Inishbofin on Wednesday

On Tuesday, just as I was about to start playing football, I had a look at my phone and noticed that an Eastern Kingbird had been found on Inishbofin in County Galway. Needless to say, I didn't have my most inspired game and by 06:15 the next morning, I was back at Stansted for the third time in six days. I think all those gathered for the morning flight had the same mindset - memories of last year's Inishmore bird and the apparent similarities in circumstances saw us anticipating that the bird had gone. It was therefore with great relief that we were greeted by news of a brief sighting at 08:10 in the fog on landing at Shannon. Genuinely surprised at its continued presence and now pretty pumped, the drive north to Cleggan was a rapid one.

Sadly, however, news became less and less positive as the journey progressed. It seemed the bird had moved on and I was reluctantly dragged over to the island by Bo. All was not lost, though - I saw a hideously tick-ridden Blackpoll Warbler and Spotted Flycatcher while others also scored Wryneck and Barred Warbler. Plus the sun was shining, and it was really quite a pleasant day to be in westernmost Galway. Inishbofin is a great island - it must have had so many quality birds over the years.

After just two-and-a-half hours on the island, we headed back off on a 15:30 ferry which allowed us time to take in the Lesser Yellowlegs at Ballyconneely. I'll do a separate post on that bird for it was a blinder.

The stuff dreams were made of

Before I launch in to too much detail, I may as well just link to Rich Bonser's comprehensive summary of the weekend. It's not often you find yourself in the right place at the right time, but it couldn't have been much better for Rich and I on Friday night. Going through the motions as we embarked on the northward drive to County Mayo, our inane conversation was suddenly interrupted by Rich's phone signalling the arrival of a text message. One look from Rich and I knew shit had hit the fan - there was swearing, gesticulating as he threw his phone at me, and the car was turned around just south of Gort instantaneously. This had to be good. And it was - MEGA Cork WILSON'S WARBLER Dursey Island. Fuck a duck!

Despite plenty of logistics-based tension and stress early on, the day ended up running very smoothly. Foggy overnight conditions had kept the bird in place, though we only found this out just as we were getting on the third cable car of the morning. As such I was the first visiting Brit to clap eyes on this little yellow critter:

Wilson's Warbler (thanks to Bo for the pic)

Initially very elusive, it finally showed with some regularity from early afternoon once we'd sussed out the circuit it was feeding on. Nevertheless viewed were invariably obscured and brief, despite being at close range.

Back off the island for mid-afternoon, we headed up to the Iveragh Peninsula where the best we could do was a juvenile Curlew Sand with 18 Dunlin on the Derrynane Estuary. This site has never had a Nearctic wader - take a look at its position on a map and judge for yourself how ridiculous that is...

We ended up in Dingle where a couple of Guinness and fish and chips were the order of the day before bedding down in the scandalously cheap Smerwick Harbour Hotel (15 euro each including breakfast). Next morning saw us scoring a couple of showy Nearctic waders either side of breakfast - one of the Smerwick Pec Sands (until flushed by a pesky cow!) and the Ventry Baird's. First up was the Pec before breakfast:

And then, after a full Irish, over for the Baird's:

Before returning to the Pec to try and pap it in sunlight. We could have done so much better had it not been for the interfering bovine.

With news of the Elegant-type Tern forthcoming from Beale, we headed up there and enjoyed some decent views of it on the beach. Nice tern, big decurved conk with a rich orange base paling to yellowish at the tip - not the longest bill for elegans but within range. As Rich said, "it just looks like an Elegant Tern". I'll take that from someone who's seen them in CA, but who knows what's going on with these W European birds. Unfortunately, before we could get closer, it decided to bomb out in to the Shannon Estuary to feed, but did let us see its white rump and dark secondaries. Nice.

After being told that the Kilkee American Golden Plover was one of those that you could walk up to, we decided to end the weekend there. A quick crossing on the Tarbert ferry saw us in Kilkee for not long after 16:00, though the sunny afternoon had generated quite a lot of activity on the beach and there was no sign of the plover. Rich later picked it up on offshore rocks at several hundred metres' range where, despite the attentions of a dog Otter, it remained until we had to leave. That meant no crippling shots, by the way.

So, another fabulous weekend out west. You never fail to see something good on these trips and, despite not getting much proper birding/bird finding done, we saw some great birds. That Pied-billed Grebe will have to wait for my Achill list...

Quite a Cach

Second-winter Caspian Gull on the landfill at Rainham this morning - showed a lot better than this rubbish photo suggests. Also 35+ Yellow-legged Gulls this morning.

Two-barred Crossbills

I popped in to Lynford Arboretum on my way back to London from my dad's in North Norfolk at lunchtime. It didn't take long to locate a Two-barred Crossbill in with a dozen or so Common Crossbills, which showed for maybe 30 seconds before disappearing. It's the bird in the top photo - an obvious male, the bird has moulted through a lot of pinkish-red feathers on the head and body - but still retains plenty of traits that can safely identify it as a young bird. Photo is dreadful as it's handheld iPhonescoped...

About twenty minutes or so later, a few more crossbills dropped in to join those already feeding - among which were two further Two-barreds. On initial views I assumed them both to be young females, but more prolonged views of one individual (appearing in the third photo down) demonstrate it more likely to be a young male - among the predominately yellow tones, you can also see a reddish tinge coming through too.

I'm not sure whether the middle photo is of the bottom bird, or whether it's the duller female - it was hard to keep tabs on elusive birds in blustery treetops when blasting away blindly with the DSLR.

My guess is these must be the same birds that first turned up here in July. Coupled with an adult female that has been reported in recent days, it would make sense that these are the three youngsters now undergoing post-juvenile moult. Still, a really nice surprise and glad I called in - I nearly carried on home after initially missing the turning!

Caspian Gull, 19th August

I still feel knackered after Birdfair - I woke up aching this morning - some sort of of delayed reaction to the toil of standing up all weekend. Is that normal at 23? This sounds all very clichéed, but it was genuinely great to catch up with lots of old friends as well as put names to many a face over the weekend - thanks to all those that came to (re-)introduce themselves at the BirdGuides/Birdwatch stand. Sadly, as I was the only BirdGuides representative over the weekend, I didn't get the free time that I'd have hoped to have a proper mooch around and catch up/meet many more. I also didn't find a Two-barred Crossbill, despite a reasonable amount of effort in various Northants woodlands. Still, a great weekend nonetheless.

I had yesterday morning off work - news shift from 15:30 meant I had a little bit of time to play with. The initial plan of a lie-in failed miserably due to our overexcitable springer spaniel, who thought nothing of charging up to my room and licking my face at half seven in the morning until I was forced from beneath the sheets. On the way back to London, I called in at my old gulling haunts in Peterborough. The hallowed turf of Dogsthorpe Tip was a sad sight - no tipping, the landfill capped off and, as a result, no gulls. Tears began to fill my eyes, so I hastily moved on. A marginally better situation at Tanholt saw just a couple of hundred LWHGs on the old pit. A welcome adult Yellow-legged Gull was one of the first birds scrutinized and, shortly afterwards, squinting directly in to the strong late morning sunshine, I clocked this rotter floating around (here portrayed during a cloudier moment):

Though challenging in many instances, sometimes you come across Caspian Gulls that are refreshingly conspicuous. You've got a bunch of gulls in front of you, and the bird in question just sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb - a bit like this one. Not only is it a big old bird (approaching Great Black-backed size), but the white head contrasts with the long, dark bill to create a distinctive and contrasted appearance. Obvious Caspian Gulls have an immediately recognisable facial expression - snouty, with a small-looking eye. You then start moving down the body for more clues: the obvious shawl on the hindneck, the clean underparts, scapular pattern, largely dark brown tertials and, though not shown in the photographs, a clean white uppertail, undertail and rump, with sharply-defined black tail band. Compare it to the Herring of the same age just meandering in to view at the left-hand end of the photo above. Further ropey records, illustrating the features mentioned, are shown below:

Having a drink...

 ... giving good 'face'...

... and dwarving the local Herrings and Lesser Black-backs - note how clean the undertail is.

Incidentally, this was the first bird that I've solely digiscoped in quite some time. It has demonstrated one thing: I desperately need a new tripod. I might as well have mounted my 'scope on a blancmange - the head is all over the place! Perhaps I should have shelled out at Birdfair after all...

Weekend on Mull

 Duart Castle from the Oban-Craignure ferry

Just back from a weekend on Mull with Chris C and Ash H. Had great success on our chartered boat with the excellent Sea Life Surveys out of Tobermory on Saturday, connecting with about 15 Basking Sharks off the north side of Coll during the afternoon in addition to a couple of Minke Whales and a bunch of Harbour Porpoises. Birds included a few White-tailed Eagles, and a couple of Storm-petrels among more common seabirds.

 Minke Whale

Basking Shark

The real highlight, though, was getting to swim with the sharks. Though we were a little limited on time, we had some great passes - best for me was one animal cruising by within just a few metres (see images below). Unfortunately I only had my housemate's basic Go Pro to take photos/video with, so only managed a few blurry records and a short video of one animal making a more distant pass. A couple of photos (that's Ash in the first one):

... and here's the video (best watched in HD):

Thanks very much to Ewan and all the rest of the team at Sea Life Surveys for a fantastic day out, and great to meet Sandy, Gus et al. on the boat. Here's hoping I'll be back next year!

Odd juvenile Yellow-legged Gull

Spent a few hours at Rainham on Tuesday morning. It was sunny, warm and the tip was plagued with heat haze. That said, the gulls showed pretty well on the Thames foreshore opposite the area they are tipping (near the bend in the Thames). Try and spot a few michs in the shot above!

Overall, I had at least 35 Yellow-legged Gulls throughout the morning, with the commonest age classes being juveniles and adults. Among the juveniles was the dopey creature below, which spent much of its time on its own along the foreshore towards high tide and allowed for some reasonable photo opportunities. Nothing odd about the plumage (a classic, with scapular moult already well underway as you'd expect), but the pale bill gave it a really distinctive look.

California trip report

It was as long ago as February that I visited California with Rich Bonser and Lee Gregory, but I've finally managed to get the trip report processed. You can view and download below, as in the usual manner of my reports:

Hot Mediterranean action

Adult Mediterranean Gull drifting over Langtoft Fen

I think I say it just about every time I blog about them, but adult Med Gulls are great. They're preposterously good-looking and sound the business too. On my old stomping ground around the pits at Langtoft, a pair or two can usually be found kicking about among the throng of breeding Black-headed Gulls every summer (though never yet confirmed breeding). That said, it's always great to actually see them and thus I was pretty chuffed to find a pair loafing around on one of the new roadside pits over the weekend. Disappointingly, though, there were no youngsters in tow despite some suggestive behaviour - for example, I got out the car and they decided to fly around my head, calling. Friday was a hot day, and the bird is actually panting in both images below, not exercising its vocal chords.

They did warn me...

I've been told by a number of people that getting in to orchids can be a dangerous game. As Mr Lowen said to me once, "you think large white-headed gulls are hard? Wait 'til you get in to dacts!". I laughed it off. I'd seen some strange looking creatures down at my dad's old place in Kenfig, and thought I was well prepared for problematic Dactylorhiza-types. Then, while at Holt Country Park in Norfolk over the weekend, this 'thing' appeared in front of me and left me flummoxed:

The plant was in a marshy area at the bottom of the country park's heath area, among many hundreds of Common Spotted Orchids. At a first glance I presumed it to be a Fragrant Orchid due to the lack of spots on the leaves and flowers but, to me, the size (huge) and shape of flowers is not right. The shape and structure is kind of reminiscent of Common Spotted Orchid, but the obvious lack of spots (and the overall flower structure) are not quite there.

So, is it a Fragrant x Common Spotted Orchid? I'd be more than interested in others' thoughts!