Barmston Birdforum Bash

Last Sunday a few of us descended upon Barmston in order to catch up with Little Auk. We failed. First thing was a Common Buzzard following the car on the way up there. This was possible as Rob was driving. My car is offline due to  an idiot crashing into me.

Upon arriving we had a flock of at least 30 Twite bobbing about the car park and cliffs. Pretty showy eh? Photos are thanks to Paul 'Doc' Reed. A brief seawatch produced a mega distant Bonxie, Red-throated Diver plus Wigeon, Common Scoter & Teal.

We decided on a quick amble which was pretty good. Another 12 Twite, a Short-eared Owl on the saltmarsh and best of all a Rough-legged Buzzard. This was quickly shoo-ed off by the local corvids unfortunatly but not before we all got views. A Snow Bunting shot overhead. By now it was midday and I had to visit the fuzz. The other went on to Hornsea Mere and Tophill Low but thats a whole other story.

Losing My Virginity

Seeing as my actual birding experience currently is limited (work, children, wife, darkness etc) I thought I'd share a memory or two with you, my loyal readership. Now I am a very recent convert to this hobby after eing 'interested' most of my life. In May 2004 I stumbled across a Little Owl roosting on my parents land and this allayed with various other species that I encountered there set me off birding and the following month I joined birdforum which for its sins has helped. A lot.

My skills improved rapidly as did my life list with visits to flagship reserves and the like. Exotics like Green Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank & Black-tailed Godwit were added. By the beginning of October I was regretting not going to see the territorial male rosefinch in Humanby (it seemed a long way to justify travelling from York - if only I knew!). A new website, Birdguides, was starting to show interesting birds which were maybe within the reach of a beginner and so I decided at the very beginning of October to twitch the Baird's Sandpiper at Flamborough head.

This proved an inspired decision as I dont believe there has been one in Yorks since (not an easy one at any rate). I drove all the way to South Landing and saw a small group of birders on the beach so I clomped over. First lesson in twitching etiquette was soon learned. Know your place! As a rank beginner I was made to stand at the back and got shushed regularly as a group of waders came up to us. They were Sanderling so I was told at the time (I only ticked Knot off 2 months later) and amongst them was a funny shaped bird which looked the same but not to my untrained eye. I was told this was the bird. Wow! Tick.

Did I critically analyse its JIZZ and look for fieldmarks. Did I fuck. Someone had told me it was a Baird's Sandpiper, it was different to the Sanderling, it looked like the photo on birdguides. That picture still looks the same. Is it on my list still? you bet your life - we all gotta learn somewhere. And here is the bird for posterity. I apologise as I have robbed the photo but if you are the photographer and want it removing just let me know.

In the next edition we look at my first mega.

UK Tick #315

To talk about the lifer from yesterday would be to do yesterday a diservice. I was at Spurn for the afternoon and nearly trod on Goldcrests & umpteen Siskin, watched more Chiffchaffs and Redstarts than I can remember with all the chiffers looking distinctly abietinus, saw over 100 Brambling for the second day in succession and also caught up with 2 more Ring Ouzel. Redwing were like a biblical flood overhead, Robins looked distinctly scandi and flocks of Song Thrush were the norm. A little scarce was good with three distinct highlights.

• 4 Shorelark ambling in the strand line at Chalk Bank. This was my lifer and also Yorks tick 278. Not quite as exciting as I hoped. And I fell over into some sea buckthorn. Yowser! Brambling & Redstart foraging amongst the seaweed next to the Shorelarks was amusing.
• 3 Jack Snipe acting like proper waders by feeding in the open teetering a mere 2m infront of the hide at Chalk Bank. No camera (although it seems Santa may want to rectify that).
• Best of all was a bunch of migrants finding and mobbing a Tawny Owl in Easington Cemetary. Ages since I saw a Tawny in daylight and I have never seen one in a tree in the day.

All three were yearticks with sats shrike and Rouzels takes me to 218 for the year. Beat last year but may struggle to get another 39 birds to equal 2008.

Actual Birdwatching

I spent time birdwatching for fun today. I covered 13km and burn 990 calories according to my new training gps device thingy. Im still fat though so its fine. It was all spent at Flamborough so naturally I didnt see anything too good. The highlight was a Great Grey Shrike killing a Goldcrest that had just arrived before I left.

I didnt twitch a thing and saw loads of common, limited scarce and no rare. The morning started at 8 in bay willows with a Redstart, one of several and continued around to North Landing with nothing much more save for a few Siskin (had over 100 throughout). Robins were everywhere and Redwing were streaming in. Meadow Pipits flooded all the grassland and everywhere marginal had its Reed Bunting. 2 abietinus Chiffchaffs included one with a faint wing bar and a bog standard Lesser Whitethroat bobbed about. As I got to North Marsh a Peregrine wheeled overhead scattering the Jackdaws and Rock Doves.

I arrived at North Landing and bumped into Andy Walker who was scoping Brambling amongst the commoner finches. A brief chinwag was good and I pushed off into one of North Landings gullies which yielded three Ring Ouzel including a fine male. they were a little skittish but good views were had. Other bits down there included Garden Warbler, Blackcap, more eastern chiffers and my first Goldcrests of the day.

I moved on to South Landing which didnt produce much new but plenty of migrants including a plague of Redwing. I failed to catch up with the Lapland Buntings in the area but saw a number of Kestrels. I finally walked Old Fall and back to the car park including the shrike and another Ouzel. There were more birds but you get the idea.

Went surveying in North Lincs the other day. Only birds of note were a few Grey Plover. Site Ticks.

Lowestoft is shit.

Sorry I havent posted in a couple of weeks but an unexpected 8 days stranded in Lowestoft kinda breaks your flow. A lack of pictures is dominated by the lack of camera as the work one went back to its owner. What I have managed have been a couple of wader counts around the Humber with limited highlights including 1 Curlew Sandpiper, a few Greenshanks and a few Little Egrets. Not a lot really.

The survey was good beer despite the weather preventing us getting out there. Highlights were a few Sooty Shearwater, Manx Shearwater & best of all Balearic Shearwater. 3 sum plum Black-throated Diver were scarce skor on the east coast and a number of migrating passerines including an 'interesting' unstreaked acro. A good number of Bonxies and Arctic Skuas were recorded. A Peregrine kept us company in the docks most of the week scaring the bejesus out of the local scab doves. A walk up to Oulton Broad produced a few ducks but  not the hoped for Garganeys. Bit windy mind (gusts to 40mph!). Now back home I have seen no birds in the last few days. Cool. BTW its the daughters birthday next thursday. I expect cards.

James

More Migrants

No new additions to any lists this week as I dipped the Booted Warbler last Saturday horribly. Didnt bother with the Brown Flycatcher as I saw the 2007 bird and thought id save my desperate begging for one that I really have to see.

Dunlin - North Killingholme

Fortunately on Monday I got to do some proper survey work and managed some good views of Dunlin and er... single Ruff, a handful of Turnstones. 12 Teal were good as were a mixed flock of 15 flava/alba wags. It was tres quiet.

Pied Flycatcher - Sammy's Point

Wednesday I was running out of things to do at work and all the scarce was giving me itchy feet so I went and bashed about Sammy's Point for a few hours. Seems like it was more productive for me than some others as I managed to refind the 'mass hallucinted' Red-breasted Flycatcher. Refind seems a bit of a strange way of putting it as a greyish flycatcher (arent they all?) took flight and apparently had mated with a  Blackwit. before diving into cover. Not sure what there is to doubt? I will admit i didnt get onto the T-piece in the tail but the flight only views weren't particularly extensive. 3 seconds of it moving across 10 metres and then a briefer view of it diving through a bush. Other bits and pieces were a heard only Firecrest, 20+ Redstarts & Pied Flycatchers, several Wheatear and Whinchat, a few Spotted Flycatchers and an eruption of flava.

Spotted Flycatcher - Sammy's Point

Unfortunatly I have had to jack in the Skua cruise this coming sunday in order to go on survey into the southern north sea, halfway to Holland-ish. Hopefully we score a few decent migrants and seabirds.

Everyone loves a lifer. I prefer 2

Yesterday against my better judgement I headed up to flamborough a'twitching at 6.30pm. Its September and thus it isnt light for very long. There were very many people there and the eastern waif I had come to see had pretty much gone to bed. not seen since 4pm I was told. Was talking to John and Lawts when a Wren started tekking. A softer tek back was heard and then a small grey bird dropped through the willows. Cue mayhem as everybody tried to climb in with it. Fortunatly sanity eventually rained and people moved back allowing the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler to find itself in my bins view. Mega score. It was tail dipping away and I got lovely views of its backside although only fleeting glimpses of the whole bird which struck me as a grey and long tailed warbler. Happy days. Some others weren't so lucky.

Common Rosefinch juv (note buffy wing bars)

Today an early finish allowed me to catch up on a bit of a tart in Common Rosefinch. Only a grotty juv but it showed well on elders. Also FINALLY caught up with the Hornsea Crane.

<>

hmmm...elder berries