April is the best birdwatching month of the year. Fact. Your October rarity-fest argumentation cuts no ice with me. By October the year is winding down towards winter and death. Grim. You can keep it. April has the exact opposite vibe - it is the month of bursting buds, optimism and fools. Fools like this one.
On Friday I woke to light rain. Surely the coast was going to be littered with downed migrants? Ah, optimism. Foolish optimism. In reality the coast was littered with almost nothing. The rain had in fact stretched right across the Channel all night, and sensible migrants had evidently stayed put in France.
Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, with a brisk easterly-ish breeze. My morning was taken up with other things, but I wasn't likely to be missing much in this weather, was I? Wrong. James discovered 3 male Redstarts in 30 minutes at Lyme Regis; Luke reported 'masses of phylloscs between West Bay and Eype'; another Redstart near Sidmouth. It was all happening...
By around 2pm I was heading for Cogden. At the A35 junction with West Bay Road a Red Kite twisted its way low over The Crown pub - my first this year I think - and as I passed slowly through Burton Bradstock a small passerine zipped across the road and landed on a garden wall, quivering. Black Redstart? In hindsight, more likely a female Redstart, but whatever it was, the effect was the same. Wow! What was going on?!
At Cogden, within no time at all I'd seen four more Red Kites, and the bushes were clearly jumping. By close of play my count of circa 90 assorted phylloscs was probably way short of the real total. I barely touched the beach but still managed a couple of Wheatears there. A handful of Blackcaps were obviously newly arrived too. However, none of these species was exactly what I was after. Following that morning's news, only a Redstart would do. Without checking spreadsheets and whatnot I reckon it must be at least three or four years since my last local spring male Redstart.
It took a while, but finally I did see a Redstart. Initially just a gaudy flash of colour as it dived into a hedge, spooked by my careless approach. Five minutes later, despite my attempt to hide away while awaiting a second chance, all I got was a rubbish view as it furtively peered at me from deep within the hedge before melting away forever. No photo. And it was a female. Ah well, at least I had seen one.
And then, about an hour later, I came across three stonking males in one relatively short length of sun-kissed hedge! I never saw more than two at a time, but photos confirmed three different birds. And I spent ages with them. Half an hour after leaving them I accidentally flushed another male, and fluffed a brief photo-opp. I am 99.9% sure that 22 years of birding E Devon and W Dorset have never produced five Redstarts in a day for me, and definitely not in spring.
Of the so-called 'common' migrants, a male Redstart is hard to beat for looks. I absolutely love them.
So, a few photos from yesterday afternoon at Cogden...
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| This, then, is prime Redstart habitat. A sunny, sheltered hedge flanking a sloping, species-rich meadow. In the background, a fizz of Blackthorn froth; in the foreground, bottom right, a male Redstart on barbed wire. Heaven. |
I came home with literally hundreds of Redstart photos. Please note my restraint here...
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| Bird #1 - note white feathers in throat. |
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| Bird #1 - greater-covert wing bar and brown-edged flight feathers. First summer? |
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| Bird #1 |
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| Bird #2. I never managed close photos, but this one also had a wing bar. |
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| Bird #1 again - note brown tinge to upperparts. |
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| Bird #3 - full adult? |
Other things than Redstarts...
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| Red Kites heading NE over the coast road. |
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| Early Purple Orchid. Not my first of the year, but the sorry specimen I came across a few days ago in an area much hurtled through by dogs was already snapped and knackered. Probably coincidence. |
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| Early Purple Orchid |
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| View from almost the north-eastern extremity of Cogden. A load of rubbish habitat that just isn't worth a birdwatcher's efforts. No need to come here. |
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| Beach Wheatear, bottom right. In the background, some island or other. |
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| Wheatear, looking very different to the mid-March versions. |
Quite frankly, yesterday afternoon was local spring birding of a quality I haven't experienced for a very long time.
And is why I shall always be a fool for April.
