2nd October:
The month started well with a garden tick in Ilford with a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying over [Eds: before too long they were in every local urban park along with Green Woodpecker and Stock Dove. Spotted Flycatchers had been gone for several years already and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers followed swiftly after three more hole nesters arrived. Those three now compete with Ring-necked Parakeet!].
6th October:
The started with Pete and I down at Sandwich Bay on Kent to
look for a very elusive Radde’s Warbler.
There was no sign but a good crowd had gathered and typical birder
nattering ensued. At 10.45 a birder
produced his portable phone [Eds: a real novelty] and rang Birdline. As soon as he said ‘Red-eyed Vireo Lowestoft
and Sociable Plover Cambs’ we quickly evacuated the area, informing others as
we headed back to the cars. Neil M and Simon S were amongst these and we
hatched a plan to re group at Brentwood and head up in one car. Several hours later
we were at Sparrows Nest Park and in under a minute had the beautiful Vireo I view
in the roadside trees. Over the next half hour we enjoyed continuous views of
this chunky energetic vagrant. This was
my first good look at one after my poor views on the Cot Valley bird on the
Yellow-throated Vireo the previous September.
Spotted and Pied Flycatchers were also present but there was
noting else nearby so we decided to attempt the crazy cross country dash all
the way across East Anglia for the Sociable Plover in Chatteris. Somehow we made it before dark and enjoyed
cracking views as it elegantly fed in a ploughed field with some Lapwings. [Eds:
at this stage we had no idea just how rare they would become]. With the light fading we headed for home
after a nearly 500mile circuit!
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| Sociable Plover |
9th October:
A Radde’s Warbler at Languard Point tempted Neil and I out
for another attempt at this elusive species. We failed again but there was ample
recompense in the shape of three Black Redstarts including a male with huge
white wing patches, a perky little Firecrest and a cracking male Lapland
Bunting that hopped around the common.
Rather bizarrely a blue phase Snow Goose flew in off the sea! The journey
home was marred by the alternator failing on EMU just three miles from home.
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| Lapland Bunting |
13th October:
An East Coast Jaunt. After losing Pete G in the fog on the
way up to Newmarket [Eds: I am not even sure what this means and have no
recollection! I can only imagine that for some reason Pete was meeting us at Stuart
Lamberts and never got there!] we headed north to Donna Nook where a
first-winter Desert Wheatear was thankfully performing well in its chosen field
where it would perch up on sugar beet to look for snacks.
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| Desert Wheatear |
Hundreds of Starlings, Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and Reed
Buntings were seen along with chirpy little Goldcrests in the bushes as we
walked back to the car and onwards towards Hull and then to Spurn. A quick look for two Rustic Buntings at
Holmpton Hall produced naf views of them in flight with s flock of Bramblings
but there was no such trouble with the Radde’s Warbler at Easington cemetery
which showed fabulously in a single Sycamore alongside the road. It was keeping company with a few Chiffchaffs
and a Redstart.
I walked back down the lane towards the car and on scanning
a flock of Collared Doves in the adjacent field I came across a 'Turtle
Dove'. Now, a late Turtle Dove would not
be too untoward but this one was the size of the Collared Doves and alarm bells
started ringing. I ran back to the Radde’s
and told the other birders what I had found but not one person was interested –
not even Stuart. I returned to the bird
and actually made some notes. I did not
know what to look for and did my best but the big size of the bird was still at
the front of my thoughts. After twenty
minutes it flew off into the farmyard just as Stuart reappeared and with that we
headed on the long journey home in the rain.
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| Interesting Turtle Dove |
[Eds: I was obviously thinking Rufous Turtle Dove but the
species was near mythical in the UK at that time and I suspect that was the
cause for the lack of interest. I did my research and left it at that although I
did write to DIM Wallace through Birdwatching magazine to rather cheekily ask
him for his opinion. The letter that I got back from Ian filled me the
confidence that I needed as a young birder in a world of old school birding
Barbours to persevere and not be afraid to speak my mind. Oh and yes he did
think that I had seen a Rufous TD.]
18th October:
On returning from Poly on Friday morning [Eds: it would take
a few more months for the Poly to become Middlesex Uni] I got a surprise phone
call from Stuart who was frantically trying to tell me that there was a Nutcracker in
a small copse in The Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. After throwing a hasty sandwich together I sped
up to Newmarket to join him on this mad dash. We arrived after four hours of horrendous
traffic but was it worth it? A walk of 15 yards and there it was hopping around
our feet in the leaf litter.
It was a beautiful bird and one I have longed to see and it
was so tame and inquisitive that it would hop up to us, cock it’s head to ones
side, cackle and then bound off again! Wonderful face and underparts and a
silky white fluffy under tail coverts and vent. The huge dagger bill was used effectively
to search for food amongst the leaves and bracken fronds. The light was fading fast and as soon as it
went to roost we started for home and another four hours of Birmingham traffic
chaos. I got in at 11.30 only to find
that I was getting up at 1.30 to go for the Desert Warbler at South Landing in
North Yorkshire!
19th October:
After no sleep I bundled myself into Steve Bacon’s Montego with
Ken Barrett and allowed myself to be driven up to this windswept cold and wet
spot in the hope of getting the Desert Warbler that had been present for a few
days. It was only the sixth for Britain and
had generated a very good turnout. The
strong north westerly wind was not preventing Redwings, Fieldfares, Blackbirds,
Pipits and Finches coming in and a brief Little Bunting was also seen. It too over two hours to find the Warbler and
once the mad rush had abated and every one got a spot to look from the bird came
out and performed exceedingly well for the crowd. A tiny little sandy Sylvia
that fed slowly in the Sycamores by sitting still and reaching in all
directions to pick off prey before moving on.
The others had to get home so we did not linger which was
disappointing and denied us a monster sea watch off Flamborough where they had
450 Long-tailed Skuas, 121 Poms, 91 Little Auks, two White-billed Divers and
two Great Shearwaters! Oh well, at least
we got the Desert Warbler!
20th October:
A bitterly cold but bright sunny day out in North Kent with
Pete. Forty minutes looking into the mouth
of the Thames off Sheerness on Sheppey produced over 300 Skylarks, a Wheatear,
30 Meadow Pipits, three Rock Pipits, Starlings, two Mergansers, lots of Wigeon
and 500 Brents before we moved onto Shellness at the other end of the island.
A Snow Bunting was seen even before we got to the car park
and a short watch produced thousands of incoming Brent Geese with wavy lines way
out on the horizon and Meadow Pipits and Skylarks were still streaming in. Forty, mixed plumage Eiders were seen along
with a few Common Scoter and two drake Surf Scoters heading north were a real
surprise. I could only see the white rear nape patch on both but they were a
fare way out.
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| Surf Scoters |
Shellness itself was also very good and over the next couple of hours we added six dinky Little Auks to the tally with one bobbing around just offshore before briefly coming up onto the beach. Two each of Pom and Great Skua were seen along with a Goldeneye and plenty of moving dabbling ducks and waders.
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| Little Auk |
A Short-eared Owl made two attempts to cross the Swale and almost
ditched before finally succeeding while Marsh Harrier, ringtail Hen Harrier,
Kestrels and two female Merlins hunted the inland fields. The Merlins had a great aerial battle and
seemed to be defending their finch filled spots (inc Twite and Bramblings) from
each other.
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| Merlin |
A final hour in the cold at Harty added four more Merlins,
three Marsh Harriers, two ringtail Hen Harriers and a flock of 11 Ruff to the
already impressive day list.
23rd October:
A rare family day out to Norfolk ostensibly so that they could look at a house in Fakenham and was largely spent in one property and in the seats of local estate agencies. [Eds: how different would my life have been if we had moved to Norfolk I wonder?]. The last couple of hours were actually very productive with a very obliging Radde’s Warbler along the lane down to Kelling Quags that, although it was in a Bramble clump decided to come out to within a few feet of the small group waiting for it. It was slightly duller that the Easington bird. There were lots of Larks and Pipits flying around as well as a few Redwings and Reed Buntings while two Egyptian Geese were on the Quags.
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| Radde’s Warbler |
On again to a small area of wasteland between Sherringham
allotments and cemetery where a Siberian Stonechat was showing very well in the
company of three Common Stonechats.
There is talk in various circles of a split from the nominate Saxicola torquata to form S maura – the Eastern Stonechat. [Eds: it took a while but it
eventually happened!]
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| Siberian Stonechat |
The day was rounded off with three smart Shorelarks at
Salthouse on the beach pools – not too bad for two hours birding! And no, they
never bought the house!
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| Shorelark |
26th October:
Pete and I left home at 3.30am to be at Stewarts by 5 and by
4.40am we were on our way north again.
Just under three hours later (!) we were at Spurn with Swallows,
Redwings and Skylarks immediately obvious.
I got out of the car and put my bins up on a Pallas’s Warbler in the
hedge – what a start. Brilliant views
were had as it actively flycatched with a Goldcrest and Tit flock in the
Hawthorn hedge.
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| Pallas’s Warbler |
I left Pete and Stew watching the Warbler and wandered down
towards the fields where two Richard’s Pipits that had been trapped too late
the night before had just been released.
They showed exceptionally well in flight and on the deck and the loud ‘shweep’
call was heard which attracted in a third bird!
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| Richard’s Pipit |
Passerines were streaming in and amongst them were Bramblings,
Siskins and a calling Rosefinch. Three Woodcock, a Snipe, Short-eared Owl and two
Sparrowhawks were seen while watching the Pipits and over on the seaward side
we added Little Auk, Red-throated Diver, 30 Eider, 25 Scoter and a host of
other ducks and waders.
Tree Sparrows, Chaffinches, Greenfinches and Reed Buntings
were feeding on some grain behind a hedge and tame Goldcrests, Blackcaps and a Lesser
Whitethroat were all seen. As the day
progressed Blackbirds and Starlings became more obvious and back near the car
three Shorelarks grovelled near the beach where a little Locustella crept
trough the grass and avoided further scrutiny.
It was time for a back butty from the Bluebell before we started
to drive further down the point stopping on the way to look at a smart 1st
winter Great Grey Shrike on the way that was being mobbed by Reed Buntings
while a ‘ticking’ Little Bunting flew over!
The Buckthorn at the end was alive with Blackbirds and a single Ring
Ouzel along with 15 Robins but no Yellow-browed Warbler or Red Breasted
Flycatcher.
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| Great Grey Shrike |
From here we made our way on the tortuous road north to Flamborough Head where we failed to see the Pallas’s Warbler but the South Landing Desert Warbler was seen promptly nearby along with 50 Goldcrest, 15 Chiffchaffs, a brief Dusky Warbler and three chunky Northern type Bullfinches. There were many thrushes once again and some smart Yellowhammers. The Pallas’s had returned and so did we but again it had vanished but a Dusky Warbler had just been trapped and we all got to see it prior to release and subsequently in the brambles below us.
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| Dusky Warbler |
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| Just look at those straight, largely draw tube telescopes! |
A Black Redstart fed
around us but the lure of an Isabelline Shrike back at Spurn saw us leave
behind Ortolan and head back south again. Thankfully the light held and the
bird was on show as we arrived and we watched it feeding from a fence around the
paddocks while 25 Swallows were gathering on the wires above. The earlier
Locustella had been pinned down as a Grasshopper Warbler and three Whooper Swans
headed into the Humber. A cheeky stop at Easington Churchyard on the way out
did not add YBW but another Black Redstart was a fine way to end a day that
took my year list over 300 once again
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| Isabelline Shrike |
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