Bank Holiday Weekend 26th-28th May 2018

The long hot spring spell continued for the second consecutive bank holiday weekend. With warm easterlies continuing and thunderstorms forecast there were grounds for local optimism and so I spent a few hours each day on patch. Both Saturday and Sunday were disapointing, with just the recently resident Black-tailed Godwit flock (currently c40 birds but constantly changing numbers) and at least two pairs of Little Ringed Plovers seemingly settling to breed. A single Redshank persists quietly at the back of Ashton’s, suggesting there is a nest deep in there somewhere. About five pairs of Lapwings appear to have failed on there too, as usual, but one or two pairs setting up on Neumann’s Stilt Island gives us some hope yet.

On the bank holiday, Greg found 2 Avocets and the first Ringed Plover of the year on Neumann’s, so a return trip was required. The avocets were busily feeding round the back of Stilt Island and looking rather resplendent; surely this species will breed on patch soon?

Patch avocets. Once a real local rarity, now a few records annually. Up to four pairs of great crested grebes nesting on Neumann's too - it was unheard of to see a grebe on here a decade ago so water conditions must be changing too.

 

Black-tailed godwit flock

 

Shelduck pair

Reed warbler

Patch 24th May 2018

Nice to see thet Turnstone on Neumann's today at lunchtime, a real cracker of a bird. Sure common on the coast, but it's been a few years since my last on the patch so this full summer bird was most enjoyable . It was feeding busily on stilt island, which also has at least 3 active Black-headed Gull nests. As far as I know they have never successfully nested on patch, although there have been plenty of failed (usually 1st year birds) on Haydn's, which also has several nests this year.

Also on Neumann's today there was a Little Ringed Plover. Having finally arrived now there is some mud starting to appear in the heat wave, they may well yet settle down to breed.

On Sunday (20th) I finally caught up with 5 Black-tailed Godwits and a Greenshank up on Haydn's, the same day as my first LRP of the year (latest ever!). There had been over 100 godwits earlier in the week, so I vey much caught the back end of the passage.

Weather looking very promising for the next few days. Here's hoping for some late wader action!

Tern Tastic 20th May 2018

News of a brief appearance of a White-winged Black Tern on Neumann's today was a bit of shock to say the least, especially given the lack of recent migrant terns. Not one black tern has appeared in Cheshire yet this year. Sadly it didn't linger on the Flash, but luckily it had only relocated to the Mere where Malc refound it. I was stuck at work so had to sweat for a few hours, but was there by 5pm and watched it for an hour. Always a little distant, but the light was superb and the views were excellent.

Whilst I was flouncing up to Fair Isle yesterday the patch had delievered some good local birds for the regulars, including Great White Egret, Avocet, Greenshank and a flock of Black-tailed Godwits, so following Monday's Garganey and Wood Sandpipers it was a bit a red letter week.
 

Photos by Patrick Earith @ArthriticPeak

 

Up for a Song 17th May 2018

Writing this blog is making me feel seriously old! Way back in 1994, I was on the Isle of Scilly for may then annual adventure when news came though of two mega rare American birds in my home region of the northwest. One was a Greater Yellowlegs (in Cumbria) and a ship-hopping Song Sparrow at Seafoth Docks in Liverpool. I'd seen a UK 'legs before (Minsmere '85), and had been heavily stung by dashing off Scilly before so I was reluctant to leave (Eye-browed Thrush, Black- throated Thrush and Two-barred Greenish Warbler taught me that).  So back in '94 I opted to stay on the paradise islands and hope the spadger would stick, safe in the knowledge that Scilly would inevitably deliver something amazing and I was bound to have the last laugh. I was wrong, and so my Yankee sparrow list remained pitifully low, in fact it still does.

Early in the week, Shetland had one of those crazy purple patches that only Shetland can. Four mega alerts in a matter of minutes - Marmora's warbler and Black faced bunting Unst, Crag Martin and Song Sparrow on Fair Isle. The latter is probably the least exciting of them to see, but by far the rarest and the only one I haven't seen before. More importantly it was my first opportunity to right my Scilly mistake. Twitch most definitely on. That said I couldn't go on day one due to a hospital appointment, but I remained reasonably relaxed as Fair Isle had now recorded it's fourth song sparrow and the previous three were all long stayers. The odds were favourable, and the extra time allowed me to put some effort in to find an alternative travel option. So, several hours sending messages and making calls and it was sorted - new and fully legit pilots were secured. We had to give this a go, but I admit to being a little apprehensive about whether it would work.

On Thursday 16th May we arrived at the airstrip just as news of the bird's presence came through. After some faffing three of us boarded our shiny new (1966) plane option with our two new friend pilots and off we went. It was a glorious day, making both journeys simply stunning as we crossed England, passing over the Scottish Cairngorms and then up the coast and outwards. Flight time was just under 4 hours and we landed safely (unlike yesterday's plane), which is always a relief on Fair Isle!

Frodsham wind farm

 

The Cairngorms looking stunning.

A slightly nervous time coming in to Fair Isle

 

Suzanna kindly picked us up and minutes later we were in the Obs watching the feeder. The bird had apparently often disappeared for long periods, but thankfully for us the SONG SPARROW appeared quickly and showed very well for about 5 minutes, then a little while later on put in a similar appearance. Views were excellent and close. Job done, 1994 mistake banished and a very functional tick. I'll admit it's no classic and it was never going to be a favourite, but they all count (537 now I think!). Other birds at the Obs included Twites, Mealy Redpolls, Chiffchaff, (Shetland) Starling and House Sparrows.



Song sparrow. Worthy of a scary landing on Fair Isle’s infamously short airstrip, or indisputable evidence of our OCD insanity?



Job done. I'll be back in October, if not before!

With victory secured we spent half an hour watching seabirds by the Obs - puffins, great skuas, razorbills, guillemot, fulmar and shag all noted, before walking back to the airstrip accompanied by smart local wheatears (a disgraceful year tick for me!).

Male wheatear

Rubbish puffin photo

 

Black guillemot

The flight home was equally stunning as the morning's, but somewhat more relaxed. We stopped for a quick refuel on Orkney, and managed to day tick rhino and zebra whilst over Knowsley safari park as a bonus too.  I was back home by 9.15. Ideal.

Long Time No Cirl

7th to 14th May 2018

A really lovely week in southeast Cornwall for half term was mostly spent walking coastal paths, chilling and basking in great weather. We stayed at Talland, a beautiful quiet spot between the far more touristy towns of Polperro and Looe. Despite it being spring and the fine weather, there were no migrants about of note, but still pleasant to be out.

 

On Friday 13th we caught up with old friends Andre and Lorraine at Mount Edgcumbe on the western mouth of the Plym, allowing me to call in at Rame Head (Andre's patch) in a quick look for Cirl Buntings. Thanks to his gen, it took me seconds to see them and I watched 5 birds at close range in a hedgerow and they glowed in the sunshine. It had been a long time since my last (I can't remember) so I thoroughly enjoyed these birds. Annoyingly I was without my camera, so no shots. Next day we were to travel home so called in at the RSPBs Labrador Bay reserve, taking the mutt for a walk and hopefully seeing some more Cirls (I probably should have tried for the putative Italian Sparrow nearby, but lacked the enthusiasm or will to inflict it on the family). Cirls showed, but sea fog meant the light was poor so shots were limited (like I'm a photographer anyway!).

Monday Patch Delivery 14th May 2018

A lunchtime walk with the dog at Neumann’s was rewarded with a lovely drake Garganey on ‘Stilt Island’. Always a treat and I set off back to work satisfied after a fleeting look across the flash. Unfortunately I didn’t look hard enough as Malc arrived and found 2 Wood Sandpipers whilst searching for the duck, so a post work return visit was required. Great to see some decent action finally this spring.

French Excursion

I found myself with a free weekend ahead, so called up old pal Jono Williams and ended up heading over to catch up with him and do some birding around his now hometown of Verdun. I flew from Manchester to Luxembourg and was at Jono's house by 10pm. A couple of quick opening beers then off to bed for an early start.

Saturday 12th May

Up and out at 5.30am for a bird-filled bonanza at a few of Jono's favourite local sites. The overall abundance of birds was refreshing and very noticeable compared to home. Lots of singing common species in the extensive woodland and wetlands is a stark contrast to our over crowded and clearly impoverished landscape. But it also gives plenty of scope for hope that things can get better again.

Black kites are ubiquitous, but for me a pleasure to see them rolling around everywhere. A roadside red squirrel (much blacker  bodied than ours) was a first locally for Jono, then we quickly had reasonable views of a (presumed) European wildcat as it caught a rodent and crossed the road in front of us. Later in the day we were to bump into another which paused long enough to photograph. It seems the cats are not at all rare here and there is no apparent problem with hybridisation - recently published research shows this not to be a problem where population densities are higher than in Scotland and so raising hope for the reestablishment of our native cats (along with Lynx).

Rubbish photo I know, but it's a wildcat! Taken through the windscreen - the views were better than this suggests!!

The first birds of note were cronking great reed warblers, shouting from the roadside reeds, and a black woodpecker drummed unseen nearby (crazy loud!). At the main lake we notched up a singing Savi's warbler (with one seen well), 2 smart singing male white-spotted bluethroats, spoonbill, a single whiskered tern, garganey, osprey, turtle dove, marsh harriers and numerous cuckoos (including a superb 'red' bird - stunning). At least one hoopoe was calling nearby (a local tick form Jono), but remained unseen. Marsh frogs called everywhere and were very conscious in the ditched, every one as green as Kermit.

Bluethroat

Marsh Frog

Lady Orchid

Into the nearby woods before it got too warm, and the main targets was pretty easy. In fact there were at least 3, probably 5 collared flycatchers singing and showing. Luckily we happened across a male low down around a potential nest site which is was vigorously singing around. A female came in a couple of times to check out the option and he went into overdrive. Really excellent views. Most other birds in the woods were heard rather than seen - golden oriole, short-toed treecreeper, firecrest and hawfinch remained hidden, although we barely really tried to see them.

Collared Flycatcher - stunning birds!

Nest stop was Madine Lake, but en route we picked up a ringtail harrier along the road which seemed to be a hen harrier but disappeared too quickly. We went off to look for it to no avail, but were more than compensated by an overhead honey buzzard and then two pairs of Montagu's harriers. Male Monty's are always stunning, even more so when you see one in breath-taking high speed pirouetting display and calling almost overhead. Amazing.

Honey Buzzard

Along the way roadside spots included a couple of red-backed shrikes and pleasantly common stonechats.

At the Lake white storks were building a nest on a pylon near the car park, more great reed warblers, nice views of nightingales but the singing golden orioles were only glimpsed. The Lake itself was pretty quiet aside from the resident common terns, but 15 black terns passed through quickly. More surprising was a flythrough of 4 avocets - a local tick for Jono.

Then back to an old quarry site where we immediately saw a rather impressive adult eagle owl which flew across and landed to give excellent views. I'd visited this site before with Jono a couple of years back and only managed to see a chick, so the upgrade was most welcome. We had a look at another nearby quarry site only for history to repeat itself - 2 chicks in the regular nest site but no sign of the adults. No doubt we were being watched. It seems eagle owls are now locally common and use pretty much every available former and sometimes active quarry site. I'd guess human land reshaping has provided opportunities for this species in lowland areas that may not have been available before - good or bad? Who know, but it really can't be long before they establish in the UK.

Eagle Owl

Alien

And that was Saturday's birding. A fine day indeed in great company.... followed by a splendid meal with Jono and Aurelia in Verdun with a few drinks. Hardcore as we are, in bed by 11 knackered!!

Sunday 13th May

An altogether more relaxed affair with a late start due to heavy rain and - more honestly - laziness. We rechecked Madine but nothing new, then went on to Jono's most local site Lachaussee. Conditions weren't great, it was remarkably cold and breezy after yesterday's heat, so we mostly mooched around the hides and chewed the fat. Ornithological entertainment was provided by at least 3 stonking purple herons, one of which displayed in the reed (albeit distantly). A single black tern was present and hobbies and marsh harriers showed nicely too. Satisfied with the weekend's haul we retired to chez Jono for a chilled afternoon watching the premiership season finale (damp squib) before heading back to Luxembourg and homeward.

Purple Heron

A really excellent weekend - thanks Jono!

Pompeii and Capri - 28th April to 2nd May 2018

A short trip to see the Roman city of Pompeii with Mrs Fearn was very pleasant. We arrived late on the Saturday evening, spent day one at Pompeii then the next day moved over for a day and a night on the spectacular island of Capri.

 

Birds of course were not the focus, but I managed to see enough to keep me interested; Italian Sparrow (a full fat tick these days!), Spanish Sparrow, Blue Rock Thrush, flocks of Bee-eaters, Hoopoe, Woodchat, Melodious Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, abundant Serins, Firecrest, Golden Oriole, Alpine Swift, Yellow-legged gulls, migrant Hobby and Marsh Harrier and Turtle Dove were the highlights. Wood Warblers, Pied Flycatchers and Whinchats were all surprisingly common breeding birds around the oak woodlands of Capri too.