Caspian Tern

After a few weeks of seeing nothing really except for my local Little Owl, you couldn't really blame me for having an urge to go on a twitch.  It all began last Wednesday, when news broke that a Wood Sandpiper had dropped in at Brandon and I in turn also dropped in at Brandon to see it, my first for the year.  This wet my appetite to go on a twitch at the weekend and I gave my birders wife advance notice of my intentions.

I earmarked today as my twitching day and hoped that something would be around to go and see and after checking distances and likelihood of dipping, I opted for the Caspian Tern in Staffordshire and even managed to persuade my birders wife to accompany me.

Caspian Tern

After negotiating the M6 and a myriad of speed cameras on the A roads, we arrived safely at our destination, only to discover that we had to walk the final 500 metres, disgraceful and what did we have to reward us at the end of the walk? No Caspian Tern as it had decided to commute to its favourite roosting place over in Cheshire.  My birders wife decided to walk back to the car to fetch our coffee and lunch and while I waited for her to return, we were entertained by two Ravens flying over, a Common Sandpiper and several Little Ringed Plovers on the mudflats.

Caspian Tern

On the return of my birders wife laden down with our lunch, waterproofs and flask, we settled ourselves down for a long wait. However, just as I was beginning to worry that it was going to be a long wait, I noticed a white bird flying in and after focusing on the said bird discovered it to be the Caspian Tern. The bird decided to do a quick tour of the reservoir, fishing and diving before flying past us and settling down on the north shore to preen.

As it was midday, we decided to take advantage of being in the area and had a drive round some of the Peak District which was about 5 miles away.  I was hoping to come across Stonechats or better still, Whinchats but unfortunately we could not find anyway and decided to make our way home instead via Shugborough Hall NT and Cannock Chase.  A great days birding with some culture added in, felt like a small holiday - I will sleep well tonight!

Twice Bittern....

I had been umming and ahhing all week whether to take the plunge or not and drive down to Somerset to see the Little Bitterns who are breeding at Ham Wall.  I woke up at 5:00am this morning and promptly rolled over but then woke up again at 7:15am when I decided that I would go for it.

Cuckoo blurred by heat haze

After what seemed like a really long drive I arrived at the car park at Ham Wall, secured myself a spot and ambled along the track not really knowing where I needed to head.

A Cuckoo obligingly sat on some telegraph wires close by and as I rounded a bend it became blindingly obvious where the viewing station for the Bitterns was due to the long line of telescopes and tripods on display.

I settled among the pods and commenced a long and hot wait.  Not knowing where the nest was, I missed the first fly past by the female as she skimmed across the reed tops disappearing from view within seconds.  After about an hours wait the male was spotted and I managed to grab a sighting of him as he flew towards us and then dipped down out of view into a water channel.  During the next couple of hours I managed another quick view of the male and then the female as she flew away from us back to the nest.

During the long waits, we were entertained by some Cettis Warblers who kept giving us great views right in front of us.  A Bittern also flew over our heads and Kingfishers were busy fishing nearby.

After about three hours, the heat finally overcame me and I walked back to car to grab a bite to eat and then drove down to Greylake RSPB Reserve to see what that was like.  Due to it being the middle of afternoon, things were pretty quiet so I decided to make the long trip home.

Nice to see two species of Bittern in one day.  I cannot imagine that I will be doing that again for a long time.  Also nice to get another new lifer, my 6th for the year, quite a bit down from this time last year when I think I had netted about 15.  Also still waiting to achieve my target birds for this year which are Red Backed Shrike and Pomarine Skuas (they both still remain unseen).