Fair Isle - Day 9 in The Puffinn Household

Another day of south-easterly winds and very heavy rain. It was pretty obvious from early on that there were new birds in. Lots of Redwings and some Bramblings were immediately evident as well as some Phyloscopus warblers. Unfortunately, the wind, rain and bad light made birding very difficult, with most of the Puffinn crew having to return to base at least once during the day to dry off. Many of the birds around today looked pretty knackered due to their waterlogged plumage. The best find of the day was by Dave who found two Richard's Pipits just inland from The Reevas, whilst Paul and Mark were watching yesterdays bird at Bull Park. Mark also found a probably Siberian (tristris) Chiffchaff at Schoolton. The Reevas and the Western Geos were the busiest places, birdwise, with lots of thrushes (mainly Redwing and Song Thrushes) and a few Wheatears, Goldcrests and Brambling being among the haul. A Pied Fly was seen by most of us in the Bulls Park area, ending up at Setter.

No sightings of 'Sphyrapicus' Steve in the field today - most likely telling the new arrivals about the flocks of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckerss he had in his garden. Apparently, he took some lovely photos of the Bluethroat today. Upon inspection, the photos showed the characteristic dull streaked underparts, dark olive streaked back and black legs. Shame he didn't get it on video - he may have captured the characteristic sharp, high-pitched "tseeeep" call, which separates it from the similar Meadow Pipit.

After the successful rehabilitation of the Meadow Pipit the other day, we have a new guest in the cardboard box. I watched a Common Guillemot very close inshore this afternoon, which was having a hard time of it, being swamped by the surf. It disappeared out of view towards the shore and as predicted was lying on the beach exhausted 10 minutes later. I popped down and pounced on it and it's now snoozing away in my room. I'll check on it in the morning and let it go in a sheltered area somewhere (if it makes it through the night).

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Fair Isle - Day 8 in The Puffinn Household

A day of south-easterly winds and south-eastern fuckwits.
The winds were from the south-east today, but unfortunately so were the birders. Mark and Paul found a Citrine Wagtail which gave everyone the run around. Mark and I also relocated the Richard's Pipit, but just as we were about to get great scope views of it on the deck, some clueless fuckwits with posh London accents just bowled straight up to it and booted it - thanks boys, it only took us 2 hours to find it!
Other than that, not much on the rarity front to report. There was a nice Short-eared Owl flying around near the Store, plus a few common migrants, but not as many as we hoped on the south-easterlies.
I also found an exhausted Meadow Pipit near The Puffinn, so I took it back and stuck it in a cardboard box in a warm room for a few hours until it had time to recover, then let it go in the gardens of one of the crofts where it started to feed actively. Good luck fella!
Oh, well, let's hope tomorrow will bring some birds. It's still forecast for south-easterlies over the next 24 hours, but the wind speed it still quite high, so rare-finding might prove a challenge. Let's hope the newbies on the island will learn some fieldcraft overnight, but I won't hold my breath.


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Fair Isle - Day 7 in The Puffinn Household

7.05pm - Brian is in the kitchen (as ever).
It was a very quiet day today, with hardly any passerines to speak of. Cooky had a Richard's Pipit at Field croft, plus a mystery pipit in the Heligoland trapping area. A few Wheatears were along the western slopes and that was about it.
More geese over the island today, including more Barneys and some Pink-feet, plus lots of Greylags. Mark had a summer plumage Great Northern Diver past south light this morning, and that is about it.
Tomorrow is forecast as south-easterlies, so there'll be no lie-in tomorrow. The next couple of days might be our last chance for something big.

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Fair Isle - Day 6 in the Puffinn Household

Raging winds and heavy rain was the order of the day today. Unfortunately, all the winds are from the west. Monday night is forecast to be South-easterly, so we're all hanging on for that. 3 members of the Puffinn Household headed out to the obs for the weekly pub quiz (swizzle-me-quizzle you mother!). Unfortunately, a good 36/45 wasn't good enough to beat the Essex boys, whose 41/45 was a reflection on the types of questions in the quiz (and the fact that they had about 6 people on their team). It was quite interesting to hear the latest exploits of Steve the garden lister, from Surrey. Steve must have THE most amazing garden, as he's already seen about 5 species of bird which haven't even been recorded in Britain before. The December records of Red-footed Falcon and Bluethroat in his garden are most interesting! Apparently he had an Icterine Warbler the other day. He knew it was an Icky as he knows the calls of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, and it wasn't one of those! Apparently, he rings up the Surrey county recorder when he sees something interesting. I bet it's endless fun having him on the phone.

Anyway, another lie-in was in order and then I spent most of the morning seawatching from my bedroom window. Sooty Shearwater was the best seabird I managed to muster and a Puple Sand on the rocks below the house was also the first of the trip. A few blue Fulmars passed by, identifiable by the lack of contrast between the back and the head, were seen in amongst the thousands of pale Fulmars.

Lots of geese arrived on the island today, mainly Greylags, but 10 Barnacle Geese were also a nice sight over The Puffinn, but possibly not as nice as the 120 over the obs.
The rain stopped and the sun came out at about 3pm, but the wind kept up quite a head of steam, but I headed out anyway to see if I could turn anything up. 2 Whooper Swans flew over the island and a couple more Barnacles hung around with some Greylags. The best(?) bird of the day was a Common Rosefinch (above) at Field croft, complete with ring, which has been hanging out at various places on the island for the past week. You take your life in your hands when you visit Field croft though, as the resident snarling-devil-dog will probably chomp on your leg given half a chance - keep away from the backdoor!

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Fair Isle - Day 5 in the Puffinn Household

The intended lie-in this morning was somewhat curtailed by the 300 Greylag Geese that started to shelter behind the house at 2a.m. this morning. The 35mph NW wind meant that shelter was in short supply today, as were any new birds. Undetered, the Puffinn Household headed out into the blustery wind, some heading to watch the sea, but I decided to check the sheltered coves in the SE corner of the island. My first encounter was with a ringed dead Grey Heron. It had been ringed a few days earlier but had succumbed to the lack of goldfish in croft ponds. A female Scaup, which had obviously been roosting on some rocks by the shore moved quietly away, but spent the rest of the day around the cove. The best bird of the day though, was a Richard's Pipit that flew in off the sea, calling. It flew in over my head and spent a couple of minutes around Haa and then flew off towards Leough.
The rest of the day was spent checking the eastern Geos, which were quite empty, but some seawatching produced a few trip ticks.
The temperature plumeted this evening, so most off us were back at The Puffin well before dark. We've heard that it's quiz night at the obs tonight, so we might try and get ourselves down there.
It's looking like it may be a quiet weekend, with prodominently NW winds, but the forecast says SE winds from Monday. Here's hoping!

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Day 4 in The Puffinn Household

It was a quieter day today, with no new vagrants found. Yesterdays White's Thrush(es?) and P-G Tips have cleared out with only a couple of Barred and Yellow-browed Warblers new in. A Hornemann's Arctic Redpoll, which was first found yesterday, showed well today (above) as well as Bluethroat and the ever dependable Little Bunting. The winds picked up in the afternoon and are forecasted to be 35 mph NW until Saturday, so maybe a well deserved lie-in maybe taken tomorrow morning and then some sea-watching, which produced a couple of Blue Fulmars this evening.
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Heineken don't do Birders Birthdays....

...but if they did, they'd probably be like today!

Day 3 in the Puffinn household and it's my birthday. The saying for today is "You can stick your Brown Flycatchers up your arse". Today was possibly the best days birding I've ever had. Best bird of the day, and a British tick, was White's Thrush which gave prolonged close flight views. Although it gave us all a run around to start with, it finally gave up and showed well, black and white underwing, scales and all.

Next on the list was a Pallas's Gropper, found by Paul Cook which gave views down to less than an arms length (see photos). Other birds that I found today were 2 Bluethroats and a Common Rosefinch. Little Bunting, 2 Pec Sands, 6 Whooper Swans and 2 Jack Snipe added to the tally.

And so ends a great day. I wonder what tomorrow will bring???



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Fair Isle - Day 2 in the Puffinn Household

Although we were delayed, we finally made it over to Fair Isle on Monday morning. Myself, Mark Golley, Paul Cook, Dave Foster and Brian Unwin spent two days on mainland Shetland, taking in Western Bonelli's Warbler, Wryneck and numerous Yellow-browed Warblers, before flying over from Tingwall. As the bird observatory was full, we're staying in The Puffinn, a cheap and chearfull self-catering cottage in the south of the island near the lighthouse.
OK, so we've arrived a week later than we had wished, having missed the Brown Flycatcher, Sibe Thrush, P-G Tips and multiple Lanceys that were here last week, but there are a fews birds around to keep us busy, and of course this is Fair Isle, where anything can, and does, happen.
Little Bunting is the rarest bird left around, along with 2 juvenile Peck Sands (above), but there are probably about 10 Yellow-browed Warblers left on the island, as well as Lapland Bunting (above) and lots of common migrants such as Lesser Whitethroat and Whinchat, as shown above.
Anyway, hopefully there will be some easterlies on the cards soon and we can get out and start seeming some good stuff.
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Getting soaked in North Norfolk - 7 Sep 08

Well, I have to confess, it was the wrong decision. I'd seen the weather on the BBC website, so opted to go and look for migrants in Burnham Overy Dunes and then seawatching off Cley when the wind whipped up at midday.
So, I headed out to north Norfolk at 6.30am and ended up at a rather wet Burnham Overy Staithe (BOS) at 7.30. I headed out to the dunes, in the rain and wind, but after 5 1/2 hours of searching all I had to show for my efforts were 1 Garden Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, about 15 Wheatear and a good soaking. In fact I saw more skuas than anything else. I had a flock of 6 Bonxies fly south (inland!) on my way out to the dunes and then 4 Arctic Skuas (1 adult pale morph + 3 juvs) fly north-west (from inland) as I returned. The morning was saved somewhat by a lovely migrant Honey Buzzard, which had presumably come in off the sea. It put everything up over the saltmarsh, circled over BOS, and then headed off east. I headed off in the same direction, to Cley for some seawatching, but the weather had cleared up considerably by now, so the Cory's Shearwaters, Sabines Gulls, skuas and all that had made the morning so enjoyable for those bright enough to not be looking for migrants were no more.
Oh well, the autumn is still young....

Northumberland weekend

I spent the weekend in Northumberland. The main reason was for Angela to run the Northumberland Coastal Run, from Beadnell to Alnmouth. We stayed in Seahouses from where we intended to head over to The Farne Islands.

Saturday 19 Jul 08
Still being the official breeding season, the first boats don't go over to The Farnes until midday, so we booked ourselves on the last boat of the day (2pm) and spent the Saturday morning on Holy Island. Not much birdwise and as the day progressed the weather got increasingly wet and windy. My fears were realised when we turned up at Seahouses harbour at 2pm only to find out all the boats were cancelled. I spent the evening birding between Alnmouth and Budle Bay. Alnmouth was great with a big tern flock loafing on the south side of the river mouth. In the flock there was at least 6 adult Roseate Terns which flew around calling quite a lot.
At Budle Bay the tide was out, but there were plenty of birds on the mudflats, which included plenty of Redshanks, a couple of Common Sandpipers, Dunlin and a single Greenshank.
As the evening wore on I turned my attention to the gathering gulls to find a very pale looking large gull with no obvious signs of and solid dark markings. I moved round the bay to get a closer look and risked the quicksand by walking out onto the mud to get a better look at the gull.
My first impression was that it was a 2nd-summer Iceland Gull, but on closer inspection I'm not sure if I can rule out leucistic Herring Gull. Some photos and a short video is below.





Photo 1


Photo 2


Photo 3


Photo 4


Sunday 20 Jul 08
The good news of the day was that Angela finished her 14 mile beach run in well under 2 hrs. Unfortunately, that was the only good news as a quick phone call to Seahouses revealed that the northerly wind and the subsequent large swell had cancelled all the sailings to The Farnes.
Oh well - there's always next year!

North Norfolk Coast

Headed off to Titchwell again this morning, then tried to take in a few raptors on the way home.
The number of birds to have dropped at Titchwell, most notable by its' absence was Little Gull. The 40+ birds that were present a 2 weeks ago have now dropped to just a couple of birds. The numbers of Ruff have increased to about 15 birds (all males) and there were plenty of adult Black-tailed Godwits. The best bird was a summer-plumaged Red-necked Grebe on the sea. An Arctic Skua was also offshore.

On the way home I stopped off at the Montague's Harrier site where I had 1 male and 2 females. They were showing every 15-20 minutes or so. A female sat up on a distant fence post (see video below) and a male circled over my head.





Male Montague's Harrier


Female Montague's Harrier video

Finally, I stopped off at Gt. Ryburgh raptor watchpoint, but the Honey Buzzards weren't putting on a show. Plenty of Hobbies though, with about 5 at a time hawking over the hidden pools between the watchpoint and the woods. 3 Common Crossbills were an unexpected bonus as they flew by and spent a minute at the top of one of the pines.

Waders and terns in North Norfolk

Had a good outing to Cley and Titchwell today. The return passage of waders has started already, with non/failed breeding Black-tailed Godwits, Spotted Redshanks, Ruffs, and a Lesser Yellowlegs all putting on a show.
Along with 3 Spoonbills, there was a Lesser Yellowlegs was at Cley which showed constantly from Dauke's Hide.







On Arnold's Marsh was a couple of adult Roseate Terns (below) and some Arctic Terns. I took some video of the Roseates which is embedded below from YouTube.



Roseate Tern video (nearest bird)















On to Titchwell and there was plenty to look at, but nothing too rare. Many birds have young now, like Avocets and the Black-headed Gulls below.




There was a nice montage of adult Ruffs, having returned from their leks and now starting to moult. There were 3 together, which showed much of the variation between them, namely, white, black, and chestnut individuals.


A black male Ruff



A black and a white Ruff together



A white Ruff



Chestnut Ruff (above and below)

Shrike-tastic!

A morning out around East Norfolk on Sunday 22 June was quite good. I popped round to see a Lesser Grey Shrike, just south of Hickling village, near Stubs Mill. It was feeding around a sheep paddock.






Also, at nearby Sea Palling, a long staying male Red-backed Shrike showed well for all. There was also a Marsh Warbler singing quite close to the site, but I had to shoot off to pick Angela up, so I'll have to save that one for another day (or year).

Saved by the Queens Birthday

Well, the winds dropped and finally some birds showed their faces. Tuesday was an additional day off for me, so I spent the afternoon trespassing at the Nelson Head cattle drinking pool bushes. Redstart, 2+ Spotted Flys, 6 Northern Wheatears, Garden Warbler and 5+ Willow Warblers wasn't a bad haul I suppose (especially when compared to the previous few days). A bunch of Iccy's and Red-backed Shrikes have been turning up along the east coast, there was a Citrine Wag at Titchwell and Mark Golley found a Red-throated Pipit on Blakeney Point, but nothing so exciting for me unfortunately.

Late May Bank Holiday Weekend - what a let down!

It was all looking great for the weekend - easterly winds with fronts moving up from the continent bringing rain to ground those tired migrants. In reality it turned out to be as dull as the water flooding through the ditches from the opening heavens above. The highlight of the weekend was actually found in raptors. At Cley I witnessed a female Marsh Harrier take an adult Black-tailed Godwit. It grabbed hold of it on Simonds Scrape and carried it off to devour in the reedbeds. Also a rather close Barn Owl hunted close to the road at Lessingham (see below) at 10am in the morning.
Migrant-wise, a couple of Spotted Flycatchers and Lesser Whitethroats were all I managed to muster up.