Red-flanked Bluetail

Dirty post work twitching. I am down in the South West at the moment and a prompt finish meant plenty of time to see my 4th individual of this formerly cosmic rarity. Pete and Chris were taking the googly-eyed chat in for the first time so a little dell aside a stream seemed an unlikely spot for a significant twitch. Only a couple of muppets in day glo jackets breaking the skyline and blocking in the bird were noted. With L series lenses naturally...

The day before a quick trip to Ham Wall/Shapwick etc revealed three Great White Egrets and 3 Marsh Harriers plus the showiest Cetti's Warbler I have ever seen. It really was a cracker.

PWC January at Barmston

I managed another visit last Sunday briefly to Barmston in the hope of adding a few more species before the end of January to the Patchwork Challenge score. I was going to have a look at the woods to clean up on common passerines but this got postponed when the passage on the sea looked decent. Not a million birds a minute but a few Red-throats and Cormorants passing. Close in the first patch tick of the year, a lunking Great Northern Diver. Only a single previous record for me here and that was in the spring last year. Similarly scarce here are large auks so when a Razorbill went past at close range I was glad to have added it to the yearlist. It again was a single record job last year. The gull passage came thick and fast but no hoped for Little Gull.

I went for a paddle down the beach, aware that time was pressing as I had an urgent appointment with copious amounts of beer. Sat in the middle of the beach 300 yards north of the caravan park was the Kumlien's Gull which had been missing for 16 days. A strong three points (seems they have been downgraded since last year) but no find as it is wintering again despite filling the time criteria. A brief Dunlin south was also a new one but a pretty easy one. Still no Oystercatcher (or many other things). A quiet start to PWC 2014 with a few decent birds. Totals are 40 species and 45 points.

Brixham.

Yesterday after a little persuasion by my colleague John we headed down to Brixham for some post work birding. We being Pete, John and myself and we were in the south west working. We were still a good distance away and finished work at 2. Not a lot of time to be honest and the weather looked rubbish. Some valiant steering by John and we were soon at Broadsands. I mentioned to Pete that we were going past a bang on Cirl Bunting site and that it would take seconds to connect? Thankfully I was right as time was ticking and and the rain was tipping. On the usual gravel were 5 birds, 3 males and 2 females and there were several other birds in the hedge. It started bucketing down and so we legged it to Brixham after the lads both got tick able views with them being a lifer for Pete.

Soon we were parking at the harbour and even before we had stopped we had a couple of Great Northern Divers. Jumping out the car Pete called 2 Black-throated Divers while John was pointing out another 2. I was busy ignoring them and pointing to the Iceland Gull. Pete getting bored with umpteen Great Northerns which seemed to be appearing everywhere we looked and got us on to a Slavonian Grebe. This was crackers and we hadn't even seen the biggy yet.

Round by the marina we disembarked with some hot gen and sure enough amongst a smorgasbord of Great Northern Divers was a ... Black Guillemot. This was a little bit distant so our attention briefly flicked onto a Red-necked Grebe in the marina inflow. This was very brief as I picked up our main quarry - the White-billed Diver not 50 yards away along the breakwater. A quick sprint when the bird was under water and we were getting point blank views. Awesome stuff indeed! We watched the diver for some ten minutes before moving along the breakwater as it drifted out into the main harbour.

We started looking outside the harbour with Torbay pretty flat thanks to the shelter of Berry Head. A few common seabirds were quickly ignored when John shouted 'DOLPHIN!!!'. Expecting a Porpoise I was shocked to see a Bottlenose Dolphin feeding very close to the breakwater around lobster pots. After a few minutes it charged out across the bay towards Berry Head, scattering a knot of Great Northern Divers before disappearing from view. A cracking sighting and one which was completely unexpected in Devon. 

 This was little more than an hour of excellent birding and I completely recommend heading down there. Apparently there was a Black-necked Grebe today as well. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me which is a sickener as the birds all showed beautifully.

Patchwork Challenge

It's been a bit sparse on here of late. Three reasons - limited birding, lots of work and patchwork challenge admin. The first is limited by the second and the actual production of posts is limited by the number I have been doing for PWC. Despite this I have managed to get down to Barmston a couple of times in December. The best stuff included a patch year tick in the form of a Black-throated Diver, 3 Pale-bellied Brent Geese and after the big blow some unseasonal waders including Knot and Ringed Plover. I finally caught up with the returning white winger which has proved conclusively to be a Kumlien's Gull. That would make me right then... Smug fail coming soon no doubt. There were also loads of buntings in a cover crop including a few Corn Buntings. It was too windy for a thorough search on the 27th so an early new year raid seems the best bet of a cheeky Little Bunting or better yet Pine... 

My year at Barmston has got me my first Kumlien's Gull and a lifer Richard's Pipit which was also a find for me (the gull was merely a relocation). For Patchwork Challenge I managed a total of 121 species and 155 points which considering the paucity of coverage I was able to do in spring and autumn isn't too bad IMO. For the coming year it's going to have to be about targeted visits to beat the totals. I also managed 930 records and 28 complete lists for birdtrack which cheers me no end as I wanted to improve my birdtrack contribution. Other good bits included the Pale-bellied Brent's which have returned, a smart adult Med Gull, winter Little Gulls after the big storm, lots or Littoralis Rock Pipits and Jack Snipe in the spring, juvenile Euro Y-front, Spotted Flycatcher, Water Rail on the beach, Common Scoter on the drain. Lots of awesomeness and loads of potential. 

Avalon Marshes

I have been working in the South West and we were flying back to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon so the only way to get rid of our fuzzy heads was to do a little birding. Being closeish to Bristol airport, the Avalon Marshes seemed ideal to get stuck into and so we did. One of our triumvirate hadnt really been birding in the south before and wasnt a twitcher in any way shape or form so we were hoping that Cetti's Warbler, Great White Egret and Glossy Ibis would possibly be on the menu. Sadly the Ibis was nowhere to be seen but we fared a little better with the other two.

We wandered up the footpath between Ham Wall RSPB and Walton Heath and every few yards a Cetti's Warbler piped up. Needless to say we didn't see them but for me the song is all you need really. Every ditch and reed cut held Gadwall and Shoveler but little else. Stumbling across a decent expanse of water sat bang in the middle was a handsome Great White Egret foraging. Certainly some of the best views I have had of this species as it gave some really cool behaviour bouncing its back end whilst feeling with its feet.



A Kingfisher tootled up and down repeatedly and there was a better selection of floaters but little else to get the heart going so we turned round and headed onto Shapwick and Meare Heaths. Aside from a Marsh Harrier and Pike chasing fry in the shallows there wasn't a huge amount to get excited about but I very much enjoyed the constitutional.

Yorkshire 300 Club

As John said 'What took you so long?' I finally managed to scrape my meagre Yorkshire list over the 300 mark with the very smart 1st winter male Serin at Flamborough, currently spending time in a set aside crop next to Millenium Wood with a bunch mixed finch flock. I have barely twitched a thing all year and very little in Yorkshire but this was too good to miss - I half expected to have a flyover at Spurn or something, not a settled bird in a flock. The views were a little brief but after 45 minutes waiting for it to show, a couple of minutes sat in a bush will do me. I even managed some dross pictures and video.

It was good to bump into Steve and Diogo, with Diogo adding his 60th new bird of the year. Great going! Also present in a reserved throng were Simon and Karen Spavin telling tales of their upcoming trip to Kenya. Birdwise there was also a Lesser Redpoll amongst the finches and 2-3 Peregrines knocking about with a juvenile begging loudly above the twitch.




In the past week I have done a very limited bit of birding over breakfast at my hotel in Ayrshire. A Long-tailed Duck, Common Scoter, Scaup and 2 Whooper Swans present on a small lowland loch has been pretty cool although the Ring-necked Duck wasnt present as hoped for. Here are a couple of fuzzy photos...

Shreep

That was the first thing I noticed about the third pipit. The call. I was walking along the southern fringe of the marsh at Barmston when I kicked five birds out of the short grass. Two Skylarks, two Meadow Pipits and a third pipit, 10% bigger, 20% longer tail but that didnt register until it went shreep. Straight away I realised what it was - it is something I have been hoping to hear for a while. Two further calls and then the party made their way south, not with much purpose but with enough to take them too far to follow. Richard's Pipit in the bag in every sense, life, patch etc. About time too... Not much else to report although a small bunting that didnt call which was being chased by two Reed Bunts refused to show. Probably just a runty reed...