Monday Morning

Now being an ornithologist isn't the same as being a birder. Generally the fieldwork is dull and routine and the conditions are normally not ideal and usually you see nothing out of the ordinary. Occasionally though the timing, the conditions and the location all line up and you get something quite spectacular. This morning was one of those days. I am down on the River Parrett in Somerset doing some fieldwork and my routine of counting Shelduck was rudely punctured by the forecast of force 8 westerlies. Normally this causes a feeling of dread as a day of enduring the elements comes to pass but my optimism was piqued by the smattering of seabird records over the last few days in the Irish Sea.

Immediately upon setting up a Manx Shearwater flew past the sea wall on the river. And another. Then I noticed a third being brutalised by a GBBG on Stert Island. Something special was happening - you don't get seabirds in Somerset unless the winds are perfect and these obviously were. Soon there were Manxies zigzagging all over the place as the tide came in and a couple of young Arctic Terns danced over the writhing waters. An adult pale phase Arctic Skua headed up river bothering the ducks as it went. I settled back down to count the moulting birds when something small and black flew through my scope - a Leach's Petrel. I had been keeping my fingers and toes crossed for one and duly it skipped over the surface trying to escape to the Bristol Channel between Stert Point and Island.


Yet more Manxies and news of Bonxies and more Leach's beyond my view flooded in. I picked up a second Leach's up near Burnham and got the pleasure of watching it fight south in the breeze for the next 40 minutes until it too managed to escape. A Ruff, my first of the year, went south along the seawall and a juvenile dark morph Arctic Skua hunted up near Burnham. I received news of 4 Grey Phalaropes along the river which I'd obviously missed and another with 2 Leach's Petrels in Bridgwater Bay. I made so with another dark morph juv skua, this one looked to be a Pom in the brief views I got but they werent really long enough to pin it down as it escaped over the WWT reserve. As the tide receded so did the seabirds but not without a Kittiwake south past my VP and a Guillemot to round things off. A sad and probably moribund Manx Shearwater was still floating about when I left. An amazing day and probably not one that will get repeated anytime soon.

Summer Catch Up

I have generally been a busy boy over the last few months with work and family taking precedence over birding. I have squeezed stuff in such as a jaunt to Somerset which saw me side track to Pendeen and a Great Shearwater and the Devon commons where Dartford Warblers were the point of interest neither species I have seen for a good while (10 years for the shear and 6 for the warblers). Both were fantastic to see again and hopefully they wont take so long to revisit.

One of the more photogenic Dartfords...

 At Flamborough I have made three visits over the last couple of weeks and the highlight was a Greenish Warbler that Peter Williams and myself found. This devil was calling repeatedly from the crown of a sycamore in Old Fall and wouldn't show in windy conditions today. I'd have loved to get a photo but alas no. It was great to catch up with Pete as it had been nearly a year since I last saw him. A Yellow-legged Gull on the seawatch this week and a Balearic Shearwater last week were other highlights.

Prior to going on holiday I managed to see the Caspian Tern and Pacific Golden Plover in the handful of hours I spent in Yorkshire that week. Both species were Yorkshire ticks although I have seen both in Norfolk (weirdly in the same spring on down days from boat work on one project). I also saw Chough in between as I visited the Great Orme for work. A stellar location and one I hope to visit again.

We also celebrated my Mum's 60th birthday and despite a Dad shaped hole in proceedings we all enjoyed the festivities very much. And talking about Dad, I'm doing ok I guess. Not great as I'm prone to a cry and it doesn't take much to set the waterworks off. I miss him immensely and I'm having all the thoughts of nihilism and my own mortality that inevitably follow but then I look at my kids and I strive to continue to make him proud. One of the ways I'm doing that is going to Australia to visit my brother Tom and his family and my new godson Patrick in the new year. Another is finally making a commitment to look after myself better. I'm 35 years old and 3 stone overweight. This can't last or I will follow my father into an early grave. We have reached the end of the summer holidays and I have made a couple of pledges to myself. 1) to lose the weight 2) to stop hobby birding after new year until there is a 13 at the front of the scales and 3) to eat a better diet. This is all pretty tough as I live a somewhat transient lifestyle but prior to my father's illness I had lost a stone and got somewhat derailed by it all subsequently. Wish me luck or the blog may get even quieter in the first quarter.