Night Night

Im a tired bunny at present. The alarm was set for 3.45 and I was on site in North Lincs by 4.55. The dawn chorus was plesent but a little limited...best bits were a Garden Warbler, Whitethroat, Yellow Wagtail and a couple of Reed Warblers. The rest was pretty pants although I found possible breeding Buzzards with them mewing over a wood. News of the Red-rumpers in Hull & Rotherham were galling (especially as I dipped the Rother bird the other day). No Avocets were noticed on the pools with a paltry 64 Black-tailed Godwits in the roost. The low to high tide WeBs was crap with the highlight being the Blackwits decamping mid tide leaving one hanging on all morning. A quick nip into immingham got me the WORST Bacon Sarnie/Coffee combo in the world. Mud flavour and leather texture. Ming ming ming.

After the survey I decided to head to Whisby to try and catch up with Nightingale as I missed the BF meet last month. I wasnt hopeful as it was mid afternoon. I jammed in on the first lake on 3 Arctic Terns which had cleared off by the time I returned leaving only the resident Common Terns. Warblers were dripping from every bush...first up my first views this year of Garden Warbler plus awesome views of Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff & Whitethroat but no Nightingale. There were no Turtle Doves at the crossing and a lack of Hobbies whilst skywatching but I managed all THREE species of hirundine plus Swifts and 2 Buzzards. I had walked every path and was pissed off despite two year ticks. 1 hour 50 minutes had passed. I had ten minutes. A loop path had a Song Thrush singing from undergrowth and looked promising. Fuck it lets cut to the chase -I was mega fucked off and then 2 minutes before I left from under my feet JUB-JUB-JUB and then it showed like a porn star. Nightingale. I even tried to digibin it with my mobile phone. Absolute failure but it illustrates how well this baby was showing until it pushed off to the floor where barely visible it sang its heart out. A well overdue lifer after the 5 second view at flamboro a couple of springs ago. The LRP after could go swing for my money.

Unfortunatly there is a postscript - I just had a doctors appointment and it looks likely that I have torn the cartillage in my shoulder and I may need an operation. Booooo!

Bonxie!

Unedited pirates from the firth plus some uber cute nesting Fulmar from Wick.

Ringing

Spent the morning at Tophill ringing today. Several yearticks including in hand Blackcap , Lesser Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler. Also Common Sandpiper on the reservoir walls which I *ahem* mis-id'd as Yellow Wagtail. I did redeem myself with a flyover later... We had a bucketful of Swifts and a Ringed Plover overhead. As I arrived I also managed a couple of real Yellow Wagtails and a Barn Owl from south scrub.

Swine Moor revisited

Well the photos anyway...thats last years Temmincks Stint on Swine Moor late may. I paid my first visit to this venue for 2010. A productive look in with my first Swifts and Reed Warbler of the year. I had managed my first Little Grebe of the year on Wansford canal - a bit bizarre as I have managed at least 12 Slavs. Back to beverley and my pre-work trip almost hit pay dirt - a group of small waders flew in. Hoping for Pec Sand I was disappointed to see three Ruff. My radar wasnt too far out as North Cave pulled in a couple of these pseudo vagrants. Oh and im officially fit! Well enough to go to sea overnight and to score against our brothers in arms at HiFi in 0ur end of season friendly at the staff football. Good times.

P.S. Izzy can now crawl and got her first two teeth this week!!!!!

Multiple Mammal Lifer

Had a corking survey on the moray firth this past week. Very high numbers of birds were seen on site with over 30 Bonxies across the two days including a group of 6 and one was seen taking a Kittiwake out in mid-air. It then plunged on the water after the Kit and nothing was seen of the maritime going gull again. Red hot action. A few tysties and Manx Shearwaters joined the throng and a small skua was seen prior to survey but no id was managed from below deck. This was all well and good but I had already scored my first mammal lifer of the trip even before arriving in Buckie. About 20 Fallow Deer were amongst a larger group of Red Deer near Huntly on the train from Aberdeen. I have seen Fallow Deer before but only when I lived down south and im not sure they were outside deer parks. They are also largely absent from Yorkshire. A check of British Wildlife conveniently had a set of maps showing distribution of all six British deer species with a small blob east of the Cairn Gorms.

Back on the boat and the second of my mammal lifers quickly showed on a flat clam sea. We had seen a number of Harbour Porpoise and Grey Seals amongst the assembled gannets and auks but the leviathan revealed itself. Actually leviathan may be overcooking it a little as a very small Minke Whale surfaced having a good look at us with its head up at 100 m range. In fact an hour later we managed views of a bigger beast a very large Minke with a seemingly endless back. We were really pleased! The day was finished with a Common Seal catchig fish at our feet in Wick harbour. No cetaceans were managed the next day as the weather was interesting with persistant rain and choppy seas making it far from ideal. I did manage a year tick in Wick harbour amongst the Swallows(?) were 4 sea swallows calling away. Common Terns. Awesome. Rather bizarrely an enclosure in north Wick held 30 Wood and Mandarin Ducks plus Japanese Quail, rosellas and Cockatiels. Outdoors. In Wick. Brr. Also a bit bizarre back at Buckie the next evening a walk revealed the House Martins were back in...although it wasnt a year tick they arent in down here - what are these crazy birds doing? Its still winter on the firth. I did get a corking picture of a Bonxie but am waiting to edit it before it appears here. On the way back on the train from Keith to Glasgow we saw the Fallow Deer again including a quality stag with antlers on.

Black-tailed Godwit

View Black-tailed Godwit in a larger map

This is the history of the Black-tailed Godwit I saw at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire last week. It was ringed as a pulli in eastern Iceland in 1999 making it nearly 11 years old and was seen in Portugal on rice fields in December 2008. 11 years old! Blimey.

En Masse Migrants

Spent the day surveying at North Killingholme, Lincolnshire and it was a veritable feast of year ticks. A breeding bird survey found unseen Sedge Warblers newly in around the pits. A couple of Avocets were kicking about on the pits, the first I have managed all year. A single smart Dunlin in summer dress and a few Redshanks were also pratting around. Linnets and Tree Sparrows amongst the car parks of the port were a bit incongruous. Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers were calling all over and a pair of Stock Doves flused from vegetation.

The best was to follow on the second leg with 4 smart Yellow Wagtails knocking about including a singing male. A Mistle Thrush was singing with vigour from a tree top - presumably an unmated bird. A Yellowhammer sang its merry tune from a hedgerow and its cogener of the Reed Bunting variety 'sang' from the small ditch. As I was walking back to the car a couple of Whitethroats chased around a small reed stand. Two Sand Martins whizzed past overhead and to complete my hirundine set a House Martin circled the port as lorries were boarding the container ship. There were tonnes of Swallows bobbing about.

I had been given a heads up about the pits being a Black-tailed Godwit roost so I gave the pits another scan prior to starting my WeBs count. About 500 of these leggy beauties were present and I found one which was colour ringed - I shall report back when I find out the details. Also present were my first Little Ringed Plovers of the year. By this time I was expecting some gross rarity but it became more mundane quickly. Aside from bog standard Ringed Plovers on the beach and two Red-legged Partridge on the sea wall (that seemed wrong - especially when they flushed off toward the beach...they quickly returned to terra firma) it was as you were with the godwits decamping to the beach about half tide. Last gasp was a Snipe swimming across a ditch on the pits - I didnt know they could!