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| White-throated Sparrow |
A White Throated Sparrow has been present in the village of Barcombe in Sussex since at least early February. It was originally identified from a photograph taken in a garden but was un-twitchable due to both its private location and hard lockdown 3.0. It was subsequently rediscovered last week in the village allotments next to the recreation ground. Judging by the photographs appearing on social media, it was giving very good views so I decided to twitch it on Monday this week which would hopefully also be after the weekend twitching rush. I have seen both the White-throated and the closely related White-crowned Sparrow before in North America but this would represent a UK life tick for me.
The White-throated Sparrow is a comparatively common summer visitor to Canada and the Northern United States migrating south for the winter. The label Sparrow, however, is a little misleading to birders this side of the pond as North Americans call their Buntings Sparrows. The Latin name Zonotrichia albicollis is literally translated as hair like with white neck, the hair like bit apparently referring to its stripped head. Strong westerly winds blew a number of very rare, at least by European standards, North American southern bound migrants across the Atlantic last autumn and I would guess the most likely scenario is that this vagrant was blown over at the same time but not observed, or at least positively identified, until late winter. The Balcombe bird has been heard signing in the past week, possibly indicating that it will try to migrate north soon. I always have mixed emotions when lost birds like this start to sing. I’m of course happy to hear them in song but also sad because they have no chance of attracting a mate.
I checked the weather forecast on Sunday evening before I went to bed and both Pirton and Balcombe were showing sunny intervals and low probability of precipitation throughout Monday. I had, what for me at least on a twitching day, amounted to a lie in and got up at 05:00. Much to my surprise it was snowing heavily with an inch or so already settled on the ground and cars! How it is possible to get a very short range forecast so badly wrong with satellites seeing what’s coming over the horizon and some of the worlds most powerful supercomputers the met office only knows! The journey to Sussex from Pirton is mostly motorway and driving was slower than normal due to the rapidly growing Monday work traffic and the continued heavy snow. I stopped on the M25 services for a coffee from my flask and a generous slice of my wife’s delicious home made malt loaf. The snow was not letting up so I checked the weather for my location on the met office site and the current weather, i.e. not the forecast, was said to be sunny intervals with a 5% chance of precipitation – I give up!
I eventual arrived in Balcombe and claimed the last spot in the car park I was directed to by RBA. A birder was just returning to his car and he kindly pointed me towards the allotments only a few hundred meters away. When I arrived at the designated spot there were ten or so birders viewing a picnic table that had been baited with bird seed. One said “hello Jim” and I turned around to see Nottingham birder and ace photographer Ian whom I also bumped into at my recent Mockingbird twitch. He told me that the bird was showing well off and on at the picnic table. Sure enough the White-throated Sparrow soon appeared and took seed from the table. During the course of the morning it would appear every 30 minutes or so to feed on and under the table. I was keen, if possible however, to get a more natural picture of the bird. I was eyeing a nearby blackthorn bush absolutely dripping with frothy white blossom and hoping that the bird would perch in it long enough for a photograph. I had, somewhat jealously I have to say, seen a really beautiful picture of it in the blossom on social media. Sadly it was not to be and the best I managed was this shot on lichen covered branches.
As the morning wore on the weather and light slowly improved and with nothing else locally to really tempt me, I decided to stay until late afternoon when good light was forecast (sic!) . Unfortunately the bird became more and more elusive as the afternoon wore on due to lots of disturbance from a group of children playing nearby. I did, however, hear but not see my first Cuckoo of the year.
Later in the afternoon we did hear the bird singing from within the bushes. Birds of Ontario by Andy Bezener describes its song as sounding like dear sweet Canada Canada Canada but I must confess that having now heard the bird singing myself I suspect a liberal dose of poetic licence has been applied to reach this conclusion!
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| For comparison here is the very similar looking White-crowned Sparrow taken in Canada a few years ago |
At four o’clock I decided I had had enough and made my way slowly home on the motorway whilst listening to radio 4 to past the time.
The other birding trip I have done since my last blog was back to Grimley last Friday. At only 20 minutes from home and with very promising habitat and good historical bird reports, this promises to be my new pit 60. I discovered some footpaths on the camp lane pits, which were not on OS locate and so were presumably new, which afforded excellent views of the lakes. I spent a very pleasant 30 minutes while there listening and watching my first signing Blackcap of the year. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine that the Blackcap is playing a tiny flute so exquisite is its song! I also managed to pick out my first House Martin of the year in a large flock of Sand Martins and Swallows and also had my first Willow Warbler of the year. Slightly oddly, given fairly numerous reports elsewhere, I did not see or hear any Reed or Sedge Warblers but am planning to go back this Friday for another look.
The birding highlight back at the ranch has been the hatching of 11 delightfully cute Mallard ducklings from the nest right by our back door. The gestation period is a comparatively long 28 days and, as far as I could tell from my trail cam, the mother was only leaving the nest briefly once every day in the early hours, presumably to grab a quick bite to eat. The long gestation period means that the new born chicks are precocious. This means that, unlike many birds which are born looking more like their reptilian ancestors with bare skin and eyes closed, they are immediately mobile and can feed themselves. The mother usually leads them from the nest to the nearest water as soon as they have dried out from hatching. The route, however, to our large pond from her chosen nest site was a real obstacle course and she seemed somewhat confused as to how to get out. In the end Carolyn opened a gate for them and they made their way to the pond early on Tuesday morning. The trail cam showed the new born chicks immediately tackling and eating tuffs of grass and other small plants and climbing, or actually jumping very comically over obstacles.
Our Collared Doves continue to incubate an unknow number of eggs in their ramshackle nest in one of our stables and a Swallow is now checking out the stables, fingers crossed that they pick them to nest in.
Nature really is a truly wonderful therapy for the stress of modern day life, particularly in this so difficult of times.
Nice one Jim :-)
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