Scillies - Day 5 - Rustic Bunting on St Marys

Rustic Bunting (Scott Reid)

Rustic Bunting (Scott Reid)

Rustic twitch in the pine belt

Serin (Scott Reid)

Serin (Scott Red)

Early arrival, early success

In the bag selfie

Brambling

Stunning fauna

Squire perched high

The Skipper

Jam & Cream the way to go

Plenty of visitors

More fauna

End of another busy day

Just when we thought the rarities had ended for the week, news broke late the previous evening of a Rustic Bunting up at Longstone.

Access sounded very difficult as the bird was on private land with roaming cows & an owner also had a gun ! We marched up and met the finder Will who explained where viewing was possible. Just that moment a Serin flew straight past us at height calling. A great start to the day.

We opted to try and get a spot from within the pine belt to view the field in which the Chaffinch flock which it was associating with were feeding. The field dropped away from us so you couldn’t actually see the birds on the ground. We all kept working our way through the flock each time they returned to the elms. Suddenly one of the birders we see regularly had the bird in her scope and shouted us to see if we wanted to come and view it. We were like Colin Jackson over the high hurdles but over trees to reach her to get our first view. Next job was to get it in our own scopes to get pro-longed views.

This took about ten minutes when the Squire found this beauty and the extra magnification of his scope granted us amazing views. This stunner was Reed Bunting in size but had white wing bars, pink beak and was certainly more reddish. The bird had probably travelled from north Europe and breeds in swampy forests in south east Asia.

We also record two Brambling in the morning and then found a group of three when we returned late afternoon.

The rest of the day we plotted our way up the Telegraph Road only adding a few Fieldfare before hitting the coastal path where we added a Red-throated Diver, Razorbill, Guillemots, GBBC, a Greenshank, 2 Grey Heron and few Stonechat.

Tale of Serin & a Sat Nav

Serin

Yet another strange place for a twitch

Serin

RSPB Fen Drayton

RSPB Fen Drayton

Rutland Water - North Arm

Paul scoping at Eyebrook

Little Egret

Slavonian Grebe

I must admit the idea of going to RSPB Fen Drayton to see two Serin didn't inspire me as my only previous visit was a disaster resulting in dipping a Baikal Teal. However Dave J had called me and said it was a pretty easy journey (even easier with Paul picking me up) and the birds were showing well.

The journey took just over two hours and some poor navigating out of the car park took us the wrong way however we did find some large flocks of wintering Wigeon. Once back on track we found a group of birders heading towards us saying the Serin had flown in our direction. There was no sign for about an hour until I scoped the birds feeding about 200 yards to me left on the busway weeds between Elney & Oxholme lakes. The downside was Paul had nipped to the card to pick up his mittens for his little hands. Once he saw all the birders were on the birds he sprinted back to his scope, showing exceptional pace considering he was carrying a dodgy foot. Serin sightings tend to only on passage however it is thought there has been irregular breeding.  We then decided to take a walk round the reserve but as we approached the turn we picked up both Serin again by a much smaller pool where I managed to get a few record shots. Other sightings included numerous Goldeneye, two Egyptian Goose, three Marsh Harrier, Goldfinch,  Great Black-backed Gull B, Bullfinches, Cetti's Warbler and many Redwings. 

Leaving we opted to head to Draycote however the SatNav took us to within 8 miles of Rutland Water ! Blame the programmer ! Given we were so close I thought I'd show Paul the best spot to view the North Arm and it proved very rewarding as I found two Black-necked Grebes straight in front of us. It was my only second time of seeing this species, so we were very pleased. Additional highlights included three Goosander, two Barnacle Goose, huge flock of Wigeon, 50+ Common Gull, Great Crested Grebes, a Redshank, three Egyptian Goose, 50+Teal, Pochard and many Goldeneye.

Given our location it would be rude not to call in at Eyebrook Reservoir. When scoping the large numbers of waterfowl including Goldeneye and Wigeon we picked out a stonking drake Smew. A Little Egret fed very close to us but didn't seem to take any notice of us. Our great birding day finished with some superb views of a Slavonian Grebe as we headed back round the reservoir.