The dangers of chumming

Monteiro's Storm-petrel

For sure, we all want to see birds well. And on Graciosa, Azores, I was treated to the best views you could imagine of both Monteiro's Storm-petrels and Wilson's Storm-petrels. Note the freshness of the primaries and secondaries on this bird (the warm season breeder) - although it's not got the best of forked tails for a Monteiro's Storm-petrel, you can rule out adult Grant's Storm-petrel (the cold season breeder) as they will be in heavy wing moult. Can you safely rule out a juvenile Grant's Storm-petrel though?

However, to get these views of petrels was not without sacrifice... as I write this, the clothes that I'm wearing are currently on their second (long) wash at 50 degrees. We had to prepare all the chum (including 45kg of rotten fish) ourselves, and my role for the week became the chum-master general while out at sea.

Note my binoculars precariously placed

Yep, they ended up in the chum after a few bouncy waves. A world first?

Temporary home for my binoculars

Flying without wings

This will be the first of several posts based on the excellent pelagics off Graciosa, Azores, this week. Wilson's Petrels are obviously a southern oceans breeding species, so it is no wonder given their breeding cycle to see birds in heavy wing moult. There were, of course, a couple of juvenile birds - really interesting to see how fresh they were in comparison to the adults (all photos here are of adults). There were a total of 12-15 Wilson's Petrels seen, all together feeding on our chum slick 18 miles southeast of Graciosa, in an area of shallow water (300 metres depth).

Back on land after a few days at sea...

Back on Terceira after a few days on Graciosa (where there was little internet access). Plenty more to come over the following days, but the shot above show one of the Western Palearctic's rarest birds - Monteiro's Petrel, or the 'warm season' Madeiran Petrel in the Azores. Other highlights have included some wing-moulting skuas, 12-15 Wilson's Petrels and a Rough-legged Buzzard/Hawk.

Back on the Azores

These days, away from Rotherhithe, the Azores seems to be my second home. And in particular, the island of Terceira. So once again, I was back there for the day in preparation for the ferry to Graciosa (where we'll be doing some pelagics this week). Highlights have included visiting some old faithfuls - the White-winged Black Tern (now a third calendar year) looks fully kitted out, a Pied-billed Grebe that got hooked during the winter has now seemingly fully recovered and acquired breeding plumage while a couple of Semipalmated Plovers were to be almost expected in the quarry at Cabo da Praia.

Killdeer breeding on the Azores again this year

Later today I'm off to the Azores, again. And it was the recent news of breeding Killdeer, where two young were observed on Santa Maria, that prompted me to post this. Though debatable whether or not the Azores really is 'this side of the Atlantic', a breeding record of any Nearctic wader there is still pretty incredible... and it's presumably the first definite American species of wader to have had successful breeding confirmed (this year and last).

You may ask 'what about those Pec Sands in Scotland'? They bred successfully but how certain can you be of their Nearctic or Siberian origin?

White-rumped Sandpipers displaying in Arctic Norway? No chicks. And those Spotted Sandpipers that attempted to breed on the Isle of Skye were apparently unsuccessful.

So there we go, Killdeer is the only definite yank wader to have bred in Europe.

Back on the patch...

It's been a slow time of late in Rotherhithe, briefly punctuated by this 1st-summer Yellow-legged Gull at Greenland Pier on Sunday. Not too regular this time of year in London, certainly not on the inner part of the Thames that I live on. Quite a smart bird to boot too.

The storm earlier this week unfortunately whacked out the Great-crested Grebe nest on the south side of Greenland Dock, though a check this evening of Inner London's only breeding Common Terns was more encouraging - the two pairs still on their islands on Surrey Water.

Cabo Verde... a recent trip.

This blog is bouncing around a bit, and I imagine it will continue to do so...

At the end of April and start of May, I managed to use the Royal Wedding weekend to its full potential. I watched the event on the TV while whacking out a lesson on coastal erosion for my Year 7s. And then, as soon as it was over, I hot footed it to Gatwick and the fun began. By the early hours of Saturday morning, I was in Praia... capital of the island of Santiago, Cabo Verde! You'll find my trip report here - enjoy it, fully loaded with photos and the usual [anally retentive] detailed directions etc.

You'll have seen the way the islands are trying to pump themselves up as a holiday destination, and even since my 1st visit 4 years ago things have changed - Boavista and Santiago now have their own international airports, whereas previously you had to fly to Sal and then do internal flights using the rather unreliable TACV. But the good news is, at least on Santiago, tourism seems to be taking off in a sustainable way. Not sure that this is the case on Boavista though, looking at the massive hotels being advertised in a brochure I received a few weeks back. Just hope they don't mess up that lovely beach at Curral Velho.