Anglesey

An adventure with Franko but sadly a dip. Traeth Lligwy held no Royal Tern but offered three Pale-bellied Brent Geese, two Great Northern Divers, two Black Guillemots, three Common Scoters, a Bonxie, several Kittiwakes and Fulmars, two Ravens, c60 Dunlin, a Greenshank, Sanderlings, Turnstones, Oystercatchers, Shags and a Bullfinch of note.

Nearby Afon Goch had Little Egret, another couple of Ravens, possibly the same Greenshank, Shelducks, etc. Red Wharf Bay offered two Bar-tailed Godwits, 11 Knot, two Little Egrets, good numbers of Wigeon and a few Teal, a Rock Pipit and a Grey Wagtail, Shelducks, Dunlin, etc.

Goring and Norfolk Bridge, Sheffield

Astounding news came through last night of an Audouin's Gull in the middle of Sheffield. I half-thought about what to do about it then somehow completely forgot the matter and continued with my routine, getting up early this morning for my vigil at Goring Gap. At the patch, singles of Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail flew over, along with two Swifts, and other birds included four Little Egrets, a Grey Heron, a Sandwich Tern, two adult Mediterranean Gulls and three Oystercatchers. A quick look at my phone revealed the Audouin's Gull was again present early knockings and I panicked, cycling back home to get in the car. By about half way up to Sheffield, I'd decided the whole thing was a stupid idea and this marine gull was bound to have moved on in search of more suitable habitat. However, having made a good chunk of the journey I stuck it out and arrived in Sheffield late morning. I gave it about four hours (not wishing to potentially wait another five on the off-chance it would reappear in the evening), only made bearable by meeting up with the lovely Paul W and junior, who kindly showed me a juvenile Dipper that was feeding a little up the way from the bridge. A rather appropriate species to be seeing today...! Aside from this treat, the only 'notable' entries in my notebook were 10 Sand Martins and a Grey Wagtail.

juvenile Dipper at Norfolk Bridge

Broxbourne Woods, 24th December 2017

I spent my Christmas Eve in the eclectic company of Kevin McM, Phil W and Magnus A at Broxbourne Woods - teaming up with David D-L on site. It was a pig of a dip, the three Parrot Crossbills being seen before and after our visit, and we gave it a good few hours. Notable sightings included two Ravens, three Siskins, a Grey Wagtail, a Sparrowhawk and two redpolls. A Red Kite was seen over Cheshunt on the way home...

Portland and Farlington Marshes, 22nd August 2017

Captained by John B, I headed with Magnus A to Portland in the early hours in the hope of connecting with the Yellow Warbler discovered near the bird observatory yesterday afternoon. Abject failure, it was down to a very light overhead trickle of Tree Pipits and Yellow Wagtails to keep us busy. In hindsight, I should have shot down there as soon as news broke but I simply didn't expect to get there in time for the bird to still be showing, or perhaps for there even to be any light. Six Common Scoters and a Dunlin flew past at sea, while at least four Ravens, two Wheatears, a few Willow Warblers and a Peregrine were also seen.

We gave up and started off for home at about 13:00. John fancied dropping in at Farlington Marshes on the way home for Pectoral Sandpiper as a year tick. Incredibly, it transpired that the bird was in the process of buggering off just as we were parking up. It was nice to relax and stretch our legs for a couple of hours though, highlights including a Green Sandpiper, two Greenshanks, a Ruff, two Yellow Wagtails, three Wheatears, three Stonechats, several Grey Plovers, a Common Sandpiper and two Bearded Reedlings.

Mainland Shetland, October 9th 2014

A twitch that went wrong. It looked hopeful for the main target of Siberian Rubythroat and with additional news of White's Thrush and Lanceolated Warbler we had high expectations but in the end the best we managed was poor views of a Little Bunting.

Yellow-browed Warbler near Quendale Mill

Yellow-browed Warbler near Loch of Hillwell

Twite at Quendale

Pink-feet over Levenwick

Ringed Plover at Levenwick beach

Lerwick

Eider	2
Oystercatcher	Present
Black Guillemot	1
Kittiwake	2
Raven	2

Levenwick

Pink-footed Goose	Present
Red-breasted Merganser	1
Fulmar	Present
Gannet	1
Ringed Plover	4
Curlew	Present
Turnstone	5
Redshank	Present
Common Gull	Present
Herring Gull	Present
Great Black-backed Gull	Present
Rock Dove	Present
Hooded Crow	Present
Raven	Present
Goldcrest	Present
Skylark	Present
Chiffchaff	2
Blackcap	Present
Wren	Present
Starling	Present
Blackbird	Present
Song Thrush	Present
Redwing	Present
Robin	Present
House Sparrow	Present
Meadow Pipit	Present
Brambling	10
Chaffinch	Present
Reed Bunting	1

Quendale/Loch of Hillwell

Whooper Swan	1
Greylag Goose	1
Wigeon	Present
Teal	Present
Tufted Duck	Present
Scaup	2
Grey Heron	1
Moorhen	Present
Oystercatcher	Present
Golden Plover	85
Lapwing	90
Curlew	Present
Redshank	Present
Snipe	50
Black-headed Gull	Present
Common Gull	Present
Herring Gull	Present
Great Black-backed Gull	Present
Rock Dove	Present
Hooded Crow	Present
Raven	Present
Blue Tit	1
Skylark	Present
Swallow	3
Yellow-browed Warbler	2
Chiffchaff	Present
Blackcap	Present
Wren	Present
Starling	Present
Blackbird	Present
Song Thrush	Present
Redwing	Present
Robin	Present
Whinchat	4
Stonechat	3
Wheatear	4
Dunnock	Present
House Sparrow	Present
Grey Wagtail	1
Pied/White Wagtail	Present
Meadow Pipit	Present
Rock Pipit	3
Brambling	40
Chaffinch	Present
Twite	30
Siskin	4
Little Bunting	1
Reed Bunting	1

Ross's Gull dip

Following the success of the Myrtle Warbler, I was excited to continue the good run with the Ross's Gull in Glamorgan. Unfortunately, I didn't think to check the weather forecast before setting off and it turned out to be a day of violent weather. The first part of the morning was just about 'calm' enough to search for the bird but conditions worsened and we called it a day around lunchtime, with only Colin having seen the bird (while I was looking the other way!). Oh well, it doesn't work out every time... Six Little Gulls, an adult Mediterranean Gull and a handful of Kittiwakes did put on a pretty good show as they tackled the wind off the end of Jackstone Pier, but they couldn't be fully enjoyed with hail hurtling into my face at 80kmh; four Purple Sandpipers and a Guillemot were also present.

Adult Little Gull

Mourning over a Dove

Well, my luck was sure to run out at some point. I went on an ill-fated trip to Rum with Pete Hayman and Dave Andrews on Monday/Tuesday where we spent most of our time staring into a dove-less (but very active in terms of birds) garden. We didn't even see any eagles to make up for it! Highlights shoveled from the despondency included my first-ever Minke Whale, Black Guillemot, Great Northern Diver, Red-breasted Mergansers, Eiders, Hooded Crows, Ravens etc. Thanks to Sean Morris and his family for so happily allowing us and more successful twitchers into their space, and for all the cake, of which I ate a lot to soak up my sorrows.

Canons Farm Grip-off Wetlands

WATER!!! And WATERBIRDS!!!

This year waterbirds have totally and utterly screwed me over at Canons Farm. First hit was a Whimbrel which Steve Gale had in April, this was shortly followed by an absolute killer record of Roy Weller's of two Black Terns flying through. I was frustrated about the first but a few people will be able to tell you how utterly gutted I was about the terns. A bit of relief and I actually saw a few good patch birds. Today I thought I had little to worry about, going to college, as surely nothing would turn up in June. Several pools have been resurrected, actually becoming more impressive than they were a few weeks ago, but time of year surely meant they couldn't do much damage. Then a call came through from Roy this afternoon 'I've got a wader', turning into 'It's a bloody Green Sand, I've just flushed it'. Buggeration. I rushed over there as soon as I could, hoping it had come down again to one of the many small pools but exhaustive searching yielded nothing.

Waders at Canons Farm are absolute golddust. Woodcock and Lapwing are the only ones that you can expect to see any numbers of, and the latter is sporadic and always notable, with months between sightings sometimes. A proper wadery wader, and on the deck too, is an opportunity not to be missed. Sorely disappointed, I am, but there was nothing I could do about it. These things happen. I'd rather Roy recorded it and it went down on paper than it went completely undetected. Quite an extraordinary record really, and a reminder that these pools really can deliver the odd treat - who knows, maybe Garganey or Wood Sandpiper (or better) could happen if the floods occur at the right time of year and under the right conditions. Very well done to Roy - he played it right, coming to see if anything was on the pools, and it payed off!

I did see a flock of ten Mallards on one of the pools, though. My highest on the deck count. Also a Grey Heron flew up from next to Piddly Pond. A Hobby flew low over the farm.

Spanish inquisition

Spanish Sparrow's rare so Phil and I twitched it today. First we went to see the DARK-EYED JUNCO - again - I'm not complaining, it's a really nice bird and I would go again to see it. This time was amazing; Phil seeded a stump about ten feet away from the path and eventually it plonked itself there to the crowd's delight! I digiscoped away, hoping for at least one good profile shot but when it was in profile it was behind a blade of grass and when it was in clear view it was a bit at an angle or doing something odd. A few Crossbills, Reed Buntings and Siskins again.

Dark-eyed Junco at Hawkhill Inclosure

in the kitchen...

 Happy, to Calshot we went. It felt like we were going inside to worship the thing, taking our shoes off and going inside to join the crowd of crouching and staring admirers. The SPANISH SPARROW was actually a very striking bird and showed well quite a bit. Its brown cap, white cheeks and strong breast and flank markings made it easily seperable from the House Sparrows with which it kept company.

Spanish Sparrow at Calshot

 We visited Blashford Lakes and dipped the Fudge Duck again (but the Siskins and Lesser Redpolls on the feeders were great to see) and dipped the Hume's Leaf Warbler at Wyke Regis - I've now only got a 33.3'% hit rate with this bird.

Siskin at Blashford Lakes

Pain

I've just got back from a gutting trip to Northumberland with Ian and Manchester-based Liam Langley whom I got to know on Scilly this year. I got no sleep last night (went out to see The Big Year then Ian picked me up early for the twitch) and the rest of the day was pretty demanding, we checked five likely sites for the Greater Yellowlegs each with no success, obviously. As we neared the first site we pulled up when we saw some birders eying a group of geese. They were mainly Greylags but there was a Tundra Bean Goose in with them and a couple of nice adult Eurasian White-fronted Geese. We saw several large skeins of Pink-footed Geese and Ian was desperate to nail some Whoopers before heading south so we were shining the headlights on a lake after sunset! We found a group of five in the end do he was happy with that. We were all extremely frustrated about dipping the Yellowlegs. It had been around for two or three weeks, had been flushed by a friggin dog an hour before we got to the first site and is bound to be reported again tomorrow. We did see a few nice birds but it is hard to appreciate these things when you're in pursuit of something much rarer that you may not be able to get another shot at for a while. When heading for York (Liam and I were catching trains home; Ian's stayimg the weekend in Yorkshire) it was difficult to face the long, expensive return journey without the desired tick in the bag. Following putting thirty pounds ino a ticket machine to find moments later the bird was a Greenshank (Northamptonshire earlier in the year), Greater Yellowlegs becomes a bird with one of the biggest scores to settle with me. Ian & Liam's company was enjoyed, nonetheless, and I thank Ian for his efforts in transporting us. Such a shame we didn't get the return this time... Now, that Western Sand...

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.
 

Red-flanked saves the day

When planning the twitch yesterday, Franko, Johnny and I were sceptical as to the chances of the Rufous-tailed Robin staying for us and, as we pretty much expected, we dipped today along with lots of others (including many familiar faces).

Migrants were pretty hard to come by and an on-spec trip to Wells Woods secured just a heard-only Yellow-browed Warbler, a small party of Crossbills and a couple of Chiffchaffs. I heard three Bramblings throughout the entire day and Siskins seemed to be almost always flying over in small numbers but that's about where the evidence of migration ended.

Much of the day was spent trying to secure decent views of the RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL at Holme; the bird was seen well in the end after a lot of effort put in by a lot of people. A nice bird, as birds always are, and I'm glad to finally catch up with one, having not even had to opportunity to try for (let alone connect with) any of the many that have turned up in the last few years. I got some crappy record shots which I may put up here if I find the time, but don't see much point (as you can't see much detail) so may not.

Britain Life List 320

Broadly disappointing

I crashed out at Rob's place last night with Dan and Michael; after watching the films till midnight we went kip (well, I didn't actually get any sleep) before getting up at 4.30am and leaving shortly after 5.00am. Mission: bag that bleedin' sandpiper. No news on the pager by the time we got there at 8.30am wasn't promising and it soon became apparent that the poxy bird was not there. How bloody unlucky can you get - it's been there 90% of the time in the last two or three weeks and the two times I have a stab at it, the bird choses to change habits. My third Broad-billed Sandpiper dip involving two birds. My first BBS dip was the Mersea Island bird last year in which I naively forked out in excess of £60 in train fares and ended up having to spend an unexpected £20 on cabs to end up on some god-forsaken mudhole with the heavens emptying their load upon me.

Roseate Tern (right) with Common Tern

3cy Yellow-legged Gull

Anyway, we soon decided to cut our losses and get something out of the day by heading to Minsmere as Dan and Micheal needed Roseate Tern. After a couple of hours of scanning Rob and I left the pair to it while we caught some grub at the cafe. As we were walking back to the hides the pager told us the bird was still there so we discussed our relief that at least D&M had got something out of the day. It turned out they hadn't seen the bird or the message. We moved to the public viewpoint and Mike picked up a promising-looking bird. Moving one hide further on (where the light was much better) I picked the Roseate Tern up and all enjoyed views of the bird with Common Terns both at rest and in flight; it was quite superb. A pair of Little Terns and a second-summer Yellow-legged Gull were also present. We were making our way back to the car when the pager bleeped telling us that a probable Black Kite was more or less above us one minute previous. We scanned and scanned, picking up a pair of Spoonbills and a couple of Bitterns in flight but no fork-tailed raptors.

1st-sum Common Tern

Cheers for the hospitality Rob and it was great to see you again Mike and Dan; hopefully our next twitch will be more successful!

Sunday Scandinavians

Stella thought we were all staring at her so generously gave good views right between the Eagle and our lenses

Ian and I started early at Canons this morning, in the hope of Waxwings, but very little was seen. At 9.00am, as roughly planned, we decided to head to Old Basing for a bird that I had dipped three times previously. Almost as soon as we pulled up outside Poors Farm we were onto the juvenile White-tailed Eagle, I thought I was dreaming at first, after missing it so many times, especially when it took off and gave us a flight demo with about four Common Buzzards in tow. Thanks Ian!

White-tailed Eagle with Common Buzzard for size comparison

We watched the bird for nearly an hour (though it seemed like much shorter) before programming Richmond Park into the satnav, having received a text from Johnny Allan about the Coues's Arctic Redpoll's continued presence. We joined the loose crowd at the Pen Ponds plantation shortly after midday and I staked it out till after 5.00pm, getting a lift back with Kojak. We saw up to ten Lesser Redpolls and a slightly larger and paler bird flying with two of these at one point, it wasn't the Arctic, it may have been a Mealy but we couldn't say for sure.

A small finch then flew over our heads, several people saw it but only I and one or two others heard it. I described the call to those who didn't as 'a bit like a Crossbill', a 'chip-chip', as it was the closest thing I could think of at the top of my head. Looking at BWP, it says for Arctic Redpoll 'Flight-call more spaced out than in Redpoll, written 'chut-chut'. Was it . . . ? Probably not but it's possible. Regardless of whether it's seen tomorrow morning or not I think I'll pop up after an early morning check of Canons.

Fail

The third weekend twitch in a row this year (regrettably, in a way, since I feel guilty for neglecting Canons) and it was bound to happen: my first big dip of the year.

Slaty-backed Gull, first for Britain (and in London!), would have been my first first for Britain and I was very excited about getting this bird. Phil picked me up at about 6.30am and we were on site with hundreds of other birders within an hour.

I saw naff all, I couldn't even get on any of the Caspian Gulls - three Pintail was the highlight of the day. Nothing but a painful and boring waste of time when I could have been on my patch. What made it even worse was knowing that I could have easily gone yesterday but declined a lift offer in my confidence that it would stick for at least one more day.

Thanks to a lift back courtesy of Kojak in company with The Monk and Posh the day was not made even worse by having to travel back home on the sodding train and underground.

1 out of 2 yank herons

To the south west today with Rob 'Dizzy' and a couple of Sussex birders Micheal and Dan. I was confident that the American Bittern would still be around and was more than very keen to see this bird as I'm fond of herons and already dipped the bird when it was at Trewey Common. It got to past 9.00am and no news had come out, I started having doubts. As we were nearing the site negative news came through on the pager, I was completely and utterly gutted and my mood instantly sank.

Green Heron

We thought that if people had been looking for about three hours already and the bird had been showing well throughout the week the bird had gone. We decided the best game plan would be to visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan and get something out of the day. After a bit of orientational confusion we eventually found each other again and the GREEN HERON which showed very well, better views were had than when I visited the Hythe bird a couple of years ago.

We called in at Exminster on the way back, because Micheal and Dan needed American Golden Plover. This was my third visit to the site in as many weeks and to our surprise the bird was not present, it transpired that it had moved on the Dawlish Warren (probably because of fireworks the previous night) so we headed home; the Green Heron was nice but I'm still quite disappointed about the Bittern . . . I suppose it's one to get another time . . .

So close!

With my Geography exam done and dusted by 10.30am I rushed out of school to twitch the Tottenham Marshes Common Rosefinch by rail, underground and taxi; the journey went relatively smoothly and only cost me £12.90 in total.

Upon arrival I found a group of about 15 birders so was hopeful that the bird would be located, however it was a long wait before the bird sang, this could be heard clearly enough but the darn thing just wouldn't show. I stayed for four or five hours while the bird sang on and off, at one point in a bush right in front of me. During a downpour I sheltered outside a canal-side building unaware that anyone else was bothering to look for the bird in the rain when it surely wouldn't show but to my frustration Nick Tanner and Des McKenzie walked past saying they'd just had the bird in flight. I stayed for quite a while longer but gave up after a while because time was getting on and it was still windy and cold, getting home again by public transport.

I'm having another go tomorrow afternoon if it's still around.

Cetti's dip

I got a bit of a surprise today at school when I took a sneaky look at my phone and found a text from Johnny Allan stating that there was a Cetti's Warbler at Beddington by the feeder!!! This is a mega patch bird (2nd record- 1st in 2002)! I counted up my money and changed my after-school plans so that I could twitch the bird. This bird follows a lot of talk amongst patch birders that we are due for one; it seems that if we talk about a bird, it turns up! Another example is Spotted Flycatcher; there was discussion that we should get one this year following no records last year and 3 turned up this year (one of which I found).

I was there at 15:40 and not in a hopeful state of mind, for an hour or two I had been hearing negative news and didn't expect much. There was so much vegetation that the bird could have been in and these birds are hard to catch when at their breeding grounds and where they are vocal, let alone at Beddington Farm! I half halfheartedly walked the public footpath (here I met Roy Weller who reported a probable Raven) before forgetting the idea of trying to pin the bird down and made my way up to the Irrigation Bridge, just after I'd checked the lake which literally looked like a tsunami had just hit it because of the destruction which is apparently in line with the landowner's conservation management plan . . . 3 sides of the lake which were once lined with willows were as flat as a pancake and the main island and main spit looked like a squelchy piece of mud that someone had just stepped in and were now joined together. There were few other birds than Herons, Gulls and Crows to be seen- what a depressing sight (not forgetting the ex-scrape just south of the lake which is completely unrecognisable state; you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a football pitch which has had all it's grass pulled up). Enough ranting.

I managed to get myself into the gully just north of the slope leading up to the Irrigation Bridge in the hope of flushing a Wryneck but this produced nothing and I came out covered with seeds, thorns, cuts and grazes. I crossed the bridge and entered the Shrike Field which links on to the Biker's Field. The only notable birds were one or two Stonechats showing well in the latter field.

From here, I made my way over the 100 Acre bridge (I hate crossing this bridge, it always feels like one of the wooden planks is going to come loose and you will fall onto the railway track below) and gave Jim's Pit a quick check. Here there were 3 or 4 Snipe and perhaps 50 or so Teal with a couple of Lapwings and little else.

Time to go home so I made my way back to Hackbridge train station then walked home from Sutton, a dip, but it was expected really.