12th July

A mixed day with a couple of potentially good birds not quite clinched; the morning was pretty quiet with not much on the sea but there was a juvenile Grey Wagtail on the rocks, another 7 Herons went north, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, a Whimbrel and some good Peregrine action with a female shooting down the shore taking a couple of unsuccessful swipes at some Starlings before carrying on and neatly plucking a Ruff out of Vågsvollvika!    A bit of a walk round until it started drizzling just produced a pair of Blue-headed Wagtails collecting food out at Vågsvollmarka and the very agitated Wryneck with two juveniles in tow at the Radiomastene.

                I then drove out to Kviljoodden to have a look at an interesting 1^st summer Diver – it was a small Black-throated Diver type feeding close inshore with two smart summer plumaged Black-throated Divers, it seemed smaller with a smaller, finer bill and it completely lacked a white thigh patch so was a potential Pacific Diver but no one was completely convinced!   There was a Great-northern Diver and a Sandwich Tern also there.

                Again, light rain in the afternoon delayed me going out again but I walked round the coast early evening which turned out to be extremely frustrating as I flushed a group of 25 Redshank from Verevågen with another bird in with them which I can’t see why it wasn’t a Stilt Sandpiper – slightly smaller than the Redshank, very thin, with a white rump and long projecting legs.   It then gave me the run around for the next few hours with the Redshank flock never letting me get close to them and I eventually lost it in the drizzle which came back in.

                Other birds along the coast included 4 Green Sandpipers, 4 Common Sandpipers, a Greenshank, single Teal and Wigeon, a Wood Sandpiper, 15 Dunlin, 2 Ruff and 5 Whimbrel.

 

Female Blue-headed Wagtail

Frog in the grass trying to avoid the Snakes in the grass

Grabbed shot of a Hare as it ran across the carpark!

 

11th July

A fine, calm day produced its highlights early on with the FRANKLIN’S GULL flying NW past the lighthouse with a Black-headed Gull at 06:00 and a BEE-EATER circling high over the lighthouse for a few minutes at 08:30.   The sea was very quiet first thing (not that it really mattered!) with 7 Herons, 3 Whimbrel and a Grey Wagtail heading NW the pick with a Green Sandpiper on Vågsvollvåien.

                A walk inland then produced three separate broods of Whinchat fledglings, the pair of Wrynecks extremely agitated, 3 separate Red-backed Shrikes, 5 Crossbills (including three juveniles, one of which was a distinctive ‘wing-barred’ individual), a calling Green Woodpecker in Lebeltet Nord, 3 Spotted Flycatchers and a selection of Siskin, Redpoll, Linnet and Greenfinch family parties.   A little look in Verevågen also produced a few waders including 6 Green Sandpipers and 3 Greenshank.

                After some light rain in the afternoon a few bits and pieces had dropped into Vågsvollvåien / Vågsvollvika including 3 Ruff, a Greenshank, 4 Dunlin, 5 Whimbrel, 51 Curlew, a Bar-tailed Godwit, a Wood Sandpiper, 2 Common Sandpipers and the first juvenile Black-headed Gull of the year.   Other things of note late afternoon consisted of 7 more Herons which went north, a male Blue-headed Wagtail and 75+ Swifts feeding out over the fields in the evening.

 

More blurry record shots of the Franklin's Gull as it flew past the lighthouse this morning

I know its not their usual habitat but juvenile Crossbills should definitely think about hanging around on lichen covered rocks more often - until they moved they were almost invisible!

The flock included this unusual 'wing-barred' bird - it made me look many times at it before deciding it was just a Common Crossbill (the angle of the photo makes it look at bit slimmer and slighter than a Common but I'm 99.5% sure its not a Two-barred Crossbill!)

Juvenile Whinchat

Wryneck

Snake in the grass

 

10th July

Nice and sunny but the blazing NW wind remained all day; chopping down trees all morning so it wasn’t until the afternoon that I managed to get out but it was just the breeding birds of interest with a very young brood of fledgling Red-backed Shrikes at Bakkan, the Wryneck alarming at me, a brood of fledgling Whinchats at Vågsvollmarka and a couple more adult Red-backed Shrikes dotted around.

                The obvious days highlight came early evening when I stepped out to find a 1^st summer FRANKLIN’S GULL in the field just in front of the carpark which had been cut earlier today, it showed brilliantly less than 20m away for a few seconds before flying off across the fields to another cut area and disappeared; it showed distantly again in flight before heading out over Vatnemarka and away – awesome double American Gull finding for me this year here!

 

Distant record shots of the Franklin's Gull - if I'd gone for my camera straight away instead of looking at it I could of got much better pictures of it on the deck!

Brilliant Red-backed Shrike fledglings

A different male Red-backed Shrike that doesn't belong to the fledglings

 

9th July

After two weeks of tropical hot and sunny conditions back in the UK it was a relief to get some proper weather with rain and the standard gale force 8 northwesterlies that happens all too often back here at Lista!   A look at the sea early morning produced single Manx Shearwater and Bonxies along with 212 Common Scoter, 2 Common Terns and 2 Arctic Terns while around Vågsvollvåien there were 97+ Curlew, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, 5 Dunlin and an adult female Peregrine.

                A walk late morning then produced a Green Sandpiper on Skarvodden, another Bar-tailed Godwit, a Wigeon and 2 Teal in Sevika, a Common Sandpiper in Verevågen and 2 Crossbills and a Wryneck carrying food in Lebeltet.

 

Still plenty of baby Starlings around

Plenty of scruffy looking, moulting Common Scoters as well

This baby Sand Martin almost made the leap of faith but at the last minute he bottled it and managed to scramble back into the burrow!

 

Wyke

4^th and 5^th JULY

                Just here around Wyke with obviously not too much to report but there was a couple of surprises with an adult Stock Dove caught in my nets at the bottom of the garden – first time I’ve seen one anywhere near the garden on 4^th and a Quail singing from a long grass field about 200m down the lane, he was singing on and off all morning on the 5^th – a Shropshire tick!

                An unremarkable few ringing sessions since in the short time I’ve been back in Wyke with only 33 new birds ringed revealed very few fledglings with hardly any young birds around (at least compared to last summer anyway); 6 new Bullfinches (all adults) was however, noteworthy.

Stock Dove

Spurn, 29th June - 2nd July

29^th JUNE

                Got up to Spurn around lunchtime and a walk in the afternoon produced excellent numbers of breeding Avocets with 11 big chicks and 5 small chicks on Kilnsea Wetlands and another 3 smaller chicks on Beacon Lagoons where the 70+ Little Terns were very jumpy forming tight flocks and heading out to sea several times as if a raptor was around but I couldn’t see anything.  

Other birds seen included two Mediterranean Gulls on Holderness Field (a second summer and a first summer) along with a juvenile Black-headed Gull, a pair of Gadwall, 2 Herons, 7 Little Egrets, a Greenshank and single Little Grebe and Tufted Duck.

30^th JUNE

                Opened the nets first thing at The Warren where I caught a selection of fledglings including a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Whitethroats, Great Tit, Tree Sparrow, Robin, Dunnock, Meadow Pipit, Swallow and a Magpie; around 60 Swifts went south in the hot, sunny and calm conditions along with 3 Siskins, a Grey Wagtail and a few House Martins while on The Humber on the dropping tide were 9 Little Gulls, 25+ Golden Plover, a Whimbrel and 60+ Curlew.

                A jaunt down the point was unremarkable with about 4 singing Lesser Whitethroats and a couple of Kestrels the only birds of note.

1^st JULY

                Not much through the breezy but warm morning; I caught two young fledgling Blackcaps and Kew before we checked the Sparrowhawk nest in The Crown carpark (one small chick and three eggs in the process of hatching) and walked through the Little Tern colony at Beacon Ponds where we ringed a few chicks but there weren’t too many to find.

                A walk in the afternoon was more productive with a 3 Teal, a Green Sandpiper and an adult Curlew Sandpiper on Holderness Field, a juvenile Cuckoo by the Listening Dish and single 1^st summer Little Gull and Mediterranean Gulls roosting on Beacon Ponds with a few Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin.   There was now a pretty strong onshore wind blowing which produced a few birds at sea including a close group of 5 Manx Shearwaters along with a few Gannets and Fulmars (but I only looked briefly with binoculars!).

2^nd JULY

                A few hours standing at Numpties before my train back south produced around 2,100 Swifts heading south (by 08:30) as the wind had moved round to the west with the majority of the birds taking the line along the Humber shore so we couldn’t catch any.   Other birds included a Hobby which bombed past so fast that none of the Swallows around The Warren had time to react, a Little Gull and a few Sandwich Terns and Little Terns.

 

Little Tern chick

Sparrowhawk nest with two of the eggs in the process of hatching

Reed Buntings

Avocet chick

Hare

Privet Hawkmoth

 

Wyke

Back home in Shropshire for a few days, bit frustrating that I don't have my car (I left it in Norway) but you do what you can!   Not too many birds around so here's some insects.

Four-spotted Chaser

Large Skipper

Banded Demoiselle