Sea-Watching

A short couple hours Sea watching this morning a bit crap...

On a southerly wind so no Stormies  But a group of 5 Arctic Skuas hunting together. Black Guillemot showing well at times. 24 Common Scoter including a group of 14 North then South. 12 Manxies 1 Puffin South 2 Sandwich Tern  and usual species. 

 

 

The Farnes 26th June

Well as there is no birds about i thought id show Keith a great Spectacle on the Farnes and its Puffin population. So we got on the boat from Seahouses and had an amazing hour on Staple Island photographing these stunning little creatures.

Other species were Shag, Kittiwakes and Guillemots with Arctic Terns everywhere.

I didn't have a lot of time i had to get back so we checked Amble for any Roseates we could see the island but none came close enough for a proper id, we then jammed in on a pair of Black necked grebes in the centre of Newcastle, a UK lifer for Keith. A great day and time for home.

Sweet Little Swift

Well thanks to a text at 4-30am telling me the Little Swift was still in the Wirral, New Brighton. So a quick text to Keith had us on the road by 5-30am. Trouble was once at Bassenthwaite flooding had closed the A66 and the smaller roads around it. So a 50 min at least major detour had us worried. We Arrived on site to have a great crack with a few good facebook friends and after only a handful of minutes superb views of a Little Swift, showing well too, WHAT A BIRD... never imagined id ever seen one of these in the UK and only 3 hours from home. After watching this bird for a while it disappeared and then reappeared but more distant. So Keith and i decided to have a bite to eat and then do some seawatching. Seawatching was slow with just a small trickle of Terns, so when we heard there were a small number of Storm Petrels of our local patch back home in Workington, we decided we just had to get back. We arrived about 3 o-clock and straight away spotted our first Stormies of the year and Keiths second lifer of the day. By 5pm we had seen 39 Storm Petrels as well as 5 Common Scoter and 35 Manxies. An amazing finish to our day and so unexpected....

Workington Seawatch

Well this is Cumbria after all, so for the last few days i have nothing at all to add.
Today however come lunch time the wind was blowing a hooley from the South West. I though ah well Workington will be worth ago, it was hissing it down so i wasn't gonna do owt else.
When i arrived at Workington the first 10 min i sat and watched from the car. loads and loads of Manxies close up too, then a small seabird but lost in the wave as soon as saw it, i was too low down to stay on anything. That was probably a Storm Petrel but oh well.
So i moved to the pier i could look much better into the troughs of the waves now. No more Petrels though, bugger. Heres what i did see though.
In 2hours 40 minutes a very Conservation 2,400 Manxies . No rarity unfortunately.

60 - 70 Fulmar although some were back n forward

3 Puffin, Guillemots and Razorbills, Kittiwakes and Gannets plenty

9 Sandwich Tern. 

 

 

Back in Cumbria

Well been back in Cumbria for a couple of weeks now but there's nothing been happening. A few trips to Soddy and a couple along the coast Maryport to Workington. As i say very very quiet... Gannets from Maryport and Workington. Grey Seal from Maryport.
So the camera ain't been out the bag till today when i sat in the garden taking some pics of the Sparras...

Greenfinch

Juv Blackbird

Whoops how did that get in there ;-)

Roller

Well i bowed to the pressure of the long staying Roller in North Yorkshire Aldbrough, so spent the weekend camping in the tent at Reighton Sands. Rach the dog n i arrived late on Friday night so it was tent up n bed. Next morning a fairly relaxed drive to the Roller, the bird services said still present phew....but when i got there about 8am the bird had flown...WHAT no it really couldnt be.... after a sweat of about 40 minutes it did come back to its favoured post and field, what a relief. Whilst watching this Stunning European Roller i scoped a very distant Corn Bunting. The Roller then flew off again so we decided to move on to south of the Humber for a Juv Pallied Harrier or Monties. After finally finding the site we couldnt locate the harrier. We moved down the hill to find some other birders who had been watching a harrier all morning and to be told it had been showing well.... thanks a lot for getting the news out. It had caught a blackbird and with its full crop gone to ground somewhere.. i wasn't gonna waste anymore time on this bird whatever it turns out to be, i was hoping to make my own mind up but not today!!!!.
In the meantime a Rosy starling had been seen at Flamborough head, i made the mistake of hopeing it would stick around until id seen the harrier but on returning to Flamborough that had disappeared too. That was the end of today's birding, the Roller was brilliant but the rest of the day was pretty shite..

I made an effort this morning to get out early, no migrants of any sort though. I did a short seawatch from Reighton Beach, my first collection of Manxies this year. LOADS of auks, Guillies, Razors and Puffins. We packed up the tent and moved onto Flambrough for Breakfast and a wander around. A Bonxie was it!!!
Id had enough by now so we called it a day and made our way home.