Scottish Magic Part 1 (Nan Ron!)

Scotland is one of those places that if your a keen birder, has some extremely attractive qualities about it! I joined Stephen Menzie and Christopher Bridge on a 2 part trip to carry out some ringing on Nan Ron (no, not a distant releative of mine) a small island located in the depths of the north. The main focus was to ring European Storm Petrels, a small bird that nests on this uninhabited island before making a long migratory journey down to Africa. In terms of ringing, I accompanied the small group of ringers to hopefully learn a lot more about these birds.

After the 10 hour journey up throughout the night, we were completely shattered whilst waiting at the harbour. Small flocks of Twite flew past and a small handful of Rock Pipits, Wheatears and Pied Wagtails were feeding along the shoreline. We boarded the boat and made it onto the small island 20 minutes later. It wasn't long before we saw what was patrolling the skies, but Great Skuas. These birds breed on the island and were truly fantastic to see up close.

This bird had a green darvic on its right leg

Of course, these birds were very territorial and dive bombed anything to enter its territory, even me!

Imagine that coming your way! .......Incoming!!!

If that didn't work, then, plan two was to just sit on the nearest mound and pretend that they didn't care.

The team we were with got to work in looking for some Great Skua chicks and we soon came across a small individual that was thought to be about 5-7 days old.

Another chick we found was probably about 3 weeks old

So to the Stormies, we set up the nets every night just before dusk and we had a large sound system which would play out the calls. The Storm Petrels, would fly towards the calls and into the nets, get extracted carefully and then be ringed by a ringer. Simples!

It was fascinating, being able to see these birds in the hand. I, up until that point had only ever seen one distant bird over the sea. We had about 3 hours of darkness because we were so far north, so we needed to work fast to try and ring as many birds as we could in the limited time

A great shot here of its underwing, something which is quite difficult to see when they're flying fast over the sea

and you can see its lovely white rump here.

Through comparing and contrasting the birds, it was great to see the variation from one bird to the next. Overall, we caught 1,200 Storm Petrels and in that number, we had 120 re-traps from previous years, we also had a couple of foreigners ranging from Portuagal and Norway.

Also on the island, we had a go at 'spring' trapping Wheatears. We managed to catch 2 juvenilles which was nice to see!

I then went on a Snipe hunt and managed to find a nest of 4 eggs, followed by an individual just at the right age to be ringed.

Here's the cute factor... everybody say awww..!! A really nice bird with incredibly decorative facial markings.

I carried out a couple of sea watches whilst on the island and also was lucky enough to go on a boat trip to see the island from a different perspective. Manx Shearwaters and Fulmars graced over the sea, good numbers of Black Guillemots were also there to be seen

Black Guillemot in Summer plumage - taken by Stephen Menzie

A Black Throated diver was also a nice find offshore, a hanful of Gannets, Puffins and Great Skuas also put in an appearance. Many Shags and Kittiwakes were still nesting on the cliffs and a couple of Hooded Crows and Rock Doves were also nice to see.

In terms of plant life the only thing I found remotely interesting was this fine Marsh Orchid:

The sea life was a little more interesting with a quite a variety

The red things are beadlet anenomes apparently!

One last thing to finish off the post... and image of a super Storm Petrel - taken by Stephen Menzie

The Big Butterfly Count 2012

Through nursing a hangover, I couldn't think of a better suggestion that to get outside and carry out a butterfly count. After this summer's dreadful weather, its a worry that many species will've been severely affected.

Making a short walk down to the River Elwy that runs through St. Asaph, you could see that butterflies were few and far between. Covering a small area of about 200m, I managed to catch up with 6 Snall Tortoiseshell, 2 Commas, 6 Meadow Browns and a Speckled Wood!

In past years, I've witnessed a far more diverse range of species including peacocks, many blues and white varieties.

The big butterfly count is a nationwide survey aimed to help assess the health of the environment we live in today. It was launched back in 2010 and an impressive 10,000 people took part, counting 210,000 butterflies and day-flying moths across the nation. More people took part in 2011 and this year's big butterfly count is taking place from Saturday 14th July - Sunday 5th August 2012.

I see this as an excellent opportunity for as many people to just take a little piece of time to stop and look whats around them. Please visit the website below and add any information on the butterflies you do see in your area

http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about

Scaup at Conwy RSPB

Not by any means a rareity but a scarce bird inland and although Conwy RSPB is on the coast, we suprisingly get few chances to get close good views of a drake Scaup.

A nice drake that to me could be just starting its moult into an eclipse plumage although it does seem that this bird appears to be oiled as you can tell from this image below.



Other birds included up to 4 Common Sandpipers, 2 Lesser Whitethroats and a handful of Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers. A Sedge Warbler made an appearance and a brief view of a young Reed Warbler was also nice to see.

House Martins and a couple of Swallows drifted past and atleast 40 Black Tailed Godwits were also reported earlier in the morning along with a female and juvenile Redstart.

A swift suprise at Bempton

Myself, Phil Owen and Henerz 'swiftly' decided on a decision to twitch an Alpine Swift that had been showing relatively well at Bempton Cliffs on the East Coast of Yorkshire. Only 15% of Alpine Swifts stay more than one day and can be effectively 'twitched' so making the decision to just 'go' assuming it roosted the night before was a major risk.

 

 

We arrived with clear blue skies at 6am, without another birder in sight. This wasn't good news as it looked like we were going to have to do all the hard work and find this by ourselves bearing in mind this was a swift... constantly on the wing! We could only go on from what we had heard on the previous day. It was favouring the highest cliffs which were well over a mile North of the visitor centre. Having had a lot of rain in the night, the place was saturated and waterlogged. We had to wade through grass at knee height. Within a few hundred metres, we were already soaked and my mood was starting to darken very quickly!

 

 

It got worse and worse by sliding and slipping in the mud and a cold perishing wind did not help things (considering I was dressed for July - it felt like 9 degrees!) We put in a good two hours without a sighting of this bird and myself and Phil decided to split up and head back.

 

 

I got so far and in a huff sat down on one of the seats. Phil spotted a couple of Swifts cutting through the air, but one of them was just that little bit different. It was larger, browner, with a unmistakeable white belly! ALPINE!!! We both shouted and nearly made a nearby photographer drop his camera in fright! As quick as we'd seen it, it had gone, obviously making its way up to the highest point. After a quick phone call, Henerz, was able to get brilliant views of it. We eventually joined him to see this fabulous bird again. It seemed to be carrying out a circuit of the headland.

Alpine Swift

We also acquired super views of breeding Gannets, Razorbills, Guillemots, Puffins, Kittiwakes and Fulmars.

The Gannets showed superbly

Razorbill

Puffin

This was also one of the best places in Yorkshire to see Corn Bunting where we saw a few sat singing on fence posts.

Singing Corn Bunting

Yellow Wagtail was also seen as were a good, healthy population of Tree Sparrows

Tree Sparrows

 Moving on from Bempton Cliffs, we stopped off at Wykeham forest Raptor point which in the past has produced reliable for Honey Buzzard. The weather conditions were slightly on the windy side which was probably holding the majority of birds down. With it being such a vast range to scan, we felt a little on our own despite there being a more people 'viewing'. Sadly, on this ocassion they were sleeping...

Come on woman, there's a bloody Honey Buzzard to look for!!

Dispite not seeing the Honey Buzzard, a flock of 30+ Crossbills were a good sight. A Tree Pipit gave good views from a nearby tree and a couple of Willow Warblers and Goldcrests were heard singing.