Following a fruitless look around Grimsbury Reservoir yesterday morning, I still had another couple of hours to kill before needing to get back home. My friend Dan was raving about a Snow Bunting that had been found close to his home near Kineton, a short drive away into Warwickshire. So I thought why not! I met up with Dan for a look and I'm extremely glad I made the effort with views of a beautiful female Snow Bunting showing as close as just TWO metres on a farmland track, close to the village. It really was super chilled, not even budging as a couple of dog walkers passed by no more than a foot away. Completely mad! It seemed in good health and appeared to be feeding well too. Brilliant!
Late October / early November is a classic time for rare wheatears to appear in the UK. For the last few years, I've always been a bit of a lazy bones and not bothered to catch up with any.
This year however, with a gorgeous-looking male Desert Wheatear in situ near to Cley, Norfolk, I was more than tempted! On Friday 28/10, I made a bit of a last minute decision to go the next day and despite not being able to get anyone else to go with me, it was too tempting to pass up and so for a change, I had a day out by myself!
I set off mega early, with the aim of arriving at Cley east bank for sunrise to make the most of my day and also to enjoy my time there without the hoards of people that would inevitably be about.
I'm really glad I did, arriving at 07:50am to be greeted by an absolutely stunning sunrise, with not a breath of wind and surprisingly mild temperatures.
I began my walk up the east bank, with a large skein of Pink Foots over, a hunting Marsh Harrier, a few calling Bearded Tits and plenty of common wildfowl and waders en route.
At the top of the east bank, a nice Lapland Bunting flew low over west calling, further adding to an enjoyable start to my day. It was a bit of a walk along the shingle and down towards the sea pool area where the Wheatear had been showing the previous day.
A couple of birders were already there and before I reached them, I could see the Desert Wheatear bombing about, across a fairly flat, shingle area close by. One of the guys soon left and over the next 20 minutes or so, myself and the remaining birder enjoyed a stunning show.
As more birders appeared, the Wheatear disappeared for quite a while. In the meantime I had views of a couple of flyover Shorelark, an unexpected Swallow through slowly east, my latest ever, as well as having the constant backdrop of pinging Bearded Tits from the nearby reedbeds.
Most went off after the Wheatear that had been re-found c.200m west. I stayed put and was rewarded as the Wheatear returned, right in front of me, which I had to myself for a little while before everybody returned to see it. I wanted to move on, however couldn't resist staying a while longer to enjoy such great views of an awesome bird.
I eventually left to enjoy the rest of my day elsewhere. My walk back to the car produced at least 5 Red Throated Diver and a few Guillemot on the sea, another flyover Lapland Bunting high overhead, plenty of wildfowl and waders as well as views of some more Beardies.
Before departing Cley, I popped over the road to Walsey Hills to listen in for the Dusky Warbler my mate Kieran had found several days previously. I heard it calling relatively frequently and probably saw it briefly too, as it was chased off by a Robin, but I soon hit the road again. Knowing how skulky Duskys can be, I could've been there for hours and still not seen it!
I drove west along the coast road to Burnham Overy Dunes via a stop off for coffee at the trusty Wells Co-op. BOD wasn't a place I particularly wanted to go to as I couldn't be arsed to walk all that way, plus I knew it would be milling with people. But with yet another rare wheatear, this time an Isabelline showing in recent days and reportedly still there, I kind of had to drop in.
I surprisingly found a nice easy space to park by the A149 and trudged off along the long old track to the dunes and to Gun Hill.
As predicted, the route was crawling with people. Birds on the way included a covey of Grey Partridge, plenty of Pink Foots and a couple of Bearded Tit bombing over my head calling. It wasn't too difficult to work out where the wheatear was, with a stationary army of people visible from a distance, slightly east of Gun Hill. Woopee!
The Isabelline Wheatear was visible pretty much straight away on the crest of the nearby dune ridge (grotty photo below). It proved to be quite mobile and flighty but I could still make out all the key features through the bins, particularly the striking paleness of the bird.
After a short while, I took a walk round to the beach side to get away from the hoardes. The wheatear reappeared briefly on the beach before flying back towards the dunes. Three very vocal Lapland Buntings then circled overhead for a bit but sadly didn't land and were soon on their way again. I then left to enjoy the last part of the day, looking for my own birds at Thornham.
I like birding at Thornham, I always manage to see something half decent. Again it didn't disappoint too much, soon clapping eyes on approximately 10 Twite amongst larger numbers of Linnets, close to the car park. I do love the twanging calls of Twite as they regularly take flight and circle over the saltmarsh, before again dropping to feed. Interestingly, there was a colour-ringed bird amongst them, however I couldn't get enough on it before they were off in the air again. Presumably one of the peak district birds that regularly appear here each winter.
I took a walk right out to the beach and to the mouth of Thornham channel to look for buntings and Shorelarks. I was rewarded with yet another flyover Lapland Bunting for the day, heading off inland, however nothing else too notable other than a nice selection of waders. The day was drawing to a close, ending with fantastic, memorable views of a hunting Barn Owl and a couple of Marsh Harriers in the fading light.
Sunday 23/10 appeared to have the potential for some promising visible migration with low cloud and favourable winds. So, I figured a trip to the 'mountainous' Borough Hill, Daventry was in order, to see what was moving. It was also a nice change from flogging the local water bodies!
I got there for first light and set up camp in the centre of the hill. Here, a nice pair of Stonechat were in situ and in fact spent most of the time pretty close by atop a variety of weedy perches.
After a slow start birds began to move quite a bit, mostly heading in a north or north westerly direction. There was a really nice steady trickle of Chaffinches in ones and two, as well as the occasional larger groups with a party of 17 over at one point. Redwings too were going over in steady numbers.
The highlight of the early part of the morning were a group of 3 followed soon after by another Brambling that circled the hill before departing NW.
Things though seriously hotted up a little while later. I had just been looking at some thrushes heading over, when I noticed a bird flying north, low over the hill away from me. It was a lark and looked remarkibly short-tailed (!) It soon dropped down in long grass, around 100m away from me. I immediately decided to follow it up, having a sneaking suspicion that it could be a Woodlark.
I approached the rough area the bird landed and nothing! Then suddenly the bird took flight around 15 feet from me and began calling 'tleee tweee', 'tleee tweee'. Oh my, it was a Woodlark, get in!! It again landed around 150m away, right at the far north end of the hill, where to my dismay, a dog walker was approaching the exact area. The timing was absolutely 'impeccable'...typical!!
Surprise, surprise, there was no sign from where I saw the bird land and it had presumably been flushed by the dog walker. I hung around the area for a little while but no further sign. So, I began to walk back to my earlier vig mig spot. As I did so, the Woodlark again appeared from nowhere and flew right past me, calling it's head off and exhibiting the short tail and rounded wings. Unfortunately it kept going and headed off high north.
I then resumed watching overhead to see what else I could muster. I actually managed a few more nice bits, including a group of 6 Crossbills and yet more Chaffinches and Redwing. While on the phone to my friend Dave James, I also then had the most amazing sight of a Kingfisher cruising right past me, west across the hill!!! This surely was a migratory bird with no apparent water on any part of the hill to my knowledge and therefore quite an exciting observation. To finish my morning off, a Peregrine, Red Kite and several Buzzards were also seen as the cloud was slowly replaced by blue sky and sun.
