The Standlake Birder

  I was toying with the idea of driving over to the east coast on Friday to see a Falcated Duck which would have been a new UK life tick for me. Why toying with the idea? Well it was almost certainly an escape from a collection rather than the genuine article and so would only have been an insurance tick just in case it was accepted as wild. Being commonly kept in collections, this particular duck of the far east has had a most troublesome history with UK birders, almost all birds seen in the wild are actually escapes or what we call plastic birds. Indeed it is only comparatively recently that the BOU acknowledge that it could occur here as a genuine vagrant.  The problem is that to be absolutely sure of a wild origin it either needs to carry a ring placed on it in its natural breeding ground or have had isotopic analysis performed on a feather which can show where it has been. I was hence very 50/50 on a 7 hour return drive for an insurance tick. In the event it was all academic as it

         It’s been some two weeks since I’ve done any birding.  I’ve been preoccupied with jobs at home, mostly landscaping work and laying mud mats so we can get the quad bike across our smallholding. The soil here is clay and in the summer it is concrete hard transitioning in a few weeks to slime in the winter!   On Sunday I finally succumbed to temptation and paid a visit to the Hampshire coast to see a very confiding Sabine's Gull.  I certainly wouldn’t say that gulls are amongst my favourite birds but a Sabine's Gull in summer plumage, and for some odd reason this one is, is a most attractive bird indeed. Its rated as a scarce visitor to the UK almost aways being seen off the coast on sea watches. I’ve seen several in the past in this manner but none of them were in breeding plumage. It is named after the naturalist Joseph Sabine. He based his description on specimens that had been collected by his brother Edward  Sabine who had accompanied John Ross on  his voyage to look

   Yellow-browed Warbler curtsey of Nick Truby   Well that’s worse blog title for the year sorted nice and early then!   Anyway …………   On Sunday I went out for my first full day of birding of the new year with  2 locations in mind. Firstly, Summer Leys nature reserve near Northampton, a reserve I have never visited , where a showy Yellow-browed Warbler seemed to be over wintering. Secondly, Eyebrook Reservoir in Leicestershire which has become the top UK spot for overwintering Smew.   Summer Leys NR Is some 90 minutes’ drive from home and after a fairly leisurely start to the day I arrived at 10:00. The visit started off less than perfectly when I arrived to find the car park full. I cheekily parked on some grass but a warden soon appeared and asked me to move. Luckily, a parking spot soon opened up and I was togged up and on my way in no time. I found the reserve to be very pleasant and birder friendly with a series of well positioned hides overlooking well managed scrapes and pools.