Bonaparte's gull, Upton Warren

Upton Warren is a place I've been aware of since 1983 when Bill Oddie mentioned it as his local patch in his "Little Black Bird Book", yet remarkably perhaps despite birding all over the country during the following nearly 40 years, this was my first ever visit to the place.

I was working just seven miles away and virtually had to drive past it on my way to the motorway so when news broke that there was a 1st winter Bonaparte's gull on the reserve it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.  Thankfully the bird showed immediately and well as it hawked around the lake very like a little gull. This was my 8th Bonaparte's gull in the UK and my 6th in the past eight years, but only my second 1st winter bird. My first ever encounter with the species was a 1st winter bird in Cardiff almost 25 years ago to the day.

South Cumbrian coast

A fairly quiet day on the south Cumbrian coast today, five wheatears spent the day on the rocks just below me, a couple of skeins of pink-footed geese went over, a handful of Sandwich terns fished the channel and the highlight, five whimbrel were on the mudflats.

Perhaps most interesting to me though were the dog-violet species on the bank next to my perch. I'm pretty sure that most of them were heath dog-violet especially because of the yellow / pale green spurs.

Avocets, Lightshaw Flash

Two avocets at Lightshaw this morning were both a year tick and a site tick for me. They're probably the same birds which were at Bickershaw yesterday evening. Also today at least three black-tailed godwits and two redshank. Yesterday there were still two wigeon and a couple of little ringed plover.

Under the cliffs of the Great Orme

The seabird colonies on the Great Orme are not as awe inspiring as many other places around the coast of the UK, but they are still impressive non-the-less. Today I sat myself down in my favourite quiet place on the edge of a cliff and spent an hour or so immersing myself in the sights and sounds of this wonderful place. 

There's plenty of activity at the moment. Most obvious are the kittiwakes, they are scattered across the water and their calls fill the air, one of the most beautiful of all of the gulls. Guillemots and razorbills fly to and from the cliffs with whirring wings, while fulmars are quite the opposite and glide past without a flap. Out at sea gannets are passing by now and I find their plunge diving as impressive today as it was when I saw my first in Gairloch Bay in Wester Ross, way back in the early 1980s.

White-winged scoter, Fisherrow, Musselburgh

Photo: American white-winged scoter (left)
with velvet scoter, Fisherrow, Musselburgh.

Wow what a bird! My photos may not show it but the American white-winged scoter at Musselburgh is just magnificent. On my way home from working in Scotland today I called in at Fisherrow harbour near Musselburgh for my fourth attempt to see this bird since it turned up here almost exactly three years ago. Just four days before the first covid lockdown in March last year I was here and convinced myself that I had seen it but on reviewing the sighting recently I decided to remove it from my list because there was too much doubt in my mind.

 

Unfortunately the bird has been very hit and miss this winter, it's been seen for a day or two but then gone missing for a week. However it had been seen two days ago and though it subsequently wasn't reported yesterday when the weather was pretty awful, I decided that it had to be worth a look today with a much improved forecast and seeing as I was in the area anyway. One of the problems when hoping to see a long staying rarity is that you can never be sure how many people are still looking for it or if every sighting is being reported, and often these birds just seem to fade away with less and less reports. 

I started off at at Joppa just west of Musselburgh because that's where the bird had last been seen and where it seems to have been reported most often this winter. However I soon gave up here because most of the velvet scoter were away to my right and were slightly against the light on this bright sunny day, so I decided that Fisherrow would be a better bet.

I walked out to the mouth of the harbour at Fisherrow and started to scan from there. It was bitterly cold in the brisk northerly wind which also made the scope shake quite a bit, but at least the light was perfect. 

I've said before that for a west coast inland birder who is used to seeing velvet scoter either in grotty  1st winter plumage on a local reservoir or as dots miles away out to sea off the North Wales coast it's just a joy to see them so close at Musselburgh, where you can easily see the males yellow bills and the white patch behind the eye. Of course views like this are pretty vital when trying to see an American white-winged scoter for which the subtleties of bill shape and colour are key to the identification.

I was alone and at first it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, there were small groups of scoter scattered across the sea and many of them too far out for me to have any chance of picking out the star bird. Fortunately one group of about 30 velvets was a good bit closer than the rest and I decided to trust to luck and concentrate on these. Even now it wasn't easy, my hands were like blocks of ice, the wind was shaking the scope and the birds kept disappearing for periods in the swell or frustratingly kept diving before I could get a good look at them. Miraculously I spotted it straight away, a brute of a scoter, large headed and bull necked with a large white tick behind the eye, surely that was the bird, but then it was gone, all of the flock had dived. A minute later they popped up a little to the right but then dived again before I could get a good look at any. I wasn't completely convinced at this stage but I'd seen enough to make me forget the more distant birds and concentrate on this flock. 

Spotted Sandpiper, Croy

The long staying spotted sandpiper at Croy Shore in Ayrshire is now really living up to it's name. When this bird first appeared here last autumn it was a spotless 1st winter bird, but now it looks very like an adult which is presumably what it will be when it completes its moult. 

  

It's such a wonderfully confiding bird and I'm so lucky to be working close by giving me the opportunity to see it. If you just sit and wait it will walk right past you within just a metre or two.

There's obviously plenty of  food on the beach with invertebrates such as this crab plentiful in the rock pools and flies and bugs in amongst the masses of washed up and rotting kelp. 

Garganey and swarms of sand martins at Pennington Flash

The pair of garganey which commutes between Lightshaw and Pennington Flash was today at the latter and showing well just off the spit near the still closed Horrock's hide. Also today around 3000 sand martins and my first house martin of the year. Lightshaw was pretty quiet, just the now regular four black-tailed godwits.

Common sandpiper Pennington Flash

A common sandpiper was at Pennington Flash yacht club this morning, amazingly my earliest ever in the UK by 3 days. Offshore at least 1000 sand martins. 

I continued my walk to Lightshaw but the only thing of note there was a single black-tailed godwit. No sign of the recent garganey.

Lightshaw and Pennington Flash

Photo: Marsh marigold.

Migration is in full swing now, taking advantage of the good weather and southerly / easterly winds. Several willow warblers and blackcaps were in full song at Lightshaw and Pennington Flash, and a couple of swallows were at both places. There were hundreds of sand martins over Pennington and two whooper swans passed over heading north. Highlight was a pair of garganey at Lightshaw, probably the same birds as at Pennington last week.