Jon Carter found yesterday’s two Temminck’s stints at Aldcliffe on the Wildfowlers’ ponds this morning, so I went down to the gate there at around 0845, to draw the usual blank at this site (there’s just so much of it that you can’t see!). After a few minutes, I decided to go down to Freeman’s pools, where I found Ray Hobbs, who’d also drawn a blank. So I looked there for a while, and then realised there quite a nice linking footpath from Freeman’s pools along the seawall back to the car park, which would allow me to get another view of the WF pools. Not thinking I’d see anything, I stopped at several points to scan the ponds, and lo and behold, just as I was giving up to go home, there they were, yet another lifer after all the excitement of Dorset! They showed for a few minutes, before disappearing up a channel and into an area of reeds. Thinking I might find them again on the other side, I walked back to the car park, then back up to the metal gate, where I found a couple of birders (one of whom turned out to be Neville from Weymouth, who found the Little Bittern at Lodmoor, up here for a holiday!)

I had (another) busy day today, after the Haffner yesterday, so I didn’t have a chance to go and get a better view of the Leighton White-tailed Plover (which reappeared on Friday, teasing people by flying around the reedbeds!). At about 6 though, I drove down, and joined what turned out to be dipping birders on the causeway (it had flown off about an hour ago). After standing there for a while, I decided to go to the “road” viewpoint in the EM pool direction, but it hadn’t turned up there either, so I went up to the Crag Road viewpoint to see if it had turned up there. A brief look through didn’t turn anything up, and I was just having a bit of a nap in the evening sunshine when Graham the Chef turned up, excitedly asking me if I’d seen it! He’d seen it on somebody’s pager as showing on the EM pool. I then had another look, and located it on a patch of water just behind the pool. The distance meant it was hard to be sure to begin with, but as we took in the long yellow legs and funny walk, we realised we must be on the right bird. A wingflap was just the icing on the cake, and we then had great views as it walked around on the pool. There was a heart-stopping moment (well, if you were a just-arriving twitcher anyway) when it took off and flew very high over the marsh, only to swing right round and return to exactly the same spot! It remained for perhaps 20-30 minutes, before flying off again. This time, after gaining height in the same way, it descended to land on the marsh, just beyond where the grass stops. We watched this dot for a while, before it flew low, and disappeared between the grass and the mud (i.e. still out there, but not visible). So my verdict is that it’s probably still out there, but there were no further reports as I write this!

I’d been idly/anxiously watching the progress of the White-tailed Plover up at Caelaverock (on the Scottish side of the Solway) in the last few days. It was the first twitchable bird for 30 years, so I thought it might be worth a trip up there, but I didn’t have any time. Imagine my astonishment then, when I received (while clearing up for the Haffner Open Garden) a text via RBA’s SMS service saying that the damn thing had just turned up on the Eric Morecambe pools. This was at 5:05 pm, and I had to help Ruth Self (a fellow player) take down all the signs we’d put up this morning along the road. As we were walking back to the car, I broached the subject of making “a little detour” to the EM pools, and she seemed happy enough when I explained the rarity of the bird (which I thought was pretty considerate ). So, stopping to take down the signs which were on our route from Linden Hall to Leighton, we got to the hide about 5:45, and I was relieved to find the bird still showing. I bloke very kindly let me look through his scope, as I was optic-less except for the crappy Minoltas we keep in the car (shame it was an opticron, but beggars can’t be choosers…). I had reasonably good views, and saw a wing-stretch, and took a vaguely identifiable shot with my phone through my benefactor’s scope! Ruth, who was interested enough to come with me to the hide, also got a look at it, so that’s another bizzare addition to a non-birder’s life list.

I took Ruth home, then went home myself to say hello to the ‘rents who’d just got back from their Scottish holiday. After having a bit to eat, and hanging around for a bit, I decided to go back with my camera and scope, despite the lack of sightings (it flew off at 6:30!). I watched for some time at the Crag Road viewpoint with some birders from Cheltenham and Huddersfield, but we had to make do with a Spoonbill as the WTP was nowhere to be seen. As a last-ditch attempt to see the bird properly, I went down the EM pool turnoff where 30 or so birders were hanging around, along with Jacqui from Leighton, who was acting as a marshal, complete with yellow jacket! Still no sign of the bloody thing: perhaps it’s nipped back up to Caerlaverock… I did, however, have nice views of a feeding Noctule bat (as identified by Jacqui) in the beautiful sunset.

A last minute offer on somebody’s house changed tonight’s planned quartet-playing session into a trio-playing session. Before leaving campus, I had a quick trawl through the library, and dug out some Beethoven and Haydn string trios, and Schubert’s piano trio No.1 in B flat. Alex the viola player transformed himself into a violinist for the first part of the evening (which, after a clef-settling-in period, went ok!). I was, I’m afraid, struck by the length and repititous nature of the Schubert, though it’s definitely great music!

Jon Carter rang while I was cooking tea this evening to say there was a Night Heron by the Shaw Street bridge on the canal. The bad news was that it was an escapee, as evidenced by a bright red ring on the left leg. Even so, as it was only three minutes walk away, I toddled down with my scope and new camera to get some pictures: it was worth it just for the spectacle of seeing such an exotic bird is such a grubby place, what with the scaffolding (the footbridge is being repaired just now) and rubbish strewn along the canal bank

More birding today, I decided to fit in some relaxed Eric Morecambe pool-ing in between Chaplaincy services, in the hope of seeing the Spoonbill reported yesterday. The usual crowd of Avocets were kluut-ing around all over the place, and a summer-plumaged Spotted Redshank put in a brief appearance (and then proceeded to call from some distant corner of the pool where I couldn’t see it). About 10 Black-tailed Godwits (goodness, you didn’t want me to count them did you?). Growing tired of being “inside” on such a fantastic day, I decided to drive up to the Crag Road viewpoint. This proved to be a good move, as I then connected with the Spoonbill, the first I’ve seen for many years! It was happily spooning away at the far corner of the EM pool (possibly not visible from the hide, although I suppose it might have flown in while I was on my way up to the viewpoint). I then had the idea of killing two birds with one stone (it’s the way I tell em) and moving on to Warton Crag, where the local Peregrines showed extremely well (the male that is) and I had a nice chat with some day-tripping scousers (I even let them try my bins, and I was gratified to find my hubcaps still in place when I got back). Despite my need for a better camera (I’m considering the Coolpix 5000 just now), I got some reasonable shots of the male peregrine through the scope: they’ve been Facebooked here

I just noticed that the last time I blogged it was about Bowland… Anyway, as it was another nice day today, after finishing my Saturday housework, and eating lunch, I decided to drive up to Langden valley. This proved to be rather quiet on the bird front, except for good (albeit distant) views of a male merlin dashing across the hillside in the “usual” valley. I took the high road, and hung around for a while in all the likely wooded valleys listening and looking for Ring Ouzels, but had no luck (but did get some great views across the hills: it wasn’t too hazy). I was a bit peckish when I got back down, and would have given the snack wagon some custom, but sadly they were packed up and ready to go

For a bit of a change of scene yesterday afternoon, I decided to have a drive up the Bowland valley to Dunsop Bridge. Unfortunately, so had a lot of other people (the car park was full), but as usual, they rather petered out once I’d walked a bit of the way up the valley! Bird-wise it was a bit quiet, with just a few Siskins, Buzzards calling somewhere, and a couple of Grey Wagtails which I had a go at photographing on the way back. Nice and peaceful though, apart from the inexplicably-placed diesel generators at two points: they seemed to be powering some sort of water-fiddling-with plants.

After searching in vain for Dippers on the way up, I heard the unfamiliar sound of one singing (so unfamiliar that I didn’t realise what it was until it started calling instead) and then a couple flew past, either entangled in a territorial dispute, or possibly a courting ritual. It’s strange how the two things can be confused when we look at birds: imagine you saw a woman running down the street shouting at a bloke trying to pick him up (or does that just show my lack of world experience…). For your viewing pleasure, pincha aqui para ver el video del Grey Wagtail!

Overheard in the corridor: “well yes, at the last ONS meeting we had biscuits…”.
This reminds me of story I heard about a visit of maths professor from (I think) Edinburgh to UCL. The conversation in the common room was running a bit low, so one of the UCL chaps asked the visitor “Do you have biscuits in Edinburgh?”

Well, actually not so magnum… I’m trying to learn the Lutoslawski Variations on a theme of Paganini for two pianos just now. The only snag is that there’s only one of me (I have a lead on that in the shape of somebody I met who has two in their house, and into the bargain is a fantastic pianist, but that’s for the future). Anyway, I decided to have a go at recording a tiny bit that I’ve been learning, and doing a bit of multi-track mixing. Here is the result