Birds

How many birds can you see in a day? By William Bowell

25

May is a month of ‘many weathers’ but it is also a month of many birds! Residents are joined by returning spring migrants which either remain around these here parts, or move further north, whilst winter lingerers also remain in situ waiting for the weather to improve to the north.

This makes May a particular month to partake in what birders’ call a ‘big day’ or bird race. This involves staying awake for an absurd amount of hours trying to identify (via sight or sound) as many different species of birds in one day. My friend Mike Weedon and I do this every year in the Peterborough recording area which is a cross shape centring on the city. A couple of years ago Mike and I set the ‘calendar day’ record with 120. Last year Mike and I were joined by newbies and locals Hugh Wright and Andrew Gardener who wanted in on the action. The disappointment was more enough instant with one of the quietest spring evenings ever. We heard just four species at our chosen start site at 1.15am and not one of them was the desired and essential crepuscular species we yearned for. But hang on it’s only 3am there are still another 21 hours of birding time left! Our next site, a piece of remnant ancient fen to the south of the area, appeared to be just as quiet. As the light started so did the birds- a female Long-eared Owl was undoubtedly the highlight as these are so damn rare around here. A Tawny and a couple of Woodcocks also eased our troubled minds and so we had to leave to head to our dawn site. Castor Hanglands, west of Peterborough- a fantastic woodland site which is famed for it’s amphibians and orchids but our targets were feathered and hopefully singing and drumming! This is the best place around Peterborough to hear the wonderful songster Nightingale and there was no shortage. We also cleared up on a number of other woodland species but the hoped for Lesser-spotted Woodpecker evaded our ears. In truth I must reveal that a lot of the birds recorded on these ‘Big Days’ are heard only. Birds are very vocal at this time of year and of course there is a certain amount of skill to be able to tell the difference between a Lesser-spotted Woodpecker’s softer, prolonged drumming against a tree trunk compared to a Great-spotted Woodpecker. Whilst at Castor, news reached us that it was all happening to the north at Maxey Gravel Pits. Waders move through our area every year but when and where is largely weather dependant. The last decent wader passage on a bird race was in 2007 so we were thrilled to hear about Grey Plover and Bartailed Godwit that had pitched down on their way to their arctic breeding grounds. On a high our team continued it’s tour of the Deeping’s gravel pits which revealed more bonus birds like Scott the Scaup (a sea duck still present at Deeping Lakes now!), Graham the Cattle Egret (a rare European visitor), Peter the Pintail and George the Egyptian Goose. Yes, our addled, tired brains had started giving individual birds names. Needless to say, long-staying Lottie the Long-tailed Duck had done a bunk.... Other near-arctic waders we found included Dunlin by the score, Knot, Turnstones, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwits and Greenshank. Our luck was certainly in, in fact we recorded 18 species of wader during the day, when 8 would be consider the norm. As the day went on we continued to rack up the count but as ever, 24 hours just never seems enough. By dinner time, we were starting to think we weren’t going to make it. Then we realised we had a whole gem of a site to visit- the Nene Washes. Alive with birds as ever including a surprise Curlew among the usual suspects. Due to the extreme tiredness one experiences on these days, I can’t actually really remember much about the latter stages of the day. One important fact I do remember - we broke the record. No, actually we smashed it. We recorded 126 species! Will Bowell works at Grasmere Farm Butchers in Deeping but in his spare time enjoys wildlife watching locally and across the country. He is also a keen photographer. Many of his images can be found at www.justwildimages.blogspot.co.uk/ Black-tailed Godwit. The Nene Washes is one of the few places this species breeds in Britain. Red Kite. 10 years ago we would have had to go to the far west of the area to find these on the Bird Race. In 2017 we saw them at most sites. Crepuscular species such as Tawny Owl are key to a successful bird race. We recorded all five breeding Owl species in 2017.