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.
I again joined Brendon this time back to Norfolk. Our first stop was Baldock model aircraft to look for Wheatears that’d been present for the week but they’d gone but great views of Corn Bunting were nice to see.
A quick stop at Cavenham Heath produced 2 Stone Curlew then it was on to Santon Downham where we walked along the river path. Good numbers of Redpoll (at least 30) including some nice pink males, 2 pairs of Mandarin and year ticks of Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer were noted. After a while we joined a small group of birders and quite quickly got onto a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, a few Crossbill and a nice Marsh Tit.
Also on the water was an adult Little Gull which I failed to see last year.
The next few days things were added to the list whilst at work including 3 Redpoll, 2 Egyptian Goose and Peregrine.
After a message from George Moreton letting me know he’d had as many as 6 Jack Snipe at his local patch I decided to join him the following night to see if we could find any. I arrived first and added Stonechat and Tawny Owl to the year list before we wandered out into the flooded field but sadly despite it being dark and below freezing a woman was walking her dog right through the area as we arrived! With the use of my thermal monocular we still managed to pick out 2 birds along with a couple of their common cousins.
Way back in July 1982 my mum bought a house that she still lives in to this day. The garden is only about 30ft long and about 15ft wide so doesn't exactly look like a magnet for wildlife but at one point we were visited by a very lost Badger that took delight in smashing its way through the neighbourhood fences to get in the various gardens!
If our garden wasn’t very big the old man next doors garden was strangely enormous compared to all the others in the road. The old man was a compulsive hoarder with numerous cookers, bikes and washing machines in the garden. No gardening had been done in many years and so it was full of brambles and self set trees creating an oasis in the middle of houses. With this it brought in a fair few birds most of which we didn’t know what they were. So some cheap binoculars and a bird book were purchased and over the following years numerous species were identified including Redpoll and Siskin and so my love of birds began.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s and with local trips and the occasional coach trip I’d reached about 240 species. Along with the late Bob Harris I started twitching further afield for new species gradually hitting 300 with a Bluethroat on St.Agnes, 350 a Pine Bunting in Worcs, 400 a Brown Shrike at Staines, 450 a Red-eyed Vireo on St.Mary’s and then 475 a Black-browed Albatross in July 2021. By now it was getting harder to add new birds but I set myself a target of hitting 500 species before my 50th birthday which was this August.
2 more were added in 2021, 6 in 2022 and 2023 certainly helped with an amazing 11 ticks. 3 further species were added in 2024 but then we all lost 2 species of Redpoll so the Booted Eagle in February should’ve been my 500th species but wasn’t. August came and went being stuck on 499 so I now hoped I’d reach my target before the end of the year.
Finally I’d just like to thank all those who have driven me or joined me on my adventures and raise a glass to those who are sadly no longer with us.
