The Standlake Birder

    Friday early afternoon a report appeared on RBA of a rare Alpine Accentor at a place called Slaughden on the Suffolk coast. I worked out how long it would take me to get there and found that it was 215 miles or close to 4 hours from home meaning I would not get there before dark. I hence resolved to go the next morning if it was reported, I really didn’t fancy a 430 mile and £130 fuel tank dip! The Accentor was last seen going to roost on a pipe on the  Martello tower by the beach which gave some encouragement that it might stay overnight although Alpine Accentors are notorious for being one day wonders.   The next morning I was caught out a little when I got a message from Nick around 7am that it was still there. It was still pitch black at home and I had forgotten that it gets light earlier on the east coast. So some 30 minutes later I was in the car and driving off on what was a fairly uneventful but boring drive. With a stop for coffee and to buy some lunch I arrived just after

  Myrtle Warbler Thursday 6 th  October    I awoke yet again to the windows being pelted with rain as they rattled around in the wind. After a very leisurely breakfast I drove a few hundred yards up the road to where a grassy field was home to a few hundred common waders.  The damp field seemed to be teaming with worms and the Lapwing, Snipe, Redshank and Ringed Plover were in a feeding frenzy, never having to move more than a few inches for the next mouthful. I guess they were all working hard laying down fat reserves for the leaner months to come. I applied the tried and trusted method of using the car as a hide and spent a couple of hours watching the wader spectacular and taking photos.   Common Snipe Ringed Plover I then drove to Lerwick for a coffee and some present shopping before spending some time in the harbour photographing Black Guillemots or Tystie as they are known locally. As the name suggest, they are predominantly black when in summer plumage but moult into a not unatt

I’ve seen two Collared Pratincoles before in the UK both distantly and hence badly. So when one was found at Slimbridge on Thursday, just 30 minutes from home it would have simply been rude not to go. I had some domestic chores to do early on Friday so couldn’t leave home until 10 am. Checking RBA I saw that the Pratincole was showing well on the South Island so off I went.   The Collared Pratincole rates as a two star rarity in the Colins bird bible equating to one or a few yearly records. It is one of three Pratincoles that have occurred in the UK, the others being the much rarer Black-winged and Oriental Pratincoles. All three are very similar and good views are needed to distinguish between them. Pratincoles are classified as waders although in habit they bear little resemblance to them in that they typically hunt their insect prey on the wing flying very rapidly back and forth like Swallows.  They have short legs, long pointed wings, a long forked tail, and a short bill, which is

Sunday 2 nd  October Hornemann’s Artic Redpoll Sunday dawned sunny but still very blustery. As I packed the car for my days birding my spirits were lifted by four attractive Red-breasted Merganser swimming by in the bay opposite the hotel. My first destination for the day was the small village of Toab on the south of the mainland near Slumburgh where two Artic Redpolls had been reported.    When I arrived I met a fellow birder who told me that they had been showing very well drinking from a puddle by the shop but had now flown to some weedy fields where they were feeding. I located them feeding with a group of other Redpolls at the far end of the field. It was very hard to get a clear view in the vegetation but I eventually got a partial view of one of the Arctics. After an hour or so the flock took off and flew back towards the shop. One of the Arctics perched up nicely posing on a stone wall but, unfortunately, as I raised my camera a car pulled up and flushed the bird. I spent the n

International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. O'Connor (UMD/GWU) & J. Rastinejad & W Fong (Northwestern Univ) In a complete departure to my normal bird oriented blogs, I been reading an article on what was probably the biggest explosion every seen and its effect on our atmosphere.    It was caused by a supermassive star exploding in a supernova leaving behind a black hole. In a few seconds the energy released was equivalent to approximately one  thousand times the output of our sun over its entire  lifetime! We are actually witnessing an event that took place 2.4 billion years ago, halfway back to when the earth was created. Astonishingly, even though it was a staggering 2.4 billion light years from earth its effects were seen in our atmosphere. Radio transmitters detected a strange disturbance in our atmosphere which is thought to be due to a burst of gamma rays generated in the explosion. If this event had occurred in our stellar neighbour it would hav

  Swainson's Thrush Wednesday 28 th  September      I left home bright and early and headed north for my hugely anticipated 12 day birding trip to Shetland. I had debated whether to drive straight to the ferry in Aberdeen, a drive of some 470 miles from home, or split the journey. In the end I decided to split the journey on the basis that, as it was October, there would be some good birding somewhere on route. With logistics at home to sort out I had to make this decision in advance rather than leaving it to the last moment. As it turned out nothing mega was reported on route prior to my departure so I decided to stop off in Northumberland and bird some new locations for me.  As I drove north the weather deterred and by the time I arrived in Northumberland the rain was torrential.    I parked up at the St Mary’s Island car park just north of Newcastle to look for two Lapland Buntings that had been reported as showing well. I met a local birder who directed me to where the birds ha