Mediterranean gull, Pennington Fash

Adult Mediterranean gull on rocks just off the car park at Pennington Flash this afternoon, also 63 pochard, 22 goldeneye and a single great white egret. I think I've managed to read the gulls ring from various other photos that I have, and I've submitted it to the BTO. I'll post the results here when I get them.

A 65 species day at Martin Mere

Another great visit to Martin Mere today where I managed to record 65 species, including ring-necked duck, glossy ibis, 2 merlin, 6 marsh harriers, 3 great white egrets, 5 cattle egrets, 2 little egrets, 50 black-tailed godwits, 20 ruff, 7 redpolls, 63 pochard, 4 chiffchaffs including 1 tristis, 7 oystercatchers, treecreeper and barn owl. Also 4 species of mammal, roe deer, stoat at the Rees hide, bank vole and grey squirrel. 

Velvet scoter and the scoter flock at Ainsdale

It seemed like perfect conditions for looking through the scoter flock at Ainsdale this morning, with bright sunshine and light winds. The only problem was that high tide was 06:09 with low tide 12:52. Surely that would mean that the birds would be further out? Perhaps not though, because I remember last year when there was a black scoter off Hoylake, the recommended viewing time there was actually low tide because the scoter flock didn't really come much closer in at high tide, they more or less stayed in the same position. I assume that the reason for this is that they stayed over the mussel beds where they feed, and in fact this food source might actually be more accessible at low tide. So if you were prepared to walk a mile offshore you could get a lot closer to the birds at low tide. It's the same flock and the same beach really, just that the River Mersey is in between, so presumably the same rules apply? Anyway I decided to give it a go. 

I arrived at Ainsdale at 09:30 and walked out to the edge of the sea and scanned the flock. There were probably about 500 common scoter spread across the sea at reasonably close range, i.e. < 0.5km (1/3 mile). Then there were probably another 500 up to 1km out at sea. Finally there were uncounted hundreds (thousands?) that were just dots in the distance, even on 60x magnification. They were so far out that I pondered for a moment if they were the same birds that I could see distantly from Colwyn Bay last weekend! And the answer is yes, they probably are part of the same impressive flock, which stretches across the whole of Liverpool Bay.

Fortunately I managed to find a drake velvet scoter with one of the closer flocks. It was close enough to see the white mark behind it's eye and I could see the bill shape and pattern pretty well. Other birds seen today included 6 red-breasted mergansers, 10 great crested grebes and at least 3 red-throated divers.

I stayed until 12:00 following the tide out but unfortunately there was no sign of the recent surf scoter.

Redpolls, Martin Mere

I was pleased to see a flock of six redpolls outside the Janet Kear hide this afternoon, and that turned to delight and amazement when I got home to discover that they were actually new birds for the reserve for me! There's lots of habitat at Martin Mere so I'm sure that I must just have been unobservant in the past, but that brings my Martin Mere total to 196 species. Perhaps I'll make it to 200 this year!

Common scoter off Fisherman's pier, Old Colwyn

The common scoter flock off the North Wales coast is one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in the UK, yet probably most non-birders, and perhaps even a fair few casual birders, don't even know of it's existence.

Tens of thousands of birds can be present and they are constantly active, often chasing each other around both on the water and in the air. Sometimes hundreds of birds can take to the air at the same time and fly a short distance before dropping down, only for smaller groups to fly up again almost immediately. Rarer species such as surf and velvet scoter are occasionally with them and in 2005 I saw a drake black scoter off Llanfairfechan.

The reason why they are so little known outside the mainstream birding community is that they are usually so distant and viewing is often very difficult. These flocks can be miles offshore, with only the very edges of the flocks visible even through a 60x magnification telescope. To add to the difficulties, the birds are often diving or disappearing behind the swell, and the wind shakes the scope making 60x almost unusable except in perfect weather conditions. Most of the time you need to drop down to a slightly more manageable 30x, but at that magnification most of the birds are little more than black dots.

A small number of birds do come a lot closer inshore but it's only a tiny fraction of what's out there and in my experience the rarer scoter are never with them. Until today (see next post).....

Surf scoter off Fisherman's pier, Old Colwyn

Forty-three years ago I saw my first ever North American surf scoter off Llanfairfechan on the North Wales coast. It was in a flock of about 5000 common scoter and it was a dot, the flock was probably about 1 mile offshore. Since then I've seen maybe 20 other surf scoter off this coast but the views have not improved greatly, they're always a long way out, usually disappearing in the swell as I try to steady my telescope in the buffeting wind. I've always dreamt of seeing one close in. Today it happened. 

I arrived at the promenade at Colwyn Bay to find a fellow birder gesturing to me that I should hurry up and get over to him. I lifted my binoculars and the first bird I saw was a drake surf scoter about 100m offshore, the closest bird. I could hardly believe my eyes, I watched it for about 20 minutes until finally it flew a little further out but was still a decent view by surf scoter standards. 

A little later I was again scanning through the scoter flock and relocated the surf scoter with a second male, but much more distant.

The photos in this post are video grabs and certainly don't do the bird justice. If you watch the video further down you'll see what an amazing bird it is. Wow!

I never thought I'd see the white eye ring of a surf scoter. This is a sighting of my dreams!

Wow again!

Glossy Ibis, Martin Mere

The glossy ibis was back at Martin Mere today and the ring-necked duck was AWOL, but apart from that it it was just the usuals.

Back to the roost

This awesome adult yellow-legged gull roosted at Pennington Flash this evening. I love how clean cut it looks, and look at the size of it compared to the lesser black-back. All of the photos in this post are phonescoped apart from the next one. It was sunset on a very dull day.

This photo was taken on my camera and clearly shows the mantle colour.

Remember, this is a video grab of a bird which was 100m away at sunset on a dull day in January, with a wind speed of about 25mph. However, you can clearly see that the bird has yellow legs! And this is obvious in other parts of the video too, but there's only so many crap photos that even I can post! Just take my word for it that it had yellow legs!

American Wigeon, Higher Penworthham

A 1st winter drake American wigeon has been on the River Ribble at Higher Penwortham, Preston for a few days. I failed to see it on my first visit on Saturday when it was flushed by a boat just a few minutes before I arrived, but today I was more or less straight onto it, and even more amazingly the sun came out for half and hour while I watched it on an otherwise dull day. It's the lefthand bird in these photos.

Ring-necked duck still, Martin Mere

After seeing the American wigeon on the Ribble this morning, I called in at Martin Mere for a few hours where most of the usuals were still present including the drake ring-necked duck.

Black redstart, Horton's Nose

This female type black redstart was at Horton's Nose at the mouth of the River Clwyd at Rhyl today.