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| Great Reed Warbler |
The Great Reed Warbler falls into my well populated category of 2 out of ten birding encounters, i.e birds I have seen but very badly. Photographs of a reportedly showy individual at Besthorpe nature reserve in Nottinghamshire hence caught my eye and last Thursday I made the mainly motorway journey of some 120 miles to go and see it. The Great Reed Warbler rates as a 2-star rarity in the Colins bird bible which equates to one or a few annual records. It resembles our common Reed Warbler but is much larger with a noticeably larger head, heavy bill with a dark tip, and a broad, pale eyebrow. They breed throughout mainland Europe and migrate to sub-Saharan Africa to over winter. The loud gruff croaking song carries a long way and is quite distinctive from the common Reed Warblers out of key scratchy rant.
I parked in the small reserve car park and made my way towards the reported reed bed. From some considerable distance the Great Reed Warblers song was soon very obvious. The bird was showing very well perhaps some 50 meters away from the path and was in continuous song, quite unlike my previous UK encounters with Acrocepalus arundinaceus. Its bright orange gape was on continuous display as in hammered out its song relentlessly. I spent the next hour or so in the very enjoyable company of this bossy show-off before I retired back to my car for a coffee and to plan my next move.
I decided to visit RSPB Langford, a reserve that I have never visited before, as it was only some 10 minutes away. Some friendly locals in the car park gave me some site advice and I made my way along a wooded path past still active gravel workings to the naturalised gravel pit at the centre of the reserve. A few hundred meters along the path I heard a Garden Warbler and I eventually got my bins on the bird to confirm its identity. Having failed to find any local to my new abode this was my first Garden Warbler of the year. I was hoping that there might be Hobby at the main lake but during a very pleasant stroll around the lake I did not see much other than good numbers of Sedge and Reed warblers and Reed Buntings. I eventually made my way back to the car for my sandwich lunch and considered what to do in the afternoon.
I mulled over two options. Firstly, visit a comparatively close raptor watch point which is very good for Honey Buzzards. Secondly, and much more risky and farther afield, drive northeast to the Spurn peninsula where there had been a small influx of European Bee eaters. To compound the risk of the latter, there is no phone signal on most of the peninsula so I would be reliant on somewhat out of date location information gleaned before I got there.
We saw several beautiful species of Bee Eater in Kenya two years ago but I have not seen any in the UK since visiting a small very temporary colony of Eurasian Bee Eater in Nottinghamshire 4 years ago which made a sadly unsuccessful breeding attempt.
So, of course, I went for the second risker option thinking that, to me at least, Bee Eater trumps Honey Buzzard!
After a largely uneventful drive I checked several locations where they had been reported that morning but there was no sign. After a couple of fruitless hours I decided to drive back toward Hull until I had a signal and could check RBA again. If there were no more reports I would head home with my tail firmly between my legs. If there were new reports I would continue my wild goose chase. Sure enough two birds had again been reported at a place called Old Newton so I turned around and headed back. When I got there a small number of birders were staring intently at some electrical wires and sure enough there were the two Bee Eaters. They were absolutely stonkingly beautiful birds through the scope with their beautiful combination of bright electric iridescent colours but were too distant for anything other than record shots. There is one particular phase that I often hear while birding that I hate, “you should have been here 5 minutes ago” and indeed this is what I was told as they were apparently much closer then! Through the scope they were doing exactly what it says on the tin – catching and eating bees. I always find it somewhat amusing that birds sit on these high voltage cables totally oblivious to the several hundred KV running through them. They are, of course, completely safe as long as they don’t concurrently touch one of the other cables carry the other two other phases or the neutral return to the power station, something that is impossible for a small Bee Eater but, sadly, eminently possible for a large flying bird like a swan.
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| Bee Eater record shot |
After another thoroughly enjoyable hour or so I decided to make my long way home very content with my days birding and planning a much more local and relaxing weekend.
The gods of birding, however, had other plans for my weekend and what followed was …..
Well you will have to read my next blog for that one!
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