Tripping

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjbrrnWkEo

Late April and early May burst with birding potential.  I wasn't expecting another chance to enjoy a Ross's Gull this year but a bird that spent the day on the North Norfolk coast allowed just that.  I headed up with Ben and after watching the enigmatic larid circle around into the distance with a flock of Med Gulls, it re-appeared shortly after and strutted around on freshly ploughed furrows.  Not quite the expected behavior of this high Arctic species, but I wasn't grumbling.

Returning from a few days away catching some Skua, seabird and wader passage off Dungeness, I detoured slightly on my way home to see a wonderful flock of Black Terns at Dernford Reservoir, one of many that dropped in across the country with persistent easterly elements to the wind through late-April. 

A little further off route, a small trip of 6 Dotterel drew me to Gamlingay.  The flock was elsewhere during my visit but having walked a loop around the rolling bare field I heard a familiar trill and located a Dotterel, high above, that circled the field before dropping in right by the path.  The bird just sat, it felt like it was resting having just arrived, a theory given more credibility when 7 were then present later.

A couple of days later a trip of 4 Dotterel were found inside the Ely10 on the Norfolk side of the Little Ouse near Southery.  

Continuing the theme, the Gamlingay group remained for weeks and returning from the Outer Hebrides, where I caught more skua passage, I popped in on the trip as it peaked at 13 birds.  Common to many observations of this lovely wader on lowland passage, heat haze, even on close views was a feature across all the fields.

No such issues on the high tops of the Cairngorms where the mountain plover breeds.  15 years ago Ben and I climbed onto the plateau in late summer and enjoyed a memorable afternoon laid out on a carpet of moss and tundra heath with family groups of Dotterel running around us on the return we found equally beguiling groups of Ptarmigan - classic Scottish scenes.

Peregrine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPugk02q0i4

The Peregrines have had a really successful season, thus far, nesting on Ely Cathedral this year.  The female laid 4 eggs all hatched and 2 chicks appear to have survived.  Simon has continued his regular observations of Peregrines around the Cathedral, and there is a live camera stream from the nest box giving great insights into what's happening with this family.

https://hawkandowltrust.org/live-cameras/ely-cathedral-peregrines

In addition to the Peregrines, Cranes have continued their success with eggs hatching for the third consecutive year and publicised widely by Wicken Fen.  Garganey and Grey Partridge have also been about and performing jn front of Simon's lens.  Elsewhere a trio of Black-winged Stilts arrived at Welney, settling briefly amongst the limosa Black-tailed Godwits and Avocets.  Moving around the Washes and disappearing quickly, there have been a number of local breeding attempts in the past by these leggy waders, it'd be great if they re-appear later in the summer with young in tow.

 

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Rose Pedals

https://youtu.be/sSe33lcZwCo?si=3DpI-PGfZ9fY0PIM

The spring of 2025 saw the Ely10 graced by a sublime avian visitor, a spanking adult Roseate Tern.  Back during pandemic lockdown a single had spent a few hours at Kingfishers Bridge but I'd not managed to connect with that bird.  Years ago, when taking a punt on a squally autumnal north westerly, Ben and I had spent a morning looking for overland skua passage at Foul Anchor, we didn't see any but we did pick up a tern hacking low across the Lincolnshire fields, close across the river channel and into Norfolk (the site of the long gone, but legendary, Wisbech Sewage Farm).  Like a diminutive juvenile Sandwich Tern, clear and heavily scalloping across the back, light of flight and silvery of wing, we checked and re-checked as a young Roseate Tern flew in front of us.  Watched frpm one county as it flew between two others.

I wasn't quick of the mark visiting Welney either and saw this bird on it's second day of redsidence.  Wrongly, I was incredulous about such an early record, particularly inland.  Roseates generally arrive to breeding grounds later than our other breeding terns and I suspected a mis-identification.  However when the Roseate was reported again, in front of the main observatory, I made tracks and was very pleased that I did being treated to my best views ever of this beautiful seabird.

When I arrived the tern was stood out on a muddy bank and after a wait, enjoying all aspects of this incredible occurence, the tern took to the air.  What a bird!!! With little water to feed over the Roseate Tern was limited to spending it's time hawking and dipping just in front of the hide.  Graceful, elegant and shimmering in the sunlight, the unlikely visitor was an early spring gift that made the season for me.  I was caught up in all sorts if things at the time and didn't post any of Simon's wonderful photo's.  Something, a year on, I am pleased to rectify.

Kites

https://youtu.be/ToPh5IVZ-4M?si=BXgFEHH6-1Lrwqf1

When I was a kid the idea of a Black-shouldered Kite, a species then restricted in Europe to Mediterranean steppe, occurring in the UK would have been bonkers.  On a handful of trips to Extremadura from the late 90's and into more recent times this beautiful raptor was never easy to locate and always a treat.  A winter sojourn to the Netherlands a couple of years ago, provided my first encounter with the species in northern Europe.  The bird was frequenting a dune system alongside the North Sea so it wasn't a huge leap to consider a jump across a flooded Doggerland to make landfall in East Anglia.  Subsequently the UK's first appeared, surprisingly, in Wales, but didn't linger.  Likely the same bird did re-appear later in the summer firstly in Suffolk and then Essex.  Over time it has periodically settled in the Norfolk Broads around Horsey and Hickling.  

The population has boomed over the last decade and there have been rapid changes in distribution, becoming a regular breeding bird on the Channel coast.  A recent vagrant to Denmark, late in the summer during September, was joined by another and amazed all by breeding.

Despite it's appearance at times within an hours drive of Ely I hadn't had reason to pass close to the Kite and pay it a visit.  It was the lure of a Glaucous Gull that finally took me eastwards.  During my week in Scotland I had managed to choose the right places to find Glaucous Gulls, they just kept appearing a couple of hours after I had left the tasty looking site.  This happened times with 5 different birds, so I was keen for this white-winger not to be a seabird I miss during my project.

When a Glaucous Gull settled in near Waxham I was interested, when I realised I could see it by taking the train to Great Yarmouth and cycling a loop that could take in the gull and the kite I was keen as mustard.

The gull was a bit of a poser, patrolling and feeding between the hundreds of Grey Seals hauled out along the beach, it was looking as northern as a gull could get.  Later the Kite showed very well, a beguiling, exquisite bird.  A pair of Cranes by the roadside near Horsey Mill showed little wariness of traffic, or cyclists - tremendous views of iconic birds at an iconic site.

Back in June 25 a different kite, actually in the Ely10, got my heart racing.  A short morning stroll at Wicken looking at dragonflies turned a bit hectic when a kite flew over from.the north.  When I looked with bins as it passed overhead it wasn't the Red Kite I presumed but a close fly-over by a Black Kite.  It wasn't in it's full, subdued, glory as it was in heavy wing moult, however a fantastic bird to find locally.  Below are the notes from my submission to the local records committee.  In Cambs the majority of reported Black Kites are not submitted, there are not loads of records and plenty of not provens, so I'll have to see what happens to this one.  I've included a photo taken on the phone as the bird departed that is next to useless but I think does show some structural difference, and a shallower fork in the tail compared with Red Kite, perhaps, it's a stretch I know.

Banana Splits

https://youtu.be/XMl6HnhFFIA?si=67SmqBOGFdbaiTSJ

When frequent storms, onshore winds and heavy wing moult coincide it can make things tricky for some seabirds.  If this leads to uncharacteristic movements, towards land and sheltered feeding (and sometimes poor health and death) it is known as a wreck.  This has recently occurred in some areas of the deeper North Sea leading to some wrecking of auks and divers.

There maybe as many as 100 White-billed Divers wintering in the North Sea in some years but these are usually far offshore, well out of sight from the land.  Plane and boat surveys established that a larger population than previously thought is out there, but aside from specific staging areas off Aberdeenshire and the Outer Hebrides, they are still a rare bird.  

Over the past month the east coast from the Tyne up to Aberdeenshire has seen a wreck of White-billed Divers with dozens of birds involved.  Although a few have been picked up as tideline corpses the majority appear to be healthy enough but with flight so inefficient during wing moult, they have shifted from usual feeding ares (perhaps due to storms) and drifted onshore to shallow coasts and harbours to rest and feed.

As part of my writing project I had planned to head to Aberdeenshire and visit Portsoy where as many as 20 birds gather offshore in late spring.  However when a bird turned up on the River Blyth in Northumberland, and was then joined by a second, I could see the potential to see one of these iconic giant divers up close and remove an additional Scottish trip from my already packed itinerary.  

Early doors on Tyneside I watched a hulking banana bill offshore on calm seas, and when the bird wing-flapped it was clear the extent if the moult.  

In the harbour there was another, very confiding White-billed Diver that was a joy to watch as it preened and loafed around.  

I spent an hour or more drinking this bird in before heading west a little, into the North Pennines to seek out early spring gatherings of Black Grouse (one field alone held 50 birds, 20 others were seen nearby) and territorial upland waders as I headed down for a night at my folks in York.

Park Life

https://youtu.be/BxC-DmiRGzc?si=imHPKa7UECnjI8qv

A bit of a theme arose during the last week - a bit of parklife going on.  Firstly, on our way across from my folks in York to friends in Leeds, during the half-term break, we were passing Roundhay Park.  I like Roundhay a lot - I saw U2 on the Zooropa tour here back in the 90's and returned for 2000's Love Parade.  Like the 60's, anyone who says they remember the Love Parade probably wasn't there.  A midsummer meeting of 300,000 ravers enjoyed a Radio 1 sponsored field party of festival size proportions.  I was there and I do remember the closing set by Sasha just before everyone was supposed to go home but instead went off to any of a dozen sound systems that sprung up in the nearby woods, pulsing beats and bangers all the way through into Sunday's sleepy daylight.

My quick visit to Roundhay wasn't, despite the fond recollections, for memories sake.  A juvenile (2CY) Iceland Gull had taken to hanging out on the lake and afforded great views to all comers.

  

Once the kids were back in school and I was enjoying the gullfest in Cornwall, I took in the park at Helston, where a pair of Lesser Scaup had become silly tame in their habits on the boating lake.

Nearby, at Tehidy Country Park a smart female Ring-necked Duck was hanging around with the Tufties on the small lake there.  A confiding spryte, a fiercely vocal Firecrest, was also here flitting about the ivy clad tree trunks - as ever  full of chutzpah and utterly brilliant.

West End Gulls

https://youtu.be/0nTTGw2tXWU?si=jhsU9OfuxdXR_0cH

I had been planning a few days in Cornwall for some weeks, my current writing project is based around seawatching and seabirds, hence my trip in January down the North Sea coast.  The SW tip of Cornwall is a favourite area for my birding holidays and over the decades has proven very kind.  At 14 years old, back in the 80's, I joined the Leadley family on an October holiday, when Jono's mum pointed out a pale bird in the mist at Zennor Head, this proved to be the county's first Isabelline Shrike.  10 years later we were in the right place again, finding Britain's 3rd Blue Rock Thrush, a male and the county's first, down Cot Valley.  As a place to find rare birds I have been no where more productive; Aquatic Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Surf Scoter, Fea's Petrel, Wilson's Petrel, Azores Gull, and most recently a Barolo's Shearwater, have all raised my pulse to pounding, through the adrenaline surge of discovery.  A smorgasbord of american waders and ducks has often been on offer during these trips and holidays. The eastern warblers, pipits and buntings, sprytes and skulkers alike, also often feature and the outliers have included Little Bustard and Booted Eagle.  It's a very tempting part of the country to consider moving to in the future - we'll have to see.

I had a couple of false starts during early February as family commitments and the unrelenting wet, windy weather led to last minute postponements.  I was keen to catch up with a Pacific Diver (a bird I've not seen this side of the pond) and the possibility of seeing both Bonaparte's and Ring-billed Gull certainly leant into the seabird theme.  I was also aware that auks moved past the peninsular in impressive numbers during late winter and hoped to see some of that passage if I could.  

We were staying with friends in South London (visiting the London Wetlands Centre and unwittingly starting a pop-up Gull ID workshop around a couple of Caspian Gulls) when the news of a Ross's Gull in Newlyn harbour broke.  This was all the catalyst I needed to push me towards Cornwall, the Arctic waif was still present at dusk, and I decided now was the time to instigate my Cornish break.

I was at the harbour early doors, not as early as the keenest, who had seen the bird in the gloaming, but shortly before my arrival the bird had flown out to sea.  I scoped the roof of Lidl, across the bay, and was surprised that the loafing gulls could be seen quite easily - and there amongst them the Ross's Gull.  I won't lie, I was a teeny bit disappointed that this was my first view, like many, I have bought into the myth and enigma we birders have created around Ross's Gull.  For a scarce bird of remote, high tundra and open sea, hanging out on a supermarket roof on the edge of town threatens to burst the romantic bubble.  Not for long though, I popped over for a closer look during which time the gull had returned to the harbour, and on my return was treated to prolonged, close and dynamic views of the most enigmatic of gulls.  It dip fed over the water, oddly reminiscent of a Leach's Petrel,  cruised up and down the sea wall, and twisted back and forth, constantly on the move.  I decided there and then that I would keep returning over my days on the peninsular, between my searches for the divers and the other scarce gulls.

And that's what I did, and spent many hours drinking in this magical bird, mostly in flight, but on my last visit it took a short break from feeding to preen on the rocks and beach at Tolcarne, and offering the kind of views I had only dreamt of.  Boom.  I was fully sated.  

Between time with this bird I managed to see a lot of other gulls - there was a constant movement of Kittiwakes out of Mount's Bay through strong southerlies (and impressive numbers of auks on the move too), I found the 2CY Bonaparte's Gull in the large evening roost at East Green, Penzance and on the Hayle there were Iceland, Little and Yellow-legged Gull amongst the roosting throngs and nearby, from Lelant Saltings persistence paid off with great views of the adult Ring-billed Gull after 6 visits to check the loafing Common Gulls there. So ended a fantastic few days birding, time spent with the undoubted star, the Ross's Gull, amongst 14 species of gull, burnt upon my memory.

I lost my glasses half way through the first day so had more difficulty than usual with digiscoping, as I couldn't really see any detail on the screen.  On strict instructions from my better (and evidently more optomistic) half I retraced my steps the following day and was chuffed to pieces when I was reunited with the glasses along the grassy verge at Hayle.  But in the meantime I had struggled with videoing both the Pacific Diver and Bonaparte's Gull, where I'd had to take a punt and point and shoot in the right direction, not sure of what I was videoing.  A couple of poor, pixely videograbs were all those were worth.