Peter Moore's Wildlife Blog: Family first(ish)

Thursday 18 January 2024

Family first(ish)

Whilst I do almost all my local birding by bike these days, and would be the first to recommend giving it a go, I try not to be preachy about it and am certainly no saint, still enjoying the occasional foray further afield in the car. I try to keep the emissions down even then, sharing with friends wherever possible or combining family visits with birding opportunities when I can. This strategy proved quite effective over the last year or so due to some happy coincidences of where my relatives live and where some good birds happened to turn up.

Baikal Teal (male), Greylake, Somerset December 2023

Baikal Teal (male), Greylake, December 2023

My parents live in North Devon and whilst not the best location for rarities, they do have a semi-resident population of Glossy Ibis just down the road. But with only short detours en route, I was able to catch up with Isabelline Wheatear and Baikal Teal on the way to or from successive Christmas visits in 2022 and 2023.

Isabelline Wheatear, Seaton Marshes, Devon, December 2022

My sister moved to Seaford in East Sussex just over a year ago and on our first visit to her new place I took the short detour off the A27 to see the long-staying Sabine's Gull at Budd's Farm on the Hampshire coast on the way home - just a mile off the main drag.

Sabine's Gull, Budd's Farm, Hampshire, January 2023

Almost dark by the time I called in on this long-staying bird

Sabine's Gull, Budd's Farm, Hampshire, January 2023

Sometimes I confess it's a case of a family visit being incidental to seeing the bird rather than the other way around. Such was the case last year when my friend Jol Mitchell asked if I fancied seeing the long-staying White-crowned Sparrow at Seaford Head, about a mile away from my sister's. I jumped at the chance and it would have been rude not to make a family visit of it whilst in the area!

White-crowned Sparrow, Seaford Head, East Sussex, April 2023

White-crowned Sparrow, Seaford Head, April 2023

The furthest flung part of my side of the family is my brother in Stirling, and we usually manage to call in on the way to or from occasional family holidays in Scotland. We didn't make it that far north as a family last year but I managed a brief stopover on the way back from a week on Shetland in October with my other 'family' - the birding family of David Bradnum, James Lowen and Phil Saunders who I teamed up with on a couple of occasions last year.

Waxwing, Farnham, Surrey, December 2023

Visits to relatives on my wife's side of the family in the Home Counties over the Christmas holidays put me within reach of a flock of Waxwings in Farnham and the long-staying Canvasback at Abberton, which also held a trio of Smew including a stunning male.

Canvasback in the sunshine (Abberton, Essex, 31st December)

The Canvasback was much closer early morning before the sun came out

Canvasback with Pochard in the foreground

I passed a personal 'brown' birding milestone in 2023, reaching 500 species seen in the UK in September. We were on a family trip to Bristol to visit the eldest son at University, and as we enjoyed a pre-shopping hotel breakfast on the Saturday morning news broke of a Canada Warbler in west Wales. Being in Bristol I was over half-way there. I looked at my wife who said 'just go, you'll be an arsehole if you don't'. It was probably true, so I took the invitation to avoid the retail hell of Cabot Square at face value and went.

Gorgeous drake Smew at Abberton, 31st December

Smew, Abberton, 31st December

Goldeneye, Abberton, 31st December

It was possibly the least pleasant and most frustrating twitch I've been on, as it took me ages to get a conclusive view, but when I eventually stationed myself at the end of the crowd and waited for the Warbler to make its way towards me, I was rewarded with an excellent view of the golden underparts, slaty upperparts, black spotty necklace and big dark eye of a Canada Warbler. A pretty special bird for 500 BOU anyway, even though I couldn't do it justice with the camera. My enthusiasm for twitching has waned significantly since reaching this milestone and whilst I can't say I have kicked the habit completely I aim to be even more choosy about what I 'go for' in future.