Grey Phalarope At Conwy RSPB

Of what was planning to be a relaxing day turned out to be a mad twitch when a Grey Phalarope turned up at Conwy RSPB.

There's been 2 records of red necked, grey and wilson's phalarope at Conwy RSPB up until today.

The bird first got reported in at 11.45am, 15 minutes and half a tank worth of petrol later and I arrived at Conwy. The bird was showing well in front of Benarth hide. It was fairly flighty at times occassionally being harrassed by a red and greenshank.

A great bird to get and another lifer... that's two phalaropes in a space of a week, two lifers!

Now, where's that Wilson's!!??

Scottish Birding

Scotland's known well for specialities in the bird world and when the opportunity arises to spend a week birding there, I couldn't possibly turn the offer down when Mike Duckham asked me! Julie, an American birder also joined us as she had come over to see what the UK had to offer.

With having endured a 7 hour journey up to Nethy Bridge (our first location), we were really keen to get out in the field birding and start the hunt for a Capacallie (our target bird). With an hour or so to spare, we did exactly that looking in a nearby wood but had no luck... that’s ok, we had the whole of the next day!

The next day started with a brief visit to Loch Garten. This was mainly for the birds on the feeders so we could get closer views of Crested Tits, Siskins and a creature that is more or less absent from North Wales, the red squirrel... and close views is exactly what we had! The red squirrels were diving, jumping and feeding around us. It was fantastic to see them and a bonus to get within near touching distance. The Crested Tits gave extremely good views to add to this and were a pleasure to see

Following on from this, we tried out another location for Capercaillie, the walk lasted 2 hours into woods that were known for the birds but at the end of it this is was the best we came up with...what do you think? Capa?

I'll let you make your own mind up on that one...

By this time news was filtering up to us that 600+ leaches petrels were casually flowing by the coasts of The Wirral and North Wales and 5 Sabine's Gull were recorded off Rhos Point along with sightings of Balearic Shearwaters and all 4 species of Skuas... Argggh, what had I done? I tried to keep happy in the hope that we'd find a Ptarmigan at our next destination. Up to now, the weather had been pretty decent... so we set off up a mountain and the weather turned extreme. Rain, hail and howling gales, that thought came into my head again. A couple of Reindeer did await our return and brightened up the moment on our way back...

Fair play to Mike though, he didn’t give up, we soon got back to our base and he thought he'd try and scope the Ptarmigan from 7 miles away on the hope that on 60 times, he may see a dot moving across the view... hmmmm.

The following day, after getting bollocking for not cleaning the dishes and folding our sheets into perfect squares off the owners, we travelled 2 hours NE to Rattray Head (Aberdeenshire). This location has been known for its migrants in previous times but with a strong gale force NW'lys we weren’t getting our hopes up too much. During the two days up there, we spent a good few hours sea watching with the best bird being an adult Pomarine Skua, a couple of Great Skuas and that’s about it!

We also travelled to and from the Loch of Strathbeg to where a host of other birds included the first 1000 wintering Pink Footed Geese making their way in, a lone Brent and a handful of goldeneye and whooper swans. These were joined by a Dunlin (to which some guy swore blind it was a Pec Sand), Greenshank, a couple of Ruff, Snipe and a Spotted Redshank. There were a couple of reports of Pectoral Sands and a Wryneck that was supposed to be knocking about somewhere but failed to catch up with them, or maybe they weren’t really there at all...??!

Anyway, on our way back to base, I caught on to a lone late Swift which shot passed, (14th sept) a decent record, and what it was doing in Scotland during NW'ly winds still confuses me.

The next day brought us to our next leg of our journey, a 5 hour journey across the Scottish highlands to Oban. We stayed overnight at Oban and took the ferry across the next morning to the Isle Of Mull. For anyone who hasn't been to the Mull, it’s an absolutely fantastic location with stunning views and reminds me very much of North Wales.

Of Course our target bird was the White Tailed Eagle and it wasn't long until we locked on to it. A 2 mile walk into the heart of Mull gave us just those views we'd been waiting for... to start with Mike spotted a raptor very high up a good couple miles away above a mountain, he got us all on to it and after a good 10 minutes the bird came down to a good distance. It looked to be a second summer bird gliding through the valley. Other birds we encountered during the 2 days on Mull were a fantastic sight of 2 Golden Eagles soaring above our heads, a group of 5 Arctic Skuas, a barn Owl, Med Gull, 2 Sanderling, red throated diver, 2 Slav Grebes, 3 dipper and hooded crows.

We did notice overall that we didn’t come across one wren, dunnock, long tailed tits or crossbill whilst on the trip...Could this be because of the harsh winter we had?

With an excellent trip under our belts, all that awaited us was a 7 hour our journey back down... we did split the time up with a visit to Fairhaven Lake, Lancs to pick up a Red Necked Phalarope. Another lifer, it was a fantastic looking bird obviously blown off-course. Maybe a little consolation for all those leach’s missed! I still live in hope yet..!

Great trip overall and a big thanks to Mike Duckham for taking the time out, being prepared and organised as well as carrying out all that millage despite the 2 speeding tickets!!

Lapland Buntings

Similar to the structure of Black Terns in the UK, Lapland Buntings have also given the same impression with impressive numbers on Shetland and Orkney earlier in the month. I was still yet to catch up with them! The Great Orme, usually holds lapland buntings at this time of year and recently up to 7 birds have been present.

I took tuesday to track them down, after a good 20 mins of searching, I located 2 birds feeding low down in the heather near the limestone pavements.

I decided to try Point Of Ayr today (thurs) in search of a migrant bird, all seemed pretty quiet with small numbers of ringed plover, dunlin and redshank. I then locked onto a larger finch flock which landed nearby to where I was standing... 30+ Linnet, 7 Meadow Pipit and 2 Lapland Buntings.
Other birds included 2 Chiffchaffs, Great Spotted Woodpecker and 15 swallows.

Whiskered Tern at Inner Marsh Farm

With the influx of black terns in the UK, the arrival of a Tern at Inner Marsh Farm, (Cheshire) was firstly presumed as a juvenelle Black Tern. I'd recently caught up with a Black Tern at Talacre so didn't worry too much.

Three days into the stay of the Tern, issues were arised into its identity and with debate turned into a juvinelle Whiskered Tern. I've recently seen these birds in Spain, but made the effort to go along and see the bird for as a UK lifer.

When we arrived at the hide, the bird was elegantly feeding over the lagoons making swift, sharp movements. The tern did stop for a break nearer the hide, but because it was the star bird, decided to behind a black headed gull for the majority of its rest.

This is a record shot of the tern behind the black headed gull, despite the poor weather conditions, the size comparison and main features are apparent.

Welcome

As a first post, I would like to welcome you to my blog. My blog will consist of posts of my birding experiences in forms of reports, news and trips around North Wales.

I'm a keen birder and enjoy patching local sites around North Wales, these include the River Clwyd (Rhyl), Point Of Ayr (Talacre) and the Little Orme (Llandudno).

As I'm also studying in university, I will try to keep the Blog up to date as much as I can and add images where possible of birds seen.