'Semi P'

An intense tropical downpour yesterday forced a tiny wader onto the hell deck- not surprising really as the area quickly became the largest source of fresh water for well over a hundred miles. The bird hunkered down in the anti- slip matting but once the rain stopped the bird started bathing, preening and then drinking. I was delighted to see that it was a rather brightly coloured juvenile semipalmated sandpiper- a charming little wader that spent an hour or so onboard before continuing its' southerly migration. 

the partial webbing between the toes can be seen in this shot

note the slightly bulbous tip to the end of the bill

the peach wash and diffuse streaking on the neck is a good ID feature

and only faint white mantle 'V' 

Ruff justice- another country 'first'!

I have been lucky in that on two previous voyages a few years ago I saw a common swift off the coast of Suriname that once 'accepted' proved to be the first documented record for Suriname and South America. A year later I got my 'first for Bulgaria' in the form of a Black- throated accentor' - that too being accepted by the relevant National rarities committee. Strike three for the bespectacled, pelagic birding geek yesterday,  in the form of a very nice ruff that flew over the sea from the north, settled briefly on the waves as if it thought it was a phalarope and then flew south for the coast of Suriname! ...........

Week four of a five week survey and for want of a better word the sea birding has been rubbish. Maybe I'm being a tad harsh but many days have gone by without a single bird being seen, and indeed I have even had spells of two and three days without a single feather to gaze upon. Of course spending many hours wave -watching eventually turns up something and I have been fortunate to see plenty of cetaceans, complimented by two red-billed tropicbirds, a few Audubons' shearwaters, a single great shearwater, a few pomarine skuas and a handful of boobies- masked, brown and red-footed. A few birds have settled on deck for a rest during their southerly migrations including a cattle egret and a least sandpiper- but its been slow......oh so mind numbingly slow. At least until yesterday. As I glanced over the starboard rail I picked up what was obviously a wader flying 15 metres or so above the waves and alongside the ship at a distance of maybe 120 metres. It was largely in silhouette in the intense tropical sunlight and I knew I couldn't ID it on that view. Suddenly the bird banked hard left and dropped towards the sea surface and flew towards the ship. The flight was rather languid for a wader and certainly not the ultra fast, mechanical beats associated with so many of the small sandpipers I am familiar with. Head- on, I could see a very nice 'rusty' crown and with improving views, a hint of a pale eyestripe and significantly projecting toes. Then the white sides to the rump were apparent, the weak white bar across the secondaries was a clue, as were the plain, buffy tones to the face and neck and as the bird dropped down to settle on the sea, a pale underwing and dark, medium length bill with a very slight down- curve near the tip. Hmmm- interesting in a vaguely familiar sort of way. Anyway, having grabbed a few record shots (no mean feat from a 15 metre high vessel rolling almost 10 degrees port and starboard at seven second intervals!) I studied the bird through my binoculars and tried to turn it into a rare wader that I had never before encountered, but after a few seconds the bird flew rapidly south. I checked my photos and checked through the key ID points and arrived at a probable juvenile ruff- hmmpf- a nice bird and no big deal, but something niggled away in my head for the rest of my sea watch time. Later I had a look at the Suriname bird species checklist that stood at a respectable 749. Ruff was not on it- yikes! I rechecked the list, rechecked my photos, enlarged them on the computer, rechecked the list again, went through the ID features again then got worried that I was making a silly ID mistake- after all birds look so different on the sea with no sense of scale and the light was bleaching the bird and I was tired, blah blah blah.  At that point I realised that if I was going to claim a country first I wanted a good second opinion on the birds ID. I sent the best photos to my good birding friend Bob McMillan on the Isle of Skye and just said 'can you assist with the ID of this bird' - no prompting or clues, other than that if I had seen this bird in western Europe at this time of year I would not have doubts as to its ID but as it was off the coast of Suriname it could be an important record. Bob quickly got back to me confirming that it was certainly a Ruff. I then sent the photos to a Dutch birding friend based in Paramaribo- Arie Spaans - who is compiling the latest guide to the birds of Suriname and after circulating the photos to other birders in Suriname he was delighted to inform me that yes it was a ruff and that the Suriname bird list now stood at 750 species! Happy days as they say. 

A trio of boobies.

A good week for boobies- although only observed in low numbers, this juvenile red footed booby makes it three species in 5 days. Having done the obligatory 'eat the flying fish' routine it decided to settle on a mast allowing for some portrait shots to be taken. I have also had a brief visit from a bottlenose dolphin and a distant frigate bird sp. Some autumnal bird migration has started with a few more pomarine skuas, a single great shearwater and several distant wader spp. all flying south. Hopefully something unusual will pass within range of my lens before too long! 

Masked maurauder

The skies around the ship have been largely empty although a very showy Masked booby put on a show as it chased the flying fish. A day later one of its' cousins showed up in the form of a Brown booby- again feasting on the flying fish but on this occasion keeping a greater distance from my vantage point. 

masked booby

masked booby

masked booby preening

brown booby

flying fish- seemingly on every menu!

Red-billed tropicbird

I have not worked offshore Suriname for a couple of years so it is good to be back. I'm currently two weeks into the survey and although cetaceans and seabirds have been scarce I have racked up a few species including spinner dolphin, pantropical spotted dolphin, melon-headed whale, short-finned pilot whale, sperm whale and a few other distant animals that I couldn't identify. On the birding front I have seen red-billed tropic bird, pomarine skua, Audubon's shearwater, Cory's shearwater, sooty tern and a single Masked booby. Stowaways onboard have included a cattle egret and a least sandpiper. I have also seen billfish, sunfish, skipjack tuna and the wonderful flying fish that so often join me on my voyages in the tropics. 

Red-billed tropic birds are one of the highlights of sea watching for me, but as yet I have not managed to get decent photographs of the half dozen or so I have encountered over the years. The latest bird was typically cryptic- that may sound odd for a bright white seabird but they invariable cruise over the open ocean at anything between 50 and 150 metres above the sea surface so are often tricky to pick out against a tropical blue sky filled with intense sunlight and fluffy white clouds! Whilst concentrating on the shearwater action I glanced around and saw the bird as it had already passed over head and was flying away- at a distance of some 70+ metres, so I only managed a couple of record shots- very frustrating but hopefully I'll get another chance at this impressive species before too long!

red-billed tropicbird

red-billed tropicbird

melon-headed whale

Of twitchers and ringers

Late June saw me squeeze in a couple of quality twitches- first up was a splendid 1st summer male Ortolan in Morar, followed the next day by good views of a Blyth's reed warbler near Inverurie- at one point it even started to sing! Unfortunately the Ortolan was trapped and ringed and never seen again which was a shame as a number of birders were enroute to see what is a very rare bird for mainland Scotland. I was grateful to have been invited to see the bird before the ringers intervened as I would have been very miffed to have dipped under such circumstances. I can appreciate the scientific value of some ringing methodologies but the seemingly growing trend of targeting a scarcity in order to obtain a 'ringing tick' appears to be a worrying development within some sections of the ringing fraternity. Each to their own of course, but with so much 'guidance' given to birders and photographers concerning birds' welfare I wonder if, when and how it will/may become necessary to mitigate for ringing activities that have questionable scientific objectives in a similar way? 

1st summer male Ortolan.

As anticipated July has seen a major slump in terms of quality birds to be seen in the North of Scotland- largely a function of continuing challenging weather conditions, coupled with the usual interlude to migration. In consequence I have concentrated on gathering breeding evidence from my local patches in order to put the information onto the BTO bird track system that gets forwarded to the highland recorder for inclusion in the Highland bird report. I've managed some good records for the area including recently fledged chicks of redstart, winchat, grey wagtail and ring ouzel in addition to the commoner species such as spotted flycatcher, lesser redpoll, siskin, ringed plover and oystercatcher. Two barn owls visiting a probable nest site was an unexpected bonus as these birds have been slow to recover from  a couple of  back to back harsh winters a number of years ago. I have also seen two Black-throated diver chicks and enjoyed marvellous scope views of an adult in its magnificent summer plumage. 

common sandpiper

Barn owl

Ringed plover chick

Oystercatcher chick

Sticky Iccy

Recent news of a singing Icterine warbler in Aberdeenshire warranted a drive over the Cairngorms to Crathie, near Ballater. It is not often that the chance to see one of these birds on the mainland in spring presents itself, so it was an opportunity not to be missed. Having left the cold and dreary NW highlands it was good to see sunshine, blue skies and a temperature of 23 degrees celsius in Aberdeenshire. Upon parking the car in the lay-by, the bird could be heard singing somewhere nearby although out of sight. The mixed warbling, interspersed with scratchy notes and almost song thrush-like chirps was delightful in the mid afternoon sun. Swifts flew overhead, willow warblers and chaffinches were singing and the noisy Icterine warbler continued to pulse out its lovely song. After a few minutes of scanning the silver birch and scrub I located the bird quite high up in the canopy, the blustery conditions making it difficult to pick out in the kaleidoscope of green leaves and flickering shadow and shade. After watching the bird through my scope for some time, it stopped singing abruptly and flew over my head to the other side of the road. It was notable how much the flight action and long-winged appearance suggested a spotted flycatcher. Having walked over the road to try and relocate the bird, it immediately flew back again although this time much closer to the road allowing for better shots to be obtained. 

I enjoyed the bird for almost 50 minutes before setting off on my 125 mile return drive. After 15 miles or so of driving I chanced upon a a guy standing at the side of the road. He had a large rucksack and what I took to be a seabag. I'm often cautious about giving lifts but I know that public transport and the vast distances in the Highlands can be tricky to negotiate. The guy in question didn't look threatening in any way and actually looked very smart in a traditional kilt so on impulse I pulled over and as as he was heading for Inverness I was glad to assist. He turned out to be excellent company for my drive back through the mountains- an interesting background of exploration, sailing, photography and travel writing. It was great to chance upon someone else that had travelled widely to countries like Greenland, Alaska and Chile- some of my own personal favourites, so I was keen to check out his website on my return home- Alastair-Scott.com - worth checking out if you like the thought of taking a dog team across frozen Arctic wasteland, coupled with an array of other impressive travel adventures! Brilliant stuff! A lovely twitch with good weather, good company and a cracking bird to add to my 'Scottish' life list! 

Crex crex

Just back from a few days on the Isle of Lewis where the theme of westerly gales and tough birding continued. I only managed a trip species list of 63 over three and a half days birding- including a number of seabirds seen from the two Minch crossings. Best birds were undoubtedly a 1st summer Mediterranean gull near Stornoway- a very scarce bird in Scotland and a very smart and very obliging Corncrake. Probably best to point out that I did not disturb the corncrake- it was creeping about in relatively scant vegetation (everything is late growing this year) and I took the photos from a public road, using my maximum focal length of 400mm and have cropped the shots significantly. As it was a very blustery day the bird was clearly oblivious to my presence due to the noise of the wind and the moving vegetation between the bird and my fortuitous vantage point. Having captured a few images I watched it creep about in the nettles until it was eventually lost from view. 

1st summer Med.Gull

Arctic tern