Rod's Birding: A day in Cambridgeshire

David, Roger and I set off for Dogsthorpe and specifically Start Pit and hopefully Iceland and Glaucous Gulls. It was raining when we left home and was still doing so on arrival, although the initial weather forecast was suggesting it would be dry by 09:00. There were plenty of gulls present, mainly Herring Gulls but there was also plenty of Black-headed, Common and Great Black-backed Gulls but it wasn’t easy viewing in the dreary conditions. When I checked my weather app it was now indicating that it would be raining until around12:00, which turned out to be fairly accurate. As the rain eased we had been observing the pit for almost two hours with no sign of either of the target species, either on the pit or the tip. We were considering giving up when David announced he had a Glaucous Gull, which had somehow come in without any of us noticing it. It was a rather smart first-winter bird and it then remained for quite some time giving good views. There was suddenly a further influx of gulls but the Iceland failed to appear and the Glaucous had left without us noticing. Other then the gulls we saw very little else, three Red Kites being the best.

We finally called it a day and headed off along the A47 to Guyhirn before heading back along the A605 towards Eldernell. We stopped in a roadside lay-by where we had seen both Bewick’s and Whooper Swans recently and had unsuccessfully looked for two Bean Geese. After a bite to eat we walked along the bank of the dyke towards two groups of swans on either side of the dyke. The right hand group were all Whooper Swans except for two noticeably smaller Bewick’s. As we scanned the swans feeding in fields to the south David picked up a grey goose whilst and we eventually found six only to see them fly off but we confident that they were all Pink-footed Geese. The light looking south was pretty bad due to the low sun and we moved a little further along the bank when David and I both picked up a single grey goose. It soon became apparent we were watching different birds but that they were quite close together and we suspected that they might be the Bean’s. It was impossible to get any bare part colouration due to the light and so it was agreed that I should walk further along the bank to try and get a better view. I managed to go some distance before trying to scope the birds again and luckily I got straight on to one of the now nervous geese. I watched the bird for a few seconds before they both took off and flew south however as it took off a got a reasonable view of the tail pattern. The tip showing a rather narrow white band and a slightly broader band at the base and it also appeared quite dark on the upperparts, suggesting that they were indeed the Bean Geese. When I got back to David and Roger they had one of the birds standing on a ridge and although it was some considerable distance away the light was better and the orange legs were clearly visible.

Feeling good with the success of the Bean Geese, having dipped twice last year we moved on to Eldernell. We saw a single Buzzard on route that was perched on roadside telegraph wires.

On arrival at Eldernell there were quite a few cars in the car park and the number of birders increased even further during our visit. There were more Whooper Swans visible on the wash and I did pick up a further two Bewick’s in flight. Roger announced that he had two Cranes flying in front of the wood and we watched two adults continue past the wood before circling and disappearing behind. We picked them up again as they came out at the eastern end but they turned again and began dropping and appeared to land out of sight from the car park. A farmer had been driving around the tacks and when he returned and was closing the gate a single Short-eared Owl flew being quite close to us and to are amazement four quickly followed. They had been just a few feet away from the bridge and remarkably not a single birder had noticed them as they were obviously well hidden in what appeared to be quite short grass. We eventually finished seeing at least eight birds with one or two giving some excellent views in the now sunny conditions. Whilst scanning the wash we had seen a male and two female Marsh Harriers, two Sparrowhawks, three Buzzards and at least six Kestrels. There was also c.1000 Golden Plovers observed in flight towards the River Nene and the number of Lapwing must have exceed ten thousand as several huge flocks were observed periodically. A male Hen Harrier was observed to the west and whilst we were looking for it we saw our only Barn Owl hunting over the flood defence bund. Surprising as were we getting ready to leave the male Hen Harrier appeared from the east and was much closer as it flew to the west.