I’d heard about Steve Martin doing a Bluegrass album and being a bit of a mean banjo player but until yesterday I hadn’t heard the album. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was called Rare Bird Alert… sadly not inspired by Dick Filby but apparently while on location for The Big Year in Vancouver, his wife told him about the North American version of the RBA.
I must admit to being pretty damned impressed with the album and I’ve played it over a few times in the car today.
Younger readers may be forgiven for thinking Steve Martin just appears in shite films but back in the day he made some fantastic comedies and was a bloody good stand-up too.
This was discussed on The Conference Calls this week. The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) are requesting extra information on what our Thrushes are doing this winter. Details can be found here and it’s easy to add extra detail such as feeding behaviour, movements etc.
I was moved to discuss that the flailing of hedges is likely to seriously mess up feeding habit.
Garry Bagnell is back on the Conference Calls talking about the Northern Waterthrush, the Long-toed Squint and about being questioned about his every sighting.
Before you think we’ve gone all Brokeback Mountain I’m talking about Woodpigeon you dirty minded folk. 924 to be precise. Fieldfare came close in three hours at the Mammoth with 745 and 510 Starling. Other than that a quiet morning other than news that fucking Siberian Rubythroat is still trying to find its cage on Shetland…
I’d kind of forgotten about this since returning from Scilly but for some reason I was dreaming of rares I’d love to find and Mugimaki Flycatcher sprang to mind. This made me think about the reports that were coming through on Birdguides from Italy where a Mugimaki Flycatcher was trapped at Bagalino near Bresica.
1W Mugimaki Flycatcher photo Robert Barezzani
With previous records from Treviso in Italy in October 1957 and the infamous Stone Creek bird on 16-17 November 1991 neither accepted and a record of adult male from Neftekamsk, Russia, on 2 August 2007 it is surely time for the BOURC to review the Stone Creek bird. Mugimaki Flycatcher is a more likely vagrant than Chestnut-eared Bunting, which made the British List with little fuss. I have no axe to grind here with the BOU as I wasn’t twitching at the time and never saw (or even heard about) the bird.
It seems unlikely that this latest bird is an escape with no recent imports into Italy but I guess we can never be sure and all records apart from the Russian adult fall right on the money for Far Eastern vagrants so come on, what do we think?
The slow painful death of birding on the Isles Of Scilly continued yesterday as incompetent birders with a quantitive quotient of 31.3333% found yet another mega – a 1W male Scarlet Tanager in the Holy Vale/Sandy Lane area.
Tom McKinney was quoted as saying ‘jammed – fuck yeah!’
Top twitcher Johnny English said of the events from his base at St Leven ‘Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!’
Vismigging with Dave from the Mammoth this morning… definitely a Fieldfare day 601 at least when I left at 10.30.
We were joined by Andy Forrayan who alerted us to a 4W Yellow-legged Gull on the lake, nice year tick for the City. Earlier the Rock Pipit did its 08.15 fly past – this time towards Birstall Meadows.
At 09.25 we picked up the call of at least one Crossbill going East. Get in, a City and Soar Valley tick.
The Drunkbirder has today learned of a sale of Siberian Rubythroat in the car park at the RSPB’s Sumburgh Head reserve. An undercover birder Tin Tray, was offered a Rubythroat for £5 from a dodgy bloke trading from the back of an old Vauxhall Corsa. Mr Tray bought one of the birds with the intention of showing it to an RSPB inspector at the Lerwick Bird Fanciers Society meeting on Wednesday night.
A Siberian Rubythroat
Sadly as Mr Tray was driving to Lerwick on Wednesday afternoon he suffered a flat tyre on the A970 near Gulberwick. As he got out to open his boot the catch on the cage had worked loose and his prize Rubythroat escaped and vanished into the only well vegetated garden for miles around. ‘I was gutted’ said Tin Tray ‘especially as the rare Pechora Pipit I’d paid a tenner for got out as well.’
Barry Gagwell speaking for the British Bird Spotters club said in a statement ‘this careless and reckless behaviour has cost me £1137.38 plus plenty of brownie points. I’m gutted!’
Meanwhile Mr Tray who has shares in Flybe and Northlink ferries was said to be happy as the rise in profits had more than offset his £15 loss plus the cost of a puncture repair. ‘I’m well chuffed’ he said.
Well known Shetland birder Duncan Prestwich has just sent in this footage he took at the Sumburgh Head car park on Wednesday.
