31/12/2017 Final twitches of 2017

Longford, near Gloucester with Sara
Thursday 28 December 2017

I travelled to Gloucestershire with Sara to twitch the Penduline Tit at Plock Court Wetland, Longford.  

Getting to Gloucestershire was the hardest part with heavy traffic and holdups all along the way.  We arrived several hours late, with barely 1 hour of daylight remaining.

• Thankfully the bird was showing well as we arrived and we enjoyed some excellent scope views as it foraged in the distant reeds.

Penduline Tit at Plock Court, Gloucestershire
courtesy of Tony Davison and Twitter

• 
  Winters in the Mediterranean area and is a summer breeding visitor to Northern Europe. 
• A very rare accidental vagrant to the UK, however frequency of visits is increasing.

Blashford Lakes in Hampshire  
Friday 29 December 2017

• A very successful visit to Blashford Lakes to join a hide full of birders for the gull roost resulted in good views of the Ring-billed Gull.

Ring-billed Gull
courtesy of Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

• 
  The ring-billed gulls' breeding habitat is near lakes, rivers, or the coast in Canada and the northern United States. They nest colonially on the ground, often on islands. This bird tends to be faithful to its nesting site, if not its mate, from year to year.
• They are migratory and most move south to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America, and the Great Lakes.
• This gull is a regular wanderer to western Europe. In Ireland and Great Britain, it is no longer classed as a rarity, with several birds regularly wintering in those countries.

Hazlewood Common, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Saturday 30 December 2017

My third road trip in as many days saw me head up to Suffolk to twitch the Coues's Arctic Redpoll - a lifer for me!  It has been present since November so I was surprised, and delighted, to find a dozen or so birders with the same intent. 

Coues's Arctic Redpoll
courtesy of Marcus Nash

It was quite windy and the light was not good as we viewed from the entrance to the wooden, white holiday cottage.

• The bird was moving around with the other Lesser Redpolls and a few Chaffinches and was not staying put for more than a second or two.  The scope was proving a hindrance at such short distances so I had to be content with a series of binocular views including an excellent one where the bird moved around the bush flitting from branch to branch and another where it was stationary for a few seconds.

• In the 2 hour spell I also got to see a bonus bird - a Mealy Redpoll.

• Arctic Redpoll is divided into two subspecies, exilipes which breeds widely in northern Eurasia and North America and hornemanni which breeds in Greenland and neighbouring parts of Canada. This bird is an exilipes, also known as Coues’s Arctic Redpoll.
• Apparently, according to historians, it’s first name should properly be pronounced ‘cows’ after its namesake, Elliot Coues, a 19th century American army surgeon and ornithologist. This is the correct pronunciation according to his descendants.

.



Pulborough Brooks, Sussex
Sunday 31 December 2017

My last twitch of 2017 saw me visit Pulborough Brooks on a dull, wet morning.  I spent just over an hour looking for the Temminck's Stint after it went walkabouts just before I got to the Hangar View.

• Thankfully, I refound it, much to the delight of a couple of fellow birders. It was showing well in the distance as it moved along the muddy edges of the pool.

Just as I left the reserve the weather started to deteriorate rapidly, making me feel so lucky to twitch this rare bird at this late stage in the year.

• The species breeds mostly in the Arctic and is rare in this country.
• Temminck's stints pass through the UK between May and mid-June and again between the end of July and October; most birds are seen here in May.

A brilliant finish to the year with 4 twitches, resulting in 5 year ticks and a "lifer"!

2017 UK Year List       293 species my best ever!

UK Life List                  338 species

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!