11 Nov 24 - Double Plus Good Plus

In my last Blog Post, I mentioned about George Orwell description of his Newspeak language in his classic book 1984. By removing words from the English language, the Party were able to stop the population from being able to fully express themselves. So, many words like fabulous, tremendous or amazing were replaced with the phrase Double Plus Good. I went on to provide an alternative meaning to Double Plus Good. But I finished by saying, it wasn't possible to get better than Double Plus Good in 1984. I'm having to propose the use of the phrase Double Plus Good Plus for my day.

Earlier in the morning, I had found my first two Cirl Buntings for the St Aldhelms patch. The occasional individuals are just starting to appear along the Purbeck coastline, but it remained a patch tick for myself & fellow patch watcher, Phil Saunders. Having spent about ninety minutes watching them, I decided to move on. I didn't get far before the day changed from Double Plus Good (excellent) to Double Plus Good Plus (fantastic), when I found a Yellow-browed Warbler in the Sycamores by Trev's Quarry. Yellow-browed Warblers are barely annual at St Aldhelms and this was the second of the Autumn. Even better, the first was found by Phil, while I was standing next to him. This was my first Self-found Yellow-browed Warbler at St Aldhelms, albeit I've found them in Winspit before, which is part of the wider St Aldhelms & Valleys patch.

Yellow-browed Warbler: It didn't show for long. It came in the check out the pishing & fortunately the camera settings were about right, as it disappeared soon after these photos

Yellow-browed Warbler: A quick wave of its wing & it was good. I did hear it call soon after, but it didn't reappear. I left it to feed in peace

15 Nov 15 - The End Of The Taxonomical Sub Committee (For The UK List)

Birders were shocked today to hear the surprise news that the British Union For Ornithology, BUFO, have bowed to government pressure & disbanded BUFO's long standing Taxonomic Sub Committee, TSC. For many years the TSC had provides an independent assessment of Bird species & subspecies. Now in a stroke & with no explanation, BUFO's independent scientific committee has been shelved. A Birder was recently heard to quip, Fowl Play was involved, but this is no laughing matter. It is being quietly whispered that the government Home Secretary, Mrs May, had been lobbying hard to do away with the TSC after 2015 has repeatedly shown that the government's has failed to secure the UK borders against arrivals of immigrants. The Birding world have been shocked to hear it was pressure from Mrs May, especially given her ancestral links to the world of Bird taxonomy. It was her Great Great Great Grandfather & pioneering naturalist, Cape May, who first described this small American Warbler.

Cape May Warbler: It is widely believed that Mrs May personally intervened to grant a visa for this individual to visit the May ancestral home in the Shetlands two years ago. Baltasound (29 Oct 13)

A BUFO spokesman said off the record, we believe the government is trying to look tough about immigration. They believe that by disbanding the TSC, they will fool the general public into thinking they are taking strong action against immigration. By stopping the TSC, they think the public will believe no new species will appear in the UK.

But a different viewpoint comes from the UK's leading NGO, Rare Immigrant Alert. They have been monitoring the arrival of these immigrants for 24 years. Their spokesman Mr 'Golly Its' Mark said 2015 is a year that has seen unprecedented waves of immigrants. They have many arrival routes. Mr Mark said that the Immigration Services should be commended for making good progress in a historically weak area of Scillies & the South West. Few immigrants have made it through that route this year, an area that has seen a lot of success over recent years. He added, I think that is a really good news story, it's a sod of a journey from my home in Norfolk.

But action has been poor at other traditional points of weakness such as the South Coast. In Sep, a major breach occurred with the well documented arrival of an American Acadian Flycatcher at Dungeness. This was seen perching on boats on the beach. Perhaps even the one that landed it. Large numbers of left wing do-gooders & environmental enthusiasts rushed there to welcome it, but not one member of the Immigration Services was seen. Mr Mark said the government have focused their staff on the Eurotunnel & the Dover ferries & have taken their eye of the ball off the UK coastline.

Acadian Flycatcher: This left egg on the face of the UK Immigration Services. Dungeness (22 Sep 15)

Another area of clear under-investment by the Immigration Services has been the Northern Isles. Mr Mark said this whole region had been totally ignored. There have been unprecedented arrivals of Yellow-browed Warblers from Eastern Russia. They came from well outside the EU. It is widely suspected that other Scandinavian EU partner countries were allowing the fast transit through the region to the Northern Isles. Once there, they quickly dispersed throughout the UK. A government spokesman, who refused to be named, said this has been devolved to the regions & it was the failure of the Scottish National Independence Party (SNIP).

Yellow-browed Warbler: The spokesman said the UK government had helped a number of these Yellow-browed Warblers get onto ferries from Portsmouth & Plymouth, to encourage them to travel down to Spain, once they got South of the border. This is our payment for the Spanish & French authorities helping to dump large numbers of Killer Jellyfish on our beaches (read the full exclusive by the Daily Wail here). Gisla, Lewis (16 Oct 15)

But there were many other breaches of the immigration in areas under SNIP's control, with a Wilson's Warbler, a Chestnut Bunting, as well as, a number of rare Thrushes & Warblers arriving throughout the Northern Isles & that was just this Autumn. Mr Mark said, SNIP has failed completely to get on top of immigration in the Northern Isles.

Chestnut Bunting: Papa Westray (28 Oct 15)

But the problem isn't confined to Scotland. The Welsh government has also failed when a new Welsh point of entry shown up in 2015 on the North West Islands of Wales. Here a Cretzschmar's Bunting arrived fresh from Turkey. It stayed for over a week & only disappeared when a Welsh government boat was seen approaching the island. This is another species which clearly arrived into Greece & should have stayed & sought residence there. But instead it appears to have been smuggled on its way to the UK, via Bardsey Island.

Cretzschmar's Bunting: The start of a new Welsh smuggling route for immigrants? Bardsey (18 June 15)

Many Birders are worrying now about who will decide about future splits which might be allowed onto to the UK List. A government official said the UK Treasury has this in hand. The TSC is to be privatised in the next year. His Secretary of State, Mr Bornin-Oz, has been holding high level talks with a number of interested parties. Recent discussions have included meetings & a state visit from the Chinese President, See Dis-Pingu. Birders feel their lists might be devalued if Pingu the Penguin, Peking Duck and Mandarin Duck are fully admitted onto the UK List.

Ring-necked Parakeet or Green Squawker: Presumed to be the former. Bharatphur, India (27 Jan 14)

Another more recent state visit was from the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Moody. Birders were less sure about this. Many were critical that they will be expected to fully tick Ring-necked Parakeet & how to separate it from the near identical Green Squawker Parakeet. The latter has been claimed on a number of occasions in London, but so far hasn't been accepted onto the UK List. Birders have said, if Martin Garner hasn't figured this out on the excellent Birding Frontiers website, then what hope have we got.

Indian House Crow: Some Twitchers were pushing for the Indian Birding Club to take over the role of the TSC, hoping they will go soft on any future Indian House Crows records. Port Blair ferry, Andamans, India (23 Dec 13)

A few years ago, the obvious Atlantic partner organisation would have been the American Ornithological Union. But following a recent & bitter bidding war, the AOU's Taxonomical Committee was recently sold to the Disney Corporation. This has been watched with interest by members of the UK government who couldn't decide if they preferred the rival bid by the Fox Corporation or whether they would prefer to see the Fox bid hunted to extinction. Birders expect to lose out, if the privitised AOU Taxonomical Committee take over the UK List. This would be a double whammy, with the loss of species such as Green-winged Teal, but also having to pay huge costs of taking the family to see Donald Duck, following the recognition by the AOU of the offshore UK dependency of Disneyland, Paris.

Teal (left) & Green-winged Teal (right): One of several potential losses to the UK List as the AOU Taxonomical Committee can't tell the difference (once the specimen has been shot & cooked). Brands Bay (31 Dec 14)

Many Birders feel the obvious choice for maintaining the UK List (if the TSC couldn't be saved), would be the Association of European Records & Rarities Committees, AERRC. But it is widely believed that Tory back benchers have already nobbled this option, as it is one of the government's demands over the future of the UK in Europe.

But perhaps Birders biggest fear is that the role of the TSC will go to the lowest bidder. Many Birders feels this could be sold cheaply to 'Bare' Lee Credible who is Life President of the IQ40 Club. Mr Credible has been lobbying hard for this in recent weeks, including a recent statement on Twitter of "It is crazy that an out-dated committee is making decisions of what listers can tick. That is a job I should be doing". There are rumours of a secret pact between Tory back benchers & Nigel Farfetched, the leader of UKIQP, the political wing of The IQ40 Club. This has increased the fear that the role will go to the IQ40 Club to 'buy off the Tory back bench rebels'. Birders on recent twitches having been overheard discussing this worrying scenario.

Crag Martin: Why aren't Birders on BF calling this an escape? It's a worrying time. Chesterfield Zoo (14 Nov 15)

A Birdforum spokesman said, there has been so much worry about the disbanding of the BUFO TSC on BF, that we had to upgrade to faster servers. He added, there has been a near total absence of anybody stating the Crag Martin was an escape. A year ago we would have expected the escaped Crag Martin theory to be a big discussion point on BF given the crazy date, ridiculous location, the end of the Autumn & the long dark nights. We even tried adding our own inflammatory statements to encourage people, but we have been unable to get Birders to say they wouldn't go to the end of their own road to see a Crag Martin. This is unprecedented for a top ten rarity. That's how much Birders are focused on the replacement to the TSC. What is clear is Birders will be spending the Winter months worrying about the future credibility of their Lists.

16 Oct 15 - A Chance To Explore Lewis & Harris

After a good sleep & decent breakfast in Stornoway, I was ready to explore Lewis & later Harris. I hadn't visited either end of the island before, apart from the previous day's twitch to the Northern tip of Lewis for the Wilson's Warbler. I didn't have any idea of where to go Birding on the island, but was happy to just explore & stop whenever I saw interesting looking spots of habitat. The plan as it stood was to go via the Callanish stones & to end up at Leverburgh, Harris to catch the last ferry that evening across to Berneray (which is connected by a causeway to North Uist). After that it was to spend some time Birding on North Uist. A simple plan & what could go wrong with that. Continue reading to find out. First I took the same road out off Stornoway that I took to Port Nis the day before. This crosses the island to the village of Barvas, where the road splits. The Northern turning leads to Port Nis, whereas the Southern turning heads to Callanish & ultimately Harris.

The road to Barvas goes for quite a few miles over this rough heath

The first Birding stop was at a line of small Conifers & Sycamores just outside of Barvas. This was the first trees I had seen after leaving Stornoway behind & therefore worth a quick look. Initially, the trees looked empty, but some pishing produced the Hebrides race of Wren, Robins, Chaffinches, 22 Redwings & a Sparrowhawk.

This is the Hebrides race of Wren hebridensis: It is darker than the ones in Dorset

Wren: I saw them at a number of locations during the day

Wren

Taking the road South from Barvas, I quickly reached a small right turn which headed down towards the sea through the village of Brue. Looked worth exploring. It lead to a rough grassy area around a small lake, just behind the beach.

Brue village

The coast at Brue

The locals were preparing a surprise for a future generation of archaeologists

With no immediately interesting Birds on the sea, I headed back to check some of the gardens in Brue. 

Redwing: This is the Icelandic & Faeroes race coburni. My first chance to use the excellent Challenge Series: Winter by Martin Garner & the Birding Frontiers team

Redwing: The coburni subspecies is described by Martin as having darker, broader streaks as well as, more ochre-yellow supercilium & darker almost blackish crown, lores & ear coverts

Redwing: Looks like it has learnt the Ovenbird walk. Maybe I should have checked the rest of this garden more carefully

Driving out of Brue, I saw a ruined stone house which confused me as the entrance was quite low & there obviously wasn't a roof. This was once one of the local houses known as Blackhouses.

Ruined Blackhouse: Brue

Carrying on South along the main road, I soon saw a Historic Scotland sign for Arnol Blackhouse. I didn't know what this was at the time, but decided to have a quick look. Turns out this was a fully restored traditional stone Blackhouse. It is open to the public, but I decided to press on rather than look around.

Arnol Blackhouse: Within the building was a living room, bedroom & byre, with a separate barn & stackyard. The front entrance is halfway along the side of the house. This Blackhouse was built about 1880. More information on the Arnol Blackhouse can be found on this link

The signboard gave an indication of the iside of life inside the Blackhouse

Most of the gardens I passed had small fences & grass lawns. But every now & then I found the occasional garden with trees planted around them. Whenever possible, I would stop for a few minutes to have a quick look.

Another interesting roadside garden

The side of the same garden: Unfortunately, another garden where I drew a blank

I stopped at Callanish for lunch & a look at the Callanish stones: This was an excellent place. More to come in a further Post.

Callanish stones: They are understood to have been erected about 4500 - 5000 years ago

A significant part of Lewis is covered with this wet moorland

Traditional peat extraction

After a few more roadside stops for interesting gardens, I stopped at Gisla, where there was a larger garden of trees. Some pishing produced the usual Robin & Chaffinches. Then a cracking Yellow-browed Warbler popped into view. It always wanted to skulk in the bushes, rather than come out into the open. Probably not too surprising, given the large numbers in the UK this Autumn, especially as there had been one at Port Nis the previous day. But interestingly, I saw a statement that Lewis doesn't get many in an Autumn. I guess it is in the shadow of Shetlands & Northern Scotland, but there probably aren't that many Birders on Lewis either.

Redwing: One of another group of coburni Redwings at Gisla

Redwing

Yellow-browed Warbler: I wonder if the NGBs will get the same thrill about finding these special Warblers that many Birders of my generation have (given they appear to have become noticeably commoner in recent years)

Yellow-browed Warbler: One of my favour signs of the Autumn

Chaffinch: One of the commonest of Passerines seen during day

The side of the Yellow-browed Warbler garden: Looks like a great place to live

Crossing the road, I decided to try the next group of trees around a small hydro-electric station. As I reached the main group of trees, I was greeted by a Sweeet call from another Yellow-browed Warbler. This was very vocal, unlike the other silent individual, but wasn't very photogenic. I was happy to find one Yellow-browed Warbler, but two was even better. Clearly, they are less common here than the several in a garden that were being seen on Shetlands earlier in the Autumn.

The locals clearer have done a great job creating these two

Having explored a few miles further South of Gisla, I decided to check the map as I had been expecting a large inlet on the left hand side of the road: which helps define the Lewis-Harris border. This confirmed that I had taken the wrong road South. I hadn't checked at the turning to Gisla, as I had been enticed by a couple of interesting looking gardens & a decent road (at the turning). As it was around mid afternoon now, I decided to drive rather than stop at interesting gardens, so I could ensure I would catch the ferry to Berneray that evening.

The rush hour had started

I made good time to Tarbert once I got back onto the right road South. I soon crossed the line on the map, that is the border between Lewis & Harris. After a while I reached Tarbert, which is the port for the crossing back to Uig, Skye. It is about another twenty miles further South to Leverburgh. Just after the Tarbert port turning, there was a ferry sign up in Tarbert advertising the Berneray ferry. This said there were only four crossings a day, with the last one being around 17:00. I had been expecting about eight crossings, with the last one at 18:30, which I was aiming for. I turned back to the Tarbert ferry terminal to check what was going on. It turns out, the normal ferry is out for a service & the replacement doesn't have the full set up to allow it to sail after dark: hence the reduced service. The only think I could do was book the car onto the 09:20 sailing the following morning. This turned out to be a better plan in hindsight, but it was a bit disappointing at the time. Ticket bought, I pushed onto the Leverburgh.

There was a great estuary & sandy-mud flats at Seilebost: A quick scan in the failing light revealed a reasonable number of common Waders including Ringed Plovers, Sanderling, Curlew & Bar-tailed Godwit

I was lucky that there was a great viewpoint as the sun was setting: The timing was perfect as I hadn't had a good view over the sea up to that point

That's it, the sun had gone for the day

Looking back on the Southern side of the bay: This was taken after the sun had set. I am always impressed about how good modern cameras are in low light conditions

Finally, I made it to Leverburgh, which is a small port & settlement on the South coast of Harris. Here I found an old bus which doubled up as the local cafe & some hot food for the evening. With a kettle in the car, which had been providing hot drinks throughout the day I was sorted. I didn't need to check in until 09:00, so decided to head back to find somewhere to sleep closer to Seilebost, so I could have a quick look there in the morning.

A final night shot of the port at Leverburgh: This was a 15 second time expose of the ferry slipway & lifeboat

My impressions of Lewis & Harris is they look a great place for a longer Autumn Birding trip for anybody who wanted to be a bit more adventurous. It is a softer island than the Isles of Shetlands, with more bushes & gardens for Birds to be found. Personally, I think the Western Isles are prettier islands. While it might not have the track record of Shetlands, especially for Eastern goodies, it is obviously capable of attracting Some excellent Western goodies, if Purple Martin & Wilson's Warbler are anything to go by. I'm sure I will be back for a longer trip in a future Autumn.

12 Oct 15 - Equalling The Studland & Ballard Patch Year List Record

With a run of favourable winds at South Haven, I've been Vis Migging there for eight mornings so far this month. This has produced some great movements North of Finches with good numbers of Siskins, with over 500 moving for the last three mornings. Most of the other 'standard' Finches have been on the move, including nearly 600 Goldfinches on 10 Oct. Crossbills have been regular visitors this Autumn with 1 on 1 Oct, 17 on 3 Oct & 13 on 11 Oct. There has been a regular movement of Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits, with the occasional more interesting species including Grey Wagtails, Yellow Wagtails & Tree Pipits. Swallows & House Martins are still on the move: numbers vary from day to day with up to a few hundred on some mornings, but very few on other days. There have been a few more interesting, but expected species moving as well, including small numbers of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Skylarks, Chiffchaffs, Goldcrests, Great Tits, Jackdaws & Starlings. We also get a few Sparrowhawks moving North each Autumn & this year is no exception, with three in the last two days. More interestingly was a migrant Buzzard on 2 Oct (typically there is about one migrant an Autumn).

Sparrowhawk: Old Harry (4 Sep 15)

Today, was the start of the annual Thrush movements with 41 Redwings & 41 Song Thrushes heading North, with another 41 unidentified Redwings or Song Thrushes. Handfuls of the first Fieldfares & Blackbirds were also on the move today. Hopefully more Thrushes will be seen over the next few days.

Yellow-browed Warbler: Having to use my library photos as I accidentally dropped the new Canon 7D & 400mm lens & both are currently with the repairers getting some essential TLC. Durlston (24 Oct 14)

But the highlights of October so far have been on 2 Oct & today. On 2 Oct a Yellow-browed Warbler joined the Chiffchaffs in trying to cross the harbour mouth. It gave up & returned to the nearest trees, where it was heard calling a couple of times, before disappearing back into the bushes surrounding the South Haven pool. About an hour later, a Hawfinch went over giving its 'seep' flight call. Both were patch Year Ticks.

Tree Sparrow: Dungeness (8 Mar 14)

Then today, two Tree Sparrows joined the Finch movement North. This was followed about thirty minutes later with three more probably Tree Sparrows which circled, before heading back South again. Later a male House Sparrow went North, which is even rarer as a Vis Mig migrant here than the Tree Sparrows for me (only my third, compared to my fourteenth Tree Sparrow). The Tree Sparrows took the Studland/Ballard patch Year List to 176 which equally my best ever patch Year List in 2009. With eleven weeks left of the year & two pretty certain species expected in the next few days: Ring Ousel & Brambling, then I shouldn't have any problem beating the 2009 record. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks.

Another record occurred overnight with the Blog passing 100,000 page views.

31 Jan 15 - Deciding To Do A Studland/Ballard Patch Year List

In a spur of the minute decision at the end of 2014, I decided I have neglected the Studland/Ballard patch in recent years and I would do a 2015 patch year list. I had some intensive years of patch birding in 2008, 2009 & 2011 and since then I needed a bit of time Birding other sites as well as the Studland/Ballard patch. So there was a bit more UK & some foreign Birding. But I also spent time looking at other groups of wildlife & some time focusing more on photography. Having said that most of the UK Birding since 2011 has still been within Poole Harbour. It is ironic in some ways that having decided I had neglected the patch in recent years, that I had found more on the patch in 2014 than in any previous year. Especially when I hadn't been there that much, compared to the more intensive years. The 2014 goodies I found were:-

Hoopoe: Greenlands Farm. Amazingly I found this Hoopoe as I was going to twitch a Richard's Pipit found by Graham Armstrong. Two patch ticks added in less than an hour (24 Apr 14)

Grey-headed Wagtail: Female. First for Poole Harbour & seventh for Dorset of this race of Yellow Wagtail (31 May 14)

Yellow-browed Warbler: One of three different individuals found: one was North of Knoll Beach car park, one between Knoll & Middle Beach & one at South Beach (10 Oct 14)

I also found my first Studland Grey Phalarope at South Haven and a refind of a Black Guillemot off Old Harry (over a week after it was seen at the harbour mouth): but the photos of both species were too crap to keep.

Green-winged Teal: finding this Male in Brands Bay on New Years Eve was a great way to end the year

At this point, I should probably display a map of the area & draw a border on it. The easy option would have been to copy a map & draw a border on it. But that would have broken somebodies copyright (I strongly disapprove of those bloggers who put anybody else's material on their dreary Blogs to make them look better, especially when they don't even acknowledge the owner). So I've had to hand draw a map & add a few labels myself. This is best compared with an OS map to see the missing detail.

The Studland/Ballard Down patch boundaries

The patch is about 3 miles from top to bottom and about 3 miles from East to West at the bottom, but it tapers to a narrow point at the Northern end at South Haven, which is the Southern side of the Poole Harbour mouth. The Eastern side is Studland Bay which is the sea side of the patch. The North Western side from South Haven to Brands Bay is a tidal area with varying amounts of mud depending on the tidal strength. There is a freshwater lake known as Littlesea surrounded by heathland, dunes, woodland & wet marshy areas. Greenlands Farm is mainly grassy fields which through grazing has been changed to grassland from the surrounding Godlingston Heath (heathland). Ballard Down is a mixture of chalk grassland & farmland. An overall view of the patch from Ballard Down forms the banner photo for the Blog. Crucially, I count species seen within the boundaries, but also seen from inside these boundaries. Thus, Birds seen in Poole Harbour or Studland Bay are acceptable. Here are a few more photos of the patch.

South Haven: Looking towards Pilots Point (6 Oct 14)

Brands Bay: Low tide (21 April 14)

Brands Bay: The inner bay is partially enclosed by Redhorn Quay (21 April 14)

Brands Bay: Looking left from the hide (21 April 14)

Greenlands Farm: With Godlingston Heath in the background (25 May 14)

Studland Bay from Middle Beach: Looking towards Pilots Point on a stormy day (10 Feb 13)

South Beach: The sheltered Southerly end of South Beach with Old Harry in the background (7 Oct 14)

Old Harry: (1 June 14)

My Studland/Ballard patch list is 215 species, plus Nightingale heard. I've seen, but do not, count Crap (Feral) Pigeon. The varied habitats all help to ensure there is a wide range of species on the list. A full copy of my Studland/Ballard list can be found on Bubo.

There are plenty more great views of the patch, but I will have to photograph them & add them to the Blog over the next year. Anyway, in the next Post, I will provide a summary of my first month of the Patch Year List. It has been a great start to the patch Year List.