10 May 2008
Another very early start today as David Salisbury, Steve Whiteley and I were doing a “dawn ‘til dusk” bird race, where all three of us had to see the bird for it to count. Steve was joining us for the first time, with our record to beat being 110, set in 2006.
The first bird on our list was a Blackbird at 0450, as we left the village of Manthorpe in Lincolnshire for Rutland Water.
At Rutland Water we initially birded from the car park at the Egleton based Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre and then around the actual centre. By 0520 the list was up to 25 birds with my first new 2008 UK bird, a Common Sandpiper being spotted 5 minutes later.
It would be another hour before I added another bird, a Yellow Legged Gull, to either my UK or World 2008 list, by which time our tally for the day stood at 52.
332.Yellow Legged Gull--------------Rutland Water---------------England
Having gone as far as visiting Fieldfare hide, on the south side of the reserve we then left Egleton and drove to Hambleton Wood where there was another birder already watching the Nightingales. We had a quick look in the wood, but being after 8am we were too late to hear them singing (Note for 2009!) so returned to where the other birder was and after about 20 minutes a Nightingale hopped onto the fence, our 68th bird of the day.
333.Nightingale--------------------Rutland Water-----------------England
The Osprey, at Manton Bay was our 71st bird, although it very nearly wasn’t! I was the first to get to the viewing area, near the bridge, and identified the bird sitting on the Osprey platform as a Cormorant. Therefore Dave and Steve didn’t bother checking. For some reason I decided to check again a few minutes later and formerly announced that my Cormorant was in fact an Osprey. I would live to regret my drop off throughout the day, thanks to continuous digs from Steve and Dave about my bird identification prowess!
Eyebrook Reservoir added two more birds to the day’s tally, a local birder helping us with a Yellow Wagtail, but the guaranteed Little Owl failed to show!
Next stop was Lakenheath on the Suffolk/Norfolk border via Welney. By the time we arrived in the very full car park at Lakenheath, on what was a scorching hot day, our tally had reached 77, picking up a few on the way.
Walking along the main bank with the lagoons to our right we picked up a preening Garganey, another one for my 2008 UK list.
While the quantity of new birds at Lakenheath was not high, the quality certainly was. Although we had seen our first Hobby of the day at Welney, you could not ignore the fact that there were at least 20 birds flying over the reed beds here. It must be one of the best places for Hobbys in the UK!
Down at the far end of the reserve, overlooking a very large reed bed someone advised they had seen a Common Crane 15 minutes earlier. Some 10 minutes later two flew up to add to our list.
334.Common Crane-----------------Lakenheath------------------England
This was the also the only time I took a photo worth including in this update, a Reed Warbler.
Having also heard a Bittern booming, we then camped out near one of the poplar plantations where the Golden Oriole were reported to have been seen, although not for a couple of hours. After 20 minutes the female called, followed quickly by the male. Dave surprised both Steve and I with his ability to mimic the male bird’s call, so much so that the bird was responding to Dave and came to the edge of the wood for all to see, along with the female. Although it was a brief view, the male’s bright yellow plumage stood out well against the poplar leaves. A new all time UK bird for me, and a lifer for Dave!
335.Golden Oriole---------------Lakenheath---------------------England
Then it was the short drive to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve at Weeting Heath where the next year bird was a Spotted Flycatcher flitting between the pine trees outside the west hide, followed by a distant, sleeping Stone Curlew out on the grass heath. Try as we might we just couldn’t latch onto a calling Goldcrest, the second time we had dipped on the bird during the day, always a problem bird on one of these trips for some reason!
336.Spotted Flycatcher--------Weeting Heath-------------------England
337.Stone Curlew-------------Weeting Heath--------------------England
Next stop was Choseley drying barns, having dipped on Montagu’s Harrier on the way, where Corn Bunting were our 90th bird of the day. We also heard Quail as well as seeing a Wheatear on the pile of rubble and a Little Owl sitting uncharacteristically out in the middle of a stony field!
Before moving onto Titchwell we continued along the road, past the barns at the top of the hill, to the first right hand corner at the bottom of the hill where there were a number of other birders. They included a friend of Steve’s who had also been on his recent birding trip to Ecuador! The reason they were all there was because of the 7 Dotterel feeding in the adjacent field, lifers for both Dave and I. What stunning birds, it was such a shame we needed to move on!
338.Dotterel--------------------Choseley-------------------England
At Titchwell, Little Gull was my next 2008 UK bird, where Steve gave me an old fashioned look when I questioned whether the bird was in fact a Little Gull, my inexperience caught me out again, those dark under wings confirming Steve was of course correct!
The bird ticks came in quick and fast then with Wigeon taking us through 100 for the day.
When you are on one of these bird races you are thankful for any support from other birders, so when we came across one guy intently watching a small wader at the far end of the fresh water marsh we had to ask what he was looking at. We were pleased we had as it turned out to be a Temminck’s Stint, which we would never have spotted otherwise, an excellent year bird let alone day bird!
339.Temminck’s Stint-----------------Titchwell-------------------England
As we made our way to the beach we were closing in on our previous record of 110. We came across a couple on the path who couldn’t understand why we were doing a bird race, indicating that we were rather sad! We didn’t have time to argue so Steve and I politely made our apologies for not stopping to chat and moved onto the wooden platform at the top of the beach. The tide was out but there were still plenty of new birds for our list.
As we started to reach our previous record we realised that Dave had in fact stopped to chat to our friends on the path, so the shout went up for him to catch us up rather quickly! Once the team was back up to full strength Little Tern equalled our previous record, and was another tick for my UK year list.
Then it was high fives all round as Common Scoter took us to 111. There had been reports of Velvet Scoter but we failed to spot any. Curlew was the 112th bird before we set off for the cliffs at Hunstanton for the 113th, Fulmar resting on the sea.
The last stop, as the light was fading, was Dersingham Bog; we dipped on Golden Pheasant on the way. There, the penultimate bird of the day was a whistling Woodcock before we descended the old sea cliff onto the bog to pick up the most mystical bird of the day. Almost immediately a Nightjar started chirring and minutes later the sound of wing claps and flashes of white brought our attention to the bird, as it flew across the dimly lit bog.
A Grasshopper Warbler was also calling but the light had faded so much it was impossible to see, and the bugs were bighting so it was time to head back to the car and hope for possible owls on the way home. No luck there so the Nightjar, at 2112 hours was the 115th and last bird of a very long, hot and successful day. It was also my 194th UK bird of the year.
340.Nightjar----------------------Titchwell----------------------England
Thanks to Dave and Steve for their great company, I look forward to a repeat in 2009, where 120 must be the next target, and for the couple who thought we were sad, yes we may be but the adrenalin rush for that next day tick is something that should be experienced by all at least once. Having successfully motor raced all over the country for 20 years, I have experienced many adrenalin rushes, particularly when fighting for the lead or trying to knock that extra tenth of a second off a qualifying lap time. Birding can give you just that same feeling, but (hopefully) without the inherent dangers!
Our full list of birds for the day is shown below: -
Avocet, Bearded Tit, Black Headed Gull, Black Tern, Blackbird, Blackcap, Blue Tit, Brent Goose, Bullfinch, Buzzard, Canada Goose, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff, Coal Tit, Collared Dove, Common Crane, Common Gull, Common Sandpiper, Common Scoter, Common Tern, Coot, Cormorant, Corn Bunting, Cuckoo, Curlew, Dotterel, Dunlin, Dunnock, Egyptian Goose, Feral Pigeon, Fulmar, Gadwall, Garden Warbler, Garganey, Golden Oriole, Goldfinch, Great Black Blacked Gull, Great Crested Grebe, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Great Tit, Green Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Grey Heron, Grey Plover, Greylag Goose, Herring Gull, Hobby, House Martin, House Sparrow, Jackdaw, Jay, Kestrel, Lapwing, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Lesser Whitethroat, Linnet, Little Egret, Little Grebe, Little Gull, Little Owl, Little Ringed Plover, Little Tern, Long Tailed Tit, Magpie, Mallard, Marsh Harrier, Meadow Pipit, Mistle Thrush, Moorehen, Mute Swan, Nightingale, Nightjar, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Pied Wagtail, Pintail, Pochard, Red Crested Pochard, Red Legged Partridge, Redshank, Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Ringed Plover, Robin, Rook, Sand Martin, Sanderling, Sedge Warbler, Shelduck, Shoveler, Skylark, Song Thrush, Spotted Flycatcher, Starling, Stockdove, Stone Curlew, Swallow, Swift, Teal, Temminck's Stint,Tree Sparrow, Tufted Duck, Turnstone, Wheatear, Whitethroat, Wigeon, Willow Warbler, Woodcock, Woodpigeon, Wren, Yellow Legged Gull, Yellow Wagtail, Yellowhammer.