Since I was spending part of last week in Suffolk that presented an opportunity to go after my second British Pallid Harrier at a site on the journey to and from there. So at 8:30 yesterday morning I arrived at a car park by a sports centre (TL 34769 40459) just outside the town of Royston and set off south for half a mile or so along the Icknield Way trail. I knew exactly where to go having drawn blank here earlier in the week on my way over to Bury St Edmunds, where I was decorating a friend’s house.

On that day (25th) I had walked from another car park near the junction of the A505 and the old road into Royston. There I met a photographer from St Albans who had some kind of GPS app on his phone and a reference for the location where the bird had last been reported. That involved walking uphill and skirting a golf course and was at least twice as far. But this place, Therfield Heath was quite scenic for the Herts / Cambridgshire border and it was a lovely, cool and sunny autumn day.

Pallid Harrier (outsourced) © RSPB

The Harrier, a juvenile female had arrived in the area a week earlier on 18th to be reported daily in various locations between the heath and the upmarket village of the same name about two miles to the south. Green-clad optics carriers and their cars were not welcome at that end of the trail, hence my decision to walk from Royston. We met two birders coming back the other way who said our quest had been showing well in a field just over the brow of the hill. When we got there it had been viewed about 30 minutes previously.

This spot (TL 34817 39440) was a very dry and stunted corn field, a testimony perhaps to the hot summer just gone, where some of the better pictures on RBA (see here) must have been taken. The five other birders we joined there said the Harrier came into the field close by Greys Farm as part of its circuit, and was last seen flying south across the arable land that sloped away to Therfield village. The landscape here rather reminded me of the South Oxon Downs.

Watching and waiting

The corn field

I stayed for almost two hours from about 12:15 to just after 2pm before going on my way, but the bird did not reappear. It was reported again about an hour after I left. At the second attempt I was much better prepared and somewhat more fortunate. This time I was the only birder there and shortly after arriving decided to scan over the fields to the south from a gap in the hedge further along the Icknield Way. From there I picked out a large brown bird flying north, before going out of view behind the treeline away to the west.

This looked promising so I headed back to the corn field. Soon the Pallid Harrier flew from around the trees in the picture below, then low across rough vegetation just north of where I was standing. The diagnostic three primaries and boa were none too clear to see in the glary light, but just before vanishing over a hedge to keep on heading north-east she banked to reveal underwing plumage. I took that as sufficient to clinch the ID, but in any case this raptor was behaving in a very un-Buzzard or Kite and decidedly Harrier-like manner.

Yes I know, there’s something missing in this one!

It was 9:10 am. Dashing across the trail to view the next field I once again saw a large brown shape disappearing over the skyline. So what does one do? Try to chase the bird around, that in this case would involve a lot of foot slogging, or wait and see if she came around again. Not surprisingly I chose the latter option since any sighting further afield would be distant and this corn field might provide the best back drop against which to attempt pictures should the Harrier return. Once more I stayed on site for two hours and once again she did not show.

In all that time I didn’t meet one other birder, but county listers would probably all have seen this Harrier by now, and with no reports having gone out on Friday (28th) people were perhaps less likely to come from further afield. But I had now observed my second Pallid Harrier in Great Britain and third all told.

In recent years Pallid Harrier has become a more regular autumn vagrant in this country as some juveniles disperse from Scandinavia, though their core European breeding grounds are in Russia and the Ukraine. They winter in sub-Saharan Africa, India and south-eastern Asia. A medium-sized raptor of open country, it is found on steppes and grasslands but also in semi-deserts, marshes and agricultural areas. My previous one was on the north Norfolk coast in November (see here) and December (here) 2015, when it took three attempts to get decent views of that bird.

The Therfield individual was one of four Pallid Harriers in East Anglia over the last two weeks, the others being another long staying juvenile female at Welney WWT, Norfolk; and two at Ouse Washes RSPB on 17 & 18th. English records have also come from Cheshire, Lancashire and Devon during September. Apologies for the absence of pictures but this one moved too quickly, I wasn’t ready and she didn’t come back. Perhaps those things all add up to being a lady’s prerogative. Should the opportunity arise I may go again to try for images, but this bird appears to be becoming more and more elusive.

There has been a seeming glut of southern English records of Ortolan Bunting in the first half of September, but none of these birds stuck around for long enough to be twitchable from Oxford. Needing this passage passerine for my British list I kept an eye on things as more and more sightings came in from Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Gloucestershire; but time and again a negative would go out on RBA after the initial report. And as some of these migrants were being noted at well watched coastal locations, they were being identified only as fly-overs on call and sometimes at night using sonogram equipment.

Distant, blurry Ortolan Bunting, but hey I’ve ticked one for Blighty

Yesterday evening, I fixed on RBA postings from a site on the South Downs just to the north of Portsmouth, where an Ortolan (pictured above) was first reported at 2:45 and was still being watched at 6pm. This sounded like it could be my bird and I decided if it was still there in the morning I would go to see it. Today I noticed the first report at around 7:15 and 45 minutes later I hit the road. That’s quite quick for me!

Portsmouth and harbour featuring the Spinnaker Tower (centre) and Mordor (top right)

From the M27 I drove through the Portsmouth suburb of Cosham then up a road to Ports Down (SU648067) from where the views to the south were worth capturing. Arriving on site at around 9:20 I made a reconnoitre of Pigeon House Lane, and on finding a sizeable group of birders all intensely focusing on a corner of the field in question, assumed they must be onto the Ortolan. So I parked on the end of the closest line of cars, to be told my quest had last been seen around 20 minutes previously, showing well on a Hawthorn beneath an electricity pylon.

Joining the twitch line I was greeted once more by Adam who this time had not arrived in the nick of time and so had yet to see the bird himself. A patient wait then ensued until after an hour with no views a group of birders made the decision to flush the bird with the approval of the gathering. Given this nudge the concealed Ortolan Bunting, an adult male (I assume) then broke cover from long grass on the far side of the field to perch prominently anew in the same Hawthorn to which the day’s earlier reports had referred.

The twitch site …

… and the Ortolan corner

Our bird remained there for some time, taking in it’s surroundings and all the attention it was attracting. In the right hand picture (above) it is just visible to the left of the hazard warning sign on the pylon (click to enlarge). I was hardly likely to gain good images but the digiscoped records below are still clear enough to present what I had observed today. The medium-sized Bunting’s diagnostic greenish-grey head, pink bill and pale yellow moustachial stripe and throat are all discernible.

Ortolan Bunting

Eventually the Bunting dropped down into the ground level vegetation below the pylon again, presumably to resume feeding on insects and seeds. I at once wondered if this behaviour could be the reason why so many earlier reported birds had not been seen subsequently, since they clearly spend a deal of their time keeping out of sight.

Ortolan Bunting breeds across much of continental Europe and parts of western Asia, but not in the British Isles. Across that range it is a not uncommon inhabitant of agricultural land, woodland and upland areas. Since Roman times the bird has been regarded as a culinary delicacy, especially in France, resulting in huge losses from the wild each season. Despite a 1999 EU directive banning hunting up to 50,000 birds each year continued to be slaughtered on autumn migration in that country alone, until at least 2007 when stricter enforcement was said to have been put in place.

Ortolan Bunting (male) © rights of owner reserved

Ortolan Bunting (female)

The species, that I had recorded myself once before in Cyprus in April 2012, winters in tropical Africa. Closer to home I had tended until now to regard this passerine as a migrant reported mostly from remote offshore islands far beyond my preferred range, or heard flying over the Portland Bird Observatory. So to gain this very positive experience, my 345th British bird, just 90 miles from home was very pleasing.

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Observing new birds in Great Britain remains a diminishing return, given my reluctance to travel very long distances. But I keep on chipping away, and three species – Roseate Tern, Marbled Duck (if accepted) and now Ortolan Bunting – within range in the 2018 return passage season so far is not a bad tally. Hopefully there will be one or two more long-sought British or even life list additions in the weeks ahead.

August was a good month for Spotted Crake in England, with birds being reported on RBA from 10 different locations. In the last week two of those have been within easy reach and so I opted to take a look and hopefully update my personal experience of what is an easily overlooked, even enigmatic species. At this time of year immature birds often stop on migration to moult, sometimes rendering them flightless for up to three weeks

This secretive aquatic bird breeds locally in bogs and wet meadows across much of Europe and into western Asia, but is rare in Britain other than in northern Scotland. Further south most sightings occur on passage in marsh vegetation but Crakes are at all times difficult to view well. My only past sighting I can recall clearly was at Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk in August 1997. Then as now I also saw one two days previously at Dinton Pastures, Berks; and an even older record was in Holland in August 1988. So the presence of two Spotted Crake this week around 40 miles from home was a good opportunity to bring a little encountered scarcity into the present.

Spotted Crake at Eton Wick

Last Thursday (30th) I opted for what seemed the more difficult of the two Crakes at Willen Lakes in Milton Keynes. There are two landscaped former gravel pits in this large public park, and I had visited the southern one before in November 2016 (see here) to see Velvet Scoter. This time my quest was being reported from the reed fringed side of the northern lake, close to the park’s Peace Pagoda and maze.

Arriving late morning in the Pavilion car park (SP 87658 41075) I first reconnoitred to find the area in question could be viewed from the opposite side of the lake where there were a number of gaps in the waterside vegetation. Then I retrieved my optics, chair and sandwiches before secreting myself in one of these spots away from any anxious enquiry of passing parents. Before me was a very open location (pictured below) and any views of the bird were going to be distant.

The Crake habitat at Willen Lake (N), Milton Keynes

In shallows at one point on the opposite shore there were several Green or Common Sandpiper, as well as a few Lapwing and Moorhen; the last of which would provide a good size reference for the other bird I sought. Spotted Crake is about 10cm shorter in length than a Moorhen, and a little smaller than Water Rail that it resembles in shape and habits. After a while I picked out a small brown form and this indeed was the Spotted Crake.

A very pleasing hour then passed in which this bird went through a full repertoire of Crake behaviour, alternately foraging busily in the open, moving through the reed edge, dashing back into cover on becoming alarmed, then reappearing from close by. Though always distant I could clearly discern it’s blue-ish head; short, straight bill and upheld tail with striking buff under-tail feathers. I was at all times struck by how small this bird seemed compared to the other species around it. The encounter was indeed an education in all things Spotted Crake.

Yesterday I went for the second bird at Dorney Common by Eton Wick, in company with fellow Oxon birder Sally who had not seen one before. There were a couple of pager reports while we began our day walking Oxford’s Farmoor Reservoir with other birding colleagues, suggesting the Berks’ Crake was receiving a little attention. Then upon our arrival on site we enquired of a departing birder who pointed out a group of observers in the common’s north-east corner.

The second Crake location at Eton Wick

This was the same place (SU 94289 78986) where I had seen my second Pectoral Sandpiper in September 2012, though the habitat was now rather different with deeper water. The Spotted Crake was active in the paler green area between the two taller, darker areas of reeds on the far shore in the above picture. It would emerge from either end of the brighter vegetation, presumably spending most of it’s time concealed further back in the space in between.

Once again we came equipped with chairs and sandwiches. After a while the other birders all left and we continued to watch the Crake intermittently for an hour or more. I then realised there was another gap in the Willow fringe a little to our left, probably the viewing location described rather vaguely on RBA, from where there was a better view of the right hand spot the bird favoured. So I set up my digiscoping kit trained onto this place, while Sally continued to watch the left hand spot. Either side of 3pm the Crake emerged again in both places and I acquired these blurry records (below).

Spotted Crake at Eton Wick

This second and closer encounter was as pleasing as the earlier one, and so my experience of a difficult species has been duly updated. Despite their reputed elusiveness, these birds were fairly easy to observe once located and with patience. Soon both will move on to their African wintering grounds and I am very glad to have spent a little time in their presence as they disperse south.