The Standlake Birder

    No, this blog is not about my beloved Seagulls, so cruelly robbed of their rightful place in the FA cup final last weekend by the devils spawn of Manchester! Rather, it is about an exceedingly rare American vagrant which has been found in Sussex, namely a Gambel’s White-crowned Sparrow.   The White Crowned Sparrow is a common  passerine of North America, indeed I have seen and photographed many on my numerous work and pleasure visits there. In contrast, with only 11 prior UK records, it is a very rare accidental visitor to the UK. Even those 11 records belie the fact that most have been short and hard to twitch visitors to the remote Scottish isles. So when one was found last Saturday at a place called Seaford Head in Sussex it immediately caught my attention. As the weekend wore on, however, it became apparent that the bird was extremely elusive with some observers spending 12 hours on site without seeing it. Given this and my recent big dip of a Forster’s Tern, my enthusiasm for

     A rare Black Kite was at Duncombe park for a week or so, often associating with the display birds at the national bird of prey centre. While most birders who have seen it seem happy enough to tick it as a wild bird, its location has led to some doubts being expressed over its provenance. Some have even gone as far as to state categorically  that it’s an escapee.   So before I describe my visit to see it lets examine its provenance. As anyone who has read my blogs before will know , I’m a scientist with a doctorate in Physics and this drives me to analyse problems such as the provenance of this bird with as much logic as possible. In this regard I feel it is very important to state clearly what is a fact and what is based on a balance of probabilities.   So let’s start with the facts.    To start with it must be stated that historically there have been,  and probably still are, both genuinely wild and  escaped captive Black Kites present in the UK. The relative population of each a

      Last Thursday was forecast to be sunny and with the seemingly endless rain due to return on Friday, it did by the way, I decided to make the most of the weather and headed up to the Wyre Forest to see what migrants were in. I was expecting a few Pied Flycatchers and Redstarts but it’s a couple of weeks too early for the Wood Warblers. I parked in the small Dry Mill Lane carpark and made my way down the road into the forest. I paused by an ornate carved wooden bench, a good spot in the past for Tree Pipits,  and scanned the forest. I picked up one distant singing Tree Pipit and two singing Willow Warblers. A small group of birders put me onto a male Pied Flycatcher on the other side of the road and I managed a fleeting view as it flew off. I walked on down to the second old railway bridge and walked up into the Pied Flycatcher nest box area where I again had a fleeting view of one male bird.    I next made my way further into the forest to a spot that has been good for Lesser Spot

    With many apologies to Patti Smith!   My youthful years, as defined by pre early 30’s when I started my family, are anchored in my memory by what music I was listening to and who my girlfriend was at the time. When I was researching for my doctorate way back when I was 21 to 24 the unfortunate lady was called Tessa who introduced me to the music of Patti Smith via her first and iconic album “Horses”.   Here she is singing “Because the Night” on the Old Grey Whistle Test which was co-written with Bruce Springsteen.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OjW1TDANxk     She is often described as being instrumental in the mid 70’s New York punk movement although her music differs greatly from the great UK punk bands circa 1977, e.g. The Clash and the Sex Pistols.   Anyway back to birding!   A small influx of Black-crowned Night Herons has occurred in recent days with reports of up to 5 together at the same site. They breed mainly in southern and south-eastern Europe and migrate across th

  There are two hilltop locations fairly local to me that are reliable for Ring Ouzels in the spring, namely Breedon Hill and Cleeve Common. Breedon Hill has the advantage that the summit is an hours strenuous walk from the nearest carpark and is hence normally peaceful. The disadvantage is that, at least in my experience, the Ring Ouzels tend to be somewhat below the summit on the escarpment where there are no rights of way or cover. On Cleeve Common, with a suitable amount of field craft, it is possible to get closer views but the big disadvantage is the continuous disturbance from joggers, dog walkers and cyclists.   These are passage migrants best seen at this time of the year as they head north from their African wintering grounds towards the mountainous terrain where they breed. It is sometimes called the Blackbird of the mountains but tends to be much more skittish than our common garden Blackbird, i.e. much more easily disturbed and flushed. The plumage of the male is entirely

Over the past few years I’ve had an early spring date in my diary to visit Thursley Common in Surrey to see Dartford Warblers. Experience has taught me that that best time to go is on a sunny day in early to mid-March. This seems to be when the males are at their most active and  accessible as they will perch up on the gorse and blast out their song. The truth is that their song is not particularly pleasing to the ear being rather scratchy and certainly not up there with the best songsters but I guess the female Dartfords don’t see it that way! By early April the pair bond seems to be (re)established and the male and the female are often found doing a feeding circuit deeper in the gorse. I don’t like to go any later than early April as I want to make sure I don’t disturb them when they are nesting – doubly so as they are a schedule 1 bird.   With the atrocious March weather, the wettest for 40 years, I was thinking I would be giving this trip a miss this year but I was free this Tuesda