Saturday 2nd October

 The threatened storm hadn't arrived at first light so I headed down to Radipole for a bit of pre-breakfast birding leaving the others to enjoy a lie-in. Among the gulls in the car park was the expected Med Gull and I stopped on the bridge by the visitor centre to see if anything flew out from its overnight roost. A few Little Egrets emerged and I nearly had a Cattle Egret when a stocky all white bird with an orange bill flew around at the back but it was just an Aylesbury type Mallard. A Kingfisher zipped past which was to be the only one all weekend.

I walked down to the viewing platform over the reedbed where I heard Bearded Tit, Water Rail and a few Cetti's Warblers but there wasn't much else so I headed back for a full English breakfast just as the rain began.

With an appalling weather forecast of strong winds and heavy rain we made plans for the day and decided not to venture too far. We took the bus down to Ferrybridge and walked to the visitor centre/cafe for a bit of shelter. 

Ferrybridge

There were plenty of waders with Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling, Bar-tailed Godwit, Turnstone and a single Little Stint to look at along with a few Sandwich Terns and yet more Med Gulls.

Bar-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Sanderling

Turnstones

Despite the continuing rain we decided to walk up the shingle ridge and have a look at the sea in case the wind had blown in anything close; unfortunately there was nothing apart from a few gulls. We checked out the pools at the east end where there was a Curlew to add to the wader list and a Little Egret, then went back to the centre for another look at the waders.

By now we were all pretty wet through so we decided to head back into town and walked back up the road to get the bus. We got off by the roundabout and walked over to Radipole for a proper look. We walked the entire length of the paths but there wasn't much around in these conditions. We flushed a Sparrowhawk that was taking cover in a tree and as we approached the screen at the top end a Buzzard was sat on the fence but flew off when it saw us approaching. A decent flock of Swallows and House Martins were feeding over the open water.

With the visitor centre shut we called into Greggs for a late lunch and headed back to the B&B to dry out and have a rest. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

Weymouth October 1st

This was the start of a long weekend's birding break to Weymouth with my friends John and Janet. After a uneventful but long three hour train journey down to Weymouth we walked the short distance to our regular B&B to check in. A few minutes later we headed off down the road to Lodmoor. The weather was still fine although the breeze had picked up.

We decided on taking the anti-clockwise route around the whole reserve and started off in the SW corner. We had Sandwich Tern calling and one was picked up circling high with a Med Gull yet within a few minutes there were three on the deck and three more still flying around and the number of Med Gulls was in double figures. Out in the middle was a Great Egret and it didn't take long before we'd found another amongst the Little Egrets.

Sandwich Tern

Waders were fairly thin on the ground to start with: a few distant Black-wits and a single Snipe but as we went to the next lookout we added Common Sand and Greenshank. John picked up an interesting pigeon flying along the back and got me on it and it turned out to be a Turtle Dove, an unexpected year tick for both of us which I thought we'd missed this year. There were lots of dragonflies out in the afternoon sunshine.

Migrant Hawker

We stopped to look into Weymouth Bay but seeing nothing more than some very distant gulls and terns among the moored up cruise ships we carried on up the Eastern side. Another Great Egret flew in and Water Rail was heard calling. A Marsh Harrier showed well and kept flushing the waterbirds.

Marsh Harrier

A few Bearded Tits pinged in the reedbed and the odd Chiffchaff and Blackcap called from the adjacent trees. Heading down the Western side the light was more favourable and we stopped several times to scan across the marsh and chat to the locals. Waders on this side included a small flock of Dunlin and some dazzling Lapwings in superb light.

Lapwing

The egret tally kept rising with several Littles feeding and at one point we could see five Great Egrets showing how common they'd recently become. Med Gull numbers were also up and the final tally was at least 90.

Little Egret

Various Great Egrets

Mediterranean Gulls

A mostly white bird with dark wings and a red bill looked like a gull to the naked eye but soon revealed itself to be an odd Ruff, apparently this individual has been present for about five years and has become whiter each year.

Leucistic Ruff

Back at the end we had another scan of the bay but apart from a Shag and some very hardy swimmers there was nothing new of note so we headed back to our digs and a short rest before heading out to Wetherspoons for a well earned pint and a fish 'n' chips dinner.

Scotland July 2021

With foreign holidays to much hassle to go on, I decided to have a week’s birding holiday in Scotland with my mates, John & Janet. We booked with Heatherlea on their ‘Welcome back to Scottish Birding’ trip. 

Saturday 10 July saw us meeting up at Kings Cross for the midday train up to Aviemore. It’s long seven and a half hour journey but it’s nice and relaxing and we kept a ‘train list’ although it only reached 23 species. We arrived in Aviemore at half seven where we were picked up and driven the short distance to our base at the Mountview Hotel in Nethy Bridge. Dinner was served shortly after arrival and we discussed plans for the coming week. There was another Heatherlea birding trip running the same week and some of the days we would be going out together. 

Sunday 11 July Both tours spent the day together birding locally around Abernethy Forest. We walked the Loch Mallachie Trail at Loch Garten. It was a bit damp but we did manage reasonable views of a couple of Crested Tits which were moving through the woods in a post-breeding mixed flock along with some Spot Flys and Treecreepers. 

Treecreeper

A lone female Goldeneye was on the adjacent loch. We next drove around a private estate looking for, but not seeing, Capercaillie. We lunched at the top where we found a pair of Scottish Crossbills. They had a more curved lower mandible and ‘lighter’ flight calls than Common Crossbill.

Moorland

Scottish Crossbill

Later in the afternoon we drove around Lochindorb, seeing Red Grouse in the moors and a solitary, distant Black-throated Diver. 

Red Grouse

Monday 12 July 

While the other lot headed over to Mull, we too went over to the West Coast, seeing Red Kites and Hooded Crows along the way. We stopped at Gruinard Bay to look for divers and saw two close immature Common Loons straightaway, then later three Red-throats a bit further out. 

Gruinard Bay

There was a flock of Arctic Terns on the island which all went up when a marauding Bonxie flew over them. In the bay we also saw Black Guillemot and a flock of nine Red-breasted Mergansers. Further out were Gannet and Shag and then we saw some distant cetaceans. 

Through the scope we could see they were Bottle-nosed Dolphins and they were soon joined by a few Common Dolphins. Both pods were very active so may have been feeding. After they disappeared we also saw a couple of Harbour Porpoise, showing well in the millpond sea. 

On the way back we stopped by a busy road to look at an Osprey nest on top of a pylon that contained both adults and three well-grown young. 

Osprey nest

Tuesday 13 July 

We spent the day closer to base, visiting some local moorland in the morning where there was a drumming Snipe and a close Brown Hare. 

Brown Hare

We had distant scope views of at least five Black Grouse then took a walk where we were rewarded with prolonged views of two Golden Eagles and a few Northern Marsh Orchids.

Northern Marsh Orchid

In the afternoon we went to the Findhorn Valley, but it was unusually quiet, perhaps because the heatwave had started. The only raptors were Red Kite and Common Buzzard so some of us turned our attention to the abundant Lepidoptera in the grass, getting good views of several Dark Green Fritillaries, Common Blue butterflies and Bordered White moths amongst others.

Common Blue butterfly

Bordered White

Dark Green Fritillary

Wednesday 14 July 

We headed over to the East Coast today, picking up an Osprey over Banff and a few Corn Buntings singing in some fields. 

Corn Bunting

We visited the seabird colony at Troup Head RSPB, a place I’d not even heard of before. Kittiwakes were a constant aural background and thousands of Gannets and auks whizzed by the cliffs. Guillemots and Razorbills were easily seen on the ledges but Puffins were much harder to find; a few flew past but I managed to find a pair standing just outside their burrow. 

Razorbills

Kittiwakes, Razorbill & Guillemots

Among a large flock of Gannets on the sea we located the large shape of a whale. We expected it to be a Minke but the large blows and enormous size with the falcate fin showing well after the blow meant it was actually a Fin Whale. Although I’ve seen plenty of Fins in Biscay before, this was the first one I’d seen in the UK. 

Gannets

We moved on to Spey Bay, stopping to find some Tree Sparrows in a small woodland where lots of nestboxes had been put up for them. 

Tree Sparrow

At the bay there was a large flock of 200 moulting Goosander, some Little Terns, a female Eider with a half-grown youngster and another Osprey. It was a busy tourist spot, some of whom had come to see the local pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins that swam into view after a while. 

Thursday 15 July 

The two groups merged and split today with three people doing the trek up Cairn Gorm to look for Dotterel. More people would probably have gone by using the Funicular Railway but it was shut all summer for major repairs so the rest took two vans over to the coast on the Black Isle. 

We headed off from the car park at 9.15 for the long walk up to the plateau. We went fairly slowly and arrived at 11.00. The only birds seen long the way were a few Meadow Pipits and Wheatears. We could hear a distant Snow Bunting and our guide found it in the scope on an outcrop. 

Cairn Gorm

We spread out and crisscrossed the plateau looking for Dotterel but failed to find any. On the last area we walked we did locate three close Ptarmigan. They didn’t seem bothered by us and we spent a long time watching and photographing them before heading back down the track. 

Ptarmigan

It was a really hot afternoon and once we made it down to the car park we just sat at a picnic table and rested for a while. As we arrived back at Nethy Bridge early we made a short detour to look for some rare flowers and saw Creeping Lady's Tresses and Twinflower, although one of the examples of the latter I found had three flowers making it a Tripleflower! 

Creeping Lady's Tresses

Twinflower

Friday 16 July 

While the other group went off to the East Coast we stayed local in an attempt to clean up on a few missing species. We found a few common birds around Boat of Garten but couldn’t locate the breeding pair of Slavonian Grebes on another loch so made the decision to head up to Loch Ruthven where we had good views of one. 

The sunny weather had brought out a lot of dragonflies and damselflies but I could only locate the common species rather than any of the localised ones. 

Four-spotted Chaser

We had another drive around the estate but the Capercaillies remained out of view. Next we visited Old Spey bridge where had distant views of a Dipper and we finished up at Dorback. 

Dipper

It had been great week’s birding holiday and it was really great to get away for a break. 

Saturday 17 July 

I had my customary pre-breakfast walk around the village, this was the best one of the trip with Scottish Crossbill and Osprey both seen. After an early breakfast we got a lift down to Aviemore station for the 8.32 train back to London. The train list just beat the outward journey by one species, the added bonus being a Merlin.

Insects on the North Downs

 After a long hiatus due to lockdown lethargy I thought it was time to resurrect my blog. Today I visited Hutchinsons Bank on the southern edge of Greater London at New Addington. I met my friends John & Janet at Canada Water and we took the Overground to West Croydon and then the tram to New Addington. It was the first time for all of us on a tram and I was impressed with this form of public transport, running on roads and dedicated tracks.

We arrived at 9.30 and walked past some large wooden carvings of Bear, Gorilla, Dolphin and a Vulture which seemed somewhat out of place. A few minutes later we walked across a playing field and through a litter-strewn wood onto the grasslands of the North Downs. It was warm but cloudy so it took a while before we saw our first insects, but they were moths rather than butterflies. First up was a smart Mother Shipton and then a Burnet Companion. Eventually a few Common Blues, Speckled Wood and Small Heaths appeared.

Small Heath

More moths were discovered with Yellow Shell and Heart & Dart, the latter being a common visitor to moth traps but rarely seen during the day. We also found a couple of moths that we couldn’t immediately identify. The moth list continued to climb with Cinnabar also being seen.

 

Heart and Dart

moth sp #1

moth sp #2

Even though there weren't too many insects on show we did manage to locate a few Bee Orchids and a single Pyramidal Orchid.

Bee Orchid

The sun eventually broke through the clouds and this led to multiple sightings of Brimstone and an increase in Common Blues. We were too late in the season for the early flying fritillaries but we did manage to see Small Blue and Grizzled Skipper. Unfortunately the latter flew off before being photographed unlike the Small Blue which showed really well.

 

Small Blue

Walking past the driving range and finding evidence of a few stray hits led us to a nest with a new clutch although there was no sign of anything incubating them.

 

The hedges held a few Blackcaps and Whitethroats as well as an out-of-place Nuthatch but the birding was fairly quiet, hardly unsurprising given the time of year. We found a couple of unidentified beetles, one of which landed on John.

We headed back to the tram stop, after a four hour, three mile walk, disturbing a Silver Y in the overgrown playing field to add to the moth list and then on homeward.