Graham Catley 11/03/2025 Graham Catley 11/03/2025

Hen Harrier action

The weather yesterday was not great looking for photography with the strong cold northerly combining with bright sun to produce a serious amount of atmospheric distorion with only about 200m being haze free: But it was sunny so I went to have a look for Hen Harriers and it proved to be a good decision. The adult male was present along with a 2cy male that was hunting much more frequently. The male seems to adept at catching voles that he spends very little time on the wing but even the young male caught three voles in less than 90 minutes. The adult male chased off the young male a couple of times but he always came back then an unusual encounter ensued. The adult male caught a vole and moved to eat it but the young male then flew after him almost in a feed me juvenile type way but also partly in a robbing flight - this clearly angered the adult male who flew up and gave chase to the young male and several skirmishes ensued of which I managed to capture a few shown below. Later in the afternoon the two did some more sparing but then seemed to almost accept each other’s company. Fortunately the light was good and the haze a little reduced during the encounter but by 15:30 the wind picked up again and brought in some sea fret and it was time to leave.

Adult male Hen Harrier voicing his anger at the younger male

2cy male chasing the adult male carrying a vole

stunning adult male with a striking tail pattern

I read too many reviews of camera gear! So many I read say that the Canon RF 200-800 is not sharp and maybe with the R7 its not great but with my R6II it seems pretty decent to me even with the haze of yesterday

the times when the 2cy male had the upper hand or position were few

seeing encounters like these is a rare privilege

The 30 frames a second on the R6II comes into its own in brief action sequences like these

the eyes say it all - get your own voles!

this 2cy male is richly coloured on the underparts particularly obvious at a distance

Some more action this week with the adult male mobbing and being mobbed by a Carrion Crow and then another 2cy male joining in the action

Adult male and the second 2cy male of the week a much paler and more advanced bird than the richly coloured bird in earlier images

and the first 2cy male for direct comparison

Graham Catley 10/03/2025 Graham Catley 10/03/2025

Lakes, Dales and Moors

Three days in the Lakes at a very quiet time of year and then diverted to North Teesdale in search of Black Grouse that I had not seen for years but inevitably we hit the only wet day of the week on the Black Grouse quest so departed mid-morning and wandered back via the North York Moors to add Red to the week’s grouse list.

Langdales - the Canon R6II and Rf 100-500

Signs of spring were few but it did hit 16C on our last day in the Lakes

The walk up Langdales did produce a Dipper though the angles were not great for photography

Esthwaite Water on a dull day when the sun was forecast - well by the MET Office anyway

My annual Marsh Tit encounter seems to be in this area - but as the British Willow Tit heads to extinction the Marsh Tit seems to be following

Far from satisfactory images of this singing male

Although still bright when we arrived in upper Teesdale by the following morning there was low cloud and haze and the rain soon arrived

A gang of Brown Hares chillin on the moors

and a bit of distant boxing albeit in very poor light

Good to see so many Lapwings tumbling and displaying

The number of displaying Curlew was amazing and their bubbling song produced an amazing soundscape

Ended up putting the 1.4x converter on the 200-800 lens which is not ideal in dull light

But at well over 1km range the results were almost acceptable as record shots

I was pleased to see about five females but even on a green field they were rather well disguised

Their ability to fade into spread manure was also impressive

There seemed to be very little lekking taking place

Just before we left we took a drive up another road and came across this male close to the roadside: I had seen a few males with brownish wings and poor combs but it had not registered that they were 2cy males like this bird

Red Griese were not hard to find on the roadside across the North York Moors - far too much heather burning and grouse management makes me question my photography of this species but they are an attractive bird

Plenty of males displaying but as usual the light was pretty dire

Graham Catley 03/03/2025 Graham Catley 03/03/2025

March 2025

Amazingly we are into March and although it feels more spring like there seems to be little change on the bird front with a small increase in local Siskins after a very poor winter while the early Stonechat passage has aybe peaked with seven locally last week. Marsh Harriers are displaying and a pair of Peregrines are drifting around locally but I have managed to miss two local Red Kites so far but surely one to come soon.

A somewhat better Stock Dove shot than the February addition

Green Sandpiper makes it to number 87 although the images are far from good it is a species I have consistently struggled to get any good shots of

A wintering bird seen in November and December but then not again until this weekend.

I am in the process of reading the Peregrine by J A Baker for the first time since I was at school! and it has been fascinating to be able to go out and watch this local pair putting into context the observations of Baker in the 60’s - a great read and a classic of natural history writing in spite of its seemingly sometimes flawed observations - this is the male or tiercel of the pair that have been wandering around the local patch this last week

Sincerely hope this is not the best Hawfinch shot I get this year but for now its 89

A nice 2cy Common Buzzard during a non productive Gos search yesterday

90 Pink-footed Goose - I have not got anything decent on teh local Pinks so far but today’s shots were a bit better

Drake Pochard 91 on the challenge - up to 52 locally in the last three weeks the highest counts of the winter but hardly comparable to the 2000+ that were regular in the mid 1980’s

93 Russian White-fronted Goose with Pink-feet in the Ancholme Valley this afternoon - just the one as far as I could see

94 Dipper from a Lake District visit - blog with many iamges of two grouse species and a few other oddments linked below

Grouse, Lakes and Dipper

95 Marsh Tit singing male in the Lakes - not a great shot

96 Black Grouse again many images linked on the button above in a blog post

97 displaying male Red Grouse North York Moors

98 one of a big arrival of singing Chiffchaffs locally this weekend

100 Purple Sandpiper and 101 Dunlin on the Humber

Hen Harriers from this week adult male and two different 2cy males sparring this week - link to series of images by clicking above

103 one of our garden Collared Doves in display flight

When I looked at this image on the camera I thought it was good but the background is too close and too colourful and messy

Our garden flock of up to 35 House Sparrows have deserted us this winter in favour of a neighbour’s food but this week a few birds have ventured back

Little Egret in head on pose at Wild Wren

There have ben up to 52 Pochard, only six drakes, locally of late but a few less now though hopefully a few of the females will breed

And 104 on the photo challenge list the diminutive but very loud jenny Wren

Feel I have been guilty of over-cropping a lot of images of late - need to reset the balance

I also have a bucket load of harrier images to process / delete! - 2cy male Hen Harrier above

Graham Catley 25/02/2025 Graham Catley 25/02/2025

Woodlarks are back

Late looking for the first Woodlarks this year and only partly successful but the weather turned midday - found two males and a female this morning at one site and then at a second site lots of chasing, fighting and odd behaviour with three birds regularly in the air together which I assumed to be two males and a female. The pair often settled on the ground with the second male either chasing them around or hanging in the air above them looking down before making diving attacks. When the second intruding male flew off the pair settled to feeding and the male took a dust bath in the sand something I had not photographed before.

Intruding male Woodlark looking down at pair on the ground

not easy getting decent flight images that don’t just show the underparts of a singing bird

leafless birch trees as a backdrop and far enough away to not fool the AF system

the defending male on the deck looking out for the intruder

male foreground on bare sand before his dust bath

I rediscovered breeding Woodlarks in Lincolnshire in 1984 after a 24 year absence and worked on them for many years surveying most of the sites in the North of the county for many seasons - you can see some of the flying sand grains around the male’s head here

no he didn’t die on the sand just got into some odd positions

Graham Catley 20/02/2025 Graham Catley 20/02/2025

Eastern Yellow Wagtail at Winteringham

Sitting having a coffee on Wednesday 19th when the phone starts ringing - Mr D is telling me that Mike Pilsworth has found an eastern yellow Wagtail just eight miles down the road at Winteringham - the croissant disappears rapidly and I’m on my way. On arrival Mike quickly points if out on a field that is in the process of being ploughed. Over the next two hours it flies off a few times but always comes back calling loudly and get some good close views and a few images albeit in pretty dull light. A couple of videos includes one where it calls as it takes off at the end - volume up to get a good impression. A new bird for Lincolnshire and Mike’s second addition in three years - at this rate he will be catching me up! Video and series of images below.

Performing well this morning 21st in spite of the gale force winds

attempts at flight shots were not very successful in the wind

Graham Catley 02/02/2025 Graham Catley 02/02/2025

February 2025

A new month and some more species for the 2025 photo challenge - with a dull and dismal 1st not a lot to add but a sunny 2nd brought the chance to add some real padders so here goes with some of those missing common or garden birds and a few follow ups

Male Blackbird but note the brown wing feathers indicating that it is a second calendar year bird but from where? local or a winter migrant from the East?

All the greater coverts have been replaced by new black feathers

Another black bird with a slight twist a white winged Carrion Crow - feathers suffer from leucism in Carrion Crow’s wings on a failry regular basis but tis may also be due to poor diet during their formation in the nest

Green Woodpeckers - maybe seeing this nest box occupants as a threat so need to bring it down!! - 50

51 slightly different to the usual hovering shots a perched adult male on the patch this afternoon

a scenic tree albeit dead makes a better perch

52 Redshanks at high ide roost on the wreck of an old ship on the Humber at Goxhill

53 a flock of Turnstones - only 12 this morning but 70 at low tide yesterday was a decent count in recent terms though up to 400 used to winter on this stretch of the Humber

winter Turnstones reflect the umber colour of the Humber water

loved how the colours of this Yellowhammer were repeated in the surrounding trees and lichen - I continue to photograph this amazing species as it seems to be another one we are certain to loose sooner rather than later

54 Mute Swan cygnet taken through a film of reed that again complemented the colour of the bird and the warmth of the low winter sun

55 Whistling Wigeon - we have about 40 tame Wigeon locally now accustomed to people walking past them on the Humber bank so spoint for choice really

The problem with the birds omn the Humber is the closer they are the worse your angle looking down on them from the raised embankment

56 Great Tit - the light at this time of year is superb, when its not cloudy! so making the most of the common birds

another of those had to be done at some point Canada Goose 57

One of the Waters Edge specialities cracking male Bullfinch

male Chaffinch in winter hues - the quality of the relatively inexpensive Canon RF 200-800 lens continues to impress me with the R6II

59 up with the local flock of Curlew - always tricky getting a flock of birds with no overlapping individuals so this was a nice series in lovely early morning light - a declining species we have a flock of c45 locally but had up to 300 at Goxhill at the weekend where the species has always been in considerable numbers.

some individuals hold winter territories and this bird is highly tied to the area around Barton Haven where it feeds daily and is presumably the same bird seen in that area for a few winters

Probably a male from bill length but a tricky individual

60 Gadwall with male in head throw back display - in 1970 when I was just starting submitting records to the Lincs Bird Report my record of a pair of Gadwall in Goxhill Marsh at Quebec tileyard was one of very few records in that years county report - now there are up to 250 on my local patch and up to 450 at Alkborough a massive change in status

61 House Sparrow - considered a pest species when I started birding in the late 60’s and through to the late 70’s we used to get a notable westerly passage of birds up the Humber in September and October - nowadays I have a few spots locally where there are small numbers but flocks in fields in the autumn are a thing of the past

The flock at Waters Edge survive because there are old pan tiles rooves in the houses along Waterside road and the birds have easy access to a good insect food supply in the Wedge reedbeds in the summer when feeding young

Who can resist one more Long-tailed Tit shot

62 maybe pushing it a bit with this Tawny Owl shot but didn’t have one in January and found it because the resident pair of Stock Doves were sat outside the box looking non too happy

63 Blue Tit in a reedbed a major wintering habitat around the edges of the Humber - with a lot of imagination it could be an Azure

not really qualifying as 64 but a Dark-bellied Brent Goose on my local patch this morning was a rare bird so it makes the secondary grade and I am sure I will improve on it coastal later in the year

65 my first patch Little Egret of the year in a ditch by Wedge - I hammered my local patch at Barton in January walking about 150 miles and finished January with a total of 94 species seen the highest for eight years but my all time January max was 104 in 2008. In the last two days I have added five species, Tawny Owl, Little Egret, Treecreeper, Stonechat and Dark-bellied Brent Goose and I have still not had Barn Owl. All time February max was 120 in the record breaking year of 1996 when I managed 184 species in Barton something that will never be beaten given all the species that we no longer get and losses of species like Turtle Dove and Willow Tit.

66 Treecreeper in a regular local spot in the clay pits but a site where I had not managed to see or hear a bird throughout January but today a male was singing and a second bird calling - photographing them in hawthorns with lots of branches is never easy

a really bright looking bird in the February sun

67 Raven with nest lining material - it was only in 2003 that all the Lincs listers headed to Belton Park near Grantham for the first twitchable Lincolnshire Ravens now they are seemingly commonplace or at least very widely scattered

A Raven pair collecting linings yesterday - always an early breeder

68 Nuthatch - we lost our breeding birds from Baysgarth Park at Barton three years ago for some reason butr elsewhere in North Lincs they still seem to be doing OK; When I started birding in the late 60’s and through to about 2000 Nuthatches were restricted to woodlands south of Lincoln in the county but the northward spread was remarkably rapid for a sedentary species

another species I had few images of so yesterday’s collection were welcome

Had to make 70 with a decent bird and this second calendar year female Northern Goshawk fits the bill nicely - spent 5 hours with nothing to show but two minutes of close encounters made up for the stiff but

Will be putting more images in the Goshawk gallery when I get them processed

A good selection of padders on Waters Edge this morning including a decent flock of Goldfinches 71

I tried different shots of this Great Spotted Woodpecker male as he moved between drumming branches in the early morning sunny spots

And the feel of the morning - Robin and reed

around 300 Jackdaws roost in Barton town and before sunrise they assemble in the trees behind our house before dispersing for the day 72

73 Lesser Redpoll - in the whole of 2024 I saw one Lesser Redpoill on my local patch and that was a fly over in fact I only saw 4 birds all year including numerous visits to Laughton Forest so the 5 on Waters Edge yesterday were already more than last year and included a nice pink breasted male

Frosty Robin - they seem more prominent this winter but is it just people feeding them?

75 Jack Snipe - there has been a long spell of truly dismal weather with zero light but found 5 Jack Snipe with the aid of a thermal imager of which this was the most visible

Another Jack Snipe keeping its head down

76 Hen Harrier - taken a while to catch up with one in almost decent light here having a tussle with a crow

79 Eastern Yellow Wagtail - certainly not a species I expected to be adding to the annual challenge particularly just seven miles from home and a first for Lincolnshire - click the image above to go to more on a blog post about this exciting find

80 Tree Sparrows at Bempton where a Saturday visit added a few more species - a thriving Tree Sparrow colony is good to see as we seem to have lost all our small colonies at Barton in the last two years

81, 82 and 83 Guillemot, Razorbill and Gannet - there were masses of auks on the sea in huge rafts with plenty of Razorbill and Guillemots visiting the ledges

Many of the auks were distributed in wavy lines

the light at this time of year is better than mid-summer with a lower sun and more subtle shades - partially bridled Guillemot

Conscious effort to try and get a slightly different Gannet image

Plenty of nest site agro already under way

Nicer tones on the white plumage than in June

84 a pretty standard Fulmar - there were no Kittiwakes back and didn’t see a Puffin

85 Woodlark - full blog posit about first encounters of 2025 linked by clicking above image of a dust bathing male

Ending the month on 86 with a flying Common Snipe

Graham Catley 23/01/2025 Graham Catley 23/01/2025

January 2025

I set myself a sort of challenge in the photographic sense to get decent or new images of as many species as possible in the year concentrating of my local patch at Barton followed by Lincolnshire and then the UK. Herewith I will attempt to update with new species images taken through the year but as with my filing system things may not go just according to plan!

The first-winter Great Northern Diver that I found on the local pits in early January was literally frozen out by the mid-month freeze and headed to the Humber but kept flying back to the pit to see if the ice hole was big enough for it to land. It was dull but I attempted to get some of the early morning sky glow as a backdrop.

A more conventional shot of the Great Northern on Barton sailing pit

A low level Coot of course a common local resident

Coots concentrated around and in a hole in the ice covered pits mid-January with Shoveler and Gadwall and a few Herring Gulls

drake Goldeneye also on sailing pit - th ehighest winter count so far was 120 in the ice holes during the freeze

and a female in flight at a rather bird free Covenham Reservoir but in lovely light

A drake Goosander also at Covenham - I have seen a couple of local birds in January but neither was anywhere near enough for a decent photo

Great White Egret - one of two in the Ancholme Valley - amazing how the status of this species has changed in North Lincolnshire in such a short space of time but now regular in winter as well as spring through autumn

a juvenile Grey Wagtail adding a touch of colour to the Chowder Ness floods - the Richard’s Pipit absconded before the New Year

The Grey-headed Lapwing in Northumberland more of this bird on the blog post linked below

Grey-headed Lapwing and White-billed Diver

And the Northumberland White-billed Diver also linked above

Lapwings on a winter field of wheat lit by the low January sun - I am trying to vary the images of different species not just going for straight portraits of all birds

Little Grebes on the local pits - up to 23 birds were trapped in the ice holes by the freeze and at least one was dead on the ice but others probably suffered the same fate. A different perspective on this endearing species.

one reacting to the appearance of an Otter

Long-tailed Tit backlit by the low January sun - with common birds its nice to try something different while the species is still clearly identifiable

adult female Marsh Harrier hanging over an Otter that was swimming along the edge of the reedbed - I am generally spoilt by Marsh Harrier opportunities but this female is restricting the chances of other birds this winter as she is very territorial and drives off other birds that come anywhere near her patch but she does allow the adult male to roost in her reedbed

This 3cy male Marsh Harrier is also resident locally this winter but the adult female keeps him distant and I have yet to get any good images of him - his upperparts are very similar to the adult female and he is often logged as another female!

A smart Greenfinch - this is one of those common species that I have very few images of and I set about redressing the balance a bit this month

An adult Peregrine on the coast at Rimac - I have yet to see a patch bird this year but two were reported today so the time is nigh

Song Thrushes in a frosty meadow - from the plumage tones these look like local birds rather than continental visitors

Male Reed Bunting showing off its tail pattern

Robin feeding on the edge of a reedbed not on a garden implement

Barnacle Geese at Alkborough Flats where the Humber population of c2000 birds was present in January as usual - they seldom stray very far down the estuary though and I usually struggle to see one just 10 miles away on my local patch

I clearly need to write things about difficult birds more often - just after writing the above had this lone Barnacle with a flock of Pink-footed Geese, part of a movement of 1600 birds, on the afternoon of the 25th heading west up the Humber over my patch

Drake Pintail at Alkborough Flats - an early year shot of a species I often struggle to get anything decent on

Sanderling on the beach at Rimac - I take so many images of this species and then delete 95% of them but I liked the pose in this one and the habitat

Rock Pipits have been absent in winter locally for a few years but the cold snap saw up to three present though usually flighty this one posed for a few minutes at Chowder allowing better than normal images - presumably a Scandinavian littoralis

a paler littoralis on the coast in bright sunshine

And at Alkborough Flats I even managed to get some moderate Water Pipit images as the birds were forced out to feed on the ice covered pools - never an easy bird to photograph as they are typically very flighty

Shovelers on ice during the freeze looking suitably impressed

I have to include Greylags sometime in the year so best to get them out of the way early

male Stonechat on the hated barbed wire fence

low angle Tufted Ducks in a hole in the ice

Water Rails at Alkborough Flats in the freeze- standing togetehr on the frozen ditch this image begs the question are pair bonds maintained through the winter months? Something I have been unable to unearth and answer to but these birds were clearly together with no of the usual territorial aggression

A slightly boring portrait of a Whooper Swan but I may not get a better image of this species on the patch this year who knows?

Work in progress - there is currently a flock of c30 Yellowhammers on the foreshore and some days they are quite approachable but light has been absent - maybe the Pine Bunting will join them later in the winter

Having narrowly missed one of our garden Collared Doves this female Sparrowhawk paused on our neighbour’s garage roof long enough for me to take a few shots hand held at 1/80th second through a double glazed window with the 200-800 lens - pretty decent considering the conditions

To contrast with the garden environment a male in the reedbeds on a convenient willow stump perch

So 31 species represented thus far and a few days of January left

a bit more light sensitive Cormorant take off

33 a flock of Bullfinches nine last week but only eight yesterday - another non portrait habitat shot

nice male in the favoured Wedge blackthorn

34 Skylarks in squabble - at least 51 back at Wild Wren yesterday in the sunshine with a lot of singing and display flights

35 and the sun also brought out the Little Owls for the first time this month

Thought I was going to get through the month without a co-operative Bittern but in a short burst of sun this morning this one performed a treat - more images linked below - 36 species

More images in the Bitern galleries linked by clicking image above including several from today

37 cock Chaffinch in beech leaves - not many in the park and no sign of any Brambling this year but the ground staff were busy raking up all the remaining leaves and beech mast to protect the public

and a male showing the often concealed green rump - lower back

Common Buzzard this bird flew right past me in the wind and then perched on a low hedge - the light this morning was spot on — number 38

and a rather distant but suitably stunning first-winter pale bird seen amongst a gathering of 12 Common Buzzards and two Red Kites this afternoon in a Lincolnshire Valley

Mistle Thrush was one of those common ish species that I had very few images of so I was determined to try and improve that and today this bird in the park was nice and co-operative in lovely light - lots more images to process and upload

Mistle Thrush is also a species that we seem to be loosing quickly so good to get some images now - I have already left it too late to concentrate on Willow Tit, Turtle Dove and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker all species we have lost in the last 15 years

40 Pied Wagtail one of several feeding in the leaf litter in the park this morning

42 it has gone from a rarity you chased to something you have to force yourself to photograph in such a short space of time - the proverbial white plastic bag as described by a colleague many years ago - Cattle Egret at Saltfleetby

43 Great Spotted Woodpecker in Barton Park - we lost our Nuthatches three years ago, Mistle Thrushes seem to be down to one pair and so far this year I have failed to find any Treecreepers - woodland birds are in real catastrophic trouble

44 Red-necked Grebe at Sutton Ings a long stayer - never came very close though

but maybe the only one I will get this year?

45 a suitably glossy winter Starling with some lichen

Meadow Pipit (48) one I forgot to upload from early in the month - and onto February

Graham Catley 12/01/2025 Graham Catley 12/01/2025

Two out of three ain’t bad but in this instance it didn’t seem that way

In the immortal words of Meatloaf / Jim Steinman two out of three ain’t bad but lets fast forward to January 9th 2025. The first Grey-headed Lapwing for Britain was found in Northumberland in spring 2023 and subsequently went up to Scotland and then even to the western edge of the known world on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides at a spot we have visited several times. It was often distant and a bit erratic while in Northumberland and I didn’t have much inspiration to go and see a dot and hence it remained absent from my very lowly British list. It seemed like my six birds at Beidaihe in May 1993 would remain my only record but in early December presumably the same Grey-headed Lapwing popped up in Northumberland and in spite of odd absences it was still around in early January and apparently easier to see. I was still not really enthusiastic but when a very photogenic juvenile White-billed Diver dropped in nearby at Druridge Bay the attraction got a little stronger but the weather was a bit dicy with the worst frosts of the winter. Then just to rev me into gear an adult Ross’s Gull added to the Northumberland - Durham haul appearing at South Shields and it was notably pink flushed. Now as I had written a blog about my encounters with Ross’s Gulls pretty recently and stated I would love to see another the draw was now too much to resist.

Ross's Gull blog post

All three birds had been seen on January 8th so alarm was set for 05:00 on the 9th and after some traffic delays I was at South Shields at 09:00 but there were very few birders about apparently and no sign of the gull. As the sunny morning dragged on with no sign of the gull I made the decision to head up for the Lapwing and Diver just 45 minutes north through the £2:40 Tyne tunnel. Thanks to great map links from Phil H I was soon at the field where the Grey-headed Lapwing was feeding and it was on the list in seconds. Not distant but not that close so I put the 1.4x converter on the 200-800 lens to get a bit more reach. The sun was from the side and back and there was some shimmer but it walked down the hill towards us and gave great scope views. Then to complete the show a gull flushed it and it flew right past us albeit partly into the light but I had forgotten to take off the converter so shutter speeds were low and many images were soft or totally OOF. It had flown over the hill to the left of us so I headed down to the Druridge VC to check out the diver.

One of the easiest twitches - parked the car walked to the field gate and looked in and there it was then it wandered down the hill towards us

The mole hills were clearly an attraction presumably offering some feeding opportunities in the hard frosts

Grey-headed Lapwing Druridge Bay January 2025 - the sun and freezing air made it impossible to get really sharp images.

Having abandoned its Lapwing friends it was a bit less wary than previously apparently

A bird distinctly more impressive in flight

As I headed from the VC to the nearby lake edge for the diver a quick look at Birdguides showed that the Ross’s Gull was back by the south pier - was this going to be a full house? I gave the diver a shortened attention span and got some nice oimages then set off at pace back towards South Shields planning an arrival at about 13:15 that would give me plenty of time for some viewing and photography in the afternoon.

juvenile White-billed Diver January 2025 - my first since the showy juvenile on the River Witham in Lincs in January 2017

Initially sunny in the 15 minutes I was there it clouded over and there was a brief snow shower

somewaht more obliging than the local Great Northern

So after taking a few 100 diver images it was back to South Shields but as I dropped into the car park the Whatsapp said Ross’s flown north to North Shields fish quay - dam - anyway get the gear out and scan across the Tyne but no sign - after a while a gang of Yorky birders including Johny Mac and Gary Taylor appear - they have all seen it off the pier and improving photographer Gary T has images - after getting the gen on its movements I hear the fateful words you will see it -never has there been a better curse and the rest of the afternoon we are chasing shadows as it gets reported from further and further up the Tyne where access to the river side is highly restricted. So I head south with two out of three but missing the big prize.

The closest I got to the Ross’s an adult Mediterranean Gull

Inevitably the Ross’s Gull is being seen on 10th so W & C agree to a Saturday return visit but from the outset things do not look good and although the weather is distinctly Arctic the Arctic waif is nowhere to be seen all day and we have poor consolation in the form of very distant Iceland Gull, Green-winged Teal and Long tailed Duck through a fence in the mist un aesthetic locality possible at Jarrow - you can see why they all marched away -

The light on Saturday was stunning and hence more frustrating as the pink giull was nowhere to be had

A very very distant Iceland Gull and lots of non Ross’s

So the failed twitcher struck again - Ross’s Gull scoreline 11 chased and seven seen so better than average but this one was very annoying; maybe the next one will be in Yorkshire and more accessible - I don’t give much hope for Lincolnshire with no gull holding spots on the coast

Graham Catley 05/01/2025 Graham Catley 05/01/2025

Alkborough Flats January 3rd 2025

For the past 18 years I have been monitoring the wildlife, mainly birds, that used the Managed Realignment site at Alkborough Flats. Many thousands of hours later and 213 monthly reports, 18 annual reports and many thousands of images later I finally decided to retire as of the end of 2024. The site of course is still good for birds and other wildlife in spite of massive changes over the last 18 years mainly as a result of colonisation by reed of the former tidally inundated mudflats and latterly former arable fields and even wet grassland. The site now has a massive reedbed with decreasing areas of wet grassland and the range of bird species has changed dramatically in recent years.

Counting waders and wildfowl from the escarpment to the south of the Flats - now I can just enjoy the spectacle

March 2008 and below the same location February 2019

November 2023 - reed spreading across former open wet grass fields

So after a tip off from Neil D that Water Pipits were showing relatively well on the ice I left the car at Julian’s Bower and walked down the hill avoiding the icy road - the pipits were indeed showing to c50m not close for a small passerine so I used the RF 200-800 with a 1.4x converter giving 1120 mm equivalent but even then the birds were very small in the frame but the accompanying Meadow Pipits were closer as usual - why are Water Pipits always so skittish in Britain? Pied Wagtails were also skating on the ice and flocks of Lapwings and Golden Plovers occasionally rose up when a Marsh Harrier passed by and everything panicked when a Merlin dashed through only allowing very small record shots but my first of the year. Later I came across it again feeding on what appeared to be a Dunlin but as usual it did not linger for imagery. A nice male Stonechat in lovely light added to the birds photographed this year list. After a fairly short window of opportunity the pipit flock moved off into another field where they resumed their usual invisibility,

Meadow Pipit on ice - always at least 10m closer than the Water Pipits

Cracking little birds Meadow Pipits but yet another species in serious decline - very few now on my local patch and autumn movements particularly limited

Meadow Pipit picking food items from thistle - all the pipits were picking something from the dead thistle leaves

Pied Wagtails are also always so much tamer than Water Pipits

they often do seem to be slipping and sliding on the ice

Water Pipits selection below - never really close enough but better than most of my images

Another species that is so incredibly wary of human beings in Britain but so accepting of them in Canada

The sun was still shining mid-afternoon so after a longish walk I went back to the hide to be greeted by a flock of 90 Shoveler rotating in a feeding flock at point blank range. Numbers then built up to 200 and a cracking drake Pintail came in for a short sojourn. I then finished off with roosting Marsh Harriers and a Barn Owl and almost a sunset with Venus and the Moon showing well!.

Reed Bunting in the lovely afternoon sun - still had the 1.4x converter on the 200-800 - with good light it is still really sharp

Love the intricacies of Reed Bunting plumage

The subtle tones of a drake Gadwall in the low winter sun

Incoming Shoveler with a mix of background shades

but 200 are more so - a few Gadwall muscling in

They occasionally blasted off for no apparent reason

A drake Pintail outshines all wildfowl in late winter sun

A female Marsh Harrier pre roosting in the edge of a reedbed

Post sunset looking across the Flats to Trent Falls and Yorky land

Graham Catley 02/01/2025 Graham Catley 02/01/2025

A winter walk at Bempton Cliffs RSPB

A post Christmas walk at Bempton on an initially sunny then cloudy and progressively more windy day revealed that the only Puffins were in the shop, shock horror, but a number of Fulmars were back prospecting along the cliffs and the local Jackdaws proved to be entertaining while the locally made scones in the cafe are always a major attraction. A Peregrine and Kestrel patrolled but evaded the camera but the cliffs thronged with that seldom appreciated super species the Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon. Presumably in summer they are lost amongst the hordes of seabirds but in winter they gather in large flocks and dash around the cliffs commuting to inland fields to feed. On getting home I consulted John Mather’s, The Birds of Yorkshire 1986 to find that even in the early 1980’s there were counts of up to 5000 birds in the area in winter and surveys had revealed that 80% were or more realistically resembled pure Rock Doves. Looking at the mix at the moment that percentage I think will be lower but there are still a lot of good looking Rocks. Early authors of Lincolnshire bird lists considered that Rock Doves from the Yorkshire coast occasionally strayed to the Lincolnshire coast particularly in hard weather but proof was always lacking. Below a selection of images all taken with the Canon R^2 and Canon RF 100-500. The saddest part of the visit was seeing the empty Gannet nests at Staple Newk all adorned with masses of plastic fishing detritus a start reminder of the appalling way in which we treat our seas and oceans and the creatures that live there.

Bempton Cliffs looking towards Flamborough Head December 2024

Staple Newk - Gannets nests peppered with plastic fishing debris

A lone Great Black-backed Gull atop the ridge - the Black-browed Albatross memories seem a long way back

Fulmar patrolling the cliffs - check the wing moult

Fulmar in nice flat light - Bempton is such a great place and living so close I tend to visit as an after thought most years - I should make more effort and appreciate it more

There are a lot of photo opportunities beyond the portraits that I seem to end up with every year - must try harder

Jackdaws are always entertaining and look at the subtle colours in the wing coverts and mantle feathers

Jackdaw flight over cafe scraps - submissive bird on the left

A wide range of plumage types but still a good proportion of Rock types

You would guess that the local Peregrines never go hungry

Graham Catley 20/12/2024 Graham Catley 20/12/2024

Photographing roosting Hen Harriers - its a no light challenge

Every winter I watch roosting harriers, nowadays mainly Marsh but a few times a winter I get to look at a Hen Harrier roost and try to get some images to confirm what birds are present but I also try to convey the feeling of the spectacle which is basically difficult as its very very dull normally - that is dull in the lighting sense not in the experience sense. The key term is roost which means the birds are not usually present until after sunset and hence there is very little light for flight photography. Modern cameras have got better high ISO performance but even so images are noisy and shutter speeds typically slooooow, Last night I starte dout at 3200 ISO but quickly had to move to 6400 and then 12800 unheard of just a few years ago but even so I was only getting 1/250th and latterly 1/160th second on the 200-800 lens so most of the images were A) dull and B) not sharp. So herewith a selection with a few comments.

a 1cy male came in early but passed by and didn’t return in this nice late afternoon sun

The cmaera AF system works best of course with birds isolated in the sky but even this has been brightened considerably to show plumage detail -

More typical of the light levels that you are fighting and motion blur but some detail in the upperwing feathers allows individual identification

same individual as above 25 minutes after sunset and near the shortest day of the year - marks in the primary coverts and flight feathers with the heavily marked mantle almost suggest Northern Harrier with limited dark trailing edge to secondaries as well but presumably a 2cy bird or maybe just individual variation in younger males

with modern software it is possible to lighten just the bird, not done very well here, to bring out plumage details but to the observant it is not reality

the same male banking towards me - at times it was very close which actually added to the problem of focussing and even getting all of the bird in the same depth of field

pretty dire noise at 12800 ISO - most reviews of images taken at such high ISO levels are actually taken in brighter light when you don’t actually need to be on 12800

simply using software to bring the whole image into daylight rather than darkness looks unnatural and does not reflect the time and experience

with the closer bird actually in focus and the juxtaposition of the two males this is what I would see as a more representative roost time image

a similar shot but both birds lacking sharpness

the second older male - panning with the bird almost got it shrp even at 1/250th

a ringtail probably the 1cy male seen earlier drops into roost

Graham Catley 20/12/2024 Graham Catley 20/12/2024

Red-necked Grebes and recollections of the 1978 - 1979 winter

The occurrence of a Red-necked Grebe at Winter’s Pit East Halton over the weekend reminded me of the only previous bird of that species I had seen on that pit back in February 1979. Found on 20th when there was only a small area of ice free water at the western end of the pit I managed a very dark slide of it but sadly picked it up dead on the 28th. That winter was very good for bird watchers but not so good for the birds with some spells of brutally cold weather associated with gales from the frozen east bringing remarkable influxes of scarce grebes, all three sawbills, Long-tailed Ducks and Velvet Scoters, divers, Eiders, Glaucous Gull, Short-eared Owls , Hen Harriers and Rough-legged Buzzards. The local pits between Barton and Killingholme produced no less than 13 Red-necked Grebes and I saw at least 32 in Lincolnshire in the months of December - April a staggering total that has never been matched. I delved back into my notebooks and produced a lengthy summary of the winter birdwatching that is copied below. The highlights being an adult Pomarine Skua on the Humber off Barrow Haven in January, the Red-necked and Slavonian Grebes and Black-throated Divers but there was so much more variety. It was also a time gone by when you could drive onto Immingham and Grimsby Docks and park a car on the quayside while birding the docks and never be challenged. A few inches of snow didn’t grind the country to a halt and like most sensible drivers our trusty Mini countryman had a shovel in the back to get through those snow drifts that were more than six inches high!

Red-necked Grebe at East Halton December 2024

A bit closer on 23rd but in typically dismal late December light

A copy of my 45 year old slide of the Red-necked Grebe at East Halton Pit February 20th 1979 - note the ice edge in the upper side of the slide

Our trusty Mini countryman - went round the clock a couple of times - here in January 1979 no fear of a bit of snow

The late autumn of 1978 had produced Lincolnshire’s first Isabelline Shrike at Donna Nook on October 29th and maybe in a sign of things to come a visit to Huttoft on November 12th saw a Black-throated Diver south, three Eiders and 12 Velvet Scoters amongst 300 Common with an early drake Mandarin on the sea with Teal off Trusthorpe where the trusty Purple Sandpiper was in residence. A twitch to Top Hill Low on 26th for a drake Ring-necked Duck was followed by a move to Bridlington where a first-winter Mediterranean Gull prompted a full description and sketches such was that species rarity at the time. A Little Auk off Flamborough completed the day.

The Isabelline Shrike at Donna Nook late October 1978 again from some very old slides

November 27th at Goxhill a drake Long-tailed Duck was fairly standard fare with three Red-breasted Mergansers and a Snow Bunting but a water Pipit at Barrow Haven was much more noteworthy and it stayed to 25th. An Eider off Killingholme was the first of the Humber winter.

December 3rd and a Red-necked Grebe at Covenham prompted a visit and description. My first was seen flying past Rimac on September 12th 1971 but such was the view my Lincolnshire list had an added Covenham January 30th 1972 as confirmatory evidence! They were though few and far between in most years and worthy of a twitch. Four Bewick’s Swans at Huttoft the same day were expected winter birds in the late 70’s.

Six Lapland Buntings flying west at Barrow Haven on December 4th were again not that unusual on the Humber in the mid to late 70’s. Our usual gull checks at Grimsby Docks where a nice sewage outfall lay just offshore revealed a second winter Glaucous Gull on 8th the first of the winter.

Being a bit into twitching in those days the lure of rare sea ducks in Scotland had me and my mate Mick Mellor heading for Loch Fleet on December 11th but having pretty dodgy cars we used to train to Inverness then hire a car and of course sleep in it which was fun in mid-winter in northerner Scotland. At Loch Fleet all three divers and 70 Long-tailed Ducks with a Little Gull offshore and a flock of 1000 Eiders revealed the hoped for long staying adult King Eider but then we stumbled across a first-winter drake in the inner fleet a selfie that I have not repeated. A Long-eared Owl flew past and into the nearby wood in the evening. The following day at Spey Bay we failed with Surf Scoter but a cracking adult Iceland Gull and 200 Long-tailed Dicks off Lossiemouth with 200 Velvet Scoters completed a notable trip up north.

Back at Grimsby Docks on 17th a total of 37 Eiders offshore was the biggest flock I had seen in the Humber with a first-winter Mediterranean Gull there on 20th again eliciting a full description. The second Glaucous Gull of the winter a first-winter was at the Docks on 24th.

As the cold weather kicked in at the end of the month with an easterly airflow three White-fronted Geese and two Dark-bellied Brents flew up the Humber of Barrow Haven and the Water Pipit continued its winter sojourn.

The new years day tally included a redhead Smew at Covenham a first-winter Glaucous Gull on the docks with a Nelson’s Gull. The Water Pipit was still at Barrow Haven and eight Dark-bellied Brents at Goxhill Skitter 2nd but 3rd was a big day with 32 Scaup off Barrow Haven where an adult Pomarine Skua with almost full spoons formed an exceptional winter occurrence. Four Eiders and eight Goosanders at Barrow Haven on 4th were the forerunners of a big influx with the afternoon visit to Covenham revealing three Velvet Scoters and a Red-necked Grebe plus four Bewick’s Swans. Red-necked Grebes were up to two at Covenham by 7th and two male and two ringtail Hen Harriers were at Rimac.

Barrow Haven January 1979 - with temperatures dropping to as low as-10C the Humber was often partly covered oin pack ice and as the tide fell it was deposited on the upper foreshore preventing birds from feeding

The Water Pipit survived the winter wandering up and down the Haven and finding places to feed amongst the ice - Barrow Haven January 1979

The first Slavonian Grebe of the influx drifted past Barrow Haven on the 8th with a ringtail Hen Harrier there the following day and the Pomarine Skua appeared again on 12th – 13th. A trip to Killingholme on 10th located ten White-fronted Geese and six Eiders with an oiled Red-throated Diver there 15th when a Red-necked Grebe flew west off East Halton Skitter bird number one of the local arrival.

A flock of 13 Scaup, five Eiders and a first-winter Little Gull were at Killingholme 20th. A search for a Rough-legged Buzzard at Tetney Haven on 21st coincided with fog but fortunately the raptor was sat on a fence post just across the Haven and a brief search revealed seven Lapland Buntings there but a Black-throated Diver at Covenham was picked up dead and the stuffed specimen resided in my house for several years afterwards,

Things hotted up on 22nd with three Black-throated Divers flying east off Barrow Haven with Eider, Kittiwake and two Brent Geese. At Killingholme on 23rd along with 14 Scaup were Red-necked Grebe number 2, and a Slavonian Grebe number two. Both grebes were still there 25th along with a first-winter Glaucous Gull at Rosper Road. Three Smew and a Red-throated Diver at Barrow Haven 26th.

A southerly excursion on 28th produced eight Long-eared Owls at the Witham Mouth roost with a third winter Glaucous Gull then on to Roydon Common in Norfolk where Great Grey Shrike, two Merlin, Hooded Crow and seven Hen Harriers was a fine tally.

By February 4th there were three Red-necked Grebes at Covenham but the real attraction was a male Ruddy Duck a new Lincs bird and to top things off the same day a first-winter Common Crane munching carrots at Scotter made it two Lincs ticks in a day. A roost of 42 Bramblings at Barrow Haven on 8th and an unprecedented winter flock of 66 Ruff at Rosper Road were followed by locating a roost of three Long-eared Owls at Goxhill on 9th.

The immature Common Crane at Scotter February 1979 part of a two tick Lincolnshire list day with Ruddy Duck at Covenham Reservoir

As noted in the BB paper on the Red-necked Grebe influx, Easterly winds returned from 10th, freshening on 13th, when another area of high pressure developed over Scandinavia, and the weather pattern of late December and early January was virtually duplicated. Freezing conditions set in throughout the British Isles and a frontal system over southern England and adjacent parts of the Continent resulted in heavy snow, particularly in the northeast and east of England on 14th and 15th, with gale force winds.

Trips to the north bank were still by ferry before the Bridge opened making any journey to Hull and particularly Spurn a well planned excursion - I recall the trips on the night of February 13th 1979 being seriously cold as a gale force easterly with snow hit the area

On 13th I had arranged to meet up with Tim Milsom who was an early bird surveyor on the Humber at his place in Hull for the evening. The journey involved a ferry crossing of course pre-Humber bridge and I decided to take my bike on the train then bike through Hull to his place. It was brutal with the wind howling from the east and the first flurries of snow arriving by the time I made it back to the ferry and home on the train and bike. The following morning it was a case of walking most of the way to Barrow Haven to work as the roads were piled up with snow. I didn’t manage to get round the pits until 16th still walking but a redhead Smew had been at Barrow Haven 15th and on 16th it was still around with a female Long-tailed Duck and the bigger pits held a Slavonian Grebe (3rd) on sailing pit along with two Red-necked Grebes (3rd and 4th). Only one Red-necked remained to 17th but a pair of Smew flew west and I managed to get to Killingholme on 17th where two new Red-necked Grebes (5th and 6th) one being oiled and a third bird was in Immingham Docks (5th) with six Red-breasted Mergansers at Killingholme. It seems a world away that anyone could then drive onto one of the busiest docks in the country and park a car by the quay and simple watch and photograph birds while avoiding the docks traffic. The same day there were eight Red-necked Grebes on Covenham making it 11 for the day and a Black-throated Diver. A full check of the Barton to Barrow Haven pits on 19th located ten drake Goosanders, three Scaup, Long-tailed Duck and Common Scoter, a new badly oiled Red-necked Grebe on sailing pit (6th) and one on tilery pit (7th) two drake Velvet Scoters flying east at Barrow Haven, a badly oiled Red-throated Diver flying up the Humber, two Great Northern Divers up estuary a sub adult Glaucous Gull and two Short-eared Owls. A pair of Smew were on Goxhill Quebec pit 20th with two Red-throated Divers and three Red-breasted Mergansers at Barrow Haven and a Red-necked Grebe on Winter’s Pit at East Halton (8th). Things then quietened down for a while but 40 Kittiwakes flew east at Barrow Haven 22nd and there were 41 Goldeneye a good count for the time. A Pale-bellied Brent was at Killingholme with eight Scaup and three Mergs a species that was being seen almost daily along with Goosander. A visit to Covenham on 25th turned up seven Red-necked Grebes, Black-throated Diver, seven Mergansers and Smew with three Red-necked Grebes and an immature drake Velvet Scoter on North Somercotes Lido. Three Purple Sandpipers were at Trusthorpe and ten Bean Geese at Huttoft of which I noted one probably Taiga and nine Tundra but in those days it was bigger and darker! There were also two Red-necked Grebes to add to the county tally. Another new Red-necked Grebe at Barrow Haven 26th (9th) and a drake Smew with three at Killingholme 27th when Red-necked Grebe number ten was near the outfall (10th). Grimsby Docks held two Red-necked Grebes and a Black-throated Diver with 15 Red-breasted Mergansers. The East Halton Red-necked Grebe was dead on 28th but 31 Eiders were off Killingholme and a Purple Sandpiper there was roosting on a buoy offshore with 23 Ruff still around. March arrived with two Red-necked Grebes (11th and 12th) at Barrow Haven and far Ings and two Smew.

After the failed Surf Scoter trip Mick and I were back in Inverness on 4th driving to Kingston where a drake Surf Scoter was duly twitched and 150 Velvet Scoters, all three divers and 80 Long-tailed Ducks logged with an additional 100 Long-tailed Ducks at Lossiemouth and 1000 Long-tailed Ducks off Findhorn with 4000 Common and 30 Velvet Scoters the trip concluding with a second winter Iceland Gull at Inverness.

Back at Barrow Haven a first-winter Glaucous Gull flew west 7th and a Red-necked Grebe was at Killingholme but the star bird was my first Lincs Peregrine an adult at Barrow Haven 10th. Red-necked Grebes were still at Barrow Haven 13th with a new slightly oiled Red-throated Diver and Killingholme and a small Glaucous Gull was at Rosper Road. The Water Pipit at Barrow Haven reappeared on 16th and a first winter Glaucous Gull was in the Docks with two first-winters birds at Killingholme tip along with a first-winter Iceland Gull. Two Red-necked Grebes on North Somercotes Lido on 10th were presumably the same birds but one at Donna Nook was an addition to the county tally for the winter taking the total to 12 locally and 31 for Lincs. Glaucous Gulls were becoming commonplace with a third winter at Killingholme tip 22nd and the Red-necked Grebe was still on the pits but in a final gasp another new bird appeared at Barrow Haven 22nd – 23rd (13th) and on 24th three Black-necked Grebes at Barrow Haven were the first local birds ever! One Red-necked Grebe moved from Barrow Haven to New Holland on 27th and this was the last local record but an additional Lincs bird was at Saltfleet April 1st. Killingholme tip continued to attract white-winged gulls with a Glaucous and first winter Iceland March 30th.

So ended one of the best winters for birding locally and some highly memorable moments.

The influxes of waterbirds and raptors and owls were both documented in articles in British Birds referenced below.

Influxes into Britain and Ireland of Red-necked Grebes and other waterbirds during winter 1978/79

R.J. Chandler British Birds 1981 Vol.74: Pages 55–81

Influxes into Britain of Hen Harriers, Long-eared Owls and Short-eared Owls in winter 1978/79

D. L. Davenport. British Birds 1982 Vol.75: Pages 309–316

Since that winter there have been 15 local birds with an annual maximum of four in 1996 a total that included two birds together in near breeding plumage - below are a few images of some of the more recent obliging winter birds

Red-necked Grebe Cleethorpes CP January 2016 - a very obliging bird that graces this relatively small water along with two superb Slavonian Grebes

Red-necked Grebe in wing display Cleethorpe CP January 2016

juvenile Red-necked Grebe Barton Pits September 2010

Juvenile Red-necked Grebes can be almost as bright as breeding adults

a complex head pattern - juvenile Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe Barton sailing pit February 2019 - this bird that arrived on January 31st stayed to April 18th and moulted into what was probably first summer plumage

Red-necked Grebe Barton sailing pit April 2019

Slavonian Grebes Cleethorpes CP February 2016 - being on a small water body with people walking all round it they became quite tame allowing some nice shots

Stunning eyes - Slavonian Grebe Cleethorpes CP February 2016

Graham Catley 14/12/2024 Graham Catley 14/12/2024

Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat at Donna Nook in 2011

On the morning of November 9th 2011 at Donna Nook Lincolnshire there had clearly been a good arrival of thrushes, mainly Blackbirds, but also up to 30 Robins and a few other birds; that late in the autumn thoughts turn to really rare birds from the far east and the lingering hope of an Asian Desert Warbler meant that when we came across a small pale sandy coloured warbler with obvious white outer tail feathers in the marram there was a brief moment of could it be but the bird quickly resolved into an eastern, recently deemed / named Central Asian, Lesser Whitethroat (halimodendri). The bird landed in a small hawthorn but then quickly went down into the marram where it was catching caterpillars; better views confirmed it was tiny and very pale coloured with almost no contrast between the upper and underparts and the faintest of grey tinges to the forecrown - it was a striking little bird but its choice of habitat meant that it could be easily overlooked and we lost it for an hour or so but it could generally be found in the grass or low in the scattered elders and hawthorns where it seemed to go when disturbed. Along with Neil Drinkall we watched it for a few hours on and off and hearda. very distinctive and most un Lesser Whitethroat like call. I returned on 11th and managed to get a very poor sound recording on my phone complete with far too much wind noise which is posted below along with sonograms of the calls. I also took a series of images of the bird but it was elusive and many were not sharp and critically for the ensuing 13 years I did not manage to get the white balance correct in the images that had a heavy magenta cast caused by the mis match of Canon files and Adobe software. Having now got the white balance sorted I have re-processed the images and they are presented below. BBRC do not accept that Central Asian Lesser Whitethroats can be identified without DNA evidence so this bird will forever remain speculative in their opinion. Things have changed rapidly in the field of bird identification in the last 50 years but to my mind the recent move to DNA based identifications rather than good old solid field observations is a detrimental step. Whatecer this was a really interesting bird and still stirs my imagination.

Description:

It was strikingly pale and sandy on the upperparts and with a contrasting whitish throat and upper breast then a peachy – buff lower breast, belly and flanks. The bill was short and the head pattern weakly marked compared to nominate Lesser Whitethroat with a white crescent below the eye being more obvious than the weak crescent above; most of the features of the bird are shown in the attached photos with a poor out of focus flight shot that shows the extent of white in the outer tail feathers. The most distinctive feature of the bird apart from its looks was its call a mid-toned dry series of rattles described as trrrrrrrrrt totally dissimilar to the call of nominate birds. (I have attached a poor-quality recording of the call recorded on the 11th.)

It looks very similar to the bird in Aberdeen British Birds 98 (11) Eastern Lesser Whitethroat in Aberdeen and the same bird in Birding World 17 (12) 502 – 504 Apparent Desert Lesser Whitethroat in Aberdeen. But as all authorities seem to state making sub-specific identification between minula and halimodendri in a vagrant context is not practicable; the plumage and calls however, make these birds a very different bird to our summer breeding Lesser Whitethroats.

The text from the excellent Frontiers series by Martin Garner and Ray Scally just about fits this bird to a tee and the images in the new ID Handbook of European Birds are also a good match.

It rarely perched up in the low hawthorns and this was an unusually clear view - note how pale and sandy the upperparts were right up to the central crown with the peachy underparts only a little paler than the upperparts but the white throat standing out - the very short primary projection c30% of the tertial length is obvious here

Feeding down near the ground in marram and low sea buckthorn

the pale upperparts and wings with contrasting dark alula and again the very short primary projection with the short p2 possibly visible here

the habit of feeding on the ground in low vegetation meant it was often hard to locate

tail cocking habit is mentioned in the Frontiers book and is also a regular habit of Asian Desert Warbler - note here the brownish wash extending to the central crown

I think that look says - don’t you know how far I have come to be labelled as non-proven!

Graham Catley 08/12/2024 Graham Catley 08/12/2024

Ross’s Gull — the holy grail

It is one of those birds with a mythical past and such a strong attraction that every birder surley wants to see one but I was never satisfied with one and as it has now been 18 years since I last saw one I am getting a bit desperate for the chance of another encounter.

Named after the Arctic explorer James Clark Ross the breeding grounds of this delightful little gull were not discovered until 1905 and there is still a lot of uncertainty about the extent of its breeding grounds in the high Arctic and where they winter although most birds frequent areas around the polar ice cap. Records in Britain run back to 1936 when a juvenile - first-winter was found in Shetland. My first opportunity to see one of these jewels came in 1976 when an adult was being seen at Scalby Mills. With no car I relied upon a lift from Derick Robinson and we spent the whole day there on April 10th after the bird had been seen from March 27th - 30th - Little Gull and three Mediterranean Gulls, then a good bird, did not compensate for the lack of Ross’s Gull and to add insult to injury it reappeared at the same spot on April 22nd staying to the 28th but I couldn’t get and am not even sure if I heard about it such were the news systems of the day. My next real chance came during a chilling spell of north-easterly winds in late February 1983 somewhat akin to today’s weather. With our Mini clubman I was up on the Brigg early on February 19th after hearing of the bird on 17th. Notes apart from plumage described it flying up and down the south side of the Brigg dipping to feed with other gulls and sitting on the Brigg as well as picking food off the surface of the water like a phalarope. I was sufficiently impressed to drive to Filey two days on the trot. With the Nikon F301 and the Sigma APO 400 f5.6 manual focus lens I took some memorable slides which have now become very very damaged - below the scans of said slides

If this had been in focus it would have been acceptable in the day

My next two encounters with the Arctic waif were in the harbour at Thurso, about as far north as you can get in mainland Scotland - en route to Shetland in April 1985 we took in the long staying adult on April 21st 1984 and then there was January 2005. Still being interested in my British list and never having seen a Desert Wheatear news of a male wintering in Freswick Bay near Wick and free rail travel saw us planning a long weekend trip to the northern extremities setting off on January 10th. The journey north went well but I had actually planned nothing other than the train journey! We arrived in Wick in the depths of a very cold January and casually asked about car hire - a very dodgy Mini Metro was picked up from a local garage, not a lot of brakes or anything else! and we managed to log into a local Motel with not a lot of heating but some spare bed covers. The Desert Wheatear was very obliging but travelling light I took no camera but my field notebook. An additional attraction was the adult Ross’s Gull that had returned to Thurso for another winter and we duly watched it performing well and also added three Iceland Gulls including an exquisite adult, several Black Guillemots and Long-tailed Ducks, three diver sp Velvet Scoters and a flock of 44 Greenland White-fronts. It still being Hogmanay, apparently, we managed to get invited to a few people’s houses for Whisky after a meal in the local tavern which made the Motel room a bit warmer. The journey back also went Ok to Inverness but there I had managed to mix up 00:10 on Saturday and Sunday so we were on Inverness station at 22:30 at night with no train until mid-morning next day. Went to the local Police station and in the spirit of the day they rang a B&B for us and we ended up with a warm bed for the night rather than a cold night on Inverness station.

Desert Wheatear Skirza , Freswick Bay January 1985

With two adult Ross’s Gulls seen I stil wanted to see a first-winter and in February 1993 one was being reported at an outfall on the River Ness at Inverness. This was too good an opportunity to miss and it was back onto the East coast main line and a train trip north which I worked out would get me to Inverness hopefully in time to see the bird that afternoon. The train was on time and after a wander through the docks I found the outfall and the bird. a real stunner. Again no camera but I enjoyed sketching it and was back home the following day at zero cost.

First-winter Ross’s Gull Inverness February 23rd 1993.

The following year another adult was twitched at Sunderland on February 28th and a very dodgy slide taken above.

This rich Ross’s Gull spell continued into 1995 when an adult with a faint pink wash and full neck collar joined a summering gang of Little Gulls on Teeside at Greatham Creek. I went twice on June 15th and 25th and took some decent slides but they have suffered badly in the interim and the scans are pretty poor. It was a superb bird but a hot June was not really what you want when watching and Arctic Gull.

Adult Ross’s Gull Greatham Creek June 1995

2002 was one of those years - On March 31st my wife was ill and a rapid visit to Hospital was confounded by a phone call telling me a Ross’s Gull was at Blacktoft Sands!!! just up the Humber — I somehow managed to get out later amid reports of it passing Brough Haven and presumably my local patch but I failed miserably and guess I will never have another chance of one in the Humber. Later in the spring an adult turned up at Scarborough and I twitched it on March 16th watching it walking about on the footpaths on castle hill avoiding passers by and birders’ tripods. Digi-scoping by this stage my images were pin pricks.

The adult Ross’s Gull at Scarborough March 2002.

Five years passed with no accessible Ross’s Gulls and then word came of a long staying first-winter at Ormsary on the Mull of Kintyre no short journey but a first-winter and I now had a camera a Canon iDIIN and a 300f4 lens. Thus after much deliberation in late January 2007 four of us, Kev DuRose, Dave Jenkins, Mike Weedon and myself headed to Scotland hopefully taking in the Barrow’s Goldeneye that was wintering on the River Teith at Callander. the weather forecast was shall we say mixed but sounded better on the Sunday than Saturday with at least a chance of some brighter spells. We arrived in Callander after an overnight drive to find people canoeing down the main street but through the torrential rain we did see the duck before traversing Scotland and arriving somewhere near Ormsary where we found a B&B and settled in to dry out and check the weather for the following day. The MET men still said a brighter day but needless to say they were 100% wrong and it peed down all day. Arriving at the site where the bird had been feeding not surprisingly we were the only people there but the bird did not take a lot of finding as it was feeding over a small outfall near a fish farm where you could literally stand within 5m of it as it fed unconcerned dipping in the abundant water. My images were OK given the conditions but could have been so much better.

KDD, DJJ and yours trult getting very wet at Ormsary January 2007.

Ross’s Gull over the loch with Black-headed Gulls

Water droplet on its bill tip - we had lots of water droplets dripping off us!

Getting close to the bird was no problem at times you could almost touch it

We were often looking down on it from a small raised area as it dip fed over a small stream

In the afternoon it landed on a muddy area and paddled about getting worms

By the end of 2022 there had been 105 records in Britain but in recent years records have become much less frequent probably as a result of the rising sea temperatures in the Arctic impacting breeding success but also changing the location of wintering areas.

For some years I had the book by Michael Densley, In Search of Ross’s Gull but I lent it to a colleague and sadly he died before it was returned; I see copies now trading at over £100.

Hopefully an accessible stayer will appear sometime soon and even if it involves a long drive or train trip I will need to go - a recent long staying first-winter in the Netherlands produced some amazing images and I was almost tempted - next time.

Graham Catley 07/12/2024 Graham Catley 07/12/2024

Wildfowl with the Canon RF 200-800 and 1.4x converter and the Canon R6 Mark 2

December 6th was mainly bright and sunny and with a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers at Alkborough I hoped to get a useable image for the December report; they were not close after a skirmish with two Marsh Harriers and so I tried the 1.4x converter on the RF 200-800 lens making it f13 but with the lovely low winter sun I was getting decent shutter speeds at ISO 1600 and the results were well beyond what I expected with an extender on a zoom lens giving me 1120 mm . A few of the images below. It was helpful that the Pintail and Shoveler came close to the hide thanks to the presence of two Otters and regular Marsh Harrier movements. I also took a lot of Marsh Harrier images that Ihave yet to process but even the flight shots look pretty decent.

I managed to get the best images I have ever taken of Pintail which are usually distant locally

Subtle colours were remdered by the lens and camera combo but its difficult to keep detail in the white and brown at the same time

There is so much to a drake Pintail apart from the standard side on portrait

the bill pattern is more complex than just grey

out of five birds four were drakes an unusual proportion

beautiful speculum and uppertail coverts seldom seen in flight views but frozen by the camera

the colours of Shelduck only appear in good sunlight

Love the quality of the R6 mark 2 - all taken as CRaws and converted in ACR and Photoshop

The best shot I managed of the Mergansers was this flight image as they were too far away even for the 1120 mm set up

Male Marsh Harrier at pre-roost in bush - deliberately tried to frame it with the out of focus reed taken towards the weak late afternoon sunshine - I have rather a lot of Marsh Harrier images but try to get something different when I can - inspired by the superb You Tube videos made by Andy Parkinson well worth watching if you aspire to take something a bit different in wildlife photography https://www.youtube.com/@andyparkinsonphotography

standard female Marsh Harrier flight shot

different take on a male Marsh Harrier coming in to roost

young adult male Marsh Harrier hunting - used the reeds

Graham Catley 02/12/2024 Graham Catley 02/12/2024

Wallcreeper

An email from my friend John stated that they were heading to Spain (from Canada) in search of his Holy Grail of birds the Wallcreeper. This of course got me thinking; the header for my old blog was a Wallcreeper image I managed to get in Provence in 2010 and that image features in my favourite shots section https://www.grahamcatley.com/wallcreeper so the species clearly has an indelible mark in my brain and so it should - surely this is one of those birds that everyone wants to see and every encounter is going to be an unforgettable one. So here we go with a bit of a career list of Wallcreeper enjoyment.

Being found essentially in high mountain ranges where they breed Wallcreepers do descend to lower levels in the winter and can sometimes be found feeding on buildings as long as there are holes and crevices to harbour their invertebrate prey items. My first encounter came in April 1976 on a University of East Anglia Bird Club trip to the Pyrenees and north-eastern Spain - extract below:

We awoke in our tent at Gavarnie in the French Pyrenees toa dump of 8 inches of overnight snow - some of the team not exactly prepared for sub-zero temperatures - note the tell tale Zenit B camera orange glare as the back of the camera often came open of its own accord affecting the precious slide film.

Pyrenees April 1976:

Following a successful mini-bus trip by the UEA Bird club to the Camargue in April 1975 a second trip to the Pyrenees and North-east Spain was planned for April 13th – 24th 1976 entitled the Lammergeier trip that was the main target bird but obviously a lot more birds were on offer. After logging our target bird in the high Pyrenees at Gavarnie, where we had camped and awoken to a dump to 8 inches of overnight snow some poor weather saw us heading for the warmer climes of Spain just over the mountain range but a long drive was entailed in the hard winter weather that was affecting the area. Narrative from the 16th and 17th below.

April 16th

Rise to rain again and decide we may as well set off for Spain where it may be less inclement, driving along the base of the Pyrenees can' t see much because of rain and poor visibility so drive to St. Girond 10 Black Kite, 10 Buzzard and a Red Kite, on road side plus singing Cirl Bunting. From Girond up the Maras road two Firecrest building a nest where we have lunch in the valley and a bit further up 11 Garganey on a small lake on the roadside, 11+ Buzzard, a Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and 3 Crag Martin. From here up road to Col de Port the col high in the hills, spruce and pine clad slopes, scree and rugged valleys, snow in the distance. Raven, Goldcrest and Water Pipit but looked good for other species in better weather. Drive down from here and then up some very rugged mountain roads towards Andorra. Very steep road to the pass with masses of snow and partially blocked roads with cars stuck in drifts and its still snowing. In order to get going several members of the group get out and start pushing cars stuck in snow up the road! At the café at the top, I seem to recall we were treated to a free hot chocolate. On the back, southern, side of the pass we drop down to Canillo in Andorra below snow line again and camp in the dark, as usual, and wake to a sharp frost and masses of skiers driving up to the slopes above.

April 17th

Pre breakfast walk in the valley quite illuminating; rugged valley with steep slopes and maquis scrub, to the north and pine and spruce forests to the south. In the morning Willow Chiffs moving, 20+ Rock Bunting, Firecrest, 50+ Siskin, heavy movements of Goldfinch, 200+ Serins and White and Grey Wagtails. Climb slope to the north in hope of Rock Sparrow but no joy on that front but on burnt off grass slopes Redstart 2, Black Redstart 6+, Blue Rock Thrush in song 100+ Alpine Choughs flying over, then sitting on the grass slope Jeff makes the find of the day a Wallcreeper on a craggy outcrop which feeds sings and behaves perfectly giving wonderful views. Totally elated we shout down to Dunc et al in the valley below and eventually get some of then up to see it. Descending for some not to hot or palatable porridge. Pack up again and Derreck et al go off for the creeper, returning they claim Alpine Dunnock and we have to have another go for them, climbing the hill behind the hotel a lot of time spent looking but no joy in wind and rain but eventually I flush an *Alpine Dunnock and three more are found feeding on the burnt off slope, they prove to be what Jeff and I found in the early morning session but lost. Set off for the Ordino valley but not too successful here due to heavy tourist developments and dull weather: Pine clad slopes on the less rugged valley stretching up to the high tops to the north birch scrub on lower slopes held only tits. From here drive to the Spanish border in the dark and camp in a valley bottom on the roadside, + dogs etc; and lots of foreigners.

Five star accommodation here in the valley below the Wallcreeper in Andorra - canisters of water caused us a problem at the Spanish border where the police thought we were smuggling petrol!

The history of Wallcreepers in Britain stretches back to 1792 when one was shot at the unlikely location of Stratton Strawless in Norfolk on October 30th with five more records before 1969.

https://www.historicalrarebirds.info/u20/wallcreeper

https://www.historicalrarebirds.info/cat-ac/wallcreeper

Naylor, KA 2024 Historical Rare Birds

Being 16 at the time this bird passed me by but it was the first detailed and documented live bird in Britain and caused quite a stir as detaield below;

Wallcreeper 1969 Worth Matravers Dorset Accepted

Details: Worth Matravers, male, 19th November 1969 to 18th April 1970.

From British Birds – Looking back April 1995

Twenty-five years ago, in April 1970, the talking point was an unprecedented invasion of at least 40 Little Egrets Egretta garzetta, the first 12 all arriving during 17th-19th April; in contrast, there was none in autumn. In the same month, British Birds subscribers were reading that: 'Although considered to be largely sedentary, the Wallcreeper Tichodroma muraria has been recorded as a vagrant about seven times in Britain. The most recent occurrence, and the first for over 30 years, was at Winspit, near Worth Matravers, on the Dorset coast. The first authentic sighting of this individual was on 19th November 1969, though there is some evidence that it had been present since at least 9th September. It stayed throughout the winter, working its way each day back and forth through the abandoned stone quarries that extend along the cliffs for about a mile east from Winspit. Hundreds of birdwatchers travelled to see it, local inhabitants and holiday-makers borrowed binoculars, and it even put in an appearance on television, but at times it could be remarkably elusive and no one seems to have met with much success in photographing the bird. By the end of March it had already acquired the black throat of the male's breeding plumage, and it was last seen on 18th April.' (Brit. Birds 63: 163)

An actual black and white film of this bird appears in the BBC archive along with some rather dodgy early TV sensationalist reporting.

https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/1970-nationwide-wall-creeper/228187989063253/

Roll on forwards to 1978:

Cheddar Quarry Somerset March 19th 1978

A new bird for GB!

Unbeknown to 99% of UK birdwatchers a Wallcreeper had wintered in the Cheddar Gorge area of Somerset from early November 1976 to April 6th 1977. The first since the widely available Winspit bird in 1969 – 1970 it would have drawn a big crowd but was not made public. Fortunately, it returned on November 9th 1977 and stayed through to April 8th 1978 with news being released to all and sundry in March 1978. Mick Mellor and myself decided on a visit on March 19th and after negotiating the quarry wall and ending up in the bottom we had some great views as detailed blow: it remains the only bird I have seen in Britain and a wintering individual now would be a massive draw as the last British record was a one day bird on the Isle of White in 1985.

My field notes:

A brilliant bird first noticed giving its call that sounded somewhat similar to the song of Black Redstart being a three syllabled see see seeeit rising at the end and quite distinctive given regularly whilst moving about and feeding. Song also given quite often was the same as that heard in the Pyrenees again sometimes trisyllabic and the first two notes sometimes given without the rising third note tu tu tueeese rising on the last long drawn out high pitched note.

Not easy to pick out on the rock face due to its small size and habit of spending a good deal of its time sitting stationary whilst feeding on a wet cliff face.

Bill curved and black; crown nape and back all pale grey looking slightly darker on the naps than the back. Throat black with odd white spots where still moulting to summer plumage. Faint white eye ring visible at close range. Breast dark greyish. Wings brilliant crimson on forewing with blackish primaries and prominent white spots on the black inside tips.

creeping about feeding on the rock faces especially in cracks and under overhangs and on one face with running water where it spent a lot of time feeding by picking flakes of mud off the face in search for invertebrates underneath. Also seen drinking water as it dripped off the face. Flicked wings out quite regularly especially when moving about. In flight brilliant crimson, grey and black and white with large butterfly like effect caused by the broad wings. Flight very rapid and erratic with amazingly quick turns in flight making it a hard bird to follow.

In my attempt to be a bird sketcher days and even felt obliged to add some colour to a bird like this one

Since that memorable encounter in 1978 I have seen Wallcreepers in Southern France and the Spanish Pyrenees as described below every sighting leaves an indelible mark on the memory.

June 5th 2000 -- a trip to the Pyrenees and NE Spain June 3rd – 10th 2000

An early start heading north on the A131 to Huesca and then on to Jaca via the 330 and Sabiñánigo. Decided on a first look at the Monastery area at San Juan but at the top low cloud made birding impossible so we dropped down to the village of Santa Cruz de la Serós. Here a good variety of raptors including Hobby, Peregrine, kites and Booted Eagle plus Alpine Swift were logged before the rain set in! We then drove to the Mirador de Oroel and managed to get views of a few typical woodland species, Bonelli’s Warbler, Short-toed Treecreeper, Firecrest and Nuthatch. Also heard Black Woodpecker but failed to see any. A chat with a young birder who had been shown Wallcreeper at the Hecho the previous day prompted an early departure and a rapid drive to the Boca del Infierno. Here it was extremely windy, cold and difficult to locate any song but after about 30 mins the male Wallcreeper appeared on the rocks to the left of the road and flew down into the gorge where we all had good views as the rain set in again. A few minutes later a second bird, the female was found feeding on the high face across the gorge and we were able to get good scope views for 90 minutes by standing in the shelter of the overhanging face across the road. In addition to these super birds 2 Lammergeier, 5 Egyptians, Short-toed Eagle, Booted Eagle and Red-backed Shrike were all seen. Higher up the valley a lone Black-bellied Dipper was sole consolation in appalling weather with torrential rain. By evening it was fine lower down the valley and we headed for the supposed Eagle Owl site near Alastuey. The valley revealed Red-backed Shrikes, Bonelli’s Warbler, Cirl Buntings and two probable but distant Bonelli’s Eagles. At dusk a Scops Owl called and an Eagle Owl was heard but the highlight was three Eurasian Nightjars feeding on the road with a female allowing approach to 2m in the lights of the car. Night in a Hostal at Puente la Reina.

my first Wallcreeper image taken at shall we say a slow shutter speed in the depths of the gorge in flight - almost recognisable

June 8th

Golden Orioles calling from the poplars along the river at the hotel at dawn. A drive up to the St Juan area revealed good numbers of a variety of butterflies in what was a rather hot day, 27C plus a variety of raptors but not the stunning close views we expected. Lammergeier, Egyptian Vultures, Booted Eagle, Peregrine and a flock of 50 Chough were highlights. From here we headed back to the Wallcreeper site and had Golden Eagle, Peregrine and 2 Lammergeier in the air. The Wallcreepers were located at the nest with the male feeding the female. Tracking down the valley we crossed west into the Anzo valley having 2 Short-toed and 2 Booted Eagles in display from the ridge top. A short stop at the bottom of the Binzes valley revealed Orphean Warbler, Ortolan, and 5 Short-toed Eagles. Evening in the town park at Jaca where at least three Scops Owls located including a pair mating in a tall tree in the north-east corner of the park. Night at same Hostal as 7th.

male Wallcreeper in the gorge a micro-dot image on KChrome slide

In the mid 2000’s with cheap air travel opening up long weekend birding trips, four of us headed to the Camargue and Les Alpilles in January or February of 2004, 2005, 2008 and again in 2010 tempted by close encounters with Alpine Accentors, Greater Flamingos and hopefully the Wallcreepers that winter on the cliffs at Les Baux. Below are the Wallcreeper days!

February 5th 2004

By 12:40 we were at Les Baux and parked in an almost empty car park by the main entrance to the old town; 3 Euros in a meter (useful to have a few Euro coins available when you arrive). Entrance to the higher levels of the old town costs 7 Euros but when we returned three days later the girl on the desk recognised us and let us in for 5:50 as we were regulars! The upper reaches of the old town soon produced some good birds with 10-15 Alpine Accentors feeding around the buildings and on the open areas; very tame but frustratingly poor light prevailed. Also 1-2 Blue Rock Thrush, some very approachable Sardinian Warblers, Black Redstart and a pair of Serins. Various sources suggested that Wallcreepers winter on the northern edge of the town cliffs and at the southern end. We started off by walking west down the road towards Les Maussannes. On the first right hand bend you can look back up to the cliffs and the buttresses on the side of the town. DJ quickly picked up a Wallcreeper here and we had good views as it fed on the walls and cliffs but access was restricted by the scree and scrub. The second site is found by taking the path south from La Vergière Noire along the foot of the cliffs to the southern end of Les Baux. Two Crag Martin and a fine Firecrest obliged along with further Blue Rock Thrush and odd Accentors on the cliffs above. Our second Wallcreeper of the day was soon picked up in an area of honeycombed limestone by the Stèle des Gaiè. We soaked up this delightful bird for a few hours and then moved back to the car and drove towards La Caume.

Digi-scoped Wallcreeper with the Nikon Coolpix E880 a 3MP camera February 2004

February 9th

Following up on information from the Spanish and French birders we headed into the northern delta to look for a Pine Bunting seen the previous day. A flock of 16 Cattle Egrets passed as they left their roost and the flock of 30 or so Yellowhammer were duly located. Eventually at least one adult male Pine Bunting was seen very well and it seemed likely that two had been present. With the wind getting ever stronger we headed back to Les Baux. On the higher levels it was hard to stand up and the Alpine Dunnocks were very difficult due to harsh light and their constant movements. On the southern cliffs it was possible to get out of the wind and in the sunshine two Wallcreepers performed brilliantly keeping us entertained for about three hours. Also seen were Blue Rock Thrush, A Accentor, Black Redstart, 20 Crag Martin. Without much hope of any action in the cold wind we headed for the Eagle Owl site and found one bird immediately on a daytime roost on the crag but it was by then 18:00 and the light was fading.

For fast moving small birds on a big cliff digi-scoping had its challenges - Les Baux February 20024

February 19th 2005

By early afternoon were at Les Baux and walked up to the upper village where Alpine Accentors were quickly located along with Sardinian Warblers and KDD jammed a Wallcreeper on the inner ramparts. A couple of Black Redstarts were seen before we moved back to the car park where two obliging Alpine Accentors performed brilliantly amongst the crowds of Saturday afternoon visitors. A walk around the bottom of the cliffs turned in three delightful Wallcreepers and three Crag Martins plus Blue Rock Thrush.

local tourists taking in the Alpine Accentor by the entrance to Les Baux courtesy of digi-scoping KDD and DJJ

Alpine Accentor at the entrance to Les Baux - mow armed with the Canon 20D and original 100-400 lens images were getting a bit better

Monday 21st

Starting out at Les Baux it was already very windy; a Cirl Bunting sang near the car park and the southern cliffs were sheltered. A male Wallcreeper was very accommodating and a few Black Redstart and 13 Crag Martins seen. By the main entrance we had two close Alpine Accentors in what was now nearing a gale force north-westerly.

Even with the 100-400 lens the Wallcreepers were small and usually distant

Wallcreeper on the honeycombed southern cliffs of Les Baux

At the time photos of Wallcreepers were quite scarce and this image featured on the cover of the Ornitholidays tour company brochure

January 12th 2008

A fine and sunny morning with light winds so we head up to Les Baux to have a go at the Wallcreepers at Les Baux—hopefully! There only seems to be one female on the whole of Les Baux so it gives us a bit of a run around trying to get close to it; not so the Alpine Accentors which perform admirably. Also seen 3+ Black Redstart, a male and female Blue Rock Thrush, 20+ Serin, Sardinian Warbler, a couple of Cirl Bunting low down and at roost time 17 Crag Martins and a Merlin on the adjacent hillside.

With the Canon 1Dmark2N and 300 2.8 lens the Alpine Accentors were a dream target; tame and in great light

January 13th;

Another amazing hot and sunny day but with a light north-easterly wind. The female Wallcreeper again took up most of the day but we also saw 3 Bonelli’s Eagles in the distance over La Caume and a Griffon came from that direction and flew over Les Baux. Additional birds during the day were 6+ Black Redstart including a male in song, 20+ serin, Sardinian Warblers, male and female Blue Rock Thrush, 20+ Alpine Accentors, 2 displaying Ravens, Chiffchaff and Sparrowhawk. Late afternoon we move to Le Destet and have Woodlark, a ringtail Hen Harrier and a singing male Eagle Owl at dusk.

male Sardinian Warbler at Les Baux another distraction from the Wallcreeper hunt

but even with the 2x converter on the 300 lens the Wallcreepers were stubbornly distant

Les Baux February 10th and 12th 2010

At least one male Wallcreeper with some reasonable photographic opportunities. Armed now with the 500 f4 Canon lens and a 1.4x converter there were better photo chances but the birds were still small and tricky to find with a lens when standing on a loose scree slope looking essentially upwards.

The south facing cliffs at Les Baux favoured by Wallcreepers - the dense head high scrub on scree leading up to the foot of the cliffs is a real challenge especially with a camera and big lens

John W and KDD trying to get an angle on a Wallcreeper looking down from the top of Les Baux

https://www.grahamcatley.com/wallcreeper

Second guessing where the birds would be was a nightmare - if you were at the bottom they were at the top and vice versa and walking between the two spots took nearly an hour

this bird was performing some amazing aerobatics as it fed on the cliff face

It would regularly fly up to a hole or crevice in the cliff face and disturb something that would then eitehr jump or drop from the cliff at which point the Wallcreeper would fly down and catch the prey item in the air - amazing to watch but impossible to capture in the camera auto-focus systems of 2010 - today’s gear should provide a better chance

From underneath they lack the striking colours on the upperwings

flying almost upside down did not seem to be a problem

Terrible image but shows the prey items that this bird was flushing off the cliff face anbd then chasing in flight

flying up to the cliff face to probe for food in a hole

Flicking the wings and tail open is a regular action but getting the camera to catch it was a challenge in 2010

Blue skies and sunshine are certainly far from guaranteed on a short mid-winter visit

many of the locations where Wallcreepers occur are highly scenic and Les Baux is one such place on a nice day

a giant Red Admiral butterfly just about sums them up

That is now 14 years since seeing a Wallcreeper so I am well overdue a renewed acquaintance.

Graham Catley 28/11/2024 Graham Catley 28/11/2024

Hawfinches

I still remember my first Hawfinch. On July 5th 1970 still not at an age to be able to drive and definitely unable to own a vehicle, my parents took my on one of our Sunday drives to the area of Pelham’s Pillar Woods, striclty private so any birding had to be from adjacent roads. We parked for a picnic on the triangle of grass and tarmac between Caistor Road and Cabourne Road at Audleby Top. Suddenly a bird landed next to a puddle by the car - a stunning Hawfinch unmistakable and unforgettable. I have driven past that spot 100’s of times since and walked those woods but never seen another Hawfinch there. Indeed it was March 1974 before I saw another Hawfinch at East Wretham Heath while studying at UEA. That bird was eclipsed by a flock of 30+ on January 24th 1975 and my highest ever count came from the same spot on April 3rd 1977 when there were 50+ there.

On April 16th 1983 while walking round Far Ings I put up a Hawfinch from a grassy spit between two reedbeds and this remained my only local patch record until the invasion of 2014 when one flew west on September 28th. In the 1980’s indeed through to 2004 or thereabouts a small breeding population was located in the woods east of Scunthorpe and these provided annual encounters with up to 10 birds and I even found a nest in Kingsway Woods in the crown of a Hawthorn only 20 feet up by a busy car park. I managed some pretty dodgy digi-scoped images of some of the birds in 2004 and 2006 below - but my image gallery was to say the least lacking in quality.

Male Hawfinch digi-scoped with Swaro scope and Nikon Coolpix E880 a 3MP camera 2004

Hawfinches feeding on the ground under yew trees February 2006

Then along came the autumn of 2017 and a major invasion of continental / Scandinavian Hawfinches into Britain. Staking out the migratory corridor of Barton Pits I managed to see one heading west on October 25th and a party of five heading the same way on the 27th. The following winter the Scawby Park - Forest Pines yew complex produced record numbers with my personal peak being 49 on February 27th 2018 with 45+ on March 2018.

Floack of Hawfinches feeding on the ground under yew trees March 2018

female Hawfinch feeding under yews March 2018

Fast forward to 2024, with none seen in the interim and a calling Hawfinch flies south-west over my garden early on October 29th. With others being reported and a mini influx akin to 2017 I have a look at the favoured site and find five on November 6th but they are very flighty and I don’t even see one perched. Returning on 18th and there are at least 11 and I finally get a few images including a couple feeding in a yew next to a beech with its golden leaves forming a great backdrop.

over ensuing days I go back when the weather looks good ie with light or no wind and sunny but mainly they are elusive and flighty and although they can be feeding close by in a yew they are typically hidden from view and even when perched high in a beech or larch they have a habit of always being behind whatever branches are available.

They seem to love to be high up in beech trees

all images with the 200-800 lens at max power and still small in the frame

crunching the seed? of the yew not the berries

Even when you see them fly up into a tree, oak here, they just seem to disappear and they are well camouflaged in the autumnal tree canopy

a bit easier to see in the top of a larch

while odd birds perch on top of the larch trees others disappear into the morass of twigs

even when close it is possible to hide behind a minimalist yew branch

another adult female using criteria in the new ID Handbook of European Birds

I have been trying to get some flight shots but as with all passerines its not easy as they are quite small and speedy but some of my attempts are bordering on acceptable record shots

an adult male with nice broad white tail feather tips

the flashing white wing bars on upper and underside are distinctive

and my best shots so far this winter - here an adult female

and an adult male in a yew with the backdrop of the golden beech leaves

Graham Catley 23/11/2024 Graham Catley 23/11/2024

A Siberian Stonechat at Gibraltar Point November 16th 2024 and personal musings about past Lincolnshire eastern stonechats

As a new subscriber to British Birds in 1975 the anticipation of the monthly mail delivery of the next issue revolved around the unknown content; would there be an article on identification of some tricky species or accounts of the finding of rare birds or a write up on an extraordinary influx of some scarce migrant or winter visitor or would it be a bit of a non-interest issue! Prior to subscribing I had been given a run of issues from the 1950’s all of which had been devoured searching for inspiration and information on rare birds to be honest. While at the BTO I had spent countless hours trawling through all issues from 1960 onwards reading and re-reading accounts of the finding of rare birds like the mythical Red-flanked Bluetail and photocopying identification articles like the Dusky – Radde’s Warbler paper by Ron Johns and Ian Wallace complete with Ian’s pen and ink sketches that spoke a thousand words. All of this information was of course to be hopefully applied in the field when the Lincolnshire coast was blessed by Easterly autumnal winds, or at least that was the theory.

The June 1977 issue of BB contained a paper entitled Identification and European Status of eastern Stonechats by Iain S. Robertson. Complete with some very grainy black and white images and a pencil sketch this threw up a potential rare bird that most people had never heard of or contemplated but the first European record dated back to October 11th 1883 on, where else but that fabled isle of Heligoland with the second on the Isle of May on October 10th 1913 but more to the point there had been an upturn in records since the late 1960’s with 10 in 1974 alone so there was hope of discovering one of these gems. In Lincolnshire we did not have to wait long as the Donna Nook stalwarts unearthed a first-winter female on October 7th 1978 that stayed to the 8th and allowed the avid few Lincs twitchers to watch it feeding around the rusty barrels and barbed wire dump. I even managed a couple of very distant Kodachrome slides of said bird. Later a spring male at Donna Nook in the previous May 1978 was also considered an eastern bird but identification of males is harder to prove than immatures.

first-winter eastern stonechat Donna Nook October 8th 1978 presumably Siberian Stonechat maurus

Two years later, a late autumn search at Donna Nook on November 9th 1980 revealed a dark looking first-winter eastern Stonechat that I identified as stejnegeri probably the first for Lincolnshire though at that time all eastern birds were simply classified as a race of Stonechat and it was not until 2004 that these eastern birds were split as Siberian Stonechat with races maurus, variegatus, armenicus and indicus, stejnegeri and przewalskii.

I was fortunate with further finds at Donna Nook of first-winter maurus probably male, from my notes on head pattern, on October 2nd 1987 by Ponderosa and an early first-winter female at Pye’s Hall on September 22nd 1994. I also saw another first-winter female maurus at Saltfleet Haven between October 1st – 3rd 2000 but that was it until 2016 when a first-winter male stejnegeri was found by Steve Lorand at Donna Nook on October 6th 2016 curtailing our search at Pye’s and involving some brisk southward walking. In the same glorious autumn, we found another eastern bird by Stonebridge car park on October 14th and assumed just on the paleness of the plumage and obvious differences from the earlier Donna bird that this second bird was maurus. The 2016 birds were written up with annotated photographs in a short paper in the 2016 Lincolnshire Bird Report pages 238 – 244.

The superb Challenge series thought provoking two volume series by Martin and Ray, thanks to Ray for permission to reproduce these images and I am sure Martin would not have mionded either

maurus now Siberian Stonechat, at least for a while

stejnegeri now Amur Stonechat as most people struggled to spell stejnegeri including me

As more identification features came to light firstly in Martin Garner’s Birding Frontiers, Challenge Series, Autumn, then in a new paper in BB we started to question whether the second 2016 Donna bird may also have been stejnegeri? The BB paper ‘Eastern Stonechats’ in Britain; by Andy Stoddart and Martin Collinson in the September 2019 BB noted that: Recent taxonomic changes to ‘Eastern Stonechats’ have separated Stejneger’s Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri from the five taxa that now comprise Siberian Stonechat S. maurus. Images of birds trapped and confirmed by DNA analysis and new plumage features in the paper laid out a set of criteria for identification but two birds identified as one species were in fact confirmed as the other by DNA so things were clearly not that clear cut. The following two paragraphs probably sum things up nicely:

However, the fact that the provisional field identifications of some DNA-tested birds did not align with their genetic identity is a cause for concern. Individual variation and the lack of an absolute feature clearly pose a problem. At the same time, the questions around intergrades/hybrids remain unresolved while, to complicate matters further, could there even be, as suggested earlier, a lack of congruence between the morphological and genetic divides between the two species? In other words, could a proportion of ‘Eastern Stonechats’ be apparent Stejneger’s on plumage but genetically Siberian (or vice versa)? These (and other) lingering taxonomic questions also suggest that caution is in order.

Finally, even without these difficulties, any attempt to cherry-pick ‘distinctive’ individuals would still be problematic. How could ‘dark enough’ or ‘pale enough’ be defined? What about the more ‘intermediate’ birds? And, perhaps most importantly, given the difficulty of establishing true plumage hues, how much reliance can really be placed on field notes (if available), and, in particular, how useful are photographs?

The latest identification handbook, ID Handbook of European Birds by Nils van Duivendijk shows the most reliable features for separating what are now called Siberian maurus and Amur stejnegeri Stonechats and confirms at least that the Gibraltar Point bird is a first-winter male.

With all this in mind, and assuming I had not seen a Siberian Stonechat since 2000 a visit to Gibraltar Point to take in the features of the first-winter Siberian Stonechat found by Sam Goddard and still present early morning on the 16th, seemed in order. The weather men had typically got it all wrong and the afternoon was peppered by thick cloud and showers of light to moderate rain. None of the images below were taken in anything other than dull, though flat light and most were at ISO 3200 or above. The bird was at times fairly close to a male and female Common Stonechat but was generally on its own.

First winter male Siberian Stonechat (maurus) Gibraltar Point November 16th 2024. Images taken in slightly different lights, there was no sun while I was there, and different toned backgrounds could have the effect of changing the subtle colour tones of the bird’s plumage. Images taken later in the afternoon after a series of showers emphasise the blackish feathering in the crown and ear coverts partially due to the crown being wet. The bird could appear strikingly obvious and pallid at times but at others could look quite dark and at a distance could almost be passed off as a Common Stonechat.

The unmarked white undertail coverts and vent contrasted with the peachy underpart colouration. Depending on the angle of the head the mask formed by the blackish feather bases in the ear coverts could also appear striking or much less obvious. According to some published images the small very pointed bill is also a maurus feature with stejnegeri being thicker and blunter tipped.

After several showers the crown and head feathers became a bit matted with water. The buffy – cream tips to the greater coverts and greater primary coverts rule out this being an adult male.

In duller light there was more contrast in the mantle and scapular feathers with the dark feather centres appearing blacker. On the underparts the upper breast also showed a deeper orange colouration than the remainder of the underparts.

The darker orangy area on the upper breast shows well on this image taken in dull light just after some rain.

Also shown is the orangy colour on the upper breast in this flight shot where the throat appears to be marked with black feathers, actually feather bases and also note the black underwing coverts with pale whitish fringes another feature of first-winter males.

Most of the rump was essentially white to pale cream with a faint apricot wash to the uppertail coverts and distal part of the rump feathering. In flight at any sort of distance the rump looked uniform and pale creamy coloured but frozen images show the peachy wash.

The chin and throat were mainly white and contrasted with the peachy breast and underparts but faint blackish feather bases were visible in the throat patch.

The narrow white-buff fringes to the lesser and median wing coverts are shown here with the creamy – buff outer web fringe and tips to the greater coverts. The tail feathers were essentially black with a narrow and worn whitish tip. The pointed tips are usually a feature of juveniles.

In particularly dull light with thick dark clouds the apparent colour of the bird changed making it less contrasting and more female Common Stonechat like.

Unlike the Common Stonechats nearby nearly all of the Siberian’s feeding forays consisted of aerial pursuits of insects and this made it easy to locate. It used high perches in the buckthorn and elders and occasionally resorted to a nearby barbed wire fence. At one point if lew 150m out onto the saltmarsh to bathe quickly in a shallow area of water before quickly drying and preening and returning to the dunes.

The black underwing coverts contrasted markedly with the paler flight feathers typical of a first-winter male

The black tertials with crisp white broad fringes and the white-cream outer webs of the secondaries formed the typical striking wing panel.

Whitish tips to blackish tail feathers with narrow white fringe to outermost

All in all, a beautiful little bird but how does it compare to the two 2016 birds at Donna Nook?

Looking first at the presumed Amur Stonechat found at the south end on October 6th – 10th it was a dark looking bird and at a distance could have been passed over as a Common Stonechat. The following description was compiled by Steve Lorand who found the bird:

At distance, it resembled a female Common Stonechat, but differing light intensities and viewing angles could cause some variation in impressions of the bird’s general colouration. It was overall darker and more richly-coloured than any maurus birds seen by any of us, while the obvious sharply-demarcated throat patch and the deep orange rump were particularly striking features. In very good sunlight, the dark mottled crown and ear-coverts contrasted with the pale cream supercillium which met just above the base of the bill. A broad dark line from the bill passed through the eye and widened to form a patch on the ear-coverts. The creamy throat patch was very conspicuous, particularly with the sharp demarcation from the warm peachy-buff of the breast and slightly paler belly. The undertail-coverts were whitish. The underwing was silvery-grey with black axilliaries and underwing-coverts, thus determining the bird as a male. The upperparts were dark brown with orange-buff fringes on the mantle and scapulars. The greater coverts were tipped orange-buff. The primaries, secondaries and tertials were brown-black with cream fringes. The rump was a striking clean deep orange and the tail feathers were brown-black narrowly tipped with orange-white which extended along the outer webs of the outer feathers. One or two of Graham’s photographs show a creamy suffusion on the upper rump and also dark shaft streaks to two central uppertail coverts. The bill, legs and feet were blackish.

Presumed Amur Stonechat Donna Nook October 6th 2016. Note general similarity to a female Common Stonechat but clearly demarcated creamy throat and unstreaked orange underparts with obvious pale supercilium. These images are massive crops as the bird was particualrly flighty and impossible to approach

Blackish underwing coverts confirm that this was a male. The rather dark orange rump and rear flanks contrast with the black tail

Black underwing coverts contrast with paler flight feathers. Deeper orange underparts with only hint of paler colour on undertail coverts.

Orange not peachy underpart colour and dark upperparts, to some extent exaggerated by low sun, with dark ear coverts and crown make this bird look very similar to some female Common Stonechats. Note stubby looking bill with broad base a feature noted by Garner and Scally.

Deep orange rump extends over uppertail coverts with two obvious black shaft streaks on longest uppertail covert feathers.

Amur Stonechat Donna Nook October 6th 2016. Note here the pale creamy tips to the black tail feathers with the deep orange lower rump. and uppertail coverts also the fringes to the flight feathers are buff to rufous not white as are the tips to the greater coverts.

The second Donna Nook October 14th – 16th 2016. Found by GPC and ND after a long day slogging the Pye’s Stonebridge area this bird looked paler than the earlier Amur and suggested that it was a maurus but good images reveal features that appear to be at odds with that identification and suggest that it was probably a second Amur Stonechat.

The very pale underparts of this bird immediately suggest Siberian but note the heavy black centres to the scapulars and mantle and the deep orange rump just visible between the closed wings. The head is also generally dark with little sign of a paler supercilium. Tips to the greater coverts and fringed to the flight feathers are creamy as are the tips to the tail feathers. Bill looks a little stubby?

From the front underparts are richer coloured and contrast with the white throat. Head pattern is still very unremarkable with only a hint of pale supercilium. Alula and primary coverts are jet black.

Uppertail coverts are deep rufous with obvious black shaft streaks; tail black with pale whitish tips to all feathers. Fringes to flight feathers are creamy to buff but not white and mantle and scapulars quite dark with heavy black centres to all feathers.

On a duller day the underparts look much darker.

Black underwing coverts make this a male and note the rather dark coloured rump and darker uppertail coverts with white fringe to outermost tail feathers.

Blackish shaft streak on one of the uppertail coverts visible here in a poor flight image but also note the deep orange rump and uppertail coverts.

Deep orange or rump again visible in this image with general appearance of a darker duller bird than initial views suggested.

Rump and tail well shown here if you ignore the umbellifer stem

Lincolnshire eastern stonechat records:

A summary of the county records to date - details of some still need researching

Donna Nook May 23rd 1978 1, Adult Male Stejnegeri?

Donna Nook October 7th – 8th 1978 1, First-winter male maurus

Donna Nook first-winter October 8th 1978 - yep 46 years ago the barrle is long gone

Donna Nook November 9th 1980 1, first-winter male Stejnegeri

Bill black Chin whitish – creamy separated from breast which was pale orangey – buff; Paler under belly undertail coverts. Short narrow, pale supercilia to just over eye; Ear coverts dusky brown, Crown brown streaked darker blackish; Mantle brown with darker blackish streaking; Tertials black with orange fringes and tips; Primaries blackish – brown. Secondaries fringed with bright orange – buff forming a prominent pale wing panel. Rump orange and quite large, unstreaked and with a white lower edge. Tail black with buff fringe to outers and tips to all feathers; Prominent white patch in wing in flight

Donna Nook October 2nd 1987 1, First winter male maurus

Probable first-winter male maurus but note underwing coverts not seen

Feeding on seeded onion crop and weeds in field just north of Ponderosa; often in the same area as Whinchats and when perched at a distance could have been overlooked as that species. Generally pale buff above with dark wings and tail and very pale salmon below looking creamy at a distance.

Bill fine and black; a narrow pale supercilium ran back from the forecrown meeting over the bill to just behind the eye. Eye dark and large with a narrow white eye ring; lores dusky joining into a dark eye stripe/mottled ear coverts; ear coverts mostly buff-brown but with some underlying back feather bases showing through giving a mottled look; Crown buffish brown with rows of fine black spots extending backwards giving a streaked appearance from further off; nape buff-brown but only lightly streaked darker, mantle, back and scapulars all looked buff-brown with darker blackish streaking greater coverts blackish-brown with buff-brown edges and pale creamy tips forming a curved but narrow wing bar; Tertials black edged and tipped with white quite broadly on the edges; secondaries all fringed white forming a prominent pale wing panel; greater primary coverts all black with broad white edges; primaries black narrowly tipped with white; tail feathers all black tipped with white ; lower back-rump all white large and broad and often looking in flight to extend round onto flanks and cut off the tail; uppertail coverts salmon fading into the white of the rump ; throat / chin white – cream with greyish malar stripe ; breast and flanks salmon-buff at close range all feathers tipped paler ; belly and undertail coverts paler cream; legs black

Skegness October 21st – 25th 1990 1, First winter Female Stejnegeri/maurus

Skegness October 23rd – 25th 1990 1, First winter Female Stejnegeri/maurus

A Black and white image of one of these birds appears in the 1990 County bird report

Donna Nook September 22nd 1994 1, First winter Female maurus

Siberian Stonechat; first-winter female Pyes Hall September 22nd 1994.

Found feeding with four Whinchat and five Northern Wheatears on the bank of Somercotes Haven where it runs out onto the saltmarsh, perching on 1m high stalks of vegetation and making flycatching sallies from perches into the air and onto ground. Size of Whinchat alongside but paler on both upper and underparts. Overall pale buffy brown upperparts with darker wings and tail, with obvious white fringing, pale buffy-grey head, dark eye and whitish chin demarcated from pale peachy underparts.

Bill fine black; Large dark eye with a fine pale supercilium stretching back to rear of ear-coverts; crown pale brown with darker streaking, ear-coverts grey-brown with clear demarcation to whitish chin/throat; rest of underparts a lovely pale peachy colour with slightly darker area in centre of upper breast and with whiter undertail coverts. Nape and mantle pale buffy brown with darker streaking down mantle and on scapulars. Median coverts black centred with whitish fringes; greater coverts black with white tips forming a narrow but clear-cut wing bar. tertials black with white outer edges; secondaries edged prominently with white forming an obvious wing panel effect in combination with tertial edges; primaries and primary coverts black. Rump all a pale creamy/peach colour, unmarked and extending from uppertail coverts to a line level with top of tertials; when wings drooped this was seen to wrap around the whole of the rear of the bird joining up with the lower underpart colour and isolating the black tail. Tail feathers black with thin white tips. Legs dark. In flight with a scope I could not see any obvious black on the axillaries and therefore I concluded that the bird was a first-winter female.

Saltfleet October 1st – 3rd 2000 1, First winter Female maurus

Siberian Stonechat first-winter female Saltfleet October 2nd 2000

Gibraltar Point October 5th – 6th 2013 1, First winter Male maurus

eastern stonechat first-winter male Gibraltar Point October 2013 ©Russell Hayes

Donna Nook October 6th – 10th 2016 1, First Calendar year Male Stejnegeri

see images above

Donna Nook October 14th – 16th 2016 1, First Calendar year Male Stejnegeri?

see images above

Donna Nook September 23rd – 28th 2024 1, first-winter female maurus

Graham Catley 19/11/2024 Graham Catley 19/11/2024

November break in Suffolk

Last week we had a couple of days down in Suffolk staying at the Ship Inn at Dunwich with a long walk around Minsmere and Dunwich in some sunshine and a second cloudy day around Dunwich heath and Walberswick my old stamping ground from UEA days in the early 70’s.

Blue hour just before sunrise from Dunwich beach

A Herring Gull on Greyfriar’s monastery remains of - would Herring Gulls have been resident in the days when the Monastery was active?

Part of the resident East Suffolk Barnacle Goose flock heading up the coast to the favoured fields at Southwold early morning

The woods at Minsmere were in glorious colour but are largely ignored by most visitors who head for the hides and wet birds!

The woods were pretty quiet though but managed a Marsh Tit and a few Green Woodpeckers

some cracking fungi were in evidence in the woodlands and I even started trying to take some low angle pics with the tilt screen on the R62

Gorse in flower in late November with plenty of spiders webs. The heather seemed to be recovering from the dire state we saw it in in April with a lot of new growth that hopefully bodes well for the Dartford Warblers next year

Dunwich heath and the woodlands at Minsmere

Although we used to see wintering Stonechats on the Suffolk heaths in the early 70’s Dartford Warblers were never dreamt of being confined to the South coast heaths at that time

The feeding association between Stonechats and Dartford warblers was often evident on the heaths

Even if the warbler had to climb up very high

There were a few Dartford Warblers in the heather like this immature but they were tricky to see and usually fairly quiet

A couple of male Dartfords were doing a bit of singing

This male was feeding well up in some birch trees gleaning insects from the trunks and remaining few leaves

Minsmere looking from Dunwich cliff to the Sizewell thing - probably best in black and white

Cormorants flying past the ugly dome Minsmere - Sizewell

My first ever Marsh Harriers were a female and two juveniles at Minsmere on June 30th 1972 so it seemed a ppropriate to take a couple of images of this juvenile one of at least eight birds we saw in the late afternoon

Walberswick Marsh with the remains of the iconic windmill. I have so many great memories related to this place from my years at UEA when winter birding jaunts were often directed to the Minsmere - Walberswick duo with raptors high on the list of hoped for species.

Little Egret at Walberswick - it is daunting to think that back in the early 70’s Little Egret was still a BB rarity and six records at Cley in 1972 was described as remarkable and Great White had amassed only 10 British records by 1974 - we saw many Little of course and at least four Great Whites.

Male Marsh Harrier Walberswick - we saw at least six birds including two adult males - in the early 70’s Marsh Harrier was still a rare bird in Britain and even rarer in winter but we did see the odd one - how times have changed

Female Marsh Harrier pre roosting in the Walberswick reedbed - in the early 70’s we used to watch the raptors from the vantage point by the Lodge but the views from there are now almost totally obscured by trees while East Hills is also more tree covered and far different from when I saw my first Red-backed Shrike juveniles there in August 24th 1971 when of course the species still bred there. I actually saw a Woodchat Shrike there before my first Red-backed as I was looking on East Hills and came across a birder looking at the vagrant adult Woodchat before I managed to find the Red-backed Shrikes.
Walberswick was also the site that yielded not only my fist ever Rough-legged Buzzards, three over East Hills on November 10th 1973 one of which I distinctly recall was straight over my head at one point and not very high up. The same day I made notes on a Common Buzzard that was with one of the Rough-legs such was the rarity of that species in eastern England at the time. A move to Minsmere the same day also produced my first adult male Hen Harrier. In the ensuing winter of 1974 - 75 Rough-legged Buzzards arrived in East Anglia in even greater numbers and Walberswick provided us with a run of sightings with the astounding sight of 11 in the air on November 10th 1974 as we scanned around the reserve and Dunwich forest. The same day a Great Grey Shrike was on East Hills, an almost guaranteed species in winter in those days, two Hooded Crows, a ringtail Hen Harrier, female Marsh Harrier, 6 Bewick’s Swans and 20 Velvet Scoters completed a good day out! We were back at the hallowed site on December 7th and 8th amassing more sightings of at least five Rough-legged Buzzards, a Red Kite then a major rarity in the East, a Goshawk even rarer, male and two ringtail Hen Harriers, two Great Grey Shrikes, 6 Hooded Crows, Waxwing, male and female Marsh Harrier and Merlin.

A different adult male Marsh Harrier Walberswick

The same adult male as above a real stunner even in very dull and dismal light

Male Hen Harrier Walberswick - this male caught me by sutprise as it flew past quite close but in terrible light and I didn’t see it until it was well past us - one of the species that we used to rely upon on winter visits in the early 70’s with three or four birds typically roosting

In something almost worthy of the X files we had just emerged from cake and coffee at the Walberswick tea rooms when I decided to have a look at Birdguides to see if anything major was in the area and the top message was Black Redstart Walberswick by the Green which is exactly where I was standing! I then noticed a guy sat at one of the benches with bins and asked him if he had seen the Black Red to which he replied its on that roof! Grabbed the bins and camera and my first Black Redstart of the year a sadly declining species that I used to see easily every year but now often miss.

Graham Catley 05/11/2024 Graham Catley 05/11/2024

A Pallas’s Leaf warbler and unexpected Pallid Swift - November 4th a bonus late autumn day at Donna Nook

On Sunday November 3rd a Pallas’s Warbler was reported at Stonebridge car park Donna Nook. Not a great surprise given the good autumn for eastern vagrants but every one is a treat for the eyes and a bird not to be missed particularly when it is only 42 miles away. Thus, Monday saw me heading to said car park in the hope of laying eyes on this little beauty and maybe, just maybe getting some photos but the weather was pretty dire with thick dark clouds making it appear more like dusk than midday. Located fairly quickly it fed in a large willow and small hawthorns throughout the day but ISO 10,000 was needed to get even a slow shutter speed and stopping it in mid hover was a total impossibility. But what a gem and a great addition to the autumn’s sightings.

Initially frustrating to say the least nearly every shot was out of focus or the bird pattly hidden by branches and leaves

Named after the German explorer/naturalist Peter Simon Pallas who collected the first specimen in the area of Transbaikalia, near the Mongolian border, during the late 1700s, the Pallas’ Warbler or formerly Pallas’ Barred Willow Warbler and subsequently Pallas’s Leaf Warbler is a jewel the size of a Goldcrest or matchbox (younger readers look up matchbox on the internet) and weighing just 4-7gms the same as a new pencil. Breeding no closer than 3000 miles to the east of the UK in eastern Asia they generally move south to winter in southern China and north-eastern Indochina but late autumn high-pressure systems sitting over Central Asia bring a few birds to Western Europe in most autumns.

The first for Britain was obtained, shot, at Cley, one of my old UEA haunts, on October 31st 1896 as described below by the great DIMW in his superb tome Beguiled by Birds. It was also Ian who coined the phrase the seven striped sprite for Pallas’s Warbler a term well used.

From the superb Beguiles by Birds by the late great Ian (DIM) Wallace

With a total of just three records prior to 1958 this was a mega rare bird but the first of a series of late autumn influxes occurred in 1968 when 18 birds occurred. That autumn saw the first two records for Lincolnshire when single birds were trapped simultaneously at Anderby Creek and Gibraltar Point on October 19th. Further big autumns saw 29 recorded in 1975 and 33 in 1981 with an amazing 127 in autumn 1982.

I think everyone remembers their first Pallas’s Warbler and rightly so, it is usually a heart stopping moment when you see all those stripes and the first time it hovers that glowing lemon rump. My first was seen at Saltfleet Haven on October 30th 1976 but was slightly reduced in impact by the metal leg iron placed on it the previous day. It fed in dead elders and buckthorn in the dunes and I went back the following day for seconds and even managed to tale a decent picture on the old Kodachrome 64 slide with my Nikon F301 and Sigma APO 400 5.6 manual focus lens. My first found bird followed three years later at Rimac on October 27th 1979 and in the magical autumn of 1982 I managed to see no less than five birds. October 21st 1988 was a Pallas’s red-letter day when we found three birds at Pyes’ Hall and by the end of 2023 I had seen a pretty amazing 62 individuals in Britain compared to 196 Yellow-browed Warblers of which I have even had seven on my local patch at Barton.

Pallas’s Warbler Saltfleet Haven October 1976

If Goldcrests are very active and Yellow-browed Warblers extremely active then Pallas’s Warblers are hyperactive and add to this a willow that seemed to be open but still had several million leaves and branches and the dullest of days getting any decent images of this year’s jewel was fraught with problems but all in all I was pleased to get some shots reflecting its character.

Every Pallas’s Warbler deserves a concerted effort and a day of anyone’s life.

a 250th of a second is not a lot of use for action shots

Given the conditions this image was not too bad

Escaping the willow’s branches and leaves but with a rather nasty white sky background

getting all the stripes in one image is a tricky business

foraging for insects under the bramble leaves was more frequent in the afternoon

had to make do with a lemon rump shot in an almost still moment rather than the desired hovering shot

As the afternoon drew to a close at 15:20 I was sat in the car to make a phone call but as is the case it seems with so much bird finding I needed a call back so I got out to have a last look around when a couple walked up to the car next to mine and asked what I had been seeing concluding with we have just seen a Swift, well we think it was a Swift but its a bit late! Rapid walk with 100-500 in the increasing gloom and there is a Swift drifting over the dunes - its got to be a Pallid or so we assume in fact what was almost the first British Record was just up the coast at North Cotes on November 4th 1975 being seen the following day just to the south at Rimac : I could see very little with the bins so took some images and fortunately it flew right over my head a couple of times but I was on ISO 10000 to get a reasonable shutter speed and the grey sky was almost blown out trying to keep some detail int he bird and not ending up with a set of silhouettes; A quick look at the screen on the camera quickly confirmed it was indeed a juvenile Pallid Swift but after about ten minutes I lost sight of it and assumed it may have drifted off south. Images below - to say they are record shots is an exaggeration but at least they show the key features. What next? I am surely due a Hume’s but maybe could the nana finally fall in Lincs.

terrible images of the juvenile Pallid Swift in the late afternoon gloom at Donna Nook they look almost monochrome because there was no light in the gathering gloom

appeared to be feeding well but still moved off