After a night in Hayle and a nice fry up we headed for home but not before stopping in Devon for Cirl Buntings. In the field below the car park I found a juvenile and a female in a nearby tree. The others had a few more including a male but I’d wandered the other way trying to find more but only had a fly by Sparrowhawk and a Willow Warbler.
With a record breaking El-Nino currently underway the potential for good sea birds being pushed north due to warming sea temperatures myself, Brendon Fagan, Brendan Glynn and Jim Reader decided to head SW to join the Mermaid Pelagic out of Penzance.
We set off at 5am and arrived in good time at Hayle Estuary RSPB. From The hide at Ryan’s Field I picked out my first Whimbrel of the year and on the main estuary I found 8 Greenshank and a Barnacle Goose.
After a breakfast pasty from Philp’s we headed towards Penzance where at 2 pm we set sail for a 6 hour pelagic a few miles off shore. Sadly the wind direction had turned northerly and so limited the numbers of birds. We still managed 2 Wilson’s Petrel giving me my best ever view of this species, 6 Storm Petrel, 2 Cory’s Shearwater and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull.
Or so we thought as mid morning of Sunday 19th July Glos birder Mike King who had spent a fruitless 4 hours trying re-find it was walking back to his car when the bird flew past his shoulder and perched up nicely for him!
I was in the middle of packing for moving house when the mega alert went off but packing would have to wait. There was no time to wait and so I grabbed my gear and was out the door. I arranged to get Matt Moreton and for once the bird was only 1 hour 40 minutes away so a bit less driving than going for the Scottish one. The journey down was good apart from me missing a turn and having to do a few extra miles but we eventually reached Eastleach Martin but we couldn’t get to the now designated parking area as the lane was blocked by cars due to the bird being in roadside bushes so we parked up carefully nearby and walked down to the bird.
I lagged behind Matt as usual but he let me have a look at the bird through his scope to get my eye in. Once in my scope I could enjoy it and add LONG-TAILED SHRIKE to my list. Species number 499 on my UK list I wonder what 500 will be (again)?!
Whilst there I saw Cliff Smith who’d managed to get up to the Fife bird on its second day, spending 23 hours driving there and back only for this bird to appear ‘down the road’!
After a quick cup of tea we went back to Holyhead Harbour. I picked out at least 6 Sandwich Tern on the far side and then when scanning the harbour I had a nice summer plumaged Black Guillemot fly through my scope view.
Our final stop was to Llyn Brenig. This was a new site for me and I was very impressed by it and the number of birds. Along the entrance track Brendon spotted 2 male Bullfinch feeding on the grass the other side of the fence. We headed down to the Osprey viewpoint and along the way I found a Tree Pipit, numerous Siskin, Redpoll and numerous singing Willow Warbler.
We arrived back at my house just after 10pm after a great days birding.
I was helping do a job at KGV playing fields in Watford when just before 10am as I was walking to the van I heard the distant song of a Cuckoo coming from the direction of Hampermill Lake. This is my first in the Watford area for 10-15 years. It was from this site many many years ago I had one singing on and off for 2 days in August!
In Oxhey Park whilst getting it ready for green flag judging I picked up a Firecrest in Oxhey Dell followed by another by the Deacons Hill side a couple of days later.
I then had one as it headed through the yard at Cassiobury which was possibly a different bird to the one my friend and colleague Nick Harris found at the Rickmansworth Road end of the park while he was out running. I did hear that bird the following day to my sighting.
Then yesterday I was out looking at houses in Chipperfield and had one in the garden of one of the houses and another in the churchyard by the common.
The day of judging meant going around the park making it look as good as possible. While I was litter picking the nature reserve I finally came across my first Reed Warbler for the park. In fact I ended up hearing 3 different birds! It was a year to the day since I’d found the Wood Warbler behind the yard so I wonder what warbler I’ll find next year? Rüppell’s anyone!
Also seen were a female Kestrel, Kingfisher and 2 Whitethroat.
The kids had been off school for the 2 week Easter holidays but with an inset day for them but not for my teacher wife meant they stayed the night at their nans in Watford so after work I picked them up and shot up to Wilstone and joined Ian Williams near the outflows where I got onto the Lesser Scaup and his tufty mate as he’d finally done the right thing and headed into Herts. It became the 4th county record and my 1st.
