Leopard Slug

This magnificent leopard slug was a first for me on the Cumbrian coast today. I don't know anything about slugs, but they are apparently pretty common, I'm probably just unobservant.

Also today, two wheatears and four swallows.

I was surprised to find quite a few plants of yellow-wort in full flower today.

Bottle-nosed dolphins, Flamborough Head

Great to see a pod of around 20 bottle-nosed dolphins off Flamborough Head today, including at least one baby. Also today around 50 grey and common seals.

Bempton Cliffs

The cliffs at Bempton are still quite busy, but it's all about the gannets at this time of year. Apart from a few distant shags on the sea, I saw precisely one other seabird today, a single fulmar flying along the top of the cliffs. 

Still, it's great to watch the gannets with the now fully grown gugas. One day soon, the youngsters, not the parents, will decide that it's time to leave the nest and they will jump off the cliff and glide down to the sea, too heavy to properly fly. They swim around for a while unable to plunge dive for food which means that they lose weight and are then able to take wing and eventually head off to the coast of West Africa. In a couple of years they'll return as immatures and in four or five years they will breed for the first time.

Wilson's Phalarope, Burton Mere Wetlands

Occasionally I suffer from high levels of anxiety and at such times I just can't cope with packed hides or even other birders. There were far too many people for me in Border hide at Burton Mere Wetlands when I arrived today and I didn't even look to see if the Wilson's phalarope had returned after being flushed by a peregrine earlier, I just walked in, recoiled and walked out with the intention of heading back to the car and leaving. Fortunately, by the time I'd walked back to reception the bird had relocated to the main scrape and I managed to watch it from the almost empty Bunker hide for 20 minutes before the birding masses also relocated, at which point I abandoned the bunker and left! Anxiety can be a disabling condition, in 2019 I wrote about it here.

My first Wilson's phalarope was at Cley Marshes in 1983, but since then I've seen another nine individuals and they have all been in the Ribble / Mersey / Dee area. Four of the 10 have been at Martin Mere. Todays bird brings my year list to 240.

Wilson's phalaropes are really elegant, smart looking birds and I was glad to have managed to see this one despite my difficulties. It also flew around a couple times showing off it's white rump.

Signal Crayfish

I was in Toddington today surveying water voles and came across this Signal Crayfish. Unfortunately it's an aggressive and highly invasive alien species which is ousting our native white-clawed crayfish, but still an interesting sighting.

Pectoral Sandpiper, Alston

There's been a bit of an influx of pectoral sandpipers recently, with at least four just in north west England alone, so it was good to catch up with one today at Alston Wetlands near Longridge. Last time I was here it was to see a Wilson's phalarope in 2017.

Back for the Albatross

I thought I'd seen the last of the black-browed albatross at Bempton Cliffs, at least for this year, but then a green warbler was found nearby at Buckton a few days ago and the albatross suddenly became part of a good supporting cast which also included the white-tailed plover at Blacktoft. The request was that birders going for the green warbler should park only in the Bempton Cliffs car park and that being the case it was unthinkable that we should not have another look at the albatross as well.

After about an hour at Buckton it was obvious to me that the green warbler had departed overnight so I decided to spend my time more productively by watching the gannet colony and hoping to see the albatross.

When I arrived at Staple Newk it was sitting on the cliff out of view from either of the nearest viewpoints, but after a wait of about 90 minutes it flew out, circled around a couple of times and then headed out to sea and I lost it. Perhaps not as exciting as my previous visits but always an awesome sight.

I've not yet managed the incredible views that some people have had, though I did see it down to a few meters on my first visit, but even so I think I've done pretty well with this bird. I've now seen it on each of the three occasions I've been for it, and compare that to a guy I was standing next to who was hoping to finally see the bird today at the seventh attempt. I'm not even sure he saw it today, I don't remember him still being there when the bird flew and it was only really viewable for about a minute before landing miles away on the sea.

White-tailed lapwing, Blacktoft

The white-tailed lapwing is still at Blacktoft RSPB and today was showing from the Townend hide. The light was much better than last time I was here so I managed a few slightly better photos. It's clearly heavily moulting and I guess that it's likely to stay at least until the moult is complete.

Also today an otter swam across one of the channels to the left of Singleton hide, the first I have seen at Blacktoft.

The snipe is clearly the star of this photo!

Little Stint, Pennington Flash

A little stint on the spit at Pennington Flash today was only my second record from the flash and my first at the site for 25 years. It was right on the end of the spit and viewing was very difficult.

They're back!

They're back! Winter is here. 85 pink-footed at Marshside today including this flock, just a day later than my earliest ever.

Hummingbird hawkmoth

Hummingbird hawkmoth at Robin Hood's Bay today, the first I have seen in the UK for several years.

White-tailed lapwing, Blacktoft

There's been a white-tailed lapwing at Blacktoft RSPB for the past week or so and today I finally got the opportunity to call in for a look. It's the seventh for the UK and my third following birds at Seaforth (2010) and Leighton Moss (2007). The Seaforth bird was a pristine spring adult, occasionally showing down to 10m or less, and todays bird doesn't come close to that, but even so it showed very well, though occasionally it disappeared behind one of the islands or tall vegetation.

There was a brief sighting of what was presumably the same bird in Kent in early June, but nothing since and these records were the first for eleven years, so when it turned up at Blacktoft about a week ago there were queues to get into the hide. However, when I arrived this morning at 10:30 the car park was barely half full and though the hide was busy, there was space and certainly no queues. 

It brings the wader count on the reserve to an impressive 52 species and by Blacktoft standards it's actually not that rare. Back in the 1980s I saw two firsts for Britain here, Hudsonian godwit and Red-necked stint.

Other waders today included 2 little stints, 2 spotted redshanks, 4 green sandpipers and about 30 dunlin. On the way home I called in at Southfield reservoir where there was a black tern which was my first of the year.

Year list: 238 (White-tailed lapwing, spotted redshank, black tern)

It's heavily moulting and is actually quite a tatty looking individual, although to be fair my photos don't do it any favours!

Black redstarts, Winter Hill

Black redstarts are pretty frequent at Winter Hill mast compound and in the past week there have been up to four birds present. They can be very elusive and in a three hour search today I managed to see two for a few minutes, but not well enough to be able to decide if they were juveniles or females. This particular bird was flycatching off the wall of the building.