The Standlake Birder

  Melodious Warbler The Melodious Warbler is the South Western cousin of the Icterine Warbler that I was fortunate enough to see and photograph at Spurn  recently. It closely resembles the Icterine Warbler which it replaces in France and Spain. Like its cousin, it is an insectivorous  summer migrant to Europe migrating to Africa in the autumn for the winter. I’ve had a bit of a warbler fest this year so far adding six warblers to my UK list. The only non-mega remaining hole was indeed the foresaid Melodious Warbler, a scarce rather than mega vagrant averaging 20 -30 records a year. So when one was reported at Dawlish Warren Nature reserve in Devon the game was well and truly on! Sadly, the poor Dawlish warbler has had an unfortunate encounter with something animal or vegetable in nature leaving it one-eyed. These warblers are normally only in one location for a day or two before moving on, but this individual has stayed longer, its reluctance to move prob...

Ruff I spent Sunday morning at Slimbridge dipping a Citrine Wagtail that my good birding friend Nick  had found the previous day. Although early access for members  is still restricted, Slimbridge very kindly put in place a guided entry system for members wishing to see the bird from the car park at 08:00. I arrived at 07:30 and managed to get myself booked onto the first tour of ten but, unfortunately, there was no sign of the bird from the Hogarth hide where it had been seen the previous day. I had a walk around the reserve and then went back to the Hogarth hide for a second look where I met my birding friend Ewan. We spent the next hour or so chatting and taking pictures of very confiding Ruffs and Green Sandpipers right in front of the hide. At one point we heard that the Wagtail had been spotted at the Kingfisher hide so we rushed around there only to find a small distant flock of what appeared to be Yellow Wagtails in amongst the cattle, a case of mistaken iden...

Note to self – remind me to bemoan the summer doldrums for birding as this results in extraordinary events! Collared Flycatcher So, in my last blog I bemoaned the summer doldrums  for being a very dead time for birding. Well, the god of birding clearly is one of the two people who read my blog and she decided to do something about it! Starting on Monday, easterly winds drove early continental migrators onto the north east coast in general and Spurn in particular in a birding event that would have been very special in the migration hotspot of October let alone one of quietest  times of the year in early August. The big mega, a Collared Flycatcher, is a very rare bird indeed, and, together with a very strong supporting cast of Icterine and Greenish Warblers, multiple Red-backed Shrikes and other hard to get birds in Oxfordshire such as Pied Flycatchers, there was no doubt at all where I was going on Tuesday! I set off from home just after 5am with the...

Spotted Redshank This time of year is generally known as the summer doldrums by birders. The spring passage is long finished, the autumn passage proper is still at least a month away and all other birds are much too busy raising their young to sit on a tree and look pretty for us. Many birders at this time of year take solace in butterflies and dragonflies but I must confess that this doesn't hit the spot for me.  My recourse in recent years has been my bolt hole at pit 60. Even with little bird activity it is a very pleasant way to spend the morning drinking coffee either on my own or sorting out the world’s problems with local birders Ade and Mick. With this bolt hole fully closed to me this year and the garden pretty much being in sit and enjoy mode, I must confess that I have been at a bit of a loose end so this week I decided to visit the recently reopened Slimbridge. I wanted to avoid the heat forecast from Friday onwards so opted for Thursday which was forecast a...