Marmora's Warbler, Blorenge, Gwent, Wales, 10th June 2010

A visit to The Blorenge with Mike Watson to hopefully see the Marmora's Warbler was the order of the 'early' day. We struggled finding the site which was shrouded in thick mist after we missed our turning (even though Mike had visited days earlier. The mist was that bad. We arrived safely on site just after 0200am and tried for some shut-eye before first light. At 0410am the Marmora’s Warbler singing could be heard from the car, and so we had a walk round to try and locate it through the mist. Its silhouette could be seen from the top of gorse bushes as it sang whilst flying round its territory.
The weather deteriorated and the mist came lower, so we decided to head down the valley to get a brew and a bacon butty in nearby Abergavenny. Having been refreshed we drove back up to the car park, and walked down the road to where more birders were assembled. Usual suspects were around, Tristan Reid, Dave Hutton and the bird didnt disappoint landing feet away from where we all were. No one invaded its privacy and all stayed on the road.
Id seen Marmora's Warbler before in Corsica, so it was nice to get one on me British list. Great day, great company, and a superb bird.

American Wigeon, Caerlaverock, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland 20th February 2010

News of an American Wigeon at Caerlaverock had me heading up the M6 north to see this American duck that had eluded me for ages. Every time I'd set off for one of these birds, I'd failed to connect. Not the rarest bird in the world, but surely today I had to make contact.
I wasn't to be disappointed, as on arrival the staff told me which pool it had been seen on. I paid the entrance fee, and headed to where it had last been seen.
Straight in front of the hide window, swimming around with Eurasian Wigeon, Shoveler, Mallard etc was the bird I'd travelled for.

Whilst photographing the bird, Ian Corbett texted me to say there was a juvenile Rose Coloured Starling coming to a feeding station in someones front garden in Kendal. So it was there I headed to as there was plenty of the day to go at.
Arriving in Kendal about an hour later, I parked up across from where the bird had been seen. It wasn't about, but there was enough food to keep it going for a while. I got me camera set up and waited patiently. Within minutes, it was sat on the house roof, so it was inevitable that it was going to come down and feed on the apples that were laid out on the garden.
 

 It did exactly this and wasn't phased by me or anyone else who was watching it.

A great day, connecting with two birds, and getting some images as well.

Black Throated Thrush, Newholm, North Yorkshire 21st January 2010

Thrushes have to be one of my favourite birds. They are always elegant and always catch your attention if a rarity is found. I'd travelled to Swansea to see my first Black Throated Thrush, so a trip up to North Yorkshire wouldn't be too difficult.

I arrived in Newholm, and the road was void of anyone, never mind twitchers. I positioned myself on the opposite side of the road, to where the bird was being seen regularly. The house with feeders.More birders were turning up, and as they did, the Thrush appeared in the garden already mentioned. It came and went, and when it did go missing it did so for quite a while, always returning to the same garden. A quality bird that didn't disappoint.

Hen Harrier, Undisclosed location, Lancashire. 16th June 2009

Today has been a superb day that I will never forget. Anyone who knows
me will no that my favourite bird is the hen harrier, and its cause of
my love for the bird that I volunteer for Natural England's Hen Harrier
project. 

At the forefront of this project is my very good friend Stephen Murphy.
He's responsible for fitting satellite tracking devices to young birds
whilst still in the nest, this enables close monitoring of the birds
wherever they travel in the world, providing unique data on the species'
complex dispersal ecology.

Stephen kindly invited me up to a nest site, to check on the welfare of
a brood of 5 young high on the Lancashire moors on a privately owned
grouse moor. Stephen is licensed for nest visits, to ring the chicks and
fit transmitters, I acted as his accredited agent for the day giving me
a rare opportunity to visit a hen harrier's nest and photograph young
hen harriers.  

We had a fair walk from where we had to leave the vehicle, but was it
worth it. Nestled in a patch of heather were 5 young harriers all sat
there looking at us. A fantastic site to behold. There was one addled
egg among the young birds which sadly had obviously failed.

The parents weren't about initially, so time was of the essence for us
to weigh and measure the birds. We left the brood within 5 minutes of
arriving and when we got back to the vehicle, we saw the female land in
the nest with food

To top it all, whilst in the nesting area, the male bird flew nearby and
as a meadow pipit flew up out of the heather, the harrier stuck
out its right leg and plucked it from the sky. Both of us seen this
within 30m of where we stood. Absolutely breathtaking; the agility of
these birds is amazing.

Today really was a day ill never forget, and many thanks to Stephen for
asking me to assist him.  

White Throated Sparrow, Old Winchester Hill,Natural England Reserve,Hampshire. 15th April 2009

Me and Hazel and our newborn daughter have travelled down to Hampshire today to see a stunning White Throated Sparrow. Its was the second White Throated Sparrow that I'd twitched, after dipping a one day bird in a garden in Caldy in Cheshire in May 2003.
No road works all the way down, and relatively easy to find. The bird had been seen by many, and had been seen by people leaving the site, but on arrival had gone missing. It was a good opportunity for Hazel to walk around the park with our daughter in her pram.
The bird didnt let us down. It flew out of the dense hawthorn bush and fed on the seeded area. I managed a few images before it disappeared again.
Very few birders were around now, so me and a local birder (Lee Fuller) decided we would get closer to the seeded area in order to try an get better images.
The bird again came down onto the seed and performed superbly, allowing both me and Lee time to get images we wanted.
Its been a long drive home, but well worth it.

Two Barred Crossbill, Garfitts Farm, Bilsdale, North Yorkshire. 11th November 2008

Ive been to Bilsdale today with me good mate Ian Corbett for the Two Barred Crossbill that's been visiting a feeder on a farm in the area. I met Ian at North Allerton railway station as he'd travelled up from York.
The farm was up on a hill and could be reached by driving up the long private track to the property.
On arrival at the farm, the owners were still around and explained how long the bird had been there, and what time it usually appears on the peanut feeder in the front garden.
We were the only birders around at that time, but a constant stream of arrivals started arriving before the bird eventually showed.
Ian located the bird by call in the trees opposite the house, and immediately it landed on the peanut feeder. From there it flew onto the bird bath, had a drink, then fly off.
I didn't want an image of the bird on the feeder, and wanted one in a more natural setting, so I waited to see what the bird would do when it arrived to feed again.
Again it called from the trees, flew to the peanuts, then to the bird bath, then disappeared.
Most people stood by the peanut feeder which was giving good views when the bird appeared, so I decided to walk to the opposite end of the garden and hope that it landed on the bird bath when it next came to feed.
Time went by, as did the birders when the crossbill called from its usual vantage point. It flew straight down to the feeder, consumed some peanuts and then flew towards me landing on the birdbath. It bent over and drunk some water, before sitting up allowing me some chance of an image. It really was a cracking little finch. Once it had finished, it then flew off on another circuit.

Corsican Nuthatches, September 2008

For the second part of our honeymoon,
Hazel and me took a budget flight to Corsica,
to spend a week photographing their endemic
Corsican Nuthatch.

Four species of nuthatch breed in Europe and,
of these, the delightful little Corsican Nuthatch
Sitta whiteheadi is the most restricted in range.
It is endemic to the western Mediterranean
island of Corsica, where it is confined to the
Corsican Pine forests of the mountainous spine
of the island.
Corsica is administratively part of France. It
lies about 100 miles southeast of the south
coast of mainland France, but it is actually closer
to Italy (c.50 miles to the east) while the larger,
Italian island of Sardinia lies only 11 miles from
its southern tip.
In September 2008, we flew
from London Stansted to Alghero in Sardinia,
hired a car there, and then drove north and took
one of the daily car ferries from Santa Theresa
across the Strait of Bonifacio to Corsica. The
crossing to the beautiful port of Bonifacio takes
only about an hour.
Hoping to see and photograph the nuthatch,
we based ourselves for a week at the Gorges de
la Restonica (at the Hotel Dominique), southwest
of the northern town of Corte, and this put
us within easy reach of the mountain pine
forests where we hoped to find the birds. From
Corte, we headed south on the N193 for about
22km to Vivario. At the south end of this small
town, a restaurant on the left hand side of the
road marks the junction of the D69, which leads
to the village of Ghisoni in about 30km. But,
after only about 3km along this road from
Vivario, well before the Col de Sorba, you are
already in the habitat of the tall pines that the
nuthatch favours.

 

Female Corsican nuthatch were especially hard to locate, rarely coming down from the tops of the pines

We parked, and could hear the nuthatches
calling almost immediately. Before too long, we
had enjoyed excellent views of at least one
(albeit high up in the trees). It was obvious that,
to photograph the nuthatches, we would have to
be higher than the area we were in, so that
we could look down on them. So we drove
further up the valley towards Ghisoni and
parked again.
We could hear Corsican Nuthatches again as
soon as we opened our car doors. Our height
relative to the trees seemed potentially better
for photography here, but we quickly decided
that our best chances of obtaining some good
images would be to move a few dead and fallen
branches into a spot that would suit both us and
the birds. With time and patience, it worked: the
inquisitive birds eventually came into view at
photographic range.
Later in our trip, however, we enjoyed even
better views of the nuthatches back in the
Gorges de la Restonica, where we were staying.
It seemed clear that wherever good Corsican
Pine forest was to be found, so too would the
nuthatch. During our week’s stay on Corsica, we
also visited the ski resort Haut Asco, another
well-known area for the nuthatches. We did not
actually see any here, but we heard them several
times. By the end of the week, driving between
the various nuthatch areas, we hoped we had
obtained enough images of the bird, which does
not seem to have been photographed very often.

We can thoroughly recommend Corsica for a
birding trip. It is an inexpensive place to visit,
the scenery is spectacular, the roads are excellent,
the climate is warm and, besides the
endemic nuthatch, the other endemic, Corsican
Finch can also be seen (although, in September,
they did not seem to be as common as I had
thought they might be). Amongst other species,
we also saw Marmora’s Warblers in the Gorges
du Tavignano and Audouin’s Gulls in the southwestern
port of Propriano.