Rusted in the rain

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Dizzyness, general sense of weakening, loss of vital co-ordinations and thought processes. I've just taken a serious hit of rare!

Being June, it is niw he height of the season on the Farnes so my work schedule is becoming more hectic, and evidently so is the birding! The last 3 days have brought 3 fantastic birds. To be honest I'm still recovering so these words will be about it besides the pictures.

A zodiac trip, frantic car journey and brisk walk found us repeating last years trip down to Hartlepool. This time for a mega Warbler in the form of a hansome 1st summer male Orphean Warbler. Which, as this photo doesnt communicate, actually showed well briefly after some kids flushed it from the other side, whereby it flew into the bushes next to me!

The following day, nursing a hangover and tired from our first cliff count of breeding seabirds, I stumbled across a handsome Icterine Warbler in the Veg Patch before running off to the mainland. However this frustration was short lived as the following day in torrential rain a flaming spitfire of a crippling bird hopped in front of me down the Dock Bank, bins up, male Rustic Bunting!! Cripple! This spanking bunting showed brilliantly for the last 2 days so forgive the plethora of shite shots...

Amazing. Good Night.

Our End of the Earth

Longstone and Longstone End, the eastern end of our world and mega for migrant birds.

What a strange day, the odd whiff of NNE breeze and rolling bouts of low visibility didn't do it for my home, Inner Farne, however the outer group went mental! A female Redstart and Whitethroat skulking around the Veg Patch this morning hinted that birds were dropping but it wasn't til early afternoon when Staple closed that the lads out east struck oil.

Initially a call saying 'Bluethroat Brownsman' came through, then 'Cuckoo Longstone', then '2 Bluethroats Longstone End!' Whoa whoa whoa! Whats going on?! We had no birds so it was a strange feeling knowing how much could be, and evidently was out there!

Anyway, like any sane group of people we steamed out east for 2 miles to the great and mighty collection of slippery rocks that are Longstone and Longstone End. Birds were immediately evident with several Willow Warbler (including a totally grey/white bird) along with Whitethroat and Robin all flitting among the rocks. Duly the ultimate crevice hopper, the female Bluethroat showed and whist watching this beauty an Icterine Warbler pounced into view! A bird many have lost hours of their life dipping on was now casually flicking across rocks 10ft away. This is an aspect of Farnes birding I will always cherish, seeing birds so out of their element yet still doing well, and allowing brilliant views to boot!

Maritime Grassland - Icterine Warbler combo. A. May. Zing.

From here on it was time for another twitch, this time the Cuckoo on Longstone main, and a Farnes tick and bird I unfortunately see less and less of these days (mainly cos I'm on the Farnes). Our luck continued as the bird appeared intstantly giving good, if not distant views as it was mobbed by Rock Pipits, Gulls and Oystercatchers...here's hoping for some nice ginger babies this summer!

Other migrants were about in small numbers including this stunning Lesser Whitethroat:





Lesser Whitethroat in, on and around Longstone Lighthouse.

Well that was today. What will I be writing tomorrow?!

Going Loco(stella)

Kittiwake rainbow. Oxymoron.

Coorrrr. Phew. Maaaah. Iiiish. Etc. What a week or however long its been. Ups and downs in every aspect. Wind, seas, temperatures, visitor numbers and all importantly BIRD numbers haha.

So in a nutshell the past week has seen us closed for 5 out of the last 7 days, 3 days due to stormy Northerlies, 1 day for Southerly gales and today, due to brisk Easterlies and rain. These latter conditions deposited a spectacular early spring fall that most birders dream of. We lived (and live) it!

Whats at the end of the rainbow? Inner Farne! And loads of birds!

Today brought great diversity and numbers of birds including 42 Robin, 4 Wheatear, 1 Ring Ouzel, 2 Blackbird, 8 Song Thrush, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Willow Warbler, 7 Chiffchaff, 3 Rook, 2 Brambling and 1 Lesser Redpoll. A classic day where birds were watched dropping out of the sky and one dead stick headge held 20 Robin, 2 Blackcap and a Grasshopper Warbler. Amazing. Here’s some photos:

Zoothera style Ring Ouzel photo.

Lesser Redpoll adding to our biodiversity.

This is whats its about! Grasshopper Warbler chilling out under one of our benches1

Sick. I go loco over these!

Corking Wheatear.

Ring Ouzel trying to avoid my elongated lens..

Classice Farnes...Willow Warbler (or Wallblers haha).

Rooks flying over being rare.

Robins everywhere!

Otherwise despite (or perhaps due to) the unsettled conditions, grounded migranst have been sparse. Yesterday saw a Hooded Crow pass west while a 1^st year Med Gull brought quality to the evening roost, which a couple of days ago held a stonking 418 Common Gull! 

This male Blackcap trapped himself in our Info Centre in strong Southerly winds, and seemed pretty shell-shocked at his situation!

But he perked up once the sun came out giving classic Farnes views!

On the same day this female Blackcap also turned up and acted totally rare1

Non-passerine action in serrator form..(Red-breasted Merganser)

The black (and grey) speck is a Hooded Crow I promise!

Sandwich Terns with part of the Common Gull superflock.

Knock knack Chiffchaff let me in!

This female Reed Bunting was nice.

The breeders have been getting hammered by all these winds, but some brief favourable blows brought our first Arctic Terns while the first Eider nests are also appearing, its all gearing up!

Big waves hitting the cliff nesters.

The sexiest auk...the Razorbill.

Kittiwakes loving life in the wind.

Guillemot eggs are becoming slowly commoner.

Eiders are back on the land.

The price of cliff nesting:

Avian vibes have been very positive but the leppers (that is, moths) have been getting down also. One of the noctuid (a larger type of moth) pupa I collected from a dry stone wall on Inner Farne hatched the other day, revealing a spanking Angle Shades. Great moth, and of course definitive proof of breeding which just shows you that records can lie as this species was only recorded twice last year and was presumed an immigrant….how wrong I was!