Back to Life and Back to Reality but some Bonus Sprites on the Way! 19th October 2019

I never like going home after a holiday, "Back to life, back to reality" as the song goes, just doesn't fill me with glee at all. I'd much rather be birding! But, in keeping with most folk, I have to earn the pennies to be able to take the holidays that I love. Hence I always try to stretch out our trips by looking for birds to twitch on the way home. Over the years we've picked up some really good birds on the way home from holidays, our only Solitary Sandpiper was seen at Colyford in Devon, a Hoopoe at Carsethorn in Dumfries, two Pectoral Sandpipers at Shapwick Heath in Somerset, a Woodchat Shrike at Cheddar in Somerset and so on. We don't always get to see what we go looking for of course, we dipped a Hudsonian Whimbrel at Barrow-in-Furness mainly because the marshes there are so huge and we had no idea where to look and we abandoned a search for a Rock Thrush near Abergavenny in Wales because of torrential rain although we did get to see that bird a week later.

Rock Thrush, Pwll Du, Wales, 28/10/2019

We stopped for an overpriced and distinctly average breakfast at an "industrial" style cafe on a trading estate near Redruth and checked the bird news. There was nothing interesting or new for the year that would be worth detouring for so after our food we headed for our traditional stop at Darts Farm near Exeter. Darts Farm is a retail extravaganza where I did lots of work once and the farm shop there serves excellent coffee and cakes. It was too early to indulge too much though so I chatted away to Gareth in the RSPB shop about birdy stuff and the recent badge releases. Mrs Caley suggested we drop into Slimbridge for a couple of hours on the way home which seemed a reasonable idea. However, just as we were about to get in the car, I received notification that a Pallas's Warbler had been seen at a place called Sand Point on the Somerset coast. Even better was that there were also a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers present there as well. We didn't need either species for our year list since we'd already seen a Pallas's Warbler in County Durham in February and Yellow-browed's in Cornwall during the preceding week but, hey, who doesn't love those little sprites?

We pulled into the car park at Sand Point just after one o'clock. The place was busy with walkers and other "recreationists" but at least the National Trust parking area was free, something that doesn't happen very often! Only because the pay machine was broken mind. The birds were reported as being in trees along the path next to the car park. We found the path easily enough and the other twitchers, Pallas's Warbler would be a rare bird in these parts, who were a little disconcertingly spread out over a large area which is never a good sign since if the bird was showing then all attention would be directed at the same point. Our well met friends, at a Hoopoe twitch last November, @PaultheBirder and @batesy31 were there too and they told us that they'd seen the Pallas's about half an hour before and showed us the tree where it had been. It was keeping tabs with a highly mobile flock of small birds containing various species of Tits. Usually a flock of birds keep to a circuit and will come back to the same place in due course so I decided to stake out the area where they had seen the Pallas's even though most of the other birders were studying other places along the path. And we rewarded almost immediately, not by a sighting of the Pallas's but of a Yellow-browed which flew into the top of a tall tree and caught a fly.

Yellow-browed Warbler

We wanted the Pallas's Warbler so when a group of birders suddenly all became interested in a part of the wood about thirty metres away we joined them. I heard comments such as "It's there, right at the bottom of that Oak tree" and " Low down by that bush" but could see nothing. Then I saw it, the tiny seven striped sprite in all its glory in full view but just for a few seconds before it flitted away into the bushes to the side of the Oak. Sadly Mrs Caley hadn't seen it and I hadn't managed to get a photo. We didn't see the Pallas's again.

Pallas's Warbler, Fishburn, Durham, 21/02/2019

Mrs Caley retired to the car and I promised that I'd only be half an hour then we'd get off back home. Credit to my wife then that it took forty-five minutes before she sent me a "Where are you" text message, she must have fallen asleep! In that three-quarters of an hour I chose to walk up and down the path and bird on my own away from the other folk who just seemed to want to chatter incessantly. I've noticed that talking at twitches is becoming commonplace like talking at gigs and I find it a bit irritating at times but I guess it's just the excitement getting to folk in both instances. Also I was probably a bit gloomy since I was going back home to, well, work again. There was a beautiful Oak tree close to a very desirable residence at the northern end of the path (which also served as the driveway). I studied the Oak for a while since the sun was at my back and one of the Yellow-browed Warblers chose to feed within it and showed for me and for me only. Of course once other birders see you photographing something they race over to see what it is you're taking pictures of. 

At one point both Yellow-browed's were in the Oak but one flew out almost as soon as I spotted it and into trees behind me where it was backlit so photography was more challenging. Both Yellow-browed's were doing a fine job of limiting the local fly population.

But it was time to go and get back to life and back to reality!