Citrine Wagtail, the finale!

Sunny, still windy, 14º, fresh westerly, back in Oxfordshire, overcast, 15º, light showers and again windy.

Final day on Portland and what a finale! Our first day there started with a rarity, Eastern Subalpine Warbler and our final day ended with another rarity a Citrine Wagtail and a lot of good birds in between.

Had a lie-in today and did not get up until 07:30, around 08:00 I sat and had some breakfast. A few hardy folk were down at the bill seawatching and calling up the odd Skua etc which were also being seen from the Obs.

I was halfway through my breakfast when the radio crackled with “Pom Skua” so telescopes were manned and all eyes on the sea for the Skua to hopefully appear around the bill.

There were only 7 of us at the Obs at that time and whilst watching for the Skua I heard a high pitched short call from outside, at this point I am racking my brains trying to remember what makes that call. Fortunately Martin and Joe (who were outside) were a lot quicker and I heard Joe say there is a Citrine Wag on the pond around 6 metres from us!

A silent rush to the door and the 7 of us were viewing a smart female Citrine Wagtail walking along the edge of the pond just off the patio.

Martin had his camera handy and was taking photos when it dawned on me that I also had a camera...........doh!

Grab camera................take photos..................but by this time the bird mainly had its back to me and was behind some plants but at least I got a few pics.

I thought I’d best let Loren know so I rushed to our room to let her know,  then rushed back, just got the camera on the bird again when it flew from the pond and headed north and to my knowledge has not been seen again.

The Lucky 7 of us at the Obs had good views of a cracking ♀ Citrine Wagtail, albeit briefly..................right place at the right time!

Not much else seen after that just a Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Spotted Flycatcher before we left.

A brief stop at Ferrybridge and just a couple of Little Tern and 3 Sandwich Tern seen.

Thanks to Martin, Joe and the Prof, also local birders and visitors for another enjoyable stay...........................see you in the autumn. (114 species seen).

 Citrine Wagtail (courtesy Martin Cade)

 My humble efforts!!!!!

 

Dipping!

This week has been a particularly bad week for most birders in Oxfordshire (good for the county though), 2 firsts (new bird species) for the county and most local birdwatchers have “dipped” them.

“To dip” is a term used in birdwatching, mainly by “twitchers” who travel to see a rare bird and miss it.

I have also come across this term in the forces and it has similar negative connotations.

This past week has seen a Pallid Harrier on Blewbury Down that was seen and photographed by one observer and a Citrine Wagtail at Farmoor reservoir that only stayed for a couple of hours. A handful of lucky observers managed to see the Citrine Wagtail but most “dipped it”.

The emotional side of dipping can be quite severe in some, especially if you have just driven all the way to Aberdeen, caught a flight to Shetland only to find the bird has gone! As well as spending up to £500 on the trip the bird was not seen and the emotion can be very demoralising.

Some people just accept it and hope there will be another one, but others become quite devastated as twitching is a very competitive business.

Most “twitchers” keep a British list, County or Patch list and strive to increase this in either finding their own rare species or travelling, sometimes long distances to see other rare species that have been found. It’s one of those “bloke things” mainly.

I’m the “cup half full brigade”, disappointed but hope another will turn up sometime.

Also yesterday there was some consolation for birders at Farmoor as it also hosted some scarce species for the county, a Little Stint, 3 Black-necked Grebes and a White-winged Black Tern.

I spent approx 5 hours each, looking for the Harrier and Wagtail but saw neither. Fortunately I had seen both species before in the UK but not in my local county. Here’s to the next one!

Well done to both finders of these major rarities in the county.

Pallid Harrier @ http://oxonbirding.blogspot.com/2011/09/pallid-harrier-churn-8th-sept.html

Citrine Wagtail @ http://oxonbirding.blogspot.com/2011/09/farmoor-10th-september.html