Wanted in Worcestershire, Early June 2020

Wednesday 3rd June; More effort required

On the preceding Saturday after a quality mornings birding in Berkshire (read here), we became aware of a Glossy Ibis that was staying loyal to a small wetland reserve near Evesham in Worcestershire. It had been found a few days before and had been present all day on the Saturday. So after a mid-afternoon slumber I coerced Mrs Caley into accompanying me, to be fair I only go where she goes, to the Lower Moor Nature Reserve by the banks of the River Avon. We left home just before four o'clock, the drive was pleasant enough over the winding Cotswolds roads, arrived an hour or so later, parked up and walked the half mile or so down to the reserve. When we left the car the latest update at quarter to five had announced that the Glossy Ibis was still present. When we joined the three other birders looking out over the small scrape, we were told that the bird had flown off eastwards about ten minutes before! Aaaarghhhh, not again! 

We stayed for two hours in sweltering heat and the bird didn't reappear. Are we really that unlucky? Dipping the Glossy Ibis wasn't quite as painful as missing out on the Ross's Gull back in March, but was still disappointing. During our vigil we only had a Cuckoo, a Peregrine and a couple of Avocets to lift the spirits.

The Glossy Ibis wasn't seen at all on Sunday so we felt a little bit better for knowing that it had gone from the area and even began hoping that it would pitch up on Otmoor, where we saw our first over fifteen years ago. Then on Monday it was seen again at Lower Moor and stayed in the area all day, and again on Tuesday. Normally I wouldn't be that bothered with a Glossy Ibis, I've seen lots over the years including one just a couple of miles from home on a flooded field next to a Garden Centre, and just a stones throw from my local Bicester Wetlands Reserve where it had initially been found, but this had been a tricky year so far and I was keen to add some more unusual birds to the faltering year list. 

So with the Ibis still in situ on the Wednesday, I decided to give it another go. As a bonus a couple of Curlew Sandpipers had been seen at Lower Moor too late in the morning so we'd be able to add those to the year list too, provided they stuck around of course. In contrast to the heat and sunshine of Saturday, the weather was pretty grim with constant drizzle and no chance of any improvement, in fact the rain was supposed to be heavier the further west one went, it's a Welsh thing I think. We knew the way of course and arrived on site at around four o'clock. A quick scan over the shallow scrape revealed no leggy, long curvy billed birds at all and that old, "Oh no, not again" feeling rose from the pit of my stomach. But this time we knew it was definitely around since there had been no reports of it flying off and there were two other birders close by. I thought about asking one of them if they'd seen the Glossy Ibis when out of the corner of my eye I saw the leggy, long curvy billed thing emerge from behind a tussock! Phew.

Glossy Ibis

I motioned for Mrs Caley to look to her left where the Glossy Ibis was feeding, partially obscured by the long grasses at the front of the scrape. This was a fine adult bird which would look absolutely resplendent in bright sunshine with it's mix of petroleum purples and greens, but in the miserable dreich conditions of the day, it looked rather drab and featureless from the fifty metre distance that we stood at. At least the camera managed to capture a little bit of that iridescent beauty.

The Glossy Ibis was certainly feeding well, as was indicated by the regular tossing of its head backwards while simultaneously opening that peculiar bill to manoeuvre and then swallow its prey, and seemed perfectly happy so I pondered on why it had given us the runaround on Saturday. Perhaps it's an Old Caley thing. Anyway, now it was showing extremely well and we watched it at length for a few minutes.

But, of course, I remembered that there was also supposed to be two Curlew Sandpipers present so I scanned the far side of the pool for those, birds such as small waders will almost always tend to be as far away as possible (unless at Farmoor) so finding them is more difficult. It took me a couple of sweeps before I found them, surprisingly well camouflaged against the mud considering that one was in its full rusty summer breeding plumage and the other was almost so. I relieved Mrs Caley of the scope to get a better look at them.

Curlew Sandpipers

The Curlew Sandpipers were not alone, they were loosely associating with some other small waders and scattered around the muddy edge of the scrape I found two Ringed Plovers, incredibly at this late stage new for us for the year, two Little Ringed Plovers and a Dunlin. Very distant so useless for photography but I took a few for the record.

Dunlin, left, Curlew Sandpipers & Ringed Plover, right

In fact it wasn't a great day to be taking photos of anything but I resolved to try to get better shots of the Glossy Ibis. The bird itself tried to help by flying short distances on a couple of occasions into more open water where the light reflecting off the surface helped but it was still difficult to capture the bird in all of its glory. But it was good to see the Ibis, which along with the Curlew Sandpipers and Ringed Plovers nudged our year list up to 172, still a long way behind last years effort.

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Saturday 6th June; A Late Catch-Up with a Favourite

Being in Lockdown had robbed us of a few of our normal birding trips out this spring. One of which was our annual pilgrimage to a Welsh Oakwood to fill up on Wood Warblers, Pied Flycatchers and Common Redstarts. All except for a quick glimpse of a male of the latter were missing from the Old Caley year list and seemingly the only chance that we'd get to add them would be if we bumped into returning migrants in the autumn. Then a week or so before our intrepid fellow Oxon birder, and Butterfly enthusiast, Ewan (BlackAudiBirding) had written a blog about a trip to the Wyre Forest in search of the rare Dark Green Fritillary. In the blog he mentioned that a pair of Pied Flycatchers were using a specially provided nest box close to a path in a small nature reserve there. Interest piqued, I researched the area and was staggered to learn that the Wyre Forest in question was "only" at Bewdley, a mere seventy mile drive from home. For some reason I'd always thought that the Wyre Forest was in Staffordshire and much further away. Considering that our favoured spot in Wales was about double the distance from home and nearly a four hour drive, I wondered why I'd never been to the Wyre Forest since, according to the local Wildlife Trusts website, all of the birds mentioned above are to be found there in spring!

So at the first available opportunity we were on our way, driving along largely deserted roads on another not too promising day weather wise. Where do all of those nice sunny days go when you need them? I'd gotten some precise directions of where to park and where to find the Flycatchers from another of our friends, Moth, who had also made the trip earlier in the week. As we parked up the first of many rain showers splattered against the windscreen so we stayed put for a few minutes and pondered why we'd even bothered. The problem with woodland birding is that you have to be in a wood, which on dull days are dark and dreary places and birding can be difficult and the birds hard to find. We certainly wouldn't be seeing any Butterflies on this trip, not that I'm big into them anyway. The main track leads out along the route of a disused railway line and it's here that the rare Butterflies are found on warm days in May and June. The path also doubles up as a racetrack for eager cyclists and on a couple of occasions we were almost cut in half by a mad lycra clad Tour de France wannabe. We were looking for a side track about half mile along the track where a small narrow side path wound its way down into a steep sided valley and into the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust reserve where the Pied Flycatchers would be.

The side track duly found we left the racetrack, and the noise, and entered another world, eerily quiet on this damp morning although the occasional bird song or call managed to find its way through the trees. We heard Song Thrush, Chiffchaff and other common birds as we navigated the path down towards the mill at the bottom. The Pied Flycatchers were nesting in box number 33 which was surprisingly close to the path, just ten metres or so off of it in fact. We ensconced ourselves into a position from where we could watch the box without disturbing the birds although as of yet we'd seen none. 

It didn't take long for one of the Pied Flycatchers to appear, the male, which flew in quickly from our left deposited a meal to one of its hungry chicks inside the box and flew off again. The male returned to the box many times over the next ten minutes or so but there was no sign of the female at all. 

male Pied Flycatcher

Finally the female Pied Flycatcher did appear and, unlike the male which only stuck its head inside the hole of the box, entered inside and emerged a few moments later carrying a fecal sac which it dropped some way away from the box. This pattern was repeated for the entire time we stayed watching, the male made many visits and never went inside the box while the female made far fewer calls and always entered and always took out the waste when she left. 

female Pied Flycatcher

The dull, drizzly day didn't help in capturing photos of the birds but the male did at least try to help by sometimes perching in an open area of bracken on the opposite side of the path from the nest box where it was bit brighter. Male Pied Flycatchers are named and do exactly "what it says on the tin", that is they are black and white, and they catch flies. In fact they catch all types of insects including butterflies, not today in the driech conditions, and moths but I guess Butterflycatcher would have been a bit of a mouthful, literally, to say!

Male Pied Flycatchers have a pair of white spots that appear to be like a pair of headlights on their foreheads and this renders them easier to see at distance when in the darkness of the trees. Both of the birds could be watched hunting for food once we'd got our eyes in and used to the surroundings and rather than flit amongst the tree tops, both were foraging in the bracken or in the lower branches, testament again to the dull day and heavy air keeping their insect prey low down.

The female Pied Flycatcher is a more subdued brown and white bird and was much more difficult to get a photo of but eventually, after leaving the nest box one more time, she perched briefly on a nearby branch and allowed me the grace to take a few photos.

But it was the male that posed the best and was a more frequent visitor to feed its offspring in the box. At times we could see the gaping mouths of the chicks but I was unable to capture a food passing moment on camera. 

male Pied Flycatcher and chick at nest hole

I wandered up the path a little way and found a second male exiting another box, which was facing away from the path so I didn't log the number. The Pied Flycatcher actually flew towards me and settled in a thicket of slender trees and began to sing! I never expected to hear the twinkling song of a Pied Flycatcher this late into the year.

I returned to Mrs Caley at box number 33 and we watched the comings and goings of the Pied Flycatcher pair for a while longer. In the hour and a half that we'd been there nobody else had walked up the path at all. There had been other birds, a Jay, a singing Garden Warbler and we could hear the excited chatter of Great Spotted Woodpecker chicks deep within their own nest hole nearby. Most notably though we saw a Spotted Flycatcher that hunted the same area as its cousins, but which had proven much harder to get good views of.

Spotted Flycatcher

We walked out to the main track again and were amazed at the amount of folk walking, running and cycling along it. All that activity and none of them had bothered to venture into the fantastic little refuge where the Flycatchers delight. Thank goodness they didn't!