Bits & Bobs and a Brambling, from early January 2023.

January 6,

We had a quick look for a Pink-footed Goose that had been found in amongst a flock of Canada Geese in the flooded Cherwell Valley, not far from our home. A scour of the area didn't reveal any Geese apart from a distant flock of about twenty flying away which may or may not have held the Pink-foot. To look further for the Goose would have required a longish walk along the Oxford canal, and with little time to spare before an afternoon appointment, we opted instead to drive to Balscote Quarry Reserve (BQR) to check out the feeding station there.

On our last visit to BQR on New Year's Day we had failed to connect with a Brambling that had been seen over the Christmas break but it had been seen on subsequent days so I was hopeful that we'd see it at the second attempt. Even though the sun was shining it was chilly, as it often is at BQR where the wind blows straight into the observers hunkered behind a low wall at the top of a bank that overlooks the reserve. Our friend Lee was there, but he was having a spot of trouble with his car and was busy trying to resolve the issue, so initially we were the only people sat watching over the feeding station. As well as the expected Goldfinches and Greenfinches, there were also five Yellowhammers making use of the food provided.

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

We continued to watch the common birds, a couple of Chaffinches had joined in the feast and various species of the Tit family were also in attendance. There was no sign of the Brambling though and we feared that we'd be missing out again. The birds continued to come and go but for twenty minutes there was still no sign of that Brambling. We couldn't spare too much time to wait for it to appear either.

Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)

Lee joined us at the screen, having sorted out somebody to come and rescue him. I told him that there had been a Brambling present for a few days but that it was avoiding me. He advised me to look under the closest feeder. Of course, there was the male Brambling, I had completely managed to miss it joining the other birds feeding. I need to go to Specsavers!

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

The Brambling, now that it had appeared, showed almost constantly for the next half hour or so, usually feeding on the ground underneath the feeders but sometimes balancing awkwardly on a feeder itself. I'm not a photography snob but I wanted more natural poses from the bird so I concentrated on capturing it when it was perched in the bushes next to the feeders.

I failed in my attempts to get the Brambling flying between the bushes and feeders, it's only a distance of around six feet, partly to my own poor skills but also because I was still having teething problems with the new Canon R7 camera. I'd only had the new mirrorless camera for a week and hadn't managed to find settings that I was happy with. So far I was finding it great to photograph perched birds but flight shots were proving very difficult to obtain. The step up in quality of the R7 from my previous model is huge and it really is a game changer but it's a very technical piece of kit and apart from a basic grasp of how cameras work and operate, my technical skill and know how is rudimentary at best. Much improvement in those skills are required.

Year List additions;

61) Pied Wagtail, 62) Song Thrush, 63) Brambling

January 8,

Gulls are not everybody's cup of tea. They are probably one of the least loved families of all birds, probably because for a lot of birders they can be so hard to identify. Every Gull species has a myriad of plumage differences and many are very similar to others in the group. One of the Gull species that is relatively easy to identify however, is the Glaucous Gull. Glaucous Gulls are "white-wingers" one of a small section of Gulls that lack black in the primary feather tips. In this country they are only really confusable with Iceland Gulls but if seen well the large size of a Glaucous Gull differentiates it from the smaller and daintier Iceland Gull. Glaucous Gulls are as big as Great Black-backed Gulls and built like a Buzzard with a stare to match. They are a Gull not to be messed with. 

It's taken me a bit of time to love Gulls even though I still find them tricky to identify at times. I'm reasonably proficient at calling the more common species but still struggle in picking out awkward species like Caspian Gulls. On Friday while we were looking at the Brambling, a juvenile (first-winter) Glaucous Gull was discovered in the late afternoon roost at Little Marlow Gravel Pits on the outskirts of Bourne End in Buckinghamshire. Juvenile Gulls are generally brown speckled birds but a juvenile Glaucous Gulls being a paler bird has a pinkish-buff plumage and will stand out easily against the other juvenile Gulls. We couldn't go to see the Gull on Saturday owing to other commitments and the weather proved awful anyway. The Gull continued its presence at the Pits and showed well. It also commuted at times to a rubbish dump by the M40 motorway. Springfield Tip just south of Beaconsfield is a very good spot for feeding Gulls and is also watched regularly by birders, especially those interested in Gulls.

By the time we left home on the Sunday morning the Glaucous Gull was still at the Gravel Pits but halfway through our journey it left and flew off. This probably meant that it had gone to the rubbish tip for a feed so we headed straight there. Parking was relatively easy, as was access to the perimeter fence of the tip. Luckily for us, our friend David Bevan was already on site. Lucky because he is very good with Gulls and spends quite a bit of time studying them. We were less fortunate with the weather since it had started rain again and visibility wasn't great and the feeding flock of Gulls were distant out on the tip. The tip and its mounds of rotting rubbish also carried a none too pleasant odour so this wasn't a particularly salubrious spot to birdwatch. I found the Glaucous Gull quite readily enough but before I could get a record shot it had taken to the air with the rest of the hundreds of other Gulls. We followed it mill around in the air for a while but then lost it and couldn't find it again once the Gulls settled again. A poor and quick view indeed.

David found a 2nd calendar year Caspian Gull and offered me a view through his scope giving me another year tick. Again that Gull was soon out of view as well. The problem with watching feeding Gulls is that they are constantly on the move, transient between various parts of the tip and much of the dump just wasn't visible from the viewpoint. After around an hour of shivering against the cold rain we gave up and decided to check a field nearby which often holds the Gulls after they've fed at the tip. Unfortunately the field was devoid of any Gulls. We had to make an awkward thirteen point turn to avoid a massive flood over the road, testament to the recent wet spell of weather, and the way it was now pelting it down the puddles would be getting ever larger.

I didn't take a single photograph that morning owing to the distance of the birds and the rain (the photo below was taken in Scotland in 2021). We had however, added six new birds to our year list which we'll always keep even though we have no major aspirations this year. Hopefully there will be better weather the next time we head out and some good birds to see at much closer range like the Brambling had been the day before.

Year List addition;

64) Glaucous Gull, 65) Great Black-backed Gull, 66) Jay, 67) Feral Pigeon, 68) Redwing, 69) Caspian Gull

Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus)