The day of the storm

The predicted storm rammed into us around midnight and by dawn the winds had reached speeds of up to 60mph with torrential rain. The chart looks like a conveyor belt potentially carrying birds from North America straight to us, but time will tell. 

By 10.30 the winds had eased to a mere 40mph, the rain had stopped and the sun was starting to peek through the clouds. We ventured out at about 11:00 and worked the island until 18:30 when we called it a day. The bird of the day was an adult golden eagle at Allasdale, where there was still a flock of golden plover, but no little grey bird amongst them. In fact we couldn't find any migrants today, if birds had arrived overnight they were keeping a low profile, perhaps resting up. I don't blame them if they had been caught up in that weather system.

There are currently only five birders on the island that we know of, but at least four more arrive tomorrow so hopefully that should increase our chances of something being found. We've got another week here....

Golden Eagle on a quieter day on Barra

A quieter day today following the excitement of yesterday, just the two golden eagles to liven up the day. A rosefinch was present for its second day and a barred warbler was found, but we couldn't connect with either. We're currently braced for the arrival of a mega storm overnight hopefully carrying some mega birds from North America.

MEGA!!! Swainson's thrush, Barra

We'd just arrived back at our cottage this evening after a great day out, Ray was inside making a brew, I was outside cleaning the car windows (for once) when suddenly Ray appeared and told me to grab my birding gear because we needed to go, we were off back to Brevig. He'd just had a call off a bird ringer he knows, Mark Oksien, who had just caught a small American thrush at Creachan wood, the place we had left 15 minutes earlier! We dashed back to find that the identification had been confirmed as Barra's second Swainson's thrush. The bird was weighed, measured and ringed and then released. It flew into a nearby tree, perched up for a while and then disappeared.

Just the kind of bird we came to Barra to see, the weather systems are paying off already.

A walk around Eoligarry

Before the excitement of the Swainson's thrush today we'd actually already had a top day, with great views of an adult white-tailed eagle and a lesser whitethroat, the latter a very scarce migrant on the Outer Hebrides. Also lots of decent waders on the magnificent Scurrival beach which we took in as part of a nearly four mile walk around the top end of Barra.

Weather charts

A wood warbler at Creachan, Brevig was the birding highlight from another challenging day of strong wings and heavy squally showers. Plenty of goldcrests around, a few swallows, lots of pipits and wagtails, plus a redpoll at Castlebay, but not a lot else.

Red-backed shrike and a mega on Barra

At the third attempt we caught up with this 1st winter red-backed shrike at Cleat and then saw a coot on Loch Tangasdail, the latter a real Barra mega.

 

A day on South Uist

A challenging day on South Uist with strong winds, occasional very heavy down pours and birds not playing ball, but compensated by beautiful scenery and a great view of an otter running across the beach. 

The birding was actually pretty good, with good numbers of waders including a few curlew sandpipers and three species of diver from the ferry back to Barra.  

We keep being told that the current weather charts look good for Barra over the next week or so, but time will tell.

This great northern diver was one of two which flew past the ferry in the Sound of Barra, where there were also black-throated and red-throated divers and black guillemot.

Aboard the Isle of Lewis

A five hour seawatch from the Oban to Barra ferry today produced a minke whale near the north tip of Mull, several common dolphins during the crossing of the Sea of the Hebrides plus and a harbour porpoise in the Sound of Mull. 

Birds included generally small numbers of storm petrels, great skua, Manx shearwater, auks, kittiwakes and gannets. 

Ardnamurchan lighthouse with the island of Eigg behind.

A morning at Martin Mere

Four cattle egrets were in front of the Discovery hide this morning, while from the Ron Barker hide there were about 30 ruff, two dunlin and a single little stint. Also a ringtail hen harrier and a juvenile marsh harrier. 

Barnacle goose X61, Pennington Flash

Appearances can be deceiving, first impressions can be misleading. I arrived at the flash this morning to find the place shrouded in mist and drizzle, in fact just the kind of conditions that at this time of year can often produce something good. I was full of anticipation when I arrived at Horrock's hide, but what I wasn't expecting was a barnacle goose. 

At first it was flying around calling as if looking for a place to land. Eventually it seemed decide that the Spit was the best place and it landed in the water near the end, about 150m away from me. While it had been flying I noticed that it had a yellow ring on its left leg and this immediately piqued my interest because I knew that some birds from Svalbard have yellow rings on their left legs. However I needed to read the code on the ring and this proved easier said than done. The bird was very wary and though it was obviously considering coming out of the water even the slightest noise or movement from a nearby duck spooked it and it moved away. One time it partially came out but not enough for me to read the ring and then all of the lapwings on the end flew up and up went the goose with them, flying high calling, I watched it disappear over the ruck and thought it was gone, but after about five minutes I heard it again and there it was flying high over the flash. Now it flew south and was lost behind the trees, but again it returned as the drizzle continued to fall. Eventually it landed back in the same location just off the spit, and though it walked out of the water a little, I still couldn't see below its knees. Again it was constantly looking around nervously and after a while it flew again, but this time just a short distance and joined up with about 20 Canada's in the middle of the flash, yet even now it didn't seem settled, keeping a respectable distance from its larger cousins. Surely this was a wild bird? It was so wary. 

Water chickweed, Pennington Flash

At Pennington Flash, just near where the Cormorant hide used to be, there are several plants of water chickweed. This is the only place where I have ever seen this species. 

Pinkies are back!

They're back! Right on cue there's been a big movement of pink-footed geese into the UK from Iceland over the past couple of days, and these were the first I have seen this autumn, over the garden at 7:15am this morning. These are heading east to winter in Norfolk, but many thousands will overwinter in the north west. 

It was a remarkable 10 minutes in the garden, shortly after these flew over I watched a hobby flying around over the garden. It wasn't moving through, it seemed to be looking for prey and there has been a hobby hanging around at Pennington Flash for at least the past week.

Caspian gull, Pennington Flash

It's heading towards that time of year again, the Pennington Flash gull roost. No matter how many times I say that I'm not going to do it this year, there's always something early on in the season which entices me back, and it looks like this is it for the winter of 2022/23, a 2nd winter Caspian gull, first seen yesterday and present again this evening. What a cracker!

Common terns, Carr Mill Dam

A couple of juvenile common terns were being fed by a single adult on Carr Mill Dam today.

1st winter Mediterranean gull, Pennington Flash

For the past couple of weeks there's been a mini roost of mainly black-headed gulls on some new workings at the yacht club. Today there was a 1st winter Mediterranean gull with them, the first I have seen at the flash for six weeks.

Also today, the juvenile ringed plover was still at the yacht club, the eclipse drake mandarin was off the main car park and a common sandpiper was in Rammies.

Ringed plover still at Pennington Flash

The juvenile ringed plover was still at the boat club today, it's been seen most days since Friday and I suppose it's the same bird, though it's breast band seems more complete to me. It's a smart looking bird.

Also today two green sandpipers still in Ramsdales, common sandpiper at the boat club and a yellow wagtail flew over calling. Two swifts were also over the flash and it's now that time of year where I start wondering if they will be my last for a while. My latest ever swift was at Eccleston mere on 19th September, so still two weeks before that record can be broken.

Yesterday a fabulous hobby flew over Horrock's hide and away south, my first and probably last hobby of the year at the flash this year.

These photos clearly show palmations between the middle and outer toes. Unfortunately in order to be upgraded to a semi-palmated sandpiper, the palmations would also need to be between the middle and inner toes.

American Golden Plover, Seaforth

Another photography masterclass today, this adult American golden plover was on the causeway at Seaforth Nature Reserve. It's a cracking bird, moulting from summer plumage which it still largely retains. Unfortunately without a permit I had to view through the fence from Crosby marina, against the light and facing into the wind, with a heat haze, it's a miracle that I got any kind of photo.

The completely grey underwing helps identify the species, Eurasian golden plover has white auxiliaries. 

Ringed plover, Pennington Flash

A juvenile ringed plover was on the boat club foreshore this morning, along with a dunlin now into its third day. Overhead there were still four swift and a mixed flock of about 150 hirundines.

 

Two green sandpipers were still in Ramsdales along with these five snipe.

Red-footed falcon, Marton Mere

Nice to see this fabulous juvenile red-footed falcon showing well at Marton Mere today, made extra special because it was a Lancashire tick for me, bringing my Lancs total to 307. Also it was a plumage tick, I've never seen a juvenile before, anywhere. 

It led us a bit of a merry dance for a while, it was meant to show well, but for the first couple of hours we only got a single fleeting glimpse of the bird, not at all tickable. After that we had a decent view of it flying quite close until just as we were about to leave it landed in it's favourite bush, about 50m away. The light was rubbish and it only stayed here for about a minute but at least we saw it well enough.

Also today five other species of raptor at the site, hobby, peregrine, kestrel, buzzard and sparrowhawk.