Prestwick Carr Owls and a Strange Pintail 18/9/11

After reading many blogs about the short-eared and long-eared owls at Prestwick Carr, I finally gave in and went to see them. On arrival, I was greeted by 3 short-eared owls hunting over the fields. A fantastic county tick for me, then I heard the words 'long-eared owl' and made for the group of birders huddled around one spot near the bushes and sure enough, there was a beautiful long-eared owl sitting in the bushes with only a few branches blocking my view. A wonderful second county tick! I met up with Cain, Stephen, Morgan, Venetia, John and a few other birders for St. Mary's which made the trip even better.

Short-Eared OwlLong-Eared Owl

I was at St. Mary's on Wednesday which produced some unusual sightings such as this male-eclipse pintail which amazingly took off from the sea and landed on the grass next to me very briefly before flying back out to see. A very nice bird to see on patch, only my second.

Pintail

Arcot and Killingworth 1/8/11

After not going out for a while, I decided to pop down to Arcot to look for the grasshopper warbler after reading about it John's blog. As soon as we pulled up we could hear it reeling and sure enough, we saw it straight away sitting on top of the bush next to the track. As we got closer and closer, it continued reeling and let us get very close. Without disturbing the bird, I got plenty of photos and videos of it then left it to it's business. We looked for the little egrets that were reported as well but there was no sign of them. On our way back home, we stopped in at killingworth after seeing the little gulls last week, I went back with my camera. As we drove past, I could see both of them with the terns right next to the road so we parked the car and walked along. They provided excellent views I have never had of little gulls before. A successful day birding!

Grasshopper Warbler

Little Gulls

There's a storm brewin'...

I've taken seawatching on as my new activity for the summer. I've just come back from St. Mary's in search of storm-petrels. I still had never seen any before today so was hoping to catch a glimpse of some. Caught up with the guys already in the hide, just managed to get a space between Simon and Tim just in time to see a flock of manx shearwater going past. Then within 20 seconds of setting up my scope, I saw a little black bird fly across and I lost it straight away again. After a few seconds it reappeared showing off it's white rump beautifully, then I knew I had my first storm-petrel. From 17:15 - 19:00, I saw 18 storm-petrels, 11 manx shearwater, 2 red-throated diver, 9 common scoter and a bar-tailed godwit. The storm-petrels, as well as being lifers can also go down on my patch list along with the red-throated diver which takes my St. Mary's total up to 106.

Autumn has come early! 19/7/11

My first post for quite a while now so I thought I had to write about St. Mary's. I started in the south bay, watching plenty of juvenile sandwich terns on the rocks, still yet to add roseate tern to me life list so this year I am especially looking out for them. I went for a walk around the lighthouse and came across some very unexpected visitors. I was watching the golden plover through my scope when I spotted a bigger wader in amongst the very smart-looking dunlin and turnstone, it was a red knot in fantastic summer plumage! Much bigger than all the others and very unexpected. There was also some very early summer-plumaged sanderling on the rocks as well. Just the purple sandpipers to come now! I left the island as the tide was coming in and did my first proper sea-watching session from the car-park. From 17:00 to 17:30 I saw: 25 Manx Shearwater, 4 Gannet, 12 Kittiwake and 15+ Sandwich Tern. Not bad for my first time and still early in the year so more to come yet!

Dunlin Knot, Dunlin and Sanderling

Outer Hebrides and Highlands

Just come back from Scotland on Saturday, we went to the Uists, Lewis and Harris and visited Skye on the last day. Fantastic trip, saw 120 species in total, including 69 buzzards and 26 short-eared owls. Including 6 I had never seen: Pomarine Skua, Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Corncrake, Corn Bunting and Red-Necked Phalarope. Here is a selection of photos:

Short-Eared Owl Corn Bunting

Redshank

White-Tailed Eagle on Skye Golden Plover Buzzard

Corncrake

Sanderling Whimbrel

Dunlin Hooded Crow Common Sandpiper

Warblers at St. Mary's

Went to St. Mary's yesterday after hearing grasshoppers warblers reeling a few days ago and they didn't disappoint. Fantastic views of a male reeling from the bush right next to me completely fine about me being there. I then went down to 'the gut' where there has been many whitethroats singing and they didn't disappoint either. After standing for a while, it popped up and sang for about 20 seconds and dipped down again. I also had a sedge warbler which is a new species for St. Mary's which takes the patch total to 95. A very successful evening.

Grasshopper Warbler

Whitethroat

Skylark

Harrier, Avocet and Grasshopper Warbler 15/4/11

I decided to go to Cresswell area yesterday, to see the avocets that I still hadn't caught up with. When we got to Cresswell, we were greeted by stonechats on the wall on the way to hide. A wren was in full voice just next to hide and 2 chiffchaffs were singing in the trees near the entrance to the hide. On the pond there was 2 avocets, lapwings, dunlin, redshank and pink-footed geese. A heron was walking around in front of the hide when we first got there and walked right up on the reeds in front of the hide before flying off towards the road. Druridge Pools held the highlight of the day for me, the unmistakable call of the grasshopper warbler greeted us at the bottom of the road past all the hides, we were actually looking for the black redstart that was reported but no sign of it. The grasshopper warbler was in full voice in the grass but coudln't be seen. After hanging around for about 10 minutes, he appeared, sitting in the tree right in front of us, not bothered at all about us being there. As if that wasn't enough, we headed for East Chevington to check out the marsh harrier that was reported. From the hides, we couldn't see it so we were about to give up when it flew straight over the top of us and started hunting over a nearby field. A very successful day of birding, and after hearing the report of the wood warbler and grasshopper warbler at St. Mary's, I might be up for another one!

Grasshopper Warbler

Skylark

Wren

Marsh Harrier