The Birder's Photo

Two days ago, at Spurn, this...

Somewhere I have a very similar photo of the one and only Roller I've seen, at East Budleigh in 1989. That small, turquoise blob draws your eye like a magnet doesn't it? Commenting on the pic, Mark James Pearson said...

'I genuinely prefer these kind of photos. Pin-perfect shots with super-fancy gear are increasingly boring, whereas this just makes me want to leave my desk and go back out birding...'

And I have to agree with that sentiment. As fellow blogger Stewart Sexton put it...

'A sharp, in context, image is a birders photo...'

And it's true, isn't it? This kind of photo simply wouldn't do for the out-and-out photographer, but for the birder, well...

You've got the habitat to give everything its proper context, and you've got the bird nice and small to give everything its proper scale. Unlike the proper togger's frame-filling shot, featuring pin-sharp rictal bristles, this is real life. This is what it's actually like in the field. And I think Mark is dead right - a 'birder's photo' just makes you want to get out birding.

So. Much as I like to feature a sharp frame-filler (when I'm fortunate enough to get one), from now on I will also endeavour to post a few more of those 'birder's photos'. Starting today. I'm sure the quality will vary a bit, but hopefully they'll add a little more patch vibe to the blog, with not just the birds but also the habitat and surroundings.

Here goes...

This morning I tried East Bexington. One of the first birds I saw was a Hobby, and judging by the upperparts colouration, an adult. It dashed rapidly E towards Abbotsbury. Some 9 Wheatears and 3 Willow Warblers later, a load of noisy corvids drew my attention to this smart Marsh Harrier, an E Bex first for me...

Marsh Harrier

First Wheatear of the day, a nice male by the looks of it.

Birder's photo! Wheatear.

Another lovely male Wheatear. You can see it, right?

And...Wheatear.

Just as I was leaving, I picked up these three egrets a bit late. I'm 99.9% sure they're Little Egrets. Just as well really...

Little Egrets in annoying going-away mode.

This afternoon Sandra and I visited West Bexington. Would you believe another Hobby?! Quite decent views by Labour-in-Vain Farm, but again it didn't linger, departing into E Bex territory to the accompaniment of alarm-calling Swallows. A juvenile bird, so not the same as this morning's, but still something like my 6th(?) this autumn. This is way more than I am used to. Also, I am not hearing about other local birders seeing regular Hobbies, so I'm feeling a bit like a stringer ought to but doesn't...

Anyway, the only other West Bex excitement involved Whinchats - three in total. The first one pictured here was so far away that identification with bins was a challenge. In flight it was easy enough, with its white tail patches, but when perched it was right on the limits of confidence. So this 'birder's photo' demonstrates how helpful the Nikon P900 can sometimes be, even with mild heat haze...

Whinchat habitat. Oh, and juv Whinchat.

And this one by the beach is an adult.

Same again. Beach Whinchat.

And by the way, I'm not using this 'birder's photo' lark as some lame excuse for not bothering to try and get close shots in the future. Nor am I claiming that atmosphere, aesthetics, mood and context would necessarily trump a nice sharp set of rictal bristles. But they often might...

Pied Flycatchers et al...

Yesterday morning the local birding WhatsApp group was buzzing with reports of Pied and Spotted Flycatchers. Pied Fly has never quite been a guaranteed bird each year, so I was eager to get out and have a sniff around. I had to wait until the afternoon to do so. And the afternoon was hot. I mean HOT! Absolutely scorching, with not a breath of wind. I headed for my little spot at Burton Bradstock and was slightly amazed to find a Pied Fly almost straight away. Or, should I say, at least one. More likely there were two, but I couldn't prove it. The only other bird of note was a Lesser Whitethroat, though 7 lovely Wheatears were flitting around the fields.

I must have lost about two litres in sweat, but the urge to carry on was strong, so I took my shrivelled carcass to West Bexington and made it walk all the way to East Bexington. By the time I got back to the car I'd added another Pied Fly, 2 Spotted Flycatchers, a Redstart (my first of the year), 4 more Wheatears, 2 Great Northern Divers together, 6 Common Scoter, 5 Willow Warblers, another Lesser Whitethroat and a couple of Blackcaps. Also a Clouded Yellow and an Eggar moth of some kind.

All in all, a really nice tally by my standards. By now I was seriously crispy, so went home to rehydrate.

Although I managed a few dreadful Pied Flycatcher record shots at Burton Bradstock, none were remotely sharp. I flushed the Redstart when I found it, so it gave me a five-second glare from a few yards away, then promptly vanished. So, have this hare...

The West Bex Pied Fly was far more accommodating, presenting me with at least 60% of its body surface, if not 65...

West Bex Pied Flycatcher. To be fair, most views were like this or worse.

After yesterday's relative riches, I was out early today, with high hopes. Burton Bradstock now held a very pleasing three Pied Flycatchers, plus 11 Wheatears. But absolutely nothing else. So I tried Cogden, adding another 8 Wheatears and a couple of Whinchats before breakfast. Slightly more success with the snappery today...

The walls which serve as field boundaries at Burton Bradstock are quite possibly the most photogenic Wheatear perches I have yet seen...

The Pied Flycatchers initially gave photo-opportunities like this...

Still, at least the focus managed to find it somehow

 Finally...!

On a slightly different note, some good butterfly news. Last year I posted this photo...

Long-tailed Blue at Axmouth

Prior to August 26th, 2019 I had never seen a Long-tailed Blue. The discovery of a small number at Axmouth enabled me, Sandra, and umpteen others to enjoy great views of this pretty little gem. The site was publicised and therefore got a bit hammered, but as far as I know there were no major issues. However, one or two visitors may have had intentions other than mere observation and a few snaps. Nets were seen. Though the law protects some species, many butterflies can legally be collected, including Long-tailed Blue. It seems unthinkable that anyone could stoop so low as to consider catching and killing such a rare butterfly, but there it is, Victorians are among us and the risk is real. Well, the site has already produced again this year, and the news broadcast. Realistically, after their popularity in 2019, anyone with evil intent would no doubt have been making plans for 2020 anyway. So perhaps the best way to ensure the butterflies remain unmolested is to publicise the site widely. A steady stream of visitors might then serve as an unofficial wardening service, and discourage would-be collectors from even thinking about it...

Possibly.

Forty Years

Birding has been a bit neglected these past few days. Towards the end of the week our elder son Rob made a flying visit from Switzerland, and we somehow wangled a night's fishing together. Well, if you can call a bankside chilli, generous helping of red wine and much natter, actual fishing... We did have some rods out, and even caught a couple, but really...

This morning I made the effort though. Waking a little late, I was conscious that today was a momentous day, and I ought not fritter too much of it on mere birding. So a quick jaunt to Burton Bradstock, where I inspected the clifftop fields and glanced briefly at the adjacent bushes. Offshore there was clearly some decent gull movement going on, with lots of Black-headed and several (mostly juv) Meds heading west. A proper count was no doubt in order. Not from me though. The best I could muster otherwise was a loose gang of 5 Wheatears in the top fields...

Three out of five

But I needed to get back fairly pronto, because today was important for reasons other than birding. Quite often on Twitter you will see tweets which begin with 'OTD...' followed by perhaps a grainy photo of some rarity of yore, and an announcement that [insert big number, but usually 25] years ago the tweeter and this bird happened to cross paths somehow. Usually it's a bit of twitch nostalgia. Well, this post is in a vaguely similar vein.

On This Date 40 years ago, this happened...

This photo was taken outside the register office at Harrow Civic Centre on 9th August 1980. The young couple pictured here then climbed into the car, which drove them to the reception venue, a pub called The Green Man, off Wembley Hill Road. The Green Man was (and still is) within easy walking distance of Wembley Stadium. If you were to do a little research you would quickly discover that 9th August 1980 was the date on which Liverpool FC lifted their fifth FA Charity Shield, beating West Ham 1-0 at Wembley stadium, in front of 90,000. Back in those days, a big game at Wembley meant all-day closure for most, if not all, of the local pubs. This included The Green Man. However, visiting fans might still park at such pubs and walk to the stadium, and maybe use the outdoor facilities for a little pre-match refreshment...

And so it was that a Rolls Royce, bedecked in the traditional white ribbons of a nuptial carriage, slid quietly into The Green Man's car park and came to a halt. Next to the car park lay a sizeable pub garden, and sprawled upon its lawn was a very large crowd of beer-drinking football fans. Every single one of them turned and stared, momentarily silent. Then, as one, they raised a can towards the red-faced couple and let rip with a loud and hearty cheer.

Forty years ago, this afternoon.

A nice Wheatear, oblivious to the significance of the date.

The Perils of Solo Birding

It's no secret that I like birding alone. Not really because I'm an unsociable so-and-so, but rather that I can one-hundred-percent do my own thing. If I want to pop over there for a quick look, or linger by this field, or sit down and watch that hedge for twenty minutes, I can. Without worrying that a companion is going to be bored out of their boots. However, birding alone has its drawbacks. And one of them is that you have nobody to bounce ideas off and discuss things with.

When you bird alone, you have to identify all your own stuff. All of it. Bird identification is sometimes easy of course, so no problem, but frequently it is not. And if you are busily making some fundamental ID error, who is going to sort you out? No one. You will carry on down that blind alley and make a splendidly royal cock-up. And it's not until you post a photo on Twitter, and someone goes 'Er...mate...I think that's actually a [insert really common bird]' that you find out what a heartless prankster your brain is. That's a worst case scenario of course, but your devious grey matter has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve...

Today I had a bit of a moment.

I'm walking along the Burton Road, which lies just behind the beach at East Bexington, heading towards Abbotsbury. I notice a bird flying towards me above the road, but get on it a bit late, when it's almost overhead. I'd already decided it was a falcon, and was expecting Kestrel, but my bins reveal heavily streaked underparts. Very heavily streaked; in lines basically. My brain starts to play games. I didn't see the head, and now, as it goes away, I am struggling. Initially I'd thought Kestrel, but with those underparts obviously it can't be... And now it dips low enough to briefly show me the upperparts. They appear uniformly dark brown. It keeps going. A few flaps, a glide, no hurry. And is gone...

My brain is shuffling the options. Okay, heavily streaked underparts, so Hobby, yes? But you got that Kestrel vibe, right? Mmmm, so why not Red-footed Falcon? Dark brown uppers, so why not a juv? No colour on the vent area, was there? No. Well, there you go then! Can't rule it out, can you?

A birding companion would have nipped all this nonsense right in the bud...

'Wicked! Gav, see that Hobby?! Brilliant!'

With hindsight I realise it was a Hobby, but at the time I felt a bit bad about seeing yet another one. That makes four Hobbies in five visits to the East/West Bex area, and even I can see how stringy that sounds. What can I say?

Here's another photo of Sunday's West Bex bird, somewhat butchered, digitally speaking, in order to show some detail...

The streaky underparts and colourless vent area are what I saw today. Probably the same bloomin' bird

Anyway, I will continue to bird alone, and try not to string too often...

Went There, Saw That...

Yes, it's going to be one of those kind of posts I'm afraid. Still, at least I've got a pretty decent camera now, and can illustrate such output with gripping close-ups of all the quality. Like yesterday...

Another afternoon walk from West Bexington to East Bexington. This is a great way to get some nice coast in, yet miss the crowds. And there will always be birds. For some reason I cannot seem to avoid Hobbies at the moment. Three in the last four trips here I think. Yesterday's was actually in view long enough to allow a burst of record shots...

Proof of Hobby life. Just.

Checking the gulls is all part of the fun, but the only juvenile Yellow-legged I found was out over the sea off East Bex, so the photo is basically a record shot of Portland...

Amazing how few pixels you actually need in order to clinch juv YLG

And so to today...

A short, early stroll on Cogden Beach. A couple of Willow Warblers and three Wheatears was all I managed on the passerine migrant front, and a fresh-looking juv Peregrine dashed E along the beach, looking glorious in the low morning sun. Not many gulls around though, so I was chuffed when one of them was another juv YLG, and not an individual I've photographed before either. Unfortunately it only let me get a single side-on photo. Thankfully it was a decent one...

Juv YLG. Plain outer greater coverts have formed a nice dark rectangle on this bird.

Juv Herring Gull. Note very chequered greater coverts and strongly notched tertials (cf YLG above)

Token non-gull. Wheatear.

Must admit, I do love the warm tones of early morning sunlight. Shame I couldn't stay a bit longer.

This afternoon I went to Powerstock Common with Sandra. It's pretty close to where we live, and has proved a terrific location for avoiding crowds, a trick we first pulled off on the May bank holiday. We've returned several times since, and as the weather forecast looked good we were hopeful of a few butterflies. Our target was Brown Argus, and though we didn't have any gen regarding where exactly to look, we were pretty confident of plenty to amuse us anyway. There was indeed. Including a few surprises...

Surprise number one, a stonking Clouded Yellow.

Jackpot! A crisp little Brown Argus.

Just look at that! Neat.

A brown female Common Blue. The stringer's Brown Argus.

Surprise number two was an absolutely bonkers fly! Sometimes I have this weird knack for remembering scientific names, and the moment I spotted this monster I recalled seeing a couple of Twitter posts featuring it, and a name came to me instantly: Tachina grossa. I googled it to check, and sure enough, my slightly odd talent had indeed borne fruit. Sadly it doesn't appear to have a worthwhile English name (giant tachinid fly doesn't count due to breaching the terminal dullness threshold) but boy, it deserves one. It is bigger than a lot of bumble bees, and makes a similar sound. It is simply enormous! Anyway, it's a...er...fly tick.

Tachina grossa. Mega!

Its larvae consume caterpillars from the inside. And yet look at the cuddly beast...butter wouldn't melt.

Surprise number three was hornet. Or rather, hornets plural...

Hornets! Simply amazing creatures. So impressive!

Don't know what this interaction signifies, but it seemed non-agressive...

...even when it went this far

We appeared to have stumbled upon a nest site, or at least somewhere close to a nest, because several individuals were coming and going to this spot. We'll check it again at a later date.

Surprises numbers four and five were birds. First up, this...

A smart Spotted Flycatcher. Hopefully there'll be a few on the coast soon.

I wasn't quite so clever with the camera when surprise number five appeared. It was preceded by a couple of strident calls - 'pit-chou...pit-chou' - but it took my brain a few seconds to compute, so when the Marsh Tit hove into view I wasn't ready. It perched up beautifully for a photo, really close, but in my excitement I pressed the power button instead of the shutter. The camera makes one of those generic 'shutting-down' type noises when it switches off. Never has it sounded so finger-pointing and laughy.

Anyway, I was gutted. It's the first Dorset Marsh Tit I've seen. However, you'll just have to take my word for it...

Autumn is Here

So autumn is here. My first bird of the season flew over the nocmig kit at ten minutes past midnight, calling twice. Sounding remarkably like a Whimbrel (apart from the introductory 'pip') it is in fact the garden's second Little Grebe. The closest to home I've seen one is about three miles, so once again the nocmig experience makes me smile in amazement...

I've enjoyed the last few days; there's been a steady trickle of interest. The holiday crowds are here, so avoiding them all has been the strategy, and the Bexingtons are pretty good for that. Between East and West Bex I've chalked up a few bits and bobs, as illustrated below...

A bit of flight shot practice as this came barreling along the coast early on Wednesday morning. Obviously it wasn't the Cattle Egret I was hoping it would be.

Moulting Sanderling on E Bex beach

Yellow Wagtails have been a surprise feature of E Bex visits, with up to 6 seen. None yesterday though...

A sprinkling of lovely Willow Warblers coming though now.

Don't think I've ever seen a Wheatear look so guilty. E Bex again.

And it's not just birds. Yesterday at West Bex I saw my first Clouded Yellow of the year, as well as this not-quite Bambi...

Other birdy highlights include a couple of Sedge Warblers, Whimbrel, another cracking Hobby (at West Bex yesterday) and...er...

Yes, at this point I fully expect to earn myself an August eye-roll emoji from the Wanstead Birder.

Three different juv Yellow-legged Gulls. Cue image overload...

Bird One

Lurking at the back, looking meaty...

A bit closer.

Mmmm...you beauty. A couple of 2nd-generation scapulars already.

Bird Two

Very distinctive bill markings

Dare I mention inner primary windows or the evident plainness of outer greater coverts?

I think the scaps are all 1st-generation juvenile feathers still

Yep. Very crisp.

Very leggy. Very rangy. Very nice.

Bird Three

This one was today. I'll be honest. In  the field I was happy about its ID, but reviewing the photos later I began to doubt myself. As you will see, plumage-wise it looks a little different to birds one and two. But it is still a Yellow-legged Gull. And quite a stunner actually. Anyway, here it is...

Another rangy, leggy individual. Big too.

I've never seen a juv YLG tertial looking quite like that one!

More white in the coverts than I'm used to also...

But it had the typical YLG bad attitude.

And by way of a change, here's my first juv Lesser Black-backed Gull of the year. It was the only one I saw today, and I wish I'd made a bit more effort to get some snaps...

Lesser Black-backed Gull. Typically small, dark and dinky. Though they're not always.

In the far distance I could see the Abbotsbury beach tented city, where Covid-19 is presumably banned. Sometimes I do marvel at the way my fellow humans carry on...