Paxton Pits

Down Cambridge way for business I tagged along with the girlfriend so that we could make a day out of it, including a saunter around Paxton Pits Nature Reserve, with a number of target birds in mind. Number one was the Paxton speciality, Nightingale, indeed the reserve is probably the best place for them in Britain with 20+ calling males already arrived.

During our last visit there late in the season the birds were only shrieking the occasional alarm call and my girlfriend felt rather disappointed, not really understanding the acclaim of the Nightingale. This time I'm pleased to say they were in fantastic voice, just listen to the video (below). Best visual sighting was the occasions when a fairly small brown bird flew away from the bushes and the song stopped.

Other best birds of the day were the 4 Hobby that passed above, hawking for insects at high altitude for a while in the early afternoon, and my first Garden Warbler of the year [#150]. Attracted first by the Blackcap-like-call that doesn't quite sound right, it is really difficult to impress anybody who hasn't seen one just how plain they look. Speaks a lot that the most significant marking on the dull brown bird is a dull grey patch behind the ear. Other warblers showed well too, Reed, Sedge and Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat too.

Paxton also has a very large Cormorant colony, 160 pairs so I'm told.

On the way back up the A1 a brief detour to Rutland and a pull in on the A6003 that overlooks the Osprey nest in Manton Bay, where we saw the male bring in a late fish supper.
That pair are now incubating eggs which is great news, particularly since neither has bred before.

Video 1 - Nightingale Singing (rather than showing!)

Norfolk Trip Part Six: Holkham and Home

Tuesday had come and the long journey home beckoned. There was just enough time to cram in Holkham NNR, where I could get in a little birding and she could enjoy the beach. From the one hide I visited there was a wide open view across the marshland, out there were plenty more Greylag, a two pairs of Pintails, more Black-tailed Godwit, Lapwing etc. In the hide a couple of the locals were excited by a Ruddy Duck, honestly they could have ours from Notts if they want them. A few Avocet poked around the marsh too, and in the distance a handful of Little Egret flew by.
Without doubt the best bird might almost have been dismissed as yet another distant Egret flying across, made sense to check though when I observed the outstretched neck and broad bill. It was a Spoonbill!
After alerting the rest of the hide one of the local birders told me an individual Spoonbill had been seen on and off for a while now, and generally hung around the Heronry out to the west where it made rudimentary efforts at building a nest. Also several pairs of Egret up there I was told.
Out on the beach meanwhile the passage of Swallows grew throughout the day.


Back into the car and half-way home we stopped at Milton Country Park for the last half hour of daylight. It was here we saw three woodland species, Blackcap, Greater Spotted and Green Woodpecker that brought the species count for the trip up to an even 100.
Unspoken target achieved, just.

So that was our big Norfolk trip, the county really is as good for birds as all the guides say.

Another wild bird chase...

First of all let me say I am NOT a twitcher, work had dragged my partner down to Cambridgeshire and I hitched along for the ride in hopes of maybe ticking off a very special bird indeed - an inland Leach's Storm Petrel.

The story is covered here by timesonline, but briefly speaking the terrible and persistent southerly gales Britain has suffered in the past week have brought north great numbers of Leach's Storm Petrel that would otherwise be safely wintering in calmer, warmer areas of the Atlantic.
Most are turning up on the south and west coasts, areas like Morecambe and Cardiff Bay, but others are being blown further inland. Areas like Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, even London. So if you've been at all nearby a recorded sighting, it's a chance not to be missed.

Alas, according to birdguides.com, the petrels had either gone or all died by the time we arrived at Grafham Water (where they'd been well reported earlier in the day), all there was were us and several other wet and disappointed birders. At least there is some solace in not seeing a species that wasn't there, rather than not seeing one that was.
The best bird of the day, a couple of flattered Goldeneye probably wondering what all the fuss was about.

Much worse luck for the petrels of course, once inland they seem terminally doomed. Even if they find a large body of water, it's fresh water and there just isn't the marine food for birds already tired, cold and wind battered. Sad really.

The gales still blow, so there's still a chance they could turn up almost anywhere in the UK.
This might be a once in ten or twenty year event.