Sabines Gull - flying visit

A morning spent at Venus Pool reminded me why I had enjoyed the previous two days so much! I mustn't really complain though, as a Merlin over the pool was an unexpected bonus! By midday, Little Egret x2 and Green Sandpiper plus three Whinchat on the Qunoa crop were the only 'highlights'.... And.... News had just come out that the Sabines Gull was showing on the Flashes at Upton Warren!!

Now then, this bird has been generally a dawn and dusk only performer. Yvonne had shared the angst of a dip the previous Sunday so with thoughts of putting that to rights - we set of for Worcs....

Sure enough, half way out from the main hide, the Sabines Gull was still on view - it was early afternoon too! It turned out that the poor thing had been beaten up and half drowned by a Lesser Black backed thug the previous evening and was still shaken up!

Standing further out than Tuesday's visit, a portrait or two.....






A bit of a preen to reveal residual brown in the left wing primaries and always visible in the outermost primary tip of the right wing. It's clearly not an full adult Summer bird due to the lack of yellow tip to the bill and spotted hood but not far off. The general consensus seems to be a second Summer bird, Sabine's Gull will normally reach maturity in the second Summer, a late developer......






but what I really wanted, was at least a wingflap or even a flight shot?? Having sat, with finger poised on the remote for nearly an hour - I finally got my chance when the Gull flew off......










Yessssss - fantastic bird and I have to be pleased I got these given the light and circumstances (nearly dropping off). A full Summer bird one day.........

Point Lynas - Seawatch

Fancy a seawatch without too much travelling? Point Lynas is the Westernmost tip of North Anglesey, on it's day can be pretty spectacular and only two hours from home! I'd tempted Andy Latham into a session there on the strength of maybe a decent Shearwater?? Trouble was, pretty settled conditions, a fairly calm sea and direct offshore wind - not exactly good omens!! You never can tell though.......

Despite the conditions, there were plenty of Manx Shearwater within range with bins. Given the wind blown drizzle and distance involved, the camera gear stayed in the bag (BIG mistake!). Just fifteen minutes or so into the session Andy picked up a Balearic Shearwater! I was concentrating on getting good scope views and we had at least a minute or two of contact. The Manxies were flying both West and East and there was obviously a rich food source 1/2 mile or so out to see where a line of at least 200 were congregated! It wasn't long before we got more good views of Balearic again - the same or a different bird - impossible to tell?

Muttering expletives, the camera finally came out and I took a few record shots of Manxies (realising now just how well within range they were!!) whilst waiting something else special to fly by.....












There was no shortage of Gannets - plenty of fish and plenty of plunges - just too far out for a premier shot!








We had three Artic Skuas by as well, two dark morphs and this one was the closest.







Two away-days on the trot and good birds from both of them. Tempting to stay local for the Monday - we shall see.......

Farmoor - Black Tern duo

The August bank holiday signals the demise of Summer and hopefully the start of a purple patch of birding? I wasn't alone in thinking that the reported juvenile American Black Tern at Farmoor reservoir was worthy of a good start to the weekend? Just the minor incovenience of a wait until it gets on the BOU list though!

This reservoir is much bigger than it looks and having walked around the perimeter - by mid afternoon, it felt like several miles...

Check out the pic below - one way to save a walk and arrive in style is to hire a windsurfer!!






The causeway turned out to provide the best views of the morning and keeping the American Black Tern company was a juvenile White-winged Black Tern in tow. Capturing two birds with one burst then, was always likely to save a lot of effort and one productive pass across the reservoir when they were roughly the same distance out (pretty far out in fact!) yielded this series of images......










A key difference between juvenile American Black Tern (surinamensis) and our European counterpart (niger) is the presence of dark flanks - seen clearly in the two pics below. The other differences are summarised nicely in this link - here








Even though it was distant, I'd have settled just to see the White-winged Tern (and one tick for the day!) More record shots with that white rump clearly seen from afar....








Feather detail? Forget it, just glad to get these record shots in the bag.....

Upton Warren - Sabine's Gull

I was going to post a brief update explaining: I'm still alive, I haven't sold my photography gear, I'm still birding!! August 2009 has been the most barren period I can ever recall and I won't bore you with details what I've 'not seen'!

However..... a dipped first Summer Sabine's Gull at Upton Warren Sunday evening (the latest non-event) leads very nicely into this series of record shots!

Inland Sabine's Gulls are not exactly common and normally don't stick around so I was amazed to find out that after that Sunday evening no-show, it reappeared Monday evening. News of this was late coming out and I didn't get to hear until late on Tuesday (thanks Yvonne!) and decided on a whim to blast over there again!

So glad I did - it had flown in to roost much earlier than on previous occasions. The only challenge now, was to get through the hide door.......

Eventually I did and even managed to get the camera mounted! The Gull was clearly done in and ready for a good night's kip!






A tantalising glimpse of that utterly gorgeous, striking wing pattern!






Then a group pose, clearly showing the size difference and distinctive features!






It's not easy to capture flight from the back of a packed hide but something unseen spooked the Gull flock and gave a moment of opportunity....






Eventually in the fading light, a few static mementos of this classy Gull. A full adult with yellow bill tip and clean hood would have been nice but hey - I'm not complaining!!












After last year's (Staffs) juvenile Westport bird, two inland Sabine's Gulls within 40ish miles of home on the list - can't be bad - and I'm back in business.....

VP and Wood Lane - into the light

Another quiet weekend! Some decent birds were around (including the Cranes, somewhere in darkest Shropshire no doubt) but they were either not on my radar or as seen here, shot into the light!

Never mind, there is a sort of artistic effect (big 'eye of the beholder' job though!with backlit subjects - if a feather or two are ruffled - this Kingfisher at VP....






Or use of just a plain sillouette - a couple of Black tailed Godwits at Wood Lane.....






Let's hope for better things to come?

Mire lake - Ruff awakening!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, huh........., WASSUP??? The phone was buzzing.... Was it September or was I just dreaming again?

A text from Andy reporting a Ruff amongst a wader gathering at Mire Lake!

Awoken from my birding slumber, it was hopefully a long awaited newcomer to the county yearlist! Record shots only due to the distance but I wasn't grumbling!






Almost as if Noah was in on the act or that mysterious wormhole had appeared again? There were two Greenshank, two Dunlin and two Common Snipe, plus a Black tailed Godwit, Green Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, Little ringed Plover......

The Ruff was getting on famously with one of the Snipe! That is until a Dunlin came between them.......








Eventually, the tables were turned on the bird population and (no doubt after being confronted with so many uninteresting humans??) rather than me it was the turn of the Ruff to go to sleep!






No sign of the Cranes in the Kynnersley area, despite a long search/drive.....

Shropshire - nowt of note!

With the Enterprise grounded, the local birding scene beckoned for a few days at least! At best, it's poor at this time of year, dire would better describe the current situation.....

Andy Latham summed it up perfectly - Roll on winter, at least we can all go home at 4.00!!

The past couple of days have of course seen 'nowt of note' for me at VP! In fact, apart from a couple of Green Sandpiper at (OK plus the Little Egret?) there wasn't anything at all to get excited about.












I was even reduced to photographing backlit Greylags as they splash landed.








Adding insult to injury - balloon trips?? Could it get any worse, the sight of one drifting over the reserve scattered virtually every bird there to the four corners of Shropshire!!






And anything the balloon didn't flush would soon get sorted by the Hebridean sheep? A cautionary tale - don't watch the sheep at VP too intently as they dash around the muddy wader strewn (bit of fantasy here) margins....







and don't try to count them..... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (Wake me up in September)

Kingfisher - makes a splash

The morning was scuppered by not just one but two of those dreaded orange warning lights in the Enterprise and the garage fix is going to be another week! Shropshire birding only then!! Oh well, Yvonne offered me a lift and we took up the challenge of finding the Common Cranes which had been reported at Wood Lane over the past two days! No sign, despite a couple of hours searching the area - the only decent bird was a Blackwit dropping onto the scrape!

A final hour at Venus Pool and fish were on the menu.....






Speaking of fish, I hadn't really connected with Kingfisher this year - that was all about to change......










Not the most impressive catch?






Portraits in the bag, the challenge for a 'plunge' pic was taken on! This really is the most difficult of shots - there is very little time to react. A good command of spatial awareness is needed - without looking through the viewfinder - point and focus, firing a burst at the 'right area' as the bird dives - keeping your fingers crossed all the time!






Just one 'keeper' out of several attempts but worth all the effort!!