A New Year List

January always seems a bit weird. The start of a new year and Blackbirds, Starlings and all those birds you have paid little attention to during the year, suddenly become important again, as you try to get the year list off to a good start. Bird races are not for me but I do expect to get above the hundred before the month is out. A modest target perhaps but then my real objective is to get some decent photographs. Lighting is the key to success and cold January and February days, bright but with high thin cloud are the best. Unfortunately there aren't many of them and the useful hours in those days are limited.

The two shots below, of the Black Redstart at Shoreham Fort, show the difference lighting can make. The same bird on successive days and it looks very different.

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

January is also the time for me to make the annual trip to Newhaven West Beach to see the Fulmars as they start to take ownership of their nesting holes.

Fulmar

Actually the trip to Newhaven this year was mainly to see the Hume's Leaf Warbler. I did see it but I didn't manage to get a photograph. My second Hume's Warbler and the second time I have failed to get a picture, so my key list of seen but not photographed stays at twelve.

Truth be told I had to rely on Dave and others for the identification. I cannot pick up the call and with the brief views I had it could easily have been a Yellow Browed Warbler I was looking at.

A picture of a Goldcrest in the same area of scrub was no consolation.

Goldcrest

We have had large numbers of Gannets along the Sussex coast over the past couple of weeks, with the birds close in and giving good views of plunge diving. The lighting was appalling but they were at least good to watch.

I also failed to get a photograph of the plunge diving but I can't blame the lighting for that. It was something to do with my inability to press the shutter release at the right time.

We also had a day down at Pagham Harbour. There were a lot of birds there and I added a few to the year list but they were a long way off and there was no chance of a decent photograph. It was also very cold so we retired to the Wetland Centre at Arundel.

It's always good for a few pictures and as we drove there Dave predicted Water Rail, Bullfinch, Kingfisher, and Snipe. He was spot on, we saw all four and I also picked up on a Chiffchaff. Good practice for if I go back for another go at the Hume's.

Water Rail

Water Rail

Water Rail

Water Rail

Female Bullfinch

Kingfisher

Snipe

Chiffchaff

Not a bad start to the New Year. It's good to be out in the countryside again and even better to be getting a few photographs.

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagle has been on the wish list for sometime but I couldn't really justify all that mileage for one bird. Fortunately a recent holiday had us stopping off at Portree on Skye and a trip out on the local boat Stardust gave me the views I had been hoping for.

Three birds were seen, the first two being a pair nesting on the cliffs a couple of miles south of Loch Portree. The views were a bit distant but we had the female sitting close to the nest and the male perched up about fifty metres away.

Distant shot of female with nest below left

Male close by

Further along the coast we had a second female

Second female, heavily blinged - tags, rings, and backpack transmitter

Second female swooping for fish

Second female with fish and state of the art backpack!!!

Heading over to Raasay

So where is the picture of the eagle snatching the fish from the water? - I didn't take it. You have the choice, watch the action or get the picture and I didn't want to miss seeing the eagle close up. Next time I will go for the picture.


Moving from one introduced species to another - the Golden Pheasants on Tresco. I doubt that there are any self sustaining populations left in the UK but the bird is still on the list so in theory still countable. On Tresco it is not really hard to find. There are a good number of un-ringed free to fly birds wandering around and they have little fear of humans.

Tresco is a privately owned fiefdom so I am not sure that the usual rules re the ringing of released birds apply and most sources suggest the numbers are regularly topped up with new birds.

It is a stunning bird to look at and as we were visiting the Abbey Gardens I was set on getting a picture. Slight problem, they have either had an argument with a lawn mower or the moult is in progress. Not exactly the picture I was looking for.

Golden Pheasnt in moult

The story of their arrival on Tresco is an interesting one. An exhibition of figureheads from wrecked ships had one for the tea clipper the Friar Tuck. In 1856 this ship was swept onto rocks whilst sheltering from a gale in St Marys Roads. Despite the best efforts of the customs men, large quantities of tea were acquired by the islanders  but it was also said to be carrying Chinese Pheasants which found their way onto Tresco.

If true it must have been a self sustaining population for a good period of time.



Other birds seen on my travels

Black Guillemot

Manx Shearwater

Razor Bill

Eider 

Gannet

Common Guillemot

Hooded Crow

I also picked up Shag and Dipper but couldn't get a decent picture of either. Oh! and a hint for other bird photographers - you don't have to chase the birds. Use field craft, stay in cover, and wait for the bird to come to you.

Should have spent more time birding!

Selsey Bill Seawatch

I am still not totally convinced on the merits of seawatching but with the forecast for today promising a favourable SE wind I thought I would give it a go. I am now the proud possessor of a copy of "Flight Identification of European Seabirds" and I needed to put some of the theory into practice. For me that means getting a picture and being able to study the identification features at home.

I picked Dave up just before six and we headed down to Selsey Bill, which would offer the chance of closer encounters and better pictures opportunities than our own bit of coast. We should have got up earlier, the dedicated seawatchers had been hard at work for an hour or so when we arrived and we had just missed a Pomarine Skua, our key target for the day.

First bird through was a Cormorant. Not really what we were looking for but a good opportunity to check out the camera settings and flight shot techniques.

Cormorant

We then had a steady trickle of the more common birds through, Terns, Divers, Kittiwakes and  Whimbrel, with the occasional, more interesting, Skua species. Perhaps not as good as we had expected but enough to keep the interest.

Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern

Common Tern

Kittiwake

Whimbrel

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a picture of the Little Tern. We also had Black-throated and Great Northern Diver through and Common Scoter.

Black-throated Diver

Common Scoter

Lots of Gannets feeding off shore but these three seemed to be travelling with a purpose.

Gannets

Light and Dark Phase Arctic Skuas but no Bonxies that we could see.

Arctic Skua (Dark Phase)

Arctic Skua (Dark Phase)

Arctic Skua (Light Phase)

And in the end we did get our Pom although it was a long way off and it was difficult to identify until we saw the tail feather spoons.

Pomarine Skua

Large crop of the above showing spoons

We headed for home mid afternoon, happy that we had seen most of our targets. There were still a good number of the hardened seawatchers waiting for more Poms to come through and they had their reward when four went past, close in, late in the afternoon. Great video on the Selsey Blog, not sure who took it but I believe the term used now is Respect.

Close on eight hours of seawatching and I actually enjoyed it. I could become a convert, although I am not sure I could maintain my enthusiasm all through the winter.

Info    Phase or Morph  -  which term should I use. I found the following definitions:-

Phase
noun – traditional (becoming archaic): a genetically determined variability of coloration among individuals of the same species without being attributable to, associated with, or determined by subspecies, race, or geographic population.


Morph

noun – (1) biology: a recognizable group, distinctive for some specific attribute of form or structure, within a species; (2) an individual of a recognizable group within a species known for having two or more groups distinguishable by form or structure; (3a) ornithology: a group or an individual within a species known to vary by form or structure; (3b) an individual bird distinctive for a specific permanent plumage color within a species known for various genetically determined plumage colors that do not vary by age, season, breeding condition, or geographic subspecies status.


Chromer

noun – (Kevinism) an individual bearing a specific, permanent coloration that is one of two or more color variations typical of the species and not attributable to genetic mutation or defect or to age, season, breeding condition, geography, or subspecies status.



So perhaps it should be Chromer, although I am not sure that I would be allowed back into seawatching circles using such language!

Bempton Cliffs

Continuing a return journey from Scotland with a one day stopover in Flamborough.

The journey out of Scotland and down the Northumberland coast took me past dozens of good birding sites, Bass Rock, St Abbs Head, the Farne Islands, and Lindisfarne, to name but a few. I did make a couple of quick stops around the Druridge Bay area but I needed to get some miles under my belt before I stopped. The plan was to pay a quick evening visit to Bempton Cliffs and then to spend the next day birding around Flamborough Head.

That plan quickly went out of the window when I saw Bempton Cliffs. The number of birds is truly spectacular. There were tens of thousands on the cliffs, on the sea, and carrying out a spectacular aerial ballet in the sky above the cliffs. I spent the evening there and most of the next day. A quick one hour trip around Flamborough Head and it was clear that this was an area that had great potential but needed days of detailed searching to cover all the available sites.

Bempton added picture opportunities of Puffins and Gannets to those sea birds I had already seen on the trip.

Gannet In flight

Gannets in Love

Gannets at War

Part of the six thousand pairs of Gannets that use the cliffs

 There are around 38,000 pairs of Kittiwakes, 60,000 Guillemots, 15,000 Razorbills, along with assorted other sea birds including around 1,000 Puffin. Puffin numbers are in decline though, with hundreds being washed up dead on the beach. They were emaciated and with little body fat and it is thought that this is due to the prolonged bad weather in the area. This is a natural occurrence known as a wreck but highlights the risk to the colony with up to 10% of the areas Puffin population dead, with many of the survivors in poor breeding condition, and with the sand eels they feed on in short supply.

Survived the storm but tired and hungry

All the nesting holes gone

No room here either

The colonies have always been at risk. Locals used to take around 130,000 eggs a year to supplement their diet and to trade. That no longer happens so there is scope for recovery but what it really needs is a marine conservation area off the Yorkshire coast to safeguard the birds food supplies. Unfortunately at the moment none of the proposed sites have been designated by the government.

Fulmar and Guillemot

Guillemot

Razorbill

One of the more interesting birds on the cliffs are the Rock Doves. These are the ancestral form of the common feral pigeon that we see around our towns. True Rock Doves breed in caves and on steep cliffs on sea coasts and in mountains. I am sure there must be cross overs between the two populations and I often see birds with the correct makings around where I live, but it is nice to see these flocks and to recognise them as a true wild bird.

Rock Dove

They all look pure breed

There were also plenty of birds along the top of the cliffs although these were regularly disturbed by the visitors. The chances of seeing these improved drastically as you moved away from the car park.

Skylark

Tree Sparrow taking a dust bath

The drive home from Flamborough took most of the day. I had a quick stop in Bridlington harbour where I found Turnstones wandering around the car park looking for scraps just like you would see Sparrows back at home. I also stopped just off the A1 at Paxton Pits by St Neots. It is rated as one of the best sites in the country to see Nightingales but it was really the chance to photograph the Hobby that caused me to visit the site.

Nightingale

Hobby

Hobby

My panning technique is definitely improving

And, to round off a good trip, I noticed  a Red-crested Pochard in the bottom of the frame whilst I was photographing the Hobby. Can't wait to go again.