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Weekly birding round-up: 5 - 11 May 2020

In almost every sense, literal and metaphorical, the week just gone was a game of two halves. One half of Britain enjoyed sun and temperatures that one of my friends described as ‘too hot to sit out in’ and, with that, a flush of colourful overshooting birds…

…while in Scotland, the wind swung emphatically into the north, delivering rather fewer exciting birds but ample wind-chill and, just for fun, snow too.

 

Rather like the White-tailed Eagles of some weeks past, we’ve another raptor in the headlines this week that, on the face of it, isn’t really all that rare. But, by having a bit of a moment, it is one that soars into the headlines this week.

That raptor, of course, is Black Kite - we’ve just enjoyed a week where the sightings came thick and fast, and more or less daily. How many birds were involved is, again, a moot point – they’re mobile birds capable of covering plenty of ground quickly, so the week’s sightings almost certainly involve some duplication – yet, for sure, there were a good few birds involved.

Starting on 6th, one was seen near Wedmore (Somerset), and a further possible bird in neighbouring Dorset at Kimmeridge. On 7th, Suffolk sightings came from Aldeburgh and Wenhaston; Norfolk sightings from Thorpe St Andrew and Bodham; one was seen in Lincolnshire at Gibraltar Point NNR; and a probable was seen at Baldwin’s Gate (Staffordshire).

8th was a busy day for Black Kites, not least in Norfolk where sightings came from East Beckham, West Runton, Felmingham, Earlham and Great Ellingham. A string of putative sightings came from London – a possible over Richmond Park, and probables from Hampstead and East Barnet. Further birds were seen at Carclaze (Cornwall), Beachy Head (East Sussex), and Sunderland (Co.Durham).

On 9th, the pace showed little sign of easing. Essex got a bird at Wivenhoe; East Sussex sightings from Battle and Hastings CP; and more single birds were seen at Dungeness (Kent), Barnwood and Cannop Ponds (Gloucestershire), Spurn and Kilnsea (East Yorkshire), Heathfield (East Sussex), a further possible in Norfolk at Eaton, and two more reported in Devon over Cheriton Bishop.

On 10th, still more sightings rolled in – at Itchen Valley CP (Hampshire), Ports Down (Hampshire), Battle (East Sussex) again, Dungeness (Kent) again, and at Addlestone (Surrey).

So, how many Black Kites were there? Enough, anyway, for garden listers to keep their eyes glued to the skies with modest grounds for some optimism…

 

As one Shetland bird ruefully noted this week, the latest deliberations by the IOC where Subalpine Warblers are concerned offer our best chance of a tick this spring. He was, of course, referring to their decision to – to use an expression done to tedious, buck-passing death by our government in recent days – follow the science, and formally split Western and Eastern Subalpine Warblers.

They’re a species complex that, with the later complication of Moltoni’s Subalpine Warbler, have caught many of us somewhat on the back foot. For decades, we were just chuffed to bits to see a Subalpine Warbler… and only latterly do we, ruefully, look at our notebooks and realise we can, at best, only harbour suspicions about what flavour each of those past birds might actually have been.

It’s only comparatively recently that we’ve collectively started to pay much more attention to them and, now, we’re attuned to the subtleties of outer tail feathers and the like.

With impeccable timing this week, we landed representatives of both newly split species – indeed, Skokholm rattled one of each off in short order, with a female Western Subalpine Warbler trapped and ringed there on 8th, and a male Eastern Subalpine Warbler found on there on 9th.

More island birds were forthcoming in recent days, at opposite ends of the country. St Mary’s (Scilly) scored a singing male Western Subalpine Warbler on 7th-9th, crowning an excellent week on the archipelago; while Shetland, so far rather muted this spring, got a male Eastern Subalpine Warbler on Mainland on 9th.

There will be more in the days to come – and we’ll be paying them even closer attention than ever from now on.

 

The week’s seabirds were dominated by the continuing northerly passage of determined Pomarine Skuas, with some 130 birds logged in the course of the week, with a spike in movement centred on 7th and 8th – double figure tallies being noted on 7th in the form of 14 birds at Selsey Bill (West Sussex), 12 off Beachy Head (East Sussex), and 30 from Splash Point (East Sussex); while, on 8th, the latter two East Sussex sites logged a further 10 apiece.

A single Long-tailed Skua was seen on Fair Isle (Shetland) on 7th.

Orkney, meanwhile, accounted for our only spring White-billed Divers this week – single adult birds seen from North Ronaldsay on 5th and Papa Westray on 7th.

Single Balearic Shearwaters were seen this week off the south coast, from Portland (Dorset) on 5th, Cadgwith (Cornwall) on 6th, and Portland on 10th.

Finally, a wayward Cory’s Shearwater was seen in Kent from Foreness Point on 10th, while a late Little Auk was seen motoring past Girdle Ness (Aberdeenshire) in the evening of 11th.

 

We’ve all manner of exotica to report this week amongst the long-legged beasties, staring with a set of legs that come little longer than those boasted by the two Black Storks seen passing over Ambaston (Derbyshire) on 8th – a frustratingly transitory encounter.

Speaking of which, a Glossy Ibis was playing hide and seek in Cambridgeshire on 6th, seen fleetingly in the morning and again in the evening at Great Shelford; preceded in the county on 5th by one seen at Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB. Another was noted on 5th in Lincolnshire at Middlemarsh Wetlands.

On the Isle of Man, a male Little Bittern was found, by the island’s Lieutenant Governor, at Clypse reservoir on 9th-10th.

Purple Herons were seen early this week at Whitford (Devon) on 6th, where two birds passed overhead; and, on 7th, at Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset where a single bird was noted. On 11th, one more was found in Norfolk at Sculthorpe Moor NR.

Wandering Common Cranes were seen in Scotland this week at Dunnet Bay (Highland) on 5th, Burray (Orkney) on 5th, Unst (Shetland) on 6th and 11th, and North Ronaldsay (Orkney) and Mains of Garten (Highland) on 11th; while birds were seen in England at Newick (East Sussex) on 6th and Louth (Lincolnshire) on 8th.

A singing Corncrake was a good find at Brawdy (Pembrokeshire) on 9th; one, last heard on St Agnes (Scilly) on 30th April, was again noted in rasping song on 9th also.

 

Predictably, given the advancing spring, we’re paddling into peaceful waters on the rarity duckpond now. Quiet times, this week…

In Northumberland, the drake American Wigeon was again seen at Grindon Lough on 7th.

A Green-winged Teal was found on 9th-11th at Manby Flashes (Lincolnshire). Hot on the heels of the recent hybrid in the area, a further pure example was found in Shetland at Scatness on 10th-11th.

 

If the honkers and quackers were in abeyance, we could rely instead on shorebirds for our kicks in the news this week, with notable arrivals from several points of the compass.

Representing the Nearctic, Ireland landed a Semipalmated Sandpiper at Tacumshin (Co.Wexford) on 8th, and American Golden Plover at Termoncarragh Lough (Co.Mayo) on 8th and Annagh Marsh (Co.Mayo) on 11th – the latter sighting accompanied by a Buff-breasted Sandpiper for good measure.

Pembrokeshire got a second sighting in consecutive weeks of an adult American Golden Plover on 7th at Newport.

Back in Ireland, a Lesser Yellowlegs was found on 9th at Harper’s Island Wetlands.

The recent Pectoral Sandpiper was again seen in Cheshire at Frodsham Marsh on 6th.

Down in West Sussex a Black-winged Stilt provided a taste of southern exotica at Sidlesham Ferry Pool on 9th.

Norfolk provided a small rash of Temminck’s Stint sightings on 7th – one at Cley in the morning had found a friend there by the evening, with one of them remaining there the following day; one was present at Titchwell RSPB; and two at Potter Heigham Marshes.

A northbound Dotterel was seen on Egilsay (Orkney) on 7th; three birds were to be found at Filey (North Yorkshire) on 8th; and eight were present on Great Ormes Head (Conwy) on 9th-10th. On 11th, eight were found in Lothian on Carnethy Hill, and one in Highland at Alturlie.

 

The best of our gulls’n’terns this week were, by a comfortable margin, the small flock of four White-winged Black Terns that graced the Suffolk coast early in the morning of 9th – seen initially at Southwold Town Marshes and then, latterly, at Carlton Marshes SWT. A single bird was found on 10th-11th at Holme Pierrepont (Nottinghamshire).

Meanwhile, numbers of more conventional white-wingers were dwindling, rapidly. Starting with Glaucous Gulls, one remained on Yell (Shetland) until 10th; on 6th, birds were seen at Munlochy (Highland) and at Portrush (Co.Antrim); and, on 8th, one was noted at Annagh Head (Co.Mayo), while two were seen on North Uist (Western Isles).

Moving onto Iceland Gulls, there was a distinctly Shetland flavour to the few reported this week – the exception being birds on North Uist on 8th, Kentra (Highland) on 9th and Embo (Highland) on 10th. Shetland, meanwhile, had one still on Yell until 9th; birds on Mainland at Bigton on 6th and Pool of Virkie on 6th-10th; one on Fair Isle on 8th-10th; and one back on Mainland at Scatness on 10th.

 

We’ve already covered the week’s main raptor event, the mass arrival of Black Kites, but there were other notable raptors on the move this week besides them…

Starting in Kent, the prior week’s adult male Red-footed Falcon at Stodmarsh NNR remained there until 7th, with a second bird found there on the latter date also.

Arguably rarer still for the British birder, an absolutely sumptuous dark morph adult male Montagu’s Harrier was a magnificent find by Joe Stockwell at Ferrybridge (Dorset) on 6th. It was followed by more Monties - one at Ovingdean (East Sussex) on 7th; a probable at Huntingfield (Suffolk) on 8th; and sightings from west Cornwall on 9th at Polgigga and Sennen, with Polgigga featuring again on 10th. On 11th, one was found inland at Boddington reservoir (Northamptonshire).

Another – or a Pallid Harrier - was seen at Stodmarsh NNR on 7th.

White-tailed Eagles continued to crop up here and there this week – birds were reported from Shetland on 5th when two birds were noted heading north over Toab; Chesham (Buckinghamshire) on 7th; and, on 9th, from Bishop’s Stortford (Hertfordshire), Earlsdon (Warwickshire), Diseworth (Leicestershire) and Southgate (Glamorgan), with one also reported that day at Wallsend (Northumberland). On 10th, a probable was seen in Dorset at Swyre Head.

 

And so we come to the passerines, and the sharp pointy end of the week, with ample colourful and tuneful fare to distract us.

Hoopoes have been our opening salvo for a few weeks now, but this week they’re usurped by the most psychedelic of all southern overshoots – the lysergic glory that’s Bee-eaters. Pick of the week’s sightings of the latter were the flock of 13 found in Gwynedd at Mynydd Rhiw on 9th-11th, but they had company elsewhere…

On 6th, two Bee-eaters were seen on Strumble Head (Pembrokeshire); on 7th, two passed over Stiffkey (Norfolk), one was present at Dungeness (Kent), and one was heard at Splash Point (East Sussex). 8th was busy – three were found on St Mary’s, with two or three still there the following day; a probable bird was heard at Scarborough (North Yorkshire); and single birds were seen at Flamborough (East Yorkshire) and Stockton-on-Tees (Cleveland). On 9th, in addition to the big flock in Gwynedd, East Sussex scored one at Beachy Head and Birling Gap, one was seen at Kilnsea (East Yorkshire), and two were on Sherkin Island (Co.Cork). On 10th, one flew over Porthleven (Cornwall), and another was seen in flight in Hampshire at North Baddesley. 11th brought us one in flight in Hampshire over Havant.

Which brings us to the toppled king, Hoopoes… around a dozen were noted over the course of recent days. On 5th, birds were found at Newcastle Emlyn (Carmarthenshire), Broad Haven (Pembrokeshire) and Radford (Worcestershire). 6th produced two southern individuals – one apiece for Arundel (West Sussex) and Kingskerswell (Devon) – and further Welsh action at Llanfairfechan (Conwy). On 7th, a probable was reported from Helston (Cornwall) and another was seen in Newhaven (Derbyshire); 8th brought sightings from Constantine (Cornwall), Heswall (Cheshire), Durham (Co.Durham), Llanbadarn Fawr (Ceredigion), and one heard singing in Dorset at Wimborne Minster. On 11th, one was reported from Whalsay (Shetland).

In the Western Isles, the recent Magpie remained on Barra on 6th-8th.

Ticking all the boxes for aesthetics and fluty whistling, Golden Orioles enjoyed a strong showing this week. A male and at least one female/first-summer male remained on St Mary’s (Scilly) on 5th-10th; further female/first-summer males were logged in Co.Cork at Ballynacarriga on 5th, Barley Cove on 6th; and Mizen Head on 7th. Further sightings came on 7th from Land’s End (Cornwall) and Wyke Regis (Dorset). On 8th, one was heard singing at Foreness Point (Kent), with further birds seen on St Martin’s (Scilly) and, on 8th-9th, Lundy (Devon). On 9th more were found at Church Norton (West Sussex), West Runton (Norfolk), and Howick (Northumberland). On 10th came an unconfirmed report of one in Norfolk at Kimberley, and a further bird reported flying through Cardiff (Glamorgan).

Scilly was enjoying an awful lot of overshooting migrant action this week, as we’ll see. Further examples of that came in the form of not one but two Red-rumped Swallows on St Mary’s on 7th, with at least one remaining on 8th-9th. Portland (Dorset) also got a bird on 7th. One was present at Spurn (East Yorkshire) on 8th; on 10th-11th Ireland got a bird at Swords (Co.Dublin).

Back on St Mary’s, a Woodchat Shrike was found on 9th; preceded, on 7th, by birds on Shetland at Grutness and on Cape Clear (Co.Cork). The week concluded with another found on the Isle of Wight at Chale.

Red-backed Shrikes began to filter through to us in modest numbers this week. A male at Consett (Co.Durham) on 5th was followed on 6th by birds at Embleton (Northumberland) and Spurn (East Yorkshire) – one was seen at Spurn also on 8th. One lingered at Cambois (Northumberland) on 7th-8th; and one had made it to the western side of the country at Aldcliffe Marsh (Lancashire) on 9th.

A trio of Wrynecks were found this week – birds present at Huttoft Bank Pit LWT (Lincolnshire) on 7th; Abbot’s Cliff (Kent) on 8th; and Potter Heigham (Norfolk) on 9th.

A Short-toed Lark settled at Newbiggin (Northumberland) on 5th-8th.

Sticking with Northumberland as we head into the warblers, a Savi’s Warbler was in song at Druridge Bay on 6th.

As confidently(!) predicted last week, we got a Great Reed Warbler this week – one found in croaking voice at Cley NWT (Norfolk) on 9th; with another that evening in Suffolk at Carlton Marshes SWT.

An Icterine Warbler was found on Skomer (Pembrokeshire) on 9th…

…a date by which Pembrokeshire was already having a bit of a warbler moment, of course, as we’ve seen in the headlines earlier.

Best wagtail of the week was, by a country mile, the male Citrine Wagtail found on Papa Westray (Orkney) on 7th-8th; sharing the island with a Grey-headed Wagtail on 7th. Further Grey-headed Wagtails were found this week at West Runton on 8th and Cley NWT (Norfolk) on 9th, and Kilnsea (East Yorkshire) on 9th.

One more was seen on 8th at Audenshaw reservoirs – in addition to a probable, brief, iberiae Spanish Wagtail that flew off, frustratingly without calling…

One more was seen on 8th at Audenshaw reservoirs – in addition to a probable, brief, Spanish Wagtail that flew off without calling…

A probable Blyth’s Pipit was noted at Anderby Creek (Lincolnshire) on 7th.

I’m sure we said, weeks ago, that we might be on for one more Black-throated Thrush before the late winter or spring was out. Sure enough, belated news came this week of one seen on 8th in a Beal (Northumberland) garden.

Goring (West Sussex) landed Serin sightings on 6th and again on 9th; further birds were seen this week on the Isle of Wight on 7th at St Catherine’s Point and, on 9th, at Ventnor; one was found on 9th at Flamborough (East Yorkshire), and another in Kent that day at Dungeness.

A male Ortolan Bunting was found at Drogheda (Co.Louth) on 8th.

And we finish in Shetland where, on 6th-7th, an escaped and colour-ringed Painted Bunting on Unst provided a reminder that even former cage birds are perfectly capable of migrating over substantial stretches of open sea… while, on Fair Isle on 8th, a male Rustic Bunting was mercifully free of any taint of captivity; on 10th, a further female was found on Lundy (Devon).

 

We’ll start the overseas news painfully close to home on Alderney in the Channel Islands where what may well be the second individual of the spring’s Black-winged Kites for the island was a superb find by Elliot Montieth on 8th – seen perched for a while before heading off south-west. Wrong direction, mate…

Not a million miles away either, as the large soaring bird flies, in Belgium this week an Egyptian Vulture was at Buisson on 4th-5th and a Booted Eagle at Zanvoorde on 6th-7th.

Still resolutely refusing to turn up in Britain, a Great Black-headed Gull was found at Siemianowka reservoir in Poland on 7th.

A Lesser Sand Plover was found on 8th-9th at Reesholm Schlei (Germany).

Heading north, a Little Bustard was discovered on Oland (Sweden) on 5th; and a Black-faced Bunting was trapped and ringed in Finland on 10th at Jurmo Bird Observatory – the second national record.

Finally, on 5th-7th the drake Black Scoter was still to be seen in Iceland off Pvottarskriour.

 

While the return of many summer breeding birds is a welcome tonic at the moment for British birders, one of the most evocative of all has to be that of Swifts. The sound of them screaming overhead is one that transports me, instantly, back to childhood, and interminable hours sat in school while I could hear them through the open windows carving shapes in the sky outside.

They’re the subject, back in the present, of a significant bit of citizen science we can take part in – the RSPB’s Swiftmapper project, helping to contribute to an accurate picture of where they’re to be found nesting. There’s an app you can download and, with it, record them whether they’re nesting in buildings in southern England or trees in Scotland.

Of course, we’re not all fortunate enough to have Swifts nesting nearby. What we can all have a go at is the zero carbon, lockdown-era home bird-race devised by Darren Archer. Full details to be found on his @dunnock67 Twitter feed but, in a nutshell, the date for your diary is this coming Saturday 16th. I’m hyped up about it - Fetlar, you are going down…

 

Mid May, and the goodies just come thick and fast where rare birds are concerned. Apparently, for English birders, Boris Johnson has relaxed the lockdown strictures somewhat – though at the time of writing, I’m still not entirely clear to what extent – so perhaps there will be a few more eyes out and about taking their daily exercise in the week to come.

Good marsh terns still feel, at this juncture, like a mere formality. More White-winged Blacks and maybe a Whiskered Tern for good measure.

If we’re looking to the passerines, a Thrush Nightingale feels like a fair call.

But it’s waders though that catch my eye looking at the historic records for the coming week, and one in particular. 48 historic records of Broad-billed Sandpiper give some confidence that the week to come could be a good one to cast more than a passing eye at a muddy wetland fringe or estuary margin.

 

Jon Dunn
12 May 2020

 

Many thanks to all this week's contributors for your photos and videos

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