South Bank Sun

Yesterday I finished my monthly low-tide counts with a sojourn to the south bank of the Humber. It was scorchio with 23 degrees registering on my car thermometer. A mid afternoon start at Barrow Haven saw 3 Chiffchaff to greet me from the car door. These were the first of 18 that I noted across the couple of hours that I was out. A sprinkling of Lapwing were notable as were a few pairs of Shelduck. Little was on any of the lagoons behind the bank but on heading back after finishing up a Short-eared Owl appeared hunting the thin strip of saltmarsh. I watched the owl for about ten minutes as I wandered up the floodbank. I have seen SEOs hunting in the day but never in bright, strong sun before. Certainly a pleasant surprise.

Humber Bridge seen from Barrow Haven

The second survey at Barton was a little more mundane with tonnes of Black-headed, Common, Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Little else was seen on the mudflat but I was serenaded by more Chiffchaf plus the odd Bullfinch and Reed Bunting. I thought I heard a sub-singing Cetti's Warbler briefly at one point but it could equally have been a Wren in the reeds, so brief was the snatch of song. I was getting hot and tired when I noticed a decent group of Aythya ducks on a water skiing pit. 4 or 5 pairs of Pochard were farting about in the reeds to hold my attention when two bigger ducks surfaced. A 1st winter drake Scaup and an adult female. These birds weren't particularly playing ball but patience yielded decent enough views. Happy days. And that was it... Im ringing on Saturday so hopefully I can get a few decent photos and see some migrants.

Watersports Pits, Barton-upon-Humber. The Scaup were on the back pit in the photo

Im not dead. Honest

Sorry for the massive gap in postings. It was neither apathy or acute death but perhaps a more serious issue. No birding. I have been desk bound for several weeks now and although there is light at the end of the tunnel I am still due to be stuck indoors during the majority of daylight hours until the middle of next week.

I did manage to sneak away for a couple of hours today for a low-tide count but that was largely dross with 4 Turnstone, 4 Mallard & 4 Oystercatcher the sum total of 7.6km walking. I did notice numbers of Herring Gulls picking up as they return to Hull to breed. Plenty of sub-adults were dossing on exposed mud banks in the river. The passerine assemblage behind the bank was quite horny with plenty of singing despite it being the middle of the day. An unusual song that I couldnt place immediately on a rooftop turned out to be a Linnet still in its winter dress. My head was saying finch but the fact it was on a roof I was trying to make it a buzzy Greenfinch. Eventually the penny dropped and I could get on with life. Even better than the out of place Linnet was the fact that I came across an addition to the avifaunal ensemble. Yes, the Chiffchaffs are back. 2 from my front door this morning and at least 2 on my walk today. I thought I heard one in sub song yesterday at home but I wasnt sure (and was on Dad duty). Its good to hear them although I didnt lay bins on any (a brief non-bin view of a small brown thing in a tree sufficed for the year tick). No Wheatears in the horse paddocks yet. Plenty of time.

The second part of this post relates to the Darvic ringed Black-headed Gull that I encountered a couple of times at Hornsea. Sadly it isnt a particularly interesting story but it does come from Denmark. It was ringed last spring by Kjeld Tommy Pedersen as a 3CY+ (making it now a 4CY+). It was refound at Kirkholme Point, Hornsea Mere in August and has been seen there about a dozen times. I will google map the movement when I have the chance (with a badly centred map of course).

Oh and Im going to Spain for 11 days in 10 days. Woo woo!!! 

Cold as Ice

Finally, finally I caught up with one of the many Iceland Gulls that have invaded the UK this winter. It was pounding with rain so following local gen I sacrificed a golden nugget and scoped the beauty from the covered multi-storey car opposite the fish market in the locale where the gulls had been loafing. I was stuck in port due to weather and was damned if I was staying put. I got some nice views of the bird, an adult, flying around the harbour and briefly alighted on the fish market roof. It is a streaky headed individual - not something I readily associated with Iceland Gulls. When I arrived all the birds were facing the car park and not showing the primary tips yet the common gull esque bill was easy to pick amongst the more brutish Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. At sea we had little of interest although I did get offshore ticks in Gadwall, Pintail and Black-tailed Godwit.



Adult Iceland Gull, Lowestoft. Copyright Peter Ransome



Snow Buntings!

We had a group of Snow Buntings bombing past most of the day. Initially they showed distantly and seemed to be the same 74 from yesterday but as we packed up late on about 120 birds were performing immediately infront of us. A bit dark but still some reasonable record shots.

This was preceded by a bit of drama, largely of my own making. The battery of the hire car went flat due to the radio being on most of the morning. I redeemed myself with a proper bit of man-ness. A reverse bumpstart down a single track sand road between a lagoon and the sea. Real adrenalin rush - especially when the engine fired and I wasnt in the lagoon. To improve things we had a drag up to Titchwell cafe for our lunch. Which was closed. Bummer! To cheer me up was one of the ridiculously tame Robins.



Snobs, Lulu and no GPs

Im staying in Dersingham, West Norfolk as I am working down the road in Snettisham. Just finished my first day today and there were massive numbers of waders at high tide - much more than last year. A couple of Black-tailed Godwit, Avocet and a decent wedge of Pintail were the highlights on the survey although far more like it were the 74 Snow Buntings that gave us a flyby a couple of times. And that was todays survey - plenty of common. Yesterday we tried for the Golden Pheasants at Wolferton (and twice today) but failed. Now up to 15 dips for that particular species. Arse. We did have a wander on Dersingham common after we packed up today and birds were singing all over. Woodlarks were very much in evidence with three singing birds and a small group of Crossbills darted over. Crests calling all over but only Goldcrests seen. Must try harder! Plenty of Hares and Muntjacs in the woods and fields as we traversed the local area.



Village Little Egret

 Yesterday at home I had an hour walking in the village and a Little Egret was still in the stream (saw 3 the day before - I wonder if the GWE is knocking about here as well). A Kingfisher provided a brief spark of ultramarine but disappeared quickly. Lots of birds were singing but it was the Hares that were the chief interest with several chasing round the fields and boxing.



The last couple of days in Essex were steady with the same species recorded. The best bits were a Least Weasel hunting the scrub in the track margins as we crossed the reserve and a Wood Mouse that Jon trapped. Peregrines and Spotted Redshanks were regularly in evidence and Brents topped out at over 1400 birds but no RB Goose or Black Brant sadly.

Sun came out in Essex and the grebes started displaying

Wood Mouse looking happy with his cheese

Oh - forgot, I also saw my old friend Y20, a Black-headed Gull at Hornsea Mere when dipping the white-wingers. Still cant find out where he is from.

Nearly sum plum

North Essex Marshes

Over the last couple of days I have been working on the North Essex Marshes. Yesterday was a little frustrating with both work and birds. I didnt get to start my survey until today but this gave me the opportunity to check out a few places.

Old Hall Marshes held over 1200 Dark-bellied Brents and plenty of common wildfowl but not the hoped for Red-breasted Goose. We wander over to the Layer Breton causeway at Abberton Reservoir and see lots of not very much. A few Goosander and plenty of Cormorants but far too much feral yuck hides the prizes. We were also oblivious to the Great Grey Shrike a couple of miles up the road. We decided to hit up Tollesbury marina for a spot of luncheon and whilst stretching our legs on the sea wall a very large falcon ambles high over the marsh flushing everything to the horizon. Naturally we assume it is a Peregrine but something doesnt feel right about the shape. Thankfully the bird does the decent thing and gives a close and extended fly-by revealing a brown colour. Suddenly my mind raced back to the autumn and a string of Saker Falcon sightings in the local area. I look at the bird and see the dark brown trousers, kestrel like back pattern with brown on the mantle with the wing tips dipped in black. The crown was dark showing the bird to be immature and it had a very thin moustachial stripe. Gorge. The underparts were dirty brown and the bird was a overall pretty drab. No jesses, rings or trackers evident but no obvious sign of hybrid origin. I guess we will never know. No photos as I wasnt even birding!

Today was awesome. It was sunny and it was still (at least at first). As we entered the reserve we saw thousands of ducks and geese. Lovely. A Sparrowhawk was over the entrance and we soon had Marsh Harriers dotting all over. 5 in total. Plenty of Pintail on the marsh. Strangely a Jay sqwaked its way through a hedgerow. A belated year tick. 800 Brents bombed about including a single Pale-bellied Brent. Very tidy. It was largely the birds of prey that provided the highlights despite the numbers of wildfowl. A Merlin passed by close mid morning and a ringtail Hen Harrier was seen at distance evading 3 birders gaze despite passing extremely close by. Then ping-ping. A single Mandarin 'tached Bearded Tit was in the small stand of reeds infront of us. My colleague didnt get on it (despite it passing by 5 times during the day) but as he looked for it he found a showy (female? uncalling) Cetti's Warbler that sat in the morning sun for fully five minutes. I havent had such extended, easy views before but didnt go for the scope until too late as I just expected it to dive off. A couple of distant presumed Peregrines were dogfighting distantly toward Mersea Island. Later in the day a single bird cruised overhead giving better views but by this time the wind had got up and the clouds had arrived. Late in the afternoon a rash of Spotted Redshanks arrived with at least three birds being present. Not a bad day all said.

Work

4th Birthday

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but I have been at sea on and off for the last ten days or so. During this time I have made the annual missing of Ornithological Idiocy's birthday come true. This year we turn 4. I cant believe I am still churning this bollocks out after 4 years but I love going back through it so it will continue.

Deck of a boat

In actual birding news I managed to visit the Hebrides and still not see an Iceland Gull although I did stumble upon a Buzzard and a Raven mobbing a couple of juvenile White-tailed Eagles just east of Oban. At the time I was driving and I took it to be a couple of crows mobbing Buzzards. Thankfully I snapped out of it but it was over a copse. Very odd. Raven and the eagles were year ticks although I hope to get much better views of the eagles soon. Additional (and expected) year ticks came in the shape of Hooded Crow and Black Guillemot. Very nice. On survey was terrible. 10 species in two days (3 auks, 4 gulls, Gannet, Fulmar and erm... something else crap). Razorbill and Puffin were year ticks! Can tell I hadnt been to sea in January. Common Scoters were seen on transit and were also a year tick. A couple of Grey Seals and a good number of Harbour Porpoise were good value but neither was as funny as my survey leader puking his brain out in a 3m swell. Poor fella was annihilated and humour was eventually (grudgingly) replaced with sympathy. And that was the best bits although a 6'4 women who looked like late-era Michael Jackson at the Highland Cattle meeting in an Oban hotel bar was very funny. Even weirder was her 6'6 mother towering over her. I felt small.

This week I have been largely in the North Sea somewhere. Less in the way of year ticks (Little Gull) but certainly a little more variety. Not gonna say too much really aside from a Greenshank was a surprise and a couple of Common Seals  were decent. So 4 years old!