A Return VisIt to the Boat tailed Grackle 15th November 2025

Yesterday it rained all day, non stop and the roads and fields around our village became flooded and I thought better of driving anywhere and remained indoors. The next day promised better weather and I planned to put a pre-arranged birding trip into action.

Earlier in the week I had spoken to Mark a birding friend who lives in a neighbouring village about my visit to see the Boat tailed Grackle that had arrived at Calshot on the south coast of Hampshire on the 2nd November see here and then to everyone's surprise had flown off on the 6th November  only to be re-discovered inland in a garden at nearby Holbury that lies close to the eastern edge of the New Forest.

Mark had expressed a desire to go and see it and provided he was happy to drive I was more than pleased to come along and so we had arranged to go today. I told Mark there was no particular hurry as the grackle was being regularly reported from the same garden in Holbury each day so we would be very unlikely to not see it.

We duly left my house at 9am to make a leisurely drive south to arrive at the garden shortly before 11am.

All went smoothly, well it did on our southbound carriageway of the A34 but there was a nasty crash on the northbound carriageway resulting in a subsequent long tail back of traffic stretching for over a mile. One  could only feel sorry for the people caught up in the tailback, as we serenely drove past the other way for it looked like it would be some time before the road was cleared. We made a coffee stop at Rownham Services on the M27 before turning off the motorway and followed the satnav's instructions as it directed us to Holbury and the specific garden which lay at the junction of two residential roads, Westbourne Avenue and Southbourne Avenue.

We were able to park right outside the house and its garden and found three birders already standing on the pavement looking at the garden but did not appear to be looking at the grackle.

They told us it had been showing ridiculously well minutes ago and they had seen it in the garden where the friendly owners had invited them in to photograph the bird as it fed on their back lawn.

However the grackle had flown off and no one could re-locate it although there was every confidence it was in nearby trees and would re-appear shortly. In the meantime the owners of the house it favoured very kindly invited both of us into their back garden and we stood and chatted to them while we awaited the return of the grackle.

After about fifteen minutes the grackle suddenly landed on their roof and then proceeded to fly down onto the front lawn and wander around examining the short grass and picking up worms. 

It then flew to the back lawn and repeated the exercise before flying onto the garden fence and eventually flying up into a large tree on the opposite side of the road.

Here it remained immobile and virtually hidden from view in the centre of the tree although you could just about see its tail. It remained like this for around thirty minutes while we waited.  

Now, a group of birders with cameras stood on a pavement in an unexceptional residential road is not an everyday  sight so inevitably passing members of the public on foot, on bikes and even in a car stopped to enquire what was going on and we took it in turns to explain about the rare bird from North America that was currently attracting our attention.

Other birders and photographers also joined us until there was a small gathering of around twenty,all of us stood waiting for something to happen

It was obvious that the grackle favoured perching in the tree when it was not hungry and why not, as it was secure and hidden and out of harms way. Meanwhile we chatted amongst ourselves or to the curious passers by all of whom seemed interested in the bird and how it came to be here and as twitches go this was perhaps one of the most laid back and relaxed of its kind I have experienced.

Finally the grackle left the tree and flew to the top of a telegraph  pole on our side of the road and then dropped into a neighbouring garden to pick up more worms from the grass. It could not have chosen a better place as far as we were concerned as it carefully examined the lawn for food literally feet away whilst everyone lined up on the path and took its photo by looking over a low fence.

There was no pushing, no conflict, no rancour. Everyone smiling and happy with their individual close and personal experience of this strange bird from North America.

A pair of Peregrines passed over, high in the sky and the grackle showed some mild concern, cocking an eye in their direction and pausing for a moment before resuming its feeding.Apart from the Peregrines we saw only one other raptor, a Common Buzzard which was ignored by the grackle.

We left it still on the lawn and being papped and admired by its small audience.There was no photo that had not been taken already and so with neither of us having had any breakfast we made for a nice cafe in nearby Hythe that fitted the bill perfectly.

The debate still persists about this bird and whether it deserves the attention it is getting and.there is much discussion on social media about whether it can be genuinely added to whatever list one holds. Personally I had never seen this species until ten days ago so it is on my world list of birds but I do not count it on my British List although I have met a number of fellow birders who feel differently.

My personal point of view for what it is worth is that the grackle is a genuinely interesting bird, the first time one has been recorded in Britain no less, it looks quite stunning in its iridescent plumage and its presence has precipitated two happy trips to watch and enjoy it with two good friends and that is what matters most to me.

Sometimes we do so complicate matters. Simply enjoy the experience.The rest can take care of itself. 

The Horn of Plenty 13th November 2025

With a dire weather forecast of high winds and continuous rain for tomorrow I took the opportunity to make the most of today, one of mild temperatures, little wind and sunshine to get out and about in the countryside.

After an hour in a bird hide staring at nothing much I had to accept it was very quiet on the bird front so a text from Peter mid morning telling me about an interesting fungus he had found on a lone sortie into the Chilterns, had me making my way to a beechwood lying deep within the gentle hills of rural Buckinghamshire.

The fungus in question that had us both so enthused is called The Horn of Plenty and Peter told me he had found quite a number of their black, trumpet like fruiting bodies growing in the leaf litter that had fallen from the beech trees he was currently standing under. I have only seen this fungus once before when I was delighted to unexpectedly find a few by a track in a beechwood in Berkshire see here so was keen to repeat the experience.

They are member of the Chanterelle family, exceptionally good to eat and can only be picked from the wild as they cannot be cultivated, so they are in limited supply and eagerly sought after by those who go foraging for fungi in our woods either for their own culinary use or to sell on to restaurants or upmarket foodstores. Such is the demand they are very expensive to buy if you can find somewhere that sells them which is by no means easy. 

Being a fungus that is very good to eat, free to collect from the wild and much desired by gourmets serves as something of a curse these days as many woods can and are stripped of edible fungi which have no legal protection apart from on nature reserves but even they suffer from illegal collecting so you will understand that  I do not wish to divulge the location of these Horn of Plenty in order to protect them.

They are localised in Britain but where they do grow can be abundant, forming large colonies called troops  especially in their favoured beechwoods.  Their worldwide distribution is extensive stretching from North America across Eurasia to Australia and.they have various names all relating to their sombre appearance. The two most widely known names being Horn of Plenty from its Latin name Craterellus cornucopioides relating to its culinary properties and Trompette des Morts (Trumpet of the Dead) based on the ancient belief that its location and funereal colouring related to the buried dead that were communicating with the living via the black, trumpet like fruiting body growing out of the ground. 

I met Peter at a pre-arranged rendezvous by the entrance to the wood and we then followed a track up a very steep slope where countless numbers of fallen leaves, the colour of burnished bronze formed a soft russett brown carpet inches deep into which our feet sank as we progressed upwards, while the mature beeches around us rose to the sky above, many still with yellowing leaves clinging stubbornly to their twigs and branches as if reluctant to concede to the inevitable

I feel a great affection for places like this that provide an alternative to our forever busy lives, where you can turn off a busy road to take a side lane that winds into the hills and leave the humdrum  hustle and noise of everyday human existence behind, to enter a wood of autumn colours, standing silent and still but for the  occasional sound of an invisible bird or the sight of the slow twisting descent to earth of a golden leaf falling from on high 

It is almost like entering a church, a feeling of reverential respect comes unbidden to command my silence as I stand mute below the silent trees searching the ground for the The Horn of Plenty. The anxiety and worry that is always an accompaniment to twitching birds is absent as there is no urgency and no one else around apart from, in this case a colleague with a similar mindset.Truly relaxing and life affirming.This is mindfulness, living in the moment, cleansing body and soul.

We continued our ascent, scuffing through leaves softened by rain, until Peter pointed to our right and spoke.

There they are. Can you see them?

For a minute I could not but then came revelation as I saw several clusters of grey and black funnels or trumpets, the lips of the bodies fluted and curled into an unevenness, the 'funnels' thrust up on hollow grey stalks that rise but a few inches above the blanketing of leaves, some smaller funnels remaining almost concealed in the leaves while others, larger and standing proud are more obvious

The fruiting body or cap can range from 2-8cms across and is tubular with a flared mouth, the margins becoming irregularly distorted and wavy.The colour is grey on the outer surfaces and as the trumpet becomes fully formed is black on the inside.They are far from obvious in the deep leaf litter from which they emerge from September to December, exactly when the leaves have fallen and cluster around in drifts to half conceal them.

The fact they are short in stature and black or dark grey renders them hard to see and not as conspicuous as other fungi.This only adds to the pleasure when you discover them growing under the beech trees.

As I looked more and more became obvious and with my eye now definitely in I found other outposts in the carpet of leaves, growing over a fairly extensive but still defined area within the wood  

This will probably be my last fungus foray for this year but certainly is a highlight and one to savour through the coming winter months

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 1030am 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 seashore guarded by 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 as does the lifeboat station with 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 a grassed area 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 taking 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 our 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 subspecies 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 manage 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 arrived 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 gardens at Holbury near Fawley on 11th November.