2019: the rare bits

2019 was a year of change for me - a change of jobs in this case - which often results in a bit of a slow down on the twitching front as 'more important' things take precedence. But I still managed a few additions to my British list through a combination of effort and good fortune.

Tengmalm's Owl, Tresta, Sheland, 13th April

The roosting owl was just feet above our heads but there was room for only three people at a time to view it

The owl spent most of the time asleep but when it awoke we watched it eating a Redshank caught, presumably, the previous night

Team Tengmalm - Andy Mears, Dave Gibbs, Chris Turner and Chris Wilkinson

The year started inauspiciously as a Tengmalm's Owl on Shetland seemed hopelessly out of reach, despite turning up during a week off at February half-term. But I've never twitched Shetland and was sort of happy to keep it that way. The bird went off the radar after a few weeks but was rediscovered as Easter approached and we were heading north for a family holiday in Speyside which, as all students of Scottish geography know, is just down the road from Lerwick. Suddenly, the Owl seemed do-able, and with a little help from some friends and a wacky races style canter through the various modes of transport which the northern isles have to offer, I managed to catch up with my first new British bird of 2019 on 13th April, returning via the Northlink ferry the following morning and arriving back at the holiday cottage before the rest of my super-tolerant family had finished breakfast.

The Slimbridge Little Bustard, 23rd June: with some imagination, the black and white, 'v-neck' jumper of Slytherin House can be seen

A clear candidate for the @recordshotmyarse Twitter feed

My Brown Booby photos were another candidate for @recordshotmyarse

Note the all dark upperparts and diamond shaped tail...

...and the clear demarcation between dark breast band and white belly

The rest of the spring passed without incident on the rarity front but just as the summer doldrums were due to set in a male Little Bustard at Slimbridge set the pulse racing again. Fortunately it turned up on a Sunday afternoon and as I was out and about birding in Dorset when it was located, I was able to drop everything and head to Slimbridge where the elusive Bustard occasionally lifted its head through the long grass of the Dumbles.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Davidstow Airfield, 7th September

This charming bird rescued an otherwise grim day dipping on Britain's second Brown Booby

A great location for American waders

Chough at Kynance Cove

Marcus and Phil dipping at Kynance Cove

Other Kynance dippers, looking like a routed army from 'Lord of the Rings'

The end of August produced sporadic sightings of Britain's first confirmed sighting of a Brown Booby off St Ives. The bird was seen on alternate days for most of the week, but not on the Friday, but I gambled and went down to Cornwall early on the Saturday morning anyway, reacquainting myself with two of the Shetland team (Messrs Gibbs and Mears) and another pelagic birding pal Anthony Griffiths. When news of the Booby fishing off Gwithian Towans broke that morning, we were too far west down the coast to see it, but scoping the clifftop we could see the car park from where it was being watched. Bundling into the car, some moderately assertive driving saw us arrive just in time to see the bird well offshore heading back to where we had just come from! The bird famously sat on some inshore rocks at St Ives later that day but I arrived minutes too late to enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime (in a British context) views. Although I saw the bird that still felt like a dip!

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Farlington, Hants, 14th September

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

Eastern Olivaceous Warbler

A week later and I returned with Marcus Lawson and Phil Saunders for an actual Brown Booby dip as the second British record at Kynance Cove most unexpectedly did an overnight bunk, scuppering my hopes of improving on my photos from the previous week. Close up views of Cornish-bred Choughs and an obliging Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Davidstow Airfield on the way home saved that particular day.

Paddyfield Pipit, Sennen, 6th November

Sonograms and DNA tests have proven it's a Paddyfield Pipit - but how did it get to Cornwall?

Nice to bump into the talented artist Richard Thewlis again, sketching this bird in the rain 

An extraordinary record and kudos to those with inquiring minds, including my friend James Lowen, who questioned the initial identification, and others who then sussed the true identity

Paddyfield Pipit

September also produced a new bonus bird for Britain close to home when an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler was discovered at Farlington Marshes just over the border in Hampshire. Not the prettiest or the rarest of the megas, but a welcome occurrence nonetheless as I had missed one on Portland a few years ago. I was actually tipped off to its presence before the news broke on the information services in a phone call from Dorset birder Roger Howell. Roger had a friend on site but due to a mis-transcription of the message, the news reached me as an Eastern Orphean Warbler. I was on the way there by the time I realised the error - but would have been happy with either!

An American Buff-bellied Pipit kept company with the Paddyfield Pipit - for a few weeks it was the best stinky field in Britain for rare birds!

Buff-bellied Pipit

My fifth of this species having seen one at Farmoor, two at Staines and one on Shetland previously

Buff-bellied Pipit

Drake Lesser Scaup at Helston boating lake was another bonus on the way home from the Paddyfield Pipit

Despite enjoying several weeks off between jobs during the peak rarity-hunting season of October, I was unable to add to my British list during the month - though November saved the day with the incredible record of a Paddyfield Pipit in Cornwall, a first for Britain if the record is accepted. Assuming so, I will end 2019 having seen 476 species in Britain (BOU) plus what I suppose we must now call a 'Fea's-type' Petrel off Scilly in 2015. That brings a step closer the major milestone of 500 which I ought to reach before retirement. Especially if they keep moving the retirement age up :-).

Tengmalm's Owl - bird of the year for many British birders - including myself

Shetland day 8: Buffy & The Damp Pie Slayer

While we were on Unst on 4th October, news had broken of an American Buff-bellied Pipit back at Grutness on the Mainland. On the morning of the 5th, after a mooch around Hoswick, we headed there for probably the closest and most extended views of any of the rare birds seen during our nine day stay. All the while Shetland entertained us with its unfamiliar place names, and we amused ourselves with word play around them when the birding was quiet. We checked out gardens at Gardins, got Parrot Crossbills at Gott, an Otter at Gutcher and nothing at Noness.

Here's Buffy: the American Buff-bellied Pipit at Grutness...

...and here's the Damp Pie Slayer: Howard at Gott. If the marketing folks at Swarovski Optic, or indeed the Scalloway Meat Company, would like to feature this guy modelling their wares, please contact me to discuss my commission.

The Pipit was sheltering from the strong winds in the lee of a low wall against which we were leaning

'Dark legs my arse' said a gruff voice beside me. It was Bob, passing a caustic comment on the Collins Guide description of Buff-bellied Pipit in winter plumage

We enjoyed amazing views down to about six feet

The settlement of Gord, of which there were two, provided particularly good value: every time we approached we had found Gord; every time we left we had forsaken Gord. When we stumbled across the second one we concluded that Gord moved in mysterious ways, and wondered how we would break the news to the devout that there was more than one true Gord. The pun-making threatened to get out of hand at times, and the less said about the anagram competition based on the 'Cunningsburgh Rustic Bunting', the better (we failed to see that bird on three occasions).

For those who like that sort of thing, the next few photos highlight some identification features as per Van Duivendijk: grey-brown upperparts with only faint streaking...

...complete pale eye-ring, pale lore and distinct supercilium

Centre of tertials and tail-feathers very dark and contrasting with rest of upperparts

Slender, Meadow Pipit-like bill

Breast well-marked with short, well-defined streaks

At a more culturally sensitive level, evocative names like Veensgarth and Halligarth were a reminder of Shetland's Old Norse heritage, while from more recent history, other road signs conjured up images of famous rarities which had graced the islands: the Levenwick Siberian Rubythroat, the Baltasound Cape May Warbler and of course the Uyaesound Siberian Thrush, co-found by my travelling companions the previous year.

One of the best birds seen in our nine day stay on Shetland

Snow Bunting at Sumburgh Head

Like the Pipit, the Bunting was being buffeted by strong winds



Snow Bunting against the dry stone walls of Sumburgh Head

After a couple of sessions watching the Buff-bellied Pipit at point blank range, we headed up to Sumburgh Head again where a Snow Bunting had been reported. A gale was seriously ruffling the feathers of this skittish bird, but we managed to photograph it from the car window. After a scan of the waders at Pool of Virkie, we ended another rewarding day with a trio of Slavonian Grebes at Boddam, home of the Pink Panther (Boddam. Boddam. Boddam, Boddam, Boddam, Boddam, Bodd-aaaaaaam-diddle-diddle-dam...).

Curlew at Sumburgh Head

Shag at Grutness

Slavonian Grebe - one of three at Boddam

The famous Sumburgh Head lighthouse

Buffy meets Reservoir Dogs?

After success yesterday morning with the Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll in Suffolk, it would have been rude not to call in to see the American Buff-bellied Pipit at the Queen Mother Reservoir in Berkshire on the way back to Dorset. In my experience, this species' preferred habitat in Britain is the mossy margins of dirty great man-made water bodies (the first I saw was at Farmoor in Oxfordshire). It was a very worthwhile detour as for the second time in a day I had a stunning views of a rare bird in front of me which was too close for the lens to focus. The light wasn't as kind as the Suffolk sunrise I enjoyed earlier, and many blurry shots of this very active bird were confined to the recycle bin before I found these. I could have stayed longer but with the brownie point jar having been not just raided but positively smashed on the floor for twitchers' widows and their orphans to slash their little feet on, I beat a retreat just as lumps of rain started fallen from the leaden skies around Heathrow.