12/01/2025 Ross Back Sands, Northumberland

American Buff-bellied Pipit: Over the last few days the North East has been on fire, with a showy Ross's gull, white-billed diver and the returning grey-headed lapwing and although I only need the gull we made plans to head over for Sunday. Unfortunately all these birds did a bunk before we arrived, but a very nice consolation prise was the ABBP.

I've not seen one since the Wirral bird in 2014,  and after being relocated by Wayne Glossip I saw the bird lurking behind the saltmasrh vegetation. The head pattern shouted at me with it's completely pale cream coloured lores which reached a level well above the upper mandible and indeed bridged it completely. 

A prominent cream supercilium reached back above the eye, which was itself surrounded by a broad, unbroken cream eye ring.

Despite the Ross's gull not doing the right thing and making another appearance, we had a cracking day our with some cracking company. 
 

27/12/2024 Kent

American Yellow Warbler: This was one of the most sensational birding days I have experienced. After having to wait over Christmas and Boxing day in order to go down for the yellow warbler I wasn't expecting much. As time went on the bird became more elusive and appeared to change it routine.

For the first couple of days the bird was doing a circuit, favouring some mature alder trees on the opposite side of a ditch that backs onto a sewage works.  When the bird appears in these trees it would often forage for prolonged periods. I left at 3am, picking Kris Wade and Paul Baker up enroute and arrived at New Hythe which was shrouded in thick fog.

 

The bird kept us waiting almost 5 hours before it made an appearance, and when it did finally show itself, Kris and I decided that would be a good time to nip to Tesco for some food.  We were gutted, a rookie move. Feeling sheepish we reentered the crowed of happy birders hoping we wouldn't be the only two within the 200 plus string crowed who hadn't seen the bird.

Eurasian Scops Owl: We didn't have to wait long before the warbler reappeared and put on the best show it ha done over the whole time it had been here. Kris and I were relieved to say the least, and thrilled to have seen it at such close close quarters.

Earlier in the day an unexpected report of a scops owl was spread through grapevine. Having seen the 2017 durham bird I didn't give it much thought but when we left New Hythe we decided to give it a go as Kris needed it. 

It was only an hour away and again once we arrived at Broadstairs, near Ramsgate we were greeted with thick fog once again. 

A crowed of birders gathered in the gloom as the sun set and after a short, cold wait the owl was found using thermal imagers. Scops owls are rare visitors to the UK, but they are sometimes spotted in the Spring and Autumn and are more common in southern Europe. These tiny owls migrates south of the Sahara, making it the only European owl to do so regularly. Two qauity birds to end the birding year on.

21/12/2024 Southport, Merseyside

Snow Bunting: Now an annal visitor to this stretch of Southport beach I couldn't resist a morning visit just after the high hinds and while Dawn have the baby for the day giving me some free time. 

Snow bunts are cracking little birds, often on the whole they aren't camera or person shy so if you approach slowly and carefully you can get pretty close to them. 

The area of beach it favours is south of the pier, opposite the cinema and retail park feeding close to the sea wall and strand line. 

Snow buntings are predominantly a winter visitor to Britain and Ireland although a tiny breeding population remains amongst snow fields on the highest peaks in Scotland. 

They do disperse and can be found regularly along the north west coast. 

18/12/2024 Moses Gate Country Park, Bolton

Caspian gull: I finally caught up with the long staying 1st winter Caspo which has been showing particularly well on the main lake.

Having dipped this bird a few days earlier with Kris Wade I gave myself a bit more time today to wait for the bird to make appearance. 

This time I waited around an hour before the bird appeared on the grass bank beside the lake, standing out like a bright white beacon amongst the slightly darker juvenile herring gulls. 

Typically they the head is proportionately quite small and pear-shaped, showing the characteristic sloping forehead, which is further enhanced by the long and slim bill. 

They have a high proud chest extending on to a rounded belly that is white with a white head. Tricky birds to connect with and often overlooked. 

19/10/2024 Flamborough, East Riding of Yorkshire

Pallas's Leaf Warbler: I've been looking forward to a some twitching all week, It's been a busy week of site work and I panned a trip back to  the East Riding of Yorkshire for some rare eastern birds with Kris Wade and Marcus Workman.

We arrived at Flamborough and was greeted with some persistent rain, but things soon brightened up with one of the showiest Pallas's warblers I've had the advantage to watch. The bird was furiously feeding in the bushes next to the lighthouse. 

These are great little birds, they are smaller than their yellow-browed leaf warbler cousins, perhaps the about the size of a goldcrest. With distinctive markings include two pale wing stripes, bright yellow rump, orange-yellow eye-stripe and pale yellowish stripe on cap.

They breed all way way over in Southern Siberia, with some populations breeding in areas to Finland are around the Altai Mountains. 

Black Redstart: This smart looking black red that was feeding on the lawns within the lighthouse garden was also a nice bonus, but we dipped the Radde's warbler.

We then made our way down to Bempton and was given the run around by the red-flanked bluetail before it gave up and showed itself. 

Red-flanked Bluetail: The blue tail was very active and going missing for long periods as it ranged between the 'dell' and the small coppice within the car park, the same area the pale-legged was that I saw a few weeks back. 

Great day out lads, really enjoyed it. 

13/10/2024 WWT Martin Mere, Burscough, Lancs

Snow Goose: I found myself with a free day, as Dawn took Autumn to her sisters for the day so I decided to spend the morning at Martin Mere and see if the snow goose I saw the previous weekend was showing any better today.

They are native to North America and are rare vagrants to the UK, but also a frequent escapee from waterfowl collections. There is a feral breeding population of snow geese also, thought to be around 100 pairs. 

Although these feral flocks are typically found on the Inner Hebrides and other smaller feral flocks in Norfolk and Hampshire. Any snow geese that  are usually considered to be genuine ‘wild’ birds are those occurring with carrier flocks of Greenland white-fronted geese in northwest, Scotland and Ireland. Yeah, so I think the fact it’s associating with greylags does it no favours. But who knows?

Lapwing: I spent a few hours in the hide overlooking the mere, watching c40 whooper swans many showing really close to the hide, honking and whooping at each other. 

 

In the fields surround the mere and flocking overhead where c2000 pink-footed geese were sighted and there were c150 greylag goose keeping the snow goose company on the mere too.

It was a really pleasant way to spend the morning, not only with the Autumnal flocks of wildfowl but with the company of Marcus and his dad Dave Owen. Good to catch up lads. 

Western The Kazakhstan, May 2024

Back in May I was given the opportunity to embark upon a work trip to survey for birds in Central Asia's largest country, Kazakhstan. This was a real privilege to work on a special project that has given me the experience of a life time. I was complied by Alex Poole colleague at WSP and a top bloke and a top ecologist, despite being a Villa fan. 

On reflection the one thing that was most notable about the trip was the difference in habitat types and how vast and distinct they were, so I thought I would lay this blog post out by each classification of habitat and the species observed within each one.

Steppe Eagle: TThis Kazakhstan Steppe is such an incredible sight spanning the horizon like the grasslands of Africa or the prairies  of North America. However, here they aredominated by  Boehmer's cat's-tail, narrow-leaved meadow-grass, northern bedstraw, lupine clover, tuberous Jerusalem sage, and Artemisia latifolia. 

The Steppe eagle is entirely migratory, probably migrating in greater numbers than any other Eagle in the world. Autumn migrations take the raptors to wintering grounds in nearby Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but also as far away as India, Africa, and the Middle East. The birds start to return to their breeding grounds in February. Many studies corroborate that Steppe eagles generally migrate lesser distances as they age.

Long-legged Buzzard: I was surprised how green the Steppe actually was, doing the research and looking at google maps and arial imagery the whole of this area looked bleak, brown, dry and uninspiring. 

Demoiselle Crane: One of my main target birds I was really hoping to see, was the Demoiselle crane. We had a trio fly low over the road one morning and landed in the field with about a dozen or so other birds, not far from the our car it gave us a really good opportunity to see them up close. 

Found primarily in open spaces with a wide range of visibility, there can be found living in upland areas, unlike most other cranes which can be found in wetland habitat. This crane species enjoys space and solitude, therefore their habitats vary from semi-arid savannas, grasslands, and Steppes, to high plateaus.

Black Kite:  We traveled further into the Steep looking for bustards and sand grouse spotting more Steppe eagles, white-winged larks, cranes and bee-eaters.

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Tawny Pipit: There are not that many pipit species at this time of year on the Steppe so the only one we saw while while out surveying was the Tawny.

White-winged Lark: Along our survey route we found a large reservoir with ands we thought we would pull over and take look, hoping to find some waders. Instead we had a flock of European bee-eaters flying through. 

Black Lark: These striking large larks are one of the iconic birds of the steppes of Kazakhstan they are found in grassy steppe, particularly in areas interspersed with scattered shrubbery or wet patches. 

It was Alex who first spotted one of the trip in a wet area that we were scanning for waders and sandgrouse. The birds were pretty flighty and wasn't allowing us to approach too close.

Marsh Harrier: Post-Soviet fire and grazing regimes have govern the abundance of a key ecosystems on the steppe. Intensive grazing and fire patterns across the Steppes have changed dramatically over the past decades due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and Kazakhstan is now a global fire hotspot. 

Savi's Warbler: We surveys a huge river system and delta area which is one of the largest remaining natural deltas and inland lake in Central Asia. These vast wetlands provides a rich variety of habitats supporting a range of threatened species.

These wet areas were fantastic places, Alex and I spent a lot of time birding here, focusing on our target species and areas that of importance to the project.

Black-winged Pratincole: The Kazakh steppe, also known as the Kirghiz steppe, is itself one of the largest dry steppe regions on the planet, covering approximately 804,500 square kilometres and extending more than 2,200 kilometres from north of the Caspian Sea east to the Altai Mountains. 

Caspian Plover: We were thrilled to see this stately plover with a gentle, dovelike expression. Breeding male is stunning, with a white face and belly separated by a broad chestnut patch across the chest. Breeding female is plainer brown, and has a warm rusty-brown patch across the chest. One of our main target birds. 

The whole trip was amazing, thrilling, exciting a real life experience, one full of birding memories and good laughs.  

Black-eared Wheatear: So to read more and see more images, please click on this link below or see the Holiday and Trip Reports at the bottom of this blog.

https://austinmorley.blogspot.com/p/western-kazakhstan-may-2024.html

05/10/2024 RSPB Bempton Cliffs, East Riding of Yorkshire

Isabelline Shrike: Again I find myself up on the Yorkshire coast, again twitching some far eastern birds. First stop was for the two-barred warbler which I dipped, then to Thornwick Bay for the OPB when a issy shrike spp was recorded 10 mins up the road at Bempton.

The question is 'isabelline or red-tailed shrike' you see,  not only do sabellinus and phoenicuroides are structurally and physiologically closely related but they share genetic characteristics too!

Both species have similar moult patterns, breed later and have longer migrations than the eastern races, and as one might expect show a longer wing, second primary and primary projections. 

Olive-backed Pipit: This part of Yorkshire at the moment is buzzing with some brilliant birds and almost has the feeling of November on Shetland. Its dripping in YBW, RBF and a selection of other leaf warblers like the recent pale-legged and two-barred. 

Shoulder to shoulder with dozens of birders and toggers right up against the wooden fence, where the bird showed well at first in the dappled light of the leaflitter, before moving into the taller grass and between the trees. 

Another bird that you would expect to see on Shetland in November is OBP, a long-distance migrant moving in winter to southern Asia and Indonesia with a few overshooting and this bird finding its way to a caravan park in Thornwick Bay, Flamborough. 

Whats next? Whatever it is I hope I can move quickly enough to see it.