Baikal Teal, Fen Drayton RSPB, April 2014

Baikal Teal which, as the name suggests, originates from north east Siberia, has only been recorded in Britain as a genuine vagrant on a handful of occasions – until recently that is. Then, just like London buses, they come along in ‘threes’! First there was the ‘for one day only’ bird at Flamborough last April, next there was the much watched mid-winter bird at Crossen’s Outer Marsh, Lancashire (see my blog, 6 December – ‘Banks Baikal Bonus’) and then last Saturday another turned up at Fen Drayton RSPB. We had a spare hour or so on Friday afternoon so decided to go and look at it. Although rather distant it was a gorgeous looking thing – complete with black ‘side-burns’ this time, and which added to it’s wild credentials by disappearing over night! It was later relocated elsewhere on the vast net-work of lakes that are part of the Ouse Washes ‘Living Landscape’. Of course it’s just possible that these are either escaped collection birds and/or the same bird (certainly in the case of the last two records) – but with the arrival of another bird in Belgium at the same time as the Fen Drayton bird, who knows? We’ll just have to wait now whilst the relevant rarities people adjudicate on their authenticity.

Male Two-barred Crossbill – Lynford Arboretum

Spent this morning at Lynford Arboretum, a well deserved birding break from relentless digging on the allotment! As I pulled into the car park a group of birders had their cameras and scopes pointing skyward – up to five Two-barred Crossbills were apparently feeding in the nearby pines. Two-barred Crossbill breed in Russia and rarely occur in Britain, except following an eruption – as occurred last autumn ( see posts for 20 & 22 July, 2013 ), when they usually over-winter..  Although reasonably close, the small flock which also contained several regular Common Crossbill, were buried deep inside the tops of the trees, only appearing periodically on the outer edge of the canopy. I watched the birds, several males and a female, for half an hour or so before deciding to look for some of the other Lynford specialities. I crossed the entrance track and by the visitors hut I heard and then saw two more Crossbills – one was definitely a male Two-barred. At the feeding station there was no sign of the elusive Hawfinches so I strolled down to the lake to view the paddock – no sign of any here either. A brief diversion along the stream trail produced nothing of particular interest so I headed back towards the car park. By the monument a singing Firecrest eventually gave acceptable views then it was back to the feeding station to stake out Hawfinch – apparently a female had been seen just a few minutes after I’d left. Another half hour or so wait and a small flock arrived in the Hornbeams nearby the feeders – what looked like at least one male with three or four females. Other birds of interest around the feeding station included Redwing, Brambling – a fine spring male, Siskin, Marsh Tit and a Treecreeper feeding on the fat balls!

A couple more grab-shots of two different male Two-barred Crossbills

..and a male Common Crossbill for handy comparison

One of a group of four or five Hawfinch in Hornbeams, near the feeding station

A nice array of late winter birds, together with a fly-over Wood Lark, making a truly excellent mornings Breckland birding

Common Crane over Titchwell

Spent the afternoon at Titchwell – lovely weather and some great birding. The whole experience evoking more than a touch of Spring.

As I pulled into the RSPB access track I nearly knocked down a knot of birders staring up the road towards the village. I got out of the car, only to learn that I’d just missed a Crane flying over, apparently the bird was still just visible.. but not to me! Having already seen Crane in Norfolk this year I shrugged it off, parked up and started to walk down the track.  I’d barely got 200 yards and the Crane did another fly-past, over the Fresh Marsh!

I strolled down to the sea to scrutinise the Scoter flock – distant and distorted by heat haze, I just managed to make out half a dozen or more Velvet’s, as they made their short-hop flights. Also on the sea were Red-breasted Merganser and Goldeneye. Next I spent an hour in Parrinder hide looking over the Fresh Marsh. The light was terrific and even ordinary species looked extra ordinary. There were plenty of Black-headed Gulls loafing about but only a handful of large gulls. On closer inspection one of these appeared to be a yellow-legged variety. Although the bird was resting on the water, the bright white head, set off by a small black beady eye, long sloping forehead and a long shallow bill – giving the bird a rather gentle expression, strongly suggested cachinnans. Once on land, the whole drawn-out structure of the bird and the detail of the wing pattern confirmed that it was indeed a 3rd winter Caspian Gull. I returned to the centre, having missed out on Water Pipit, but seeing Bearded Tit, Spotted Redshank, Ruff and hearing Cetti’s Warbler, I was more than satisfied with my afternoon. 

Driving back along the coast road I added Barn Owl at Burnham Overy Mill to my afternoon tally – for some reason they’ve been very scarce in Norfolk so far this year. As I was passing Gun Hill there was still enough day light to have a quick scan of Overy Marshes. A few Pink-feet, Shelduck, Curlew and there, in the distance, the unmistakeable form of a quartering Short-eared Owl. Buzzard and Marsh Harrier were soon added to the list, along with Grey Partridge in the field by the road. Finally the distant outline of another Buzzard, chunkier though, with a complete dark breast band, sitting atop a fence post. As it swooped down to the ground and back, the noticeable white and dark under tail pattern confirming that this was the juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard I’d seen a few weeks ago.

Even the common species, like Northern Shoveler, looked terrific in the afternoon sun!

and Common Snipe..

Careful scrutiny of the large gulls produced this 3rd winter Caspian Gull

A great afternoon’s birding with a real touch of spring – bring on the migrants! 

With the decision to make an earlier than expected return home to the UK, we modified our route back from the mallee to take in the Southern Highlands, south of Sydney, in an attempt to secure a few more Australia trip ticks, including hopefully another couple of ‘planet earth’ ticks. We arrived at Barren Grounds national park early, where it had rained over night. No sooner had we turned onto the entrance track when Dan said ‘stop’ – there on the grass in front of the rangers house was our first target, Pilotbird – a species I’d only seen briefly once before. So called because this species has a strong association with Superb Lyrebird and acts as a ‘pilot’ to it’s whereabouts – it looks not unlike a young European Robin. A short distance up the track, a small flock of Gang-Gang Cockatoos was a welcome addition to the list. Then on to the ‘main event’ of the morning, a search for Eastern Bristlebird – a species of very restricted range, on coastal heath, along the coast of New South Wales. Within 50 yards of the car park we’d heard and secured fabulous views of this, often secretive, species – a ‘lifer’ and another towards our trip target of 300. With reasonable views of another heathland species, Beautiful Firetail, we were ‘on a roll’, so decided to go in search of another potential ‘lifer’, Red-whiskered Bulbul – a species introduced in the suburbs of Sydney, back in the 1880’s. A drive around the streets of Port Kembla soon produced the goods and, to round things off, a brief stop at the cliff-top site of Hill 60 Park secured us Australasian Gannet and our final ‘tick’ of the trip, Kelp Gull -taking our overall trip total to over 300, including over 30 Australian ‘lifers’. Not a bad total for a family-oriented holiday and leaving me within striking distance of 500 for my Australia list!

Pilotbird – looking not unlike a juvenile European Robin

A welcome addition to the list – Gang-gang Cockatoo

Prime target of the visit to Barren Ground NP, the usually secretive Eastern Bristlebird

Not a great picture but nonetheless a real bonus – Beautiful Firetail

Red-whiskered Bulbul – an introduced species from Asia

And finally, Kelp Gull – last bird of a great morning’s birding, 300th for the trip and a fitting end to five weeks memorable birding in Australia

The plan was to bring the Australian leg of our holiday to a close with a return trip to Mallee country – my third visit but a ‘first’ for Jane. We travelled through the upper Hunter, taking in the Goulburn River National Park, before making the 400k trek to Lake Cargelligo – gate way to Mallee country. With temperatures above 40 degrees and swarms of flies the birding was unusually difficult and our first evenings visit to this unique habitat was proving to be an energy and moral-sapping event – until that is we came across the water-hole! Over the course of the next 24 hours we had outstanding views of over thirty species of bush birds here, including most of the areas specialities. Here are some of the species using the water-hole or seen nearby:

First, Restless Flycatcher

Diamond Dove, a difficult species to catch up with

Male Black Honeyeater drinking, with Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater in the background

Crested Bellbird – more often heard than seen

Gilbert’s Whistler, a mallee speciality – here a male is drinking alongside a White-eared Honeyeater

A Mulga Parrot and Common Bronzewing – we saw more than thirty of both species

Speckled Warbler

A splendid male Red-capped Robin

Southern Scrub-robin – another mallee speciality

Splendid Fairy-wren

Brown Songlark

To finish, the common but curious Tawny Frogmouth

Today was Australia Day – the last public holiday before people return to work after the long Christmas/summer holidays. We had a great day of family entertainment planned – coffee and cake at Morpeth, a kiddies train ride at Walka water works, BBQ at Old Brush, topped off with a trip to the Drive-In movies. It was all going to plan when we departed Morpeth for the water works, via the grassy flood plain of the Hunter. I’d reminded Dan that there were still a couple of species, which are found in this particular habitat, that I still needed – so we took a slow drive in search of them. Dan pulled over because he’d spotted a small flock of Banded Lapwing – one of our target species. I scanned the field with my camera, looking for a good photo, when a small slim brown wader appeared in the view-finder – initial impressions were of a cross between a Ruff and Pratincole! Dan had to borrow my binoculars to confirm that it was indeed an Oriental Plover – second for the Hunter and a ‘plant earth’ tick! News was put out and several local Hunter birders had ‘ticked up’ before we were able to get the ‘family day’ back on schedule. Our run of new waders in the Hunter continues!  

Oriental Plover, with Banded Lapwing in the background

Although the bird was fantastic and something of a bonus, unfortunately for the kids the Walka train wasn’t running and the movie wasn’t scheduled to start before eight twenty – so we had to come home instead! The BBQ was however a great success, as was the day overall and I don’t think they noticed the brief birding interruption.  Australia Day 2014 was definitely a day for celebration…!!

Yesterday afternoon we returned to Hexham Swamp to try for the taivana Eastern Yellow Wagtail, which some authorities consider to be a full species – Green-headed Yellow Wagtail, which breeds from Siberia, east to Japan. Despite there being other cars ‘in the circuit’ we managed to get to the undisturbed southern end of the track and were rewarded by a handsome green and gold tschutschensis feeding on the track in front of us. More searching produced three more Eastern Yellow Wagtail (and later, a fifth at the other end of the main track). Dan, who was at work, was understandably peeved as he needed it for a Hunter ‘tick’ so we agreed to look for it again first thing this morning.

So, after another relatively early start, we were out again on Hexham Swamp scouring the track for wagtails. There were none on the track so we started looking in the surrounding swamp. I found a distant young Eastern Yellow before looking on the opposite side of the track where there, in the glow of early morning sunlight, was a taivana sat out preening on a fallen branch – not as green and gold as yesterdays bird but still unmistakeable. We decided on a slow cruise back looking for more wagtails before turning our attention to the hundreds of waders that were roosting up further along the trail. On passing the first clumps of mangrove Dan spotted a solitary wader, pale buff with bright yellow legs and a beady black eye set in a plain head. Could this be the elusive Buff-breasted Sandpiper from last Saturday which, despite extensive searching by a number of the local birders throughout the week, had so far failed to be relocated? Closer views of the distinguishing features, record shots secured and the id was clinched! Frantic texting and the first Newcastle twitchers were ‘ticking up’ within half an hour, then a steady flow of admirers from further afield until there was almost a small crowd! Before setting off I managed to relocate a male Ruff amongst the many Sharpies as my fourth new wader species  for Australia in as many days! Good place this Hexham Swamp….

First, the reason for our re-visit, taivana Eastern Yellow Wagtail – or for those who prefer it, Green-headed Yellow Wagtail

And now for the ‘main event’ – Buff-breasted Sandpiper. First for the Hunter in a decade and thought to be only the eighth for Australia

When seen in Europe or the States, this Sandpiper always appears rather placid – this individual however was frequently indulging in ‘threat’ behaviour towards the accompanying Sharpies

From the somewhat worn state of the plumage and visible signs of moult, I assume that this individual is probably an adult moulting into winter plumage – happy to be corrected!

Final new wader for Australia in less than a week, Ruff. It’s the larger bird, in the centre of the picture, with orange legs and a pale yellowish base to it’s bill

Almost a crowd of NSW twitchers enjoying the Buff-breast – and Dan enjoying the moment!