Patch reality

Arrived home last night via Malta, Gatwick and Inverness airports. My first hours stroll around the local village patch this morning turned up 2 swallows, 2 linnets, single wheatear, 4 willow warblers, 2 chiffchaffs, 2 bullfinches, and 2 LBB gulls at the river mouth. 7 year ticks in one stroll slightly offset the shock of birding in the real world! Great to be back though and wonderful to see trees! This evening I wandered along the golf course/coast path for 40 minutes in the light rain and cold breeze.  A shelduck and two black-throated divers flying over head were nice surprises with the divers being another year tick. The golf course held flocks of obviously 'new in' birds, including 20+ pied wagtails and 60+ meadow pipits. A number of pairs of oystercatcher and ringed plover are obviously back on territories. The only other bird of note was a single turnstone creeping over the shingle. I have just updated my BTO bird track records and now it is beer o'clock!

Woodchat v bush chat

Today (15/04) was just amazing! At one stage there were 10 migrants flitting around the heli-deck- 2 subalpine warblers, 2 woodchat shrikes, 1 orphean warbler, 2 turtle doves, a redstart, a rufous bush chat (robin) and a large hippo warbler sp. which I thought was probably an olivaceous- although I would really like for someone to put me right on that ID if possible?! Apart from the turtle doves everything was either being chased by or mobbing the shrikes. It was a manic birding session for me as at one stage I had a shrike, a subalpine and the RBC in my view finder! The most amazing contest was between one of the woodchat shrikes and the rufous bush chat, with the shrike repeatedly swooping at the chat which indignantly held its ground whilst frantically flicking it tail and wings- an awesome sight!

It took me about 10 minutes of watching 'the' shrike in action before I realised that there were actually two birds, with the lower photo showing a bird with a significant white patch behind the eye and less staining on the flanks and belly.  A few moments later both birds were on view at the same time.

A rufous bush chat (robin) is a bird that I have always wanted to see and I was not disappointed with this bird- it has a wonderful tail flicking action and was remarkably confiding when the shrikes were not harassing it. 

rufous bush chat

And finally some desperate shots of the very shy hippolais sp. that refused to show itself clearly.

Olivaceous?

Battling bee-eater

Pretty grim conditions yesterday (14/04) with gale force 8/9 (40 knot) winds coming out of the west and rough seas, light intermittent rain and the occasional flash of forked lightning. Not the best conditions for a migratory sea crossing! Whilst on watch I noticed the shape of an interesting looking bird making sweeping turns across the wind and waves and realised that a bee-eater was struggling towards the ship. It was flying strongly, but erratically, as it approached the ship and looked very small and insignificant against the backdrop of the rough seas and 3 metre waves. I could barely hold and focus my camera in the buffeting wind but did get a few 'record' shots.......

bee-eater struggling over the waves in a force 8/9 blow!

The bird flew over the heli-deck and made a couple of high speed circuits of the vessel, trying to find a suitable place to settle but was blown back out over the sea on each attempt.

checking out our satellite dish...

The bird dropped out of sight in the lee of the vessel but despite my attempts to relocate it on the lower decks, it was not seen again. A real treat to see this bird, although rather too briefly and in less than ideal conditions, but a great way to bring up the forty species mark for the voyage!

and dropping over the side......

A few hours later and the wind had dropped to a force 4. More birds were seen heading around and onto the ship including a turtle dove, 2 swallows and an orphean warbler. This bird looked very tired and bedraggled and almost presented itself in the open- but not quite! I was still delighted to finally get a half decent photograph of this handsome warbler.

western orphean warbler with severe wear of the tail feathers

The rest of the day turned up another single turtle dove, and interestingly a mixed flock of 5 house martins and 3 swifts - the first sighting of this species during this voyage. Unfortunately the swifts and house martins were all flying down-wind and heading due east! Sea watching produced 5 cory's shearwaters and a small shearwater sp. (probably balearic). 

Migrant mix.

Strange days recently with regard to visible migration. Yesterday and the day before (11-12/04), I didn't see a bird (wind Beaufort 3 NW) other than the resident seabirds with a nice line of 10 cory's shearwaters being the pick of the crop. Today (13/04 - wind Beaufort 5 SW) has been rather frantic, with the following noted:- 1 sardinian warbler, 2 house martins, 3 turtle doves, 1 yellow wagtail, 2 chiffchaffs, 4 willow warblers, 1 orphean warbler, 2 subalpine warblers and a cracking male pied flycatcher- my 39th positively ID'd bird species for this voyage.

I finally managed reasonable shots of turtle dove and subalpine warbler, but unfortunately the juicy pied fly and orphean did not want to play with my camera!

Turtle dove- 1 of 3 today

subalpine warbler 

just a few more days of survey to go then I can think about some proper birding back in the UK!

Sunspot!

Saw my first ever sunspot a couple of sunsets ago so have posted a (filterless) photo here as I suppose that it counts as a life tick! :- The 'spot' is at approximately 5 o'clock in the photo.

sunspot, lower right

Visible migration has changed tempo with far more swallows heading north (6 yesterday and 7 today). Other migrants have included 3 blackcaps, 1 chiffchaff, 2 yellow wagtails and a subalpine warbler. It feels as if there is a tangible urgency to passage now, with all the birds appearing more 'restless' and reluctant to stop off on the ship. All the observed birds today have stopped on the decks for only a matter of seconds (as opposed to hours or even days in some recent examples) and all looked around in an agitated fashion before resuming their northward flights. Conditions onboard are unchanged and we are not expecting any difficult weather and yet the birds have noticeably changed their behaviours. 

Hi Jynx! & the bogey bird.

Every birder has or had one so they say- some have several- I have a number! I am of course referring to the 'bogey bird'- a species that, for a given individual birder, remains stubbornly difficult to connect with. The species in question is not necessarily a rare species, it is just difficult to be in the right place at the right time to see it! This can be especially so for species that typically turn up in the UK as passage migrants, or seasonal visitors with a restricted range. Species like alpine swift, arctic warbler and roller come to mind, although even the humble quail or little ringed plover can be hard to catch up with- unless you live in a 'hotspot' for the species concerned. This inability to connect with your 'bogey' may go on for years, sometimes even decades and the species in question can become a bit of an obsession- mine certainly is! It is sometimes frustrating when you learn that, with apparent ease, other birders connect with the species you have sought for so long. This is especially so when they did not even set out to see the bird in question and even worse when they don't really appreciate the fact that they have it on their list! Then of course there is the real torment of dipping out and being informed that 'your' bird has just been seen by dudes or grockles 20 minutes before you arrived! You have to be able to laugh at yourself sometimes!

For me, being at sea during many key spring and autumn migration times has proven very frustrating!  Of course this is all part of the 'fun' of birding. I think that over the years my birding exploits would have been rather boring if I had not dipped on heaps of birds. For me, part of my birding adventure continues to be wondering and hoping if I am going to see a particular target bird when I venture into the field.

The wryneck (Jynx torquilla) is my bogey bird extraordinaire!  I have lost count of the times I have dipped out on this species. I have narrowly missed them in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Aberdeenshire and mainland Shetland. Take last autumn for example- I dipped out six times in five days looking for four individual birds. Admittedly I was a day late on Portland, then the next day on the south Devon coast path I missed a bird by three hours. Over the next three days I dipped on two separate occasions at Porthgwarra and twice more in the Nanquido valley. On one occasion I was at the Hayle estuary enjoying very nice Baird's and buff-breasted sandpipers when the text message came through saying that the Nanquidno bird was showing well from the '5 bar' gate near the mill. As I knew the site well I set off immediately and less than an hour later I walked down to see the bird, only to find a 'birder' and his two young sons actually in the field and stomping through the undergrowth in an obvious attempt to flush the bird from cover! When said 'birder' saw me by the gate he sheepishly came over and explained that the bird had been feeding in the open but that they wanted to get closer views, and so had climbed over the gate which caused the bird to dive into the brambles and that they were trying to get it to come back out! Although my mind was full of expletives I somehow just mumbled something about 'better luck' next time and headed down the valley muttering to myself the whole time about 'everyone knows heavily flushed wrynecks often sit in deep cover for hours'. I sat on a rock and looked at the sea for a very, very, long time............ 

..........I headed on deck this morning and this LBJ came over the waves, sat over my head for 30 seconds, flitted to the main mast for 20 seconds more, then continued flying north. I'm not sure but I think I heard it laffing!!! I'll get it on my UK life list one day- hopefully! Happy days!! :)

Wryneck- simply stunning!

Migrant fest!

The way things transpired with our work plan yesterday, meant that I could have my first lie-in of the voyage and so my alarm went off at 08:00 instead of 05:30. (local time). Normally this would be bliss, however as soon as I walked on deck I realised that this was not a day for loafing. Light southerly winds had encouraged far more visible migration than in recent days and a mixed bag of goodies were flitting around the deck. The spell between 08:30 and 12:00 gave a count that included 2 willow warblers, a probable (western) orphean warbler, a chiffchaff, 3 yellow wagtails, 2 turtle doves, a great grey shrike, a swallow, a subalpine warbler, and a short- toed lark! 

western orphean warbler?

I have never seen an Orphean warbler before so was rather pleased to get a shot even though it was through some safety netting on the helideck.

Great grey shrike

The shrike was rather canny and refused to turn around for a better photo and it also stayed put on the furthest extremity of the helideck before dropping off the stern and flying out over the sea.

turtle dove (head partially shaded)

leggy yellow wagtail 

The turtle doves, although a little nervous were relatively approachable and seemed to be quite comfortable sitting in the heat of the day and unbearably bright sunshine. More interesting for me however, was watching the yellow wagtails strut their stuff on the decks as they chased flies. They just looked so leggy!
The next LBJ caused me quite a bit of strife in trying to suss its identification. I knew it was a 'new' bird for me and after much deliberation I eventually settled for short- toed lark (after getting an ID assist from my Ullapool based, birding friend Richard Rafe), - based largely on the way in which the tertials extended to the ends of the primary feathers, couple with the slight 'capped' effect. I have never seen a short toed lark before so two WP ticks in a day at sea is pretty good going for me! Hopefully I'll get these birds on my UK life list sometime!

short-toed lark

tertials extending to primary tips despite extensive wear

Unfortunately we had a scheduled helicopter arrival at 13:00 which 'encouraged' most of our visitors to continue their journey onwards for europe. I did however see a yellow wagtail and the lark settling down under the helideck in the failing light and I glimpsed what was probably the orphean too.

Today has been fairly similar. This mornings tally included 6 turtle doves, 2 yellow wagtails, 2 kestrels, 1 sedge warbler, 1 willow warbler, 1 wheatear, 1 subalpine warbler, 4 feral/racing pigeons and a skylark. The orphean warbler put in a brief appearance too.

willow warbler

Mayhem is the only word I can use to describe the reaction of the migrants with the arrival of two kestrels that repeatedly circled the ship and occasionally settled to watch the antics of the small passerines. Interestingly, the turtle doves all took off en-mass when the falcons arrived, but the bulkier feral pigeons hardly gave them a second glance and remained sitting on the heli-deck throughout the repeated fly-pasts. 

The wheatear seemed comfortable out in the open and occasionally crouched in the heli-deck netting during the frequent falcon sorties.

wheatear

A very enjoyable couple of days- apart from the fact that there were no seabirds or cetaceans.

Stop press: The Orphean warbler is deceased- caught this evening by one of the marauding kestrels- and there I was hoping it was heading for the Scottish highlands!  :(

kestrel eating orphean warbler

Fog

Visibility has fallen steadily over the last 48 hours or so, making any sort of observational work difficult. Before the fog really got a hold we had fairly blustery conditions with a SE wind of Beaufort 6. I watched a distant, long-winged, brownish bird banking hard in the wind, then arc high over the wave crests. I could just make out a pale 'horseshoe' on the rump and convinced myself I was watching a cory's shearwater. I felt rather peeved when the bird eventually came much closer and revealed itself as a gannet- just goes to show that even when you think you have the basics of seabird ID sorted it is still possible to make mistakes! Ooops! Two great skuas were rather more straightforward as they did a relatively close flyby.

Three hours later we were in calm conditions with fog banks rolling in. Today visibility has generally been less than 200 metres. The only birds seen were a subalpine warbler, and a chiffchaff that stayed onboard overnight and new in was a rather damp looking sedge warbler- moving around some stored equipment like a small rodent and occasionally leaping out for a protein rich moth! Great to see this bird at length in the open and unable to dive into thick cover like the ones at home! Interestingly, I noted that this bird would 'crouch and freeze' in a head down posture between moth attacks. Not sure if this is normal Acrocephalus behaviour or a ready adaptation to the lack of cover?

crouch and freeze posture