Local Wildlife Sightings October 2022

 October proved to be an exceptionally warm month, but also an extremely wet one. Temperatures reached 20C on a few occasions throughout the month, but torrential rain on the 20th produced 54mm, making this day wetter than any single preceding month this year! All told, 112mm fell in the month, according to my rain gauge. However, invertebrate numbers dropped away after the first few days and the emphasis for the rest of the month was on bird watching. Butterflies on the wing in the first week included common blue (several sightings), small copper, peacock, red admiral, brimstone, speckled wood, and small and large whites. A visit to the Old Rifle Range on the 3rd produced more than one female Adonis blue, including a specimen that was in surprisingly good condition (image). A late holly blue was seen close to my house on a glorious, sunny day on the 18th. Ivy bees were still active until near the end of the month, as were field crickets and hairy shield bugs. A hornet was seen in Therfield on the 6th, when I did my long walk around the villages.

Hairy Shield Bug, Royston, 3 October

Female Adonis Blue, Therfield Heath (Old Rifle Range), 3 October

Golden Plovers in Flight at Dusk, Therfield, 17 October

A redwing was heard passing over the house on the 3rd, but arrivals from the east were few and far between in the first half of the month, perhaps being held up by westerly winds and unseasonably warm weather. A flock of up to 200 golden plovers was seen in flight from the Icknield Way on the 3rd and the 17th and on the ground on the 6th. Lapwings were seen early in the month, but later disappeared. Further afield, merlin and marsh harriers were sighted by others from along the Wallington to Baldock road. I visited on a couple of occasions, failing to see these raptors but noting up to four stonechats and two reed buntings at the edge of a field of quinoa, where a Dartford warbler had been seen and photographed by one lucky person earlier in the month. This field proved to be quite a draw, with many skylarks and meadow pipits using it as well. News of a jack snipe (the first for five years) at the attractive little Lemsford Springs reserve, near Welwyn Garden City, on the 10th gave me an excuse for a return visit on the 11th. When I arrived in mid-afternoon the bird hadn't been seen all day. However, I hung around and fortunately it re-appeared just as I was about to leave. I managed to get some photos of the bird, in the company of a common snipe, but they are poor and not worthy of publication. Up to eight green sandpipers were on the reserve, along with at least three little egrets, a water rail, three snipe and a pair of grey wagtails (image).

Grey Wagtail, Lemsford Springs, 11 October

Chiffchaff numbers dropped away during the month, although individuals were heard locally on the 27th and 31st. There was a noticeable increase in numbers of goldcrests towards the month's end, presumably part of a large influx into the country from Continental Europe during the middle of the month. Despite a corresponding massive influx of redwings into the country, only a few individuals were seen locally, and no fieldfares were recorded by me during October. Gull numbers grew, particularly following the heavy rain later in the month, and a yellow-legged gull was seen at Greys Farm on the 24th. At least two stonechats were seen on The Heath on the 25th (just east of the Therfield Road). Unfortunately, they were in the middle of the golf course, making photography difficult, although I managed a few 'record shots'. These birds appeared to have moved on by the month's end.

Stonechat, Therfield Heath, 25 October

Butterfly activity continued until the end of the month although, apart from the odd 'white', only potential hibernators (small tortoiseshell, red admiral, brimstone and peacock) were seen. A few bumble bees and common hoverflies were still active to the end of the month and a very late hummingbird hawkmoth was seen taking nectar from a neighbour's garden flowers on the 27th.

Hummingbird Hawkmoth, Royston, 27 October

 

  

UK Wildlife Sightings October 2022

 My first proper outing of October had to wait until the 12th, when I visited the North Norfolk coast. Winds had been blowing from the west throughout the month, so vagrant rarities were virtually non-existent. However, I had hoped to see black-throated diver (birds reported from a number of locations) and the hooded crow that had taken up residence at Warham Greens. Of course, there was always the photography to look forward to!

I started at Holkham, walking down Lady Anne's drive to the beach. There were plenty of pink-footed geese around, both in the fields and flying overhead, and I spotted a couple of grey partridge close to the car parking area. The usual area of the beach had been cordoned off, but there was no sign yet of wintering shorelarks or snow buntings. A few common scoters and great crested grebes were on the sea and a couple of razorbills flew west. More distant birds (I didn't have my 'scope with me) could have been divers. However, there was one diver close inshore, which allowed me to take some photographs. This was probably a sick bird, which made no attempt to fly or swim away (hopefully not bird flu). My images indicated that this was an adult red-throated diver, moulting into winter plumage.

Red-throated Diver, Holkham Gap, 12 October

Moving on to Warham Greens, a vigorous 35-minute walk from the eastern edge of Wells took me to the pig farm where the hooded crow had been hanging out. Not a single crow could be seen here so, with a touch of disappointment, I set off back. I had earlier passed another bird watcher - I saw him again shortly after setting off way back, looking intently across the saltmarsh through his telescope. I decided to spend a little time looking in the same direction across the saltmarsh at the various waders, egrets and marsh harriers that were in the area. A few corvids were also on the saltmarsh and one of them was - you've guessed it - the 'hoodie'!

I finished the day at RSPB Titchwell, photographing waders in flight. Just before I left, I spied another diver not far from the shore and close enough to photograph. Although the markings were different, I think that this was another moulting adult red-throated diver (image below, together with a couple of photos of godwits in flight). Red-throated diver is by far the commonest diver species to be seen in the North Sea during the winter months, but it can be difficult to separate from black-throated diver when seen distantly. The following day, two black-throated divers were reported on the sea at Titchwell... 

Red-throated Diver, RSPB Titchwell, 12 October

Black-tailed Godwit in Flight over the Freshmarsh, RSPB Titchwell Marsh, 12 October

Bar-tailed Godwit in Flight over the sea, RSPB Titchwell, 12 October

Two visits to Grafham Water, on the afternoons of the 18th and 27th, were unsuccessful in locating the long-tailed duck and American wigeon that had been reported there on several occasions both before and after my visits. I wasn't alone: others failed to find the birds whilst I was there. However, I had better luck on the 19th when I visited Holkham and Wells on a reconnaissance trip for an RSPB walk that I was due to lead on the 23rd. Having walked from Holkham to Wells harbour and back on a pleasant, calm day without seeing anything too exciting, I decided to pop into to the 'Lookout' cafe for a reviving cup of coffee. Several bird watchers were there, and I found out that a Pallas's warbler had been found a few hours beforehand and was still showing near the Washington Hide, about half a mile west of Holkham. I rushed off to see the bird and was lucky to not only see the warbler (a 'lifer' for me) but also get some 'record shot' photos (image below). In fact, several of these very pretty, tiny little warblers were found along the east coast over the next couple of days, having flown in from the Continent during a rare break in the dominant westerly winds. Pallas's warblers mostly nest in Siberia - very small numbers reach the UK each year at about this time of year as passage migrants. They are nowhere near as common in the autumn as their close relatives, yellow-browed warblers.

Pallas's Warbler, Holkham, 19 October

By the time of the RSPB visit on the 23rd the Pallas's warblers had moved on. However, one or two of our members were lucky to see another very rare drift migrant, pallid swift! Apparently, the unseasonably warm weather had resulted in quite a few of these swifts being seen along the East Coast during the last nine days of October. On a very wet day I missed the swift and had to settle for good views of rutting fallow deer stags in Holkham Park.

Fallow Deer Stags Not Seeing Eye to Eye, Holkham Park, 23 October

My next visit to the East Coast was, by way of a change, to Suffolk. I have seen Alpine accentors in the Alps and the Pyrenees, but never in the UK, so when the first 'twitchable' bird for 20 years turned up at Slaughden, near Aldeburgh, on the 27th, I was keen to see it. The bird was still present the following day, so I decided to look for it. I arrived to find the bird feeding on a narrow causeway between two large groups of bird watchers and bird photographers. I have to say that I felt rather sorry for it, in much the same way as I would feel sorry for a cheetah tucking into prey, surrounded by jeep loads of tourists on the Masai Mara. After getting a few sightings of the bird as it plodded away in light vegetation, it flew over our heads and landed close by, so I was able to get a few photos of a quite attractive bird (images below). I had hoped to also see a dusky warbler nearby at Southwold, but the bird had flown overnight. The Alpine accentor stayed for another night, but then flew off at dawn, not to be seen again.

Alpine Accentor, Slaughden, 28 October

Alpine Accentor, Slaughden, 28 October

 

Georgia (Batumi) September 2022

 Back in early 2020 I booked a holiday with 'Naturetrek' to visit Georgia, to witness the raptor migration and to enjoy exploring the area around the Black Sea coastal city of Batumi looking for some of the special birds that live in or pass through the area. The trip was twice postponed because of Covid, but eventually, on 19 September, it was 'all systems go'. An overnight flight saw our bleary-eyed party of six finally arrive in Batumi late on the morning of the 20th. After ditching luggage at our hotel, it was straight up into the Lower Caucasus mountains to 'Watch Point One', which we were to visit twice more on the holiday. We had been promised the sight of hundreds or maybe thousands of Steppe buzzards migrating south past the watch point in the blurb, but it soon became obvious that the dominant species was black kite, with 'kettles' of 100+ birds passing through. Honey buzzards were also much in evidence, with small numbers of Steppe buzzards, black storks, common and Levant sparrowhawks and a handful of short-toed and booted eagles coming through. Smaller birds on migration included bee-eaters and rollers. A handful of passerines in the area included spotted flycatchers and a green warbler, the only one that was seen on the holiday.

Bee-eater in Flight, Watch Point One, Batumi

When we arrived in Batumi, the one couple on the holiday (Ken and Sarah) revealed that, between them, they had managed to bring two tripods, a telescope and camera with a ginormous 500mm lens with them. At first, I was sceptical of whether all this hardware was necessary. However, when I saw the quality of the images of birds in flight that Ken was producing, my own efforts with my Nikon D7500 and 100-400mm zoom lens were made to look very poor. Basically, there always seemed to be thick cloud cover and my camera/lens combination just wasn't letting in enough light, even when I over-exposed by two stops. Consequently, the raptors, large but usually distant birds, appeared as silhouettes with little feather detail. Lightening revealed lots of noise and rendered the images useless except (in some cases) for identification purposes. The image of the juvenile honey buzzard (below) was a rare exception.

Juvenile Honey Buzzard, Watch Point One, Batumi

Whilst the holiday was overall interesting and enjoyable, it was marred by two factors - the weather and hunting. Of course, there is nothing you can do about the weather, but we were unlucky to visit Batumi in a week when copious amounts of heavy rain fell, meaning that we effectively lost a day to the weather and were unable to participate in all the planned activities. When it wasn't raining there was quite a lot of dull, gloomy weather, although at least this did tend to create opportunities for 'falls' of migrating passerines throughout the week. Hunting is a major problem in Georgia. Shooting was going on all around us as soon as we were out of the city, with hunters coming quite close to us and shooting at the same birds that we were watching. One particularly distressing example of this was on a visit to a river estuary. On the other side of the estuary, we saw a black-winged stilt and an avocet, close to the far shore - the only members of these species that we saw on the holiday. A few minutes later, another bird watching group witnessed both birds being shot by a hunter. The stilt was killed instantly, whilst the avocet had part of its bill removed and a badly damaged wing, meaning that it would have been unable to feed or fly. The bird was swept across the estuary to our side, where it had to be euthanised by the guide. There are so many unlicenced hunters in Georgia that it seems that there is little that the authorities can do. They don't kill for food, but seemingly for 'pleasure' - something that I just can't get my head around.

Squacco Heron in Flight, near Batumi

We made two visits to 'The Boulevard', near the centre of Batumi on the Black Sea coast. The trees in this park form a welcome resting place for passerines travelling along or across The Black Sea on migration. On our first visit, we had been told about a nightjar that was resting on a park light in the centre of The Boulevard. As in the UK, when a nightjar is found resting during the day it will stay in the same place, provided it is not approached too closely, before flying away and likely continuing its migration once night falls. Having seen and photographed this nightjar, we managed to find three more nightjars roosting in nearby trees! Clearly The Boulevard is nightjar heaven! Other passerines found here on our visits included spotted (lots) and red-breasted flycatchers, wryneck, common redstarts, willow warblers and lesser whitethroats.

Nightjar Roosting on a Light Fitting, Batumi Boulevard

The poor weather meant that we didn't see a great variety of invertebrates or mammals (other than the feral dogs that were everywhere!). Butterflies seen included painted lady (seen every day) and long-tailed blue. On the final day, when the sun finally came out, silver-washed fritillaries were seen in the woods adjacent to Watch Point One and one member of our group also saw a bath white. However, lots of red-veined darter dragonflies were seen in large numbers nearly everywhere we went - they really were very common.

Female Red-veined Darter, Watch Point Two, Batumi

Other bird watching highlights on the holiday included seeing a blue-cheeked bee-eater (a 'first' in Georgia for our guide and a 'lifer' for me). My other holiday 'lifers' were oriental turtle dove and the crested honey buzzard mentioned below. We had success at a Kruper's nuthatch site and saw white-winged, black and Caspian terns. At the watch points we saw, in addition to the 'usual suspects', two ospreys, a handful of lesser spotted eagles (we were too early for the larger eagles), a crested honey buzzard, a single white stork and (something I wasn't prepared for) flocks of tree pipits. However, for me the bird of the holiday was nightjar. On our second visit to The Boulevard, we witnessed no fewer than four individuals coming in off the (Black) sea! I even have one or two half decent photos of them, but I'll finish with an image of a different bird - a juvenile collared pratincole. I haven't done justice to what Batumi is like as a place in this article - that will have to wait for another time.

Juvenile Collared Pratincole, near Batumi