New Year

Every year bright and early on 1st January birders all over the country start their year list. From dawn, every new call and sound, every bird flying across the horizon, is recorded diligently on the new list. Then often out to a full range of birding sites to try and hit the magic 100 on 1st Jan.

There’s some snags with this. It’s a bit anti-social as family and friends are often around enjoying the break. There’s quite a good chance of being drunk or hungover. And the weather isn’t often ideal for charging round the country – black ice and daylight for about an hour a day. Usually I pass up the opportunity.

More significantly, is this the right time to start the birding year? Other calendars don’t start on the 1st Jan. The financial year starts on 5th April. And the academic year starts variably in September or October. There’s no reason why 1st Jan should mark the start of the birding year. So I got thinking what the most sensible date to start the birding year should be?

We know that finding a clean date is impossible, but the 1st of Jan is smack bang in the middle of a season. Cold snaps can cause influxes and these may occur either side of the new year divide. Winter is split across two recording periods for no good birding reason. We know the simple birding seasons of migration, breeding, migration back, and wintering are not neat activities with clear start and end dates. There’s always overlap, whether its in June when those waders on the local scrape might be late migrating north, or early migrating back, and then in winter birds move around due to cold spells. But if there is such a thing as a year end it would surely be at the end of winter. The new breeding year is set to start and the whole business of migration is about to start again.

My first guess was 14th Feb. A notable date, and conveniently allows some or all of Feb half term to fall in the new year. But the reality of winter is that the last week of Jan and the first two weeks of Feb are often the coldest, so we could, as this year, be in the middle of a cold snap with all sorts of birds still moving around. So our year-end should occur after this. From the other end, the spring equinox date of 21st March is a candidate; equality of daylight and night with a proper recognised start of spring ,but some migrants have already arrived at this time so this is too late. We need to be clear of any significant migrants turning up.

I’ve chosen 1st March. It’s a reasonably clear date, and its in a clear space unlikely to be in the middle of major cold-weather movements, and well before the spring migration has started. I’m looking forward to starting the new year this week. Just a few weeks before it starts to fill up with spring migrants, and when we get to the middle of winter I can still keep all the birds form a single season on one list.

A couple of weeks ago the weather was like the shots below. But today its warm. Blossom is beginning to appear. From reports around the country the Lapwings and Curlews are back on the moors, and Herons are nesting in Regents Park. Spring is almost here. Time for a new start, a new year, and a new list.

Half Term

Yes its half term, so its a few days in Weymouth again. There are Hume’s Warbler, and a Richard’s Pipit on the fleet, an elusive Iceland Gull and a Glossy Ibis. I saw none of them, but had one of the best half-terms I’ve had. Mainly due to a glorious quarter hour this morning at Lodmoor.

I was at the postbox on Beachdown Way watching a Marsh Harrier quartering the reeds. It had a pop at something, and for a moment I thought it was an owl, but through the scope it was obviously a Bittern. I spent the next fifteen minutes with it filling the frame. It was stationary mainly, perched on top of some compacted reed stems, stretching its neck, looking around and occasionally frilling up its neck. Then, a second bird appeared on the edge of the reeds and pecked around for a while before heading back into the reeds.

It’s amazing what a lift a sighting like that gives you. I practically floated round the rest of the reserve. It’s only the second sighting I’ve had in Weymouth in eight years of coming down regularly, and completely unexpected to see these birds wandering around. Perhaps it’s a regular spot - I’ll keep checking. If you go, stand by the Postbox on Beachdown Way, look towards the rubbish disposal site, and then look at the reeds between the two large areas of water between you and the dump.

Otherwise: C200 Lapwings was a reserve record for me, 10 Dunlin, c10 Wigeon, a Water Pipit, and offshore a Great Northern Diver. A male Pintail was at Radipole, and on the Fleet from the bridging camp on 14th were 3 Avocets, 6 Goldeneye, plenty of Mergansers, Curlews, Oyk’s and Brent Geese, and Mediterranean Gulls in their hundreds. And a Stonechat.

It’s odd what an impression you get of a place on a first visit. When I started watching Lodmoor in winter 2003 there was a Peregrine that sat on the central concrete block and terrorised the birds, and Stonechats were regular around the reserve. I assumed every winter was like that, but Peregrine is a scarce sighting for me here since and Stonechats come and go.

Finally some pictures from Radipole.

Can we have our birds back please?

The snow and continental freeze has brought all sorts of unusual birds to nearby areas, including a few Short-Eared Owls just east of the area . Sadly nothing here today. I took a trudge round the Stort valley south of Sawbo with camera to record what few birds there are. Can we have our missing birds back please?

The scrape is full (good!) but frozen (bad!). A couple of Snipe burst out of ditches. Lots of Wood Pigeons, Rooks and Jackdaws. But some noticeable absences; no Yellowhammers or Reed Buntings, the Kestrels have absconded, temporarily I hope. There were a couple of Meadow Pipits. The Fieldfares that have invaded the area were flying manically around. There were a few Song Thrushes around - I'm not sure if they are immigrants or just our normal birds being a bit more obvious.

On Sunday there was a flock of 70 Lapwing over the park. I thought I heard one today, but in the turned out to be just a bronchitic Fieldfare.

The river has half frozen. There were a couple of strange holes. Like giant spiders have crashed through the ice. Perhaps they will emerge in the spring to savage the area.

Still, its just about the end of this birding year, and the new one will start soon, so perhaps its appropriate that the patch is fairly barren at the moment.

End of the year? What? Well it is according to my calendar. I'll post on that soon.

Goodbye to the Wharf

Somethings work, and somethings don't. The lack of posting over the last six months was not unrelated to business activity in which I was engaged. But then the recession got worse ... and a key player went into administration ... and now an extended birding opportunity approaches!

I sneaked a few photos of Canary Wharf in the dark. Can't do this in the light as security officials prevent it.

Med Gulls: three points in time.

1975. In my early teens, living in West Yorkshire, and just learning about birds that weren’t in the Observer’s Book of Birds. Mediterranean Gulls were a bird I’d never heard of, and that few birders had seen. An “unprecedented” number had occurred on the coast round Scarborough during the year, at least eleven. Most birders were not familiar with the plumages, and a report several pages long appears in that year’s report. The occasional one is seen inland, Needless to say, I hadn’t seen one. One pair had bred in the UK in 1968 but none since.

12 November 1989. Radipole. From my notes, a bright day with not much there. The visit saved from total disaster by a Black-Tailed Godwit and a single Mediterranean Gull, which flew off when the Remembrance Day canon went off. I’d seen a few by this time, here and there, but I don’t think I’d seen more than one at a time. The 1987 Dorset report has a maximum of 25 birds during the year in the Weymouth area, so double figures are regular in the area.

23 October 2011. Radipole. A late afternoon walk around the reserve. A count of 28 birds by the reserve centre, then more flying through as I walked to the bandstand, more on the lake by the bandstand, and still more flying through as darkness fell.

The following evening I gained a vantage point overlooking the boating lake and north towards the white horse at Preston. The weather was windy and dull. The gulls wash themselves in the fresh water of the reserve, and then fly in a continuous stream over the Boating Lake or Grand Hotel, and into the bay. Odd single Med Gulls come through, then small flocks in with the other gulls. Adults with their bright white primaries, like ghostly spirits. First winters, all contrasty black and off-white. Finally I get my eye in on the second winters, generic gulls with pale grey backs and an extensive black primary wedge, and of course the eye smudge. It takes a while to gain the confidence to call the second winters as they hurtle over the distant rooftops. As darkness falls, my list has got to 109 birds during the evening, but I’m sure this was less than the previous day.

I talk to Luke at the reserve the next day, and comment how the Med Gulls like to sit on the fence posts, dominating the adjacent Black-Headed Gulls. Luke states that in the Dorset breeding colonies the Med Gulls dominate the neighbouring Black-Headed Gulls, and may end up driving them out.

Who knows where this will stop?. Birds are being seen all over now, breeding is taking place just about all over the south coast and East Anglian coast. How far will they spread? Will they completely take over wherever they breed. It’s an awesome sight to see flocks of these birds, particularly adults, but will we get bored with them? will there be a cost to the Black-Headed Gull population?

More on the "Walking From House" List

A Tawny Owl woke me and the dogs up early on Monday morning. #84. Then Saturday I went searching for Barn Owls. I drew a blank, but on the way back by the scrape a Little Owl called. Well I think it was a Little Owl. A few intermittent high-pitched short screeches. I check the calls on the web and according to these recordings the birds never shut up. I'm surprised I haven't been falling over them. Anyway I can't think of anything else it could be. So #85 it is.

Rugby World Cup

Only a fool would try and predict the outcome of the RWC. So here goes.

- New Zealand to beat Ireland in the final
- South Africa to beat England in the third place match

"Walking From House" List additions

A few additions to the "Walking from the house list" to report ...

1. Mediterranean Gull and Herring Gull 80 & 81. I was out on 27 August with just my bins, and noticed lots of gulls on a field being ploughed just east of Lower-Sheering Road. A quick scan revealed a smaller gull which was pale white/brown without any of the distinctive head markings of a BH Gull. It flew, showing heavily black forewing and secondary panel, and a black terminal tail band. I ummed and ahhed about this for a couple of days afterwards, I think because when I saw 15 of these at Lodmoor a couple of weeks previous I'd had my scope and could check the bill, and eye-lids to confirm and couldn't do that on this occasion. But after I'd seen some of the photos of juveniles going into first winter on Birdguides it was stupid not to tick it as they were the spitting image. And belated Herring Gull too.

2. Hobby 82. 17 Sep. An overdue event this. Out with the dogs, and one shot over my head. Nice. That makes for 4 raptors on the list. Could I get another one? Well obviously yes. Red Kite is present in this area, and eventually one will be flying around when I'm out, but after that it's looking fairly impossible.

3. Marsh Harrier 83. 18 Sep. Well, so much for how hard the next raptor was going to be. Out with the dogs in the park again, with a patchy blue and white sky and a dark grey cloud getting closer and closer ... I noticed a few hirundines high up, and after scanning noticed that wherever I looked were swallows and martins. I guessed about a hundred moving in advance of the rain. And then a larger bird. Just as soon as I thought another gull it was obvious that it wasn't. It was flying hard SE, but then turned E and it was clearly a Marsh Harrier. All dark, longish tail, bulky but long wings, and if I looked really hard possibly a cream crown? Then, incredibly, it joined a second bird and they soared round for a while, taking their time, before they slowly drifted East and out of sight into Essex. Well, knock me down with a feather. I remember seeing three of the five UK birds at Minsmere in 1975, and now they are so common that pairs of them are flying over my house. The rain duly came down, but I couldn't have cared less.

So in just over 10 months of moving into the house I'm on 83. The scrape hasn't been playing ball having been dry through the autumn, so if that gets muddy at the right time there's another few species to pick up, and with no chats, starts, or owls on the list then 100 is possible. I'm slightly stunned, to be honest, at what I've seen over the year. I can't wait to see what turns up next.

Choices choices ...

A rare window of opportunity for some birding opened up on Sunday afternoon. Where to go? A guaranteed Sabine’s Gull on KG VI? Or take my luck on an unpromising westerly wind at Canvey Island Point and some waders that have taken up temporary residence at West Canvey RSPB?

I decided to take a third option: to spend an hour swearing, shouting and hammering the steering wheel in frustration whilst being held captive on he A130. Bastards! Whoever they are! I thought the Human Rights Act had abolished this sort of thing. Anyway, eventually Canvey Island Point, conveniently round the corner out of the wind, just me, one other, and a sun-light Thames Estuary.

The other birder found an all-brown dot on the horizon. Over the next fifteen minute it moved painstakingly slowly in our direction until a pair of white wing flashes were visible and with the short-tailed silhouette it was fairly straightforward to diagnose a Great Skua. An embarrassing number of months … err years since I last saw one. Easier and faster was a Manx Shearwater that eased upstream. Otherwise a flock of c100 Black-Tailed Godwits wheeled in unison, a few summer-plumage Grey Plovers were on the mud, and a few Sandwich Terns flew west.

Finally West Canvey RSPB. New to me. Juv Little Stint tick! Spotted Redshank tick! And three Green Sandpipers and a Ruff. Bonus tick!

Birdguides reported a long-tailed skua the same morning, Other local web sites reported Gannets, and Arctic Skua too. But no-one had our Great Skua and Manxie. Which just makes you wonder how many other birds go through un-recorded by these web sites.

I returned home to be find a grinning Mrs D holding out a full poop-scoop bag for me. I took it with some suspicion, but it was lightness itself, seemingly a bag of air, and on inspection contained the corpse of a bat. Not just any bat, but a Brown Long-Eared Bat.

Its ears are indeed very long. I got wondering why it has big ears, because if its just for sonar, then why doesn't every bat have huge ears?

Well I read here that its because this species specialising in mugging passing moths, so it has to be very quiet, and hence needs large ears to capture its very weak signal. So there you have it!

And Did Those Feet?

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

Of all the ancient myths and legends that surround these islands, none is more mysterious and compelling than the notion that Jesus came to England, and founded a church in Glastonbury. William Blake believed it, and wrote Jerusalem on the basis of that myth. The modern version has Joseph of Arimathea as the visitor, founding a church in Glastonbury.

These stories are just unsubstantiated myths, but there us one intriguing relic in Glastonbury; the Glastonbury Thorn. This thorn is reputed to have grown from staff planted in the ground. Cutting of the thorn have been taken by many people and flourish in odd places round the tow. It flowers twice a year, and is allegedly a middle-eastern variety of thorn!


We went to Glastonbury to celebrate D#1's 16th birthday. We climbed the Tor, which has fantastic views, and lit a birthday cake with 16 candles. Or tried to light a candle, but the howling gale defeated us. We then spent the afternoon lazing in the grounds of the Abbey.