Always be prepared to have your mind blown

As a 'patch birder' I can say I have found some pretty amazing birds over the years, some of the best from 2000, I'll dwell on those another time.

I have fallen to the wayside on keeping my blog updated, I think it was trying to juggle a YouTube channel and not having a clear picture of whether I wanted to do videos or shorts, the latter seemed to bring more views. But I've done neither for many months, mostly as my digi adapter broke and I am about to have it fixed.

Anyway I digress, the reason for the out of the blue post, is because while out this morning, another rarity event occurred - this time in the form of a Marsh Tit. 

Many in other parts of the country are blessed with Marsh Tits, we on the other hand are not ad as far as I am concerned there has been few if any reliable reports since 1984. I chased one back then and instead saw Willow Tit, which has become even rare in our County and likely to go extinct very soon.

Most mornings, I arrive near 05:30 and my 'routine' is to check the exposed mud on Sandford, hoping for a wader - in this case I was nearly an hour late and did of course check for Black-tailed Godwit - no sign and it's fair to say my hopes are dwindling now as the Islandica form have mostly gone through by now. It was here I felt compelled to change my routine, instead of turning back to do my usual route, I decided I'd check the other mud spit at the South end just 100m away, I approached very slowly to avoid flushing what might be there.

I paused and peered around the Balsam - 1 Green & 1 Common Sandpiper, I could hear a tit flock right by me and a Treecreeper began calling and suddenly a bird dropped onto the path 8 feet away, with naked eyes I could see it was brown and grey and didn't even need my bins for my brain to shout "is that a Marsh Tit, it can't be, they're extinct around here". Lifting my bins I was in no doubt in one second, it flicked up just a couple of feet and I stayed on it, with my mind blown.

I put out the news on our WhatsApp group - nobody responded.

It flitted around with 10 to 20 feet for 6-7 minutes and I called my good friend Trevor, he is accustomed to my early calls and knows that if I call early it's usually something good and he was as blown away as me.

My reckoning is that as hard as it might be to find again, it almost certainly will stick with this flock, at least for a day or so.

It was April 19th 1984 I hoped to see Marsh Tit, but got Willow Tit, as the years have gone by, I have resigned myself to believing I'll never see one on my beloved patch - Moral of the story "Always be prepared to have your mind blown"

It's that annual moment happening all over again

Starting the new patch birding year seems to instigate a desire to write something in my old blog, but the issue for 2 years plus has been time and the desire to keep posting.

I'll see how I feel, but for now I just wanted to share some sunrise pictures from 20th January, as I haven't seemed to be able to capture too many lovely ones in recent years.

Here's to hoping we see more birds and more species than we did in 2023.

Where has the time gone

 Yes, it's obvious that running a blog and a YouTube channel have seemed beyond me, but for me the events of January 2022, warrant a special mention. Is there any point carrying on the blog if I don't do regular updates? Maybe not, but here are my thoughts anyway.

January 1st was outstanding, helped along by the long staying Great White Egret, male Goosander and wintering Stonechats. My total for the day was an unprecedented 79, only missing Little Grebe, Rook and Woodcock. Other tricky to get birds on any January day, were Chiffchaff, Mandarin, Raven, Siskin, Mistle Thrush, Meadow Pipit, Kingfisher, Peregrine and Fieldfare, but rarer than these were Kestrel, Skylark and rarer still Blackcap, but the rarest of all and a massive surprise was a flock of 40-50 Brent Geese that I barely got on, arriving from the NW over the landfill and dropping - I could even hear their barking calls as they crossed ESE, but due to an epic failure on my part I never got them in my scope, immediately losing sight of them behind the trees beyond Tern scrape, but then failing again as they turned back, looked tempted to drop, but went on ENE and out of sight.

 

I will mention the Stonechats again as them wintering at all is still a rare, but I am happy to say increasing trend. A female was around the car park field Jan to Feb 2002, but nothing more until up to 3 birds from Sept 1st to Nov 5th 2014, then a repeat 1/15th Sept 2015 onwards till 2/30th Oct, similar 2016, but 2017 they arrived Sept 19th and stayed all the way through to March 4th. Skipped 2018, but passage till July 21st, then from Sept 10th 2019, minimum 3 birds, but a new high count of 5/4th Oct, 1-3 all they way through to March 6th 2020.

Sept 2020 records began 8th, with 5, then another new record count of 7/27th, although that was the last for the year. Feb 21st to 25th 2021 a pair came and went, then Sept 3/23rd onwards, 5/27th, 7/28th and at times were with multiple Whinchats.

My belief is that the landfill has gradually become more appealing to chats in general, our putting our Eastern boundary fence, has acted as I had hope as nothing short of a perfect perching point - the Meadow Pipits like it too, as do many species. My question as the possibility of the sheep farming coming to and end in 2-3 years, is will they continue after we lose the sheep?

So back to January 2022 - Grey Wagtail, our first Yellow-legged Gull in 4 years, 2 Med Gulls on 2nd, then Woodcock finally for me 5th, Shelduck, Rook and Coal Tit by 9th, meant 86 species, only lacking Little Grebe compared to the park list.

 

1st winter Med                                                                In with the Common & BH Gulls                   

But then another major surprise - 18 White-fronted Geese on the landfill 13th. No records since Dec 2002, making a very rare sight here. On top of this they were super confiding, allowing views down to 70m and as I write this, they are still here 17 days later...amazing.

  Out near Lines Road

Still not done, I caught up with Little Grebe 13th, Barn Owl 13th, Lesser Redpoll 22nd, then another rarity - the first Caspian Gull since 2017 and we have to go back to 2005 for the record before that. 

January Green Sandpipers are another new rising trend, all due to Lea Farm Lake and one dropped in 25th, perfect timing for me as I was visiting the Tuesday work party team. I followed up and heard a Brambling and did the same with Linnet, catching sight of one this morning 30th and heard another.

94 Species is unheard of, the previous high count was 90, sure quite recently in 2016, and 88 in 2019, 87 in 2011 and 2021, all point to an improving species diversity.

All of this has been achieved without Great Black-backed Gull, Golden Plover, Jack Snipe and some of our other recent winter goodies like Firecrest, Pintail, Red Crested Pochard, Ferruginous Duck (if we can prove they are not reintroduction stock), Kittiwake, Curlew & Dunlin - both of which one can say rely on proper frozen conditions.

I am fully optimistic we will see Oystercatcher in the next 2 weeks, Redshank by end March, but even though we haven't had an April Red-legged Partridge since 2017, they are almost regular, so it's overdue. 

March has so much potential to impress, past ones have produced Brent Geese, Avocet, Common Scoter, Spotted Redshank and Water and Rock Pipits back in them good old early 80's.

I want 2022 to be 'The Red Year'

February - Red Throated Diver to balance things up on the Feb 22nd 1987 bird I missed

April - Red-rumped Swallow a county and park first if we can get lucky

May - Red-necked Phalarope because we deserve one

June - Red-footed Falcon because I am bitter I didn't even hear about the 1992 bird and I am sick I didn't get better views of the Oct 6th 2012 bird I am convinced was one

I encourage everyone to get out at dawn - the sunrises can be lovely

2020 done, come on 2021

Despite my best efforts, I could not add the 2 that I needed to hit my baseline of 130 in 2020, it all ended 18th October with Ring Ouzel, our first ever autumn bird.

The highlights Goosander, 3 records of Med Gull for me, having missed them in 2019, Golden Plover, Great White Egret Sandwich Tern, Black Tern, a pair of Cattle Egret over twice in April, Hawfinch, Wood Sandpiper, Red-legged Partridge, early morning Greenshanks, multiple Ringed Plover, Redstart, multiple Whinchat, more than doubled our record count of Stonechat - 7, Tree Pipit, Pintail, Merlin, a very late Whimbrel, Linnet, Lesser Redpoll and Brambling passage in Oct, but of course the top birds were the Cattle Egret on Sandford, 1 then 3 Great White Egret over Sandford and top slot and the first in Berkshire since 1987 - Black-crowned Night Heron from the 8th.

I always say "how can we top this year" and 2020 is a classic example, how can it be topped? For me it's not about topping because as we all know we have no control over birds and never have, so we can do is stay the course of a year, keep 'patching' as often as you can, especially during passage.

Jan 1st I was out as usual before 07:00 to try and get the night birds under the belt, which did kind of work, Water Rail, Cetti's calling early, then the first bonus a Peregrine chasing Redwing as they came of their roost, In the space of the next few moments a Mandarin called and I am 90% sure a Golden Plover also called. I bombed out on Woodcock, so attempted Barn Owl, which was also a no show.

The damp cold got the better of me, but I managed another 45 minutes picking up 2 Raven over the landfill, before looping back to my car for a warm up at home. This extended till 12:40, when I took a walk along the Loddon and got lucky with Snipe, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Chiffchaff and best of all 4 Siskin, which I haven't seen on the deck all autumn.

I then looped around Lavell's, the old Gold Course - Collared Dover and DP centre, where I failed to see House Sparrow, on to BSL where a Goldeneye had been seen earlier and arriving at WSL for 15:05 as planned.

It only took barely 10 minutes before our star bird - Bittern showed and rather well too, with a little fly and fumbling around in the reeds. Onto Sandford for a Little Egret, then a lucky pair of Rook over East, onto Lavell's where an even luckier Kestrel was perched up high above Sandford Lane, then the final stop at Bittern for Little Grebe, Sparrowhawk, Barn Owl and Woodcock. No Sparrowhawk, of Barn Owl and I missed the grebes chatting outside, but Marek and I stood in the 'right place' to see the Woodcock fly right over our heads about 12 feet up at 16:44.

I finished on 67, not bad at all on a quiet day, picking up really good tricky to find birds on Jan 1st, making it easy to pick up the missing Little Grebe, Buzzard, Bullfinch, Feral Pigeon, Sparrowhawk, Song Thrush, House Sparrow, Kingfisher Lesser Black-backed Gull, Skylark and Coal Tit. 

Over the coming 6-7 weeks in the key time for Goosander, Med Gull, Golden Plover and has in the past produced many wildcard wildfowl, waders, raptors, crests and finches.

October right on track

 I've been waiting for a still morning to coincide with my availability and when I got to Ron's around 07:00 this morning, I saw 2 flocks of small finches at the far end of the landfill heading South, I packed up and left after barely any time and I'm glad I did.

Almost upon arrival at the bottom of the car park field a flock of 17 Linnet headed down the middle of the landfill South, easy to pick out their colours in the morning light - a much awaited year tick. I concluded that the flocks I'd seen from Ron's were most likely the same species. 

Every few minutes I could hear Chaffinch and started picking up small groups of 3 to 9 heading WNW, after 2 hours I'd seen at least 60-70 birds, checking for Brambling whenever I got close enough views. 1 then another lone Swallow went South, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Skylarks, then 2 'smalls job' landed on the wires next to a Meadow Pipit, I scoped and was rather happy to see Redpolls, quite pale ones as it happens, but in my haste to get video footage they dropped below before I could either record, or convince myself of them being Mealy candidates, so I'm hedging on Lesser Redpoll for my year list.

I picked up 4 Redwing coming South above the trees beyond Lodge Wood, a few Meadow Pipit dotted around, then headed for BSL, where I picked up an adult Common Gull, it seems the first of the autumn, all in all, 2 year ticks in one October day is a pretty good show, when on average I get three in the whole of October, putting me on 126 for 2020.

If I can pick up a Brambling any day and against the odds a Jack Snipe graces our shores and we get a late Garganey, I am nearly on that minimum 130 target.

It's getting tough

 I can't complain, I've not missed anything tragic, but if one was to look at each species as an equal 1 point, then missing the only Black-tailed Godwit of the year (so far) on July 10th wasn't useful.

We've had 3 Black-tailed Godwit reports after September and I can only authenticate two;

3rd Dec 1988 : Tern scrape (S Mills)

16th Sept to 21st Oct 2001 : Lea Farm fields & Tern scrape (Many Observers - MO)

9th to 12th Nov 2002 : Tern scrape, only moving off due to flooding

16th Oct 2011 : "30-40 birds overhead and on shingle island" (PH) but nobody ever came forward to identify who PH was, so the record cannot be validated

So it's not all over there yet.

Spotted Flycatcher : My first miss since 2009, which stings a bit

Wood Warbler : Okay I lied, we all missed one good bird, but as it was only seen by a non local whom I had doubts about when he told me, I didn't know about it until the day after and never even checked.

It's still not too late for Osprey and Marsh Harrier, but the bulk of records are before now, so I'm not confident getting either.

Garganey : We seem to skip a year in 3 to 5 year skips, loads of time for one yet, in the last 20 years we've had 5 October birds and 2 Novembers.

Red Crested Pochard : Doubtful, 2 December records in 10 years, but stay hopeful right!?

Scaup : Wild card, easily possible

Wild Geese : Brent is possible of course

Wild swans : Both occurred 2013 and 2014, why not again?

Ruff : 2 October records, I'm pulling a face, but our chances have to be better with the new marsh

Sandwich Tern : I've had one late record!

Jack Snipe I'll be stunned if we don't get one, but with the East shore massively changed, it might take a bit of luck..we'll see what unfolds

Lesser Redpoll : I'm trying to get a passage bird each day this week

Linnet : October is the best month for passage birds

Firecrest : A keen eye and some luck

Brambling : From mid this month onwards passage again might produce

And let's not dismiss any bonus birds, I remain up for Spoonbill, Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Shag, Great Northern Diver and our first ever Ring-necked Duck...that would be quite an end to a good year...birding wise!

Is 130 or above still possible?

I have hit 130 or above for the last 10 years, if I can do it this year somehow 11 consecutive years sounds even better to me. The question is with such a slow start and lockdown, do we normally see enough new species Sept to Dec for me to reach it?

Pintail - Seen every September since 2014, except 2018

Garganey - Seen 5 out of the last 10 years in Sept, or Oct

Red Crested Pochard - Seen 2 out of the last 10 years in Dec

Marsh Harrier - Seen 6 out of the last 10 Septembers

Osprey - 4 Augusts and 1 Oct in the last 10 years

Merlin - 5 out of 10 Octobers, or Novembers

Ruff - 4 Out of 10 Decembers

Jack Snipe - 4 Out of 10 Octobers, Novembers or Decembers

Curlew - 4 Out of 10 Sept, Oct, or Decembers

Spotted Redshank - Wildcard, but late August to early Sept is best window

Little Gull - Rare in the Autumn, but keep checking

Yellow-legged Gull - Wildcard

Arctic Tern - Late Aug, but also Sept records in 90's

Tree Pipit - A few days left to catch on going over

Rock Pipit - With the gravel being consolidated into specific locations, we are long overdue a bird on the deck

Ring Ouzel - Wildcard, must go over most years

Yellow-browed Warbler - We've had 2 in 7 years

Firecrest - Overlooked and likely most years

Pied Flycatcher - Still time if we check hard

Brambling - Oct onwards for fly overs and around the feeders

Linnet - Mid Oct to early Nov is best passage

Lesser Redpoll - Become rarer as a wintering species, but passage in Oct to Nov