Dorset Holiday Day 8

Day 8! Seems not so long since it started and yet here we are. Quick check round the moths this morning did not provide anything different from the previous mornings, though there remained some nice moths, such as Dark Arches and a few Footman species.

I decided to go to the Bill today and do the Seawatching that I did not do yesterday. Trains were a bit more suitable and the bus was all plain sailing, though it as a tourist service so did take a while to reach the bill. That being said it was very interesting to hear about the history of Portland. Apparently to say ‘rabbit’ or ‘bunnies’ to a Portlander on a Friday is a big insult, after rabbits once buried into a quarry, causing a landslide which killed a number of quarrymen.

Once at the bill I immediately set up Seawatching, and did not have to wait long before I had my first Balearic Shearwater of the day, 3, which descended onto the sea only for me to lose them in the waves. However, I was pleased to have got the watch off to a good start.

Birds were thin on the ground again, but there were a few Gannets and Guillemots moving about, some quite close in. There were also the usual Shags and Cormorants blogging about. Three flocks of Common Scoter also flew past, maybe about 25 birds in total. Sadly they were distant but good views could be had through the scope.

-Shag

After an hour I decided to have a walk round the field looking for butterflies. There were no new species, but there were a few Lulworth Skippers present. I had intended to head home after this but my parents called and said they were coming down. As a result I stuck around and headed back Seawatching.

Good thing I did too. After it had slowed down initially, the birds started to pick up again. In the next two hours I was treated to at least 2 Balearic Shearwaters going past. Initially middle distance but occasionally less than 20 meters away from shore, to give you an idea of the fantastic views I was getting. After a bit, two settled down on the sea mid distance, and I was able to watch them blog about. There was even one following a fishing vessel with the gulls. They were awesome. I tried to get some photos but it’s hard to keep the camera in focus when the target is always moving, so they did not come out as well as I had hoped.

-Balearic Shearwater

Besides the Balearics there were a few other goodies. I had just 2 waders; a Ringed Plover, which came from the left, then banked and returned back that way, and a Turnstone which did the same. And a final treat just as I was wrapping up, was a flock of 11 Manx Shearwater which were more distant, giving an ideal contrast to the Balearics. Manx Shearwater was also a yeartick, number 207 for the year. 

-Manx Shearwater

After an outstanding Seawatching session I headed to the butterfly reserve again, but numbers were down on yesterday. Highlights were a solitary Small Blue, a few Chalkhill Blue on the coast and a few more Lulworth Skippers in between. Also a Common Lizard on one of the walls was a nice addition to the day list.

-Lulworth Skipper

-Common Lizard

I think its fair to say I made the right call in going back to Portland to do some Seawatching. It was good fun, and meant I was able to add Balearic Shearwater to the list of species that I have photographed.

Species List:

Portland: Gannet, Guillemot, Shag, Herring Gull, Balearic Shearwater, Black-Headed Gull, Common Scoter, Starling, Kestrel, Skylark, Great Black-Backed Gull, Ringed Plover, House Sparrow, Cormorant, Turnstone, Manx Shearwater, Raven, Linnet, Woodpigeon, Feral Pigeon, Common Lizard, Emperor Dragonfly, Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Marbled White, Small Blue, Common Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Large White, Small Tortoiseshell ,Painted Lady, Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Lulworth Skipper,

Spurn Day 5

Well day 5 started at 00.00 for me, but there were not many birds to see at this point as I'm sure you can imagine. It was a very quiet night, but since it was my first time I made sure everything was checked. There were Oystercatchers calling occasionally but whenever I checked I could not see any predators. I did however send the roosting Dunlin flying, so much so that by morning there were none left. While scanning with the torch I also found the Ringed Plovers roosting on the shoreline, but they were none too pleased by this.

The sun finally appeared around 4, revealing the Little Terns and a pair of Mute Swans on the lake. At 5.00 I was relieved of my duty, a successful night with no casualties. I know I fell asleep at least once, but apparently this is allowed because the birds will wake you should there be any bother.

On the way back I found numerous Woodpigeons along Beacon Lane. Near the bottom of the lane a Cuckoo flew over me. In any other mood this would have been great but by this point all I wanted was bed. A Cuckoo is still a great record though, and an excellent find.

I awoke from my slumber at 13.00 to an absolutely glorious day. As a consequence I decided to spend my afternoon hunting for red-veined darters. On Clubleys scrape there were two darter dragonflies but they did not land and I frequently lost them and did not re-find them, so their identity will remain unknown. The Emperor Dragonflies showed well and there continued to be ample Black-Tailed Skimmers. Since I was there I also decided to finally take some photos of the Emerald Damselflies, but they were quite difficult to approach so my efforts were not overly exceptional.

-Emerald Damselfly

-Black-Tailed Skimmer

I next headed along Canalside to Churchfields, along the way picking up only off bits, like Sedge Warbler. Work was being done at Churchfields so I decided not to enter. I headed back to Clubleys but the darters were still not showing so went back to the warren to chill, as I was feeling pretty knackered!

After a short while at the Warren, Paul came round telling me to come look at the Swifts going over. There were good numbers. I spent about 2 hours up there with a few birders and we counted around 1500 Swifts going over. Paul and Tim were trying to catch them for ringing but were unable to catch any. 2 did get clobbered by the net though, but did not fall into it.

It was a different experience for me, vis-migging. But a very enjoyable one. Not only were there good numbers of Swift but also Whimbrel, Sand Martin, Knot, Bar-Tailed Godwit and the highlight 3 Man Shearwaters, my 176th bird this year. Tim spotted them and I could see from watching these birds that the birds I had pondered earlier in the week were defiantly guillemots. They were not too far out so could clearly see them banking and changing as their colour moved from black to white and back again. A great addition to the day. At 7.00 I left the vis-migging to get some dinner, in prep for my shift. And that is where we will leave it for now.

Species List:

Clubleys Ponds: Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Woodpigeon, Linnet, Emperor Dragonfly, Black-Tailed Skimmer, Common Blue Damselfly, Common Blue-Tailed Damselfly, Emerald Damselfly, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Small Heath,

Canalside: Sedge Warbler, Curlew, Woodpigeon, Swallow, Sand Martin, House Martin, Large White, Meadow Brown,

Vis-Migging: Starling, Oystercatcher, Great Tit, Whimbrel, Swift, Swallow, Sand Martin, Manx Shearwater, Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Woodpigeon, Black-Headed Gull, Knot, Redshank, Cormorant, Gannet, Curlew, Collard Dove, Sandwich Tern, Arctic Tern, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Dunlin,

scotland holiday-day 9

A drizzly morning over the campsite as we packed up ready to leave. We bid a last farewell to the island before heading out to the ferry which awaited us in Brodick. We did not have to wait long because we decided to try and catch the earlier ferry and we just about managed it. I decided to go up onto the deck again to take some more photos of the wildlife that we saw on the way back. First we saw these black guillemots on the pier.

Then I spotted 2 more on a walkway which were running in their sadly amusing black guillemot way. I didn't manage to capture this on camera but it would have been lovely if I had.

And then, as we set off, A black guillemot began to fly alongside us so I took some photos of that one too. What a black guillemot filled morning. As we took off I spotted two more diver X's flying overhead. I took some photos but once again I cant make out any distinguishing features so the diver X will forever remain a mystery of the Arran island!

After that the journey quietened down a lot. There was a real lack of manx shearwaters but an increase in common guillemots which were sat in large groups cradling their young. It was nice to see but some shearwaters would have been nice. Then as we approched the end of our journey, the boat had to drive through a massive feeding flock of shearwaters allowing me to get some incredible shots of these mysterious seabirds as they ran along the water and took off, right in front of me!

After that it quietened down a bit but a cormorant was found swimming under the boat before the bow-wave swallowed it up!

---It is now 2014, and reading through some posts one afternoon I have encountered this post. I have no idea what 15 year old me was thinking but this is quite clearly a shag. Its a pity I did not notice this at the time, as its a species I do not see very often, living inland. Fortunately it was only a brief view so I did not miss much but in hindsight I would have grabbed some more photos---

The rest of the day was an uneventful drive to the rhins of galloway. luckily, by the time we got there, the sun was out! The campsite we were now going to is called New England Bay and is part of the caravan club group. No sooner had we pulled in did things start to look up as in the driveway of the campsite there were some sparrows having a dust bath.

after that, we set up and then went for a walk on the beach (this campsite too was next to the beach) and although I could hear some sandwhich terns I diddnt see any and for that matter I diddnt see anything of particular interest on the beach at all. Still, things should get better now the weather is good!

scotland holiday-day 1,

And so it begins. A 12 day adventure around Scotland-specifically though Arran (although not totally). Having made it more than Half way up last night we made our way to the ferry terminal to catch the 12.30 ferry across to Arran to begin our holiday. Only we arrived at 10.00! that left us with 1 and a half hours to kill in an area where there was nothing to do. Or at least that's what I thought, for no sooner had I stepped out of the car that I managed to find a rock pipit taking food down into a small cave under some rocks. Some patient waiting quickly paid off with these delightful shots. I am particularly proud of the 1st one because it has a nice big juicy sea Slater in its mouth.

further inspection still reveled some black guillemots that were using the harbour terminal. I couldn't find a way to get close however until I manged to find one sat on top of a wooden beam that was easier to access. After some not very discrete sneaking I managed to get a reel of photos of which I can show you two (partly because they were all so rubbish!). Whenever the camera snapped the bird looked down the pole as though the sound was coming from the sea below.

Further exploration foudn some fearless starlings having a wash in the remains of a pool behind the post office section. Although you can see starlings anywhere I thought that, seeing as the sun was shining, That I would take some photos to show the bright variety of coulors the birds display in their plumage.

Soon however I found my-self returning to the rock pipit nest. And as a result I managed to get some even better shots than before. I can now tell you that I did not take any more rock pipit photos for the whole holiday and will probably will be a long time before I start taking them again.

My parents had wandered off whilst all this was going on, apparently gone to asda, (Although why you would want to do that when there was all this amazing stuff is beside me) but still, when they came back my dad and I walked slightly further up the rocky beach to an area where we found some ringed plovers. I took some photos but deleted them later on in the holiday to make space for more photos because I also had some better photos of ringed plover form blackwater foot. As we watched the ringed plovers wander about our ferry appeared and began to move in to port and so we end this bit of excitement at the ferry terminal!

No sooner were we on the ferry than The birds began to appear. An eider floated gracefully into the harbour and the black guillemots began to increase in number before we even set off. However no sooner had we set off than my dad pointed to a bird and said "whats that, its flying like a tern". In the past I would have got out my binoculars and calmly remembered every detail of the bird due to that and identify it later. The new skills of my camera allowed me to take a series of shots and investigate. It turned out to be an arctic skua which is only my second. what a start.

During our trip we were accompanied by a Selection of gulls including the herring gull you see below. However we were also joined out at sea by some manx shearwaters that began to appear from all over the place. At one particular site nearer the Brodick end of the journey there was a mass flock.

We were also joined by some gannets way out in the distance so by the time we pulled into the harbour we were already satisfied with the birds we had seen all holiday. From this moment I feel it is right to introduce you to the holiday objectives

1) photograph a hooded crow-(very important)

2) locate and see a golden eagle

3) find out which lochens the red throated divers nest on and see one in full summer plumage

4)perhaps see either a hen harrier or a black darter (but this is not as critical as the others)

As you can see there are some tough ones there especially as no sooner had we got off the ferry did the lack of hooded crows in Brodick seafront become apparent. May be they don't live on this island as I had so presumed.

lunch in Brodick was uneventful although some of the gulls offered us some light entertainment
as they begged for food

the campsite which were going to be staying at was right next to the sea at the bottom end of the island in a village called Kildonan which interstingly is where all the seals on the island live but where the golden eagles, red deer and divers dont live.

At the campsite we found curlews and oysterctchers plus hundreds of sparrows and a few rock pipit and pied wagtails. The lack of hooded crows was bugging me, lets hope they show their faces soon or there will be hell to pay on their behalf!!

scotland holiday-day 3

logan botanical gardens:
scotlands largest garden for tropical plants. because of the gulf stream many tropical plants can be grown here. this did affect the wildlife in a way but there were some briliant photo oppertuneties.

chaffinch that walked right past me



red legged partridge-really close but not as tame as the chaffinch

mull of galloway-RSPB
have been before but the visitor center wasnt running. now it was so we all had a nice lunch. it had much improved since the last time especially the wildlife. last time it was just kittywakes and stonechats and guillemots but this time there was

poor male linnet shot
1 twite only my second
3 mipits
2 wheatear
2 rock pipits

2 black guillemots
2 common gullemots
infinate razorbills
2 puffins
infinate gannets
2 hourbour porpoise
perched male peregrine-absolutely amazing
5 manx shearwater
infinate kittywakes
infinate herring gulls
infinate greater black-backed gull
infinate shags
infinate cormornat
raven

port logan:
sandy beach with rocks at either end
10 ringed plovers
2 sandwhich tern
been snorkeling here before and seen cuckoo wrasse but today the wether was apauling