White-tailed Lapwing is August bonus

 I needed to spend a day in the office this week and as if by magic the alert came up on the phone that there was a White-tailed Lapwing in Lincolnshire. Needless to say it added some extra zip to my productivity to ensure I could undertake an evening twitch with the Squire. 

The last record in Britain (seven in total) was in 2010 where an individual visited a number of counties on an extended stay. This was before I was interested in travelling to see rarer birds. The first record was actually in Warwickshire at the Packington gravel pits back in 1975.

This very rare wader that breeds in central asia to Iraq would be a great addition for us both, what could go wrong? The bird had been visable all day from Townend Hide, it was just a case of ticking off the miles and enjoy the view.

As we walked towards the visitor centre the helpful warden greeted us with "sorry chaps the bird had flown north five minutes ago" . It was like a very bad joke but it wasn't! Still not quite believing the news we headed to a half empty hide which contained a mixture of elated & dispondant birders. We took our seats and hoped for the best convincing ourselves the Lapwing would return, but deep down accepting the reality of it wouldn't.

There was a fantastic selction of birds for us to watch including 5 Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Black-tailed Godwits, loads of Snipe, Bearded Tit, Green Sandpiper, Bittern & Marsh Harrier. 

About 30 minutes passed, when the birder to my right called "its coming back" and he was right. Gliding in from our right was the White-tailed Lapwing that circled the scrapes before landing fifty yards in front of us! Wow !......

We had terrific views of the bird as he fed around the edges of the scrapes. The other waders couldn't quite believe what they were sharing their area of mud with. The hide door slammed once loud making the bird take flight again but thankfully only to the island where most of the Ruff were. 

With positive news being reported again the hide was filling towards its capacity so we decided to leave and let someone else have our box office seats. Quite an evening and proves again you can never guess what the next rarity might be.

Summer blues

Great White Egret (Mark Clarke)

Dunnock

Black-headed Gulls

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwits

Little Ringed Plover

Common Darter

Grey Heron

Black-tailed Skimmer

Little Egret

The pits are hard work in the summer months. From the deep sticky mud in winter the ground is now rutted and uneven making it essential you watch every step.

There hasn't been anything to blog about since spring migration. 13 Black-tailed Godwits in summer plummage was the best whilst there has been a Med Gull coming and going. A Great White Egret hung around for two weeks but no sign recently.

I did two visits at the weekend and the below were the best counts of both days.

36 Little Grebe, 9 Cormorant, 16 Mute Swans, 169 Greylags, 340 Canada Geese, 2 Teal, 450 Mallard, 6 Gadwall, 70 Tufted Duck - three broods of various sizes, 100 Coot, 3 Lapwing, 5 Green Sandpiper, 43 Black-headed Gulls, 10 LBB Gull, 2 Herring Gull, 20 Swift, 11 Sand Martin, 15 Swallow, 3 Wheatear (all female), 1 Cetti's Warbler, Jay, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, broods of Meadow Pipit & Yellowhammer & juv Cuckoo.

Summer wild findings on the Scillies

Standard summer Scilly view when walking around the coast

View from the top of Bryher

Ringed Plover

Rock Pipit were very common

Song Thrush

Shag flock

Golden Pheasant

Stonechat

Sunfish

View from the top of Tresco

Red Squirrel

Common Blue

Meadow Pipit

Close views guaranteed

St Agnes local

Birding around the islands

Gyr Falcon in pop up museum

Great food all week

Common Terns

Painted Lady

 A stunning evening at the Turks Head

It would be foolish to go on any walk around the Scillies without your binos but in all honesty all the action is on the sea at this time of year. We walked approx 45 miles during our week mainly around the perimeter of St Marys, Bryher, St Martins and Tresco. Despite visiting five times previously this was the first time I had visited St Martins and fully walked around Bryher. 

We undertook a trip out to Bishop's lighthouse where we saw Common Terns, huge numbers of seals, Manx Shearwater, Fulmer, Great Black-backed Gulls and four Sunfish. The Red Squirrels & Golden Phesants at Tresco Abbey Gardens were great to see at close quarters.

Also sightings around the islands were Ringed Plover, Rock & Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Common Sandpiper, Shag, Cormorant, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, House Sparrow, Swallow, Blackbird, Song Thrush & Linnet.

Wilson's Petrel on first attempt on-board Scilly Pelagic

Wilson's Petrel

Amazing views of two birds together showing impression of walking on water

Look at those toes!

Manx Shearwater

Video footage taken on I-phone

Scilly You-Tube footage 

All abroard the Saphire

Heading out to sea

Mrs D's photo of boat in very distance

On board shot

Part of chumming mixture

Awaiting the action to begin (in pain)

On the turn for home (Thank the lord)

A summer holiday in Scilly would finally give me the opportunity to see a Wilson's Petrel. This rare sea bird breeds on the Antarctic coast lines and the Scillies does offer the best chance to see the species on an organised pelagic from the island of St Marys.

Each weekend, Friday to Monday, offers four opportunties to go out where the team chum hoping to attract sea birds to watch at close quarters or even photograph. I've never had the best of sea legs, so I booked the Friday & Monday evening sessions (5-9pm) with the plan to sell my Monday place if I got lucky on the Friday. 

On the Thursday evening of our arrival a storm hit the island, not that we noticed as we just slept through it all. There was debris all over the island and the sheltering boats had taken a real hammering. On the positive front the storm was from the south west which may have brought a few more sea birds in as sightings had been very quiet on the week before my trip.

There were around 30 birders/photographers on board the Saphire captained by Joe Pender giving plenty of room for everyone. I was well dosed with travel sickness tablets and had a strategy of not to move around unless really necessary. We headed five miles south of St Marys before turning the engines off and the wait began. The chumming leaves a smelly oily slick on the water which attracts the birds from many miles away, the question of whether there were any birds in the area was answered fairly quickly.

To start with we saw a small number of Storm Petrel which was quickly followed by a Wilson's shout off the left hand side of the boat. And there was my first Wilson's Petrel about 20 metres away over the slick. We saw a minimum of six Wilson's many flying really close to the boat giving everyone some amazing views. The Wilson have a more direct flight than the euros and also give the impression they are walking on the water. Other ID features include yellow webbing and toes are projected outwards when gliding.

Photographer, Richard Stonier, kindly forwarded this image showing the birds in all their glory. Please drop him a follow on Twitter @birdsonline. 

In addition other sightings included a Sooty Shearwater, 100 European Storm Petrels, many Manx Shearwater, Sandwich & Common Tern, Kittiwakes, Great Black-backed/Lesser Black-backed & Herring Gulls.