Rather than describe every detail of my birding over the weekend I will just list the new NMT (Non-Motorised Transport year list, for those of you that are coming late to this blog) birds and say something about each of them, and then maybe mention a few other birds I saw.
#99 - Red-legged Partridge at Smith's Dock, South Bank, Redcar & Cleveland, on Saturday the 13th of March. This was at the very furthest point of my walk on Saturday (actually beyond the furthest point), scuttling out of sight up the bank of the River Tees. Quick view but long enough to see all the distinguishing features - black necklace on an otherwise mostly grey and beige bird with a roundish compact body and protruding head. This is the partridge that is often depicted on Christmas cards illustrating the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". However, this bird was unknown in Britain before the 1700s, when it was brought over from its native range in mainland Europe (for which reason it used to be known as the French Partridge).
#100 (Way-hay, Party tiiiimmeee 😃😃😃) - American Wigeon on Port Clarence Flood (part of the Saltholme complex of pools). This was a proper twitch for a pretty rare bird (although I combined it with normal birding in the area) - this bird has been hanging out with some of the hundreds of Eurasian Wigeon in the North Tees Marshes for the last week or so. As its name suggests, the American Wigeon is more usually found on the other side of the Atlantic where it is a very common bird across most of North America. In the UK, although it is rare, there are always a few scattered around the country for most of any given winter but the chances of one being within easy cycling distance of my house is fairly small so I'm very pleased with this addition to my year-list. Sadly it was too distant to get a photo of. It's similar in size, shape and behaviour to its commoner relative but the male (of which this was one) is easy to tell apart by its white forehead (giving it the colloquial name of 'Baldpate' in its home range) and green band through the eye. Thanks very much to the birder who found the bird and showed it to me - I don't know your name but I am very grateful.
#101 - Whooper Swan on Dorman's Pool. I thought I'd missed my chance for an easy Whooper Swan for the year and would have to rely on the possibilty of catching a migrating flock in flight (and I have to admit I'm still not very confident at identifying them in flight). Thankfully a few days ago this one showed up at Dorman's Pool and lingered until yesterday (it seems to have gone now so I was lucky). Unlike our resident Mute Swans (but like the smaller Bewick's Swan), this species only comes here in the winter and spends the summer much further north (mostly Iceland in the case of Whoopers).
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| An adult Whooper Swan at Dorman's Pool, 14th March 2021. The bill is distinctly different from that of Mute Swan (see the picture a Mute, below). The neck is often held straight (again, unlike a Mute) but this one was feeding very actively in one spot, putting its neck below the surface of the water, and I caught it halfway up (or down) |
#102 - Marsh Harrier (at last) - flew over the road as I was cycling along. For the last few weeks I kept dipping on Marsh Harriers (birder-speak for not seeing something) in my trips north of the Tees - other people kept seeing them (on one occasion one flew over my head but I knew nothing about it until someone showed me the picture on his camera (at a safe distance of course)). This is a beautiful bird of prey, similar in size to a Common Buzzard but longer-winged, more slender, and definitely more graceful. Like the Avocets that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago (as well as in this article https://thetees.online/avocets-return-to-the-tees/), the Marsh Harrier probably went extinct as a breeding bird in the UK in the late 19th Century, and also like Avocet has had a great turnaround in its fortunes, with an estimated 400 pairs breeding here now at scattered locations around England, Scotland and Wales. I didn't get a photo of it but hopefully will have another chance at some point - if I do I'll share it in a future blog.
#103 - Yellowhammer at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park. This is one those birds that visiting birders to the UK from North America often want to see, just because of its name. It is similar in size and shape to a House Sparrow, although not very closely related (Yellowhammers are buntings) and they look very different. The breeding males have bright yellow heads and bellies, with streaky brown, black and rusty red plumage on the rest of the bird. Females, and males in winter, are much more streaky with the yellow being less obvious. The one I saw on Sunday was a very bright male but he was skulking at the bottom of a bush under a very impressive array of bird-feeders. He didn't linger long enough for me to get a photo, so I've used some that my friend Rich Prior took at his home in France, where he get large numbers at his feeders - these show nicely how much the amount of yellow can vary. The first one is (I think) an adult winter-plumage male, while the second (with hardly any yellow, looks to me like a female in its first year (I may be wrong though). The third picture shows a mixture of the sexes and ages.
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| ⓒ Rich Prior |
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| ⓒ Rich Prior |
As well as the Yellowhammer the feeders had attracted several other species, including Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tits (Marsh Tits are sometimes seen there but sadly not by me on this occasion), a few Chaffinches, a lovely male Bullfinch and at least 27 Tree Sparrows - the largest number of this species that I have seen in one place in the UK for at least 30 years (possibly ever).
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| Four of the 27 (maybe more) Eurasian Tree Sparrows that were at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park on Sunday |
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| I don't use the word 'cute' very often, but I have to admit that Long-tailed Tits are extremely cute. They often travel around in large groups, especially in the autumn and winter, making their little 'drrr, drrr' calls to each other fairly constantly |
While I was sitting watching the bird-feeders at Cowpen Bewley, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye - a dark shape in the sky which turned out to be my last new NMT-bird of the day. It was...
#104 - Common Buzzard. As with the Marsh Harrier, I have missed seeing this common raptor (a bird of prey NOT a dinosaur) several times recently when I thought I was going to. The name Buzzard can lead to confusion for birders from other countries - in North America, birds in the genus Buteo (as Common Buzzard is) are just called Hawks and buzzard is an old word for what are now called New-World Vultures, such as the Turkey Vulture. To add to the confusion 'Busard' is the French word for Harriers, while the word for members of the genus Buteo is 'Buse' (presumably 'Buses' is the plural, which might explain why you often see several together having not seen any for ages). On this occasion, however, there was only one.
All photos ⓒ Colin Conroy unless otherwise stated.
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