Corncrakes on Iona & Staffa sailing - Day 3

Corncrake delight

Walking straight towards me

Calling

The Strut

Heading for cover

Black Guillemots

Shag

Puffin

Fingals Cave, Staffa

Staffa rock formation

Our third day plans were changed when Mull Charters cancelled as there wasn’t enough people for the boat. Whilst disappointed initially our day worked out perfectly. An early start took us west down to Fionnport where we headed out to Staffa, a small island to the north of mull. The small island is home to Fingals cave as well as breeding Puffins and Black Guillemots. On the crossing we also found 2 Arctic Terns, 4 Common Terns, Gannets, a Great Skua, Black-throated Diver and several Great Northern Divers.

Instead of retuning to Mull we were dropped off on Iona to see if we could see the Corncrakes that had just returned from their migration from east Africa. After a quick recharge with a coffee and a rock cake we took up position behind the fire station. Within a couple of minutes I picked up a call fairly close but couldn’t see anything. These seemed to be the regular occurrence, heard but not seen. Then I picked up a very loud call (crex-crex) coming from a domestic garden which sounded close to the patch. Bingo ! As I looked through the mesh fence I could see my first Corncrake. I was happy with this but then the bird came out and walked across the patch and then called repeating, over and over.. The bird showed really well for about 30 minutes giving me every opportunity to take some photos of a lifetime. Very lucky indeed. I was quite surprised by the small size of the bird, about half the size of a Grey Partridge.

We returned to hotel buzzing after an amazing day. The trip had certainly worked out as we wanted.

Moray Firth - Day 2

Chanonry Point

Dunlin

Dunlin

Turnstones

Pink-feet fly pass

Wheatear and Rock Pipit

Common Gull

Udale Bay Nature Reserve

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Shag

Flock of Scaup

End of a great days birding

After an over indulgent breakfast, quite a common theme, we headed north to the Black Isle. The Black Isle is not an island, but a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water – the Cromarty Firth to the north, the Beauly Firth to the south and the Moray Firth to the east.

Our first stop was Chanonry Point a beautiful setting by a light house. A Wheatear could be seen in the same scope view as a Rock Pipit giving us a great start whilst the jetty held Shags and Turnstones. A nice flock of Dunlin treated us to some super views before landing close by on the beach whilst out in the bay there was Red-throated Divers, Razorbill, Guillemots, Black Guillemots and a selection of gulls.

After crossing the bridge to Udale Bay Nature Reserve the tide come in pushing large numbers of waterfowl and wading birds. A small spit of land was simply covered with Oystercatchers, Knot, Wigeon, Lapwing, Bar-Tailed Godwits, Golden Plover, Grey Heron and three Pink-footed Geese. Out on the water there were no less than 7 Slavonian Grebes and a small flock of Red-breasted Merganser. In the stubble field behind our first Hooded Crow was on display. This was the first of many throughout the rest of the trip.

Heading round the coast we came across a flock of 200+ Scaup, an awesome sight whilst there were good numbers of Long-tailed Ducks. The male birds looked awesome in flight along the coast.

A pub lunch on the harbour allowed us to see a large flock of Kittiwakes fly past and 400+ Eider whilst two Rock Pipits flew around the parked cars. With the rest of the party tucking into lunch I located Harbour Porpoises just out of the harbour which were then past by a Great Northern Diver. We did try a late afternoon twitch for a Hoopee but it had moved on hours before but there was a Pale-bellied Brent Goose off shore.

On the evening Alan gave us and the other hotel guests a talk about their tour of Finland and Norway. Most definitely a place to visit in the future !

Northumberland Day 2 - Inner Farne

 Me on right under attack on the toilet run

 Arctic Tern

  Arctic Tern

  Arctic Tern

  Arctic Tern

 Arctic Tern

Sandwich Tern

 Sandwich Tern

You shall not pass

 Arctic Tern

Close up Sea Clown

Digiscoped feeding time

Bridled Tern

Bridled Tern

Bridled Tern in flight

 The Bridled Tern excitement became to much

Seahouses at the close of play

Farne Island location

The journey from Staple Island to Inner Farne took about thirty minutes with landing. Brian Stretch kindly text me that the Bridled Tern had been relocated during the morning but there had been no sign for a number of hours. I scanned both sides of the landing jetty without luck so we made our way on to the boardwalk which was about 1/2 mile in length. Within yards you were under attack from the Arctic Terns who had young or eggs centimetres from the walkway. You would be very brave not to wear a hat as these demons of the sky certainly made their presence felt with noise and actions. 

The walk to the toilet block is particularly high risk due to the high density of nesting birds. As you can see from my top photograph once you avoid a tern nip there is another waiting for you. It was a real life experience for sure. 

As you headed up hill the Arctics were reduced in numbers giving way to a colony of Sandwich Terns and more Puffins. Black-Headed Gulls did try and mob the Puffins that returned with food but the Puffins dived into their burrows frustrating the Gulls. At the top of the island you could have chill out from being dived bombed and we had our lunch looking out over the Puffins and sea where there was a constant flow of Gannets flying along the shore line. 

The National Trust wardens were doing a great job welcoming and guiding all the visitors. They did have their work cut out as there was a couple of misinformed photographers clearly antagonising some the Arctic Terns for photographic purposes. There were plenty of  terns to be photographed.

In terms of numbers of breeding pairs on Inner Farne, the 2010 survey indicated 280 Shag, 313 Eider, 1,278 Kittiwakes, 761 Sandwich Tern, 110 Common Tern, 1,110 Arctic Tern, 9,813 Puffins, 128 Razorbills.

I then headed back down to the jetty area on the hope the Bridled Tern may have returned. There was about 4/5 of us having a serious look for the bird and among the scanned birds I found a single Roseate Tern which was pleasing. Just when I was going to take a digiscoped image another birder shouted "Bridled Tern" and I switched camera to grab an image of the bird flying away from us. The bird then landed when I managed to get some digiscoped images and some video. This rare tern has made it's way from the Caribibean so is a genuine MEGA. It's thought it is the same bird that visited the island last year, it is thought it's only the 25th record for Britain. 

Four seasons in Devon

Wind battered Dawlish Warren

 Slavonian Grebe

 Shags enjoys rare sunshine

 

 Great Northern Diver

 Turnstone

 Teign Estuary

 Maidencombe

 Berry Head

Brixham Harbour

A family break to Devon was the next destination for my blog.  The hotel sat on the mouth of the Teign estuary so a late Sunday afternoon walk was rewarded with a wintering Green Sandpiper, 4 Avocet, Curlews, Oystercatchers, Little Egrets and Shelduck.

Sadly the rain arrived on Monday morning as forecast which made the couple of hours at Dawlish Warren very restricted due to it blowing an absolute howlie with driving rain just to increase the displeasure. Despite wearing water proofs I was soaked to the skin within an hour !  Despite the conditions I noted 20 Red-throated Divers, 3 Great Northern Divers, 40 Kittiwakes, 6 Fulmars and 3 Great Crested Grebe. 4 Great Black-backed Gulls. I had hoped to bag a few extra target species but the weather ended those hopes.

After picking the family up we headed down the coast and stopped at Maidencombe. A Shag fed by the rocks off shore at this secluded beach. More divers and Great Crested Grebe were viewable through the scope however the real find was 3 Velvet Scoter. I watched them closely however it was difficult in the increasing wind. Needless to say I bounced up the steep steps with joy as I'd never seen this duck before.  This was the only birding possible for the day as the weather closed in completely but I did have a scan around Torquay Harbour where a Slavonian Grebe was taking refuge.

Thankfully the the following morning was more like spring and a short drive to Broadsands was rewarded with Cirl Bunting and an off shore Great Northern Diver. A lovely place but it did seem to be the dog walking capital of Devon some what ruining the impression of a beautiful place.

Next destination was Berry Head, a stunning area of natural beauty. There were a large number of Shags and Guillimots on the Brixham side of the head whilst Fulmars and Raven soared off the cliffs. We then headed down to the harbour where a Slavonian Grebe was swimming alongside more Shags and many Great Northern Divers giving great views.  A walk along the sea wall found more Divers and 20 Purple Sandpipers roosting. A delightful find and probably taken for granted by the local birders. A Turnstone appeared at my feet and was clearly comfortable with the interest before heading for the car (us not the Turnstone!).

It was interesting to note on the BTO email this week that there was a large increase in reported divers. Clearly the stormy weather has forced to Divers to feed much closer to shore allowing great viewing.

Year List moved to 161 on UK400 spreadsheet and 160 on Birdtrack.