The Wryneck streak ends

This is the 2013 bird

It had to happen some day, and Tuesday was that day. A Wryneck was found on the patch and I didn't see it. My record up until this sad event was unimpeachable, I'd managed to see all six to have graced the patch. 

17th September 2010

26th August 2012

6th September 2013

2nd September 2015

4th September 2021

2nd September 2022

Putting aside the fact that I was staring at a screen in Canary Wharf and had no chance with this latest bird, I think this is (was) a pretty great run. Perhaps more amazing is the fact these birds graced the patch at all, quite how many there have been, and how consistent the dates are - with this week's bird on 3rd September that means the bulk have arrived in a five day period. I tried after work, as did a few others, hoping that the last rays of the evening light might result in a quick sunning before roost but it wasn't to be. The final hope was the following morning. Previous birds have often sat up in a bush to warm up before dropping to feed, so I was up and out early. No joy, and so my 100% record has come to an end. 

It was a good morning nonetheless, possibly one of our best migrant falls ever in terms of diversity. 10 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, 5 Tree Pipit, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Swallow and Yellow Wagtail. Had you been able to stay out all morning you could have nearly completed autumn in just a few hours. I had to go to work again so missed out on quite a few of the birds - well, almost all of them in fact - but before I headed off to the office I did get all 10 of the Wheatear together on Centre Path which was very pleasing. In one sense the pressure is now off. Not that the possibility I might miss a patch Wryneck weighed heavily on my mind, caused me sleepless nights etc, but you know how it is.

And this is the 2021 bird.

More Wryneck

Still there, day six and counting. A few new faces on the patch this morning, but the same birds there as last week basically, we need a change in the weather. I popped out with number one son this morning as he wanted to see it - actually he thought it was a tick, but when we came home we realised he'd seen the 2010 bird, as had his sisters in fact. This spurred us to then watch "Twitchers, a very British Obsession", so he could see how well I treat him, and also what all the people on the patch were doing. Compared to Baggers and Lee, I now appear a lot more normal. Lee of course twitched both previous Wrynecks, scoring both times, our patch's huge claim to fame. I remember him telling me he had thought Wanstead Flats referred to a block of flats. Just with a lot of good birds in it perhaps? Oh, another Wryneck in stairwell B, and a couple of Redstarts near the Biffabins....

The Wryneck showed pretty well first thing, and then scooted out of the enclosure into the broom fields where we kept getting glimpses of it dashing, all tail, between various clumps, but never saw it properly. All the Whinchats are still around, and Tony found a Redstart in the SSSI, but nothing else doing, and all the Warblers disappeared fairly rapidly. This was the cue to go home for sustenance, and more jobs. In a way it's pretty handy when weekends are quiet, it means I can get stuff done, stuff that I have been putting off for ages. So I've finally cleaned out the guttering on the greenhouse, and finally emptied the water butts and given them a good scrubbing too. My life is just too exciting....

Apart from that, the rest of the day has been devoted to Photoshop.....



In my dreams......



Sea-watching Jinx

Oh my God. Where. To. Start? Chronological would be traditional, but I just can't do it like that, as I must first gush over-enthusiastically about the patch. Wanstead Flats is AMAZING. AMAZING. Patch stats once again, are you ready? In the last two weeks the migrant tally is approximately: 6 Garden Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 8 Common Redstart, 8 Whinchat, 15 Wheatear, 16 Spotted Flycatcher, 4-5 Pied Flycatcher, and 1 Wryneck. Let's just say that last one again shall we? Wry. Neck. Gah!! Wryneck!!! The second Wryneck in three years, and this is London, somewhere between tube zones 2 and 3. Just look at the quality? How lucky am I to live here?

The Wryneck was found a stone's throw from my house, on Saturday. On Saturday I was not in my house, nor was I on the patch......

Scene 1: Pendeen, Cornwall. A group of miserable birders are sat looking at a flat sea.

Birder: Manx Shearwater!!
Other birders (chorus): Where, please God where?!!
Birder: Coming left over right-hand rock
Other birders: Yeeeee-ssssssssssssss!!

To say it was quiet was an understatement. Intense studying of the wind patterns had led me and many others to believe that with a force 6-7 WNW airflow combined with bands of rain, the only place in the entire country worth being at was Pendeen with one eye bolted to a telescope. Various phone calls had managed to more-or-less fill up a car with like-minded (i.e. stupid) people, and so the trip was on. At this point it is important to note that amongst those offered places on this trip-of-a-lifetime were Stu, Tim and Tony, all three noble and ardent Wanstead patch-workers. All three sorrowfully declined, all three with wife-related "no we are entertaining, had you forgotten?, Cornwall? you must be mad." issues. 

It's a tough trip, only for the properly foolhardy. Leaving London at 11pm, you drive through the night and arrive at Pendeen (or Porthgwarra if the winds are from the south-west). Stepping from the car in the dark, you note several other cars with steamed-up windows. Other seawatchers. Waiting. Despite being half-dead, the thought of what might be means you feel like a nine year old on Christmas Eve.

Prologue: Pendeen, Cornwall. 5am. Darkness

Me: Err, which way is west?
Others: Err, that way. No, that way. Hang on, this way.
(smart-phones and maps are consulted....)
Nick: That way is west. The wind is not coming from that way, it is coming from this way. South-west.
William: When I looked at wind-finder last night I'm sure it said south-west.
Mark: Shall we go to Porthgwarra?
Me: Yes, Porthgwarra has a toilet.
(more cars arrive)

To cut a long story short, the concenus of huddled birders is that the winds will definitely shift round to the west, and that Pendeen is the place to be after all.....

Scene 2: Pendeen, Cornwall. 10am. Wind vector - southerly.

Me: Boy am I glad I drove through the night. One Manx Shearwater. One bloody Manx Shearwater. I am never trusting Magicseaweed again.
Nick: Oh I dunno, could be worse.

(ring-ring)

Me: Hello?
Tony: Oh hi Jon, err, you're not going to like this.
Me: (heart sinking, palpitations beginning) Oh?
Tony: We've got a Wryneck in the SSSI. It's perched up in a hawthorn and me, Stu and Tim are looking at it now.
Me: (to Nick) It's worse. (to Tony) NooooooOO!!!! Er, I mean well done, fantastic news, brilliant, bloody brilliant.

Talk about a bad decision. I mean seriously, I'm 350 miles away from a Wryneck 100m from my house, on the worst sea-watch I can ever remember. I was tired, cold, hungry, and now gripped.

Nick is pleased for Tony

Apparently I lost the will to live.

Then a small breath of wind caught my cheek. Eh? And a splodge of rain... Hang on a minute..... Oh yes. Over the next two hours the wind shifted round to the west, visibility reduced, and the squalls started to come in with increasing regularity. By midday the rain was more or less constant, and then the first big Shearwaters started coming through. What a sea-watch! I knew I could read a forecast! Pendeen was the place to be, and I had never wavered from that belief. Revisionist? Moi?

Six bottom-numbing hours later all four Skua species had gone through, including a spanking juvenile Long-tail over the rocks at bottom of the slope, and a fully-spooned Pom. Cory's Shearwaters numbered 11, Greats 8, and I had missed a few more. Sooty Shearwaters, Balearic and Manxies, a handful of Storm Petrels and bucketfuls of joy. I love sea-watching. Nick and I were all chirpy. The Wryneck would love Wanstead Flats so much, just as the last one did, that it would stay for days and we would probably be sick of it by the middle of next week. Nothing to worry about at all. We would rock up tomorrow and see it, if we made it home without falling asleep at the wheel and crashing that is. I made it as far as Exeter before deciding that in the interests of survival that somebody else had better drive. William did a grand job, and what seemed like five minutes later we were at South Mimms. Engaged once more, when I started muttering about other drivers' shortcomings Nick knew I was OK and that we would make it. Make it we did, and by half one in the morning I was in my own bed. Never has a bed felt so good.

My firm plans to hit the patch early for the Wryneck never happened, and the first time I opened my eyes it was already eight and I still felt like death warmed up. But it had to be done, and striding purposefully towards the magic area, I was feeling pretty positive about my chances. I joined Tim, and this being my patch, I left the path and started having a good old poke around the favoured hawthorns.

"Oi!"

I turned, and found myself facing a line of Wryneck twitchers! Slightly awkward, but these things happen. I wouldn't charge around somebody else's patch of course, but chez moi..... In short I didn't find it, but the story has a happy ending as about an hour later it popped up in the same hawthorns and I found myself with two Wrynecks on my Wanstead list, rather than the paltry one that had been there before. Proof that you can have your cake, and eat it. Never has the patch been so busy, what seemed like hundreds of people turned up. Rather gratifying was that more than a few of them had my map printed off. Area 17 is the one you want if you still haven't been over - Lake House Road Migrant Scrub, and boy is it migrant-y.

Yes, that is a Redstart in there too. Yes, Wanstead does rock.

Still, there is only so much chatting I can take, and I soon abandoned the hordes of newfound Wanstead-admirers and headed off to the relative calm of the broom fields and started chasing Wheatears around. Wrynecks are great, but you can't beat a good Wheatear now, can you?

It's all about timing

Slightly Dippy Day

Not sure if you can dip a bird that you didn't actually go and see, but it felt like dipping. I needed a break from London, and felt that Bobolink would make a nice addition to my British list. Happily enough, one was found in Glamorgan. The only way I could get there and back in time for the school pick-up was to leave in the dark on no news, a risky move. So rather than go the whole way, I strategically placed myself on the M4 corridor and awaited news.

The news was unfortunately negative, so I spent a bit of time dipping two Glossy Ibises, attempted some Red Kite photography near Stokenchurch, and finally ended up in Wanstead looking for the Wryneck again.

As I headed towards the Alexandra scrub I could see a few people milling around. Turned out they were all Wryneck dippers, and looking fairly miserable. Hadn't been seen for over an hour and a half. Oh dear. I cheered them up by finding it in approximately five minutes, and they all got good and prolonged views, and were most grateful. I felt rather smug, possibly looked it too if you can believe it, but then again I do spend a large amount of time on Wanstead Flats and know it rather well. On previous Wryneck searches in the larger area of scrub that it disappears into, I had noticed an excellent-looking feeding spot consisting of a couple of anthills in a hollow area of bramble. This was the first place I went to look, and there it was. I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or it? It flew up and sat inside an Elder bush, and I went and found the dippers, all of whom were still wandering disconsolately around the burnt patch of Broom where it had been in the morning.

And then it was time to pick up the kids, and my birding day was over. So, in summary, I woke up in the middle of the night and drove about 300 miles to see a Wryneck in Wanstead. An act of genius if ever I saw one.

More Wryneck

The Wryneck is still here and proving fairly popular. It has a lot to answer for actually, as we had Lee Evans here this morning. Patch Tick.