Western Bonelli's Warbler Gibraltar Point

We planned a trip to Norfolk today to catch up with the Dotterel using Choseley as their favoured stop off again this year but with news of last nights little Alpine visitor to Gibraltar Point we changed plan and headed further north more in hope than expectation to be honest.
Arriving at the point at around 6.30am we headed straight down to the farm where around forty birders were already on site and some had already made the call to leave. We stuck it out for an hour or so then decided on a walk around the reserve and were lucky to be around when news broke that a Bonelli's Warbler had been found at the end of the dunes. We marched with the others present and managed to hear the bird singing from a large Sycamore but viewing it proved more difficult.

The bird moved through the reserve and we managed to find it again and got much better views. Talking to the locals who know much more about Bonell's warblers than me it would appear to be ID'd positively as a male Western Bonelli's by call and I'm told as such is a first for Lincolnshire so congratulations to the finder and thanks for sharing news so quick this morning. My only other experience of this species was a dip down at Church Norton in April 2013 so it's nice to put that to bed.

Following this unexpected success and life tick we reverted to the original plan and headed down to Choseley Drying Barns where we quickly found no less than twenty four Dotterel and enjoyed a few minutes with them before moving on to Titchwell where we bagged a few year ticks with Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint, Temminck's Stint, Little-ringed Plover and a nice Whinchat on the way back to the car. (Thanks Geoff for the tip off and good to see you again)

Life list now 371
Year list now 232

Green Hairstreak

Dotterel at Choseley

Dotterel

Dotterel in the heat haze

Cleaning up in the valley

With all the travelling of the last week I fancied a local trip this morning so I popped down to Cornmill Meadow and with a big tip off from Jim I quickly found his Grasshopper Warbler and whilst here a Cuckoo was heard too.

Aggressive Canada Goose

I moved on to Fishers Green and walked the circular route under the pilons back over the bridge and returned to the car park. Surprisingly I heard no Nightingale on my first walk around but in the brambles on the lake side of the river I found two Lesser Whitethroat, four Garden Warblers and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers.  Pressing on I soon heard the distinct calls of Reed Warblers and then found a couple flitting about in the reedbed. A pair of Wren were busy nest building on the river bank and another Cuckoo was calling from the picnic area.

Wren

Wren

My second trip around and this time I found Nightingales, three of them singing in somewhat muted fashion in the dull grey conditions. I carried on up the path towards Holyfield Lake stopping to watch a pair of Little Grebe fishing. From Weir hide I scanned the skies finding it alive with hirundines many of which were Swifts and then a single Hobby high up in the clouds to give me my seventh year tick of the morning.

Common Whitethroat

Little Grebe

Year list now 225

Scotland trip 2016 summary

TWO LIFERS: Black Duck (Strontian) and Iberian Chiffchaff (on the way back at Telford)

SEVENTEEN YEAR TICKS: Black Duck, Iberian Chiffchaff, Crested Tit, Ptarmigan, Capercaillie, Golden Eagle, Sea Eagle, Cuckoo, Common Whitethroat, Osprey, Black Guillemot, Black Grouse, Black-throated Diver, White-billed Diver, Eider, Manx Shearwater and Common Sandpiper.

TOTAL BIRD COUNT: 124

A few more pictures from the week.

Logs everywhere

Black Duck at Strontian

Black Guillemot at Oban Harbour

Common Sandpiper at Lochindorb

Crested Tit at Loch Garten

Sea Eagle Ardnamurchan

T  "the special one"

Red Grouse at Lochindorb

Hooded Crow at Oban

The view from the cottage balcony

Blue Tit at Loch Garten

Eider at Portsoy

Otter on Skye

The cottage

Oriental Turtle Dove Otford Kent

News yesterday that the Kent birders had finally pinned down the Oriental Turtle Dove had me twitching last night (to coin a phrase) I woke early and made an easy call to drive the 40 miles down to Kent arriving just before 7am to find a small group of birders on site with news that the bird had just dropped from the dead tree to feed in the garden. Nearly an hour went by before the bird had enjoyed it's breakfast and returned to the dead tree to give me my first ever views of this species having not taken the opportunity to visit the last back garden one in Oxford.

The bird moved to deep cover in another fully leaved tree and could just about be seen with a scope if you knew where to look showing a nice black arrow on the under tail.

Twitching these back garden birds always seems a bit uncomfortable although the small group were well behaved I left them to it and made it home by 9am to put a couple of brownie points back in the empty brownie point bag and the last thing you want is for that bag to be empty. I've now cut the grass and hoovered just to top it up a bit further ready for the next little birding adventure that might take my fancy.

LIFE LIST NOW 370
Year list 218

The view with the naked eye

And at 8x....but better through the scope!

Getting back on the bike

The drive home today was interupted by breaking news of a White crowned Sparrow at Woolston Eye NR in Cheshire. A quick check on the sat nav and it's a very short five mile diversion from my route home down the M6 so it had to be done. Sadly the bird had decided to go missing and didn't show while I was on site or indeed for the rest of the day.

I did grad a distant shot of one of eight Black-necked Grebes on site and found a Common Whitethroat for a year tick too.  A nice permit only reserve with good facilities.

Black-necked Grebe

Now when you dip there's nothing better than your next tick so I made the 60 mile drive down to Telford and after a few false alarms with the local Chiffies and Willow Warblers I managed to find the consolation prize of the Iberian Chiffchaff thanks to some local help . It's no White crowned Sparrow but at least it's got me straight "back on the bike".

Year list now 217
Life list now 369

Final day and finally a Caper shows

This morning I returned to Loch Garten for the Caperwatch arriving at 5.30am to find the volunteers already had a Caper in the scope much to my delight having not seen one last year at all but another guy had spend five days on the spin getting up at silly oclock to get his first ever so he was doubly delighted. By 5.45am the snow started falling heavily again and any view of the bird was quickly lost which disappointed the late comers.

I left satisfied with the year tick and sat in the car park for a while to enjoy the birds at the feeders which included Crested Tit, Treecreeper, Great spotted Woodpecker, Coal Tit and Siskin. Crossbill were in the car park but I couldn't tell if they were Scottish or not. One guys logic was that if they're in Scotland they must be Scottish until I reminded him we were in Scotland but it didn't make us Scottish!

Coal Tit

Crested Tit

Crested Tit

Great spotted Woodpecker

Great spotted Woodpecker

Following my early success I moved north to Burghead where I scanned the coast for the reported White-billed Diver to no avail. I later found out I was looking in the wrong place. With Portsoy now only twenty miles away I headed across passing through Elgin and then Cullen which is the nicest town I've encountered here so I'll be returning for a better look in the future.

Eider 

At Portsoy conditions were really bad with big waves and a strong wind coming straight in off the sea so I used the car as some kind of shelter at the top of Marine Terrace to give a higher point of view to scan. There were lot's of Gannet, Fulmar and Auks about along with a few Shags. I found a couple of Great northern Divers and then after nearly an hour of scanning I had a White billed Diver in the scope. I returned to the harbour were a few Eider posed for the camera and then set off for home via Lochindord which ended my annual Scotland trip.

Red Grouse

In summary I collected 15 year ticks picking up most of the Scottish specialities and a lifer with the Black Duck.


Year list now 215
Life list now 368

COLDER AND OTTER

We set off early this morning intending to visit Skye for the first time. Two male Black Grouse in a field and two females in a tree further down the road gave us a good start on a very frosty morning.
Half an hour in and the snow started to fall and it fell hard all day spoiling most of the special vistas along our route but also adding something to the trip with it's own magic.

Highlander

On Skye Suzanne found an Otter (She's a top Otter spotter) and it sat long enough for the camera to catch a couple of images before slowly drifting along the shore.
Mountain Goats and Roe Deer were the other highlights of a difficult day which ended with a trip to Applecross where we enjoyed knee deep snow for a while and another eight Black Grouse before heading home for a much needed curry night by the fire.

Applecross

Black Grouse in the frost

Otter

Otter

It snowed all day!