Camping in Cumbria

With the schools breaking up for the Summer it was a good opportunity for the family to dig out the tent and head for the Lake District.

The weather forecast was reasonable but Keswick having its own micro climate was dull and miserable on the first afternoon as we pitched the tent. A well earned cuppa after putting up the tent was enlivened by 6 Crossbill and several Redpoll & Siskin over the campsite. As evening time arrived, the cloud base lifted and a glorious sunset promised much for the following day:

Pity about the caravans spoiling the view !

As the sunset had predicted, Tuesday was marvelous and we 'celebrated' by climbing Langdale Pikes near Grasmere. The first part of the walk provided several Spotted Flycatchers, a brief Redstart and several Tree Pipits.

The view from the top made the effort well worth it:

Grasmere in the valley below

5 flyover Crossbills were good as well as at least one calling Raven.

We enjoyed a picnic whilst enjoying the view over Rydal Water:

Rydal Water

The walk down was far easier and produced a vocal Nuthatch and at least 4 Spotted Flycatcher.

Barons Haugh

I don't visit Baron's Haugh as much as I used to. It has fond memories for me. I used to live in Motherwell in the late eighties & early nineties and it was on my doorstep. It is a time I look back on with some fondness. I enjoyed Motherwell. Where I lived was good, my job was good. I liked the camaraderie. Things have moved on ! Things have changed ! Visiting Baron's Haugh brings back memories, things I have lost.

Baron's Haugh has changed too. It is undoubtedly still one of the best birding sites in Lanarkshire. However, it no longer has the full time warden, it is not as well watched and you do not meet many birders. Today for instance, despite it being the weekend , in 4 hours I met one person who was looking at birds. Jump back to my period of 'fond memories' and there would have been several photographers in the Marsh Hide and the talk would have been about Green Sands & Water Rails and the possibility of a Black Tern in the weeks to come.

Yes, it is still good and today again underlined that. My visit followed early morning rain and coincided with lots of bird activity. The walk from the car park over the hill produced several Whitethroat, some busily feeding young and Sedge Warblers and "tacking" Blackcaps. On reaching the Marsh Hide there were several Teal and squealing Water Rail and a Heron stalking its prey:

A Garden Warbler was seen and heard from close to the hide as well as several Reed Buntings. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled from cover to the left of the hide, but despite sounding close I could not get on to it.

After the recent rain, the Haugh was fairly full and the area in front of the Marsh Hide looked excellent for a Green Sand but none were present today.  A Roe Deer showed well in front of the hide:

Most birds have now largely stopped singing but Chiffchaff is one exception and this bird was belting it out from the power lines above the Marsh Hide:

From the Causeway Hide, there was a party of Gadwall including 11 ducklings. The resident pair of Mute Swans had 1 cygnet. Otherwise there were lots of eclipse Mallards, 1 Cormorant and a single Oystercatcher.
I spent some time scanning the river at several parts in the hope of Kingfisher but I was out of luck today. A female Goosander and young however, showed well:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I carried on towards Carbarns, negotiating the local drunks and their buckfast bottles in the process. 2 more Garden Warblers were heard but there were no LRP's or other interesting waders at the pool.
 
The graveyard area also failed to produce the expected Spot Flys.
 
A nice cappochino at the cafe at the Strathy to finish !

Juvenile American White Winged Scoter - form Deglandi

Looking at the forecast for North East Scotland it was apparent that Sunday was far better then Saturday and as such a far better option for attempting a twitch that I knew would be very difficult. I had studied photographs on the net and read up a bit about the bird but I knew that this might very well end in a big dip !

I left Glasgow in a steady drizzle, but by the time I had reached Stirling, the skies had cleared and the sun had come out. Winds were light and the bird had been seen early morning so things looked promising.

By just after 11am I was at Blackdog and started to head towards the beach for the 1.5 mile walk down the coast to Murcar. I got a shout from another birder who told me that the Murcar Links Golf Course were letting birders use their car park and that was far closer to the bird. Whoever you were, thanks for that, you saved me a long walk. Sure enough there was no problem in the car park at Murcar Links and indeed the golfers appeared genuinely interested in all the 'excitement' and were keen to show the birders the best way through the golf course to the sea.

Once at the sea there was a very large black mass of over 1,000 Scoter, mostly Common with a few Velvet offshore. Distant dots would have been a good description but as the tide advanced, they gradually began to come a bit closer. After about an hour and despite many eyes looking, 'The Scoter' was not being found. As well as being distant, there was much tooing & froing within the flock and in truth it was like looking for a very small needle in a very large haystack ! Spirits were raised by a fairly obvious drake Surf Scoter and a single Arctic Skua chasing the Terns also relieved the monotony of looking at black dots.

By early afternoon, the light was better and the main flock of Scoter were now slightly closer, certainly enough to see bill colour. There were now about 50 birders concentrated together scrutinising the main flock. From time to time there were murmurings of a possible sighting but these all quickly came to nothing. It was good however to see up to 3 Surf Scoter present in the flock. Just after 3pm a very confident shout went up. Everyone was directed to the left hand side of the flock and soon several birders had got on to the bird and sounded equally enthusiastic about the claim. I quickly got on to an interesting looking bird that to me had obvious pink in the bill. One of the birders was very helpfully doing a running commentary. "It's facing left", "just behind 2 Drake Eiders", "Its preening" "just coming up to a Red Throated Diver". Reassuringly, this commentary was coinciding exactly to what I was looking at. Given the distance and the sea swell I was struggling to get any impression of head shape. For me, the thin line of pink on the bill remained its best feature. It was viewable for about 5 minutes before losing itself in the main flock.

It would have been good to see it closer, but by 3:45pm the light was starting to deteriorate as rain approached from the West.

Redstarts & Ospreys

A few years ago the headline would undoubtedly have been round the other way. However, the latter has become almost common whilst the former is becoming increasingly scarce.

I dropped Rachel at her cheerleading competition at the Kelvin Hall for 11:30 am and made my way up to the Endrick Mouth on Loch Lomond. This is a site I have known for years but have only visited on a few occasions. It is part of a National Nature Reserve but the the problem has always been the access. There are few places to park and lots of private signs and keep out and overall you get a distinct feeling of 'I shouldn't be here'. There are not a lot of houses but the ones that are are very posh with expansive grounds and no doubt cost a fortune. Probably, the last thing they want is for Joe Public to camp or light fires or perhaps even look into their properties in search of birds ! Assuming you can sneak past the Alsatians and the Rottweilers and reach Loch Lomond it actually is a splendid area. Because of the lack of proper car parking facilities, there are few people and it is altogether a peaceful oasis.

Most of the habitat is mature oak and ash woodland and as a consequence there are lots of birds. As a bonus it runs along the side of Loch Lomond and affords the opportunity for things like Common Sandpiper, 2 of which I heard today. The woodland was full of young Blue, Great & Coal Tits as well as Great Spotted Woodpecker and Willow Warbler. Bullfinch was also frequently heard. Once you get through the woodland it opens up to provide pleasant views over Loch Lomond towards Balmaha. Being Loch Lomond, Ospreys are almost expected and today did not disappoint with up to 6 seen with 4 circling together at one stage.

Best today however, were the Redstarts, at least one male and a juvenile. The male was fairly loyal to one patch of woodland and presented the opportunity for some shots:

Other notables included both Whitethroat and Tree Pipit. A large raft of Canada Geese and 3 Shelduck were on the loch.

On the way back I also found a single Spotted Flycatcher :

Young Coal Tits

There have been lots of birds in the garden of late and I have been finding myself having to fill the feeders almost daily. Most of the black sunflowers seeds are being eaten by Greenfinches but the peanuts have been a favourite of a family of Coal Tits including several newly fledged young birds and their by now scruffy parents:

White Throated Robin

A White Throated Robin was trapped and ringed on Hartlepool Headland on Monday morning and released into the surrounding gardens shortly thereafter. Being only the 3rd record ever for Britain and the 1st twitchable one, it of course generated a lot of interest amongst keen birders.

I was very kindly offered a lift down on the Tuesday, but given my work commitments I unfortunately had to decline. Looking at my diary for the remainder of the week I considered it unlikely that I could make it until the weekend ! The chances of the bird staying that long were slim. However, after some juggling of tasks and a sympathetic boss I managed to negotiate a day off on the Wednesday that I only intended to take if the bird was confirmed present on the Wednesday morning. I set the 'Early Bird' channel on the pager and at 5:15 am it  duly "beeped" to confirm the bird's continued presence.

A quick spray of the deodorant can, no time for a proper wash, and a quick breakfast and I was out the door by 6am. By 10 am I was in a street on Hartlepool Headland comprised of typical Northern English terraced houses facing a bowling green where apparently the bird had been in some 30 minutes previously. At that stage it had flown off into the adjacent "Doctor's Garden" and was still believed to be in there. The "Doctor's Garden" was completely surrounded by high walls and barbed wire and locks and bolts and indeed everything to stop even the most determined twitcher from entering. The good Doctor had given access the day before but it was unlikely that similar privileges would be forthcoming today. One option was to wait and watch and hope that the bird appeared back in the bowling green. The other far more attractive option was to go round the corner to number 6, pay £3 to the enterprising owner and view the bird from his balcony that overlooked the Doctor's Garden. Soon I was being led up a stair and found myself at the end of a small queue waiting to get on to the balcony. There was a tense wait of about 15 minutes before the bird hopped out the flower beds and on to the grass. It was a further 10 before I worked my way on to the balcony to have a proper look. Fortunately, the bird was fairly obliging and I was able to get a few shots:

There was no pressure to move off the balcony and so I was able to enjoy the bird on and off for a further 20 minutes. By about 11:30am I had had my fill of the bird and said my thank yous to the owner and  departed. The bird did eventually show back in the bowling green but not until after 4pm, so I would have had a very long wait had I chosen not to take the house owner up on his offer.

Saltholme Pools was just down the road and that was the obvious place to spend the afternoon. First stop was the cafe that overlooks part of the reserve and I watched several Common Terns as I enjoyed a nice hot cappuccino. The walk down to the hides produced a Yellow Wagtail, Reed Bunting and a large flock of Starlings.

Reed Bunting Male

My arrival at the Saltholme Hide also coincided with the return of a Spoonbill that had been present for some days. It was nice to see one for a change that wasn't asleep:

2 Little Gulls, an adult and a juvenile, were also present. Other birds of interest included Wigeon, Gadwall and lots of Pochard. A Great Crested Grebe was also present.

Common Terns were frequently seen:

Yellow Wagtails were frequently heard calling but none ventured close:

Yes, there is a bird here !

Both Dunlin and Ringed Plover fed close to the hide:

A few weeks ago I was bemoaning June and complaining that only dull days lay ahead. Just goes to show, in the bird world, you just don't know what is round the next corner !

Summer Lull

Even although we are only at the beginning of June it is already evident that we are moving into a much quieter birding period. Take Inversnaid yesterday afternoon for example, the woodlands were very quiet with little birdsong and with trees in full leaf finding birds was hard work. Both Louise & Rachel were with me and their 'sword fencing' antics with bottles of coke did not entirely help bird finding either !

The main target birds were Pied Fly & Redstart. Although I saw and heard several of the former, the latter remained frustratingly absent and not for the first time on Loch Lomondside in recent years I failed to find any. In contrast I did find a Spotted Flycatcher, a single bird located on call, and there were plenty of singing Tree Pipits and a few Wood Warblers.

Loch Lomond from the hill above Inversnaid