Day Out West
hi alan
just checked weather for sundays outing, mainly dry :t:
lets hope the target birds show (rosy starling,hawfinch,black grouse and crossbill), whats the odds on all four! :eek!:
It was decided a few days ago to head west today, first of all to twitch the juv. rose-coloured starling in Kendall, then the short journey from there to Sizergh Castle to see if the those semi-mythical birds, the hawfinch, were showing. Returning via Langdon Beck for black grouse, then Derwent Reservoir, where Steve had great views of crossbills last week.
A 7am start, misty, the further inland we got, misty, climbing up to the Hartside Café, even mistier, and the usual fantastic vistas from the car park here were hidden beneath a thick blanket of fog, then starting the downward trek revealed thick banks of snow still in evidence either side of the narrow, winding road.
Suddenly we broke free of the mist, the landscape immediately breathtaking, cloud-topped mountains, rocky screes, hillside streams, moors and farmland stretching as far as it was possible to see. Lifted the soul it did.
Hitting the M6, back into mist, heading south (and downwards) the mist cleared again but revealing fields tinged with a dusting of white frost, the west of the country was far colder than the east for sure.
At last we reached our destination, the lady with the sultry voice in the sat nav had got us there without faltering, despite my annoyance at her Americanisms every time we approached a ‘rotary’. We parked up in the street and walked the short distance to someones front garden, where a few twitchers were already set up across the narrow street, relaxed optics alerting us to the fact that nowt was on show.
But we were certainly in the right place, said rosy starling had last appeared some 20 minutes ago we were informed, so a waiting game was the only option. I must admit to feeling a bit out of my comfort zone, standing in a suburban street staring into a complete strangers front garden, (though the owners themselves were very birder-friendly) passers by either ignoring us completely ie pretending we weren’t there, or looking on suspiciously, or some even asked enthusiastically what the fuss was about, so a wide-range of reactions.
Some blank forty or so minutes later, Steve decided to take the bored Tilly (his border collie) for a walk around, and you can guess what happened just a couple of minutes later.
Yip, rosy starling junior glided in over my shoulder and onto the garden birdtable, never seen one before but jizz so like a common starling, dull brown colouration fringed with black, and thicker bill being the dead giveaway.
So I had a good though brief look at it then went to find Steve, who was quite a distance away. I beckoned him and he ran full pelt back up the road (getting to be a habit that, but at least this time he wasn’t being pursued by slobbering steeds:-O), but of course the starling had disappeared by the time he panted around the corner and took up position again. A fellow observer told us it had fed on the ground then suddenly disappeared behind a bush never to emerge again. Steve wasn’t happy at the fact he may have to wait another hour for its feeding cycle to come around again, and gave me a killer look when I piped up “Well I’ve seen it, let’s go for the hawfinch”
But a few minutes later, a lady came out to put more food down, and the starling emerged from half way up the bush where it must have been resting, and flew a few yards into the thin hedge next door, giving everyone present an excellent view as it lingered a good long while.
After feasting visually on the bird for a while, we set off for stage two of the day’s double-header twitch both agreeing that it was good to get a new bird, but it was such a drab little thing, an empty tick until we see a proper pink and black adult of this species. (mind you, the way it returned our gaze I don’t think it thought much us either). And just time for one more surprise as a little egret flew across our path as we approached the junction at the bottom of rosy starling street.
NEXT : Hawfinch, did we? Didn’t we? And a surprise change of plan.
cheers
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