Spiderman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6t56U9tBg&app=desktop

Definitely back in the Ely10 now - a male Marsh Harrier drifted over the garden this morning and a Tree Pipit called as I went through the moth trap.  Nice return.

My family came down from York for a couple of days and while walking the back field my sister called us over to see a spider - I was hoping it'd be a Wasp Spider and it was, a cracking one too.  Will B had found a couple earlier in the summer but we have been looking for them locally for some years now.  Hopefully we'll see them with some frequency now.

This one caught a fly and in a matter of 30 frenetic seconds wrapped it in silk.  What a brilliant beast.

My Dad sent some of his pics too.

While I was away Simon sent some great photos of Grass Snake and Emperor Dragonfly from Wicken.  

Stormy Clouds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISt2zpysAmk&app=desktop

Anticipation was unreasonably high for Thursday mornings seawatch - the wind had turned due south and was moderate 20 mph.  A few Cory's and a smatter of other interesting seabirds should have been a reasonable haul given the conditions however the previous days 120 Great Shearwaters, my Fea's type, the number of large shesrwaters off Scilly and the  large number of birders who'd travelled overnight awaiting the 50mph winds forecast in the next 24hrs led to a feeling of anti-climax.  The winds ramped up during the night to a full on gale and Friday morning saw 70 or so birders hunkered down at Porthgwarra with the storm raging in from the south west but unusually clear skies making for harsh and difficult light much of the time.  In theory it should have been chocca with large shearwaters but all we could muster during the day were 3 Cory's, a few Sooty and Balearic Shearwaters, some Storm Petrels and an increasing feeling of dissappointment.  After 9 hours I retired to my bed with a cracking headache.  This passed after a couple of hours sleep and Mark joined us for a last night of the holiday meal in Penzance.  I only had a few hours on Saturday morning as we had to leave our cottage by 10 - I asked Mark to choose where we watched from as the wind moved to due west - he opted for Pendeen and my alarm was set for the last watch of the holiday.

I met Mark at 6.15 and within 10 minutes we joined a huddle of birders below Pendeen light.

We had a quick chat with great bird artist and Cambridgeshire birder Richard Johnson on our way down and found ourselves a spot to set up.  Manxie passage was considerable and, as is often the case at Pendeen, just behind the rocks offshore.   I had been struggling to pick up Storm Petrels the previous couple of days but they were easier here, birds moving pretty continuously.  A call went up and a Great Shearwater passed close in, fantastic and prolonged views in brilliant light.  A few Balearic and Sooties did the same.  It was busy,

Mark picked up a couple of Stormies to the right, I got on them and one stalled and started dancing on the water.  Wings aloft I couldn't make out any white on the underwing.  I made sure we were staying in this bird and started talking it all out loud - I checked the rump - wrap around white, the underwing again, the wing shape.  This was looking very, very good -  I ran through the features quite loudly for anyone listening for over a minute, sure of the id but unbelieving, the call of "Wilson's" went up - no panic for us we'd been on it  for a while already.  However the heart thumping, finger tingling adrenalin kick was there alright.  This bird performed, steady flight, glides and regular feet pattering stops let us take it all in, including direct comparison with a European Storm Petrel - which flicked along the water while the Wilsons cruised. As it moved west the grey carpal bar became more evident on the upperwing and I even glimpsed the feet projection beyond the tail at one point.  In total it was on show for over 6 minutes, fantastic views of a brilliant bird.  I couldn't believe I'd found land based Fea's and Wilsons Petrel within a week. As a very good birding buddy would put it - scenes.

photo - Dan Pointon

The buzz of chat and jubilation went around the crowd - what a way to start the day/finish the holiday.  It wasn't over, although my time was limited, Manxies were counted at 160 per minute, Stormies continued to move through - each one checked and double checked easily with great light and close views.  Further out Sabines Gulls, the most beautiful of gulls with their tern like flight and bold wing patterns, had begun to appear, 8 in total by 8.45 when I had to go.  And then it was over - utterly dumbfounded that in the course of 4 days both holy grails of seawatching had passed through the sacred circle, the scope view, and burnt their image upon my retina like some shamanic scar tattoo.

It didn't quite end there either,  as on the back of another forecast blow on Tuesday, Mark drove back to Cornwall and dug into those headlands again - and he only bloody went and did it.  He picked up a Fea's, late in the day at Porzhgwarra and amongst a huge movement of seabirds off Pendeen the next day, found one of the 4 Wilsons Petrels seen during tbe day.

SCENES

Higher Than The Sun

Fea's Petrel arcing flight - Killian Mullarney

Almost exactly my view and light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHjVIBDYgXg&app=desktop

It's just under 2 hrs since it happened, really happened - I'm still shaky, high as the proverbial kite, unsure what to do with all the nervous energy and struggling to tackle the simple task of putting a pizza in the oven or holding a normal conversation.  How does seeing a bird, a relative mosquito speck, cruising it's way over a thunderously churning ocean, illicit the response I'm still experiencing right now.  Well, that is now a chapter waiting to be written in On Birding.

This morning I was down at Porthgwarra early, 6.30 early, the wind was belting in from the SE and everything was shrouded in thick mizzle.  I hunkered down in the cove to see if visibility would improve.  It didn't, and after almost 2hrs of watching the odd very close Manxie appear, I called it a morning.  The rain was steady and you really couldn't see a thing.  I figured an early return could pave the way for a return visit later in the day.  Back in Sancreed the rain and wind set in and it looked like a lost day.  I was surprised and felt vaguely silly when the morning totals from PG included 56 Great Shearwaters, it meant one thing, it had cleared on the coast earlier and we'd been left in the cloying murk of low cloud.

The family were open to a switch from a visit to Penzance to taking in the cafe and caves of Porthgwarra for the afternoon.  It was going to be a balancing act between grabbing time to seawatch from the compromise of the cove and spending some time with the family.  I had an hour from 3.30 and within five minutes I had my eyes on the bowed wings of a Cory's cruising west.  I was a bit surprised that this was my first large shearwater of the watch given the greater number of Greats out there.  It took another fifty minutes to find a Great Shearwater, quite a nice view, but dissappearing constantly between the waves.

Re-joining the family I had a lucky break.  They wanted to stay and play around the caves more.  All I had to do was move between the benches and stay close to where they were playing.  This extra time started to reveal a distant movement line of Great Shearwaters, Mark Hawkes was on his way from Cambs for the big winds over the next couple of days and I was keen to have a sense of the different zones and lines of movement as a starting point for our watch tomorrow.  I'd eeeked out as much time as I was going to get by 5 and Ange called time, I played happy dumb as each of the kids eeked out their time too with multiple loo requests and sand in shoe shenanagins.  God bless them because what happened next wouldn't have done had they not been so wiley.  

At 5.17 to the east of my view, a bird arced high - so very high, over the churning horizon.  Routinely I stayed on it, unthinking at this point.  It arced up so high again, navigating a very loud, and deep bass, sound wave.  Synapses fired, look at this bird properly now.  I looked and everything clicked in peaceful, zen like, slow motion.  Against the sea it's pale body winked, underside of the wings pattern indistingushable but dark. Up it arced again, upperside of the body against the sky - definitely grey body, I looked harder and the  two tone of the grey body and dark remiges was evident.  It dropped down to the sea again, alongside smaller, black backed and whizzing winged Manxie.  I thought the adrenaline would hit then, I knew what it was, I'd known almost from tbe first huge arc, FEA's.

I was amazed that I stayed so calm and absolutely present with the bird, enjoying every second of it's flight double checking each of the visible features including long wings and pale tail, - but it was the repeated arcing soars, launching up from the sea and  high over the horizon, that was  the most arresting and exhilarating part of the encounter.  I watched it for over a minute (even managing to get Ange to call over a nearby birder returning from the head - unfortunately he was 15 seconds too late)  before it dissappeared behind the cliff of the sheltered cove and out past and beyond the runnelstone and I hoped past any birders sat on the headland pushing on to the end of the day.

The adrenaline caught up, the personal enormity of the event starting to resonate.  Euphoria, completely out of kilter with talking to the kids, explaining what had happened, why I was now really weird, not able to listen to them or concentrate on whatever it was that had to happen next.  I got to the car and wrote a text to Rare Bird Alert and a Whatsapp to my Birdo brethren so the news would be out as soon as we headed out of the valley.  Driving was a bit of a struggle, everything super charged, hyper alert and then the euphoria again as I ran through it all, putting the totality of views together.

Pre-covid I had planned to travel to Madeira this summer solely to seek out the 3 pterodroma - Fea's, Desertas and Zino's Petrels.  Given the very land locked Ely10 - regular seawatching is one indulgence I forsake.  The thought of a UK Fea's has felt like a dream I'd just never fulfill, having spent the last 6 months watching videos over and over of these mythical seabirds I had worked so hard on not hoping, enjoying every seabird on it's own merits, keeping the expectations reasonable - and then this.  Transcendent birding, experienced, held in memory, moments to be remembered with the greatest fondness and exhilaration.

Jono rang, buzzing vicariuosly and Mark speeded up considerably on the M5 on his way down to join the party.  There are two hugely blowey days ahead, it feels strange not to be experiencing the expectation and be celebrating the big day before the big blow has happened.  

Time now for some celebtatory fizz and try for an early night ready for an pre-dawn start and hopefully another memorable seawatch in some heroically fierce winds.  Lets see what the south wind brings.

Sennen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4FjWtH83Ho

Early morning trips out have been really enjoyable.  Having missed it at Drift Reservoir, on my first look, the spotty Spotted Sandpiper caught up with me.  Literally demanding my attention by flying across the reservoir to pitch in 25 metres away in the mist.  The mist did clear and the characterful little sandpiper showed well.

Sennen gave me a lovely morning in the sun watching 60 or so Mediterranean Gulls at close range on the rocks.  There were 3 young birds with colour rings, 2 from a French scheme (green) and one from Dutch/Belgian scheme (white) evidence of a pretty rapid and wide dispersal of juveniles.  Imagine tackling a channel crossing when just a few months old.

A flock of 8 Chough flew over and I was quite surprised that they pitched on to a nearby roof and then dropped down into the harbour side gardens - Sennen Starlings.  Massively enjoyable.

Hummingbird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P2HE-USGrU

Staying down the valley, in the shelter of Porthcurno there were numerous encounters with migrant Hummingbird Hawkmoths.  Such a treat to watch them during their frantic visits to the flower heads.  A male Lesser Emperor was an exciting find hawking emerging ants over the car bonnets in the beach car park, it was showy but being in sole charge of the kids and without a camera I had to satisfy myself with just my memories of a fantastic encounter.  Wall Browns were commonplace and the coastal slopes alive with Grayling in chosen spots. A pretty Black Arches was a new moth for me.

The Ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBTA3v1Jt_I

A sojourn down to the furthest end of Cornwall for a family holiday allowed for a couple of boat trips out on the Mermaid II out of Penzance and some seawatching from the land.  From the off there were many Manx Shearwaters moving offshore in the of northerly winds - for the first few days I routinely counted passage from the beach at Porthcurno, between beach activities and watching the dolphins, 750 west per hour was pretty consistent and off the boat we also saw many. 

Mermaid II off St Michaels Mount

There were many dolphins from land and on the sea, mostly Common but a few views of a small pod  of Bottle-nosed.  In the flat calm seas they were easy to see and I also had two sightings of the rolling arc of a Minke Whales back and fin.  Sunfish were regular including one where we could see the giant fish underwater, oddly with red dorsal stripe and lips, perhaps to do with the slicks of nasty looking red algal blooms we kept seeing.  Tuna were also pretty prolific, looking to be Yellow-fin when they launched themselves out of the sea and through the air.

Sunfish

Yellow-Fin Tuna

Back to birds, it's always exciting to see Storm Petrels (well for me, being land locked - the Cornish birders seem non-plussed).  Off the boat there were 10 or so and I also enjoyed a still evening at Porthgwarra as Stormies fed offshore.

A couple of hopeful seawatches off Porthgwarra produced a handful of Sooty Shearwaters, Bonxie, a single Balearic Shearwater and best of the bunch Cory's Shearwater lazing northwards on two successive mornings.  Great Shearwaters flirted too - all a bit beyond certainty range but 3 birds off PG and a single from the Mermaid hint at some numbers when the big blow arrives in the next 24hrs.

Welney Heat

Welney has been sweltering for the past week or so, and the Dragonflies patrol up and down the path, creating a distraction from the onset of Autumn birding. A Black-tailed Skimmer, now showing signs of a long season, basked on the dirt, and up on the bank, a pair of Common Darters embraced.

The pool at Friends Hide was baked dry, allowing a slightly scrawny Roe buck to stroll right across it.

At the reed edge, a young Water Rail suddenly remembered it had left the door unlocked.

There was plenty of water at the Lyle Hide pool, and a small flock of Ruff flew in - to the surprise of a Female Garganey.

They too were soon distracted as a Hobby skimmed across low.

Back at the main Obs, another garganey, this time an immaculate youngster suffered in the Sun.

The Godwits squeaked and rattled in the shallows - feeding, preening and fighting. Gulls have been building up in numbers, and among the Black-heads were a returning Common Gull and Lesser Black Back. Egrets and Herons stand watch along the ditches or float in to strut around the main pool.

 

Crimson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNiyy8pS5XY&app=desktop

It's all been about the invertebrates this week.  Firstly a MEGA moth in my new Robinson Trap last Wednesday night, a migrant Dark Crimson Underwing, what a belter.  This is the 3rd Red Data Book Moth to appear in the garden this year with a Reed Leopard back in June and White-spotted Pinion increasing with up to 5 a night at the moment.

A hot day on Friday led us to the coast but it was so jam packed we decided to have a family picnic at Dersingham Bog, which gave me a chance to have a wander.  With some good info from Mark Welch I found a young male  Black Darter right where he suggested.

Saturdays light attracted another Underwing, this time a very smart Red Underwing which hung around much longer than it's rare cousin had done.

A return trip to Dersingham to look for Black Darters took a turn for the worse as the weather turned overcast and blustery.  Waiting for the weather to improve we had a look around Dersingham Fen LNR.  Here Ben found a dead Dor Beetle, the upper side of this fantastic beastie gave just an irridescent hint of the blaze of metallic lapis lazuli hidden beneath.

At the Bog itself we struggled to see any dragonflies finding just a Black-tailed Skimmer and watched a heroic Red Banded Sand Wasp carrying a caterpillar somewhere, it dropped it but didn't seem to be able to relocate it's hefty load.

Returning to the car Ben then found a large primary feather which turned out to be Red Kite's. Very nice.

On Monday we headed down to the river at Over but with the kayak this time.  Getting all the kit ready a dragonfly cruising across the car park to the river caught my eye - a male Lesser Emperor, it's electric blue base to the abdomen quite dazzling.  I hoped it would return or that I'd locate it along the river but that short wizz past me was all I was going to get.  Nonetheless a day spent pottering up and down the river with damsels and demoiselles alighting on our paddles was really lovely.