Peterborough Bird Club :: Four Eurasian Spoonbills at Deeping Lakes- the first for the Peterborough area in four years

Peterborough Bird Club

Article featured in Limosa limosa, May/June 2006. No 87. © Will Bowell

At 06.45 in the morning of the 13th May, I received a phone call from Josh Jones who had just heard a male Cetti’s Warbler singing on his Baston & Langtoft GP patch, he had also had a Sanderling go through. The conditions outside were rather foggy, after some rather heavy thunderstorms in the night. Not being able to get back to sleep I decided to get ready and by 07.50 my Dad, Ray, and I were on our way to Deeping Lakes to check for waders before dashing to BLGP for Josh’s warbler.

Whilst driving along Station Road, to the east of the Island Pit, my Dad picked up four large white birds flying in from the Welland. Exclaiming that he didn’t think they were Swans, he put his foot down and we sped into the entrance of the reserve and stopped. The birds were still in flight over the Pit and it was soon obvious from their long bills and long legs stretching out that they were in actual fact four Eurasian Spoonbills.

The birds made several low flyby’s, threatening to land, but it took them five minutes to actually do so. In this five minutes we dashed up and down the main track trying to get signal so the locals could be rung. Firstly Trevor Williams was in Norfolk so that was no good, Josh’s phone was apparently off so I left a message, Mike Weedon was at Eldernell but was soon on his way and Bob and Sue Titman were thankfully in and got down in a good 20 minutes.

The birds settled in the north-west corner of the Island pit and after preening and resting for a bit they started to feed, swinging their big spooned bills from side to side to flitter through the water. All birds appeared to be adults with two starting to obtain the yellow necklace that summer adults have.

Four Eurasian Spoonbills at Deeping Lakes

The first for the Peterborough area in four years

Mike Weedon, Gareth and Josh Jones and Martin Coates were among the locals that managed to catch up with them before the flock departed a little over an hour after arriving. Being King PBC lister, it was something of a surprise that Martin actually needed this species for his PBC list, taking him to the dizzy heights of 227.

It was largely assumed that this flock of four were the same flock seen roaming around in Norfolk for the week previous, at various sites, but photo evidence suggests otherwise. Photos of the Norfolk four show one juvenile bird.

On the day of the birds being at Deeping Lakes, another adult was found at Butterwick Marshes in the Wash (near the Welland Mouth). On the 14th the Deeping Lakes birds joined the Butterwick bird and they were seen at Freiston Shore RSPB reserve, near Boston. It seems likely that our birds could well have been fresh in from the continent, as they occurred during a time when several drift migrants were seen in the country.

These birds represented the first for the PBC area since 2002, when an immature bird was at Prior’s Fen on the 23rd May. They were also the third record for Deeping Lakes with a single on the Lake in 1991 and another on ‘Spoonbill Flash’ in 2000.