Great White Egret still there.

FERRY MEADOWS

Black Tern

Great White Egret east side Lords Holt   

Hobby

Marsh Harrier

Kestrel

Buzzards

 (MB)

Iberian Chiffchaff still present also Nightingales and Grasshopper warblers

It is often really cold in mid February so a short adventure to a desert seemed like a good idea & that’s what we merry gang of a dozen did just a few weeks ago. I hadn’t flown from Luton for something like 20 years & was surprised how compact, relaxed & intimate it was – especially the security frisking!

3 1/2 hours later & it was warm! What a good start! House Bunting inside the airport building at Marrakesh got our trip list off with an instant ‘lifer’ for some. Spotless Starlings in flocks, a solitary Chiffchaff & we were off on what we hoped was the road to Agadir for our first overnight stop. We were lucky – road signs are not much in evidence – & dust, potholes, jay walkers & donkey carts finally gave way to a new motorway which meant that we just made it in time for the evening meal at our rather splendiferous 4-star hotel. Hungry birders like ‘help-yourself’ buffets so we did our best to show our appreciation of the chef’s culinary efforts over our 3 nights.

Agadir is much bigger than we expected but next morning we were finally free & running north along the coast for our first special quarry, the Bald Ibis. This is their only country (endemic is the pukka word) & there may only be some 50 in the whole wide world! We saw about 25 of them on the Tamri Estuary & ugly they were too until they flew! (Pretty reasonable accompanying picky courtesy of your esteemed chairman). Interestingly, they aren’t waders despite their long curved beaks & they eat insects & small mammals which they catch on dry, scrubby ground. Lifer for all of us & morale very high! One of the beauties of a relatively undeveloped country is the quantity of birds to be found just anywhere & everywhere, so the startlingly attractive Moussier’s Redstart, Black Wheatear & Thekla Lark were constantly with us in this area. Osprey, 2 Bonelli’s Eagle, Tristram’s Warbler, Little Swift & Crag Martin, etc, etc & it was back for another small snack at base.

A flat tyre delayed our start on the next morning. I’m resisting the temptation to include a picky of some 10 PBC members watching a local taxi driver change the wheel & offering useless gratuitous advice but you can find it on Trevor’s Blog if you want a good laugh! Today it was south to the agricultural area of Oued Massa & big quarry no.2 Brown-throated Martin only to be found in the Moroccan part of the Western Palearctic (whatever that means, best you look it up!). They gave themselves up without a fight & we enjoyed great views from a bridge over an attractive river along with Great White Egret, Black-winged Stilt, Moroccan Cormorant, Alpine Swift, Serin, Fan-tailed Warbler, etc.

Since I owned my first Collin’s guide, I’ve been fascinated by the name & appearance of a Black-crowned Tchagra. It’s termed a bush shrike & has no family relatives this side of the Sahara Desert – poor lonely soul! We just HAD to find one! Well we found 3 with gob-smacking views but only after a nail-biting 2 hours when 2 of the gang had seen him & the others hadn’t! Stress levels were high & mounting by the minute! Throw in Spectacled Warbler, Purple Heron, Long-legged Buzzard, Black-winged Kite, Little Bittern, Quail & a couple of Mongoose & we’d earned another small reward or 2 back at base.

The mysterious desert was next on the agenda – Lark & Sandgrouse country – so we were off early & heading south on the only road. The trip reports always mention Tantan 100 as a likely spot for larking about & as it’s the only layby for miles along this road, it seemed like a good idea to us. We didn’t care about it being 100 kms from Tantan – it was great for larks. Bar-tailed are OK, Hoopoe are definitely better but Thick-billed were a tick for most of us! It always looks so barren & devoid of life until you get out of the vehicle, then you’ve got to watch where you put your feet as the ground is riddled with holes of little critters like squirrels, rats & mice, one of which had provided lunch for the Long-legged Buzzard on a pylon. Meandering around on our return journey we suddenly screamed to a halt with the cry of ‘Sandgrouse’ from our sharp-eyed lookout which turned out to be Black-bellied & added Magrheb & White-crowned Wheatear, Temmink’s Lark, Trumpeter Finch & even a good old Corn Bunting. As I was saying, it’s all happening out there where you least expect it! As was the sight of some 800 migrating Black Kite settling to roost on a hillside at dusk.

One evening without a beer is all I can manage, so it was time to leave the stricter Muslim outposts for life on the ski slopes of the High Atlas mountains. It was 25C when we left Guellim and headed north again & before we started the long climb we’d added Cream-coloured Courser, Pin-tailed & Spotted Sandgrouse to the list. More ticking of books even by your world-travelling, hirsute outdoor organiser! The long climb really was! About 2 hours of winding single-lane track with splendiferous views & a steep drop on one side. Good birds as well – Rock Sparrow, Rock Bunting & Barbary Partridge. At 2700 metres it was quite chilly but a few beers & a cuddle in the double bed with my friend & all was well in the world! We had to be first to the base of the skilifts to avoid crowd disturbance & it was well worth getting up early. A squadron of some 350 Red-billed Chough came over the mountain to forage round the waste bins & buildings, soon followed by some 250 Alpine Chough with the same intentions. A noisy but amicable avian breakfast was taken. Our next special quarry was also up early – Crimson-winged Finch. The birds are just as lovely as their name implies & there were about 150 of the little beauties – confirmed by wondrous picky courtesy of Mr P Beesley. A hearty breakfast was enjoyed after that lot & then we went searching for Mr Levaillant’s Green Woodpecker who gave his position away just as his relatives do here at home & he was soon on the list. The final group total of species seen came to 141 which meant that the sweepstake money went somewhat suspiciously to your esteemed chairman. Mr Levesen needs to conduct an enquiry, perhaps! Everyone had at least 2 lifers & that’s saying something when some of those present have 3-4,000 world species on their lists, but one happy birder had 42!

Glossy Ibis x2 to the west of Lords Holt and the car park ( John Taylor)

It was perfect Goshawk displaying weather & that was just what 2 of them did just as soon as we’d set-up our scopes! Great views if a little distant & all I/D aspects were carefully assessed!?! Sparrowhawks obligingly flew around for comparison purposes & the few club members present were pretty impressed (well, they’d better have been!) Absence of Woodlarks due to increased growth of nearby fir trees & we were too lazy to search out a younger plantation. Absence of Stone Curlew also in the usual Breckland haunts due to it being too early in the year but singing Firecrest at Lynford Arboretum was something of a bonus! He was pretty hard to hear & fairly hard to see & we did have plenty of help locating him! We were unlucky with Hawfinch & none were seen that day; it seems a very ‘hit & miss’ business & I imagine that early morning is the best time to score! Crossbill in the afternoon sunshine & home in time for a cuppa.

Iceland Gull   (Matt Webb)

You may have hoped it had gone away permanently but, like it or not, it does seem to be coming back! I’m not sure yet whether it’s a severe attack or something less virile & possibly chronic. No, nothing to do with me physically – it’s The Twitching Disease! It seems to have been reawakened by the 2 sort of half ticks that I was rewarded with for managing to get to Hunstanton by 8.45 am in the middle of winter for the first outdoor meeting of 2012. While I much appreciated the wealth of avian species that your esteemed chairman found for us during the day, Mr. Coues’ Arctic Redpoll sitting on the main path at Titchwell with some of his Common relatives made the morning session for me & worth a half tick at least. But what do you do when there’s no mention of the little critter in your Collins Bird Bible, zut alors! It’s enough to make me have to reach for a stiff drink before 6pm even! We’ve got a bit lost with tick counting lately & there’s been just a teeny weeny bit of readjustment during the close season but I’m calling that 409½. ‘Well, it’s my list, so there!’ It’s nice to round up halves straight away & that’s what I did at my last port of call that auspicious day out at Fakenham when a supposedly Russian species of Great Grey Shrike was eyeballed appearing to be trying to find his way into Morrisons. So that could be 410 !? No, I couldn’t see anything different about him from the oodles I’ve seen before & there’s been possibly too much jiggery-pokery going on lately, so that even I’m ashamed of them; so it’s 409 still. What is all this conscientious nonsense? It doesn’t sit at all comfortably & hopefully won’t last.

I’ve got to backtrack a bit now to earlier last year as I believe I left you at the Eurasian Collared Dove & Northern Harrier stage in about early March when the count was 403 or some such. The disease was in a fairly dormant stage then as I’d reached the famous 400 & nothing much seemed to be happening, but I did toddle off to Landguard Point for a smashing little Treecreeper with Short Toes! This 3-star cutey is common across the channel but one hasn’t been twitchable here for 6 years as they’re not the strongest aeronauts – &, if my memory serves me correctly (which is extremely rare) this was a first for Suffolk. I couldn’t see his toes but the boffins at the observatory there caught him 4 times & proved his identity & that’s just about good enough for me! Now we’re firmly established at 404.

Then it all went quiet for a long time & I felt I was in remission only to be overcome by a seriously acute attack in May which took me to Scotland to lay the ghosts of White-tailed Eagle & Capercallie, nos, 405 & 406. It was a long way but they were easy pickings & I’ve regaled you with the trip before in a separate bit of nonsense. It was not all plainsailing, however, with the matter of a Great Snipe taking me off to Cley one afternoon to stand for 2 hours on the boardwalk, to be charged a small fortune & to see absolutely nothing! It was there again the next day, though! Blah! Then there was my biggest mistake of the year involving; no,not involving, as I didn’t go, the mega-mega of the year, probably decade & maybe century – the White-throated Robin in some doctor’s garden up north. I don’t remember what got into me & I don’t wish to talk about it.

So now we get to the end of September & the Long-toed Stint twitch near to Retford & well within reach on a sunny afternoon. I got it scoped straight away with no probs but other folk couldn’t seem to find it at all & kept wasting time looking at Little Stints! It can be difficult to put some people onto the right bird! Some said it wasn’t really there at all & others said it was a definite LTS. Not a difficult choice, bit of a no-brainer (yuk) really – 407!

Only minutes later it was time to go to Suffolk again & this time there was no doubting identities! Even Mac & Peter Beesley can get a Sandhill Crane right – they’re coming on, you know! I do like a big bird with long legs showing off nicely just a few yards away & to have come all the way from north America just for my enjoyment – wow! So ticked, bazookaed, high-fived & on all lists in no time flat – very satisfying! 408 & that wasn’t the last of the year! We were on our way to Cley the moment we heard of the arrival of a 2-star rated Palmated Sandpiper when some

clever blighter decided that it was a 3-star Western Sandpiper! Another Yankee on the other end of the size scale from the crane. What great news! How they all get here is way beyond me, so I just tick my book & hope they’ll disappear before my twitching rivals get them. (Only joking, really!?) That was 30^th November & it’s still here – go on, fill your boots, see if I care. So the count at the end of 2011 is 410 – that’s 8 in the year & I’m pretty impressed even if you aren’t.

So here we are in 2012 & my year list, if I kept one, would be well on the way after the trip to Norfolk with the club. ‘Action Stations’ was soon called again with the finding of a Spanish Sparrow & a Dark-eyed Junco within 10 miles of each other down on the south coast in Hampshire. This was better news for me than my 2 main ‘friendly’ rivals as I needed them both whereas they only need the Sparrow. We big listers have to prepared to travel these days so I was up & away at 4am!! Well, the story was that the sparrow (last twitchable in 1998) showed best when it was just out of bed & having a stretch,etc on top of the hedge so, we had to be there at 7.30. We were & it was quite cold with no porridge, no warm toast & no coffee. However a nice lady called us to her feeders (no, only bird feeders) & there he was enjoying his version of breakfast. So nice pix at 10 yards range, a tick in the book & off to the New Forest. I don’t know how long they would have allowed me to find the Junco before they agitated & insisted we left, but in about 30 mins it was ‘grip-back’ time! He did show well in bright early morning sunshine & Peter’s prowess with his bazooka was something to behold! These are annual visitors from across the Pond & the story always goes that they’ve been ‘ship assisted’ but who can tell for sure & who cares anyway. Neat little bird hopping around with chaffinches & crossbills. 410 & 411 now in the bag!

That’s it for now as I have to get by bag packed for a short excursion to Morocco chasing western palearctic ticks! The excellent pix are all courtesy of Mr P. Beesley of this parish, to whom many thanks.

 We would like to offer birdwatching groups an early opportunity to make bookings for their group. 

The cruises, on the Boston Belle, depart from the Boston Marina and last approximately 4½ hours. The Boston Belle can accommodate up to 60 passengers but we limit numbers to 50. The boat is well equipped with seating inside and outside and serves hot and cold refreshments.

In 2011 over 114 species of bird were sighted including marsh harrier, peregrine, merlin, black and bar tailed godwits, eider, various terns, gannets, kingfisher and many more – in fact 73 species were identified on a single cruise last year! 

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RSPB  South Lincs Group