Back to Reality...

So, after my 4 months off, I'm now back at uni, and it's back to the crushing reality of work once again! Blog posts are becoming very few and far between, so I've decided to just keep doing a few months of summary every so often to keep it ticking over! Here is what I've been up to since I last posted:


1/8/15 - 7/8/15 - Scilly Trip

Me and my dad always go on a birding holiday once every year, and since neither of us had ever been to Scilly, and my dream has always been to do the pelagic, we decided this year, we'd give it a try. We booked for two nights on Scilly, and the rest of the week touring the UK sites we'd never been to either. In summary, we racked up 125 species for the week, however the Scilly Isles themselves were a bit of a flop! The Scillonian Crossing was absolutely horrendous, and everyone was ill, which left us in poor stead for the pelagic later that day, and suffice to say, the pelagic was a tough 5 hours for us! The birding was slow, but the sea was not and within 30 minutes of leaving, I wanted my 'dream trip' to end, and was ill throughout, therefore I didn't take any photos! Despite being green all the way through, we managed to get 200+ Storm-Petrels, Balearic Shearwater, 6 Bonxies and not a lot else! No Wilson's, Cory's, Greats... But, we did get some brilliant views of a Pectoral Sandpiper at Porth Hellick on the last day.

However, the week on the whole was superb! I got 3 lifers in Red-Footed Falcon, Montagu's Harrier and Cirl Bunting, plus a massive supporting cast of waders, especially at Norfolk on the way home with 4 Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, 20+ Whimbrel, Wood Sandpiper at Titchwell plus 25 Spoonbill at Stiffkey, and Spotted Redshank everywhere! We also went to Ham Wall RSPB which was hard work, but still managed a Great White Egret. Here are a few photos from the trip:

 Avocet at Titchwell RSPB

 Black-tailed Godwit at Titchwell RSPB

 Brimstone at Ham Wall RSPB

 Cirl Bunting at Broadsands (Lifer!)

 Gatekeepers at Ham Wall RSPB

 Super Views of a Pectoral Sandpiper at Porth Hellick Pool.

Wood Sandpiper at Titchwell RSPB

 Red Admiral at Ham Wall RSPB

Red-footed Falcon at Chatterley Whitfield, Staffordshire

Another outstanding highlight for me in August was the very showy Long-eared Owl that hung around the patch all month before inevitably being moved on by pushy photographers.

Later in the month, I went on a family holiday to Budapest for the week, but managed a day out with hungarianbirdwatching.com, which was a fantastic day around the city surroundings with no less than 8 lifers: Eastern Imperial Eagle, Saker Falcon, Great Bustard, Black Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Grey Shrike and Golden Oriole! Not many photos taken, but here's a couple:

 Black Woodpecker in the Buda Hills

Lesser Grey Shrike and Turtle Dove

Arguably my bird of the year so far took place on the 5th September this year, and when the news broke, I was at Spurn dipping a Black Stork! A Great Shearwater went north past Old Nab in North Yorkshire, so we admitted defeat and headed back north in hope it would be seen again. It was seen in numerous locations north close-inshore and also seen at St. Mary's as we came back through the Tyne Tunnel! In a last ditch attempt, we headed for Church Point at Newbiggin, and just as we arrived, it was in view and we got stunning views of it as it came north really close giving some crippling detail! Superb lifer!

Later in the month, I went out on Paul Stewart's pelagic out of the Tyne in the hope of getting over my fear of the open water (after my Scilly experience!), and I can honestly say it was much better than the Scilly one! We got 2 Storm-Petrels, Blue Fulmar, Great Northern Diver, 6 Sooty Shearwaters, 2 Arctic Skuas, 2 Great Skuas and a Roseate Tern, and I even got some photos this time!

Fulmar

Sooty Shearwater hanging around the boat


Other notable photos:

 Roseate Tern at St. Mary's

 Comma at Tynemouth

By far my best ever views of Shore Lark at Blyth

Song Thrush on Holy Island

Speckled Wood at Tynemouth

All Over The Place (Plus 1 Life Tick)

We have been all around Northumberland today looking for birds. We started very locally at St. Mary’s to see if we could find the firecrest. After looking around for 30 mins we decided to give up and start on the waders. The North Bay produced 3 oystercatchers, 3 dunlin, 2 turnstone, 1 curlew, 17 redshank and a bar-tailed godwit (now in its 3rd week at St. Mary’s). Just as we started to leave, a peregrine flew over getting all the waders to fly. It soon landed somewhere near Seaton Sluice and not quite out of view. We left after that. However, on our way out, we saw a short-eared owl fly over the south bay sending all the gulls up. Not bad so far!! Then we went to Holywell for the guided tour. We went to the members hide first which didn’t give us anything until a report came in about a pectoral sandpiper at the public hide so we all left and went there. Just before we got there, Bob Dack (a friend of Holywell Pond) came out and gave the dreadful words of ‘it’s just flown that way’. We couldn’t believe it, just our luck but we went in the hide and waited. We saw 5 snipe, loads of geese and gulls, 50+ lapwing and eventually after 40 minutes, a pectoral sandpiper! Hooray!! We then went to Druridge Pools to finish the day with a glossy ibis. When we arrived in the Oddie Hide, everybody was around the windows to the right of the hide. The Ibis was there feeding. We watched that for a while before a heron flew in landed very close to the hide. It produced brilliant views without chasing the ibis! There was an amazing amount of shoveler at Druridge today but only females. Just as we were leaving, a greenshank flew over and landed on the mud. A very successful day! 164 – Pectoral Sandpiper (another life tick!) Pectoral Sandpiper Grey Heron

Glossy Ibis Greenshank

Shoveler