Big October round-up

Well, overall quite pleased with my 'Big October'. The plan was to take the whole month off and try and find some rare birds and moths. It didn't quite go to plan as work was so busy I had to go back one or two days a week. However did manage to find a couple of local megas, a BB rarity, a few national scarcities and a few migrant moths. 

This was the first autumn I've birded the UK since the early 2000's. Each year since 2005 I've been 'doing' the Azores and more recently the Black Sea coast in September/October so it was a bit like going back in time. What was very evident while re-visiting rarity hunting spots in Kent and locally was how much birding has evolved in the last 20 years. Rarity hunting in the Uk in early 2000s was just bins, scope, tripod and a Nikon Coolpix 995 and then back home to deal with reporting news, catching up with news and identification from books and journals etc. 

Now I had bins, scope, tripod, DSLR camera with 300mm lens, Iphone, sound recording set up (recorder, headphones and shotgun mic) and was based in the VW campervan aka mobile obs/lab with laptop, internet hotspot, charging points, robinson's moth trap and actinic heath trap, with spare bulbs, entomology equipment, batteries while connected via the iphone to a whole network of whatsapp and social media groups (for bird and moth news), bird news app (Birdguides), bird recording app (Ebird) and access to sound and image resources (Xeno Canto, Macaulay Library, UK Moths, Norfolk moths, Hampshire Moths) and a whole range of weather map apps and birdcasts etc and writing the whole thing up on blogs connected to embedded networks .  It's nuts- the next 20 years is almost unimaginable- presumably we are going to be thrust back into the dark ages as Captialsim overshoots and collapses with all this wonderful technology it has delivered to keep us amused and rebuild the planet and society following a period of dictactorship, devastation and genocide. How can you possibly advance from here? There's nowhere to go apart from back surely?? Oh yes I forgot that we are also awaiting a DNA result from a faecal sample that is currently being analysed by scientists in Aberdeen before we can identify one bird I found ! WTF!! 

Anyway, despite the sense of impending doom (and Covid lurking and rising in the background) it was great fun as I was walking around lit up like a xmas tree with lights flashing and phones beeping , wires everywhere, bits of gear hanging off of every limb while simultaneously talking to friends in the Azores, Bulgaria, the Scillies and across the UK comparing notes and discussing weather patterns. Bloody amazing. Literally what a great time to be alive (maybe for not much longer!) 

Here's a few photo highlights of a fantastic month.

Highlight of this month was finding this 'Eastern Stonechat', showing features of Stejneger's Stonechat. A DNA sample has been collected by Matt Eades and is currently in Aberdeen with Doc Martin's team. It's either a Siberian Stonechat (maurus) or a Stejneger's Stonechats- either way the DNA results will hopefully determine the specific identification of a species pair where over 400 historical records are now considered undetermined 'Eastern Stonechats' Siberian/Stejneger's. There's only less than 20 proven Siberian and less than 10 proven Stejneger's records for the UK.  

This Dusky Warbler was part of a nationwide influx of at least 17 birds in October. A bogey bird of mine, needed it for my world list so finding a world tick in the UK was something I was definitely not expecting. I did think it was a bird I might twitch this autumn so finding one was perfect. 

This Pallas's Warbler at Shellness got the national scarcity ball rolling. Also found a Yellow-browed at South Foreland. 

Arctic Skua at Beddington, a local mega (the first since 2004) on the first of October- a blinking good start and good omen for the rest of the month.

Even jammed into a local mega when visiting the family between coastal 'raids'. This Dotterel over Oakley Airfield in Bucks was the eighth county record and first in over 20 years. Also had a Lapland Bunting at the airfield (undocumented unfortunately), a Merlin and great to see the local Golden Plover flock build to over 700 by month end. 

The supporting cast of the rarities and scarcities were just as fantastic- 5 Short-eared Owls coming in off the North Sea was a great sight, trees dripping in tame Goldcrests (below) was fantastic, chacking Ring Ouzels, chipping flocks of Crossbills going over, big vis days including thousands of thrushes and finches, Firecrests, Dartford Warblers, and Bramblings.  

Vis-mig from South Foreland was awesome with thousands of finches moving along the coast 

Unfortunately no mega moth (still need to work on my technique because on two big nights my moth traps on the coast blew over). Highlights included this Olive-tree Pearl (above) and a nice selection of other migrants including Delicates, Clancy's Rustic, Feathered Ranunculus, L-album Wainscots, White Points and Rusty-dot Pearl etc.

Finally catching Merveille du Jour was overdue but nonetheless a personal highlight. Had about ten by the end of the month. 

My first Figure of Eight was a novice's highlight but nonetheless a moth lifer from the month.

The only thing I twitched all month was the White Stork at Beddington ! 

Spent quite a few nights 'roughing it' in the mobile base camp.