A truly magical 24 hours birding – a near mythical Eleonora’s Flacon in Kent and a stunning Woodchat Shrike in Dorset

      

My original plan for Friday just gone was to spend the day out birding somewhere locally. The day out got truncated to just the afternoon on Thursday when an important appointment was confirmed for Friday lunchtime. Now Friday afternoon at the start of a sunny weekend is not a good time to plan to travel on the roads in the south of England, but both Carolyn and I knew that I would be just sulking around the house if I didn’t go out , so I started to plan what to do.

 

Herein lies the problem of trying to be both a photographer and a keen (rare) birder, Jack of all trades and master of none indeed!

 

I had pretty much decided on an afternoon photographing a stunning looking Woodchat Shrike on the coast in Dorset when reports started to emerge of a mega rare Eleonora’s Falcon in Kent. The fact that the records show 7 previous UK sightings of the Eleonora’s Falcon hides the fact that none of these have been accessible to twitch and hence almost all UK birders have never seen this bird in the UK. All but one of the previous records are one day or less wonders, some only identified from photos after a brief flyover.

 

So I was totally conflicted as to what to do but in the end decided to go and photograph the shrike on the assumption that the falcon would repeat previous records and immediate disappear to never be seen again.

 

The drive from home to the Dorset coast should have been two hours but the Friday afternoon traffic pushed it to three as I stupidly followed my satnavs instructions to avoid the motorway traffic by driving thorough the centre of Bristol. Is satnavicide a punishable crime yet? I guess not as they have not quite reached the required level of self-awareness although it is sometimes temping to believe a maleficent presence resides in mine. I was reminded of the Fawlty Towers episode where Basil whips his mini with a branch in punishment for breaking down again at a most inconvenient moment – I was sorely tempted!

 

When I arrived at the NT car park on the Dorset coast I checked RBA to see that the falcon appeared settled and was showing well.  Now I was even more conflicted, should I stay and photograph the shrike or drive to Kent? A quick calculation said I would only have an hour or so of daylight in Kent to find the bird so I decided to spend the late afternoon and evening photographing the shrike and then drive down to Kent to hopefully see the falcon the following morning. I would try and find somewhere cheap to stay later if the falcon was still there or, failing that, sleep in my car on site overnight!

 

I walked down the path from the car park to the coast and thought I got myself in the field where the shrike was being reported but could not find it. I looked over a gate and saw two birders scoping a hedge in the adjacent field and there was the shrike, it was as easy as that.

 

The Woodchat Shrike is mainly insectivorous and favours open wooded areas with scattered trees such as orchards, particularly when there is bare or sandy ground. It breeds in Southern Europe, the Middle East and Northwest Africa and is only seen in the UK as a  rare passage migrant.

 

I have seen a few Woodchat Shrikes in the UK but none have been an adult male in breeding plumage. Now if you have read my blogs on my previous visits to see shrikes, see here, you will know that shrikes, if present, aren’t particularly hard birds to see or find due to their habit of searching for their prey perched atop a bush. The adult male Woodchat Shrike in breeding plumage is an absolutely stunning bird with black and white upper parts, a chestnut crown and pure white underparts

 

After a while the two friendly birders departed and I had the shrike to myself for an hour or so. It seemed to be feeding mainly on some type of beetle flying down and taking one every minute or so, hopefully preparing for the diverted flight back to its Southern Europe breeding grounds.

   

At around 7pm I checked RBA and saw that the Falcon was “showing well”. I found a comparatively cheap room at a Travelodge in Sandwich and set sail for Kent. Four hours  plus and a particularly unpleasant McDonalds later I checked into the Travelodge, set my alarm for 05:30, and crashed out for what was a rather restless and comparatively sleepless night.

 

I forwent breakfast and arrived on site around 06:30. The area where the falcon had been found had recently been brought by the RSPB and a friendly RSPB lady directed me off the road and along a rough path to a field which had been temporary converted into a twitchers car park.  I nervously enquired about the falcon and the RSPB lady told me that it had just been seen. There was already a large number of cars present, clearly this was going to be a mega twitch in every sense!

 

The walk to the viewing location took around 15 minutes past many birds that I would have normally stopped to look at but there was only one bird on my mind today! I reached a raised area where the assembled mass of birders were scoping a distant hedge beyond a railway line. I found a space and asked my new neighbour if the bird was showing. He said it was perched in a distant bush and let me see it through his scope. It was hard to make out too much detail as there was already some heat haze but here indeed was the falcon chilled out in a bush, my fifth UK tick of this calendar year.

 

The Eleonora’s Falcon is a close relative of the somewhat similar Hobby, a summer migrant to the UK. It breeds mainly on the Greek Islands of the Mediterranean  It is a long distance migrant wintering in Madagascar. Like our Eurasian Hobby, it feeds mainly on dragonflies but has been known to take small birds.

 

Our own Hobbies will typically spend the first few hours of the day perched while waiting for the sun to warm up enough for dragonflies to get on the wing and this is exactly what our rare visitor did. I chatted to my friendly neighbour, I think he said his name was Nick but I’m dreadful with names, and we tried to guess when the falcon would take to the wing. I guessed 09:30 but that came and went with the only activity being when a crow took a dislike to the falcon moving it to an adjacent bush.

 

It was 10:30 when the falcon finally took to the wing revealing its true glory.  It was shaped like a large Eurasian Hobby but lacked the hobby’s red trousers. It had long pointed wings, a long tail and slim body and swopped effortless over the ground in front of us taking insects in its talons and eating them on the wing. It was somewhat distant and moving fast so instead of trying to get poor distant record shots I decided to watch this avian jet fighter in all its glory knowing that in all likelihood I would never experience this spectacle again in the UK. After a while it flew up higher and disappeared over the adjacent woods so I decided to have a walk around the reserve. 

 

Avocets were nesting on the edges of small pools and were making very noisy defence flights over their nest if anyone was so foolish enough to get close. The ferocity  with which they defend their nest really belittles their size – I have even seen them fend of Lesser Black-backed gulls on a number of occasions.  Numerous Common Whitethroat were rattling out their scratchy song from bush tops while Reed and Sedge warblers seemed to be in every bit of suitable vegetation. I suspect all these birds were wondering what all the sudden fuss was about!.  Also located on the reserve was an adult female Red-footed Falcon, a rare and beautiful bird in its own right so on the way back to the car I diverted to see it. It was perched up on telegraph wires swooping down regualrly to take insects from the surrounding farmland. Here is a distant heat hazy photo of the bird.

    

And here is what one actually looks like from a visit to Langford lakes in Wiltshire last year.

   

As I walked leisurely back to the car numerous nervous newly arrived birders hurried past me, keen to get a glimpse of our very rare visitor. The car park was now rammed full but the RSPB were doing a great job getting everyone in. A mega twitch indeed!

 

I must express my gratitude to the RSPB whose organistion made the twitch so easy and very enjoyable. I suspect the inhabitants of the small hamlet of Worth will also be gratefully that a thousand birders did not try and park on their narrow streets!

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