OF PIES AND BIRDS

7th November. More Cetti's

Continuing from yesterday we decided to walk the majority of the Rother Valley, that is from Whiston through to RVCP. It was in the back of my mind that there's quite a few likely Cetti's spots along the river and if the invasion was as anticipated then at least a couple of sites should come good. Whiston Meadows was not one of the likely sites but held a flock of 34 Wigeon and several Snipe. Bolehill Flash however was one of the likely sites having a good mix of phragmites, rush and damp willow. Sure enough just as we were about to leave a male Cetti's gave us a quick loud blast only a few feet away. Several more short burts of song and a few sharp calls I still hadn't seen it. A quick blast from the ipod did nothing to encourage it out but amazingly drew the attention of another male about 25 yards behind us, frustratingly neither bird showed so we headed off towards Catcliffe Flash via the Railway Pond. Unfortunately we didn't spend enough time here and by the time I got to Treeton Roy was ringing me to let me know he'd found one there! Further sites i.e. Treeton, Woodhouse Washlands and a brief look at Pit-house West failed to produce, but news of another male at Blackburn Meadows suggested that there's no doubt lots more to be found yet.

An evening visit to Pit-house West failed to produce any Cetti's and no Bitterns but at least three Water Rails.

6th November. Invasion of the Bush Wobbler

Having managed splendid views of Andy's Cettis's Warbler on Monday I decided on spending some time at Pit-house West as I suspected that there might be at least two birds involved. This was based upon the distance between Andy's original sighting and subsequent sightings and not on the spurious claim of two together yesterday - presumably they were nest building or feeding young or just very good friends. Arriving at just after 8:30 Andy and Pete were already on site having had the original Cetti's calling just before I arrived. I hung around for a short while then wandered off to check out an old Long-eared roost, which held no Owls in fact there were no birds of any form. A flock of around 60 Lesser Redpolls buzzed over, hopefully they will build up for the winter, but everywhere else was pretty dead. The stream that runs through Pit-house West is prime Cetti's habitat so it was not so surprising that I heard the familiar about a 1Km from where it had been seen an hour ago, a different bird? As I subsequently frustratingly failed to see or hear the earlier bird It's impossible to be sure, but the fact that it was so far away from the earlier sighting and that they appear to be turning up in every suitable bit of habitat it does seem pretty likely.

A woeful shot but as far as I'm aware the only photographed Cetti's in the

Sheffield area.

2nd November. Pointless Stats

For no reason whatsoever and at the risk of turning a little LGRE I decided at the beginning of October to keep a tally of the distribution of rares throughout the UK during October. There were one or two shocks at the bottom of the table with Yorkshire, the South West and Scilly/Cornwall equalling just four rarity species each. The Southeast came out as the top English area though curiously it is also the 'stringiest' district with Eleanora's of every description being claimed. Not surprisingly the Northern Isles came out on top, closely followed by Ireland (North and Eire) though Shetland on its own managed almost as many total individual rarities as the whole of England and Wales combined and twice as many as Ireland. The Midlands fared well beating many traditional autumn sites though like many English areas it's individual rares total was boosted somewhat by the Glossy Ibis influx.
So what does all this prove? Well if you were based on Shetland during the first two weeks of the month it was great, though there was distinct north south divide and Fair Isle was generally grim. Presumably birders in Norfolk were throwing themselves in to the sea by the time the Fieldfares started moving and at Spurn the Crown and Anchor's owners are Carribean bound following record takings this autumn.*
The Scillies are now clearly the place for birders to get away from it all, get ripped off, get a nice suntan and to listen to tall stories of how good things used to be. Scilly fans shouldn't take much from any of this, at the end of the day it's about how much you enjoyed yourself. The fact that you spent a months salary on flights, accommodation, beer, boat trips to see whales and had to do a 250 mile detour to Surrey on the way home just to salvage something from the autumn was all part of the fun, I think.

Whilst Ireland came second it was pointed out to me by one Irish Birder that things were pretty bad most of the time and that seeing as much as a Blackcap on some days was good!

Will next autumn tell a similar story, probably not. But I for one will be back up north regardless, I just hope the crowds don't follow suit!

EDIT. Wales added and totals for Nortwest amended

1st November. Who ate all the Pies?

Due to some weather I was unable to get out birding today, in fact I've been unable to do any for the last week or so due to one thing or another - mainly apathy! A few visits to Orgreave have produced nothing and I really mean nothing the fact that the footpath is now open probably doesn't help at all.

The biggest event of the week was me hitting 40! Whilst I am by no means on the verge of a mid-life crisis I couldn't help but step on the scales and check my weight and at 13+ stone I was bloody shocked - no more pies from the foreseeable future. This was not helped when earlier this afternoon, whilst discussing the whereabouts of a local Cetti's Warbler with Pete, a voice in the background was heard to shout "he (meaning me) won't know he'll be in Morrison's eating pies!" Well that's it salads from now on - though I suspect that reviews on the quality of salad ingredients will not be as well appreciated as pies!

Back to that Cetti's. Andy D found a Cetti's Warbler yesterday in the exact spot at PHW that I have always fancied one. Presumably there will be some self found rules out there that let me count that one - despite not even seeing or hearing it!

What could prove to be my last pie a Steak and Ale triangular pie from Morrisons, fittingly a ten point pie.

23rd October. Eastern Gem

I hardly slept last night, stomach churning, panic and on top of this Beth's cough kept us all awake. Browsing the Internet at silly o clock did nothing for my insomnia and the photos of the Eastern Crowned served only as a laxative (I kid you not). By 4am I had hatched my plan. I would get up at 6am and wish Beth a happy birthday, give her the presents and leave around 7. This was met with some objections from Jo, but I assured her that I would return for 2pm to collect Beth from her lovely mother. Everything went to plan I even managed to throw myself around on the Wii Dance Mat for a couple of minutes, just to show willing. With this I was on my way north. An hour into my journey and with positive news of the warbler I pushed on and arrived at South Shields by 9:30. After around ten nervous minutes I picked it up and got excellent scope views of this subtle eastern gem, further excellent views and I was happy with my lot and left returning home at 1pm with no damage done.

Quite a modest crowd for a first for Britain

National Pie Day

Today is National Pie Day. With this in mind I called at Morrisons and bought a steak and ale pie, which I ate whilst having a walk round Orgreave. Rather unfittingly this was not a good pie, it was full of gristle and the mixture was far too sloppy causing it to fall apart. A rather disappointing pie scoring just 5 points, though this was the only blip of an otherwise perfect day.

22nd October. A Sign

Back to the usual rubbish after a few bird filled weeks. In what appeared to be something of an exchange of pie porn between myself and Rob I received a shot of this monster nestling in the chiller of the Toab shop. At £6.49 it had to be something special, though sadly Rob declined to purchase it. Given that we recently proved the link between rare pies and birds this specimen could mean only one thing - something monster rare was about to be found............

The rest of the day was rather uneventful that is until I went to bed! At around 10:45 I was woken by the mobile making all sorts of strange noises - it was my old twitching pal Roy who had kindly phoned to tell me the news of an Eastern Crowned Warbler at South Shields. I woke up suddenly, like you do when you receive disturbing news of that calibre and mustered the logistics. Work wasn't a problem I was already off, no the problem was it was Bethany's birthday the following day and there would be presents to give and fatherly duties to carry out. Rob always used to joke that having a child in October was a bad move and that one day it would come back to bite me and that day was now here................

18th October.Spurnuda Triangle

Whilst still having that bird finding bug in me I decided yesterday that a trip to the east coast was in order, but where? With a Radde's and a Blue-tail at Spurn it was a bit of a no brainer. We arrived at Sammy's Point just after 8:30 and worked the horse fields for an hour or so. Plenty of thrushes and four Bramblings over were all it had to offer. With the Blue-tail being reported at the point e decided to get it over with. Arriving at the point I noticed a crowd of birders and immediately filled with a sense of dread. Fortunately the Blue-tail stupidly got itself stuck in the Heligoland Trap for all to see albeit impersonating a caged behind the wire mesh. Having seen it well enough we left for the less populated parts of the peninsular. At Beacon Pools I picked up four Bearded Tits as they dropped into the reeds buy saw little else throughout the day. Despite the crowds it was an enjoyable day.

On the way home I sneaked back onto my old patch, RVCP and picked up the Slavonian Grebe among the Coots on the Main Lake.

Rarity Stats

During a period of boredom I began to think what the distribution of 'rare' might look like this month. This was inspired by the lack of BB rarities on Scilly, which is apparently nothing to do with the lack of birds but more to do with the place being over run by pensioners new to birding and loved up middle aged couples. Trawling through RBA's superb website I managed to come up with the following graph though a pie chart would have been more appropriate. This shows new rares during the first 16 days of October and no hangers on from September. It's fairly straightforward, indeed it was created by a ten year old and failure to understand has nothing to do with me it's just that you're probably thick. I might update it at the end of the month, I might not!

Click on it if you're blind

17th October. Back to the patch

Rob was right in predicting that within a week or so I would be back writing about birding on slag heaps and eating supermarket pies. The latter came sooner than I had expected when Jo presented me with a Morrisons pie as she collected Andy and I from the airport. Amazingly I declined it!

It was however back to the slag heaps this morning with my first visit to Orgreave. The footpath at this site is now open and will no doubt encourage bastard dog walkers to get their stinking beasts as close to the water as possible. Despite this there were birds on - gulls, cormorants, Great Crested Grebe and two Goldeneye and that was just about it. Fortunately I had been watching Autumnwatch last night and was tipped off by the astute Chris Packham that there would be Redwings moving and amazingly there they were. Personally I can't wait until Springwatch when Chris will be tipping us off about Swifts coming through. Speaking of Autumnwatch I have often wondered why it is on so late, though having now watched it the answer is clear. This program is slowly degenerating into some kind of live sex show - personally I can't wait until week eight when Chris finally gets to rummage around Kate's bush whilst spying a pair of Great Tits on his fat balls.

Shetland 2009

So that's it another Shetland trip over. Before I set off I was not surprisingly pessimistic, after all Rob really had seen very few migrants let alone 'rare' so far this autumn. The weather prior and indeed during never looked promising from any direction but at least it was changeable. Eastern 'rares' did turn up even in the most unlikely winds, infact during a period of exciting looking south easterlies very little was found. surely this year will prove to be the best for species such as Pechora Pipit. There was a clear north south divide with the south suffering something of a migrant drought, despite how good pager news appeared to be it was bloody hard work with many no bird miles covered on foot. Fortunately we did find one or two birds personally I found Little Bunting, 2 Bluethroats, Rosefinch and several Yellow-broweds, though the real highlight was getting the I.D clinching shots of the Lancy.

On the whole we managed to resist the temptation to 'twitch' anyone else's birds, which with the quality on offer was difficult. Twitching on Shetland however is not the stressful affair that occurs on the UK mainland. Where else could three of you and a dog twitch a third for Britain and be the only ones there, infact the largest crowd was for the Lancy with a massive ten present!