Coming over all Kentish in Somerset

    

Black Redstart

The Kenitish Plover and I have history. A history of dips that is. Most notably, last year one was reported as “showing well” on a beach on the outskirts of Burnham on Sea in Somerset. This is just over an one hour’s drive from home down the M5. So I set off in hopeful expectation of a new life tick only to find a small group of birders peering remorsefully at an entirely empty beach. After about half an hour, and rather bizarrely, a report came through saying that it was currently still “showing well” at our exact location. It wasn’t!

 

So when one, possible the same individual I guess, was again reported on the sea front at Burnham late last week I planned, if it stuck around that is,  another visit sometime this week. Come early afternoon on Saturday it was reported as “showing well” again on a spit by the sailing club so I yet again begged forgiveness from my every suffering wife and shot off to Burnham. 

 

The Kentish Plover is, yet again, another species lost as a breeding bird to the UK with the last successful breeding recorded in 1955. You can probably guess by its name that prior to this it was a localised breeder in south-eastern England but is now only seen as a rare migrant. Fortunately, it is still a comparatively common breeder on the beaches of continental Europe stretching from Scandinavia to right around the Mediterranean basin. The male in summer plumage is a beautiful wader with snow white underparts, a  sandy brown mantle and black forehead, supercilium and lores.

 

The sea at Burnham is very tidal with the current difference between high and low tide being some ten meters. By the time I got there the tide had gone out and all the birds had moved from the spit at the sailing club.  The Kentish was said to be with a small flock of Ringed Plovers some distance out on the beach. During winter dogs are allowed free roam of the beach meaning that the wader flocks are often flushed by dogs and their owners. The Ringed Plover flock was dozing out of sight under a small pebble ledge by the sea but occasionally a bird would wander out have a good shake and then wander back in again. Luckily, no dogs came close and after a rather tense 30 minutes or so the Kentish pottered out and gave a minute or so of good scope views before it settled back down out of sight under the ledge. I was a little apprehensive as to how easy it would be to pick out from the Ringed Plovers but in fact it stood out as being noticeably different in appearance being slightly smaller, much paler and with an incomplete fawn neck ring, quite different from the complete black neck ring which gives Ringed Plovers their name. As the tide came back in I was hopeful that the birds would be forced up the beach but by 16:30 it was getting dark and they were still under the ledge so it was time to go home at least content that I had put this particular bogey bird to rest.

 

I try to do at least one full day out birding every week in the winter so this week I decided to head off to Somerset again. My plan was as follows. Spend the morning trying to get a better view or, perhaps,  even photos of the Kenitish and then drive the 7 miles along the coast to Brean Down National Trust park. One or two Black Redstarts overwinter most years around the rocks on the beach at Brean feeding on insects on the seaweed. This year an attractive male was overwintering so I planned an afternoon of photography on the beach, a location where I have had considerable success with the Restarts in previous winters. 

 

The weather forecast was much of a muchness for the week, i.e. grey and overcast, but Wednesday had at least a hint of some afternoon sun. So on Wednesday morning, being a glutton for punishment, I again set sail for Burnham on Sea. High tide was at 12:30 so there seemed no need to arrive at the crack of dawn. I arrived just after nine, parked near the sailing club, and walked up to the promenade where a small group of birders were viewing the beach. The Kentish was much further down the beach than Saturday with its cohort of Ringed Plovers. It was again too distant for photography but quite discernible through the scope. After a short period of time the inevitable happened and walkers flushed the entire flock. This did at least give me a good view of the Kentish in flight through my bins and I followed it as it flew over the estuary and out to the distant Stert Island. After a while I managed to relocated the flock very distantly on the islands pebble beach. I could just about discern that they were Plovers but had no chance with my old eyes of picking the Kentish out. A much younger birder with a better scope than mine located the Kenitish in the flock and tried to get other birders on it without too much success.  As the tide slowly came in more and more waders relocated to the island and by 11:00 it was absolutely teaming with flocks of feeding waders, mainly hyperactive Dunlin. I positioned myself by the spit at the sailing club in the hope that the rapidly incoming tide would push the flock onto it and indeed a few Dunlin started to relocate onto it. My hopes, however, were soon dashed when a man with a  number of large dogs, I guess he was probably a professional dog walker, walked out onto the small spit and flushed everything. Now I’m a dog owner and lover myself but come on mate you’ve got the whole long wide beach to walk on, why walk out onto the small spit where you can clearly see the waders feeding! I decided it was time to cut my losses and drive to Brean for, hopefully, an afternoon photography session with the male Black Redstart.

 

The Black Redstart is a widespread breeder in south and central Europe through to Asia and north-west Africa.  In the UK it is most commonly seen as a passage and winter visitor with only a handful of birds breeding. It was originally a bird of mountains and cliffs but after the second world war it spread to bomb sites and is now often seen in industrial areas such as power stations and water works. In Spain I have seen them in industrial quarries. 

 

 

Black Redstart

The drive from Burnham to Brean consists of seemly endless holiday parks chocker block with cold grey wooden holiday lodges. Not my idea of a fun holiday I have to say but, hey, each to their own I guess. Brean Down is an attractive coastal headland owned by the National Trust. I gave up my membership of the National Trust many years ago when I disagreed with their policy on the Army using their land. It’s so long ago that, to be honest, I’ve forgotten the details. If you are not a member there is a fixed £5 change at their car park regardless of how long you stay which, in my humble opinion at least, is a right rip off. Right next to the National Trust car park is a much more reasonably priced private car park where I always park the car. A Ring Ouzel, either a very early migrant or an unusual overwintering bird, had been reported in a stubble field behind the car park. It had been seen earlier that morning so I spent 30 minutes looking for it without success. I then made my way down to the rocks on the beach where another photographer was clicking away at the male Black Redstart. This rocky area features many attractive perches of sticks and lichen covered rocks for the obliging Redstart to perch on.  Also present were a male and female Stonechat, Robin and Wren attracted to the rich invertebrate helpings in the seaweed. The Robin, as is often the case, was very territorial often chasing the Redstart away. To add to the Black Redstarts misery, the male Stonechat was also taking exception to its presence. Around 15:00 the sky cleared and the sun put in a very welcome appearance adding to a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of photography. At the end of the afternoon on the way back to the car park I checked the stubble field again but there was still no sign of the Ring Ouzel.  As twilight progressed a female Marsh Harrier flew over the farm fields presumably heading for a reedbed roost somewhere out of site. A lovely end to the day out!

    

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!