Thursday 26 September 2013

September Specialities: 26th 2013

Today - on Holy Island: 1 Red-breasted Flycatcher, 3 Yellow-browed Warblers, (Straight Lonnen); 1 Pied Flycatcher (Vicar's gdn); 11 Barnacle Geese overhead;  3 Green Shank by the causeway.

Yesterday - Monk's House Pool: 1 Wood Sandpiper, 44 Dunlin,1 Gadwall.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Holy Island 25th september

Holy Island 25th september
The weather looked perfect for a trip to Holy Island, it was damp,miserable and murky,so off we set to our first port of call the Snook. The trees at Snook House held 2 Yellow Browed Warblers with another one in the dunes and a fourth at the Half Moon Slack plus a single Redstart. Next to the village which apart from visitors was very quiet, the Vicars garden only held one Chiffchaff. We then headed off to the Straight Lonnen via the Harbour where we failed to find a reported Little Stint, the Lonnen was also strangely quiet except for a small patch of Willows at the north end. We could hear and see birds flying about and soon got onto another 2 Yellow Browed Warblers, the best bird was still to come in the shape of a first winter Red Breasted Flycatcher, at first views were brief as it was being continuously chased by a Pied Flycatcher, but eventually it settled down on a low branch and we had much better views, lets hope for more miserable weather!.   

Wednesday 18 September 2013

A hint of things to come

A hint of things to come
The weather forecasters keep telling us that we are in Autumn and today it certainly felt that way. A walk around Branton Ponds showed some leaves beginning to turn and ripe berries hanging heavily from the Rowan and Guelder Rose. The ponds themselves were alive with the sights and sounds of Autumn, hundreds of Greylags loitered about on the muddy edges whilst Goosander numbers seem to increase on a daily basis. Teasels were being picked over by Goldfinches,some of them juveniles still begging to be fed whilst back on the pond Lesser Black Backed Gulls settled down to bathe and over head hundreds of hirundines swooped on the last insects of Summer as they stocked up ready for their long journey south, at this time of year a sad sight to see, but one which was soon made happy by that sound of Autumn which everyone listens for, the "wink, wink" of dozens of Pink-footed Geese as they flew over heading south west . A sad time of year as our summer migrants leave us but also a fantastic and thrilling time of year as we look forward to old friends heading back to our shores from all points north.

Saturday 14 September 2013

Back to the Point

Back to the Point
We decided to kill two birds with one stone and combine the dog's evening walk with a spot of seawatching at Newton Point. The sea was quite calm but there was plenty of passage, once again large numbers of Gannets of all ages were heading north, we soon began seeing Arctic Skuas which finally totalled 8 birds, some pale and some dark morph birds. Amongst them we managed to pick out 3 Manx Shearwaters and a total of 7 Sooty Shearwaters, some of them taking advantage of a Gannet feeding frenzy about 800 yards offshore. The most interesting sighting occurred towards the end of our watch when about 400 yards offshore hundreds of Swallows were seen dipping delicately on the surface of the water, and the dog enjoyed her walk.  

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Low Newton 11th September

Low Newton 11th September
It looked like there had been a good passage of interesting seabirds on Tuesday so I decided to go to Newton Point and maybe find a few of my own. The weather didn't look too promising, what little wind there was appeared to be almost S.W., however there were birds out there, Gannets were streaming passed in small groups which added up to many hundreds of birds. An Arctic Skua was the next  bird to be noted along with several Manx Shearwaters( which eventually totalled 19 birds), after about 45 minutes watching 2 Sooty Shearwaters glided into view quickly followed by a Great Northern Diver still in breeding plumage, the final birds of note were 2 Red Throated Divers heading north.  From here I decided to head off in the direction of the hide at Low Newton, the tideline in front of the pub turned up a couple of Sanderling plus several Bar Tailed Godwits, Ringed Plover and Dunlins whilst overhead flew a flock of about 150 Golden Plover. My final port of call was the hide where Mallards and Teal lounged about and a very noisy Kingfisher made his presence known 

Sunday 8 September 2013

Spotted Flycatchers on the move

It was almost as if our summer breeding pair of Spotted Flycatchers (constantly busy, but rarely seen again once the family fledged) had called by for a farewell visit to the garden before heading south! There they perched in the autumn sunshine- sitting high up in one of the tall conifers, sallying out for every passing insect for ten minutes or so, then they were off. The reality is they were more likely just a couple of birds passing through on migration.See 'spot flies' from the July archive opposite for earlier report and video. The house martins are still busy-busy, attending to a couple of 'second' broods they are rearing. By the nearby Carey Burn, buzzard and kestrel hung in the air over the rim of the valley; luckily neither spotted the slow worm basking on the path in the beautiful autumn sunshine. The sea trout or salmon were even making an occasional attempt on the waterfall, no doubt encouraged by the extra volume of water from Friday's rain, but they will need more of a spate to make it further upstream.

Saturday 7 September 2013

Holy Island 7th September

Holy Island 7th September
On Friday evening the weather looked good for migrants so we decided to go to Holy Island early on Saturday morning. We started at the Snook where apart from several Meadow Pipits, Whinchats and Wheatears the only other bird of note was a Barn Owl fast asleep in a Sycamore.
Next we headed off towards the Village, unusually the Vicars garden like everywhere else was very quiet as was the Straight Lonnen, so we decided to head back to the car, on our way back we were called across to a small bush by two other birders , on reaching them we were told they had a Nightingale or Thrush Nightingale in the bush. We had watched the bush for about 20minutes before we eventually saw some movement, at this point more birders turned up and the debate began as to what kind of Nightingale it was. At some times when in deep shade it looked quite grey, but when in the open looked more rufous brown , we felt it looked more like Common Nightingale but unless someone gets much better views or a good photo the debate will continue, watch this space!.  

Sunday 1 September 2013

Stag Rock 1st September

Stag Rock 1st September
A dull,grey, windy day saw us seawatching at Stag Rock, the sea was covered with birds of all descriptions, mainly Gannets and Auks but also a steady stream of Manx Shearwaters, we eventually came up with a total of 54 birds some of them flying through but many were piling in with the Gannets into invisible sources of food hidden below the surface. After a short while we noted a couple of Sooty Shearwaters heading past and then the jackpot with a small group of Manxies we picked out a single Balearic Shearwater. As more birds went through our totals mounted up and were added to with the passage north of 4 Arctic Skuas whilst on the rocks a group of Sandwich and Arctic Terns were joined by 2 Roseate Terns.  

More Shearwaters - August 2013

Although we're 5 days late in reporting this sighting it tallies with that reported on 20th August...  On 27th huge numbers of Manx Shearwaters were off the coast from Emmanuel Head, Holy Island. Initially a flock of  c100 were noted, 6 or 7 flew south soon followed by the whole flock. However, another flock c150 birds, further out to sea, was spied in the ultra calm conditions.

In addition, if wondering where all the Eiders have gone, a flock of 600 ( many in eclipse) were off the North Shore of Holy Island on the same day with up to 359 near Guille Point on the following day.

Fair numbers of a selection of waders * were easily seen at Coves Bay and 9 Goosanders were at sea or on nearby rocks at Sandhaven Bay ( yes, Goosanders!) - E.N.E. Holy Island - on the same date.
(* Oystercatcher, B-t Godwit, Redshank, Turnstone & Knot).