The Ken Dee Marshes

Since the last post, with the wet walk around 'Doach woods', the holiday has finished and I am back in the rather wet north-west; so I shall give a brief update in a few more posts for the last few days of the holiday..

On Tuesday 14th September, we went for another walk, this time to Loch ken and the marshes surrounding the loch. Not surprisingly it was raining still, but thankfully we didn't get that wet.
With the rain pouring, the birds were rather far and wide bewteen and there was nothing exceptional seen, but in the hide the feeders were alive with woodland birds, the usual you know.. An ideal opportunity for a bit of digiscoping.

After a day of continuous rain, the sunset back at the farm where we were staying, was rather promising - could that be the last of the rain?

*Exam results*

Today was the big day, in which I was to find out whether or not I had passed my 2 re-sit exams which I took in late august this year. These were Ecology and Evolution and Key skills.. So having just got back from a rather wet and windy 3 mile walk around Doach woods, seeing absolutely bugger all, except the odd Buzzard here and there, it was time to check my university emails and see what lay in stall for my future.

{Inbox 1} - The email read...

''Dear Christopher,

Following the Senate Examination Board this morning, I am pleased to inform you that you have passed your re-sit module{s} and can now progress to the next year of your degree programme.

You will recieve an official confirmation via letter from the Academic Registry this week''

As you can imagine with this news, there was nothing else that mattered at that moment in time! How on earth I passed Key skills I do not know, but the revision obviously paid off..

Tomorrow it is back to birding and I shall be in search of Crossbill which I still haven't managed to see yet this year.

Cheers for now..

Bonxies and Manxies

I am currently sat at the dining table in our steading, munching on a box of match-makers, looking out across the surrounding farmland fields, the rain pelting down, wind howling and everywhere is slowly dissapearing. A day for inside jobs I think..

Finding the unexpected Black tern off Carrick beach on Saturday, as well as a Hooded crow, was sure not enough excitement for what was to happen in a 2 and half hour seawatch the following day.

More importantly, on Sunday 12th September it was my 20th birthday and what a day it turned out to be! A nice wadge of cash greeted me in several cards in the morning, Roy dennis's book on 'A life of Ospeys' and several other presents. Added bonus of finding a Black tern yesterday and a week's holiday in scotland free, the day got off to a flying start! Oh and a Red kite from the kitchen window whilst having our breakfast, I couldn't complain..

It was time to head for my favourite birding hotspot in south-west Scotland - Loch ryan. A sea loch situated a few miles north of Stranraer and a haven for birds and birders. Highlights included 3 Juvenile Curlew sandpipers mixed in with a flock of Golden plovers on a clump of seaweed on the incoming tide. These were more than likely passing through on migration, they soon took flight and dissapeared over the other side of the loch.

A quick lunch stop and time to head for Corsewall point for a few hours of seawatching. {NW wind at 18mph} A nice Stonechat in the car-park was a surprise and several Wheatears on passage in the surrounding fields. Time to pick a nice spot with a 180 degree round view - the seawatch began.. Unfortunately Mr M Bridge had only brought his bins away with him on holiday, so it was down to me to find whatever was out there in the Irish sea.

Seawatching totals included:

• 7 Red-throated diver
• 3 Great-Crested grebe
• 3 Fulmar
• 150+ Manx shearwater
• 500+ Gannet
• 23 Cormorant
• 8 Shag
• 5 Common scoter
• 5 Red-breasted merganser
• 1 Black-tailed godwit
• *2 Great skua*
• 30 Black-headed gull
• 25 Common gull
• 40 Herring gull
• 5 Lesser-Black-Bakced gull
• 3 Greater-Black-Backed gull
• 55 Kittiwake
• 5 Sandwich tern
• *1 Juvenile Black tern*

All things considered it was an extremely successfull seatwatch, seeing as though the wind veered from a nice north-westerly gale to a complete standstill turning the sea into a millpond. Still, the Great skuas passed following the Gannets. Great stuff! Great skua was a yeartick aswell bringing the total for 2010 to 240 and on my 20th birthday too! Believe it or not, the picture below is a ridiculously poor digiscoped shot of one of the Great skuas that flew past - the brown blob more or less at the bottom of the picture but centred...

Ferries were continuously travelling back and forth from Ireland, with many seabirds following them, which improved the chances of something different, but sadly no sooties were picked out. Maybe on wednesday when the next seawatch is due?

It was soon time to call it a day and with a Great skua on my yearlist at last, I was quite intent with my efforts. It was September and I was wearing gloves.. Next investment though is a new stand as the one pictured below has had it's days, a foot and several parts missing, although about 10 years old, it has done me well..

A meal in the evening, followed by several glasses of wine and a slideshow of the icelandic pictures to Elaine and Charlie {The folk that own the farm in which we are staying at, friends for 10 years now!} It was time to hit the sack and pray that my efforts regarding my re-sit exams in late august had paid off. Update in the next few days..

Juvenile Black tern off Carrick beach

For the next week I shall be based up in Dumfries and Galloway in south-west Scotland, staying in the lovely villiage called Kirkcudbright, doing some birding and a bit of sight-seeing. To start the trip off, on our journey up north along the A75, a raptor flew across the front of the car. Hmmmm... what was that? I saw it again briefly and it soon became clear that it was a Hobby after the numerous Swallows, that were buzzing around in the nearby fields - a great start!

Today was an even better day with a trip out to our local beach at Carrick, near Gatehouse-of-fleet, where we were in for quite a surprise. We came across a recently built veiwpoint over looking several bays; a flock of Common scoter far out was nice with 3 Great-Crested Grebes mixed in with them, but then I spotted a bird of unknown identity about half a mile out towards an island. It was perched on a log bobbing about in the waves and I had know idea what it was?! The sight of seeing a bird, on a log, in the middle of the sea?? I was thinking rarity at the time, but after 5 mintues of looking intently at the bird, it soon clicked that it was a tern species. Common, Arctic, Little and Sandwich tern could all be ruled out immediately, but I was not expecting what was to unfold next.

The bird flapped it's wings and didn't fly off. Oh shit! The wings were black! Running down from the viewpoint and nearly falling flat on my arse, I reached the beach and quickly relocated the bird again, sat on the log and it was clearly a tern, it then took flight and the alarm bells started ringing as what I was actually watching was a Juvenile Black tern! It then flew around for a while and then dissapeared round the next bay. In hot pursuit running across the car-park and staright through a herd of cows, the bird was feeding in the next bay on arrival. Good scope views were had quite close in but there wasn't enough time for any pictures unfortunately!

The Black tern was a Juvenile with a black cap, small black bill, brown saddle on it's back, sooty black wings and a grey tail. The flight was very characteristic almost with no effort at all, very bouncy and quick wingbeats.

As if the bird had come in on the tide, it soon went out on the tide and began to head out further out to sea, out beyond an island and dissapeared over the horizon. Luckily Mr bridge senior obtained views of the bird and the identity was nailed! A Juvenile Black tern and a nice 239th species on my yearlist! Great stuff! A Hooded crow then flew over making it a rather successfull day!

Check back in the next few days for another update..

My next trip to south-west scotland!

Just a quick post this afternoon. From tomorrow I shall be away in Dumfries and Galloway in south-west scotland for a week, doing some birding with the family. The laptop is about to get packed so I shall update once up in the north.

Several swallows still buzzing around the garden this morning, soon these will be on their way to africa and the Pink-footed geese and our icelandic whooper swans on their way to us. Please keep an eye out for any Whooper swans with red darvics on this winter as these will be the birds that we caught and ringed in iceland this summer. Please send sightings to Kane @ kanebrides@googlemail.com

Bye for now and bring on scotland!

The Swallows kept on coming..

Over the past couple of weeks, the east yorkshire coastline has certainly had it's fair share of autumn migrants, with the odd mega here and there. So with 3 consequetive trips made, it was time to have a rest from the place and do some ringing back home.

On Tuesday 7th September, in the late afternoon, I met up with Kane Brides, Stephen Christmas, Craig Brookes, Ciaran Hatsell and Jenny for a night at their swallow roost site. Arriving around 7pm, 5 nets were erected surrounding the roost site and with the tape recorder set, it was time to stand back and watch the roost descend from the skies and down into the roost. It didn't take long for the swallows to arrive, with an estimated count of around 200 swallows, hopes were high for a sufficient catch tonight.

84 Swallows caught including 2 controls, 2 Sand martin and 1 Yellowhammer. With this catch, the total number of swallows caught by Steve and Kane this autumn, comes to 558 new birds. Well done guys! See Kane's blog for more info @ http://birdringing.blogspot.com/

The following morning, myself, Ciaran and Kane went to set up one of their feeding stations ready for this winter. A secluded site with a lot of potential. Nettles were cut down with a net pole, several branches lopped out of the way and it soon became a rather interesting net ride. Cereal fields at the back and woodland all around, it sure looked the part. You can more or less see where the feeding station will run.
After finishing helping them with the feeding station, it was time to go and have a look for 3 Black terns {1adult+2 Juvs} at Seaforth LWT. After spending an hour looking for them, both on Seaforth and Crosby, it was clear that they had most likely moved on. Yellow wagtail and a 1st-summer Little gull over Crosby was rather nice, with the odd Common tern, but still no more yearticks since the Wryneck at Spurn point.

Autumn migration at Spurn point

Getting back from the east coast late on saturday night after a disastrous dip with Ralph and Jason, I was really quite curious as to how long it would take for me to be back birding in east yorkshire. To be truthful, it didn't surprise me in the slightest; with a day's rest on the sunday, it was soon time to pack the gear once more and head off to the east coast. It was to Flamborough head again for a Brown flycatcher that had turned up on the sunday afternoon.

Early on Monday 6th September, I set off from Ormskirk with Mike stocker and June, in the hope that this rare flycatcher would hang around for us to see. News came through around 8am confirming that there was no sign of the flycatcher and that it had moved on somewhere else, as per usual. We later found out that the bird was present that morning but was only showing on and off for a few lucky individuals but then dissapeared around 10am. Never mind...

Brown flycatcher are generally regarded as 2 day birds, so it had most probably come in on the saturday, rested up, stuffed as much food in as possible and moved off.

We never even got to Flamborough head so we headed to check a site where an Ortolan bunting had been present for the past few days, that too appeared to have moved off in the strong winds so we headed for spurn point in the hope that we would bag something there.

Arriving around 11am, a quick peek in the hide around the canal area revealed a Golden plover that was showing ridiculously well, an opportunity not to be missed!

Throughout the day, the east-south-east winds continued to blow, forcing even more migrants to arrive at spurn. A walk around the warren and a few hours down at the point produced impressive numbers of Pied flycatcher, Redstart, Spotted flycatcher, Wheatear, Whinchat, Yellow wagtail and a skulky Garden warbler. Despite a failed attempt for yet another Barred warbler, all was not lost.

A walk along Beacon lane revealed much of the same migrants but in good numbers. The whole of East yorkshire was forecasted with extremely strong easterly winds and as you can imagine, more or less every bird had it's head down and out of the wind. However, a secluded garden down beacon lane harboured several Spotted flycatcher and a ringed Juvenile Blackbird, but despite my best efforts to get a digiscoped shot of the bird's leg, the bird flew off and out of sight.

We also managed an hours seawatching in the early afternoon, but the best we could manage were 2 Dark-phase Arctic skuas. Alex jones and Mike duckham were also at spurn the same day and we managed to catch up with them briefly looking for the Barred warbler down at the point. They had much better luck in the line of seawatching in the late afternnon passage period. resulting in 30 Arctic skuas, 3 Great skua, 1 Pomarine skua and 1 Sooty shearwater.

Several wind-blown Whinchats took shelter in the small dells and showed pretty well, enabling shots like this to be taken using my Nikon coolpix P5100.

As the day drew nearer to an end, it was time to hit the Crown and Anchor pub in Kilnsea for a pub meal and a pint of guiness. A quick 15 mintue watch in the car-park and surrounding trees revealed there to be many sheltering Spotted and Pied flycatchers plus the odd Redstart.

It wasn't until 7:30pm when all hell broke loose. After finishing our meal, a last minute look in the car-park to see if we could pick anything else up. Mike comes pelting over asking if I needed Wryneck for my british list! The answer was an abrupt yes and why and it turned out that a Wryneck had been mist-netted at the Warren and was due to be released there at 7:50pm. Racing across the car-park, past a few folk having a nice leisurely pint and jumped into the car quite literally, hurtled down to the warren, shortly followed by a juvenile Wryneck!

A truely amazing bird to see. I had dreamed of seeing a Wryneck in Britain, but today the gods redeemed themselves. Not only a brtish lifer, a fantastic yeartick too bringing my total for 2010 to 238, drawing with 2008 total. Apologies for the darkness of the picture but my camera was playing up at the time and it was getting on for 8pm.

Before we could head for home, an unconfirmed report of a Booted warbler down at Riverside hotel just past Kilnsea got the hearts racing again, but after a 20 mintue search in a small ditch where the bird had been seen briefly during the afternoon, it had obviously moved off.

Many thanks to Mike for checking his pager at the time he did and for June for all the driving.

Stage 3 - Eastern Olivaceous, Booted and Barred..

After a losing streak of dipping on Citrine wagtail, Little stint and Roseate tern, I was sure that my 3rd twitch in a week would prove successfull? But boy, was I in for the worst days twitching ever!!

Early on Saturday 4th September, I set off from Walton/Liverpool with Jason and Ralph Jones in search of an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler that was in the ''Old fall hedge'' at Flamborough head in East yorkshire. The bird had been present for 3 days and was proving elusive, once it eventually showed itself for the eager twitchers during those 3 days, it showed quite well in the corner of a hedgerow by the old fall plantation. Hopefully we would see it?


Arriving on site around 9am, birders had been there since 7am and there had been no sign of life what so ever. Previous mornings the bird had been 'tacking' and showing in the early hours of the morning. Dissapearing for the afternoon, but only showing once or twice. Dissapointingly, we soon came to terms that we may not see this bird. Can anyone guess the end result? After 2 hours of standing there til 12 lunchtime, every other birder had moved off and it was just us 3 left! Birds in the hedge included a Willow warbler and 2 Robins but definetely not an Eastern Olivaceous Warbler..
It would have made perfect sense if the bird had of been there, but the mood I was in, it was the biggest pile of b***** I have seen for a while.

We were all in sheer shock after dipping such a rare bird in britain. Next stop was a Barred warbler that was showing well in the willows by the golfcourse but even that didn't show for us. A Common rosefinch had been in the vicinity a few hours before we arrived, but that too had flown off!

During the afternoon, news broke of a Booted warbler that was elusive and mobile at Grimston-upon-hull at a site with no general access. Access was arranged shortly after and so we headed off in search of yet another elusive warbler. Getting lost in Grimston in York due to the sat-nav, didn't help matters. On arrival, 80 or so birders lined up on a dirt-track alongside several cereal fields staring intently into the tiniest patch of ditch that you could imagine. Arriving around 5pm and a wait of 40 minutes and guess what..? We saw a Whitethroat for all our efforts and no Booted warbler. It had obviously skulked off further down the ditch. All that's left to say now is that the atmosphere in the car on the way home was somewhat, silent..


Dipping, Eastern Olivaceous Warbler, Booted warbler, Barred warbler, Common rosefinch in a day, Citrine wagtail, Roseate tern and Little stint in 2 seperate days; was more than enough for me to pack in birding.. Haven't decided what to do yet but will keep you posted.

Let's hope something turns up in the next few days for me to twitch!

Stage 2 - Little Stint and Roseate tern play hide-and-seek

After having a serious dip up in Derbyshire yesterday, I decided for a more gentle approach in the form of 2 yearticks that had been seen at seaforth the day I was in Derbyshire. Little Stint and Roseate tern were yet to appear on my yearlist for 2010, so a brief 2 hours at Seaforth LWT would hopefully achieve this. A short 40 mintue train journey and I was peering through the fence at Crosby Marina scanning for these 2 birds.

I knew the Little Stint had been seen on the causeway infront hide A, which can be viewed from the fence at Crosby and the Roseate tern I had absolutely no idea where that was. So after a few scans here and there of every available piece of land in my field of view, it was clear that neither birds were present!

The only birds present this morning were a flock of Dunlin, Lapwing, 1 Black-tailed gowit, 1 Ringed plover, several Little Grebes and a singing Chiffchaff in the scrub by the 1st car-park at Crosby marina.

A scan over the sea and tide edge added.. absolutely bugger all to be truthful. It got to a point where I had had enough and hopped back on the train, to find that a little stint had been seen at Hesketh Out Marsh the same morning! This Little stint wasn't seen the next day either, which had me well and truely pissed off!

In the evening I met up with Kane Brides and Stephen Christmas to help out with their Swallow roost site. A total of 55 birds were caught which included 52 Swallows, 3 Sand martin and 1 Reed warbler. Next morning myself and Kane did some more ringing and caught a Dunnock in his garden and a few Coot at various sites around Manchester as part of his colour-ringing Coot project. Thanks Kane for a rather successfull few days ringing!

Stage 1 - Disastrous dip in Derbyshire for a Citrine wagtail

When I first met Jason stannage on a Red-backed shrike twitch at the old tip in Formby- Lancashire, I realised that my current birding just wasn't the same. So I took up twitching and let me tell you now; my life hasn't been the same since. Myself and Jason had never met each other that day and over the past few years I seem to have become twitching mad due to that particular twitch. Although I am 20 years younger than Jason, I don't seem to mind twitching with older folk because that has always been the case. I only have a few birding pals of my age, but far more twitching pals older than me.

These past few years I have twitched some pretty mind-blowing birds that I had never dreamt of seeing such as Brown shrike, Eastern Crowned Warbler, Oriental Pratincole and Glaucous-Winged Gull to name but a few. Thousands of miles sat in people's cars, train journeys totalling 12 hours to see 1 bird and the odd bus journey here and there. Twitching is a drug and there is nothing else on earth that I would rather do.. Whenever something turns up whether it be a local patch tick, a scarcity, rarity, mega or a 1st for Britain; I am always on the laptop planning the journey there. Twitching has brought my british list up considerably from 270 to 322 since I started a few years ago and I still don't drive. That's enough of a rant eh!

A decision was made to twitch, what would hopefully become my 323rd British bird.

On Tuesday 31st August I set off from Ormskirk at 5am, in search of a Juvenile Citrine wagtail at Ogston Reservoir in Derbyshire that had been present for the last 3 days, however it had bird elusive and distant the day before. Arriving at Alfreton station around 10am, it soon became apparent that the bird hadn't been reported all morning. News reached me that it had flown off high the night before. So basically I didn't even bother going to the reservoir, which was 8 miles away and hopped on the next train home and didn't speak to anyone else for the whole day! I wasn't too pissed off either as it wasn't that rare of a bird. There will be others is my motto and the next one will be on my list!

Birding at Spurn Point > 28th-30th August

Autumn migration is enough to get any birders blood rushing, especially us twitchers. So when I finally had time to sit down with Mr M Bridge and Bridge senior, I only had one thing to say and that was Spurn point! A quick phonecall and we were booked into the Ivy B+B as usual for 2 nights and off we went, early on saturday morning.

First stop was North Cave Wetlands for a bacon buttie and a brew, but the best bird of all came in the form of a Hobby which flew over the car, complete with a recently caught Swallow. Moving off from here and within 3 hours or so we were at Spurn and the fun could begin.

Over the past few days, there had been 3 Barred Warblers, Wryneck and a few other goodies in and around Spurn, so I was hoping to see at least one of these, yes...well..

I spent the day with my dad and grandad stood at several locations grilling for these rarities..

- An hour and a half stood at Kew waiting for a Barred warbler

- An hour stood scanning the 'Canal hedge' for a Barred warbler

- Several hours checking the scrub at the point but to no avail

- An hour scanning the sea for a Bonxie or a shearwater with no avail

Our first day at Spurn, was as usual, diabolical! The day was drawing to an end so we headed off in the hope that something would drop-in overnight and stick around until the morning for us too actually see! Booked into the B+B and the only thing left to do was....

Next morning, it was up at 6am and off for a seawatch off Withersea. Best here was 6 Arctic skuas and Common scoter. A gorgeous cooked breakfast and we were all set for another full day at Spurn.. The morning started off the same as yesterday with common migrants seen such as Redstart, Pied flycatcher, Lesser whitethroat, Common whitethroat, Willow warbler and lots of Yellow wagtails buzzing about..

It wasn't until lunchtime when I spoke to a couple of guys to see whether they had seen anything! They replied: ''Yeah, there's a Barred warbler showing well by Rose cottage near Crown and Anchor'' The next thing I remember was hurling my coffee and buttie, informing my dad and grandad where it was and the words - ''See ya'' sprang to mind! On arrival, 10 birders

with bins up, looking into a small hedge some 15ft away, a bird flitted in the hedge and my bins were up like a shot and I managed to catch a 30 second glimpse of my first Barred warbler! The bird showed well for the next hour and a half in which I stayed with the bird to enjoy it, whilst the other 2 bridges went off for a walk down to Beacon ponds..

Having never seen a Barred warbler before, I was rather chuffed to find that I had digiscoped a rather terrific record shot of it! I had waited 11 years to see one of these birds, not forgetting the numerous twitches, dips and hours of standing staring at hedges, the wait had finally paid off! My dad and grandad soon turned up and great views were had by both.

Note: This Juvenile was the one I digiscoped with my Nikon Coolpix P5100. This bird can be identified by the heavy, well-set bill and you can just pick out the undertail barring starting to come through. If you look closely, the pale edges to the primaries are just visible. What a stonker! It took me just under 2 hours to get this shot and well worth the wait too!!

There was also a Common Crane up near Hornsea Mere at Bewholme hall and after one failed attempt, we tried again on our last day.. A British tick for me and my 237th species for 2010!

Long-Billed Dowitcher

Early on Thursday 26th September I met up with Alex at Llandudno junction train station for a bit of patching up on the Great Orme. A short drive and it soon became clear that there wasn't much moving in terms of migrants this morning! Birds of note included: Singles of Willow warbler, Chiffchaff and Common whitethroat, but nothing extraordinary this morning.

Next stop was Little orme for a seawatch but it soon also became clear that the sea wasn't going to produce anything for us this morning, me being without a scope didn't help matters..

Throughout the morning, we were waiting on news of a Long-Billed Dowitcher that had been seen at Neumann's flash in Cheshire the day before, regrettably it flew off high south that night and wasn't seen again. So when news came through that it was at Inner Marsh Farm, we hurtled off the Little Orme, drove to Inner Marsh Farm and waiting for us in the hide, were the words - ''A raptor just shot through and put everyting up and we've lost it'' I wasn't having that; so a quick scan around the pools revealed it to be asleep amongst a flock of Lapwings and Starlings on the small island to the right of the hide. Yeartick 235..

Other highlights included a colour-ringed Spoonbill, in which I am waiting to hear back from where it was ringed. I shall keep you posted on this, once this has been confirmed.