Half Man Half Biscuit sing, in their driving, hilarious, ridiculous but quite true "National Shite Day", a song about the irritating side of life, the following verse;
I got a letter from Stringy Bob:
“Still on suicide watch
Screws not happy
Spotted a marsh fritillary during association
Was roundly ignored
What news you?”
I felt sorry for him
He’d only been locked up for public nuisance offences
One of which saw him beachcombing the Dee Estuary
Found a dead wading bird
Took it home, parcelled it up, and sent it off to the rubber-faced irritant Phil Cool
With a note inside which read: “Is this your sanderling?”
Whenever I see a Sanderling, that song bounces into my head. It's a favourite tune of mine (listen to it here) and one I always look forward to seeing performed live. It is simply brilliant, an accurate portrayal of everyday moans and groans and features the never to be forgotten line;
There’s a man with a mullet going mad with a mallet in Millets
The song is even more poignant in the present times when we all have plenty to grumble about and not just the petty irritants contained within the lyrics. As a birder I'm complaining about not being able to go where I want, not being able to stay overnight, not being able to visit RSPB, WWT and other reserves, not being able to go to Wales to get the special birds there and most of all, not being able to go on holiday to Scotland and get the really special birds there! Chuck in no football to go to in order to relieve some stress and no pubs to drink ones sorrows in, and it really is National Shite Day every single day at the moment. Unless some Sanderling appear, live ones of course.
I had so far failed to see any Sanderling in 2020 despite a few being called at Farmoor over the past week or so because I was always elsewhere, at work, birding on Otmoor or the birds had been flushed and left the area before I could react and get up to the reservoir. On Thursday, midway through the morning a group of five Sanderling had been reported from Farmoor but as per usual had flown off once the public had begun to stomp their way along the causeway as they exercised their right to exercise. Luckily however, they were reported again in the afternoon so after work I collected Mrs Caley and drove up to Farmoor to belatedly add one of my favourite wading bird species to the year list.
By four-thirty we had joined half of Oxford's population on the banks of the reservoir. I scanned quickly along the causeway from the marina and couldn't see any small birds scuttling along the concrete apron of F2 and also, slightly more alarming, through the throng I couldn't see any other birders either. Nobody watching nothing can indicate that there isn't anything to look at!
We started along the causeway and adopted our normal formation, I look and scan the water and edges of F1 while Mrs Caley studies F2. My wife scored first when she noticed some Terns stood atop one of the buoys near the marina, a pair of Common Tern, our first of the year and another long awaited year tick. Last year we saw eight species, plus another subspecies, namely Arctic, Common, Little, Sandwich, Black, White-winged Black, Roseate, Gull-billed and American Black Tern in the UK. By contrast these Commons were our first Tern species for 2020, another indication of how the Lockdown has affected our usual birding. How I do long for a trip to the coast (but not Durdle Door).
I rallied by spotting a drake Wigeon swimming languidly past on F1. We don't usually see Wigeon in May at Farmoor, I would expect them to be off breeding somewhere further north by now. Anyway, they are fine looking ducks and I was happy enough to see it. Still needing more than just a duck though.
We ambled along, by now thinking that the Sanderling had departed again, when I noticed a small wading bird on the bank of F2, I had momentarily swapped sides, right at the apex of my viewpoint. The bank of F2 curves away from you as you walk along the causeway so you can never see all of it from the road, conversely you can always see the whole of the F1 bank. The wader turned out to be a Dunlin, nice to see but not the Sanderlings that we'd hoped for. The Dunlin was still a hundred yards ahead and as we narrowed the distance and thus opened up more of the F2 bank we saw that it was in fact keeping company with several other small wading birds, five in actual fact, and of course they materialised into the Sanderling that were reported earlier. So we had our Sanderling, National Shite Day resounded in my head, and our year list edged up to 161.
But I'm never going to be happy with a view from fifty metres away so we continued walking towards the group of waders. I've learned over the years that in order to get the best views of wading birds at Farmoor you need to walk past them, using the opposite side of the road from the bank they're on so as not to disturb them, and then sidle in to the wall, crouch down and wait for them to approach. This method normally works just fine and you are rewarded with point blank views. Unless a jogger comes hurtling past that is and puts the group to flight! Which happened as soon as I'd got comfy next to the wall. Luckily for once, however, the jogger actually did me a big favour since the group of birds merely flew out over F2 a short distance before returning to the bank at a spot right in front of me which allowed me to take some action photos of the birds in flight. The set of images that grinned back at me from my laptop later that evening was met with an even bigger grin from myself and needless to say I was absolutely delighted! Wouldn't be award winning, but very pleasing nonetheless. I should buy that jogger a pint or a kale smoothie someday, if the pubs or health joints should ever reopen that is.
As the birds flew closer I was able to take pot luck and pick out individuals. No selection process of course, just aim with the camera and fire at will in the hope of catching some in focus images. Trying to get a camera to capture sharp photos when the subject is flying directly towards you is a fiendishly tricky business. The autofocus whether using the front or back buttons isn't as fast as the birds are. Despite that I managed to win with a few.
The group of five Sanderling and the Dunlin were now settled on the embankment again and were just metres away. It was tricky to get all six in the same shot because they were so close but also they were spaced out just far enough apart so that I couldn't get the depth of field required. Of the Sanderling, just one was in full summer breeding plumage, another was part the way there and the other three were still largely adorned in non-breeding garb. The Dunlin was in prime breeding condition. I always find it amazing that these birds probably spent our winter off the coast of West Africa and they are now passing through the UK on their way much further north to breed above the Arctic Circle. Once the breeding season is over they'll make the return journey. They travel thousands of miles twice a year, an absolutely incredible feat for such small creatures.
Of course wading birds such as these have to feed up on their journeys and that's why we get some drop into Farmoor every year, almost every second they're at the reservoir is spent feeding and we should be grateful that they're reducing the fly population a little. I settled on trying to photograph all of the individual birds. The obvious subject for most folk would be the individual in full breeding plumage, but my regular reader will know that I prefer the understated birds so I initially concentrated on the trio of less richly coloured birds. Initially the three very obligingly lined up together for me to make things a little easier.
I moved onto the two more colourful examples which of course were by now separate from the others and running in tandem along the concrete edge. Sanderling feed by running quickly to snare a titbit and are famous for their clockwork toy type gait. They are able to move so quickly owing to having an interesting adaptation, unlike most other birds they lack a hind toe. They are very active birds but do also stop occasionally and allow the photographer, and me, to get some stills.
The Dunlin tended to stay ahead of the Sanderling, slightly surprising since I thought it would always be playing catch up with its swift footed companions. Dunlin transform from nondescript, but still beautiful, little grey birds in winter into a rich brown and white summer dress with a distinguished black belly patch that it shares with other moorland nesters such as many of the Plover family. Keeping tabs with the Sanderling must have left the Dunlin breathless but in truth the two species are frequently seen together.
I could have spent hours taking countless images of the six birds, and indeed did my best in the available time, but we didn't have long this evening so left the birds after just half an hour or so. They weren't seen the following morning.
Close to the marina we saw our first fledged Pied Wagtail of the spring. It looked rather young to be out of the nest already and lacked the distinctive long tail of its parents, the male of which watched from the roof of the sailing hut. Thankfully Pied Wagtails also eat flies and judging by the amount swarming above and around our heads they are going to busy and well fed over the next few weeks.
In the marina itself a Coot was having a frantic bath and then took time out on the edge to dry out. I find Coots fascinating and they always deserve to be watched whether they're squabbling and scrapping amongst themselves, ducking and diving for some, very questionably, tasty weed to feast upon, or, my favourite, tenderly feeding their distinctive and weird looking offspring which would be hatching any day now.
I was still singing in my head;
Shite Day
I guess this must be National Shite Day
This surely must be National Shite Day
Don't tell me, it's National Shite Day
 |
| Common Tern |
 |
| Wigeon |
But I'm never going to be happy with a view from fifty metres away so we continued walking towards the group of waders. I've learned over the years that in order to get the best views of wading birds at Farmoor you need to walk past them, using the opposite side of the road from the bank they're on so as not to disturb them, and then sidle in to the wall, crouch down and wait for them to approach. This method normally works just fine and you are rewarded with point blank views. Unless a jogger comes hurtling past that is and puts the group to flight! Which happened as soon as I'd got comfy next to the wall. Luckily for once, however, the jogger actually did me a big favour since the group of birds merely flew out over F2 a short distance before returning to the bank at a spot right in front of me which allowed me to take some action photos of the birds in flight. The set of images that grinned back at me from my laptop later that evening was met with an even bigger grin from myself and needless to say I was absolutely delighted! Wouldn't be award winning, but very pleasing nonetheless. I should buy that jogger a pint or a kale smoothie someday, if the pubs or health joints should ever reopen that is.
 |
| Sanderling & Dunlin (right hand bird) |
 |
| Sanderling |
 |
| Dunlin |
Of course wading birds such as these have to feed up on their journeys and that's why we get some drop into Farmoor every year, almost every second they're at the reservoir is spent feeding and we should be grateful that they're reducing the fly population a little. I settled on trying to photograph all of the individual birds. The obvious subject for most folk would be the individual in full breeding plumage, but my regular reader will know that I prefer the understated birds so I initially concentrated on the trio of less richly coloured birds. Initially the three very obligingly lined up together for me to make things a little easier.
I moved onto the two more colourful examples which of course were by now separate from the others and running in tandem along the concrete edge. Sanderling feed by running quickly to snare a titbit and are famous for their clockwork toy type gait. They are able to move so quickly owing to having an interesting adaptation, unlike most other birds they lack a hind toe. They are very active birds but do also stop occasionally and allow the photographer, and me, to get some stills.
 |
| Sanderling |
 |
| Dunlin |
Close to the marina we saw our first fledged Pied Wagtail of the spring. It looked rather young to be out of the nest already and lacked the distinctive long tail of its parents, the male of which watched from the roof of the sailing hut. Thankfully Pied Wagtails also eat flies and judging by the amount swarming above and around our heads they are going to busy and well fed over the next few weeks.
 |
| Pied Wagtail |
 |
| Coot |
Shite Day
I guess this must be National Shite Day
This surely must be National Shite Day
Don't tell me, it's National Shite Day
even though this day certainly wasn't. Thank goodness there are birds to relieve the boredom and that I'm a birder!
Sanderling are truly lovely birds and these are truly lovely flight pictures of them
ReplyDeleteThank you Ewan!
ReplyDelete