Friday, 25 April 2025

Into the nineties

This morning a Lesser Whitethroat became my 90th patch bird of 2025. As I've already mentioned I had a lacklustre start to the year, a lot of apathy, a lot of not actually being here, but since late March I've really upped my game and been out a lot. Have I caught up?


2024: 13th April

2023: 29th April

2022: 23rd April

2021: 30th March

2020: 19th April

2019: May 2nd

2018: April 22nd


So today is the 25th which would seem to fit neatly into the above list, not the worst, not the best, pretty average. I'd argue I am actually slightly ahead on the basis that there are a number of pretty easy ones that I've failed to find. Or in some cases actually look for at all. Tawny Owl for example, there are two within ten minutes of home that I could pop out and listen for whenever I feel like it. Which I don't. I am also missing Grey Wagtail and Cetti's Warbler, both a little trickier, but with a bit of effort I could likely sort that out. Fieldfare could be a bit harder for a while....

What I do sort of regret is flogging the patch for all four days of the long weekend just gone. In truth it was a bit crap - the best bird a Snipe - and I should have used one of those days to go and bird somewhere that actually had birds. Especially as at this time of year I can get a good two hours on the patch before going to work, so why also burn the weekends on it?

Lots of these belting it out at the moment


Tuesday, 22 April 2025

And on the fifth day

This is not some kind of Easter or LoTR reference. It's about the Nightingale, which continues to sing lustily from Motorcycle Wood on Wanstead Flats. Being a wholly rounded and sensible person I have of course been attempting to get it on my garden list by virtue of hearing it from one of the turrets of Chateau L. This did not work. The wind, the 'Fun' Fair, the traffic, obsessive power-washing from one of my neighbours, not to mention selfish Robins seemingly everywhere. I was resigned to this unique opportunity passing me by.

Yesterday evening though the stars aligned. The wind dropped, the fair packed up, the boy-racers had disappeared and it being Easter there just seemed to be less traffic on the A12 and A406, the dull hum of both is otherwise a constant backdrop. A local birder popped out and reported it in fine voice. I jumped out of bed and threw open the balcony turret doors! No music, no engines, no helicopters, just a faint "chug chug chug, pew pew pew pew pew pew", then the uprising crescendo. It seemed to reverberate off the walls of nearby houses. I was beside myself. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever add Nightingale to the house list. 490 metres and clear as a bell. Distant yes, but perfectly clear. I am astonished.

You know how in the past I have confessed to liking round numbers? Nightingale is garden tick #99. #98 was as long ago as 2021, that infamous year of lockdown and constant working from home. That year I added five, but that was an exceptional year where there was little else to do. I still can't believe that it ever happened, that we lived through it. What will 100 be? I've had three that I can't count, nocmig records when I was asleep of Quail, Green Sandpiper and Little Grebe. The latter are local and are by far the most likely but require staying up all night which is not really me any longer despite the prize. As such I am still holding out hope for a Nuthatch. That would be epic.




Saturday, 19 April 2025

Back to slow

A small amount of movement, very small. We've had Whimbrel over the Flats twice in two days, James had the briefest Grasshopper Warbler, the Nightingale is still here, and I saw a Swallow. A single Swallow. It's hard work out on Wanstead Flats at the moment, really not much reward for the immense coverage the place is getting. Where are the Lesser Whitethroats? The House Martins? Shouldn't we get a Reed Warbler, a Sedge? Dare to dream....

The Nightingale is on its third day. Given it has chosen a spot right next to the 'Fun' Fair this is pretty extraordinary. I was there this evening, waiting in vain for the Gropper to start up, the thumping bass and flashing lights interspersed with screams. A group of blokes were drinking in the chosen copse and yet above all of this racket it started up as the sun set. 

Look, a Yellow Parakeet! Observant readers may recall that this used to be a Nightingale photo, but then I needed that for a different post so now you have a weirdo Parrot.




Thursday, 17 April 2025

Pumped for the weekend

My professional life has seen a tumultuous two weeks. High stress, long hours. You can probably guess why. Yes, that's right. The stream of conciousness spouting from a certain person in the United States of America has made recent weeks a misery. I have good coping mechanisms though, in particular birding. If I can get an hour or so out on Wanstead Flats before I head to work then I face it in an upbeat frame of mind. Birding is permanent, this lunacy will pass.

Egyptian Goose. Lovely.


I've missed just one day, and whilst on many of the days I've perhaps not seen a great deal it has been immensely helpful for my mental health. That is if I am allowed to even mention mental health these days, this and many other emminently sensible approaches to wellbeing and basic humanity seem to be on the retreat in this brave new world. 

Anyway, of all the recent days Tuesday and today have been the best. Tuesday was grim, constant rain that became a fine mist until at least lunch time, and it was no surprise that a Ring Ouzel dropped in. Found by hardier birders than myself, I tend not to go out in heavy rain, but by late morning it was starting to clear and knowing it would still be around I went out to look for it. I jammed it more or less immediately as it flew from one area of cover to another. My 46th on the patch, I couldn't quite believe it when this statistic popped up. The murk also landed a couple of Wheatear, and my day was enlivened by a steady stream of Swallows passing more or less over my house as I manfully attended call after call.


Wheatear

Wednesday was less exciting, a single Sand Martin battling against the breeze and being blown east when I suspect it had north in mind. Fast forward to this morning and Bob found a Nightingale singing in Motorcycle Wood. I was with James on the other side of the road talking about whether we would get a Nightingale this year. Turns out "yes" was the more or less instant answer. It was my 6th - the first was in 2013 but all the others have been in the last five years, a rare instance of an uptick in numbers. I wasn't able to see it as it sang from thick cover, but I very much enjoyed it. To say I am pumped for the long weekend ahead is an understatement.

No, I am not obsessed with Parakeets, why do you ask?




Wednesday, 16 April 2025

I asked AI about Wanstead Birder



The other day I noticed that my WhatsApp had a new button, a kind of blue ring on the right hand side. Curious, I pressed it. Meta AI, with Llama 4. I was on a plane at the time, flying back from a week working in Budapest, and having just finished my book I had logged onto the plane's wifi. As usual (unless you pay, which I don't) this was limited to messaging only, no internet. However as this thing was built into WhatsApp this seemed to defeat this and I found I was able to use it as a search engine of sorts. I'd just finished "The Greek Islands" by Lawrence Durrell so he was the first thing I looked up. Who is Lawrence Durrell, I asked. It spat out a very passable summary. Then I asked it about Hungarian wine regions. This looked pretty decent to an ignoramus such as myself. OK, how about Puligny 1er Cru, something I could actually challenge it on? Gosh, is there anything it doesn't know? It seemed to know what they were, the sizes of each of them in hectares, and then it attempted to describe their individual characterics but seemed to only land on them all having a balance of acidity and fruitiness. Understanding the specific magic of Puligny-Montrachet is of course an impossible task that actual humans have still not fully worked out, but afficionados know that Les Folatieres has clear differences between it's upper and lower reaches and the wine from either is in any event highly influenced by the particular vintage and by who made it. I digress. Then I asked it the following question.

"Who is Wanstead Birder"

Wanstead Birder is a pseudonymous British birdwatcher and blogger who writes about birds, birding and conservation. The blog, "Wanstead Birder," is named after the Wanstead Flats, a park in East London where the author often goes birding.

The Wanstead Birder's blog is known for its:

1. Witty and engaging writing style: The author's humourous and insightful posts have gained a large following.

2. Birding stories and anecdotes: The blog shares tales of birding adventures, successes and failures.

3. Conservation and environmental commentary: Wanstead Birder often discusses conservation issues, birding ethics, and environmental concerns.

The Wanstead Birder's identity remains anonymous, adding to the blog's charm and mystique.

Well now. This is exactly what came up, grammatical errors and all. I will not deny that I am impressed that artificially intelligent Llamas can actually do this, can come up with something broadly accurate but my goodness me. This is 16 years of blogging condensed into 100 words. 106 for any pedants out there. How can this even be possible? Did it genuinely scan all 2300 posts in a nanosecond to come up with this? Maybe it did. Fast reader! There are clear inaccuracies though. In point one for starters, insightful posts and a large following. Hah! As if.  Witty and enagaging! Well, I try....  

Point two is perhaps the most on point. I do indeed share tales of birding successes and failures. Mostly failures. And of adventures, perhaps those are the travel posts? What I am most surprised by is the lack of any acknowledgement that I often ignore birds in large parts of what I write. For many years I wrote about parenting, and even now if you look back you will find a good number of posts about wine, gardening, politics, AI..... I suppose that with such a limited word count you need to generalise.

Point three is of course a complete joke. I mean yes, very very occasionally I dip into the environmental theme, but I don't enjoy it, and those posts attract ire more often than not given my lifestyle choices and so I essentially skip it. This is where AI fails. It assumes that all birders, or at least all birders that write, must be conservationists and pump that message. Whereas some of us just write because we enjoy it and not because there is anything we particularly want to promote.

Charm and mystique? Couldn't have put it better myself.

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Jersey



Last month I went to Jersey for the day, for no other reason than I had never been. I can report that it is very pleasant, and also that I saw more posh cars in a single place than I think I have ever seen. I had no agenda, no plan, I just went for a very long walk in beautiful weather. Heading east from the airport I circled the far perimeter of the runway, walking through the small village of St Peter's before heading into the countryside and down towards the sea at St Ouen's Bay. Somewhere around here a Chough flew over, not a bird that was on my radar, and there were lots of Buzzards in the air as well as a pair of Raven.



I checked out Val de la Mare, and then walked around the back of Les Mielles Nature Reserve before having a look at Saint Ouen's Pond and scrape. Skylark were singing by the beach, reminding me of the patch. Not reminding me of home was my first Wheatear of the year. They were on their way! Albeit that I've still only seen just the one on home turf.

First Wheatear!



I checked out Val de la Mare, and then walked around the back of Les Mielles Nature Reserve before having a look at Saint Ouen's Pond and scrape. Skylark were singing by the beach, reminding me of the patch. Not reminding me of home was my first Wheatear of the year. They were on their way! Albeit that I've still only seen just the one on home turf.

The pond held lots of Shoveler and a Water Pipit, and there were several hunting Marsh Harrier. On the massive sandy beach a handful of Oystercatcher fed. On distant rocks I could see a Little Egret and some Cormorant were bobbing about. The nearby Scrape was probably the most productive area, with some Wigeon, Lapwing, a flock of Brent Geese and, bizarrely, a Pink-footed Goose with a Barnacle Goose. Hmmm. Cetti's called from the reeds.



I returned to the airport from the other direction, essentially I had just walked a big anti-clockwise loop over the course of about six hours. I saw 53 species which I thought was pretty decent, I'd been expecting about 35. Altogether a very nice day. The island is very pretty, a patchwork landscape of small fields and hedgerows, lots of nice houses (and cars...), lovely views almost everywhere, and a terrific beach on the west side. I didn't get to St Helier or anywhere on the eastern side. 

Sunday, 13 April 2025

Slow slow slow

It continues to be impossibly slow here. Another weekend has passed with barely any migration. I still haven't seen a Swallow! Friday had an unexpected Woodlark silently north but seen well by a few of us, and on Saturday a couple of Yellow Wagtail in the space of two minutes livened up a three hour vigil momentarily. With overnight rain on Saturday into Sunday I was out again this morning, but other than a couple of Rook nothing happened.  Others had a couple of Wheatear later on, but honestly this is appalling for mid-April. Realistically we have a two or three more weekends and then that is it until the autumn. It is as bad as I can ever recall.


In the absence of anything else to do I have been counting and photographing
Parakeets. At this time of year they feed on the ground close to where I live, pecking tender shoots from the short grass. There have around 100 early in the morning, coming down in flocks and then flying off as one when spooked before resettling. Desperate times.



Friday, 11 April 2025

Faro for the weekend - Sunday and Trip List - March 2025



It had continued to rain overnight and the breeze was still very fresh. Needing to be back at the airport for about 5.30pm we could either bird our way back along the coast the same way that we had come, stopping at the sites that we had missed out or been unable to find. Or we could quickly spin up to Castro Verde, perhaps a couple of hours away in the car, and explore an entirely different habitat of rolling plains and steppe. With 76 species on the list at the end of Saturday and a strong desire to get that up to 100, as well as with my Portugal list in mind, we chose the second option. 



But first, having come all this way, we went down to promontory at Cabo de Sao Vicente to look at the sea. It was beautiful down by the lighthouse, bright sunshine making the water aquamarine, alternately clouds turning it dark teal. Sheltering from the wind along the walls of the compound we wondered idly if we could see any Gannets. We could! In fact we could see a lot more than that, hundreds, and there were ducks too with several flocks of Common Scoter going west part the headland and a small party of Wigeon. Shearwaters were what we were really after of course, and although pretty distant we managed to get on some Balearics tracking west. Better than that, a much larger Shearwater a little closer in, with the Gannets and whilst smaller, actually not that far off them in size. It gleamed white below, brown above, and held its wings in a gentle arc, not even flapping once. Of course we couldn't at that range determine whether this was Scopoli's or Cory's, but eBird has the useful option to put down one or the other. This was when a scope would have been really handy! Feeling we likely didn't have much more to gain from the sea we picked our way inland, stopping for a friendly Stonechat and finding a couple of Black Redstart and a Blue Rock Thrush on one of the fortifications nearby.


Stonechat

Sardinian Warbler


Slightly north of the promontory the habitat transitions very rapidly to something akin to steppe. Taking a side road on the way back to Sagres paid dividends almost immediately with coveys of Red-legged Partridge, Corn Buntings everywhere, a farm with Little Owls sheltering in a ruined barn, and a pair of Little Bustard working their way along a grassy ridge.

After breakfast at Vila do Bispo and getting soaked for nothing more than a few Great Tits we regained the main road and made tracks for Castro Verde. We stopped along the way of course, and so it wasn't until midday that we finally made it, which was a poor effort considering we had expected to be there at 10am. This is the way. It was good immediately, and in much better weather. Hoopoe, Red Kite and Booted Eagle were all at our first stop, and Raven, Egyptian Goose and Zitting Cisticola at our second. Although there was no rain our progress was significantly limited by flash flooding with several tracks into good habitat completely flooded by overflowing streams. The trouble is that we only discovered this after driving for reasonable distances and in this way we contrived to waste a lot of what little time we had. On one of these pointless one-way trips we got a Black Kite, and on another a group of Black-bellied Sandgrouse and some Little Bustard. Iberian Shrikes started to appear with increasing frequency, we heard a couple of Quail, and after a long detour to get to a birding spot we blew it big-time by inadvertently flushing three Spanish Imperial Eagles feeding on a dead sheep. So gutting to see these birds flying off, but we had just not known they were there. Somewhere along the way we jammed a male Hen Harrier and Short-toed Eagle - these hills are sensational for Raptors. I'd like to spend much more time here, it reminded me quite a lot of Extramadura.

Not helpful!

We returned to Faro on the N2, possibly a mistake as it was one of windiest and twisty roads I have ever driven, and as such was painfully slow. Much better probably to take the more boring but much quicker A2 to the west. Still, we didn't miss the flight and even managed to add Jay and Flamingo to the list from the airport. 


Thursday, 10 April 2025

Faro for the weekend - Saturday - March 2025

Mick and I met at Gatwick at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning, I think I had to get up at 3am in order to make it, but even so you don't arrive in Portugal until mid-morning and you can only really get an hour of birding in before lunch once you have gone through immigration and picked up the car. We had our work cut out but felt we were equal to the task of seeing as manys as possible during the portion of the day that was left. 

A false start near the airport saw us driving down what eventually turned into a footpath and then a fence. This is the risk of relying purely on a satnav. This necessitated a slow and ignominious retreat in reverse until we could do an eighty-point turn to face forwards again and regain the road. There was then a second false start when the next birding location was down an undrivable track which in any event had a chain across it.... You can't beat planning things without local knowledge based simply on eBird pins! Sure, somebody has been birding there, but they know how to get in, or approach from a completely different direction. Rather than work out how on earth one accessed these places we just gave up and went to the next one, arriving to clear skies that looked like that had the distant potential to turn ominous.

Third time lucky. We arrived at the PN Ria Formosa - Ludo at around 11am and this time could actually get in. We had to dump the car and walk a fair way, annoyingly seeing a few cars drive straight past us once we were on foot, but at least we were finally birding, albeit in a brisk breeze. This was a great site, stuffed with birds, and even without a scope we were able to pick up a good selection of waders, though admittedly some had to be identified on the back of the camera. Dunlin and Little Stint were probably the most numerous, but there were plenty of Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover, a single Ruff and a single Greenshank. Marsh Harriers hunted over the pools, and a colony of White Stork and Grey Heron were present in some tall trees on the Marsh. My Portugese list really took off here, all sorts of frankly common birds that I'd somehow not bumped into elsewhere simply due to habitat. Ducks, waders, small birds like Sardinian Warbler and Zitting Cisticola. I was struck by rich the habitat was, and seemingly large parts of the coast are like this.

Large parts of the coast are also golf resorts. Not just a golf course here and there, but extensive developments with multiple courses, gigantic villas, small golf villages and interminable roundabouts. Our next stop was only just on the other side of the Salinas, but took forever to get to as we had to bypass 72 holes just to access the next stretch of marsh. Here we added AvocetBlack-winged StiltWhimbrel and Grey Plover in short order, as well as a Spoonbill and several Little Egret. Luckily we remained close to the car at this site as suddenly the skies darkened and a torrential downpour ensued, a pattern that was to be repeated for the rest of the day as a relentless series of squalls pushed in driven by the westerly wind.

A few thousand golf courses later, at the Canicais de Vilamoura, we spotted our first Black-winged Kite hovering over a par four, and then two Osprey over a water obstacle. A Booted Eagle soared majestically over the clubhouse. A short distance further on, at the Dom Pedro Laguna (surrounded by bunkers), a small mixed flock of Pochard and Red-crested Pochard loafed alongside hole 15 with Glossy Ibis, some Little Grebe worked the margins with a Moorhen, and a rare Mute Swan ignored everything. Serin were in the pine belt, and our first Cetti's Warblers sang from the scrub. Further on, where the golf courses inexplicably ran out, we drove a narrow track alongside some waste ground and came across our first (and it turned out, only) Black-headed Weaver, as well as yet more Booted Eagle and Osprey. Despite the development the area remains rich in birds, one can only wonder what it was once like before the arrival of the international golfer.



By now it was 3pm and we made scant progress westwards since arriving, with perhaps the best site yet to come. This is the trouble with birding! That site was the Lagoa dos Salgados, right on the shore west of Vilamoura and Albufeira. This was chock full of birds, with our first Pintail and Teal, Black-winged Stilt, and a monstrous Western Swamphen. Despite not having a scope we used the cameras to identify distant waders including a pair of Snipe, a Black-tailed Godwit, a Sanderling, two Common Sandpiper and a Ringed Plover. A Caspian Tern was a nice surprise. The sea was big and birdless, the beach vast. On the other side of this area we added Corn Bunting and a few Red-rumped Swallow, and a walk back towards the lagoon piced up a couple more as well as two Green Sandpiper. By now the day was over, it was getting dark, and the drive west to our hotel in Sagres was in a heavy downpour. Excellent dinner in a traditional restaurant, I think I had Turbot and it was fantastic with local wine.



Wednesday, 9 April 2025

Minor awakenings

I wake up at more or less the same time every day, 6am. Years and years of conditioning, I simply can't help it. Even if vast quantities of wine have been consumed the result is the same, except with a headache and a dry throat. One of the first things I do is look out of the window. What is the weather like? In April the question has a very particular meaning. What is the weather like for migrants? Blue skies and sunshine, lovely as they are (and God only knows we deserve them after a miserable winter), are crap for migrants. They simply sail right over the top. Other than a smattering of Chiffchaff and increasing numbers of Blackcap, Wanstead migration in 2025 has been limited to two Wheatear, a couple of Willow Warbler, under ten Swallow, a Little Ringed Plover and a Sand Martin. Given that we are approaching mid-April and that the coverage is outstanding this is pathetic. 

So I get up and go to the bathroom. On the way, or more likely on the way back once my eyes have started to work a little better, I take a look at the clear skies and then I go back to bed for a while. There is no point, none whatsoever, in dragging myself to the patch. How I know? Because I've dragged myself to the patch repeatedly and seen nothing for so long that I have wised up. However this morning there appeared to be some white and grey fluffy things in the sky. Eh? Oh clouds, yes, I remember them! I showered, got dressed, and dragged myself to the patch.



This proved worthwhile almost immediately, it is extraordinary what a difference it made. First up a Willow Warbler singing continuously from Long Wood, heard from a long way off and tracked down. Excellent, what a lovely little bird, and to hear that song really buoyed my spirits. Thus lifted I veritably skipped towards VizMig and leaned back against the fence to begin my vigil. Less than ten minutes later a high and distant blob resolved into a Marsh Harrier purposefully heading north, a properly rare bird on the patch and only my fourth. The morning was getting better! Switching to Centre Path as I meandered slowly towards the tube  and Donald Trump's tariffs a small bird flew from one Hawthorn to another without making so much as a sound. I felt I knew it, and when it landed there was a spanking Common Whitethroat in my bins, the first I have seen for many months. I think I am right in saying that this is our first for the year. I carried on, scanning the sky, looking on fence posts. A Sand Martin scudded north as I proceeded south, not the first for the year for the patch, but my first for the year and actually our hardest Hirundine by some margin. As I left the patch four Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk with in the air, with three of the former appearing to head north. We have a local resident pair however these were probably different birds. Other birds on the move included ten Meadow Pipit and some Linnet. A bit of cloud cover, that is all it takes. Imagine what some well-timed rain could do!

Tuesday, 8 April 2025

Faro for the weekend - Logistics and Itinerary - March 2025



The Algarve, March 8th-9th 2025


I've been to Madeira a few times, mostly in search of plants rather than birds, though of course there are a few special things there... My experience of the Portugese mainland is scant though, single trips to Lisbon (street photography) and Porto (drinking....). You don't get many birds on Madeira, and you certainly don't see many birds in Port cellars so my Portugese list was rather pathetic. The plan was to rectify this by spending a weekend on the south coast in early March, taking in a few of the wetland sites west of Faro on Saturday, and then to scoot up to the plains around Castro Verde on Sunday.

Logistics

  • A weekend trip in early March with Senhor Southcott.
  • Flights: from Gatwick to Faro on British Airways. Outbound is a horribly early Saturday morning flight that gets you to Faro mid-morning. On the plus side it requires no time off work, but at the same time this does mean less birding unless you want to make it three days. However the early start gives you as much birding as you can get on a weekend. The return flight leaves early on Sunday evening. Get cracking!
  • Car Hire: Virtually free as far as I can recall, a decent little run-around car that did the job from Avis, and as part of a BA holiday meant that we could secure the booking for a minimal deposit. I think the flight and car came to £160 each. Decent.
  • Driving: Simple. Good roads. Motorways are charged via cameras and you get your bill later. Our weekend racked up a princely 11 euros.
  • Weather: Challenging! Blustery with bands of rain coming in from the west all weekend. Lovely between the squalls, albeit still on the windy side. Apparently it was lovely in the UK!
  • Accommodation: Only one night needed so Mick booked a hotel in Sagres at the far end of the Algarve for £30 or so. Another bargain. It was perfectly serviceable.
  • Food: Coffee and Pastel de nata all the way at €1.50 a pop. 
  • Optics:  This was trip that in theory prioritised photography however the wind made that virtually impossible. The missing scope would have been useful a couple of times, particularly during good sea-watching conditions off Sagres on Sunday morning.
  • Literature: eBird and Mick's prior experience!
 


Itinerary
Saturday: Very early flight from Gatwick. Arrived in Faro mid-morning and worked our way slowly east via a variety of birding hotspots, mostly wetland sites. Overnight at Sagres.
Sunday: Early seawatch off Sao Vicente, followed by a bit of birding on the plains to the immediate north. Then a quick drive up to Castro Verde for a change of scene, trying to find Raptors, Bustards, Sandgrouse and other specialties on the rolling planes. Early evening flight back to Gatwick. Easy.

Monday, 7 April 2025

Mandarins and other things

In early March a drake Mandarin was found on the Perch Pond in the Park by a non-birder, or possibly a birder but not one that we know. Widely twitched as usual, I was in Canary Wharf and unable to get there, and shortly after most people had seen it it did a bunk over Heronry and wasn't seen again. Until this Friday that is when James found what presumably is the same bird on Heronry. It quickly did a bunk again but only as far as Shoulder of Mutton where Bob, quick off the mark as ever, refound it a short while later. This time I wasn't in Canary Wharf, I was in Budapest. Excellent.

Roll forward to this Saturday, and now back home I am chomping at the bit to get into the Park and find both the Mandarin and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and dare to dream, a migrant. Fat chance on the latter, it has been utterly hopeless on that front. We've had a handful of Swallows, and I do mean a handful. Under ten. Pathetic. But I did get lucky with the Mandarin on Shoulder of Mutton first thing. It hadn't been there when I arrived, or perhaps was tucked up, but I picked it up in flight for the briefest moment as it departed east back towards Heronry. I couldn't refind it there, and a message about a close-by Bullfinch saw me take a cursory glance at Perch before heading off. Natuarally I dipped it. And the Lesser Spot. Then it was time for the Wheatear Trophy presentation.

As Tony and I headed towards the Flats we decided to check Perch. And there it was! Glorious! It is my seventh record of Mandarin, so not super rare but equally quite a long way from annual. This is quite surprising for a species that lives in some numbers not that far away, so I suppose they must be fairly sedentary. This one was really quite friendly.....where has it come from? Who cares as I had my camera with me, my lovely new tiny light-weight toy camera. I have decided that seeing as I barely notice it upon my shoulder that I will try and take it out with me much more often. Weather permitting as it is no Canon 1 series, or at least I have not yet tested it out in the kind of extreme conditions that I knew would do absolutely nothing to the 1DX. It just seems so petite and delicate, how it possibly be expected to repel a single droplet of water? It probably just needs to man up. Or I do. In reality it is all academic as I don't go birding in the rain anyway.

 







Sunday, 6 April 2025

Wanstead Wheatear Trophy 2025

I was away last week for work but I did not miss a great deal. A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was found in the Park, good to see that these are still clinging on, and a drake Mandarin Duck has been hanging around. Somebody might have seen a Swallow I think, oh and Bob's microphone has been going great guns overnight with passage waders, but generally migrants have been desperately thin on the ground. I was worried that whilst in Budapest the flood gates would open and the patch would be drenched in migrants. Nope, it has been strangely quiet with barely any movement. No doubt the high pressure has seen everything soar straight over?

Louis's triumpant Wheatear on March 22nd has so far been the only Wheatear. Thank God for all the training, had he not been so alert we might still not have seen one. And we are not sure what a blank March might mean for the Wanstead Wheatear Trophy, perhaps it would see it simply retained by whoever had won it last year, with the finder's cup presumably changing hands regardless as this is not date dependent. Let's hope it never comes to that, what a damp squib that would be!

After a short period all dipping Lesser Spot in the Park we all gathered at VizMig on Saturday morning. Louis was dressed up as expected, he set the standard a number of years ago and this has become something of a tradition. What we were not expecting was for Tony to whip off his coat to also reveal a dress shirt, tuxedo and a bow tie. Most excellent. Speeches were made, fizz was drunk, and the charity total from the entrance fee of nearly £200 was revealed taking us to something like £1000 over the years. This year we are giving it to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital in Orsett, a fine choice from Mary.