Shit hot Cumbria

Actually the title should just say Cumbria's shit but it was a bit warm..
So you can probably tell i had a tough day on the Solway birding from Allonby to Port Carlisle.

Highlights if that's what ya wanna call em were 2 Med gulls opposite the mast at Anthorn. 2nd Summer and an Adult. Adult green ringed but 1km away so couldn't read the ring, but my guess would be a returning bird. 

Adult med Gull green ring

2nd Summer Med Gull

Walked the wampool up river from Anthorn, NOWT!

Eventually got to the railings after checking lots of other areas to find 45 Summer plum Knot, 15 Summer Plum Icelandic Black-tailed Godwit and another Adult Med gull, it was always sat down asleep so never got to see its legs.Handful of Dunlin and Ringed plover.

Knot

Black-tailed Godwit

Adult med gull, centre asleep

Dunlin

Ringed Plover

Finished at Port for high tide, very few Redshank came into roost and went straight for the back of the island. 1 Bar-tailed Godwit was the pick of the bunch here.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Grey Heron

 I'm sorry to say it was the most appalling day for photos too, but for a blog these will have to do...

Workington Pier

Had a quick check at Low meadows which was flooded, it has the most water ive ever seen in-it. Of coarse no birds.....

I managed 2 and a half hours on the pier at Workington in strong Southerly winds today. The visibility was poor at best cleared occasionally but the southerly winds meant there wasn't much on the move.
I did pick up 3 female Eider (rare here), 12 Manxies, 15 Sandwich tern, 1 Fulmar, a handful of Gannets,Kittiwakes and Guillemots.
Also what I can only describe as a snout and tail of what looked like a Basking Shark, I no I don't believe me either, not sure what else it could have been????
Oh yeah not forgetting Stumpy the Med Gull in part moult, i think for its fifth year, Welcome back stumpy.

Eider

Greylag at Soddy

Cumbrian Update

Well ive been out birding Everyday and covering Soddy couple times a day including low meadows which up until yesterday had water innit, not now though, dried up, that didn't last long and still no waders through. So Cumbrias still crap, Nowt at Soddy and only Reed Warbler, Pintail and Wigeon at Siddick, no Med Gulls yet. Workington Quiet, Allonby has been quiet too 50 gulls but nothing unusual. Getting a bit despondent again and got a lot on next week but i hope to get out n about. Come on Birds!!!!!!!This is getting ridiculous.!.

Solway

I was being a bit Bone Idle this morning and had no get up and go but eventually i got up and went....Birding that is. Rach n I started at Allonby, we initially drove past but i decided we should go back and check the gulls gathering on the beach by the water outflow. Good job we did because the first bird i latched eyes on was a 3rd Summer Yellow Legged Gull, rare in Cumbria. The Rest of the Gulls were just Herring and Lesser Black backs. i took a couple of crappy record shots and left. Sorry the pics don't do it justice.

 We checked a few roadside fields that had large areas of mud and water but no proper birds anywhere. Anthorn again nothing of any note, so went to get something to eat.
After lunch we moved onto Port Carlisle, 150 Dunlin, 4 Sanderling, 200 Redshank, 30 Golden Plover, 2 Common Tern, and a single Whimbrel.

The rest of the coast was very quiet, i did check all the Black Headed Gulls but not a Med gull to be found. Still an Ok day.

Sodding Spoonbill at Soddy

The last few days has had me checking Soddy everyday, 4 Raven on-site the whole time and a Female Teal had me looking twice. A Male black-tailed Skimmer again. but otherwise very quiet, getting despondent again. THEN on the 10th July (Yesterday as i write) an amazing find for Keith this morning at 8am on Soddy gap pond...... Spoonbill one of the best birds for Soddy ever and i missed it doh!!!!!! He gave me the running commentary over the phone as it flew off so i didn't even get time to rush out the house. It must have roosted there last night.... Well gutted..... So checked siddick ponds and workington in-case it was still in the area but no joy. Pintail summering and Wigeon on siddick was the best i could do here........gutted.... Did i say that....
So i moved onto Parton where a massive group of Kittiwakes, Gannets and Gulls were feeding of shore, 23 Common Scoter on the water along with 12-15 Manxies. 4 Dunlin and a Ringed plover were on the beach but again that was it. Had lunch at Whitehaven with a friend (yes i do have 1 or 2 friends sort of ) and a walk around the harbour produced a nice Full Hooded Crow ...
Finished the day waiting in the pouring rain till dark for the Spoonbill at Soddy to NOT return to roost and nothing new in and was all very quiet...GUTTING!!!! oh i said that didnt I.
Still Well done to Keith for an amazing find..... grrrr ;-) not jealous MUCH ;-)

I saw a moth in the meadow so decided to id it my first for Soddy a Straw Dot... I no nothing about moths so its bound to be a first ;-).

Straw Dot Moth



Local Stuff 5th July

Well this was the first day in weeks it had been a nice day in Cumbria so i thought id better make the most of it by having the day out n about the local patch's. Started at Workington nothing on the sea although i didn't do a proper sea watch just sat with the bins. Walked along the beach checking the rocks, just a few Ringed Plover then up n over the hill, Skylarks, House Sparrow, Linnet, Redpoll and Siskin. As i turned to look back at the sea an Adult Med Gull flew along the shore towards Parton, first of the Season and quite early too.
I moved onto Siddick ponds, Reed Warbler was my first notable bird, showing well at times, along side Sedge Warbler, Bullfinch and Common Whitethroat. Chiffchaffs and Willow warblers were singing everywhere. I covered the whole west side but nothing of any real note except a Common Sandpiper and a Wigeon hidden in the reeds.
I finished off by covering Soddy Gap, again very quiet so i went through the Dragonflies and Damselflies. Common Blue and Blue-tailed Dams, and then a 4 Spot Chaser but surprise of the day was an Imm male Black-tailed Skimmer. Then on the way out a second this time an adult male.
I took the opportunity to take a couple of shots of the single Cygnet whilst the sun was out.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Black-tailed Skimmer

Mute Swan Cygnet

Proud Parents

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.