BIRDER 31504

Sunday, 7 August 2016

The Swamp Thing

Arrived at Minsmere at 5:30 am after an overnight from Glasgow. The Western Purple Swamphen was soon on view on the South Pool.

1st for Britain pending BOURC acceptance

Spent the whole day at Minsmere mostly taking in the huge variety of wading birds. I counted 18 different species:

Oystercatcher
Curlew
Dunlin
Redshank
Ringed Plover
Turnstone
Knot
Lapwing
Black Tailed Godwit
Whimbrel
Spotted Redshank
Greenshank
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
LRP
Little Stint
Avocet
Stone Curlew

Little Egret in early morning sun

Other notables included Bittern, Bearded Tit, Water Rail & Green Woodpecker.

I camped overnight at Leiston (Cake & Ale) & went to Westleton Heath first thing. I managed several Dartford Warbler but could not find any Woodlark.

By 1pm I was at Frampton. I quickly found the White Rumped Sandpiper. Despite being a reasonably frequent trans atlantic visitor this was only my second ever & the 1st one was way back in the 1980's.

Black Tailed Godwit

Dunlin

Frampton really is a super place, just alive with birds. Waders in big numbers particularly Dunlin. Other highlights included 3 Yellow Wagtails, 1 Corn Bunting & finally a Kingfisher for the year.

Tuesday, 12 July 2016

Mull 9,10 & 11 July 16

Spent 3 days on Mull with Patricia staying in a B&B in Dervaig about 10 miles from Tobermory. The weather was a bit mixed but we made the best of it.

Black Guillemot in Oban harbour

The ferry The ferry over produced Manx Shearwater as well as some of the commoner seabirds.

Sunday dawned dull with occasional rain but by mid afternoon the sun had come out & we got Sea Eagle & Golden Eagle at Loch Na Keal as well as Short Eared Owl.

Juvenile Wheatear at Loch na Keal

A Spotted Flycather at Salen Hotel was my first of the year.

Monday was much better weather wise & we got a Hen Harrier at Grass Point.

Tuesday we got good views of Sea Eagle & Whinchat at Dervaig.

Whinchat (part of a large family party) close to the B&B

Sunday, 19 June 2016

Big Twitch Weekend 18 & 19 June 2016

With 3 lifers within 100 mile radius in Eastern England I spent 2 highly entertaining days over the weekend trying to connect with them.

Arrived at cool & blustery Titchwell c3am & slept in the car until it got light. The fresh marsh held a reasonable sized flock of Knot but no Great Knot. News came through that it was on the beach but by the time I got round the flock had flown and most birds dispersed towards Scolt Head.

I busied myself looking at what was on offer at Titchwell including Little Gull & of course the usual stuff. With no further sign of the Great Knot I headed back into Lincolnshire for Caspian Tern. No problems here with the bird on view soon after arriving.

A brute of a Tern

I camped overnight at Stiffkey & by 7am was back at Titchwell. The Great Knot was again present on the beach & I was able to get good scope views but no pics.

By mid morning I was on to target number 3 a Little Bittern at Old Moor RSPB in south Yorkshire. 3 hours sat in Bittern hide secured a 10 second flight view. Twitching really is a mugs game.

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Gull Billed Tern at Kinneil Lagoon

Images from today at Kinneil:

Sunday, 29 May 2016

Damn!!!!

Went to East Lothian more in hope than expectation of seeing yesterday's Gull Billed Tern at Belhaven Bay. Given it had flown off east at 18:00 the previous evening I wasn't too keen on the chances of connecting.

With negative news from the pager service first thing I checked out Tyninghame collecting both Little Stint & Curlew Sand for the year.

At Torness I had a nice Yellow Wagtail,Spot Fly and 3 Peregrines. I spent about 90 mins at Belhaven & with no sign and no real prospect, I felt, of it reappearing I left for home at about 1:45. It turned up again about 3pm. Bugger!

Shelduck where the Tern had been the previous day :(

Saturday, 28 May 2016

North West Highlands

Its been 4 years since I did Handa & I had forgotten just how far it is from Glasgow. Some 290 miles nearly at the top of Scotland.

Anyway the weather was set to be glorious and even at 8:30 am in Ullapool on the first morning it was very pleasant. The long staying juvenile Glaucous Gull however, was no where to be seen about the harbour.

Forty miles further on I arrived at the boat for Handa.

Boat to Handa

I spent about 5 hours on the island. Seabirds are the main attraction including Puffins, Arctic Terns and both Arctic Skua & Bonxie.

Glorious Weather....

.... and views

Fulmar

Oystercatcher & Sea Pink

Arctic Skua

Bonxie

Raven

Camped overnight at Scourie serenaded by the calls of Cuckoo, Song Thrush, Common Sand & drumming Snipe.

Scourie

Next morning I called back in at Ullapool & got the Glaucous Gull. At Loch Gruiniard I had 1 Great Northern Diver, 3 Red Throated Diver but despite 2 hours consistent watching no Sea Eagles.