Portesham Pallas's Warbler

I didn't need any convincing yesterday to go and see the Pallas's Warbler currently over wintering at Portesham in Dorset. Pallas's are my favourite of the 'regular' sibes, I saw several at Spurn and Dunge in the early 00's - some exceptionally well.  But in the ten subsequent years of birding this patch I have seen just one, that was in 2007 and for about twenty seconds!  So it was high time I saw another, even though seeing what in my head is a late autumn specialty, in March, could well play havoc with my inbuilt birding body clock!

It was actually dead easy. James Mc and I parked up in Portesham shortly before 10am, casually strolled up to where we thought we should go, and there it was...

Count the head stripes - that's a seven-striped sprite alright

Showing it's Wood Warbler-like white underparts

The yellow tones to the face also reminded me of Wood Warbler colours. Often looked bull-headed too.

In coming - I just love those stripes!

Check out it's arse! Surprised I managed this with my bridge camera.

What a stunning bird, and mind blowing views.  No stiff necks looking at tree tops, it spent virtually the whole time feeding at eye level, and for the twenty minutes we were there it remained in view for about 17 of those.  It was so easy to follow as all the trees and bushes were completely bare, and it shared the surrounding cover with only a couple of Robins, Dunnocks, one Goldcrest and a Chiffchaff (which looked huge compared to it!). It really seemed to love this bush, the first bush on the right...

It did move into the small copse to the west and across the track south of this bush. But it did seem to like this bush, there were plenty of small flies buzzing around it which may have explained why.

The rump really is amazing.  It is virtually impossible to see when perched, but the moment it flies it's like a light bulb. It's even obvious when you just glimpse it flitting about with your naked eye at a distance.

My advice to anyone thinking of going for this bird, go.

Here's a few short videos that I'm sure will tempt even the most stubborn...

I can confirm to you all that without doubt seeing a Pallas's Warbler is an excellent cure for the winter birding blues - almost as much as a male Northern Wheatear (they can't come soon enough!).

As we were Portland way, I couldn't leave without some diver and grebe action, so we headed to Sandsfoot Castle for a quick scan over a nice calm Portland Harbour...

Looking south to Portland

This proved a very worthwhile stop, as a scan from the Sailing Academy, and through some builders fencing a little way back east along the road, showed a pretty decent selection.  For us fairly loyal patch birders, Red-breasted Mergansers are exciting enough as they are scarce on our patches, it was great watching the males displaying. 

My previous visits here have shown the Black-necked Grebes to be in one or two pretty tight flocks, but today the 12+ present were spread out everywhere; a four, a few pairs and singles. Most were in or coming into summer plumage which was nice, unlike the four Slavonian Grebes - three of these were in winter plumage with the fourth just starting to get dusky down the front. There were stacks of Great Crested Grebes too, all of these were in the far north east corner of the harbour (where one of the Slavs was, another was towards Ferrybridge with two together in the middle of the harbour).

Four Great Northern Divers were all spread out singletons, but the closest diver was a stunning Black-throated Diver. It was quite a hefty one to be honest, looked quite thick-necked and bulky, so am pretty sure it's the one that was showing well from the southern shore of the harbour over the last couple of days.  Sadly my photos aren't quite as good as Pete's...

A blurry phone-scoped Black-throated Diver in awful light!

One fat bird!!

With work looming it was time to head back west. But on the way home we called in at Abbotsbury for a look over the Swannery...

The light wasn't too bad when I took this, but the sun soon came out which made viewing more difficult

We were really impressed with the amount of wildfowl here, heaps and heaps of Pintail in particular. All the Pochard were sat out on the bank probably wondering where their lunch was - no wonder they are so rare here now, they are clearly getting lazy! In contrast the Tufties were busy getting their own grub out on the water, and among these were the the two wintering Long-tailed Ducks and at least one and a half Scaup. I say one and a half because I know there's a hybrid ScaupxTuftie here, and I couldn't rule this out on one of the birds - probably because it was the hybrid.

As ever it's not just the birds that make a twitch, but the company. James M is an ace twitching partner as we are both as laid back and relaxed about it as each other - and neither of us actually like twitching!  Especially the crowds.  We really are bad twitchers, and will only twitch a bird if the chance of seeing it is up around the 100% mark, plus there has to be other birds around to see as well. In general we also have a similar taste in birds and what we think is worth going to see, well that's with the exception of big white things. James seems to think all egrets may as well be Little Egrets (just smaller or bigger versions), and all swans are Mute Swans just with different coloured bills...

A Change Of Scenery

James Mc kidnapped me yesterday morning and took me to Dart's Farm.  After he pushed me out the car and dragged me down a muddy track to a half hide half shelter thing, we stood about for what seemed like hours watching bulrushes in the rain.  Not fun.  Even less fun was the fact that when James took me from Seaton the sun was out and it was actually quite mild, so I was wearing clothes from my summer collection. What was he doing with me!?

Thankfully we had some great company, with Bill and Dave stood beside us telling us the tales of Torbay - it was great to see them both and to hear how other patch birders are getting on this winter.  A Black Brant proved a nice distraction as well amongst 900 or so Brent Geese, and if you've not seen this Brant you must, it's a really fine example of one.  Eventually the rain stopped and the sun peaked out from behind the clouds, and when three little birds dropped out of the sky the penny dropped as to why James had brought me here - Penduline Tits!  They spent no more than five minutes feeding on the bulrushes in front of us, showing superbly well, before flicking up to the top of a willow tree and flying off high west.  It really did feel like they dropped in just for us, and I'm not sure if they've been seen since?  What stunning birds and in such beautiful plumage. Obviously I would absolutely love to see one or more on the Axe, but am really glad I saw these - I hope I get kidnapped again soon!

This morning I didn't have to be kidnapped, I voluntarily drove westwards to join fellow C-ringer Peter on the Otter Estuary.  We had a bit of walk about then bumped into Doug and Chris to discuss ringing potential in this small river valley.  Two hours later, once net rides had been decided, I was kindly shown the nearby Cirl Buntings that Chris had found last year. It was great to see ten birds today, one male and nine female/immatures.  Sadly the male didn't play ball, although the light was so dull that I probably wouldn't have got a decent photo even if he had landed on my nose...

To be honest though it did make me a bit ill watching Cirl Buntings with my patch viewable in the distance. I think I'm going to spend the next couple of days re-checking all the stubble fields I've been to this winter - and all our bulrushes as well of course...

A Mixed Morning

Once the early morning shower had passed (although there were a few more afterwards!) I took my nets up to a site near Beer where I monitor the breeding Swallows.  Last week I had come up here to eye up the potential for catching adult Swallows, but instead came away in awe of what must be one of the busiest bird feeding stations I've ever seen - with an impressive variety of species too!

I only had one 60 foot net up (this is all it needs) and it kept me very busy! My personal highlights were three Siskin; an adult male that was already ringed (D776068), a second year male and a juvenile.  We all know how stunning male Siskins are...

But even the juveniles are super little birds...

I had been here for about an hour and a half (although had to close the net for twenty minutes whilst another rain shower came through) when I started hearing rumblings about one of my most wanted gulls well within twitching distance...

Soon enough it was confirmed - there was a Ross's Gull on Bowling Green Marsh!  There's very few species I'd drop everything for if they were turn up off patch, but this is one of them.  I love gulls, I dipped Ross's Gull in my younger years, and it's simply a species I've always wanted to see - the opportunity was too great to let go.  I sent a few texts out and within ten minutes had a car full getting ready for a trip west.

We left Seaton at 10:30 with news the gull was still these despite the tide having fallen, but on arrival we were informed twenty minutes ago it had flown off towards the Estuary. Bugger.  We headed for the platform by the River Clyst, but one last glance over the marsh revealed it sleeping beside a Black-headed Gull.  We spread the news that it was back and enjoyed some great views over the next half hour or so...

Not the everyday view of Bowling Green Marsh....

Although it was great to watch it resting and feeding, it looked even better in flight!  The tail really is striking - a black-tipped diamond.  Size for me was a really noticeable feature too, as although it was smaller than the nearby Black-headed Gull it never looked minute as Little Gulls do. There's a great photo on Devon Birds which shows the size difference well, click HERE.

Oddly when I was watching the Ross's feeding in a muddy scrape it reminded me most in shape, structure and behaviour of a Common Gull! 

You can see from these photos though why it caused some headaches and debate yesterday...

An obvious Ross's Gull

Hmmmmm..... a far from obvious Ross's Gull!

Lastly I'd like to thank Bun, Ian and Karen for the twitching company, and Matt and Mark for all the useful info and updates throughout the morning.

Not Another Twitch!

Look where James M and I went yesterday...

The first time I've ever been here!

Before we had arrived at out first destination, Mandarin was on the trip list. A fine male was sat on a log in an area of wet woodland right besides the above pictured road shortly after passing this sign.

Just after 8am we arrived at our first port of call, Parkend. And to be precise, here...

At the end of Church Drive

And the grave yard on the opposite side of the road

The grave yard side is where you want to look, and within seconds we had four Hawfinch perched up with Goldfinches. And they were doing what all Hawfinches ever seem to do, sit around on top of the barest trees...

James watching the Hawfinches

A fine finch selection

Whilst watching these we could hear others calling, and couldn't believe how many we eventually saw. In about 15 minutes we saw at least 19, with birds flying in from the right, others appearing from behind and some popping up in the trees above the road we had driven in on. 19 was probably an under estimate as I'm sure we didn't see all of the birds we could hear.  What an incredible experience!

 

They really are fab birds

What a great place for finches this was, with single Brambling and Lesser Redpoll, two fly over Crossbills and several Siskins. From the larger trees below the cemetery, a selection of drumming Woodpeckers included what must have been a Lesser Spot. One driller was consistently and notable higher pitched, with longer drills than the surrounding Great Spots. It moved at least once too so it wasn't just the tree it was drilling on.  We later found out from a local birders that Lesser Spots do indeed occur here.

Next stop, our main stop. Up to Brierley and pull in and park opposite this garage...

We parked a short way in, but I know some have been driving further into the forest before parking

Something we did wrong was take the left track here, don't...

Take the right one!

The right hand track takes you up to the top of Serridge Ridge, walk east...

Larches on the right

Then, at the T-junction take a right, and you will soon get to this much reported sign...

Drybrook Road Station

This is where we joined the twitch. Well I say twitch, I mean the only other birder present...

James 'grilling' for info

This birder had seen some Two-barred Crossbills earlier, and informed us they were somewhere in the Serridge Ridge plantation.  After a while of having no luck by just standing, waiting and hoping, we started to wander around and give ourselves neck ache...

My least favoured birding habitat!

After about half an hour James called me over as he could hear Two-barreds calling, and we soon picked out at least five adult males feeding, calling, and even singing, in the larches above us.  From the moment we clapped eyes on them we knew we had done the right thing by coming to see them, stunning stunning STUNNING birds. The red is not like a male Common Crossbill, it's proper scarlet red, with those broad brilliant-white wing-bars.  The call really is important in tracking these down, it is Crossbill-like, but with an almost Bullfinch whistle tone to it, not the sharp 'glip' of Commons. The song is pretty nondescript, but never-the-less important to learn as two of them were singing as much as they were calling!

No cracking pics of them from me I'm afraid. Although they did show very well, there was always a branch or two in the way that messed up the focus...

Spot the Two-barred! They are bloody hard to find, and easy to lose even though we knew exactly where they were!

We found it a bit odd that we didn't see any females, and that the males appeared to be so tied to the area we saw them..... when do Two-barred Crossbills breed?

Other than a couple of fly-over Common Crossbills, we didn't see much else here to be honest.

It was getting on for 10:30, so time to get to our next stop, New Fancy...

Complete with Gos-watchers

To be honest, there was less Goshawk action than we were expecting (it was quite cloudy and never got that warm mind). Saying that, we did see probably three different displaying males and another (that must have been a female due to its size) sat out in the open for ten minutes...

What do you mean you can't see it?

We also had a Peregrine here along with another couple of Crossbills.  The drive home showed another couple of Peregrines and  a surprise Red Kite just on the English side of the Old Severn Bridge.

Sadly we didn't bump into any Wild Boar, although talking to the locals I'm not sure this would have been safe to do!  It is instantly clear as you enter the Forest of Dean the damage they do, as all the verges of pretty much all the roads, and most open ground, looks like this...

And people complain about Badgers!!

So another very successful twitch - I think I need a horrendous dip to get me back on the straight and narrow! Many thanks to James for the company, and Dave Dawe (@Exmoorbirder) for the gen, really helped a lot Dave.

Red-flanked Bluetail

Now this is a bird I would like to see on Beer Head!

I'm not that deluded though, it will probably never happen. So with a twitchable bird over-wintering in the Shire Valley, South Gloucester, I just had to pay it a visit (especially now the crowds have hopefully died down!). And my twitching companion for the day? I'm pleased to say, my Dad.  For years and years when I was a teen, every weekend he'd take me out birding, so it's about time I began repaying him...

We left Seaton at 6am, and at 7:45 parked up at the suggested spot, with no one else around. After a quick coffee and foot wear change, we headed off...

Across the field towards that muddy track, which winds away between the trees...

Through the gateway...

 

To where the stream meets the path. We're here!

It was still a bit gloomy, and began raining, but after about 15 minutes I spied exactly this...

...BINGO!

This is pretty much where it stayed for the next hour and a half. And it was view for the whole entire time, clearly favouring the first group of small trees to the left of the path after walking through the above gateway...

As you can see they are right next to the path, so it showed at point blank range! What a superb little bird, and it's easy to see why it is proving so popular with photographers.  Of course I can't match their standards, but this post wouldn't be complete without a few pics from my Lumix...

It spent quite a bit of time singing to itself - what a treat!

Wish my bloody camera had actually focused on the bird!

At least it did this time!

Just to show the white throat, which it showed off here as it fed on its favoured lump of grass.

Although I'm not that proud of my photographs, I am pleased with the videos...

I really like the chat family as it is. There's nothing like seeing a migrant Redstart flicking about in spring or autumn, or a Black Red feeding on a barren beach. Even Robin's are cool! So this bird rates really VERY high on my list of all time best birds.  An absolute cracker that I recommend to any and everyone!

We finally tore ourselves away from this little stunner at 11, and after returning to the car drove for about four minutes before stopping again.

Living and birding in Devon means we don't see Corn Buntings. I appreciate that for many blog readers this may appear a total over reaction, but bloody hell!!!! We saw over 100 Corn Buntings whilst stood in one spot! There were at least 110, but probably way more than that with birds visible in the distance in all directions. Flocks of 40, 30, 15, several singing males - it was Corn Bunting porn! Throw in several ten's of Yellowhammers and Skylarks in full song, it felt like we were in 1940 Britain!  Proper farm land birding.

Our third stop of the day was less successful, the Tree Sparrows just wouldn't play ball.  We heard them almost constantly, and had a few brief glimpses, but that was it. Two hours later we gave up and headed home. 

I won't lie, I'm bloody knackered, but it was well worth it! Thank you South Gloucester, and in particular the finder of the eastern blue-tailed beauty.