Willow emerald, Pennington Flash

I wasn't expecting to see many dragonflies when I left the house this afternoon because it had been a dull, windy, rainy day with lots of threatening black clouds, but miraculously the sun came out while I was at Pennington Flash and I started seeing things flying and before you knew it I had a half decent list for the time of year. 

Six species in total with the highlight willow emerald which so far as I know is the first record for the flash. Not completely surprising since they are at nearby Bickershaw but still great to see. Other odonata seen today included three species of hawker, brown x1, migrant x15 and southern x3, plus common darter and a few common blue damselflies.

Southern hawker.

Clouded yellow, Bickershaw

Still hoping for a few autumn dragonflies, especially red-veined darter, I visited Bickershaw again this afternoon. I've started taking in New Water a bit more in the hope that if I don't see much in the way of dragonflies, I might at least have a chance of an autumn wader. I mean it did once hold a white-tailed plover for a couple of days, so surely a green sandpiper or dunlin aren't beyond the realms of possibility? Sadly I've not seen a single wader on New Water all year except for the occasional lone lapwing.

However, it was still a worthwhile visit, with yet another clouded yellow, at least the 14th of the year. 

Six species of odonata today, with three hawkers, common x1, migrant x15 and southern x3.

I wondered at first if this might be a second generation clouded yellow bred at Bickershaw from the earlier influx in July, but on returning home I've seen a few reports of other clouded yellows today at Ainsdale and Marshside, so perhaps it's another wave coming in. In support of this possibility there was the lesser emperor I found a few days ago and a couple of rush veneer moths today at Bickershaw, plus reports of a few red-veined darters recently.

The photo above is a video grab of the butterfly which is still flying but coming into land on the flower. Clouded yellows never hold their wings like this when they are landed.

It may not be quite a beautiful as the clouded yellow but this is also a migrant, rush veneer moth, one of two seen today.

This reed warbler was nice and showy on Nevison's. This is quite a late record for me, I don't usually see them much past the end of August.

Juvenile little gull, Pennington Flash

Highlight of the past few days for me, a juvenile little gull was at the Flash early morning yesterday, always distant and beyond the reach of my camera, so the photo is of a bird that was present in September last year.

Highlights from today included a flock of 15 goosander that dropped in for about five minutes mid-morning before flying off east, and a juvenile ringed plover at the sailing club. Also a single adult common tern still.

Judging by the pale lines on their faces, I would say that the goosander flock consisted of two females and 13 juveniles.

Another lesser emperor at Bickershaw

A great year for dragonflies at Bickershaw still continues to produce the goods even into September. Today I found my third lesser emperor of the year at the site, on one of the small ponds between Fir Tree Flash and the stock pond. It was a really good view, a smart looking dragonfly, but unfortunately it refused to land and darted around hunting over the vegetation at the side of the pond and was completely beyond the limits of my camera. The photo was taken by clicking and hoping, I wasn't even looking through the view finder. I just pressed click! Anyway, you can see the brown thorax, the brown body and the blue saddle. The green eyes rule out vagrant emperor. So it's good enough for me!

Slightly more obliging, a migrant hawker perched in a tree. Actually it was a pretty good afternoon considering the torrential rain in the morning, with nine species of odonata seen including more willow emeralds.

A seawatch at Rubha Reidh

Rubha Reidh lighthouse is north of Gairloch and can be a good place for a seawatch, but today it was quite slow going.

A journey around Inverpolly

A day of touring and sightseeing today, but very few birds to see. Still, the scenery alone makes it all worthwhile. I spent most of the day around Inverpolly, the mountainous area just north of Ullapool. To start though, one of my favourite mountains, An Teallach.

Clinching the Pacific diver at Caolas beag, Gairloch

I'm not sure that it needed clinching, but I needed more views to be certain in my mind. The problem was, on Saturday I'd seen the Pacific diver and it was perfect. Small size, dark flanks, grey cheeks and small fine bill. It was so different to the accompanying black-throated divers that it looked more like a grebe than a diver. I was completely happy that I was watching a Pacific diver, though I didn't see the chin strap or the vent strap. 

However, then I went back on Sunday and saw what I thought at first was the same bird, but the jizz didn't seem right. Features that had looked so good on Saturday now looked uncertain or even wrong, and it was especially missing the grebe like appearance. Then it rolled onto it's side..... no vent strap. At this point I should say that I was watching the bird at 750m distance, so picking up on jizz is difficult as are small plumage details and things like bill size. But if it was a Pacific diver I should have been able to see the vent strap. 

Then there was a further complication which clouded my judgement. Up until this point everybody had told me that the Pacific diver was currently the only winter plumage diver in this area, and as if to confirm this, all of the black-throated divers I had seen so far were in summer plumage. I was still convinced that I had seen the correct bird on Saturday, but Sundays bird looked like a black-throated to me. Had I got it wrong on Saturday? Was I wrong on Sunday? Or where there actually two birds? I needed more views or I would forever doubt myself.

With a whale watching trip booked for this afternoon leaving me with a free morning, it seemed like a good opportunity to head back to Big Sand and make the most of the flat calm conditions to hopefully get better views of the Pacific diver. Instead of wasting time at the burn mouth near the campsite at Sands, which is simply too far away, I headed immediately along the rocky shore to a headland about a 1.5km to the north west and scanned from there. 

It took me a while to find the flock of 17 black-throated divers because they were close to the island well over 1.5km away, but soon they drifted my way. Almost immediately I spotted a winter plumage diver with them and excitedly took some video, but no matter how hard I tried, it still didn't seem right and after watching for a while I could only conclude that it was an adult winter black-throated. It just wasn't a Pacific diver.

Pacific diver. Note the rounded head shape,
small bill, grey cheeks & complete chin strap. Also
the fuller hind neck giving the bird a distinctive jizz.

This was crushing and I was at the point of giving up, totally depressed because I felt this now left my Saturday sighting in tatters. I must have made a mistake, I was no longer convinced that I had seen the Pacific diver at any time, and frankly I was even beginning to doubt that there had ever been one at Caolas beag. After all, hadn't I been told that there was only one winter plumage diver here? I had one last scan over the sea.

Pacific and black-throated divers. Pacific
 can be up to 20% smaller than black-throated,
 and you can really see the difference in this photo.

Amazingly within a minute I picked up a second winter plumage diver and knew instantly that it was the Pacific. It's whole jizz was so different. It was a long way out, probably 1km, but it was with a summer plumage black-throated and the difference was stark. This was no indecisive "is it or isn't it?" moment, this was a slap-bang in the face "That's it!" moment. I did a little dance on the spot, but thankfully there was nobody to see, just a few bemused and slightly nervous sheep.

Tales from a bait ball

A bait ball in the ocean is the name given to a tight, spherical group of small fish or other small creatures that swim together for protection when threatened by predators. It's a bit like starlings swirling around when they come into roost. By packing close together into a ball, thousands of animals act as one large shape to confuse attackers and protect individuals on the inside. 

Hundreds of guillemots and razorbills dive deep into the water creating bait balls and driving them to the surface. Eventually the fish have nowhere to go and will leap clear of the water to avoid their pursuers. This attracts other birds which either can't dive or can't go as deep as the auks such as gannets, kittiwakes, shearwaters and petrels. These in turn attract other predators such as skuas. There can be hundreds or even thousands of birds feeding in the vicinity of a bait ball and these are known as feeding frenzies which can been seen from quite a distance.

Unsurprisingly, cetaceans are also attracted to bait balls, so if we see a feeding frenzy it's always worth watching for a while because whales often surface in the middle of them. A couple of years ago I watched in awe as humpback whales drove North Atlantic Krill to the surface (opens in a new window) and created a massive orange pink bait ball which eventually also attempted to leap clear of the water.  

This afternoon I was out again on the Minch with Steve Truluck and Hebridean Whale Cruises. We headed from Gairloch towards Kilt Rock on Skye and there were feeding frenzies everywhere.

The sea looks like it's bubbling as all the fish come to the surface. The auks form rings around them but the kittwakes just crash in and grab what they can!

Great shearwater at a bait ball

The highlight of todays whale watching trip, apart from the bait balls themselves, was this wonderful great shearwater that was feeding in amongst the feeding frenzy of mainly kittiwakes and auks. I took lots of photos of the bird and rather than overwhelm the post about bait balls, I thought that this bird deserved a post all of its own.

Sabine's gull at a bait ball

I was thrilled to pick out a juvenile Sabine's gulls in amongst all of the kittiwakes at one of the bait balls.

What a sight! A Sabine's gull at a bait ball in the Minch with the mountains of Skye behind. Does it get any better? Not until a great shearwater appears.....

Mellon Udrigle

I spent a few hours today watching the sea from a headland at Mellon Udrigle. It looks out it looks out across the Ullapool to Stornoway ferry route to the Summer Isles and Inverpolly so in theory should be a good vantage point, but today there were no cetacean and the best birds were a couple of Bonxies. Oh well, it's hard to complain when you're in this kind of scenery.

An Tealllach from Mellon Udrigle.