Night Heron - The photographs emerge

 After a telephone conversation, my friends wife had him send some photographs over a 'strange heron' and you could tell straight away it was the Night Heron..."when was this?" I asked...."Thursday!"..."oh blimey, that's 2 days before I saw it and none of us knew"....."Any sign since?..."afraid not".

Nothing we can do now, so let's hope it has stuck around and is using pools to the East and maybe roosting nearby??

There is no public access to this small and now very dried up pond, regardless of anyone's feelings that them seeing this bird is being more important than residents privacy, it isn't.

That was 4 days ago so if in the unlikely event it does show up again, I've asked them to tell me and we'll go from there.

That morning after feeling

2 days on from seeing the juvenile Night Heron I have reflected on many thoughts, not least how much fun it was telling the story of it happening. 

I have always said, the best birds are those you get to share with good friends and I will say once more, the blissful difference of finding a bird versus 'twitching' someone else's bird are significant;

I have twitched many other people's birds and 'that journey' to park is often fraught with moments where you think "why do I have to behind the slowest driver in the world", or where am I supposed to park when you get there. The Grey Phalarope of 1st Nov 2018, wasn't exactly a classic, because I was already in the car - returning from shopping and luckily I was in Woodley, so it took me barely 3 minutes to get to the car park gate. Had I not sprinted to Bittern hide from the car park gate and had Steve Day not have waited and handed me his bins, I would have missed it....lucky for sure.

On a normal day am I lucky? I'd contest not really, but the thing is I am out there 97% of the time, I've never stopped doing my patch in 20 years. Sure I go on holiday and miss stuff, most notably the Great Reed Warbler at Green Park, which is a shame, but I can't do anything about that, what I can do, is get up at dawn and get myself to my patch and give it my best shot to cover as much of it as possible. 

As my good friend Trevor says, "I won't see anything from my sofa". So I do it, it's pretty quiet much of the time, but many days there is something interesting to see, you just have to stay sharp and humble enough to enjoy what is there to see.

On that subject. here is a picture of this mornings Shoveler in the early sunlight.

Here is the link to the short video I took of 6 Common Sandpiper that were only there 3-4 minutes.

I don't need to tell anyone to enjoy their birds and birding, it's not a challenge, but for anyone thinking I'm a lucky soandso, I just go out nearly every day at dawn and encourage everyone else to do the same.

AND, once in a while you get lucky, well actually 4-5 times on average, this year : 1 Sandwich Tern in and out in 45 seconds, 2 Cattle Egret flew over two mornings on the trot, Hawfinch flew over 17th May!, 3 different Med Gulls and we haven't even reach mid August, when peak passage starts and I ALWAYS remain optimistic something will show up. 

I guess what I'm saying is consistently visiting at dawn 97% of the time brings rewards, but you've still got to remain on it, sharp for that 5-15 second fly over view of an amazing bird like Berkshire's 4th ever Night Heron.

I did make that prediction didn't I!

Back in May - my last post I wrote a short piece on the rather impressive track record our patch has for herons and allies, stating that we stood a better chance than any of pulling a mega heron...and we did.

06:13 this morning I was panning around seeing not a lot, 3 Common Sandpiper were the highlights in fact, I was a bit bored and just looking with my naked eyes around the lake, I happened to look left as a 'heron' came in from that direction (North) and lifted my bins thinking "those wings look rounded" and OI was met with a bit of a surprise.

Still partially face on I first saw it's stout bill, bright yellowish/orange eye and grey streaked underparts, as it came past revealed the short neck, very white spotted upper wing and legs just dangling a little behind. I knew immediately this was a juvenile Night Heron, or sometimes called Black-crowned Night Heron, because I've seen literally thousands of them in the Philippines at various sites I've visited.

I didn't count how long it took to fly past, which it did at tree height and was lost as soon as it went over the trees behind the SW corner, but I'm guessing 15 seconds, give or take, but I knew in the first 2, so I enjoyed the moment to it's full and sat for about 2 minutes repeating "I've just found a County and patch tick, I've seen a !*^$£'ing Night Heron.." and laughed out loud. 

I came to my senses and called a few friends and then WhatsApp's the 'Mega Alert', I spent another 30-40 minutes in the hide, filmed a pretty nice Kingfisher and then went 'walkabout' to see if it had put down to roost anywhere obvious...no such luck.

Will I be out tomorrow to check it does the same...you know I will.

Those of you who like stats, this Night Heron was;

My 19th first for the park

My 189th self found species

My 206th species

My 264th County Species

Oh yes and my 116th species this year

Why Lavell's, Dinton Pastures and Lea Farm are on for Berks lifer

I have been saying for years that our little patch is one of the best for heron species and sad as it may be that during lockdown 2 Cattle Egret flew over Dinton and Lea Farm Lake two mornings on the trot.

No-one could have done anything about it, not least because of lockdown, but also because I didn't realise they were Cattle Egrets first morning and only twigged the second, but sadly they were not repeated a third.

24th I picked them up going away from me, thought I saw yellow on the bills, couldn't gauge size, so let it go as a missed opportunity, think Great White anyway. Then 25th over they came this time head on and I instantly saw they were Cattle Egrets, but on they flew. Where had they roosted? We'll never know, but I suspect on DP somewhere.

They did end up in the 'Shetland Pony field' adjacent to Hurst Green Pit, where my friend Mark took 2 photographs before they flew off and I even suggested looking there without going myself, so when you think he found them nearly 2 hours after I saw them fly over, a good handful of people could have at least had a chance to see them. Given the circumstances I could hardly justify putting the news out a tempting locals to twitch these birds. Anyway I deprived myself the chance to watch them for nearly 2 hours. Luckily Mark got these two shots to remember it by;

So our third record and nice to get another self found species for me on my patch...188 out of 205 species ain't bad.

Now let's look at the herons and allies picture...

Bittern : First record July 29th 1983 (FJC), wintered 1985, 1988, 1995 and only 2000 and 2001 were the only years we haven't had birds.
Cattle Egret : First record 1/21st May 2007 (ADB), 1/10th May 2017 (GSE et al), then 2/24th & 25th April 2020.
Little Egret : First record Feb 19th 1991 BSL (VB), but not again until 1/9th Aug 2000, 2/13th, recorded every year after that and seen in every 2008, then year on year since 2010. Post breeding high counts hit 8 in 2007, 11 in 2010, 15 in 2015 and then a new trend a new high count of 18/29th Nov 2019.
Great White Egret : First record 1/5th Nov 2009 landed Lea Farm Lake (FJC), then 1/5th Sept 2013 (FJC & BTB), 1/21st Nov over (GSE), 1/18th Sept 2015, 1/20th Jan over (FJC), 1/13th May 31st Oct 2017, 1/9th April 2018, then a pair wintered locally and were seen dawn and dusk Jan to April 2019, and a single in Oct, Nov and Dec, 1-2 probable fly over sightings so far in 2020.
Grey Heron : Always common, small colony breeds on BSL's Goat island
Purple Heron : First and only record, an immaculate adult (Male?) found by Tern scrape 4th April 2000, stayed overnight and twitched by many next day.
White Stork : Dubious claims of sightings back in the 80's but first record 2/28th June 2018 (Ian Paine), photographed over Binfield later. Then 2/20th May low over Lea Farm Lake South (Suren)
Glossy Ibis : First and only record, 1/7th May 2011, (Ian Paine, Les Blundell and RSPB) stayed for barely one hour, relocated to Dorney where it did stay for a day or 2.
Spoonbill : 1/21st Oct 1983 (D Finnie) over along Emm Brook by golf course, unconfirmed claim of 2/13th May 1996 (not in County report), then 2/14th May 2007 (Tim James et al), stayed several hours in rainy conditions.
Common Crane : 2/6th May 2012, passed by North of DP heading East along A4 area, so not right to include them, it's just worthy of mention, but 4/25th Nov 2018 flew East over Lavell's and Lea Farm during a work party (FJC et al).

Does any of this mean anything in the grand scheme of things? I think so and despite it being complete speculation, with a heron/egrets and allies record like that I feel we have about the best chance in the county of pulling in one of the following any year now;

Black-crowned Night Heron : 3 county records - Burghfield Jan to Mar 1976, Wraysbury 4th to 8th May 1983, Thatcham 30th July to 6th Aug 1987, then 30th Aug to end Sept nearby.
Little Bittern : 1826 2 immatures shot, 1865 shot, 18th & 19th April 1972 Padworth

Sure I'd be happy with Spoonbill due to absence when the 2007 birds dropped in, but I'll stand by my prediction, that most likely a Little Bittern will be found on my patch in the next 2-5 years.

January lists compared

As you know I've been slacking on the blog front for many months, it's not been deliberate, time is hard to find with so many commitments and even birding time is hard as there is no light in the mornings yet....how I yearn for it.

It's been slow, but comparing January totals show this;

2012 - 82
2013 - 82
2014 - 77
2015 - 81
2016 - 83
2017 - 84
2018 - 84
2019 - 81
2020 - 83 (on 27th)

What does it all mean?

In my opinion nothing much, as unless you see the 'bonus birds' you'll catch up with everything else later anyway. I'm missing Mistle Thrush, Green Sandpiper & Marsh Harrier and a no show for the park so far from Mandarin, Golden Plover, Great White Egret, Firecrest, Brambling, Lesser Redpoll, Med Gull, Red Crested Pochard, Pintail, Jack Snipe, Linnet, Ruff and Yellow-legged Gull.

Most are possible, some probable, but none are guaranteed as being around now.

The Marsh Harrier is a shame, but most sightings are April, August and Sept, getting a Goosander is the best bird for me so far this year, but Woodcock isn't exactly proving easy for others.

Next month Redshank and Oystercatcher usually show up, but it's a funny month, anything can happen, last year we had a rather nice Red-breasted Merganser proving the case in point.

Oh yeah, I'm vlogging more than blogging, it's kind of fun, I hope you can follow me, I've already got 10 followers, so that's exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEElyVlyaSBYA51Z9U1YYAw

New Year, New Vlog

Hello everyone, I suspect most of my old following thought I'd given up on my blog I wouldn't blame you for thinking it, time has become more precious so difficult to keep updating.

But even though it could take me longer in the end, I have begun a vlog - video blog, which resonate with my personality more than typing stuff.

The vlog address is linked to this blog but on YouTube my latest post is here Find of The Day

As I grow the thing and hopefully get myself an audience, I may switch to another YouTube account which I can name 'Find of the Day' or 'Patch find of the Day' as I want it to be all about finding your own birds, ID'ing them, the excitement, the adrenaline and fun of telling your friends.

My year list is 82 after picking up a lucky male Goosander flying East to West behind Lodge Wood.

I'll probably get all motivated to do a review of last year because it was awesome, who knows when though

My projected second half of the year

Migration came to an abrupt end, but not before I added Greenshank on the 14th, then a Nightingale 17th, back on the 'picnic island' and I'm glad I went same day because it did not sing 18th, nor since, so we assume it moved on and I doubt we'll ever see one on DP again, unless we get very lucky with a random bird.

Nothing much has happened since, I carried on early mornings most of May, the Oystercatchers appear to have finally reared a chick beyond the danger period and it must be due to fly off any day. Mute Swans have done okay, the BSL pair had 10 cygnets, but this quickly fell to 5, Lavell's have 4, the Lodden pair had 5, but that is now 3. I haven't checked the other lakes.

The Great Crested Grebes on Lavell's had 2 young, but both are gone as of this morning, the Coots at Lea Farm are always in grave danger from Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, or other predators, the Terns seems to have 11-12 pairs, this could be growing, 3 or more pairs Sandford, but yesterday's rain and unsettled weather does not give me faith the latter has much chance.

If we have flooding, then the last raft only has 1 pair of Black-headed Gulls, so with a bit of luck they'll re-camp there. The Sand Martins are doing just fine some say 40 holes occupied.

Lots of Garden Warbler all around, an amazing spring of Lesser Whitethroat could mean we have 2 or more pairs? If you see Willow Warbler anywhere let me know, Sedge Warbler may be around I'm only aware of 2 singing birds in May.

Redshank and LRP still about, little sign of an attempt at breeding, this is likely to be due to Jackdaw, I hope we can have a massive cull in the future for when we've done all the habitat creation in the NE bay of Lea Farm Lake.

Cuckoo still calling this morning and finally, I picked up a Green Sandpiper, no doubt yesterday's LFL individual, but now happy on Tern scrape bund....we must strim the vegetation.

Green Sandpiper June records;

7th : 1992 & 2019
8th : 1993
11th : 2009, 2016
12th : 2004, 2006,
14th : 1994
18th : 2000, 2012
19th : 2005
23rd : 2002, 2018
24th : 2013
25th 1997
26th : 1995,1999
27th : 2010, 2015

That was a fun first half of the year, so what will happen for the second half? 14 good candidates to potentially add, plus we seem to see great surprises every autumn, but what occurs the most are the following, and I have attempted to put it the order we've seen past records;

Black-tailed Godwit - from last day of June all thru July
Linnet - Any warm day, but if not peak passage is mid Oct
Dunlin - A total guess
Ruff - August, but any month really
Little Owl - A night visit required, but October has produced in the past
Yellow-legged Gull - Late July and Aug, good chance if loafing gulls pattern continues
Pintail - August is a good time
Marsh Harrier - early Aug onwards
Stonechat - Sept onwards
Osprey - Sept to Oct
Merlin - Oct
Jack Snipe - Oct
Lesser Redpoll - Late Oct and Nov
Med Gulls - Nov and Dec

I've done a little checking and since 2012, we have averaged at least 2 mega's in the last 3 months of the year, 4 last year alone.

Whilst it has no bearing on the future, it reminds us to look darn hard until the 31st of December, because at the moment so if we can get the 8 in bold above and just a few of medium rare species we have had in the last 7 years, plus long awaited repeats and overdue firsts and we are on track for a new park record, so anything out of this list (bold red are new for park);

Great Northern Diver (most overdue species as a tick for the park)
Black-necked Grebe
Storm Petrel (Random in storm conditions)
Spoonbill (I can't believe we haven't had another since 2007)
Brent Goose
White-fronted Goose (none since 2002)
American Wigeon (If LFLis safe from disturbance 2010 highs of 1,000 might occur, so who knows)
Green-winged Teal (Our Teal numbers have tripled since 2006, it's just a matter of time)
Scaup (easily overlooked)
Ring-necked Duck (long time overdue species, our Athya record is good so one will occur soon)
Long-tailed Duck (not a sniff since the only 1983 bird)
Smew
Honey Buzzard (2016 dark morph bird seen by FJC & TAG was almost certainly one)
Red-footed Falcon (Sure I saw one briefly 2012, only confirmed was 1989)
Spotted Crake (none since 2002)
Red-necked Phalarope (why not)
Sanderling (with LFL East shore improved, chances must improve)
Curlew Sandpiper (only record 2nd Oct 1988)
Bar-tailed Godwit
Spotted Redshank
Wood Sandpiper (last was 2 in 2011)
Turnstone (last was 2012)
White-winged Black Tern (I believe)
Arctic Tern (rare in autumn, but last were Aug 2015 & 2016)
Red-rumped Swallow (one in Oxon this spring)
European Bee-Eater (can occur anywhere)
Waxwing (a fly over)
Redstart (none in car park field since 2016)
Dartford Warbler (do get into all sorts of scrub outside breeding season)
Firecrest (must come thru most years)
Bearded Tit (we've got the reeds, come on!)
Red-backed Shrike (early Sept, perched near the scrape)
Snow Bunting (no reason one couldn't put down on the gravel lake edge)
Little Bunting (often seen at feeding stations)
Yellowhammer ((one must fly over now and again)

I dare to dream and never stop looking, have fun folks