BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE Twitch at Holbury, 15/11/25

At the time of writing the first part of this post, I'm sat eating lunch at 14:00 on the top of a double-decker bus headed towards Southampton, so how did I end up here? Well, I had planned to go and see the Boat-tailed Grackle today if it was seen yesterday. But with the pouring rain all day, as expected, there were no sightings. Because the trip costs a lot of money, I didn't want to risk going if the bird wasn't seen. So instead I decided to go to Southsea and try for the Purple Sandpipers there. That was my plan on Friday when I went to bed, at least. With engineering works happening on the trains at the moment, everything was running later, and I wasn't able to go out super early anyway. So I woke up at a civilised 8 o'clock, with no time pressure, and expecting a nice, easy, no-change trip to Portsmouth. But of course, there had to be a spanner thrown into the works. Checking Birdguides, I noticed the grackle had been seen this morning and was showing well. Was it worth risking leaving it until Monday? Maybe. We will see if my decision was a good one or not. Anyways, I ended up buying a return ticket to Southampton Central at the train station, double the price of my original plan of going to Southsea. Oh well.

After safely negotiating the trains, I walked out of the train station and went to the bus stop. Buses. I've voiced my opinions on them before. Long story short, I don't like them.

After managing to catch the bus, I sat down and checked Birdguides and got momentarily worried, but realised that the sad face I saw right next to a report of the grackle was not on the Boat-tailed Grackle, but a Grey Phalarope, the other side of the country! It was still there. Good.

After making it to Holbury, I set off towards Southborne Avenue, the alleged site of the bird.

I was really hopeful it would be there. I'm currently on 199 on my British year list, and getting number 200 as a first for Britain would be incredibly ideal. Grackles are really cool birds, with great personalities, and this one, being a very smart male, was one I did not want to dip. It's the first ever for Britain, and the second ever grackle species, after another ship assisted one, a Great-tailed Grackle, was seen in Pembrokeshire two years ago.

Made it home safely, can start editing photos now....

It seemed as though the bird moved about a lot, so I was mainly looking for a group of people staring at houses rather than for the last pinned location of the bird. A few people were gathered on the pavement, so I walked down the road towards them. Bingo. Kind of. Birders? Yes. Did they have the bird currently? No.

They said it had been showing very well in the garden right in front of us, but had flown deep into a tree and was not visible. 

All of a sudden, a flash of wings, and there it was. Britain's first-ever Boat-tailed Grackle. It perched on top of a house - what a bird!

I moved around to where I was at a better angle. You can really see why they're named "Boat-tailed." 

It flew from the rooftop to another house, where it perched on the fence before dropping into the garden, then landing on the house.

Such a great character.

I was buzzing. After so much time and money spent pushing up the year list and seeing incredible birds, I was finally at 200. And what a bird to reach that milestone. A first for Britain. I am going to address the obvious concerns about the bird later on, but for now, I'm going to revel in the wonderfulness of being at the big 200. At the start of the year, my British life list wasn't even at 200. Mid-October, I was practically down and out. There were only a few more common species to see, and I needed another 15 at a rate of one bird a week for the rest of the year. Exactly one month ago today, things kicked off with a Water Pipit at Pulborough. Since then, things have gone nearly perfect, and I've rocketed up to 200. Incredible. Anyway... back to the bird

It flew over to another fence. Here's a zoomed-out shot.

It flew over and landed on a caravan before dropping into an obscured garden. The locals were all very nice, and the gate was open for us birders to go into their garden and see the grackle. It is quite weird just walking around people's gardens you've never met before, but hey ho, it's part of the hobby!

Grackles are a group of 11 species (one extinct) in the icterid family. They're found in North and South America, with this one, Boat-tailed, found on the east and south coast of the US.

It flew up again and went into another garden, which we all flocked to. It showed absolutely brilliantly. Up to a few meters. Such an incredible bird. I was loving every second of it.

After 10-15 minutes or so dazzling us, it flew up onto a house, then into a tree, where it stayed obscured for a whole hour. 

A BW shot.

And so for the next hour, the bird just sat in the tree doing nothing.

So, Boat-tailed Grackle, a non-migratory species incapable of reaching this side of the pond on its own steam. Obviously, the bird is ship-assisted, as it couldn't have flown here, and there are no captive birds in the UK. It is destined to end up in Category E of the British List, which means it would not be officially counted. So, although it may not end up in any official lists, I am counting the bird. It's as wild as all the Blackbirds you see, free to roam, as it has already demonstrated, relocating from Calshot to Holbury, and I don't see any reason for not counting it. If you're going to count species such as Black Swan, White-tailed Eagle and Mandarin Duck, you might as well count a truly wild bird. I hope ship-assisted birds get their own category at some point, as throwing them in with escaped non-wild birds is criminal. Also, the number of rare sparrows that have been counted in Hampshire that have undoubtedly been ship-assisted is surely a testament to the fact that ship-assists aren't really all that bad...

After seemingly ages, the bird flew onto a telephone pole.

Then it went back to its spot and started eating.

The lighting was not ideal, but I was just about making do with it. I was mesmerised by the bird. It's
just so cool.

By now, after a while since the first reports in the morning, quite a crowd had gathered to watch it.

Weirdly, a Marsh Harrier circled with a Peregrine before heading off.

I moved around to the wall to get a different angle of the bird.

I went back to the driveway to get more low-down shots.

The next few minutes, it tussled with something it caught, struggling to get it down.

It was showing so well.

There were quite a few other birders trying to get low-down photos, and I was at the far left, nearly underneath a caravan on the driveway.

Time was fast disappearing, and with a 3-hour journey ahead of me, I decided it would be best to catch the next bus, which was in about 15 minutes.

I tried to get some interesting photos of the bird.

I spent my last few minutes admiring the beauty of this American wonder before heading back down the street. I took a photo of all the birders peering into the garden from further down the street.

Well, I started this post on a phone, eating lunch on a bus, and I'm finishing it off on a computer on the sofa in our living room after having dinner, listening to Poulenc's Organ Concerto (really cool piece of music, a bit too atonal at points, but on the whole it's great.) I have 200 birds safely secured on my list, and have to think about a new target. 205? Who knows. All I know is that I'm absolutely thrilled with all the birds I've seen in exactly one month. 15th Oct to 15 Nov 2025 is not a period of time I'm going to forget. I've listed the species I've seen plenty of times, and I'm going to do it again. It amazes me every time how many incredible birds I've seen in the space of just over 4 weeks. So, Water Pipit, Black-throated Diver, Velvet Scoter, Great Grey Shrike, Isabelline/Red-tailed Shrike, Pink-footed Geese, Bittern, Crane, Bonxie, Snow Bunting, Spotted Redshank, Long-tailed Duck and now Boat-tailed Grackle. That's over two lines on here of just truly epic birds. 9 Lifers, 2 Vagrants (sort of with the grackle), one Asian, one American, 13 year-ticks. Incredible. Hopefully, I might still go and see the Purple Sandpipers with Dad on Monday, which would be another lifer for me after endlessly dipping them last winter. I still can't believe I saw the grackle. So cool. So so so cool. Whether or not you're going to count it, it's well worth going to see, as it is a truly incredible bird with great character and looks. The trip was worth every penny, and I'm at 200! We'll see what the rest of the year holds, and I'm going to continue pushing for more and more species. I think I'm going to take it more chilled next year, and aim to fill up the gaping holes on my life list, and not travel up to London and stuff for year-ticks. We'll see what happens. If we go on holiday somewhere good in Britain, I may end up with a big year list anyway. It's the unknown of birding that makes it so much fun. There have been so many random and unexpected sightings that have made it possible to get to this 200. The self-found Hoopoe at Thursley, the completely unexpected Bittern at Titchwell, a Tawny Owl flying over the village seen from our garden (back in Liss), a species I haven't seen any other time this year, although I've heard a few. Things like the Black-throated Thrush just down the road in Bordon, Little Bunting at Send, of course the Hudsonian Godwit, Least Sandpiper and many more unexpected birds that I would never dreamed of seeing at the start of the year. 

A good day's birding and a brilliant new bird added to my personal list. 

A huge, huge, huge thanks to the locals for being so friendly and being alright with stacks of birders piling into your nice gardens!