Monday, 22 September 2025

Llynas Peninsula, Anglesey searching for Risso's Dolphin

   With no work on offer thanks to a staff meeting, and the weather looking warm and calm but not especially conducive to any notable movement over Soil Hill, I decided to take the plunge and drive over to Anglesey for the day in order to catch up with Risso’s Dolphin. After seeing a post on Twitter, I conducted some research and discovered that the species is supposed to be reliable on the Llynas Peninsula, located on the northeast side of the island, between September and October. Having never seen Risso’s, and being on a bit of a cetacean hot streak, I decided to make the journey and get these dolphins seen.

  The information I had gleaned indicated that they were easiest to see about an hour before high tide, which was at 11:30 today. Despite the ideal timing of high tide, I decided to set off early to avoid Manchester rush hour and to avoid any potential slip-ups with the dolphins coming a bit earlier or later than expected. Thanks to Marc Hughes, I had the information on where to sit and where to park. All I had to do was get there and hope for dolphins.

  I arrived at 08:30 after a three-hour drive from Bradshaw. There was already a birder present but he had not seen much in the morning before I arrived (Sabines Gull and Leach's Petrel were seen the previous day), and he left shortly after. But while we were there, we spotted the first group of Risso’s Dolphin, and then had the first breaching of the day. Job done, in the first 10 minutes.

  Over the next four hours, well before and after high tide, there were at least 20 Risso’s Dolphins in three pods scattered around the viewpoint. Only on a few occasions could I scan and not see some fins protruding from the waves. Only one small group came quite close, and these did not breach at all, but another group just before I left spent some time jumping in the mid-distance. But animals were breaching distantly throughout the morning, and through the scope, the views were amazing. One animal was nearly completely white, almost like a Beluga! Fantastic animals to see and well worth the effort getting over there!

  In addition to the Risso’s extravaganza, there were a few Grey Seals and a solitary Harbour Porpoise which did come reasonably close, possibly the best views I’ve ever had of Porpoise. On the bird front, it was a bit quieter, although seeing common seabirds is a novelty and Razorbill, Guillemot, Gannet, Shag and Kittiwake were all yearticks. A single Great Northern Diver was probably the highlight in terms of rarity, but I appreciated the nearly 100 Common Scoter and two Eider that I saw as well.

  All in all an excellent days birding and cetacean watching! Would absolutely recommend! 

-Risso's Dolphin
-Grey Seal
-Harbour Porpoise
-Brent Geese
-Great Northern Diver

Sunday, 14 September 2025

Swillington Ings twitching Grey Phalarope

   Mid-afternoon of the Migfest Sunday news broke of a Grey Phalarope at RSPB St Aidens/Swillington Ings. Since I would be returning along the M62 once I left Spurn I decided to make the small detour to try and see it. Fortunately, thanks to my passengers HC and MCN, I had an excuse to leave Spurn at 15:30 and so that would give us at best two hours to search the reserve before darkness. The storm had already arrived so the conditions were quite gloomy, but helpfully it meant the bird would surely not be leaving the site.

  The last report came from Astley Lake so we headed straight there but were unable to find the bird from the first vantage point we searched from. A little concerned we headed to the other side of the lake and from there we were relived we managed to pick up the bird distantly feeding at the back of the lake. Sadly it never came close, but it was a great bird to see inland in West Yorkshire. It was surprisingly elusive, disappearing for extended periods, and this helped encourage us not to stick around. That and the incoming rainfall.

  Being Swillington Ings there were obviously plenty of other birds, although with finite time we did not have too much time to bird the site properly. A few Great Egrets were nice to see, and the wader selection included Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Dunlin and Ringed Plover. The 90 minutes were spent on site were very enjoyable.

-Grey Phalarope

Spurn MigFest 2025

   After a few years away it was nice to get back to a Spurn Migfest, seeing faces I had not encountered for some time and enjoying some pleasant birding. I had a few duties to attend to throughout the weekend, working as a Migfest volunteer, as well as doing a short pitch on Soil Hill as part of an ‘inland viz-mig patch-off’ against several other inland patches, a patch-off that I eventually won as decided by the attending audience.

  Friday I did no birding, instead catching up with people before spending the evening in the pub. On Saturday morning, with no duties assigned to me, I headed to Hodgesons Field to check the bushes away from the crowds. There were a few common species of interest, Lesser Whitethroat, Cettis Warbler and a Wheatear, but nothing rare. A steady stream of Meadow Pipits was heading south throughout the morning, contributing to the 6000+ total achieved by the watchers at Spurn.

  This count was exceeded again the following morning with over 8000 Meadow Pipits heading south. Being on car-parking duty I got to watch many of the birds flying over, as well as the first skein of Pink-footed Geese of the autumn, 41 flying south over the event field. Shortly after my parking management finished news broke of a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope at Chalkies Point, so I raced around to see it. The bird was showing phenomenally well on the Humber right in front of the masses of observers, but sadly I did not get to spend too long with it before it decided to become more active, and had soon made its way up the Humber. A Black Redstart was also in the same area! 

  Mid-afternoon I headed off, ahead of the forecasted storms, rounding off an excellent and very enjoyable MigFest 2025.

-Red-necked Phalarope

Wednesday, 10 September 2025

Whiteholme Reservoir

    Having completed my morning on Soil Hill, I was just settling down for some work when a message came through that MH had found a Curlew Sandpiper at Whiteholme Reservoir. With no Calderdale record for 10 years, per the blog, this was an overdue Halifax tick for me so I headed straight up.

  The wind was certainly a problem upon arrival, but I quickly made my way round to the NE corner of the reservoir where MH, PD and LD were all watching. Once there I was quickly put on to the Curlew Sandpiper on one of the near exposed islands but still distant. It then proceeded to fly to the far shoreline becoming even more distant, so that was great.

  Fortunately it was not long before it, and the posse of Ringed Plovers it was associating with, returned to the island where better views were possible. It was at this point that I noticed that the Curlew Sandpiper was stood right next to… a Curlew Sandpiper! Two birds together! An excellent development to the mornings birding. They shortly returned to the far shoreline, and it was another 45 minutes before they came close again, but this time they actually came close and I finally got some photos, including of both birds together.

  In addition to the Curlew Sandpipers, the Little Stint (which I had first twitched on Monday) was still present but it was always distant and difficult to pick out in the windy conditions. A Dunlin was present, as was a single Golden Plover, but most of the action was made up of the 18 Ringed Plover present. Such a lively scene with so many waders seemed a little out of place on the Pennine moors, more familiar to the east coast! 

-Curlew Sandpiper

Species List:
Whiteholme Reservoir: Eurasian Teal, European Golden Plover, Common Ringed Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Little Stint, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Common Kestrel, Merlin, Carrion Crow, Barn Swallow, Western House Martin, Northern Wheatear, Grey Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, 

Sunday, 7 September 2025

Soil Hill

   First day back and first morning on Soil Hill of the autumn produced a very nice patch tick in the form of this Mediterranean Gull, which flew south with the steady stream of Black-headed Gulls, my 131st species for Soil Hill. From the photos, it appears to have small dark edges to the wingtips, so I suspect this bird is a 2cy. The white plumage stood out a mile from the other gulls moving which first drew my attention to it, before I rattled off a sequence of very poor photos that just about do the job.

  Sadly the hoped-for morning visible migration did not transpire as I had hoped. The best I could manage was a steady trickle of Swallows going south, with 76 counted in several small bursts. At least nine Chiffchaffs were in the bushes but not particularly showy in quite blustery conditions, and a Lesser Redpoll flew south calling. 

-Mediterranean Gull

Thursday, 4 September 2025

Madeira Day 4

   For our final morning on Madeira we had tried to book a speedboat trip with boat Ventura do Mar and Magic Dolphin, but they were both full. We could have gone again with Rota dos Cetaceos but since we kept encountering the same species we eventually decided to save our money and just have a relaxed morning around Funchal. We did check the sightings board of the two former companies, and were pleased to see the only Cetacean they had seen was Bottlenose Dolphin, although it was gutting to see that Magic Dolphin managed to see a Mediterranean Monk Seal.

  Obviously walking around Funchal does not provide ample birding opportunities, but we still saw nice species such as Atlantic Canary and Plain Swift, whilst offshore there were nice close views of Yellow-legged Gull and Common Tern. Monarch butterflies and Clouded Yellows were both common in the gardens, and we saw two more Madeiran Wall Lizards. After a few drinks in the city centre we headed off to the airport and then back to Paris, rounding off a few delightful days on the island. 

Wednesday, 3 September 2025

Madeira Day 3

  The morning started very well, as whilst waiting at the harbour in Funchal, Laura spotted a large caterpillar moving not far from where we were. A couple of inches long, I picked it up and moved it to a safer location. I suspected, from the patterning, that it might be a Deaths Head Hawkmoth, but a washed-out individual, so I sent the photos to AC for confirmation, who happily agreed. For a caterpillar, it was remarkably strong in my hand.

   Still lacking whales, we arranged another visit morning speedboat trip, this time returning to Magic Dolphin. We departed at 10:00, slightly later than the previous day and headed out to see in much the same direction as the previous day. Sadly the whales did not materialise and the only species we encountered was presumably the same pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. They showed just as well, if not better, than the previous day and we were even able to pick out a couple of actually spotted individuals. Our subsequent searching yielded no additional species, although we were told there had been another sighting of a Blainville’s Beaked Whale near Funchal, but we could not connect with it. 

  Because of this, we decided to try again in the afternoon, although had a hard time tracking down a company operating tours at later times in the day. In the end we booked with Rota dos Cetaceos, who were excellent although a little more expensive. Their speedboat was slightly bigger, capable of carrying 36 people I understood, but we made sure we were sat right at the front. This did mean that we would feel the effects of the waves more than sitting in the middle, but it was much more fun than sitting at the back. We departed Funchal at 16:00, and they even had a later tour than even that, had we wanted it.

  For the first time we headed out to the east side of the island and here it was much choppier, but that in turn brought several birds to us, including two Desertas Petrels which showed phenomenally well, as well as the Bulwers Petrels and Corys Shearwaters we had gotten used to. On the cetacean front we were treated to a real show by a group of maybe five Short-finned Pilot Whales as they crested the waves, giving us full views of the animals. For some reason we were able to stay longer with the group than the 10 minutes normally allowed. Despite not bringing any new species to our list, it was the best encounter of any that we had during out time on the island. 

-Short-finned Pilot Whale
-Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
-Desertas Petrel
-Cory's Shearwater
-Bulwer's Petrel
-Deaths Head Hawkmoth

Tuesday, 2 September 2025

Madeira Day 2

   As mentioned, the motorboat trip from the previous afternoon had been rearranged for this morning, so that meant our morning had already been organised. This was with the company Ventura do Mar, and we set off nice and early at 09:30, out to sea in a motorboat containing just 15 people.

  It did not take us long to encounter a group of animals, but sadly they were ‘only’ Bottlenose Dolphins. They did a little bit of jumping but not too much, and our views were limited to mostly fins coming out of the water, even if they were at close range. We stayed with them for 10 minutes, during which time the animals seemed very relaxed, before we sped off westward to try to find some different species. On this westwardly trip I spotted the first Deseratas/Zinos Petrel of the trip, but sadly I never got a view of the underwings to have any indication as to which one of the pair it was.

  After a rapid trip across the ocean, we arrived at our second group of animals, a pod of around 20 Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. This was a species I really wanted to see but it was a little disappointing that most of the animals seemed to be younger and therefore did not have the striking spotty patterning. Still, they were very interactive with the boat, swimming alongside and offering fantastic views for the time we were able to spend with them. This was our last stop before heading back to port, where we received the disappointing news that the Magic Dolphin tour that had been out at the same time had seen a Blainville’s Beaked Whale!

  In the afternoon we took the Madeira Cable Car company ride up to the gardens above Funchal. There are apparently two cable car companies in the area, and I made a bit of a ballsup with picking the right one. I should not have booked it in advance. Still we had an enjoyable late afternoon ride up the correct cable car at additional expense and a nice walk in the woods overlooking the city. The birds here were quite numerous, with two different Madeiran Firecrests seen, both looking awful in their post-breeding moult, and several Madeira Chaffinches also seen but not quite as well. This was still a subspecies last time I saw it, so it was good to be reconnected. In addition there was a Madeiran Wood White and several Madeiran Wall Lizards, including one that decided to bite me when I tried to touch it…

-Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
-Common Bottlenose Dolphin
-Madeira Firecrest
-Madeira Chaffinch
-Madeiran Wall Lizard