Local birding

Most birders look forward to September with optimism. Migration is now in full swing, and it can be a particularly rewarding time to find a variety of different species - especially after a summer period with generally little change. However, the extent to how productive a day’s birding can be is largely determined by the prevailing weather conditions. An easterly airflow can bring with it a stream of migrating birds from the near continent, whereas westerly winds are usually less productive (though still can be very inviting to west coast birders searching for American rarities!) Unfortunately so far this September the weather has largely been dominated by the latter and thus the birding (in this part of the country) a little slow.

Westerly airflow (Sep 20th) - magicseaweed.com

Patchworking in the last couple of weeks hasn’t been as successful as I would have liked. The Cam Washes, which has been productive at this time in previous years, is completely dry and therefore mostly hard work finding good birds. I have therefore been spending most of my birding time at the nearby Research Park. There hasn’t been anything too spectacular here yet, but it has been nice to see the Bittern fairly regularly as well as a several common passage waders (Common and Green Sandpipers, plus a few Snipe) on the island as water levels continue to drop. The most tantalising sighting in recent weeks was a ringtail harrier, which flew quickly over fields to the south of the Research Park on the 15^th. Annoyingly it was always distant as it flew NW towards Cottenham, and sadly I didn’t have my scope, thought I did manage to fire off a few record shots. To me it looked too short-winged and bulky for either of the rarer harriers and lacked any orangey underparts – which pointed towards it being a Hen Harrier. However, I would have liked much better views to be certain of this identification; mainly as there seems to have been a small influx of Pallid Harriers in recent weeks – now that would have been nice!

Little Grebe (juvenile) - Cambridge Research Park

Ringtail Harrier sp.

Birding slightly further afield has provided better quality of birds. I had a good morning at Grafham Water on the 9^th - birds seen around the reservoir included: 2 Black Terns, a juvenile Osprey, a Sanderling on the Dam and a confiding juvenile Curlew Sandpiper. A quick trip to Paxton Pits on the 15^th produced a Black-necked Grebe as well as a variety of common waders. Then to Fen Drayton Lakes on the 17^th where a Cattle Egret was seen on the island at Ferry Mere (6 were seen subsequently at nearby Mare Fen by other observers).

Curlew Sandpiper (juvenile) - Grafham Water

Common Sandpiper - Fen Drayton Lakes

On another note, this week I was inspired to read A Peoples Manifesto for Wildlife which has been drawn up by Chirs Packham and the collaborative efforts of a group of high-profile conservationists. The manifesto certainly provides a very ambitious set of proposals, but most are logically thought-out and well reasoned. The action proposed is bold yet also timely, since biodiversity is being lost at such a tremendous rate in the UK (the first page of the manifesto highlighting the declines for a depressingly large selection of species). I was left thoroughly inspired after studying this document and I really do recommend giving it a read through.