Hudsonian Whimbrel at Church Norton, Pagham Harbour, East Sussex

Welcome to the Vauxhall Conference of 'twitching'. There are Premier league twitchers out there, Josh Jones and Lee Evans to name a couple, I am afraid that I am at the lowly foot of the league tables, waiting until now to have gone for a bird only recorded 10 times before in this country and that has been present on our shores for about a month. Admittedly, work is pretty hectic at the moment, with most daylight hours taken up with it and with family commitments my other main concern, there just hasn't been time. I made amends on Sunday when Chris Orders and I paid a visit 'down south' to see this bird from the States.

The bird in question is the Hudsonian Whimbrel, a bird that until 2011 was 'lumped' together with the more familiar Eurasian Whimbrel. The BOU split the two and the bird at Pagham is the first time since the split that the bird has been seen on the U.K. mainland. Superficially, a pretty similar looking creature, but with very distinct differences. The American bird has a plain brown rump and darker underwings, compared with a white rump and pale underwings on the Eurasian bird. The eye stripe and supercillium on the american is also more defined. Without these key features the Hudsonian Whimbrel looks pretty much like its' European cousin and to a numpty like me, not an easy bird to identify.

We started our journey at silly o'clock in the morning wanting to be on site for low tide when the mud was exposed giving the bird something to feed on. The journey uneventful, with the sun glinting in the sky. Upon arrival it proceeded to rain, the temperature dropped to 13 degrees and there were Chris and I in t-shirts and shorts! We wandered to the harbour area and started to scan the exposed mud, plenty of Curlews present and a few Whimbrels, but nothing differentiated these birds. Three other birders turned up, we exchanged pleasantries and phone numbers in case we split up and one of us was lucky in finding the bird. It then started to rain again, quite heavily and so all five of us took shelter under an oak tree, where we could still see the area and scan for any birds. One Whimbrel stuck out a little bit from the others and so we watched it and watched it. It flew, revealing a white rump, not the bird we were after then! We continued to scan, whereupon one of our group, Neil, saw a Whimbrel lift its' wings and reveal an all brown rump. We all started to make double quick time back along the shore to view the bird at a slightly closer distance. I had the bird in my scope, the eye stripe and supercillium were extremely defined, a good sign and the bill looked pretty long for a Whimbrel, it then ruffled its' damp feathers and lifted its' wings to reveal a brown rump and dark underwings, we had got our bird! The 'Humbrel', as I called it then proceeded to show very well for about 10 minutes, always at a distance of around 150 metres. A couple arrived on site and we managed to get them onto the bird and then, no sooner had they seen it, it flew west, revealing all the key features and went out of view.

The photos below serve no justice to the bird as it was just a bit too far for my lens and the weather was dark and damp, but they serve as a reminder of our day of Vauxhall Conference twitching. Maybe we will get promoted at some point!

Chris took this with his digiscoping gear.

Stonechat

Stonechat with lunch

A bird that was pretty common on my recent trip to Ashdown Forest was the Stonechat. Mike and I saw a number of these birds, male (as in the above photo), female and plenty of juveniles. This is a bird that I used to see regularly in the Peterborough area, but their numbers seem to have fallen somewhat and it has been a couple of years since I have seen one locally. It was pleasing to see such good numbers, maybe this year I will be able to add one to my PBC year list, fingers crossed!

Short-toed Eagle at Ashdown Forest in East Sussex

This bird has been on our shores for three weeks, firstly in Dorset for a day and then it gradually made its way eastwards, firstly to Hampshire, then briefly in Cambridgeshire and then it appeared at Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, where it has been present for the past week or so. I had been toying with the idea of going to see it, after all, this is only the third individual to have been recorded in Britain, but my normal partner in crime had already seen the bird when it appeared in Dorset and I didn't really fancy going on my own. On Saturday afternoon Mike Weedon called me to see if I fancied making the trip with him. I debated with myself for about 5 seconds and replied in the affirmative.

I picked Mike up early Sunday morning and after an easy journey we arrived at where the bird had been seen hunting and roosting. There were already at least 50-60 other birders there, scopes and binoculars trained on the valley in front. A couple of enquiries and we learned that the bird had not been seen yet, so we set up our gear to wait. A couple of locals wandered by, asking if there was any news and then informing myself and Mike that they were going to walk to the top of another ridge where you get better views of the entire area. We followed them after waiting a few minutes and soon after we heard a shout from one these birders that they could see the bird perched in a tree approximately a mile and a half away. We reached them and were soon enjoying our first views of a Short-toed Eagle in Britain, okay it was a white blob on top of a tree, but definitely the bird. We started walking closer and after a bit of a trek, stopped approximately 200 metres away form where the bird was perched. The views were unbelievable, it just sat there completely non-plussed by our presence as we watched this incredibly rare bird for about an hour before it took off and started to gain height and eventually went out of view. 

Mike has very kindly allowed me to use the above photo of his in order to show what all the fuss was about. What a bird, a 5-6ft wing span with piercing yellow eyes!

Now for some more of my rubbish efforts!

Showing the bird using its tail as a rudder, similar to a Red Kite

One more of Mikes,

Showing its short toes!

The area in question

A beautiful summers day

An unbelievable experience and one that will not be repeated for a while, or will it?..............