Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

During half-term week I squeezed in a quick three-day trip to Yorkshire to visit the family. It was a quiet time for rare birds in the area but it is always enjoyable to see species that I have not seen for a while. Luckily the cold and snowy weather had not yet arrived and it was dry and bright most of the time, although the wind was still icy and stung the cheeks. One thing I always look forward to is looking out of my sister's kitchen window in the Yorkshire Wolds where there is always groups of Tree Sparrows visiting their feeders.

We made the most of the dry conditions to take a visit to Tophill Low on 22nd Feb. In all my years of living in Yorkshire, I had never visited this site, so my sister was keen to show me around as she had been a couple of times last summer. There were plenty of birds in the trees and coming to feeders and I especially was pleased to see Coal Tits and Siskins. Flocks of duck were spread out on the reservoir and there were some terrific Goldeneye in amongst the Tufteds, Pochards and Wigeon. On the distant far wall, I picked out the Glaucous Gull that had been seen here in recent weeks.

Tophill Low, 22 Feb 18 - with distant Glauc in the background

On the way back to the car park I looked in at the main hide and saw that the Glaucous Gull was a bit closer from here, having moved further down the wall. As I got my camera out for a few 'record shots' it took flight and I managed a couple of decent pics as it circled the reservoir before settling back on the wall.

We had our lunch in the lovely Old Star pub in Kilham village in front of a roaring open-fire. As we went outside, I crossed the road to look at the church and a superb Barn Owl appeared in front of me, swooped through the churchyard, and crossed the road. Excellent views and quite a surprise in the middle of the day.

On my final morning I went for a walk round Swillington Ings, my old patch - although it is almost literally a different place nowadays with all the work done there. There wasn't a great deal around, especially without a 'scope, but I had a nice walk in the sunshine right across the site from Great Preston to Woodlesford. Wildfowl were the most notable birds - a Pink-footed Goose with the Greylags, and some nice Goosanders showing very close on the river. As I stood on Fleet Bridge a Peregrine came very close and circled a few times before heading off to harass some pigeons. A pleasant bit of nostalgia before heading home to Guernsey.

Goosanders - Swillington Ings, 24 Feb 18

Goosander & Gadwall - Swillington Ings, 24 Feb 18

Back in late October when the Glossy Ibis flock appeared on the island, I was lucky enough to see them pretty well on the first day as they fed on the Old Aerodrome. A few of the flock then stayed around for a while but my only further sniff of them was a distant view of two birds flying past the Reservoir one evening. Eventually those few remaining birds depleted to just one youngster and that bird has now fully wintered here. Despite the ibises' favoured fields being just 5 minutes from my place of work, I have not seen any all winter. I have driven past these fields quite a few times but there has not been any there whenever I have tried. I have been unlucky I guess.

However, in the last few days, the remaining immature bird has visited the Rue des Bergers area once or twice. It was even seen coming right down to the pond there, just in front of the hide, giving great views. As I had not seen the Glossy Ibis very close compared to most people, I was keen to get good views. On both the Monday and the Tuesday of this week, I popped to RDB after work but there was no sign.

On Wednesday 7th Feb the sun had come out for almost the first time in 2018 and since (unusually in these oppressive times) I did not have to work through my lunch hour, I thought I'd give it another go. I pulled into the empty car park, and peered through the trees towards the pond but couldn't see it there, so I wandered down the road a bit. Suddenly, the Glossy Ibis did appear, across the road, circling low over the trees at the far side of the field. Chuffed to finally see it, it gave pretty good views albeit a bit far off.

It dropped and disappeared behind the hedge and so I walked down the lane a bit more and saw it in the grassy field to my right. The views were quite poor here since the sun was behind it and I was peering through dense shrubbery. It seemed settled and so I didn't expect any better views.

I wandered back up the lane and decided to try and sneak round the sunny side of the bird for perhaps a few better photos. I found a farmer's track without a gate closed across it and so I toddled down there a little way even though the track was sodden and my school shoes were getting a touch waterlogged and dirty (good job I literally don't care!). I managed to creep along the track far enough to get on the correct side of the bird and I was going to take a few snaps when a female Pheasant exploded from the field and spooked the Ibis (it wasn't me gov' - honest!). It took flight and did a couple of circuits of the field, flying quite close - although I couldn't quite get my focussing/shutter speed quite right.

I presumed that the bird was going to drop back into the same field, but as it descended, it crossed the road and looked like it might have landed in front of the hide. Gulp! I sprinted back down the lane and, out of breath, I peered through the trees towards the pond. However I could not see it, and there was also no sign in the adjacent field. Perhaps I was mistaken and it had flown further on. I scurried down the muddy path towards the second, lower hide where, looking through the hole in the broken fence, I was astounded to see that the bird was just stood there scratching, barely a few metres away! I couldn't see it before because it was literally behind the hide! I watched it through the fence for a minute and took a few obscured pictures, as I was concerned that any noise caused by me entering the hide and opening the flaps may scare it off.

However, I needn't have worried. The bird did not seem to give a monkeys that I was poking my ugly mug and the camera out of the hide window. I can't remember the last time I have managed to get so close to a rare bird. Taking photos was like shooting fish in a barrel, especially with the sun being mostly out. I had an enjoyable 5 or 10 minutes taking as many snaps as possible as the bird bathed and preened right in front of me, before I had to dash back to work. I even remembered to take a quick movie and selfie! It was such a privilege and a memorable moment. Not the glossiest of Glossy Ibises but pretty terrific nevertheless.

Just A Bird

Just A Bird

Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

Just A Bird

Saturday 24th February 2018

Wednesday 7th February 2018

Just A Bird