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| Glaucous Gull |
I love this time of year I really do!!
The hedgerows are transforming from winter bleakness into lime green spring growth almost as though an artist has finally had time to put the finishing touches to his masterpiece. The garden is really starting to come back to life and the greenhouse is overflowing with vegetable and flower seedlings and cuttings. I heat the greenhouse to keep it above freezing in the winter and the frost sensitive perennial lobelias and dahlias are starting to shoot. Avid blog readers may recall that I sow our broad beans in the green house as sowing them directly outside simply provides lunch for our local mouse population. Well, guess what, there is a mouse somewhere in the greenhouse which has eaten every single one of the one hundred beans I planted! My mouse friendly trap is now bated with peanut butter so hopefully the offender will soon be caught and sentenced to transportation!
One highlight of the spring garden is the evergreen clematis Amandi which has grown to cover most of the front gable of the 18th century wing of our house. This time of year it is an absolute mass of pink white flowers and much loved by bees.
The gods of birding have looked kindly on this poor soul recently as follows.
Sunday 8thMarch dawned, as so many days have recently, with the weather unable to make its mind up what to do. One minute it was sunny the next it was raining yet again – good old British changeable weather! Nick had been to see a Glaucous Gull the previous day about 50 miles from home in a small village called Upton Snodsbury near Evesham and had reported very good views. So I thought it would be plain rude not to make the effort to go and see it. Although, with approximately two hundred birds overwintering in the UK, a scarce rather than rare gull, I had only ever seen one in the UK at RSPB Dungeness a few year ago. Glaucous Gull, or Larus Hyperboreus to give it its rather grandiose Latin name, breed in the Artic and winter further south. Glaucous denotes a bluish-green or grey colour describing its adult plumage. This was a first winter bird being a rather pale creamy white or biscuit coloured. My normal experience of looking for rare gulls is at best mixed and consists of looking through large flocks of more common gulls trying to find something that is subtly different. This was not one of these occasions as, when I drove up, there was only one large pale gull sitting down in the field. The reason why it was spending most of the daylight hours in this field became immediately obvious. The high water levels had driven many juicy worms to the surface. The gull would arise, feed continuous for fifteen minutes or so without moving more than a few meters, and then sit back down to digest its latest feast. Some birds play hard to get but this definitely was not one of them!
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| Glaucous Gull |
On Wednesday afternoon news came in via Mick that Tony had found a possible Cattle Egret amongst a flock of Little Egrets at pit 60 so I popped up for a gander. On arrival Mick and Tony were at the top of Shifford lane looking over the flooded area behind the reeds. I looked through Mick’s scope and caught a brief glance of the bird as it flew off! Cue Mick, Mark and I rushing round to the North Hide but the Egrets were out of sight behind the reeds. Tony, who wisely as it turned out, had stayed put soon came to the hide and told us it had reappeared at the original location so we rushed back like the keystone cops. It stayed put for just long enough for me to have a good look at it through my bins before it flew off again! I then had to leave to feed our horses but Mick stayed and saw it again. A year tick for me and, I think, the first record for pit 60 – great stuff!
In the past few days two very rare gulls had been reported in the south of England, a Laughing Gull at Chew Valley lake and a Ross’s Gull in Plymouth. Consulting a map told me that it was eminently possible to attempt to see both in one day. So on Friday I was up early and arrived at Chew Valley lake at 07:30. The bird had been reported from two places the previous day, on a jetty at Woodford Lodge and further along the lake at Heron bay. I first went to Woodford Lodge where in the car park I met fellow birder and photographer Ian who I have met at a number of previous twitches. He sadly told me that there was no sign of the Laughing Gull, in fact there were hardly any gulls there at all. We had a look over the area in front of the lodge and then drove up to Heron Bay where at least there were a few gulls but of the star attraction there was no sign. I did get Common Gull and Common Sandpiper on the year list as very minor compensation. Ian told me that he was planning to go on to Barrow Gurney, only some 10 minutes away. The attraction here was a drake Long-tailed Duck which has wintered on one of the reservoirs in recent years plus two overwintering divers. A £5 day permit is required to bird there which we duly obtained from the lodge office.
I went into a garage to get a sandwich and coffee on route so Ian, who had been there before, arrived ahead of me. On arrival it took me three drive by’s before I found the tiny car park the entrance to which looked like the drive of the adjacent house. Ian was a little way around the reservoir and already on the Long-tailed Duck. ( Mick has corrected me - the ltd is actually in winter plumage still!!!) It was hanging out and diving with a pair of Tufted Ducks and never came particularly close but scope views revealed its true beauty with very long black tail feathers, a white head outlining a dark face and neck and white plumes covering its brown back.
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| Long-tailed Duck |
After an hour or so we walked over the road to see the Divers. There were hardly any other birds on the reservoir so the Great Northern and Black-throated divers were immediately obvious. They were quite distant and we were limited to scope views. Seeing both divers in the same scope view was quite educational as at first glance they can look quite similar. The Black-throated, however, is noticeably smaller and has a peaked rather than smooth head profile. Suitable ticked and on our year lists we went back over the road to see if the Long-tailed Duck was any closer but it wasn’t so I said goodbye to Ian and set sail for my next destination, Plymouth.
The midday drive down to Plymouth was entirely uneventful and once in town I drove over the Laira bridge across the river Plym and headed south along the river bank. I immediately encountered a group of birders staring intently through scopes and taking pictures – the Ross’s Gull was very obviously showing! In such circumstances I’m normally filled with equal parts excitement and dread. Excitement because a bird I’ve never seen before is definitely showing. Dread in case the bird does a bunk before I can park up and get there. On this particular occasion there was no need to worry as the bird was sat on the opposite bank clearly unaware or unconcerned about its admiring fans. Through the scope it was a very dainty little Gull, quite unlike many of its more brash brethren. It looked as likely to steal an ice-cream from a child’s hand as a dove, a bird which it resembled in many ways. It was coming into summer plumage with a very attractive rosy pink flush on its breast. Ross's Gull is a bird of the high Artic which seldom ventures this far south. This was a UK lifer for me and all the sweeter as I missed a bird down in Weymouth by a few hours two years ago. I rattled off a few record shots and then spent the rest of the time admiring its beauty through my scope and trying to commit all its key characteristics to memory. After twenty minutes or so it flew over the bridge and out of sight. I followed it over the bridge but could not relocate it so I adjourned to the local Morrisons for a celebratory gourmet sandwich and crisps lunch as part of their £3 deal.
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| Ross's Gull |
My plan was now to drive back to Chew for a second go at the Laughing Gull which had been seen coming into roost around 17:00 on the previous evening. After another uneventful drive only punctuated by a coffee at a drive through to keep me awake I had a quick look to see if the Long-tailed duck was closer in, it wasn’t, and then continued back to Winford Lodge. On arrival at the entrance I checked RBA and was delighted to see that the bird had just flown in with the gull flock to roost – whoopee!!!
There were quite a few birders present and, as ever, a friendly birder let me view and hence life tick the bird through his scope before I had mine set up. It was again quite distant, the story of the day, so I settled down to watch it through my scope. Laughing Gull is a comparatively common American bird which very occasionally gets blown off course and on to our shores. Unlike the adult Ross’s Gull this was a first winter bird with the brownish overall appearance of most young gulls. Its beak really stood out as being different appearing very long, thin and black. The whole flock of gulls occasionally became unsettled and took flight but landed back in front of the lodge. Twilight was progressing and it was time to draw this wonderful day of Gulls to close. My hope at the start of the day was to get one of these rare gulls on my life list, getting both made it a very special day indeed!
More locally, the main Island at Dix pit is a now veritable mass of breeding birds. On Saturday the 14thof March I counted at least 15 Heron nests most now with gawky youngsters harassing their parents for food. They are cheek by jowl with their neighbouring Little Egret and Cormorant nests, truly natures continuous cycle of life in full swing.
Today I headed up to High Wycombe where a Black-bellied Dipper had been found a few days ago. This was presumably the same bird that I dipped, sorry about the awful pun, a week or so ago in Northampton. It was reported as showing well on a fast flowing stream adjacent to some playing fields and sure enough on arrival it was. It was somewhat larger than our common Dipper with the obvious black belly. It was taking caddisfly larva from the bubbling stream and jumping onto the bank to eat them. They really are amazing little birds who are more than at home under fast flowing water that you would guess would surely wash them away.
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| Black-bellied Dipper |
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| Common Dipper for comparison |
So, a fantastic week or so of birding – I hope I haven’t used up all my luck though!
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