During lockdown 3.0 the bird that I really really wanted to see but very much could not was a Northern Mockingbird which had been frequenting the gardens of Exmouth since at least the 3rd of February. This is only the third UK record of this very rare North American Vagrant and the first for thirty two years. In North American it is mainly resident, only moving south in very harsh winters leading to its great rarity in Europe. With the legal requirement to stay at home removed last week I was up at 04:00 and on my way to Devon hence breaking my twitching fast of some one hundred and forty days since the Surrey Rustic Bunting.
The journey to Exmouth from home is 90% motorway and an uneventfully journey with a coffee break stop had me on site just after 07:30. A small group of birders were on the main road and they immediately got me onto the Mockingbird perched in a garden holly tree. It was as simple as that! I watched through my scope for some time, a lovely subtly coloured bird with a range of light greys and white, a long, elegant tail and bold upright stance somewhat reminiscent of a shrike. It looked to all the world a fit strong bird that was obviously doing rather well in its new found home. It alternated between observing the world from its prominent holy tree perch and a palm tree a few meters away where it was hearty tucking into the palm berries. After a while I wandered up the alleyway between the houses and saw fellow birder and photographer Ian whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to at various twitches in the past. He had come armed with a small set of step ladders to photograph the bird over the wall and kindly offered to let me take a few photographs from this elevated pitch.
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| Northern Mockingbird |
By 09:30 I felt that I had my fill of this wonderful North American visitor and settled down with a coffee to plan the rest of my day. My original intention, if I saw the Mockingbird early enough, was to drive the short distance to RSPB Labrador bay, one of the very few locations where you can see Ciril Buntings in the UK. I checked RBA and saw that the first winter American Herring Gull was still showing well in the bay at Newlyn. After my long enforced break from twitching the lure of getting two UK life ticks in one day was simply too compelling and so I set sail down the A30.
The American Herring Gull has only been split as a separate species from the European Herring Gull comparatively recently with 33 previous records. My nightmare scenario went like this; no other birds present and hundreds of European Herring Gulls on the beach to go through to try and find their subtly different American cousin. As I drove along the coast road I saw a small group of birders peering intently through their scopes at a Gull. I parked my car as soon as I found a safe spot and rushed back to have the American Herring Gull immediately pointed out to me – the closest gull to us on the beach! Sometimes when twitching you spend hours and hours staring at a bush hoping for a fleeting view of the object of your desires and sometimes it’s as simple as this – a very easy reintroduction to twitching.
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| American Herring Gull |
The gull was ridiculously confiding, happily sitting down on the beach resting in the dappled sunlight as a succession of excited admirers came and went. After an hour or so it flew off giving us a view of some of its defining characteristics. This was my cue to make my way slowly home after a truly exhilarating days birding.
We have had a small number of Garganey ducks arrive in Worcestershire over the past week or so. This is a comparatively scare summer migrant which, nonetheless, I would expect to record most years. The rather small Teal sized drake is a particularly stunning duck with a purple-brown head, a white crescent by its eye to the side of its nape and black and white scapulars. A showy drake had been reported over the past few days at Stourvale Marsh in delightful (sic!) Kidderminster a short drive north from my home. So on Thursday morning I parked in the Kidderminster road directed by RBA and, as per normal, used my OS locate app to guide me to the precise grid reference the Garganey had been reported from. This took me to the river which seemed all wrong as previous photographs had shown the bird to be in a marshy area with reeds and sedge. A certain amount of exploring eventually took me to the right spot several hundred meters from the map reference and after a few moments I caught a quick glimpse of the drake Garganey in its breeding plumage finery partially hidden in the vegetation. After 15 minutes or so it reappeared and gave me some great views over the next couple of hours allowing me to capture its beauty on virtual film.
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| Garganey |
Back at home the birding activity of the past couple of weeks has been most notable for the on mass arrival of Chiffchaffs with males signing their monotonous chiff-chaff mantra from seemly every bush as they seek to establish territories and attract a mate.
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| One of our many Chiffchaffs |
My other home ornithological highlight has been finding two nests. Our seemingly resident pair of Collared Doves have built a nest in one of our stables and appear to be incubating eggs. I must say that, unlike the elegant Collared Dove parent, the nest is a rather ramshackle and precarious looking construction perched across a rafter. The other nest I, or rather Folly our Doberman, found hosts a Mallard. It is in a Periwinkle under our Wisteria right next to one of our back doors which leads onto what we call our courtyard. I’m sure I had walked within inches of the nest many times but Folly sticking her nose in was surely the ultimate indignation for the expectant mother who flushed and shot off over the hedge in a whirl of feathers! I quickly removed Folly, both dogs are now banned from the area, and looked inside the Periwinkle to find a beautifully constructed nest, quite the opposite to that of the collared doves, lined with some downy feathers and hosting 11 pristine duck blue eggs. I was concerned that Folly had frightened off the mother for good but she returned within the hour and has been faithfully incubating her eggs for the past ten days. I’ve set up a trail cam to try and capture her movements and, in particular, the moment when the precocious ducklings leave their nest. This has shown that the very attentive mother only leaves her nest for an hour or so in the early hours to attend to her needs. We did see a stoat quite close to the nest which would surely have predated the eggs if he had found them but, fingers crossed, he seems to have been blissfully unaware of their presence.
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| The precarious Collared Dove nest |
The largest of our ponds had become a mass of glowing yellow marsh marigolds. The beauty of moving to a new house is that you are never sure what delights the garden holds until you have a gone a full season. The new fruit in the fruit cage is showing the first signs of spring growth and I’ve finally finished the slab which will eventually host my Victorian greenhouse which is due to be delivered in June. Due to the slope, the slab has oak sleeper retaining walls holding some 8 tonnes of hardcore all of which had to be barrowed across the site. In total I calculated that I’ve moved 13 tonnes of material from the front of the house to the slab location in the past month – no wonder I have lost a very healthy 6 pounds in the process!
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| Marsh Marrigolds |
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| The 13 Tonne Slab! |
Your new place looks beautiful Jim.
ReplyDeleteit definitely is we are very lucky!
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