The Best of 2021

Another year draws to a close after another 12 months of COVID-19 restrictions, lock downs and social tension plus another 12 months of the continuing stresses and strains of working in a battered and beleagured NHS, all of which has made for an "interesting" year.

It has been a great year though for wildlife despite the travel restrictions in place at the beginning of 2021, getting out and about into nature has been for me a soothing balm in a very fraught world and has kept me (semi-) sane. 

And so here are the Top 10 highlights of my wildlife year :-

1. Wally the Walrus - the undoubted highlight of the year for me. I watched the news about him with interest when he was first found in Ireland before he took up residence at Tenby in Wales but COVID restrictions prevented us from going to see him. Eventually a travel window appeared in May and off we headed and he didn't disappoint - an absolutely gorgeous animal. 

Wally, Tenby

Wally

He eventually departed Tenby and reappeared in Cornwall, France, Spain and then the Isles of Scilly before returning to Ireland and then on to Iceland where news reports have since dried up. Where ever he is I hope he is healthy and happy as he brought a huge amount of joy to me and to  many others during his wanderings. 

2. Back Yard Mothing -  after failing to reach my target of 100 species of moth in the back yard last year I decided to up my game and have another go in 2021. The spring weather was dire and prevented me from getting the moth box out much but a concerted effort over the summer involving checking out every micro moth and with much help from @MothIDUK on Twitter I reached a total of 123 species - result! 

Jersey Mocha, Back Yard

3. Butterfly Trips to Cumbria - a trip to The Lake District booked for June last year was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID but this year's rebooked trip went ahead and with the Butterfly Gods smiling down on me I saw all of my target species - Northern Brown Argus, Large Heath and Mountain Ringlet. We were very lucky with the weather and had a great trip away, our first proper holiday for almost 18 months. 

A further trip to Cumbria in August was equally successful with some great weather and some excellent views of Scotch Argus, another new UK butterfly for me and leaving me with just Chequered Skipper left to see. 

Large Heath and Mountain Ringlet

Northern Brown Argus and Scotch Argus

4. Isles of Scilly Day Trip - I missed my annual autumn day trip to The Scillies last year due to COVID but this year I was determined to go and what a great trip I had. The weather was perfect with sunshine and a flat calm sea and from the decks of the Scillonian Ferry I saw my first UK Rissos Dolphin along with Common Dolphins, Sooty Shearwater, Storm Petrel, Balearic Shearwater and Great Skua.

The Islands themselves were stunning in the sunshine and while I dipped the Bonellis Warbler I very much enjoyed my wanderings around St.Marys before returning home exhausted but very happy. 

The view from The Garrison, St.Marys

5. Sea Watching - I have really started to enjoy sea watching and was hoping for some opportunities to get some hours in this year but the weather and timings haven't worked out well for me and I only managed 2 trips to Berry Head in Devon and a trip to St.Ives in Cornwall.

The trips to Berry Head weren't in the best of conditions but I enjoyed them anyway and managed to see Great and Arctic Skuas and frustratingly a probable Pomarine Skua along with excellent views of Harbour Porpoise. 

The trip to St.Ives was much better with a strong North-Westerly blowing but I arrived a bit later than I should have and missed some of the good birds reported although I had great views of Manx and Balearic Shearwaters and Arctic and Great Skuas. 

Next year I'm hoping for a bit more success on the sea watching front but again it is all about weather and timing so I will keep my fingers crossed. 

6. UK Lifers - A total of 5 UK lifers this year is very good for me and especially considering the travel restrictions in place for some of it. The Northern Mockingbird dip at Exmouth was a bit of a bummer but I managed to see Goshawk, Night Heron and American Herring Gull (all UK but not life ticks) and American Golden Plover and White-tailed Lapwing. 

American Herring Gull, Night Heron, White-tailed Lapwing and American Golden Plover

Other rare/scarce/uncommon bird highlights for the year included Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Snow Bunting, Rose Coloured Starling, Great White Egret, Red-necked Grebe and Shore Lark.

A total of 186 species for the year is one of my lowest final totals but not too bad considering the restrictions and I've enjoyed local birding instead of regularly travelling further afield. 

7. Local Birding - With the lock down from January to March and then ongoing travel restrictions into June I spent a lot of time getting out and about close to home and again I have been amazed at what birds I have seen - Osprey, Spoonbill, Little Tern, Cirl Bunting, Scaup, Cattle Egret, Yellow Wagtail, Black-necked Grebe, Avocet, Black Redstart, Glaucous Gull, Balearic Sheareater and Arctic Skua to name a few and all within 10 kilometres of my house.

Glaucous Gull, Scaup and Cattle Egret

My lock down walks around Plymouth Hoe were a particular highlight with Purple Sandpipers, Great Northern Divers, a Long-tailed Duck, a Red Kite, a Chough and an Otter all found on my walks and which I probably wouldn't have seen without the travel restrictions. 

I just managed to reach my target of 100 species of birds in January, all achieved locally during the lock down, and also my target of 100 species of birds at Saltram and the River Plym (103). Unfortunately I never reached my 100 target for Wembury, only achieving a still impressive 92 species.

8. Moths and Butterflies - Back yard mothing has been very interesting but other mothing highlights of the year were finding male Emperor Moths on Dartmoor using a pheromone lure, finding a Convolvulus Hawk Moth at Wembury twice, possibly the same individual, and moth boxing in my Mums Garden where lots of Box Tree Moths were seen.

Emperor Moth and Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Butterflying was a bit more low key this year other than the Cumbria trips and I didn't undertake any other Butterfly Days. I failed to see a Clouded Yellow in what seems to have been a poor year for them which was disappointing, I also failed to see a Hummingbird Hawkmoth too and it wasn't a good year for Painted Lady either. 

I did manage to get some good views of Essex Skipper again in Suffolk and White-letter Hairstreaks at Oreston in Plymouth along with Dark Green and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Green and Purple Hairstreak and Dingy Skipper. Hopefully next year will be better. 

9. Birthday Dolphins - a baking hot, sunny and totally calm boat trip out of Falmouth on my birthday gave some absolutely amazing views of Common Dolphins bow riding, a perfect birthday treat.

Common Dolphins

10. Buntings, Pipits and Larks - An influx of Snow Buntings into the UK this autumn had them appearing all over the place including Devon and after a dip at Slapton and then Wembury I wasn't hopeful of catching up with them. However a return to Slapton eventually gave me some fantastic views of 2 birds and totally absorbing they were too.

A search for Water Pipit at Wembury for my 100 birds target kept drawing a blank but eventually I found one in November, a month that usually sees me finding one there, and an absolute cracker it was too.

A return visit to Wembury to try and refind it drew a blank but I did find a nice colour ringed Scandinavian Rock Pipit instead which was ringed in Finland earlier in the year and which brightened up my walk and mood no end. 

Snow Bunting, Scandinavian Rock Pipit and Water Pipit

And finally a trip to Suffolk at the end of the year saw me catching up with Shore Larks, a total of 5 feeding together along the beach at Shingle Street and only my second UK sighting of them after a single bird at Minsmere in May 1982.

I've always watched the bird news sightings for Shore Lark with envy when I've visited family in Suffolk over the winter but the birds have always been too far away or in difficult to reach places and I've also dipped them too so to finally catch up with them was a nice end to the year.

Shore Larks

So here's to 2022, hopefully the new Omicron variant of COVID won't scupper any plans but time will tell. And the birds and wildlife are always there to keep me going.

Merry Christmas! 

Grey Days

Thursday 4th March was a grey and claggy day with hardly any breeze and as we needed to revisit Tesco at Roborough we decided to visit nearby Roborough Down for a walk beforehand.

The walk along the Leat was enjoyable and interesting as always and as we chatted away putting the world to rights we saw songflighting Skylarks and Greenfinchs, at least 3 male Yellowhammer half heartedly singing and Stonechats perched up on the gorse.

Yellowhammer - a dash of colour on a dull day

With spring beginnig to appear on the horizon my Amaryllis bulbs are starting to bloom as the days get longer, I now have 12 bulbs in total of which 4 are now in flower and looking very colourful and beautiful. 

Amaryllis Flowers

With the Glaucous Gull still being reported around The Mewstone at Wembury I decided to have another look for it on Friday 5th March. It was another grey day, cool in a strong north-easterly breeze but at least it was dry and the footpath wasn't quite as muddy as on my previous visits.

I easily found the Glaucous Gull roosting out on The Mewstone, it's all white plumage was glowing in the gloom like a beacon. It eventually took off and flew towards me, flying past me along the cliffs at The Point before settling on the sea. A small fishing boat then sailed past attracting gulls in its wake and the Glaucous Gull went to join them before returning back to The Mewstone. It was the same bird that I saw on February 23rd with primary feathers noticeably missing on both wing tips when in flight.

Glaucous Gull roosting on The Mewstone

Glaucous Gull on the sea

It was a 6 Gull species day in total - an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was roosting with Herring Gulls in the horse field above the stables, a winter plumaged Black-headed Gull flew past east, a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull was seen feeding on the sea near the sewage pipe and Great Black-backed Gulls were noted including 2 adults feeding on the decomposing corpse of a small cetacean along the beach.

Mediterranean Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Great Black-backed Gulls

Dead Cetacean (Harbour Porpoise?) along the beach

A very confiding female type Black Redstart was a nice find feeding on the seaweed mass along the beach with a Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails.

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart 

Other birds of note were a Bar-tailed Godwit and 4 Curlew roosting with 25+Oystercatcher on the rocks at The Point, Gannets offshore moving east, Fulmars around The Mewstone, a male Kestrel and 2 Buzzards over, a male Stonechat along the beach, 2 Ravens over, a female Pheasant in the valley to the beach and songflighting Greenfinch.

Grey (and great) days out but there certainly is a sense of spring in the air, I wish it would hurry up and get here!

Glaucous Gull Catch Up

Saturday 20th February was yet again a wet and windy day but I had to get out of the house for a walk and so I headed off to Plymouth Hoe again. It wasn't as wet as the previous days walk but was windier which made viewing difficult at times.

The Purple Sandpiper was again showing very well on the rocks below Rusty Anchor at West Hoe, easily overlooked as it fed on the rocks in the breaking waves of the high tide. 

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

There were 5 Turnstones feeding together on the rocks below the Pier One Cafe and off Duttons Cafe there were 2 Great Northern Divers bobbing around in the rough water with one bird very close in.

Great Northern Diver 

Great Northern Diver 

The Long-tailed Duck was again feeding in The Cattewater and was closer to shore this time but it soon flew off upriver before landing again and remaining distant and mobile, spending little time at the surface.

That evening I noticed a report on the sightings pages of a Glaucous Gull having been seen in The Sound that afternoon, I had been scanning through the Gulls present on my walk in the hope of finding a white-winger but with no luck and so I hoped it would be refound again in the following days. 

Tuesday 23rd February and I decided to visit Wembury for a walk on a grey and windy day with yet more strong winds but at least it was dry. The footpath was even more of a mud bath than usual and I ended up getting filthy but it was worth it as I found myself a 2nd winter(?) Glaucous Gull! Presumably it is the bird seen on Saturday in Plymouth Sound and possibly the bird seen at Stoke Point back in December, a very nice find and my first at Wembury, hopefully I will catch up with it in Plymouth sometime soon.

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

Glaucous Gull

I noticed it first as it flew down onto the rocks where it casually observed the world around it, a lovely pale and large looking bird that appeared to almost glow in the dull light. It was stood on its own and I had some great views looking down on it from the clifftop footpath but it was eventually flushed by a dog walker, flying off towards Plymouth and showing missing primary feathers on both wings as it went.

Glaucous Gull in full camouflage flight mode

A Bar-tailed Godwit was seen feeding out on the rocks nearby with Oystercatchers and at least 3 Curlews, and 2 Little Egrets and 2 male and a female Mallard were also noted. A single Meadow Pipit was found feeding on the rotting seaweed mass along the beach with Rock Pipits and Pied Wagtails.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Cirl Buntings were skittish and skulky in the stubble field and surrounding hedgerows and Skylarks were singing overhead. A Buzzard and a male Kestrel flew overhead and it was nice to see 4 Greenfinch singing and songflighting around the gardens of the village on the walk down to the beach.

Wembury

Heading back to Plymouth and I decided to walk around the River Plym, starting off at Laira Bridge and walking up to Marsh Mills along The Ride before returning downriver along The Embankment.

The tide was high and a single Little Grebe was seen busily diving on the river just upstream from Laira Bridge. At Blaxton Meadow the water was flowing in through the sluice but the water level was very low and there were lots of gulls roosting out on the mud including 2 unringed adult Mediterranean Gulls with one in full summer plumage. 

Mediterranean Gull with Black Headed-gulls

Mediterranean Gulls with Black-headed Gulls 

Redshank, Curlew and a few Dunlin were roosting out on the mud too with Shelduck and a lone Canada Goose. An increase in adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls amongst the roosting Gulls was noticeable too. 

A pair of Goosander were resting on the water of the Plym near the sewage outlet and the only other birds of note were a small flock of roosting Turnstone with a single Dunlin at Blagdons Meadow.

Dunlin with Turnstones

Another wet and windy day on Wednesday 24th February and another Plymouth Hoe walk but there was no sign of any Purple Sandpipers this time. A Great Northern Diver was catching crabs close to shore and diving regularly to avoid the attentions of Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls as it tried to eat them at the surface. The Long-tailed Duck was again found out in The Cattewater but as usual was distant and mobile.

Thursday 25th February was for a change a dry and mostly sunny day with a light breeze and so I decided to visit a site on the outskirts of Plymouth for a walk. The footpath was a complete quagmire in places and I ended up with very wet and very muddy walking boots and trousers but it was worth it.

At the start of my walk I found 9 Cattle Egrets feeding in a field amongst a herd of cows along with a few Little Egrets. Lots of Pheasents were also seen in the fields along with a few Red-legged Partridges and on a flooded field by the river a lone male Teal was seen with Mallards and Shelduck. 

The main interest was overhead though with Ravens and Buzzards seen soaring on the thermals and calling. A Red Kite amongst them was a complete surprise and I watched it for some time as it continually circled around the same area until it drifted off out of sight.

I disturbed a female Sparrowhawk from a hedgerow and watched it flying off and a few minutes later I watched a female Goshawk briefly flying over, a much larger and robust looking bird than the Sparrowhawk. It flew over showing fluffed out white undertail coverts and giving a few gentle flaps of its wings and then gliding before it disappeared into the trees. A few minutes later a flock of  around 20 Woodpigeon scattered out of the trees and I watched the Goshawk flying off over the river and disappearing again into the woodland. Later I had another brief view of a female in the same area causing complete panic amongst the Jackdaws and Carrion Crows feeding in the fields as it buzzed through.

Sparrowhawks were also seen soaring high overhead with 4 together at one point, 2 males with 2 noticeably larger females, but I also saw 2 Goshawks distantly through my telescope, a male and a female displaying with Nightjar-like wing flapping before they drifted off. A Goshawk with fluffed out white undertail coverts was also seen flying over the treetops before briefly perching in a tree, again very distant and unfortunately against the skyline so difficult to pick out any detail. 

An interesting walk and one I shall hopefully be repeating again soon if weather conditions are right as I would love to get some better views of the Goshawks. 

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!!!!