white rumps

A few weeks ago I took the opportunity to visit Minsmere, where a White-rumped Sandpiper had been found among the flock of Dunlin. They're perhaps the commonest of the American calidrids that find their way across the Atlantic, and over the years I've seen a few around the British Isles. They may not have the bright patterns of Dunlin and Curlew Sandpipers, or the subtle beauty of the Little Stint, but their attenuated elegance and energy make them very watchable, and like all American waders, they're often very approachable. 

Adult Summer plumage - Minsmere Summer

1st Winter plumage - Ballycotton late autumn

   Juvenile plumage - Grafham Water Autumn

Lightning Bolt

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8JpHoAnaPK0

While enjoying the sunshine on the Cornish beaches in light easterlies (but not enjoying any seawatching) I looked to the week ahead and saw a promising push of northerly winds through the North Sea just as I was due to return to the fens.  A few plans put in place and arriving back in Ely about 9 on Wednesday 25th, I got a bit of sleep but was heading out to Sheringham with Mark and Ben by 5am on Thursday morning.  

As we drove over it looked like the wind was not as strong as we had hoped.  However as we walked down to the shelter on the seafront the wind was fierce enough and the waves were pounding the sea defences along the front.  The shelter was pretty full and we'd just missed a Cory's heading East.  It was a solid watch till midday with a steady movement of Arctic Skuas and Bonxies, the odd Sooty Shearwater, a few more Manxies and a good variety of wildfowl and waders - excitement had come in the form of a Black Guillemot charging through the swell, a well spooned adult Pom Skua and a Black Tern but no Long-tailed Skuas or Sabines Gulls which we thought might pass.  Folk started packing up and a family squeezed into the shelter wafting lovely Fish and Chip vapours triggering envy.  I broke cover to get us something to smother in salt and vinegar and on my return joked that if a Pterodroma had passed while I was at the chippy it really would have been taking one for the team.  We gorged and shortly after returned to focus on the sea, a few things got called at the same time, one of which must have been a Manxie.  I was checking a skua that had gone east or something when Mark said "that's not a Manxie" with enough quizzical urgency that I swung back to his midday line and asked "Where?" his direction was good being pretty well straight out and as soon as I got on the bird things went bonkers as, at long range, a bird I immediately recognised as an Albatross broke the horizon. "Stay on it Mark, that's a 'kin albatross" I took a calmer second to be sure I wasn't making a huge blunder while Mark tried to make some sense of what I was suggesting.  On auto-pilot I hollered "Black-browed Albatross, straight out, on the horizon - I am not joking" 

All but one of the remaining seawatchers got on it quickly and we had about 2 minutes worth of this huge winged monster, arcing and towering above the horizon and rolling down on bowed wings.  I lost the bird as the shelter pillar obscured my view but others stayed on it and then, coming up to a boat, it seemingly vanished into the horizon haze.  I looked around into the next booth of the shelter, seasoned seawatchers looked shakey, pale and stunned and then came the congratulatory handshakes, smiles and amazement and discussions about the bird and it's features, jizz and identification.  It was such a surprise, a lighting bolt and a surreal fulfillment of a seawatchers pipe dream.  An Albatross on a UK seawatch - I'm pinching myself just writing it.

Ben's eye view of the Albatross and it's arc

At the range we saw the bird, specific identification of the albatross would be difficult but in all probability this was an adult Black-browed Albatross, the possibility of it being the bird enjoyed by so many of us over the summer, taking a sojourn from the cliffs at Bempton was discussed.  I last saw this bird just a few weeks ago off the cliffs, at quite some distance offshore, and the similarities in flight, proportions and jizz were overwhelming.  I was also transported back to seawatching off the South Island of New Zealand, which I did many times, where Black-browed Albatross was a common bird amongst an array of other Albatross and tubenoses.

It took a bit of time and effort to get back into the flow of the seawatch, the images and thought of the Albatross kept blowing my mind and conversation kept returning to it but then a call for Cory's Shearwater had us in a blur of horizons and directions and I connected with an uncharecteristically speedy bow winged large shear' carving the horizon.  Then the Black Guille came back heading East and Skuas kept coming.  Eventually the hoped for Long-tailed Skuas appeared, 3 singles in total, all juveniles heading East and a fantastic flock of Pale Bellied Brent heading West all adding to the quality of the supporting cast.  We eventually called it a day close to 7pm - a 12hr seawatch of truly epic proportions.  Wowzers.

 

Slight Return

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qFfnlYbFEiE

Mid-holiday we broke from the mainland and headed on the mighty Scillonian, past the iconic Runnel Stone, for my second dose of Scillies magic.  The kids buzzed from spotting dolphins and were even enthused about the Manxie's.  Once visiting the islands we had a great time searching out landmarks and locations from the Micheal Morpurgo book Why the whales came.  Another great Michael Morpurgo short story based on Bryher can be heard here alongside others from the Walking Stories project on Visit Scilly.

I was only able to add one pelagic but it yielded a fly through Wilsons Petrel (or two) and plenty of Stormies but not the show I had been treated to previously.  It was great to be out on the sea again though.  On land I squeezed in a look at the Lesser Yellowlegs on the Abbey Pool on Tresco as the girls munched a late lunch in the gardens cafe.

Returning mid-week to the mainland we had a week based at Pendeen.  With slow south to south westerlies I ended up heading back round to PG for speculative watches that notched up Sooty and Balearic numbers into double figures per 3hr watch.  One Sooty stood out, all dark and lacking any striking contrast in the underwing, this bird had elastic almost arctic tern like wingbeats, limited shearing between spells of active flight - a very distinct and different flight.  In structure, size and shape it was clearly a Sooty but one that is still leaving me scratching my head.

The Choughs performed fantastically and I enjoyed many encounters with them, such engaging and characterful birds, I get a huge sense of their intelligence and sentience despite, or perhaps because of, how clown like they are at times (aren't we all).

There was a hint of promise for a seawatch in a smidgen of NW wind at Pendeen on our first day back on mainland, nothing really came of it beyond a few skuas and the bizarre scene of a Glossy Ibis flying past over the shoreline.  The afternoon was booked with visiting friends when the news of a Rufous Bushchat on The Lizard came out.  I'm not sure what happened but I started to make a decision not to go and see it - something to do with my mixed feelings seeing the Norfolk bird I think.  Loose commitments  were a good but not convincing excuse. A bonus on our walk was a very confiding Common Lizard.

Next morning I got up at 6 to head over but decided to go back to bed (???) - it performed all day but we headed to the beach.  Next morning I broke, self defeated in both going for the bird and not seeing it.  What a Chough I'd been.  There was great recompense that morning in seeing a young Melodious Warbler really well, shortly after it was found. It was at Land's End, where I have missed a few in the recent past.  This lemony beauty is relatively frequent in the UK but with a south western bias - a bird I hoped might turn up near to me sometime but never seemed to oblige,  really I had hoped to find one for myself down a Cornish valley but I was happy to cross paths with this one.

Both images from Steve Rogers twitter

Last of August

Snettisham just after high tide. The massed flocks are mobile on the flats and the breeze is soft. Sanderling, fresh juveniles, spangle on the shingle shore poking under the feet of Oystercatchers and settling into the stones on hte strandline. Way offshore two Arctic Skuas land on the crumpled waves and on the pits, a group of sleeping Spotted Redshank are all that's left of the roost. Overhead, a flock of Sandwich Terns call as they shoot up the coast, only to return moments later and land across the channel. A young Little Tern bounces along the same channel, over the Meditteranean Gulls, the Ringed Plovers and the loafing Shelduck.

 

I See A Darkness

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5mpo9UYl_Yw

Steady seawatches off the headlands yielded nothing larger than Sooty Shearwaters and nothing smaller than Balearics, of which there have been many.  Always important to remember how globally local and endangered this species is - some projections giving just 60 years until extinction due to various pressures on their fragile population. 

A couple of visits to Porthgwarra in the darkness of a new moon were enthralling.  The first was a little speculative but led to some success trying to photograph the Milky Way which arced across the sky.  The maniacal grunts, shrieks and giggles of Manx Shearwater across the moor testing my nerve, alone in the dark on the jagged edge of the world.  At times I turned the torch on just for comfort.

The next night there was cloud cover and more folk out in the dark as a Storm Petrel ringing session was in progress.  I hadn't been to any stormie ringing since I was a teen on Fair Isle.  It was great to see these fantastic little ocean wanderers up close again and, very unusually, a couple of Manxies also found their way into the nets.  

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lApfy0gAdlY

Having returned briefly to the fens for a couple of days I was back to seabirds having decamped the family to Cornwall and Scillies for a few weeks holiday.  

A fresh due West blow called for another early start at Pendeen Watch this morning, beneath the lighthouse, a four and a half hour watch was pretty solid.  Large Shearwaters performed admirably with 6 Cory's, mostly close in, and also 4 Greats cruising through amidst the hoardes of Manx.  Three choclatey Balearics, a handful of Bonxies and a decent 25 or so Sooties made for an enjoyable time.  The highlight though was a very smart adult Sabines Gull that pottered through with a couple of Kittiwakes, reminding me of the hoodie Mark H had given me to celebrate our pelagic trip.

Back at base in Pothcurno a ferocious Gold Ringed Dragonfly caught a bumble bee and expertly devoured it allowing the girls to enjoy the gore as we returned from an afternoon on the beach..

Seamonsters

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vNMCucDxSMg

With a fast moving system whizzing up the Bristol Channel we had strong West veering Northwesterly winds and some hope of a good seawatch when we left Cambridgeshire for Cornwall at midnight.  Being the tail end of July we didn't really have much likelihood of a varied watch but many thousands of Manxies off Pendeen were accompanied by good numbers of Storm Petrels and 12 Balearic Shearwaters.  This was a taster for the next 3 days of pelagic trips booked out of the Scillies.  A Birdo video of our trip will follow in time but surfice to say our hopes were fulfilled with 15 Wilson's Petrels and 9 Great Shearwaters showing from the Sapphire.

tern of the tide

Having spent a couple of days at the coast looking for waders, I found myself distracted by the sound of terns. A drowsy shoreline is made wilder by the creeking and squeeking of these art deco sculptures- the very essence of sleekness and speed.