Venus Pool etc - Barnacles

Not a lot doing on the local front is a bit of an understatement, although Geoff Hall had a nice find (Hawfinch) which may yet elude me as I'm in airport run mode tomorrow! A Saturday scour of retail parks in Shrewsbury failed to turn up a 'you know what' (despite the fact they are 'everywhere' and approaching fast!!) I even spent an hour or two at Stubber's Green with no unusal Gulls on view there either!

There have been a few Barnacle Geese moving around the County (blogged in desperation??!)

Three at Venus Pool on the 14th - briefly in and straight back out.......












Plus a singleton at Polemere on the 21st .....








Obligingly having a wash and getting in a bit of a flap!!














If all else fails, the archives look destined to get a another trawl....

**Update ** Holme - Pallid Harrier??

*** Another retrospective post ***

I mentioned in the original thread that the Harrier sp seen at Holme on the 9th October could be a 'Pallid' with the identity door still ajar! This enigmatic bird may be a little closer to revealing it's 'considered' identity once the BBRC have reached a decision.

The reflex shot taken as I was unloading the camera from the car in the vistor centre car park seems to have become a vital piece of evidence in the case FOR Pallid Harrier and I've been asked to provide the image below to accompany the formal description. With Dick Forsman (DF) firmly of the opinion that this is the species involved, it does seem to be the probable outcome!

Juvenile Harriers of this type are notoriously difficult enough given prolonged views and photographs are likely to be essential to clinch the identification. I must admit every image I found of juvenile Pallid Harrier showed a particuarly striking 'Boa' which clouded my judgement initially (this is a variable feature....) DF has now pointed out that whilst the head has some clear identification pointers, the secret lies in the underwing pattern!

Pro-Pallid Harrier features as seen here are the pale collar which reaches the throat and the striking contrast of it's appearance. This is considered to be a key juvenile Pallid Harrier feature rather than the somewhat more variable facial features and boa.






The clincher however is the detail in the underside of the inner primaries. These are clearly pale tipped and this effectively rules out Montagu's Harrier, which would have dark tipped inner primaries. I've reduced the contrast slightly in this closer view although the pattern is clear from the original crop.






Ironically, the clues are all there in the images - they just need piecing togther logically! Let's see what BBRC come up with - I'll be astonished if it's not PALLID HARRIER...

The last I saw of it (and my only other image)....






I'm enoying my trawls throught the archives by the way and whilst the birding is quiet, you can expect the occasional journey back in time to see: more from the Farnes, various unsorted / unpublished images (not least of which the Blue-headed Wagtail pair from last Summer!!

Nature in focus - back to the Farnes.....

**** Important - this is a blast from the past!! Jim has not really just been to the Farne islands!!!*****

I'm still alive, a Saturday spent airport running and an uninspiring local Sunday session didn't produce a single bird worthwhile and as I was nearly nodding off at VP, I had an idea.....

I know lots of you keep dropping in and I really appreciate the interest shown - so, what do I do when I haven't got any birding adventures to report? Well, I used to be a big Dr Who fan and whilst getting my latest talk together (Nature in Focus) I came across a long lost, dusty folder in the external hard drive crypts....

These images have never been seen before, even by me! So...... lets travel back in time to the Farne islands - it's late Spring May 2008 and the temperature is a bit more inspiring than right now!!

The culmination of four days in the area (I think I got bogged down with 1,000s of images and never got round to these)! This day was all about the Arctic Terns, whilst they were getting a little frisky, there was not a bit of argy bargy with the humans, hats need not be worn!!

The Terns return.....






Arctic Tern sitting pretty!






Never mind the flowers, these guys reckon transparent fish find the way to a ladies heart?








Push off pal - she's spoken for.....






The reason they weren't attacking the humans - they were worn out after fighting amongst themselves!








Oh and after doing ratther a lot of this ....







The Sandwich Terns don't do transparent fish - they think BIGGGG!










Kittiwakes watching over the Guillemot colony.....






Don't they make a lovely couple?






Eiders feeling amorous - crikey this good looking bird can have her pick of the local studs!









A lone Puffin....






A last farewell from the locals...






No sunset - just the sun going down behind Bamburgh Castle.....






If anyone local is interested, this is just a tiny preview..... (Many areas of the UK will be covered and not just birds!) ...... from 'Nature in Focus' getting a first airing at the Longmynd Camera Club meeting on Wednesday 3rd November at 7.30 pm in the United Reformed Church Hall, High Street, Church Stretton, SY6 6BY. There is an entry fee of £3.00 including refreshments for non-members.....

Heligan- Lost in the jungle!

Every twitch should have a ‘Plan B’ - the Friday night rule may apply!! This was rigorously applied, by a certain Solitary Sandpiper at Seaton, Devon - deciding to head for the stars overnight! Having set off with Andy L first thing and with no news on the drive down (translated as good news initially), after 45 mins on site, it was clear as the skies the previous evening - a reappearance was unlikely……

Plan B wasn’t entirely to Andy’s liking either but the only other decent bird in the South West was a certain lost Heron in the Lost Gardens of Heligan and having been giving lifers a bit of attention lately, I was well up for it. Two hours later - we were following signs to the ‘lost jungle’!

Machetes were totally unnecessary as we made our way to the ‘top pool’ and a little wooden bridge at one end. There waiting for us – stood motionless in the corner of this little swamp, a cracking first winter Green Heron.....






No it wasn’t a statue, it was most certainly alive as the neck whipped upwards, the dagger like bill striking like a Cobra - grabbing a dragonfly in the blink of an eye (a male Southern Hawker to be precise). The Heron then proceeded to deny a marauding Moorhen a free meal and slowly chewed than swallowed the Hawker……
















Over the next 30 minutes, the Heron simply moved around the edge of the pool, occasionally catching small fish or posing in the vegetation. Tricky to get sharp images as the light levels were so low!
















An occasional small fish was on the menu.....






Eventually, something spooked it and it flew across the pool like a mini missile, it still wasn’t happy and shot over our heads landing at the top of a large (Rhododendron?) Cue, shutter frenzy as you couldn’t have positioned it in a better position with such a clean background and now, away from the gloom of the pool!















A minute passed and then it shot over our heads, like an arrow with wings, presumably to the lower pool. Never mind, it was job done! I was smiling! Almost as big a smile (of relief) came across Andy’s face – “Does that mean we can go?”

We did…..

Norfolk day 5 – what it’s all about!

Lifers are always special birds and even with my modest UK list, the magnitude and importance gets greater and greater. They are amongst everybody’s special birding moments – ask any birder about any rarity and they will have the key moments (plus location/year/month) stored up in the memory and instantly recalled (and ready to offload) for when they first saw one!

An impromptu virtually full ‘car park’ of verges and ‘pull ins’ made it pretty obvious where the trek for this Pallas’s was to begin and there in the distance (about a mile and a half away!) the human dots forming the gallery. Reassuring Yvonne that it would still be there and another yomp was well worthwhile, we set off........






You see the whole spectrum of people and emotions walking in an and out of a twitch! Relaxed happy smiling faces walking out, all too ready to offload encouragement like: “not far now”, “it’s showing really well’. The comedians who tell you it was it was showing TOO well until eaten by a Sparrowhawk. The dour miserable Yorkshireman who tells you to not disturb the Bramblings he’s watching on the fence. (Oh, excuse me as I stand by you and wait 10 minutes then eh? We didn’t!)

And then, those walking in (like me). Head down, calves burning.... can’t stop sorry! The thought of a missed by minutes dip is unbearable so you speed up as you get closer. Did I really need to bring the big lens? (Answer YES!)

We joined the gallery at a comfortable distance from the tangled copse of shrubs/wild rose and waited. It was only a 5 minutes wait until movement was seen and yesssssss, Pallas’s Warbler was on my list! The much abused term ‘showing well’ certainly applied here, it was less than 20m away but generally behind foliage and ALWAYS on the move! In fact after three really good displays, I still didn’t have a sharp image!

When it came into full view it was invariably obscured (for me) by the fire beaters!






Another 30 mins had elapsed during which, one or two keepers were in the bag – mostly of it’s arse end or random parts behind twigs!










I finally got a shot with the head in clear view - against the milky white sky - grrrrrr.






And then, a pager bleeped, the owner absorbed the news and announced somewhat excitedly - " ****ing hell - Red-flanked Bluetail at Burnham Overy, close to the end of the boardwalk"!

Wait a minute, that was only 50m or so from us…….

In the time it takes to throw a bag over the shoulder , we were off – a brisk walk / jog to where the excited finder was pointing the bird (another lifer) out. An anxious wait followed as it skulked, briefly flew and skulked again – neither giving conclusive views.

Then it suddenly appeared, sat on a low branch barely 20m away, Red-flanked Bluetail - astonishing views which you can judge from this.....






It then dropped onto a path and after a couple of pirouettes gave a classic view of flanks and tail......











These views were never bettered and it progressively flew further and further west and after 100m or so we let the others get on with it and we returned.......






.....to the Pallas’s Warbler – now sulking as there was only one birder there watching it!! Sulking, skulking, whatever, I continued trying to get the ‘shot’ and had to come away pleased with this one sharp image – Pallas’s Warbler will be on my gallery list too!







With time running out, we retraced our steps in a leisurely (smiling broadly) manner nodding and acknowledging the new influx of birders….. heads down, calves burning - is the Bluetail still there……can’t stop sorry!

You have to feel sorry for several birders making this journey for the second time that day but we would have done it too! After four days of dips, yomps, wet feet and occasional decent birds, this day had produced ten minutes of birding heaven, two lifers and a feeling that more than balances the agonies of dipping. I can’t remember being so upbeat about a day out – Norfolk – birding heaven, on the fifth day anyway!

I'll finish with a landscape (mobile phone shot) taken into the sun walking back from the dunes - simple black and white image - who needs a sunset....