Australian Bustard, Victoria River, NT
Little Bustard, Auburn Farm, Fraisthorpe, East Yorkshire
A NEW YEAR'S DAY LITTLE BUSTARD was a great way to start 2015! A couple of hours driving across the Pennines and then the Yorkshire Wolds in the dark ensured that owls were my first birds of the year though, with a Tawny followed by four Barn Owls before I set eyes on the bustard. Predictably there was a big dawn turn out with lots of southern accents, who couldn't make it to Fraisthorpe on New Year's Eve. There were somewhere around 700 twitchers at any one time with a constant trickle of new arrivals throughout the morning and this event put the tiny hamlet of Fraisthorpe firmly on the birding map, I had not even heard of it before yesterday! Back to the bustard itself, which was rather inactive and didn't fly once during the 6.5 hours I was there, only spreading its wings on one occasion spending most of the time either standing around in its chosen kale field or tucking into the crop and not moving more than about 20m in the whole time I watched it. For anyone wondering, digiscoping was obviously the way to go today, it was a little out of range for most DSLRs.
I also thought of Stuart Warren today, who missed the 1988 New Year's Day Little Bustard in Dorset after his bino eyecups filled with rain water just before it flew off as Dave Russell told me something similar happened to him too, both of them driving home as the only ones in their respective cars who had not ticked it off. There are other stories of guys who were still too drunk to see it as well. Even though I've seen lots of Little Bustards and taken thousands of photos of them, I still find the thought that one made its way to Yorkshire thrilling. Bird migration is a wonderful thing! It is also interesting that 75% of all English records up to 1996 have been between November and February, no doubt birds retreating from hard weather on the continent. It is pretty cold there right now, minus 17 Celsius in Eastern Hungary last night for instance! These twitching events are also great for catching up with old friends, we are all a bit fatter, with more lines on our faces and more grey hairs (as well as less hair) these days. A Lapland Bunting flew over the bustard calling as did a few skylarks on a windy, grey and bitterly cold morning on the Holderness coast. A sparrowhawk and a kestrel also passed overhead but there was not much else happening here today.
New Year's Day Little Bustard watchers, Fraisthorpe
Shore Lark, Rossall Point, Fleetwood
SHORE LARK IS A RARE BIRD IN LANCASHIRE and although I would prefer one on Pendle Hill, Rossall Point at Fleetwood is quicker to get to and not a bad alternative. I had been talking to Pete about the grassy field it has been frequenting and although it would have looked nicer on the beach I did the best I could with the green background by spending a lot of time lying on the ground. A lovely bird as always, I still dream of one on Pendle, maybe one day?
Just a little further along the promenade a very obliging Snow Bunting was feeding quietly amongst strand line debris and allowed very close approach, a ginger juvenile with sharp-tipped tail feathers. Fortunately the cold and windy weather kept the number of dog walkers to a minimum today so it did not get bothered too much. Yesterday's Grey Phalarope did not put in an appearance and is probably further along the coast somewhere now and unfortunately Sunderland fans learnt to count to four today.
Shore Lark, Rossall Point, Fleetwood
Snow Bunting, Rossall Point, Fleetwood
THE bird everyone wants to see - Grey Hypocolius, Jasra District, Bahrain November 2014
BAHRAIN IS THE MOST RELIABLE PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR GREY HYPOCOLIUS and it has never let us down let, although the birds' natural pre- and post-roost gathering habitat is dwindling somewhat in Bahrain's 'villaland'. Mid afternoon approached and we took up position at the latest site for Grey Hypocolius in the Jasra village area. The pre- and post-roost areas are usually patches of acacia scrub, where the birds congregate before making their way down inside the bushes, we think to dust bathe, before flying off to their roost, presently in the palms of VIP gardens. The first birds flew in from high in the sky and then more arrived, in small groups, however, as usual, there was no large build up, just lots of comings and goings of as many as 200. The birds tower from the scrub as they leave and head off with purpose towards their roosting area, sometimes swinging from side to side as they gained height, presumably to avoid potential predators. They really are unique and superb-looking, sleek birds, so reminiscent of waxwings in their appearance and behavior. In my opinion 'Desert Waxwing' would be a far more evoactive name. At the moment it doesn't need the modifier 'Grey', being the only one of its family and as for 'Hypocolius', I have no idea what that means. However, I do like the Persian name 'Meeve Khor' meaning 'Fruiteater'!
Birding Bahraini-style! Abdullah checks the hypocoliuses.