With easterly winds dominating the weather over the past couple of weeks, we couldn't not enjoy two weekends on the bounce at one of the premier birding locations mainland Britain has to offer - Spurn in East Yorkshire. Scouring the bushes, hedgerows and trees on the hunt for Siberian Rubythroats, White's Thrushes or *insert desired mega here*, whilst we didn't strike it lucky on that front, we nevertheless had an enjoyable few days lapping up the huge number of eastern waifs
that had arrived on our shores.
Dusky Warbler
Rustic Bunting
Without doubt, the highlight of the first weekend was most definitely a fine Rustic Bunting, originally trapped and ringed at Kew
Villa on the Thursday and being seen intermittently in Church Field the
following days. A relatively rare visitor, and with there not having been a
twitchable one for a good number of years, it was great to jam in on this
eastern bunting.
Perching up on several trees
scattered around the field through the course of around 45 minutes, we were
able to get great views as it showed off to the crowds!
Birders on the hunt for the Rustic Bunting in Church Field
Very similar to a Reed Bunting
in winter plumage, the rusty red-brown flanks, neck and rump of the Rustic were
obvious, even in flight, while the white facial spot and white wing bars
(yellow-brown in Reed Buntings) also offered a handy way of separation.
The diagnostic white facial spot
The Heligoland trap in Church Field the Rustic Bunting was first trapped in
Spurn always seems to deliver,
and along with the Rustic Bunting, we had a handful of Yellow-browed Warblers,
several Redstarts, two Red-breasted Flycatchers, a nice Ring Ouzel, an Olive-backed Pipit, masses of
Redwings and Goldcrests, a particularly showy Woodcock on the beach and a gorgeous Firecrest flitting through the hedges.
Poor record shot of the Firecrest!
Olive-backed Pipit
Having had our fill of the gorgeous little Siberian Accentor at Easington the following weekend on our second visit to East Yorkshire (that little gem gets a whole blog post to itself), we headed over to finish the day at Spurn once again, a confiding Dusky Warbler on canal bank my second lifer of the trip.
With Dusky Warbler a predominately east coast bird, this had been on my radar for a good while, and it was great to finally catch up with one after relatively few records in previous years.
A supporting cast of Pallas’s and Yellow-browed Warblers, Firecrests, Bramblings, a Woodcock and a Black Redstart were certainly not to be sniffed at, while an extremely confiding Shore Lark was also most definitely another highlight of the weekend, these Bumblebee pattered larks a firm favourite of mine.
The sheer spectacle of ongoing migration at Spurn was also a display in itself, the bushes dripping with Goldcrests while every hedgerow, field and patch of grass held masses of Robins and thrushes fresh in off the sea.
I can never get a decent photo of a Firecrest!!
A great couple of weekends at what is truly one of the best migration hotspots in Britain, and it was fantastic to see the spectacle of autumn migration on the east coast in action.
Brünnich's Guillemot: probably
the one bird above all others that I regret not going to see. Having no car and
not knowing any other birders at the time who could provide a lift, I had no
other option but to sit and watch as the images came flooding in of the 2013
Portland bird, the first twitchable individual of its kind and more than likely
seen by thousands of birders. Fast forward nearly 3 years, and it was therefore
a huge surprise on late Sunday afternoon to see the report flash up on my phone
– Brünnich's Guillemot: Anstruther, Fife – One showing well in the harbour.
Safe in the knowledge that the
Portland Brünnich's (which also hung around in a harbour) stuck around for the
last 6 days of December, I was relatively hopeful that the Fife bird would
follow suit, doing the decent thing and making itself accessible for anyone
that wanted to visit.
Still being present in the
harbour the next day, it soon became apparent that this particular bird
wouldn’t be going anywhere far, looking to be in full moult and having significant
feather damage, possibly caused by oiling. Indeed, the photos showed a
particularly raggedy individual, often pictured with its eyes half closed and
looking in an extremely sorry state. Instead of hoping it wouldn’t swim off and
leave the harbour, it now seemed more of a question of whether it would last
the night!
With the bird’s longevity now
in jeopardy, I decided to book a day off work, me and my Dad heading up to
Cumbernauld on Tuesday night and making our way to Anstruther the following
morning. Arriving at the harbour in good time and having already received the
news that the Brünnich's was still there, before we had even got out of the car
we could see a small black and white shape floating in the water amongst the
boats – Brünnich's in the bag!
Spot the Brünnich's! The favoured spot between the boats
Heading over to the opposite
wall and setting up the scope, we were treated to excellent views of this
arctic alcid, bobbing quietly in front of the moored boats and most definitely
looking a bit on the peaky side. Staying this way for the first half an hour,
it was therefore a surprise to see it come alive in the afternoon, scooting
over to the jetty surrounding the harbour and constantly diving down in the
hunt for fish and other crustaceans.
Showing no fear as is the case
with many other high arctic species, the Brünnich's often came to within 6
feet, drifting over towards the assembled birders and seemingly oblivious to
the small crowd it had attracted.
Looking closer at the photos
and with the bird being at such close range, the poor condition of the feathers
was obvious, the wings reduced to small matted stubs and showing patches of raw
pink skin on the edges. The feathers also appeared to be coated in an oily
substance, and the normally white belly was stained a slight browny-yellow.
The dreadful condition of the wings was obvious whenever the Brünnich's flapped or preened
Despite its shortcomings in
the looks department, it was still fantastic to see the bird so close up –
always my favourite way to see a new bird and something we’ll remember for a
good while yet!
Sadly however, come Friday
morning, news filtered through that the Brünnich's had unfortunately not
survived its visit to the Scottish coastline, being found dead first thing in
the morning washed up on the beach by the harbour. This fate, judging by the
bird’s poor condition, seemed inevitable, and its behaviour, demeanour and
all-round peaky look was reminiscent of the storm-wrecked inland Red-throated
Diver on Fairhaven Lake a few years ago which too met a tragic end. A sad end
to a super bird – RIP Brunny!
The Brünnich's looked quite peaky when floating on the water
While the ID of this
particular bird was in doubt by some birders, mainly due to the extensive white
above the bill, a number of other features all pointed firmly to Brünnich's;
the thick short bill complete with white gape line – a diagnostic feature of Brünnich's, the dark pattern on the head
extending past the eye and the general body shape and structure. Several
experts in the arctic more familiar with Brünnich's, particularly during
plumages unfamiliar to us such as in moult, were also happy with the ID, but
now the body has been recovered testing can be undertaken to rule out the
(relatively slim) chance of hybridisation and eliminate any doubts.
The white gape line on the bill was obvious, as was the lack of flank streaking, the pronounced gonydeal angle and the white coming to a sharp point on the foreneck. The pale tip to the bill is also a pro Brünnich's feature.
With Brünnich's usually
occurring up in the high arctic seas of Canada, Greenland and Iceland, there
have been 44 past records of these arctic alcids in Britain. Despite this high
number of occurrences, the Anstruther bird was only the second truly twitchable
record, with the majority of others being either one day birds, being found
washed up dead on the shore, or occurring off Fair Isle, Shetland and Orkney.
Anstruther Harbour - complete with Brünnich's
A fantastic bird to finally
grip back after the Dorset individual, and a bird I’m extremely glad I took the
day off to go and see!
With Greenish Warbler being a
predominately east coast bird that rarely makes it across to the north west, I
was still yet to see this charming autumn migrant despite many visits to Spurn
and other east coast localities during September. Therefore, when an individual
in Cleveland developed a pattern of showing well in a small patch of trees
during the week and on in to the weekend, it provided the perfect opportunity
to finally catch up with this much needed autumn warbler.
With Alex only having
previously seen very brief views of a Greenish Warbler before a number of years
ago, he decided to drive the 2 ½ hour journey to take us up to the north east,
the very real prospect of the adult Franklin’s Gull in Northumberland making a
reappearance during the day firmly at the back of his mind!
Arriving at Saltburn and
heading east along the cliff top path beside the Ship Inn pub, we were soon
looking straight in to the dell that the Greenish had been favouring, the bird immediately
on show in the small Sycamore saplings directly below and giving absolutely
amazing views as it flitted between the leaves.
Similar in size and structure
to an Arctic Warbler or Chiffchaff, we could clearly see the single white
wingbar on the wings along with the broad white supercilium, differing from the
often similar Arctics by having it extending through on to the forehead.
Watching this spritely
individual for well over an hour, it appeared to stick to just the one tree
filled hollow, not venturing out of this area during our time there and working
its way back and forth between the bushes.
The small section of bushes in the dell the Greenish Warbler was favouring
Having not checked our phones
whilst watching the Greenish, I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see the
Franklin’s Gull had made a reappearance an hour earlier at Whittle Dene
reservoirs, just under an hour and a half further north from where we currently
were.
The beautiful views from Saltburn!
With Alex driving, he made the
decision that we should try for the double, heading north up the A1 with our
arrival time estimated to be nearly 6pm. With the Franklin’s Gull heading off
to roost at around 7pm the previous day, this gave us around an hour’s window
to connect – it could prove tricky especially if the bird was mobile. Then,
disaster struck – being literally 5 minutes away from the site and travelling
down the winding farm lanes heading towards the reservoirs, news came on that
there was no further sign – nightmare!
Not giving up and spotting a
mass of gulls congregating in a ploughed field, all dive-bombing the freshly
turned soil behind the tractor in the search for unearthed invertebrates, we
trawled through the numerous Black-headed and Common Gulls in the hope of
spotting the Franklin’s.
After several sweeps through
the scope and with hundreds of gulls getting up from the neighbouring field and
flying off towards the reservoirs, we headed east to see if the Franklin’s Gull
had returned to the field it had been seen in yesterday evening. Walking along
the reservoir track and dodging the hundreds of mozzies buzzing around our
heads, again we were met with the sight of lines upon lines of gulls, clearly
gathering in a pre-roost.
The picturesque evening light over Whittle Dene Reservoirs
With no sign of the Franklin’s
in with the hundreds of Black-headed and Common Gulls, a stroke of luck saw a
birder running down the track towards us, arms flailing in the air to get our
attention and shouting madly. This could only mean one thing – Franklin’s!
Immediately, the 10 or so
gathered birders, me and Alex included, legged it down the path, rushing over
the fence and setting up our scopes on the opposite field, faces flushed and
hearts pumping furiously.
Squinting through the scope, finally
we had our prize – one smart looking winter plumaged Franklin’s Gull happily
strutting along the clods of earth and picking at any morsels disturbed in the
soil.
Much smaller than I had
expected and with the head pattern much more subtle than I had imagined,
zooming in revealed a number of diagnostic features to confirm the ID. The
thick white crescent shapes above and below the eye were clear to see, as was
the slightly darker mantle and blackish bill. The head pattern was also a
giveaway from the Black-headed Gulls, being much more extensive and forming a
large dark black patch behind the eye and up on to the head.
With the Derbyshire bird in
2010 being before my time and with all subsequent Franklin’s Gulls in recent years being just a touch too far away in Hampshire and Essex, it was great to
finally catch up with this Yankee rarity.
Not being a huge fan of gulls
personally (they all look the same!) I had to admit that I did especially enjoy
the Franklin’s – the thrill of the bird being there against the odds when it looked
like we would dip (as well as the relief that we wouldn’t have to shell out for
a hotel to stay over and try again the next day) made it, along with the
Laughing Gull at New Brighton, one of the more memorable gull twitches!
Alex's Franklin's Gull video
Having scored with both our
targets, we headed back to Cheshire happy and content, having secured great
views of both birds after what was hopefully the start of a promising and
fruitful autumn.
Out of 50 species of orchid
that regularly occur in Britain & Ireland and having been on a quest to see
them all for the past 8 years, I had finally got down to just one species left
to find – Lindisfarne Helleborine.
Endemic to just the small
island of Lindisfarne off the north Northumberland coast, this unobtrusive and
at first glance relatively plain looking orchid is in fact rather special – it
grows nowhere else in the world and is restricted to just a few dune slacks
towards the western edge of the island. With plants quickly going over if the
weather is particularly hot, as soon as I got word that the Helleborines were in
flower I arranged a day off work so we could travel up to see this British
speciality. Usually flowering at the start of July, the particularly wet season
meant that this year they were several weeks late – just coming into their peak
on the third weekend of the month.
With Lindisfarne cut off from
the mainland during high tide, we had arranged overnight accommodation nearby
ready for a morning crossing, and meeting one of the wardens on site at just
after 11 we were led through the dunes and to the outskirts of the colony.
To
prevent trampling and destruction of the site due to curious orchid hunters
searching for the plants, the wardens led us to a small group on the edge of
the dune slacks where about 7 plants were in flower, the aim being to preserve
the main colony and allowing those interested to admire and photograph the
orchids to their hearts content.
Spot the Helleborines!
Similar to the closely related
Dune Helleborine in both looks and habitat, DNA testing confirmed that
Lindisfarne Helleborines are indeed separate and worthy of full species status.
With around 200 flowering plants on the Snook (a
section of the island) and growing nowhere else in the world, their existence
could potentially be precarious - habitat degradation or severe flooding may
prove disastrous for this isolated colony.
Whilst the abundant Early and
Northern Marsh Orchids scattered across the dunes were already over, the Marsh
Helleborines also on site were in prime condition, creating a beautiful carpet
of white frilled flowers across the wetter dune slacks.
As the tide was fully in over
lunchtime rendering the causeway flooded and unpassable until after 5pm, this
presented an opportunity to explore the rest of the island, with several Grey
seals, a colony of nesting terns across the bay and a female Eider with her
fully young in tow all notable highlights as we walked to the castle.
Lindisfarne Castle
Lindisfarne Priory
The causeway!
With an 8 year long quest now
completed and having seen and photographed all of the regular flowering orchids
in Britain & Ireland, this now just leaves the almost mythical Ghost Orchid
to track down deep in the Herefordshire or Chilterns woodlands – no small task
by any means!
