Tree Pipit: calls, evidence and birds.

Two recent local patch visits have produced a species that I spent much of last August listening and looking for, but without success: Tree Pipit. This species is a scarce migrant in Oxfordshire, but one that has history in this area. I spoke to Steve Heath early last year. Steve grew up in Cowley and used to watch the Southfield Golf Course area many decades ago. Steve told me that Tree Pipits used to be regular up on the golf course and even now I could see why. The open grassy spaces on top of the hill, the many mature pine trees combined with the sandy bunkers on the golf course, look as if they could tempt a passing migrant Tree Pipit down to investigate.

There was a significant movement of Tree Pipits across England in late August 2019, but despite many hours of observation by myself and Dave Lowe we did not record a Tree Pipit in the Lye Valley area. Last week I was in south Devon and saw, heard and photographed a number of Tree Pipits as they migrated down the coast. Their calls were fresh in my memory as I headed out on Tuesday morning.

Devon Tree Pipits

First encounter: no confirmatory second call

As I descended from the golf course towards the trees of the Lye Valley on 25th August, I was stopped in my tracks by a buzzing “tzeep” flight call of a bird passing high overhead. I immediately called out “Tree Pipit!” I scanned the skies, cupped my ears and listened out another flight call. It never came.

I have long since stopped identifying birds on the basis of “what else could it have been?” If I find myself going down that particular avenue, it simply means that I have not gathered enough evidence to confirm the identification of the bird in question. There must be evidence from my own observation to substantiate the identification. Identification based on ruling everything else out that is not present, is by definition, much less secure.

I reflected that had I been on the Devon coast I would have simply added Tree Pipit to my eBird list and carried on. But in an Oxfordshire context, Tree Pipit was a new species for the Lye Valley area and a species that I had neither seen nor heard in the county. I needed more evidence. I needed the confirmatory second flight call. The one you hear when you are fully alert and listening. Not the first flight call, that can catch an observer unawares, where the mind can play tricks or the wind can distort the call of a more common species. For me, I needed to hear more than one call to reach a satisfactory evidence threshold to add a new species to my patch or county list. I gritted my teeth and headed into the woods.

Second encounter: the confirmatory call!

About eight minutes later, as I passed between the Churchill Hospital and the 18th green of the golf course (this is a strange local patch), I was stopped in my tracks by an explosive buzzing flight call from a bird high overhead. Again I stopped and scanned the skies and listened and this time the flight call was repeated as the bird moved south, sounding just like this recording:

[Albert Lastukhin, XC495491. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/495491]

It was a Tree Pipit! And I had heard the second confirmatory call. The one that for me, reduces the risk of an overactive imagination or wind distortion and nails the ID. Tree Pipit was on my patch and county lists. I went home a happy man.

Third encounter: “chip” calls

This morning I was back on the golf course at first light. I was unnaturally optimistic about finding a Redstart for some reason, but as usual drew a blank. As I searched the southern end of the golf course I once again heard the distinctive sound of a Tree Pipit’s standard flight call. This time it was relatively low and I managed to photograph the bird as it circled around overhead.

I watched and listened to it fly over the hilly southern edge of the course before losing sight of the bird. Then I became aware of some high pitched “chip” calls coming from a pipit-like bird flying back north over the golf course. These calls were unfamiliar to me. About 15 minutes later the bird making the “chip” calls flew back overhead, before inserting a classic Tree Pipit flight call between the chips notes. The “chip” calls were Tree Pipit alarm calls, just like this recording:

[B Whyte, XC566189. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/566189.]

The Tree Pipit continued flying east and I watched it leave East Oxford and fly until it was lost from view. An instructive morning and a small ambition fulfilled. It is good to know that this hilltop golf course in Oxford city can still attract migrating Tree Pipits in autumn.

Rose-coloured Starlings: from Christmas Pie to Oman.

I have always enjoyed seeing Rose-coloured Starlings. Their bright pink and black plumage, the contrast with our Common Starlings and even their name, seems exotic and foreign. I saw my first bird in November 1987 in the wonderfully named Surrey village of Christmas Pie. My notes, taken as a feisty 17-year-old, are critical of how bright Rose-coloured Starlings appear in field guides compared to the dull bird that I was watching in Surrey in November. The distinction between their bright summer plumage and their dull winter feathering was clearly lost on me, as I watched the bird, somewhat disappointed.

I now know that in winter Rose-coloured Starlings lose their glossy black tones, especially on the head, where dull grey-pink feathering appears. The bill also changes colour from a sharply demarked black and pink, to a more uniform thrush-like yellow:

Adult winter plumaged Rose-coloured Starling, Oman, November 2015.

In the summer of 2002 I saw two different summer plumaged birds, one at Happisburgh in Norfolk and one at Dawlish Warren in Devon. Both birds were distant, but the Dawlish bird was memorably so. I found myself in the hide at Dawlish with a Yorkshireman, who had moved to Cape May. Richard Crossley went on to produce the photo guides to North American birds that bear his name. Richard was good company and as we chatted a report of a long-staying adult Rose-coloured Starling came through. It was on view on the roof of “the pink house in Starcross” some 1.3 miles (2.25km) distant across the estuary. We trained our ‘scopes on Starcross, found the pink house and were delighted to make out the (absolutely tiny) pink-and-black bird sitting on the tiles of the roof over a mile away! It is still probably the smallest bird that I have seen in the UK.

My next record of Rose-coloured Starling was a juvenile bird in early September 2003 on Lundy. This was a special moment for me as it was the first rarity that I had found in the UK and it was also my birthday. It is a double that I can recommend. Later that same month I saw another juvenile bird at Kelling Water Meadows in Norfolk, before a period of eight Rose-coloured Starlingless years began. This rosé drought was broken in style, by the appearance of two juvenile birds on Lundy at the same time in October 2011. One bird was even feeding in the very same field that I found my first juvenile bird in, eight years beforehand:

Juvenile Rose-coloured Starlings are not rose-coloured. They are the colour of the desert sand and rock where the adults breed in noisy colonies in the countries around the Caspian Sea. In flight the pale rump stands out, but perched they have none of the dramatic colour tones of summer plumaged adults:

Juveniles seem to vary a bit in their plumage tones. One of the two birds present in October 2011 was strikingly pale:

My next experience of the Rosy Pastor was in Oman in November 2015. Here the adults were in their dull pink winter plumage, but now I could appreciate their subtle tones and their funky undertail covert markings:

The adult summer plumaged bird that I saw yesterday in East Challow, Oxfordshire, was the 9th Rose-coloured Starling that I have seen in the UK, but the first summer plumaged adult since the Norfolk and Dawlish birds of 2002. It perched up on a telephone wire with the light behind it, but those pink and black tones still stood out:

I’m still waiting for really good views of an adult summer bird, but its good to have something to look forward to.

Comet Neowise

It is not only birds and moths that come out of the blue. Comet Neowise was discovered on March 27, 2020, by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft, hence the name. At that point it was heading towards the sun. It made its closest approach to the Sun on 3rd July and is currently powering its way out of our solar system. It won’t return for 6,800 years (assuming it is still intact), so if you want to see it, now is a good time!

Earthsky.org have a nice map to help you find Comet Neowise. I have modified this with my own red arrow, see below. On a clear night, once darkness has fallen (at least 10:45pm in Oxford), simply look north-west and find Ursa Major (The Plough to the English, the Big Dipper to the Americans). Follow a line down diagonally through the rectangle of The Plough and look for the faint streak of the comet’s tail. You can see it with the naked eye, but it is best in binoculars. The numbers on the graphic below refer to the position of the comet on various dates in July 2020:

Above, this is pretty much how Comet Neowise appears in the sky above Headington when viewed from the street.

To add some local interest, I walked around the corner and photographed the comet from underneath the Headington Shark. I like the way the tail resembles the open mouth of some comet-eating space monster.

Birds of the Lye Valley, Spring 2020: uncommon and rare species

This blog post looks at some of the more uncommon bird species recorded in the Lye Valley area of Headington, Oxford in spring 2020.  It was a phenomenal spring for unusual birds!

Daily coverage revealed that both scarce and rare birds pass through this area, including some entirely unpredicted species. 63 species were recorded in April 2020 alone, out of a total of 81 species recorded ever. I saw the remarkable total of 6 new species for the area in April, meaning that nearly 10% of the species recorded were new for the Lye Valley area. In many ways, there may never be another month like April 2020.

Late March and early April see many species of waterbird take to the wing, moving towards their breeding areas. All the new species added to the Lye Valley patch list in April were birds that breed on or near water. The eBird list for April 2020 is here.

The month began with a regular Little Egret, that could be found feeding in the Lye Valley pools at dawn:

On 3rd April, two Little Egrets were seen to fly in from the west, presumably roosting somewhere near the River Thames. Both landed in trees above the Lye Valley pools:

Red-legged Partridge continued their odd pattern of occurrence. This species has only been recorded in late March and early April, a pattern more typical of migrating birds passing through, though partridges are not known for migration.

My first Mute Swan for the Lye Valley area flew over my head on 11th April:

Sub-adult Mute Swan, over the golf course.

April 12th, Easter Sunday, was a very memorable morning. The unmistakable insect-like song of a Grasshopper Warbler could be heard from Warneford Meadow:

Above, a recording of Grasshopper Warbler, Warneford Meadow, by Isaac West.

Not only was this the first Grasshopper Warbler for the Lye Valley, but it is a remarkable record within Oxford city. It was also the equal earliest Grasshopper Warbler recorded in Oxfordshire this year, another was heard singing in Radley on the same morning (per Ian Elkins).

Shortly afterwards, Issac West found the first Sedge Warbler, singing by the tiny Churchill Hospital Balancing Pond. This bird remained for at least a week:

Sedge Warbler, Boundary Brook Valley, 12th April.
Raven, Lye Valley 16th April. With only 4 records in the whole of 2019, there were 4 records in April 2020 alone.

Any species of wading bird is a rarity in the Lye Valley area. Indeed, the only species of wader on the Lye Valley list before April 2020 was a Woodcock, in November 2019. I have often wondered what the next species of wader recorded would be, Lapwing perhaps? With no suitable habitat any species of wader would be like gold dust. As such, nothing prepared me for the shock of seeing two noisy Oystercatchers flying up from the golf course at dawn on 19th April:

Oystercatchers, Southfield Golf Course

This may be the pair that have been regularly recorded on Port Meadow. A pair of Oystercatchers were recorded over Iffley Meadows early the same morning (per Steve Roby) and were seen to fly into Port Meadow late morning (per Dave Lowe). These birds flew over the Lye Valley and away to the north-east, calling loudly:

I was delighted at having recorded Oystercatcher over Headington. But things were about to get much better: on April 25th all my wader dreams came true. Four medium-sized wading birds flew rapidly over the golf course, heading north-east. Fortunately, I managed to grab a few pictures of the birds before they disappeared, the images would prove crucial in confirming their identity. Astoundingly, the birds were 4 Bar-tailed Godwit:

A full write up of my most remarkable 11 seconds in the Lye Valley can be found here. The record has been confirmed and accepted by Ian Lewington, the Oxfordshire County Recorder.

The first Cuckoo for the Lye Valley flew over on 24th April, albeit silently. More satisfyingly, a male Cuckoo was also heard calling on 3rd May. This still remains a rare bird in Headington. Hobby is more frequently recorded, but is still uncommon. The bird below flashed over the golf course on 1st May:

All in all, a superb spring of local patch birding, at the end of my road. There may never be another like it. The full illustrated list of all bird species recorded in the Lye Valley and Warneford Meadow area can be found here. Now, what will summer bring?

Birds of the Lye Valley, Spring 2020: common species

Spring 2020 will forever be associated with the coronavirus pandemic. With the country in lockdown, I was unable to work. As such, I took my daily walk at dawn and recorded as many bird species as I possibly could in the Lye Valley, Warneford Meadow and Southfield Golf Course area. These areas surround the Churchill Hospital and Old Road Campus, both of which are actively involved in helping the fight against the pandemic.

Below, Warneford Meadow at dawn in April 2020. My overriding memory of spring 2020 will be the crystal clear visibility and the intense (aircraft-free) blue skies:

This blog post covers some of the common bird species recorded in the Lye Valley area in Spring 2020. I made 46 consecutive dawn visits in the period from late March to early May. More coverage generally means more birds and this certainly proved to be the case. In April alone I recorded 63 species. For context, 71 species were recorded in the whole of 2019. Below are some photographic highlights of the common species of birds in the Lye Valley. The next post will examine some of the more unusual visitors.

Sub-adult Grey Heron, Lye Valley. This young Heron was a regular feature of the Lye Valley in April.
6 Cormorants pass below the setting Moon at dawn, 14th April. April is Cormorant month here, with regular sightings of birds flying overhead. They are rarely recorded in any other month of the year.
Displaying male Sparrowhawk, using “slow-motion” wing-beats.
Male Kestrel, one of the local pair.
Red Kite
Male Pheasant: a frequently heard species, but rarely seen. At least two pairs stay hidden in thickets in the area.
A pair of courting Stock Doves, a small number of pairs breed in the area.
Male Great Spotted Woodpecker, drumming in the Lye Valley. Woodpecker drumming was the dominant sound of the woodland in April, but ceases later in the month as the birds move onto the next phase of their breeding cycle.
Eurasian Jay, Lye valley
Nuthatch, collecting mud for the entrance of the nest hole, Boundary Brook Valley
Singing male Grey Wagtail, Churchill Hospital Balancing Pond, March 2020.
Singing Chiffchaff, Boundary Brook Valley.
It was a good year for Willow Warblers, with up to 4 singing birds present. All these birds seem to move through though, with none remaining to breed.
Male Blackcap, collecting nesting material, Lye Valley. The dominant warbler species. The Lye Valley is filled with Blackcap song in spring and early summer.
Garden Warbler: much less frequent than Blackcap, but the odd pair may breed locally.
Goldcrest, Warneford Meadow.
Blue Tit with face stained yellow with tree pollen.
Swallow: the first Swallows passed overhead on 3rd April, with small numbers recorded moving through all month.
Two Tawny Owl chicks, found by Isaac West, high up in a sycamore. This is the first confirmed breeding of Tawny Owl, though it has long been suspected.
Adult Tawny Owl.

Next: uncommon and rare birds seen in the Lye Valley area in Spring 2020.

4 Bar-tailed Godwits over Oxford

A few minutes after 7am on Saturday 25th April I was taking my daily walk around Southfield Golf Course and the Lye Valley in east Oxford. It was my 35th consecutive dawn visit since lockdown began. The low cloud base and cold easterly wind meant I was wearing a coat and gloves and it didn’t feel particularly spring-like. There had been no evidence of any overhead migration at all, when four birds flew over me from behind.
I saw them with the naked eye for a few seconds, with binoculars for a few seconds, and then fired off 6 pictures. Most of the time that I could see the four birds, they were flying away from me and slightly to the right. In terms of size and flight action, all four birds appeared identical.

Naked-eye impressions:
As soon as I was aware of movement above me, I looked up, saw four birds overhead and thought “waders”! This was staggering in itself. I have made 121 visits to the Lye Valley area (including the golf course) over the last 13 months and only saw my first wader species, two Oystercatcher, six days previously. Lapwing would have been a new species for the area and Golden Plover something to be dreamt about. Any other wader species was nearly unthinkable. As the birds passed overhead, I could immediately see that they were medium-sized waders with long wings and bills. In local patch terms, I was in uncharted territory. They were not small sandpipers or Dunlin or Snipe: they were too large. In terms of their size they appeared to be in the Whimbrel-Godwit category.

Binocular impressions:
By now, the birds were flying directly away from me. Probably the worst angle to try to attempt to identify a flying wader. I quickly found them in my binoculars. The birds appeared all dark in the field, I looked for but could not see any white on the wings or tail. No trailing legs could be seen, they did not call. As I was below and behind the birds, I could not see the back of the birds. My guess, on what little evidence to their identity that I had so far, was that they might be Whimbrel. But this was based more on feel, structure and likelihood rather than visible plumage features. Below is an uncropped, unedited picture of the four birds flying north-east over the golf course to show lighting conditions and the height of the birds:

The photographs:

When I looked at the pictures that I had taken, I immediately realised that the four birds were not Whimbrel. The autofocus had locked onto the far-left bird in the flock. The images clearly show that this bird has a long straight bill:

With more photo-editing (heavier cropping; exposure and saturation increase; plus shadow and noise reduction) more features become apparent. This bird appears to have chestnut-coloured underparts and importantly this colour extends to the vent. The underwings look pale, the bill is very long and straight :

Having established that the vent is not white and is chestnut only leaves one conclusion: this bird is a summer plumaged Bar-tailed Godwit. Black-tailed Godwit and all similar species of tringa waders (except Spotted Redshank which is pure black underneath) are white in this area and this would be visible in the images. With the other three birds in the flock appearing identical in size and flight action, it seems safe to conclude that the birds were all Bar-tailed Godwit. FOUR BAR-TAILED GODWIT over Southfield Golf Course, Headington in Oxford city!!! Barwits pass through Oxfordshire in very small numbers in spring and autumn. Any record away from water is good, but to see Bar-tailed Godwit over Oxford city is exceptional.

There was even a slight twist in the tale. Just under an hour later, at 8am, Luke Marriner saw 4 godwits over his local patch, the Oxfordshire Golf Course at Thame some 14km (8.7 miles) to the east, see here. It is quite possible that these were the same birds, although we will never know for sure. The joy of local patch birding is the joy of discovery. Today proved that ANYTHING is possible… given enough time!

Thanks to Ian Lewington, Dave Lowe, Andy Last and Mark Merritt for their input and thoughts.

A small pool of calmness

As life as we know it collapses, never to return, I have been struck by a strange double-edged feeling: paranoid calmness. There is less and less for me to do. My business has closed leaving us with no family income. My children are at home and will be until September. I am calm because there is very little to do. But I am paranoid because the calmness cannot last.

There were at least 10 Chiffchaffs in the Lye Valley area this morning. Seven of them were feeding around the tiny pond at the side of the Churchill Hospital. It was sunlit and protected from the cold easterly wind. A warm, insect-rich pool of calmness. Chiffchaffs were flycatching out over the water. Occasionally they swooped down to take insects from the water’s surface. On one occasion a Robin did the same. I spent over half an hour watching and photographing these tiny olive and grey birds, as they flicked, sailed, bill-clicked, called and sang in the willows around the pond. Their colours changed as frequently as the light did. The calmness of this scene felt eternal.

Lye Valley: January and February 2020

A total of 48 species were recorded in the Lye Valley and Warneford Meadow area in January and February 2020. Incessant westerly winds, with regular rain, resulted in very mild temperatures. So much so, that expected winter species, such as Fieldfare and Lesser Redpoll, have not been recorded at all this year. There a handful of Redwing in the valley, but far fewer than usual:

The wet winter has filled the ponds in the valley, which by the third week of February are full of frogspawn. This juvenile Grey Heron (adults have a black stripe above the eyes, joining at the back of the head) was investigating the ponds:

Most visits produce Green Woodpecker. This male (note the red moustache, females have all black moustaches!) was feeding in Warneford Meadow:

More unusual was my first Peregrine for the Lye Valley. Two birds were seen on 9th January, one carrying a white Feral Pigeon, flying over Churchill Meadow:

Other raptors seen regularly, included the over-wintering male Kestrel:

A pair of Buzzards were often recorded, this is the paler of the two birds:

Even though we may be in the depths of winter, there is increasing evidence of birds preparing for the breeding season. This Red Kite was seen carrying nesting material on 3rd February :

Whilst the landscape of the Lye Valley is only just beginning to show the first signs of spring growth, the soundscape changes much more quickly. Robins, Wrens and Dunnocks sing all year round, but the intensity and frequency of their song begins to develop as the days lengthen.

Song Thrushes joined them in song from mid-December (these are not my recordings, but examples of the birdsong you can hear in the Lye Valley):

[James Lidster, XC527789. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/527789]

The first Great Tit sang on 9th January:

[Jordi Calvet, XC529801. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/529801]

Great Spotted Woodpeckers were drumming from 27th January:

[James Lidster, XC527766. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/527766]

On 3rd February, the first Chaffinches and Greenfinches began singing:

Chaffinch [Jorge Leitão, XC529142. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/529142]
Greenfinch [James Lidster, XC527762. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/527762]

An early surprise was the first singing Blackcap on 12th February. A male in Boundary Brook valley was not in full song, but it won’t be long until the valley is full of singing Blackcaps:

[James Lidster, XC528082. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/528082]

Roll on spring! The full list of bird species recorded in the Lye Valley can be seen here.

A chilled-out day in Norfolk

I spent Friday in north Norfolk with Richard Campey, who lives and works near the coast. It was a relaxed day, with some morning sunshine, before showers moved in from the south-west during the afternoon. We didn’t travel out of north-west Norfolk and saw nearly 70 species without really trying. 

Barn Owls were very obvious, perhaps after rain preventing them from hunting last night. We saw at least 6 during the day, including this early morning bird, perched on the way to Holkham Bay, our first stop after Richard had dropped off his son at work.

An area of the marsh at Holkham has been fenced off to allow regeneration of the saltmarsh. This area has been attracting Shorelark this winter. When we arrived 4 birds were right in the middle of fenced off area, but as we watched and waited they worked their way over towards us. Eventually, we had superb views in lovely early morning sunlight:

There were also at least 40 Snow Bunting on the saltmarsh, with over 1000 Common Scoter, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Long-tailed Duck and 2 Great Crested Grebes on the sea.

As always, the skies and fields of north Norfolk were filled with thousands of Pink-footed Geese, some quite close :

The Rough-legged Buzzard at Wells announced itself by putting up hundreds of Lapwing, Golden Plover and thousands of duck. We had superb ‘scope views of it hunting in front of the pines and frequently hovering before it returned to its regular perch on a building viewable from the road:

The sunshine after yesterday’s rain had brought out the raptors with lots of Kestrels, Marsh Harriers, Common Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk all seen throughout the day.

A wintering Black-necked Grebe on Holkham Hall lake was a nice addition to the day list:

Mr Campey at Holkham Hall

The afternoon saw a change in the weather, with regular heavy rain showers. As darkness fell we popped in to see if the Eastern Yellow Wagtail was about still about, as it’s favourite dung piles are only 10 minutes from Richard’s house. We discovered that it hadn’t been seen in over two hours, so called it a day and went back to Richard’s for afternoon tea. Hard-core birding it wasn’t, but it was a superb chilled-out day with a good friend. We finished the day as we had begun it, with a Barn Owl. We watched this bird hunting by the road near Sedgeford. On one occasion it hovered right above our car, starring down at us, providing the sort of view that is the last thing that countless mice and voles ever see. They are fabulous birds:

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