Keeping it Real.

Popped down to Boulmer yesterday morning for a few hours, but before that I must have a comment. 

If any readers followed the threads on Twitter last week, about the furore surrounding the flushing of a Lanceolated Warbler and a Pechora Pipit on Shetland by birders, you may have seen some of the comments made by people with pitchforks and burning torches demanding the head of such heinous criminals. The resulting twitcher bashing was very much like the flushing of the rare birds themselves with everyone and their dog jumping in to have a go.

Compare these incidents with things that occur daily to our birds. For example, on Saturday I stepped outside with the dog for her walk to a barrage of shotgun blasts lifting 2000 Pinkfeet to the skies as the gunmen drove them from farmers crops. Every bird in our village, from Wagtails to Woodpigeons was spooked off to the horizon. Then, yesterday at Boulmer this spaniel below absolutely hammered every square inch of shore and rock edges actively chasing wading birds for fun while its owner strolled off along the track. Above the dog you can see waders in the air unable to feed.

Springer having a right good time flushing waders.Owner not interested.

  I think this puts things into context a bit. What is worse, a lone bird lifted across a road or from an iris bed a few times or this? You can argue that both are unacceptable, but those single passerines could have flown half a mile to similar habitat and would never have been relocated. These waders had nowhere to land and the geese, well, how many injuries resulted?

My own little theory is that some twitcher bashing is linked more to jealousy than bird protection. Its getting more common and I have been sucked in too, when there have been pictures of Mr and Mrs and a labrador ignoring reserve signs and throwing a ball for the dog into the protected area.

One observer went to the Lancy twitch and was so disgusted, forked out for the next flight home! What the hell did he expect? He went to Shetland looking for rare birds. He could have seen news of said Lancy and thought sod that, I'm going the opposite way to find my own, but no, he joined the throng. Then bubbled on about it! Did he think there would be 4 people sitting quietly waiting for a bird that behaves like a vole, to emerge from the grass? Kind of naive. If he did maybe he wasn't ready for Shetland?

One person asked if there was a warden to stop this behaviour. Shetland is a massive county. Does your county have a warden to stop 50 birders watching a bird on a verge? In Northumberland we cant stop people blasting a thousand migrating wildfowl or a dog quartering the feeding areas of hundreds of waders let alone this.

I do think its time people maybe vented their spleen on more serious offences, like the Badger cull for example...where a protected much loved British native mammal is trapped then shot for nothing. Thousands of them. Or Fox Hunting. Its been illegal for years but a load of people on horse back with a pack of hounds systematically quarter the countryside. How much disturbance does that cause to wildlife? Or Fireworks? I could probably go on...

Back on your low-carbon local patch, you wander around in the mist and a little bird flits into the small bush in the dunes. Do you say, ahh, I'll go the opposite way in case I flush it? No, you go for a better look in case its a rarity, and it flushes again but its just a Robin. Oh well. Does that differ from the Lancy twitch because there weren't 50 birders watching? Probably not, the result is exactly the same, its just people hate the thought of frivolous twitchers.

Back to Boulmer. Yesterday we walked the shore from the car park around to Seaton Point and back. We had 20+ Rock Pipits and a few Pied and Grey Wagtails but not much else. As we walked, we pushed them along the beach allowing a count... see what we did there. Maybe we should have just stayed at home? More seriously, I hope we can all demonstrate some moderation in our birding and consider the birds welfare for sure, but lets keep it real?

As the tide began to come in there were 20+ Bar tailed Godwits, 3 Grey Plover, 10+ Sanderling, 30+ Dunlin, 22+ Ringed Plover, 20+ Turnstone. A Sandwich tern flew S and 2 Red throated Divers moved N.

Along at the north end of the village about 3,000 Golden Plovers avoided the spaniel and a Swallow went S. A couple of Chiffchaffs and 7 Stonechats plus 30 Skylarks were about the only other things of note on a busy morning for visitors on the site. 

Disturbed

 Me and John were out and about around Boulmer and the Aln Estuary yesterday morning. We began early at 06.30 when it was quite peaceful. The wind was a light SW3, it was clear and sunny but there was an early autumn chill in the air.

Boulmer, before the masses.

Before I get on to what we saw, I've got to say, we were up against it. It seems that every corner of the patch is getting more like Blackpool every week. Just to run through, while watching the waders on a weed strewn muddy north end at Boulmer it began with a chap wearing a Toon top kicking a football along the shore. Thats a new one on me here. We then had dog walkers with those throwing sticks that get the ball to cover as much wader habitat as possible. This was before the standard bemused tourists arrived who walk straight down the muddy haven to the waters edge to stand, gazing, not knowing exactly why they came or what to do next.

Soon after as we sat on the north seat, the lovely, dulcet tones, of the countryside could be heard when a dozen tossers on off road motorbikes came along the track north, forcing the way through the gate. WTF? I took some snaps of reg plates but on checking back home this track is open to all traffic, despite pedestrians, dogs, kids, sheep, cyclists etc. I'll remember that next time I fancy a seawatch in the pouring rain.

Despite this, we did see a few birds. Off the north end were 300+ mixed terns that included mostly Sandwich, Arctic and Common in that order but in with them were 5 Roseates. There had been up to 4 Black Terns the night before but there weren't here this morning.

A female Merlin came low overhead, south, past the village while a Sparrowhawk hunted the starlings. A couple of Yellow Wagtails flew south overhead.

Waders, we had Bar tailed Godwit 4, Grey Plover in sum plum, Whimbrel, a Snipe in off, 53 Lapwing and several hundred Golden Plover on the rocks. On the mud, 100+ Dunlin, 50+ Ringed Plover, 50+ Redshank. A Wheatear was about the only passerine migrant. 

Lads enjoying the countryside. 

   So, to get away from the melee at Boulmer we headed down the road to view the River Aln from Foxton for waders. On arrival a cockeney had parked his camper van on the road verge as it was a tenner to use the car park. When I spoke to him he looked at me in a head twisting manner as if he had just found a lost tribe in the Amazon.

Off to view the river then. A few waders were here, but not for long, oh no. Firstly a husband and wife team in small rowing things were like the Oxford boat race moving down stream. She was clueless and kept veering off into the bank in a zig zag manner, while looking over her shoulder to see where she was going ( its a curved meander here). As they were leaving our view, they were passed by a lone canoeist coming the opposite way. Greenshanks were scattering all over. He was soon followed by a family in what looked like a boat that had crossed from Calais to Dover through the night and with them a bloke with his grandson on a paddle board using a bit of round plastic as a sail.

Before this lot appeared we had 5 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 6 Teal, a Pintail and a Goosander. 15 Black tailed Godwits flew N.

Finally were left the regatta to view the estuary from Tom's seat. The access cycle path was like Edinburgh Christmas market but as the tide dropped a few birds came out to feed. 

Black tailed Godwit 42, Curlew 172+ Knot 3, Greenshank 4, Snipe 2, Little Egret 8. A couple of Sedge Warblers were a bit late and a nice Lesser Whitethroat fed in brambles in the sunshine.

Roll on easterlies and rain I say...