Building the bike list in 2024: the story so far

My plan, hatched in January, to concentrate this year on new birds for the non-motorised life list (as opposed to yearlisting) has one significant limitation - namely, the appearance of birds which I haven't already seen. With the list standing at 267 species at the end of 2023, most of the 'easy' stuff, quite a few minor rarities and even a couple of 'megas' were already on the list, and the options obviously narrow with each new species seen. The first sniff of a new bird in 2024 - a Little Bunting at East Morden on 4th February - evaporated no sooner than it had been discovered, and I had to wait almost until the middle of that month for the opportunity to get to 268. 

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

The target was a Red-breasted Goose on the Hampshire coast at the Keyhaven/Pennington complex of coastal lagoons. I was therefore up bright and early on the 10th to take advantage of a reasonable forecast for the 35 mile trek to the east. Despite most of it being on tarmac I thought the new mountain bike would be a good option to negotiate the sand covered stretches of Bournemouth seafront and the gravel tracks of Keyhaven, and it did indeed perform pretty well on both without being too sluggish on the roads.

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

With tubeless tyres the risk of punctures was negligible, and the ability to raise and drop the saddle from a lever on the handlebars - a new feature to me which I thought at first would be a gimmick but which has turned out to be a game-changer - meant that I travelled in comfort as well as style. The omens were good with reports of the Goose being present on Normandy Lagoon coming through as I headed along the coast. Although this meant a couple of extra miles would be added to the journey to get to the eastern end of the complex of lagoons, the main thing was that the bird was there, and it gave excellent views as soon as I arrived. 

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose, Normandy Lagoon, 10th February

Red-breasted Goose is one of my favourite species, and this individual performed wonderfully, showing aggression towards nearby Brents, and eventually giving a close fly-past before heading west. This was my cue to head home, but not before adding Eider, Spoonbill, Ruff and a smart drake Scaup to the non-motorised year list. It would be difficult for the rest of February to top that experience, but it came close on 24th when news of a Yellow-browed Warbler in Dorchester broke sufficiently early in the day for me to complete the 34 mile round trip, adding a bonus Redpoll to the year list at Thorncombe Wood on the way home. The Warbler was not a bike tick, as I saw this species on a long trip to Bridport in 2022, but still a good bird this early in the year.

Pintail, Pennington Marshes, 10th February

Scaup (drake), Pennington Marshes, 10th February

Wigeon, Pennington Marshes, 10th February

Yellow-browed Warbler, Dorchester, 24th February

Redpoll, Thorncombe Wood, 24th February

It was another two months before the next opportunity for a 'bike tick' arose and it felt high risk: on the evening of Friday 19th April a Marsh Sandpiper was located on exactly the same lagoon as the Red-breasted Goose - but would it be there in the morning? I gambled, setting off early the next morning, and, re-tracing my steps from February's trip, was again pleased when news of the bird's continuing presence was reported as I made my way along Bournemouth seafront. My photographs weren't brilliant looking into the low morning sun, but telescope views of this delicate wader - the first of this species I had seen in 20 years - were very good.

Marsh Sandpiper, Normandy Lagoon, 20th April

Marsh Sandpiper, Normandy Lagoon, 20th April

Marsh Sandpiper, Normandy Lagoon, 20th April

The next opportunity to add to the bike list came with the start of passage of Pomarine Skuas past Dorset's coastal headlands in late April and early May. I've done plenty of seawatching on bike trips to Portland Bill over the last few years but have not managed to connect with this species so made a plan to head for Portland on Saturday 4th May - peak Pom season in theory. It felt like a really early start would be advisable to get in position at the Bill, so I set off in the dark at around 0400, flushing a Tawny Owl from the roadside just outside of Wareham. It got light much earlier than I anticipated and I started to wonder if I should have left even earlier. 

Avocet, Pennington, 20th April

Eider pair off Normandy Lagoon, 20th April

Great Crested Grebe, Pennington, 20th April

Rolling along the cycle path at Ferrybridge I passed Debbie and Pete Saunders but didn't stop to ask if they'd seen anything. I immediately regretted this and remembered that they post sightings on the Bluesky app so quickly checked it out. At the top of my feed was a post from Joe Stockwell: 'Dark morph Pom Skua slowly east off the Chesil'. The post was timed just after 0600 - and it was just after 0600! I had Joe's number in my phone and called immediately - it turned out that I had already overshot his position on Chesil Beach with Paul Harris, as I was already near the skate park at the southern end of that stretch. Retracing my steps would surely mean missing the bird and urgency was added when Joe reported that a second Pom was now in view.

I know I've cycled a long way when I can see the Isle of Wight ferry - 35 miles from home

Greenshank at Baiter Park on the way to the Marsh Sandpiper

The Needles from Pennington Marshes, 20th April

Following Joe's advice I headed up onto the the crest of Chesil Beach at the earliest opportunity - easier said than done as the heavily laden bike sank into the shingle and my body, tired from the early start and the 22 miles already on the clock, was quickly exhausted. Once there, telescope, tripod and binoculars had to be retrieved from panniers, assembled and de-steamed before I could start scanning the distant horizon. No Poms were in view but after another call to Joe who described their location relative to a distant buoy, their position was soon triangulated and I was treated to the glorious sight of a pale and a dark morph Pom, both sporting ridiculously long, spoon-shaped tail feathers, floating slowly towards, and eventually beyond, Portland's west cliffs.

Lesser Whitethroat at Stanpit on the way home from the Marsh Sandpiper

Wheatear at Stanpit, 20th April

Wheatear at Stanpit, 20th April

After this triumphant start to the day, I pressed on the the Bill, sure that even more Poms would filter past. As I approached Culverwell I could hear an unfamiliar warbler song and tuning in eventually concluded it was probably a Subalpine Warbler. A poor signal led to a garbled phone call to Martin Cade but before I could try again a ringer pulled up and confirmed that I was right to suspect I could hear a Subalp - but wrong to think it was coming from a bird as it was in fact coming from one of his tapes! 

The Poms were too far out to photograph and this Arctic Skua wasn't much closer (Portland Bill, 4th May)

My second sighting of Common Dolphin off the Bill (4th May)

Another good bird distantly off the Bill - Puffin (4th May)

I was not best pleased, particularly as this was wasting valuable seawatching time, but when I finally got to the Bill there wasn't much to write home about: a couple of Arctic Skua and a lone Puffin were the highlights of the next few hours staring at the ocean. I started the long journey home but not before a quick look in the Observatory garden for a reported Spotted Flycatcher. The Flycatcher didn't show but the ringers redeemed themselves by pulling a stunning male Hawfinch out of a net. This was a huge bonus on top of the Poms especially as it will save me contemplating a long, cold trip to a New Forest roost site come the winter.

Bar-tailed and Black-tailed Godwits, Lodmoor, 4th May

Hawfinch, Portland Obs, 4th May

Hawfinch (male), Portland Bill, 4th May

Three new birds for the non-motorised list at the mid-point of the year then - let's see what the autumn brings.

 

Shetland day 4: D-I-V-O-R-C-E

Day 4, like day 3, dawned bright and not very breezy - a rare treat in these parts two days running - so we started with a thrash around our temporary home patch at Hoswick. A nice selection of common migrants were seen, and Jono took one for the team by putting up a Jack Snipe at the price of falling balls-deep into rancid mud. As he returned to the house to clean up, I managed to locate another Jack Snipe bobbing in the sunshine in the incongruous setting of a field full of Aylesbury type white ducks. As we watched it we chatted with Claire and Nick Oliver, who had just arrived on Shetland and were staying nearby, before re-grouping at the house and heading off in the car.

Black Guillemot, Toft

Black Guillemot, Toft

Before we got far reports started to come through of a Lanceolated Warbler on Unst. This was my nightmare scenario: a species notorious for being misidentified on Shetland, on an island two ferry rides away, which the other three in the team had already seen and would thus be less inclined to take a punt on. Any potential tension over this predicament soon dissipated however, when Claire and Nick offered a lift to Unst to anyone wanting to go for the Lancy. 

Spotted Flycatcher, Hoswick

Jack Snipe, Hoswick

I really didn't want to leave the team, but Lancy was high on my 'most wanted' list, and after two previous Shetland trips without success, I felt I had to go for it. So we arranged to meet the Olivers in a lay-by and initiated divorce proceedings. There was no bitterness or acrimony as the paperwork went through, in fact it was all very civilised. But I'm sure I saw a tear in one of the team's eyes as I popped my satchel into the leather back-seats of my adopted folks' Range Rover. Perhaps in hindsight it was just jealousy at the fancier ride I was hitching, but I like to think not.

A poor year for Yellow-browed Warblers on Shetland - and this shocker at Gutcher was the only photo I managed!

And speaking of shocking photos, this one of the Ring-necked Duck on Yell made the other members of the BBT team extremely jealous 

The report of the Lancy sounded pretty definitive, but I had learnt from previous bitter experience that such reports could quickly evaporate as a result of misidentification. Memories resurfaced of one particularly grim scenario in a rain-swept Quendale with birders chasing a 'Lancy' around which turned out to be a very wet Chiffchaff. As we boarded the first ferry from Mainland to Yell, news came through that the bird hadn't been seen since the original report - not great, but not terrible either as this ground-dwelling species could easily go missing for such a time. We were then approached by another birder, Phil, who couldn't get a space on the ferry from Yell to Unst, so joined our make-shift crew in the hope that the Lancy would reappear.

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

We had a few minutes to spare before catching the Yell-Unst ferry, enough to stop by a loch on the main drag to tick a distant Ring-necked Duck. But just as we were about to board the ferry, the worst case scenario unfolded: news reached us that the 'Lancy' had been reidentified as the much commoner Grasshopper Warbler. 

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

My eye started to twitch like Herbert Lom in the Pink Panther films at this point, but we quickly concluded that we had passed the point of no return and pressed on to Unst. We didn't even bother to seek out the Gropper site and headed straight for a quarry at Quoys where a Bluethroat had been reported. An hour's kicking around produced nothing and then Phil managed to deduce that the dropped pin we had made for based on the Birdguides app had been dropped in the wrong place, and we were looking in the wrong quarry!

Bluethroat, Quoys

Bluethroat, Quoys

Heading a mile back down the road we quickly found the correct spot and within minutes had located the Bluethroat. This normally shy species first appeared at the back of the quarry hopping around a rusty manger, but then to our surprise and delight it started to head in our direction, and kept coming until it was barely a few metres away. A characterful bird, it completely saved the day with such a performance, and significantly lifted our spirits for the rest of the trip to Unst. 

Little Bunting, Gutcher

Little Bunting, Gutcher

On the way over whilst waiting for the Yell-Unst ferry we had seen a Yellow-browed Warbler in the last garden before the slipway, but were unable to locate a Little Bunting being looked for by Yell resident Adrian Kettle. On the way back Adrian was still staking out the same garden and got us onto the Little Bunting with plenty of time to get the final ferry of the day back from Yell to Mainland. 

In the meantime I had, of course, missed a belter of a day with BBT. Bradders had found a Radde's Warbler at Kergord, and Jono had picked up an adult White-billed Diver at South Nesting, plugging the gap on his trip list as he was absent when we saw one on the Northumberland coast on the way north. The Olivers were keen to catch up with at least one of these before dusk so we headed for the Radde's and managed fleeting views as it skulked in the long grass.

We returned to Hoswick and I was reunited with the rest of the team just before the decree nisi was pronounced. We patched things up over dinner and agreed never to speak of my unfaithfulness again. As for the Lancy, well that goes into the 'good reasons to keep going back to Shetland in Autumn' category for another year... 

 

Shetland: part the second

To say there have been complaints about the absence of fresh content in this space would be overstating it. But a few loyal readers have passed comment to this effect, so I have been stung into action by these gluttons for punishment. And where better to resume than with a follow-up to the almost popular Shetland: part the first post.

River Warbler on Unst

Probably the bird of the trip, and only my second in the UK

After proving initially skulky, it eventually gave us extended views

In this post I will canter through the rarity highlights. The first couple of days had produced very little on this front but the discovery of a River Warbler in a small iris bed on Unst changed things. We arrived at the site to find what would become a familiar Shetland scene that week: sheeting rain and no sign of the sought after bird! Both problems were fleeting though and within a short while we had enjoyed good views of this ultimate skulker as it walked between stands of iris. Returning later in the day in better weather we enjoyed extended views and photo opportunities as it bathed lower down the burn. A summer plumaged American Golden Plover was a bonus on our first visit to Unst, and our only rare wader of the trip.


Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Unst

A very grey and white individual with just a hint of a buffy chin and vent

An elongated hindclaw is a feature of Eastern Yellow Wagtail

During the middle of the week Shetland went wagtail crazy - first turning up a presumed Eastern Yellow Wagtail on Unst (consolation for dipping a Pechora Pipit, the less said about which the better). This was a tick for all of us since the split from common or garden Yellow Wagtail. The monochrome vagrant looked and sounded the part, and turned up at a place, at a time of year and with avian company which suggested an eastern origin, though it remains to be seen whether it passes muster with the rarities committee.

Citrine Wagtail, Bressay

An approachable individual

Note the complete white ear-surrounds

Having made a couple of long-distance excursions to Unst earlier in the week, on the Thursday of our stay we elected for a shorter island hop to Bressay, where a Citrine Wagtail had reportedly been showing well. We couldn't have known just how well: after a careful approach it walked towards us for a remarkably close encounter.

Common Rosefinch, Mainland

Barred Warbler, Mainland

American Golden Plover, Unst

Other minor rarities kept us entertained - a few Barred Warblers, including the one pictured here, found at Busta House Hotel by our own Bradders, a Marsh Warbler at Sumburgh and a Common Rosefinch on a mainland beach. Remarkably, Yellow-browed Warblers were notable by their absence, and we scraped just a handful in contrast to the daily sightings of the previous year.

Marsh Warbler, Sumburgh Quarry

Yellow-browed Warbler, Unst

Yellow-browed Warbler, Unst

Not a bumper year by Shetland's high standards, perhaps, but some quality all the same. I can probably wrap up Shetland in just one more post - so come back soon(ish) for the final instalment.