I was sitting having breakfast, Charlotte having left to play pickleball at her club, when WhatsApp pinged off - Kev @kev07713 was saying that it would have been nice to be birding today as a wryneck had been reported just 40 minutes away at Ilmington Downs. It had been first reported the day before but gone awol as the evening arrived. It had reappeared as the day heated up around 9.00am and would be popular I expected, here in a rural area on the edge of the Cotswolds in Warwickshire.
Ilmington Downs, with its open countryside, hedgerows, lanes, and patches of scrub, offers suitable habitat for the wryneck. These birds prefer areas where they can feed on ants, their primary diet, which they find in grassy areas, among old trees, or in the edge of man-made tracks. Unlike other woodpeckers, they feed mainly on the ground, using their long sticky tongues to catch the ants. They are small, cryptic woodpeckers with brown and grey streaked plumage that provides excellent camouflage.
I suggested that I was free to go if Kev was interested, and although he was, he had other things to deal with - I got dressed and set off solo. I looked at the location and the update "one along track c 400m east of Nebsworth masts". I set the location in the Satnav and arrived at the end of the lane. As it turned out I arrived at the wrong end of the lane and had to walk up a steep slope to get to the right area - the opposite end from the masts - I'd have to share this error to prevent any of the other guys making the same mistake.
While it used to breed in the UK, wrynecks are now passage migrants in the UK, and the best time to spot them is during August to September, en route between their European breeding grounds and their African wintering areas - so right on cue. Around 200-300 wrynecks are typically seen in the UK each year.
I approached a handful of birders and from some distance could see some friends, Nick @old_caley and Anne Truby, amongst them. They had not long arrived but had seen the bird fly across the path as they came along the track, but not since.
We waited with the others and as a couple more birders made their way from the mast end of the lane. A period of quiet allowed the bird to drop onto the edge of the path - tick! and what a bird. It initially stayed close to the edge and flushed along the track and into the base of a small tree on the left-hand side. A few walkers came along and were great, waiting and looking in the bins until the bird moved, at which point they walked through, and we followed to close the increased gap. A jogger kindly turned round and ran another path to leave us in peace as the bird re-emerged.
We followed it along the track and had really great views - the best and longest I've had. This was a very showy example of this species.
Eventually the bird was lost from view again and I decided it was time to head home to arrive back for lunch as Charlotte would be home. What a bonus for the weekend! Kev did eventually catch up with the bird as it stayed for the rest of the week.
Year list: 230.
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