Near Misses and Delayed Arrivals

On Monday 9th October, Jonno, Laurence and I were off to Fair Isle for 10 days in the Springfield Croft. Except it didn't work out that way. Just days beforehand Laurence made the decision to stay on Scilly as it was finally having a great autumn (grosbeak, cedar waxing, REV x 2 and a cliff swallow), and Jonno suffered terrible family news. It was looking lile a solo trip, and one in crap birding weather too. My enthusiasm evaporated, but then Andy C offered to come along from the Thursday 12th. I was happy and grateful to him, so set off to the pub for a family tea on the Sunday night.

 

The birding gods quickly scuppered plans with the genuinely incredible news of an adult male Siberian blue robin on North Ronaldsay!!! This was potentially one of the best birds of all time, and I wasn’t prepared to let the opportunity go. I certainly wasn't prepared to get on my Fair Isle bound flight and skim over the top of North Ron with birders watching the SBR a few hundred feet below - that would be too much to take. I quickly joined a charter with the usual hassles mostly absorbed by Simon who'd sorted the plane. My Fair Isle flight was consigned to the (expensive) bin and next morning I was with Simon and Al Orton at Full Sutton airfield by 8.30am. Typically, the bird had other ideas and we were left empty handed. This bird had seemed too good to be true and sadly that proved to be the case. Just too good to be true. Sigh...

 

I made plans to travel to Fair Isle later in the week with Andy and returned to work for a couple of days.

 

Thursday morning came and I was smoothly on Shetland by 10.30. Andy duly arrived at 11.15 and we took an exorbitant taxi to Tingwall airstrip. The weather was 50/50 for making it across, but suffice to say we were on the Island at 4.15. Bill and the impressive 81 year old Margo made us welcome and we were quickly settled with just enough light to stroll to Quoy where the immature black-headed bunting immediately gave itself up. Nice start, although pretty uninspiring.

 

The next few days were windy, wet and generally quiet. Highlights were long stayers - a smart red-throated pipit and a Richard's pipit along with commoner migrants; jack snipe, redstart, Lapland bunting, lesser whitethroat and flocks of brambling. On Wednesday the wind lashed all morning so we headed out late. Whooper swans were on the move with an impressive 45 on Da Water and others passing over. Greylags and redwings were moving too, with all three species presumably coming from Iceland. A barred warbler was a surprise whilst again watching the black-headed bunting but the wind soon increased to 'un-birdable' levels and we retired early.

 

 

 

The latter part of the week did improve somewhat, if not spectacularly so. Migrant numbers increased a little - more thrushes now dominated by Scandinavian redwings but including my first fieldfares of the autumn, a late grasshopper warbler provided brief fun and games, mealey & lesser redpolls appeared, a little bunting, a brief bluethroat, a yellow-browed warbler, flocks of bramblings, golden plovers and a movement of woodpigeons all showing migration in action.
The AWs found an ‘Eastern-type’ Stonechat at Pund. It was clearly dark overall and a Stejnegers candidate, but it was very mobile an didn’t allow close views before quickly disappearing.

 

The clear highlight, though, was a rather fortunate find with Andy and Brian Minshull. We were birding hard at the school - sat inside the lobby using the Wifi facilities - when a bird landed on a railing just outside the entrance door and so a matter of feet from me. I heard Andy say “what’s that?” as it caught my eye and I blurted out “bluetail!!!”. And so it was, a lovely red-flanked blutail which proceeded to do circuits of the school area before finally settling in the garden and showing to everyone. Great to find one of these gems with Andy and particularly as I’d first (unsuccessfully) twitched one here when they were truly rare a mere 24 years ago. This was only my fourth UK bluetail, and I know they are no longer officially rare but it's still a classic 'dreamt about it when I was a kid' Sibe as far as I'm concerned and I was suitably well-chuffed with our find!.

Bluetail magic, photo by Becca Nason

 

Shortly afterwards, Andy found a rare bird for Fair Isle - a blue tit - at the shop and several more quickly appeared around the island. Later that day, we spent a little time looking offshore and added black guillemot, great northern diver, purple sandpiper & long-tailed duck to the list.

 

The weather looked decidely dodgy for departure, but a call on the Thursday morning from the airport had me scrambling to pack and I was suddenly off after a hasty farewell to the lovely Margo and Bill who have now sold Springfield Croft and are leaving Fair Isle after 40 years. Amazing people - I hope I'm still wrestling with IT in my early 80's as Margo is!!

I had a couple of hours to kill so spent them around the Sumburgh quarries, which were dripping with birds including a smart ring ouzel.

That, however, was the end of Shetland 2017 and me back to reality (for a week at least). Perhaps not a classic year, but still very enjoyable and I’ll most certainly be back!

Barra Bound

A normal commute home from work on Thursday 7th September quickly turned to chaos when Simon Slade called; American Redstart on Barra. Holy crap. No question as to whether we were going for the first potentially twitchable 'Yankstart' since 1983. Many phonecalls later we had a plan, with planes and direct ferries quickly ruled-out for various reasons we had to go the long way around. So at 10pm Simon, Al Orton, Malc C and I set off north, finally arriving at Uig 8.5 hours later just as light arrived. We were soon joined by 10 or so other carloads for the 9.30 ferry to Lochmaddy on North Uist. The crossing was enlivened by a fine Scottish breakfast, multiple storm petrels, 2 Leach's petrels, a grey phalarope and the usual auks, kittiwakes and Manx shearwaters.

 

Arriving on Uist we had just enough time to get to the far south for the Barra ferry. Whacky races commenced, but my not so trusty Evoque caused a near accident when safety mode kicked in as I'd hit the accelorator too hard. More pressure. Thankfully we arrived with a few minutes to spare and joined 30 other birders as foot passengers. Steve Nutall had arranged a bus and we were soon at Eoligarry church sycamores. The bird showed briefly taking the initial pressure off, but it was a couple of hours before we were treated to the hoped-for crippling views in evening sunshine.

AMERICAN REDSTART OML!! Always great to see a new American warbler in the UK. Magical.



It's a long old way to Barra. Good company and laughs though.

 

 

 

Job done. A cracking bird. We took the return ferry to South Uist at 5.30 and had an exhausted celebration meal and a few beers in the Lochmaddy Hotel. Next morning we were back on the ferry to Uig, which provided a black-throated diver, more storm petrels, bonxies and a single Arctic skua, along with a superb White-tailed eagle as we came into dock.

 

The drive home was slow but brightened by marvelous scenery and the warm glow of success. However news of a birders' plane crashing as it took off was very sobering. Thankfully Adam Archer and fellow passengers were ok, but incredibly lucky to be. This stuff is really not to be messed with.

Kenya and Tanzania, days 1 - 3

I'm slowly adding our big Africa adventure .....

Saturday 22nd July 2017: the big Fearn family African adventure is finally here.

We set off comfortably on Emirates at 14.00, changing in Dubai for a rather circuitous route to Nairobi, arriving 05.40 local time. My bag declined to join us initially, but as bins and camera were in the hand luggage I decided not to let it bother me. We transferred to Wilson Airport without any fuss, and en route saw our first superb starlings, black kites, Egyptian geese, pied crows, house swifts, red-winged starlings and helmeted guineafowl. A couple of tired hours later we were in the air and on the way to the Masai Mara. I was surprised that there is a national park immediately outside Nairobi, so as the small plane climbed we saw our first blue wildebeest and Masai giraffes before touching down on the airstrip, to be met by our guide to be Mika and trainee Vivienne. My first look around revealed a few plains zebras and a circling bataleur. We climbed into the soon to be familiar open sided safari jeep and were quickly off on the short game drive to our home for the next three nights - KichecheValley Camp in the Naboisho Conservancy area of the famous Masai Mara.

You could say the kids were quite excited on arrival

Plains zebra

A tent, but not as we know it

Communal camp, skilfully modelled by Amy

En route we saw more wildebeest and zebras, common warthogs ("piggies" became Callum's cry every time we saw more), Thomson's gazelles, Grant's gazelles, beautiful Topi, Impala and part of a white-tailed mongoose down a hole. Unsurprisingly, the luxury camp was fantastic, set in a small valley with an open, central 'mess' and just six palatial residential tents. We had time for a quick shower and refresh before a sumptuous lunch, and then relaxed for an hour or so before the first game drive proper. We were all exhausted, but no-one wanted to sleep. I did some easy birding around camp whilst waiting and notched up Hildebrant's starling, rufous sparrow, common bulbul, bare-faced go away, a smart perched Gabar goshawk, plain martin, Ruppell's vulture, black-hooded oriole, southern white crowned shrike and yellow spotted petronia. Mammals around camp included rock hyrax (under the tent) and our first Kirk’s dik-diks. The grunts of wildebeest were incessant and this quickly became the backdrop of the Mara.

Four o'clock came and we were finally off on the first, long-anticipated, game drive. Mika rightly judged that we should take a gentle start and took animal requests from the kids. Amy had already seen her zebras, and hyena was Callum's first choice. Animals were everywhere, grunting wildebeest, more zebras and gazelles, warthogs and Topis, but predictably fatigue was too much for Callum and the bouncing vehicle quickly rocked him to sleep. Amy wasn’t far behind either.

Just too exciting....

As well as greater numbers of the mammal species we saw earlier, we saw our first yellow baboons, banded mongoose and vervet monkeys. We stopped at a narrow river where sinister looking Nile crocodiles lurked and watched a boisterous pod of hippopotamus jostling, snorting and yawning at close quarters - just great! As the sun began to drop, Mika took us a little further for sun-downers (G&T and nibbles) overlooking a spotted hyena den just yards away. Beautifully ugly animals. Three adults were on cub-minding duty, with the youngest just a few weeks old. One of the adults repeatedly returned an adventurous youngster to the den by the scruff of the neck, whilst the older cubs came close to check us out. We set off in the near dark with an adult hyena ensuring we left the area. The drive in the dark back was enlivened by a couple of hippos on the track and our first (cape or savanna) hares.

Birds seen on the drive included red-throated tit, drogo, white-headed buffalo weaver, crowned plover, rufous-naped lark, grey-capped social weaver, marabou, white-headed saw-wing, African paradise flycatcher, unidentified cisticolas, speckle-fronted weaver, African black crake, long-tailed starling, grey-headed kingfisher, red-faced crombec, three-banded plover, purple grenadier, white-backed vulture and magpie shrike.

It had been a great start, immediately followed by a fabulous meal and a beer before collapsing into bed with a sense of eager anticipation. Overnight hyenas called frequently, lions roared and a leopard rasped. It was great to finally be here.

Day 2 - Sunday 24th July. Full day in the Naboisho conservancy.

Very early starts are the norm on safari - mornings are far too precious to waste. The routine was a cup of coffee at 5.30am (hot chocolate for the kids), then out on the drive, with breakfast in the bush mid-morning when convenient. The mornings were cold, so the hot water bottles and blankets supplied were very welcome. 

Today was to be a truly memorable day.

 

First up, Mika took us to a pride of lions; 3 females and their 7 cubs complete with recent wildebeest kill. The adults mostly looked on as the cubs fed and played, climbing on the carcasss. They may be a predictable safari cliché, but these are mightily impressive beasts up close. A couple of other vehicles arrived so we moved on, passing lappet-faced vultures sat on the ground.

 

Next up our first proper Masai giraffe (immediately re-named as "Gerald's" for the remainder of the trip), with Mika explaining how males heads differed from females. It's really not possible to describe the beauty and elegance of these beasts, just lovely. Shortly afterwards, our first ostrich (a male) strode past - hard not to think Bernie Clifton.

Mika then received news that sent us speeding across the bush, holding on for dear life - "twitch on!" The kids loved it and within a few minutes we were in place and waiting, peering into the scrub. The female leopard and her cub quickly appeared, hurrying across the bush towards denser cover and clearly nervous of being out in the open. Several repositioning’s later and we'd had crippling views of the most elusive big cat. She was stunning, and we had been very fortunate as she soon disappeared. Mika told us this female was known to them, but had not been seen for a week. She did have two cubs, so it seemed from today that one has been lost, with lions apparently the likeliest perpetrators.

Birds too came thick and fast: African grey flycatcher, silverbird, white-browed robin chat, De'nauds barbet, white-browed scrub-robin, brown snake eagle, rufous crowned roller, grassland pipit and a juvenile Temminck's courser.

Next up, a couple of old and grumpy savannah buffalo and Coke's hartebeest before we moved to more open ground for bush breakfast overlooking the endless stream of wildebeest. African hoopoes fed nearby, and African pygmy falcon, yellow-faced sandgrouse, ring-necked dove, lilac-breasted roller, white-backed vulture, grey-backed fiscal shrike, white crowned shrike; all notched up whilst we had a bush breakfast.

After packing up breakfast we soon came across our first elephants, unobtrusively feeding in the bush. Another wow moment, and thankfully for Sonya they weren’t too close. A dark chanting goshawk perched up as we watched, before moving a few hundred yards to a carcass covered in vultures – more Ruppell's, white-backed, huge lappet-faceds and a single hooded vulture. A marabou also patrolled waiting to snatch from the well-fed vultures, some of which lay on their bellies digesting. As we drove alongside a small river, hammerkop, grey heron and striated heron were all added to the list.

 

A group of gingery dwarf mongoose entertained, then red-billed oxpeckers (on zebras), common eland, vultures, ostrich, tawny eagle, little bee-eater and more and more fantastic game.

It was getting towards lunchtime, but a chance encounter with another group kept us out and following their advice we were soon watching out first cheetah. My most wanted animal of the trip and truly magical, just us as this wonderful, beautiful animal. Initially she was inactive, but we stayed for some time and eventually her interest was piqued by two feeding impala around 300 yards away. She went into slow stealth mode before stopping to check surroundings. Mika explained she would be searching not necessarily for an alternative prey, but whether any other animals which would give away her presence were nearby. She noted a Thompson's gazelle in the opposite direction and froze for an eternity. The gazelle cautiously moved around, seemingly conscious of an unknown danger. The cheetah's attention returned to the impala. She began to stalk, but not stealthily enough. The same gazelle gave the alarm, then baboons and impalas all shouted. Game over, no hunt for now, but we returned for lunch extremely happy!

We opted for a short afternoon drive followed by an early dinner then a nightdrive. No new mammals, but a constant stream of gazelles, wildebeest, zebras,buffalo and monkeys kept us well entertained (who knew vervet monkeys have blueballs? Queue much 9 year old amusement). The best birds noted were white-belliedbustard, dusky turtle dove, African green pigeon and coqui francolin.

Cal counting hippos

Nile Crocodile

WHAT ABOUT WEAVERS AND EVER PRESENT SPECIES?

The night drive was freezing and mostly we saw hares and several of thecomical East African spring hares, then a couple of bushbabys, one of which leapt along the floor between trees - incredible tosee. The highlight came just as we were about to head for home, when an aardwolf put in a brief appearance - fabulous stuff!!

Back at the camp we were all very quickly crashed in bed. More to come tomorrow.

Day 3 - 25th July 2017 - The Masai Mara.

If yesterday was an amazing day, today turned out to be epic.

Up even earlier, we were in the vehicle for 5.30 and began the longish and bumpy drive to the main Masai Mara national park, arriving at the XXX entrance.