Snow Goose in Lincolnshire

I've been watching news of the Snow Goose in Lincolnshire which has travelled south with Whooper Swans so has decent credentials for a wild bird. I've seen Snow Geese before but still fancied seeing this one so set off on my own this morning as the Jims had other plans and this was the only day I had for a while where I could set off early. I arrived before the sun came up over Deeping lakes and scanned the Whoopers finding no fewer than three Bewick's Swans amongst them. It would appear the Snow Goose has now found a new roost area as it wasn't present. I walked out to the hide and found two Long-eared Owls roosting in the ivy a few feet from the hide but they were obviously tucked in well. A guy came with a thermal and said there was actually four birds roosting in the tree.

The walk back gave me my first Chiffchaff of the year and I noted a well over a hundred Fieldfare and a few Redwings too. I drove around Crowland checking the Whooper flocks but couldn't find the Goose until I got to Gull farm where I managed to pick it up in a distant herd. On the drive out I found six Red Kites, Two Marsh Harrier and a pair of Raven feeding on what looked like a dead pheasant or goose.

I had nine Cranes fly over head as I drove out through Thorney and broke the journey home with a first time stop at Doddington Pits in Cambs where a couple of locals put me on the drake Ring-necked Duck for another year tick which took the modest list to 111.

Snow Goose with the Whoopers

Jack Snipe at Lemsford Springs

I've added a year ticks since the last update, a walk around Rainham gave me the chance to see my first Water Pipit of the year on the foreshore along with both Rock Pipit and Meadow Pipit. Avocet was another year tick as did a pair of Stonechat close to the car park.

The 8th saw me take a run down to Wallasea island either side of the school run. I added Reed Bunting as I walked out to search the fields for the wintering Red-breasted Goose. Scanning the geese I added Brent Goose and Barnacle Goose but didn't find the target although there was a Black Brant or at least a Black Brant/DB Brent hybrid. A male Hen Harrier quartered the far corner as I approached the bank of the river. Being careful not to stick my head above the wall and spook anything on the other side I scoped throught the grass to find about 300 more Brents but again didn't find the RB goose. On the mud were Curlew, Oysterctcher and Grey Plover to give more year ticks. Also present but not first for years were Dunlin, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits.

This morning between family commitments I took a short drive up the A1 to Lemsford springs hoping to see a Jack Snipe and I wasn't dissapointed as one showed well in front of the first hide. 7 Snipe, 5 Green Sandpiper, a Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail made up the other highlights along with several Redwing and a first for year Jay.

year list now 103

new year list

The excitement for starting a new year list was building as we moved towards January 1st but I was feeling a little under the weather on New years eve so called the Jims to postpone things and instead ticked a few birds in the garden. On the 2nd I called and asked if they would like to do a short local trip with me as I still didn't feel up for a longer drive to Norfolk for the big start. They agreed and we made our way to Abberton where we found three Bean Geese in the fields before finding three drake Smew either side of the causeway.  Next we found the White-fronted Geese from the gate opposite Billet's farm and then two Little Stint, Goosander, Rock Pipit, Marsh Harrier, Green Sandpiper, Black-necked and Slavonian Grebe from the main causeway. We failed to find the reported Bewick's Swans but at Lodge lane Jim found the Lesser Scaup amongst the Greater Scaups for our best tick of the day. A Kingfisher was a nice addition before we left too. On the way home we stopped at Ardleigh and quickly ticked the Red-necked Grebe.

Today I called and asked if they'd like an hour or so at St.Albans which is only half an hour from home and again the Jims fancied the trip so we arrived just after sunrise and saw a couple of Kingfishers before the main target of Yellow-browed Warbler was found and enjoyed for the best part of an hour. We also added Nuthatch, Goldcrest and Grey Wagtail but didn't see the Med Gull that others reported. A quick stop at the Watercress LNR in St Albans bagged us Lesser Redpoll, Siskin and Bullfinch to take my three day list to 90 and we also enjoyed another Kingfisher show.

I do love the energy that the new year brings to the hobby.

Eastern Black Redstart

I had a day off yesterday and despite feeling a bit under the weather I decided I'd go see the Eastern Black Redstart at Sheringham. Being a sub species I've never really bothered to twitch one before despite there having been some twenty plus records. 

Eastern Black Redstart (Phoenicurus ochruros phoenicuroides) is a bird that inhabits Asia with a range creeping into Eastern Europe so to find one on our shores is quite remarkable and with this one being around two hours from home I thought I would try for it. The Jims were otherwise busy being Christmas and all that so it was a solo run. There was a police incident on the A11 that caused me to divert around Thetford but otherwise the journey was fine. I decided to stop at Ludham seeing that it would make a shorter original travel plan and pulled into the car park before first light to find the car park had just one space left. Walking along the river bank I could see the twitch in the distance and hurried along to join it. With news that the bird had roosted last night the "presumed" bushes had been staked out but as the light came up there was no sign of the Black-winged Kite. By about 8.30 the mood had dipped until somebody picked up the Kite hovering in the distance some way west of us. For the next hour or so we watched as it hunted and sat up in distant trees before it eventually was lost to view. My second Black-winged Kite in Norfolk following the Hickling bird of July 2023. (The same bird? I wonder.)

I got back in the car and made the 25mile journey north to Sheringham parking up on the promenade where the news wasn't good as the bird had gone missing just before I arrived but within a couple of minutes it appeared on the sea wall and then moved down onto the beach to feed among the stones and on the wood groynes before heading back up and away into the buildings behind the promenade. Luckily there is a shingle road behind the buildings and I managed to find the bird sitting high on a gutter where it would stay for about an hour resting between the gutter, the warm boiler flue and the window cills. After an hour it got active again and would drop to feed on the floor a few feet from us and would take regular trips to bath in a garden out of site. I don't like these residential twitches which always feel a bit intrusive although we did everything we could to not be and I have to say every single local that came out of the houses showed nothing but interest in the hobby and the bird.

I headed home satisfied that I'd added my 250th year tick (including the Green winged Teal they stripped me of but not the Eastern Black Redstart of course which at this point has never been a full species but maybe one day one of these splits will go my way ) but by the time I arrived home the man flu had got into me so it was an early night and a good rest up to recover for new years day if I can.

Year list 249 (plus GWT=250 😉)

The very distant Black-winged Kite

BOU updates

So the recent IOC/BOU updates have now been loaded up into Bubo where I store my bird lists.

The result means I have lost three life ticks.

Hooded Crow is now lumped with Carrion Crow 

Green-winged Teal is now considered to be the sub species of Teal 

Stejneger's Stonechat is now considered Siberian Stonechat.

So the impact takes my official BOU life list to 452 but I keep a seperate list which includes the birds seen whilst a full species and this list includes ...

Hooded Crow (Corvus Cornix)

Green-winged Teal (Anas Carolinensis)

Stejneger's Stonechat (Saxicola Stejnegeri) (Also refferred to as Amur Stonechat)

Steppe-Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor pallidirostris)

Mealy Redpoll (Acanthis  flammea)

Coues's Arctic Redpoll (Acanthis flammea exilipes)

Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll (Acanthis hornemannii)

So this list totals 459 (throw in the other 16 sub species* seen and the total is now 474)

A Crow

A Siberian Stonechat (that was DNA tested as Stejneger's)

A Teal with another Teal

The impact of these removals affects the year list in which they were seen too which I find frustrating as they were full species when seen and they are also removed from the various county lists I keep. 

My biggest loss is in the 2019 list where I pushed myself to see 303 bird species on the mainland and that record now stands at 299 having lost a total of four birds now considered sub species since 2019 which I had seen in that total of 303.

* (the other16 sub species)

Blue headed Wagtail, Black headed Wagtail, Chanel Wagtail, Chanel Wagtail, Horned Lark, American Black Tern, Black Brant, Pale-bellied Brent, Black-bellied Dipper, Todd's Canada Goose, Kumliens Gull, Northern Long-tailed Tit, Siberian Chiffchaff, Scandi Rock Pipit, the two White-fronted Goose species/sub species, the two Bluethroats, 

   

Black-bellied Dipper at Bintree Mill in Norfolk

I headed up the A11 to Lynford this morning and enjoyed a couple of hours strolling about searching for Crossbill. I saw four groups of Crossbill and counted a total of 47 species which included an odd record of flyover Golden Plover. I was about to do a second circuit when I checked my phone to find the Black-bellied Dipper at Bintree Mill Norfolk had been seen so I decided to jump in the car and do the extra 20 miles for hoping I might connect with it. This Dipper was first seen on 3rd December but not reported again until 17th so a two week gap in sightings and again went missing for three days until this morning when it showed well pretty much all day.

On arrival the bird was in view and another birder let me look through his scope for an easy year tick. Over the next two hours the bird would fly under the bridge on a few occasions but remained quite distant although I did manage to get a few images. Eventually the bird flew off but was relocated in front of the mill and again allowed a couple of images at distance. Some of the big lens guys probably got better shots but I was happy to see it. This is my second Norfolk Dipper following the North Walsham bird of 2018. I've also seen Dark-bellied Dipper at Thetford, Suffolk in 2013. 

Bintree Mill was a beautiful venue to be looking for a Dipper in Norfolk and gave me my second year tick of the day after the Crossbills. The owner of the mill came out for a chat and invited a few of us onto his land to search for the bird which was good of him. I added just three more birds to the day list which now totalled 50 species.

Bintree Mill

Year list now 249