Some stuff I did last weekend, like watching a Bonelli’s Warbler

Wednesday 29/6

We go out in the evening and we look for birds. We see young Merlins at undisclosed locations (because you rotten bastards will no doubt go out and chuck bricks at them). We watch them learn to fly and crash into the heather.

Back on the roadside we get shouted at by a car full of teenagers who scream, “Sad wanker birdwatching dickheads!” Maybe they have a point. We drive home and have to swerve to narrowly miss Tony who runs Olympic Taxis and is often drunk behind the wheel. We stop to pick up a box of Microchips and Findus Crispy Pancakes from Co-Op and see a tramp urinating by the back entrance to Greggs the bakers. This is what we do. We get home and I find out my sister-in-law is about to give birth. We want to watch The Apprentice but we have to drive to Newcastle.

Thursday 30/6

Welcome to the world my nephew Damien Anticristo Thorn.

Friday 1/7

A morning out birding in Northumberland, and a chance to meet up with super-blogger Alan Tilmouth who alongside Dusty Bins and the Crown Council, also writes a monthly post at the massive 10,000 Birds. Alan’s a pro-birder, and as he told me all the things he’s involved in, I think it’s safe to say that when it comes to having fingers in pies, he’s a pretty strong challenger to Mark Reeder’s crown.

Castle Island on the River Wansbeck had a Spoonbill, Green Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpipers and a nice looking Ruff, then just as we were getting started Alan feigned injury and claimed he had an abscess on his tooth. A helicopter had to be called in to airlift him to the dentist. People will go to any lengths to get away from me. Probably because I’m so catalepsy-inducingly boring.

So I was ditched in Newbiggin alone, with only the juv Meadow Pipit in the title photo of this blogpost as company. Anyone who’s been to Newbiggin will know why being left there alone is so terrifying, like the thought of Garry Bagnell taking control of British twitching.

I pointed the car north and headed for Hauxley and Coquet Island (locally pronounced Coke-’ead Island, not Cock-’ead as I thought). I was intending to take a boat trip out to the island for close-up views of Roseate Terns (about 70 pairs of the plummeting total British population of 75 breed on there), but obviously family stuff got in the way. Instead, following Alan’s advice before the paramedics knocked him out with morphine, I had a couple of hours on Hauxley beach watching billions of Puffins and millions of flyby terns including occasional Roseates heading back to the island with a snout stuffed full of fish. It’s really really good here, and seeing so many Common, Arctic and Roseate side by side probably increased my tern flight ID skills by at least a factor of 6,427. I don’t know what that means.

Saturday 2/7

18:00

*ring-ring*   *ring-ring*

Me: “Yo! ‘sup homes?”

Him: “Why do you answer the phone like that? Are you a bit simple? Where are you?”

Me: “Newcastle.”

Him: “Bad luck. There’s a Western Bonelli’s Warbler at Arnfield.”

Me: “Yeah okay. You mean like the Arnfield that’s just 2 miles from my house?”

Him: “Yes. It’s by the bridge in the north-east corner.”

Me: “Nice one. You’ll never guess what I’ve just seen.”

Him: “Go on…”

Me: “I’ve just seen Jennifer Lopez sucking off a horse.”

Him: “What?”

Me: “Yeah, seriously. We were just driving along and there was this horse by the side of the road and J-Lo was underneath it and she was…”

Him: “Oh I get it. You don’t believe me.”

Me: “No, no. I really believe you. I mean what could be more plausible than a mid-summer record of a bird never before recorded in the British Midlands at a site that I could walk to?”

Him: “You’re an idiot.”

*Disconnect*

Sunday 3/7

“Well crikey O’flip!” I said as I focused my bins on a Western Bonelli’s Warbler. Miracles do happen, even in north-west Derbyshire. It’s difficult to describe just how amazing a find this is. In fact, never mind Bruce Talentless Forsyth, Paul who found this bird is far more deserving of a Knighthood for outstanding services to mid-summer impoverished twitchers. Incredible stuff.

I’ve been asked this a couple of times, so why was it definitely NOT an Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler, which would be only the 6th British record? Well first of all this is Derbyshire and not Fair Isle. But if you need any more proof, then below is the song which, matching it up with sonagrams on the Dutch Birding website, seems to be a slamdunk Western Bonelli’s Warbler: the first for Britain in 2011 and the first ever for Derbyshire and the Midlands (though there’s a record from 1963 of a singing male at Delamere Forest which is only 33 miles away as the phylloscopus flies).

Here’s the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJm5yPriIJU

This is what the song looks like (thanks to James Packer for the sonagram):

The frequency range of 3.5 – 7 kHz and the ////// shapes are a much better fit for Western. On the sonagrams I’ve seen (in BWP and Dutch Birding), Eastern has a top end around 5 kHz and shows up as either \\\\\\ or ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ .

What is surprising is just how similar some Wood Warblers can sound to Western Bonelli’s Warblers. This one being a good example:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/europe/recording.php?XC=25681

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Tom, stick to the idiot stuff like swearing and Iron Maiden and your usual general ignorance. Best to keep away from stuff like sonagrams (and yes, you can spell it either sona or sono). And how come you don’t post pictures of white dogshit anymore?”

Random Posts:

Alex Vargas: Cede Prudente, a great Bird-Photographer in Malaysian Borneo: Cede Prudente is an excellent reference of first class Bird-Photography in Malaysian Borneo and he s
Category:Birding AsiaDigiscoping & Bird Photography

Gunnar: Thou shalt always bird!: Funny Twitching video Have you seen the Twitcher program yet? If so, maybe some of this from the Bri
Category:Birding News

Gunnar: Colombian Mysteries: Colombia has a lot of birds and not all are easy to identify. While in the old days, the info of fie
Category:Birding Neotropics

Similar Posts:

TomMckinney:Scilly – day 29: “What’s your favourite bird?” Stupid question, and for me it’s impossible to answer. However, when p
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:White-throated Robin in Hartlepool, UK: Monday morning, no blogpost written, what to do? Pager kicks into life and there’s a White-throated
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:Insert pretentious title *here*: Today’s post is called Le chant du rossignol. That’s French. It means “the song of the nightingale”.
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:DSLR photographer slumps to whole new low: So another absolute disaster in British birding this week. You’ve probably all seen it, but in case
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

TomMckinney:Tart the Gyr: So it’s Sunday night, and I’m wondering why I should bother to write a load of garbage piss-poor poi
Category:Birding Western Palearctic

Tagged as: alan tilmouth, arnfield reservoir, glossop, northumberland, roseate terns, tom mckinney, western bonelli's warbler