Paul Matson's Birding Blog: December 2021

Friday, 31 December 2021

Friday 31st December - December update

The final couple of weeks this month have been particular dark, dank, wet and windy and with little inspiration as the year ends. I though a general wrap up of the last month was appropriate.

I visited Selsey on the 7th and the 18th, neither spectacular but always worthwhile with a large movement of Kittiwakes on the 7th plus a Slavonian Grebe, with only a few duck moving on the 18th and both visits producing Great Northern Divers and a few Red-throated Divers.

I went to Iping Common on the 16th in very murky conditions to try and find a Little Bunting. After a couple of hours of no sign it suddenly showed itself for a few minutes at the top of a birch tree. There were 4+ Woodlarks in song which was a surprise plus a flock of c100 Redwing.

Around the house and garden, it often becomes quieter over xmas and that has proved the case. In early December there was a large flock of Siskin and Goldfinch, perhaps numbering 200 birds all feeding in the Alders. Redwing are scarcer now all the berries are stripped but one or two are still around. A Grey Wagtail is often seen and a couple of Pied Wagtails visited when the weather was cold and frosty mid-month. A surprise Kingfisher briefly visited the pond on the 14th (as it has done in the last couple of years) and the first Winter Brambling has appeared with 8 Chaffinches but is not a daily visitor at the moment.

We end the year as ever with optimism about 2022, but still without concrete plans due to the ongoing covid concerns. We have been lucky and have remained covid free as a family and hope those less fortunate can find hope in the year to come. Happy New Year.

Different colour variation in a Pheasant at home

Distant shot of the Little Bunting on Iping Common

Little Bunting

Monday November 29th - Tough Mudder

About 6 years ago I did a November assault course with Adie called Tough Mudder (when I was much fitter than I am today!), which as the name suggests involves traversing a number of difficult obstacles over a very muddy 5km course including being submersed in freezing water on hands and knees in underwater pipes. I remember a sense of achievement in completing the course but I had no intention of trying anything like it again.

Sally and I returned from the Cotswolds on Sunday afternoon and soon after Gary called and asked whether I would be interested in trying to see the Belted Kingfisher which had been seen near Preston. I had no other plans so drove to Gary's around 1am and we set off towards a Cemetery near Preston at 2 am and arrived around 6.30am in a temperature of -4C.

The instructions for on site were quite simple, walk the short distance on a path, descend the steep slope to the river bank. We were mistakenly confident enough to talk about what we might later in the morning having seen the bird. The slope through woodland to the bank of the River Ribble was rather more than just a slope or even a steep slope, a very steep almost cliff-like wooded bank that we estimated at more than 150m descent. We left scopes in the car packed well away any camera equipment in backpacks and tucked in binoculars to limit the possibility of accidents on the descent. It actually helped that it was a bit frosty, making the ground a little firmer without the slimy mud patches that appeared later and with the use of hands, knees, backside and gravity we made it down at around 7.25am just before first light, we set ourselves up on the muddy bank and waited. In the next 2 hours we saw Common Kingfisher, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Goosander, Grey Wagtail and surprisingly an Otter, but no sign of the Belted Kingfisher. Hope was then ignited when we heard that another group of birders who were standing around 400m away on the bend of the river had seen the bird around the bend, but out of view for us, we decided to relocate to give ourselves a better chance. We couldn't walk along the bank so the only way to relocate was up the ridiculously steep and now muddy slope, walk the 400m on a path at the top of the ridge and then crawl back down the ridiculously steep and now very muddy slope.

To curtail the story, we arrived at the new spot around 10.15am puffing a bit, more than a bit muddy and with screaming thighs. Just before 4pm as the light was fading with the Belted Kingfisher making no appearance and having not taken any food or water with us, we dragged our rather cold bodies back up the slope one more time, just making it back to the car as they were locking the cemetery gates for the night, tempted to add that we nearly ended up in a dead-end for the night. It made for a rather long journey home.

This was the view we 'enjoyed' for nearly 8 hours.

November 28th-29th - Cotswold visit

In the mid-90's when I lived and worked in London I had a weekend cottage in Fulbrook, near Burford in the cotswolds. Sal and I used to visit most weekends. I had to sell when we moved to Sussex in 1998. For Sals birthday she asked to go to the Cotswolds for the weekend, partly for shops and partly for nostalgia.

We drove up on Saturday morning in what turned into a blizzard as we approached Burford, the weather on Saturday was pretty grim so wasn't a problem in a festive mood going to various shops in various villages. We stayed overnight in a great pub in Shipton-under-Wychwood and then on Sunday morning in clear blue skies and a frosty ground, went on a 9km walk from Burford past my old cottage in Fulbrook and back along the River Windrush via Milton-under Wychwood.

As a very landlocked and fairy bleak agricultural landscape I always remember birds being fairly sparse, but on our walk we came across good numbers of Fieldfare and Redwing, a large flock of c40 Yellowhammer, Skylarks, Linnet and Meadow Pipit, plenty of Red Kite and coveys of Red-legged Partridge.

Very enjoyable weekend.

Thursday 18th and Wednesday 24th November- Selsey and Church Norton

Two trips in a week, same itinerary and similar results but reasonably good Winter birding, highlights were at Selsey, Velvet Scoter, Mergansers, lots of Guillemot and Razorbill, 6 Great Northern Divers. At Church Norton, lots of common waders including Golden Plover, Whimbrel, 14 Avocet, Bar-tailed Godwit. Goldeneye, 4 Goosanders and 6 Slavonian Grebes, Peregrine and lots of Brent Geese and common wildfowl species and a Water Rail was seen near the Siddlesham visitor centre.

Roosting Grey Plover, Dunlin and a Golden Plover

Brent Geese

Goosander

Goosander with a flat-fish

Goosander

Water Rail

Thursday 4th November - Thrush movement

I went to Black Down again this morning, but no sign of the Ring Ouzel, there were 14 Fieldfare and a large movement of Woodpigeons with over 200 birds, returning home I noticed a couple of groups of Fieldfare fly over the house late morning , so I set myself up with a coffee and watched a large and quite spectacular movement of thrushes overt the next couple of hours all flying SW some quite high. I counted 470 Fieldfare, 245 Redwing and unusually 3 species of Gull and even had a Goshawk join in which looked like it was hunting Fieldfare.

Tuesday 2nd November - Black Down .. again

Having arrived back from Spurn yesterday, inevitably the winds temporarily relented and switched around to a more promising Northerly wind and given the lateness of some of the autumn arrivals I went to Black Down again to see what had changed since the previous week. I was in luck, A single Whitebeam on the reservoir track held a Mistle Thrush, several Redwing and 21 Brambling, 2 Fieldfare and then with a familiar chacking a first year Ring Ouzel flew into the tree for several minutes. A very welcome late bird.

Ring Ouzel

Thursday 28th October - Monday 1st November. - Spurn Weekend.

A bit like my weekend at Portland Bill, before last year I'd managed to stay at Spurn for a few days in previous autumns so was keen to do so again. This time I went with Paul Bowley. The weather did not look promising at all with blustery W or SW winds and rain predicted, not always the best for East coast migration, but we would play the cards we were dealt with and try and find what was available.

Thursday 28th

Leaving early we had an easy journey and our first birding stop (not counting the service station where a roost of Pied Wagtails was seen before dawn) was at Blacktoft Sands RSPB on the south side of the Humber, intending to connect with the long staying White-tailed Lapwing which duly obliged and was one of the first birds we encountered. A large Pink-footed Goose flock was in the surrounding fields and the small wader flock held a Little Stint along with Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Dunlin and Snipe. 3 Marsh Harriers were seen over the reeds and a small number of Tree Sparrows around the entrance path in the increasing wind.

Next stop was North Cave Wetlands which was en-route the other side of the Humber Estuary. Not a place either of us had visited but a series of old gravel extraction pits which had been turned into a nature reserve and had a couple of decent hides and viewing points. Our target here was a Green-winged Teal and we soon found this bird although it remained mostly asleep on an island close to one of the hides. In addition to the large flocks of feral Geese, Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon and Tufted Duck were found along with Ruff. A decent butty van was also a highlight for brunch !.

We then headed through Hull and out towards Kilnsea it was greta seeing more Pink-feet in skeins as we got close to Spurn, with the wind so strong the only place worthwhile a visit was the hide at Kilnsea Wetlands. 23 Whooper Swans were in the fields next to the Wetlands with around 150 Brent Geese, which included a Pale-bellied Brent Goose and a slightly leucistic bird. There was also a 1W Caspian Gull in with the gulls. We stayed in the hide for a couple of hours, then dumped our bags in the observatory and went for an evening walk around the Triangle until the light went although it was a little too windy for many more birds.

Friday 29th

The morning was spent, mainly seawatching, with a fairly strong SW wind and some squally showers. It was pretty decent (by south coast standards !) a large movement of duck and waders were the highlight , 7 Eider, 78 Common Scoter, 194 Wigeon, 138 Teal and large numbers of, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin and unusually 5 Snipe moving with the other waders. Also Little Gull, Sandwich Tern, 3 Red-throated Diver and inbound passerines totalled 11 Skylark over 100 Starlings and 8 Blackbird.

After a wet interlude around midday seeing around 30 Chaffinch, Tree Sparrow, Redwing and a Brambling form the Obs window, we walked in a circuit and ended up at the wetlands. A Spotted Redshank and 17 Med Gulls were on the wetlands and a Peregrine as hunting and the 23 Whooper Swans were still on the fields.

Saturday 30th

With a marginally dryer morning we spent more time at the vis-mig watchpoint whilst keeping an eye on the sea. There was still an excellent movement of duck flying South with >250 Wigeon an a similar number of Teal, 5 Pintail, Pochard, 3 Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, Great Northern Diver and Red-throated Diver. Amazingly there was a large movement of Siskin all flying South in small groups into the very strong wind with over 1,600 counted in the day also counted were a Twite, 3 Brambling, 11 Lesser Redpoll, 20+Linnet, 18 Rock Pipit, c20 Skylark, the occasional Swallow and several hundred Starling.

We ended the day again at the wetlands, this time waiting until dusk, when the incredible spectacle of c2,000 Pink-footed Geese coming to roost into the wetlands from elsewhere around the Humber, with the 23 Whooper Swans also coming off the fields to roost on the water.

Probably our best day of the trip.

Sunday 31st

The weather didn't help this morning and although we tried another sea-watch, there was very little moving compared to previous days and visibility soon became poor when the rain started.

The rain cleared through early afternoon and we walked from the Obs walking up Beacon Lane to Beacon Ponds and found 2 very obliging Snow Bunting on the beach. We had several more groups of Siskin moving with several Skylark and a few newly arrived Redwing but otherwise the afternoon remained quite.

Monday 1st November

We wanted to leave by around 10.30am as a small diversion to Nottingham on the way back to pick up Hannah was in the plan. We managed a short sea-watch and vis-mig session, adding Merlin, 2 more Snow Bunting and an inbound Pink-footed Goose with a similar movement of Siskin and Linnet which ended an enjoyable trip.

White-tailed Lapwing

Dunlin

Dunlin with Teal

Roosting Waders, White-tailed Lapwing, Redshank, Dunlin and Little Stint.

Pink-footed Geese

Green-winged Teal (middle, back, asleep)

Pink-footed Geese

Black-tailed Godwits

Peregrine

Lapwing

Whooper Swans at twilight

Snow Bunting

Wednesday, 29 December 2021

Saturday October 23rd - Black Down

Autumn on Black Down in October can be really good for migrant birds and a particular highlight is the Ring Ouzel which often appear in small numbers which sometimes depend on the berry crop particular on Whitebeams. This year there has been a reasonable berry crop. The peak for Ring Ouzels is normally the second week of October and they will have moved through by the end of the month. But like many things this year is different and to date none have appeared and migrants have been generally thin on the ground (or tree). I was leading a bird walk for the local Natural History society on Saturday (and they also mention Ring Ouzel as a possible highlight), so I did a couple of visits beforehand this week to check what was around.

The answer was little and there was still no real change to the NW winds. A flock of c20 Brambling has been the highlight with up to a dozen Crossbills and a handful of Redwing were the only sign of migrant thrushes. The walk went quite well and was blessed with a dry still morning and we did see the Brambling, Crossbill, Redwing, Stonechat, Redpoll and Linnet amongst other common species. Just a shame about the lack of Ring Ouzels.

Friday 8th October - Sunday 17th October - Scilly trip

The week before our trip was spent with anticipation and everlasting hope that the winds might change. For the best birds, Scilly needs the occasional storm front which originates in America blowing strongly across the Atlantic to arrive at our shores and then helpfully interspersed with some Easterly and Southerly airflows all originating far East and far South, indeed mixed weather is ideal to produce excellent autumn birding. Instead what we've had is an unrelenting strong NW wind originating somewhere around Iceland that has been gradually nudged out of the way by a high pressure zone which centres off the Irish coast..... perhaps this can be appropriately termed the Scilly birding doldrums, great for tourists and in-fact we experienced the equivalent of a dreamy Mediterranean holiday with warm weather plenty of sun, little wind and clear skies.

Before our arrival, there had been one or two interesting birds on the islands such as the Balearic Woodchat Shrike, that had lingered for over 3 weeks and we were anticipating picking these off after landing, but they duly departed before we got a chance, with the last sighting all seemed to be on Thursday.

However, Ian, Gary, Chris and I were undeterred and gathered with enthusiasm on Friday morning at my house for the drive to Penzance. A full tank of fuel was importantly in place with the continuing fuel shortages still existing. My excitement heightened on the morning as I had 3 Redwing flyover when I was waiting for the others to arrive, my first of the autumn.

The journey was fairly relaxed, we had half a plan to head to the Salcombe peninsula to try and see a Red-eyed Vireo which had been found yesterday, but on reaching Exeter, negative news had come through so we continued as far as Bodmin before stopping at Dozmery Pool. Shortly after getting out of the car Gary spotted a male Hen Harrier gliding over the far side of the lake, a top sighting on any day and the Ring-necked Duck was easily found with some Tufted Duck we also added Raven and a flock of c300 Golden Plover were nearby.

We went the short distance to Siblyback reservoir where a Grey Phalarope had been seen the previous day, which there was no sign but we added Kingfisher, and 3 Wheatear. We had enough time to visit a Cornish valley on the West coast before light faded and opted for Cot Valley. It was quiet, but we did see Chough, Merlin, Stonechat, Rock Pipit, Firecrest, Blackcap and Chiffchaff.

We spent the night in the Premier Inn at the harbour and had a decent meal in a local pub and were up early and down to the quay for the Ferry crossing to St Mary's

The crossing was calm but reasonably active for birds, with another Merlin seen before we got on the boat and then 2 Balearic and 8 Manx Shearwaters, a Peregrine, a few Razorbill, Guillemot, Gannet and a Sandwich Tern and a coupe of pods of Common Dolphin and Harbour Porpoise. We arrived around midday and adopted the same routine as last year to do a food shop in the Co-op and cart our bags to the accommodation, settled in, then went for a walk in the afternoon around the centre of St Mary's. There had been very little reported, even the reliable Turtle Dove seemed to have gone and our highlight was a Pied Flycatcher.

Sunday 10th

With nothing specific being reported that we wanted to see first, we decided to visit St Martin's, the one island we did not visit last year. Before the boat left the quay at St Mary's we had a quick walk on the Garrison and had a surprise Dotterel flyover and head towards the north of the Island. On St Martin's we did see a Little Bunting, Whinchat, Wheatear, Stonechat, Blackcap but no sign of a Common Rosefinch that we spent a while looking for in a bulb field. On returning to St Mary's we wandered down to Lower Moors and the best bird we saw was a Jack Snipe which ended a fairly quiet day.

Monday 11th

We opted to visit Tresco this morning, as an American Golden Plover had been present on Castle Down with 3 Dotterel and was probably the only decent option. On arriving, we headed straight up to Castle Down with a number of other birders and had a surprise when the distinctive call of a Red-throated Pipit was heard as the bird flew over our heads and settled somewhere on the Down a few hundred metres away, there were lots of Meadow Pipits and despite some hopeful shouts of finding the bird on the deck we only saw a number of pale and streaky looking Meadow Pipits. The Great Pool held a few wildfowl we added to our trip list, and a new trip bird included Spotted Redshank and another Jack Snipe was at the edge of the pool. News of Red-breasted Flycatcher being found a few hundred metres along the path had us in a brief scramble, we all eventually got views of the flycatcher but it was pretty awkward and stayed well hidden in the Sallow scrub. We returned to St Mary's on the later boat and then went down to the local Porthloo beach where 3 Black Redstarts were giving good views.

Tuesday 12th

Another quiet day where we remained on St Mary's all day, it started with a wander through to Lower Moors where we had good views of Jack Snipe, Common Snipe and Water Rail. We weren't far from where a Serin had been seen a Parting Carn and as we joined the crowd we had brief views of the Serin before it flew up to alight briefly in a tree before flying away. We then walked toward Longstones where a Rustic Bunting had been seen feeding at the back of a field with Linnets. It eventually showed but the views were disappointingly distant and we didn't have a scope between us. Another Black Redstart was in the same area. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the island but added very little.

Wed 13th

St Mary's all day on what was probably our quietest birding day, with the highlight being probably my best ever views of a Merlin, which brushed past me in a low swoop then landed on a close rock and remained perched for a few minutes in perfect light. The bonus was the weather continued to be glorious so being out was a pleasure despite the lack of birds.

Thurs 14th

Hope ensued today with a slight change in winds and after a Bluethroat which had been seen yesterday afternoon on Bryher and an early boat had been put on this morning, it was with little difficulty we agreed to visit Bryher this morning.

On the crossing we added the islands only Pale bellied Brent Geese and on arrival it was clear there had been a decent fall of Redwing, we added to the geese with 2 Pink-footed Geese on Bryher Pool, but as we arrived near Gweal Hill there had been no sign of the Bluethroat. A Wryneck had also been seen nearby, which had also gone to ground. After waiting a while for the Wryneck not to appear we walked over to the area where Bluethroat was last seen, and after around 30 minutes there was a brief sighting on a cliff-edge path. We positioned ourselves and waited, unbelievably the Bluethroat popped onto path right next to us and gave great views. We walked back to where the Wryneck had been seen and eventually it gave decent but brief views, our luck was changing !

Gary and I went for coffee and cake leaving Ian and Chris to navigate the South of the island. We walked around the old campsite area where there were plenty of Redwings, Siskin and Chaffinch moving plus we found a Common Redstart and Common Whitethroat (our only ones of the trip).

We met Ian and Chris back near the boats and decided to hop off the St Mary's return boat at Tresco as a Red-rumped Swallow had been seen at the Old Town Bay and we worked out we would have just enough time to try for this bird then walk to the southern point where the last boat back to St Mary's would be departing. The route-march to Old Town bay had us stopping briefly, a Yellow-browed Warbler called and showed in a Sycamore above the path which was our only one of the trip (and my only one this autumn !). Unfortunately, on arriving in Old Town we discovered the Swallow had already continued its journey and flown to St Martins, so we walked quickly to the Southern end of Tresco arriving just in time for the returning boat adding a Yellow Wagtail to the trip list on the way.

Back at base on St Mary's we had almost decided the day had ended but instead worked out we could just about make it to Toll's Porth before light went, a very brisk walk along the coast had us at Toll's Porth in about 35 minutes and there was just sufficient time and light for all of us to eventually get a scope view of the Spotted Sandpiper which was playing hide and seek in the rocks on the shoreline. A slower stroll back had us arriving at base in the dark but ended an excellent day which was definitely our highlight of the week.

Friday 15th

Report of a Radde's Warbler and Common Rosefinch on the Garrison edge of town, saw us head there first thing, not surprisingly neither were visible, our walk around the Garrison produced very little other than a few Blackcaps near the scout hut and we decided to try and find a Snow Bunting which had been seen on rocks from a boat on the path back to town, but yet again a Snow Bunting eluded us. Undeterred by our lack of success in the morning, reports of a Red-rumped Swallow near Port Hellick had us marching in that direction. We spent quite a while trying to scan over the pool and reedbeds from quite a distance back on the road and had some very unsatisfactory views of the swallow. Eventually we persuaded ourselves to relocate to the beach and on arrival ended with quite prolonged and excellent views of the Red-rumped Swallow which was hawking with a group of Barn Swallows and House Martins. The other highlight was a Monarch Butterfly which flew over our heads whilst we were Swallow watching.

Saturday 16th

Our final morning on the islands and the weather remained the same. We decamped from the apartment and took our bags to the quay, then had a few hours birding before queuing for the Ferry. We walked to the Newford Duckpond, which was hosting a typically skulky but vocal Dusky Warbler which after a short wait at least offered views, then a bit of circling back on ourselves and we were looking at a Red- backed Shrike on some gorse at the back of a field. We spent a short while in Carag Dhu gardens with only Siskins to view and a spot of lunch at the Longstone cafe before finally back to the boat.

The Ferry crossing was once again calm and we lucked in with 2 Purple Sandpipers which felw close to the boat and a Sooty Shearwater. Arriving on the dark we drove to Hayle for an overnight in the Premier Inn.

Sunday 17th

A quick visit to the Hayle Estuary was in order before we headed home and after a bit of a wait and a lot of scanning we found the Semi-palmated Sandpiper which had been present in the area for a few days, which was a great way to end the trip.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable week, once again the accommodation was excellent, we ate well and had a few laughs and the weather was astonishingly cam, hot and sunny. As for the birds, well we didn't have a big one, but I ended up with a trip list of 122 with just over 100 seen on the islands and a good list of scarce birds. The notable difference which has been a reflection of autumn everywhere is just the general lack of migrants and it certainly felt in the early part of the week that we were struggling to find much until we got to Thursday when it picked up, but I am sure I will be back for another autumn visit.