LANDGUARD - 16th September

Warm and humid with a light westerly breeze; there was a bit more life out there than the last couple of days especially overhead as birds heading south included 12 Grey Wagtails (I caught nine of them!), a Yellow Wagtail, a Tree Pipit, 96 Meadow Pipits and 55 Swallows.   

Grounded migrants added 5 Chiffchaffs, 11 Wheatears, a Black Redstart, a Blackcap and a Coal Tit to the day list whilst 2 Arctic Skuas, 2 Grey Plover and a Red-throated Diver (the first of the autumn) were offshore.   

Also of note was a smart Clouded Yellow in the compound – my first one of these for absolutely ages!   

A look at Melton in the afternoon at low tide produced increases to 87 Teal and 24 Wigeon, 10 Greenshank, a Kingfisher, presumably the same two Hobbies as last time over the trees on the east side of the river and my first Snipe, Grey Wagtail and Meadow Pipit for this site.

Polish ringed Black-headed Gull

Herring Gull ringed as a chick on Havergate Island in 2013

(not) LANDGUARD - 21st July

 A walk round Wyke / Benthall first thing produced all the expected bits and pieces including successful Little Grebe breeding on Benthall Pools again with two large chicks seen where there was also single Lesser Whitethroat and 5 Mistle Thrush.   

After getting my second vaccine (where there was a Norwegian ringed Black-headed Gull in the carpark!) I immediately drove up to Anglesey where, at Cemlyn Bay the long-staying ELEGANT TERN flew off the main island straight away as I walked along the shingle to have a little bathe in the bay before flying back to the lagoon to show brilliantly on the near side.   

It was ace there as always with thousands of Sandwich, Arctic and Common Terns making a hell of a noise as they fed hundreds of big chicks all across the islands and shore; other birds included a single first-summer Black Guillemot in the bay, a monster-big juvenile female Peregrine, 7 Little Egrets, 4 Mediterranean Gulls and a steady stream of Manx Shearwaters mainly heading west close into shore – it was very hot though so I didn’t walk around too much!

Elegant Tern

Norwegian ringed Black-headed Gull in the Telford International Centre carpark - it was ringed as a chick near Oslo in June 2015, amazingly then I re-sighted it at Horsehay Pool in January 2016, it was then seen in Sheffield in June 2018 and Sandwell Valley in February 2021.   I'm not sure whether it returns to Norway to breed, I would guess not as the June and July sightings are maybe a bit early for returning birds.

Sandwich Tern

LANDGUARD - 29th March

 Overcast first thing with the WSW wind much lighter than of late, it felt far more spring-like than of late too due to the nice spread of early migrants and the sun coming out late morning turning the day warm and very pleasant indeed; birds through the morning included a very smart adult male Black Redstart out on the point (it was constantly giving little snatches of sub-song when I went out to get closer to it at lunchtime – a brilliant bird!), 2 Blackcaps, 2 Chaffinches, 8 Chiffchaffs, a Firecrest (yesterday’s re-trap), 2 Goldcrests, 2 Grey Wagtails south, a few Meadow Pipits coming in off, a Marsh Harrier south, low over the sea, 3 Robins, a good arrival of 12+ Wheatears and a Yellowhammer south.   

Also of note were single Bar-tailed Godwit, Dunlin and Curlew offshore, a few Brents and Red-throated Divers and an increased 12 Shelduck displaying and chasing each other out front at first light.   

A little walk along the river from Levington Marina to Loompit Lake was nice but with not too much to mention with a Goldeneye, 17 Pochard, an adult Mediterranean Gull and my first Brimstone of the year of note.

Black Redstart (shame it was always into the sun!)

Some photogenic Black-headed Gulls at Loompit Lake

Pochard

Cormorant

25th February

A surprisingly nice day with lighter winds and some bright spells; first stop in the morning was Penrhos Coastal Park where an adult Mediterranean Gull on the beach by the carpark was the highlight before a scan of some floodwater along the A5 at Valley produced 4 Black-tailed Godwits and 35 Shoveler along with plenty of Oystercatchers, Redshanks, Wigeon etc.   A look at the mouth of the River Alaw (spotted from across the water at Penrhos as a likely site!) then produced an adult male Peregrine which missed a Bar-tailed Godwit out over the water by inches and a good total of 205 Pale-bellied Brent Geese.   A random drive around was then highlighted by another adult Mediterranean Gull in fields by Trearddur Bay and a smart adult male Sparrowhawk at Roscolyn Bay.

Mediterranean Gull

Peregrine action

More Pale-bellied Brent Geese

10th January

Drove back down south popping into Ashton’s Flash near Northwich, Cheshire to rapidly get excellent views of the overwintering first-winter male SIBERIAN STONECHAT feeding in the scrubby basin of the southern flash, in amongst some isolated Silver Birch trees.   A great bird, looking more like a maurus than a stejnegeri with the colour of the rump and underparts etc. but I think the DNA result acquired through droppings is imminent.   Also here (mainly on Neumann’s Flash) were good number of ducks, especially Wigeon, Gadwall and Pochard, several singing Cetti’s Warblers and a calling Green Woodpecker.   Then had a brief look at Rufford Country Park at the mill end where I read two darvic ringed Black-headed Gulls – Danish ringed white/black V77K that was present this time last year and green/white 217A along with a good 30 Goosanders.

Siberian Stonechat

Danish V77K

and British 217A

30th November - 1st December

Caught the overnight ferry down to Aberdeen, arriving before first light; we got to Lunan Bay at dawn but a few hours scanning in the glorious, calm, sunny conditions failed to produce the drake Black Scoter that has been seen on and off there in amongst the hundreds of Common Scoter, Velvet Scoter, Red-breasted Mergansers, Slavonian Grebes, Red-throated Divers and Long-tailed Ducks (but the sun was coming up right in front of us).   There was also thousands of Common and Black-headed Gulls, a Merlin and a small pod of Bottlenose Dolphins at the mouth of the bay, we then went south to have a look at the Tay Reedbeds but we didn’t see any Bearded Tits with the only thing of interest being a Red Squirrel sat right next to a Grey Squirrel – the first time I’ve seen them together!   

After a night in Edinburgh we had a few hours at Musselburgh where, despite it being low tide birds included a drake Surf Scoter with a few Velvet Scoter, the usual Slavonian Grebes, Long-tailed Ducks etc and a Kingfisher on the River Esk (only my second one in Scotland).   The highlight for me though was reading four darvic ringed Black-headed Gulls in amongst the thousands of Gulls on the river and exposed shore – all from very different areas:

Black / White X35C - Ringed at Island Bohmke, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in NE Germany as a breeding bird on 13th May 2017.

White / Black 2ATT – Ringed as a chick in the Moorfoot Hills, East Lothian on 11^th June 2016.

Yellow / Black 2PFR – Ringed at Pitsea landfill Site, Essex on 12^th March 2016 (also seen at Musselburgh in October 2016).

Green / White JLN8 – Ringed in Oslo, Norway on 26^th March 2018.

Dawn at Lunan Bay

Bar-tailed Godwits

Goldeneye at Musselburgh

Kingfisher

NORTH RONALDSAY - 27th July

Fine again, with acres of bright sunshine but a brisk SE wind with a chilly edge to it made the day just slightly short of perfect; a handful of new birds were seen including the first Black Redstart of the autumn hopping around the Tystie colony at Moe Geo, 3 Ruff on Gretchen (with the first two juveniles) and 2 Garganey also on Gretchen.   Other bits of note comprised 9 Shoveler, a Whimbrel, the Greenshank still, 320+ Common Gulls and 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls including the first juvenile.   The main migration event though was a big influx of 150+ Painted Ladies (although the real total would have been much higher) – the vast majority of which were very bright, fresh individuals (very different to the very worn butterflies that we had earlier in the summer), so they hadn’t come from too far away.

Garganey and Shoveler

Juvenile Black-headed Gull

Two juvenile (above) and an adult (below) Ruff

Black-tailed Godwit

Painted Lady