Wilstone Yet Again! - 30.9.26

I was back at Wilstone this time for another duck. This time it was for an eclipse drake Garganey, my first of the year which showed well from the jetty. 

Garganey 

  

Wilstone - 5.9.26

Spotted Flycatcher

News of a rare duck saw me paying another visit to Tring. From the jetty I had 4 House Martin heading south but after a few minutes of searching and a little help from Ian Williams I finally saw the male Ferruginous Duck at the far end of the spit. This was my 3rd on Wilstone and my first anywhere for 10 years!

Behind the reservoir by the private wooden gate I saw 2 Spotted Flycatcher.

Wilstone - 31.8.26

A return visit to Wilstone for a post birthday walk produced all the previous wader species from my last visit plus 3 juvenile Ruff that’d joined them. 2 Egyptian Geese, 8 Common Sandpiper, singles of Pintail and Wigeon were also noted along with a family party of 4 Hobby.

Wilstone - 26.8.26

With the ongoing drought conditions Wilstone Reservoir’s water level was dropping nicely and as such it attracted some decent waders. With this news I headed up for a wander round.

I concentrated my efforts at the jetty/cemetery corner. From here I saw the juvenile Spotted Redshank alongside a Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshank and 4 Green Sandpiper. 7 Swallow flew south and at least a dozen Yellow Wagtail were noted.

Labrador Bay - 16.8.26

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.

Penzance Pelagic - 15.8.26

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.

Another Mega! - 19.7.26

Long-tailed Shrike

Back in November 2000 the UK’s first ever Long-tailed Shrike was found on South Uist. It was only twitchable for 2 days but had apparently been there for a few days before. Fast forward to 5th July this year and news broke of the second ever record being found near Crail in Fife. The 1st summer male bird was moulting and so it was thought that’d it’d do what the Bempton Turkestan Shrike did and stick about for a few weeks until it’d completed its moult but after just 4 days it vanished.

This left a lot of birders frustrated but for me it did save me 16+ hours in a car in a heatwave with rubbish aircon!

Long-tailed Shrike

Fast forward again to 18th July and news broke of a Long-tailed Shrike on the Glos/Oxon border. Sadly the news was also of it as being seen from 8-16th July but had been suppressed due to concerns about traffic chaos in the narrow countryside lanes. Amazingly this 1st summer male bird was a different bird to the Fife one going on plumage differences so it becomes the UK’s third record! But we’d not be able to see the bird as it’d too vanished.

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’!

 

Welsh Mega

Having missed out on a potential tick of the Cornish Lesser Kestrel due to both my kids coming down with illness the evening before I was due to go I was wondering whether I’d actually get a new bird this year. 

Thankfully that wait wasn’t too long when a dark morph Western Reef Heron the first record of this species in the UK was discovered in Gwynedd. It then transpired it’d been first seen in Pembrokeshire some weeks earlier. 

I joined Brendon Fagan and Ricky Flesher for the long drive to Foryd Bay made even longer due to a crash on the M1 which shut the motorway for almost an hour. On arrival we parked up and scanned from the car where I picked out a female Goosander. Sadly the weather wasn’t great and we got soaked watching the bird feeding just offshore but WESTERN REEF HERON was on our lists.

Western Reef Heron

We didn’t hang around too long due to the weather so we headed north into Anglesey. We had a quick look over Holyhead Harbour for Black Guillemot but failed to see any. Next stop was South Stack RSPB. This was my first visit here since 2003 when I watched another dark coloured mega in the shape of a male Black Lark. 

South Stack Lighthouse

We parked up and got some info from the staff of where best to go and they showed us on a map and off we went. 3 Raven flew over followed by 2 Chough. From the steps we could see numerous Razorbill, Guillemot and 2 Puffin as well as Fulmar and Kittiwake. Out at sea were lots of Manx Shearwater.

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.

Willow Tit (bottom left)

We eventually reached the viewpoint and after a quick scan we saw an Osprey on the nest. Our gaze was then drawn to the feeders in front of us. Between the feeders and the trees behind us we managed a family group consisting of a whopping 8 Willow Tit. I’d only seen 2 in the previous 42 years!

We arrived back at my house just after 10pm after a great days birding.
 

Cuckoo - 22.5.26

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! 

Firecrests - 30.4-16.5.26

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.