End of Year Review, December 2013

So here we are at the end of my third full year writing this blog, I hope you have enjoyed its content and would like to thank all those who follow it and those who have visited over the years. This year (2013) has been an interesting one for me as back in February I started a new job, which I had hoped would give me more spare time to enjoy bird ringing and other natural history activities. In reality, more spare time meant more out of work social commitments, which did limit the amount of free time I had, and three stints in hospital were certainly not welcome. Despite the set backs I still had a great year which resulted in several new birds in for me in Hampshire, over 20 new moth species in the garden, a couple of new birds in the hand and ended with a British tick (Brunnich's guillemot). In typical fashion for a year end post I thought I would do a quick summary of my personal highlights of the year, and please feel free to share yours with me.

January
The start of the year for me was all about trying to see as many bird species as possible on the patch. There were no real highlights to speak of with this, that came in the form of a recovery notification from the BTO of one of the common nightingales that I had ringed at Botley Wood. Unfortunately the bird was found dead in France 488 days since being ringed, which was not good news for the bird, but was my first foreign control of this species since starting the project.

Adult Common Nightingale - Sadly found dead in France

February
The long staying and very confiding black-bellied dipper at the BTO HQ Thetford in Norfolk was the first that I had seen in the UK, and got my annual Norfolk pilgrimage off to a good start.

Black-bellied Dipper - Norfolk

March
Eurasian siskins came into my garden in good numbers this year and I ended with a record number of 40 new birds ringed, beating the previous best of 12 back in 2003. Individuals were trapped throughout January, February, March, April, May and one bird was re-trapped in August. The peak month though was March when 22 new birds were ringed.

Male Eurasian Siskin

April
The return of the common nightingale is always a highlight for me and this year was no exception. At least eight singing males were back on territories, and I managed to catch four of those, one being a bird from May 2009. This month was also memorable for the presence of a singing male common redstart and a lesser spotted woodpecker, both found whilst surveying for nightingales.

Retrap Adult Nightingale - Botley Wood

May
Being my 25th wedding anniversary this year my wife and I took short break to the Greek Island of Rhodes. There were no new birds for me but we did have a great trip with a variety of wildlife being seen. The highlight for me had to be snake-eyed lizard which was stunning beast, the resultant blog post has become the most read post on this site. 

Snake-eyed Lizard, Rhodes

June
The undoubted highlight for me this year was being invited out to ring northern goshawk pulli. I had ringed common buzzards before but the size of these birds, in particular the females and their talons was amazing. The low point was being savaged by a cat and spending four days in hospital with an infected arm.

Juvenile Goshawk

July
Mothing really took off this month and checking the trap before work became near on impossible due to the numbers present. On one date I recorded 250 moths of 90 species in the garden and by the end of the year I had recorded 310 species. The second high point was surviving being knocked off my bike by a car and only needing seven stitches in a gash on my chin and having mild concussion for 48 hours.

White Satin Moth - a new species for me

August
Ringing was starting to get into full swing at Titchfield Haven and on 17th we ringing 223 new birds, with 24 of those being garden warblers, the most we have ever caught in one day by a long way.

Garden Warbler - Titchfield Haven

September
This month was memorable for two amazing highs, catching my first, and second, Clifden nonpareil moths whilst staying at Castlehaven on the Isle of Wight; and seeing the first brown shrike to ever be recorded in Hampshire. An excellent find by Bob Marchant.

Clifden Nonpareil at Castlehaven, Isle of Wight

October
There were many highlights during October, but these were sadly all overshadowed by the untimely death of Tim Lawman, a popular and active member of the Hampshire birding scene. The highlights were finding a yellow-browed warbler at The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trusts (HIWWT) Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve, and then another at Anton Lakes whilst waiting for Hampshire's second ever Radde's warbler to show. The semi-palmated plover at Sandy Point on Hayling Island, a truly amazing find by Andy Johnson. And if all that wasn't enough, it ended with us catching our first, and Hampshire's third Radde's warbler at Titchfield Haven. What an autumn this turned out to be!

Radde's Warbler at Titchfield Haven

November
Ringing bearded reedlings (or parrotbills) at the HIWWTs Farlington Marshes reserve was a real treat, but the undoubted highlight had to be the phenomenal starling roost of 10,000 to 100,000 birds at their Blashford Lakes nature reserve. As natural history spectacles go this is one of the best I have seen and is still continuing as I write this post. If you get the chance it is definitely worth a visit and if you are lucky you may even get the see one of the two bitterns wintering there.

A Murmuration of Starlings at Blashford Lakes

December
There is only one contender this month and that was the Brunnich's guillemot in Portland Harbour. We were heading home after spending Christmas in Cornwall and made the short detour. A cracking bird and a British tick for me to end the year on.

Radde's Warbler - Titchfield Haven October 2013

You can image my surprise when I got the call this morning to say that we would be ringing at the Haven, I had looked at the weather last night and it looked as if it would be far too windy. Fortunately the winds were from the south-west and therefore much of the ringing area was sheltered. You can image my even greater surprise when one of the birds we trapped was a Radde's Warbler, the first to be ringed at the Haven and only the 3rd for Hampshire. Having spent several hours trying to see the Andover bird, only to get frustratingly brief views, it was a real treat to get the opportunity to look at one close up.  

Radde's Warbler Phylloscopus schwarzi - First year Titchfield Haven

In the hand the bird appeared smaller than it did in the field, but the most striking features were the broad and long supercilia, sturdy bill, the very bright yellow underparts and the yellowish-pink legs.

Radde's Warbler - Titchfield Haven

The upperparts were a warm olive brown colour with little contrast between the rump and tail. The brightness of the underparts, very pointed tail feathers and lack of abrasion on the primary tips were all evidence of this bird being a first year. 

Bright yellowish underparts and rich-buff under tail coverts

The wing point was formed by the 3rd, 4th and 5th primaries, and interestingly the 4th and 5th primaries seemed slightly longer than the third. This is contrary to Svensson which suggests that the wing point for Radde's is formed by the 3rd and 4th primaries and occasionally the 5th. However, the wing point of dusky warbler, the most likely confusion species, is formed by the 4th and 5th primaries. Clearly this area needs more research, maybe that is one for the next version of Svensson!

Open Wing of Radde's Warbler

Given the generally windy overnight weather conditions, it was not surprising that we didn't catch many birds, in fact we finished the session with less than 10 new birds. But it was definitely a case of quality not quantity.

A Semi-palmated Plover in Hampshire!!!

You can image my surprise when on the afternoon of Thursday 17th October, I received an email with pictures of a 1st winter semi-palmated plover at Black Point on Hayling Island. Not only was this another first for Hampshire, following quickly in the footsteps of the brown shrike, but this was also only the fourth record of this species in the British Isles, and only the second mainland record. The bird had been found by Andy Johnson at around 9:30, but after an hour it had flown off and had not been relocated.

Unfortunately I was office bound on the Friday, and would not be able to escape, so when news broke that the bird had returned to the same high tide roost, I was feeling pretty despondent. Fortunately, it was nearly the weekend and so I only had to wait until today to have a chance of seeing it. I arrived at Black Point early as I didn't want to risk missing the bird, or not being able to park nearby and having to walk miles. It was surprisingly quiet when I arrived, with only a few birders wandering around, but as the tide began to rise the bird numbers increased as did the birders. A small flock of common ringed plovers were the first birds to turn up, followed by dunlin and then a large flock of sanderling. 

This photo of the Semi-palmated plover Charadrius semipalmatus was taken 
by Andy Johnson on the day of the find. Note the difference in size, bill shape 
and the obvious white 'wedge' at the base of the bill.

After some initial stringing by the assembled birders, we had soon found the semi-p. It was feeding at the right hand (eastern) end of the flock, but just as I started to grill the bird it flew off. As the birds flew around we could hear the distinctive "chewit" call of the semi-p; in fact it was this call that initially alerted Andy to the presence of the bird on Thursday. The bird soon settled back down and we quickly got back onto it, unfortunately after a further 5 - 10 minutes the flock was flushed again.....this time the birds did not return.

Another Photo by Andy Johnson - Again the smaller size is
evident in this shot, stubby bill and the pale eye ring.
The white 'wedge' is again very obvious.

A few minutes later the ringed plover flock, with the semi-p, was relocated on the seafront between the Nab car park and Eastoke Corner, between groynes 24 and 25. It stayed there for quite a while allowing many to enjoy it. A cracking find well done Andy.

Another Andy Johnson photo showing the stubby bill, pale eye ring
and white 'wedge'.

But of course the semi-p and brown shrike are just the two National megas in Hampshire this autumn! The last couple of weeks has been unprecedented for Hampshire birding, and has seen a dusky warbler turn up at Sandy Point and a Radde's warbler turn up near Andover. The dusky was again found by Andy Johnson, and is only the second for Hampshire; the first was also at Sandy Point and found by Andy a couple of years ago. This latest bird was extremely elusive and tended to frustrate the birders who went to see it. Once again I was office bound and unable to see it, and by the time the weekend came it was gone, fortunately I saw the first bird but would have like to have seen another.

This image of the Dusky Warbler Phylloscopus fuscatus was taken by Alan Lewis.
The bird had proved to be particularly elusive, but in this image it is possible to see
the dull grey-brown underparts, the dull legs and the buff-brown supercilium.

The other cracking find was that of the Radde's warbler at Anton Lakes Country Park near Andover by Joe Stockwell. Joe is the assistant warden at Portland Bill Bird Observatory and had come home for the weekend to visit his parents. A bit of early morning birding resulted in this find. The Radde's was also the second record for Hampshire, although the first was suppressed, for some unknown reason. This latest bird was found on Sunday 13th, but the on-set of heavy rain meant the bird became extremely elusive. I dipped it on the Sunday and had to make a second visit on Tuesday; the bird was very elusive but I eventually got tick-able views. Whilst there I also heard a yellow-browed warbler calling but did not try to look for it as the Radde's was proving so difficult to find.

This image of the Radde's Warbler Phylloscopus schwarzi was taken by Joe Stockwell on the
day of finding. Apparently Joe also picked this bird up on call first; this image clearly shows the
broad and pale supercilium and strikingly pale legs.

Unfortunately the Radde's Warbler twitch on Sunday 13th October will be memorable to many for the different reasons than the bird. It turned out to be a very sad day as one of Hampshire's top birders, Tim Lawman, collapsed and died at the site. I had known Tim since my early birding days visiting Titchfield Haven in the early 1980's, and he was a regular at the majority of Hampshire twitches. Tim currently holds the biggest published Hampshire bird list and was responsible for finding numerous rare birds in the County. He will be sadly missed by the Hampshire Birding community - RIP Tim.