EVERYTHING IS A HIGHLIGHT
A mixed flock of Swallows, Swifts and House Martins so dense that I had to stand still for fear of damaging them as they swarmed around me, feasting on the fog of midges and other flying insects that were so abundant on a glorious summer's day. The air was thick with over a thousand hirundines, miraculously missing each other – and me – by millimetres as they swooped and screamed in their feeding frenzy.
A female Bittern flying as low and as fast as she could (which, to be honest wasn't particularly low or fast but it's all relative) testing a suitor as he followed close, with his beak almost touching her tail. She twisted and turned. He did the same, all the while keeping within a single wingbeat of her. After the best part of an hour circling in this exhausting flight pattern, trying and failing to throw him off, she finally relented. The male bird had proven himself worthy and she dipped down to the reedbeds, allowing him to claim her as his mate.
A Bearded Tit nest full of six chicks, all taking their very first flights. One after another they burst from the reeds like tiny versions of Harry Potter's Golden Snitch, exploding out like clockwork toys in all directions. A host of little ginger golf balls up in the air with a panicked flutter, then quickly down again to the safety of the reedbed.
A Herring Gull on a post in front of the Lookout Hide (which older readers will know as the Family Hide). Beside it was a slightly larger Caspian Gull, Incredibly, on the same wooden bar was a third bird; a Yellow-Legged Gull. All three stood together on the same metre-long pole. This made identification of these notoriously difficult species a tad easier. I'm still not good at identifying gulls (see last week's blog for details) but right then, for a short while, I became an expert. Or at least, I had an expert with me to point them out.
These wondrous visions are some of my own personal 'Greatest Hits', the once-in-a-lifetime sightings that make birdwatching so breathtakingly magnificent. I'm sure that you have your own, a mental mixtape of the things you've seen that are almost beyond belief.
I'm Volunteer Shaun and I'm a birder. I also spend several days each week standing outside the Welcome Shed at RSPB Old Moor in Barnsley. You might have seen me; the big bloke with the big hat.
I say “Hello” when you go onto the reserve and, when you come out again I ask if you've enjoyed yourself and if you've seen anything interesting. Usually people are happy to tell me what birds they've seen and enthuse about them even if they haven't spotted anything out of the ordinary but sometimes I get a shrug and, “not much” or “just the usual”. That's fair enough, if you visit the same place week in, week out then you're bound to see a lot of the same things.
But please don't dismiss these 'common' sightings as not being of interest. They're all beautiful and worth a second look. Take your time to appreciate every bird, every tree, every cloud. These are the small moments that make the hobby worthwhile, even if you dip out on the big, flashy observations. Even the most common ones are remarkable, so I'll remark on some of them.
The baby Blue Tit begging for food from it's diligent parent, how it flaps its tiny wings so vigorously that the human eye sees only a blur. Fast enough to encourage feeding, not fast enough to fly very far yet. Delightful.
A Song Thrush singing a gorgeous short snippet of tune, then repeating it note for note just to show off how good a singer it is. In this case 'showing off' is a good thing, necessary even. The best singer is the best mate. Everyone needs a best mate.
A Heron trying to swallow a fish that's bigger than its own head. I'm surprised that there are any large fish left in our mere, given the amount of photos I see of Herons tackling fish that could grace the cover of 'Top Carp' magazine.
And don't forget our booming Bitterns, declaring their availability and land ownership at huge decibels to any of their kind who cares to listen. We make such a thing about how very rare they are that we sometimes forget to appreciate their unique call. So strange, so special... so enjoy it.
These fantastic everyday occurrences are happening every day at Old Moor, right now. Come on down and find these and other magical things for yourself. And you might just find you have a once-in-a-lifetime experience too.
A hoopoe so close to home? Wow!
Well said Shaun and also, thanks for sharing some of your great “one off” sightings too!. Thinking back on some of my own “one offs” - probably the strangest was a pinkish pigeon with a feather in its bill fluttering down from a tree in Bretton Park in the early 1980’s - at least thats what I thought it was at a distance. A closer view revealed it to be a hoopoe! But you are right, the everyday sightings of swifts, kites, avocets, sing thrushes, the wren this morning on our back fence, are all a joy.