Dip of the year, when a Black Scoter is not always what it seems, a Great Grey Shrike and Woodlarks at Cannock Chase and a local Ring-necked Duck

   

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 tide on the turn we had perhaps 90 minutes before it would not be safe. To cut another long story short, no one present had seen the Black Scoter with certainly and some distain was cast on the positive report and so my third dip of the Black Scoter was solemnly delivered! 

 

Recently it has been realised that an aberrant Common Scoter is in the flock with bill characteristics somewhat between the two species leading to speculation that it is a possible hybrid. While there is no doubt that a Black Scoter is in the flock, I wonder how many distant views of the presumed hybrid had been mistakenly identified as the Black Scoter?

 

When thinking about a birding trip this week I toyed with the idea of giving it another go but just couldn’t stand the thought of another day wasted dipping a bird which, while it would be a UK list tick, was certainly only going to show very distantly and probably not at all.

 

I hence devised a plan for some hopefully much more enjoyable vaguely local (it’s all relative!) early spring birding. I would spend the morning at Cannock Chase trying to see an overwintering Great Grey Shrike and one of my favourite early spring birds, the Wood Lark.  I would then go to Grimley in the afternoon to try and see a drake American Ring-necked duck and also hopefully to catch up with my first Hirundines of the year.

 

Somewhat to my surprise, given my recent run, the day worked out perfectly. It’s important to remember successes like this when birding goes horribly wrong because it always does for everyone at some point. 

 

It is sometime since I have been to Cannock Chase and I had forgotten how beautiful it is there especially on such a very welcome warm and sunny early spring day. As I walked towards the reported location of the Shrike I could hear Chiffchaffs singing all along the path. While some might find their chiff – chaff song boring and monotonous, I find it uplifting and get a thrill from their return from Africa which always heralds the true start of spring for me, doubly so after such a drab, wet and soulless winter.

 

I soon met a couple of other friendly birders who had seen the Shrike before and were heading to one of its known locations on the path towards the old WW2 shooting butts. Ahead of us along the path a few other birders were clearly looking at the bird and sure enough it was sitting up somewhat distantly on a still bare tree. 

 

Shrikes are some of my favourite birds. The adult birds of all species are very attractive and they all have the handy habit of perching out in the open in full view. They are all scarce birds in the UK but the Great Grey Shrike is the commonest with a small number overwintering mainly in southern England. This winter has been particularly poor for them in England with only a small number present. The Cannock Chase bird will soon be returning to its breeding range in mainland Europe and North Africa.

 

The distant and heat haze dictated that only record shots were possible as per below.

So here is yet another one from my alternative “here’s one I did earlier blog” so you can see what it looks like.

 

I was now left with the choice of chasing around after the Shrike to try and get a better view or going for a walk looking for other birds, particularly  Woodlarks. I was looking for a relaxing dose of spring therapy so the latter was an easy choice.

 

I saw a number of Woodlarks on my walk which included some males in song. The Woodlark is a good example of Hutchins’ law which states that the beauty of the song is inversely proportional to the colouration of the birds, i.e. plain birds have the best song! The Woodlark is a mainly brown and pale bird with a distinctive white supercilium. Like its cousin the Skylark it also has a small crest. One very distinctive feature in flight is its almost comically small and stumpy tail which almost looks as though it’s had a bad experience at the barber who’s slipped with his scissors and chopped its tail off by mistake!

 

Its song is aptly described in the Colins bird bible thus …

 

“ The song is one of the most attractive, consisting of pleasant and sweet but melancholy notes in series, opening hesitantly, accelerating, and falling in pitch and gaining in loudness.”

 

Near the mound two birds flew into some sparse vegetation around a rapidly drying out puddle and, with patience, I was able to get a few photos that I was happy with.

Crest up!

I spent the rest of the morning exploring the Chase while enjoying the very pleasant weather. I met a very friendly local birder call Scot and, as it turned out, we follow each other on Twitter (I refuse to call it X!). He kindly shared some good local info with me and I plan to pay another visit in a month or two for Nightjars and Woodcocks.

 

After a light lunch I headed back towards Grimley to look for the adult drake Ring-necked duck  which has been present for some time. With no luck scoping from the banks near the road I walked down to the southern causeway to scan the Tufted Ducks through a gap in the Willows. I must have scanned the scattered flock a dozen times and was about to give up when I found my target bird. It was spending most of its time underwater feeding so I had missed it on previous scans. While being a comparatively rare bird in the UK , it is a bird that I encounter more or less annually on my birding trips. It is the American cousin of our common Tufted Duck and differs in that it has a white band on its beak, no crest, and a somewhat pointed head.

 

Ring-necked Duck

I took a few pictures and was just packing up when a small flock of Sand Martins flew over head meaning that I had acquired my final target bird of the day. 

 

On the way back to the car two noisy Cetti’s Warblers were showing relatively well in the hedgerow, which is somewhat unusual behaviour for this notoriously sulky bird. I tried to get a few photos but never got a clear view amongst the many twigs of the hedge. My attempts were also complicated by the presence of two hyperactive Chiffchaff which kept grabbing my attention.

Chiffchaff

I made my way slowly back to the car elated and very content with my lovely spring day birding.

   

 

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