As any of my birding friends will confirm, I’m really a dry-weather birdwatcher. I’m quite tolerant of both heat and cold, but I don’t like getting wet, and I’m never well prepared for rain. For a start, I don’t like rain guards on my binoculars (though I do try to keep one handy just in case), while I flatly refuse to wear waterproof trousers. My experiences of the latter, admittedly many years ago, suggested that the condensation inside the trousers was worse than the rain on the outside.
Of course, there’s nothing I can do about the weather, so sometimes when it rains I just have to put up with it. I live in the Suffolk Brecks, the driest region of England. Last year I recorded just 18.84in of rain in my garden – that’s less than half the UK’s average. This year has been particularly hot and dry, so until my outing to the Norfolk coast last Tuesday, I haven’t got wet on a birding outing for months. However, the forecast was for a rainy day, and it proved spot on. It was cool, too, with the temperature not climbing above 14degC (57degF) all day; add in the coastal windchill and it felt a good deal colder.
I did venture out reasonably well prepared, with a light raincoat and a waterproof hat, but I stupidly forgot my rain guard. When we arrived at our first destination, the RSPB’s Titchwell reserve, my two companions duly dressed up for a deluge; I wore a fleece that can cope with light rain. As for waterproof trousers – I wore shorts, but I did have a towel in case my legs got really wet. They didn’t.
Our target bird was a Spotted Crake, or rather Spotted Crakes, as two had been reported from the reserve on previous days. Spotted Crakes are best described as very scarce birds in England, rather than real rarities, as a few pairs do breed every year. However, like most crakes these are highly secretive birds, and it’s extremely difficult to even glimpse one on its breeding grounds. Usually the only indication of their presence is their distinctive and far-carrying whip-like call, which is repeated rhythmically at night, but never during the day. I had tried to hear one earlier this year on the Nene washes, but had failed miserably.
A migrant Spotted Crake, digiscoped on Cyprus in 2010
Thus the temptation to actually see one was too great to resist – my last sighting had been in Cyprus two years ago. They are regular spring migrants in Cyprus, and are usually relatively easy to see there. Our chances of success looked good, but knowing how elusive these birds are, and how they like to stay in cover, there was no reason to be overly optimistic.
Spotted Crakes usually like to stay out of sight in the reeds
I’m rather more of a hunter than a ticker, which means that I really like to work for my birds, but the first crake gave itself up almost as soon as we had sat down in the hide. It was walking along the edge of a bund, about 200 yards from us. Through binoculars it was readily identifiable, while with the aid of a scope it looked pretty good. However, the light was bad, the rain heavy, and there was no point in trying to photograph it.
Time for a quick preen
We watched it for some time as it worked its way along the edge of the water. It would disappear from view for some minutes, ducking into the reeds, before re-emerging another 100 yards farther along. It eventually appeared so far away – just a speck in the scope – that we suspected that we might be watching a second bird. We might well have been, but 20 minutes later we saw what was definitely another bird on the next lagoon. Clearly nobody had ever told this individual that crakes aren’t meant to walk about in the open, as it was nearly as brazen as a Moorhen.
Juvenile or adult? My photograph doesn’t reveal enough features for me to be sure
What was more, it was almost in range of my camera’s 400mm lens, so I fired off a number of shots more in hope than expectation. The results, as you see here, are not going to win any prizes, but are a satisfactory reminder of a memorable encounter.
Spotted Crakes are small, well camouflaged and easy to overlook. They are very similar in looks and behaviour to the closely related Sora Rail of North America
The addition of Spotted Crake to my UK year list brought my total to 197, but I was clearly on a roll, as in the next 20 minutes I added two more. Titchwell is a coastal reserve. We had seen the crakes on the fresh marsh, but it’s only a few hundred yards more to reach the beach. Here my companions worked hard with their scopes to find Bar-tailed Godwits, Turnstones and Sanderlings, while I scanned with my binoculars. My rewards were a single female Common Scoter and a pair of Eiders. I’m not sure how I have managed to get through eight months of the year without seeing a scoter, but at least I’ve seen one now.
My companions on the beach at Titchwell, North Norfolk
Though the crakes may have been the highlights of the day, we went on to enjoy a feast of waders, recording no fewer than 21 species, as I will describe next week.
Leave a Comment