A Boat Tailed Grackle comes ashore in Hampshire 3rd November 2025

The news broke on my Birdguides app at around lunchtime on Sunday the 2nd of November, informing me that a male Great tailed Grackle (subsequently re-identified from photographs as a Boat tailed Grackle) had been discovered at Calshot Spit which juts out into The Solent in Hampshire on the south coast of England.

I am sure many Britsh birders sighed and said 'so what'. Boat tailed Grackles are non migratory in their native USA and clearly one of the most unlikely of species to arrive in Britain. It had undoubtedly hopped onto a cargo or passenger vessel on the other side of the Atlantic and unwittingly been carried across the ocean. It probably spent the voyage being spoilt rotten by being fed scraps from crew members or passengers, before sighting land and performimg a Christopher Columbus in reverse and with no one from Reform in sight decided to make for terra firma and a new domicile in southern England.

Some of my twitching pals on our private WhatsApp Group deemed it unworthy of the effort to go and see, knowing full well that despite it being the first occurrence of its kind in Britain it will never be accepted onto the British List, adjudicated by the BOU (British Ornithologists Union) and I fully understand their decision.

However as I always say, for me it is not simply about adding another tick to a list of species but is more than that. I have never seen a Boat tailed Grackle ever, it is an attractive bird and here was an opportunity, presented on a dull Monday, to avail myself of the pleasure of going to see an unusual bird and enjoying it. 

I resolved to wait on news of the grackle's continued presence at Calshot on Monday morning which duly came nice and early at 7am, so prepared to leave for the south. A thought occurred to me that it would be good to go with Clackers a former twitching buddy I had not seen for some time. He is not keen on driving these days but might be up for a reprise of our former twitching days if I did the driving.

I rang a somewhat surprised Clackers who was in the process of getting up

Are you doing anything today Keith?

Not really.

Fancy coming to see the grackle?

Why not. Give me twenty minutes to get ready.

Clackers lives nearby so after filling the car with fuel I collected him from his home and we set off for distant Calshot.

The day was grey, blustery and rain was in the air but the forecast for further south was of sunny periods so we were in good spirits. Clackers is good company and we chatted away as the miles rolled past and we made good time with no traffic delays. Some two hours later at around 11am we found ourselves by The Solent, driving out along Calshot Spit and came to a halt in a pay and display car park behind a long line of multi coloured beach huts.

I put in £3.00 for a two hour stay which would be sufficient for our purposes provided the grackle was showing, and getting our gear together we walked a further quarter of a mile to Calshot Castle  adjacent to the lifeboat station which was the grackle's location of choice and where it had already been reported as showing well this very morning.Unknown to us we could have driven all the way to the lifeboat station but then we would have had to pay another parking fee so left the car where it was.

Calshot Castle

I have been to Calshot only once before to see a Spanish Sparrow in January 2012 but remember little of the experience apart from it being a successful and enjoyable experience. Walking towards the castle we passed obvious former naval buildings and in particular a huge hangar that was formerly home to flying boats in World War Two but is now converted to an Adventure Centre, one of the largest of its kind in Britain. The castle, built by King Henry the Eighth in 1539-1540 to defend Southampton Water against the French, lies at the very point of Calshot Spit with the lifeboat station adjacent and a long shingle beach stretching away to the southwest. On reaching the castle it was immediately obvious where the grackle was, as around twenty birders were scattered around the grass and by the castle's moat with the grackle wandering unconcernedly amongst them.

Shy it certainly was not and showed absolutely no fear whatsoever, wandering right up to prone photographers lying on the grass and even eating mealworms out of one photographer's hand.

Others offered it bread and pieces of cake which it seized and flew off with to a safe distance to consume.When nothing was on offer it spent its time poking into holes and various pockets of rubbish seeking anything eatable, even venturing onto the beach or searching beneath small boats hauled up on the concrete hardstanding. 

Watching it you could imagine it doing exactly the same at whatever coastal location in America it had formerly inhabited.

Boat tailed Grackles. are largely sedentary and said to be resident in tidewater areas along the east coast of the USA from Virginia to central Texas and throughout peninsula Florida where it is common in marshes, farmland and city parks by the coast,  very occasionally being found inland such as  one in Nashville, Tennessee. I guess Calshot Spit with its shingle beach and seaside location felt like home from home to the grackle. 

To me it had all the chutzpah of a corvid, especially the inquisitiveness and cheekiness of a Magpie as it confidently strutted around, poking its bill into anything and everything, its long tail conspicuous as it got blown around in the now increasingly strong but mild southwest wind.

In the sun its black plumage took on a highly attractive, purple, blue and green gloss to its head, back and breast which transformed a basically dull black bird into something much more appealing. 

Its long spatulate tail feathers held half spread were often blown sideways into disarray by the wind and in strong gusts almost managed to overbalance the bird. Piercing white eyes gleamed from its blue black head, their paleness evidence this bird was from the Atlantic sub any of hespecies rather than from any of the other subspecies which possess darker eyes.

We watched and I photographed the grackle for around half an hour but frankly it was so easy to see and obliging to photograph that after this time we could think of nothing more to do than chat to various other birders while occasionally taking a few more looks at whatever the grackle was up to in its area of choice by the castle and lifeboat station

A very close Red throated Diver, swimming just offshore was a particular highlight for Clackers and a huge car transporter vessel sailed close to the point making for nearby Southampton, an indication perhaps of how so many transatlantic birds get to reach our shores.

We retired to the pleasant cafe in the Adventure Centre and had a coffee and a bite to eat and then headed back to the car and set a course for home.Despite the forecast of continued sunny spells, rain had set in and we considered ourselves fortunate to have seen the grackle when we did and looking at its best in the sunshine.

It was good too to revive happy days with Clackers and hopefully it will not be too long before we can repeat the experience of today.

Clackers

Postscript

The grackle seemed settled for a long stay at Calshot but unexpectedly at 10am on the 6th of November flew off beyond Fawley Power Station and had not returned to its favoured area around the lifeboat station and castle by the end of the day. 

No sightings from the surrounding area had been reported since its departure until it was re-discovered in a garden near Fawley on 11th November

Four Hours at Slimbridge 28th October

At a loose end on Monday I decided on a visit to Slimbridge WWT (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust) which is situated an hour's drive west of my home, by the River Severn in the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire. I get a daily update on my phone from the admirable The Gloster Birder website - http://the glosterbirder.co.uk - which includes daily sightings from Slimbridge.

For the past few days a Temminck's Stint and several Bitterns have featured prominently  in the updates, the former being seen from the small hide overlooking the Rushy Pen near to the Trust's Visitor Centre and  the latter, which are annual winter visitors to Slimbridge from the Van de Bovenkamp hide at the other end of the Trust's grounds.

With hopes of encountering both I set off, not too early on a pleasant but windy morning.The drive at this time of  year over the top of the Cotswolds is always something to look forward to as I pass along rural roads cloistered by autumnal trees be-decked in yellow and orange and beyond them lie wide vistas of gentle contoured land undulating into the distance.

My reverie came to an abrupt halt as I waited in a long line of traffic  to pass through the huge £460 million roadworks at the Air Balloon junction near the M5 that will continue until 2027. The brutal gouging of the land required to remove a notorious bottleneck is I suppose necessary but one does ask when if ever will it stop, this subverting of nature in the name of so called economic progress. 

HS2 anyone?

The grounds at Slimbridge were busy for a Monday and then I realised it was  half term so lots of parents had brought their offspring for a day out but most  head for the main play areas whilst we birders head for the hides and it seems to work without undue irritation. After all the children are the future and any connection with nature however contrived is to be welcomed so no complaints from me.

I made my way to the Rushy Hide first and was surprised to find it full when I entered, presumably its popularity due to it currently being the place to encounter the rare Temminck's Stint.I stood at the back for a while until someone left and a space opened up for me by a viewing window.I looked out but it was obvious on checking the scrapes that the stint was not here and eventually a volunteer warden came and advised it had been seen to fly off earlier that morning and so far had not returned.

Cue a rapid emptying of the hide leaving me and a few others wondering whether to stay or go elsewhere.

To be honest I was not expecting this turn of events, assuming wrongly that the stint would definitely be here just as it had been for all the other days prior to this. Pondering my situation I recalled that a few years ago from this very hide there was a White rumped Sandpiper that did the self same thing and disappeared in the morning only to return later in the day see here. That time I wandered off to photograph ducks and cranes and any other birds the Trust could offer and returned to the Rushy Hide in the afternoon to find the sandpiper had come back. Birds are creatures of habit and I felt in my bones that there was a good chance the stint would do likewise as it obviously preferred to feed on the Rushy Pen above all other places. 

So what to do in the meantime? It was obvious. I would make my way to the Van de Bovenkamp Hide and chance my luck with the Bitterns of which up to three had been reported.

One would do!

It is a fair walk to the hide through the grounds but I eventually took a seat in the sparsely populated hide and looked out to a view of fields, flashes of water and extensive reedbeds but not a lot else apart from some Shovelers feeding in the nearest stretch of water and a host of Canada Geese and three Common Cranes beyond.  Enquiring of a fellow birder about the Bitterns I was told they could randomly appear in the various stands of reeds opposite the hide but none had been on view so far.

Maybe it was too windy? 

I settled on a none too comfortable, hard wooden bench and prepared for a long vigil. Bitterns being what they are spend most of their time secreted in reedbeds but occasionally will reveal themselves either by flying from one reedbed to another or raising their neck, akin to a periscope, out of the reeds to scan the land about them.

Thirty minutes later it was not looking good and with the wind becoming increasingly irksome, blowing cold and directly into my face through the open viewing slats, my spirits were sinking fast. Then in a reedbed off to my right, where there had been only tasselled  feathery reed heads blowing in the wind, a tawny, dark striped  neck stood  proud and erect amongst them, surmounted by a narrow dagger billed head held at forty five degress. A Bittern.

Its pale tawny colouring rendered it obvious against the darker green of the reeds and, as Bitterns do it just stood there with neck extended vertically as far as it could go.Bitterns never do anything in a hurry and it stood like a statue for minutes, the only movement an occasional turning of its head either to left or right.What goes through that tiny brain  is anyone's guess but I suspect its innately cautious personality persuades it that everything must be scrutinised to the utmost before making any move into the open.

Finally after yet more studied immobility, it rose clumsily from the reeds and flew low past the hide giving me a heaven sent chance to capture it in flight. 

Bulky, cryptically coloured and patterned, buff, black and brown. the shades of dead reeds, it flew past at no great distance and dropped behind a bank of reeds to the left of the hide where it remained invisible. An  image of broad chequered wings and huge, bunched yellow feet were all I registered at this precise moment. The rest I could savour by looking at my hastily taken photos which I  prayed would come out satisfactorily.

This sudden and unexpected stroke of good fortune changed my mood in an instant and the cold wind and hard bench no longer intruded as a feeling of deep content settled within me. I hoped the Bittern or maybe another would come back into view but after twenty minutes it suddenly rose from its hiding place in the reeds and too fast for my camera, flew further west and out of view. Another twenty minutes elapsed  and it flew back but continued flying well past the hide until it reached a distant reed bed and dropped into it, again rendering itself invisible.

With one part of my mission so thrillingly successful I decided to head back to the Rushy Hide to see if by any chance the Temminck's Stint had returned. The hide as before was full but I soon got a place by a viewing window and looked out onto the familiar scrapes and shallow pools.There was no obvious sign of the stint and I got the feeling that everyone was waiting and hoping just like myself

But were we deluding ourselves?

I decided to give it an hour which would take me to 2pm

Ten minutes slowly passed by and then the tiny bird was spotted flying onto a distant scrape, landing amongst some resting Lapwings. You could feel everyone in the hide become animated and almost touch the surge of energy that ran through us all.

The stint fed non stop amongst the Lapwings, which totally dwarfed it, scuttling back and fore around the bigger birds, forever restless, picking at the wet mud in search of microscopic prey.It was currently far too distant for photos but I knew it had been seen and photographed much closer to the hide on previous days.  I hoped it would slowly work its way closer and my hopes were realised as it came progressively nearer and nearer to the hide.

It took a while but after forty minutes it had gravitated much closer as it continued to feed energetically.

Finally it flew to the margin of water and grass bank below the hide and I really could not ask for better and took far too many photos while people unfamiliar with a Temminck's Stint but curious, came and went in the hide and were shown the stint  through a volunteer's telescope.

Temminck's Stints are very small indeed and in any plumage are, let's face it unremarkable, being plain and dull, even drab.One of their main distinguishing features are their olive yellow legs. Their head and upperparts are dull greyish brown with an obvious grey breast band across their white underparts making them look superficially like a miniature Common Sandpiper and at times it was hard to discern its dull plumage against the grey water and mud on which it was feeding.   

They are a scarce passage migrant in Britain during Spring and Autumn. The majority breed in Arctic Russia and Siberia and also in the taiga zone of Arctic northern Europe and have occasionally but not annually bred in northern Scotland.The last suspected breeding record there being in 2007. 

They migrate to winter around the Mediterranean and southwards to Nigeria and Kenya in tropical Africa and show a marked preference for freshwater or brackish habitats such as  mudflats, marshes, reservoirs, gravel pits and flooded areas and on migration are usually encountered singly or in pairs.

For a while the stint flew off to the far side of the Rushy Pen and while it fed there I made the most of an opportunity to photograph some Common Snipe that were close to the hide, one in particular feeding literally feet below me on the bank, probing the soft ground with its extraordinarily long and sensitive bill, which it would bury to the hilt in the ground and then wiggle its head. using the ultra sensitive nerves at the bill's tip to sense any prey deep in the ground. Judging by the number of times it swallowed something it was meeting with much success. 

I  confess to having a bit of a thing for snipe.Their plumage is a marvellous complication of vermiculations, bars, spots and stripes in various shades of buff and brown, a result of evolution to camouflage and protect the bird from its enemies.Its distinctly non aesthetic outline of long bill, short tail and legs imparts a slightly unbalanced look but not without latent charm. Everyone loves an oddball do they not? Again though, the short sturdy legs have evolved with a purpose,  to brace the bird as it thrusts that ridiculously long bill deep into the soft earth to feed. Nothing in nature is by accident.

Slimbridge is one of the few places I know of where you can regularly see Common Snipe feeding in the open and going about their lives untroubled whereas normally they are furtive and secretive, concealing themselves deep in marshy recesses or stands of reeds.They are also pleasingly sociable often seeking the company of others of their kind.

The Temminck's Stint returned from its distant foray and I took some more photos and then it was chased by a Rook, the two birds hurtling at high speed low over the water until the chase ended when the stint appeared to have fled to another part of the Trust's grounds.

After a slow and unpropitious start to my Slimbridge visit the day could only be deemed a total success. News of an elusive Yellow browed Warbler nearby felt a step too far, having seen plenty on my recent trip to Shetland, so instead I headed for home, happy and more than satisfied with my four hours at Slimbridge WWT.