20th October 2013 - Struggling to get a semi

We had always planned to head off this weekend. It was just a matter of where. With ISABELLINE SHRIKE, SIBERIAN STONECHAT plus a RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL in Yorkshire, it appeared that we would be heading off to Yorkshire again. 

Then, on Thursday 17th, a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER was found on Hayling Island but was only seen for a short time before flying off. A tick for me and GAS but not the others, the other problem being there wasn't much else down in the area to see, but the East coast was looking good. 

As always happens with problem birds, the SEMIPALMATED PLOVER was seen again on Friday and a trip was organised for Saturday. CJW decided to come with us just for a few year ticks. The bird came and went with the tides, and with high tide not until 12:19hrs, we didn't need to get up too early. We arranged a 06:00hrs start.

I got up at 05:00hrs and started to get ready. I then noticed a slight problem. The room was spinning, I felt light headed, incredibly dizzy and not quite well. I tried to mend myself, but when GAS arrived at 06:00hrs, I was still no better. There was no way I could drive down to Hampshire: in fact I couldn't even walk in a straight line. Eventually, at 08:00hrs, I had to tell CJW the trip was off. This was the first time ever in all my twitching days that I've ever had to cancel a trip. And as tick are especially hard to come by, I was gutted to say the least (I literally nearly was gutted too but I'll spare the details). GAS went off to Westport with CJW and I sat and swayed.

It did sort of ease as the day went on, but my head never entirely cleared. I was determined though to go ahead with the trip on Sunday. Unfortunately, CJW was working and unable to come. I got up at 05:00hrs again and I felt slightly better. I managed breakfast and GAS picked me up at 06:00hrs and did the first half of the driving. I was alright as long as I didn't look down. (I realise now it was an inner ear infection).    

We arrived at Hayling Island at 09:30hrs and joined the crowd of Sunday birders stood on the end of the point waiting for the tide to come in. There were plenty of waders coming and going, and slowly the numbers built up. By 11:30hrs, we had 200+ Sanderling, 50+ Grey Plover plus a decent sized flock of Ringed Plovers. However, there was one bird missing. Despite the flock behaving itself (even returning if spooked), no one had managed to pick out the SEMIPALMATED PLOVER. Then the whole flock flew off.

We followed the crowd as they walked back through the sailing club, hoping they would lead us to groyne 25, the location where it flew to yesterday. However, we realised most birders were returning to their cars. We ate our dinner, consulted my maps and found an area of beach with groynes. There was only one car park so we decided to try and beat the crowd and headed off down there. We parked up and walked along the beach towards the crowd already gathered. I kept checking my phone but there was still no news.
I casually set my scope up and asked if there was any sign. There was, and I was soon watching the 1w Semipalmated Plover through a kind gentleman's scope. We must have been standing there for five minutes before the news came through. Unfortunately, before the majority arrived, a dog ran through the flock flushing the lot. Luckily for the late arrivals, they did settle down again and good views were had. The Semiplover did stand out from the crowd quite nicely: its petite size was clearly noticeable.

Another 90's gripback and my first tick of the Autumn. Amazingly, this is my 7th tick on 20th October since 2000. In 2001, it was a Norfolk Pallid Swift, in 2002 a Pallas's Warbler on Great Orme, 2006 I was on the Isles of Scilly ticking Isabelline Shrike, Booted Warbler and Western Bonelli's, then last year it was the Fife Eastern Olivaceous. Certainly a lucky date for me.

We headed off and decided to pop and see the Red-breasted Goose on the way back home. The journey took about an hour to do, and we got stuck at the usual New Forest bottle neck. We also drove through some extremely heavy rain. By the time we arrived at Cutt Bridge, Milford-on-Sea, it had eased off, and I went off looking for the goose on the marsh with the Brent Geese. Most geese were distant and feeding in long grass, so I rang GAS up and asked him to bring my scope. As the sky looked dark, I casually asked him to bring my coat. Just before he arrived, the heavens opened again. It was quite exposed on the marsh, so we had to walk inland to find the nearest tree, and we sheltered there for about 20 minutes while the rain bounced down again. It was getting late now, and a quick check of the marsh revealed no sign of the R B Goose. We wandered back to the car where we met two birders. They suggested we headed towards the pond, as they had seen a couple of birders waving to them from that location. We drove up, a short walk later and there was the Red-breasted Goose sat in a field. 

I would just like to apologize to CJW for messing up his weekend. The best way I thought would be to dedicate this week's song to CJW, and what better song than one by the finest - the Queen of British pop! This is for you Chris! 

A stroke of luck leads me to a good skua-ring at Belvide

I had my first cold of the autumn this week. I've had worse. It did affect my birding though as I had to blow my nose more often as I walked round Westport than before. I managed and I didn't let it get me down. By Friday, the cold had dropped down into my throat, and my voice wasn't sounding like my usual Joe Pasquale anymore, but more like Brian Blessed. As the day went on, my voice slowly got worse and worse until it just faded away. I was speechless. Literally. Fortunately I'd started work at 05:30hrs on Friday and so I was due to finish early anyway. But when Steve Nuttall rang me to tell me that there was a Great Skua sat on the water at Belvide, I knew where I was heading for as soon as I finished. Then at 11:15hrs, I rang my boss who upon hearing my voice told me I might as well go home as I sounded rough and so poorly. 

I rang GAS and squeeked down the phone at him. We were soon heading down the M6 which was rather slow due to roadworks and that Friday feeling. But all the way down it was still raining. I hoped that while it rained, the skua would stay. We eventually arrived and following instructions from PLo as we walked past him, we headed for the Chappell hide.

And there was the Great Skua sat preening away in front of the hide - a magnificent Staffordshire tick It did flap occasionally and even flew around. It was in fine condition. It moves my Staffs list on by one (and don't forget folks my Staffs list only has birds seen in Staffordshire on. I don't resort to boosting it up by adding on species seen in nearby counties. Some birders get mixed up with West Midlands listing and Staffordshire listing. I'll show you the boundaries if anyone is confused.)  

Great Skua at Belvide

And so onto Saturday 12th October. The day promised so much. There had been Gannets, Great Skuas and Arctic Skuas scattered all across the Midlands. There was a strong NE winds and a biggy on the East Coast was predicted. Would this be the day I could finally dust off my list and get a British tick under the belt in the tick-fest that is Autumn  2013. We decided to play it safe and we started off in Staffordshire. We took our time at Westport, but by the time we came to leave, nothing major had come on for Staffordshire, and no major rares had been found on the east coast yet. We continued with birding round our usual haunts, but by the end of the day when we looked at our lists, we realised we hadn't seen much at all today. Oh well. There's always next weekend.

Chris tries out his new super lens on his camera. Steve Seal - watch out. There's a new photographer in town!

And finally, I been swamped with emails this week by people saying how they enjoyed my new music section, and what a fabulous taste I have in music. I've also had many requests for songs. Christopher from St Helen's wrote to me asking for anything by Jason Donovan. Apparently Christopher was a huge fan of Jason's and used to dress up like him and dance around to his songs. Great image Christopher!

5th October 2013 - A day to gloss over?

As happens in Autumn, the mega's were pouring in on an hour basis, which was great and really exciting if you were on Shetland. There wasn't much else around following a week of so called "rare-winds" but we decided on a trip out of the county during the morning, and then back into Staffs for the afternoon. It seemed a good plan. There was a late attempt at the "spanner in the works" birds with a reported PALLAS'S GRASSHOPPER WARBLER on Spurn. The bird was never confirmed as a definite on Birdnet and with not much of a supporting cast there and the fact that we'd only just been to Spurn, we decided to monitor the situation instead and stick to our original plans. 

We called into Red Rocks on our way north to see if the reported BLYTH'S REED WARBLER was showing or not. However, it was a bit cold and windy and there was no sign. We only stayed briefly before heading off to Pennington Flash in Greater Manchester.

The Lesser Scaup took a little while to find, but eventually "sharp-eyed" CJW located it on our second visit to the hide. This was my second Lesser Scaup at Pennington, having seen one there in July 2004. 

The Lesser Scaup at Pennington

It was our plan to go and see the Bolton/Doffcocker GLOSSY IBIS but there had been no news from the site yet today. We decided to head back to Staffs and to Doxey for the PECTORAL SANDPIPER that had been relocated midweek. Just as we were leaving the carpark, a message came thru saying the Glossy Ibis were still present. It was only ten minutes away and so off we headed.

The site took a little bit of finding as the wrong road name was given in the instructions. We were soon parked up along a very bumpy track and we walked across a few fields towards the pumping station by High Rid Reservoir. As we approached, we could see birders looking down into the field. We had been told they were showing well, but it was still a shock to see how well they were showing. They were literally feet away from us. Amazing views were had. We've certainly never been this close to a Glossy Ibis before. 

Glossy Ibis, High Rid Resv, Gtr Manchester

This shows how well the Ibis were showing.

We headed down the M6 to Stafford and next stop was at Doxey Marshes. We parked up and I checked my phone as per usual. There was a tweet from Chris Bromley that simply said "I've just found a Glossy Ibis at Tittesworth!"

This confused us rather, and another check of the phone revealed the news wasn't general knowledge yet. CJW tried to ring Chris to get further information while I put the news out and alerted a few birders so they could get up there quickly to keep us informed. Once all the calls were made, we went off the see the Pec Sand. 

We met another birder en route who told us it was showing well. He did say though that we were going to get our feet wet by walking to it. We were rather surprised at this, as no one else had mentioned any flooding. He told us to keep to the centre of the path, as birders in the week had been trying to walk around the flood and ended up waist deep in water. Imagine that!

We stood at the scrape by the pollarded willows for about 10 minutes but there was no sign of the pec. While we were waiting a Jack Snipe came into view bobbing merrily away. Eventually the Pectoral Sandpiper showed well but briefly as it kept disappearing into the vegetation.

Jack Snipe at Doxey

With the Glossy Ibis showing at Tittesworth still it was time to make the long trek to North Staffordshire. The journey was uneventful and I dropped GAS and CJW off at the causeway to join the other birders. I carried on a little bit further up the road to park the car. Walking towards me was the Clayheads No.1 stalker Brocton Ian. He told me the Ibis wasn't actually where I had dropped them off by the causeway but it had flown into the fields by where we were standing. I made the short walk up the road and there was the juvenile Glossy Ibis feeding away in a puddle. Eventually CJW and GAS arrived, panting and out of breath but very grateful that I'd dropped them off about a mile down the road. 

Tittesworth/Meerbrook Glossy Ibis - the 6th record of Glossy Ibis in Staffs.

Finally, my new popular music video section. Swamped with emails after last week video, so here's another one for you all.

28th Sept 2013 - The Clayheads are Spurned again

Following a few decent day's weather for the East Coast, there had been a large fall of YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER plus a few other Autumn bits. We decided to head to Spurn again, where on Friday, there had been 21 YELLOW-BROWED WARBLERS, a RED-B FLY and a COMMON ROSEFINCH. 

We'd all had a difficult week at work, and so what we hoped for was just a decent days birding. There's nothing quite like a bit of fresh sea air, a nice change of scenary and some birds you don't see everyday to blow away those modern day life cobwebs and make you human again instead of spending all weekend stressed and pent up still, waiting for Monday morning to come again. 

We left home at 05:00hrs and parked up in the Bluebell Cafe car park at 08:00hrs. We had a quick walk up Beacon Lane, but there wasn't much to be seen. We were walking down towards the Canal Scrape carpark when a car pulled up and a birder wound his window down. It came as a complete surprise to us when he told us there was a probable BLYTH'S REED WARBLER at Easington. We headed back to the car and we soon parked up in Vicar's Lane where a small crowd were gathered, peering through a fence. 

We joined them and soon had several fleeting glimpses of a large brown warbler, skulking deep inside a bush. It then flew out, flew over our heads and dropped into the bushes further along. We learnt that the original observer(s) had had good views, but no one else had views that could add to the identity. Its one we might just have to forget about, but it would have been a stonking start to the day. 

We returned to the Canal Scrape, and started the birding again. We had good views of the Yellow-browed Warbler here and the colour-ringed Little Stint was on the Scrape. We had our first few winter migrants with a Brambling flying in, a few Redwings over and Brent Geese on the River. As we stood there on the bank glancing through the waders, CJW shouted out "Gannet". I laughed at him in the same way as when he shouted out "Glaucous Gull" at Westport that morning last year. We were, after all facing the River Humber well away from the coast. He repeated "Gannet" and there in front of us were eight juvenile Gannets all flying low over the mud following the river. We felt that they were possibly on the wrong side of Spurn. 

We carried on our way up to the Crown and Anchor, onto the Churchyard and back to the car. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and despite the lack of birds, it was just a very pleasant stroll.   

During our walk around, we spotted this Spurn birder using a new technique for checking for the more skulking species. 

The bad side of modern day twitchers reared its head again on Spurn. Just look at this group of newbie twitchers. Fancy forgetting the table! Unbelievable

We returned to the Canal Scrape where the Little Stint was showing well from the hide. 

Colour rung in Norway

A finally, a musical treat for you all. This video is especially for all you birders who haven't had a tick yet this Autumn.

A couple of grey birds perk up a grey Autumn spell

Well into Autumn now but its been a mixed start for the mighty Clayheads. As is always the case in Autumn, you look forward to the mega's rolling in and the ticks arriving en masse. Most Autumns though, in reality, are hard going, with most ticks on far flung islands during the week (and if you can't have weekdays off you are knackered), and then when the weekend comes, they bugger off and you end up chasing birds around the country like a blue-bottomed fly desperately trying to join in the Autumn ticking fest. Yes, I find Autumn stressful and I'm not a big fan. I look forward to December, January and February when we can start moaning that we haven't had a tick for a while. 

Anyway, back to Saturday 14th September. We had planned to go on a trip as it was WeBs duck count the following weekend. There were bits around, but not many bobs, but there was quite a nice forecast for a bit of east coast sea watching. We set off early and arrived at Flamborough Head just after 08:00hrs. We joined the locals perched on the cliff face. I asked the birder next to me what he'd seen already. A Sooty and a few Arctic Skuas was his reply. It was not what we had expected. We sat there for almost two hours. There was a trickle of stuff going past, but we were always waiting for the big shout. Basically we had a few Arctic Skuas past and a small passage of Red-throated Divers. That was about all.    

We returned to the car and pondered our next move. I suggested heading back to Staffs for the Blithfield Crane and Little Stint. CJW suggested staying put on the east coast. In the end, we decided to walk around the headland to see what we could find. Not a lot was the answer. The Old Fall Hedge was totally bird less. We didn't even see a single Chiffchaff. It was quite amazing. It was a pleasant walk in the Autumn sunshine though. 

The best two things about Flamboro today - the lighthouse and the scenery

We realised that the East Coast wasn't having one of its better days, so we headed inland. Our destination was Broomhead Resv in South Yorks where the TWO-BARRED CROSSBILLS had been seen during the morning. GAS and CJW had seen these when they had first arrived, but not the male. We parked up and joined the group of birders stood beneath the trees. We found out there had been no further sign since this morning. We stood there in our chosen spot, and waited. We soon had small flocks of Crossbills flying over, but none were landing. There was something else in the air too. We were stood in a damp woodland, on a warm day, and there were swarms of midges in the air. Unfortunately, as I'm full of exceedingly good quality royal blood, I'm also very tasty to midges, horse flies etc. I zipped my coat up, put my woollen hat on and my gloves. I was roasting and still getting bit. We stuck it out for about an hour before we admitted defeat and headed back to the car. It was exactly like Nightjarring on the Chase except in September, and in the daytime. It was terrible. 

We headed for home pondering on what a super day we'd had. Then news broke of a GREAT SNIPE on Spurn. It could have been worse, it could have been on Flamboro. We did consider popping down to Spurn  earlier as well after Flamboro, but there was only a Red-backed Shrike so we didn't bother.

Sunday, when the GREAT SNIPE put on its infamous show to one and all, I was busy. Well here is a video of it for you all to savour here.

And so we aimed to make up for our previous weekend's misfortune and we planned a trip for Saturday 21st September. CJW fancied the LESSER GREY SHRIKE in Suffolk, along with a ROSE-COLOURED STARLING and 2BARS at Lynford. But on the Friday, as CJW put it, the spanner in the works came along with a BROWN SHRIKE in Hampshire. However, I threw a complete spanner in the factory by being on standby for the Blithfield duck count and receiving a request to help out at the Deep End (East Shore plus Cormorants, gulls and terns). We hatched a cunning plan and worked out if we counted as quick as we could, then we could be away from Blithfield and on our way south by 09:00hrs.  

We arrived at the Deep End just after 07:00hrs. I did the first bay and CJW did the concrete bay. CJW managed to upset the locals again. They'd never seen anyone from St Helen's before and just sat and stared at him.

To be honest, as is the case with the Deep End, there wasn't exactly a lot to count. I did manage to count the single Tufted Duck present (that's one figure that was correct!). We were all counted up by 08:00hrs. But there was no news from Hants yet on the BROWN SHRIKE. We headed down into Blithe Bay to help GJM with his count, and still no news came. It looked like it was a one day bird and had done a Friday night flit. It was annoying but on the other hand, we hadn't actually set off for Hampshire. Going on news had come good again. But, with news that the Suffolk LESSER GREY SHRIKE was still present made us realise if we had stuck to our original plan , we might have had a decent day. Our heads were turned by the better bird winking at us. Autumn - don't you just love it. 

We decided to stay in Staffs and do some proper birding (not spend all day retweeting other birders news out!). We joined up with Richard "Tad Bay" Powell to help him, only to find out he'd counted everything already. We sat and chatted and scanned and then all of a sudden, the Crane was sat in front of us. No one saw it fly in or from where it came. It was just there.

The Blithfield Common Crane, present for its 9th day

Next stop was at Branston GP's. Its still not having the best of years, and the water level had risen on the Sandy Pit. I started scanning and then my eyes landed upon a truly breath taking bird. Every so often a bird will have this effect on you. A bird you've been chasing for ages. And there it was in front of us.

I've been involved with this bird right from when it first landed in Staffordshire. I opened an email from a gentleman saying he'd seen a bird that he couldn't identify. Large, long legged etc. I read the description and thought, yes, a massive mega in Staffs is just about to be identified. I was thinking along the lines of Great or Little Bustard. A few days later, its identity was confirmed. 

We had hoped to bump into it as it toured East Staffs, but we never did. We've even missed it three times at Branston recently. But today the chase ended. CAPE BARREN GOOSE OML!

Cape Barren Goose - A truly awesome bird - all the way in from South Australia

And so with a decent visit to another pit, it turned out to be not a bad day after all. They may both have been grey, but there's nowt wrong with a couple of big old grey birds to boost your flagging spirits.

More pictures from today

Friday 13th September 2013 - Blithfield Resv

News broke during the afternoon that a CRANE had been found in Tad Bay. It was already raining and the chances were good of it staying for the rest of the day. After tea, we headed down and despite the pouring rain, we enjoyed excellent views of the Crane as it fed in front of the hide in Tad Bay. My third Blithfield tick of the year.

The Crane - 5th record for Blithfield with previous records in Oct 1971, Mar 2000, Jun 2012 and May 2013 

End of summer and onto Autumn

Back to normal routine Staffs birding now and getting all ready for Autumn. A full day out around the usual sites on Saturday August 25th saw a visit to Blithfield Reservoir, seeing two juvenile Black Terns and two Osprey sat in their usual tree in Tad Bay. 

Two Ospreys in Tad Bay

We visited Branston GP's afterwards but there really wasn't much on show. Its not been a vintage year at Branston yet this year, but hopefully the Autumn wader passage will be more productive. 

The following Saturday, 31st August, I'd agreed to take the girls to North Wales for the day, and so we were out birding on Sunday instead. A decent rarity had turned up in Cheshire the previous day, and CJW had hurtled up to Neumann's Flash to see the STILT SANDPIPER (amazingly his 2nd for Cheshire). As it was so close to Staffordshire, we decided to pop up there after Westport, and CJW got to see the Stilt Sandpiper for the second day running. 

Stilt Sandpiper at Neumann's Flash. 

Stilt Sandpiper is one of those birds that I've managed to photograph every single one I've seen. My first was the Pennington Marsh bird in Hampshire in July 2002.

Then there was the Brownsea Island bird in August 2006 - my big year listing year and a solo trip to boot!

Stunning views

Then we went for the juvenile bird in Cumbria in September 2008. This was only the third ever juvenile bird in Britain at the time. We went for it because I was off for the week and it was somewhere and something to see!

The rest of Sunday was spent in Staffordshire. We ended up at Blithfield again to look for the Little Stints but they had departed during the day. Big thanks to CJW for his efforts during the day. 

And so onto a busy start to Autumn. On Monday 2nd September, the Stilt Sandpiper was flushed by a Sparrowhawk, and a few hours later it was relocated on Elton Hall Flash at Sandbach. I had to take my daughter to Congleton after tea, and a trip to Sandbach on the way back fitted in nicely. It would have been a bit rude of me not to have seen it at Sandbach as it was so close to home. Although not a Sandbach lister like a lot of the Clayhead birders, I do like to see the decent stuff up there when it turns up. 

Unfortunately, it was a little bit distant. The video shows the bird clearly (if you look hard enough). 

And the busy week continued when MPR found a CATTLE EGRET in Tad Bay at Blithfield. It was 19:20hrs and the sun was still out. I knew I was in with a chance of getting down to see it. I phoned GAS and he was very prompt in picking me up. However, as soon as we were on the A50, the sun dropped, despite sunset being reported as 19:55hrs. I almost considered turning back but I carried on. We pulled up in Newton Hurst Lane at the end of Tad Bay at just before 20:00hrs. I knew it would give me a few minutes more of light instead of driving to the hide in Stansley Wood. A quick glance thru my bins and there was the adult s/pl Cattle Egret still sat on the shoreline. A fine Blithfield tick and my second in Staffordshire having missed the Doxey bird due to being in Portugal on holiday.

Video showing distant Cattle Egret at dusk. Beautiful!

Finally, congratulations must go to the number one Clayhead stalker Ian Burgess on reaching the magical 400. Wherever we go, he's always there first. See you soon Ian!