We were heading eastwards again, this time to Norfolk. This would be our second such journey in as many weekends and would have been the third if it hadn't been for that awful weather of a fortnight before. Our target bird on this Saturday was a Red-flanked Bluetail on the North-eastern coast of the county, at Waxham, a place where, I remembered with a shudder, that we've dipped birds before. The Bluetail was one of lots that had arrived in the UK over the previous week or so. There was also the added attraction of a Pallas's Warbler and Black Redstarts nearby.
Although the Red-flanked Bluetail wouldn't be an actual life tick for us, we had seen one in Cornwall in 2007, it would in reality be a lifer because our views of that Cornish bird were poor to say the least. In fact that Bluetail sighting, in the Cot Valley, saddled us with a bad luck story ever since we saw it, and we'd never twitched another since. Our tale of woe goes like this. We had rented a cottage in the Cot Valley that October. It was generally a wild and windy week and for the first five days of our weeks holiday we flogged the valley for most of the day, every day, for very little reward. We had picked up some good birds away from the Valley during the week, a Dusky Warbler, a Desert Lesser Whitethroat and Firecrests at Porthcurno and a superb life tick American Buff-bellied Pipit at Trevescan, but we had chosen Cot as our base because we wanted to find something good ourselves but the best we'd managed was a few Chiffchaffs and a Woodcock. So on the Saturday, our last full day, we opted for a change of scene and headed for a day out on the Lizard. We had a decent day there, seeing Dartford Warblers, a Yellow-browed Warbler, two Black Redstarts and a Ring Ouzel, which at the time were, and still would be, all exciting birds for us to self-find. Mobile phone coverage is very patchy in the Lizard area so we had little or no idea of what was happening elsewhere in Cornwall. We didn't leave for the holiday cottage until late in the afternoon and the sun was already getting close to the horizon as we pulled into a filling station to replenish the tank for the drive home the next day. It was there just outside Penzance that I finally got an update via Birdguides. To my horror there was a report of a Red-flanked Bluetail that had been found in the Cot Valley and it was literally a hundred yards from our cottage! I made some quick calculations of time, re-holstered the petrol pump way before the tank was full, and sped as fast as I legally (almost) could back to the valley. All the way there we watched the sun sink lower and lower and our hearts sank with it. Both of us couldn't believe how cruel the birding gods could be, our chance at some birding glory by finding, or even seeing, something really rare, at the time it was only the second occurrence of a Bluetail in Cornwall, had been scuppered by our urge to go somewhere more fruitful for the day. Almost thirty minutes after leaving the filling station we hurtled into the valley, it had gotten so dark that the lights of the houses were shining brightly. At that point we knew that the Bluetail had been in the small copse of conifer trees next to the turn up to our holiday cottage but we couldn't see anybody around. We were gutted, it was almost dark and we didn't know where exactly to look. Then we had a small slice of luck, I noticed a chap stood in the shadows of the trees, so I ditched the car and sprang out and asked him if he had seen the Bluetail. Luckily he still had the bird in his sights and pointed to a silhouette of a Robin-sized bird that was perched on a branch on the nearest tree. Just after getting Mrs Caley onto it, the bird flitted away into the dark recesses of the copse and disappeared. We ticked it on the basis of that few seconds view even though we couldn't discern any plumage details at all. My only memory is of that Robin sized bird looking rather like one of the Black Redstarts, that I'd seen earlier that day, in structure and in the way it moved. As we rested in the cottage that evening we rued at our unlucky decision to go elsewhere that day but also realised just how lucky we had been in that we had booked a holiday rental that ran from Sunday to Sunday, if it had been the normal Saturday changeover then we'd have been well away before the bird had been found! We looked for the Bluetail before leaving the next morning but it was nowhere to be seen. The photo below shows the bird in similar pose to what we saw but with a lot of added light.
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| Red-flanked Bluetail, Cot Valley Cornwall, 03/11/2007 (courtesy of B Field via Cornwall Birding website) |
We know of an excellent place, the Breckland Lodge Coffee Shop, to make a pitstop just outside of Attleborough about ten miles south of Norwich and were intending to stop there for breakfast. As we passed Thetford the mobile phone sprang into life and Mrs Caley relayed the message. It was a mega alert, the type of news that gets the countries most ardent twitchers to "fire up the Quattro". A Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin had been discovered next to the carpark at Stiffkey on the North Norfolk coast. I admit that I didn't know much about Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins at all but knew, because of my vagueness, that it must be a very rare bird indeed for the UK. I pulled over into a lay-by, did a quick bit of research into the bird, and entered the SatNav details for Stiffkey. It was a no brainer, we would have to forego the breakfast and head straight up to the coast. Our journey time from the lay-by would be less than an hour.
As we sped along the empty roads we discussed our good fortune in being so close to the bird when it was called. I naively believed that we'd be some of the first on the scene because of our relative proximity. How wrong that declaration was proven to be when we pulled into the road that leads down to the carpark and were met with masses of cars already taking up parking spaces on both sides of the lane. I spotted a space, so rather than chance the small carpark which would likely already be full, dumped the car in it and hurriedly made our way to the coast path. I had forgotten that Norfolk is Britains premier mainland birding county and is home to many birders. Instead of just a few arriving before us, we actually joined a throng of at least a hundred strong and that was growing all the time. The Scrub Robin had been found feeding on the coast path and had stayed there for almost an hour. But, unsurprisingly given the amount of attention it had got from the expanding crowd, it had flown out onto the marsh just ten minutes before we'd arrived and disappeared. So close and yet so far!
The marshes were flooded, it was high tide, and looked impassable to me. In fact we watched as an intrepid birder began to wade out and then laughed as he took a tumble and stepped into water deeper than his waist height. He swam back. As most folk looked on though, it seemed as though the tide was receding slowly and other birders all began splashing through the floods. I realised that locals must know the state of the marshes well and obviously knew that there was a track leading towards a wooden bridge about two hundred yards away. Even though it looked to be hard going, three chaps nevertheless formed a vanguard and waded out and reached the bridge. The general consensus was that the Scrub Robin had landed in the general area close to the bridge. I hadn't donned my wellies, Mrs Caley had, so there was no way at that point that I was going to follow. More folk were heading out on to the marsh, and the going appeared to be getting easier so I took the decision to go back for my boots. When I arrived back ten minutes later, at least a hundred birders had congregated close to the wooden bridge and Mrs Caley excitedly told me that the bird had been refound!
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| The Vanguard |
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| The twitch building up, out on the marsh after the bird had been refound |
The tide had receded enough so that the track was merely covered by puddles, although some were deep, and we were able to make our way out to join the other twitchers relatively easily. This was extremely exciting stuff, the wading through water onto the marshes to see a rare bird was new territory for us, I know I've never lived a proper intrepid birders life and have never battled through swamps and jungles to see birds, so for me this was great. Times like these are what make twitching so enjoyable. The crowd had split into two groups, divided by a deep channel that cut through the salt marsh. The Scrub Robin had been seen in a small patch of low growing Sueda which was also separated from us by another channel and was around thirty yards away from where we set up our stall. A cry went up from the crowd opposite, 'it's showing, in full view just to the left of the open area'. From where we were stood that meant nothing, we couldn't see it since the bird was on the opposite side of the Sueda clump. We didn't have to wait long for our chance though, just a few minutes later the Scrub Robin flew into view, pursued by a Pied Wagtail and dropped back into the vegetation on our side of the clump. Another minute later it emerged onto a flattened area of grassy straw on our side. I spotted it first and then alerted everyone within earshot of where it had come out into the open, and grabbed some photos at the same time. For the next ten-seconds I had a cracking view and claimed four images. The Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin (or Rufous-tailed Bushchat) became the 227th species on the Old Caley year list and nudged me a little bit closer to the magic 400 number for my UK life list.
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| Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin |
Most people had missed the bird when it had appeared in the open but the majority then connected when it made another short flight across the Sueda patch. The constant arrival of more twitchers kept the excitement at near fever pitch. This was the first sighting of the species for forty years in the UK and was a blocker for most big listers, hence the huge interest. Mrs Caley was next to spot the bird, at the furthest edges of the Sueda although it was more obscured by vegetation. The Scrub Robin was very restless though and soon flew back into the middle of the clump.
Luckily for the assembly on our side of the Sueda the Scrub Robin reappeared again and this time was more settled. It fed briefly in the low growing grasses at the edge of the Sueda before hopping up onto a twiggy stem and proceeded to preen. Anybody stood in the right place, like we were, now had excellent views of the bird.
While we waited for the Scrub Robin to appear we had also added a couple of more birds to our year list. Brent Geese were easy to see with maybe a hundred or more birds feeding on the salt marsh. A flyover Lapland Bunting was an unexpected surprise though, alerting us and others by its rattling call. The year list was up to 229.
But there was so much enthusiasm amongst the twitchers, in particular the new arrivals were keen to get a sighting and add it to their own lists, that the social distancing and order that the present times demand was impossible to maintain. We had had our views so less than an hour after making it out to the marsh we decided, happily, to leave for elsewhere. We still had those designs on seeing a Bluetail before the day was out. There had been reports of Red-flanked Bluetail's reasonably close to Stiffkey, at Holme where an amazing four had been seen in the same area but the photos I'd seen hadn't been as good as those from Waxham. Photos posted online by other birders always offer a good insight into how well and how closely a bird is showing. There had also been a Pallas's Warbler reported from the campsite trees that we could see as we neared the carpark again but already there were quite a few of the twitchers, sated with their view of the Scrub Robin, searching for that. We wanted something a bit more peaceful after the mad twitch out on the marsh. We've learned from past twitches that when a rare bird garners a lot of interest, that lots of folk will stay in the area to look for other birds and therefore you struggle to find anywhere quiet. I think it also becomes harder to get good views of birds because of the noise and commotion that accompanies large groups of like minded souls who are still buzzing from the earlier twitch. So, our choice was to stick with our original plan and head to Waxham and look for the Bluetail there.
The twitch at Stiffkey was the biggest I'd been part of since the Grey Catbird in Cornwall and by the time we made it back to the carpark there must have been at least three hundred twitchers on site. The carpark and lane were gridlocked and folk were struggling to get their vehicles out, let alone in. I was glad now that I'd parked near the top of the lane and that I'd turned the car around and thus pointing towards the way out when I'd got here. Two police cars were edging their way down the lane and later in the day there were reports of officers attempting to enforce social distancing upon the birders! We were happy to be away from it all. The drive from Stiffkey to Waxham took just over an hour but the beautiful sunny day had entailed that it was busy there too with lots of walkers out to enjoy the sunshine. I found a spot in which to park right by the church and noted the Black Redstart as I geared up. There were three birders watching that bird so I engaged the nearest and asked for details and directions to the Bluetail.
We were there on a mission so ignored the Black Redstart for now, it would still be there later, and set off on the mile long walk to where the Bluetail was. It was a warm day and we toiled a bit along the path through the sand dunes. We passed the fabled "Shangri-la" cottage where the Pallas's Warbler had been seen but the garden and its surrounds is a mass of trees and tangled bushes and would need much scrutiny to find anything. We kept to the mission and afforded those trees just a cursory look. A few times on the way we thought that we'd got lost but fortunately almost immediately met a returning birder who would tell us that it wasn't much further. One chap was scanning a flock of Geese in a nearby field. 'Pink-footed?', I inquired, 'Yes' was the expected reply but then he added that, 'there is a Tundra Bean Goose with them' I quickly erected my scope and trained it on the group of three Geese slightly detached from the others and sure enough one of them sported an orange ended bill and orange legs indicative of the scarcer Bean Goose which was a big bonus year tick. My camera doesn't have the reach though for me to be able to capture images at such range particularly when viewing through heat shimmer. The path took us up to the top of dunes and a quick scan of the sea produced a couple of loafing Guillemots plus another year tick when a small flock of Common Scoters flew past. The day was going extremely well and we hadn't even seen our original intended target bird for the day!
The path descended back down the dune bank and entered a wet grassy field. About a hundred metres away stood a small group of birders and presumably where the Bluetail would be. The birders were assembled opposite a patch of trees that interrupted the dense hedgerow. The trees had blocked out the light from above so under the trees the ground was relatively clear and open. The Bluetail had been showing well but sporadically in the trees for the last week, so we settled in and waited. A chap was taking photos of something in the grass and I was amazed to see that there were three Goldcrests there, feeding on tiny insects. They hopped around in the grass stalks and leaves, a far cry from the bushes and trees where you'd usually expect to see them. I joined in and took a few photos myself while Mrs Caley kept a watch on the trees.
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| Goldcrest |
After ten minutes or so the Red-flanked Bluetail appeared flitting rapidly through the trees. I found it difficult to track and became frustrated at my inability to pin it down for a decent view, even more so because Mrs Caley was following it with ease and announcing how beautiful it was! Eventually the bird paused for long enough for me to get the view that I'd waited almost thirteen years for and I managed to take a couple of photos before the Bluetail breezed off into cover again. I could finally add the species to my life list with confidence and safe in the knowledge that I could independently identify it. And what a fabulous little gem of a bird it was. Any bird with blue in its name is my type of bird, I am a blue boy after all, and the blue tail of the first winter bird was an electric mix of turquoise and indigo. In adult male birds the whole upper part plumage is darker blue but still with that electric blue tail. Red-flanked Bluetail's also have, as it says on the tin, red splashes to the body sides which contrast with a neat buff-white throat patch and belly. It is such a little bobby dazzler that I'll let it off the red reference this time!
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| Red-flanked Bluetail |
The Red-flanked Bluetail put in regular appearances over the next hour, occasionally showing extremely well but generally quite elusive and difficult to follow owing to its quick movements through the trees. I was expecting it to be like a Robin or a Redstart in habits, whereby expecting it to perch openly on a fence post or exposed tree branch and then dropping to the floor to catch prey, but in reality it was more akin to a hyperactive Flycatcher and it was endlessly restless, flying rapidly amongst the branches and up into the leafy canopy. When it did stop for a prolonged period it seemed to know that we were watching and managed to hide behind twigs and foliage.
There were a couple of times though when the Bluetail did briefly perch openly, allowing me to snatch a few better photos and for all of us present to appreciate its beauty. A Red-flanked Bluetail is definitely a step up from the average "little brown jobs".
More birders arrived, some I recognised from the Scrub Robin twitch, and the associated increase in pitch side activity and extra commotion predictably sent the Bluetail into hiding so we headed back to the church. I still had designs on looking for the Pallas's Warbler but with no reports of it since the day before, and plenty of folk would have looked for it since, I passed up that task and settled for watching the Black Redstart in the churchyard instead. The trek back was hard work in the warm mid-afternoon sunshine when clad prepared for a winters hike up a Scottish Mountain. I wondered how, weather forecasters manage to keep their jobs when they're so useless at it? A couple of Redwings perched up in a tree were probably checking their own calendars and thinking they'd got their dates wrong.
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| Redwing |
We had the churchyard to ourselves and soon found the Black Redstart hunting insects on the roof of the church itself. Male Black Redstarts are fantastic little birds, with sooty grey plumage but with an almost jet black head and neck and with whitish wing panels and a radiant red tail. Like the Bluetail they hunt insect prey by launching from an exposed perch but this bird was much less restless than the Bluetail that we'd just seen and posed very well on the various prominent parts of the church buildings.
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| male Black Redstart |
I've seen lots of Black Redstarts and have hundreds of photos of them but they are irresistible subjects and I took a load more images. Mrs Caley went for a repose on a bench while I tried, and failed as usual, to capture the bird in flight. The problem is that you just never know which way they are going to go when they suddenly launch and guessing when they'll go is impossible too. A tripod would have been handy since my arms were aching from holding the camera aimed at the bird while waiting for it to fly and of course as soon as the arms get too heavy and you relinquish the pose then off the bird goes!
The male bird wasn't alone on the church, a juvenile bird was also active up on the roof. This bird, similar to the one seen at Daventry the previous week, was more furtive and would only appear when the male was off view. Juvenile and female type Black Redstarts are a dull grey-brown colour but still have that bright red tail from which they are named, start being an old word for tail. If the male spotted the other bird then it would instantly chase it. I watched both birds whirl around in a small bush next to the church door, both moving far too quickly and erratically for any photos.
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| juvenile Black Redstart |
Waxham Church is old, like most churches are, and the brick and stonework is crumbling and adorned with lichens and moss. The apex above the door was a favoured spot for the male and it was there that he gave the best views. Others had the birds posing beautifully on the gravestones but the only time that the male chose to hunt there, my attention was diverted by a passer-by who wanted to know what I was so engrossed with. Mrs Caley pointed out to me that I missed the chance to get some great shots.
The Black Redstarts were joined on the church by a couple of Pied Wagtails. As at Daventry a week ago the Wagtails didn't take kindly to the other birds and frequently chased them off. A Sparrowhawk that breezed around the church, doing two whole circuits of the spire chased them all off and was the signal for me to end the day and drive home. The day had been one of the best with one and a half lifers and six year ticks in all! Norfolk is so rewarding and I wished I could take a few of the birds back to the Oxfordshire no birds land.
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| Pied Wagtail |
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