A great surprise back on Monday (10/10) was the presence of a female/1st-winter male Black Redstart at Grimsbury Reservoir. Found late morning and only an hour before I headed down there during my lunch. It was doing a feeding circuit around the water treatment works at the SW edge of the reservoir. Sadly I didn't have the camera with me but enjoyed great views all the same. Everytime I've walked past the place, my head says "there just has to be a Black Redstart there some day," so it was good to see my hunch became reality! The next day I headed back there again, this time with camera in tow. Thankfully the bird was still present and showed really well again. The light was shite, but actually I ended up with a pretty decent set of shots.
Haven't had the chance to get out too much recently however have been over to Boddington Reservoir a couple of times. Finding stuff there is hard work but it does have some great habitat & is certainly worth persevering with. Last Sunday (09/11) the weather was awesome early on, being perfectly still with bright sun. Best birds were a showy pair of Willow Tit (below), a couple of Lesser Redpoll, a Kingfisher and best of all a late fly-over Rock Pipit calling away, a belated county tick! Wildfowl there are generally rather thin on the ground so a small group consisting of 2 Pochard, 2 Tufties & a male Wigeon was pretty noteworthy.
On (Sunday 16/11) I had a look at the gull roost at Boddington. There were the usual good numbers of Black Headed & Common with smaller numbers of Lesser Black Backs, c.5 Herring & a very dapper adult Yellow Legged Gull. Very little else about other than a couple of resident Tree Sparrows.
Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury I've discovered has a rather low-key gull roost and I've been giving it a grilling a few times during the past couple of weeks. For such a small roost, it's actually been relatively productive with Med Gulls on 15/10 & 22/10 (2nd & 1st winter), as well as a 4th-winter Yellow-Legged Gull on 21/10 (shite pics of all below). Sadly doing this after work isn't going to happen now the clocks have changed, but I will probably give it a look at the weekends every now & then.
I currently have a pretty awesome number of hibernating butterflies in my garage totalling 1 Peacock & 18 Small Tortoiseshell! They've now been joined by a Herald moth over the last week or so. Will be interesting to see if any other late flyers join them all!
Locally, I've seen a few bits and bobs and autumn is now well and truly here. Redwing have been coming through in good bursts from the evening of 13/10 onwards when 13 zoomed over the house. No Fieldfare as yet, but a Brambling over the garden calling away on 15/10 was a nice surprise. Even more of a surprise though came on Sunday (26/10). Spent a couple of hours at Boddington Reservoir. Very little of any any note, despite goods numbers of birds. Then, taking a look at the adjacent Byfield Pool, a big old Great White Egret appeared for a few seconds before flying strongly south, sadly not allowing me to even get a single photo of it! Although the species is now a relatively frequent visitor to Northants, it was still a great find and the first I've heard of turning up this end of the county
On 15/10 a Grey Phalarope was found at Pitsford Reservoir so as soon as I was available, I made the effort to go & see it. This was a species I've never really got round to seeing in the county I guess, as bad as it sounds! There have been several in my lifetime but for one reason or another I've never caught up with one. So on Saturday (18/10) I headed to the dam end of Pitsford with the bird having been reportrd the previous day I was hopeful it was still about. Walking along the dam produced a slightly late & ridiculously tame Wheatear and another migrant in the shape of a Garganey (shocking photo below!) with Teal at the southern end.
I walked along the southern edge of the reservoir, right the way around the Moulton Grange Bay and the other side of the pines; a long old walk! The Grey Phalarope was thankfully viewable from here but along the northern edge of the reservoir and was therefore ridiculously distant! I lingered a while just in case it made it's way towards me but sadly not. Oh well! Managed to find a female Stonechat around here and on the walk back to the car the 2 Ruddy Shelduck were chilling at the mouth of Moulton Grange bay with Canada Geese. A pretty decent morning's haul really!
The next day (Sunday 15/10), I met up with Dave James for the first time in what seemed like ages! We gave Harrington Airfield a bit of a going over in the hope we'd find the recently reported Short Eared Owl. Sadly no Owl and actually sweet F all in general! We then gave the southern field of nearby Blueberry Farm a going over but was probably in truth a little early in the day for any owls. Dave had seen the Phalarope at Pitsford at point blank range earlier in the day so we decided to have another look with me keen to get some decent photos. After a bit of a walk to the small bay beyond Pintail Bay we were treated to incredible views of the juvenile Grey Phalarope coming to within 10 feet or so; a complete contrast to the previous day! After blasting it with the camera for half an hour or so, we headed home. Brilliant end to the day!
What has become an almost annual thing now is to head to Norfolk to see Kieran around mid October in the hope of catching up with some rares. So this year I took Friday (10/10) off and as is standard, I set off first thing. The Burnham Norton Steppe Grey Shrike was my first port of call before meeting up with Kieran. The bird had been present just under a week and was seemingly loyal to a particular fence line. It was a stunning, clear morning and as I approached the coast I was greeted with the impressive sight of skeins and skeins of gabbling Pinkfoots heading towards farmland to feed. On arrival at Burnham, several other birders were already present. Slightly worryingly, they were yet to find the Shrike...uh oh! Thankfully, after a few minutes scanning around, another birder picked it up on a distant fenceline. Steppe Grey Shrike in the bag! I went on to enjoy decent views, seeing it even sharing the same bit of fence as a Kingfisher! The sun wasn't in the most ideal place so photos were not going to set the world alight.
Next, having had my fill of the shrike, I headed onto Holt to pick up Kieran. It was decided another filthy twitch was in order with our target being the elusive Little Crake at Minsmere, Suffolk. Another big old drive lay ahead of us and after we polished off a hefty McDonalds, we stopped off at Lowestoft on the way down, to see the apparently showy Red Backed Shrike at Ness Point. Having wandered around a bit looking for the bird we eventually stumbled across a couple of photographers looking at some scrub. Let's just say showy doesn't really describe it! It was just incredible how close the bird was willing to come, catching bees and insects around us and even perching in the bush no more than 5 feet away from me. It was unreal!
Having feasted on the point blank shrike, we hit the road again onto Minsmere. Having paid the extortionate entrance fee and enjoying a bit of banter with what must be the hottest RSPB employee in the land, we scooted down to the Bittern Hide to wait for the Crake to show. The hide was pretty packed but we found a decent spot fairly quickly and laid in wait. After 40 mins or so the shout went up that it was out, the only problem was we couldn't see it from our angle... shit panic!!!!! Thankfully someone let us look through their scope and eventually it was viewable from our position...Little Crake, getinnnn!!!! Over the next 20 mins or so, it showed on and off and actually gave us a really good show, often suddenly zooming back into the reeds, more like a lizard than a bird! Horrendously shoddy video and pics below.
We were properly buzzing after that and getting two lifers in a day was awesome for me! We had a quick look at one of the scrapes but nothing out of the ordinary other than a handful of Swallows flying straight through and point blank views of a couple of Little Grebe.
On the way back we popped into the nearby Blyth Estuary to have a scan. The area was full of birds with excellent numbers of Redshank in particular. Best birds were an adult & 1st-winter Med Gulls, 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Knot and several Curlew and Black Tailed Godwit among other things. It had been a seriously long day, but a bloody good one!
The next day was far more chilled starting mid morning at Morston Quay, finding a couple of Stonechat and several Rock Pipit. After that we gave Holkham Pines a good going over. Sadly we found very little with best being a flyover calling Spotted Redshank, plenty of Pinkfoots, a few Buzzards, a couple of Marsh Harrier & a Chiffchaff.
We then had a look at Thornham Harbour on the off chance we might find some recently reported Twite. No Twite, but again a few Rock Pipits near to the car park.
Nearby Titchwell produced the usual array of waders, including a couple of incredibly handsome juv Little Stints in poor light.
Walking back to the car we stopped in our tracks as we heard a Yellow-Browed Warbler in the Meadow Trail area calling it's head off. We headed straight to where it was coming from, wondering whether it was real or somebody playing a tape! Eventually it called again from a dense bit of foliage fairly close by. It was real! Sadly it didn't show or even call again.
We finished the day, (just before a bloody huge thunderstorm!) back with the Steppe Grey Shrike. It was now showing amazingly well close to the path after photographers had laced the area with mealworms! Sadly the impending thunderstorm frustratingly destroyed the light and while the bird was very close, getting good shots was tricky in such low light. But not the worst results considering. The poor light even brought out a hunting Barn Owl along the path!
My last day in Norfolk & with Kieran, we spent much of the time battering the Warham Greens/Stiffkey area looking for our own birds and you know what, we did alright!
There were clearly lots of birds on the move and after setting off along garden drove, there were good numbers of Chaffinches, a couple of Brambling, other common Finches, Skylarks, Snipe, Reed Buntings & Yellowhammers all going over or grounded. A male Blackcap showed and there were also good numbers of Dark-Bellied Brent Geese on the saltmarsh.
There was a report of a Yellow-Browed Warbler at Stiffkey Campsite Wood and not long after our arrival there we found one with a tit flock, calling & showing occasionally. Not too long after, we found an incredibly vocal second bird further east, however views were sadly brief in the canopy. After having a good wander around, we stopped to grab a bit of food. Here we had bird of the day as a Hawfinch slowly cruised east giving out a call slightly different from the 'tick' they usually produce, being a little more slurred. A brilliant surprise and a seriously rare occurrence on the coast. A flock of about 10 Jays going over soon after, heading west was an impressive sight
We saw little else after that so after heading back east, last stop was Kelling and Muckleborough. The Water Meadows held a very illusive and largely obstructed Jack Snipe together with 3 or so Common Snipe. We also had a couple of calling Brambling and several Stonechat. The sea was so calm and produced very little other than 2 Razorbill, a couple of Gannets and 2 Grey Seal, one of which was an enormous bull.
Lastly on the circuit, we walked around Muckleborough Hill and after a fairly bird-free few minutes we eventually came across a vocal tit flock. Within this was a lovely Firecrest that showed fairly well in bushes by the path. Was a great surprise and the perfect end to a brilliant weekend...good banter and great birds!
The weekend of 04/10 & 05/10, Em & I headed down to North Devon again to visit her mum in Bishops Tawton, near Barnstaple. Managed to fit a little bit of wildlife in too which was pleasing. On both days, a stunning Wall Brown butterfly was chilling in Em's mum's greenhouse together with a Speckled Wood. It was even more than happy to wander onto my hand which was pretty cool!
The stream adjacent to the house had a good count of 3 Dipper, as well as a flyby Kingfisher.
On the Saturday I popped over to Instow and took a walk along the estuary. The cricket ground had a nice 1st-winter Med Gull with Common Gulls. Along by the estuary were a small flock of Rock Pipit and waders roosting on the rocks included a large flock of Oystercatcher as well as a smaller number of Curlew, Redshank, 2-3 Turnstone & 3 Knot.
On Sunday, I spent a short time along the coast at Hartland Point for a bit of a seawatch, with the vein hope I might find a Balearic Shearwater. Sadly no shearwaters and actually it was pretty quiet with several small groups of Auks, several Gannets, 5 distant Terns, probably Arctic, 1 Peregrine, 1 Raven & several Rock Pipit.
