Rotherhithe & Beyond

139 declared plus 10 ringers

2012-02-19T18:31:00.002Z

I got back from Ireland late last night after an excellent 8 days of action with Alan C and Staines. Following the last blog post, where we'd been up in the north of the Republic, the last 4 days saw us head south through Clare, into Limerick briefly, and then to the extreme southwest taking in Cork and Kerry.

juvenile Kumlien's Gull at Kilbaha, County Clare

On Wednesday, we hit the spots that you so often do when the seawatching's quiet at the Bridges of Ross. But this February, with wingers everywhere, there were a load of gulls at the mouth of the River Shannon. The highlight was a juvenile Kumlien's Gull on rocks to the east of The Lighthouse Inn, along with 2 1st-winter Med Gulls. While up at the lighthouse at Loop Head 6 Iceland Gulls were cruising on the thermals, and near Carrigaholt we found a further 4 Iceland Gulls lapping up Rinvella Bay. Chough were spiralling around too, and sharp-eyed Staines picked out a nice Otter chilling out along the shore at Kilbaha too.

After a nice morning's work, I wanted to see the Kumlien's Gull that had been lingering in Limerick. So within an hour or two, we were in Stab City and I was severely disappointed: -

tenuous to say the least...

Squint and you may just about get a bit of colouration in those primaries

Even the pigeon has turned its head away in shame after looking at that (lack of a) tail band

Anyway, a nice Ring-billed Gull that flew over livened up proceedings before we headed south and spent the night in Bantry. Awakening to a bright morning on Thursday, we mooched to the harbourside where a 1st-winter ringer was playing ball early doors along with a dopey looking Iceland Gull.

This dopey guy didn't fancy its chances with gulls of its own size, so kept with the smalls in Bantry harbour.

Having had our fill of these guys above, we headed west and were soon in on the action at Castletown Bearhaven in southwest Cork. Here, with a few trawlers going in and out of southwest Ireland's largest fishing port, it was another winger fest. There were 13 Iceland Gulls and 4 Glaucs, as well as an adult Ring-billed Gull and 3 Mediterranean Gulls (including a ringed adult bird).

A trawler bringing in a few larids into Castletown Bearhaven

G-Unit

The rest of Thursday was pretty desperate, and a sole 3rd-winter Iceland Gull out towards Firkeel was all that we could find on the rest of the Beara peninsular. We rocked up pretty early doors at Waterville, ready for the last couple of days of the trip in County Kerry. Friday morning was pretty murky, so much so that after a 20 minute look into Ballinskelligs Bay for scoter, we decided to chalk it due to poor visibility and headed around the coast to check out the gulls at Portmagee. Another 'white-winged gull', but not not one to add to the totals as this bird was presumably an adult Herring lacking pigmentation in its primaries, though its slightly paler mantle compared to some of the nearby Herring Gulls perhaps suggests it's a Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid? Structually, however, it fitted a Herring Gull.

Back to the real stuff though at Reenard Point, Cahersiveen. An adult Kumlien's Gull with darkish markings to P8-P10 was top of the haul, backed up by another 7 Iceland Gulls. Some lad from the nearby restaurant helped us out, emptying a load of fish scraps in front of us... which were devoured quickly by the gulls.

Note darkness on P10 extending onto both webs and down the primary shaft

Nearby on The Iveragh, the Spoonbill was still at Cromane, doing absolutely nothing but sleeping as usual, along with a second-winter Iceland Gull. However, we weren't going to hang about as the weather had closed in and we had more sites to hit and birds to see. Unfortunately the poor weather meant that we only gave Rossbeigh a token effort, as it was hopeless looking for scoter so who knows whether last year's rhinoceros was about? Probably not, but we couldn't be sure.

A super slick, relatively advanced 2nd-winter Iceland Gull at Reenard

The river just upstream of Blennerville had a couple of Ring-billed Gulls - an adult and a first-winter - while heading west along the north side of the Dingle peninsular produced my first Irish Lesser Scaup; a drake at the west end of Lough Gill. Despite there being 15 or so Greater Scaup on the lough, it kept with the Tufties. At Fermoyle, with relatively decent seas due to it being sheltered, there were 1000s of Common Scoter and a careful search through them produced a quality count of 12 Velvets and a Long-tailed Duck. The last hour or so of light was spent at Milltown, Dingle watching gulls come into the estuary and have a pre-roost wash. Again, there were loads of Iceland Gulls - 7 in total - plus a bird that seemed to fit the bill for a 2nd winter Kumlien's Gull. Whatever Kumlien's Gulls are anyway?

Note the uniformly biscuit-coloured primaries, darkening towards the tips.

The next morning we headed back out to Milltown and spent a couple of hours watching the gulls again before breakfast. There was a real dark juvenile argentatus that had me going for a short while, before it decided to bare its rump. The previous day's Kumlien's-type Gull was still about, as was another bird that looked very similar; perhaps slightly paler on the body though it had retained a dark eye. I've seen worse Kumlien's claims this winter in Britain, but let's be honest, 2nd-winter Kumlien's Gulls this side of the spectrum can be proper bullsh*tter's birds and we don't necessarily know what's going on between Newfoundland and Iceland. Sure, these are northwestern birds but that's as far as you can often go.

Typical scene from this week's trip - a Glauc, a Kumlien's and 2 Iceland Gulls

Just one of 110 seen during the week

Anyway, a tour of other sites produced a couple more Iceland Gulls at Ferriter's Cove, though they quickly dispersed as some scrotes decided to practice their golf swing on the beach flushing all the gulls in the process. The final afternoon of the trip was spent bashing some sites close to Tralee - the highlight being a nice adult Ring-billed Gull at Barrow harbour and an adult Glaucous Gull at Carrahane Strand.

Kittiwake in Dingle harbour

So, that's that. Despite lacking that little bit of proper bang - something like a Thayer's - I ended up seeing 4 Kumlien's Gulls (adult, 2 2nd winters, juvenile), 110 Iceland Gulls (25 adults/near adults, 4 3rd winters, 35 2nd winters, 46 juveniles), 25 Glaucous Gulls (2 adults, 1 3rd winter, 8 2nd winters, 14 juveniles) and 10 Ring-billed Gulls (7 adults, 1 2nd winter, 2 1st winters).

Surely worth more than £35?

Add in an American Black Duck, a Lesser Scaup, 4 vagrant Canada Geese, a Black Brant, 2 Ring-necked Ducks and a Tundra Bean Goose and it's easy to see why I'd recommend a week of chilled out birding along the Irish west coast in winter.

77 wingers so far...

2012-02-14T22:16:00.000Z

I've been in Ireland since late Friday night, doing a bit of a tour along the west coast. Earlier today, the three of us (me, Alan C and Staines) hit Nimmo's Pier for a bit of a winger photo feast. Loads of signs up telling the locals not to feed swans etc with white, stale or mouldy bread so we whacked a load of wholemeal into the melee and got a pretty average 6 Icelands (4 juvs and 2 second-winters) and a couple of adult Ring-billed Gulls.

Mr Biscuit

Adult ringer - does what it says on the tin

We had a quick cruise west along Galway bay to Rossaveal where, amongst a load of Herrings, was a solitary juvenile Glaucous Gull; a pretty poor haul compared to what I've had here in the past. Rahasane Turlough was full of birds - 1000s of Wigeon and Teal - but no sign of the hoped for drake American Wigeon. We then headed into Clare, where the highlight of a rather tough afternoon was an adult Ring-billed Gull on the beach at Lahinch. No sign of any Surfers in the bay though.

I spent the previous three days up north, starting with a bit of a dip at Enniskillen where we had a go for the putative Thayer's Gull seen earlier last week. Sligo held half a dozen Iceland Gulls, including these bad boys on the river: -

adult Iceland Gull

a dopy looking juvenile Iceland Gull

There were 3 Richardson's Canada Geese at Ballintemple, Sligo - status quo for this fine site, in amongst the masses of Barnacle Geese. And Killybegs held 26 wingers too (20 Icelands and 6 Glaucs) plus a hybrid presumed Glauc x Herring.

Mayo was good value, and as we headed into the county on Sunday we stopped off in Balina where there was a fairly retarded 2nd-winter Ring-billed Gull complete with a pinkish toned bill and largely dark eye - plenty of the birds I saw in Canada back in December, and the vagrants I've seen over here previously, are much more adult-type in appearance.

What a retard

Just to the north, Killala Bay produced a quality Black Brant in amongst the Pale-bellied Brents as well as further Glaucs and Icelands.

Little and large

After another fitful night's sleep in accommodation (my mother and Karen will be proud!), we headed out to the wild, wild west and did The Mullet where there were wingers everywhere - Icelands seemed to love the fields where we saw 16 in total while the windswept coasts were where those big beastly Glaucs were hanging out, including one on a rather long dead whale carcass.

JJ had raved about a large, long-necked Canada Goose he'd seen a few weeks back at Termoncarragh and after a fair bit of searching we managed to find it in amongst a mixed bag of geese including 2 Tundra Beans (presumably an absolute mega Mayo record), 3 Greenland Whitefronts and a few Icelandic Greylags.

After the Mullet, we headed south taking in Carrowmore Lake where a couple of Ring-necked Ducks were hanging about with the Tufted Ducks, before heading onto Achill Island for the last couple of hours of light. Checking a fish factory was really disappointing, though there were a couple of Glaucs in the scenic setting of Keel beach before finishing off as per usual with the drake Black Duck at Sruhill Lough.

So, to date, nothing amazingly special but relaxing, good company and 77 white-winged gulls so far. See what the next few days bring - just doing this post from The Lighthouse Inn in Kilbaha with a decent pint of Guiness next to me...Loop and the surroundings in the morning.

Cracking cach in the snow

2012-02-05T18:00:00.000Z

So this year's helping of snow comes to South London and, well, I can say that they'd learnt from their mistakes. It was with remarkable ease that I got to Crossness this morning, taking little over my usual time. So well done to Southwark, Lewisham and Greenwich for doing a good job and keeping the roads going.

And a good job I got to Crossness as I located an absolutely cracking 1st-winter Caspian Gull off the golf centre early afternoon - the first 1st-winter I'd seen here for ages, and easily the best age in terms of looks for this cracking species gull. Just have a look at these shots and tell me that Casps aren't totally beautiful: -

As obvious as Casps get!

A Caspian torpedo... nice dark centred tertials lacking any notching

Scaps here show nice anchors and transverse barring, as you'd expect

Noticeably white-headed with a long, parallel-sided bill lacking much in the way of an obvious gonys

Matchstick legs

Black primaries and secondaries contrastingly nicely with the chocolate brown upperwing coverts; also nice pale tips to the greater coverts. A whitish rump contrasting with the black tail band

Not the cleanest Casp in terms of its underwing... but palish central area

Normally a bit of the white stuff causes a bit of movement, and for sure that happened today. There weren't any wild geese or swans, but 11 Golden Plover over by the outfall mid-morning were the first I'd seen at Crossness, and for John A too, the first truly on the patch (as birds at Rainham can sometimes be seen from the Belvedere end of the Thames Path). I managed to miss 5 Goldeneye off the golf centre just before I arrived, but several Grey Plovers (at least 7) were mincing about and the Bar-tailed Godwit was still on the foreshore. A few Meadow Pipits and a Skylark moving overhead, and a load of Snipe frozen out and on the foreshore.

Common Snipe on the foreshore

A bit of colour

2012-02-04T19:38:00.002Z

I spent the day locally again, and in the bitter cold had a few bits and bobs along The Thames. The early morning highlight were 8 obliging Grey Plovers, the most I'd ever seen at Crossness.

Grey Plover on a grey day

There were a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls hanging around too, and given their individual distinctiveness, at least a 1st-winter and two 2nd-winters were some of the usual suspects. It was decent to see 20 or so Tufted Ducks over the river - evidence of a freeze up elsewhere - but John A and I were in the paddocks (where the highlight was a Stonechat!) when 3 Smew may have flown downriver, as they passed Rainham mid-morning. I also had one colour-ringed Herring Gull (probably a Suffolk bird) before I sacked it off as the tide was high and not much was moving.

A check of the local water bodies revealed a fair bit of ice, but there were 30 or so Pochard on Southmere, a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull as well as a couple of larids with rings - one predictable NTGG bird and then a blue-ringed LBB Gull. It'll be interesting to find out where this bird came from as I've not had one of these before: -

Blue-ringed 2nd-winter LBBG

John A and I then headed to Crayford, and checked the area around Viridor recycling centre. There was at least one nice adult Mediterranean Gull and three ringed Herring Gulls (one NTGG bird and two from Sussex): -

Sussex-ringed Herring Gulls (white rings with black writing) are quite regular in the London area during the winter

Retarded 2cy Common Gull... an interesting bird

We headed back to Crossness, where we met up with Ian M, and saw a nice Bar-tailed Godwit in amongst a good count of 266 Blackwits on the foreshore. It appeared diminutive amongst the Blackwits, but didn't lack agression - perhaps it had a complex, just like many small men do?

A pretty unusual midwinter Barwit at Crossness

colour-ringed Blackwit - think it's from a Suffolk ringing project...

With not much else moving at Crossness, I spent the last hour or so at Rotherhithe in the hope of some cold weather something or other. Not to be, although the Tufted Duck flock has built up to a winter high with 134 counted (84 on Greenland Dock) as well as 2 drake Pochard; loads of gulls on the Thames and a couple of Egyptian Geese looking as stupid as ever on Canada Water.

Frustratingly, probably the best birds of the day eluded me - as I was heading to Crossness early on, I had a skein of grey geese (presumably Pinks) north over Woolwich. But by the time I'd stopped and grabbed my bins, they were too far off to be sure.

Marsh gull?

2012-02-03T00:03:00.000Z

Last night, one of my mates Lee Gregory emailed me a couple of shots of an interesting looking, dark mantled and bubblegum pink-legged Herring-type Gull he'd seen at his local roost. Not that I could tell him much he didn't know anyway (as he's one of the best, most understated birders I know) - I'd never seen Vega Gull, and he'd done all the homework already.

Anyway, a feature that Lee's bird showed was an obvious reddish orbital ring. Have a look at this adult Herring Gull that was ringed on the tip on the tip on 14th January, and I'd previously mentioned I'd do a quick post on it. Presumably it emanates from a Baltic population - it was relatively dark mantled with a pretty prominent red/orange eye ring. The wing tip pattern is between argentatus and argenteus.

Note the obviously bright orbital ring

Obvious white tip to P10 like an argentatus; dark notch to the outer web of P5 that you'd expect on an argenteus

Again, the obvious red/orange orbital ring visible here

Be interesting to see where YJ1T turns up; look at the obviously pink legs

It's either a hybrid (presumably a back cross) or its a bird from the omissus zone in southern Sweden - apparently these birds can either have pink or yellow legs, as over time plenty of argentatus genes have infiltrated into the former subspecies omissus. Paul Roper was sufficiently interested in this bird that a colour ring was whacked on it, in the hope that a ringing recovery may shed further light.... interesting stuff.

Going Dutch

2012-01-31T23:56:00.000Z

Got the history of this Herring Gull '1A' that I saw on the tip on Saturday: -

Ringed as a pullus on 2nd July 2007 by Roland-Jan Buijs at Vlissingen-Oost, Zeeland, The Netherlands. It has since spent much of its time on the European North Sea coast, in Belgium, France and The Netherlands. Here are its full details: -

14-2-2008 Blaringhem, Nord, FRANCE

23-5-2008 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

5-6-2008 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

8-8-2008 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

13-8-2008 Zeebrugge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

17-8-2008 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

10-10-2008 Zeebrugge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

29-1-2009 Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

26-2-2009 Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

10-7-2009 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

30-8-2009 Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, BELGIUM

10-4-2010 Westkapelle, Zeeland, NETHERLANDS

22-11-2011 Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, FRANCE

28-1-2012 Pitsea, Essex, ENGLAND

Interesting stuff. Thanks to Roland-Jan Buijs for sending through all this info.

Rotherhithe today

2012-01-29T23:53:00.001Z

There's always something rewarding about seeing stuff out of the ordinary in such an urban, birdless hinterland such as Rotherhithe. And predictably, if you're not looking through the gulls or ducks in the winter, you'll see nothing. So that's why I only rarely venture away from the waterside at this time of year. With only a limited amount of free time today, I stuck to the Thames and had a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls - a third-winter and a brief second-winter.

Third-winter Yellow-legged Gull chilling on the mud by the Hilton Hotel - same bird as I saw on my birthday 3 weeks ago.

Trying to boss the show... until the GBBGs turned up.

2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull bombing upriver; a different bird to the two last Sunday. Again note the lack of any mirror on P10

And that's another weekend over and back to the birding abyss until next Saturday morning.

Garbage gulls

2012-01-28T21:47:00.000Z

Back on the tip again today, once again really enjoyable and got more involved than the last time. An adult Med Gull soared around early on as we were setting up - shame it didn't end up in our catch as I'd loved to have seen one close up. But here it is flying around.

We did a couple of catches, mainly Herrings today with a fair few of those real brutes - GBBGs. Nice to see them in the hand like this: -

Being obvious and pretty much monotypic, you don't really look too hard at GBBGs - but good to see a spread wing

2cy GBBG with its new bling

And also one of the birds in the nets was a Norwegian control, just like this bird that I managed to ring read as it chilled out on one of the mounds: -

adult GBBG 'JH413'; ringed at Mandar, Vest-Agder, Norway on 3rd June 2011 and last reported in Norway on 19th August 2011.

I had a go at a bit of bird handling, and now used to Black-headed Gulls. They're pretty meagre really, and only give you a quick nip even if they're going at you full throttle.

3cy Black-headed Gull - note the retained dark feathering on the primary-coverts

And then I just about managed to deal with the a bit of large gull action. I was glad that I didn't venture any bigger than Herring Gulls, as there was a fair bit of blood being drawn by those GBBGs...

Once the ringing had finished, I headed back to the south [best] side of the river, and spent the last couple of hours of light unsuccessfully looking for a Bittern at Crossness. Another decent day locally.

Classic Casp at Crossness

2012-01-22T20:20:00.000Z

Another blustery day, and after the usual mooch around Rotherhithe and a quick check of Greenwich Creek, arrived at Crossness shortly after 9am. John A had located a pretty decent Casp candidate that had drifted downriver and, a short while later, I located presumably the same bird just gliding nice and relaxed over the outfall. The views were dire to start, but even head on the gauky big bill and small eye combined with a dock off white P10 tip suggested this would be the real deal. And it was, with no bling compared to yesterday, and a new individual for the year (close to the bird on 1st-2nd Jan in appearance): -

What you'd expect on the deck... both structurally and also the large amount of white in the primaries

Note the rather narrow, slightly broken band to P5

That's what a pale tongue to P10 looks like! Check out the right wing.

This adult lingered for an hour or so this morning, drifting between the outfall and round the bend to the west beyond the lighthouse. There was also a 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull around but with the tide high, I headed off to Thamesmere. Despite people looking during the week with a blank, I refound the female Ferruginous Duck in the reeds and alerted John, Ian and Steve. It was elusive and, still not feeling great, didn't want to be messed around by a grubby duck so didn't linger too long. From what I saw, it had more of a subterminal band near the bill base than I remembered/noted last Sunday. However, John later suggested to me that it wasn't too pronounced and that a wing stretch - revealing an extensive wing bar almost the length of the wing - was decent enough.

I had a bit of chilling out at Canada Water when I got back to Rotherhithe, enjoying this punk: -

Then I headed back home and on the Thames late a'noon, managed to find a couple of 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gulls in amongst the large gulls that often congregate here on Sundays due to the lack of tipping. Note the lack of a mirror to P10 in both birds, with bird 1 a lot more retarded in moult, iris colour and bare parts than bird 2: -

Bird 1

Bird 2

Bird 2 on the deck

Immigrants from the NW and Poland

2012-01-21T20:24:00.000Z

Nope, this isn't a Daily Mail style rant about London's growing population. After checking the river by our flat and then the lake at Burgess Park early doors with again no Med Gull, I headed to school for a few hours and the gulling had to be interrupted. While I was ramming the usefulness of different flood defence methods down my GCSE students' necks for their exam early next week, Kev J and Mick S had pulled a winger out of the bag at Crayford. A nice 2nd-winter Iceland Gull and, believe it or not, the first I'd seen this winter.

A couple of my shots showed a fairly obvious tail band but this really wasn't the case in the flesh, and highlights the danger of going off single images for some identifications. For some reason, this year's influx/wreck seem to have a disproportionate amount of this age.

So, having been able to enjoy a gull without a little bit of head scratching, it was back to Cross Ness where this bird was straight out from where I parked my car and on the Thames foreshore. What was immediately apparent was that it looked like a Caspian Gull and, a first for me, it was wearing a bit of bling.

Note the green ring with white writing on the right tarsus

Dobry wieczor!

Pretty confident that the green ring this bird was wearing meant that it'd be from Poland (yeah, home to mixed colonies of cachinnans, michahellis and argentatus!), I vaguely recalled that Dom had a ringed Casp from that neck of the woods a short while back at Rainham. So I texted him whilst Kev J, Mick S and I watched this eastern block of a bird. I was struggling with the wind to read the ring, as well as the bird being on the tideline being meaning its feet were in the water. But I managed to get '3P' as the last couple of digits before Dom's text arrived saying '355P'. Bang... nice stuff and it is the same bird that was superbly photographed by Dom here (note the totally different stance/jizz as today the bird was facing into a fierce blow) and Mick S will have much better shots at some point here from today. Aged as a near adult due to the fact that it had retained dark markings on the primary-coverts, these match up too with those on Dom's images.

Nice pale outer web to P10 with large white subterminal mirrors to both P9 and P10; also note the retained feathering on the primary coverts ageing it as a near adult/4th winter

Typically long-winged feel to the bird with a small beady eye even obvious in this flight shot

The bird was ringed in 2008, apparently in a mixed colony and unidentified at the time(!) like all pullus ringed in such situations - so this just shows the events we're dealing with when it comes to birds over here. By probability, you've got to assume that a lot of our Caspian-type birds are from the west/northwest of the range and the gene pool is rather diluted. Makes a change though for field birders to be telling ringers what their birds are... or at least trying to.

And dobry wieczor is good afternoon in Polish.

(S?)AHG at Nimmo's Pier

2012-01-20T23:52:00.000Z

I've got one of those stinking head colds, feel dog rough and my head is banging. So what do I go and do - decide to have a punt at the Nimmo's Pier adult smithsonianus - a bird I've seen almost annually in recent years.

This bird hasn't come back yet this winter (though it wasn't seen until 5th February last year), but it's interesting to look at this bird in the light of what I saw in Ontario, the Corvo bird in October 2011, the Adriaens & Mactavish article and then some correspondence I've been having with a Canadian guller Kevin McLaughlin. Here are some shots (the first two are mine, and I'd like to thank Tom Cuffe for the four excellent flight shots): -

Photo 1. adult American Herring Gull, Nimmo's Pier, Galway, Ireland March 2008; note the heavy rather blotchy head and neck shawl

Photo 2. It was a big, bulky bird in the field; this shot shows a nice P10 mirror, with an extensive black tip and no obvious signs of a pale tongue on the inner web of this feather either (which you'd be looking for on a 'classic' Newfoundland bird)

Photo 3. A small mirror to P10 on this photo, as well as a subterminal black 'U' to P5

Photo 4. There's an obvious lack of any pale tongue to the outer primary, P10.

Photo 5. Another photo that illustrates the lack of a pale tongue to the underside of P10, and shows nicely the subterminal 'U' on P5.

Photo 6. Note the solid black to the webs of P8-P10. You'd be expecting much more extensive grey inner webs to P8 and P9 on classic Newfoundland birds.

So what do all these features mean? Well, you're never going to be able to know for sure but there are a couple of things that go against this bird being a classic Newfoundland bird: -
- the lack of a pale tongue to P10
- one mirror on P10 only
- the inner webs to the outer primaries (P8-P10) are wholly dark with no obvious grey bleeding through, which is an obvious feature of Newfoundland birds.

Compare Photo 6 with this bird I took in Ontario in December 2011: -

Photo 7. Pretty similar in extent of black on P8 to P10 compared to the Nimmo's bird, with no grey bleeding through on the inner webs to the outer primaries

And then Photo 5 with this bird from Ontario too: -

Photo 8. Note the similar mirror to P10 and also the similarity of the darkness extending down on P10.

So what is the Nimmo's Pier bird. Is it a 'southern' American Herring Gull i.e. a bird from the Great Lakes? You can only speculate of course, but the feedback from Canadians on the Nimmo's bird is that it shows an outer wing pattern very much like the prototype AHG that breeds in Hamilton [Ontario]... and shows an average sized mirror confined to P10. It most certainly does not resemble a typical NAHG (Newfoundland type)'.

Though I'm sure some stuff about this bird has been written somewhere else on the web, perhaps this is of interest. In conclusion, this bird doesn't fit a classic Newfoundland bird (NAHG) - it doesn't exhibit that pale inner web (tongue) to P10 a la Caspian Gull - and if it hadn't been tracked throughout its life (having first turned up as a juvenile in 2004), then I imagine it would have slipped through the net.

Thanks to Kevin McLaughlin, Derek Charles and Tom Cuffe.

Bagging them up

2012-01-18T23:54:00.001Z

I mentioned that the Saturday just gone I'd joined the NTGG, and helped out in just a small way with the 276 gulls ringed. I must say that I was extremely impressed with the professionalism and concern for the welfare of the birds, as well as the openness of Paul et al in letting me come along and see what happens.

As it turned out, it was a really tricky day, as the gulls just wouldn't settle in the range of the nets despite the compactor drivers really trying hard to entice them down. While all this was happening, I joined Chris and Richard and scanned the tip. I picked out a 1st-winter Caspian Gull and an adult Yellow-legged Gull but due to the sunlight and where they were tipping, the main feeding frenzy was just out of view. A couple of Sussex-ringed, rehabilitated Herring Gulls (an adult and a first-winter) as well as a 1st-winter Great Black-backed Gull that had been ringed in Norway. And then all of a sudden it went bang and this is what happened...

The captured gulls were all really docile, and seemed to know what was going on more or less. We bagged them all and then they all got ringed on site - unlike the dinner queue at school, where the big ones go first, it was Black-heads, then Commons, Herrings and then the brutish GBBs that scurried around in their bags like nothing I'd ever seen before. And then they bit a few people for good measure once extracted and being ringed.

Smile... more on this character at some other point

Fudge Find

2012-01-15T23:04:00.001Z

I had another good day out close to home today; always the best way, grilling birds along the river and in the parks of southeast London. As it turned out, the best bird seen was at the last site visited - Thamesmere; a small lake by the Morrison's car park in salubrious Thamesmead. John A and I stopped off here on the way home, as we'd had enough of the cold and, away from the main flock of aythyas initially and hiding in the reeds, I found a female Ferruginous Duck. Probably the first for the London borough of Greenwich apparently. It was with 30 Pochard and 15 Tufted Duck, looked wild and didn't seem to show any hybrid characters. Apologies for the shots... my digiscoping camera battery had ran out and it was just a bit too distant for the SLR as these illustrate.

female Ferruginous Duck at Thamesmere

So, what else happened today? I got to Greenland Pier in the hope that Dave Mo's Brent Goose from Battersea would make it downriver to Rotherhithe, but it had other ideas. Had a 1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull on the groynes, and then it was off to check Burgess Park for a bit - no Med Gull again (I haven't seen it since early December) but there was a NTGG-ringed (red/orange ring with black writing) 1st-winter Herring Gull I'd not seen before.

1st-winter Yellow-legged Gull, Rotherhithe

So I sacked it off and headed a short way east to Crossness late morning. John A had already scored heavily with 11 Tundra Bean Geese east early morning, so I met him at Southmere where he quickly found this bird. Initially it looked absolutely bang on for a Casp with a nice slightly dark grey mantle, long parallel-sided bill, long-winged and significant white in the primaries. However this bird shows a relatively large, pale eye and although there's a nice white tip to P10, there's quite a significant amount of dark in the primary shaft. Could this bird possibly be something from the hybrid zone in Poland? Not sure and any useful comments appreciated.

I needed some grub after this perplexing ordeal, so headed off to get a pasty, while in the meantime missed an adult Kittiwake off the golf centre. Serves me right for again not making sandwiches. Anyway, there was a nice selection of bits and pieces, including a load of large g's on the mud - including three with bling. One NTGG group Herring Gull, a Suffolk-ringed Herring Gull and then a Norwegian Great Black-backed Gull.

JN252; ringed at Keila, Hjelmsøy, Måsøy, Finnmark, Norway on 11th June 2008 and this was the first recovery - a straight line distance of 1313 miles

More head scratching as we found another gull on the Thames foreshore. A real beast of a bird, obviously massive and leggy - just look at its size compared to the GBB! I had a 1st-winter Casp on the river a couple of years ago that almost matched this bird in size.

This bird was a near-adult, presumably a 4th winter with some dark smudgings on its primary coverts. Stilt legs, though not too spindly.

Then in flight this bird showed what you want in a Casp, with a nice pale tongue to the underside of P10.

Obviously this bird lacks a bit of maturity, but the wingtips seem pretty developed with an obvious pale outer web to the underside of P10. However, argentatus Herring Gulls can show pretty similar primary patterning to Casps - just compare this wing of an argentatus that I photographed in the hand yesterday.

Extensive pale tip to P10 and lack of any black on P5 put this within the range of argentatus in the ringer's book

Gulls - the good and the ugly

2012-01-14T23:54:00.001Z

In from a bit of a manic day, travelling down to Dungeness for my final KOS rarities panel meeting - 5 years done and dusted, enjoyed my time and I'd recommend anyone to do something like this at some stage if they can. The half hour before the meeting was spent with a longstaying northern beast of a Glaucous Gull.

the resident 3cy Glauc at Dunge

Before this, I had an early start and a morning with the gulls and the NTGG this morning. Really enjoyed it and learnt a lot about Herring Gulls too, with several argentatus studied in the hand; useful to understand how they're raced... more to come at some stage on this.

gulls on the tip

A nice adult Herring Gull

but not everyone is born with good looks...

SAHG

2012-01-14T00:36:00.001Z

Photo 1. The adult culprit, Corvo, October 2011

You may remember back in late October I posted about a ‘Herring Gull’ that I saw on Corvo. Expert commentary on this came from Peter Adriaens, co-author of the seminal paper on adults in a European context (pdf of it here) – and he was helpful and honest as ever.

Peter concluded that there was nothing wrong for it being an American Herring Gull, but the lack of a Casp-like long pale tongue on P10 immediately reduced the chances of reliable identification. 69% of Newfoundland birds ('northern' American Herring Gulls, NAHGs) showed this feature in the sample that his article is based on. Pro AHG features included the all black outer edge to P10 (not broken by the white mirror) and the thin black W pattern on P5; as well as some bayoneting.

Photo 2. Note the leading edge of the wing is black, not broken by the P10 mirror and there is no mirror on P9. 90% of SAHGs show no mirror in P9 just like this. Keep reading...

I bloody said it at the time to Arthur when we saw the bird ‘I bet this is an American Herring Gull, it feels like one, looks like one but reckon it’s not one of those classics so we’ll never 100% clinch it’. And so I was right. This was not a pale-tongued NAHG that you could do for sure.

Photo 3. Still looks a real brute alongside this 1cy atlantis Yellow-legged Gull

So, I kind of left it at that, relatively happy that I’d remain unhappy with the predicament of being closer than close but never a cigar. Roll on December 2011 and a Canadian trip. Here I met up with some local gullers, and this is where my eyes really started to open. These guys watch AHGs all the time, know them inside out - better than us Europeans claiming expert status on sporadic trips/internet birding - and just like we make calls on argentatus and argenteus, it’s possible to make judgements on SAHGs (Great Lake birds) and NAHGs in the field. Interesting stuff.

Photo 4. adult SAHG, Toronto, December 2011; a classic individual, if not with a sightly larger than average white mirror in P10 that extends onto the leading edge of wing. Look at underside of P10 where the black extends way down the primary shaft, with no inkling of that casp-like pale tongue.

Photo 5. Compare the upperside of this bird's left wing (P5 to P10) with that of photo 2. Looks pretty bang on to me.

Kevin McLaughlin has really helped me out and I’ll be eternally grateful for this. SAHGs normally either show a wing pattern of a variable mirror on P10 (sometimes breaching the outer web) OR occasionally a mirror on P10 and a smaller mirror on P9, and a nice subterminal band on P5. The SAHGs in Toronto/Niagara also tallied with what Adriaens and Mactavish said about these birds compared to the Newfoundland NAHGs – ‘shorter grey tongues to P8-10, often no white mirror on P9 (in 90% of those examined), usually a complete black band on p5, and some black on p4 in quite a few birds. All birds had an uninterrupted black band between the white mirror and tip of P10.’

Photo 6. The exception rather than the norm - a SAHG with mirrors on P9 and P10, the latter extending across both webs.

Photo 7. An example of a SAHG with a black marking in P4; it seems as though this bird has dropped P6

Adriaens and Mactavish went on to say that SAHGs appeared smaller, with shorter legs, less sturdy bills, and more rounded heads than Newfoundland birds. So, what with these SAHGs not showing a pale square-ended tongue to the underside of P10 like your classic NAHGs, in a European context you’re more or less f*cked to be able to pick these boys out than brutish NAHGs?

Photo 8. Short-legged and variable head streaking. What I did find was that SAHGs leg colour was consistently bubblegum pink unlike the variability we see in European birds. Compare to photos 1 and 3.

I’ll come to that in a few days... or has a SAHG already occurred in Europe? It's certainly a less than classic NAHG. Have a look here and: -

Photo 9. The regular Nimmo's AHG. Any chance this bird would have passed the test if it hadn't been tracked? I'm currently looking for some underwing shots in flight, so if you have any please email me.

Birthday gulling

2012-01-08T23:52:00.000Z

Sorry if you thought that I'd been to Killybegs, judging by the title. But unfortunately the hordes of white-winged gulls in the north and the west will have to wait a few weeks... but I'll be there for sure, in what seems to be a bumper year for wingers given the recent dearth over the last couple of winters.

But back to today. I had a lie in of sorts, jolly well deserved given it was my birthday. Just as I'd got up and about, John A called to say that Kittiwakes were on the move at Crossness; he'd had 6 west (upriver and in my direction) in half an hour. So I got ready and walked the 100 metres or so to Greenland Pier. Predictably nada in the Kittiwake scores (I've only ever had a couple here) but a 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull - complete with its blood red orbital ring - was at home on one of the groynes by the Thames Clipper stop. It felt like a truly urban gull, and the first one of the year here in Rotherhithe (had a couple - different birds - at the back end of 2011).

3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull

Mooched around, had a nice brunch at a restaurant locally, read a couple of Black-headed Gull rings (the Belgian bird from 28th December was still around, along with some BTO rings), photographed some common stuff to pass the time and that was that. Another weekend gone.

1st-winter Common Gull

Junco in Hants

2012-01-07T23:52:00.003Z

I had a really enjoyable, chilled out day with Karen and my parents in Hampshire today - got some decent enough views of the 1st-winter male Dark-eyed Junco that has been mooching around a car park and clear fell area near Beaulieu in the New Forest for the last week or so. The bird was associating with a few Reed Buntings, feeding continuously and pretty restless in its behaviour.

A hungry Junco

Remarkably this is only the second Dark-eyed Junco that I've seen in Britain and Ireland; the previous one being in Chester in 1998 that kept me busy feeding it; good memories of going to see it during free lessons and lunchtimes while in sixth form. They've been rather thin on the ground though recently, so this one seemed to be well appreciated. Plenty of Crossbills around this area too, but a late afternoon visit to Walpole Boating Lake, Gosport, failed to produce the hoped for Ring-billed Gull.

Hawkhill Inclosure, New Forest

Russian ring recovery

2012-01-03T23:32:00.000Z

Had a really quick response to the colour-ringed Black-headed Gull I saw on New Year's day. The bird was ringed as a chick at Sosnovaya Polyana, St. Petersburg, Russia, on 10th June 2010 and its ringer, Dmitrijs Boiko, stated this was the first recovery of this bird since it was ringed. 1,280 miles from Crossness - Excellent stuff!

1,280 miles from St.Petersburg, Russia to Crossness, London

A Russian 3rd calendar year (just!!) Black-headed Gull

This is my first Russian-ringed Black-headed Gull I've had to date, but it's no surprise really considering a lot of the Thames winter gulls seem to push in from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Also, two Lesser Black-backed Gulls (UL0T and GN6T) from New Year's day were much more typical - birds from the NTGG, with 1 from Rainham and 1 from Pitsea.

A bit more Casp loving

2012-01-02T17:43:00.000Z

I left it pretty late to get out this morning, wanting to make the most of the last day of the holidays to have a decent sleep. But when I'd decided what to do, and on my way to Crossness, John A phoned to say that the adult Casp (the same as the one I'd found yesterday) was showing relatively well in the decent sunlight. Given that there wasn't a single Casp at Crossness in 2011, it was rude not to get amongst this classic beast from the east once again.

A total classic - beady, dark eye, parallel-sided bill with slight dark marking on gonys, tepid-coloured legs

Lovely sloped forehead, slightly dark mantle (on a par with argentatus perhaps, though lacking the bluish tinge) and loads of white in those primaries - a nice extensive white tip to P10

Rather burnt out image! But nice bayonets, with grey of the outer primaries extending into the black wingtips on the inner webs, on the upperwing, extensive white tip to P10 and pale underwing tongue.

Nice shot of the extensive pale tongue to P10, with the outer web wholly pale, and a narrow black band on the inner web. P9 with similarly extensive white tip to P10 with a slight black subterminal mark.

Once the Casp headed off over the river, having watching it for a fair while, I had a quick walk to the outfall - where there was little - and then back to the car.

Teal at Crossness - glad I don't have to grub around in the Thames mud for my dinner

Rotherhithe was pretty slow, with just the usuals in Russia Dock Woodland last knock-ins and this lovely breeding plumaged Herring Gull.

Midlands gull roost watchers be warned... it's that time of the year again. Do not use the 'white-headed' approach to Yellow-legged Gull identification; some Herring Gulls have already completed their head moult, feeling rather frisky too

Crossness casp & colour-ringed ridibundus

2012-01-01T18:02:00.000Z

Happy New Year by the way. I headed out just shy of 8 this morning to Crossness, and it was another one of those grim, grey mornings that made the Thames foreshore that bit more depressing that it often is. That is, until John A received a call from Dave Mo the other side of the river to say that there were a couple of Dark-bellied Brents sat on the mud in Barking Bay. Nice they were too, and a result for the day. While watching these birds, I scanned the near line of gulls - where there'd been a couple of 1st-winter Yellow-leggeds when I arrived - and there bang in the centre of my scope was a quality adult Caspian Gull, complete with the oft-quoted beady eye, rounded forehead and pale tongue to the underside of p10. At 9.40am, was this the first cachinnans of the year on British turf?

Caspo El Clasico. Almost as good to watch as Barcelona?

John A and I then had a mooch around Southmere, Thamesmead, where I found this bad boy, sporting a bit of bling. Seems like it's come to get us from Russia with Love... well, Latvia to be accurate. I reckon it's pretty nailed on from this ringing scheme.

presumed Latvian-ringed Black-headed Gull

South paddock was crap, although a Buzzard was half decent, and then we headed back to the river where the two Brents had flown a lot closer.

A check of the protected area and the paddocks produced nothing of real interest. Then the heavens opened, as the weather people had predicted, so I headed home with a sodden coat. Some things never change. Will I ever learn to go birding in suitable attire?

Review of 2011

2011-12-31T19:38:00.005Z

So after the final a'noon of the year, discovering that the Rotherhithe Egyptian Goose had grown to 4, getting a Greylag Goose ring and recording my 2011 high for Shoveler (24), as well as completing my species accounts for the 2009 LBR - perhaps it's time to look back at what has been a really excellent, bird-filled year. I've seen a lot of good birds, found some nice stuff too and had a damn good time on my travels lapping up as much as I can. Hope everyone reading this has enjoyed the year as much as I have. Best wishes to all for 2012.

January
After spending the New Year in a 'dry' country, I spent the first couple of days of 2011 birding in Kuwait with the Belgians (Vincent L, David M and Fred V), where Ashy Drongo, Indian Roller and some of the usual Kuwait specials were gladly seen.

Ashy Drongo

Locally, the 4 Scaup that I'd found in December lingered throughout on the dock just outside my flat.

February
I eventually managed to catch up with what may or may not get accepted as Britain's first Slaty-backed Gull mid-month, and just a few days later I was packing my bags again and off to those magical islands in the mid-Atlantic with Josh J. We had an excellent time, spending it on Terceira, Sao Miguel, Faial and Pico where a whole host of yankage was seen with a bit found too - Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron, 2 Pied-billed Grebes, Bufflehead, Lesser Scaup, American Coot, 7 Blue-winged Teal, 3 American Wigeons, 4 Ring-necked Ducks, Semipalmated Plover, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, two Lesser Yellowlegs, two Bonaparte's Gulls, American Herring Gull and 28 Ring-billed Gulls. I rounded the month off with a visit to Chipping Norton, enjoying the Oriental Turtle Dove.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Bufflehead

March
While I headed back to school after the Azores, JJ went over to Ireland with Staines and found a first. This made me pay a visit to the glorious coast of County Kerry where the drake Stejneger's Scoter was seen in all its glory, as well as a couple of wingers nearby (in what was again a poor year for them in Ireland). Locally things were very quiet.

Stejneger's Scoter

Iceland Gull

April
I was off again - with JJ and Staines - and had a quality few days birding in Portugal and Spain early in the month. The Ruppell's Vulture at Vila Velha played ball while birding the Spanish steppes near Trujillo took me back to an area where I'd been to with my parents back in the day. Great and Little Bustards, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Eagle Owl plus many, many more made for a really enjoyable trip.

Little Bustard

Ruppell's Vulture

With a bonus day of holiday for the Royal Wedding, I made the most of this and had a quick trip over to Santiago, Cape Verdes - with Mick F and Rick M - where there was a treble of WP herons for me. They all showed themselves (three Intermediate Egrets, two Black Herons and a single Black-headed Heron) at Barragem de Poilao, while it was really good to get in on a few of the island's endemics again. Red-billed Tropicbirds on the cliffs at Praia were memorable, and the close views of Fea's Petrels at sea, just before night fell and they come inland, were decent too.

Black Heron

Red-billed Tropicbird

Black-headed Heron

May
All was quiet locally, with Sand Martins and Common Terns having returned to breed on the patch. Late in the month, I headed off with Peter A et al to the Azores again, where we were to spend some time on boats off Graciosa. When we eventually got it right, views of Monteiro's and Wilson's Storm-petrels were fantastic, as was the usual bit of wader action in the quarry on Terceira, while the skuas we saw left us scratching our heads albeit with the opinion they may just be immature Bonxies.

Wilson's Storm-petrel

Monteiro's Storm-petrel

Semipalmated Plover

White-winged Black Tern

June
As soon as I got back from my Azores trip, I made a quick trip up to Hartlepool for a proper, old school British mega - a White-throated Robin.

White-throated Robin

Local birding was predictably slow, just with breeders, although I did manage to find a singing Black Redstart. In the middle of the month, I made the long trek up north to Aberdeenshire and had remarkably decent views, albeit in dire weather, of an immature drake American White-winged Scoter, as well as a nice King Eider on the Ythan Estuary.

July
The month started off with a very pleasant day in Provence with JJ, where we had point blank views of the Red-footed Booby.

Red-footed Booby

With it being holidays at the month's end, and news that the mythical WP bird, Brown Fish Owl, had finally been tracked down, I headed off to Turkey with JJ, Chris B and Andy H where we had lovely views of 2 adults and 2 juveniles. A memory that'll last a lifetime for sure, and we made the most of our trip with a visit to Birecik where Striated Scops Owl and Iraq Babbler were highlights, while Nemrut Dagi was excellent for Red-tailed Wheatear and Cinereous Bunting amongst a host of other decent eastern fare.

Brown Fish Owl

Striated Scops Owl

August
I enjoyed a fantastic three weeks in Asia, starting off in Hong Kong where I spent a few days birding before Karen joined me for the rest of the trip. Birding was tough in the heat, but I managed to see Black-faced Spoonbill, record an array of waders and also marvel at the Chinese Pond Herons.

Chinese Pond Heron

Then I headed off to Indonesia, where the first stop was eastern Java to see Mount Bromo as well as a few birds too for sure. The time then spent on Bali was brilliant, both as an all round holiday but also for seeing some excellent birds - particularly one of the last truly wild Bali Starlings, Java Sparrows, Javan Banded Pitta, Javan Plover, Rufous-backed Kingfisher and many, many more.

Bali Starling

Rufous-backed Kingfisher

Javan Plover

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

I returned back to London - and then, shortly after, went on my annual trip to the Bridges of Ross. The seabirds were quiet but waders were already on the move, and I managed to see an adult Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Shannon Airport and a nice juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper on the beach at Doonbeg that was found by Alan C.

Semipalmated Sandpiper

I returned home and found my first Redstart in Rotherhithe on the last day of the month.

Redstart

September
With rapid low pressure systems tracking across the Atlantic, I spent a couple of weekends in Ireland. I managed to see a couple of Buff-breasted Sandpipers in Kerry the first trip, but the following weekend the weather was bang on the money and way out west in windswept Mayo, I managed to find a couple of juvenile Baird's Sandpipers on Achill Island and just hours later, an adult White-rumped Sandpiper at Roonagh Lough. Chuffed to bits with those. The following day, I saw over 35 Sabine's Gulls before breakfast at the Bridges of Ross, as well as a flock of 9 Buff-breasted Sandpipers nearby, a Common Rosefinch too and then a Blue-winged Teal back at Shannon Airport.

Baird's Sandpipers

White-rumped Sandpiper

An after work sojourn to Weir Wood Reservoir, East Sussex, midweek gave me some decent views of my only British/Irish lifer of the autumn - a Long-toed Stint. Disgruntled about not being in Ireland, the following weekend was spent closer to home searching for rares. It paid off, as John A and I were on fire and found Kent's 2nd ever Semipalmated Sandpiper (the first was in 1984) at Cliffe Pools on 25th (then being seen regularly on the other side of the Thames in Essex a week later), and returning to London we found 2 Roseate Terns at Crossness, gross birds in the capital indeed.

October
A Sandhill Crane at Boyton Marshes was a nice way to start the month, while the following weekend was spent in Ireland again where, along with a longstaying Semipalmated Plover, I managed a couple of juvenile American Golden Plovers in County Kerry but that was all sadly.

Sandhill Crane

And with little going on nationally, local birding mid month was nice but unproductive. And then it was onto the main event, with the final week of October spent on the Azores. I had an incredible time, with probably my birding highlight of the year being when I found a White-tailed Tropicbird on Corvo, having previously dipped it on the neighbouring island of Flores for a couple of days. Arthur G had never heard so many English swear words, as I clapped eyes on it.

White-tailed Tropicbird

And if this wasn't enough, a Summer Tanager was fantastic value too, while I managed to find my first Nearctic landbirds in the WP in the form of an Indigo Bunting and a Common Yellowthroat. The trip was padded up with Buff-bellied Pipit, Chimney Swift and a drake Wood Duck with decent credentials on Flores. There were only four of us on Corvo late in the month, and we needed more eyes, so if you want to join the late October fun here in 2012 just let me know.

Indigo Bunting

Summer Tanager

November
The highlight was undoubtedly a cracking male Eastern Black Redstart found by Barry Hunt on Thanet, Kent.

Eastern Black Redstart

A morning out the next weekend in Somerset was excellent value, with a juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, 2 Long-billed Dowitchers and a Spotted Sandpiper all within a 360 spin at Chew Valley Lake. Locally though, the Mediterranean Gull arrived back at Burgess Park and a Long-tailed Duck showed really well near Bromley.

December
It wasn't quite as relaxing as I thought it would be, especially as a brief trip to Fuerteventura was in order when an Allen's Gallinule was found early in the month. Lee G and I had a quality time, enjoying good views of the target bird as well as re-acquainting myself with Canary Islands' Chat, Berthelot's Pipits as well as more vagrants such as a Blue-winged Teal, a Bittern and a Spotted Crake.

Allen's Gallinule

Pre-Christmas week was spent as far away from Oxford Street as I could, so I went to Canada with Karen and enjoyed a stunning week of good birds and company. Thanks to Jean and Willie especially for being so helpful, and of course Karen for being so ever tolerant. Highlights in Toronto and Niagara were loads of gulls (Thayer's, Kumlien's, American Herring, Ring-billed and Bonaparte's) so I was more than happy, as well as huge numbers of wildfowl and breathtaking views of a Snowy Owl.

Snowy Owl

Ring-billed Gull

Long-tailed Ducks

I rounded the year off with a day out in Norfolk with John A and Graeme S, enjoying views of the Western Sandpiper, Lesser White-fronted Goose and a slightly interesting Great Grey Shrike.

More of the same in 2012 please!

Day Out in Norfolk

2011-12-29T22:45:00.000Z

I headed out this morning with John and Graeme, deciding to spend the day a couple of hours away in Norfolk. Remarkably, it's the first time I headed up here since the empidonax action in September 2010. We had a nice roadside Barn Owl on the way up, before the first stop at Cley NWT. The 1st-winter Western Sandpiper was on show immediately on Pat's Pool. I could give you a lowdown of the features that I should have seen if it was a little bit closer and it wasn't such a lousy autumn. But I won't as everybody's probably well-versed in winter plumaged Western/Semi-p Sand. I certainly am, and all I have to say is subjective, scapulars and suite of features.

It was good to see a few old faces in the hide, and one of these Mike S, picked out a first-winter Tundra Bean Goose distantly from Daukes Hide. Again, lousy for photography. Stuff like Golden Plovers, Avocets, Dark-bellied Brents and a Water Rail were all nice to see too.

We had a quick search for a Ross' Goose near Holt but struggled to find many Pinkfeet, so it was on with the wild goose chase to the other side of Norwich. And at Buckenham Marshes, the adult Lesser White-fronted Goose was seen immediately in amongst the wintering Taiga Bean Geese. Pretty dark and diminutive, with a nice white blaze, it was a little bit distant to make out the minutae in the strong breeze. Perhaps last winter I'd been a bit too quick to judge, but according to my companions back in the day the Yare Valley was up there with Slimbridge for going to see your gen LWFGs. And as a carrier species - with both being taiga geese - you could perhaps argue a case. Mind, there have been feral birds locally and The Netherlands for sure will have a few less than wild (as well as wild) ones roaming around too.

Right then, the weather had been poor all day so the late afternoon shift in the hail and rain wasn't going to get great photographic results. But with news of a potential homeyeri Great Grey Shrike near Fakenham, we headed there from East Norfolk and arrived at its chosen, windswept field. After a bit, it showed in the gloom. There'll be plenty more on this elsewhere, and fair play to the guys who flagged this first-winter bird up. Apart from having the prior knowledge of them 'being paler, more white in the wing and tail' than nominate birds, I had no further wisdom when I viewed the bird: -

Initial impression reminiscent of a Lesser Grey Shrike, presumably due a slight peach hue to the underparts in the poor light, and the extensive white bases to the primaries that were about half the length of the exposed secondaries

Appeared to perhaps be pale mantled, though the light was pretty changeable. Lores appeared pale, with bill base pale too. Note the obvious white rump here and the appearance of a 2nd wing patch on the greater coverts.

In the gloom, I couldn't make out much on the amount of white in its tail (though observers earlier in the day state that the two pairs of outermost feathers were white) but for sure you can see a clean, extensive white scapular patch here.

Interestingly, despite a fair few claims of this subspecies, the Finnish Rarities committee has only accepted three homeyeri Great Grey Shrikes - all of them trapped. In the north and west of their range, they do apparently overlap with nominate excubitor too so perhaps we shouldn't get too hasty in being definitive on this bird just yet, interesting though it may be. Another educational experience, perhaps.

More Rings

2011-12-28T19:46:00.000Z

More rings, but not on the bills this time. Patchwork was slow this morning, so I resorted to doing a few slow donuts around the roosting BHGs in Tesco car park as I spotted a couple of ringed individuals. Since getting my DSLR earlier this year, one of its main uses is looking at detail you just can't pick up in the field. And for metal ringed BHGs, it comes into its own.

The bad boy above shows a nice piece of bling on its right ankle. So, in the past, I'd have put in my notebook something such as 'including an individual metal ringed on its lower right tarsus'. Well, with a bit of papping at all angles it's now possible to get these sly old dogs nailed. The tell tale 'SW7' tells you that it's a British-ringed bird (the British Natural History Museum is located in Kensington SW7). I managed to get the full ring number off it too.

However, one of the other BHGs has had me head scratching. Again a metal ringed bird, this time on its lower left tarsus. I've got its complete ring number and after a bit of sleuthing, think it's a Belgian-ringed bird (check out this one for a comparison).

you can just make out 'SSELS'; presumably the BRU are just out of show

And I did break things up a bit on the gull front, well sort of. There was no sign of the Med Gull at Burgess Park and, on the way to Cross Ness, I took in a drake Mandarin en-route at Brookmill Park, Lewisham. Cross Ness was dead, apart from the usuals including a load of Teal and Dunlin. And there were few gulls at Crayford.

Mandarin with no bling

So I turned back to Rotherhithe and spent the last couple of hours mooching around Russia Dock Woodland, where I recorded my first Kingfisher of the winter on the patch. Normally there is just one around so I was pretty made up with a 2nd bird at Norway Dock late afternoon. Little else apart from a couple of Goldcrests and a flock of c.50 House Sparrows.

Local Bully Boys

2011-12-26T13:33:00.000Z

Hope that everyone that reads this has had a decent Christmas. Having got back from Toronto late on 23rd, I spent a few hours on Christmas Eve doing the neglected patch before getting amongst it with wrapping the presents. Anyway, I'd promised some of my Canadian friends a few 1st-winter (European) Herring Gull shots so that they'd provide a decent like-for-like on the smithsonianus we saw together at Niagara a couple of days previously. All these shots taken on 24th December.

A particularly advanced pale individual; note the frosting of the greater-coverts straight to the bases. Lacks the often dark bases that you see in smithsonianus

A fairly dark, relatively immature individual perhaps emanating from a more northerly latitude. But plumage wise, a typical bird - note the shelling on the tertials protruding well towards the base.

Dark underwing coverts, but argenteus and argentatus generally lack that velvet smooth texture to the underparts that smithsonianus show. Also note the distinct lack of an all dark tail and palish undertail-coverts.

A near-adult, though the head streaking is just that - it's not blotching. Those legs just don't get close to that bubblegum pink I saw in all the Niagara smithsonianus. In flight, dark area on primary-coverts suggested a 4cy.

Other than these gulls, the patch was really quiet with the lack of cold weather. Just the usual suspects around, and even the Mediterranean Gull did a no show in a brief look on the lake at Burgess Park.

Last Day with the Niagara River Gulls

2011-12-24T02:39:00.000Z

Thursday was my last day in Canada, as I'm sitting here on my sofa in London having travelled back earlier today (Friday). I must say that, for a brief week long trip on what I would term a 'non-birding holiday', it was brilliant. Toronto and the Niagara area had copious amounts of the stuff I'm really into (such as gulls) backed up with phenomenal numbers of waterfowl that I don't see any old day back here in London.

My final day was spent with a group of Ontario and Buffalo birders who spend much of their time in larid heaven on the Niagara river. I learnt a hell of a lot with them on Thayer's Gulls, Kumlien's and the different populations of American Herring Gulls - much more than what us Europeans can do by just thumbing through the good old identification articles and odd lone individuals. I'll do some more stuff on this sometime soon.

Anyway, my day was spent at a few spots along the Niagara river. Sir Adam Beck (pictured above) is the place for large gulls, and a site where I saw at least two Thayer's Gulls (an adult and a second-winter) and half a dozen Kumlien's Gulls. There was an adult Little Gull just upriver at the Whirlpool in amongst the copious amounts of Bonaparte's Gulls, while the wall at Chippawa is the other decent site for a bit of large larus action - have a look at this bad boy below to get you going...

If I was on the Thames (which obviously I wasn't), I'd be putting this down as a hybrid Herring x LBB; and that's kind of (well, AHG x LBB) what I assume this bird is too with LBB Gull numbers having increased dramatically in Ontario in recent years - I only saw a third-winter bird (looked like a typical graellsii in mantle colour and structure/bulk). So this hybrid bird was evidently darker mantled than all the smickers, its legs a tepid yellow (with a hint of flesh too), pale iris, head streaking like a LBB and a relatively pronounced tertial step.

There literally are 1000s of American Herring Gulls to scan through, and although variable one thing that really did strike me was that the feet were a real rich bubblegum pink in all adults, without exception - much more standardised than the array of leg colour you get through argenteus and argentatus. The birds are distant, but here are a few smickers for now.

Galaxy smooth...

A 'classic' 2nd-winter - look at that all dark tail, retained greater-covert bar and dark secondaries. A monster like this wouldn't have any problems this side of the pond.

They don't all look like this by the way, despite what we're led to believe. This is a very extreme example

It wasn't all gulls, though it nearly was. I managed to see a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos and an American Robin while looking through the gulls. And a quick stop off at some feeders in Chippawa produced White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and American Goldfinch - all good Nearctic fare for me. But if it's one species I'll remember the Niagara river for, it's those tern-like small gulls and I got my fill again.

Finally, I would just like to extend my thanks to the expert knowledge and hospitality that all the birders showed during the trip - Jean Iron was fantastic throughout and along with Willie D'Anna, provided me with plenty of info pre and during my trip; their knowledge of the gulls was immense too, along with Ron Pittaway, Betsy Potter, Declan Troy and Kevin McLaughlin - who I could have talked all day with regarding AHGs. Thank you all, and Karen really appreciated the way you looked after her too.

L to R: Betsy, Jean, Ron, Willie, Declan, me and Kevin

Niagara Introduction

2011-12-22T04:30:00.000Z

So the first day in Niagara has drawn to a close. We're staying in Niagara-on-the-lake, a beautiful town that lies on where the Niagara river flows into Lake Ontario. The weather has been pretty lousy today but it has still been possible to rack up some interesting species. Most notably, there have been more Bonaparte's Gulls than you could shake a stick at. In fact, on the evening flyby (birds fly down the Niagara river late afternoon and roost on Lake Ontario) there were probably in excess of 3,000 along with a nice adult Little Gull, standing out markedly by its obviously dark underwing in contrast to all the Bonaparte's. There was also a sizeable flock of Bonaparte's hovering over a shoal of small fish near Miller's Creek Marina (between Niagara and Fort Erie), where it was possible to study the species at close range despite the poor light.

Note the rather dark bar on the underwing, a feature I don't recall seeing so obviously previously

Like the vagrants I've seen in Britain and Ireland, leg colour really does vary from bubblegum pink to bright orange; probably more birds in the pink...

The legendary Adam Beck HEP was pretty decent too, although the large gulls in the river at the bottom were rather more distant. However, it was good to be able to study American Herring Gulls, particularly adults, where the primary patterns seemed pretty variable with some birds almost argentatus-like with reduced black in the wingtips while other birds only had small mirrors on the outer primaries. Anyway, I saw half a dozen Kumlien's Gulls of varying darkness too along with my first Great Black-backed Gulls of the trip.

Ducks were scattered right the way along the river, mainly Goldeneye, Buffleheads and Long-tailed Ducks with smaller numbers of Red-breasted Mergs and Goosanders. And, just outside our hotel, there was a nice close pair of deglandi White-winged Scoter late afternoon - good enough to see the drake's bill and brown flanks. Other birds noted included a showy Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, American Goldfinch and American Crow.

Northern Cardinal

That's a better one

2011-12-21T04:47:00.000Z

Having complained yesterday about the relative subtlety in the kumlieni at Ashbridge's, I had a stroll down the Toronto waterfront for a couple of hours just before I left. The aim was to photograph the Ring-billed Gulls and Long-tailed Ducks in the lovely light, but I managed more than that by chancing upon another Kumlien's Gull - again an adult, but this time rather less subtle (with nice mirrors on P6-P10) and a really good bird to see.

And here's another Long-tailed Duck...

More of Toronto's waterfront birds

2011-12-20T01:36:00.000Z

I've really enjoyed my time here in Toronto, with today being our last full day here before we head around Lake Ontario to the natural wonder of Niagara Falls and of course one of the best spots for gulls in North America apparently. So today was a bit of a casual birding affair, with a long walk around the city culminating in a brief stop at Ashbridge's Bay Park. Like all of Toronto's water front, this place was packed full of ducks - the commonest species being Buffleheads, Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers. And wherever there is food to be had, those ringos sniffle around your feet at literally a few inches distance. I could actually have grabbed one of those crazy mofos today, but Karen didn't want me to. So I didn't.

Anyway, in amongst all the Ring-billed Gulls was a northern beauty - a nice adult Kumlien's Gull. Well, I say nice but I would have loved something looking like that adult a couple of winters back in Galway. All the Kumlien's that I've seen and found have never been anything like approaching thayeri in wing tip colouration, and this boy was the same. Nice dark shafts to P8-P10 with only discernible subterminal bands on P7 and P8. There's a quality Kumlien's vs. Iceland Gull article recently written by Newfoundland gull afficionado Dave Brown here, and he mentions although the iris colour of kumlieni is variable, they all show a bit of dark peppering - just like this bird.

Also at Ashbridge's, amongst the confiding Mallards and Buffleheads (that incidentally did not come to bread), was this hybrid drake Black Duck x Mallard.

Heinz 57

Snowy on the Spit

2011-12-19T04:51:00.000Z

Right then, I'll keep it real short as today was action packed full of Nearctic waterfowl and really enjoyable northern birding. Karen was once again brilliant on these 'non-birding' holidays and, while I got my fill of yankage, she filled her boots in a shoe museum amongst other things.

Today was the Toronto CBC (Christmas Bird Count) and it was good to meet Jean Iron, who has continually been most helpful in providing me with info prior to and during this visit, amongst others while I was out and about on 'the spit' at Tommy Thompson State Park. Pride of place went to a totally majestic, immense 1st-winter female Snowy Owl, part of the latest movement of this species due to food shortages further north.

I also saw 1000s of waterfowl - well up on usual numbers due to the mild winter over here - and this included a real array of Nearctic beauties including Canvasback, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, 2 species of Scaup, 3 species of Merganser, Bufflehead, Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall, Trumpeter Swan, Mute Swan and Canada Goose. More on these some other time.

Aythya action Canadian style

Other decent stuff of course included a load of gulls, as well as an American Coot, a Great Northern Diver, a Great Horned Owl, Black-capped Chickadees, American Tree Sparrows and a single Song Sparrow.

ATS - Corvo next?

Canadian Intro

2011-12-18T00:56:00.000Z

I've had a really enjoyable, leisurely stroll along the Toronto waterfront today, having arrived late last night following a smooth flight. The place is packed full of a nice selection of birds literally within a stone's throw from downtown (the city centre in plain English speak). Highlight for me was the masses - literally 1000s - of Long-tailed Ducks close in all along the harbour wall. I've probably seen more of these beauties today in the crisp winter sun, than I have in my life before.

The ringos were pretty confiding too, and it was possible to stroke a couple of the first-winters that evidently hadn't become accustomed to the human race yet. Lovely stuff, and even though these boys are as common as you like on this side of the pond there's still something about any Nearctic gull, wherever they are, that makes me transfixed. Look at the intricacies and variability of the 1st-winters in these shots.

And given that this trip is one of those 'non-birding' ones, we did the tourist thing and shot up the CN Tower late afternoon.

The other side of the pond

2011-12-15T00:37:00.000Z

I'll soon be heading off for a week's trip to Ontario - visiting Toronto and Niagara. I'm looking forward to another winter trip to North America, just like when I went to New York in January 2009. It'll be good to get my eye in on some bits and bobs larid wise too before it kicks off over here, though the juvenile American Herring Gull at Baltimore, County Cork has already got me in the mood. There were an impressive dozen species of gulls at Niagara the other day, so hoping I'll get a look in with some of these bad boys - Kittiwake, Bonaparte's, Little, Franklin's, Ring-billed, American Herring, Thayer's, Kumlien's, Glaucous, LBB, GBB and a single Slaty-backed Gull.

It won't be a hardcore birding trip, and sometimes it's good to mix it up a little bit. In fact, it will just be nice to be in good health as when I was in NY a couple of years back I got a bit of a bug that had me done over for a day, and then feeling pretty grim shady for the rest of my days there. Anyway, here are a few I prepared earlier (New York, 2009).

American Herring Gull (photos 1 to 6)

Ring-billed Gull (1st winter)

Ring-billed Gull (adult)

Pale-bellied Brent

Snow Goose (1st-winter)

Hooded Merganser

Pied-billed Grebe

American Robin

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Winter Fun on Fuerteventura

2011-12-11T23:55:00.001Z

The fun started yesterday morning - with an early morning charter flight with the lovely Thomson airline, a company that I'd been delayed by 56 hours with in Israel a few years ago. This time though, things were smooth - apart from some twat that the stupid air hostesses had allowed to buy 12 cans of Stella on the flight. Lee and I therefore arrived on the island just after midday and away we went, and off on the trail of rectifying a bird that had been taken from me by a white van man and a cunning Englishman who didn't know a word of Spanish.

Heading south after picking up the extremely cheap rent-a-car, first notable bird was an adult Egyptian Vulture over Barranco de la Torre - but this was just the sideshow. In no time at all, we'd pulled into Rosa de Catalina Garcia, a tidy little reservoir/pool that was full of birds in the otherwise waterless landscape.

Rosa de Catalina Garcia, Fuerteventura

Ruddy Shelduck

Berthelot's Pipit

Ruddy Shelducks were pretty obvious - at least seven (most seen at once), but probably more came and went during the afternoon - and so too were those pesky Stilts, LRPs and lots of Berthelot's Pipits mincing around and about. A small group of Teal held something more interesting - a nice Blue-winged Teal, that spent most of the afternoon alert and on the move with its slightly smaller congeners. I always enjoy vagrants from across the pond, no matter where I am, so this was a bonus. However, after an hour of no show - and Hans and Bosse arriving - I was starting to get worried about the main prize.

BWT - upperwing

BWT - underwing, belly and legs

It was all well and good that I'd seen some nice bits and bobs, but with the books not marking themselves back home, there was only one reason why I was on this pretty rancid island - and after patiently waiting, the Allen's Gallinule flew out of the reeds and then proceeded to feed on the more distant muddy edge. It looked something like this... presumably an adult bird, with a rather dull bill. If you want to see it up close and personal then have a look at this shot from my mate David Monticelli.

The gallinule for most of the afternoon remained fairly elusive, though did spend periods of time probing on the reed fringes for food. Other birds included Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper... a nice assortment of waders. Also good to remember where I was by the fact that Lesser Short-toed Larks and Trumpeter Finches came down to drink at the pool, and Spectacled Warblers were pretty common too. Oh yeah, this bad boy showed late on too.

Not too well-versed with what's what in terms of historic Canaries records, I can't imagine there have been too many Great Bitterns? There was also a 1st-winter Spotted Crake in the reedbed last thing in the evening, before the sun set and I got whisked off to some shit hole of a resort called Caleta de Fuste (where I'd stayed in 2003) and to The Trafalgar Pub for dinner. It was the first time I'd ever been to an English bar abroad - I thought bloody Johnny Vegas and his Benidorm crew were about to walk out any second. At least the beers were cheap.

I only had a hour or so of birding light this morning before the flight, and being on the island perhaps for the last time, it was rude to leave without its endemic chat. So I old-schooled it and went down to Barranco de la Torre, the place I'd seen them most consistently 8 years ago. And though the tamarisk clumps had grown considerably two Canary Islands' Chats were found in the time available - a male and a female. 30 Trumpeter Finches and a few scratchy Sardinian Warblers were in the mix too.

The Ryanair flight left on time, and I was back home in my London flat for just after 5pm. It's remarkable what you can do in a weekend.

Escape - back to the future?

2011-12-08T22:58:00.000Z

Events this week on Fuerteventura (well done to Bosse and Hans on a fine discovery!) have cast my mind back to the Allen's Gallinule that I saw in Spain in January 2007. I had a decent weekend away for that bird - seeing it and a load of decent Iberian stuff - although one of the everlasting memories was an unfitful night's sleep due to the hire car we'd got not actually having seats that reclined. Anyway, this bird failed to reach the grade and now languishes on Category E of the Spanish list. Reasons for this are that it was apparently a known escape from a local wildlife park and Britain's most famous twitcher (not Garry Bagnell, before anyone asks) claimed to have been told by a local that the bird had been picked up by a man in a van!

adult Allen's Gallinule, El Rocio, Coto Donana, Spain January 2011

Even though there was another Allen's Gallinule and an African Crake found on the Canary Islands that January, evidently this circumstantial evidence meant nothing given the apparent compounding evidence against it being a wild bird. People evidently are happy to keep anything and everything in captivity.

Back to the weekend just gone, after a bit of a dull day both bird and weather wise, I spent a couple of hours at Cross Ness with JA on Sunday. A 1st-winter Grey Plover, 1200 Dunlin, a couple of Yellow-legged Gulls, single Water and Rock Pipits were the highlights.

Thames gulls and American peeps

2011-12-03T16:29:00.001Z

Had a mooch around a few sites in southeast London today. Started off at Crayford where, on some wasteground, a large flock of larids had a 3rd-winter Yellow-legged Gull and a ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull (red ringed SN6T; this coding matches rings used by the North Thames Gull Group so I assume it'll come from Rainham or Pitsea - I'll update when I hear back from Paul Roper).

North side LBB

Cross Ness was quiet, with an adult and 2nd-winter Yellow-legged Gull amongst the small numbers of gulls on the foreshore. 500+ Dunlin were decent, but as always, there was nowt amongst them. I then had a walk around North Greenwich where there was a nice bright-legged Yellow-legged Gull opposite Greenwich Millenium Village and a few Teal. Not much else doing mind.

The most productive birding of the day was internet based, when in the early hours of this morning my old mate and one of the WP's finest photographers Vincent Legrand passed on a link of a Red-footed Falcon from the Azores... needless to say, he's no fool and a quick look revealed that it was an Amur Falcon (photos here, here and here)! Now those islands get a fair few vagrants, but this has to rank up there with the best.

And I almost went up for the Cley 'peep', but thought better of it after another tiring week and going to bed late. Although I've therefore not seen the bird, I actually thought it was a Semi-p until the 'Thursday shots' revealed some retained rather rufous-fringed feathers that made me reconsider. A really interesting bird. Here's one I found earlier... in September 2009 on the Azores.

At all times, it felt slick and streamline, and this bird fitted that classic 'miniature Dunlin' phrase that's often associated with Western Sandpiper. Obviously so much earlier in the season, you can't really compare much plumage wise. On the same trip, I bumped into this rather rufous-looking, long-billed Semipalmated Sandpiper (presumably an eastern female?).

Semipalmated Sandpiper, Corvo, early Sept 2009

What would a bird like this look like a couple of months on?

Two great results

2011-12-01T00:08:00.000Z

Ok, I've not mentioned this before on here. But, as you know by the name of this blog, my patch is Rotherhithe - even though it's pretty dire most of the time, at least I'm fortunate to live on my patch. And I live on an area of water called Greenland Dock...

aythya flock on Greenland Dock

So with 2012 and the dreaded Olympics only just around the corner, there was a proposed application to put 225 extra moorings on Greenland Dock for the Olympics next summer. I, along with loads of other local residents, had written with concern for this development (thinking that the extra moorings would become permanent rather than temporary). Thankfully, today, I heard that the planning committee refused it by majority vote because due to environmental concerns and loss of amenity for both disabled and able-bodied sailors using Tideway Sailability. We're still a little worried that the Council will try other means to get these moorings installed, as it'll be a decent money spinner for them. But the first battle, at least, is won.

Great Crested Grebe and co., Greenland Dock

Oystercatcher, Greenland Dock - graced the place for a few days in early spring a couple of years ago

Scaup - one of four present on Greenland Dock last winter

And the second massive result is that God has spoken - the Long-toed Stint at Weirwood Reservoir was one (seemingly an adult). For all those people who were doubting any video material, then suffice to say it just about did what it needed to do regarding proving the bird's identification.

Rotherhithe regulars

2011-11-27T23:13:00.000Z

Between the 50 or so books that I had to mark today, I did manage to squeeze in a bit of local larid action. It wasn't as if I was targetting this genus, it's just the way it goes around here. It's basically gulls or bust, except when there's a freeze up, and especially on a day like today when there was little point looking for passers in Russia Dock Woodland due to the wind.

Black-headed Gull, Greenland Dock

Herring Gull, Greenland Dock

Basically, I saw very little - and even went to King George V dock on the other side of the river for a quick look. Had a pleasant time in the blustery conditions, taking shots of the commoner species, and got frustrated with a red-ringed 1cy Herring that just wouldn't play ball for detailed ring reading (presumably a Rainham/Pitsea bird). The aythya flock up to c.50 now, though still pretty poor given it's almost December but a sign of the mild conditions to date. All pretty mundane stuff, especially with the news of Gary Speed. Had a nice McFlurry on the way home to round things off.

Common Gull, Greenland Dock

Wish you were here? Yep, I do... but a shame it was just one of the many sails on the boats on Greenland Dock just outside my flat this a'noon.

A nice relaxed weekend...

2011-11-26T18:49:00.000Z

Today feels like the first weekend day that can truly be called winter. I didn't bother to post last Sunday, as I didn't actually see much despite standing in a rather pleasant area of Tunbridge Wells without a Blackpoll Warbler showing itself.

It's been a long old autumn, and I've had a bit of a long week at work so this weekend couldn't come soon enough. I'd been contemplating the Veery on Muck as it looked so good and worthy of a trip, but that was not to be - the bird had flown, or waves from the storm that passed through Thursday night may have swallowed it up! Some good footage on Silas' blog of the storm as it hit the Faeroe Islands here; its produced a couple of 1cy Laughing Gulls in Iceland so far.

So it was rather more locally that I started - the adult Mediterranean Gull was still showing nicely on the lake at Burgess Park this afternoon; texted RBA with the news as I usually do, but the slacker the other end either couldn't be arsed to whack it out or didn't deem it newsworthy enough (though they'd been putting it out the previous two weekends). That was one text and 30 seconds of my life I'll never get back.

Anyway, I dropped Karen off to do a bit of shopping in Bromley while I headed 5 minutes out of town to have a look at a lovely Long-tailed Duck on a small fishing pond in some pleasant horse paddocks amongst the urban sprawl. The bird showed rather well in glummish conditions, allowing a few shots as it preened/dived in equal amounts. There was also a drake Wigeon, looking pretty out of place amongst the local assorted geese. Nothing too exciting, but really nice and relaxed, rounded off with a warming chai tea latte in the Bromley Starbucks.

West Country Wader Fest

2011-11-19T23:34:00.001Z

There'd been a load of stuff turned up over the last week that I'd like to have seen. The cracking Veery in Highland, the Greater Yellowlegs in Northumberland, the interesting gull in Argyll... and then yesterday afternoon a juvenile Sharp-tailed Sandpiper turned up in Somerset. Though statistically not as rare as any of the others this Sharpie was a juvenile and, though I stand to be corrected, the last one of this age was the legendary Shotwick (Flintshire) bird of '75. I'd seen an adult in August in County Clare, as well as a few in Hong Kong in the summer too, but I'd also never seen a juvenile Sharpie anywhere in the world so the plan was hatched.

John A, David B, Martin B and yours truly left the urban world of London just after 5am and, after purchasing the worst sandwich you're likely to lay your eyes on (a BLT but with no lettuce, one slice of tomato and some putrid bacon), arrived at Blagdon Lake a little while after first light. There was no sign... but the place was absolutely bird filled. What a quality site with a nice 1st-winter drake Long-tailed Duck, drake Red-crested Pochard and a couple of redhead Goosanders from the fishing lodge kicking things off. All quite distant, but it was one of those crisp mornings with crystal clear light.

We headed on round to the other side of the lake, where Dave B had seen the 2 LBDs earlier in the autumn. Loads of mud, and more quality... with a 1st-winter drake Ring-necked Duck picked up amongst the hordes of aythya, a Slavonian Grebe, 8 Bewick's Swans (including 4 juvs) and a drake ***** ****. Then John A picked up a gull on the near edge - bang, a nice 2nd-winter Ring-billed Gull and apparently a rather rare occurrence at the lake indeed. A pretty retarded bird, it then did a nice fly around being stooped upon by a Peregrine at times. Though the target wasn't in site, I was pretty happy with the crop of scarce we'd churned out. And then...

A rapid drive to nearby Chew Valley Lake, as the Sharpie had been relocated off Herriott's Bridge. We got there in quick time, despite a tractor trying to stifle us, and joined the crowd of twitcher types. The bird had flown round the reedbed and wasn't on view, although the two limnos were busy probing around, getting amongst it with the Lapwings on the fresh mud. These were my first LBDs of the autumn, and always lovely to see. Here's a nice shot of one I took about this time of year 3 years ago... (a bit closer than today's dynamic duo).

1st-winter Long-billed Dowitcher, Lagoa das Furnas, Sao Miguel, Azores Nov 2008

Right, so getting to the point, the juvenile Sharpie showed relatively quickly to those like me who weren't vertically challenged - the adjustable Swarovski meant I could get to see over the reeds where it was happily feeding amongst a small flock of Dunlin. A lovely bird - perhaps not quite as fresh as I'd expected - but I shouldn't have been such a dumb arse considering it is now mid-November. There was also a drake Goosander, and just for good measure swivelling around 180 degrees produced another bit of yankage to join the LBDs - the long-staying Spotted Sandpiper. It showed poorly, but we had to go as one of the team was due in Norfolk for dinner at 6pm and the brownie points were starting to run down.

John A and I got back to London, and spent the last hour or two of daylight at Cross Ness as per usual. 4 Yellow-legged Gulls the highlight here, as well as a decent flock of 250 Dunlin that promised more but delivered little.

A nice day out, and something I should do a little bit more. Very little beats going for quality birds that you genuinely want to see. Thanks to David B for the driving and invite.

Guess Who's Back? Back Again...

2011-11-13T23:55:00.001Z

After the coastal jaunt yesterday, today I stayed a lot closer to home and did the rounds on the patch for the first time for a week. The council is doing a bit of refurb to the lake at Burgess Park at the moment, and although there's no access to get close to the birds, there are quite a few gulls congregating including a few large. Amongst the smalls though, I came across a familiar figure - the adult Med Gull (that I'd found as a 2nd-winter in late 2008) was back for another winter session. Really good to see it again, as I'd been getting a little worried...

Mediterranean Gull Burgess Park (picture taken January 2010)

I had a trudge around Russia Dock Woodland, in the hope of a Firecrest or an interesting Chiffchaff, but to no avail. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and busy Long-tailed Tit flocks were the best of a quiet visit. We've had pretty mild weather so the water bodies were void of any aythya action while a check of the river had the usual suspects but nowt else.

A Mega Start on Thanet?

2011-11-12T19:56:00.003Z

John, Bob, Graeme and I arrived shortly after dawn at Cliftonville. It was still, grey and relatively mild. We walked the short way from the road to the clifftop path, and then found our quarry - a probable Eastern Black Redstart - feeding on the beach below. Even in the gloom, this was one hell of a smart bird species or no species, with just the Black Redstart x Common Redstart hybrid possibility standing in the way (plumage suggests not, but wing formula puts this to bed). Either picking off insects from the seaweed or sallying from the undercliff, it remained faithful to an area of a few hundred yards. There was also a 1st-winter male Northern Wheatear here, one of my latest ever.

Obvious uniform rufous underparts give this Black Redstart a remarkably Redstart feel. Ruling out hybrids is the trickiest part.

throat mottled grey with black as per Dutch Birding for birds in 'paradoxus plumage'

Normally on its own, at one point though it flew up to the clifftop path where it joined 3 'normal' gibraltariensis Black Redstarts (including an adult male). However, at this point, a Woodcock arrived on the grass next to where we were watching. Mike Buckland had seen it 'coming in off', clunking an iron post and hence its appearance of looking half dead, with wings dragged down. Pretty grim stuff, it was picked up where there was a massive, bloody gash to its pectoral. The decent thing was done, and after a successful sea crossing, sad to see such a quality bird meet its demise just as it made landfall.

RIP Woody

After having a typically unhealthy yet satisfying fry up at the nearby cafe, we exited the place and John found a Short-eared Owl flying over and being mobbed by a couple of green monsters (Ring-necked Parakeets). It headed off northeast and over the bay, where the gulls continued the mobbing. Always nice to see a bit of viz mig.

Heading off to nearby Northdown Park, the typical late autumn 'in the mix' of 4 Chiffchaffs (including a couple of brown-looking, non-Siberian yet eastern types) and a few Goldcrests was outdone by a Yellow-browed Warbler that John and I found in trees in the southwest corner of the park near the house. Happy with that, though it didn't show again to Bob or Graeme, we trodged down to King George V Memorial Park to give it a bit of a bash. Not a lot here, except for some more crests and a Chiffchaff. No surprise given the amount of noise created by dog walkers and green monsters. Interesting to see Thanet's scrotes being put to good use - having to wear high viz jackets with not so discrete 'Community Payback' labels on them. They'll probably re-offend and nick some old lady's purse, but at least they picked up some dog shit for their troubles.

Right, so we headed back to get another helping of the star bird. It was still in the same place, and there was a new crowd admiring it. Enjoyed meeting the finder, a lovely chap Barry Hunt, and when things thinned out on the crowd front the bird started performing even better... excellent stuff.

Nice shot to try and get those emarginations... see Dutch Birding Vol 27(3):181

Obvious fringing to flight feathers at times produced a rather discerning panel

With only an hour or so of good light left, we had a fruitless search for a couple of Twite nearby but the remnants of summer theme continued with a couple of Swallows hawking over the clifftop together.

Autumn's Nearly Done

2011-11-11T23:57:00.001Z

And how do I know that autumn's nearly done with? Not because there is a reduced movement of birds on the patch - it's hard to tell that, even at the best of times, given the patch is nearly devoid of birds even then. But I can tell... and it lies in the amount of time I spend updating a certain website.

Which brings me to an encounter with a man many of us will be eternally grateful to (for finding the Irish Canada Warbler in 2006). I was plodding around Carrahane Strand, County Kerry and bumped into Maurice Hanafin - I've met him here on a couple of occasions on Irish jaunts and we got chatting. Anyways, to cut to the chase, he said he found out bird news these days by using the Netfugl twitter site. He then mentioned that it hadn't been updated for a couple of days with the British news... odd, considering that I'd been in Ireland for a couple of days with no computer access.

Burning the midnight oil... look at all those updates!

And then some people say that with Netfugl news, you get nothing and then all of a sudden a lot of messages come through. Yep, that's because either me or other updaters have been at work or out birding for the day... understandable of course.

This autumn's been really protracted and hard work too, starting with hurricane dumpage in the first ten days of September. Since then, I've tried to whack out each and every Semipalmated Sandpiper through to those dreaded harbingers of winter, Desert Wheatears. And during late September and early October, it took time - Netfugl doesn't just update itself. Even after slogging through those bloody ribeiras, Netfugl got updated each night before the Commodoro call of 'last one up close the lights' (perhaps the most famous saying by a non-birder in WP birding?). The birds have tailed off now, and nobody's on Corvo for those Dickcissels anyway. The lights are off til next autumn out west for sure.

All I have to do for the next few months is recuperate, hibernate and whack out the odd Black Duck and Forster's Tern here and there...

Brents at the weekend

2011-11-10T21:08:00.001Z

I wanted to do this post on Sunday, but for some reason the USB connection between my camera and computer stopped working. So I quite rightly had to invest in a card reader. This week's been a struggle to get any birding in before or after work due to the lack of daylight, but a Redwing this morning sailed over as I got out my car in the early morning gloom.

7 of the first 10 that went through

So Sunday was quite a productive afternoon at Cross Ness - John Archer and I had 16 Dark-bellied Brent Geese go through upriver. A flock of 10 at 1.20pm and a further 6 at 2.30pm. There were also a handful of Yellow-legged Gulls on the foreshore - 3 adults, a 2nd-winter and a 1st-winter - and quite a lot of Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwits. The waders are back in strong, so winter has set in.

Up for the chop... the final half dozen

More Azorean Agonising

2011-11-05T18:14:00.000Z

Back down to earth with a bump today, where local birding around Rotherhithe was diabolical. They've trashed the lake at Burgess Park, and are draining it currently. Though still plenty of gulls around, but I couldn't detect the returning Med Gull just yet. Apart from that, just a couple of Egyptian Geese (regular birds) and 3 Shoveler in Southwark Park.

Having got a big fat Birdforum ban for private comments about the owner of the site, I've turned my attention to Surfbirds and there's a really sensible thread on Dunlin. I've had some correspondence with Niall Keogh about potential hudsonia race birds at Tacumshin this autumn, and in the past birders with an interest in the Azores have pondered on a few birds they've seen out there in the mid-Atlantic.

Which brings me to this bird that was one of two, spotted by Lee Gregory and I in November 2008 at Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel.

Pale, long legged, long-billed with perhaps more extensive streaking on the flanks than on European birds?

The bill on this individual is massive, with comparatively long-legs, pale toned and just didn't feel like schinzii and arctica birds. Perhaps this bird has more extensive flank streaking but I am not sure whether it could be claimed as a hudsonia candidate (the flank streaking in my eyes is not as extensive or extends far enough back for hudsonia).

Quite a well defined pectoral band

Relatively dark lores

The key features for hudsonia seem to be a line of dark dots that extend onto the lower flanks, extensively dark lores, a long bill and a solid grey pectoral band (per Stoddart, A. 2007. An apparent Hudsonian Dunlin on the Isles of Scilly. Birding World 20: 464-466).

Ribeira Grande, Sao Miguel November 2008

Headaches from the rock...number 2

2011-10-31T22:56:00.000Z

There were two 'Herring Gulls' on the airport Thursday 27th October while I was searching the valleys. However, it was not until the next day that we managed to get some flight shots of one of the birds. In the field, this individual had a swarthy feel - with blotching (not streaking) coming through on the nape and breast sides - as well as large size and pale upperparts. All decent starting points to start looking more closely at it as a smithsonianus.

I've done a fair bit of swotting up on the subject this evening, ranging from PAC's adult on Flores in December 2005 in Dutch Birding to the more usual references such as Gulls of the Americas and the standard DB American Herring Gull reference. And also a few internet searches, including the regular bird in Ireland (http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?v=1&f=195040).

primaries show grey pinching into the black tips - 'bayonets' to P7 and P8?

pale underside tongue to P10 long and rectangular

tricky to get exact primaries here due to photo quality. P5 seems to show that black 'W' over both webs...

Headaches from the rock... number one

2011-10-31T01:26:00.000Z

So Friday morning, the last day on the rock, went something a little bit like this. Get up, have breakfast, see very little in the middle fields, check the dump for interesting gulls to no avail (though some nice shots of atlantis scrapping around with the local cats and a 1cy GBB Gull).

I had a quick look around the tamarisks by the Cape Verde farm, and then a last walk around the airfield. There was little action on the beach, just a couple of Turnstone chilling out as well as a pretty screwed up looking Cory's Shearwater sitting on the runway. It must have had a hard night. So a check over the fields south of the airfield were nice, for old times' sake, but quiet this time around.

And then it was back to this little blighter that has had me perplexed for most of the week. I've been trying to convince myself all week, but I really haven't been too successful in doing so despite some of the others being much keener throughout. It's not a straightforward, obvious individual and I've seen a fair few in my time. One of my claims to fames is locating the Irish bird this autumn on the day for Britain's most famed twitcher Bagpuss, so hear me out guys as I know a bit about what I'm talking about. And I haven't received any emails from the usual scrutinisers, so they're either perplexed or just slagging me off behind my back. So here goes it, with some photos... and a read of Julian Hough's recent paper in Birdwatch. Chandler's Shorebirds book oversimplifies things, so don't go by that.

Much better light here - you can see an orbital ring although it's only pronounced in this light and I'd describe it as buff as opposed to yellow. The legs appear distinctly two-toned, quoted in Van Duivendijk as a pro Semi-p feature. And in this image the lores look real thin, meeting the bill above the gape line. There's a nice obvious orangey bill base.

For sure, palmations between the middle and outer toes - a feature also shown by Ringed Plover. Any pronounced palmation between the inner and middle toe is tenuous... but is it still there?

Dabs at the breast sides, more akin to RP and is that a full breast band?

Are those lores too thick? Compare this image with the 1st one and see how posture gives a different layout of the loral feathering. At this range, there is a orbital ring but it's subtle for sure. And once again, look at those breast sides... though the super thickens at the rear side of the eye.

So, what do I think to this bird? Well I've always found Semipalmated Plovers more obvious than you'd think at places such as Cabo da Praia, so I'm battling with myself because I've not struggled like this before. In certain respects, you need to judge birds such as this on a suite of characteristics for sure, as the little blighter never called despite trying to coax it to do so. References vary - for example, Chandler's book shows a nice photo of a Semip Plover's foot that looks just like this bird, but then incorrectly states that Ringed Plover should have no webbing. Hough states that Ringed Plovers have webbing between outer and middle (like this bird) while Van Duivendijk states 'in Ringed sometimes small semipalmation between inner and middle toe' which in my eyes this bird doesn't appear to show.

So scratching my head still - which I really shouldn't be with the prolonged, close views of this lone bird - I headed to have a scan of the roosting gulls and walked straight into another headache... but it's getting late so I'll leave you with a couple of shots and the commentary will come later. However, upon doing a bit of research over and above what I was already familiar with, this looks quite decent for an adult smithsonianus in my humble opinion.

And after all this tricky business, it was time for me to spread my wings and fly off the rock for another year. Thoroughly enjoyed my time here as always, good to see Manuel and Katt and especially had a quality time with my Dutch buddy Arthur Geilvoet - let's not leave it another 8 years mate.

The Last Full Shift

2011-10-28T00:49:00.001+01:00

Today started off, and finished, rather misty with a brisk SSW wind. It was to be the last full day of birders being present on Corvo for autumn 2011 so thought I'd give it a good bash.

After a quick walk around the village in the half light, where the highlight was a White Wagtail seen by Vegard, we wandered to the harbour where the plover from a couple of days ago was still present. Not the most obvious Semi-p(?) I've seen by a long stretch but seemingly is one, with that eye-ring, the lores having a whitish area below the gape and those palmations (obvious between mid and outer toes). More research needed, and it played on my mind right the way up the rock to the other side near the lighthouse.

We got a taxi up to Lighthouse Valley, cutting through all the murk in the middle of the island, and were greeted with more murk and a strongish wind in this exposed valley. Had a good bash at things, but just the usuals. Reminds me a lot of Nanjizzal in Cornwall, so was just waiting for a nice empid to fly out... but it never did. When things got too much, we all headed back along the road and took the track down towards the old whale house - in old times, there used to be people stationed there that would send flares out to boats offshore when they spotted whales.

I'd never been down this way, so lost my bearings a little bit - due to the fog - and that meant we were all scrambling around like goats unnecessarily. But when things cleared, there was Cantinho down below so dropping two fields down from the whale house - BANG!! - yankee action once again. As I rounded a hydrangea hedge and dropped into the next field, there was a lovely Common Yellowthroat nobbing around in front of me. I shouted to the troops, Arthur standing next to me anyway, and all were able to get views of this 1st-winter female before it disappeared into the abyss. We stood around for the best part of an hour, but there was no further sign and it was time to try and get amongst some more yanks with just the a'noon remaining for autumn 2011 in Corvo's valleys!

We had an entertaining climb down Cantinho, scrambling around once again like goats and making friends with the many trees as we clung on alond the slippery slopes. There were, alas, no yanks though the hope was always there for a nice Nearctic wood warbler. I had a quick look in the bottom of Cancelas, but it was too blowy and I had my fall of the day... grabbing hold of a not so solid rock!

Back on the road, there was a bit of action in the bottom of Fojo and it wasn't long before I picked up a bright yellow/orange bird - the Summer Tanager was once again in the original spot where I saw it on Monday, and where it was found on Sunday by David Monticelli and co. Rather bizarre that it was back here again, after Arthur and I had a Summer Tanager half a mile or so away yesterday. The rest of the day was spent feeling rare in Poco de Agua and Do Vinte, but those rares didn't develop and that was it valley wise for 2011. There's always next year.

When I got down to the village, Arthur had photographed a couple of adult 'Herring Gulls' on the airfield that look interesting to say the least, so perhaps they'll be around tomorrow? We had out last supper in the restaurant by the windmill; survived the food here for another year... just. And then with the supermarket open between 9-11pm, had to wait 10-15 minutes to purchase a couple of cans of Diet Coke while the queue moved tediously slowly. Never thought I'd say it, but bring on Tesco.

Another Day Way Out West

2011-10-27T00:44:00.000+01:00

With the sun shining and a fine day, I'll start with the Corvo signature shot - the caldeirao; a mind-blowingly impressive volcanic crater lake. Arthur did the honours today and went and checked down in the bottom where there was a Great Egret (Nearctic race egretta), a White-rumped Sandpiper and a Black Duck of sorts. I headed off to the reservoir with the Norwegians and, though not quite as grim on the feet as the boggy mire in the caldeirao, the steep climb burned a few calories off. A few Turnstone busily feeding but no yank wader action. 25 Snow Buntings grubbing around the grassy slopes were a long overdue addition to my Azores list; nominate race birds that presumably emanate from Greenland or further west.

With the view to Flores pretty clear, we were chilling out by the reservoir itself when a pipit came into view. It was evidently going to be an American Buff-bellied Pipit - presumably a longstaying bird that has been around most of the month - and it then proved rather skittish as it played cat and mouse with us down the grassy slope. Remarkably, this one was the first I'd seen since one on Tresco, Scilly, in 1996 so I was pretty chuffed.

Yankee BBP

I headed down the grassy slopes and entered the top of Ribeira da Lapa; quite an open valley that is first landfall to birds coming in from the west and down the reservoir's grassy slopes. There wasn't much about this time amongst the local stuff. Like yesterday I managed a nice tumble as I scrambled down the valley, grazing myself in the process. I was meant to be meeting Arthur at midday near Da Ponte, but my text message to him about the pipit was delayed and he had to go back up to the reservoir to find it - which he did.

The same as yesterday, I went down to the bottom on Ribeira da Ponte. Much more activity in the fine weather, but no yanks. So after a bit of lunch and pishing, I went back up the track and was distracted by a familiar, yet unfamiliar, zitting. Right there, in the same place, was the Indigo Bunting I'd found yesterday and the Norwegians were there to see it but Arthur was nowhere in sight.

Indigo Bunting at Ribeira da Ponte - typically beady-eyed

And then, to make things even more of a yank fest, Vegard picked up a Chimney Swift distantly looking up towards the middle of the island. Happy days. Arthur finally made it down from the reservoir, and luckily the swift was still lingering between Da Ponte and Pico. The Indigo Bunting was less straightforward, but after an hour or so I picked it up again and Arthur got it this time. One elusive lil' mofo.

Chimney Swift... distantly

So we trudged on, rather shattered, down the lower road without having made our mind up which valley we were going to do - Cancelas, Fojo, Cantinho or Do Vinte? Anyway, to cut a long story short we just were about to round the corner before dropping down to the children's play area at Fojo and there in front of us flicking itself over the road was a Summer Tanager... evidently the bird from a couple of days ago that had relocated itself half a mile or so south of its original spot. Brilliant stuff, and totally unexpected. A Great Egret - presumably the bird from the crater - flew over the fields near Fojo and there was also a Cattle Egret in the same area.

Three of us had a glance into Fojo late afternoon/early evening but it failed to produce. The walk back was pretty birdless, and we managed to flag a lift down at the higher fields to take us back down to Vila Nova do Corvo as the light started to fade. Another quality day, with a month of walking in my normal life compacted into the one day. The winds have swung southerly so it's looking for what's already here...

Happy Days on The Rock

2011-10-26T01:37:00.001+01:00

I awoke to a lovely westerly wind and overcast sky after a decent night's sleep. A downpour during the night did wake me, but things felt rare as soon as I got up in the pitch black. It wasn't until 8.15am that it was actually birdable, and I headed towards the lower fields to check the area around the airstrip out. Passerine wise, it was pretty much a no go as everything was being blown about. Arthur had another plan, checking the sheltered harbour and duly scored with a fresh in 'Semipalmated Plover'. Feeding with 3 Turnstone, it showed rather well before the heavens opened... though it didn't feel the real deal completely. And a 1st-winter GBB Gull on the airfield was half decent amongst the atlantis.

confiding plover in the harbour - the semipalmations are much less pronounced between the inner and mid toes compared to the mid and outer toes. Showed to within a metre...

After sheltering for half an hour or so, we got ourselves up to the ribeiras on the east side of the island where there was far more shelter but the rain wasn't really stopping. We were going to check out Lighthouse Valley, but with the foggy conditions and wind we last minute opted for Da Ponte... and walked down the road path towards the valley bottom. I checked a low hedge to the right and there, looking gormlessly and beady-eyed at me was a 1st-winter Indigo Bunting. Bang! The Norwegian guys also saw it, but in the crap weather it quickly headed off over the field with Arthur barely seeing it at all. But he was to have the last laugh a short while later.

So we headed into Da Ponte, doing the usual goat impressions scrambling along the ribeira. I had the usual fall and scratches to prove it, but getting amongst it down in the ribeira bottom failed to produce the goods. Meanwhile, Arthur had headed out to have another go for the bunting, and as he walked out he heard a couple of Blackbirds alarm calling as they chased a bloody Yellow-billed Cuckoo across the adjacent field... two yanks within a couple of hours. The recent westerly weather and low pressure systems were evidently producers.

I then checked Pico and had a couple of Kestrels, before walking slowly back along the road towards the higher fields and the power station. Nothing of note except the usual Canary, Chaffinch, Blackbird and Blackcap suspects. Heading down the bends below the miradouro, Arthur and I took the cut through the old town to check out the fig trees that have hosted multiple Baltimore Orioles in the past. We'd had a couple of scans of the airfield to see whether Saturday's Laughing Gull was roosting there, and then all of a sudden I got an eyeful of a rather large, long-tailed bird heading in from the east over the town... and I knew exactly what I was onto with rather a lot of undesirable expletives. I must admit that I lost myself in the moment, just shouting and yelping a load of obscenities while realising that I'd found THE White-tailed Tropicbird that I was totally gutted about dipping on the neighbouring island of Flores yesterday and the day before. Get the f**k in. An adult with a rather obvious yellowish wash to its tail and breast sides, as it did on Flores, attempted to land on some of the buildings in the old town of Vila Nova do Corvo. It did a few circuits of the town, entertaining us brilliantly, before heading off around the east side of the island. Let's see what happens tomorrow...

***Mega***

The tropicbird attempted to land in the old town, fluttering about just a few inches above the buildings. One lost bird.

And for those who know Corvo... take off in a westerly direction!

So the rest of the day was spent just remembering the moment but also working hard around the lower fields. The Semipalmated Plover was on a puddle by the airport terminal early evening, a Little Egret was on rocks west of the windmill while a seawatch in the evening produced 200 or so Great Shearwaters - much commoner than in previous years - in amongst the numerous Cory's Shearwaters.

And then it was back to the nightly occurrence of finding young Cory's Shearwaters on the streets on the way back from the restaurant. A lot of Cory's are leaving their burrows for the first time, and become dazzled and disoriented by the street lights in the town. We pick them up, then take them to the harbour or give them to the SPEA guys. For such a graceful bird at sea, they're not half lumps on land - one flying along the street today managed to whack itself against a streetlight and tumble to the floor! it was ok by the way.

Celebratory meal. Cold sausages with rice - washed down with a little chili sauce and Sagres to take the taste away.

On The Rock Again...

2011-10-25T00:45:00.000+01:00

So I'm back on 'the rock' - Corvo; landed this afternoon (24th October). It was straight off, after dumping the bags off at Manuel's place, and up to Fojo. The guys yesterday had located a Summer Tanager at Fojo following the rough weather that moved through on Saturday, though they'd not looked for it today. So after getting the directions from Monticelli at Flores airport, and then from Peter and Eric on landing on Corvo, I had a pretty good idea of where it was seen yesterday. Arthur and I made our way up there, joining the couple of Norwegians (we'd all arrived today and are now the only 4 birders here), but there was no sign after an hour's searching. Lots of those pesky Blackcaps, Chaffinches and Canaries of course.

So off to Cantinho for a bit of a mooch, showing the other guys the score around this place. But with the tanager playing with my mind, it was back the short walk to Fojo. Lots of activity and then bang, there it was in the bottle brush trees where it'd been yesterday. Real orange undertail coverts on this individual... a real nice start to my stay on Corvo and to complete the tanager set in WP terms.

Walking back briskly, and catching a ride with one of the locals, we all wanted to get down to the lower fields as the boys that left had seen a Yellow-billed Cuckoo there earlier in the day. We had a look around in the last hour of dark, but everything was heading to bed anyway. See what happens in the morning.

So, at this point, you were probably expecting some gripping shots of White-tailed Tropicbird from Fajazinha, Flores? Wrong... to cut a long story short, I was there from from 1.30pm on 23rd and then til midday today and sweet f*ck all. I made friends with several locals, all telling me they'd seen it but not for a couple of days. And I can even recommend that you get a good night's sleep in the car at the bottom of the valley (slept non-stop from 9.30pm until 7.20am when my alarm woke me).

Fajazinha, Flores - nice place but no tropicbird

I suppose that I managed an upgrade on Wood Duck though... so not all bad by any stretch of the imagination.

Cleansing one's WP list... drake Wood Duck Lagoa Lomba, Flores

And for those of you Midlands gull roosters, here is what Azorean Yellow-legged Gulls look like in October... this one taken today in the higher fields on Corvo.

Back out west

2011-10-23T09:34:00.001+01:00

The usual start to my Azorean trip saw me sleeping in PDL airport after the Saturday evening flight from Gatwick. For the first time in the 3 years I've been visiting in late October, the conditions look promising with a Yellowthroat fresh in on Corvo yesterday, and new Chimney Swifts and Yellow-billed Cuckoos the day before that.

I was meant to fly to Terceira this morning, but with the news of a longstaying White-tailed Tropicbird on Flores I obviously changed my plans. Let's see where I end up today as I'm due to fly, via Faial, in the next half hour or so...

Meanwhile, in the UK, things seem to be kicking off a bit with multiple Scarlet Tanagers (in Cornwall and Scilly). I'm just glad that I'm not at all interested in my British list (Britain and Ireland for me), though it brought back great memories of the Garinish Point bird in October 2008...

Scarlet Tanager, Garinish, County Cork October 2008

One sweet day...

the assembled crowd... happily soaking in the tanager. Until news of an empidonax flycatcher in Cornwall filtered through!

mid-October blues

2011-10-18T01:00:00.001+01:00

Faja Grande, Flores, Azores - I'll be right there on Sunday!

Ok, a lot has happened and hasn't happened since my last post. Hopefully you'll get what I mean. Firstly, I had a weekend in The Kingdom not the one just one, but the one before that. I met Garry. I've done a lot of marking of 'what are the global issues linked to trainers'. I've sweated on a Rufous-tailed Robin while having a thoroughly enjoyable time at my parents' 40th wedding anniversary weekend. It was an entertaining read on Turdforum this evening - loads of the usual suspects slagging off suppressors etc. Oh yeah, I'll be going west again soon and I can't wait.

The Irish trip a couple of weekend's ago was hard work. Not least, the weather. The whole of Dingle and The Iveragh were shrouded in fog for the whole weekend making solo birding even more solitary. Although a rendez-vous with those new skool twitcher-types at Ventry on the Saturday morning, including the legendary Baggers, allowed me to talk rubbish to somebody for the weekend. Although I was quick off the draw and managed to locate the Semipalmated Plover for our hero, just in time for him to spin his car round back to Dublin for the afternoon ferry! 'Some people never learn', as Garry's messiah would say.

Additionally, just outside of Shannon Airport I'd stopped by the roadside to have a chat with Staines, Adam W. and Dom D. when the Garda pulled up and asked what we were doing. We simply said we're exchanging information about rare bird sightings (the other lads had been in Mayo for a couple of days). Now, at gone midnight on a minor road, you'd have thought we'd have got more of an inquisition than 'grand, right ok then'? We didn't and they headed off into the night, just like us...

So what did I see overall then bar the Semi-p Plover? Well, Carrahane Strand was kind to me and there were a couple of juvenile AGP's in amongst the 700 strong Golden Plover flock on the Saturday a'noon; at least one of these was a new bird, neither were around the next day and trying to get close to Golden Plover flocks on flat mud makes one rather liable to joining the flushing brigade. There was very little else around Tralee Bay (and there hasn't been since) - even the longstaying Buff-breasted Sand did a Friday night bunk.

And what about The Iveragh? Well, that place that promises a lot. It promised a lot once again. Let's be honest though, one chap doing a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there isn't really going to even scratch the surface so it's unfair to say that I tried hard. As time was against me. Instead of the usual gardens I've done on Valentia, I gave Bolus Head a go in nice SW winds. It looks promising... some cover but not too much and slightly reminiscent of the Garinish/Firkeel area one peninsula down in Cork. Give it a go sometime, and just like on Achill where I started the damage this year it's one of my predictions that could pay off for a lucky grafter.

White-tailed Tropicbird... not in the WP

Anyway, at the end of this week I'll be off on my regular late October jaunt to the Azores. This can't come soon enough, especially as there are some west winds forecast, a certain tropicbird continues to linger on Flores and a duck also there may allow me to do a bit of 'list cleaning'.

The ultimate piece of dross? Or a wise yank that saw sense to go no further? The notorious Terra Nostra Wood Duck, Sao Miguel November 2008

The Suffolk Sandhill

2011-10-03T23:24:00.000+01:00

I headed up, rather casually it must be said, yesterday afternoon to view the southward bound Sandhill Crane that had reached a bottleneck in southernmost Suffolk. It was only two years ago that I'd dropped everything and headed to Orkney to see this mega bird. That twitch was captured on the TV programme about us lot, and was the inauguration of Baggers the birding celeb. Thankfully I had the good fortune not to get involved.

Anyway, Sandhill Crane is an immense rarity - that bird was the first since 1991, when one resided on Shetland for a few days - so this bird was well worth a leisurely trip out for. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if my viewing yesterday was with an old friend... perhaps the exact same bird I'd seen on Orkney in 2009 given the rarity and the similar east coast track (the Orkney bird was 'lost' as it filtered down the extreme northeast of Scotland)?

I must admit that I really enjoyed this little outing and reacquainting myself with this diminutive crane. Bar the crap traffic on the A12 on the way home and a load of diatribe whacked into my ears by a rather persistent lady from Herts. When I'm birding, I enjoy my birds and really don't need to listen to a load of stuff I can't be bothered listening to. Having promised Karen we'd easily be back for 9pm for Downton Abbey, I cut it quite fine by getting in at 8.57pm. By the way, if anyone's wondering, I'm not a fan of that period drama.

Ireland again next weekend. I can't wait...

October's hotting up

2011-10-01T22:43:00.000+01:00

Elmley action in the October heat

Well, with the record October temperature recorded today in Gravesend at 29.9°C you can’t argue with the title. And a Siberian Blue Robin on Foula would have hotted up the birding action had it not been unfortunately dead. However, birding in this heat felt more like a mid-July stroll. I didn’t set out until gone midday as I wanted to complete my WP report for Birdwatch before I did so. I also got sidetracked, getting mildly riled by the outrageous comments a few nobs had posted on that forum about the Weirwood Long-toed Stint.

Anyway, I decided to head out to Elmley RSPB for the afternoon. Buff-breasted Sandpipers are one of my favourite species, and despite having seen 11 of them in Ireland this autumn, I’d not seen one particularly well given the usual form of this species. This did not change by the way, as today’s bird was quite distant in the haze from the car park. It kept close to the Lapwing flock, flying around at times, and seemed to quite enjoy crouching down adjacent to cow pats. Something I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed doing.

I met Paul Hackett on site, and we then spent an enjoyable couple of hours walking down to the Counterwall Hide. We chatted about old times, from back in the day when we both lived in Cheshire and did a fair number of trips together. The birding was steady, with much of the scrapes dried out. However, my visit coincided with high tide and there were 3 juvenile Little Stints and 4 Curlew Sandpipers (including a moulting adult) present in amongst Dunlin and Ringed Plovers. A Peregrine and Merlin buzzed over, disturbing the waders and Starlings. Loads of Wigeon were on the river on the return walk and Marsh Harrier and Buzzard were picked up on the marsh. I had a brief look for the Buff-breasted Sandpiper on the way back, but it hadn’t been seen for an hour and a bit, so I departed...

The day was rounded off with a stop at Cross Ness for the last hour of light. The Garganey I found last Sunday was still with Teal just east of the golf centre in the lovely, warm evening light. Not much else doing though, with just a single Common Tern at the outfall.

How many more Semi-p P's?

2011-09-30T23:03:00.000+01:00

We all appreciate that these cryptic little things are under-recorded... with over 200 seen in the Azores, they're obviously getting to Britain and Ireland more frequently. With the recent bird at Ventry, Kerry, and a report of a possible in Gloucestershire (that doesn't appear to be one IMHO, despite its diminutive size) it's fair to say this species is 'dish of the season'. What's more, Birdwatch magazine whacked an article on Semi-P P identification in their latest issue.

Semi-P Plover Terceira May 2011 - typically, in all plumages, the dark lores are confined to where it meets the upper mandible. A nice meagre looking bill too.

Semi-P Plover Terceira May 2011 - and obvious, but less prominent wingbar than Ringed Plover. Look at that lovely round face and eye ring; semi-p's are real cuties!

All I can say is please, please don't let this article provide us with the 'DCC syndrome' of a few winters ago all over again. What I mean is that the same magazine released an article on the identification of Double-crested Cormorant and then, hey presto - we were in for a winter of discontent... Alton Water, Prescot Reservoir and Chew Valley Lake.

Semi-P Plover Terceira, Sept 2009 - obvious yellow eye-ring with a short supercilium behind the eye.

I'm no expert on the species, but I have found a couple on the Azores over the years and, when you've only got a few Ringed Plovers to search through and the odds are stacked on your side to find one, they're not all that tricky believe it or not - the call is diagnostic, but you can do them before that. Let's just get it right this year with Semi-p P's - the punks have started it off meticulously and nicely. Don't be the one to f*ck up all the good work. You've been warned!

Semi-P Plover Terceira, Nov 2008 - this bird is just like the Dawlish bird was. A real retard (in terms of moult).

Semi-p Plover Terceira Nov 2008 - a real cute looking thing but look at the extensively orange base to the bill and the narrow breast band meets - Ringed Plovers show more of a 'dabbed oval' at the breast sides.

Wish you were here?

2011-09-28T00:27:00.000+01:00

I certainly do. It's already kicked off on 'the rock' with a crack team of Scandinavians (including 2009 big hitter Olof Jonsson) there scouring Corvo. In the first two days, they've managed a rather nice 1st-winter male Dickcissel, a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron (yeah ok, they're pretty common this year!) and an Ovenbird. Not a bad start and just the beginning of another autumn on this ultimate vagrant trap of an island.

I've got 3 and a half weeks until I get back out there... but I lucked out with the Northern Flicker there last year, so hopefully some quality will stick around for 'teacher's week'. What's more, I wouldn't mind being in the position of whacking systems coming through in late October, and a load of yanks to find. One of the great things about going to Corvo late is you've pretty much got the island to yourself.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo Corvo October 2009

Indigo Bunting Corvo October 2010

Semipalmated Sandpiper Corvo September 2009

Mega south-east score

2011-09-26T00:16:00.000+01:00

On Saturday night, a juvenile Pallid Harrier found by Chris Gibbard at Cliffe RSPB, Kent gave me a good excuse to venture slightly further out of London than normal. I picked John Archer up shortly after 7am, arriving at Cliffe a bit after 8am. As I'd faffed around getting petrol, we missed the bird leaving its roost area and spent an hour or so scanning the fields north of the 2nd viewing mound in vain. With high tide being mid morning, we bust a move to the Flamingo Pool to see what would come in while a few others headed off east towards Northward Hill to try and locate the harrier.

Ok, so it didn't take long after we'd split up to receive a text from Barry Wright saying that he'd refound the Pallid Harrier at Northward Hill. But, with distant views and John having seen one at Tacumshin a couple of weeks ago, we hung on in there at a rather birdless Flamingo Pool. We'd been told that the wader action often happened on, or shortly after high tide, so joining themany Avocet and single Dunlin it was nice to see a fresh juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and then a juvenile Spotted Redshank drop in. Not exactly the hordes of smalls we'd been hoping to scan through. But then - all of a sudden - whoosh; a load of Grey Plovers and smalls came in to join the party.

They whizzed around for a bit, before inconveniently ditching down to roost on the saltmarsh at the northeast end of the pool (distant from the footpath). However, a small number of Dunlin and Grey Plover settled down to feed in the closest area of the pool to where John and I were standing. At c.150m range, there in amongst the Dunlin were half a dozen smaller birds... juv Little Stint, juv Little Stint, juv Little Stint, juv Little Stint, juv Little Stint and then, hang on, a pretty obvious juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper!

Now I'm well-versed in Semi-p identiification having done so many Irish trips in recent years (and found the species too). But this is Kent, and this is the second county record and the first since I was 3 years old. It's not like Ireland either... you need a description (in Ireland, reliable observers - of which I am apparently one(!) - don't need to stoop so low as to provide a description of such a menial species) and you can't just get up close and personal to nail those close scap markings or get the semipalmations. This is shitty old Britain, where you'll get a warning from a nob jockey RSPB voluntary warden for getting too close to juvenile waders that wouldn't give a toss as they've never seen man before. But anyhow, we had to watch this cold-toned juvenile bird at distance as it fed lethargically with the Little Stints.

The bird was pretty pot-bellied, proportionately shorter-legged in fact than the Little Stints with a nice deep-based, slightly decurved bill that was longer and thicker tipped too. It was also a lot more chilled out in its feeding action too. The mantle and tertials were all concolourous grey, with slightly pale edgings and zero hint of any mantle braces or rufous edgings. The coldish brown/grey tones continued on the breast sides, with a bit of streaking in it too. Nicely darkened ear-coverts, dark crown and supercilium just made this bird one of those 'typical' Semi-p's (and I've seen and found some tricky ones, including one particularly warm toned bird on Corvo in September 2009). Anyway, back to today and after 15 mins of viewing the flock got disturbed and took flight to the main roost. Only a couple of the stints came back to the feeding area, and that was that for the Semi-p. A few other birders arrived but to no avail, with all the birds roosting in the saltmarsh. We moved on, seeing 4 Gannets on The Thames off Cliffe, and at Grain managed the dizzy heights of a single Wheatear amongst the chav scum...

Ian had found four Avocets at Cross Ness on the early morning tide, so we headed back into London to see what was on the ebbing tide late afternoon. Buoyed by a few reports from the West London reservoirs - including a flock of 30 Sandwich Terns - we arrived at the outfall off the golf centre. Immediately, there was a ghost of a tern in front of us and at the same time the Spot'shank style calls coming from the middle of the river quickly sealed a nice moulting adult Roseate Tern - a mega for London. It all became a bit bizarre though as we could sometimes hear it calling when it didn't seem to be there. And after a bit of head scratching, this was solved when it caught a fish and a 1st-winter got fed! I'd never really had any experience of 1st-winter Roseates, so this was a nice learning curve - it looked like a pale, subdued Common Tern, with that typical long-bodied appearance, slight flush and fairy-like flight action.That barred juvenile mantle had already been moulted through.

Spurred on by the haul of a Semi-p and a couple of Roseates, I managed to pick out a juvenile Garganey in amongst the Teal on the Thames foreshore before the light started to go and my hoovering chores back home beckoned.

Sunday was considerably better than Saturday when I gave Rotherhithe a go, with the joys of Inner London birding producing 'highs' in the form of a couple of Egyptian Geese in Southwark Park, a Little Grebe, a few Chiffchaffs and this repulsive creature...

Greylag x Canada Goose, Southwark Park

Last Sunday in Clare...

2011-09-24T22:32:00.000+01:00

I’d intended to write up last Sunday’s Irish events on Wednesday. However, after receiving a much appreciated call from the identifiers of the Weir Wood Long-toed Stint just as the school day ended, more important things took precedence and I managed to see this bird rather better than I’d expected. It’s been quite good value reading all the nonsense on the internet - inevitably by the usual suspects – though rather irritating at the same time. Nevertheless, it’s pretty criminal that this bird continued to be called a Temminck’s Stint for a whole week; even with distant car park views, it was evident that it was not this species due to a combination of size, structure, leg size and brightness of mantle. A tale of two stints... the Red-necked was a Little, the Temminck’s was a Long-toed. Who’d have thought it...

So, back to the task in hand, and to explain what happened last Sunday. With a total of at least 865 Sabine’s Gulls seen off the Bridges of Ross the day before, and all the seawatching I’ve done over the years there, it was really too good to turn down the chance of being there Sunday morning. It had been blowy overnight – still from the northwest – so much so I’d strategically parked my car by The Lighthouse Inn to sleep, as sleeping in the car park at the Bridges would have meant a rather rocky night. Anyway, to cut to the chase I got in one and a half hours of seawatching – not nearly enough - but this produced Sabine’s Gulls at pretty much every scan (at least 40 in total including a nice flock of 7; adults and juveniles seen) as well as 4 juvenile Long-tailed Skuas (still an Irish rarity) and 2 Grey Phalaropes along with decent numbers of Bonxies, Arctic Skuas, Arctic Terns and Manx Shearwaters. Spray was a bit of an issue, with the foam party ensuing due to the swell and wind direction.

8 of the 9 Buff-b Sands at Loop Head (the 9th is just to the left and out of this photo!)

I headed straight up towards the lighthouse at Loop Head, after reminding Killian about ‘those’ Skuas off Graciosa earlier this year, forking right at ‘the barn’ – the famed accommodation that Franko and I had frequented for several years. I stomped around The Fodry, and after a single Golden Plover flew over and then ditched down, I was led to the ‘wader flock’ that comprised of 4 Golden Plover and 9 Buff-breasted Sandpipers (the remains of a record equalling flock of 15 there midweek). The bastard GPs were skittish, and this caused the BBS flock to get up and go too. So, like last weekend, those usual up close and personal BBS views eluded me. A couple of Lapland Buntings flew around as I headed back to the car, and Chough were as usual pretty common and nice to see.

Beady-eyed Borefinch, Loop Head

I drove back from the lighthouse towards Kilbaha, and Niall and his Dad – along with Brian Porter – flagged me down as they’d found a Common Rosefinch. Unbelievably in the same place as where James Hanlon, Adrian Webb and I found one whilst dipping a Rose-breasted Grosbeak back in October 2000 (though according to John Murphy – the main man of Clare – most have been found in this specific spot at Loop). Anyway, back to today, and after a short while the Rosefinch popped up in Walsh’s garden where I was able to take a couple of shots. There was also a Willow Warbler, and it was as pleasurable as always to have a look in Gibson’s Garden – nothing present, but nice to relive the Canada Warbler for the umpteenth time.

Good old smurf... being able to con Clare County Council into making this sign that's located by Keating's Pub, Kilbaha; love the Canada and Myrtle Warblers along with the REV and GW Teal!

The Clare sites along the coast from Loop Head as far north as Liscannor were pretty crap, with the ‘highlights’ being a first-winter Mediterranean Gull at Liscannor and 9 Curlew Sandpipers (4 at Liscannor and 5 at Kilcredaun Bay). I had a nice sleep for an hour at Quilty, which was well needed after the past 24 hours of pretty exciting birding, and headed – via a relatively birdless Lough Atedaun – back towards Shannon Airport. I had a look at the lagoon before I caught my flight, complaining with Owen Foley how high the water levels were (the only waders able to get onto it these days are Blackwits). But Owen found a Blue-winged Teal there last year, almost to the very day... so it was worth a look at the quackers for sure. And what happened this evening? Well, a Blue-winged Teal was present again and a nice way to end the trip (and a good one by Owen).

Curlew Sandpiper, Liscannor, Clare

And well done to JJ and Staines on their smashing Mayo trip this week where Semi-p’s were following them around like a bad smell. Plus some nice other yank wader finds – AGP, Spotted Sand,multiple Buff-b Sands, Pec and a R-n Phal. So this rounds off another Irish trip for now... September trips are blinding over there; you should give it a bash one day.

Yank haul in Mayo

2011-09-21T00:08:00.000+01:00

After the previous weekend’s trip to Kerry with Karen, this time (Friday 16 to Sunday 18 September) it was a solo ‘rough’ mission to the wild west. County Mayo’s a place I’ve dabbled in now and again. With the exception of Dave Suddaby who produces the goods quite regularly, the rest of the county is criminally underwatched. JJ and I have done the odd scouting mission to other sites – with the pinnacle of my birding action being a (presumed) Fea’s Petrel and the odd Ring-necked Duck - but neither of us had ever hit it during prime conditions. To date, I’d never seen a single yank wader in the county.

So with a steady stream of yankage coming off remnant hurricanes, I got the ‘usual’ late Friday evening flight from Stansted to Shannon, hired a car and headed northwest – arriving at Doogort, Achill Island shortly before 2am. If I didn’t score on this trip, then that’d be it for me and Ireland during autumn 2011. What’s more – with much higher numbers of Buff-b’s, Pecs and Semi-p’s – it’d be a little embarrassing, as well as frustrating, to come back with nada.

I got up out of the car early doors, and immediately a brisk NW wind was bringing in the squall and waking me up. I had a walk along Doogort beach – a typically lovely deserted place – with just a few smalls to show, predominantly Sanderling. The machair just beyond and north of Achill Rovers was nice and flooded, but not a single bird. The tide was high and Sruhill Lough was too choppy with just a few RB Mergs bobbing about. No sign of the usual Black Duck , but I wasn’t going to hang around too long as the place looked poor for wader score. So I headed to the golf course at Keel, drove down to the beach at Trawmore and looked back towards the clubhouse...

The usual scan got a few smalls – Ringed Plovers – and then bang! Looking through the bins, there was an obvious yank; a whacking set of long wings and scalloped upperparts got me going for the scope straight away, pretty much confirming what I’d thought straight off – a quality juvenile Baird’s Sand. Happy days, and after grafting it out last weekend in Kerry with little reward I was content. Not just with the fact that it was a nice dose of adrenaline, but I’ve moaned on to a fair few people about Achill and its potential. So I drove onto the golf course in my car to get closer views, using the car as a mobile hide. It has to be said there weren’t many waders, but they were whizzing around a fair bit. After a couple of double takes, and a bit of pondering, it became evident there were in fact 2 Baird’s Sands – a decent moment when they both walked side-by-side. Not exactly a species that regularly gets multiple occurrences, and interesting to note the difference in bill length, prominence of lores and size in the two birds.

Baird's Sandpipers together, Achill Island, Mayo

Waders on the golf course (including a Baird's Sandpiper)

Baird's Sandpiper, Keel golf course, Achill Island

stony machair adjacent to the golf course at Keel - Baird's habitat

I had an enjoyable Ham Salad baguette nearby, and checked a few bushes at the west end of Dooagh and Keem. Given that a Black and White Warbler had just broken on Scilly, joining the Waterthrush, it wasn’t a bad shout but alas that mega crippling yank passerine needed to be saved for another day.

I spent the afternoon driving around Clew Bay, checking a few spots that I’d picked using maps and Google Earth. A couple of spots looked bang on the money, but one thing you need on your side at this extensive place is the tide. High tides and low tides are crap, so it’s Blennerville all over again – you probably only have half an hour before high tide at each spot to properly assess the score.

But the area west and southwest of Louisburgh has been a recent target of mine. Roonagh Lough isn’t bad, but this trip the water levels were too high and the wind was whacking straight through it. However, Corragaun Lough is a sheer delight. Indeed, I’d go so far as to say it’s possibly one of the emerald isle’s best kept secrets. If you’ve ever been to Carrahane Strand or heard about the yankage that place gets, then a lot of it is down to location and habitat (obviously!). Corragaun is pretty much the same – a huge intertidal bay that filters birds in, nice flooded machair and saltmarsh as well as being slap bang on the west coast of Ireland. Problem is, the nearest active birder lives over an hour away... and on the infrequent visits that Dermot has made he’s already scored Citrine Wagtail and Buff-breasted Sand. So with the showers getting worse and the wind getting up, it felt pretty rare as I headed off and paddled through the stream.

Grey Phalarope Corragaun Lough, Mayo

First signs weren’t good as there was nothing on the saltmarsh, and after a load of trudging managed to find a few smalls towards the lough. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a juvenile moulting to first-winter Grey Phal dropped in front of me. It was gone in an instant though, moving off before the next rain shower. Plenty of smalls were near the lough itself and a quick scan produced something of interest – nice small bill, smaller size and greyish tones immediately had the White-rumped Sand warning signs out. And after losing it for a minute or so, the third yank of the day was found. A decent enough adult White-rumped Sandpiper. The bird was relatively skittish, in amongst the throng of Dunlin, but during a quick bit of rain it came pretty close and managed to get a few shots for the record. There were a few Curlew Sands too, as well as a bright juvenile Little Stint – no chance of whacking that one in as a Semi-p!

A soaked adult White-rumped Sand looking a bit pissed off with life, Corragaun Lough

Spot the White-rumped from the white rumps...

With news of serious haulage at The Bridges – including a record number of Sabine’s Gulls – it was time to change tact, head south and do a dawn seawatch there. After going through the rather sombre scenery of Mayo – including the Doolagh Valley that saw one of the worst tragedies of the Irish Potato Famine (always worth reading Lonely Planet before a trip!) – I settled on a typically average SuperMacs in Oughterard and then got to The Lighthouse in Kilbaha just in time to have a couple of jars of Guiness with Niall. Owen, Killian, Noel and Brian were pretty worn out with the day’s seawatching and sloped off to bed early.

Well done to JJ and Staines for pulling out a further 2 Semipalmated, a Pec and a Buff-breast today. The lads are there til Friday so should continue to do some damage.