After a very busy start to October I finally had a day to myself on the 7th. The choice of where to go was a 'no-brainer', since a Red-tailed Shrike was 'showing well' on the National Trust reserve at Dunwich Heath. Red-tailed Shrike (previously known as Turkestan Shrike - it breeds in central Asia) would be a world 'lifer' for me. I would also get the chance to photograph the bird. I parked at RSPB Minsmere (free parking for me - I do come from Yorkshire.....) and walked the mile or so to view the bird near the coastguard cottages. I wasn't disappointed: shrikes have the endearing (for bird watchers) habit of sitting on the tops of bushes looking for prey and this bird didn't disappoint: it had quite a small territory (just a couple of large bushes), but seemed able to catch lots of prey items and store some in its larder inside one of the bushes. It was also a handsome adult male (most of the shrikes that are seen in the UK on passage are rather dowdy juveniles) - even better! Keen / professional photographers were having a field day, trying to catch the bird in flight and/or eating prey. I noticed that in some of the online images posted the bird had mealworms in its bill: a bit naughty, since it means that it was being fed in an attempt to keep it in the area. Anyway, here are a few (of many) photographs that I took.
Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 7 October
Red-tailed Shrike, Dunwich, 7 October
Red-tailed Shrike with Prey (a Moth?), Dunwich, 7 October
After I had had my fill of the shrike, I went looking for Dartford Warblers nearby, seeing at least three including a recently fledged juvenile (2nd or 3rd brood?) and hearing others. Later, I wandered round the Minsmere reserve with (limited) highlights being a rather late Hobby and an obliging Stonechat (image).
Stonechat, RSPB Minsmere, 7 October
This began a sequence of four trips outside my area in eight days, starting with a visit to RSPB Snettisham on the 10th to see a Short-toed Lark, which had been present a few hundred yards north of the beach car park for several days. This bird took longer to find, despite the presence of several birdwatchers, as it searched for seeds in vegetation between the high tide line and the coastal path. However, after about an hour I was able to get decent views and one or two photos of this bird - my second UK record. Following this, I had a good look round the RSPB reserve and beyond. Cranes had been reported in an inland field, but they were not there when I looked. Instead, I did see the small flock of feral Snow Geese that have been at Snettisham for many years, mingling with a large flock of Greylags.
Short-toed Lark, Snettisham, 10 October
Greylag and feral Snow Geese, Snettisham, 10 October
The following day, I was off again - this time to Dungeness, to do a reconnaissance trip ahead of leading an RSPB Local Group members' visit the following weekend. The weather was dull and misty and there was little to excite me during a two hour visit to the RSPB reserve. However, down at the national nature reserve I was lucky to catch sight of a singing male Black Redstart, on one of the power station buildings. The garden that surrounds the old lighthouse was full of small birds, eagerly feeding on small insects. Most were Chiffchaffs, presumably passing through the area, but there were at least two Goldcrests and possibly a Willow Warbler here. I took several photographs, some of which revealed differences in the plumages of the Chiffchaffs. The two that I have included below possibly refer to different races (Collybita and Abietinus or Tristis) or a mixed race bird: assigning Chiffchaffs to specific races is extremely difficult for the experts, let alone me.
Chiffchaff (common UK race, collybita?), Dungeness NNR, 11 October
Also seen near the power station were two very tame Red Foxes, which had apparently been fed from a car before I arrived - this may explain why they were so approachable!
Red Fox, Dungeness NNR, 11 October
The bird watching trips continued on the 14th when, for a change, I visited an inland site (Rutland Water) to look for what would be my second UK Baird's sandpiper. The bird had been around for a week, and in the previous few days had restricted itself to feeding in a small creek on one side of the Whitwell Peninsula. I had naively expected to see the bird trotting round the edge of the reservoir, but this was not the case. I and a handful of other birdwatchers were unable to locate it, although it had been reported around lunchtime (I arrived mid-afternoon). I walked well beyond its apparent range without success. However, as I was about to give up I met a local bird watcher, whose wife had discovered the bird. We discussed its habits, and I realised that it could be further up the bank, away from the water. We still couldn't find it and I headed back to the car: he said he would wave his hands if he saw it. You can guess what happened next. I walked back and there it was, superbly camouflaged as it walked very slowly amongst the pebbly shoreline, a short distance from the water but with a low profile. There's no way that I would have found it on my own and I'm very grateful for being called back! I was able to get close enough to the bird for some decent photos, a couple of which are shown below.
Baird's Sandpiper, Rutland Water, 14 October
Baird's Sandpiper, Rutland Water, 14 October
After several days of calm, dull weather, the RSPB trip to Dungeness on the 19th coincided with the arrival of rain. However, most of our bird watching was done in dryish (if very dull) conditions and we ended up with a bird list of 83 species recorded, including Firecrest and Black Redstart (seen outside the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway Cafe!). As I was leading, I didn't get much time for photography. However, unlike at Cley in September, I did manage to photograph one of six Cattle Egrets seen at the RSPB reserve, standing on the back of a cow. Gull identification proved a headache, as usual, but I'm pretty sure that I saw both juvenile and adult Yellow-legged Gulls, with a likely adult shown in the image below. Fortunately, most of the rest of our LG members don't have the same hang-ups with larger gulls that I do, and were happy to move on......
Cattle Egret standing on a Cow, RSPB Dungeness, 19 October
A Mixture of Juvenile, Immature and Adult larger Gulls with probable Yellow-legged Gull second left, RSPB Dungeness, 19 October
I was back in 'twitching' mode on the 21st, when I visited Eyebrook Reservoir (on the border of Rutland and Leicestershire) to look for a juvenile American Golden Plover, which was associating with a large flock of Eurasian Golden Plovers. Low water levels at the reservoir allowed the plovers to spend time on the mud a long way away from observers on the road that runs round the reserve, but this bird (which is slightly smaller and much greyer than the Golden Plovers and has a more obvious white supercilium) tended to stay a little way away from them, on its own for most of the time. I managed a few 'record shots' of the bird, with a couple (taken in different places, as the flock took to the air every few minutes) shown below.
American Golden Plover (smallest bird, just to the left of the Lapwings) with Lapwings and European Golden Plovers, Eyebrook Reservoir, 21 October
'Record Shot' of American Golden Plover, Eyebrook Reservoir, 21 October
I had been lucky in the late summer and autumn this year to see three 'lifers' and two 'seconds', all within 100 miles of home, on my 'twitches'. This would have been good enough for me, but I had the opportunity to see yet another 'lifer' when a Brown Shrike arrived on Hollesley Common, near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Brown Shrikes nest in Western Siberia, so this bird was, like the Red-tailed Shrike, way off course. I visited on the 28th. Finding the small area of land where the shrike (a juvenile, so not as stunning to look at as the Red-tailed Shrike) was relatively easy, but getting to the site was more difficult as major roadworks and the closure of a key railway bridge necessitated a very large detour. I had to wait 20 minutes for the bird to appear, on the perimeter fencing of an MOD site, but once it did appear it was viewable for over an hour before I left. I was able to get close enough to the bird to get some ok record shots. My UK bird list now stands at 375 (five added this year), still giving hope that I could still reach 400 in my lifetime.
Juvenile Brown Shrike, Upper Hollesley Common, 28 October
Juvenile Brown Shrike, Upper Hollesley Common, 28 October
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