26/09/2022 Wantage, Oxfordshire

Common Nighthawk: This juvenile female was spotted in the early morning roosting on a garden fence along a small cut-de-sac and near some parked cars. The owner of the garden originally thought it was a nightjar before putting news out and getting conformation from the local bird recorder.

It was then reidentified as an American nighthawk. Well it is the first American land bird of the autumn, so along with hundreds of other like minded twitchers I rushed down to a sleepy Oxfordshire market town to catch sight of a rare bird.
 

And I'm glad I did the bird was marvellous, sitting, preening and turning side to side to get more comfortable it roosted there all day.  

After only ever seeing one in Ireland back in 2019 at Ballymena, Co Antrim, Belfast. I'm now glad to be able to 'officially' add this bird to my BOU list. 

These are nocturnal birds within the nightjar family, the species is typically dark in colour, displaying cryptic colouration and intricate patterns, making it difficult to spot with the naked eye during the day, but not while it roost in open on top of a wooden garden fence. 

Such an amazing bird to see in a bonkers place, but unfortunately I had work commitments so couldn't stick around to see it take flight and live its day time roost, which it did around 7pm and flew off very high and very direct, not seen again. 

24/09/2022 St Mary's Island, Northumberland

Lapland Bunting: After last weeks Bank Holiday weekend which was comprised of back to back weddings and photoshoots, swiftly followed by a busy working week surveying water voles and birds I was keen to get out and see something cool. 

So teaming up with Kristian we headed over to the beautiful St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay to togg the long staying lap bunt. 

And we weren't disappointed. 

These cool little birds are not commonly sighted in the UK, only ever appearing in low numbers typically along the on the East coast. They overwinter in the here doing so from September and October until May, after which time they leave to breed in those colder Northern European regions across Scandinavia. 

Lapland buntings have quite a long hind claw which gives rise to their other common name of 'Lapland Longspur'.

These stocky visitors from the North are ever so slightly larger then reed buntings and are covered with a beautiful chestnut sort of colour accompanied by a distinctive pattern on the head.

Most of the time, these birds can be found on the ground and sometimes in small flocks, this bird was on it's own.

To say this bird was not shy would be an understatement, at one point I could have reached out and picked it up as it walked towards me. 

I didn't even need to use my 'army crawl' manoeuvre' when I get on my belly and use my field craft to encroach a little further and allow the bird to walk towards me. This bird trotted right up to us. 

I've only ever seen lap bunts perform like this on the Great Orme, but even then they were not as bold as this individual, it wasn't even phased by ignorant dog walkers who decided to ignore the small group of birders and let their dogs run right past us when they could have simply taken he nearby path to avoid us, and the bird.

After seeing the lap bunt we headed over to Widdrington Moor Lake and picked out the Slav grebe but failed to find the red-necked grebe which was reported retailer. 

10/09/2022 The Great Orme

Dotterel: The Great Orme offers one of a handful of places across the whole of the UK where you can get you're annual dotterel fix, as they travel from their breeding grounds in Scotland, Russia and Scandanavia during winter and migrate south to cultivated farmlands and shrublands of North Africa, particularly Morocco.

These birds are simply brilliant, a photographers dream bird, notoriously tame, fearless, confiding, and showy, they seem to love the camera.  I guess they have had very little or no interactions with humans before so aren't shy like most other birds. 

There were times that the birds were trotting up to us while we sat there admiring them, down to 2m in some cases! 

Small numbers stop off on their way south to refuel on food and rest up before continuing their long journey. 

Today there were three birds, presumed to be juvenile or male wintering birds. Males in their breeding plumage have buff-brown upperparts, separated from a chestnut belly with a white band across the chest. They have a dark cap, white feathers around their beak and throat, and a marked white eyestripe. 

Outside of breeding season, their coloration becomes more muted, and the white is not as bright.  I was really impressed to how skilful they were at foraging in what seems on the surface like a stony, shallow soiled, moss covered limestone clifftop. I didn't image it containing so much food, but these birds were successfully catching worms almost every other minute. 

And it wasn't just worms but crane flies, grubs and one even had a go at a flying insect as it whizzed past. Again they weren't bothered by our presence or out close proximity as they carried out pulling up worms from the shallow soil. 

These are fascinating birds which have an unusual breeding strategy as the females will lay three eggs per clutch but it is the male dotterel who incubate and raise the young while the females will travel and often have more eggs with different males. 

This strategy has led to the female dotterel having brighter feathers than the males, which plays a part in their reversed parental status. 

This was simply a great morning on the Orme, with stunning wall to wall blue skies, flat calm seas scales and the Welsh mountains in the disnatnce, topped off with some stunning dotterel views. 

06/09/2022 St Aidan's RSPB

Wryneck: It's always a highlight when you see one of these sensational woodpeckers, a once a widespread breeding bird in England, this is now a lost breeding species, though still occurring regularly on migration each year. 

When I arrived the bird gave me a b it of a run around, with only beef flight views as it flew up and down a line of bushes. Eventually, after a couple of hours the bird gave itself up and showed relatively well perched up. 

With its beautifully cryptic plumage, coupled to its small size, the wryneck is easy to overlook so hats off to Joe Eckersley, all that time and effort birding a local patch paid off. Well In mate.
 

07/09/2022 Spurn, East Riding of Yorkshire

Citrine Wagtail: I was back working in Hull this week and couldn't resist another go at the cit wag. The bird was still pretty reliable staying faithful to the grassy area at the back of the Riverside Hotel.

I arrived early and headed down Beacon Lane and worked my way down to the Warren, my plan was to find something good, I've really ben feeling an Iccy might be on the cards. I scanned and searched through the hedges and bushes without any luck. 

But I wasn't disappointed by wagtails performance, after a short wait the bird dropped in with a couple of pied wags and began to forage on the lawn, picking out small grubs and insects from between the blades of grass.

The longest staying cit wag recorded at Spurn, the day these were taken it was the birds 9th consecutive day. 

03/09/2022 Spurn, East Riding of Yorkshire

Citrine Wagtail: I booked a night in the Spurn Bird Observatory with Gary, Kris and Tobie as the winds were looking promising and there had been a trickle of scares migrant warblers mid-week, so we were hopeful.

Red-necked Phalarope: After a late one in the Crown and Ancor we headed out first thing were Kris relocated the cit wag in the ditch along Chalky Point. 

It eventually made an appearance on the grass lawn behind the Riverside Hotel. 

Whinchat: Citrine wags breed on the windsweapst tundra and meadows in parts of northern and eastern Europe and north-central Asia, they winter in south Asia there aren't many annual records so when one turns up and shows well it tends to be a bit of a draw.

Pied Flycatcher: Spurn was littered in common migrant birds we found at least six pied flies, countess whinchat, a handful of common restart and willow warblers. 

Willow Warbler: We scanned almost every hawthorn, peered in ever hedge and looked at miles of buckthorn and still no scarce migrant warblers. 

Fox: We even walked the long walk to the point after a late report of a wryneck came out, the walk defiantly helped out step count but not our legs. 

No scares birds but we did have an unusual encounter with this fox, as it came out from behind the lighthouse and walked right up to us. It stoped and started at us, within touching distance then walked off. 

It didn't look too well and I suspect that some visitors who walk down there may be feeding it as it appeared really tame.

Pied Flycatcher: The buckthorn and wind burned tree stumps  held several pied flies but not much else. 

Fox: Spbesquently since I came back from Spurn I have learned that this 'Lighthouse Fox' is a bit of a regular and is often seen taking food from folk who venture down. It has also been reported by the BBC that the fox has befriended the crew at an East Yorkshire lifeboat station who gave it the original name Basil. 

Common Redstart: Bacon ponds was particularly

productive especially as high tide rolled in and the wader numbers built up.

Wood Sandpiper: Hundreds of dunlin, redshank, ringed plover and black-tailed godwits filled the pools along with five curlew sandpiper and a single wood sandpiper. Two red-neck pals were also here feeding on the flies skimming across the shallow water. 

Curlew Sandpiper: Curlew sands are slim, pale buff waders compared to dunlin which they can be confused with. Curlew sands breed on the Siberian tundra, a quarter-span of the globe to the east of Britain. In autumn, they head south, west and east, to spend the winter as far apart as west Africa and New Zealand.

Sparrowhawk: I always enjoy my visits to Spurn but combined with a night away in its observatory accommodation this trip was particularly good. Very enjoyable birding, company and evening drinks in the Crown. Brilliant. 

02/09/2022 Marton Mere, Blackpool

Red-footed Falcon: From August onwards red-footed Falcons begin their long migratory flight back to Southern Africa. Where they often gather in large concentrations to feed on swarms of insects, in the company of hobbies and lesser kestrels.

They travel from eastern Europe, occurring in large numbers in Hungary, Serbia, and Romania where they prefer open woodland, farmland, and steppe habitat. And occasionally they end up our shores, but rarely in Lancashire. 

This time in Marton Mere near Blackpool.

Smaller than kestrel, about size of hobby, these birds are of slim build and thin, with pointed wings that like hobby, but a longer tail. 

Marton Mere offers everything this little falcon needs from large open water habitats teaming with dragonflies, plenty of trees and shrubs to perch upon that offer a good vantage point to hunt insects from. 

The bird was faithful to a stand alone mature hawthorn east of Heron Hide and was constantly flying in and out of it to catch dragonflies.