January Footit campaign

Last year I took part in the Footit campaign to ditch the car and see how many species of bird you could see in January on foot around your local patch. This year its changed slightly and the options are now either a 1,2 or 3 mile radius of your house! I'm doing a 2 mile radius which encompasses Stanney Woods and all the farmland to the south of where I live.

Its a brilliantly simple idea and I've set myself an ambitious target of 70 species. I'm on 56 and species I'd thought would be certain are missing! Things like Lapwing, Jack Snipe and Golden Plover that I'd normally expect as at least flyovers have so far eluded me - possibly because the weathers bee nso mild and all the birds are still out on the estuaries. I've now searched my 'snipe field' three times for Common & Jack Snipe and have only just managed a single Common Snipe so far.....

                                             Flooded area of fallow field good for Snipe.
Allan Conlin has had the male Lesser-spotted Woodpecker in Stanney Woods calling and drumming on a sunny day last week but despite another three visits I've still not managed to catch up with the elusive little bleeder.

One of the highlights so far was finding a Little Egret feeding in the grounds of the Capenhurst Grange special school about 0.5 miles from the house. We had two fly over the house on Christmas Eve which were a first for the 'patch' so its nice to find where they've probably been feeding.

I've even resorted to going out on moonlit nights walking and listening for Owls and added two Little Owls and a Tawny owl to the list last week - both in the vicinity of Backford whilst a nearby Barn Owl box delivered the goods on the 2nd of January.

However, the highlight has been a large pale Redpoll species photographed in the garden. It was only present a few minutes with a single Lesser Redpoll. I'm still debating this bird but at the very least its a well marked Mealy...............

American Coot, Loch Flemington

Events conspired against me and I missed the long staying Stodmarsh American Coot and the subsequent Shetland & Uist birds were out of my reach at the time. News of a bird on S Uist last year raised my hopes that I'd at last have a chance of catching up with this underrated little bird but it bogged off after one afternoon never to be seen again. American Coot is a mega rarity in the UK with 9 records including the one from S Uist last year. After missing several long-stating birds this was one I'd hoped for in 2014 but certainly didn't expect it quite so soon.

The weekends news of a bird being found on Loch Flemington near Inverness had the team of Big Al, Malc, Groucho & me heading off at 2 am from Cheshire and arriving just as dawn broke on a cold but dry morning.

Almost immediately Mark picked up the American Coot in the gloom and we watched it virtually continuously for the next couple of hours until the light became good enough for a few photographs.

With an Otter also present and a nearby supporting cast of Lesser Scaup, Scaup, more Long-tailed Ducks than I've seen for years and several Black-throated Divers we had a great day but other commitments meant we had to leave for Cheshire only to soon.


So, what next for the year? A Belted Kingfisher would do very nicely in the next month or so.................

A couple of good birthday birds - Hilbre 4th Jan

What better way to spend your birthday than on Hilbre sea watching with a roaring fire and whiskey laced tea to fall vack on in the Obs. With the recent gales it was hoped a few misplaced divers & grebes might still be lingering in Liverpool Bay and with a high spring tide they'd surely be pushed closer to Hilbre? That was the theory anyway and plans were hatched for Mark to arrive at mine in good time to beat the incoming tide as we drove to Hilbre. With the recent storms the sand was extremely rutted by the wave action and severely tested the Landrovers suspension. Even 2.5 hours before high tide the track between Middle & Hilbre was underwater.

First things first. With all the recent rain the Obs needed a good airing so the wood burner was lit and a few windows opened. Sitting in front of the fire almost proved fatal as we soon began nodding off. Only a Herculean effort forced us out into the chill and into the sea watching hide. 

Once settled it soon became apparent we'd bade the right decision. First up was a distant winter plumaged Slavonian Grebe. This had us scratching our heads for awhile as we went through all the features separating Slav from Red-necked. After watching the bird for about 30 minutes we"'d agreed on Slavonian & put the news out. 

The high speed jet boat used for maintenance work on the wind turbines forced birds off the water in front of if as it powered across to Mostyn. An incredible flock of 73 Red-throated Divers passed through the scope view and soon after I found a a Great Northern Diver drifting past. 

During the high tide lull we counted the roosting waders - 16 Purple Sandpipers was a good count. Manga birds were displaced from their usual roosting spots as the high tide was lapping over them.

A flick of 20 Ringed Plover was found high up on one of he west facing cliff ledges and the access track at the south end was covered in roosting Oystercatchers.

Following a traditional Hilbre fried brunch we returned to sea watching and continued logging sightings until the cold gig to us & we returned to the Obs for a final brew and write up the log before leaving in a beautiful sunset.

A great day. Final totals were:

Red-throated Diver  84
Great Northern Diver 1
Great-crested Grebe 60
Slavonian Grebe 1
Common Scoter 200
Guillemot 3
Razorbill 2
Cormorant 850
Shag 3
Red-breasted Meganser 3
Brent Geese 199
Grey Plover   2
Sanderling 200
Knot 8000

It was great to find out later our mates Allan C & Frank Duff had picked up both the Slav Grebe and Great Northern Diver from their eyrie known as Western House. 

Snow Bunting races

Over the last few years I've photographed a few Snow Buntings on the Wirral and have recently been looking at the photos again to see if any can assigned to race. Snow Buntings visiting the UK are of two different races - the fenno scandivanian race nivalis is generally frostier in appearance with a paler rump and p9 with extensive amounts of white whilst the Icelandic race insulae is a darker bird with a darker rump. 

The recent Hilbre bird I reckon is insulae - see below

Whilst the next bird photographed on Hilbre a few years ago looks a dead cert for the nominate nivalis.

Even though the rump has a lot of brown in it the underlying colour is whiter than the bird above.

It also has much more white on the inner most p9 primary.

I'm not sure if any of the Cheshire Snow a Buntings have ever been assigned to race before so I'm claiming a county first! 

2013 - what a year!

Well the end of the year is nigh and what a fabulous year it’s been for rare birds. A real year of grip-backs. I missed a few – the White-throated Needletail debacle hurt and the Suffolk Pacific Swift coincided with a business trip to Bahrain and we dipped the ‘hybrid’ Dusky Thrush in Margate but I still managed to creep 8 birds closer to the 500 BOU mark and ended the year on 492 suggesting 2014 could be the year I reach the magic number.
With large movements of Pine Grosbeaks being reported throughout northern Europe in the autumn of 2012 we were disappointed none made it to the UK. But, unbeknown to everyone, one did although it wasn’t ‘discovered’ until early 2013.

The next new bird was, predictably, back ‘up north’ – somewhere.  I was returning to after visiting my parents in Somerset. A text from Stu Taylor saying he was watching a male Harlequin Duck had me initially texting him and asking if he was in Iceland. At this time the news hadn’t broken that it was actually on N Uist. I pulled over into the services and made a few calls and a plan was made to drive up to Uig and get the ferry across. Stu arranged the accommodation and met us at the site and led us in convoy to where the original finder was sat looking at the Harlequin. With a supporting cast of Ring-necked Duck, 2 Snow Geese, small race Canada goose and White-tailed Eagle it was a great two day trip.

Next up was the discovery of a Rock Thrush at Spurn. The news broke early one weekday morning & luckily I was in a position to leave almost immediately.

 I was playing golf with my wife when news of the Bridled Tern on the Farnes broke and so was completely oblivious to the myriad of missed calls until I got back in the car! Luckily for me Frank Duff knew I’d want to see this bird and arranged for my name to be on the list for the first charter boat leaving Seahouses the following morning. Top man.

 Jase Atkinson & I spent a few days ringing (or trying) at Marazion Mars has part of a project looking at Aquatic Warblers during August. Unfortunately heavy rain put paid too much ringing but we did end up seawatching off Porthgwarra. A few people were there in the morning and it was fairly successful with Cory’s & Balearic Shearwaters being seen amongst the hundreds of Manx Shearwaters streaming past. A lunchtime meeting meant we had to return to Marazion to meet up with the ringer in charge of the project but we decided to go back to Porthgwarra in the afternoon. It’s just as well we did. Just before we packed up I picked up a Fea’s Petrel flying in from the east past the Runnelstone before heading off out towards the Scilly’s! Little did I think I’d be back in Cornwall for another lifer later in the year……….

I love Shetland and look forward to my now annual autumn trip with optimism. I still haven’t seen Lanceolated, Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler or White Thrush in the 7 years I’ve been making the trip but I’m eternally optimistic. This time I did strike lucky. We were bashing the bushes around Hoswick when Jase Atkinson phoned at the only spot in the entire village where I probably had phone reception! Thick-billed Warbler, Geosetter. Less than 10 minutes away. The news spawned the immortal line yelled across the Swinister Burn to the others at the top of my voice ‘get in the F***ing car now!’ What a brilliant decision. Shetland was also memorable for a very showy Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and a ridiculously tame Arctic Warbler as well as an influx of Great-spotted Woodpeckers from Scandinavia.

No sooner had we returned from Shetland then a Semi-palmated Plover was found at South Hayling Island near Southampton. It settled into a bit of a pattern and with both Fred, Malc & me all having unavoidable work commitments for a few days we couldn’t go until the weekend. A tense couple of hours at its usual spot ensued as it didn’t show. Not surprising really with the numpties actually on the spit it had been roosting on. Luckily it had been relocated the previous day at another spot after leaving the roost and we decided to head the couple of miles back into town and check it out…..just is the bird flew in!

 I had a feeling I’d be back on Shetland & I wasn’t wrong. Mike Pennington found a Cape May Warbler and this proved to be the first twitchable UK record. Work commitments mean I don’t have the luxury of spending 3-4 days travelling there and back so an offer of a place on charter flight late the same night (cheers Danny boy) was well received and meant we were back the same day having only missed 1 day off work.

 Finally a Hermit Thrush was discovered at Porthgwarra coincided with me having to go to Cornwall on business. What a result!

County-wise there were some good new birds as well with Blue-winged teal & Lesser Scaup at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB, Semi-palmated Sandpiper on the Wirral and a cracking inland Caspian Tern discovered coming into roost by Gill & Steve Barber. Last but not least was Eddie Williams’ stonking Buff-bellied Pipit at Burton. What a year!

So that's it. Tomorrow will be another year. Many thanks to all my mates who have made so many trips so enjoyable this year and to the lads and lasses from Hilbre Bird Obs and SCAN ringing group.

Hilbre & another Wirral Snow Bunting

A quick trip to Hilbre this morning to see how the Island & Obs had fared in the recent gales. Not to much damage thankfully but not many birds around either. I counted 172 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, including the two regular colour ringed birds and a single Dark-bellied bird. Wader numbers seem lower than usual but there were still plenty of the ubiquitous Oystercatchers, Redshank & Curlew.

Highlight though was bumping into the male Snow Bunting that was last reported Christmas Day before the gales. It was feeding unconcernedly amongst the tide wrack and rock pools.

Looking at the darkness of the rump, flight feathers and wing coverts I reckon this bird can be assigned to the Icelandic race insulae whereas the recent Wallasey bird was probably the Greenland race nivalis.

Redwings and Blackbrids

The  Rowan berries around the house have been completely stripped by hordes of Redwings and Blackbirds over the last couple of weeks. Even the hawthorn berries have now bee neaten. The birds were extremely shy but by photographing fro man upstairs window I got some reasonable shots.

The Blackbird below was so stuffed it couldn't close its bill - you can see the berries in its cheeks yet still it tried to carry on feeding.

This bird can be aged as 3 or a calendar year bird by the moult contrast in the greater coverts with the new dark adult ones contrasting with the brown outer juvenile ones. The scaly appearance of this bird may indicate a Scandinavian origin. There again there's no definitive proof.

Even the local House Sparrows have been getting in on the act.

Christmas came early for me as at first light Christmas Eve two Little Egrets flew over the garden heading south west. The first garden and local patch records!