The Year of the Waders

The Year of the Waders.  Doesn't that sounds grand, and official?!  The truth, however, is much more personal.  I aim to spend 2017 immersing myself in all things waders, reconnecting with old favourites, seeing new species, documenting their behaviours and experiencing the spectacles they can create.

Out of all the groups of birds we see in the UK, or even around the world, wading birds are without question my favourites.  Don't get me wrong, I love our warblers and our ducks, our raptors, our finches and I love watching hummingbirds in the US, but for me waders sit top of the pile.  Their sheer variety of shapes, sizes and plumages can be enticing enough but for me the birds' behaviours are the real gems.

It is these behaviours that I find most captivating.  Some birds within the wader families are exhibitionists, they want to be seen and they want to be heard, for at least part of their lifecycle.  Oystercatchers will often loudly announce their presence when they see you coming, Lapwing will tumble about the skies to proclaim a territory and thousands of Knot will pack together in a seemingly impenetrable living mass as they dance across the coastline.  There are of course always exceptions to the rule.  Many people would point to Snipe and Woodcock as very secretive and hard to see birds, but given the right conditions and time of year even these masters of camouflage are out and about shouting about their presence as they display for a territory and a mate.  If you've never been to hear a Woodcock rodding, set a reminder in your calendars now for the Summer!

For me though, nothing does it better than the humble Northern Lapwing.  The iridescent plumage, the funky crest, the high energy aerobatic display.  Lapwing were one of the first waders I ever really watched, and I continue to be fascinated by.

Growing up on Doxey Marshes nature reserve, I was fortunate enough to encounter this sadly declining species on a regular basis throughout the year.  The reserve was once an important breeding colony attracting some twenty or more pairs to raise young, and several thousand to winter in this area of wet grassland nestled on the edge of Stafford town centre.  Having once been Warden of the reserve for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, Lapwing were also one of the main parts of my job and a key feature I had to manage for.  It was only natural that closer observations of these fantastic plovers would develop into a minor obsession.

Find out more about Doxey Marshes here - http://www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/doxey-marshes

Nowadays in my new job as Reserve Warden at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, I get to enjoy great scenes like this every day!

So how does this fit in with a year of waders?  Once upon a time I used to head out most weekends twitching new species around the UK.  I was relatively new to birding, and newly mobile with my own car.  I remember twitching birds including Woodchat Shrike, Surf Scoter and Bluethroat.  Some cracking species, but not necessarily mega rarities for some birders.  There were waders to be twitched too, not least a Stilt Sandpiper in Gloucestershire, just a few miles from where I now live and probably my most enjoyable twitch of a Marsh Sandpiper in Yorkshire, accompanied by flocks of Black-tailed Godwits, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Spoonbill and even a Marsh Warbler next to the visitor centre.  That was a good day!

Marsh Sandpiper, Blacktoft Sands, July 2011

For many of these twitches, I had a partner in crime, Pete.  Since Pete moved to New York a few years ago (where I have also since enjoyed some amazing wader experiences) I've needed a bit of a push to get out and about, to see new things and revisit some memorable favourites.  I've never been keen to revert back to twitching purely to build a list.  Too many twitches are marred with dos and don'ts broadcast by the bird news services in a desperate hope to encourage the minority not to ruin it for the majority.  Rather than blast around the country, seeing off course rarities, worrying about continually growing my life list and feeling awkward when twitches go bad, I decided I'd take things slowly, focus on things I really enjoy or have always wanted to see and let the year unfold ahead of me.

So, enter stage right my Year of the Waders.  I've given it a hashtag on my Twitter and everything! #YearoftheWaders

The year is going to be all about getting out around the UK to see waders doing what they do best, and sharing the experiences.  As I set out at the start, its not a attempt to tick off as many vagrants as I can that are missing from my British List, nor is it a challenge see every species the UK has to offer.  It is simply my way of indulging in a passion for this amazing group of sometimes under appreciated birds and hopefully introducing others to the wonderful world.  There's no reason others can't join in with the appreciation too, so why not have you're own #YearoftheWaders?  I may also do a little campaigning for their conservation, and help get an Inspiration of Waders* recognised as the official collective noun for these inspirational birds.

To round it all off, I've got a couple of big ideas planned, but more about that once I've finalised some details!  Regardless, its going to be a very enjoyable and exciting year.

I speak with absolutely no authority on waders.  I have not studied them in detail,  I merely watch and enjoy their antics.  So come along for the ride on my Twitter feed and the hashtag #YearoftheWaders, and check back for blog updates over the coming months.  To kick things off, here is a great memory from last year when I visited Arctic Norway and had flocks of waders running around my feet as they fed along the tide line.  Enjoy.

* I can't take credit for this brilliant collective noun.  It is the work of the team at WaderQuest, a small charity I hope to have a lot to do with during the year ahead and beyond.  Find out more about their work here - http://www.waderquest.org

Photomontage 2015

So, its been a VERY long time since I updated this blog, what can I say...  It's been a busy few months!  Here is a quick round up (mainly in the form of my terrible photos) of what I've been up to. Click the photos to enlarge them.

The rest of the Spring
A great display of woodland wildflowers at George's Hayes near Upper Longdon was made even better by the discovery of a drumming males lesser spotted woodpecker!  Big thanks to Geoff, one of my volunteer surveyors at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, who made the discovery.

Lesser spotted woodpecker (if you can spot him!)

Wood anemone display at George's Hayes (just down from the car park) 

My first whitethroat of the year at Doxey Marshes, earlier than I usually see one

A lapwing nest at Thorswood, the first I've found myself

Nest boxes and my pullus endorsement
This year one of my main objectives has been to get my pullus endorsment for my BTO bird ringing license.  Pullus is a basically a technical term for young bird or nestling that is not yet able to fly.  The main stay of training 'fodder' for getting such an endorsement are blue tits and great tits and I was able to ring 66 chicks from a selection of the nest boxes at work around the Wolseley Centre.  A bonus to the tits were seven nuthatch chicks, super cute!

One of the blue tit broods from The Wolseley Centre

I was also fortunate enough to help Roger Clay ring several broods of pied flycatcher in the Wyre Forest.  Whilst checking the boxes around a fantastic oak woodland I stumbled across a small colony of early purple orchid and herb paris, the latter being a species I've always wanted to see!  As we left the woodland a single flowering spike of a greater butterfly orchid adorned the roadside verge.  All in all a great couple of days and I now have my pullus endorsement.

Pied flycatcher nest, but a little too early to ring the chicks?!

Pied flycatcher chicks, more suitable for ringing

Herb paris, cracking plant!

Early purple and greater butterfly orchids

Seabird treat at Flamborough

After a training day in May hosted by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at their Living Seas Centre at Flamborough Head, the group were fortunate enough to take a boat ride out along the cliffs to see the amazing seabird colony or guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, gannets and puffins - its been many years since I've seen a puffin at a breeding site.

Needless to say it was a fantastic experience, and combined with an evening visit to Bempton Cliffs made for one of the better training courses I've attended.  I can't recommend highly enough that you make a visit in 2016!

Puffin

Guillemots on the sea

Who lives in a place like this?  Guillemots finding every available ledge to raise a family

It's a hard life...
This Summer I have had the pleasure of exploring some of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's best grassland reserves as part of my work as Monitoring Officer at the Trust.  Along with a new team of volunteers we've surveyed all the hay meadows at Rod Wood, Thorswood and Weag's Barn along with all the grassland at Cotton Dell & Side Farm Meadows and Casey Bank.  There were several highlights not least the bumper year for greater butterfly orchids on Trust reserves including the first ever record for Cotton Dell.  Combined with large patch of autumn gentian at Thorswood and a large swathe of bog asphodel at Casey Bank to end the survey season it was a great few months.

I also made a few additional trips to grasslands at Allimore Green, Loynton Moss and Black Brook for a few other great days out.

Greater butterfly orchid, one of 14 flowering spikes at Thorswood

Southern marsh orchid, Loynton Moss

Globeflower and water avens, Black Brook

Meadow thistle, Allimore Green

Common spotted orchid and hay rattle, Rod Wood

Southern marsh orchid and hay rattle, Weag's Barn

Survey Team volunteers at Weag's Barn

Harebell, Casey Bank

Bog asphodel, Casey Bank

Thorswood plateau

Autumn gentian, Thorswood

Frog orchid, Thorswood

A very wet weekend with a new species
In July I joined a group of ringers to head up to the north coast of Scotland to visit Eilean nan Ron, a small now uninhabited island off Tongue.  It rained, a lot, but during periods of dry weather we were able to catch over 300 storm petrel during night ringing sessions, a species I had never seen until this point.  The group have been visiting the island for well over 30 years and have produced an amazing amount of data on the species including several amazing retraps and controls. Highlights this year included a bird originally ringed 25 years ago!  Storm petrel are a bit smaller than a blackbird and spend their entire life at sea other than to breed along rocky coastlines.  What a life!

The 'normal' weather for our time camping on the island, fog and rain

The occasional patch of dry weather

 The gorgeous and unbelievably soft storm petrel (left).  They have an amazing smell too, my bags still stink 6 months on!  And an extra bonus of great skua chick (right)

Lots of rain created lots of boggy area which were stuffed full of breeding snipe 

Wet weather also led to happy campers, as Colin is demonstrating

Another bonus bird, a shag.  One of four ringed which included the first ever adult for the group

'The Slabs' is the main breeding colony for storm petrel

Back to basics bird ringing
As well as a few special trips to Scotland, Norway and Portugal (see below) I've spent a lot of time helping with the Brewood Ringers ringing sessions at Belvide Reservoir and a few other sessions at other sites across the West Midlands and Staffordshire.  Its been a great year for the group with a bumper year for sedge warbler at the reservoir with over 200 birds caught and ringed.  At the time of writing I'm working on the annual report which I'll publish here soon as the end of year numbers are done.  My personal highlights have been the enjoyment a kingfisher can bring to a chilly August morning, catching my first sparrowhawk using my own kit and finally getting to ring more than one nuthatch in a single year.  Small things but each made a great day.

 Kingfisher (left) and sparrowhawk (right)

Nuthatch (left) and sedge warbler (right)

Off to Arctic Norway
This year was the fourth annual trip for the group to Norway, but the first for me on what promised to be an action packed experience filled with specialist species of the arctic.  Unlike the previous three trips which had been based on the north coast at Nesseby, our trip was 100km further south into the taiga along the border with Russia at Pasvik.  Despite the insane 25-30oC temperatures and endless supply of mosquitoes, Norway certainly didn't disappoint as I managed to add hawk owl, little bunting, siberian jay, siberian tit, three-toed woodpecker, rustic bunting, gyr falcon, white-tailed eagle, capercaillie and red-throated pipit to my European life list whilst also getting to ring several species for the first time.

A full account of the daily totals and exploits can be found here, including some much better photos - http://varangerringing.blogspot.co.uk

Siberian tit (left) and great grey shrike (right)

Little bunting (left) and Lesser spotted woodpecker (right)

Red-throated pipit (left) and willow warbler (right)

Merlin (left) and Border Post (right)

Moose crossing the river to Norway from Russia

Wetland along the river, location for many of our nets

Taiga woodland

The two teams together for the fourth annual ringing trip

Hawk owl

Black grouse

The sunny side of bird ringing
October is always one of my favourites times of the year, migration is in full swing, the leaves are changing colour and I'm off to Portugal for the annual bird ringing trip!  It was great to be back in Vilamoura with species like cattle egret, hoopoe and red-rumped swallow around every corner and although this year we only just managed to top 900 birds ringed the catch did include three wryneck, a cattle egret, three little bittern and two whinchat.  Not a bad week...

Short-toed treecreeper (left) and water rail (right)

Unexpected road kill discovery, a wryneck!

A much healthier wryneck

Erin (left) and subalpine warbler (right)

Little bittern

Hoopoe (left) and red-rumped swallow (right)

Blackcap (left) and my first ever crimson speckled moth (right)

Wheatear

Swallowtail

Colour-ringed flamingo originating from Spain

A leap of faith
Salmon leaping up a waterfall to reach their spawning grounds is something I've wanted to see for years and years, but it wasn't until too late in 2014 that I discovered I could see them in action right here in Staffordshire!  OK, so Norbury Weir near Ellastone isn't a waterfall, but it has the same effect not the fish and making them leap.  Sadly the weir is too high for the fish to pass.  Trout as well as salmon were leaping.  A great morning despite the rain!

And that is that as they say
Now, leaping salmon only takes my to early November but the last couple of months have been mainly spent indoors and what little wildlife I have seen hasn't been spectacular just enjoyable.  So rather than rambling on for another few hundred words here endeth 2015, and here's to a cracking 2016 as I take on some new challenges and looks for new experiences.