I've spent the past week undertaking bird surveys in the Scottish Borders and for once the weather has been reasonably kind. Highlights of the survey work have included Short-eared Owl on breeding territory, a 1st summer male Hen Harrier and some impressive numbers of breeding Snipe, Lapwing and Curlew along with a few Redshank. However, perhaps the most unexpected encounter was with a family party of Woodcock which wandered across the track in front of the car on a couple of occasions. This is the first time I have seen a Woodcock with chicks, so it was a truly special experience and a reminder of why I am lucky to be doing this for a living.
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After a long period of undertaking surveys in various places it was great to be able to pay a visit to my patch at Long Nab and enjoy some glorious spring sunshine. On my way I stopped at Johnson's Marsh, but saw nothing of any note. On arrival at Crook Ness it was evident there wasn't a great deal about although as I did my usual circuit around Long Nab it was good to be able to spend some time with newly arrived summer visitors such as Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff and Whitethroat. Most of these will have been local breeding birds, so the only definite migrant headed for pastures elsewhere was a Wheatear that performed nicely. On returning to the car, I pondered my next move and had it in mind to visit Wykeham Lakes, but was in two minds and headed in the direction of Scalby Lodge Pond. As I passed Johnson's Marsh a large white bird grabbed my attention - that wasn't there before! It was a good job there wasn't anything following me as I slammed the brakes on and abruptly veered across the road to pull up in the gateway. To my amazement it was a Great White Egret in superb breeding condition. A welcome addition to my Scarborough area list and a find tick as well. It is presumably the same bird that was near Bridlington a little while ago, but where has it been? Just goes to show that if a big white bird like this can disappear for days on end, what else is lurking out there?
Barn Owl This blog has been rather neglected of late so here is a quick update and hopefully more regular updates will appear here over the course of the spring and summer, always assuming this cold easterly airflow ever ends! Local birding has been fairly hard work over the past few weeks and there has been little to get the pulse racing. So, regular survey work has occupied me for much of the time. One of the most rewarding projects I am involved with is monitoring the birds on Potter Brompton Carr. The farm at Potter Brompton has signed up for a Higher Level Stewardship agreement and I undertake regular visits to see how the bird populations are responding to the measures being implemented. I blog about the birds on the Potter Brompton Fams website which can be found here. The Barn Owl pictured here was one of two performing nicely over the weekend, and this morning two Egyptian Geese were a major surprise as this is a rare species in the local area. My most recent overseas tour was to Cambodia and Vietnam. My first visit to the former country was fascinating and highlights included Giant and White-shouldered Ibis and Mekong Wagtail. The Vietnam sector of the tour was also most enjoyable and was the fifth occasion I have visited this exciting birding destination. Among the highlights were Bar-bellied and Blue-rumped Pittas, wonderful views of skulking species such as Collared and Orange-breasted Laughingthrushes and much else besides. I led the tour for Birdwatching Breaks and the trip report can be found here. With the busy spring period getting into full swing before too long I hope there will be more to post about before too long. Spoon-billed Sandpiper at the Minjiang Estuary. A busy period of work has taken me to survey sites in the Scottish Borders recently which have been typically quiet and there hasn't been a great deal to report. However, much more exciting was a trip to China where I led a tour for Birdwatching Breaks. Although the weather was against us at time we saw some great birds, with Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Oriental Stork, Baikal Teal, Baer's Pochard, Scaly-sided Merganser, six species of crane, Reed Parrotbill, Pied Falconet, Japanese Waxwing, a splendid selection of buntings amongst the many highlights. The tour report can be found here and a gallery of images from the tour can be found here. A long and rewarding day in the ringing site, began pre dawn as I set a couple of nets for a ringing session. A steady flow of Redwings and Fieldfares could be heard flying overhead in the dark and so it was with some excitement I awaited dawn. Once the light was up it was evident that a major arrival of Redwings was taking place with several hundred dropping into the ringing site and then moving quickly inland. They move through so quickly, it is impossible to sift through them in the hope of something rarer. These arrivals continued through most of the morning, and with Nick birding the wider area, a total in excess of 2200 Redwings estimated for the Long Nab area. Over 200 Fieldfares were also estimated along with smaller Blackbirds, Song Thrushes and a handful of Ring Ouzels.
With an increase in drizzle the nets had to be furled mid-morning, but the rain abated around lunchtime enabling a few more birds to be caught. The nets were furled for the final time around 1400hrs with a pleasing total of 43 birds caught (from just 3 nets) with totals as follows: Redwing (2), Blackbird (3), Robin (8), Goldcrest (12), Brambling (2), Goldfinch (1), Lesser Redpoll (15). A new bird for my patch list came in the form of a Hawfinch which circled the plantation three times before appearing to drop in. However, I couldn't refind it. Other highlights included a Black Redstart, 2 Chiffchaffs including one potential abietinus type, whilst Nick notched up Mealy Redpoll, Redstart, Jack Snipe and two Short-eared Owls. Although lacking in something a bit rarer, this was truly a fantastic day in the field and classic east coast autumnal birding at its best. Having had fairly productive visible migration watch at Long Nab yesterday (Mediterranean Gull and Great Northern Diver being the main highlights), I decided to have another look this morning. Goldfinches have been passing through in good numbers in recent days and so it continued today with an excellent 496 logged heading south. The site record vis mig count was set only last weekend when Nick had 467 pass south on 29th September, so it was pleasing to break it again so soon! Small numbers of other finches, (including Siskin, Redpoll, Linnet and Greenfinch) were also on the move, but no significant numbers of these species. On the sea the first Black-throated Diver of the autumn headed north, whilst an Arctic Tern was feeding with Kittiwakes and Black-headed Gulls offshore. The bushes were pretty quiet, with just a Blackcap and a couple of Chiffs present, so I decided that a check of the stubble field was in order and here I found a fairly confiding Snow Bunting, which is also the first of the autumn. Always a joy to see this gem of a species.
Barred Warbler at Long Nab. Photo by Steve Wignill. Saturday was a rather frustrating day. Reports of scarce migrants seemed to be coming from the entire length of the Yorkshire coast, and there were seemingly common migrants too! However in the Long Nab area it was dreadfully quiet and the best I could manage after 5+ hours of bush bashing was a Stonechat and a few Chiffchaffs. Not very encouraging. However, Sunday was of course another day and so I headed to the ringing site to try my luck. Whilst setting up the nets I wondered whether the effort would be worth it as the bushes still seemed pretty quiet and there wasn't a great deal of activity overhead. With two nets up I was pondering which recordings I should play in order to coax the birds in the direction of my nets. At this point I heard the harsh tacking calls of a Barred Warbler and that quickly answered my question. I set the recording going, went to erect a third net and then came back to check the net. Bingo! A cracking 1st winter Barred Warbler in the net. A few texts woke one or two local birders who were able to get to the site in time to see the bird before its release. Thanks to Steve Wignill for allowing me to use his photos here. I managed to trap and ring a respectable 36 birds during the morning, with a good number of Goldfinches and Long-tailed Tits making up a large proportion of the catch. However, some Chiffchaffs and Goldcrests were also ringed. Other migrant action included a Brambling south and 4 that dropped in from high, plus a trickle of Redpolls heading south. All in all a productive morning!
It has been a while since I last posted here, but I am recently returned from leading a birding tour to Grand Manan for Birdwatching Breaks. It was a thoroughly enjoyable tour and one of the highlights was a pelagic trip out into the Bay of Fundy in search of seabirds and whales. A full trip report can be found here. One of the highlights of the pelagic was the opportunity to get up close and personal with Great Shearwaters, so here are a few images to give a flavour of the trip.
For the past three months I have been working with Paul Chester on some surveys at various sites between Whitby and Teesside. Early on in the project Paul said he'd allocate me the more interesting sites for birds whilst he took on the 'duller sites' as he worked on other aspects of the ecology. So, after a morning spent working on a different project I was surprised to get a call from Paul about a shrike he had found, but wasn't sure of its identification. From his description it was clearly a Woodchat Shrike. So, I headed up to the field and dung heaps west of Sneatonthorpe and soon after 11am was enjoying some cracking views of a nice male Woodchat Shrike and confirmed the identification. So much for his sites being the dull ones!!
Some of the secondaries appear brownish (appears as a pale line below the terials in the photo below) and there was a contrast between these feathers an the jet black of the rest of the upperparts, so I think this is a 1st summer male, rather than an adult as has been reported elsewhere. Although I'd welcome other opinions. A slightly delayed start this morning meant that I was still driving out to Long Nab when I got a text from Nick about a Sooty Shearwater that had just passed the seawatching hut. An unusually early record and hopefully a sign of some good seawatching to come this autumn. I spent 2 1/2 hours seawatching and for the 1st June it was surprisingly interesting. 2 Bonxies headed north, a reasonable movement of Common Scoters was noted and 3 Red-throated Divers, a Red-breasted Merganser, 25 Manx Shearwaters and small numbers of Sandwich Terns were also on the move. Not bad at all. Before leaving I headed to the 'cover crop field' which is currently bare, but has had several Lapwing chicks. A Sparrowhawk was causing the adults to alarm and the chicks were hidden up. However, although a couple of Wheatears were something of a surprise, I was very pleased to discover a Grey-headed Wagtail on the opposite edge of the field. A nice find. Nick managed to get to see it before it headed strongly south.
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AuthorFreelance ornithologist and tour leader based in Scarborough, N Yorkshire. Archives
January 2023
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