We were struggling to think what we'd do on this Saturday morning – deciding that we'd never been to Ham Wall together and given there had been a spotted crake there since early in the week, we'd give it a go. Kev picked me up and we made our way through Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, running parallel to where we'd birded in Hawling the previous weekend. As we passed between beautiful Cotswolds fields, a quail ran alongside the road - typical - we did consider turning back after we had shaken off the cars behind but decided it had probably skuttled off into the hedges and fields by now. Of course, given the travel distance it was an early start and we broke the journey with a breakfast stop - it was amazing how many people were gracing the service station but holiday makers were obviously making best use of the quieter roads.
We arrived at Ham Wall and armed with intel from Kev's sister Karen, we set of for a gap in the trees just beyond the path to Avalon Hide from the canal path. There was no one there which surprised us and so we looked at the more formal viewing area just beyond - the chap there seemed oblivious to the fact that there had been a spotted crake reported. We decided to continue and see if we could find anyone looking for the bird on ahead and found four guys in a viewing area on the other side of the canal trained on the pool where the bird had been reported. We circled around, crossing the canal and joined them. It was clear they hadn't seen the bird and said it had been spotted to the left of where we were viewing. Snipe flew around but landed out of view, and a distant wood sandpiper showed amongst a large flock of little egrets and lapwing. After a good 30 minutes or so, one of the chaps we were with had a message to say the crake had been spotted by someone they knew and from the place we had originally stopped off. We decamped and joined the caravan.
There were now a good number of eyes on the muddy beach and the spotter had indicated where the bird had last been seen - it had been a relatively brief view but clear as to what it was. An adult water rail marched through the edge of reeds. And so our vigil began. We'd see occasional water rails, predominantly a juvenile but no luck on our target bird. As lunchtime approached a chap from the next viewpoint came to tell us that they'd had a few seconds view of the crake from the rightmost point of the reedbed we were watching – an area not visible from where we were. We went for a look and saw a wood sandpiper and at least three green sandpipers. The egrets had started to disperse and had been joined by a few great white egrets. If it hadn't been for the sandpipers then they said they wouldn't have been looking so hard and have noticed the crake. We waited for a short while but decided that it was not going to be likely that we would see the bird here and returned to our stakeout, then to the car for a drink and quick lunch.
After lunch we decided to have another go - we hadn't planned to stay all day and had thought that after ticking this bird we'd head over for the citrine wagtail at Goldcliff Pools NR near Newport. Instead, we'd grow roots waiting for this bird - hopefully seeing it in the end ...
As we waited, we saw what initially looked like a distant buzzard but on inspection we could see that the tail was all wrong and it was in fact a goshawk - a nice addition to what was generally a slow day. Time passed and Kev and I took shifts scanning the beach hoping for a view - it was now over seven hours since we'd arrived. On one of my shifts, I spotted the juvenile water rail again, until it turned and I could see it was our spotted crake - I called Kev over and relinquished the scope back to its owner. Result! and at long last - no dip but a big investment in time and the longest we have staked out an individual bird. Others joined from the other viewing area and then passers by - the bird then showed well for over 30 minutes albeit at about 100m from us. Given its size (about the same as a starling or song thrush) you really need to observe through the scope to have any decent views.
Kev and I then took some time to try and take some video and photographs through the scope - my video turned out to be better than I feared, and Kev had quite a nice close up but still not a clear shot with both the crake and water rail in frame. We'd seen it though! - a lifer for us both.
- "Spotted crake & water rail" : Copyright and courtesy of Kevin Heath -
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