The Standlake Birder

      Lesser Scaup The first Swallow of the year was flying over our small holding on Wednesday, the earliest since we have been living here by some margin. They will soon be repairing and reoccupying their nests in our stables.   Blackcaps and Chiff Chaffs are singing almost continuously around the paddocks and in a couple of weeks a scratchy song from the bushes will announce that the Common Whitethroats are back.   Being a total spreadsheet nerd, I have a workbook which analyses my bird records in everyway you can possibly imagine and a few that you can’t! Over the past ten years I have analysed the additions to my Uk list by month. Not surprisingly October ( average of 3.3 additions/year) and May (2.9) are the most exciting months for rare birds. More surprisingly is that April (0.7) ranks 11 th  out of 12 beating only February (0.6). so, without wishing my life away, I’m looking forwards to May!   With another sunny day forecast on Thursday I thou...

        I had been meaning to visit a well know spot in Wales to see a Black Grouse Lek which I’ve never seen. My good birding buddy, Nick ,  has visited recently and posted some great photos. I hence thought it was time that I got my finger out and went to see this rather unique avian experience.   Armed with the usually excellent info from Nick  , I booked myself into a local Travellodge on Tuesday night and drove up onto the moor in the dark to recky the location. I had chosen a day forecast to be sunny with an overnight frost which, hopefully, would provide excellent conditions for photography. The only danger was whether there would be an early morning mist over the moor. The lek starts before dawn and continues for an hour or so after so an early start is essential.   There is one very extremely important piece of information to know if you plan to visit a Black Grouse lek, it’s absolutely forbidden to get out of the car and disturb the lek....

    Wood Lark Some two weeks ago I attempted to twitch an American Black Scoter in Cheshire, the only UK listed Scoter which I have not seen. It was associating with a large flock of Common Scoters off the coast at Holylake. The beach here is very flat meaning that it was a good 40 minute walk out across the soft sand at low tide to the water. The tide also comes in quickly so an awareness of the tide times for personal safety is essential. To cut a long story short, the massive Scoter flock was very distant with perhaps only 5% of them close enough to be able to differentiate the Common Scoter from the similar Black Scoter with my scope. After a very frustrating morning with no one present managing to definitively get on the rare bird, I left to get some lunch and do some birding elsewhere.    About 40 minutes after I left the Black Scoter was reported on RBA – Bl**dy hell!!!   So I made my way back to Holylake and once again trudged across the sand. With the t...

   Jay On Wednesday I made the short trip to try and see a Richard’s Pipit at Awre in Gloucester. I’ve seen a couple of Richard’s Pipits over the years but was tempted to have a go for this one as it was only 20 or so miles from home. Awre is also very close to the Forest of Dean so I planned a morning at Awre followed by an afternoon in the forest.   If truth be told, Richard’s Pipit is not the most colourful or exciting bird in the world being very much the archetypal “little brown Jobby”, a description which also covers most other Pipits. It is a scarce rather than rare vagrant to the UK with a small number recorded in a typical year. It breeds in open grasslands in the East Palearctic  and  is a long-distance migrant  moving to winter in the open lowlands of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.    It was a long muddy slog down from Awre to the fortified riverbank of the Severn where the bird had been regularly reported in...

     Finally, it feels as though we may have turned the page on this everlasting winter. As I write this the sun has finally appeared and is shining brightly over our small holding. The salad tomatoes and pepper seedlings  have almost forgiven me for planting them in the gloom of winter and are starting to grow. The hanging basket annuals, petunias, bidens and lobelias, are out of the heated propagator and looking promising in the sunny greenhouse.   I’ve been toying with the idea of a visit to RSPB Greylake in Somerset to see and hopefully photograph a showy overwintering female Merlin. With the sun starting to warm the countryside and metrological spring starting on Saturday, she will soon be heading to her northern breeding grounds. So it was now or never and with some sun promised I made my way to Greylake a couple of days ago.   Greylake this time of year is absolutely teaming with winter wildfowl, mainly Widgeon and Teal with a smattering of Shov...

        I really struggle with these dark overcast winter days. Sometimes  it even  feels as though it never really gets light at all but heigh-ho spring is just around the corner apparently! With gloom forecast and delivered for this whole week so far, I was determined to get out somewhere for a days birding to cheer myself up. I had a look at various options but in the end decided on the New Forest for the morning and then Southsea for the afternoon as I fancied something a  little different and I haven’t been to the New Forest for a good few years. I had two New Forest specialties that I was particularly hoping to see, namely the Firecrest and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. There have been a few reports of the Woodpeckers drumming from a particular tree at Acres Down but I was unsure of the exact location. So I asked my birding friend, Ady, who has been there and he kindly supplied detailed directions to the foresaid tree. My plan was to ...

     Glossy Ibis Our garden Greater Spotted Woodpecker has started drumming again on his favourite tree, a sure sign that spring is not a million miles away.  He does this as breeding season approaches to proclaim ownership of his territory and warn off any rivals. With this in mind, and a bright cold sunny morning forecast for Wednesday, I set off for the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire to see if I could locate any of my garden drummers much rarer cousins, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. I arrived  in the forest just before dawn on a beautiful morning faithful to the weather forecast, perfect conditions for a bid of territory advertising.    I was further encouraged by a  Greater Spotted Woodpecker drumming loudly near the car park. I made my way to a spot that has been good in the past where dead partially rotten trees had been favourite drumming spots.  The drumming on old rotten trees is said to carry further. My experien...