Black-eared Wheatear in Hampshire

Some days you wake up and it feels a bit rare. There's no smell, no taste - just a sense. And for some reason, today was like that. Damp, grey and feeling pretty close here in London I headed off out to Crossness mid-morning. Even here in Rotherhithe, there were the first Black-headed Gulls for a couple of weeks moving through plus a Common Gull. So some sense of bird movement.

On the way through Greenwich, I checked my phone and saw Gary Howard's tweet about having just found a Black-eared Wheatear in the New Forest. A brilliant find, and with less individuals that have been twitchable than Cretzschmar's Buntings in the last decade it's a pretty rare bird. Anyway, with a nice meal booked for 9pm it would be a tight turnaround - and having seen a couple before (a long time ago, 1993 and 2002) - I headed to Crossness. There'd been an obvious influx of Black-headed Gulls at the outfall, but nothing with them, and 14 Lapwing and 3 Teal were presumably non-breeders. A 1st-summer Yellow-legged Gull was NTGG ringed, but frustratingly too distant for digits to be read. So essentially the place was quiet, there was a good bird just a couple of hours away but I needed to be back in London late evening in order not to disappoint. So a check of the weather and realising clear skies tonight in Hants (with Black-eared Wheatears notoriously doing one overnight), the decision was made.

male Eastern Black-eared Wheatear Acres Down, Hants 13th June 2015; note the extensive black bib going over the bill, well above the eye and extending towards the upper breast. Upperparts showed little trace of colour, with a buff wash to the breast.

Traffic was like a dream. Arriving at Acres Down, a quick walk from the car park to overlook a sunny field and there is was - a black-and-white beauty. With just a hint of colour on the upper breast, and having commented on the original photos previously, this was an obvious eastern race melanoleuca. Though I was a bit disappointed with the views, as I prefer to be up close and personal to birds these days, it was a smart looking thing. Another reason I was so keen to go was essentially that I'd (probably) not seen this race in Britain. A decent article on the separation of the two races can be found here, though it's not as clear cut as people thought a decade or so ago.

And I managed to get back to London in time for the evening too... so all in all, a very productive day.

Greater Yellowlegs - a long time coming!

There wasn't a cloud in the sky as Karen and I set off to the south coast this morning. All the way down, it was one of those blue Sunday mornings that being up and about was definitely the best choice. Arriving at Titchfield Haven, it took little time to walk to the Suffern Hide and see the target bird parading around in front. Didn't expect it to be quite that easy, and with its gangly build complete with summer flank streaking and vivid yellow legs, I was pretty impressed - a very nice bird and ridiculously, 21 years since my first and only one at Rockcliffe, Cumbria in October 1994 when I was an irritating teenager (and very thankful for my Dad having driven me there).

Greater Yellowlegs Titchfield Haven, Hants 7th June 2015

Though I've seen a couple on the Azores - including one coming in from the Atlantic and landing exhausted on a rocky beach on Flores - as well as a load in the US, you can't beat a good rarity in Britain and Ireland like this. What with Med Gulls flying over and loads of Cetti's Warblers (following the first one ever here!) it was nice to be by the sea and out of a stuffy London.

Herring Gull M0KT Rotherhithe - present on both days this weekend, having been seen here regularly since 10th May and ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 27th September 2014

After a thoroughly pleasant afternoon with my parents, and as always some lovely food, it was back to Rotherhithe where a couple of ringed 1st-summer Herring Gulls were hanging out - one ringed at Rainham this January and seen here late March (but not since) and another regular bird ringed at Pitsea last September and present here since early May.

Return from Africa

Karen and I returned earlier today from a brilliant trip to Botswana and Zambia - awesome safari moments in Botswana and then a couple of days on the Zambezi in Zambia where we headed to Victoria Falls (and African Finfoot). I'd only ever been as far south in Africa as Mauritania in the west and Ethiopia in the east, so the whole experience for me was all pretty new. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why it has taken me this long to visit. For once, the birds actually played second fiddle

Leopard - one of three sightings (of four animals)

Anyway, we had three nights at Machaba Camp near the Kwai River and Chobe National Park; this being a 'dry camp' where large game was encountered frequently (with the highlights being 4 leopards, 7 Lions and 2 Cheetahs as well as a pack of African Wild Dogs, Hyenas, Zebras, Elephants, Hippos, Giraffes, Crocodiles, Red Lechwe, Tsessebes, Impalas, Waterbucks and Warthogs) and the birding was pretty good too - Kori Bustard and Wattled Cranes the most memorable.

A young male Lion - seven seen in total; a group of three lionesses and four young males

African Wild Dog - a pack of seven of these endangered animals seen

Two Cheetahs - the first in the area for a couple of years and only present for an evening

Spotted Hyena - a young animal at its den

After this, we spent a couple of nights at Xigera Camp in the Okavango Delta where most of the activities were water based; by using either motor boats or Makoros (paddle boats) it was possible to get close to loads of the wildlife with the undoubted highlight being a showy Pel's Fishing Owl as well as some nice Angolan Reed Frogs and loads of kingfishers and bee-eaters too.

Pel's Fishing Owl

Angolan Reed Frog

African Fish Eagle

The last base was over the border in Zambia at the lovely Islands of Siankaba where as well as doing the usual tourist thing and visiting Victoria Falls, the Zambezi and its backwaters produced further highlights including African Finfoot. There'll be more blog posts to follow, time allowing... and I'll make sure there are more birds in the next post!

African sunset (with Red Lechwe in the foreground)

A quiet May weekend

Spring birding is always hit and miss, particularly if like me you're largely confined to weekends. Most people look outside and smile when it's sunny, but what that sun usually means in the context of my local birding is no birds. And that was the case at Crossness yesterday, where it felt like mid-June as opposed to mid-May with swifts buzzing about and the Common Terns well and truly settled in to nesting at Barking Bay. The annual build up of non-breeding gulls in Rotherhithe continued apace with about 200 Herring Gulls present yesterday, and with 3 NTGG rings there was at least something to get me going...

Two ringed Herring Gulls Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe 16th May 2015 - the 2nd-summer (left) K9HT was last here on 22nd June 2014 (having been ringed at Rainham in November 2013) while the 1st-summer (right) was ringed at Pitsea in September 2014 and has been about in Rotherhithe since 4th May 2015.

Today, I mixed it up a little and Karen and I headed out of London for the day. We walked around Rye Harbour, East Sussex which is always nice - not many birds but plenty of birders rather surprisingly. There were a couple of first-summer Spoonbills present on the flood north of Ternery Pool, with one of them ringed, while other highlights included a Cuckoo sallying from fence posts, a couple of Wheatears and a small flock of Bar-tailed Godwits. Little Terns were about in small numbers, and there were a fair few Common and Sandwich Terns, but I was left a bit cold by the lack of Mediterranean Gulls compared to a handful of years ago - just a handful seen today.

We then went to Dungeness, as much to satisfy Karen's request for a Dover Sole sandwich from The Fish Shack as my gull fix. Mid May's not exactly the best time for huge numbers, so three ringed birds (two Danish Great Black-backed and a Sussex ringed Herring) had to suffice.

1st-summer Great Black-backed Gull JZ042 Dungeness 17th May 2015 - ringed as a chick at Nordre Rønner, Læsø, Nordjylland, Denmark on 1st July 2014 then seen at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France from 2nd January to 9th February 2015, then Outreau, Pas-de-Calais, France 14th February and 14th March 2015 before being first seen at Dungeness, Kent on 25th April 2015.

Returning to Rotherhithe early evening, a couple of Swifts were about along with two NTGG Herring Gulls on the barges on the River Thames. If only the birding this weekend could have been more exciting...

Back to normality (with a few gulls thrown in)

I thought I'd post something today. Not because I went to Norfolk and saw the Citril Finch like most; for once I could sit back and relax having seen the Fair Isle bird. Though I did at one point nearly set off for it. Glad I didn't though, as I had a nice little spell on the river by my flat in Rotherhithe this evening - the first Yellow-legged Gull of the year, 4 NTGG ringed Herring Gulls (including a 2nd-winter that had been to France and back) and four Swallows through too.

1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull Rotherhithe, London 10th May 2015

Earlier today, I spent a fair bit of time at Crossness where it was absolutely dead. In fact, it was even worse than last week's Bank Holiday Monday and that was bad. When you're talking about Oystercatcher as the best wader of the day, enough said. However, after getting married last weekend and the build up to it, I must admit that it is nice to have a bit of time again to throw away seeing nothing around London.

1st-winter Herring Gull M0KT - ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 27th September 2014 and then seen at London Bridge on 19th April 2015; present in Rotherhithe on 4th and 10th May 2015.

1st-winter Herring Gull M7MT - ringed at Pitsea, Essex on 21st March 2015 and present in Rotherhithe on 26th April and 10th May 2015.

Hudsonian Godwit in Somerset... just!

This hobby is meant to be pleasurable, a distraction from the stresses and strains of everyday life apparently. It isn't. Yesterday, for example was a case in point. Karen was away for the day, and had left me in charge of doing two very important things - it was our final chance to pick up the wedding banns from the church while at the same time, a boiler was being fitted and some strength was needed to transport the old one out. To cap it all off, I needed to be in Woking for the evening to help transport some bits and bobs back into London. I normally don't have commitments, let alone three in one day.

So I really didn't appreciate the call from Bob W (first time I've seen RBA broadcasting news well in advance of BirdGuides, since I relinquished my pager a year or two ago), informing me of a Hudsonian Godwit in Somerset. An easy twitch in normal circumstances with no water to cross. Anyway, I was well and truly screwed as those wedding banns just had to be picked up; there really wasn't an option. So that was fine, I'd be off just after 10am. Or perhaps not, what with the church being a bit laissez faire with their punctuality combined with the old boiler not being as easy to extricate as originally thought. I ended up leaving southeast London at 12.15pm. Sub-optimal, and a Common Sandpiper on Greenland Dock - a decent bird for the patch - did its best to cheer me up.

Fortunately, traffic was very average as I headed through London town and once on the M4, it's remarkable how close you can make Bristol with a bit of downward force on the right hand pedal. And so it was that I arrived at Meare Heath at 3.25pm - probably Britain's most impressive reedbed reserve these days? It felt totally continental, whether that be Med style or Danube style I'm not sure. What's for certain is that, as well as the hoped for yank, I saw 3 Cranes, 3 Great White Egrets, a Spoonbill, a handful of Bittern sightings and a Wood Sandpiper - all in the space of a couple of hours.

And yes, Britain's third Hudsonian Godwit and the first since I've been out of nappies was gladly received. I was mega excited this time last year when I saw the species for the first time in Texas, so to unblock this golden oldie in Britain was pretty special - it's not the firsts you dream of, it's birds like Hudwits that really get you going. Not the brightest of individuals and presumably a female, I watched it at mid distance for just over half an hour as it fed at the back of the pool enjoying its intricately patterned upperparts and undertail coverts, as well as its nice black underwing coverts.

With the weather and light poor, I was just waiting to get my camera out on it... as surely it was going to stick about for the rest of the day. But at 4.10pm it suddenly decided to depart with a handful of Black-tailed Godwits. They banked around, looking to land before returning a short while later. But pretty quickly, the Hudsonian Godwit was off again and headed fast west into the distance. And hasn't been seen again as yet. Good views of the underwing I guess, but I was left cold on the pictures front.

I guess that with good views and no photos, I'm still a birder at heart. That's quite satisfying really. Two British Isles ticks in eight days - that's one more than I got the whole of last year. And a new Western Palearctic bird to boot; can't be bad! And with all chores done (including getting back to Woking for 8pm), and the bird seen, all turned out well. If not slightly stressful.

A Lesser Whitethroat in Russia Dock Woodland was today's highlight among marathon fever here in Rotherhithe, as well my first ringed Herring Gull here in just under a month.

1st-winter Herring Gull M7MT Greenland Dock, Rotherhithe 26th April 2015 - ringed at Pitsea, Essex in March 2015

The Great Blue rollercoaster

Picture this - the perfect Atlantic midwinter storm as it hits the southwest of England back in early December 2007. On the Friday afternoon, Ash F stumbled upon a first-winter Great Blue Heron from the hide at Lower Moors. And with the bird present until dusk it was time to give it a go. A decent group of birders managed to somehow fly on the next morning, but amazingly - despite horrendous weather - we couldn't locate this bird. As it happened, the wind then strengthened to 80 mph during the day and with this, the flights stopped and we were all stranded til the Monday. To cut a long story short, I had to miss a day of work, eventually fly off on the Monday as well as return empty handed on the Ardea front. So roll on this week...

Tuesday 14th April. My Champions League watching of the two Madrid clubs was quickly curtailed by a call I received from Bob W, informing me that Ash F had been up to his old tricks and had found another Great Blue Heron. Again in Lower Moors, and then on the beach at Old Town, it was pretty rude not to give this bird a go - and with a bit more information and the bird showing til dusk, I was relatively confident for the next morning. With lots of fog forecast, it looked as though the Scillonian would be the only option. And it was...

We all piled onto the Scillonian, all 70 or so of the usual suspects - same faces, just everyone starting to look that bit older given how long it'd been since a massive bird like this had got us all together. The omens were good; positive news right from first light until we lost signal on the Scillonian crossing between Land's End and the islands. However, despite the fact the bird had remained on Old Town beach all morning, there'd been no sign since 11am when it apparently just headed out of view. Arriving at just after midday, we all had about 4 hours on the island before having to get the boat back - so people starting spreading out. I headed around Peninis, seeing the odd Swallow in the process but not too much else, while others headed out in all directions. It took a couple of hours, but Andy H and Vicky T had the good fortune to relocate the bird; in a weedy field at Holy Vale. A bit of excitement for those nearby, and even before I'd arrived with the majority of others, the bird had been spooked and headed off frustrating pretty much everyone. And on this note, with a requirement to be back in London the next day, I left empty handed despite knowing the bird probably hadn't moved too far.

Thursday came and nearly went with no sign of the heron, despite a load of birders having stayed on and scoured the islands. It wasn't until a Bryher local had posted a photo on Facebook that everyone realised the Great Blue Heron had presumably spent the day on there without being detected. So, car back in action and team assembled, it was back down the M3, A303 and A30 overnight once again. Along with Josh J, James S and Sam V it was back on the Scillonian (where it was good to catch up with Ian E from my 'back in the day' Cheshire times and we had a mini fall of phylloscs) and across to Scilly again. News was again positive, as Billy S had slept over on Bryher so that he could be there at first light, so by 6.30am the heron was again on Big Pool. It was a bit nervous, but with the Scillonian having docked by midday, the 30 or so birders who had come back piled onto one of the inter island boats and headed towards Bryher. The tide was still really low, meaning we had to wait a bit to get through the channel, but once done it was a quick stroll over to the other side of the island where finally it was possible to clap eyes on this: -

1st-winter Great Blue Heron Bryher, Scilly 17th April 2015

Utterly incredible how much of a pain this massive (in all senses of the word) species had been and genuinely good to see, as well as a relief. Having an hour and a bit to watch the bird on Big Pool, it was good to see it catching a small fish despite the relatively poor weather. Plus the opportunity to look at its large size, off white thighs, reddish epaulets and finely streaked neck - add to this a concave looking bill and blotches of reddish/mauve on the next sides too.  I'm not too sure how long it'll stay on Scilly, but with over 35 records from the Azores, it's possible there will be the odd one or two more Great Blue Herons turning up in Britain in the future. Though given that this is only the second, despite everyone's awareness to look for this species, it's always going to be a bit of a mega rarity.