On this day - 08/02/2001

A minor milestone was reached today - at least for me at any rate. Of course I only know this by accident, as I've been trawling through some old files and (still) trying to get some comprehensive order into the tens of thousands of digital photos I've taken over the years.

Here for reference is the first ever digital photo of a moth that I took ten years ago on 08/02/2001 - a Pale Brindled Beauty that I'd trapped during the previous night.

It was taken with a newly acquired Nikon CoolPix 995 that we had at work - well outside of my budget at the time. I opted to go for a Sony Cybershot DSC-S50 just a few weeks later and used that for a couple of years before acquiring the CoolPix 4500 that I still use today (sterling service, unbeatable compact macro in my opinion).

On this day, 05/11/1993

Sixteen years ago today - how time flies! A very early start saw me and John Hackett heading down to the Swanage area in Dorset. It was only my third twitch, but I was fully aware of the significance of the enigmatic bird we were hoping to see. By 08:00 we were on site at Winspit with a sizeable crowd despite the bird having been found on 30th October. Before long, there it was ..... Red-flanked Bluetail. See here for photos. At the time this was a massive rarity with virtually all of the previous records being in the northern Isles (like one trapped on Fair Isle on 16/09/1993). It was certainly the first widely twitchable bird, and prior to 1993 there had only been 11 records and I believe this was the first year that two were recorded in the same year. Of course in time it turned out to be a forerunner of many more accessible birds in subsequent years, rather than being the superb blocker we thought it would be. In fact I saw another one in Norfolk in 1994. Nevertheless, I can still visualise the scene when my first Bluetail popped into view - absolutely fecking awesome!

Mothing Memories - Portland 03/09/2005

Doubling up as an On This Day posting aswell, I've dug out a couple of shots from a poorly planned but eventually successful mothing trip to Portland on 03/09/2005 in the hope of migrants. I travelled down with Keith Tailby in the afternoon, and we entertained ourselves looking for Adonis Blue and the like before meeting up with Adrian Russell for the overnight trapping. We hadn't really thought about where exactly we could trap, and the conditions were not ideal with a very strong wind increasing from the south-east. Setting up traps on a coastal headland could have meant trying to reclaim them from the sea in the morning. After a bit of discussion, and a chat with Martin Cade from the Obs., we decided to set up at Tout Quarry - not ideal but likely to be sheltered, still a chance of picking up the odd migrant and also a chance of picking up one or two local specialities. By the time we decided to get some sleep, we'd already noted a few good species and the morning trawl through the 8 x 125W MV traps was surprisingly good with a total of 368 of 48 species. The main highlights for me (ticks, treats and migrants) were: Cochylis molliculana 1 Eudonia mercurella f.portlandica 1 Rusty-dot Pearl (Udea ferrugalis) 1 Mecyna asinalis 1 Rush Veneer (Nomophila noctuella) 1 Oncocera semirubella 3 Galium Carpet (Epirrhoe galiata) 1 Annulet (Charissa obscurata) 5 Yellow Belle (Semiaspilates ochrearia) 2 Convolvulus Hawk-moth (Agrius convolvuli) 1 Humming-bird Hawk-moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) 1 Dingy Footman (Eilema griseola) 1 Dark Sword-grass (Agrotis ipsilon) 2 White-point (Mythimna albipuncta) 7 Delicate (Mythimna vitellina) 1 Beautiful Gothic (Leucochlaena oditis) 7 Silver Y (Autographa gamma) 13 Beautiful Gothic - a smart resident RDB species recorded locally in the south-west The Delicate - a regular immigrant White-point - a regular immigrant and recently established colonist along the south coast

On this day - 05/05/1999

In the last few days of April this year, a lot of people will have twitched both Portland (Collared Flycatcher, Eastern Bonelli's Warbler) and Kent (Crested Lark) and no doubt a fair few did it all in one day. Of course twitching Portland and Kent in the same day is slightly mad - but nothing new .... 5th May 1999 saw me and Brian (definitely not John Hague) Moore grilling a Chiffchaff on The Verne, Portland. It didn't look anything special, but the constant singing clearly distinguished it as an Iberian Chiffchaff. We were impressed on the day anyway. After this outstanding bird (it was very rare at the time, having only recently been accepted as a split and this being the first long-stayer for the masses to get to grips with), we spent some time birding around Portland Bill. At some point in the day, the pagers bleeped in unison with a MEGA Alert. We eagerly checked the pagers to find that - fucking hell - Slender-billed Gull at Grove Ferry, Kent. It didn't take long to decide whether to go, and we set off on the long trek. Almost immediately after our arrival we were onto the bird, a superb adult Slender-billed Gull. Everything after that is forgotten - I was probably asleep at the wheel for most of the way home!

On this day / this week - Scillies 1996

October 1996 was a superb month for me, including a great Scillies trip. We'd booked our flights for Saturday 12th, but with exciting news hitting us leading up to the day, we set off early and arrived on St Mary's on Friday 11th. Immediately on arriving we hurried over to Sallyport to obtain stunning views of one of the best birds I've seen in Britain - an absolutely stonking Black-and-White Warbler. This turned out to be the first of five neartic passerine ticks over the next six days, and the first of 16 ticks for me in October 96!! As soon as we'd seen the warbler well, we rushed to the quay for a boat to Tresco. On landing, we legged it to the Borough Farm area and were soon watching a Buff-bellied Pipit. Oh man - what a day. And what a trip, with the other main highlights being Red-eyed Vireo (my 300th tick) at Longstone, St Mary's 13th and Bobolink on Bryher on 14th.

I had to leave the islands on 17th in order to get home for Isabelle's first birthday on 18th. This was in itself a good move as I took a detour through Portland to see the fantastic Northern Waterthrush.

Back in the (pre-digital) day, I used to buy the odd photo from the rarity photographers that were part of the scene. Most though have no details on them so I can't remember who took the photos. Either way, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me posting them here so you can see what I enjoyed on 11th October 1996!

Black-and-White Warbler - superb and OMFL!

 

Buff-bellied Pipit - smart, when it was rare and a good blocker.....

On this day - 30th September 2000

The tension was palpable as I drove onto Portland with Dave Gray, Rob Fray and Mark Reeder on board. No worries though as before too long we were amongst a reasonable early-morning crowd at The Verne enjoying a superb juv Cliff Swallow - OMFL! The rest of the day involved relaxed pottering around the bill, picking up a Wryneck, c6 Honey Buzzards, and assorted odds and migrant sods.

On this day - 14/09/2002

Six years ago today I embarked on a solo journey to see, aptly, a juv Solitary Sandpiper at Rye Meads RSPB. Great views of a great bird, and at the time it seemed all the better as it was a catch-up on local listing mates/rivals John and Dave. As it turned out though, it was the last but one lifer I picked up before effectively throwing in the towel as far as twitching was concerned. Since this bird I have seen only four lifers (excluding armchair splits) - and two of those have been in the last year!

On this day - 10th September 1993

On this day 15 years ago I joined John Hackett in an after-work dash to Blithfield Reservoir. We got there with a couple of hours of proper light left, although it was dull and drizzly so not the most inspiring conditions. Before long though, we'd both managed tantalising glimpses of our target bird. I was laden with a recently acquired scope and tripod and decided that chasing this bird around the canopy was a waste of time, so I stayed put on one side of the with a couple of like-minded souls whilst John continued to wander after the bird. After a few minutes - there it was. My first scope-full of a rarity, and a good one at that considering we were miles inland in Staffordshire - a superb Arctic Warbler. I seem to remember that 1993 turned out to be a relatively good year for this species but one in Staffs was unprecedented (not sure if there have been any inland records since?). Off of the top of my head I've seen at least one other Arctic since (St Agnes '96), and plenty of other rare warblers, but this individual will stick in the mind for a few more years to come.

On this day - 31/07/1993

I've been listening to Depeche Mode since the first UK single Dreaming of Me in 1981, and have all of their main releases - though I've not bothered to collect remixes and imports for the sake of it.

I first saw them live at the De Montford Hall in October 1982, but 15 years ago on this day I was amongst the masses at Crystal Palace for the biggest Depeche Mode gig I've ever been to. It was part of the Devotional tour following the release of Songs of Faith and Devotion - one of my favourite DM albums.



The visuals and lighting were superb, Alan Wilder played live drums, Martin Gore was his usual fetishist self and Andrew Fletcher was a static knob as ever. Dave Gahan is one of the best front men I've seen and was on top form, despite looking every inch the coke and heroin addict he was becoming.

I've been listening to DM for 27 years, and whilst I've long stopped wearing leather jackets, spikey black hair and earrings I will carry on listening to them as long as I have ears!

On this day - 17/04/1999

VC55 - Leicestershire and Rutland, slap bang in the middle of England. No coastline, precious little woodland, even less decent open heathland/moorland. Plenty of reservoirs and gravel pits though. And 100s square miles of dull farmland. Unsurprisingly, we are not exactly on a major migratory flight path and whilst we do get the odd rarity and have some very good birds on the county list, we get very few genuine 'mass-twitch' megas. 17/04/1999 was one of those days though when every keen lister in Britain was trying desperately to get here quickly - to Swithland Reservoir in fact. And the reason for this was that Steve Lister had found a superb and highly sought after Crag Martin. Prior to this bird, there was literally a handful of people in Britain that had seen one on our shores - but now one was within reach and performing amongst its commoner congeners. As it happened, I was sitting at my desk at work on this Saturday morning when the news broke. The mobile rang. A usually calm John Hague is ranting on about have I looked at my pager and can I pick him up on the way. My pager was in the car (I wasn't expecting a door-step mega during the couple of hours I expected to be at work). "What? Crag Martin? Swithland Res!? FUCK!!!" The journey from South Wigston to Swithland Res, via Narborough Road, was swift to say the least. As we arrived, there was already 20 or so local birders and visitors from the closest neighbouring counties were also just arriving. We almost immediately got good views and watched it for while as the ever-growing crowd got bigger and bigger. It wasn't always in view though and disappeared for long periods between sightings. We eventually left by the back road as Kinchley Lane was quickly becoming a car park and it was going to get messy! An estimated 1500 arrived and left during the day. Most of those who got there before early afternoon would have seen it, but after a brief showing at c13:45 it was not seen again although there were a couple of late evening reports which may have been more hopeful than reliable. The next morning the gathered crowd must have been even more pissed when the bird was relocated in West Yorks before disappearing for good. A superb County and British tick, and by far the biggest twitch the county has ever seen.

On this day - 13/04/2000

A very early start saw me and John Hague at a cold and damp Pennington Marsh in Hampshire. After a two-hour search from dawn, I eventually picked up our quarry - a superb first-summer Great-spotted Cuckoo. We got good views of it perched, in flight and feeding as it was constantly being mobbed by Meadow Pipits and Linnets. Also at this site were two breeding plumaged Slavonian Grebes. We then moved on to Stanpit Marsh in Dorset, where we had crippling views of a Marsh Sandpiper. All in all a great two-tick day out.

On this day - 19/03/1994

John Hackett and me set off for Colwick CP in neighbouring Notts for a superb drake Bufflehead. We got good scope views but it was a little wary and buggered off to other pools after an hour or so. Back in those pre-pager days I was occasionally driven to write down birdline messages - like this one: "The drake Bufflehead arrived with several Goldeneye on the early afternoon of 17/03/1994. All signs are that it may well be a wild bird; it is wary, keeping well away from the shore, and is fully winged on several occasions flying around. It also appears that it is unringed when observed preening and diving. Scarce in captivity and won't readily breed, expensive (£600 per pair) therefore owners take care. Winters on eastern seaboard of the USA." All previous accepted records at the time were from Feb/March and this one was duly accepted. Nice one.

On this day - 18/03/2000

I can count on one hand the number of twitches I've been on with Andy Mackay - but today eight years ago the pair of us set off for Cheddar Reservoir, and we were soon enjoying views of a fairly tatty 2nd year Franklin's Gull. Splendid.

On this day ... 13/03/1994

Okay, on this day yesterday seeing as blogger went off-line before I could publish the post. An early start saw John Hackett, Brian Moore and myself loitering in the well-organised queue at Pennington Flash, Gt Manchester, for views of what proved to be the first accepted British record of Black-faced Bunting. I'd like to say what a stunning bird it was etc, but in reality it was like a fat Dunnock with a pale pinky bill.

On this day - 22/02/1996

I've already indicated that Feb '96 was a good month, and this was the icing on the cake. Ever since taking up birding I was looking forward to the chance to see Waxwings and the second half of the '95/'96 winter proved to be one of the best influxes for years. I'd already seen Waxwings in January, but knowing that there had been some in Leicester I rang birdling midlands on 21/02 to see if there was any news. There was, but not quite what I'd expected! In Nottingham city centre there was a relatively huge flock of Waxwings (seem to think that there was >600) and amongst them was a Cedar Waxwing. Needless to say hasty arrangements were made to get there and on the morning of 22nd myself, Dave Gray and John Hackett were soon enjoying stunning close views of this first winter nearctic vagrant amongst c120 Waxwings. Superb bird - at the time it was the first for Britain but an earlier record from Shetland in June 1985 (that had been initially dismissed as an escape) was subsequently accepted. Over the course of the morning we saw 300+ Waxwings and also enjoyed an overwintering Ring Ouzel in a city centre church yard.

On this day .. 09/02/1996

February 1996 was a decent month it seems. After the aforementioned Forster's Tern, and early finish on the Friday of the following week provided the opportunity to nip down to a small nature reserve near Halesowen - Bibbys Hollow - to see a fine male Pine Bunting coming to the feeding station with its commoner relatives. Excellent bird, particularly given the midlands location.

On this day .. 04/02/1996

An early start for a drive down to West Bexington on the Dorset coast was in order on this day 12 years ago. After what turned out to be a lengthy trudge along the shingle expanse, Brian, John and myself were soon enjoying excellent views of a superb Forster's Tern. The rest of the day was a bit of a non-event though. Dave Gray wasn't with us.

On this day .. every year

I have seen nothing of particular interest in the birding world. And my sheer laziness has meant that I have missed some good January blast from the past dates over the last couple of weeks that I'll save for another year. I see also that Rob Fray has picked up the idea to good effect.

On this day .. 01/01/1995

New Year's Day birding was always something I particularly enjoyed when staying in Devon, and something I've always not bothered with when staying at home in Leicestershire! The Devon day lists have always been good with an excellent variety of waders, wildfowl and common birds if you know where to look. There is also a good chance of returning or wintering scarcities like the almost ever-present Ring-billed Gull in Barnstaple through the 90s, regular wintering Spoonbills and Little Egrets on the Taw Estuary and a Hoopoe in Barnstaple on 01/01/1998. However, best day was 01/01/1995 when first birding stop of the day was the Kenwith Nature reserve in Bideford, where a Dusky Warbler was wintering along with a Yellow-browed Warbler and a few Chiffchaffs including a very good contender for tristis. Not birds you would expect on the first day of the year!

On this day - 12/12/1993

'Sammy' the Black-winged Stilt took a liking to the Titchwell/Thornham area from mid-September in 1993, after having been at Druridge Bay in August. A day out in Norfolk on 12/12/1993 with Brian and John Hackett gave the opportunity to add him to my British List, and was the first of many sightings of the same individual over the next few years. In fact I saw Sammy annually between 1993 to 2000 and often several times in the same year. I missed him in November 2001 and haven't been to Titchwell since. It appears that Sammy probably threw a seven sometime in 2005? I would expect that many a year-lister saw Sammy during every one of those 13 years of residency. Excellent bird, despite the stupid gangling gait and unfeasibly long pink legs.