Brecks 26th March

An excellent invigorating trip with Mike and Dave. For a full account and proper photos see Dave's blog.

The list isn't a stellar one, but we worked hard for a full day, and its the constant searching, listening, scouring that gives the list its meaning. Lynford was hard going; I was pretty sure I had two Hawfinches fly distantly and briefly but didn't get a good enough look to put them in my book. Then Mayday Farm following the trip report form David Bryant over at the always excellent Birds of the Heath. We found the pond, and got the finches, including a juvenile Crossbill, a snazzy male Brambling and a Redpoll that to me stood out as being a bit paler with two clear wing-bars. Thankfully we no longer have to worry if its a full Mealy or just Mealy-ish. 

Two things of note for me here; birds were flying into the tall fir tree next to the pond and then working their way down inside and popping out at the bottom. The tree was packed, which we could tell from the noise coming out of it, but could we see any birds in there? Well yes we could because we found a female Brambling, but it was hard going. Secondly, birds were not in the surrounding trees. These were birds flying in from distant parts of the wood straight to the tree.

Then Weeting Heath. There were no Stone Curlews,  but we had a Fieldfare and then a familiar silhouette in the corner. It was way distant and even on 60x was tough going. It felt Wheatear-like. Something flew to a wire and had an orange breast, but in my experiences Wheatears sit on posts not wires. Then another similar bird appeared and we guessed a pair of Stonechat. Then that larger bird hoping around again, and we had the grey head and dark mask. Yes - female Wheatear,

Finally a dash to Lakenheath and the washlands trying for seasonal Garganey. Mike had a Whooper Swan mid-water constantly calling, but our target duck eluded us. I'd gone ahead towards the car and sat on a seat waiting for the other two, and on scanning saw a dark blue dart heading behind them. I lost it then scanned higher more in hope than expectation and found a small falcon flying high then higher, constantly pumping those wings. I was pretty happy with a male Merlin, less happy I couldn't get my birding partners onto it.

Then a pair of Marsh Tits and home, with a F-35 over the road in front of us as it came in to land. A nice end to a cracking day. Proper birding with great company.

My first trip to these parts was many years ago, to be precise 17th June 1983. My notes show 3 singing male Golden Orioles with a pair seen at Lakenheath, then 4 Stone Curlews at Weeting, and following instructions kindly provided there a nesting Red-Backed Shrike at Santon Downham. Also in the notes is Turtle Dove casually noted plus at Weeting Wheatear recorded as 'abundant'. How times change.

August 2025. Whimbrel at Oare Marshes.

August took a while to get going, and even then it was hard work; 20 Wheatear in the fields at the East Cliffs on Portland on 19th, Little Stint at Ferrybridge and a Redstart at Kingcombe Meadows on 20th. Then the stand-out rarity of the month a long-staying White-Winged Tern at Fen Drayton.

I eventually gave in and went on 25th. The usual long walk to its chosen lagoon, this time in baking afternoon sun, and there it was flying around and sitting on a sand spit. I can't complain, it was fine, but it isn't really an achievement, is it? It had a distinctive 'job done' feel about it.

In contrast a trip to Oare Marshes on 14th had a moment of magic. In fact it had two moments of magic as Mike and Dave found a Queen of Spain Fritillary, but I was chatting to a local watcher at the time so missed it, and we could not relocate it. We got the Bonaparte's Gull of course, but otherwise Oare was on the quiet side.

Walking back to the car along the sea wall I heard a Whimbrel call. We'd had a couple of Whimbrel earlier so this was nothing out of the expected, but the call turned into a couple of calls, and then a few more, and I eventually found a large flock circling at a medium height. I counted 45 birds in total! There's something profound about coming across migration on this scale. A sense of movement in a size not normally encountered. A special moment.

Abberton and more human history.

The car is finally fixed, so a quick drive to Abberton to make sure all is well.

The Canvasback was being seen from Billet's, and was whilst I was there, but heat haze etc meant I couldn't claim it. I headed off to Abberton Church for the Lesser Scaups that had been seen from there, and found nothing of interest, although as I was leaving here was a familiar call and two adult Mediterranean Gulls flew over. 

Back to Billets and this time it was playing ball. Decent views, that almost linear sloping facial profile and the long black bill meant it could be repeatedly be picked out.

Finally Layer Breton Causeway and two Spoonbills high up in the heronry, and another one asleep in the corner.

So, human evolution ... I bought 'A very short introduction to Human Evolution.' A decent read, but my takeaway view was that whilst people were doing great detective work in finding and then analysing remains, we don't have enough anywhere close to enough evidence to form a definitive picture of humanoid evolution prior to Homo Sapiens arriving on the scene. Humanoids seem to have been in existence for at least 6 million years when we split from Chimpanzees. Given homo sapiens have been here much less than a million years that's a lot of evolution before we get to us.

For people of my/our vintage who can remember the dawn of DNA profiling, the speed with which DNA sequencing and associated understanding has developed has been amazing. For me and probably all of you birding being mainly a male pastime, we have 46 chromosomes of which 44 are in pairs through the process of myosis, and then there is an X and a Y. The Y comes from our father, which comes from his father etc. Except each time it is replicated there is a small error (known as 'replication error'), so it is nearly but not quite identical. 

Now because, as you are reading this blog, hence you are a smart person, you will be saying 'hang on, that means we can compare any two male Y chromosomes and have a reasonable idea how many generations back they had a common male ancestor. And we should be able to work out whether there was just one common male ancestor.' And the answer to both those questions is, amazingly, yes we can. with assumptions on time between generations and rate of replication error, we get back to a single man about 250,000 years ago, probably in West Africa. We can do similar with women who inherit mitochondrial DNA, and that ends up being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

The logical process is a bit tricky here. What if men had evolved 500,000 years ago, but due to disease/war/starvation the population went up and down and most died out with just one man and his offspring surviving into the current time? So we can have a first time for a common ancestor, and that may not be the same for men and women, but it may be that homo sapiens evolved before then.

Anyway, this is all very interesting but the British Isles don't enter the picture until much later. We currently believe all humans outside Africa are descended from people who left 60,000 years ago. At that time the British Isles were covered in ice. The last ice age, or Last Glacial Period—occurred between approximately 115,000 and 11,700 years ago. At its peak, the ice was several kilometres thick. There were refuges in southern Europe where Homo Sapeins survived but not the British Isles. So the history of people in the British Isles starts about 12,000 years ago, or 10,000 BC.

Granada and Seville

A 4-day Sightseeing trip 13-16 March with Mrs D and D#3. D#3 organised brilliantly; she is a star. I left the binoculars at home to avoid obvious conflicts of objectives.

We liked Granada. Nice tourist sights and an attractive city centre. First morning I left the ladies shopping for a couple of hours and wandered through the gardens by the river. The trees were alive with Serins. The light and angle prohibited decent colour views but it was a treat to get repeat views of the singing birds as they held their wings slightly out and turned mechanically from side to side. Other birds were more familiar; Grey wagtails,  and greenfinches and blackbirds in number. 

Then the Alhambra. I could see a large orange moorish building above the city which I took to be it, although to be honest it looked a bit like a hotel. As we walked up the steep hill towards it it became clear it was actually a hotel and the Alhambra occupied a large site behind. The walk up went through a wooded vale where three Hawfinches flew around the tree tops and Chiffchaffs flicked through the bushes. Then the site itself had a handful of Crag Martins flying around, some white wagtails and magpies. From a tourist point of view I would recommend taking a day for the Alhambra and getting a proper guide. From a birding perspective the area in and around the Alhambra is greener and lusher than the surrounding scrubby hillside and may reward prolonged investigation. Others have trod this path and seen some decent birds. 

If we liked Granada we absolutely loved Seville. Great tourist sites, a fantastically laid out city with beautiful well maintained gardens and parks and a host of tapas bars cafes and restaurants for refreshment. But first we had to get there which meant taking one of those impressively rapid Spanish trains. Despite the speed I managed White Stork and a small flock of Glossy Ibis. But the countryside is basically endless Olive groves until you get near Seville when it is endless Orange groves. Decent birding here hard to find I suspect. I left the ladies shopping again and wandered down to a park. Seville is parakeet central and Ring-necked and Monks parakeets were squawking everywhere. As I set in a small park and watched some parakeets flying between the enormous palm trees I noticed a large raptor soaring above them. As it turned it showed a familiar bicolour scheme of white body and inner wings and black secondaries and primaries making this clearly a pale phased Booted Eagle. As it soared a couple of falcons started dive bombing it screeching continually. I watched the performance for about quarter of an hour as the Eagle slowly scoured the central city area. The falcons were clearly kestrels from the upper wing colour and shape, but which sort? The surprisingly pale under wing and body glimpsed on a fly past lead me towards Lesser Kestrel. That and the fact the nearby cathedral is a known roost.

Wherever there were flowering bushes there were small groups of large bees flying around . These were all black with some blueish and purple sheens so I think I’m on safe ground identifying these as Violet Carpenter Bees. Hoping these sightings may help me find one in the UK! Other than that the main interest was the flocks of swifts. There were a couple of flocks of about twenty birds. Some seems quite pale, but given the tangle people get into every autumn with decent photos of swifts I’m not going to try and venture a species for these. 

It may be the contrast between cold and gloomy March in the UK and sunny and warm Seville but it was a breath of fresh air coming here . It is one of the great cities of Europe if you have an interest in travel and cities it should absolutely be on your list.

An update on the kestrels. I was pretty happy with Lesser at the time due to the very pale underside. But birds have a knack of looking different in the harsh mediterranean sun. Collins says the call is diagnostic, and I thought I heard typical Kestrel ke-ke-ke. I checked with Xeno-Canto and am not convinced I heard those calls. the ebird checklist has both Common and Lesser Kestrel, so I will have to let this one pass along with the swifts; such is the lot of the birder on a casual no-bins holiday!

Spring Migration kick-off at Portland

Nipped out on 10th March for a short stroll round Portland Bill with Mrs D and Derek the dog. Pretty quiet overall but 3 Wheatears on the cliffs between the bill and the huts were very welcome as always. Such an impressive bird to see. We are lucky to have them as relatively common harbingers of Spring.

Then up the path towards the slope and a small bird briefly fly-catched from a bramble. I scanned through expecting the soft olive tones of a spring Chiffchaff, and was surprised to see iridescent green and then a black-fringed white eye-stripe! The Firecrest proceeded to perch up in the open, looking to pick off insects. Fantastic.

Firecrests aren't news at Portland Bill. There always seem to be some around, but I never seem to bump into them. So this was a very welcome sighting.