Great Spotted Cuckoo at Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight - 24th March

On 21st March news filtered through of a Great Spotted Cuckoo at Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Initially details were fairly sketchy but the following day news broke of its continued presence and pictures eventually emerged on Twitter and Facebook, as is the way of todays birding world. This was the second record for the Isle of Wight but I was initially not too fussed, I had set aside the weekend to decorate Tobias's playroom and so I tried to stay focused. On Saturday, some nice images of the bird emerged and news that it was very confiding so I accelerated the decorating duties and by Saturday evening I had applied all the necessary coats of paint, got agreement from Sarah and booked my ferry for Sunday. Tobias asked if he could come along and after weighing up the pros and cons I agreed that he would be fine- he was very excited as was I.

We were up at 06:00 and headed to Lymington for our 07:25 ferry across to Yarmouth. The crossing was fairly relaxing and we sat in the lounge and scanned across the Lymington Marshes, this produced around 20 stunning summer plumaged Mediterranean Gull, 30 Eider, 45 Brent Goose and a few wader including Grey Plover, Dunlin and Curlew. I looked hard for my first Tern of the year but there none were to be seen.

Passing along the south-west coast of the island we soon arrived at the carpark at Wheeler's Bay. Tobias wanted to take his binoculars (naturally), drawing pencils and pad and so we spent some time faffing in the carpark. As we left the car a small gaggle of birders arrived in a slightly energised state proclaiming that the cuckoo had just left its usual area and flown inland over Ventnor followed by the statement of 'its never done that before, most unusual'. My heart sank as I felt that we had just seen the aftermath of the cuckoo's departure. I recognised one of the birders, it was my childhood mentor Andy Butler, it was great to see him again but I felt tense and wanted to search for the bird. I glanced down at Tobias and he said 'what just happened Daddy, and looked at me with sad eyes' he knew it had just flown - the lads first dip. We wandered around and Andy showed Tobias his first Glanville Fritillary caterpillars and Wall Lizard - it was just like when Andy showed me my first insects and encouraged me to get interested in invertebrates because 'everybody does birds'.

We wandered along to the cuckoo's usual area of Brambles which were covered with Brown-tail moth caterpillars, the cuckoo's chosen food source, but there was no sign of the bird so Tobias and I walked back to the car to drop off our stuff and lighten the load. I then bumped into Ian Ridett, another friend of mine from my island birding days, and we stood contemplating the situation at the entrance of the carpark located in an elevated position where we scanned the coastal scrub. I then spotted a bird flying low over the sea being chased by a Herring Gull, 'there it is' and I quickly grabbed Tobias and picked him up so he could see the bird. We deduced that the bird had headed back to its usual area so after a swift walk we were there and watching the Great Spotted Cuckoo at close range as it fed on Brown-tail Moth caterpillars in the Bramble thicket. We spent the next hour or so watching this cracking bird, it spent a fair bit of time buried in the Bramble feeding on caterpillars and time spent with its feathers fluffed and presumably digesting and sunbathing. It did, on occasions, show well atop the Brambles where its spikey grey crest and large white tips to all the wing feathers and scapulars were striking.

After enjoying the bird and having our fill Tobias and I wandered off and decided to head for St. Catherine's Point, perhaps for my first Wheatear of the year. However, things were very quiet and there was little to be seen but for my first singing Blackcap of the year and both Dotted Bee-fly and Dark-edged Bee-fly, both my first of the year. After a walk of around 90 minutes we headed back to the car and headed for the 13:25 back to the mainland.

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo, here the loose plumage was during one of the periods when the bird was stationary as it digested and sunbathed. Note the raised throat, breast and rump feathers - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Wall Lizard - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

Great Spotted Cuckoo twitch - Wheeler's Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

St. Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight

Dotted Bee-fly - St. Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight

Tobias tackling the steeper slopes at St. Catherine's Point

Tuscany, Italy - 10th-15th April

After a number of birding trips of late it was time for a laid back family holiday and so Sarah, Tobias and I were heading for Tuscany for a long weekend's break. I have previously only been to Italy once before when Sarah and I visited Rome and Pompeii in 2008. Italy has a reputation for being birdless but I had hopes for a few padders even if there were no lifers readily available.

Logistics
We flew with British Airways from Heathrow at 08:50 to Pisa landing at 12:00, Italy being one hour ahead of the UK. We stayed at Castello di Castole to the west of Siena between Casole d'Elsa and Pievescole, not for any bird reason in particular but because the hotel is of good quality, child friendly and has grounds of 4,500 acres which may hold a few birds - okay, so there was a bit of a bird slant to the choice. I had looked at hiring a bird guide for a morning but in hindsight decided not to do this due to limited time and the desire to spend time with Sarah and Tobias and to relax. I contacted Marco Valtriani at 'Birding in Italy' he was very responsive and helpful and I would certainly recommend his services if you are planning a trip although, of course, I did not bird with him. We hired a car from Avis and based our entire holiday not too far from the hotel. Our return flight was at 13:05 from Pisa landing in Heathrow at 14:30.

Itinerary

• Day 1 (10th) - Flight Heathrow-Pisa (08:50-12:00) followed by drive to Castello di Castole arriving at around 15:00 spent the afternoon relaxing.
• Day 2 (11th) - After a leisurely start spent the late morning and the afternoon relaxing in the town of Siena.
• Day 3 (12th) - Spent the day walking the tracks around the hotel grounds.
• Day 4 (13th) - Drove to Florence (approximately one hour) and spent the day in the city.
• Day 5 (14th) - Spent the morning walking within the grounds of the hotel and headed to the beautiful town of San Gimignano
• Day 6 (15th) - Left hotel at 09:30 for the 1.5 hour drive to Pisa and our flight home at 13:05, flight delayed until 13:30 landing in the UK at 14:40.

Weather

Throughout our stay the weather was warm and spring like with temperatures ranging from 19-23c and light winds.

Diary

10th April
After a very early start (04:00) we landed in Pisa on schedule and after vast amount of faffing at the Avis car hire centre we were on our way to our hotel. The drive went smoothly, Tobias asleep and the sat-nav guiding us smoothly along. We saw little, a few sparrows which I took to be Italian Sparrow but we didn't stop. A quick stop for some roadside orchids along the road to the hotel produced a nice group of Early Spider Orchid. We got to the hotel checked in ordered a bottle of Champagne and relaxed on the veranda of our room enjoying the view of the Tuscan landscape and a few birds. We saw Cirl Bunting, Firecrest, abundant Serin, Woodlark, Black Redstart, Firecrest, Swift, Swallow and House Martin. Italian Wall Lizards were abundant and scuttled around the flower beds near to the door of our room.

Early Spider Orchid

Italian Wall Lizard

Italian Wall Lizard

View from our balcony at the Hotel Castello di Castole

11th April

We spent the day relaxing in the town of Siena today and didn't really see any birds to speak of. The usual species were visible from the balcony plus we added Short-toed Treecreeper and three Scop's Owl calling at night.

12th April

We spent the day relaxing in the hotel with a nice walk through the grounds of the hotel. The walk was not as relaxing as we had anticipated mainly due to the tracks around the grounds being very steep in places, this meant that I spent much time pushing a push-chair uphill or controlling it as it went down. The birds we saw were much as we had seen from the balcony, we added Hare to the list and saw a range of plants although it appeared that we were a little early in the season for most species to be flowering. Butterflies included Orange-tip, Wood White, Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail and Brimstone.

Italian Wall Lizard

Purple Milk-vetch

Scarce Swallowtail

St. Bernard's Lily

Green Lizard

Wood White

13th April
Today was another day spent in a town, this time Florence around one hour to the north-east of our hotel. I have to say that I was not fond of Florence, very crowded and not especially attractive. We added Mallard to the list and there were a few Swallow, House Martin and Italian Sparrow in the town.

14th April
I decided to get up early today and do a little birding. I birded an area of grassland and scrub plus into some pretty birdless mixed woodland in the hotel grounds. Hare were abundant this early in the morning before people were around and there were also many Roe Deer. I added Redstart, Little Owl, Tawny Owl, Garden Warbler and Sardinian Warbler to the trip list but otherwise it was relatively slow going and birds were pretty unapproachable in general although I had nice views of Firecrest and Short-toed Treecreeper.

Hare

Firecrest

Firecrest

Firecrest

Serin

Short-toed Treecreeper

 

 Wall Brown

Speckled Wood

Blackcap 

After breakfast we went for a short walk around the hotel grounds, this time staying on roads that were a little flatter. We added a few nice butterflies to the list including, Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Green-underside Blue and Southern Festoon the latter two of which were new for me.  

Green-underside Blue

Green-underside Blue

Southern Festoon

Edible Frog

Bumblebee species on Bugle

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the fantastic town of San Gimignano where we had views of Italian Sparrow and I enjoyed a lovely lunchtime glass of Chianti.

Italian Sparrow

15th April

Our final day consisted of driving back to the airport at Pisa for our 13:05 flight back to the UK.

Bird Species List

Common Pheasant

Mallard

Rock Dove

Common Woodpigeon

Eurasian Collared-dove

Common Swift

Cattle Egret

Grey Heron

Yellow-legged Gull 

Little Owl 

Eurasian Scops-owl

Tawny Owl

Eurasian Buzzard

Eurasian Green Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Common Kestrel 

Eurasian Skylark

Woodlark

Barn Swallow

Northern House Martin

White Wagtail

Northern Wren

Common Blackbird

Common Nightingale

European Robin 

Black Redstart

Common Redstart

Common Firecrest

Common Chiffchaff

Blackcap

Garden Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Common Blue Tit

Long-tailed Tit 

Eurasian Nuthatch

Short-toed Treecreeper

Eurasian Jay

Common Magpie

Eurasian Jackdaw

Hooded Crow

Common Starling

Italian Sparrow

Common Chaffinch

European Serin

European Goldfinch

Cirl Bunting

Total = 48 species