c) Peter Law

I took the A38 rather than the A30 at the fork after Exeter and headed towards the Plymouth area where a lot of my target birds were located. I had been wondering about nipping in for the Lesser Yellowlegs at Ernesettle (on the Devon side of the Tamar) but in the end decided that I didn't really have time if I wanted to see some of my Cornish targets so I chose to give it a miss. Instead I headed towards Torpoint and St John's ford with the Green-winged Teal in mind. I did stop off for a few minutes at Wacker Quay where I found some birders already set up by the "viewing gap" - they kindly let me take a look at the Spoonbill they were watching so I didn't even need to get my scope out. Unfortunately there were no Avocet there today (still a Cornish tick for me) which I'd been hoping for, though of course a Spoonbill is always nice to see. I soon arrived at St John's ford which is an interesting little spot. The single-track road passes through a narrow ford at the west end of St John's Lake (it's interesting how the tidal creeks and side channels of the Tamar are called "Lakes"). Either side of the narrow road was very soft and deep mud so one had to be careful where one trod. The tide was rather low when I arrived though it had turned and was on the way in again. Some of the birds could be viewed by the parking area but the Green-winged Teal had usually been reported over towards the sewage outlet further around. To view this area one had to walk along the bottom of a field and peer awkwardly through a thin strip of trees. As I started along this path I met up with a couple of lady birders. It turned out that this was their third attempt at the Teal so they were keen to find it. Another birder also arrived but between the four of us we couldn't see it anywhere. There were plenty of Teal, Wigeon, Redshank, Shelduck, Little Egrets and Curlew all enjoying the mud and right over in the distance towards Torpoint there was a flock of several hundred small waders that I presumed were Dunlin. There's always something very atmospheric about such places and the haunting calls of the Curlew only added to the charm of the location: in nice warm weather I could happily spend hours birding here. After a while we started to head back towards the ford to take another look down at that end. I set up my scope to view down the Lake where the incoming water was smoothing out the nooks, crannies and hiding places for a Teal so surely the bird would have to be seen at some point. A Grey Wagtail flew by, calling to announce its presence. I kept on scanning and sure enough I soon spotted the Green-winged Teal in the distance near the Sewage outlet dabbling away quite happily. I called over the others and we all enjoyed our rather distant views for a while before he swam out of sight behind the sewage outlet wall. Whilst we could probably seen him again if we walked back along the field I felt that I'd seen enough and time was marching on. As I made my way back to the car a Nuthatch called loudly from in the wooded hillside on the opposite side of the river. Time to head off for my next target.

Another very distant record shot

It was now well after 3pm and I was running out of daylight. I had thought about nipping down to Rame Head for a look round but in the end decided to give that a miss and instead to press on towards the Penwith peninsula and instead to stop off at Rosenannon Downs, located between Wadebridge and St Columb Major. There had been reports of large Lapland Bunting flocks, Harriers and Short-eared Owls there in recent weeks and I was particularly keen to see if I could catch up with the Owls which would be Cornish ticks for me. I'd already coded the location up in my trusty Sat. Nav app and it took me safely there where I arrived in good time at around 4:30pm. 

 Rosenannon Downs

There were several birders already installed there so I went over to join them. They'd seen a Merlin so far but little else of note. Downland habitats are another area with a wonderfully atmospheric feel to them, it's the silence that is most striking to me. However, although the wind seemed to have died down it was very cold and standing around until dark was going to be a bit of an ordeal. There didn't seem to be much to look at either though a couple of the others thought that they saw a Harrier in the distance just above the skyline briefly though I couldn't get on it.  A few large flocks of Starlings went over, their wing beats making an eerie sound in the quiet. A couple of Reed Buntings were calling in the trees behind us and a Yellowhammer turned up and gave us a few renditions of its song. We watched and waited. A Buzzard flew over us. More watching in the cold silence. A lady birder turned up who was a regular for the area. She told us that the top left-hand corner was often where the owls were seen so thereafter I concentrated on this spot. Sure enough just as it was getting dark I spotted a Short-eared Owl sitting on top of a small Hawthorn bush. As we watched a Fox trotted up behind it, presumably stalking it though the Owl spotted it and flapped silently off. As it got darker a Tawny Owl started to call distantly. Finally just at last light a Woodcock flapped over, a nice end to a quiet session. Nevertheless, I'd managed to see my target Short-eared Owl so it had been a successful trip.

By now it was after 6pm and I still had a way to go to get to the cottage. I gave my VLW a quick call so that she wouldn't be wondering where I was and then headed back towards the A30 and on towards Pendeen. It had been a long day, but a successful one with some nice birds seen en route. I arrived at a little after 8pm, booted up the Cottage and had something to eat and a celebratory beer - it had been an enjoyable start to my visit to Cornwall.

Monday 25th February: Hayle, Stithians & Marazion

As I was intending only to have one full day down in Cornwall before heading back home I knew that today was going to be a busy one! I had to do all my chores for the cottage, meet up with the builder to discuss some work and also try to cram in as much birding as possible into the one day. Accordingly, before it was light I was heading out the door and over towards Hayle where my first birds of the day were to be looked for. Just as I was leaving Pendeen heading for Penzance I spotted a lovely Barn Owl hunting by the chimney ruins - a very nice start to the day. The reason for my early start was that I wanted to look for Jack Snipe over at Copperhouse Creek and had been told that I had to get there before the dog walkers arrived. Fortunately the tide was in my favour and it was just about still covering the reedy east corner when I pulled up so there was no possibilty of any prior doggy intervention. I realised that I probably should have brought wellies rather than just my walking boots but it turned out that the mud was only an inch or two deep before one hit gravel so I was going to be all right, albeit rather muddy. I spent the next hour or so tramping around looking for that tell-tale underfoot flush but all the birds were Common Snipe that sped off before I got anywhere near them. Oh well, another time. The weather was actually really nice first thing with some sunshine and none of that biting north easterly wind that was so chilling. The estuary was full of the usual birds but a Greenshank caught my eye as being more noteworthy for this time of year. I had a quick look for the Water Pipit on the salt marsh on the other side of the road but couldn't see any sign of it. A calling Blackbird in Phillack was giving a reasonable impersonation of a Rosefinch which had me going enough to go and check just to be on the safe side. One's got to check these things out even if they usually end up being nothing. Oh well, on to the next location.

A Little Egret in the morning sunlight

Next stop was just around the corner at the Hayle estuary to look for some Yellow-legged Gulls. Now Cornish readers may not really be aware of this but back home in Oxford I'm known for being a bit of a gull addict and regularly spent my evenings checking out the gull roost on my local patch of Port Meadow, and delighting in picking out Caspian Gulls and Yellow-legged Gulls from the throng. In fact we had a real purple patch on the Meadow at the start of the month with two Glaucous Gulls, an Iceland Gull, countless Yellow-legged Gulls and four different Caspian Gulls all in the space of two weeks. Back in Cornwall there are not usually the same gulling opportunities. Sure there were Med Gulls to pick out from the Black-headed's but one was not faced with a flock of thousands to sift through like back home. Even here on the Hayle estuary there were probably only a couple of hundred gulls or so to look through. Yellow-legged Gull is much rarer down here than in Oxon where I can reasonably expect at least one in most evenings - in fact here it would be a Cornish tick for me. There were supposed to be two or three of them about at present: an adult, a third winter and a first winter. I parked up at the Jet Wash and set about scanning through the birds. By this time it was still sunny (a bad thing for gulls as it's hard to judge the mantle colours) and to make matters worse the tripod-shaking bitter wind was back. However with only relatively few birds about to search through it didn't take me too long to find at least the adult and the third winter. One fact which makes gulling easier down here in Cornwall is the absence of argentatus Herring Gulls. Back in Oxon we get a mix of both types and everything in between but here they are all pure "British" Herring Gulls and consequently much more uniform in appearance which makes something different much easier to pick out. The third winter was rather advanced with hardly any brown streaks left in it though the absence of almost any white apical marks in its long dark primaries was rather a give-away. The adult bird really stood out from the argenteus Herring Gulls as well with it's strikingly dark mantle and very long primaries though its legs only had a pale yellow hint to them at this time of year.

The adult bird

I next moved on to the river bridge to see what was about with four Grey Plover and a few Bar-tailed Godwits being the only waders of note. I could only spot three Mediterranean Gulls in amongst the smaller gulls (two adults and a first winter). As the light was still very good I spent a little time taking a few snaps with the Super-zoom camera. After that it was time to head back to the cottage to get on with my chores for the morning and to meet up with the builder.

Hayle Oystercatcher

I managed to get all my work at the cottage done fairly quickly and the meeting with the builder was surprisingly brief so I soon found myself with some free time on my hands. I therefore decided to head east to Stithians Reservoir to see if I could catch up with the Brambling that had been regularly visiting the feeders there for some time now. I arrived to find John St Ledger in the hide watching the feeders and I soon managed to add Brambling to my Cornish list. There were at least two birds coming regularly to the feeders or feeding on the ground below along with at least 30 Chaffinch, some House Sparrows, a few Reed Buntings and a very secretive Water Rail skulking around under the feeders that would scurry off at the slightest noise, so I wasn't able to get a photo of it at all. I munched on my packed lunch and enjoyed the coming and goings of all the birds for about an hour.

 Brambling is one of my favourite finches

After that I nipped over the road to check out the main reservoir where there was supposed to be a juvenile Long-tailed Duck about. In the hide I met Alex Mckechnie though he'd not see any sign of it. Back on the causeway road I found a couple of other birders who apparently had seen it briefly about twenty minutes ago with some Tufted Ducks though I couldn't find it at all. The biting wind was still making things difficult so I didn't stay too long before heading off for somewhere more sheltered.

Whilst I was in the neighbourhood I thought that I would drop in on the juvenile Whooper Swan which had been spending some time on Croft Pascoe after having originally been found on the Helston boating lake. Clearly lost it had decided to stick around at Croft Pascoe for a while where at least there was plenty for it to eat. It looked rather forlorn on its own - let's hope that it manages to find its way north to meet up with others of its own kind in the spring.

The lonely juvenile Whooper Swan

After that I wondered what to do next. I contemplated looking for the mixed Bunting flock (Lapland and Snow) on Treen Common but the prospect of spending more time out in the wind wasn't that appealing. Instead I opted for the shelter of Marazion where the sea was relatively and calm and I would be out of the wind. A scan of the bay to the west of the Mount found only a couple of Great Northern Divers so I moved to Marazion itself and found a nice little viewing spot in the form of a tiny public garden right next to the Godolphin Hotel that allowed me to view the bay to the east of the Mount. To start with there was a large flock of waders directly below me all seeking shelter from the high tide and gorging themselves on the invertebrates in the exposed sea weed that had been washed up against the wall. There must have been at least 50 Sanderling, 30 Turnstone and about 20 Dunlin as well as a Rock Pipit and a single Knot. It was a delight to watch the birds scampering about at such close quarters. Out in the bay a couple of huge rafts of roosting gulls were assembling: the big gulls were way over in the distance but close by was the small gull roost and in amongst the hoard of at least a thousand Black-headed Gulls I found twelve Med. Gulls (ten adults, a second winter and a first winter). I had been hoping for some Black or Red-throated Divers but there were none to be seen. 

After a while it started to get dark so I headed back to the cottage for something to eat and to get on with my evening chores. It had been an enjoyable if rather low-key day's birding.

Tuesday 26th February: Homeward Bound

Today I was heading back home already, the end of an all too brief visit. Before I could leave though I had lots to do in the cottage first: some final finishing off of my touching up work and cleaning up after myself to a standard fit for our first guests in a couple of weeks time. Thus it wasn't until nearly midday that I finally left the cottage and headed on up the A30.

Of course I was going to stop off somewhere en route but given the lateness of my departure I opted for just one brief detour. I'd been given some details of where to look for the release scheme Cirl Buntings so decided to go and take a look. I'd been given a couple of locations to try but when I arrived at the first one I wasn't exactly sure where to go. I wandered around a bit and found a couple of bird feeders outside a house but they were empty - were they supposed to be the feeders that the Cirl would come to? I checked out a few nearby fields but there was nothing very promising and it was blowing a real gale so any sensible Bunting would be well hunkered down. I wandered back to where I'd parked. In a nearby thicket of bramble a few House Sparrows were chirping away noisily though they were impossible to see in the denseness of the cover. I wandered down a footpath a little and found a stubble field though its only occupants were half a dozen Skylarks. Defeated I headed back towards the car. I'd just got back to the bramble thicket when I spotted something moving on its edges: a Cirl Bunting! It crept deeper into the brambles before I could get my camera out but at least I'd had a reward for my efforts.

I went on to the second location which was in a little hamlet and had another wander around. There were plenty of Chaffinches around everywhere and some birds coming to some feeders but no sign of any Cirls. With time marching on, a sighting already in the bag and the first signs of a cold starting to take hold within me (I blame standing around on Rosenannon Downs for hours in the freezing cold!) I didn't linger but headed back home to Oxford, arriving early evening.

With no photo of the Cirl Bunting I offer instead some 

Hayle estuary Teal from yesterday

Looking back it had been quite a productive little visit despite the quietness of the time of year. That's the advantage of having a county list to work on: it gives you something to go for even when all is quiet. I'd managed to add four ticks to my list as well as the release scheme Cirl Bunting, namely: Green-winged Teal, Short-eared Owl, Yellow-legged Gull and Brambling. Of course after a while I'll have got all the easy Cornish ticks and it will become progressively harder to find stuff that I still need but for now it was keeping me happy. With spring now just around the corner I couldn't wait to come back down to my favourite part of the country.

Golden Revenge

February is a quiet month in the birding calendar: in January you run around getting your patch or national year ticks, snapping up everything that's around. However, come February you've done all that and there often seems little to do but wait until the spring arrives. I have certainly been feeling like this of late - the county seems suddenly bereft of birds and even my beloved Patch at Port Meadow has gone very quiet which has left me rather kicking my heels. It was for these reasons that recently I'd been casting around for ideas for a birding trip. The only point of interest on my radar was the Pied-billed Grebe down in Somerset but I was hoping to see that en route to Cornwall as I need to pop down there in the next couple of weeks to sort out some things with the cottage. Thus it was that I started thinking about a revenge trip to Norfolk to see if I could finally catch up with one of my bogey birds, namely the elusive (though it feels to me more like "mythical") Golden Pheasant. On just about every trip I've made to Norfolk I've stopped off at the Wolferton Triangle and stared with increasing despair at the mass of Rhododendrons hoping that one of these wretched birds would actually show itself. It's funny but I've now started to develop a Pavlovian association between Rhododendrons and a feeling of failure! I was therefore most keen to put this bird to rest so that I wouldn't have to undergo the curb-crawl of frustration any more. My thoughts hadn't really got much further than a vague idea about this but over the weekend the Badger Birding Crew had gone on a trip down to Norfolk and they'd managed to score a pair of the bastard birds (see Ewan's excellent write-up here). Right that was it, I'd had to go! Badger helpfully pointed out that of late they were being reported every day on RBA and not just at first light so it really did look like now would be a great time to make a concerted effort. Thus it was that I hatched my plan. Badger et al. had gone for a four o'clock start in order to arrive at Wolferton. Having tried that in the past I was somewhat reluctant - I know I can't really call myself a hard-core birder if I wimp out of an early start and three hour drive before daybreak but the fact is that if I do that then I just feel really tired all day and it rather spoils the enjoyment for me (which I have to remind myself is after all what it's all about). Thus it was that I decided on my usual tactics of driving up the previous night and staying in a local B&B. and this way I didn't have to drive both ways in one day as well. A bit of consultation on the internet (how we managed before the internet I'll never know) and I soon found plenty of B&B's in Dersingham, literally no more than five minutes away from Wolferton. I picked out Ashdene House which had great reviews on TripAdvisor and booked in. After an uneventful drive up after dinner on Tuesday night I installed myself in what turned out to be a pleasant enough B&B and looked forward to the following day's birding.

I was up before the lark and in place at Wolferton just as it was starting to get light at about 6:45. The recent RBA reports had all been for the southern section so parked up perhaps two thirds of the way towards the apex of the triangle and settled down to wait. It was a cold and rather gloomy start to the day and without the car engine on (I assumed that this would deter the birds) it was cold enough for me to put on some extra layers. In the company of Radio 4 I watched and waited. There were quite a few small birds hopping about on the margins, mostly Blackbirds, Tits and Robins. Another car turned up and positioned itself on the apex looking back towards me. Time passed. I noticed a Blackbird in my rear-view mirror on the other side of the road. More time passed. At around 7:30 I noticed a very yellow blob moving behind the Blackbird in the rear-view mirror - that looked promising! I turned round and Halleluja there was a Golden Pheasant picking it's way along the margins in the gloom. I carefully opened the car window and leant out just enough to shoot some video footage. They truly were stunning birds to look at, a real riot of colours. Interestingly, their golden headdress combined with their black faces and throats really imparted an ancient Egyptian look to them. Apart from the ridiculously long tail, the body itself was smaller than a Common Pheasant, something which I'd not been expecting. The wings were a deep irridescent blue, with beautiful deep red underparts and a sprout of red alongside the greenish tail - all in all they were a marvel to behold. Incidentally, the black throats on these birds have been a point of contention, with some people postulating that they might be Lady A. hybrids though Martin Garner thinks (see here) that actually they are mutant pure-bred birds reverting back to the obscurus sub-species. Anyway, it foraged happily for a couple of minutes and then disappeared again. Elated at my success I could now relax and try and get some more views. I turned the car around so that it was facing the other way and waited to see if he would come out again. Another car turned up facing me and about five minutes later out came the pheasant again and walked across the road literally right in front of the other car to the obvious delight of the occupants before disappearing into the undergrowth. I decided to spend a little while longer to see if I could get any more views but at around 8:30 I started to feel hungry and decided to head back to the B&B for my well-earned full English breakfast and to bask in the glory of my revenge tick.

A videograb of the Golden Pheasant

..and some video footage. It's a shame it was so gloomy

Whilst enjoying my breakfast I contemplated what to do next. Although I had the whole of Norfolk at my disposal, the truth was that even Norfolk was rather quiet at present. There were one or two Rough-legged Buzzards knocking about, Snow Buntings at Salthouse and an elusive juvenile White-tailed Eagle in the Dersingham area but somehow none of those really appealed. I also wanted to get back home reasonably early so decided to concentrate just on the really good stuff. Thus it was that my second and final destination of the day was Thetford for the Black-bellied Dipper which was over-wintering in the area. About an hour later I pulled up in the car park by the Three Nuns Bridges on the south side of Thetford. As I got out of the car a birder and his son were just packing up. I enquired about the Dipper only to be told that he'd seen no sign of it in the hour that he'd been present. Bugger, I thought. Still as I was here I'd might as well have a look round. At the very least I could stretch my legs before the long journey back home. I got tooled up and set off for an explore.

It was rather an interesting little area with the Great Ouse and the River Thet running parallel to each other through two old stone bridges. In between was a small, fast-running stream, a tributory of the River Thet. From the pager directions I knew that the bird wasn't on the Ouse so I wandered over the metal footbridge and in to the muddy field behind. There was no one else about to give any clues to where the bird might be so I decided to follow my nose. The River Thet on the other side of the field was relatively deep and slow flowing, not really Dipper habitat so that left the small stream. I decided to follow this to see how far it went and although usually the bird was being reported as being east of the main bridge, today I found it on the west side, about 100 yards above the bridge. Over the next hour I watched it as it worked its way up and down the stream though in the end it spent most of its time back on the east side. It was a pretty confiding bird and one could easily see the all-dark belly, lacking the usual chestnut band below the white bib which our birds have. There are actually 13 or 14 sub-species of Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) though in this country the usual ones that one comes across are c.c. hibernicus in Ireland and western Scotland, and c.c. gularis everywhere else in the country. The Black-bellied c.c. cinclus sub-species breeds in northern Scandinavia but then migrates south in the winter, normally to Finland, southern Sweden and western Germany. Occasionally one will make it over the channel as this one had. Anyway, I had the bird to myself for a good period of time before other people started turning up and I decided to leave. A quick walk along the river Thet found some nice accompanying birds: a Lesser Redpoll, several Siskins, a couple of Marsh Tits and a Treecreeper which were all nice to see.

I used the youTube image stabliser function to get rid of the camera shake which is why the screen area is hopping around all over the place. I really should get a tripod!

Time was marching on so I headed back to the car, fired up the Gnome-mobile and set the Sat Nav for home. It had been an enjoyable February interlude in Norfolk and thank heavens I won't have to put in more hours staring at Rhododenron bushes at Wolferton in the future! Revenge is sweet.

Take Your Birding Where You Can Get It!

I've not been out for a major birding outing for a while now. I've been working away on my patch at Port Meadow and have been enjoying some good gullage there but apart from that there's been little to report. Weekends are generally tied up with family stuff so I don't get much chance to go birding. However, I'm always alert to the possibility of sneaking in a bijou spotette of birding and this weekend just such an opportunity presented itself.

On Saturday a family trip to London was mooted: my VLW and our younger daughter wanted to go shopping and L, our 6 year old son, didn't want to be left out so I offered to take him to some museums which he might like. We had been thinking of the Imperial War Museum which we've been told all young boys love but according to their web-site it was closed for refurbishment at present so we decided to try the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs. A quick preparatory look on the map revealed that Hyde Park was very close by where of course there are a couple of over-wintering female Bearded Tits in residence. Thus was hatched a plan for some opportunistic birding. 

We decided to have our picnic lunch in the park before visiting the museums and so we walked up from High Street Kensington. It was great to see and hear all the Ring-necked Parakeets calling away noisily within the park grounds. I know that they are viewed as pests in some quarters but I think that they're wonderful, lending a real tone of the exotic to the urban landscape.

The Bearded Tits were apparently located in a small reedbed right next to the Diana Memorial fountain on the south side of the Serpantine. When we got there L spent a happy half an hour running around and jumping over the fountain whilst I enjoyed seeing the Beardies at point blank range in what is a pretty tiny reedbed, being no more than a couple of metres deep and perhaps twenty metres long. They seemed completely oblivious to the people passing by and were busy feeding away on the reed heads. It was comical to watch them as they worked their way up the reeds until their weight proved too much for the stem which would suddenly bend over and the bird would disappear out of sight. I spent some time trying to photograph them with my Super zoom though they were tricky little things as they were continually on the move.

After a while L grew restless so we finished off our food and headed to the museums. The Natural History Museum had a huge queue by the entrance and they were only letting people in every few minutes which looked ominous. Inside it was absolutely heaving and altogether very unpleasant. There was a half hour queue to see the dinosaurs and L said that he didn't want to see them anyway so after a brief wander around some (mostly rather lame) volcano exhibits we left and went to the Science Museum instead where L amused himself for a while. When he'd had enough we headed back to the park for an ice cream and a wander around the Serpentine to clear our heads after the crowds. There was a surprising variety of birds on the water with Tufted Duck, Pochard, Shoveler, Red-crested Pochard, Egyptian Goose, Great-crested Grebe and Gadwall all seen as well as plenty of Black-headed Gulls with a few Herring and Common Gulls thrown in as well. It's great to have these park oases right within the centre of London. By this time L was getting tired so we wandered back to the tube and home to Oxford. It had been an enjoyable day trip with a bit of opportunistic birding thrown in to boot.

Berkshire Sprite

Berkshire seems to be having a real purple patch at the moment. Last month it was the Buff-bellied Pipit, and then unbelievably a second one joined the first one. This month they had a Yellow-browed Warbler at Moor Green Lakes NR - not quite in the same league as a BPP but at this time of year for an inland site, it was nevertheless impressive. Add to this a supporting cast of various Divers, a Long-tailed Duck and a Red-necked Grebe all at at Queen Mother's Reservoir and it makes for a good period. All good stuff but apart from the Pipit which I'd already seen, not enough to tempt me out of God's Own County. However, on Sunday the Warbler was "upgraded" (i.e. re-identified from photos) from a Yellow-browed to a Pallas's Warbler (it seems that people don't bother with the full "Leaf" or "Yellow-browed" bit in the name any more) which is yet another amazing find for an inland county. Anyway, this was enough to tempt me off my rather Christmas-be-larded derrière to go and take a look. Judging from past RBA reports, it seemed that the morning was best but with yesterday's forecast for snow and rain all morning I decided to wait a day until today to have a go for it. Thus is was that this morning at around 8 a.m. I was scraping ice off the Gnome-mobile and setting the Sat Nav co-ordinates for Moor Green Lakes NR, before plunging into the torrent of rush-hour traffic south along the A34. I arrived some time after 9 a.m. after an uneventful journey to find several other cars in the rather small car park. The people in the car next to me were just getting ready as well and one of enquired whether I was after anything special, which rather puzzled me as I would have thought that it was rather obvious. Anyway, it turned out that they'd not heard about the Pallas's Warbler and were just there to take a look around though they didn't seem that interested in looking for it and were more keen on the Mistle Thrush in the adjacent paddock - each to their own. Some ten minutes later I was at the Blackwater River where I met up with a few other birders and we all headed west along the river to the conveyor belt bridge as apparently in recent days it had been seen to the west of this landmark. It was a rather cold and cloudy start with and fairly birdless. After a while we came across a Long-tailed Tit flock and watched with keen interest - apparently the bird was always associating with a flock such as this though it wasn't in this one. At that point I got an RBA text reporting the bird as still present at the western most end of the stretch. I hurried off in this direction where I soon met up with Mike McKee (who found the the Buff-bellied Pipits at QMR) and it turned out that it was he who'd reported the bird again that morning. He was hurrying the other way after the flock with the target bird in and so I tagged along with him. We soon caught up with the flock and I had my first fleeting glimpse of the star attraction. Fortunately after that it wasn't too hard to keep track of where it was and we followed the bird all the way back to the conveyor belt bridge before the flock turned around and went back the other way along the river. Periodically one would get a view of it and sometimes it even came down and worked its way along the bank on the ground, thereby giving some excellent if brief views. Mike was trying to get a photo and he did indeed manage a few record shots with his DSLR but with my slower super-zoom I didn't even bother trying but instead just enjoyed watching the bird.

It wasn't hard to see why it had been mis-identified as a Yellow-browed for so long: the crown stripe was rather subdued and during the whole time I was there I never saw the pale yellow rump. Given how hard it was to photograph it wasn't until some ten days after it was first discovered that someone got a photo good enough to ID it for what it really was. However, even without the crown stripe or rump, the supercilium was striking with the more intense yellow colour between the eye and the bill as well as extending all the way onto the nape along with the strong black eye strike. With the benefit of the correct ID it wasn't too hard to pick out the salient features in the field.

What a stunner! This is by far the best photo that I've seen of this bird 

anywhere on the internet and is a real achievement given how hard it was to take 

any kind of shot of it. Not taken by me of course but by Dave Perrett (c)

The River Blackwater - the bird spends most of it's time along 

the far side which is Hants, the near side being Berks. 

Mike McKee and Chris Heard looking for it in the copse

 Warbler Twitchers

After a couple of hours it had worked its way all the way back to the west end of the river by the road where it was first found. By this time I'd had my fill of this gorgeous little bird and decided to wend my way back home, please to have spent some time with this cracking little sprite.