A good day turned bad

Felt a tad bizarre when I woke up, leaving the house with more than one layer. By recent standards, the morning was positively chilly. Checking in at the Long-tailed Duck on Surrey Water revealed it was still present, and then 22 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the mud by the Hilton were all presumably local birds as some were still being accompanied by their folks and begging for food.

There was little on the mud at Crossness, but as the tide rose, more Black-headed Gulls congregated at the outfall and in amongst them was this beautiful juvenile Mediterranean Gull.

juvenile Mediterranean Gull, Crossness 21st July 2013

It was really agressive to all the Black-headed Gulls, calling away regularly, but after an hour or so it presumably realised its petulance wasn't getting anywhere so it chilled out a little bit. Not much else doing, bar a couple of Common Sandpipers, though views of the Common Terns at high tide here are always excellent so I had a bit of a papping session in the now bright light.

adult Common Tern, Crossness 21st July 2013

juvenile Common Tern, Crossness 21st July 2013

A lovely relaxing morning until I got back to my car. I found the back windscreen smashed and the boot crumpled. I first thought someone had nicked stuff, but the lovely people in the house at the end of Lytham Close had seen it all. Transpires that one of those cowboy scrap metal vans backed into my car and drove away. Miraculously, they'd got part of the registration number and the company it was so, with a little bit of detective work, I managed to track down the driver and get all the details required. Nonetheless, I'm now carless and, once again, left questioning the dignity of the majority of the human race.

From Surrey to Surrey Water

I've had a pretty packed day today. Pretty much being a bird only man, just dabbling a bit with other aspects of natural history, James L and Graeme S were my nature guides for the day. We'd initially planned to head up to Northants to join the masses at Fermyn Woods where Purple Emperors are enjoying a record year, but a look at the weather forecast revealed overcast conditions. So, with the same target in mind, we diverted to sunny Surrey and a nice little place near Chiddingfold called Botany Bay. James L was armed with shrimp paste and rotten bananas, though these weren't required, as on arrival a nice male Purple Emperor was feasting on the horse dung!


Purple Emperor, Botany Bay 20th July 2013

In total we saw four of these massive butterflies, as well as perhaps ten or so Silver-washed Fritillaries and half a dozen White Admirals. All very nice indeed, so with time ticking on, I was escorted to nearby Thursley where my expert guides talked me through the Odonata there. Namely Downy Emerald, Keeled Skimmer, Four-spotted Chaser, Small Red, Large Red and Emerald Damselfies. Thanks guys.

Silver-washed Fritillary, Botany Bay 20th July 2013

Though with not a gull or whiff of sewage in sight, I was gagging to get Crossness and do what I know best. On arrival I was pleasantly surprised to find a Whimbrel on the foreshore by the golf centre - first of the year here for me as spring passage was so lame. Five Yellow-legged Gulls included my first juvenile of the year, and a couple of ringed Herring Gulls were from the NTGG and Suffolk, while a Jersey Tiger moth was on bushes in the sewage works.

Jersey Tiger, Crossness 20th July 2013

Back in Rotherhithe, an adult Yellow-legged Gull was new in on the mud off the Hilton Hotel before some twat with a dog flushed it, along with my first juvenile Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Then a check of Surrey Water late evening allowed me an encounter with a long lost friend...

Long-tailed Duck, Rotherhithe 20th July 2013

All in all, a thoroughly pleasant day out.

This year's youths are released

It's been wall to wall sunshine since last Sunday's post. What that has meant is breeding birds have been in overdrive ,and it has been nice to get out and about locally. Rotherhithe has been quiet, though I had two Lapwing over yesterday evening; normally a bird I'd associate with cold weather movements in Inner London, as opposed to post-breeding dispersal like these birds.

adult Mediterranean Gull Crossness 13th July 2013

Crossness is now packed with birds, 99% of these being Black-headed Gulls. I spent an enjoyable evening here on Thursday, as well as today, just lapping up the close views in the warm light. Just one adult Mediterranean Gull and an adult Common Gull in amongst them. Though I must admit that each year I think the same - juvenile Black-headed Gulls are mega looking birds and each one is very different. The extent of the nape shawl through to the amount of scapular, covert and tail moult... just feast your eyes on these bad boys, some of them already moulting through to 1st-winter plumage.

On Thursday, I also managed to see my first juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gull for the year while juvenile Common Terns were present then and tonight too. Highlight tonight though was a Sandwich Tern heading rapidly west midriver, calling as it went. Bizarrely, when I was at Rainham RSPB this morning watching a rather nice but heat-hazed adult Pectoral Sandpiper, I mentioned to Nick Croft that days like today can be decent for Sandwich Terns. So it proved. While trying to locate gulls (unsuccessfully) on the foreshore near the stone barges - they're tipping out of sight currently - a Crossbill flew west calling; a bit of a surprise but there seem to be a few moving at the moment.

Fun in the sun

This weekend could have been so different. Friday lunchtime, and news of an Ascension Frigatebird chilling out on a harbour wall on Islay meant that another trip north was on the cards. However, news filtered out that it had flown off before the usual spurious rumours about further sightings filtered out. Looking forward to my parents arriving for a nice day out, for once I decided to act sensibly and chill out and let the rest of the big d*ck players head north. I awoke on Saturday with some relief, though not totally unsurprised - and went on to have a relaxing, nice day in the sun visiting some of London's tourist attractions with good food and company. This only slightly tempered by one of the local birders, Mike R, finding perhaps one of last year's Bonaparte's Gulls (now in summer plumage) at Crossness.

Today, the chillout in the sun time continued albeit with an early start. The Bonaparte's Gull showed pretty well throughout the day (I had an early morning showing and then returned in the afternoon). Nice to see a slim yank amongst our fat Black-headed Gulls. I've had these images looked over by American gullers just to see whether they could nail any 3cy characters, but unfortunately not so. Just like our Black-headed Gulls, a 3cy Bonaparte's would show a dark smudge on the primary-coverts as well as perhaps some dark shafts in the outer primaries, smudges on tertials or an isolated dark mark in the tail. However, these features can be moulted out by Black-headed Gulls by this time of year, so the same is probably true for Bonaparte's Gulls (as well as some 3cy Bonaparte's and Black-headed Gulls just mimicking adults anyway). There were also a couple of adult Mediterranean Gulls that appeared, and then disappeared, as well as a Little Egret on the Thames foreshore early morning.

I'd arranged to team up with John A, James L and Graeme S to do a bit of summertime nature watching in Kent. First on the agenda were the Heath Fritillaries at East Blean Woods that, as usual, showed pretty well mid morning before they started to get a bit more active with increased heat.

Nearby, at least three male Red-veined Darters were seen. Very nice to see, though must admit that Odonate aren't my speciality and I just duded it up, enjoying these little critteres, with special thanks to James L for use of his macro and 70-200mm lenses.

Back in Rotherhithe, I saw my first juvenile Black-headed Gulls of the summer here as well as a 2nd-summer Yellow-legged Gull on one of the barges near Greenland Pier. This rounded off a pretty good, sun-soaked weekend. Just five days of crazy kids in boling classrooms to deal with now.

Bridled Tern on the Farne Islands

It has been 25 years since the last truly twitchable Bridled Tern. Always viewed as the 'commoner' of the two dark-backed terns, the Sooty Tern on Anglesey in 2005 has meant that most of today's listers have seen the latter but not the former. So when a lovely adult Bridled Tern turned up on the Farne Islands, a load of Britain's finest were chomping at the bit.

I actually saw a Bridled Tern from a boat on the way to the Black-browed Albatross in June 2006, along with a number of others, though bizarrely the wise men didn't seem to like it for some reason. So guess this week's Bridled Tern satisfies those BOU listing slaves. Anyway, Puffins, Arctic Terns and loads of other auks and Eiders, plus a dozen Manx Shearwaters thrown in, reminded me that there was more birdlife in Northumberland compared to London.

Local birding heals the wounds

It's been a week or so since I last posted. The week just gone has been a hard one, as completely unavoidable work commitments meant that I missed what could be my only chance of a White-throated Needletail in Britain - the first bird I've missed (that I feasibly could have seen) for over a decade.

Right, the less said about that the better and time to try and move on. Locally, it has been predictably quiet although the female Long-tailed Duck lingers on, having transferred back onto Canada Water a couple of days ago. Three ringed Herring Gulls have come from different schemes - Suffolk, Sussex and the NTGG - and a Mute Swan I saw this morning seems to have been ringed in Derbyshire or Yorkshire.

This morning, I had a good walk around Crossness, and compared to last weekend, it felt just a tad bit more dynamic. There were a thousand or so Black-headed Gulls, including five juveniles (my first of the year), while adult and 1st-summer Mediterranean Gulls were subtly roosting in amongst them. Three Yellow-legged Gulls (two 2nd-summers and a 1st-summer) were an increase too.

adult and 1st-summer Mediterranean Gulls, Crossness 30th June 2013

Still she stays in Rotherhithe

June is always grim round these ends, but having a quality bird, the female Long-tailed Duck, within walking distance of my flat at this time of year has meant only one - I have become a slave to the bird. Before work each day I check on her, after work I have been checking on her and then when I can't find her I worry. Well, not quite, but when she's been absent from Canada Water - just like today - I've checked other areas of the patch to find her. And this evening, for the first time, she was on Surrey Water.

Other goings on in Rotherhithe include one unattached Reed Warbler still singing his heart out by Canada Water station, Common Terns fishing in Canada Water (though no nests occupied at Surrey Water once again), at least two pairs of Egyptian Geese roaming around and good numbers of Sand and House Martins can consistently be found over Surrey Water.