Thursday 23 May 2013

Hardwood!!


 And yay the fog came, and it did drop birds, not many, but some. And so I flogged and flogged and flogged some-more. No birds. Bluethroat Brownsman...tits. Two Bluethroats Brownsman...double tits. Inner Farne held a Willow Warbler. And a very depressed me!

Brownsman in the fog, light winds and shite vis meant they scored.

Our only migrant...a northern type Willow...

Got my twitch and connected with the two charming Bluethroats, including a sweat-your-tits-off male with full blue-ness, sadly not pictured due to being too good to take my eyes off!


Heading back from Brownsman, where there had been birds dripping off every sodden Nettle clump, the visibility decreased and I had a theory that the Wide-opens, the most easterly spot of the Inner Group, may have cock-blocked Inner Farne's rares due to the lightness of the winds, so we anchored the boat, stepped onto the shingle and immediately saw this:

Last minute stonk! This cheeky chapess saved my day! What a beauty she is!


The fog thickened and after two days of squinting and general 'F#cking hell, Holy Island...' comments a quiet dawn round was shattering by a back scratching yellow giver that was a marvellous Wood Warbler, swallow meets warbler! Needless to say it showed well as it frantically lolloped about in the damp vegetation, clearly being fresh in...

Hardwood!


 Other things that happened were Eider chicks and more fog! Funnily enough a little moth arrival coincided with said weather including 50+ Diamond-backed Moth, Cinnebar emerging and Common Carpet flitting in the sun...






 Its going mental outside! Updates tomorrow after these tasty NE winds have hit...


Saturday 18 May 2013

Catching rays...

Well. Not exactly. There has been sun, warmth and settledness interspersed with far more regular burst of cold driven rain and wind...and not even from the east, something that even a hint of during this peak spring migration period would get any birders taste buds going!

Some leftovers from the fall that produced Newton's Collared Fly...







 However its just as well a dearth of migration has occurred as life here has been nonstop! The beginning of our Puffin Census created alot of media interest seeing the Farnes (including a rather sodden me) appearing on BBC Breakfast/News, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Independent among others!

The breeding birds have finally begun to touch down and get it on with everything copulating in your personal space! I've been shat at by Black-heads and Arctics so the time for a hat is nigh!




Others stuff that's happened involves a nice couple of mini-falls bagging some nice sub-Saharan's, but unlike last year, nothing scarce or 'predictable' yet...our time will come, and it may be today as while I type the wind is swing ENE with mist and heavy rain, almost ideal conditions...please please please something with blue or red in the name!

And some from our last small fall...

Black Redstart looking wet and rare!!


Garden Warbler looking bonny!

And the highlight...a late Short-eared Owl that sent the colonies into chaos!

Its been a while since my last blog...so here's some pictures from the intervening period...

Not rare this year...Wood Pigeon being big

More scarce...Willow Warbler contemplating its next move...

Moth-trapping continues with Hebrew Character and Red Chestnut (above) regular along with the first Garden Carpets of the year

Seabirds rule!

  
Bonny Wagtylor...He would definitely win the Eurovision cripplefest!

Guillemots giving it all that...

Black-headed Gull mobbing Fulmar #hardasnails...

Whitethroat duo...another migrants that has been fairly infrequent this year..


The Farnes at their best...

Wednesday 8 May 2013

The Pied Piper

Birding. It is awesome. Today has been coming for a while as the incessant Westerlies abated momentarily giving way to a blinding few days of sun, breeding birds and tropical Farnes before today plunged into a southeasterly chill that dropped birds right from the off with what I thought would be today star bird, oh how I was wrong!






What a cracker! And real scarcity on the Farnes...a fall was on there and then!

From there on in the birds continued dropping with the classic Farnes 'midday syndrome' falls as birds were only really apparent from late morning as Common Sandpiper, 2 Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Whinchat, Greenland Wheatear and Chiifchaff and Willow Wblr all became apparent:

Goldfinch feeling ropey...

Farnes views of Blackcap...

Another classic combo

The atmosphere of falls is just amazing...!

Garden Warbler's ass

After visitor work was well as truly rained off further rounds produced a another Whinchat and more Blackcap as the fog thickened, rolling like the silent stragglehold across the Farnes, so call me a masochist, as it felt good! Until a phone call. It brought news of my dream bird, a male Collared Flycatcher, barely spitting distance down the coast. Luckily thoughts swiftly moved from 'why not the Farnes!!' to 'Get me off this island!'...a surreal and heady mix of fall adrenalin and utter twitch driven despair. At this point I began another round of the island, spurred by the nearby mega, though also resigned to a 'I wish I could see this bird' sense of wanting. Then a black and white flycatcher flew up....



Phwaar! Nothing like a Pied Flycatcher to help you forget about a Collared just down the road. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Somehow, somewhere, a climatic variation meant suddenly visibility improved, I donned a life jacket, hurriedly made my way to the 2nd mega in as many weeks, and well. WE BLOODY SAW IT1 Mind-blowing retinal lubricating demi-crippler. Feast upon my shite record shots:









Wow. Just. I mean. Oh dear give me a minute. Wow. Best ficedula EVER.

More southesterlies tomorrow, are YOU ready?