The Shetland Grosbeak

Original Clams Jason Oliver and Gary Prescott picked up Steve Allcott and Kevin Clemments and by 6.30am Saturday 16th February were heading up the M6 for Aberdeen. Weather fine all the way, traffic increasingly sparse and with conversation brisk, the journey seemed shorter than the 400 miles driven. Aberdeen being reached early, so a rest upon the ferry for Lerwick before the smoothest, calm sea crossing ever had us playing cards for blueberries and a restful night's sleep.Well, it would have been for most except those near to Kev!



Lerwick after 14 hours sailing and hire car soon collected. Almost no wind and definitely no traffic as we headed north for Collafirth. Reached the area after a brief stop to look at a red-throated diver on a loch. The first planatation was scanned by around 15 or so like minded twitchers but no pine grosbeak here. Then a dash as the bird had been found not far away.

A short walk down the hill around the back of tall pines and there was the reason for travelling so far. Pine grosbeak UTB and very close.



Everyone happy with the main bird, with black guillemots for the year list and a distant otter, we set off to explore the main island seeing as we had 7 hours before the returning boat was to leave. Next it was down to Scalloway and a ring-billed gull on the opposite bank to us by the castle.

Next to the fish packing factory by Lewrick harbour and immediately 2 large glaucous gulls close by on the water.

Purple sandpipers, eider, ravens, long-tailed duck and then the closest otter we'd ever seen. A large male, dragging the evidence beneath him, crossed an area of tarmac close by before going through the sea defence rocks and coming even closer on the surface of the nearby water. Brilliant!

Down to Sumburgh Head after fish and chips with a stop to view over Virkie. Bar-tailed godwits and redshank, snipe and shelduck but no passerines at the nearby Sumburgh Hotel except starlings. In fact the lack of small birds was very noticable so a single twite next to the car on a gate at Grutness was a bonus.

Next to the lighthouse at Sumburgh with ranks of guillemots and fulmars with the occasional gannet passing. A single robin tried to hide beneath a digger. Massive amount of work being carried out on the buildings here. Could be a superb information centre in the making.

Back to the fish packing factory and an iceland gull to add to the day list. Also 34 long-tailed ducks and the same 2 glaucous gulls.

So back onto the ferry and another very smooth relaxing crossing with cards for peanuts this time.

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Sunday 17th February

A large breakfast from the all you can eat at £10 and off to Rattray Head for the desert wheatear that has been here for weeks.

Very easily found too as we got to the beach in brilliant sunshine and with fabulous views. The bird perched atop a tyre and showed all the salient features.

Red-throated and great northern divers offshore with eider, long-tailed duck and shags; stoat and fox tracks in the sand.

A quick look in at the RSPB reserve at Loch of Strathbeg and then the long jaunt home. So 3 days, 1500 miles, a lifer for all and a great supporting cast, beautiful weather and views. Who could ever prefer tv over such a trip? And they say we're mad........

A DAY IN DORSET & HAMPSHIRE.

Sunday 27th January 2013.

The Clams haven't been out for a few weeks now and we were all in the need for a day out Birding, so I sent a text around to the lads and we arranged to go down to Dorset for the day.

First on the agenda was reports of some Tundra Bean Geese and Bewick Swans nr Abotts Swanery. We arrived at the site a grassy field close to the river and there was a good number of Swans feeding on the grass, so we grove down the narrow lane along side the field and started looking through the Swans.

There was some Birders already here and they said there was no sign of the Bean Geese but said there were some Bewicks. They left us looking but there was no Bewicks here just about 30 Mute Swans, some Greylag Geese and a small group of Egyptian Geese (Year Tick).

After half an hour we packed up and made our way over to Blashford Lakes as a Green Winged Teal had been seen the day before. At Blashford we parked up by the visitor center but it was closed and so were the hides so we started walking down to some screens over the other side of these large gravel pits. Plently of Wildfoul here, Wigeon, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Goldeneye & Large numbers of Teal .

Whilst Captain Clam scanned through the screen Olly, Tom & Bart looked across the pit behind us and we soon picked up two Black Necked Grebes (Year Tick) and on our walk down we had another year tick a Treecreeper so a good start to the day. We scanned through the Teal for a hour but didn't see the GW Teal so we packed up and headed to Upton by Hamsworthy for a Hoopoe.

The Hoopoe had been seen earlier today but it was favoring a housing estate which makes access poor as you can't go walking around peoples back gardens! After an hour we hadn't seen it so we decided to head to Ferrybridge by Portland as there was a Snow Bunting there!

                                                 Maltesser Man & Tom Clam at Ferrybridge.

It was blowing a gail here but at least the sun was out so we started looking for the bunting, checking the areas around the Center here , we had a few Skylarks , Pied Wagtails, Brent Geese , then Captain asked one of the guy's in the Center when the Bunting was last seen and to our suprise he said it's over there on a man made pebbley rockery infront of the center. (We had nearly stood on ot!) Bang Snow Bunting!

                                                           Very tame Snow Bunting.

We viewed this little cracker down to about six feet and it wasn't at all bothered about us at all ! After a coffee in the centre we headed back to Hamworthy AGAIN as the Hoopoe had been seen . Not to bore you this was a case of Deja Vu ! We didn't see it, never mind thats Birding.

As the sun was starting to become low in the sky we headed to a place called Martin Down to try and see a Great Grey Shirke & Short Eared Owls. After getting lost a few times we finnally found Martin Down and Bart found a Short Eared Owl , Class! But no sign of the Shrike, so as it was nearly dark now we packed up and headed home.

A Great day out with the Clams and some good birds seen!

ATB - Olly Clam.

3 Clams on an Outage - Hampshire January 5th 2013

Off early doors down to Hampshire, arriving at Farlington Marshes in drizzle and murk. Year ticking began as the light improved - brents, shelduck, little egret, waders and a stonechat. Tom, Ollie and I [Captain] walked around the long sea wall perimeter but couldn't find the regular red-breasted goose here.

                                                 Farlington Marshes , looking over to Hayling.


I met the warden whose name escapes me as he towered a foot higher than I. He told us of the bird's favourite haunt at Tangier Field nearby. We soon found it and Ollie was heard to shout those wonderful birder's words, "I've got it!"
Red-breasted goose UTB and a lifer for Tom.

Breakfast/lunch for all and then 2 loaves of bread to entice the ring-billed gull at Gosport. It remained unenticed so we went down to the nearby creek to see if it was there. It wasn't but 4 Med' gulls were. Met Martin from Milton Keynes who we'd last met at last year's short-billed dowitcher at Lodmoor.
We were walking back to the car when it was to be my turn to shout those same words. Ring-billed gull on the causeway; here for it's 12th winter with the original finder there as well.

Off to Lakeside Country Park near Eastleigh and 3 hawfinches easily seen.

Day ended with 63 bird species seen. All happy with good quality birds, company and food. Shame Malteser Man wasn't with us. Get well soon mate!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! LOCAL YEAR TICKING!

Tuesday 1st January 2012.

Got up at 9am and the sun was out so I thought I'd better get out and start the year list off. Captain Clam was out already so I sent a text out to Tom & Bart, no reply from Tom but Bart called me saying that he was already out with his Farther in law and he was currently looking at a Long Tailed Duck on Lea Marston Lakes, so I arranged to meet him there in 30mins.

Arrived at the Lakes and located Bart and soon got onto the Long Tailed Duck, great! On the same lake we also had a Female Greater Scaup. There were also good numbers of Tufted Duck, Pochard, Gadwall, Mallard , Coot, Great Creasted Grebe , the usuall Wildfowl.

Next on the agenda was reports of Waxwing about 2 miles away so we packed up and set off. Five minuets later and after a short walk Two Waxwings were on the list!

                                                       Waxwing taken with my Phone.

We watched the birds for ten mins or so at close range, showing dog walkers the birds as they passed by. As time was against us we pressed on to the next bird, a Great Northern Diver at Shustoke Lake.

At Shustoke now we scanned across the lake and soon picked up the Diver over on the far side of the lake, another good bird for the Midlands and the Year List. Now on the way over to Shustoke my pager rang out saying that there had been a Firecrest seen at Coleshill , how lucky can we be as it's only 15 minuets away! So off we went!

Parked up at Coleshill Parkway and walked down to a small group of Birders gathered around. Met up with Dave Hutton ( Who found the bird) said that it hadn't been seen for about an hour so we started scanning through the small trees in the area. At least 5 Chiffchaffs here , Long Tailed Tits, Goldcrests, Redpoll, then after about half an hour searching a small Crest flew into the tree in front of us , Boom ! Fircrest ! What a stunner. The bird showed well for about five mins then flew out of view.

                                               Picture Courtesy of Dave Hutton (Finder).

We said our goodbyes and headed to ladywalk Reserve which is only a couple of miles away. On arrival we met up with Martyn Yapp, who said that he had seen a possible Siberian Chiffchaff , so we started checking the area . Then it called , very similar to a Bull Finch call, a few mins passed and then the bird flew up into view very briefly then flew arcross the river. A very pale bird indeed but that all we could get on it! Martyn had got some photos earlier which showed very pale edge's to the Tertials which formed a pale pannel to the wing, but with the call bang on a very good contender for Siberian. Nice one Martyn.

Now with the light starting to fade we headed off to Chasewater for the Gull roost. On arrival the roost was very impressive, large numbers of Herring , Lesser B Back , Greater B Back, Black Headed Gulls. We scanned through the gull untill dark, We had no joy with seeing any White Wingers, but we had 3 Adult Yellow Legged and a 2nd Winter Caspian. Fantastic Day ! with the Firecrest being the star!

Total number of species for the day - 59 , not bad at all !

Clam On - Olly Clam.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

                                                  HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !!

HALF AN HOUR BIRDING!

Wednesday 19th December 2012.

At work today I was out and about visiting Clients dropping off Xmas goodies. On my way back to the office I thought that I would drop into Stubbers Green near Aldrige, Walsall , as its small pools are along side the main road and easily viewed. I was hoping for a Caspian Gull as I STILL need it for the year.

I set up my scope and started scaning through the 100+ Gulls gathered on the grass by the small pool. Plenty of Herring Gulls , Lesser Black Backed, 12 Great Black Gulls , Common & Black Headed Gulls, but no Caspian !

Had another scan just incase I had missed anything , then from behind a Herring Gull appeared a white winger , Iceland Gull , full Adult , NICE !

Sorry couldn't get a good photo.

Well that was well worth stopping for! With work calling I packed up and headed back to the office.

ATB - Olly Clam.

WINTER BLUES

Sunday 9th December 2012

Yet another cold morning but the sun was out so I set out to have a look over Essington Quarry Pool as last week the Wildfoul numbers were very good

Parked up by the Pig Farm looking up at the wires overhead where it only seems five minuets since they had Swallows on them, I walked down past the orchard good numbers of  Blackbird , 33 counted , House Sparrows, 2 Mistle Thrush , but not a lot else very quiet.

On approaching the pool there was about 400+ Woodpigeon feeding on the field so I had a quick scan through, in amongst them was 12 Fieldfare, Carrion Crow, no Golden Plover ! 20 years ago we had large numbers of GP upto 1000 but how things change, never mind let's see whats on the pool.

Arse end view of Little Grebe.

What a change fro last week , bloody dead! 1 Mute Swan, 7 Little Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck and 49 Coot!

My only assumption is that the Wildfoul Shooters must have been up here blasting away ! C**Ts is all I can say about these people, unfortunately for us who watch this pool the owners are bloody shooters! , this would be a really good place to watch if it wasn't for the disturbance!

I continued to walk around the pool for another hour and had a single Buzzard, so I packed up and headed back home.

Angry Olly Clam!!  Keep the Faith - Clam On!!

OUT LOCAL

Sunday 2nd December

Winter is here and things are very quiet, short days means limited hours of light for Birding, I truely dislike the winter but to stop me going insane I decided to go out local this weekend and try and bag a Caspian Gull for my year list.

I arranged to pick up Tom at 09.30. I left the house at eight and it was very cold with a good frost cover. As I was a bit early on my way to Tom's I stopped by at my local patch Essington Quarry Pool, parked my car up at the top end of the pool and set my scope up for a quick scan.

To my suprise there were good numbers of Wildfoul for a change , 79 Wigeon, 29 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard, 8 Teal, 26 Mute Swan, 49 Coot, 150 + Black Headed Gull. Excellent !, I checked closely through all the Wigeon hoping for a Yanky but no luck , scanned through the Gulls but no Med, maybe next time, best go and pick Tom up.

After picking Tom up we headed over to Stubbers Green near Aldridge to check out the Gulls that gather there during the day , we were hoping a Caspian Gull may turn up. On arrival we scanned through the Gulls , Great Black Backed , Lesser, Herring, Common & Blacked Headed Gulls were here in good numbers but no Caspian! Hey Ho - were next?

Now there have been good numbers Waxwings in the country but Tom hasn't seen one this year yet so I decided to head upto Lichfield where there has been a good flock of Waxwings earlier today.

                                                       They are Waxwings honest!

We arrived at Lichfield 20mins later pulled of the A38 and onto Eastern Avenue , and there they were a group of six Waxwings, pulled over the car a parked up. A nice year tick for Tom, cracking birds.

After viewing these little beauties for about 20 mins we decided to make our way back home, but on the way I thought that we would drop by Chasewater to see if the Great Northern Driver was still there.

                                                        The Swag Pool at Chasewater.

Arrived at the Swag Pool at 12.30 , walked across the road and started to look for the Driver, after a few mins Olly picked it out swiming over by the pillon diving on occasion. Great, nice to see these coastal birds in our cental counties. We viewed the bird for about 20 mins and headed back home.

A nice morning Birding - Clam On !!

DEE ESTUARY

I was unable to send Captain Clam my photos yesterday so here are some more images of our trip to the Dee Estuary last Sunday.

                                                                     Hilbre Island

                                                  Grey Plover still in Summer Plumage!

                                                       Grey Plover , Knot & Dunlin

                                                

                                                             Yellow Legged Clam

Hoylake Beech

                                                       Short Eared Owl at Parkgate.


Great birds ! Great Place ! ATB Olly Clam.

Owls, Harriers and waders at roost. A day on the Dee Estuary

Clams down to two but undeterred off we went, Olly Clam and I, Captain determined to find our own.
Soon arrived at Red Rocks with not a cloud in the sky and just a light westerly wind, hardly a breath really but enough to give a chill to the face.
Now Olly Clam hadn't been here for over 20 years and the last time he, a mere spring chicken of a lad [you should see his legs!] and I had walked out to Hilbre with Alex Barter, sadly missed and two other lads whose names I can't remember.
We decided to do the same and set off across the sands only to be blocked from the islands by Olly's lack of wellies.
Whilst Olly was looking for a way over a creek, I took photos of the sand. It's amazing how nature repeats itself at vastly different scales. With imagination one could be looking down on landscape structures seen from space; Sahara Desert for instance.

Off for a large breakfast at Tesco's and a visit to the new log cabin of a visitor's centre at Burton Mere RSPB reserve.
Superb reserve and from the large windows back-tailed godwits, a male hen harrier could be seen along with common birds. Little egrets were here too. How many years have they been here and how many now breed?
To the hide, with siskin and nuthatch on the way. A number of stonechat to be seen here and more waders and duck.

Off to Parkgate to see how the tide was; high tide being at 1.45. Unfortunately high tide wasn't going to be big enough to diplace everything on the saltmarsh so, despite views of a great white egret and a female hen harrier, we decided to go up to Hoylake to see the large wader roost on the beach there.
We were not to be disappointed as over 10,000 mostly knot were near to the nearby tideline with 2 selfish photographers next to them putting them up for their entertainment.
We both digiscoped from the roadway and enjoyed the massed ranks of knot, sanderling, dunlin, grey plover and bar-tailed godwit. Note the sequence - little waders to the fore, larger ones to the back. Wonderful.

Back to Parkgate for another female hen harrier, more little egrets and two very close short-eared owls.

A superb day enjoyed. Great birds, great company and great scenery. CLAM ON!

WAXWINGS , SNIPE & OWL'S

Sunday 11th November 2012

On the spur of the momment I decided to go over the local patch this morning, but on my way I decided to head up to Stoke on Trent for some Waxwings that came up on the pager.

On route I text Bart to see if he had bothered going out anywhere. I soon received a text back saying that he was at Doxey Marshes looking for a Water Pipit (Its a blocker for him); so I arranged to meet him up there as it is on the way to Stoke.

Parked up at Doxey I walked across the reserve and soon tracked him down.No sign of the Pipit so we teamed up and walked up and down the small river hoping to see the elusive Pipit, but no Joy! We had a couple of Meadow Pipits, a Stonechat, 6 Goosander, the usual wildfoul, Teal etc, and a Grey Wagtail, so we headed back to our cars and headed north to Stoke too look for the Waxwings.

After getting lost a few times we finally arrived at the place where the Waxings had been reported earlier, there were about ten Birders in the car park. We asked if they had been seen. One Birder said, "they were here about ten minutes ago!" We walked over to another Birder and he had got one bird in his scope, so we set up and there it was. Cracking ! a bit distant but hey ho!

We watched the bird for about 5 mins, but then we heard a trilling call above our heads. We checked out the trees behind us in the Burger King car park and there they were, 9 Waxwings! Boom !

We stayed and watched these little crackers for about 40 Minutesand whilst in the car park we asked a few of the local Birders if there was anything else about. One of the Birders was Phil Locker, we both know him off the Facebook group we are in the ASBO Black Lark Group. He gave us Gen, reports of a Jack Snipe up at Tittesworth Res, and Short Eared Owls up on the North Staffs moors. We thanked him and decided to head up for the Snipe & Owls. Thanks Phil.

                                                    Tittesworth Res, with the Roaches behind.

At Tittesworth we had met up with two Birders from Wolverhampton, Dave & Paul, so we walked up to the hide from where the Snipe had been seen and upon entering the hide found that it was packed out. The bird was not on show, so we started scanning across the res' onto the far shoreline. 7 Common Snipe were there but no Jack.

Half an hour passed and now the hide was starting to empty so we could sit down and have a better look. Then Dave picked it out. Jack Snipe on the far shore in amonst the reeds. Another Year Tick !

                                                         Yet another quality photo!
Now with only 2 hours of light left we decided to head up onto the moors and look for yet another year tick, Short Eared Owls.

                                               View of the Roaches from the Moors

Time was now 15.30 and the light was starting to fade, so all four of us walked up to the area where the Owls had been reported, looking across and down the valleys over the ranges. After half an hour of scanning and views of Red Grouse , Buzzard and Meadow Pipit, Paul picked up a large bird in the skyline to the right of us. We all got our Bins onto it and BOOM -Short Eared Owl ! Nice one Paul.

We stayed for another 20 Mins and got closer views. What fantastic birds they are! I haven't seen one for years so it was really great to see this one.

It was now nearly dark so we all said our goodbyes and  headed back home.

A great day ...........CLAM ON !!!

LOCAL BIRDING

Saturday 10th November 2012.

Things are a bit on the quiet side and the Clams hadn't sent me any texts saying they were out Birding this weekend, so I decided to have a relaxed weekend chilling with my family at home.

After a few hours I was starting to get ictchy feet, I was thinking of going over the local patch when I recieved a text from Bart asking if I wanted to go up Chasewater for the gull roost, great idea, so I text Tom and we set out at 15.00hrs for Chasewater.

At Chasewater the light was good so we set up on the viewing platform and started scanning through some of the large gulls gathering on the water infront of us.

The roost contaned at this time good numbers of L.B.B.Gulls, Herring, a few Common Gulls, and large numbers of Black Headed, including one still in full summer plumage!

20 minutes had passed and Gulls were still comming in, we contnued to scan through the new arrivals when Olly Clam picked up the Adult Iceland Gull , great!

                                     Iceland Gull, what a great photo NOT! Its the best I could get.

We continued to scan through the roost hoping to find a Caspian Gull or Med Gull, and a couple of old friends joined us , John Holian , and Chaz , more eyes the better! We had 6 Greylag Geese fly low over the water , which we were told by Chaz is a very good record for here.

We stayed until the light faded, had no luck in finding a Caspian or Med , but we had a Adult Yellow Legged !. A nice 2 hours birding , Clam On!!!

A DAY IN NORFOLK.

28th October 2012.

After the strong easterly winds last week, we decided to go to the North Norfolk coast, during the week there had been quite a few good birds seen comprising of - Dusky & Artic Warblers , a Red Flanked Bluetail, Olive Backed Pipits and a White Rumped Sandpiper, but by Saturday news of these birds had gone! But undeterred we set our alarms and headed east, LETS GO FIND SOMETHING!

We arrived at Cley at 08.30 and headed down to Cley beech as now the winds were coming from the north a spot of sea watching was on the agenda.

Parked up the Clam mobile and walked over to the "Hotel" (This is just four large benches with a roof on, called the hotel as in the Eighties I have slept there a few times!) We set up our scopes and stright away 2 Little Auks flew past! Fantastic ( a tick for Bearded Clam).

We stayed sea watching for about an hour, during this time we had another 3 Little Auks pass, 6 Red Throated Divers, 6 Kittiwakes, 25 + Common Scoter, 2 Long Tailed Duck, 5 Gannet (all Juvs), 50+ Wigeon, 30+ Brent Geese, 7 Teal , and Starlings comming in off the sea exhausted! But no Skuas, but a Year Tick and a Lifer so not a bad start.

Time was now 10am so we headed back to the centre at Cley for some hot chocolate to warm us up and to decide where to go next.

                           A rare find, the 5th Clam, Steve Alcott ( Cripple Clam ) hes got a bad back!

Warmed up we headed down to the Dawkes Hide on the reserve at Cley as during the week there has been a White Rumped Sandpiper, we entered the hide and starting scanning through the Dunlin on the scrape, but no joy! There were also good nimbers of Teal about 150, Gadwall & wigeon and a single Avocet, also 3 Marsh Harriers which are always a joy to see, but no White Rummper.

While in the hide we had heard news of a Barred Warbler at Saltholme so we packed up a headed down the coast.

15 minutes later we arrived at Saltholme, parked up by the duck pond and walked over to a small crowd gathered in front on a house by the side of the road, lifted up our Bins, and there it was- Barred Warbler and a Life Tick for Tom Clam ! It showed well for us, it looked like a 1st Winter bird , only showing faint barring on the undertail coverts, 3rd one for me this year but always nice to see.

Off to Wells now to get fed in our regular cafe, and then off to Holkham to see if we can find some Waxwings or Pallass' Warbler , which had been reported earlier.

                                         Beared & Chatty Clam, Skulking in Holkham Woods!

We arrived at Holkham at 13.15 parked up on Lady Annes Drive and walked along the woods towards the Joe Jordon Hide, contantly checking the woodland trees for Tit flocks but not a great ammount a few Coal Tits , Chaffinches , Great Spotted Woodpecker, Olly clam then noticed about 8 Blackbirds feeding on the grass to the left of us , started to scan through and picked out a Male Ring Quzel and then a Female, called over the other Clams and viewed for about 20mins , nice year ticks for them.

We serched the woods for about 2 hours but didn't have a lot else appart from , Robins , Gold Crests, a Treecreeper, and Blue, Great , Coal Tits. Then on our way back the pager buzzed saying the White Rumped Sandpiper had returned to Cley, so off we set back to Cley.

                                               Dawkes Hide Complex at Cley Marshes 

Back in the hide now at Cley the light was starting to drop but luckly the bird was on show, WHITE RUMPER UTB! (A tick for Olly Clam ) The bird showed well feeding along the edge of the scrape about 35 yards away, showing well its long primary projection , supercil, and flashing its white rump on occasion.

Juvenile White Rumped Sandpiper.

The light was now going so we packed up and started our way back home, another great day and nice to see the 5th Clam Member again Wham Bam Thankyou Man Clam ( AKA Steve Alcott , the rasberry Ripple) , KEEP ON CLAMMING !

ATB - Olly Clam.