And so this is Christmas 2018

It's nearly Christmas again, this year has just whizzed by at a frightening rate. It has been another difficult year personally and professionally (or maybe it's just my age) but it has also been another fantastic year for wildlife which has been a great source of comfort and joy.

The illness and subsequent death of my father-in-law at the beginning of the year meant very little birding, spring birding was slow and the heatwave of June and July precluded any birding too. Autumn was also slow and the end of the year has been quite busy with non-birding things but overall it hasn't been a bad year.

I've added 4 new birds to my UK list - sooty shearwater, gray catbird, red-rumped swallow and pomarine skua - but all 4 birds I have seen before, just not in the UK. Other highlights included better views of my 2nd ever Temminck's stint and Isabelline (Daurian) shrike along with green winged teal, Balearic shearwater, ring-necked duck, cattle egret, pectoral sandpiper, hawfinch, Bonaparte's gull, yellow-legged gull and tundra bean goose. Low points included no wood warblers this year, my first dip since my first ever sighting of one in 1988 and showing the now rapid decline of this species in Devon, and no little stint or curlew sandpiper although both these species can be very variable in numbers year to year.

My pelagic trip from Brixham was cancelled due to bad weather but I did manage a sea watch instead from Berry Head, my first proper sea watch and despite the wind, rain and cold I had a great time watching great- and Arctic skuas, Manx- and Balearic shearwaters, harbour porpoise and 2 sooty shearwaters. A pelagic trip from Plymouth was interesting too but the hot and settled weather and the early date in July meant very few sightings. A day trip to the Scilly Isles in September was much more exciting with sooty, Manx and Balearic shearwaters showing very well from the ferry along with common dolphins and tuna, and a pectoral sandpiper on St.Marys showed amazingly well too down to just a few feet in front of the hide.

A day out at Minsmere in Suffolk and trips to Ham Wall, Beesands and Slapton and Penzance and Hayle with Mavis were good days out while trips to Turkey, Macedonia and Iceland provided some interesting sightings too including Alpine swift, Yelkouan shearwater, pygmy cormorant, laughing dove, hoopoe, red-backed shrike, tawny pipit, pallid swift, Syrian woodpecker, black stork and whooper swan.

Cetacean sightings have been good with killer whales, minke whale and white beaked dolphins in Iceland being the highlights along with bottle-nosed dolphins in Istanbul, common dolphins from the ferry to the Scilly Isles and harbour porpoise off Berry Head.

It has been a great year for butterflies, helped by the hot and dry weather in June and July. I managed to see my first purple emperor, white-letter hairstreak, brown hairstreak and silver-spotted skipper and also managed to finally get some good views of purple hairstreak and my first Essex skipper for over 32 years. Heath fritillary, clouded yellow, chalkhill blue, green hairstreak and dark-green fritillary were also highlights but despite the good weather I rarely had the moth box out and only managed a few sightings but including hummingbird hawkmoth, black arches, large ranunculus, marbled green, coronet, rosy footman and Jersey tiger.

And so to 2019 - another difficult year on the cards by the look of things but wildlife will always be there for me. I'm planning more butterfly trips and hopefully more pelagic trips, I have the money now saved for a new telescope (I just need to try some out first before I buy), and I want to concentrate more on new birds for my UK list and scarce and uncommon birds I am not very familiar with. Here's to 2019 - Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

A Surprise on a Birding Day in Cornwall

Monday 17th December saw myself and Mavis heading down to Penzance on the train for a birdy day out, much needed by me in order to escape the pre-Christmas madness.

It was cold and sunny as we set off on the 09:20 train to Penzance but we soon passed through misty patches and then into cloud and by the time we arrived in Penzance it was breezy and overcast but thankfully dry. With high tide due around midday we headed off first to the Jubilee Pool to look for roosting purple sandpipers and quickly found 23 of them asleep in grooves along the harbour wall. They were all asleep with bills tucked under their wings but occassionally one would wake up briefly allowing Mavis to get a better view of what is a new bird for her.

Purple Sandpipers

A small group of dunlin and sanderling were roosting on the rocks with a few turnstone before flying off but later 4 dunlin returned and were joined on the rocks by a couple of turnstones and purple sandpipers.

Dunlin

Turnstone and Dunlins

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper

The sea was very rough and choppy and scanning offshore into the strong wind was difficult but we managed to pick up a few gannets flying around, shags on the sea and an adult kittiwake feeding with some herring gulls before I picked up a very dark looking gull like bird offshore heading west and out to sea - a skua! I managed to get my telescope onto it and tracked it across the bay - no white wing patches and broad based wings with angular tips, a pomarine skua no less and my first in the UK. A dark phase/juvenile bird, it was too distant to get any real detail on and I couldn't pick up any white wing flashing as it flew low across the water with powerful and purposeful wing beats and the occasional glide and it was soon lost to sight around the headland towards Mousehole.

While tracking the skua I picked up a great northern diver on the sea but couldn't refind it later but a single bird and then 2 birds were seen flying west across the bay with the 2 birds flying up quite high before being lost from view. A small group of around 5 scoter were also picked up distantly in the swell but were very difficult to observe along with the odd auk which were also difficult to view between frequent dives.

We decided to head back to the train station to have a look off the sea wall and quickly found an immature male and a female eider feeding close to shore with a further 2 immature males feeding further out with bizarrely 2 female goldeneyes, my first sighting of this species in Mounts Bay.

Eiders

We had a good look around the rocks and boulders by the sea wall and found a few rock pipits and pied wagtails feeding along with a female type black redstart which gave some very good views.

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart

We grabbed a pasty for lunch before catching the 14:00hrs train to St.Erth, walking down to the Hayle estuary causeway for a look at the mudflats on the outgoing tide. As we arrived at the bridge we quickly found 2 male goosander busily diving for food before having a preen and a brief sleep on the waters edge. While out on the mud it was interesting to see how peachy looking their underparts were, not the white that I was expecting.

Goosanders

Golden plovers and lapwings were wheeling around overhead before settling on the mudflats but there was no sign of any predator around. They remained nervous and unsettled and regularly took to the air along with a small flock of dunlin. Curlew, redshank, oystercatcher and a single black-tailed godwit were also seen along with wigeon, teal and shelduck and a single little egret.

We eventually found the wintering spoonbill busily feeding along the waters edge and along the small creeks and at times it gave some nice if distant views, showing its yellow tipped spoon bill occassionally as it paused briefly in its search for food.

 Spoonbill

Spoonbill 

There were lots of gulls roosting and bathing out on the estuary and amongst the herring, black-headed  lesser black-backed and great black-backed gulls were a sprinkling of Mediterranean gulls too, difficult to keep track of as they moved around and either 1st winter or adult winter birds with the 1st winter birds looking very smart and distinctive and the adults pale and ghostly. Unfortunately there was no sign of the recently reported Caspian, Iceland and ring-billed gulls but the wind, dull light, distance and the large number of gulls present were all against us.

It was soon time to head back to St.Erth to catch the 16:10hrs train back to Plymouth but it had been a very enjoyable day out and the perfect antidote to the pre-Christmas stress going on in the world and with a surprise UK lifer to boot.

Red-rumped Swallow, Torpoint, Cornwall

Sunday 9th December was a day of chores but on checking the Birdguides website at around 3:30pm I was surprised and intrigued to see a report of a red-rumped swallow at Torpoint, just across the River Tamar from Plymouth. Local birder Russ texted me shortly after to confirm the report but it was too late in the day for me to get there for a look before it got dark.

I was due to meet work colleague Sue for lunch at The Cremyl Arms at Mount Edgecumbe on Monday 10th but not until 11:45am in order to catch the ferry across from Admirals Hard at Stonehouse and so I decided to go and have a look for the swallow first but not really expecting it to still be present.

I caught the bus to Devonport and then the ferry across to Torpoint and was pleased to note that it had been reported as being present that morning on the Birdguides website. I soon arrived at the car park by the police station in Torpoint where it was being reported from and within seconds saw it flying around overhead being admired by a small group of birders - my first UK red-rumped swallow in a car park in Cornwall in December, how very bizarre!

Red-rumped Swallow

 Red-rumped Swallow

 Red-rumped Swallow

 Red-rumped Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

At one point a policeman came out of the police station and questioned me as to what was going on as he was concerned we were photographing the police station but when I explained what we were looking at he smiled and rolled his eyes as he realised we were "twitchers" and disappeared back inside.

I watched the swallow flying around overhead and at times it flew past very close, it also perched up on telegraph wires for brief periods to have a preen allowing for some nice views of it. It was a juvenile bird, a bit scruffy looking and worn but still an attractive looking bird, and watching it flying around it had a distinctive flight style, like a cross between a house Martin and a barn swallow.

 Red-rumped Swallow

 Red-rumped Swallow 

 Red-rumped Swallow 

 Red-rumped Swallow 

 Red-rumped Swallow 

 Red-rumped Swallow 

Obviously finding enough food! Watch out below!

It was soon time for me to head off to meet Sue for lunch and I left it perched on wires busily preening and being photographed and admired by the birders present - a nice bunch with a few familiar local faces and not too twitchy although there were lots of curious locals passing by wondering what we were up to.

Lunch at The Cremyll Arms was very nice and on a short walk around Mount Edgecumbe Park it was nice to see 3 males and a female gadwall with the mallards and moorhens on the pond, the most I have seen here before.

Temminck's Stint at Stithians Reservoir

A short break to Cologne in Germany with friends Julie and Matt with free flights courtesy of Airmiles again (or Avios as it now known as) was very enjoyable and a bit of a blur with all the food and drink we consumed.

The drive up to Heathrow Airport on December 1st was uneventful with a few red kites, red-legged partridges and kestrels seen along the way. Very few birds were seen in Cologne as expected but the highlight again were the ring-necked parakeets roosting in the trees at Heumarkt. There were many more birds present this year compared to last year, probably in excess of 200 birds, and it was great to hear them screeching away and to watch them flying off in small groups in the morning from our hotel bedroom.

Cologne Cathedral Christmas Market

The drive back to Plymouth from Heathrow Airport on December 5th was uneventful too but in dreadful weather and I only managed to see a few red-legged partridges
again in the fields by the road near Stonehenge.

Interestingly the Temminck's stint first reported at Stithians Reservoir in Cornwall on October 22nd was still present on December 4th and with a free day on December 6th before returning to work after our trip away I decided to head off for a look despite the awful weather forecast.

I caught the train to Truro, hearing the distinctive calls of Plymouths population of ring-necked parakeets screeching in the trees outside Plymouth railway station as I arrived to catch my train. From Truro I caught the bus to Carnkie and then walked about a mile to the reservoir dam where the bird has been seen from and it was as windy, misty, drizzley and rainy as forecast. On arriving at the dam I scanned along the waters edge and within a minute my binoculars were soaked along with the rest of me and there was no sign of the bird either. After around 15 minutes of searching and constantly trying to dry off my glasses and binoculars I decided to head over across the dam to the Stuart Hutchings bird hide where at least I would be in the dry.

From the hide there were good numbers of lapwing and snipe roosting and feeding and being disturbed into flight on a regular basis by mischievous carrion crows along with a coot, mallards, a shelduck, 2 female goldeneye, wigeon, a grey heron, little grebes, roosting gulls and flyover fieldfares. I casually scanned through the gulls not expecting much variety but amongst the herring gulls and black-headed gulls I picked up a few common gulls and lesser black-backed gulls and a very smart adult yellow legged gull looking dazzling white with off yellow legs and being given a wide berth as usual by the gulls nearby.

 Lesser Black-backed Gull (upper left), Herring gulls and Yellow-legged Gull (bottom right)

 Yellow-legged Gull

 Yellow-legged Gull

 Yellow-legged Gull 

Yellow-legged Gull 

I walked back across the dam for another look for the stint but there was still no sign of it and with the bad weather not abating I was just about to give up and head back home when a small bird along the shoreline caught my eye and had my heart racing. Unfortunately it turned out to be a pied wagtail but nearby I quickly picked up another small bird feeding along the shoreline and it revealed itself to be the Temminck's stint - result! The stint was tiny, being slightly smaller than the pied wagtail, and despite the poor light and rain spattered binoculars and glasses I managed some nice views with the stints yellowy/green legs being quite noticeable. I even managed some of my usual quality photos although I can partly blame the wet weather and poor light for the results but all things considered they actually aren't that bad.

 Temminck's Stint

 Temminck's Stint

  Temminck's Stint

 Temminck's Stint

Temminck's Stint

It was soon time to leave for the walk back to Carnkie to catch the bus back to Truro and I was absolutely soaked through but it had been great to catch up with only my second ever Temminck's stint and this time getting much better views than I did of my first one at Bowling Green Marsh in 2014.

Beesands Ley and Slapton Ley

Wednesday 21st November and after meeting Mavis at Yelverton we drove off for a days birding starting at Beesands Ley. It was a beautiful November day, cold and sunny with a gentle breeze after a frosty night, and we headed off with high hopes.

We walked down to the hide at Beesands Ley, hearing Cettis warbler and water rails and seeing a goldcrest feeding in the hedgerow with blue and great tits, and from the hide we watched a male and 2 female teal, 2 male, 2 female and an immature male shoveler, coot, a little grebe, 29 mute swans, moorhen, tufted duck, a cormorant and a female scaup that frustratingly kept its distance and spent a lot of time under the water or behind the island and out of view from the hide. A few of the female tufted ducks had quite large white blazes around their bills but the scaups more rounded head shape and lack of a hint of a tuft were all noticeable.

We walked round to the beach side of the Ley where the scaup was still being elusive but we added a greylag goose and a black swan to our day list which both flew in and landed on the water. A quick scan offshore revealed just a few gannets flying around and a pair of stonechats were seen flitting about in the hedgerow before we decided to move on to Slapton Ley.

We parked up at Torcross and walked along the Ley side towards the bridge as a few rain clouds rolled in and we had a few brief spells of rain and hail. Cettis warblers were calling and more stonechats were seen along with a female cirl bunting, a meadow pipit, a reed bunting and greenfinches.

On the Ley we scanned through the wildfowl and mid-Ley we picked out the male ring necked duck amongst the tufted ducks, presumably the bird that overwintered earlier in the year. Also seen were gadwall, wigeon and pochard along with coot, cormorant and mallard before we decided to head back along the beach to Torcross for lunch and scanning the sea along the way we picked out a few shag, a group of 8 female/immature common scoters close to the beach and a great northern diver flying across the bay before landing on the sea and being lost to view.

After a delicious lunch of fish and chips in the Start Bay Inn we drove along the Ley on the recently reopened road to the bridge where we parked up and walked along the back of the Ley to the quarry, seeing a goldcrest and a female blackcap as we began our walk and hearing water rails squealing in the reeds.

There were good numbers of wildfowl in Ireland Bay and scanning through we picked up more wigeon, tufted duck and pochard, teal, great crested grebes, at least 4 little grebes, the male ring necked duck and a female scaup, a different bird to the one seen at Beesands Ley with a smaller white blaze around the bill. Despite scanning we couldn't find the recently reported black necked grebe though.

At the quarry we picked up a feeding flock of small birds and amongst the long tailed, blue and great tits we found a chiffchaff, a male blackcap, a wren, a goldcrest and a very smart firecrest which gave some excellent views. A Jay, 2 ravens, a buzzard and 2 grey herons were also seen before it was time to head back to the car for the journey home but just before we left we were treated to a murmuration of starlings over the reedbed, only a small flock of around 500 birds but lovely to watch (and hear) and a great end to a great day out.

 Starlings

 Starlings

Starlings

Orcas in Iceland

Thursday 8th November and it was off to Ipswich on the train for a few days away visiting family before heading off to Iceland. The train journey up to Ipswich went smoothly with the highlight being at least 15 red kites seen between Westbury and Paddington but the only sighting of note while in Suffolk was a red legged partridge flying across the road as we drove  home from a visit to Lavenham.

Our trip to Iceland was arranged back in March this year, our friend Julie's niece Kizzy wanted to visit Iceland for her 30th birthday and we were asked if we would like to come along too. However after arranging the trip the Icelandic government decided to allow whaling again this summer but we had already agreed that we would not patronize a restaurant that served whale meat and had booked up a whale watching trip on Kizzy's birthday although I expected the trip to probably be cancelled due to bad weather and if it went ahead I wasn't expecting to see anything - how wrong I was!

Whaling is a very controversial issue and the resumption of whaling in Iceland has caused quite a furore but vetoing visiting Iceland is not the answer, naturalists need to visit Iceland and go whale watching and avoid whale meat selling restaurants to show the Icelandic government that more money can be raised by watching whales rather than killing them.

While the issue is not that simple it would appear that the majority of whale meat consumed in Iceland is minke whale meat and is eaten by tourists (up to 98%!) while fin whale meat is exported to Japan - so if tourists visiting Iceland stopped eating whale meat it would be a big step towards whaling in Iceland coming to an end.

Tourists - Look for this sign in Icelandic Restaurants!

We flew to Iceland on Monday 12th November and I was suffering with a cold which had started the night before but it didn't stop me enjoying my time away. Iceland is a beautiful country and having enjoyed my previous visit back in 2015 I was really looking forward to my visit this time and I wasn't to be disappointed. The weather was much better this time, it was mild and calm and dry with only a little snow on the mountain tops which made for a very pleasant trip but it was much more expensive this time too, I guess the Icelandic economy has bucked up again after the crash (and dare I mention it but Brexit has probably had an effect too).

We were based in Reykjavik and hired a van for the length of our stay which gave us a bit of flexibility and saved some money too. We did the Golden Circle Drive (Pingvellir, Geysir and Gulfoss) but spent the rest of the time in Reykjavik and while the others visited the Blue Lagoon one morning for a staggering £88 each we stayed behind and visited the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool in Reykjavik for the more reasonable sum of £6.50 each.

I was hoping to see a few birds during my stay and managed to see a total of 30 species which I was quite pleased about and the first birds I saw were ravens, starlings and a few distant gulls on the drive from the airport to our hotel before it got dark at around 5pm. The next morning with first light being around 9.45am we drove off on the Golden Circle Drive where I saw more ravens, mallards, a grey goose flying over and a single whopper swan.

Iceland

Pingvellir

Raven at Geysir

Stroker at Geysir

Gulfoss Waterfall

Gulfoss Waterfall

Wednesday 14th November was Kizzy's birthday and before our whale watching trip at 1pm we had a wander around Reykjavik and visited Lake Tjornin in the city centre where there was a good selection of wildfowl including the very lovely Crinkly, a whopper swan with a deformed neck that we first saw here in 2015.

Crinkly at Lake Tjornin

Crinkly

Crinkly with Whopper Swans

Crinkly and Whopper Swans with Greylag Geese

Other birds seen here at the Lake were a lone pink footed goose (the same one we saw here in 2015?), greylag geese, wigeon, mallard, tufted duck, red breasted merganser, black headed gull, common gull and a single adult glaucous gull.

A nearby square with areas of grass and a few trees held a few starlings, feral pigeons, blackbirds and redwing (Icelandic race corburni) which were all quite tame along with 3 redpoll species which were much more skittish and quickly flew off (presumably the islandica race or possibly the rostrata race from Greenland).

Redwing

Redwing

We then boarded our whale watching boat Andrea operated by Special Tours and headed out to sea as the skies darkened with clouds. It did stay dry apart from a brief spell of drizzle and the sun did reappear a few times but it was cold in the gentle wind with a bit of swell on the sea. I wasn't expecting to see any whales or dolphins but the scenery was stunning and there were plenty of birds around to keep me occupied - Iceland, glaucous, common, great black backed and black headed gulls, kittiwake, a single gannet, razorbills, guillemots, eiders, a great northern diver and surprisingly a few sooty shearwaters (I had seen on the Special Tours sightings pages that sooty shearwaters were being seen but it was very strange to actually see them in November in Iceland).

Sooty Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

I was enjoying the birds when a shout went up that a minke whale had been spotted and I managed to get a few good but brief views as it passed by the boat before disappearing and I was pleased that the others also managed to see it too. A short time later another shout went out but this time it was for orca which had been spotted ahead of us and we managed to get some wonderful views of 3 orcas (a male, a female and a calf) as they swam around the boat.

Killer Whales

Killer Whale

Killer Whales

Killer Whales 

Killer Whale

Killer Whale

Killer Whale 

It was soon time to leave them be and head back to the harbour and on the cruise back we were joined by a pod of white beaked dolphins, around 10 of them, which came in to bow ride and play in the boats wake before moving away and which were being trailed by at least 3 sooty shearwaters. They were surprisingly large and chunky looking and a new species for me and again the others all managed to see them too - a fantastic end to a very exciting and productive trip and not what I was expecting at all.

White Beaked Dolphin

White Beaked Dolphin with Guillemots

Thursday 15th November and we had the day to ourselves while the others went to the Blue Lagoon so we spent it around Reykjavik and on a walk around the harbour and waterfront I added purple sandpiper, black guillemot, a single adult herring gull and shag to the trip list.

Eiders

Eiders

Purple Sandpipers

Black Guillemot - juvenile

Black Guillemot - adult

Unfortunately the large upwellings of water that I had observed along the waterfront back in 2015 were no longer present and so there were no congregations of feeding gulls to scan through but I did get a few decent views of Iceland and glaucous gulls fairly close to shore.

Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with Iceland Gull

Glaucous Gull with crab pinched from a Eider

We revisited Tjornin Lake on our walk to the Vesturbaejarlaug thermal pool where Crinkly was still present along with his/her mate in tow and giving grief to any other whopper swans that came to close.

Crinkly with Mate

Crinkly

Crinkly

Juvenile Whopper Swan

Pink Footed Goose with Mallard

Pink Footed Goose 

Friday 16th November and it was time to fly back to the UK and a last look along the waterfront before our drive to the airport added a cormorant to the trip list while on the drive to the airport I managed to see a few whopper swans on small lakes by the roadside and looking a little more naturalistic than they did on Lake Tjornin.

And so the trip was a great success. No Northern Lights this time but a fantastic whale watching trip more than made up for it (for me anyway) and we were very lucky with the weather too. The light was pretty poor though for photography and my little automatic camera struggled in the low light levels resulting in some grainy looking snaps.

And go to Iceland - go whale watching and support the local people running the trips, don't eat in any restaurants with whale meat on the menus and show the Icelandic government that there is a viable economic alternative to whaling - tourists are sustaining the minke whale hunt and it needs to stop.

Raven, Reykjavik

Bee Eater Mural, Reykjavik

Sun Voyager, Reykjavik

Reykjavik Waterfront

Tourists - Don't Eat Whales!!!!