Friday 29 September 2017

Let the good times roll !

I suspect like me autumn is the favourite birding time of the year for most birders. Like many I have put a fair bit of time aside for looking for rares in the next four or five weeks. Right now as in many previous years I am full of optimism that this is the year I will find the mega and my little stake outs will rival St Agnes, Porthgwarra, Portland Bill , Flamborough, North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle. Every year I usually struggle to find anything much better than a Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrest or Black Redstart and as the autumn closes I usually think why did I not just go somewhere else for a week. Time dulls the memory however and the optimism batteries are again charged to 100%
This morning I headed out to Start Point first light after a night of showers that were still going intermittently after dawn. It was not bad enough to write off some vis mig but little was going overhead, the best a couple of Siskins. The farm held about 4 Chiffchaffs and 10 Goldcrests with a lone Blackcap. The road down to the light was sheltered and on reaching the lighthouse compound the first bird I saw was a Firecrest. Although nothing else seemed to be present just by waiting 30 minutes 4 Blackcaps and a chiffchaff showed. Other birds seen at Start included Grey Heron, Sparrowhawk, Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Grey Wagtails, 60 Swallows and 5 House Martins.                                                                                                     
Kestrel overlooking the lighthouse gully.
I left Start and headed around the short distance to Hallsands. This is sheltered in winds with a westerly element when Start can be blown out and is full of potential. Today it was quiet, just a lone Wheatear on the beach and a Cetti's Warbler singing loudly from the overgrown pond behind the beach. It is a very atmospheric place when looking at the old village taken by the sea a hundred years ago in January 1917.
 


 

 
 
Over 170 people lived in the old Hallsands village at its peak. Many a good session must have been had in The London Inn which once brewed its own ale. I bet the lighthouse keepers stumbled their way back to the light on a frequent basis.
 
As a last throw of the dice I went to Beesands where a Yellow-browed Warbler ( no doubt the first of many locally this autumn ) was reported yesterday. It was predictably quiet for migrants and duck numbers ( exclusively Gadwall, Tufted Duck ) were down on a couple weeks ago. A nice sight was a flock of around 100 House Sparrows on the Village Green, not such a common sight as it should be. There were also a flock of 30 Starlings. I always assumed flocks this time of year would be made up of fairly local birds, would explain why they are not easy to find now. Speaking to Keith Grant who I bumped into at Slapton last week he told me he inadvertently trapped a Starling at Torcross recently which was a juvenile and it had been previously ringed, amazingly in Lithuania ! What a recovery.
 
 

 
Part of a seemingly healthy Beesands House Sparrow population. These can be good at drawing in scarcer visitors so worth keeping an eye on in the next few weeks.

Monday 25 September 2017

American Landbirds in the 10k

'The Pepperpot' at mid-Soar. A 200 year old Admiralty Signalling Station originally built to keep an eye out for French ships. Must have been the odd Upland Sandpiper nearby sometime.            


Parasol Mushroom sp, Soar Warren

Whinchat, Soar Warren

Looking towards Start Point from Hallsands Beach

Portuguese Man 'O War, Strete Gate
I've been out birding a few times since the last post but not tearing up any trees regarding seeing anything rare. No falls, no scarce migrants and no major early morning visible migration. Plenty of nice walks and views all the same and the wildlife highlight probably a Portuguese Man 'o War on the strandline at Strete Gate.

It is of course that time of year when most birders are getting a bit twitchy about what rarities might turn up late September, through October and into early November. Certainly been some good birds in the SW including from North America Red-eyed Vireos on Scilly and in West Cornwall and a Yellow Warbler at Portland. The latter got me thinking about the handful of Yank passerines that have occurred locally in the 10k patch. Seven in total and none since 2001. We are long overdue another though it is a sad fact sightings in the SW as a whole have plummeted in recent years compared to the heady days of the 80's when Scilly in particular was an autumn birding Mecca, seemingly replaced now by the Northern Isles. The reasons behind this are complex and probably not proven beyond doubt. There is certainly less coverage on the Scillies in autumn now, some populations have noticeably decreased in America, the autumnal Atlantic jet streams have moved farther north and if ship assistance plays a role ( probably more saving birds well offshore than bringing them all the way ) there may be less marine traffic. I thought it would be nice to recap the few that have turned up.

The first American landbird found in the 10k patch was a Blackpoll Warbler found in the car park scrub at Prawle Point on 18th September, 1976. There was a mini invasion of 4-5 birds in Britain and Ireland in autumn 1976 and this may have been the precursor of these. It was also the first mainland record for Britain. It was seen until the 20th and then again on the 29th. Found by the late Dave Norman it was trapped and ringed by Alan Searle which was a relief to prove it was not a Bay-breasted or Pine Warbler....not so much literature available then and not so many birding trips to Canada and the USA. As an aside an ex work colleague of mine who lived at Beesands told me he picked up a couple twitchers one day who i'm sure had travelled some distance for this bird but had pranged their car on Bowcombe Bridge. He gave them a lift to Beesands, put them up for the night in the football club changing rooms and ran them out to Prawle the next morning. Great hospitality and I seem to recall from what he told me it must have been for this bird. Certainly before my time. Don't know what happened to the car.

The next bird was found in the same place, a Red-eyed Vireo found by John Nicholls on 27th September, 1981, remaining into the next day. I think this was also a first mainland record and only about the fifth or sixth for Britain ( I stand to be corrected on any of this ). Like the Blackpoll Warbler, identification then was not so straight forward as now and other Vireos had to be eliminated. Many Monarch butterflies were around at the same time, presumably also from North America. I was birding in 1981 but knew few other birders and I don't think there was even a phone in my house. I can remember reading about a ' Red-eyed Vireoux ! ' in the local paper and went out to Prawle but it was long gone. I would get another chance however !

October 1987 was a great month for rarities at Prawle, worth a post of its own. My personal all time favourite bird I have seen locally was found in the woods below Hines Hill by Norman Trigg on 8th October, an amazing Black and White Warbler. It was blowing a howler that day and Norman had persevered all day and after seeing little went into the shelter of the woods. He found the bird moving through with a flock of  Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests and the rest was history. He got a good description and selflessly legged it the not inconsiderable distance ( about a mile ) back to his car, drove back up the village and got the news out. Three or four lucky people saw it that evening, I had to wait until the next day and what a bird. Lots of people from far away were there and it stayed until 15th, a whole week. Incredibly it was not a first for Devon, an unusual record of one in Tavistock in March 1978 preceding it. The extra weekend visitors produced rumours and claims of all sorts, some seemingly Jackanory and some pretty certain for eg an elusive Swainson's Thrush that got away from some observers. One definite was another Red-eyed Vireo found in Pigs Nose Valley ( Merivale Lane to locals ) by Pat Mayer on the 11th staying until 17th.

The next bird was the first and still the only one to be found away from the Prawle area. Again a first British mainland record it was a Bobolink found on the Warren at Soar by Alan Doidge on 17th September 1991. It stayed until 21st giving great views to hundreds of grateful visiting birders, the farmer kindly opened a field up for additional parking. I remember Alan telling me it was so quiet at Soar that day that he was going swiftly back to his car taking a short cut and found the Bobolink, you never know !

October 1995 produced the biggest mega in modern times for the 10k patch. On the afternoon of 18th Britain and Irelands second ever Chesnut-sided Warbler was found by a visiting birder , looking for Cirl Buntings, in the lane by Prawle Point car park. The only previous British record was on Fetlar, Shetland in October 1985. In the mid 90's I was lucky enough to live and work for a couple years on the Scillies. I vividly remember I was birding on Bryher that day when a birder next to me looked at his pager and said anyone know where Prawle Point is, yes and why I replied. The answer was that someone had found a type of American Wood-Warbler there and was asking if there was anyone nearby who could help with the id. Soon it came back on the pager as a Chesnut-sided Warbler and panic ensued amongst the premier league twitchers there. It was seen by about 20 people that evening, hundreds were there the next morning but it had disappeared. None have occurred since.

The last record to date was another Bobolink in the fields at Langerstone Point, Prawle from 9th-16th, October 2001, another Pat Mayer find and like Alan's bird very popular. Unbeleivably 16 years ago, about time for another yank, we can all dream !

On You Tube someone recently pointed me in the direction of an old television programme called Twitchers filmed on the Scillies in October 1995. It's very tongue in cheek and does use quite a bit of producers license but it shows a clip of twitchers at the airport trying to get a flight off for the Prawle Chesnut-sided Warbler and you may notice famous Devon birder Bob Bailey at 24 minutes in. Fast forward to 51 minutes 54 seconds and yours truly is standing on a hedge ( blue fishing smock and rucksack ) looking at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I  can safely say this was filmed before they invented Doritos ! You can find it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swyVZXQQbwI