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RARITIES
This page contains photographs of unusual migrants that are not often found on our shores, or only in small numbers
WHITE SPOTTED BLUETHROAT
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This white spotted bluethroat has been a long-stayer up at the WWT reserve at Welney in Norfolk. We arrived on site about 9.45am, to be told the bird had not been seen for some 40 minutes, so went off to a nearby hide for a spot of warbler watching, and when we emerged some 30 minutes later, there was the bird as seen in pic -01, perched in a tree just outside the hide. After some 10 minutes, it flew off, and we walked on to the next hide. After a couple of minutes, the bird flew onto the stump seen in the other pictures, adjacent to the hide, and gave us great views, until it eventually flew off into a nearby reedbed.
HOOPOE
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This bird was in the car park, by the cafe, at the Monkey Sanctuary, just east of Looe in Cornwall, at the beginning of April 2011 but flew off around 10 am on the day I went to see it, before the sun had come out. This was the first hoopoe I'd seen since the pair of birds in Eastbourne in the very early 80's, and the first I have managed to photograph.
CIRL BUNTING
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Cirl buntings are now confined to small areas in South Devon and Cornwall (where they have been the subject of a re-introduction scheme) and are known to be comparatively sedentary birds, not straying far from their local home patch. These pictures were taken in the southern part of Torbay at a winter feeding area at Broadsands. In early spring last year a friend of mine who knows his birds told me he had had up to six in his then garden, albeit outside the usual known range of these birds. However, in December 2010, a pair flew into the bushes in my garden, and I had very good views, but the camera was in the car!! My garden is approximately a mile (as the bunting flies) from my friends old garden. Interesting.
BLACK REDSTART
This female was found feeding on the tide-line at Par Beach in late December 2010, and was at times quite confiding.
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SNOW BUNTING
This confiding snow bunting spent a couple of weeks in early October 2010 on the cycle track at Sandy Cove, Newlyn in Cornwall, and was a lifer for me.
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Woodchat Shrike
This very attractive adult shrike turned up at Church Cove, at the Lizard just before Easter 2010, and stayed around for over a week. A first for me, my original views were quite distant, as in picture -03, but over time the bird came closer, and one could make out the bee it was eating.
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Black Redstart
Having returned to Cornwall from a trip to the South East on a wet and miserable monday in late October 2009, it was a considerable surprise the following morning to look out of the window and be greeted with a black redstart, making an excellent garden tick.
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The bottom picture was taken in 2007 at Sharpness Dock in Gloucestershire, my only previous sighting of this bird. I believe the one here in Constantine to be a juvenile female, but I'm no expert, so if you know better, please let me know. Then the following day, a second bird turned up, with a ring on it's left leg!! See pictures below, and on Thursday there were three birds present, but at the time of writing, Sunday 1st of November, I've only seen one.
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Waxwing
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A small group of some 12 waxwings arrived in Hereford on the 14th December 2008, having made their way down through the country, stripping bushes of their berries as they travelled. As ever, these are not shy birds, but they do get spooked by more than just a few people, and by passing vehicles. They are feeding on the berries of an ornamental Chinese Rowan tree.
Back again on the Wednesday, and the birds are still in evidence, providing great opportunities for photographers.
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