The First (Norfolk) Twitch of the Year, 3rd January 2020

We started the new decade off with some relaxed birding on New Year's Day at our two best known local sites, the morning being spent at Otmoor and then the afternoon at Farmoor. After deciding that we would give year listing a miss in 2020 our opening day list still amounted to 66 birds seen, which interestingly beat our first day total of 2019 by over 20! The best birds were the apparently wintering Slavonian grebe and Greater Scaups at Farmoor while conversely on Otmoor neither of the ringtail Hen Harriers, the Peregrine or Bitterns put in an appearance. It was a grey old day to start the year so I hardly took a photo!

Stonechat

The next day in an effort to secure a couple of Gull species that had eluded us the previous year we drove the hour or so to the Rugby area and to Shawell refuse tip to be precise. A juvenile Glaucous Gull plus a few Caspian Gulls had been reported there over the past few weeks but first I had to find a spot to view the tip. When I did find a suitable viewing position, around half a mile from the active part of the dump, the number of Gulls on offer was overwhelming since there were thousand's! I tried hard for half an hour to pick out the Glaucous Gull with no success, admittedly I was well out of my depth because I am far from being a Gull expert, so I agreed with Mrs Caley that we'd be better off elsewhere. Draycote Water is just a few miles away so we headed there, knowing that a juvenile Great Northern Diver had been seen frequently at the end of last year and had been reported already that morning. We added Great Northern Diver to our year list quickly last year with a fabulous bird on the River Thames near Pangbourne and almost the first bird we spotted at Draycote, surprisingly our first ever visit to the reservoir, was the Diver. After quickly getting Mrs Caley on to the bird, the Diver then astonishingly, as if by magic, just disappeared. We couldn't find it despite seeing it at fairly close quarters as we arrived. Divers of all species can stay submerged for a long time and are incredibly powerful swimmers while under water so I guess that that it had managed to swim so far from its original position that we just failed to look in the right place when it resurfaced. We took a walk along the Farborough bank and noted some nice Goldeneyes amongst other more common Ducks. 

Goldeneye male (left) & Tufted Duck males

Right at the far end of the reservoir we found the group of three Greater Scaups, which were all dozing with heads tucked into their back feathers. It took what seemed like ages before a Black-headed Gull managed to rouse the first winter female Scaup and even longer before the two first-winter males abandoned their own slumbers. 

Greater Scaup, 1st-winter female (centre) & 2 1st-winter males

We made for the visitor centre expectant of a nice warming cup of coffee but the cafe was so busy with hordes of noisy and unruly children running amok that I soon gave it up and returned to the chilly reservoir to look for the Great Northern Diver again which we found easily this time but now it was much further out than before. As if to appease us, the Diver at that moment decided to have a stretch of its wings and perform some "aqua ballet" which at least enabled me to get a few nice record shots.

Great Northern Diver

A trip to "twitch" a Great Grey Shrike was suggested but there are others of those around to consider and they'll stay well into the year so instead we drove to the outskirts of Nuneaton to see a drake Ferruginous Duck which was supposedly showing well right by the roadside dam. Seeswood Pool was where we saw a Night Heron a few years ago, a bird that took me nearly two hours to locate, secreted as it was in a tree right at the far end of the pool. I found the Fudge Duck much more quickly but it was also right at the far end and not right in front of our noses as I'd hoped. In the first two days, without trying too hard, we had seen 70 species. Last year it took us until the 22nd of January to get to that number. But I am definitely not year listing, just making a note of what we see.


With just a few days left before I had to return to work, we planned a trip out for the Friday. A long desired addition to our life list, a Desert Wheatear, had been discovered next to the sea in North-east Norfolk on New Year's Day. It had stayed put the next day too so we decided that the long drive to see it just had to be done. When we arrived at the car park the weather was far from pleasant with a fine drizzle being blown in from the sea by a fairly brisk breeze. The bird was supposedly to be seen feeding on the concrete sea defences that had been constructed to save the dune system and the settlement of Eccles-on-sea from the ravages of the North Sea which was rapidly eroding parts of the unprotected coastline a few miles to the North at Happisburgh. A returning birder told us that the Wheatear had been showing well so at least we knew that we'd soon be seeing it which made the walk to where it should be a little less uncomfortable since the rain had gotten heavier since we started out and the wind had increased in ferocity too. When we reached the end of the sea wall there was no sign of any other birders, we were alone on this one, and no sign of the bird either. Not that we could see very far in the unrelenting horrible conditions. The weather had been forecast to be fair by ten o'clock so the meteorologists had clearly been drinking too much sherry over the Christmas break. The weather had deteriorated and not improved. We half-heartedly looked for the Desert Wheatear, certain that it would still be around but also equally sure that it was probably sheltering from the distinctly un-desert like weather. We took shelter behind a set of steps that led up and over the sea wall and were joined firstly by a sole Turnstone, which was totally disinterested in us and sauntered past at a distance of just a few feet, and then by another desperate chap who had, obviously, come for the Wheatear. When the rain eased slightly I peered up at the sea wall and there, thankfully, about fifty metres away was the Desert Wheatear feeding very inconspicuously amongst the weedy grasses that have managed to grow up in the cracks between the sea walls concrete panels. I hadn't bothered to get my camera out to photograph the Turnstone but I had to gain at least a record shot of the Wheatear. 

Desert Wheatear

As previously stated, I've long awaited to see a Desert Wheatear, but now as we stood in the murk getting ever more drenched, this particular twitch seemed like a bit of an anticlimax and far from fun. The bird was as bedraggled as we were and that fabulous sandy and black plumage didn't appear as striking as I expected. The bird looked very disconsolate as it pecked away at the base of the tussocks and stood still for a few minutes at a time before darting off to the next grassy clump. It was tricky to observe at first, obscured as it was by the grass, but it was slowly approaching us and our views improved with every dart forward that the bird made.

We were joined by Britains best known twitcher and a few others and thankfully the rain abated a little allowing me to worry less about my camera getting damp. The Desert Wheatear was now just twenty or so metres away and still approaching our position at the top of the steps. After the inclement weather so far, the improved light meant that I was now able to add some reasonable images of the latest addition to my life list. For some reason I have never totalled up my UK life list but have an idea that it isn't particularly impressive when compared with more hardened birders and with those who visit Shetland or Scilly on a regular basis. I certainly won't yet have achieved the landmark of 400 species but must be getting closer to that significant number. The top UK lister has 605 on his life list which I find incredible. One of Oxon's finest is nearly at 550! There isn't enough time left, or funds, in my own life to get anywhere near those numbers.

The Desert Wheatear suddenly took flight and disappeared over the sea wall and inland presumably to spend some time sheltering in the adjacent and private caravan park. It was gone for around twenty minutes before being found again a little further down the sea wall. The sea wall is punctuated by a series of steps which give access to the houses behind and we now strode off to the next set to get more views of the Wheatear. 

The Sea Wall and Steps. The Desert Wheatear fed along the top of the wall.

In the windy conditions the bird seemed even more reluctant to venture out of cover now and didn't come within reach so I left Mrs Caley with the scope while I walked along the wall to get a closer view. The snag now was that the bird was on top of the sea wall and that was around six feet high. So I couldn't purchase enough height to be able to get direct photos. The beach was even lower but by backing off you could at least see the bird but the trade off, of course, was that the Wheatear was further away. I took just a few frames before the Desert Wheatear flew off again.

I rejoined Mrs Caley at the steps and suggested that maybe we should head off for a coffee, I'd spotted a cafe right by the carpark, but she nudged me to look along the sea wall once more and there working its way towards us was the Desert Wheatear. We were the only folk still present and I thought that this would be our big chance to get unrivalled views. If we kept quiet and still, the Wheatear would walk right up to us. Just as the bird was coming into prime range for photos another birder appeared at the top of the steps and loudly inquired "where is it then?". Unsurprisingly the Wheatear took flight at that and was away over the dunes again. Why do some folk struggle so much with basic fieldcraft?

Unwilling to spend any time with the loudmouth, who had severely tested my New Year's resolution to stay calm, upbeat and nice to people, I decided that time was up and we needed that coffee. The soaking that we'd endured had left us less keen to go looking for any other birds, we are not going mad building a year list remember, so apart from stopping to see a group of Common Cranes at long range in a field next to the route home, three of which obligingly flew around bugling loudly, we left Norfolk early and arrived back home before dark.

Common Crane

The following morning, after doing the weekly shop, we pondered what we could do for the rest of the day. Determined that we wouldn't year list and to only seek new or interesting birds we resisted the temptation to return to Whipsnade Zoo to re-twitch the Black-throated Thrush seen just before Christmas and decided to look for other birds instead. With the back to work day fast approaching, I wanted one last trip out, so settled on seeing some Hawfinches, a bird that we hadn't had a decent view of for a couple of years, that had reportedly been showing well at a site in Nottinghamshire. Thoresby Park forms part of the Sherwood Forest national nature reserve and we had visited the area in June to look for Honey Buzzards at a well known watchpoint nearby. We had coincidentally looked for some Hawfinches on that day as well without success but apparently the ones on offer now were very obliging since they were to be seen feeding on Mistletoe berries right next to a road on the edge of the Thoresby estate. We also had an excuse to stop at the Fables Cafe in nearby Edwinstowe which serves one of the best bacon sandwiches that I've ever eaten outside of my own kitchen. 

We parked up in a gateway, joining a handful of other hopeful birders, and saw the Mistletoe bearing trees just fifty metres or so away. Asking around confirmed that Hawfinches had been seen that morning but in trees right at the far side of the field opposite. For the next hour and a half I studied every tree within half a mile but only came up with more common species. Then Mrs Caley beat me to it and spotted a couple of our largest Finches in those furthest trees but they flew off within seconds. It was then another forty minutes or so before I spied another trio in the same trees. The Hawfinches were perching in the spindly branches above some Yew trees. After a few minutes they dropped down into the Yews and disappeared. Another five, or maybe the same plus a couple of others, Hawfinches appeared in the same trees and after a few minutes descended into the Yews. It was clear that the distant views was as good as it was going to get so we settled for what we'd got and made plans to look for Hawfinches somewhere else during the winter.

Hawfinches

Rutland Water was only a slight detour off of our route home and we made it there about an hour before sunset. We quickly found the Red-necked Grebe in the South Arm of the Old Hall path, a bird that had taken us three attempts to see last year, and then drove the short distance to Eyebrook Reservoir, where after a frantic half hour of searching in the near dark, I managed to find a couple of the handsome drake Smew's as well as four of the less eye-catching females. Both the Grebe and the Smew were late additions to our year list in 2019 so it was good to get them in the bag early this year.  Our year list had progressed to #81.