Durleigh Reservoir, Devoran and Stithians Reservoir

On the way down to Cornwall, I couldn't resist adjusting the route to include a stop at Durleigh Reservoir, where the juvenile Purple Heron was easily seen, enjoying the sun in the trees near the manor house, along with two Great White Egrets. 43 Great Crested Grebes were almost entirely at the same end of the reservoir, including several young; I'm not sure I've ever seen such a breeding season congregation. Four House Martins, two Sand Martins, two Little Egrets and a family of six Mute Swans were also seen.





I met up with Liam in Penryn and we headed over to Devoran, finding three juvenile Curlew Sandpipers, along with five Knot, a Whimbrel, three Ringed Plovers, 81 Curlew, 23 Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits, 16 Dunlin, 16 Oystercatchers, a Teal and a Little Egret.



Stithians Reservoir in the evening offered a Greenshank, a Common Sandpiper, 13 Little Grebes, two Shovelers, two Wheatears, a Willow Warbler and two Little Egrets.

Wader hat trick

In under two weeks I've seen three mega patch waders, all ticks for me, and so far representing all my patch ticks of the year. I got a call from Dave Warren this evening saying 'I think I had a Curlew about half an hour ago in Infront George Field'. This seemed an odd place for a Curlew to be and I wondered how good his views were, and whether it could have been something else... Stone-curlew and Whimbrel crossed my mind. Ian and I rushed over and met Jamie by the farmhouse. There was no sign of the bird in Infront George but walking up the path towards Legal & General we disturbed the bird from a mere thirty yards from us. Whimbrel! It ran a little then flew and landed not much further away in the field, showing well for Roy Weller, Paul Manville and Ian Magness who also managed to bag the bird before dark. I stayed until 8.45pm and the bird was still present. Hopefully it will remain tomorrow. This is the second record for the patch, remarkably exactly a year to the very day since Steve Gale had the first flying high over Slangs. It also represents my 120th CFBW bird.

more at cfbwbirds

I did some filthy twitching earlier in the day with Ian, dipping the Whiskered Terns at Shapwick Heath but there were six Arctic Terns there plus Cetti's Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, c52 Black-tailed Godwits, a few Redshanks, a Lesser Redpoll, a booming Bittern etc. On the way back a Bonelli's Warbler came through from Pagham so seeing as Ian needed it and I fancied seeing another we went and eventually connected with the bird later confirmed to indeed be a WESTERN BONELLI'S WARBLER. Also at Pagham: Cuckoo, 4 Whimbrels, Bar-tailed Godwit, 18 Turnstones, 7 Ringed Plovers, two Dunlins etc.

Western Bonelli's Warbler

Somerset and Devon

I had an excellent day's birding yesterday with Liam Langley and Josh Burch, starting at Ham Wall RSPB where we connected with the PIED-BILLED GREBE (my second - I saw the Manchester bird in 2010 which wasn't as smart as this one but was a little less distant. We heard this bird call at one point - sounds like a gibbon) and the drake Ferruginous Duck as it skulked with Pochards among the reeds (my second, after the Holmethorpe bird in 2010). Other highlights here included a Great White Egret, a Water Pipit, about thirty Common Snipes, three Little Egrets, a Marsh Harrier, two Kingfishers in pursuit of each other, two booming Bitterns, lots of singing Cetti's Warblers, Siskin, Lesser Redpoll, Shelduck, a couple of Water Rails and a female Pintail. It was great fun being surrounded by lots of marshland species like this that I don't often see on arable Surrey land.

Pied-billed Grebe, Ham Wall

drake Ferruginous Duck, Ham Wall

Great White Egret, Ham Wall

Water Pipit, Ham Wall

We wondered what to do next but the vote was cast and the first-winter Rosy Starling at Exminster won. This was a lot less trouble to locate than I thought, with a quick mooch around the churchyard soon giving the bird up. People slag these things off sometimes but I rather like them. There was still some light left so we decided to drive just a little bit further to Labrador Bay where we enjoyed, at the very least, seven Cirl Buntings - possibly up to fifteen. Thirty-odd had been seen earlier in the morning. These were real stunners to watch especially when feeding on the ground at close quarters - only my second British sighting. A Raven finished the day off nicely and we all felt most gratified for the effort we'd put in. I'd seen three birds I'd only seen once before in Britain and another I'd seen twice before, Liam got three lifers and greedy Josh wallowed in a whopping seven! The plan really came together and the 450+ miles of driving were soon forgotten.

first-winter Rosy Starling, Exminster

Cirl Bunting

Dip a dendroica, see a sharpie

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper and Dunlin

Ian and I set off for Royal Tunbridge Wells at some offensive hour this morning. We arrived well before sunrise but there were some equally stupid birders kicking about. When it started to lighten we got out and joined the others. Nothing, nothing...nothing...nothing. Now it's 9.00am. Decision time. A Sharp-tailed Sand and other bits have come through at Chew Valley. A long way away and we didn't like the place...but if we were gonna go it would have to be then so off we went.

Long-billed Dowitchers

There were lots of cars parked up at Herriott's Bridge. We instantly got onto the pair of LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS - a little distant but very nice. My first and last was five years ago at Oare Marshes. They were then flushed and it turned out they didn't come back while we were there. The sharpie wasn't on view so I crossed the road and saw my fourth SPOTTED SANDPIPER - a plumage tick, being a winter adult.

Spotted Sandpiper

I crossed back and it was pointed out to me that the SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER was with a flock of Dunlin and Lapwings about two hundred feet in the air. I could see that it was bigger but that was about it - not tickable. After a torturous wait it dropped down and its identity was confirmed. This has been one of my most-wanted waders for a while now - the diffusely marked but very warm-toned breast was the most striking feature but some streaking along the flanks, a prominent supercillium and a warm rufous-brown crown were also striking. It seemed dumpier and shorter billed than a Pec to me. Also in the flock was what we believed at the time to be a Little Stint, but has been retrospectively identified as a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. Nice. Other birds on offer included seven Bewick's Swans. A second-winter Common Gull was shouted by a surprising number of people as a Ring-billed... Ian enjoyed my bowl of chips at the very nice canteen around the corner before the day was up and we were on the return journey.
 

Biting off more than we can Chew

On Friday night, I was in two minds as to what to do on Saturday. Ian had invited me on a trip to see the Steppe Grey Shrike, early November is prime time for Canons Farm birding and I really wanted to spend a day there but I simply could not turn down a more or less guaranteed lifer.

So, on Saturday morning Ian picked me up then we collected Peter 'Polo' from Burgh Heath and headed for Telford. I fell asleep for much of it so it didn't seem as long as it really was. We arrived at about 8.30am, parked up and put our change in for the Royal British Legion. I don't normally take much notice when the pager says 'tho distant' because for many people seem to define a distant bird as one a few feet out of range for a frame-filling shot. In this instance, the bird wasn't described as distant but when I saw everyone's scopes pointed at the other end of a 800 metre wide field I realised we weren't in for a experience like this.

Steppe Grey Shrike

The STEPPE GREY SHRIKE was indeed a long way off and you could just about tell it was a grey shrike and at times you could get the idea it didn't have a dark bill or lores. Just when we were thinking of leaving, it came closer - still very distant but a significant improvement - and most of the identification features could be noted. It certainly appeared very pale, having large amounts of white in the wing and having light lores and bill. Being a race of Southern Grey Shrike, this represents my sixth shrike species.

We then set off for Chew Valley Lake. I needed Lesser Scaup and Ian and Peter needed some of the other things that had been around, so there was lots to mop up in a short period of time. I was expecting a site about the size of Abberton Reservoir but it wasn't as vast as I anticipated. There were ruddy lots of ducks though, all very distant. The pager hadn't given precise areas for the various birds and there was little daylight left so we felt utterly overwhelmed. I set to work scanning a 'raft' of aythyas and was surprised when I picked up a drake scaup quite quickly. When I took my eye off it or tried to get the others onto it I lost it into the flock and it was hard to pick up again. It soon became active, diving and swimming about a lot and I couldn't keep up with it. It appeared to be the same size as the neighbouring Tufted Ducks but a solid ID was impossible at that range. I began to hate Chew Valley Lake, and ducks.

We moved round to a hide that was closer to the birds but the sun was in front of us and, even though we were working with nearer birds, they were silhouettes. We gave up as gulls gathered to roost, a Raven flew past and the sun descended.