Local migrants

A while ago I posted about finding the right field. Today I stopped at the field in the picture as there was a large flock of gulls.

I scanned the gulls, but could only see BHG's and a few LBBG's. As I was watching I could hear a Yellow Wagtail, and a passing falcon (a Kestrel, sadly not Graeme's Merlin) put a few up. I eventually located them on the ground, and as I got my eye in I could see more. By slowly scanning across and using the fine focus on the scope to scan back and forth I could pick up more birds. Totals were difficult as the birds were constantly on the move but minimum numbers were 3 Wheatear including a male, 20 Yellow Wagtails, and 20 Meadow Pipits. I think I heard a Golden Plover but there was no sight of it. The Yellow wagtails plumage was in just about every possible colour - Yellow, green, grey, even orange.

Elsewhere 10 Swallows through.

Afternoon update:

returned to the field after the rain had passed through. It was completely empty. I wonder if the presence of gulls in a field brins in other birds as the gulls act as guards against predators. Thsi was shown to be the case for wintering Lapwing/golden Plover flocks, so may be the same for other migrants.

stopped elsewhere on the top to the following effect:
c70 Collared Dove on wires at Trim's Green
5 Red-Legged Partridge at Morris's Farm
10 Swallows W over the big field
Wheatear 1 fem type on the metal fence by Blounts Farm
Hobby 1 over Mathams Wood

What does that big red button do?

Of all the stupid things to do, recreating the conditions of the Big Bang “just to see what happens” strikes me as being amongst the most stupid. Given that the last time this happened an explosion big enough to create an entire universe happened, having another go seems to be tempting fate.

The astrophysicists have done their calculations and assured as we are safe. The other main employer of astrophysicists is bank derivatives desk where astrophysicists are responsible for calculating the risk on collateralised debt-obligations, and we can now see what a rip-roaring success that has been. So I think we can give their assurances about the safety of their experiments the respect they deserve.

So with some free time and a south-easterly wind I headed to Canvey for one last look at the Thames before it becomes vapourized and spun to infinity. I arrived at the Point at 7ish just after high-tide and saw ... nothing. Just a few gulls and ships.



Slowly some Sandwich Terns appeared and eventually I located 3 Arctic Skuas way off on the Kent side of the river. I headed to the Coastguards in the hope that someone might have a clue what we were looking at, but the one local confirmed it was quiet. A steady stream of Swallows was going East, and the local picked up an Arctic Skua bombing west on the far side. A few Sandwich Terns came close; I rattled off some pictures.



I decided to cut my losses and head to Rainham. It was quiet. I almost got my first Ruff of the year; a non-descript medium sized medium everything wader asleep with some Greenshanks, I was just getting the scope on it when it flew off, in a non-descript sort of way. There were 5 Blackwits, a similar number of Greenshanks, and a Green Sandpiper. I was put on to a Whinchat and a couple of Stonechat. Not much overall, but at least I saw more than the couple of birders staring at some reeds in the hope the Aquatic Warbler would reappear.

I got back to find that firstly a Great White Egret had flown over Rainham whilst I was there, that Graham had seen Merlin and Whinchat at local spot Trim’s Green, and then one of the Sandwich Terns I photographed was a Common Tern – I can’t even ID the birds in front of me.

Local 7 Sept

Family stuff (D#3 turned 8!) meant the earliest I could get away was mid afternoon. So firstly Kevin sends me a text from Amwell telling me he's watching an Osprey, then Mike sends me a text saying a Blackwit has popped in to SLRS, followed shortly by a text saying both Blackwits and the juv Med Gull have just flown. Just what I needed.

I finally got to SLRS mid afternoon to find it completely deserted apart from Mike and Mrs Mike. There were Swallows zooming through, and parties of BHG's dropping in and swirling round the scrape like flurries of super-size snowflakes. Mrs M picked up a distant Hobby, and we had a flock of LT tits plus a few WillowChiffs.





I called in on the high ground to see if anything was moving through. Mike had seen a Wheatear up here earlier, so I stopped off at various points to scan for some migrays



The best I did was 15 Golden Plover packed tightly in the middle of the big field - the first of the autumn. Finally, I scoured a field of 60 BHG's - Mike had commented earlier how many of the BH's going through were juveniles, and more than half of these were juvs too. A couple of Mipits called unseen, then a wader called - two quiet notes, my calls aren't good enough to nail this one, so perhaps the big one got away today.

Scores on the doors

Well the weather unfolded as the Met office predicted, and as expected a flurry of seasonal migrants appeared; within a 50 mile radius of East Herts there were Stone Curlew, White-Winged Black Tern, Ortolan, plus various other seasonal migrants. Not to be outdone seabirds turned up too; Sabine's Gull, Pomarine Skua, and Sooty Shearwater all turned up in the Thames estaury.

But what about a 1-mile radius? I popped out this evening to SLRS to give it one last chase. And ... nothing. Just 25 Moorhens, 10 Magpies, and a Lapwing. I gave the surrounding hedgerows a going over, and finally connected with a Spotted Flycatcher, and a pair of Blackcaps were in the same bush. The male had his crest erected like a Goldcrest - I hadn't realised they did that.

So a bit of a wash-out in. I think the water level is now just too low to attract waders. I guess we need to wait for winter to fill the pond again.

Perhaps the most interesting part is yet to come. The easterly winds persist into tomorrow when they are met by colder weather form the west. The ensuing storms may force down some interesting birds.

Weekend Forecast

You don't need me to tell you its been a disappointing autumn so far, and as usual it’s all down to the weather. But is this about to change? I’ve applied my amateur ornitho-meteorology and have my finger crossed for the weekend.

I’ve been studying weather maps courtesy of the Met Office website. Today’s surface pressure chart is typical of our recent weather; lows across the north of the country produce a stream of moist westerlies; migrating birds stay well to the east of the UK.



But fast forward to Friday, and for the first time in weeks things have changed. A high has become established over North Germany. This pushes the lows to the north of the UK, and the air circulating round the high drift over from the continent to the UK. This produces a SE wind over the south-east of England.



So migrants arrive in numbers! Or do they? My limited knowledge is that ideally the high is more northerly so the winds are more directly easterly, and a low to the south would produce a blocking band of rain. The winds on offer this Friday are weak, and possibly not strong enough to divert birds from their southerly route.

Fingers crossed.

finding the right field

Another pointless evening trip round the high ground to the north-west. Its a frustrating place; several square miles, several very large fields, very few obvious places to stop and survey the area.

Half the problem seems to be finding the right field; here's a picture taken tonight of an empty field.


A couple of weeks ago this held over a hundred BHG's, and then 50 LBBG and some Common Gulls and c300 Corvids, and the following night 24 Lapwings, but since then; nothing.

This is the big field, looking from Blount's Farm toward Morris's Farm.



The concrete road in the middle of the field is the border of the old airfield, used mainly in WWII to do SOE activity and photo-recognisance. This can be an excellent field, holding regular Golden Plover in autumn and winter. I've had Marsh Harrier and Black-tailed Godwit in this field, but it must surely get more passerines amongst the finch flocks that appear in autumn. Tonight it held a pair of Kestrels

Clearly the state of the field has much to do with the birds; between harvesting and the next crop appearing the field is in a state of flux, and birds come and go. But understanding the timing both within the day and with farming activity is currently beyond me.

I managed to find a hot spot twenty years ago. I grew up just north of Leeds, but it was only as I was leaving for the second time that I discovered a few fields a couple of miles away from my family home; Whinchats, Wheatears, Tree Pipits (well, Pipit), Redstarts, Yellow wagtails. Several years later I found myself working in Leeds again, went up there in September, and had similar results. I've mentioned it a couple of times on the appropriate Birdforum thread without response; I began to feel like the mad bloke ranting in the corner, so I let it go, but I bet its still producing migrants.

busy seeing nothing

Despite the constant westerlies some birds have been turning up in similar-ish places to East Herts. Wood Sandpipers and Little Stints, Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts.

But locally - nothing. I've been trying, honestly, but zip. SLRS has been looking good but has had nothing apart from Moorhens and Lapwings. I went round Trimm's Green and Allens Green and stared at empty fields. Just nothing.

Something must turn up soon.

Mweanwhile, I took D#2 to the British car show the other week, gave him the camera and aked him to come up with a shortlist for our next family car. Here it is ...






Dream on D#2

Trimm's Green 16 August

Stephen had reported some excellent birds from his watchpoint this morning (its some way north of here at the point where the A11 leaves the M11 and heads off towards Thetford). He had seen a few Marsh Harriers, a bird I've always wanted to see on passage here, so this evening I thought I'd sneak out and see if anything was passing through our own local high spot at Trimm's Green.

I stopped off at one of the local recently ploughted fields. There were a flock of gulls slowly departing - exactly 50 LBB Gulls, mainly adults but a few juveniles, a couple of hundred corvids in a mixed flock, and a few House Sparrows which is a bit odd out here I think.

At Blount's Farm there was a mobile flock of 25 Yellow Wagtails, and a few Linnets in the area. A flock of c20 Greylag Geese appeared and headed down towards the fishing pond; a strange site for here as I've only seen one Greylag in the area previously. In the distance a couple of Hobbies were hawking over a wood at Allen's Green.

As I left I noticed a raptor over the enormous corner field. Well knock me down with a feather if it wasn't a juvenile Marsh Harrier. I stopped and scoped it for about twenty minutes. The ginger feather edgings along the primary and secondaries were clear, and the bird was in spanking plumage. It spent a couple of periods sat on the ground, its head just visible above the grain. As I left it was still present. Overall, a splendid list for little over an hour in the middle of farmland.

Edit: it wasn't Blount's Farm where the Yellow Wagtails are - it was Morris Farm. I'll get my place names correct in future.

Return to Weymouth

We went back to Weymouth for a few days. Lodmoor had Ruff and Little Stint prior to our visit, so I dashed down on 10th and drew a blank. The water level was high, and there were a lot of birds, but they were nearly all BHG’s. There were about 5 Dunlin, 3 Common Sandpiper, a Greenshank, 2 Blackwits and a few Med Gulls. At Ferrybridge a Sanderling.

Otherwise we visited Tyneham. It was a bit showery as we set off, but as we hit the cliff top path it became clear a large grey cloud was heading in our direction. As we walked down the slope to Worbarrow Bay the wind picked up to gale force, and the rain lashed down, or rather lashed up into our faces. D#3 and #4 had not come across anything like this before, and were screaming hysterically. We dragged them down the slope and into the bay. A Peregrine hung in the wind off the cliffs, and folded its wings into a stoop. I pointed out to the family, but they were all huddling behind a large skip until the rain had passed and refused to look. There’s no pleasing some people! There were a few Gannets in the bay, which I think is unusual along the coast, and was no doubt due to the howling gale.

Oh, and the Hooded Merganser on the Boating Lake, diving away just like a Clearly Wild Bird would do.

Here’s a couple of photos of Weymouth with no birds in.

Weymouth Late July

School holidays are here so it was off to Weymouth. I sneaked out before breakfast on 27th and headed for Lodmoor. Even at that time is was baking. It was quiet with just a Greenshank briefly, a couple of Dunlin, 3 blackwit, 2 Common Sandpiper, and the resident family of Oystercatchers with the full grown young chasing the parents round the marsh. There were a few warblers on display – Reed, Sedge, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, and a new bird for me on Lodmoor, 2 Ravens, gasping for air in the middle.

Next available slot was morning of the 29th. The weather had turned cooler and cloudier. Morning was a quick visit to Ferrybridge. Just a Whimbrel, a Curlew, a sparkling Sanderling, and in the distance 3 Med Gulls – 2 2nd winters and an adult.

We went for a walk in Wareham Forest mid-morning; my first visit, and it looked impressive. The howling gale kept birds out of sight, and I couldn’t help wondering what sea birds were being blown into Chesil Cove, but we still managed a few Siskins, a couple of Crossbills, GSW and Green W, and a snake. I’m not sure what sort, as it was dangling from the claws of a passing Common Buzzard at the time.

Then an evening dash to Lodmoor. A sneaky Wood Sandpiper was giving close views in reeds near the old hide, but photography was tricky due to my inability to get high enough to get a shot without reed stems in the way. Otherwise there were a total of at least 9 Med Gulls, of which five were juveniles (one with a green ring on the left leg), so it seems to have been a successful breeding season for Med Gulls.

Armchair Tick

This week I got an armchair tick. Not as a result of a species split, but because I sat in my armchair and saw a bird I haven’t seen in the wild before. There I was, sat in Weymouth, with the TV news droning on about how “what I want to see is British holidays for British workers ” blah blah blah, when in desperation I pick up the binoculars, turn 30 degrees to the left, and there out of the window on the Boating Lake was a Hooded Merganser.

It has been there for a while, and ordinarily would be considered an obvious escape. But No! It first turned up after some strong winds in a storm drain near Portland looking near death. It disappeared, the locals assuming it had departed to paddle in a celestial pond. A couple of days it reappeared fresh as a daisy a later on Weymouth Boating Lake, doing what wild ducks do, namely sleeping with occasional breaks to cadge bread from passing strangers.

Well, it’s not going to get any better than this is it. No doubt various committees, after consideration of the most serious kind, will conclude that we cannot be sure beyond doubt that it isn’t an escape, but we know the truth! Now is not the time to go looking gift horses in the mouth. So it’s ticked, and its staying ticked.

Just to prove that wild birds and urban environments do mix, I was in the centre of Weymouth the following day when a call of the wilderness rang out above my head. Two Ravens flew over, gronking away, closely followed by a couple of aggrieved Jackdaws. Case proven, I think.