A Grey Day! Saturday 26th January 2019

We continued with the theme of searching out new birds for the year list by driving to the rather spooky sounding village of Hanging Houghton just north of Northampton. At least we should be spared the gallows! There is a minor road that leads out of the village into a reasonably remote area of farmland. At the end of the road there is a place called Blueberry Farm which in the past was a terrific place to see Short-eared Owls. Up to 20 of those open ground specialists could be seen in some years but recently the farm was sold and the whole area turned back over to intensive agriculture resulting in the loss of the rough grassland and consequently the Owls were forced out. Today though the quarry was a Great Grey Shrike which had been found frequenting some of the myriad of hedgerows that line the fields.

We joined around a dozen or so cars already parked next to a large barn that was around 400 yards away from the bridleway from where the Shrike was reported to be showing. There had also been a report of a Lapland Bunting that was associating with a flock of Skylarks that were feeding on a stubble field next to the bridleway. I've only seen Lapland Buntings a couple of times before and only ever in Norfolk. I also know that when on the ground they can be very difficult to see, as are all small ground feeding birds but as ever on the outward walk I was optimistic that it would be found either by myself or one of the other birders on site. The Bunting had generated more excitement than the Shrike among the local birdwatchers and a few were staring intently through their scopes at the stubble field. I chatted to a couple and discovered that the Bunting had only been seen in flight since when on the ground all of the birds were practically invisible but someone had picked up the call of the Lapland Bunting as it flew overhead. With that information I felt it was highly unlikely that we'd be seeing a Lapland Bunting so decided to walk on up the bridleway and look for the Great Grey Shrike.

The weather wasn't very palatable, cold winds were sweeping across the farmland and there was rain in the air but for now it was dry. A small charm of Goldfinches were feeding on the seed heads of dead flowers and we saw a flock of Yellowhammers, new for the year, adorn a small tree. Yellowhammers were actually everywhere here and during the time that we spent on site we must have seen hundreds, which is of course very good news since Yellowhammer numbers, in company with many farmland birds, are in severe decline.

Goldfinch

Yellowhammer

Halfway along the bridleway and before we joined a small group of birders I had a quick scan for the Shrike and sure enough some distance was the bird perched at the top of a small tree in one of the hedges. Great Grey Shrikes use lofty perches from which to watch for their prey and this one was no exception. We met up with the other birders and asked if they were watching the Shrike, to my astonishment they said that they hadn't seen it! To be fair from their vantage point you couldn't see it so I suggested that they follow me to the end of the hedge from where you certainly could. Mrs Caley and I were there first and the Shrike was still perched openly as before but, of course, as soon as one of the others caught up, the bird had disappeared!

Great Grey Shrike

The lay of the land meant that you could only see part of the way up the field and it was clear that the Shrike had transferred into a hidden section of the hedgerow network. I could see a couple of birders stood alongside the field but on the other side and on the brow of the rise and I reckoned that they would probably have a complete view of the whole area so Mrs Caley and I walked off around the field edge to join them. The field edges here have all been left fallow and the longer and rougher grasses harboured many birds and we briefly had a view of a Corn Bunting perched on top of a hedge, our second sighting of these scarce birds in two days. On our way around the field I had another scan of the area and spotted the Shrike atop another bush and seemingly right in front of the two birders that we were on our way to join, they must have been getting really good views! We arrived at the top of the hill but the Shrike had disappeared again and began chatting away to the two chaps. One of them was fellow local Oxfordshire and Banbury area birder, Kyle who incidentally writes a good blog which you can read here Britannia Birding, and he recounted that they did indeed have a decent view of the Shrike but it was still a fair way off.

As we chatted the Shrike reappeared across the other side of the field again where it worked slowly along the hedgerow. Also working along the hedge but on the other side to the bird was an over eager chap obviously wanting a close up view. Too close in our collective opinion since the Shrike moved very low down in the hedge even though it allowed the intruder on the other side to within just a few yards. There was no way he could have seen the Shrike through the thick hedge though and his actions would actually be to our benefit since before long the Shrike became unnerved enough to fly back to the northern edge of the field, we were on the west side, and perched right in the top of a tall tree before working slowly towards the hedge where we stood. At the northern corner of our hedge and in the corner of the field was a large area of tall unkempt grasses and weeds and this was attracting a large number of birds. We saw a single Brambling, many Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings and best of all a few Tree Sparrows, a rare bird in Oxfordshire these days. All were feeding in the stubble while alternatively resting in the hedgerow. The Great Grey Shrike was obviously attracted to this potential larder. We also surprised a covey of around ten Grey Partridges out of the stubble which flew quickly down the hill and into another patch of weeds. Grey Partridges are another uncommon species in my neck of the woods too.

Tree Sparrow

Kyle and the other birder had seen enough and departed to bird elsewhere but we thought we'd stick around a little longer and see if the Shrike would reappear. Less than five minutes later it did indeed show itself and incredibly had popped up right in front of us around 50 yards away. For a Great Grey Shrike this was close! After setting Mrs Caley up with the scope for marvellous views I took some photos but alas it was one of those days when try as hard as I could I just couldn't get a decent shot. The combination of the bird being just out of optimal reach of my lens and the very grey day meant that I just didn't have the necessary skills to secure a good shot but we have reasonable record shots anyway. My expertise with the camera is a bit patchy right now and I seem to be going through a hopeless run of form! 

Once the Shrike had gone out of view again we called it a day and headed back towards the car. On the way we met the chap who had been creeping along the opposite hedge earlier. He asked us if we had sen the Shrike since he'd had no luck! I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was just yards away from it earlier but gave him hope instead by telling him that we'd just seen it back along the track. Large flocks of Skylarks were wheeling over the stubble field but if the Lapland Bunting was amongst them then I couldn't see it. It started raining too so we hastily beat a retreat back to the car pausing only to admire some more Yellowhammers.

While packing the stuff into the car I noticed the flock of Chaffinches that I'd seen earlier around the barn was still present so I checked them over again. This time I had a quick glimpse of a male Brambling but before I could share it with Mrs Caley it had flown back behind the barn. The flock of birds was periodically dropping to the ground and feeding on some seed that had been spread out there. At first as I watched there was around fifty Chaffinches and a sole Pied Wagtail taking advantage of the handout but then I saw a Brambling, probably a first winter male, fly in low and join them. 

Brambling

Whenever the flock was spooked they would fly back up to the barn roof or even into the barn for safety before flying back down again to feed once more. Mrs Caley was watching the birds from the inside of the car, a very wise decision since I was getting quite wet stood outside it, but you need to rough it I think! Another Brambling was now feeding on the ground but when the other birds flew to safety it remained on its own feeding. Sadly this bird, I think another first winter male, didn't look at all well and remained by itself all fluffed up when the other birds were disturbed.

The "ill looking" Brambling

The seed was also visited by a couple of Stock Doves, another addition to the year list but they were very flighty and didn't settle for long. I took some more photos of the Bramblings and then sought the sanctuary of the car myself since it was now chucking it down!

Stock Dove

After a whopping great doorstep sandwich and a few chips in a pub in Brixworth we parked up at nearby Pitsford Reservoir. Pitsford is a huge body of water separated by a causeway carrying busy road. There was a single birder scoping the flocks of ducks in the section of water, known as the Narrows, nearest to the causeway so I asked him if he'd seen the drake Ring-necked Duck which we'd hopefully come to see. On receiving the news that it had been last seen to the north of the causeway we made our way over there but first we enjoyed some distant views of a juvenile Great Northern Diver, added Great Crested Grebe to the year list and I took a couple of photos of a Common Gull that was taking some of the free bread dished out by some other visitors to the reservoir.

Common Gull

On the walk to the area where the Ring-necked Duck was purported to be we spotted a pair of Stonechats that, as they are prone to do, perched up on fence posts ahead of us, always flittering to a new perch to keep a constant distance between them and us.

Male Stonechat

The number of ducks on the reservoir was almost overwhelming but I had to search through them all if I was going to find the Ring-necked Duck. Over half an hour later I had found two Greater Scaup and a couple of Red-crested Pochard, both new for the year and hundreds of Tufted Duck and Wigeon plus a few Goldeneye. We had seen a Great Egret as well but there was no sign of the target bird. Local birder Neil McMahon had arrived and we asked him where the duck was usually seen also pointing out that we'd had no luck. I'd first met Neil in the Kenidjack valley a couple of winters ago when we'd first found the Hawfinches that had set up temporary home there. He has great birding skills so I trusted him completely to find the Ring-necked Duck since I was now having one of those mini crises of confidence because I couldn't find it. Another half hour of fruitless searching by both of us couldn't locate the duck so we had to concede that it was elsewhere. We left since it was now getting late in the day but tarried to watch a flock of Lapwing, a Redshank and another Great Egret that was stood idling at the waters edge.

Great Egret and Lapwing

Our year list now stood at 101 species, not a bad start considering we're still in January. We'd only seen one of our target birds, dipped on another, but had a few welcome surprises too, proving what a mixed bag winter birding can provide.