Back out again at last!

Well after a trip to Wales in late March for 3 days  & then a m10 day tour in Extremadura, most of early April disappeared without a chance to cycle or post anything! I did sneak out on the 22nd March - a lovely Red Kite (105) from an unmentionable location!


Earlier in the week the first returning Swallow (106) graced out television aerial.


Anyway a steady bike ride this morning produced a host of summer arrivals! The first was Willow Warbler (107), the next was less than expected as I have been on the coast all week without hearing or seeing a Lesser Whitethroat (108), but the first of the year was singing from hedgerow as we cycled along the lanes not far from home. At Guist the  Marsh Harriers are back & I am pleased to say look as though they are nesting again this year. Also here - 2 House Martin (109), plus Cuckoo (110), several Blackcap (111) & 2 Whitethroat (112) were then noted.

You know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools, but that's the way I like it baby, I DON'T WANNA LIVE FOREVER!

In the absence of my email at the moment (bloody server) I shall heretoforth and henceunder say - FUCK ME! MAI PO ROCKS! (Sounds a bit like "Hanoi Rocks", don't it?)


We've just had two days at the mother of all wader spots - utterly, utterly unreal - Black-faced Spoonbill, Saunders's Gull and 36 species of wader: highlights being - Nordmann's Greenshank, Asiatic Dowitcher (plenty), Great Knot, Mongolian, Lesser and Greater Sandplovers, Tereks, BBSands, gazzilions of Red-necked Stints and Curlew Sands, Long-toed Stints, Marsh Sands by the bucketload, Oriental Prat, Tringas of all types by the shedload and......drum roll....after apocalyptic thunderstorms flooded out the mudflats just after high tide (so the "tide" actually rose again!), and the whole wader flock stayed close in for about three hours longer than they were supposed to....another drum roll....THE ACE OF SPADES! I have offically now soiled my pants - a nearly summer-plumaged adult Spoonie did its thing for us for a full hour in front of the northernmost floating hide - unbe-effing-lievable.....!

Here's the actual boy (not my photo):

What a moment - what a bird. How many people get to see the "holy trinity" of mega rare Asiatic waders in one day, in one place, plus Saunders's Gull, BFSpooner and all the rest. Unbelievable. And we also ticked Annika Forsten in the hide with us. Great days, mates......

Humdrum

Despite a slew of Arctic Terns at inland sites around England earlier today, the best a lunchtime stroll round the Nunnery Lakes produced was a chuntering Reed Warbler (125). Cuckoo in the morning, then?!

Edit: Just shamelessly twitched a Whitethroat (126) during coffee break - partly because I was annoyed that John Marchant and I managed to walk past it at lunch time, mainly to take away the sickening taste left by the following message on the local bird forum:

One Arctic Tern at Livermere c1400 but chased off by BH Gulls & flew North. [Or in other words, right over the Nunnery Lakes, approx. 30 mins after we got back to our desks?!]

Percentage of target to date - 81%

Distance cycled - 235.2mls / 378.5km

Latest addition - Whitethroat (126) 17 April

Black and white minstrel…

... was a pretty appropriate prize for 150, which I spent 20 minutes with in the MPGs on Sunday evening. Three others have turned up in the UAE today, so this was the first of a reasonable arrival. This was Steve’s payback for last week’s Cinereous Bunting; I had initially missed it by 40m, being distracted by a nasty female wheatear on the Heli fence, which see. Otherwise, no major developments but my second Blackcap of the spring, Barred Warbler singing and a new Masked Shrike found today were all reasonable enough. There was a count of 100 Turkestan Shrikes at one site on the East Coast yesterday; no reflection of that over here on the Gulf side with just 6 today for me, including one rather awkward one that stuck about for photos.

OSCAR

Total so far - 150 (85%)

Last addition – Semi-collared Flycatcher (15^th April)

Finally...

Back in the land of the non-motorised, things are finally showing signs of picking up: A couple of House Martin (122) with 30-odd Swallow (123) over the Nunnery Lakes in a biting Northerly yesterday, and despite a sharp frost, a Sedge Warbler (124) singing away this morning.

To illustrate just how slow/late things have been this year, my 2011 Nunnery / Nunnery Lakes list hit 107 on 12 April; this year I'm on just 96 for these 2 sites as of today.

My Nunnery / Nunnery Lakes species accummulation during the TEAL Cup

Missed a Peregrine over the Lakes yesterday - that's one of 5 motorised-only species in my circle this year that are yet to fall to the only list that matters, the others being Marsh Harrier [fair chance], Merlin [tough], Golden Plover [fair chance] and Green Sandpiper [straightforward].

Percentage of target to date - 80%

Distance cycled - 235.2mls / 378.5km

Latest addition - Sedge Warbler (124)

On fire

The good thing about going migrant-hunting for a week and seeing very little is that (a) you become disproportionately grateful for even small mercies (Golden-backed Weaver; still feel a bit guilty about that one – probably should only count for 0.5) let along big ones (Cinereous Bunting) and (b) your internal Geiger counter becomes very sensitive to even the smallest fluctuation in background noise. Hence suddenly 6 Isabelline Wheatears and 5 Ortolans on Friday morning, after none all week and backed up by the first decent Yellow Wagtail gang of the spring (including one lutea) really piqued my interest. I was even more intrigued on getting up at 0530 on the Saturday morning to find puddles everywhere and lots of grey cloud with a fresh easterly blowing up from nowhere. An hour later a beachhead had been established on Lulu and by 0700 I had reached a total of, er, 3 migrants. However, the third was a female White-throated Robin, a species which should really should be worth two, especially the delectable creamy male at 12 feet which I had located by 0900. With my first ever April Hypocolius appearing in between, this was looking like it could turn into a good day.  Indeed it did with other good scores including 6 Rock Thrush, 10 Turkestan Shrikes, 2 Masked  Shrikes, 2 Barred Warblers and 10 wheatears of 3 species. The apogee (probably of the year…) came as I enjoyed a swarm of European Bee-eaters and Swallows circling against the skyscrapers of the corniche as they were backing up at the north-east end of the Island. They were clearly wondering what to do next  and daring one another to make the hop across the channel when a male Pallid Harrier, having no doubts, sailed straight through and showed them the way. This was an Abu Dhabi first for me and a very rare local example of a monster raptor located purposefully migrating across the island and onwards. Knowing I was in the money, I stopped at a few places on the way back, adding, amongst a fair drizzling of other stuff, a bang-on-time Common Nightingale for the year alongside my earliest ever Spotted Flycatcher (albeit by only two days; first date has been 16^th-21^st April for the last 5 years). The sixth stomp of the golf course in 7 days produced another island first for me, in the form of Richard’s Pipit that let me nail it just before it was booted into a touch by golf cart. A very handy comparison after the wintering Blyth’s Pipit that I saw again yesterday and a great year to choose to finally pitch up in. Yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaa…

OSCAR

Total so far - 149 (85%)

Last addition – Richard’s Pipit (14^th April)

Daylight grippery

Let me take you through a sorry sequence of events:

11 April

0853 - My train arrives back in Thetford

0910 - I plunge into the murky delights that are the Little Ouse near the town centre in a futile attempt to rescue a drake Goosander with copious amounts of discarded fishing line (and float!) in its beak

0930 - I arrive in work, pleased to find that the BTO staff sightings list is devoid of grippage from my week-long absence

1245 - First post-holiday walk down to the flood / meadow on 'my' side of the Nunnery Lakes reserve to check for waders and Ring Ouzel (several of latter on the coast today)

1508 - BirdGuides reports 2 Ring Ouzels at a site we'll call Fort Knox Heath (barred wire, electric fence, multiple 'Get off my laaaand' signs, double-yellows, CCTV(!) and on yesterday evening's motorised reccy, a copper!!)

1930 - No sign of Ring Ouzel(s) - apparently chased off by a Missile Thrush at 1745 - and decision made that it just isn't worth cycling into oblivion on the A11 in the Thursday morning rush hour (a combination that would make cycling in Abu Dhabi look like a gentle stroll in the Mushref Palace Gardens, as I'm sure Oscar will concede)

12 April

0618 - A colleague's husband finds Whimbrel on afore-mentioned flood, 620m from my front door

0740 - My alarm goes off, and a text message alerts me to the above

0746 - No sign of Whimbrel

0903 - Open my email to find:

"Two Whimbrel north calling, over housing estate immediately east of Barnham Cross Common at 06.43, presumably having just left the flood." That'll be the housing estate where my house is, then.

Percentage of target to date - 78%

Distance cycled - 235.2mls / 378.5km

Latest addition - Willow Warbler (121) 1 Apr (NOT Whimbrel, as it would be if life was fair)