26th January - Killdeer - Ripley Reservoir, Hampshire

On Wednesday the 21st January news broke during some hideous weather that a Killdeer had been found in the west of the county in a field close to a reservoir on farmland just outside Ripley.  Once confirmed it became only the second report of Killdeer in Hampshire, the last one being in September 1980 at Iley Lane in Pennington.  Such is the rarity of the bird this would also be the only mainland Killdeer in the United Kingdom since 2013

Many saw it despite the rain over the next few days, but due to family and birthday events I was not going to be able to get to it until today.  I watched as it continued to be reported over the weekend, but was a little worried when I went out last night and could see the moon in a clear sky.  Nevertheless on Monday morning as I was getting ready to leave the report came in that it was still present in the same spot.  Game on!

An accident on the A31 had me driving through Emery Down and on to the A35.  I finally found a parking spot along a small country Lane known as Anna Lane and then followed the direction walking along the footpaths.  The area is used as a pheasant shoot so there were warnings about straying from the paths, but they were easy to follow.  The reservoir was used for irrigation and had shoveler and Wigeon present and on the other side of the path was a pig farm.  The sun was just out and I was advised to initially look from a distance and picked it up on the far side of the reservoir, the distinctive double breast bands of the Killdeer.  It has been reported as a first year bird but I can't see how this could be determined, it looked very much in adult plumage.

I walked around to the west side of the reservoir where there we several birders watching the bird,.  The light wasn't so good from here, but the bird was marginally closer.  The double breasted bands are diagnostic, but you couldn't help thinking it was just a slightly bigger Ringed Plover!

With the distance away from us and the light, photography was never going to be easy and these images will never win any prizes, but they are a record of a very rare bird to the United Kingdom and Hampshire.  The last time I saw one was in Yellowstone in 2015, which tells you something about there favoured habitat.

My initial views, again distant, but confirming the bird

So what is a Killdeer?  In North America it is classified as an upland plover, similar to the Ringed Plovers, but slightly larger and being found around farmland and baseball fields, so this was ideal habitat for this one to turn up in, it even had the squeals of the local pigs as they were fed to make it feel at home.

While the double breastbands are unmissable it also has an orange rump and tail which unfortunately wasn't visible in the hour and a half I was watching it.  There is also a red eye ring in the manner of the eye ring seen on a Little Ringed Plover.

The name Killdeer is bound to raise some eyebrows - but this has nothing to do with deer the mammal.  Instead, the name is an onomatopoeia that refers to the bird’s piercing call, a shrill kill-dee! that it shouts while in flight. In fact, you’ll often hear a Killdeer long before you see it noisily wheeling about the sky with its pointed wings, which is how I remember the bird when seen in North America.

The Killdeer’s loud calls have inspired many of its names over the years. In the 18th century, naturalists referred to it as the Noisy Plover or the Chattering Plover. And its species name in Latin, formalized by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, is vociferus—which roughly translates to “shouting” or “yelling.”

Although they’re considered shorebirds, Killdeer aren’t solely found near water. In fact, they favor a wide range of open areas like agricultural fields, tidal flats, pastures, and grass lawns. As a result, Killdeer are often seen feeding and even nesting in habitats that are close to people, like golf courses, baseball fields, and children’s playgrounds.

Invertebrates can make up more than 90 percent of a Killdeer’s diet. These birds love chowing down on everything from beetles and grasshoppers to earthworms and snails. Pay attention to a Killdeer while it’s foraging, as it moves in a pattern typical of plovers: The bird runs a few steps, stops abruptly, and tilts its head to look and listen for prey before seizing it with its bill. After eating, the bird quickly gets back on the move, looking for its next meal. Killdeer have been known to follow tractors to eat the stirred-up insects in their wake.

When it comes to migration, Killdeer are divided between travelers and homebodies. Some populations breed in Canada and the northern United States and travel south in the winter, while others spend the whole year in the southern parts of the country. Interestingly, the birds that do migrate end up skipping over the ones that stay put, traveling past the southern U.S. in favor of places like Mexico and Central America. This pattern, which scientists call “leapfrog migration,” can be observed in various other kinds of birds. 

So has it been the recent storms that brought this bird in or did it reach Europe following teh autumnal storms, we will never know, but it was a welcome bird amid some dire January weather here in the south of England.

The Killdeer never looked like coming any closer.  It was though still very popular with plenty of birds from around the country turning up.  As I left at least a dozen birders arrived to take my place.  I had been present for nearly two hours so decided it was time to me on.  As I left I was debating where to go next with back into the forest my main choice, but that was about to change.