8th Feb 2018

Out and about for work today, so took the opportunity to call in at Groby Lane Sandbach for the regular long-eared owl roost. Only one bird was on show, but it was splendidly out in the open and awake, actively looking around with those spectacular glaring orange eyes.

 

 

Not Bad For A Tuesday - 6th Feb 2018

Taking the dog to work has the advantage of ensuring I get out, whatever the weather. And so today it proved to be worthwhile.

 

A pre-work visit to Neumann’s was uneventful, with just the usual waterfowl to show. Come lunchtime I was yet again at the Old Hall - the only person around as it snowed - but was rewarded with all 10 hawfinches up in the poplars. Amazing. Ten were seen a few weeks ago, so it seems this is the peak count and surely the largest flock in Cheshire for decades.

 

Better was to come later. Greg had seen a bittern yesterday evening, so I thought I’d give it a go. Malc soon joined me in the cold and we waited. Four whooper swans on the mere were a bonus (they’d been seen over NF earlier), and 6 goosander and 2 goldeneye were on the water. Water rails squealed and a female sparrowhawk sat by the reeds, anticipating a starling sized meal. Sure enough a few thousand starlings appeared and surged, but quickly headed off (to NF perhaps), and the light contained to deteriorate. Just as we were about to give up, a bittern climbed into view and showed superbly for a few minutes before becoming more obscured. It was actively fluffing up it’s neck feathers, which seemed unusual until we realised there was a second bittern a few metres away. Fantastic!

There’s life in the old patch yet!

Patch Sunday 4th Feb 2018

Lovely sunny morning so tool the mutt for a long stroll around the park.

 

Once again the highlight was the hawfinches, with at least 5 present around the Old Hall area. Views were simply stunning in the warm sunlight and - best of all - one of the males spent long periods singing. Unsurprisingly I’ve never heard hawfinch song before, and it’s hardly ear-catching: kind of a less fluty shorter version of goldfinch. Nice to show Dave the ranger and a few passers-by a singing bird too.

 

The sun continued to shine and the woods were vibrant with bird song. Woodpeckers drummed, song thrushes and great tits piped cheerily. Lovely.

 

On the mere, an impressive 9 goosander were present; an unimaginable count just a few years ago. The spit held around 40 lapwings, still flocking for the winter, but there were signs of spring in an oystercatcher and the noise emanating from the heronry.

 

A stroll over to DHM was largely uneventful until 60 or so pink-footed geese headed over westward, no doubt headed from Norfolk to Lancashire. A pair of ravens were the only other birds of note. Neumann’s was partly frozen so held unspectacular numbers of wildfowl, but half a dozen shelduck were busy chasing each other around and green woodpeckers yaffled in the sunshine.

 

All in all a very pleasant morning, followed by a family afternoon at Chester Zoo where a calling rhinoceros hornbill turned my head towards the jungles of Asia (again). It’s been too long.

Jan 2018

A quick patch jaunt on 2nd with the highlight of 2 hawfinches, imm drake scaup, 3 goosander, 4 pochard and 2 goldeneye whilst out with the dog.

 

A day of local spotting with Jonno, Andy C and Mark Payne on 6th was an enjoyable; 5 hawfinch, 2 jack snipe, woodcock, stonechat and 2 barnacle geese kept interest going on patch before we opted for Sandbach where a 1st w glaucous gull and great white egret stood out, although the sheer numbers of wigeon, lapwing and gulls were more impressive and put Marbury to shame.

 

Jonno and I were out again on Saturday 27th, but foul weather meant we failed with the Howden Reservoir parrot crossbills and pretty much anything else. In the afternoon we headed back for Sandbach gulls but few arrived, so a single pink-footed goose and the great white egret were all we had to show (aside from much laughter and quality pies). Always a pleasure.

 

On 30th I finally made the effort tohead down to Surrey’s Staines Reservoir for the American horned lark, which turned out to be a very enjoyable and remarkably distinctive bird.

 

 

Then I decided to have head down the road to Wishmoor Bottom in nearby Berkshire, where i wandered aimlessly for a couple of hours seeing very little before a more local birder pointed me in the right direction and rather luckily I arrived just as the 16 parrot crossbills appeared, giving splendid views in th sunshine. I watched them snip pine cones off and hold them in thei feet whilst removing the seeds - so that’s why they’re called parrots!! Sadly I’d neglected to take my camera, so only hand held phonescope shots.

 

 

Not a bad day out in the end and an insurance policy duly banked.

Late ‘17

The remainder of the year was quiet bird-wise, aside from the obvious highlight of hawfinches on the patch around the old hall. Two were found in October, with numbers increasing to 4 mid November and up to 7 or so by year end (with 10 present in January ‘18). A joy to have them around.

 

Scilly - again!!

We enjoyed our spring trip to Scilly so much that it had to repeated, for a late half tem break in the same lovely house (Grenofen at Thomas Porth, St Mary’s). And equally enjoyable it was too. This time Jane Gregory joined us for a few days and of course was great company. It was very much the end of season, with almost nothing open and virtually no visitors. Bliss. The weather was typically Scilly-kind, and generally warm and pleasant. We spent a fabulous day on Tresco in the sunshine, and the image of the kids jumping off the quay into a cold clear sea will live with us for a long time - nuts!

 

Birding was enjoyable too, with the most noticeable thing being the sheer number of birds around. Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests and finches were everywhere, with some lovely bramblings, siskins, a female bullfinch and a couple of flyover hawfinches noteworthy. This was to be the start of an unprecedented year for hawfinches, with a simply enormous invasion to follow. One bird on St Mary's was uncharacteristically tame and showed beautifully on the ground on my last day.

 

 

There were good numbers of yellow-browed warblers with multiple birds every day, but star bird of the week went to a simply superb Radde’s warbler which I was able to enjoy alone and at point blank range.

Firecrest, always stunning



Joe Pender’s more impressive shot of the obliging Radde’s

Autumn elms

Deserted Treaco

I managed to find a little bunting at Porthellick, where the putative Wilson’s snipe hid amongst common snipe. Greenshanks were noticeable and little egrets typically common. The boat trip back from Tresco revealed an adult and juvenile spoonbill on the usual rock near Sampson - I'm sure I've seen them on this rock since the 80’s!

‘Siberian’ oystercatcher. Maybe.

A red-breasted flycatcher was just along the road from the house all week, whilst the garden and adjacent beach held multiple black redstarts too. On nearby Porthloo the sanderlings were a joy to watch (aren’t they always?), and a putative Siberian oystercatcher was present amongst its Eurasian cousins. A Mediterranean gull hung around too, and a couple of late Sandwich terns lingered.

 

All in all a fabulous week, and I’m delighted that Scilly has become a Fearn family place too.

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!