Craigs UK Bird Photos

Cornwall SW Seawatch 22nd- 31st.

Well Tristan had organised for us to do a Balearic Shearwater Survey From Porthgwarra in Cornwall, so it was time for Chris Tristan and i to head South for the week. Well what can i say about this, erm a week of Dipping probably. First day was ok looking at Dragonflys and Damselfly's in Tewksbury, first was  male White-legged Damselfly, then Brown Hawker, Southern Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Banded damselfly, Red-eyed Damselfly and Small Red-eyed Damselfly all in evidence, most of these were new to me.

Banded Dam

Black-tailed Skimmer

Red-eyed Dam

Small Red Eyed Dam

White legged Dam

Also about were a load of Roesel's Bush Cricket, and some other ones im yet to find out what they were.

Roesel's Bush Cricket

Cricket ?

Next it was onto Cirl Buntings, the weather was showery and we just couldnt find them. (oh no).

It was Seawatching time and over the next few days we saw Allsorts, totals were as follows: Balearic Shearwater 118, Sooty Shearwater 34, Yelkoun Shearwater 2, Tristan and Chris had 1 at Porthgwarra, i had 1 at Pendeen, Great Shearwater 1, Cory's Shearwater 1 (which i bloody couldn't get onto grrrr), Manx Shearwater 2632, plus i had another 2-3000 at Pendeen over 3 hours, Leach's Petrel 1, Storm Petrel 81, Pomarine Skua 1, Great Skua 28,
Arctic Skua 5, Kittiwake 332, Mediterranean Gull 3, Little Gull 1, Arctic Tern 13, Common Tern 11, Sandwich Tern 10, Grey Phalarope 2, Whimbrel 19, Puffin 5, Guillemot 11, Razorbill 11, Chough 2, Basking Shark 18, Common Dolphin 26 and 2 Sunfish i saw at Pendeen. A Couple of Greenland Wheatear were a nice addition to the list.

Other birds i missed were a Little Shearwater, due to REALLY bad directions from birders at Pendeen, Corys was missed and a  Fea's turned up at Porthgwarra a day after we left, and was seen over the next 3 days, Citrine Wag, and Spotted Crake were elusive, so i did feel a little hard done by!!!. On the way home we did manage to see 10 Cirl Buntings, a lifer for me, although it was p*ssing it down grrrrr.

It was then onto Oxford and Farmoor for what for me were the best birds of the trip and saved the week for me. These were 3 Marsh Terns. Here were a 3rd for Britain, American Black Tern, White Winged Black Tern and Black Tern.

From left to right, Black Tern, WW Black and American Black Tern.

American Black Tern

WWBTern

A nice finish was the 2 Yellow legged Gulls that showed well.

All in all a good experience of Balearic Shearwater a few good birds and great company.

Northeast  16th Aug

Chris, Tristan and i had a day in Durham and Northumberland the highlights being at South Shields 6 nice Roseate Terns,  including 1 Juv, these were showing really well.

Common tern

At Newbiggin by the sea 10 Med gulls on beach, 8 adult including colour ringed bird, 1 juv and 1 2nd winter.

Well i hadn't seen Stormies as yet this year and the winds were looking promising so in Strong SSW wind  i decided to go and have a look when i got there i realised the wind wasn't quite right and visibility was down to only 100 yards. I met a couple of birders from Penrith Roy and john who had already had 2 Stormies and a Black Guillemot before I arrived. When I arrived we had the long staying drake eclipse Eider in harbour, 30+ Kitts were sat on shore line with a load more more out to sea, John picked up 3 Common Scoter going South. After they had gone I had 3 Stormies together feeding around lobster pots
and a few gannets. Visibility then went to 0 so called it a day.

Funniest thing was 2 lads stripped down to boxers wave surfing mad!!!! Waves, they must have been 12 foot high!

Tried Workington again in the Afternoon once the weather had cleared  1515-1600
Light was much better but the wind was still SSW but a little calmer, So there were no sign of any Stormies, there were 5 Manxies with a few more on the horizon, 18 Kittiwakes, the 1st sum Med gull was still in the Harbour, 2 Common Sandpiper flew up the estuary and the Eider was still around.

I decided to try Soddy, by now the water level had risen considerably so there was no exposed mud, and the geese were everywhere, new in surprisingly though was 3 Teal, and 2 Black-tailed Godwit.

Low meadows now has water in it after today's rain, (watch this Space) but just 1 Buzzard a Wigeon and Mallard from Soddy were on there.

Workington and Soddy 14th Aug

I started out at Workington where i noticed a Dark Arctic Skua Lingering, the long staying 1st sum Med gull was still on show but no sign of the other 7 Med gulls Chris had yesterday, 4 Kittiwake, 3 Gannet and 2 Sandwich Tern adult and juv were on show. 
The Old Corus demolition site hosted 170 Lesser Black backed gull, 40 Herring and 10
Great-black backed gull. From the Seaton area i checked through a Charming flock of 90 Goldfinch with 1 Linnet. in Seaton itself i noticed a Leucistic Starling, is this one that's been about for years seen in the huge flocks over Siddick in the Winter?

Soddy saved the best till last, when i arrived i heard a Wader Calling, thinking Green sand, no not quite right, then a Wood Sandpiper appeared from behind the island, first site record, i managed some distant record shots before it disappeared back behind the island, then i heard it again this time as it flew off South Damn!!!!! Other things today were a Female Sparrowhawk, 1 Shoveler, 1 Wigeon, 170+ Greylag and the feral Snow goose. I waited around a little longer to see if the Sandpiper would return but it didn't.

Soddy 13th-Aug

Chris and i Found a breeding Little Grebe at Soddy an first site breeding record for me. Birds were very few and far between so we looked through the Damselflies instead. There were loads of Emerald, Common Blue a few Blue-tailed Damselflies with quite a few Common Darters.

Emerald

Common Blue

Common Darter

Solway 9th Aug

Decided to cover the Solway again this time with Rach. At Anthorn the Adult colour ringed Med gull still there, more than 250+ Golden plover, 50+ Dunlin, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Common Sand and a Goosander, from the North plain roadside scrape were 22 Teal and a Shoveler. Lastly we Visited Port Carlisle the highlights being 4 Common Sand, Hundreds of Redshank, 40 Dunlin, 1 Peregrine chasing a feral pigeon, 7 Goosander, 1 Whimbrel over, 12 Ringed Plover, 1 Summer plum Knot and 3 Turnstone.

8th Aug

First stop was Workington where i had an Adult Med Gull and a male eclipse Eider. Then Tristan, his girls and i Decided to give the Solway a try, highlights at Anthorn were 1 Colour ringed Adult Winter Med Gull ringed in Belgium in 2001, and the first time its been seen in the UK, 18 sightings have been from Abroad. 

150+ Golden Plover, 100+ Dunlin. 3 Black-tailed Godwits,1 Turnstone and i had a very brief view of a Green Sandpiper on the Wampool. Next stop was the roadside pool at Campfield where there were good numbers of Lapwing with smaller numbers of Golden Plover and a few Dunlin. 
The highlights at Port Carlisle was a Peregrine harassing the roosting Redshank.

A walk around Bowness NR was worthwhile with a minimum of 200 Painted Lady butterflies, also good numbers of Wall Brown, Peacock and Red Admiral. Several Common Hawker and Southern Hawker were noted along with a few Black Darter a first for me.

and a female below

Many Common Darter, huge numbers of Emerald Damselfly and two Migrant Hawkers.

Soddy was a little quiet highlights were  3 Kestrel, 3 Families of Tufties, Feral Snow goose and white Greylag, Gropper reeling briefly, 1 Snipe and new in were a single Teal and Wigeon.

1st and 2nd August. I did see some rare birds Honest!!!

Well Rach and i decided to head over to Edinburgh, stopping off in Fife and Loch Gelly for Fudge duck and Ring-necked Duck. We arrived around lunch time to all the ducks sleeping, heavy sun in the wrong direction and strong wind, making impossible viewing of this fairly large Loch, 3 hours i was there and i just had to give up, i couldn't id one duck from another...... So on to site seeing through Edinburgh, then to see Lesser Yellowlegs at Aberlady bay , wohoo something i could find and id, S*it the suns in completely the wrong direction and couldn't get any photos, this just isn't my day so after a few minutes we went a pitched up tent in Dunbar, try again tomorrow. Next day Rach went to Tantallon Castle whilst i waited in the car with the dog, then onto Aberlady again where the Yellowlegs was hiding after the tide came in the Redshanks moved down river and were by now viewable, quite a crowd had gathered by now. Eventually i found the bird from the bridge and before most people could get onto the bird they all flew into the grass, it was still very windy, so we moved to a more sheltered area, where i found the bird roosting in the grass, this time most people did see it if only asleep and briefly again before flying into the bay where it showed better but again not for long, it then went round the corner feeding out of site. A Peregrine flew over the marsh, loads of Curlew were on the sand and good numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover were on the marsh. Through to Cockenzie and port Seton where i found a colour ringed Shag Green SCD along with lots of Eider, Sandwich Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit and a couple of Common Tern.

Then onto Loch Gelly again in Fife where this time the wind had dropped and the sun was in, found the Fudge duck straight away but it took a little while to find the Ring-necked Duck, this bird was in eclipse plumage so was very hard to find. This now rescued my whole weekend, it could have been a disaster. It just wasn't the weather for Photography.