Puffins

I had a great family holiday in Northumberland. We stayed in a cottage just over a mile north of Belford and about four miles from the coast. Very peaceful, good company, lots of walking, a few beers and we even managed to squeeze in a bit of bird watching. In fact the whole family volunteered to do the Billy Shields all day birding trip to Inner Farne and Staple Island with me.

I am not sure that is exactly what I had in mind but I am glad they came. They all seemed to enjoy the experience, including being attacked by the Arctic Terns. Although my two sons were probably not so enthusiastic about a well aimed deposit from one of the gulls that just missed me but gave both of them a traditional welcome to the islands.

Staple Island was the first stop and fortunately I had been warned not to take the big lens. A 200mm or better still a 100-300 zoom is probably ideal. I felt sorry for the guy that had lugged his 800mm up the steps from the boat. It would have been almost impossible to get far enough away from any of the birds to get a picture.

Puffins and Shags were the main reason for visiting Staple Island. I have seen lots before but I have never been this close to them.

It was nice to get the picture opportunities but it was also a bit disconcerting. There was no need for any field craft or any need to take care to avoid disturbing the birds other than by not stepping on their nests. I am sure people got pictures as good as or better than mine just by walking up and pointing their mobile phones at them.

You should have seen the one that got away

 My initial thoughts were, are we disturbing the birds and should we be here at all. Then you see a Shag on a nest with a couple of chicks (Shaglets?) and a group of young children sitting round the nest within touching distance. The bird does not seem to be concerned. It may well have nested in that spot before and knows that it is not at risk and in fact is probably safer from predators by being choosing to be close to people.

Plenty of opportunity for Puffins in flight but perhaps not enough light to be able to freeze the action.

Shags, probably the least concerned of all the birds by the presence of people.

I was really there to photograph the Puffins and Shags but there were a good selection of other birds on offer. I was quite suprised to find that I only came away with a single picture of a Guillimot. Perhaps I should have spent longer concentrating on them.

Razorbill

Fulmar

Guillemot

Kittiwake

In the afternoon we moved on to Inner Farne, seeing a similar selection of birds plus the Terns.

White-fronted Geese

It has been a bit of a mixed start to the new birding year. There have been some good birds about and the numbers of geese and wildfowl have increased significantly but on the other hand the weather has been awful, particularly for photography, and the number of waders still seems to be low. Today, Wednesday, gave us the first decent weather of the year so we headed off to Dungeness to get a few year ticks.

First stop was Pett Level to see if we could find the Glossy Ibis for Dave. We gave it a good try but it did not seem to be around. Fortunately I had stopped off on the way back from Canterbury a few days ago and managed to see it again, in near zero visibility and driving rain. No pictures but I might be glad of the views by the end of the year.

Picture of the Pett Level Glossy Ibis taken on the 17th December

We saw some good birds around Dungeness but most were distant or hard to photograph. A Long-eared Owl, but it was buried so deep in the bushes that you could barely see it. Redhead Smew, Slavonian Grebe, Tree Sparrow, Cetti's Warbler, and Shag, which are apparently unusual at Dungeness.

Shag

It was interesting to compare these three with a Juvenile that we had seen at Hill Head On Monday.

Juvenile Shag - Hill Head

The tree sparrows are also great to see. There are still plenty at Boulderwood Farm, at the entrance to Dungeness RSPB, but the numbers seem to be a lot lower than a few years ago.

Tree Sparrow

Great White Egret

On the way home we stopped off at Scotney Pit. We scanned a few hundred geese looking for anything unusual. It looked as though it would be just the usual Greylags and Barnacles until we picked up a flight of four birds that appeared to be different. We had just decided that they were White-fronted Geese when a farmer gathering sheep put a few thousand geese into the air. I thought that we had lost the opportunity of a picture but then we realised there were a lot more of them in the area. I think we saw just under forty of them but there may have been more. The most I have ever seen together in the past has been three or four.

White-fronted Geese in Flight

Showing the prominent black body markings

Greylags with a small flock of eighteen White-fronted and three Brent Geese at the back

The Barnacles were also flying. This picture showing a small group including a couple of the Barnacle/ Emperor Crosses.

Barnacle Geese

Other pictures taken this year -  A return visit to the Yellow-browed Warbler gave us some good views but it was still difficult to get a decent picture.

Yellow-browed Warbler

Fortunately a small flock of Long-tailed tits gave some better opportunities.

Long-tailed Tit

And, the visit to Titchfield Haven may have been disappointing in that we did not see the Penduline Tits but we did get some other birds.

Pochard

Stonechat

Gadwall

To finish off a couple of shots of Red-breasted Mergansers taken in a short break in the rain at Widewater. Still very dull though.

Red-breasted Mergansers

Harlequin Duck

Monday 9th March

Monday and the weather looked far from promising for birding. A deep low was coming in and winds of eighty to ninety miles per hour were promised with a strong possibility of snow. But we had to get to Aberdeen.

For the weeks before we travelled to Scotland we had been monitoring the Harlequin Duck in Seaton Park. It was to be one of our key targets for the holiday. Then the week before we travelled it disappeared. We assumed that with the weather warming up (a bit) the bird had left and we had given up hope of seeing it.

I don't know where it had been for the previous seven days but Sunday night a report reappeared on Bird Alert and Monday morning we were heading for Aberdeen, whatever the weather had to offer.

First winter drake Harlequin Duck

From Seaton park we walked up the river to where the duck had last been reported but could not find any sign of it. Fortunately heading in the opposite direction we soon came across a small dark duck swimming with a couple of Mallards and we quickly confirmed it as the Harlequin.

It's a duck of fast flowing rivers that is rarely seen in the UK and there are only eighteen accepted sightings on record. It would usually be resident and breeding in Iceland and Greenland.

A dark duck, in dark water, under dark trees, in low light levels, does not make for brilliant picture opportunities, particularly as it favours fast flowing water giving a lot of movement, but in the end I got three decent pictures out of the forty or so I took.

We headed back around the coast avoiding the high roads. The Ythan Estuary looked a great place for birding but when we opened the car door to take a look we saw Goosander, Greenshanks and other birds disappearing into the distance. Perhaps it's still a little too close to the shooting season.

Distant shot of the Greenshank

Coming back along the coast we visited Macduff, Banff, Buckie, and Spey Bay. Despite the gale force winds the ducks were still out on the sea although we did find a couple of Eider in Banff harbour and a Shag just outside Macduff harbour.

Eider - water still rough inside the harbour walls

Shag - scaring all the little children

A great days birding despite the gale force winds

Purple Sandpipers

Out birding again yesterday and starting to see the real benefits of teaming up with a more experienced bird photographer. We had set off before dawn with a plan and target list for the day. The weather forecast was good and with a brilliant sunrise the day looked promising. However, having located our first target, a Shag at Eastney Point, heavy clouds started drifting in from the west and it looked more like pending snow than the promised sunshine.

The Shag disappeared into the harbour before we were able to get record shots and we moved on to Southsea Castle. The target here was Purple Sandpipers and it proved to be our only photographic opportunity of the day albeit under an ever darkening sky.

700mm   ISO400   f8   1/200sec

700mm   ISO400   f8   1/100sec

I was not very happy with the quality of these pictures and thought I would show a better shot below taken at Brighton Marina last year. It was only when I looked at the picture information that I realised that this was arguably taken in worse lighting conditions. Sometimes its just to easy to blame the light when its actually the guy that presses the button that is at fault.

700mm   ISO800   f8   1/125sec

The plan for the day was then revised and we set off to visit some of Dave's favourite birding places on Portsea Island, Langstone Harbour, and Chichester Harbour. We managed to log over sixty birds for the day but the real benefit for me was in finding out about the best places to visit, where to park, the impact of the tides, how to avoid the dog walkers, and the best places and time of day to optimise the lighting.

We finished off in fading light on Pagham Harbour north wall with a Short Eared Owl hunting over the fields.