Puddles provide birding bonanza

We have plenty of surface water this year, or as I like to call it, our seasonal lake.

Sunshine has been a rare commodity during 2019. Things were looking great up till June, but then everything went rapidly downhill. Rain, on the other hand, has not been an issue.
This resulted in a poor growing season. Not only did crops not ripen, but beans and squashes didn't get enough sunshine to dry and store properly. Blight did its worst on the spuds and tomatoes too.

Autumn and early winter have been wetter than ever and without warm winds the water takes an age to drain away. We are not too muddy quite yet, but underfoot is slippy and entrances to gateways are getting a little sludgy. Grass growth for the sheep has been poor too and we are already giving them hay and moving them frequently to protect the ground.

Sue moves the sheep on a particularly dreary day

At this time of year and in these conditions, cold and crisp weather from the East is much more welcome than wet and windy from the West.

There has, however been one big benefit of bepuddled farmland. The fields around the farm have been heaving with wild birds. Gulls and corvids (the crow family) have been around in far greater numbers than usual, as have waders such as lapwings and golden plovers. Wild swans have been finding it to their liking too.

Whooper Swans on the flooded stubble by South Holland Main Drain

All this has resulted in some excellent birdwatching to keep me busy while my back has stopped me doing anything on the smallholding.
In just a few weeks I have enjoyed three new species for the farm list and a run of excellent records.

A Green Sandpiper, just the second record in 9 years, 

stayed a few days in the dyke.

Following on from a brief dusk fly-through, a Tawny Owl was heard hunting in the new copse I have planted. A few nights later I heard the familiar hooting from across the fields. Then early in November came a Rough-legged Buzzard hovering by South Holland Drain. Unfortunately it disappeared as quickly as it appeared but it was a very welcome first record for the farm.

Then a strange owl call one evening from the old ash trees just outside the farmhouse. I eventually matched it to a call described as the xylophone trill of courting Tawny Owls. Excellent stuff, the first time I had ever heard this call.

Next late one afternoon  at the back end of November I could hear wild swans calling to each other while I tried to round up a sheep that had barged through the electric fence. Light was fading before I could make my way over to the flooded fields by the South Holland Drain, but there were an unprecedented 190 wild swans. The biggest flock here previously was about 50. A distant egret looked quite tall for a Little Egret, which are now regular in the winter, but light was fading way too fast to make out anything more.

This Great White Egret hung around for 4 days.

First thing in the morning the swans and the egret were predictably all gone. Several groups of wild swans flew through during the morning, but better was to come. Late morning the egret re-appeared along one of the dykes. My initial suspicions proved correct as there stood a magnificent Great White Egret.
This bird is following in the footsteps of Little Egret, establishing a breeding toehold in the country and becoming much less rare over winter. But I was still very, very happy that one should choose to spend a few day in the neighbourhood of the farm.

Within a week there was another new bird, but frustratingly the Mediterranean Gull which called loud and clear as it flew over the smallholding could not be seen in the thick fog which enveloped us all day!

Rough-legged Buzzard, Great White Egret and Mediterranean Gull are all scarce birds which I half expected to eventually see here.
But the next new bird for the farm was altogether less expected.
All through November the pools and wet fields have been frequented by wild swans. These have the potential to attract wild geese too. The previous two records of White-fronted Goose have both been in with the swans. There was once an exotic Black Swan too.
On 2nd December there were good numbers of swans over by South Holland Drain so I took the dogs for a late afternoon stroll. I took my binoculars with me so I could scan through the swans and work out how many of the more diminutive Bewick's Swans were in amongst the Whooper Swans. I noticed two small grey geese lurking at the back of the flock. I could just see their heads and necks poking above the stubble.
But with the light fading and no telescope, I couldn't quite work out what they were. It did cross my mind that two Tundra Bean Geese had been with wild swans in Crowland the day before. South Holland Drain continues all the way to Crowland.
I ran back to the farm and opted to drive round to where the geese were. It took an age to relocate them as they had dipped down into a dyke, but I managed to get them in the telescope and they seemed to indeed be Bean Geese. But just at that moment they were disturbed by hare coursers (sadly not that unusual in the fields round here).
I was left frustratingly lacking definitive views, but I was pretty sure what the geese were.

The next morning there was much disturbance in the area from shooters. I left it till mid morning to search for the geese again and was relieved to find them in almost the same spot as yesterday. I was now sure they were Bean Geese, but needed better views. Over the course of the next hour I skirted round the fields and gently approached along a dyke. The geese were hidden from me by reeds, but this gave me the opportunity to sneak up on them. Every few yards I raised my binoculars hoping to see them before they saw me.

Tundra Bean Geese

In the end I managed to get them. There, just 50 yards away, were two Tundra Bean Geese. It had been hard work securing good enough views to really clinch the identity. This was one goose species which I thought I would never see in the area. At any one time in winter there are usually only a handful of birds in England.



Frustratingly the geese were not viewable from the farm though. The heads of the taller Whooper Swans could just be seen over the banks of South Holland Drain, but no chance of the geese for the farm list.

Mid afternoon I decided to give it an hour or so viewing from the end of our land. This was more in desperate hope than anything else. If the geese flew I would surely see them, but this was very unlikely.
Then a miracle happened. After a few minutes I noticed a couple of blokes in high vis jackets walking along a nearby footpath. This footpath is regularly used by dog walkers and it seemed unlikely the geese would be disturbed enough to fly. Then I noticed these two were carrying shovels. Remarkably they headed along the dyke which led straight to where the geese were. Apart from hare coursers, I had never seen anybody walk along here before.
The tension rose. Would the geese fly? Would I be able to see them? The swans all took flight and then, above them, two grey geese! Unbelievably the two Tundra Bean Geese led the swan flock right towards me, giving an amazing view. I could make out all of the plumage details to identify them in flight. They even called their distinctive call as they flew right over the farm
I watched them head eastwards with the swans until they were dots. What a result!

There have been no more new birds for the farm since, but just to be able to watch large flocks of lapwings and golden plovers is a joy. This is what the fens might have been like before they became intensive farmland.

Lapwings and Golden Plovers

There is a chance of other waders taking advantage of the standing water too. I have already seen a flock of 6 Snipe and an unprecedented flock of 20 Redshanks (previously only two records of single birds).