August 15th
Ok, road trip as promised. The beats of our family life leave me with a few days in the middle of August each year at a loose end with just the boys. A couple of years ago we used this time to do a run up to East Scotland. Last year we visited relatives in Suffolk. This year it was a toss up as to whether to hang a trip around the Hogganfield Teal or the Pagham Heron. The Heron won out as it gave us a chance to drop in on Farnboro John, as well as there being a wider variety of year ticks to chase.
So, half seven arrival at Pagham, a short walk out to the allotted field, and a tense wait. My tendency in these situations is to be fairly restless, keeping on the move, checking and rechecking potential spots where a bird might be lurking. We turned up the two Cattle Egrets that have been hanging around and a fly-over Green Sandpiper, but missed a Spotted Flycatcher that another couple of birders had seen; dang, would’ve been a handy year tick. As it turned out, on this occasion staking out rather than stalking was the way to go, as those birders hanging around one of the fields struck lucky when the bird slunk out of an unseen rife, took flight and alighted right in front of them! Unfortunately, the next birder round the corner spooked it, and we turned up too late. Ok then, stake out it is. Within a couple of minutes we had it, Squacco Heron, on top of a low bush over by the rife. It soon dropped out of sight, but it was in the bag now, pressure off, so we settled down to wait again. Even now though I couldn’t stop myself from wandering, and while seeking out a public footpath that looked like it might offer views into the channel the bird seemed to drop down to, the bird showed again. This time though Arch had stayed behind at the field and was able to phone me when it slunk back out into view. It spent all its time in the far corner of the field, stalking through the long grass, probably catching grasshoppers, of which there were many, stridulating away (there was even a female Kestrel running around on the ground after them).
The rest of the morning was spent exploring a little around the area but we didn’t find a huge amount. A migrant Redstart, another Green Sandpiper (on the Ferry Pool along with three Common Sands and a couple of Spotshanks) and possibly our final Swift of the year.
Next stop Thursley, where we started off with a check of The Moat for dragonflies & Grass Snakes. Plenty of the former (Black-tailed Skimmers, Brown Hawkers and legions of blue damsels), none of the latter. The boys kept looking for snakes (we never did find any) while I cooked up a hot dog lunch in the back of the car, and then we headed out onto the heath. It was really quiet, bird wise, a few Stonechats, just the one Dartford (a juvvie, also a year tick) but no Woodlarks. A few dragons though, with Black Darter a tick for the boys. We bumped into a woman out surveying for Sand lizards who put us onto a likely area to look, but no luck. We did se hordes of Bee Wolves, including one dragging a honey bee down underground.
After Thursley we headed over to John’s, transferred to his car, and he took out over to Staines where year ticking Ring-necked Parakeet was pretty much a formality. The day ended with a fine Bolognese cooked up by Maz, a couple of beers and the usual round of catching up, stories from the olden days and setting the world to rights.