Rarest birds

A short indulgent blog post to highlight the rarest of the 436 species I've seen to date.

The first bird I ever twitched was the 1990 Naumann's Thrush in Woodford. At the time this was a first for Britain but there has been a second which was strangely enough seen in 1997 in South Woodford.  Little did I know I wouldn't twitch my next bird until 2011 after giving up the hobby to raise my family. I worked long hours to give my boys everything I could and spent all my spare time running them to various football training and matches. I became a qualified referee and took the FA coaching course before a decade of coaching which took up all my spare time.

The Pond Heron in Hythe Kent 2014 was another first for Britain which I saw the day before it expired. Since the first there have been another subsequent accepted record of a bird that was seen in Norfolk and Hampshire. Despite the second bird this remains the bird that most other listers on Bubo have as a target species. I think like me many didn't think the Hythe bird would be accepted and I only twitched it as an insurance tick as I was driving by.

The Brown Booby I connected with in Cornwall of 2019 was a first for Britain until later a record from Kent was submitted and predated the Cornwall record by a week although they were probably the same bird. There has been another record since with a bird seen at sea in 2020 off the Isle of Wight.

I connected with Siberian Accentor back in 2016. At the time this was a first record for Britain and another was seen in 2017. 

Western Swamphen was a first for Britain back in 2016. It remains the only British record and I was lucky enough to see it during it's time in Linconshire having missed it's brief stay at Minsmere.

Short-toed Snake Eagle was only the third for Britain when I connected in Ashdown Forest back in 2014. There have only been two records since.

The Grey Catbird was only Britains second record when I made the long journey down tot Cornwall to see it in 2018 and we haven't had the third record yet.

Sandhill Crane was only the fourth for Britain when I saw my first back in 2011 and we've not seen another since. 

Masked Shrike have only made the British list five times and I was lucky to connect with the third and fifth. First in Yorkshire in 2014 and then in Kent in 2020

Spanish Sparrow was the eighth record for Britain when I twitched one in Hampshire back in 2011 and there have only been two since.

The Green Heron in 2018 was only the eighth for Britain, there's not been one since.

Common Yellowthroat was the tenth record for Britain when I connected in Gwent during 2012 and we haven't had another since.

American Barn Swallow was only the tenth record for Britain when I connected at Minsmere back in 2016 and there have only been a couple of records since.

I connected with the White winged Scoter that's been wintering in Scotland since 2016. This bird would appear to be the second record for Britain as another bird in the same area was seen in 2011.

Snow

The evening of 11th December saw six inches of snow fall locally. A neighbour had lost her dog so being at home I went for a local walk to see if I could bump into it and return it home. In two hours I didn't find it but shortly after returning home the dog was found and returned to it's owner.

Whilst walking I grabbed a few images to record the snow day.

As for birding opportunity, well that still plays second fiddle to my other duties as a husband, dad, son and grandfather but the cold snap did bring both Song Thrush and Redwing to the garden so I should be grateful for that I suppose.

Wallasea Island

Today was a free day, a luxury I've not enjoyed much of late so after a few calls to the Jims and Rob with no interest in a day out I set off alone down the A127 to Wallasea Island.

I arrived at lunchtime and walked out to the far east corner of the reserve hoping to find a Hen Harrier and I eventually found one possibly two ring-tailed birds quartering the far field with three Marsh Harriers. On the walk back I flushed a Hare which in turn flushed a Short-eared Owl. The Owl quartered the islands for a while but was constantly harassed by a Kestrel so eventually moved off towards the car park area but not before giving me a quick chance of a few pics as it flew passed.

Kestrel

As I continued, I had brief views of another Hen Harrier (probably the same bird or one of the two I'd seen earlier) and a Spoonbill flew over. The estuary held thousands of waders that gave a few nice displays as they were spooked by a guy driving along the sea wall and no doubt some raptor activity.

At the car park I found a Dartford Warbler in the brambles by the portaloo but the view was brief and despite a good search I couldn't relocate it. Corn Buntings and Skylarks were seen along with a couple of Stonechat but despite waiting until around 3.45pm I didn't see another Owl.

It was great to be out again and nice to bump into a couple of locals for a catch up too.

Bittern hide Lee Valley

With a spare couple of hours on Wednesday morning I popped over to the Lee Valley and enjoyed a few brief views of the Bittern from the discovery centre hide along with a few flight views of Kingfisher. The Grebes were busy catching perch and a Cormorant and Heron watched on from a safe distance. Water rails were heard and seen quite often, and a Cetti's showed quite well in the reeds.

Bittern at Lee Valley

The view from the Bittern hide

Bittern

Cormorant

Great crested Grebe with Perch 

Perch for lunch

After leaving the hide I walked down to the farm watching a Red Kite as I walked. The finch flock feeding on the set aside numbers well over a hundred now and I managed to find a couple of Brambling amongst the Chaffinch and Goldfinch. On the walk back a pair of Stonechat sat up asking for their picture to be taken.

Stonechat

Stonechat

All in all, a very enjoyable couple of hours to clear the head and set me up for the afternoons tasks.

Sabines gulls in Kent

I haven't managed a day out birding for over a fortnight now but have had an eye on the Sab gull at Lympne in Kent all week. A combination of caring duties for Suzanne, the grandchildren and my father in law all prevented me travelling and of course the protests on the M25 wouldn't have made the journey very enjoyable this week so with a free day Saturday I did make the journey with the Jims.

I started the day at Dunge where I walked far too many miles up and down the shingle in search of the Grey Phalarope that was seen by others but never allowed me a glimpse. The sea was calm and therefore quiet. We had two drake Eider to give the Jims a late year tick but otherwise the usual sea birds although we did spot what looked like a distant Sabines Gull. 

We decided to shoot off and check out Appledore as the Osprey had been reported and we hadn't yet seen one in 2022. Pulling up at the bridge we walked down the track and found the Osprey sat in a field, after a while it flew and landed close to us on a telegraph pole before flying to its favoured dead tree.

Osprey

Back at Dunge and we had another go for the Phalarope but missed it again by a few minutes so we set off up the road for the Sabines gull at Lympne. As we drove down the entrance track we saw the gull feeding alone infront of a small gathering of admirers and were told to park on the grass close to the gates. From the safety of the fenced pull in we enjoyed the bird hanging out on its newly found territory as it pulled worms and called along with chasing any Black-heads that got too close. It was only 1pm and we had a descision to make, do we go down to Foreland and look for the Pallas's Warbler or do we go back to Dunge and give the Phalarope another go.

Back at Dunge we set up at the Sea watch hide and sat it out for a couple of hours. We failed to see the Phalarope which had flown from the sea watch hide just before we got there. The Sabines gull that I'd seen at distance this morning was now flying along the tide line constantly giving great views. An Arctic Tern was at the patch and later flew along the tide line too. Lots of Med gulls flew up and a few Sandwich Terns but little else of note.

Enjoyed being out and clearing the old cobwebs even if we did miss the Phal but we did add three very late year ticks.

Year list now 246 (nothing new for Kent|)

Alpine Accentor at Slaughden in Suffolk

News broke yesterday of an Alpine Accentor being found by Mark C on or around the Martello towers at Slaughden beach near Aldeburgh in Suffolk. The first reports were around 1.30pm which would usually have given me plenty of time to travel but yesterday I was on grandad duty, and it was impossible to travel so I watched the news in envy all afternoon but was pleased to see reports that the bird had roosted on a pipe of the tower. I called the Jims and arranged to travel up to be on site at 7am today with sunrise scheduled for 7.40am I assumed if the bird had stayed, we'd at least see it leave the roost.

We arrived at 6.55 and walked up to the tower in darkness to find around thirty birders on site and reports that a thermal imager had picked up a heat source on top of the pipe which was promising. Within ten minutes with the light improving, we could make out the shape of the Accentor on the pipe but by 7.15 it had a big stretch flew up onto the wall of tower then flew off around the back of the tower and out of sight.

The Martello towers

The enthusiastic scrum

It took around 40 minutes to locate the bird again. It was a bit of a scrum and I found myself at the back and although I managed to see the bird the views were poor until a guy next to me with a better placement let me look through his scope. When the crowd moved, I remained distant with three others and eventually had a magical reward when the bird flew back down the beach landing on the large boulders briefly before flying up onto the path close to me. Better still it then walked towards me giving views down to about ten feet or less.  Quickly the crowd gathered around the four of us, but the bird seemed unconcerned and continued to feed giving everybody the opportunity to enjoy it.

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor Slaughden beach Suffolk

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

Alpine Accentor

I have previously dipped Alpine Accentor so this means I can remove it from the "dipped list"

My year list now stands at 243

My life list now stands at 436 (Mainland Britain only/BOU)

couple of local trips

My time birding remains limited, but I have managed a couple of local trips of late. Firstly I spent a morning at Grafham water in Cambridgeshire where we enjoyed a year tick with a drake American Wigeon that was difficult to pick out in the large duck flocks especially as they kept getting put up by a fishing boat that had very little regard for the wildfowl on the water. We picked out a Pectoral Sandpiper on the shoreline and a couple of Little Stints. Curlew Sandpipers were also present along with Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Grey Plover. 

We've also visited Lemford Springs for a couple of hours. Here we found several Green Sandpipers three Snipe, Water Rail and Kingfisher to name a few of the highlights. There has been a Jack Snipe reported but we failed to see it on our visit. 

Year list now 241

Grafham water

Green Sandpiper

Little Egret

Snipe

Snipe

Snipe

Water Rail

Water Rail