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| Whiskered Tern |
Well, that’s my entry for the “worst pun in a blog title” award sorted!
So, it turns out that the Whiskered Tern I dipped a week or so ago at Abbotsbury had only relocated a little east and inland to Longham lakes near Bournemouth. With loads of other commitments this week post our Cornwall holiday the first day I could realistically go to try and see it again was Friday. Would it stay for another 5 days or would I miss out on seeing it again? The gods of birding were to shine kindly on me this time!
With no real need to get up at the crack of dawn, I set off from home at 7 am and arrived in Longham around 09:30. I found some on road parking near the lake, the onsite parking is for permit holders only, and walked the short distance to the lake. There are two adjacent disused gravel pit lakes one of which is used for fishing the other managed for wildlife. There is a well-made gravel path for walkers around the lakes with signs informing dog walkers to keep their pets on leads, an instruction that was being well observed while I was there. Unlike Abbotsbury there were no Common Terns present and hence the Whiskered Tern was immediately obvious hawking for the many midges present over the largest wildlife lake – phew!
The Whiskered Tern is a member of the Marsh tern genus which are typically found in freshwater marshes, rather than coastal locations. The Marsh Tern genus name Chlidonias means swallow like referring to their swallow life flying and feeding habits. Seen well it is obviously different from the Common Tern having a square tail rather than streamers and a distinctive dark smoky grey body and contrasting white cheeks. I have now seen 11 tern species in the UK, Common, Sandwich, Artic, Black, White-winged, Little, Roseate, Whiskered, Caspian, Gull-Billed and Little. If there is to be another one it will need to be a mega rarity but that’s the nice thing about this hobby, you literally have no idea what weird and wonderful great rarity may turn up next!
Five minutes after I arrived I noticed that my birding buddy Nick from Oxford and his wife Anne had also just arrived. We spent the next hour or so alternatively watching and photographing the Tern and catching up on gossip, a thing that we birders are particularly fond of!
We said our goodbyes and Nick and Anne departed. I checked RBA to see if there was anything else in range for me to divert to. A Golden Oriel had been seen briefly at Portland but had now flown off so I decided to stay a while longer and explore the lakes. The mile or so walk around the lake was very pleasant and peaceful and with time in hand I walked slowly taking in the natural spectacle of spring all around me. Reed Warblers were by far the commonest bird seemly occupying ever small patch of reeds where the males blasted out their punk like scratchy song.
Reed Warblers and their kin can be sulky little blighters, see here, so I was a little surprised to see a male right out in the open in full song. Another Reed Warbler appeared only a meter or so away from the songster which I assumed was his mate. It was soon obvious this was not the case as the second bird also burst into agitated song. Presumably one was the incumbent and the other was an intruder. The singing got louder and louder and more agitated when all of a sudden one flew at and attacked the other.! A whirling melee of feathers fell into the water. Was one trying to drown the other or were they so fixated on their duel that neither realised they were plunging to the water? It was all over in a few seconds with the vanquished flying off and the victor sitting on an exposed reed shaking its body vigorously to dry off. I’ve seen many other species fight like this, sometimes as in coots extremely viciously, but I’ve never seen warblers engaged in such a battle. There is always something new to see in nature!
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| Reed Warbler |
The next morning, I checked RBA again and was a little surprised to see that the Golden Oriel and been heard singing again. So, the normal conversation goes like this.
“Oh, the Golden Oriel has been seen again” – me asking in husbands code if I can go and see it!
“Do you want to go and see it then?”
“Yes please”
“Can you put the new curtain rail up first”
“Yes of course!”
We have a very good and informative WhatsApp group in our small village and someone had posted that there was traffic chaos in Worcester as the main bridge over the Severn was closed. I planned a diversion via the M5 and arrived at Monkwood a few miles north of Worcester near Grimley mid-morning. The small car park was full up with walkers and birders cars but I manged to squeeze into a spot and set off.
Now I have to say that the Golden Oriel is a bird that is much easier to hear than see. This will seem strange if you see a photo of an adult male as they are bright yellow but they tend to stick to the high canopy where they are very well camouflaged. Luckily, their song is very distinctive being a long burbling melody. I asked some of the other birders present if they had seen or heard the bird. It had been singing off and on and a lucky few had caught one or two glimpses of it. After 15 minutes or so the bird started singing and carried on off and on for the next 30 minutes or so. I managed to get one brief flight few and a 5 second obscured view of it perched high in the canopy. It was a sub adult male, probably hatched last spring, and hence had not obtained the distinctive yellow plumage of an adult. Rather it was mainly greenish yellow making it even harder to see in the treetops. I was delighted with my brief views and hearing it in extended song so departed for my home in Pirton just as the heavens opened for yet another down pour.
Nice one Jim
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