Birding in the rain - Musselburgh 11th & 12th January 2020

It was with some trepidation that I caught the train to Scotland on Saturday 11th January with the weather forecast nothing less than appalling. The journey north was uneventful until just past Dunbar when we ground to a halt and it was announced that the train driver had been alerted to a fallen tree on the line.

Somehow, the train staff managed to move the obstruction and I arrived in Edinburgh Waverley about 20 minutes late.  I caught a train to Musselburgh and then made my way to the sea wall, my waterproofs really being tested in the persistent rain. 

Reaching the sea beyond the dams, I was surprised at the number of Goldeneye, although they were all quite some way out. However, a pair of Long-tailed Ducks were a little more obliging. I mused what a good photo I might have got in any kind of half decent weather.

Long-tailed Ducks

I spent the afternoon walking up and down the sea wall, hoping to get some good views of Velvet Scoter and maybe see Surf Scoter and White-winged Scoter. Unfortunately, Velvet Scoters were never close and the other species didn't show at all.

After a picnic lunch, which was eaten, as I huddled in the corner of the harbour at Fisherrow, I walked back to Musselburgh, with the rain easing off and the sun almost threatening to break through the clouds. Walking along the sea wall, I noticed a group of small birds drinking from a puddle. I immediately suspected them to be Twite and lifting my bins, I was able to confirm my supposition.  I edged along the path carefully and managed some record shots, which were quite pleasing, given the poor light. There were 38 birds altogether and I watched the birds until dusk.

Twite

The Sunday morning was a beautiful sunny day. Another go at the Scoters was fruitless, and speaking to local birders, no one was having any more luck. I did however, get nice views of a Bar-tailed Godwit and a Curlew close in, under the sea wall. I opted to spend what time I had before my train left, birding around the mouth of the river Esk and Fisherrow Harbour.  The Goldeneye were particularly obliging and I managed to get a lovely drake as it steamed away from the river bank. 

 Bar-tailed Godwit

 Curlew

Goldeneye

I spent the last hour searching for the White-winged Scoter, which had been reported from Fisherrow but I didn't locate it. I did have a nice flock of Common Redshanks and Dunlin in the harbour, which looked very nice in the superb light.

Common Redshank & Dunlin

Scarborough in early September

This was my second trip to Scarborough in 2 months. First off was a Scarborough Birder's pelagic, organised by Nick Addey. We set off at 7am with the breeze already picking up. Michael McNaughten was in charge of chum at the bow and we were soon attracting a few birds, including a Fulmar that came very close across the stern. It still wasn't properly light, but I did manage a decent shot as it made a second pass.

Fulmar

In the next couple of hours we had a few more Fulmar, plenty of Gannets, a Puffin, several Common Guillemots and single Great Skua and Arctic Skua. The latter two not lingering for long enough or close enough to allow for any record shots. However, towards the home run, as we hugged the coast, a Gannet followed the boat providing ample opportunities for a photo.

Gannet

About 40 minutes from home Michael unloaded the remaining chum and we were picking up a nice gathering of larger gulls. Sharp-eyed as ever, he gave a shout for a probable 'Cach', and I was soon on to the bird, although the movement of the boat and the way the birds were intermingling and squabbling meant that it was a challenge, as I switched between bins and camera. There appeared to be a second candidate, although I concentrated on the first bird, which appeared to be a classic first winter Caspian Gull. 

Reviewing my photos that evening, there was no doubt.

1st winter Caspian Gull

The next few days were spent birding between Scalby Mills and Holbeck. 

The Peregrines were showing particularly well on the 2nd, with perfect light. I joined Adrian Ewart on Marine Drive and we watched an adult swoop along the cliffs, taking a juvenile Kittiwake before passing the kill to it's offspring. It was an amazing display.

In the same area were two rather conviding Northern Wheatear, including a splendid male, which were part of a notable influx along the coast. A nearby Great Black-backed Gull was posing nicely.

Adult Peregrine Falcon

Juvenile Peregrine

Northern Wheatear

Great Black-backed Gull

On the evening of the 3rd, I made the descent to Jackson's Bay, a task best undertaken in dry weather.

Three Bar-tailed Godwits were on the south end of the beach but didn't allow a very close approach. In the pebbly north end were a scattering of Ringed Plover and Dunlin, and plonking myself on the deck, a Dunlin approached quite close, although by now, the best of the light had passed.

Dunlin

While on a visit to Scalby Mills on the 4th, I noted a large wader some way off in north bay.  A walk down on to the beach there proved fruitful and the bird was rather more approachable than the birds on the previous evening. This bird was bearing coloured tags and subsequent inquiries reveal that it had been ringed four days earlier at Stavanger, Norway.

Bar-tailed Godwit

The following day, was fairly quiet. A party of Barn Swallow at Scalby Mills were coming close to the sea wall, and I managed to capture one in mid flight.  Later on, a visit to South Bay armed with my trusty M&S scones, I managed to get close to several Mediterranean Gulls, including two nice 1st winters five adults and a second summer bird.

Barn Swallow

1st winter Mediterranean Gull

Adult Mediterranean Gull

A walk along Marine Drive later in the week failed to produce the excitement of earlier in the week, but an adult was perched on one of the lower ledges and I'm pleased with the image below, despite the light being rather poor.

Peregrine Falcon

Isles of Scilly & Cornwall 16th to 21st August, 2019

It had been quite a few years since I had been to Scilly in August, almost exactly 20 in fact, when I had gone for the solar eclipse. That year I had gone on a mini pelagic and seen one Wilson's Storm Petrel and a Great Shearwater. 

My trip began with a false start. I rang up my overnight lodgings in Penzance on the Thursday evening to advise of my arrival time and to request a packed breakfast. As I would be on a 7.15 Scillonian, I didn't expect them to be cooking at half past five, so thought they would throw together a couple of sandwiches and a drink, which is quite a usual thing when you have early starts for birding. 

From the moment the guy at the Bay Lodge picked up the phone, he seemed to want an argument. He didn't seem to know that the Scillonian sailed early on certain days and my request for a packed breakfast was met with bewilderment. Saying that, 'He would sort things out when I got there,' I left it that and assumed he was having a bad day. However, checking my emails, as I am wont to do before bed time, I was bemused to find that he had cancelled my booking - via booking.com, saying that '...we are unable to meet your requirements... so i suggest accepting your booking is not acceptable...'

So, I was in the position of having to find new accommodation at the last minute, and found a room at The Queens Hotel. There is no apostrophe in the name, so I assume that a lot of queens have stayed there.

I caught a mid morning train and after a seven hour train journey I arrived in Penzance in pouring rain. I checked in to the Queens, a rambling pile of an hotel, with old paintings and a large dining room with white table cloths and a majestic view out into the bay.

After a slap up dinner at Fraser's fish restaurant, down the road, I filmed the waves crashing against the sea wall and looked forward to a choppy crossing on the morrow.

I woke up early and was brought a continental breakfast to my room by the porter.

Not difficult, is it?

I checked out after my breakfast and headed to the quay, where I deposited my rucksack, which the kind people at the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company would deliver to my guest house on St. Mary's.

Boarding the boat, I see a fellow birder (Gary), who points out a juvenile Mediterranean Gull, which is floating off the starboard. I got a few shots in what is pretty rubbish light, and the bird took flight and I rattled off a few as it headed east.

Juvenile Mediterranean Gull

As we set sail, the swell of the sea becomes quickly quite pronounced. After less than 10 minutes the ship begins to pitch and roll in the strong breeze, which has only eased a little overnight. Gary's wife is not a good sailor, and so it seems neither are many other of our fellow passengers. As Gary and I begin picking up Manx Shearwaters heading south, lots of people are throwing up. I feel sorry for one particular woman, who has two small children. While they're happily listening to Peppa Pig or whatever, their Mum is puking over the side. 

I'm curious as to why sea sickness affects some people and not others. I'm assuming it's hereditary. I like to think I have Viking genes or something.

Anyway, just as the Scillonian has run out of sick bags, we arrive in St. Mary's and I disembarked. After saying hello to my hosts at the Wingletang, I headed off birding around St. Mary's with the idea of getting lunch at Juliet's Garden.

Town Beach was awash with day trippers, so I moved on to Porthmellon, which was deserted apart from a couple of Black Swans, wading in the ebbing tide.

Black Swan

As I approach the birds, rather than coming for bread, they wade out into the deeper water. It was nice to see them in this setting rather than a plastic duck pond.

Continuing to Porthloo beach, which is also deserted, there are a number of Oystercatchers, a couple of Curlew and a Sandwich Tern, which is diving for fish close off sure. As I'm snapping the tern, one of the Curlews takes flight and gives really close views along the shore line.

 Sandwich Tern

Curlew

Now properly peckish, I continue north to Juliet's garden and order a smoked cheese and rocket flat bread. A few sparrows are lurking hopefully by the table edge, but my attempt at generosity is rewarded by being swamped by the birds, which appear from everywhere and I'm soon in a Mary Poppins situation with 30 birds clambering over my crockery to mop up any tit bits.

Juliet's Sparrows

After lunch, I headed off for a bit of a hike, via Carn Morval, Telegraph and along Pungies Lane and around the east of the island, and thence through Higher Moors and Porth Hellick. There are singularly few passerines around, with the exception of Song Thrush and Barn Swallows. On the way back to Hugh Town, I found a family party of Reed Warblers in Lower Moors, and one perches up in the open. It's not quite sharp, but not a bad photo.

Reed Warbler

I had an early(ish) night, with a pelagic booked for the next morning. I settled down after buying some tins of Amstel, pitta bread, dips and olives from the local Co-op, which somehow has only a 4 rating for food hygiene. I thought that was reserved for eateries. Not sure where they're going wrong?

I awoke the next morning, with a stiff breeze rattling the sky light and moving the palm trees outside the Wingletang. It was going to be a bouncy voyage. Three other birders, Nigel, Chris and Richard were also on the trip and we headed out with a packed breakfast!!! 

Robert Flood, who organises the pelagics decided to head north. It's not too long before we headed into choppy seas and there's a bunch of Manxies and Gannets feeding. Then Robert spots a Sooty Shearwater sitting on the sea. Unfortunately, the bird doesn't hang around long enough for a photo despite Joe Pender expertly manoeuvring the boat, but I got decent views in the bins. 

A few minutes later, as I'm scanning the sea, I got on to a skua and shout it out as it heads straight towards us. It's a cracking pale headed juv and after a bit of a run around, the bird shows beautifully. It's a real pearler and Robert declares it to be the bird of the season so far. Seeing the bird is one thing, but taking a photograph of it, when you're struggling to stand up, is another, and in that context, I'm pleased with my images. 

Long-tailed Skua

It's not long after the excitement of the skua is still buzzing around the boat that a Great Shearwater approaches the boat from the portside, but unfortunately just carries on and I only get brief views in the bins.

Robert then decides to drift as some old bits of mackerel and fish oil are emptied over the side. The smell is far less pungent than the chum I've encountered before and it reminds me of the cod liver oil that my Mum gave me as a little child.

We manage to attract a few European Storm Petrels, and a few Northern Fulmars and Manx Shearwaters in two hours. It's certainly the best views I've ever had of stormies and manxies, and I get what is certainly my best ever photo of a Fulmar.

 European Storm Petrel

 Manx Shearwater

Northern Fulmar

Joe started up the anchor and we steamed back south. There were two shouts for Wilson's Petrel, one which was distant and another which tanked past, and I got unsatisfactory views of the bird as it was lost between the waves. I wouldn't have ticked it, had I needed it for my British list. There was another Great Shearwater, but this was more distant than the first one and also bombed past.

After disembarking from the Sapphire, I dropped my bags at the Wingletang and walked around the corner, to catch up with my friends Melanie and Alan at the Lyonnesse, a placed I had stayed 15 times between the late 80s into the current century. Melanie's walnut, banana and honey loaf was showing very well and washed down nicely with a pot of tea, as Alan and I discussed the vicissitudes of English cricket.

In the evening, I did a walk around the Garrison Walls and took some photos in the perfect light before going for scampi and chips upstairs in the Mermaid.

Woolpack Point

 Morning Point

 The Garrison

Town Bay viewed from the Garrison

The next morning, the wind had dropped and I planned to visit Tresco Abbey Garden, as much to look for hoverflies as anything, my secondary passion after birds.

However, the garden has so many non-native species that there's little hoverflies of interest apart from a few of the commoner species. I do see a very nice Painted Lady, and it's quite a bold one and not one of these faded jobs that seem to be everywhere, this year.

Tresco Abbey Gardens

Painted Lady

Song Thrush

In the afternoon I returned to St. Mary's and noticed that a few Turnstones were feeding on the tide rack behind the Atlantic Hotel. 

Turnstone

and bumped into a birder, who told me that a Ruff was showing very well from the Sussex hide at Porth Hellick. I thought this was as good a plan as any, so hot footed it via Parting Carn and after 20 minutes I was sitting in the hide with the bird to myself, just a few feet away.

 Ruff

In the evening, I joined another pelagic, where we headed south. It was less bouncy than the previous day, but alas nothing of note was picked up, but we did get good views of the common species.

Eurasian Shag

Northern Gannet

I did a bit of light birding the following day, and returned to Penzance on the afternoon ferry. I was a flatter crossing than the outward trip, with 900 Manx Shearwaters, three Common Dolphins and a Long-finned Pilot Whale. Good stuff!

I was up early on the Wednesday and caught a train to Hayle. I had happy memories here from the heady days of the 1980s when I saw my first Ring-billed Gull at Copperhouse Creek.

Curlew

Rock Pipit