Fieldfare garden show!

Enjoyable walk this morning with Great Spotted Woodpecker, 20+ Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer and Bullfinch being the highlights, but the main interest was in the garden.

I worked at home today and it was interesting to see how many thrushes were coming in to feed as a result of the snow. I always get decent numbers of Blackbird in the garden and see Fieldfare, Redwing and Mistle Thrush daily at this time of year but very rarely do they come in, they generally just fly over the garden but today was somewhat different with a flock of 45-50 Fieldfare, 2 Mistle Thrush and 4-6 Redwing present for pretty much the whole day feeding on the few remaining berries in mine and my neighbours gardens. Interestingly I also had a ringed Blackbird feeding in the garden today. One of the locally ringed birds or a migrant from further afield? Who knows!....

I managed to get the following shots. I'm quite pleased with them as they were all taken on my phone, through the window!!!


Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)


Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)


Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)


Redwing- Garden (phone binned)


Blackbird- Garden (phone binned)

UPDATE: 10th February.

More of the same today. Again worked at home and again the garden was full of Fieldfare (50+). There was also an increase in Redwing and Mistle Thrush increased from 1 to 2 birds, even allowing a brief set of phone photos to be taken. Also of interest was a single Song Thrush which too posed briefly for a photo. Other highlights included 2 Tree Sparrow that made a brief appearance. Long-tailed, Coal, Blue and Great Tit were all seen along with all the regular common birds. A single Mute Swan flew North, as too did a Buzzard (mobbed by crows). A male Sparrowhawk made a brief attack but didn't catch anything.

A dog walk this evening behind the house resulted in the expected Yellowhammer (2 very smart birds) and the rather unexpected local-area Year Tick in the form of a male Marsh Harrier. The bird flew southeast presumably looking for somewhere to roost, though it was getting seen off by a Crow that had taken offence at its presence.

The following photos, as those above were taken on my phone.


Song Thrush - Garden (Phone binned)


Mistle Thrush - Garden (Phone binned)


Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare - Garden (Phone binned)


Fieldfare - Garden (Phone binned)

A day of walking in the snow

Had a couple of long walks in the snow today. Firstly a really nice dog walk around the local farmland set amongst some really nice views at sunrise in the mist and snow (below off my phone). The hedges were full of Fieldfare with a couple of Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock feeding in the bases of the hedges. Reed Bunting was heard calling from a nearby hedge but not seen due to mist. I checked an unfrozen stream - seems to never freeze (where I had Jack Snipe, Common Snipe, Redshank and Green Sandpiper during the 'big freeze' last year) but there was only a single Grey Heron - last year I found a frozen Grey Heron in the same ditch which was a shame, hopefully this one will survive!









My second walk was much longer and stretched across an area of farmland on the Wolds. The snow was quite deep in places where it had drifted. There was again quite a few Fieldfare in the hedges and a few Tree Sparrow, lots of Grey and Red-legged Partridge were searching for food along the hedge bottoms. A small copse held Redwing, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird and a range of tits however the highlights came in the form of a single Woodcock, flushed out of a ditch by a Hare that I had flushed! The other highlight was two different flocks of Skylark, one of 210+ birds, the other (over 2km away) of 106+ birds. Both flocks were feeding in kale/stubble fields. Quite a nice surprise and a little unexpected really given the location/time of year/previous visits to the site etc.

A brief stop at Bubwith bridge on the way home in thick fog produced a few Wigeon and Mallard.

Very Special Weekend - Mega Central!

Its been a long time coming, on New Year's Eve I got a message about the Dark-eyed Junco in Hampshire, it would have to wait - which was a blessing in disguise as a couple of weeks later news came out of a Spanish Sparrow not far away from the Junco. A plan was hatched to twitch the birds but the day before we were going to go I couldn't be bothered with the drive so we bailed. Again this seemed to work in our favour as last week a Paddyfield Warbler (and apparent Parrot Crossbill) was found near to the Junco and Sparrow location. Another plan was hatched, what could go wrong... we hadn't banked on wind, snow, rain and freezing weather conditions!

Rodney came round to mine late Friday afternoon and we set of around 5pm. A very smooth drive got us down to the B&B to the south of Southampton at around 10pm. The only bird of note was a York area Little Owl just south of North Duffield at dusk.

Early Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny, yet incredibly cold day and went straight to the council estate at Calshot and waited for the Spanish Sparrow to show up, this didn't take long - good job as it was freezing! A really impressive bird that showed well on a roof, a telegraph pole, a road and then in a hedge next to a plastic bag! Real natural birding!!! There was plenty of other birds in the area such as Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit etc. I only managed the following shot as my hands were too cold to work the phone.


Spanish Sparrow - phone shot

We then headed over to the New Forest and Hawkhill Plantation – a beautiful area, much nicer surroundings to bird in. The sound of displaying Common Crossbill and Siskin rang out from the car park and during the morning both gave great views. As we walked to the Junco spot a couple of Woodlarks could be heard singing and were soon seen overheard, obviously not bothered by the minus temperatures. We waited for two hours with no sign of the Junco (that had been seen just prior to our arrival).

By this point we were both really getting cold so I decided to stretch my legs and go water the trees, at this time I walked away from the crowd of 8. With a kitkat in my mouth I looked up at some movement, the Dark-eyed Junco was sat in the tree right in front of me and I was the only one there! I looked round wanting to get Rodneys attention but it was quite hard to whistle with a mouth full of chocolate! Eventually I got his, and the others attention and they all came over and after a while the bird gave itself up feeding high in the pine trees. It then flew off, calling as it went where it dropped right onto the bird feeding area, a quick and careful maneuver and we were stood less than 12 feet away watching it feed. If only the others had of been as careful, they came charging over and flushed it. The bird was quite vocal so as it flew off I tracked it back to the area I’d had it originally so Rodney and I quietly went our own way and spent 10 minutes watching the bird on our own in a bit of peace and quiet. A fantastic bird.


Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone


Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone

This was a really nice bird and area in general and if it had of been a bit warmer we’d have probably had a bit more of a look around. Instead we headed out of Hampshire into and increasingly cloudy West Sussex and Pagham Harbour. I’d not been to this location before so wanted to get the access sorted for Sunday morning. We had a walk about along the North Wall enjoying Stonechat, Bearded Tit and lots of Water Rail out on the ice, and witnessed some amazing stringing such as:

Member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Stonechat.
Another equally skilled member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Robin.

This went on with Dunnock, Wren and Reed Bunting! It then got even better when two Meadow Pipits landed in the bush where the Paddyfield Warbler had been ‘showing well’ (at over 100m range….): Member of the crowd: “Looks like Yellowhammer to me…..” It was clear that many were going to tick whatever they wanted, so we left! It was really, really cold by this point and not much fun.

Sunday morning saw us back on the North Wall at Pagham and after an hour plus wait we were rewarded with a brief but satisfactory view of the Paddyfield Warbler as it fed in the grass along the wall. Happy with our view we decided to head for home rather than try for the putative Parrot Crossbill, slightly worried about the route back with all the snow – however, despite a few jackknifed lorries a good journey home was had. I even managed to finish off the day with a nice walk with the dogs in Harrogate in the snow and enjoyed a few Red Kite as the sun set.


Walking the dogs in the snow

All in all a great weekend with good birds from Siberia, Southern Europe and the United States!

Jacks!

Some good local birds today, Iceland Gull, Great Grey Shrike, Goshawk and Short-eared Owl all recorded in the YOC recording area. I worked at home so didn't get any of the above unfortunately however due to the nights drawing out a little I managed to nip out to a local site just before dusk to catch up with a local year tick in the form of 3 stunning Jack Snipe. Amazingly close-up views sat in amongst the waterside vegetation, great camouflage!


Jack Snipe © Tim Jones 2011

Looking forward to tomorrows surveys, high potential for some decent activity. But really looking forward to the weekend, Friday night we drive down to Southampton for a weekend of birding - hopefully the target birds will play ball...

Ice Cold!

Today I had the joy of standing on the spot for 5 hours on the very cold east coast, in a very cold east wind! It was hard going, very hard going!

A Peregrine kept my spirits up for an hour or so in the morning as it hunted for anything that moved. Site highlight was a family of 6 Whooper Swans that showed really well to close range but after that it was onto Geese, Lapwings and Golden Plover with the odd Egret, Heron and Cormorant to keep the interest going. The flask of tea just about kept me alive!

The real highlight of the day however came on our journey back home. A flock of gulls was seen on a roof of a building. We stopped, got the bins out and in no time at all we were looking at a 1st winter Iceland Gull! Great stuff!! Got the scopes out and got a few record shots on my phone - below. Motto - If you see gulls stop and check them this year!

Panama, Trinidad and Tobago

A couple more new additions to the Tico Tours itineraries.

Panama is an amazing country with a whole host of species - set in some breathtaking scenery with some incredible rainforest and great accommodations - such as Canopy Tower where you are right in amongst all the action. The country is crawling with Hummingbirds, Tanagers, Ovenbirds and Antbirds, Trogons, Parrots and Flycatchers and is a must see.



Trinidad and Tobago is the perfect introduction to the Neotropics with a large number of species possible in a 10-14 day trip - yet not in the numbers that you may find in central/southern America, so not too overwhelming for the first time visitor. Who can resist Oilbird, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, White-bearded Manakin, Bearded Bellbird, Scarlet Ibis.... amongst examples of the hummingbird, tanager, ovenbird, antbird, trogon, toucan, woodcreeper, flycather and other families.. Luckily Trinidad and Tobago also have some great birding lodges which make birding over here nice and comfortable too.



The Tico Tours Website is currently being updated with 2012 and 2013 schedule complete with tour summaries etc etc. Go check it out! We also have a Facebook page with lots of galleries from the various locations - this continues to be updated on a regular basis so keep checking back for regular updates.

Down the Local Patch (North Duffield)

Had a couple of longish dog walks around the farmland to the south of North Duffield today, one in the cold frosty sunny morning and one in the cold yet nice and sunny late afternoon.

The highlight from the morning walk was a flock of 13 Bullfinch, mainly female/1st winter birds but there was a couple of cracking males in with them too. There was also a few Fieldfare and Redwing flying about and a flock of 20+ Tree Sparrow and a dozen Chaffinch sat out in the open along the edge of some scrub with a couple of Linnet overflying. Several Robin were noted in full song - as too were Blackbird. A Sparrowhawk flew over the garden as I got home flushing a decent flock of Greenfinch and Goldfinch.


Bullfinch Photo Richard Hampshire

The late afternoon walk was very enjoyable, I caught up with the same flock of Bullfinch again, as well as finding another 3/4 others too. I walked a path I'd not done for a few months and was pleased to find a flock of 40+ Yellowhammer, 10+ Reed Bunting and several Tree Sparrow feeding in a weedy headland. A flock of Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits moved along a hedge, a covey of 6 Grey Partridge burst up as a Buzzard glided through heading off to roost. A couple of Song and Mistle Thrush were also found. Highlight however was the Barn Owl that gave great views whilst it hunted right infront of me. It didn't take long for it to catch its tea - a vole of some sort.

Winter Sun Anyone...?

Have been working on this for Tico Tours...



A shed load of quality birds available on this tour!

A Good Short-eared Owl Haul

Today I visited a new site for the first time, most of the day was taken up by a site meeting, however that was fine given the rubbish weather.

I was told the site was generally flat farmland with large open fields and would likely be full of Lapwing and Golden Plovers. It wasn't, didn't see a single one! There was some huge fields but there was also two large areas of fallow land that were incredible - it reminded me a bit of Worlaby Carrs. I had just stepped out the car and there was a Short-eared Owl flying about (it was 2pm), then a short while later a Barn Owl flew out in the same area, both showed very well, down to 30ft! (they didn't seem concerned at all with us looking like plonkers in our hard hats and hi-viz jackets stood in the middle of a field). A quick look at some scrub flushed a Woodcock, several Bullfinch, Reed Bunting and a good mix of tits. Hunting Kestrel and Sparrowhawk flew about as too did a female Marsh Harrier. A scan of another area of fallow land resulted in another Barn Owl and 4 additional Short-eared Owl too! Majorly good result!

It must be a huge Shorty year as they are everywhere!

Not a bad 30 minutes out on site in the drizzle! I wonder what else is out there....

Around the world trip...

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A bit of Harrier Action

I spent today surveying in Lincolnshire, it was quite quiet generally however a 5 minute spell involving a Peregrine, Merlin and ring-tail Hen Harrier certainly livened things up a little. The Peregrine was hunting Golden Plovers, the Merlin was hunting Linnet and the Hen Harrier was hunting pretty much anything on the marsh but was getting a fair bit of stick from the Crows.

Was thinking of going for a Sparrow Junco double at the weekend but think I may just spend it doing some local area birding, there seems to be some bits and pieces - gulls at least so will see whats around...

Better looks at the Caspian Gull, and an ice-skating Pheasant!

Had a quick look in at Wheldrake Ings this morning on my way to my dusk owl survey and pretty much the only gull sat out there was the 1st winter Caspian Gull found by Tim on Saturday! Result! Much better looks than I got on Saturday. I even got to see the legs with the Darvic - again too far to get the code on this occasion. Its a real cracker and stands out like a sore thumb (especially when there's no other birds there!)

I even managed to get a couple of phone-scoped shots on my new blackberry (below)





Whilst watching the gull I was momentarily distracted by the following ice-skating Pheasant... (again phone-scoped)





The survey was pretty dull, and very cold. However the highlight of Red Kite, Common Crossbill, Siskin, Tawny Owl, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk made the evening slightly more enjoyable.

Gull Fest in York: Caspo, Iceland and Med Gulls!

Some good birds in York today, I got a message from Tim telling me he'd found an adult Med Gull at Heslington, another good record for the site, there has now been several records of this species from the site over the last year or so.

A bit later in the afternoon and another phone call from Tim, 1st Winter Caspian Gull at Wheldrake. This was too tempting to ignore. I was just heading out the door to go check North Duffield but this made me change my plans. I got to Wheldrake as quickly as possible and made my way to Tower Hide where Tim was stood. Luckily the bird was still present and was stood amongst the rapidly increasing gull flock. Got good views of the bird, very smart! It had a yellow darvic ring. A great local record.

Interestingly a yellow darvic ringed Caspian Gull (apparently from Poland) was seen and photographed well (below) on 23rd October 2011 at Spurn - the 3rd site record, presumably the bird seen today at Wheldrake is the same bird? Hopefully it will get seen again and we can get the code.


Caspian Gull - Photo John Hewitt - more on Spurn Bird Observatory Website

Not to miss out on the national Iceland Gull fest a 2nd winter bird dropped in before getting blocked up to view by all the other gulls. There was a lot of gulls tonight so tomorrow could be interesting for those lucky enough to be there.

At 1650 we heard the distinctive sound of distant Whooper Swans as they flew onto the Ings to find somewhere to roost. An enjoyable end to the day!

CATTLE EGRET TOPHILL LOW: Local MEGA

One was seen by Bob on 18th and 19th December at the Little Kelk/Gransmoor area in East Yorkshire just to the north of Tophill, presumably the same bird recorded near Spurn late in the Autumn.

It has not been seen/reported subsequently but whilst visiting my mate Richs house (Tophill Low Warden) he got an email of an 'egret to identify - presumed Cattle' from a local landowner.

The bird was present in a paddock on their land and was considered to be roosting at the Tophill Nature Reserve somewhere unknown. Rich opened the email and we took one look at the picture (below) and were both happy that it was indeed a Cattle Egret! A very good find locally. The bad news however was that access was not going to be able to occur at the time at the request of the landowner, despite Rich's attempts to try and swing access, however now, some 2 weeks later, the news has come out, presumably as the bird can now be view from public rights of way/the Tophill reserve. Please follow the specific onsite access requirements - details here.


Cattle Egret Copyright 2011.

Though not the national rarity it once was 10-15 years ago Cattle Egrets are not fantastically common in Yorkshire, previous records include:

November - December 2011 Various East Yorks (e.g. Sunk Island, Easington, Little Kelk - presumably this bird)
July 2011 - Swillington Ings, West Yorks
March 2008 - Wheldrake Ings, North Yorks
January 2008 - Hellifield Flash, Norht Yorks
November 2007 - Spurn, East Yorks
October 2006 - Fairburn, West & North Yorks
July 2004 - Fairburn, West & North Yorks
October - December 1996 - Thorne, South Yorks
May 1992 - Hornsea, East Yorks
May 1992 - Nunnington, North Yorks (5 birds!)
November 1986 - Adel Dam, South Yorks
September 1986 - Hornsea, East Yorks
March - April 1981 - Duncombe Park, North Yorks

Well done to the person who found it and alerted Rich. Well done to Rich for trying to sort out access.

Some more recent photo can be found here soon...

BIRDRACE 2012: The Results and some Analysis

I've had the full results through for the Yorkshire-wide Bird Race from last Sunday. Surprisingly our team (York LDV Birders) came third overall (joint with the York Heslington team) - I really didn't expect that! We could so easily have come second too... but first the results table:

TEAM SPECIES RECORDED
Scarborough 102
Barnsley Listers 92
York LDV Birders 90
York Hesslington 90
Barnsley OAPs 86
The Goolies 84
Spurn OAPs 78
Flamborough 2 73
York Originals 73
Fairburn No-hopers 71
Filey Yodellers 69
Filey Originals 61
Yorkshire Dales Flyers 51
Harrogate Drinking Team 50

Well done to everyone, hopefully some decent money raised too. Its all for fun of course, but here's why I think we could have come second. Of course every team will have feelings of, if only... here's ours...

The birds we missed. Redshank, Little Owl and Grey Wagtail are the big three, we have good sites for all of these and it was a real surprise/disappointment we didn't get them. Two of our team heard Grey Wagtail but the other two (of which I am one) missed it! All of our Little Owl sites drew blanks and the Redshank that have been glued to the spot at Wheldrake for the last 2 weeks were nowhere to be seen whilst we were there! Interestingly the other 2 York teams failed to connect with Grey Wagtail too, so fortunately this dip was not as costly as it should have been!

What about the 'nearlys'. Well, while we were making our way to pick John up at Bank Island, (after his blow out on the A1) he enjoyed watching (in addition to a very showy Grey Wagtail) a Marsh Harrier (none of the other York teams recorded this species), however when we got to him there was no sign of the bird. Egyptian Goose. Two members of our team heard one calling briefly, however we couldn't pin-point it and so was not heard by anyone else in our team, interestingly [at least] one of the York Heslington team, who were also at this location at the same time as us (independent) heard this species calling too!

Unfortunately we ran out of time to connect with Twite and there was also a couple of Waxwing reported at Bubwith (news made it out after dark so these were not available). The potential Rough-legged Buzzard has been observed well this week, it is only a Common Buzzard - I'll try and get some pictures up here next week to show you how good it did look!

In addition to our 90 species recorded, the above (Little Owl, Grey Wagtail, Redshank, Twite, Waxwing) - in addition to the species York Heslington/York Originals recorded that we didn't (Red Kite, Merlin, Oystercatcher, Green Woodpecker, Jack Snipe and Common Crossbill) would mean that at least 101 species were available within the York area on Sunday... How many else were lurking out there, surely (based on local knowledge) Brambling, Blackcap, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Long-eared Owl, Green Sandpiper, White-fronted Goose, Iceland Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Glaucous Gull, Mediterranean Gull were all about but just not evident... that takes it to a possible 111!!! In the York area!!!

So all in all, 100 species has to be feasible. Next year...

Since my original report Tim has written up York Heslington's day,and Jono has written up another take on our day - with some pictures (sorry Jono, didn't know you were hungry!!!), interestingly entitled Part One... Whats to come next.....?


Little Owl c/o Chris Gomersall