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 as a Boat tailed Grackle) had been discovered at Calshot which lies by 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 it, knowing full well 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 my 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 11am we found ourselves by The Solent, driving along parallel to the sea 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 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. 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 Henry the 8th 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 stretches away 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 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 non migratory and said to be resident in tidewater areas from New York to central Texas and throughout peninsula Florida where it is common in marshes, farmland and city parks, occasionally being found inland along rivers.I guess Calshot Castle with its shingle beach and seaside location felt like home from home for 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 managing to overbalance the bird itself. Piercing white eyes gleamed from its blue black head.

We watched and I photographed it 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 transporter vessel sailed close to the point, 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