3rd September:
When news of a Semi-palmated Sandpiper broke at Farlington,
Pete and I decided to head that way for a day out. We should not have bothered as it was not
seen after the initial sighting last night which it turned out had actually
been in a mist net! There was no sign of
the Wryneck or Spotted Crake so we headed north towards Oxford and Farmoor
Reservoir where an adult Long-tailed Skua had been showing well for a few days. A couple of Buzzards were seen on route [Eds:
it would be full of Kites too now] and the once we got there the Skua was
immediately on view. It was incredibly
tame and absolutely immaculate with black cap, yellow face and very long tail
streamers.
It gave us a couple of close fly bys that showed off its
aerial grace and at one point it flew so close whilst I was looking through my
camera that I fell over and managed to get my best atmospheric flight shot set
against a thundercloud backdrop. [Eds: In the ensuing 30 years I have not seen
another one as good as this].
Long-tailed Skua 
Long-tailed Skua
The day was ended with a cup of coffee on Pete’s little
stove and a Red Kite over Christmas Common just where I hoped to find one. This was the first time I had seen one of the
reintroduced birds and after we left I found another 15 miles closer to
London. Who knows, perhaps one day they will be inside the M25?
9th September:
A pre-dawn visit to Abberton with Tony and Kettle to go
waders watching around Wigborough Bay as that part of the reservoir was very
low and muddy. Our wader list was superb
with 50 Blackwit, a Barwit, three Green Sandpiper, ten Common Sandpiper,
Lapwing, Golden Plover, two LRP, 60 Ringed Plover, 50 Dunlin, 40 Ruff, Curlew,
three Spotted Redshanks, three Greenshanks, Snipe, nine Curlew Sandpiper, 20
Little Stint and an adult Pectoral Sandpiper (an Essex tick too).
There were many duck and we found a Garganey and eclipse
Red-crested Pochard but we could not find the White-headed Duck.
There were many Pied and Yellow Wagtails, Meadow Pipits and
two Wheatear and countless hirundines. The Sand Martins were particularly
susceptible to early morning hunting sorties by a family of Hobbies. A Brown Argus was a new butterfly for the
reservoir.
17th September:
A morning visit to Fowlmere where between showers luck was
on my side and the Spotted Crake popped out and put on a grand show after only ten minutes.
Feeding, bathing, flying – you name it, it did it! After bathing it did not put
away its remiges and let them hang below the tail making it look like both
wings were broken. Water Rails were
calling all around but never showed and ten or so were heard. Wigeon, Green Sandpiper and Kingfisher were
the only birds on the main lagoon.
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| Spotted Crake |
19th September:
The fall conditions in North Norfolk looked superb and so I
headed up there with Wander full of hope. It was a funny day with some
tremendous birding but not for the variety or scarcity of migrants but for the
sheer numbers of Redstarts and Willow Warblers with literally hundreds of
each seen on almost every scrap of vegetation at Holme where
we began our day. There were a few other
Warblers including a brief but good Barred Warbler and a Red-backed Shrike flew
over us, never to be re-found. There
were a few Spot Flys and Wheatears but there was no rarities lurking in the
bushes that we could find.
We moved onto Stiffkey where we reckoned there were double
the amount of birds and we added Pied Flycatchers and three Whinchat. An obliging Wryneck showed very well but had
been present for a couple of days and was not part of the fall.
With the light fading we had a quick look at Cley
Coastguards before heading for home.
Nevermid, at least we gave it a go and we would have been gutted if it
had been an arrival to rival the Great Fall of 3rd September 1965.
[Eds: The saddest thing about this day is that very unusually for me, I have absolutely
no recollection of what sounds like the biggest fall of migrants I have ever
seen in the UK]
23rd September:
Another early start saw the usual team of Wells, Wander and
Kettle on our way to Eyebrook Reservoir for a few interesting waterbirds. The reservoir is scenically set in a wooded
valley is was covered in duck. We
quickly found the White-headed Duck but only because we are all now familiar
with the profile from our Abberton time. A Red-necked Grebe was picked out but the
Ferruginous Duck eluded us but we did find an eclipse male Ring-necked Duck
which was a fine bonus.
All the other birders on site were likewise waiting on news
of the Bonelli’s Warbler (possibly orientalis) 10 million miles away in Whitley
Bay cemetery in Tyne & Wear. We were
actually a little surprised when the positive news came in just after 8am so it
was back to the car and north!
I think it took five hours to get there due to the atrocious traffic. A Bee-eater a further 100 miles up the coast made us even more anxious to get the Warbler and back on the road. Kettle and Tony needed the Bonelli’s so we continued there first. It was a very boring overly managed cemetery and 60 of us stood around and stared into the Sycamores and Whitebeams as the wind and rain came in and it was a tough twitch but some of us were very lucky and saw this silvery bellied warbler a few times and occasionally well but you had to be in the right spot and at one stage we laid down under the trees and just stared up waiting for it to come around again. We knew it was coming because of the distinctive ‘chip’ call which also confirmed that this was indeed an eastern bird.
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| Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler |
There is talk about splitting orientalis from bonellii so perhaps an armchair tick is in the offing but as Tony and Wander never saw the bird, it was not a topic for discussion on the long drive home that was not remembered for it lively and exciting dialogue! [Ed: It became the second for Britain after they were split in 1997]
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