Otmoor

I planned to head to the Otmoor RSPB reserve last Sunday (17/06). There had been a male Corncrake calling there as well as a chance of Quail and a very good chance of Turtle Dove, a bird I was especially keen to see.


The weather was bloody gorgeous. I arrived around 11:45 and set off round the reserve for the afternoon. There were around 4 Hobbies hawking dragonflies over the 'Greenways' field first of all. Along the path to the screen hides a Grasshopper Warbler was reeling around lunchtime on and off. The screen hides area didn't produce anything much other than a horsefly drawing blood on my left hand! Little f**ker!


There was absolutely no sign of the Corncrake. It hadn't been heard the previous day in windy conditions and no one had had it today. It may well have still been there but there was no way of seeing it if it was as the 'Greenways' field was verrrry big with pretty long grass...no chance!
Otmoor is good for breeding waders and walking around there were several Redshank and Lapwing around. 5 Curlew also flew in calling loudly. A further 2 could be seen in the wet field from the hide along with a single Shoveler, 3 Little Egret and a feeding Roe Deer.


There were good numbers of Buzzard and Red Kite in the area. 2 particular Kites floating close to the hide for most of the day, having to deal with constant attacks from the local corvids and Lapwings. There was still however no sign of an any Turtle Dove, however 2 birds quickly flew over my head and over a hedge before I could get optics on them. They looked like a good shout for Turtle Dove but I wasn't quick enough. Argh!


I saw a Cuckoo briefly near to the car park. I then went for a wander towards the western side of the reserve. More breeding Lapwing and Redshank were around with several Lapwing chicks out in the open, some distance from their parents. Low and behold it wasn't long before out of nowhere came a Kestrel swooping down and taking a chick back to the nearby hedgerow. Despite the Lapwings going mental at the Kestrel, it didn't deter it one bit.


It was very much near the end of the day and I was getting twitchy about Turtle Dove. I found 3 of the Hobbies all perched on posts in the 'Greenways' field. Distantly over the same field I watched a couple of Snipe drumming and displaying up in the sky, however they were too far away to hear them. Soon after, a guy I'd been speaking to earlier in the day waved me over from further along the path. Was chuffed as hell to find he'd got a Turtle Dove on the deck with a Woodpigeon. We had great views of the bird for a good 10-15 mins before it flew off north. Thank god for that! Really enjoyed having a good look at the Turtle Dove, it was the first one I'd seen since 2010!

Who needs migrants!

God bless the Jubilee Bank Holiday...4 days off work. This gave me the chance to arrange a day out. so got Dave to come along to Norfolk for the day. There was nothing very much of note to target but the beauty of the area is it has some special resident birds on offer.

We set off at 6am with Lakenheath RSPB reserve (actually just in Suffolk) our first stop. We arrived around 8ish and headed down the track. The weather was sunny but pretty bloody breezy. It wasn't long before we heard a booming Bittern and several Bearded Tits. It was a long old walk to the far end of the reserve but I didn't mind as I was surrounded by good birds. Bitterns seemed to be booming everywhere and I recon in total the visit probably totalled around 5 booming birds!

We approached the area of poplars where Dave had previously seen/heard Golden Oriole. The last time I visited the reserve it was very different with the RSPB not long having purchased the place. Back then the Orioles were in the poplars closest to the now visitor centre. Now however, they were right towards the end of the reserve. It wasn't long before we were hearing 1, possibly 2 male Golden Orioles in song. I happened to turn around to see a Bittern in flight behing us, excellent. We headed on to the viewpoint and enjoyed good views of excellent numbers of Marsh Harriers and Bearded Tits, as well as a Barn Owl hunting by the river, bringing a vole back to a small brick hut not too far from the path.

We then headed back to the poplars and enjoyed 2, possibly 3 male Golden Orioles singing away. They were, as they always are, very illusive. One bird was singing very close and I managed to see it flit from tree to tree for less than a second. Dave then had it towards the top of one of the trees. But it moved before I had the chance to get my scope on it....dam it!! We then began to head back to the car, enjoying good views of a Cuckoo, 1-2 Hobbies over head and another illusive Golden Oriole in song.

We then headed for North Norfolk. The fish & Chip shop queue in Wells was rediculous so we held off on food and met up with Dave's mate Kieran at Burnham Overy. We had a look around with nothing too unusual on show with several Egyptian Geese, Avocet, Redshank, Marsh Harrier & Little Egret. We then went to grab some lunch before hearing of a site for Montagu's Harrier. After grabbing food we headed for the site. A short while later we parked up the site and started scanning the small, tree-lined valley surrounded by farmland. It was wasn't long before a Hobby flew through, there were several Buzzards circling and both Red Legged & Grey Partridges were close by. While half way through my scotch egg Dave saw a harrier rise up from the trees, female Montagu's Harrier! Get in! It circled around before gaining real height. This went on for around 10-15 minutes before it came down and gave a right good aerobatics display, swooping and diving about. It then headed back to the trees. Fan-bloody-tastic!

Next stop was the Choseley Barns area in search of singing Quail. It was very windy and there was no sign of any Quail, just one or two Corn Bunting on wires. Here Kieran left us and Dave and I went on down to Titchwell. There didn't appear to be much around but we headed down the path all the same. On the freshmarsh there were around 20 Little Gull present, mostly 1st summers, with a couple of 2nd summers with black heads. All smart little chaps! Soon after a Spoonbill flew through without stopping, heading East. The tide was in and therefore several hundred non-breeding Knot and around 50 Bar Tailed Godwit were also on the freshmarsh.

The sea had lots of Little Tern and my first Sandwich Tern of the year heading East. Heading back we had a look form the main hide finding a leucistic Pintail and a female Red Breasted Merganser sitting on one of the islands. The Little Gulls also continued to show well.

We then left to head for our final stop, Dersingham Bog (via an unsuccessful stop off near Snettisham for Turtle Dove!).

The weather on arrival was distinctly average with cloud cover and light rain. Dave had been given directions for seeing some Nightjar so off we went into bog. Not gunna lie, we got a bit lost, culminating with one of his Norfolk birding mates setting us on the right track. It wasn't long before we had several Woodcock roding away around us, getting pretty bloody close at times! The weather had improved very slightly and aroun half 9 we had our first churring Nightjar. I then saw presumably the same bird in flight and 30 seconds later we had it fly really close...both great views! A Grasshopper Warbler was also singing distantly too. But after this the weather began to close in again and the activity ceased, other than 1 or 2 hardy Woodcock. Great end though to a great days birding.

North Wales in a day!

For Saturday 26th, the original plan was to head for Herefordshire to catch up with a very showy and extremely rare Cream Coloured Courser before heading to North Wales. However before the weekend it had vanished. But Dave and I thought to hell with it, we would still head up that way and up to North Wales for some of its specialities. Dave's work mate Sam would also be joining us.


We set off around 6am from Hartwell with a long drive ahead. By around 10am we arrived in Holyhead (Anglesey). We first of all had a look around the harbour for Black Guillemot. There were sadly none to be found, only several Shag and Gannet offshore (both yearticks).

After this, in the stunning sunshine we then headed for the RSPB's South Stack reserve nearby. Here, it wasn't too long before we had a couple of flyby Choughs, my first ones for years. The cliffs here held lots of Guillemots and Razorbills, as well as 3 distant Puffins down on the water. It was great to see a seabird colony as again this was something I hadn't seen for several years. There was a Raven on the cliffs predating eggs, 1-2 Rock Pipits, several Gannet and Fulmar going past.

We had a further wander along the cliffs in the hope of seeing better views of Chough. They were though proving to be quite difficult to see, only showing distantly and briefly. There were plenty of Stonechat about though, as well as several more Raven. Butterfly wise, we managed to see our first Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary.
Back by the visitor centre we managed to see 2 Chough on the ground feeding opposite the visitor centre, they showed well but were annoyingly obscured by fencing! We had our lunch and then headed back to Holyhead for one more shot at Black Guillemot.

Again there was no sign of the Black Guillemots. We did however find signs to the fish quay. Here we came across a bird tour minibus...this was looking more promising! It wasn't long before we were all watching a stunning summer plumaged Black Guillemot on water by the fish quay, fantastic! It was fairly distant but wasn't diving, so in fact showed quite well. Also off Holyhead there were 2 distant Red Breasted Merganser. The guy leading the minibus happened to be a leading North Wales birder and gave us some info on where to go next, legend!

We next headed for Llangollen not far from Wrexham. There were apparently a pair of Dipper nesting under a restaurant by the riverside there. On arrival it was clear these Dippers could be a bit more difficult due to the shear volume of people around with the weather being absolutely scorching. This was spot on..there was no sign of the Dippers, just a couple of Grey Wagtails bombing around. We didn't hang around too long before heading north to a minor road crossing 'World's End', a remote area of upland/moorland habitat. Using the directions of the birder back in Holyhead we managed to find our way up there. We parked up and had a bit of a wander around. It was scorching however quite windy and not too many birds were venturing out. We did see several Stonechat as well as one or two Lesser Redpoll. We got back into the car and gradually edged our way along the road stopping at regular intervals looking for Black Grouse, a speciality of the area.

Scanning around I managed to latch onto a distant Merlin flying rapidly across the moor. This area had a backdrop of pines and looked like particularly likely Black Grouse territory. Eventually 3 male Black Grouse flew across in front of the trees. I managed to get Dave onto one of them. Managed to watch them for about 20 seconds before they dropped down. Was well chuffed to see them, only the second time and seen them, though shame it wasn't more prolonged! Further along the road 5 Red Kites flew past and a nice pair of Whinchat were on show by the roadside. I then noticed to our right a large pale raptor in flight. We managed to screech to a halt and Dave had enough time to get it in his bins....a male Hen Harrier! Fantastic! We got out to try and see it a bit better but sadly it vanished over the brow of the hill never to be seen again, bugger! By this time it was getting on towards 7 o'clock and also had reached the end of this fabulous road. Our last bird was a very tame Wheatear by the roadside before leaving the Moor. After this we headed home via a chippy in Wrexham. Great day out and it was now time to nurse our sunburn!!

May odds & sods in Northants

Mid to late May has seen the majority of migration coming to an end and therefore a large reduction in yearticks and unusual visitors.
The 7th was spent casually looking for a couple of scarce Northants residents along with Dave. We headed over to Polebrook Airfield near Oundle to look for both Turtle Dove and Nightingale. After getting a bit lost we found the correct area. As soon as we got out of the car a Nightingale was properly going for it and we managed to get some prolonged views of it. There were around 3 singing males in total there. There was however no sign of any Turtle Doves.
After a swift pint in Polebrook, we headed back to Salcey late in the day. There we headed for a clearing just east of the lawn. There Dave had had Grasshopper Warbler reeling earlier in the spring and I was keen to see/hear them for my yearlist. After around 5 minutes a male Grasshopper Warbler started reeling followed by another. Result!


I headed to Summer Leys after work on the 16th. There were both a handsome drake Garganey and a Greenshank on the scrape with the Greenshank being a yeartick. There was also a late Wheatear & 2 Grey Partridge in the field to the right of the lane, 6 Ringed Plover & 5 Dunlin on Gull Island and 1st summer Goldeneye on Mary's Island.

I had a further two trips to Summer Leys with a another two yearticks. Firstly, on the 18th, a got round to seeing the adult Little Stint which had been present for a couple of days. Was a very smart adult bird in the NW corner of the scrape along with a Greenshank, 4 Dunlin and a couple of Ringed Plovers. Also present was a 1st summer Little Gull firstly on Gull island and then flying around Mary's with lots of Swifts and House Martins.

Lastly, the I visited on the 28th in the hope of seeing a Wood Sandpiper which had been one of several seen in recent weeks, however most had not lingered long. There had in recent days been an excellent count of 13 Greenshank present on the scrape. I managed to count at least 9 from the main hide. From the double decker hide the Wood Sandpiper along with the Greenshanks, 9 Ringed Plover, a Snipe, a Dunlin and a bright male Yellow Wagtail...not a bad haul! On the slips the previous 1st summer Little Gull was also still present.