Worth a Soaking! 2nd October 2021

We had made plans to travel either to Somerset or to Nottinghamshire to secure a Pectoral Sandpiper for our year list but had scrapped those plans when the weather forecasters had predicted a prolonged spell of heavy rain overnight for Friday and for most of Saturday. I thought that the wet weather would send both Pectoral Sandpipers on their merry way southwards (which turned out to be correct since neither bird was seen subsequently) so we decided to stay local. The early morning actually dawned rain free and thinking that the impending stormy weather may push something interesting into our local airspace, we headed up to our migration and bad weather hotspot of Farmoor reservoir to see if anything had landed. However, if any birds were trying to escape the approaching foul weather then they also gave Oxfordshires finest location a swerve since our walk both ways along the causeway gave us nothing better than a paltry brace of Common Sandpipers and a (admittedly lovely) Grey Wagtail.

Grey Wagtail

At just before ten o'clock the rain arrived and we left. We would have gone into the cafe for a hot drink and would have watched the reservoir from there but the fact there was yet another junior sailing competition taking place and the marina haven was besieged by overwrought parents who naturally wanted to escape the, by then, pelting rain as well. We were home and coffee was made less than half an hour later and as I sipped my cup I ruefully watched the teeming rain outside. I pondered why the weather always seems to be worse on a Saturday and for the first time since giving up football, almost regretted that decision since I could have been tasting a healthy pint instead and it really doesn't matter if it rains during a match because there's a whopping great stand roof to keep you dry. Then at 10:45 a WhatsApp message arrived from the Northants group informing that a Leach's Storm Petrel had been found "grounded" at Pitsford Water and was showing well from the causeway. For the next ten minutes I kept that information under my hat so to speak and didn't share the news with Mrs Caley because I felt sure that she'd be less than enthusiastic at going out again on such an awful day. At 11:00 a further update stated that the Petrel was still there and still showing well. Time to break the news to my much wiser wife. We looked at the rain which was falling even more heavily outside and drank the coffee. Then to my astonishment, Mrs Caley (she also gets updates via Birdguides) said, "There's a Storm Petrel at Northampton". I replied, "Yes, I know but look at the weather" and added, "Mind you, it's a great chance to see a rare bird, one that we've only seen once before". My wife's reply was just what I wanted to hear, "Come on then, we may as well go and see it, we have coats don't we?".

The drive to Pitsford, which lies just north of Northampton, was far from straightforward. Firstly a collision between two HGV's at junction 10 of the M40 had left the local road network in a bit of a mess. Traffic was being diverted onto the A43 which, as luck wouldn't have it, is our normal direct route to Northampton. Fortunately I know the local roads well and was able to divert around the worst of the queues and join the A43 further north without losing too much time. Then we were faced with a rather stressful drive through the poor conditions, made worse by foolhardy motorists who were trying to make up for sitting in the two hour queue to leave the M40 by driving like maniacs. To add to what had turned into a very arduous journey indeed, Northampton FC were at home and we crawled past their stadium in the traffic destined for the match. At least there wasn't the massive queues at every filling station blocking the roads like there were at home in Bicester.

On the plus side the carpark at Pitsford Water is right next to the causeway and as I pulled in I could see three hardy birders watching from the causeway, and hopefully seeing the Leach's Storm Petrel. The downside to the carpark is that it now costs to park there and the previously free parking on the road verge outside has been barricaded off. I hate paying to park so when a birder returning to his own car offered me his ticket (that another birder had given him) I was very happy to receive it. I was also happy to know that the Leach's Storm Petrel was still present and still showing well (although in the torrential rain that would be a moot point) just off the causeway. We togged up in our (previously adequate) wet weather gear (which would prove to be less so about fifteen minutes later) and ventured across the road and onto the causeway path. As soon as we had crossed the road I spotted the Petrel, harassed by two Black-headed Gulls, flying effortlessly out of the way of its assailants around a hundred metres out. Before I could fire any shots off, the Leach's Storm Petrel, our 246th species for the year, downed in the middle of a small group of Great Crested Grebes. Unluckily for the poor lost seabird the Grebes didn't care much for it either and soon sent it packing. The Leach's Storm Petrel flew out of view to our right but I had at least secured a couple of record shots.

Leach's Storm Petrel (& Great Crested Grebes)

We walked along the path towards the only other birder daft enough to be still outside, narrowly avoided getting completely swamped by the splash created by a passing truck that ploughed through a puddle, not that it would have made any difference if we had been since we were rapidly becoming drenched anyway, and asked him if the Leach's Storm Petrel had flown off. "It hadn't" was his reply and he pointed to where it was sitting on the water about the same distance out as before. I set the scope up and the both of us enjoyed our first ever settled view of the species. At least we would have done if the precipitation hadn't taken such an adverse effect to the tripod legs which decided that they didn't want to remain fully extended on such a foul day. In the end I had to lean the contraption against a fence to get any support at all. The Leach's (its name is often abbreviated to just that but never to Petrel because it's a Storm Petrel and Petrels are a different) was floating on the water pointing into the wind and riding the choppy water with ease. They are true pelagic birds mainly found around the west coast of Britain and normally only seen from boats or in severe windy weather from coastal headlands and estuaries. In really stormy conditions some are sometimes found far inland, such a this bird, on reservoirs and lakes. While we were in Scotland just the week before last, we took the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway in the hope of seeing a Leach's Storm Petrel. We did see quite a few European Storm Petrels but drew a blank on another less than favourable day weather-wise with the Leach's variety mainly because the conditions made viewing from anywhere other than inside the boat very difficult for all except the very proficient. A huge slice of irony therefore that we'd see one just forty miles from home only ten days later. The only previous Leach's on our list was one seen from Rudha Ardvule on the South Uist coast four years which had flown briskly past. I was happy to gain a recognisable photo or two of the bird.

Did I mention it was raining? Well, take it from me that it was. Over the next quarter of an hour or so, every time I thought it was raining hard then it would rain a little bit harder until it became difficult to pick the Storm Petrel out. Cats and Dogs, Stair-rods, monsoon, all became very accurate descriptive terms for the weather. At times the strong wind pushed the rain along almost horizontally and one half of me was extremely wet indeed. My waterproofs were no longer waterproof and I began to feel water dripping into places where it wasn't welcome. The Leach's Storm Petrel, I suspect well used to such conditions, remained floating idly and even seemed to peck at marooned insects as it drifted slowly back past us on the wind driven water. It was only disturbed by the Great Crested Grebes which occasionally appeared to think it would be a good laugh to surface after a dive right beneath the Storm Petrel which would send it into the air for a few feet or so but it seemed as if the stray bird wanted to stay treading water and not to fly around.

My last blog was centred around the largest seabird that can be seen in the UK, namely the Black-browed Albatross (read here) which is even more lost than this Leach's Storm Petrel was. By contrast the Leach's is one of our smallest seabird species, bigger than the European Storm Petrel but still tiny in seabird terms. Storm Petrels, because of their dark plumage and white rump patches are often compared in size and appearance to the House Martin but in truth they are at least a size bigger with much longer wings and legs, not that they need legs much for an almost purely maritime existence. Storm Petrels are much better swimmers than House Martins too. In fact they'd win hands down in a game of Top Trumps. A few House Martins, and Swallows, were on hand for some instant comparisons too, somehow braving the conditions and managing to find some flying insects on which to feed. I bet the hirundines had wished they'd already left on their own southward migration journey. Mrs Caley very wisely decided that she'd had enough and migrated to the car. I wanted some decent shots of the Leach's in flight so very stupidly stuck it our for a bit longer. My reward for the next fifteen minutes was to get even more drenched.

Other birders came, and mostly went, with just the sighting of the bird being good enough. One chap came armed with an umbrella which he promptly lost when a gust of wind sent it flying into the reservoir. Another couple fell foul of the puddle and were none too pleased about it. This was a day for true diehards, or idiots. I had been out in the elements for almost an hour and couldn't recall being so wet through since we'd got caught in a thunderstorm while walking in a Scottish pine forest once, or maybe when I watched Chelsea play away at Leeds on a filthy Boxing Day morning when it rained incessantly from start to finish and us travelling supporters were housed in the only open stand in the ground (we lost 4-1 as well to rub salt in the wounds, as they say, it never rains but always pours!). That was a long and uncomfortable drive home. I was about to give up and join Mrs Caley in the dry car when the Leach's Storm Petrel, buzzed once again by a mischievous Grebe, suddenly decided to take flight. Even though the conditions hardly leant themselves as an aid to photography, I tried anyway. Record shots are better than nothing sometimes.

Considering the conditions I was actually pleased to have captured the essence of the bird in my photos. The Leach's Storm Petrel appeared to be in good health and flew easily just above the water, easily evading the attentions of both the Great Crested Grebes and any Gulls that flew near. It's flight was surprisingly quick and it comfortably outpaced the Swallows that were flying along with it. For the next ten minutes it flew into the wind, dropping back every so often to fly against the wind once more. I assumed it was feeding on something, at sea they are plankton feeders so I guess insects trapped on the waters surface would be an ample substitute to its normal diet. It vaguely resembled a Black Tern or Little Gull in its flight action, daintily dropping down to the water and often trailing its legs on the surface and at times looking as if it was walking on water.

When the bird settled on the water again and the rain intensified, I called it a day. I wasn't going to improve on my photographic efforts. I'd got my Petrel, had my fill, and hadn't had to queue up for it either!

I doubted if I could get any wetter and also whether I'd ever dry out again. Worth getting soaked for? Well, it had to be because there was likely to be no chance of the Leach's Storm Petrel being there in better weather the next day. Indeed on Sunday there was no sign of the bird so hopefully it had managed to fly off and return to the sea somewhere rather than perishing overnight. Some birds it seems, have to be earned and gained the hard way!