Of Whinchats and Wheatears

How good are Whinchats? I mean, just how wonderful are spring Whinchats? I remember the first time I saw one on Wanstead Flats, and my initial thought was that it was some kind of exotic escape and it took a few minutes of hard grilling before I could place it, during which time it disappeared never to be seen again. Unfortunately I don’t see spring Whinchats very often, here on the patch they’re far more of an autumn bird. When I do though it provokes thoughts of heresy.

I am fairly well known for being a lover of Wheatears. All Wheatears, as of course there are quite a few species and they are all very lovely. But the one I see most frequently is Northern Wheatear, and generally we get a good passage of these every spring. You can also generally get far closer to and thus get far better views of Wheatears than you can of Whinchats, which combined with their overall numbers during spring passage inevitably leads to the conclusion that Wheatears are just better. They are also first of course, I have never seen a Whinchat before I have seen a Wheatear, and so they are the bird that signals the end of the winter colour drought. And there is doubt that they are a striking bird – that soft peachy breast getting bolder and deeper towards the head, the grey back and white rump, and best of all the wide dark black bandit mask with white borders. When you add to this their upright stance and general panache, it’s hard to argue that there could be a better bird out there. Here are a couple of photos of spring birds from Wanstead Flats. If you need a minute, that’s fine.

But yet my thoughts keep turning to Whinchat. You see I recently had an opportunity to study and photograph at what is, for me at least, unusually short range. I was in Greece, at a place called Lake Kerkini (full trip-report to follow, naturellement), and Whinchats were far commoner than Wheatears. And they were absolutely stunning, almost beyond comprehension. I have never seen Whinchat so well anywhere, and this was achieved by virtue of taking my poor Nissan Micra somewhat offroad and using it as a mobile hide. I have no idea how a bright white car works as camouflage, however the birds seemed entirely comfortable with this large chunk of metal bouncing up and down next to the irrigation ditch where they were spending their time, whereas if I got out of the car to get something from the boot they disappeared quick as a flash. Interestingly the birds were very much tied to reeds. I had driven down the track to photograph Great Reed Warblers, but my attention was soon diverted when I realized that were as many if not more Whinchats also using the area to feed, and they had absolutely no problem perching on the swaying reed stems. In fact I’m not sure I saw them perch anywhere else – they would descend to feed on insects on the track, and then pop back up to the reeds to survey the area and cough up any nasty bits. Here are a few of the photos I took, after which there will be a difficult and heretical question.

Are Whinchats in fact better-looking than Wheatears? If Whinchats were as common and as approachable as Wheatears, could even diehard aficionados like me be converted? Might the real spring prize be the Whinchat? There were two on Wanstead Flats last week as it happened, a pair travelling together, and the male was an absolute belter. I didn’t have my camera with me that day but this didn’t matter as sans Nissan I couldn’t have got anywhere near them, so instead I enjoyed excellent views through binoculars. They’re not that different really, the distribution of colours and plumage is remarkably similar. Black mask? Check. Orange chest? Check. White stripes on head? Check. The black mask is wider though, as is the extent of the white border both above and below, which also joins more obviously below the bill. The orange is deeper throughout as well, and the mantle rather than being grey is instead highly patterned. As a package it is superb, very compelling indeed. Maybe I am currently confused as for the first time I have been properly able to make this detailed comparison? Previously I simply wasn’t aware how stunning they were. I mean I knew they were good but they were also a bit unattainable, which contrary to what you might think somehow reduced their appeal. Now that I have scored so to speak, I am not sure where this leaves me. I am fortunate to have recently enjoyed both I suppose.

More patch Whinchats

The perfect number of Whinchats to have on the patch is one. A Whinchat, rather than Whinchats. One Whinchat is often fairly cocky, quite brazen sometimes. Several Whinchats stir themselves up into a apoplexy of intense fear, feeding off each other, and thus whilst it might be pleasing to the urban patch-worker that there are multiples of this smart little bird - and indeed I was pleased, for as many as six graced Wanstead Flats this morning - for the urban patch-worker who carries a camera with the intention of committing Whinchats into a pleasing series of zeroes and ones, any more than one is a complete disaster, as the moment one sees you even a hundred paces away, all of them fuck off into the middle distance.

Thus were two hours wasted this morning in a pleasant if frustrating attempt to outsmart these little corkers. It didn't work, or at least not very well. Six soon turned into two that I managed to follow around reliably, but they had been very well trained in how to look out for each other, to the point that I wondered if they had known each other before meeting on Wanstead Flats. They appeared at times to share a single mind, disappearing with perfect synchronisation, popping up again exquisitely. It would make a fine Olympic sport in a parallel universe. Here's the best of what I managed before I gave up and went to Suffolk to dip a Wryneck and successfully twitch a Lesser Grey Shrike - this latter also kept an impressive distance between it and the assembled watchers. Maybe it had just eaten a Whinchat?

Invasion of the Chats

I've been saying for a while now that I wanted some decent shots of Whinchats, and indeed part of the reason for abandoning the Wryneck (which is still present, by the way, for it's fifth day, meaning that we have now have an entire fortnight of patch Wryneck) at the weekend was because I wanted to run around after Chats. That and all the twitchers. Anyhow, the single Whinchat present was in no mood for photography, and so I ended up chasing Wheatears around instead, and this was no bad thing.

The broom fields make for excellent Chat chasing, with paths running all over the place, and God only knows quite how many times I diligently followed them round and round in a large circle. I probably covered miles. Unfortunately Wheatears can fly much faster than I can walk. They can also walk/hop much faster than I can fly..... which means that I am always playing catch-up. More often than not my attempts to get close to them were ruined by the good old general public, memorably on one occasion when I was flat on my stomach, inching towards a bird with my camera in front of me, a man actually stepped over me without so much as uttering a word. I was too amazed to even say anything, and the Wheatear naturally flew off. It was one of those rare moments where I retrospectively wished I'd had a speargun..... Anyway, eventually a bird let me get reasonably close to it as it perched on a log, the results of which you saw yesterday.

Oh, OK then.....

So, today it was the turn of Whinchats, and with up to six on the Flats it was as good a time as any. Well, apart from when there are zero, as that would be rubbish for Whinchat photography. Four of the birds were together near the viz-mig watchpoint, and unless they somehow flanked me, possibly another two nearer to South Copse. It was very difficult to get close to them, as usual. But with my stupidly long lens and a converter, and some cropping, I reckon I've just about done OK. They won't win any prizes, but they're the best photos - so far - of Whinchats I've ever taken. I had been contemplating going out to Essex where Russ says there are some good opportunities, but if these birds stick around I'll keep trying closer to home. A Wheatear was with the Whinchats - hard as it was, I studiously ignored it...

These three Whinchats were in the broom fields in a small sticky up plant just to the left of centre path, about 8/17ths of the way along, moving SSE to NNW. The bush is precisely 95.3cm tall, and the birds were found in the upper 15-20cm of the bush. One was on the fourth vertical stem from the left, with another three stems in from the right on the stem that leans in at about 80 degrees. The final bird was almost at the very top, one branch to the left of the tallest stem. Hopefully this will be sufficient to enable you to find them. Oh hang on a minute, they have wings.... Shit.