Daurian Shrike, 1st winter, Utra, Fair Isle 1st October 2024

Part of the double bill of finds on Fair Isle on this day, following finding the Black-headed Bunting at Burkle. 

Kevin Kelly and myself were heading towards the Skadan Crop strip to see if we could refind the Black-headed Bunting there. As we passed the Utra croft we could see a Yellow-browed Warbler on the washing line close to the wall being all 'twitchy' and not flying off as we passed by. 

As we cleared the wall I saw a bird shoot out from below the wall and the Yellow-browed and flew across the garden to the far corner. As the bird literally flew out in front of us we both clapped eyes on it as the same time and realised it was a shrike with Kevin uttering the words 'shrike'. 

Once it landed on the wall it was clearly not the Brown Shrike that he had found earier in the day but a rather a pale looking individual. I exclaimed Daurian, thats a Daurian and once it moved around a little bit the pale sandy appearnce of the bird was clear, not earthy tones whatsoever, it barely had a mask. 

Currently it would seem the BBRC are only accepting adult male 'Isabelline' Shrikes as either Daurian or Turkestan with female and juveniles types being recorded as 'Isabelline'. It would be hard not to see this bird as any other than a Daurian Shrike. 

Black-headed Bunting, juvenile, Burkle, Fair Isle 1st October 2024

I found this bird during a superb days birding on the isle, one of the single most enjoyable days I had on this excellent island. 

A juvenile which shows a long primary projection and heafty bill, which would exclude the bird as being a Red-headed Bunting, but lacking any yellow tones appearing overall sandy coloured, somewhat likea juvvie Rose-coloured Starling. 

It lingered just long enough that other birders got to see it. 

Clearwing Moths

So far so good with the lures purchased earlier in the year.

As of the date of this post I have recorded six species of Clearwing moth locally, two of which are now on the garden list (Red-belted and Red-tipped) whilst Six-belted were found across Wallasea Island towards the end of june. 

Out of the six species recorded it was completely unexpected that I would come across not one but multiples of the extremely rare and protected Fiery Clearwing. Given this is a protected UK species I won't be giving the details of where but I will be expanding my searches for this species as well as a few missing ones not yet encounted. 

Orange-tailed Clearwing - Westwood

Yellow-legged Clearwing - Westwood

Red-belted Clearwing - Garden, Rochford

Red-tipped Clearwing - Garden, Rochford

Fiery Clearwing - undisclosed location

Six-belted Clearwing - Wallasea Island

Lunar Honet Moth - Garden

Red-breasted Goose - Wallasea Island February 2024

Long walk around Wallasea Island today was rewarded when I came across this Red-breasted Goose in the Brent Goose flock that was out on the Salt Pan near Grass Farm Lagoon. It was pretty distant so I had to resort to 'Phone Scoping' the following video. 

The quality is not great given I had to 'phone scope' the bird at distance, in poor light, with strong wind and no phone/scope adapter..maybe i really ought to invest in one. 

Anyway you can see what it is. 

It appears to be an adult and is apparently different to the bird that is across the river at Holliwell Point on south end of the Dengie as that bird is showing pale patching on the breast.

 

Winter Divers

Whilst many birders have been getting to grips with Waxwings this winter I have been thoroughly enjoying the bonanza of the Divers that have graced the Thames and nearby Wallasea Island. 

A big feature with the diver occurances this winter has been the multiple Black-throated Divers that have shown extremely well. Two birds on the Wallasea lagoons, with the Stillings Basin bird especially showy, a point blank bird off Canvey Seafront that was also seen the next day off Southend Pier just metres away...all entertaining stuff. 

Great Northern Divers in the Thames are having one of their best winters in years with at least six present between Gunners Park and Canvey Seafront though there could be more than this involved given the spread of sightings. Southend Pier has had several very confiding birds and they have made it feel like the good old days when GNDs were right under the boarwalk. 

With point blank views of both Black-throated and Great Northern Divers it would have been safe to say it couldn't have gotten much better however it was with total shock that in the afternoon of 25th Janauary I would be looking at a point blank range juvenile White-billed Diver off Southend Pier. Found by Vince Kinsler it was one of those drop everything and go moments and I left work early (4hours early) and made a mad dash to the Pier. At the time it seemed to take an eternity, especially running up the pier as the pier head never really seemed to get any closer but apparently it only took forty minutes from Vince putting the news out to me arriving from Rochford !

Knee and hip hurting next day from the run up the pier, I missed the outbound train by couple minutes and couldn't wait another half hour for the next one, but it was well worth it. 

Absolutely superb bird. 

Despite what the Echo newpaper article there wasn't more to come the next day and it seems that the White-billed Diver is destined to be a half day bird.

The following are my favoutire of the diver photos

   Black-throated Diver: Canvey Seafront - January

   Black-throated Diver: Southend Pier (same bird as the above) - January

    Black-throated Divers: Wallasea Island - January

    Red-throated Diver: Southend Pier - January

    Great Northern Divers: Southend Pier - January

    White-billed Diver: Southend Pier - January

 

White-billed Diver (left) and Great Northern Diver (right): Southend Pier - January 2024

Not posted anything on here for sometime, which I will try to rectify on a regular basis. For now I will highlight the bird of the year for me in 2023 and a stunner that has kick started 2024.

On Fair Isle during the autumn news of several very nice mega's on Shetland mainland were proving tempting to twitch off for. The Blackburnian Warbler unfortunately didn't do the right thing and stay to the next day when I could have gone but a few days later a Veery was found up near Lunna Kirk. I waited for a few days and with the bird still present I took the plunge and twitched off the isle for a couple of hours. Luckily I had my car at the airstrip so I was away immediately after arriving. I had about 45minutes with the bird, often I was the only person present. 

The views of this bird bettered anything I have had in North America and I've seen some excellent ones over there. 

I even had time to go and fit in a Siberian Stonechat just up the road before dashing back to the airstrip for the flight back to Fair Isle. 

From a Fair Isle perspective it was a little quiet but that is still relative with Turkestan Shrike, two Lanceolated Warblers, an American Golden Ploverm a probably Stejnegers Stonechat and the best views ever of a Radde's Warbler (around my feet) being the pick of the bunch. 

Shetland then rounded out the autumn in style when a Yellow Warbler was found in Hoswick the day I was coming off Fair Isle and whilst it showed better for the crowds a few days later I was please to have managed at least a couple of acceptable photo's of it. 

2024 was ushered in with a bang when a Northern Waterthrush was found in mid Essex, 8th record for Britain. I left it nearly a week before going as often brief views left many visitors not seeing it. The first Saturday sounded especially unpleasant with around 450 on site not seeing it all day. I went early afternoon on the Sunday when only 30 or so were present and the bird was showing very well. 

Not a bad way to start the year.

Link to the video of the bird here on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/559283376/videos/673616034925625/

Alpine Swift - Hadleigh Castle

The first widely available Alpine Swift was found by Marc Outen at Hadleigh Castle just as he was about to start a 10k run; no bins, just phone video to help get the news out. 

Thankfully it went on to stay for most of the day generally around the Salvation Army Tea Rooms car park and above the wood just to the North West. 

The light was bad with heavy cloud and the bird did mostly stay quite high but it was seen low on a couple occasions and was seen being chased by a Black-headed Gull at one point. 

Despite the poor light I managed to get some usable images which are represented here. 

Quailty find, quality bird