Drizzle on Barra

A difficult day in wind and rain with very few birds about, but a male hen harrier was nice as were a couple of flocks of golden plover and other waders. 

I had a nice walk back from Eoligarry jetty to our cottage following the coast all the way, mainly over beautiful beaches many of which I'd never even seen before today and Barra airport café was perfectly placed on the route to give me a break from the elements for a bit.

The first yellow-browed of the autumn and a pintail

A glorious day on Barra, the best yet for weather, light wind and lots of blue skies. Birds included my first yellow-browed warbler of the autumn, a pintail which was a Barra tick for us, house martin, whimbrel, two white-tailed eagles and most surreal, a golden eagle over the co-op while we were doing the shopping! Also today two otters at Eoligarry jetty.

We were at Nask when I heard a yellow-browed warbler call quite clearly but for some reason I ignored it. Then it called again and I asked Ray,  who was looking at his phone, if he had played the call but he hadn't. Then I got interested. It called again a couple of times from the top of a tree and then flew to a pine tree where it stayed for a few seconds before flying off for a final time never to be seen, or heard, again.

Black tern and Sabine's gull from Eoligarry jetty

We spent the afternoon at Eoligarry jetty and managed to re-find the black tern which I think is an adult in non-breeding plumage. Only the second record for Barra and the first for 14 years, so at this time of year it's got to be worth checking to see if it's the American subspecies, especially since we're on an island that attracts American vagrants in autumn. 

The first thing we need to determine is the birds age. I think that this is an adult due to the dark looking primaries. Juveniles do not show the contrast of darker looking primaries on paler grey wings. Unfortunately this makes assigning it to subspecies much harder because a feature of juvenile American black tern is grey flanks which are easy to see. If we knew for sure that this was a juvenile then we could say that it's definitely not American black tern because it has white flanks, but if it's an adult then I'm not sure how to separate them. I think the rump is meant to be paler on adult American black tern but I don't think that the quality of the video is good enough to see that. To be fair I can't even be sure it's an adult at that distance, some images seem to show dark primaries but others don't. Without better views it will just have to go down as black tern. Video slowed to half speed.

Moss Carder Bee, Cleat

We've seen a few moss carder bees this week, best identified by their rusty backs and yellow abdomens, but this one at Cleat today was the best so far. It was a large insect, we wondered if it might be a queen, and it was clinging onto the flowers for dear life in the teeth of 45mph winds today! Even more remarkably, I managed to get a few photos that were in focus, the flowers were shaking at speed in the wind.

A quieter day on Barra

 

The birding's been a bit quiet on Barra today, just a few year ticks added to the holiday list. Best bird probably this ringtail hen harrier at Eoligarry. The scenery though has been just as breathtaking and the colours incredible.

This common seal was at Cleat.

Black tern on a glorious day on Barra

A glorious day on Barra today, with lots of sun and bright blue skies. When the weather is like this the beaches of the Outer Hebrides are second to none that I have seen anywhere in the world, though admittedly I won't be taking a dip in the sea anytime soon here! 

This afternoon we found a black tern off Eoligarry jetty and didn't think too much about it until shortly after we reported it, when one of the resident Barra birders screeched to a halt behind us and sprinted down the jetty to see his first on the island. Believe me, these resident Barra birders have seen it all and you know that you've found something good when they're running towards you! Apparently it's only the second record for Barra and 14 years since the last one! The video is slowed to half speed when the bird is flying. When judging the quality of this video, please bear in mind that the bird was approximately one mile away and the video was taken on my phone 😆. Technology these days is truly amazing!

White-tailed eagles, Eoligarry

We had a walk to Traigh Eais this afternoon from the footpath next to Eoligarry school. Before we reached the beach, these two magnificent adult white-tailed eagles appeared from over Ben Eoligarry Mhor calling to each other. I've never heard white-tailed eagles call before.

Harbour Porpoise from the Armdhor to Eriskay ferry

Three harbour porpoise, common dolphin and three species of diver including 40+ black throated were the highlight of a ferry journey to Eriskay this morning. Over many years of watching cetaceans, harbour porpoise is the one which I have struggled with most when it comes to getting a photo, so I was very pleased to get these today.

Best of all it appears that there was a calf with the harbour porpoise. These were photographed close to Ardmhor on Barra.

Swainson's thrush seconds and a few Barra ticks

A second look at the Swainson's thrush at the Manse today and I managed to get some photos. It's an elusive bird and todays showing lasted all of one minute, but that's pretty good, most of the sightings of this bird have been for less than 10 seconds. It looks a bit like a song thrush but is much smaller, as can be seen in the photos with a blackbird. When in view it was feeding on cotoneaster berries but most of the time it was out of view and presumably feeding on something else. 

Also today, a moss carder bee which was a new species for me, plus white-tailed eagle right over our cottage, hen harrier, great northern and red-throated divers and great views of an otter. Three new Barra ticks for me today, puffin, common scoter and most bizarrely a 1st winter lesser black-backed gull.

Swainson's thrush and a blackbird. The Swainson's thrush looks barely as big as a robin.

Another Swainson's thrush on Barra

Day 1 of a 3 week stay on Barra and we started with a Yank, the Swainson's thrush that was found yesterday was still present and showed well briefly but was generally very elusive. It's the fourth Swainson's ever on Barra and incredibly we've seen three of them! It was a great start, but now we need a Yank passerine that we haven't seen previously. 

Also today, several white-tailed eagles, twite and a nice variety of waders. The other highlight was an otter which showed well at point blank range for 5 seconds. Sadly all of my otter photos are out of focus but I'll post them here so that you can see what I missed! The otter photos are not cropped.

Unfortunately I managed no photos of the Swainson's thrush, so the above is one from 2023 at Castlebay.

Whyyyyy???

Back to Barra!

It's that time of year again when Ray and I migrate north to the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. 

Following a six hour drive to Oban we boarded the CalMac ferry "The Isle of Lewis" which took us on a five hour boat journey through the Sound of Mull, past the Inner Hebridean islands of Rhum, Eigg, Coll and Tiree and then across the Sea of the Hebrides to Castlebay on Barra. Then it's a 15 minute drive to the cottage which will be our home for the next three weeks. 

Todays boat trip was never going to reach the epic heights of last years return journey (opens in a new window) when we saw around 1000 great and 200 sooty shearwaters, but it was still a decent trip, the highlights being juvenile Sabine's gull, juvenile long-tailed skuas, four great skuas and eight storm petrels. On the way we got news of the discovery of a Swainson's thrush at Manse on Barra, and that no doubt will be our first stop tomorrow, but for now it's time for bed after a long and tiring day.

Pink-feet are back!

They're back! Pink-footed geese whiffling down to land on Plover field at Martin Mere and join 200 already present. These are just the forerunners of what is to come and by mid October there should be many thousands here. Also today, Egyptian goose and hobby.

This Egyptian goose with greylags and Canada geese from Harrier hide was a new species for me at the Mere, bringing my site total to 192.

Another juvenile little gull at the Flash

This morning a second juvenile little gull of the autumn was at the western end, also juvenile ringed plover still at the sailing club, two common sandpipers and a great white egret.

Wader and tern bonanza at Pennington Flash

I often really regret not taking up sketching birds when I was younger. I do my best with my camera but some experiences I just can't capture for varying reasons, e.g. limitations of my camera, distance, brevity of the sighting, weather, operator incompetence etc. 

I was at the Point of the Ruck today in heavy drizzle on a dull day hoping to get a photo of an arctic tern that was flying over by the sailing club, when I suddenly heard the familiar call of a ringed plover. This peeked my interest but not overly so since earlier I'd seen a juvenile on the sailing club shoreline and I assumed that it was just this bird moving around. I scanned the water looking for it but immediately caught sight of a flock of five waders which were about to fly past me. 

I've been in this situation before, I usually fumble around with my camera with one hand whilst trying to watch the birds through binoculars with the other. The result is usually an out of focus and shakey view through the bins and a few crappy, blurry photos of birds flying away from me which are completely useless aids to their identification. In other words the whole experience ruined and no identification obtained.

For once I acted decisively and ignored the pull of the camera and focused on (litterally!) seeing the birds. They were approaching a yellow buoy so I pointed the scope at it and waited for them to fly through and then followed them in the scope as they headed over towards the sailing club. Four of them were obvious, three ringed plovers and a moulting adult dunlin but what was the other bird? Actually it was just as obvious, from size alone it had to be little stint. It had a short, straight bill and appeared half the size of the dunlin, though obviously in reality it was a little larger than that. As it flew away from me I could see two pale tramlines down it's back making it a juvenile.... 

...and this is where I regret not having the ability to sketch the scene. I had no chance of a photo but perhaps I could have conveyed some of the excitement of the moment in a sketch. It's not to be though, so you'll have to make do with a photo of a common tern and a juvenile ringed plover.

The little flock headed off west and were gone and I turned my attention back to the flash and was delighted to find myself face to face with a juvenile black tern which must have just dropped in because I hadn't seen it earlier. The fifth black tern of September and just the sort of thing that can happen on such a day as this, misty drizzle is just the best weather there is for birding at the flash!

In total there were eight species of wader today. I think that must be some kind of record for me at the Flash. Apart from those already mentioned the juvenile ruff was still present on the spit with a common sandpiper and 50 lapwings, while there were three green sandpipers on Teal scrape and the usual oystercatcher on the car park. Three species of tern isn't bad either, with common, arctic and black terns present. 

Just to complete a great day a great white egret was at the eastern reed bed and my first of the winter skein of pink-footed geese flew over, with 13 heading east. Phew! It was hard to keep up at times!

White-winged black tern, Crossens Outer Marsh

Watching cricket at Crosby this afternoon left me handily placed for an evening visit to Crossens for a fabulous juvenile white-winged black tern. It was a little distant but still an excellent view. Driving past Hesketh Road I also had a spoonbill fly over the saltmarsh heading south.

The last white-winged black terns I saw were at Coral Bay in Western Australia in 2019, the last UK bird was at Burton Mere Wetlands in the same year.

These are just screen dumps from a video I took, not great but if you squint you can almost make out the bird! It was about 200m out from the wildfowlers pull in on Marine Drive in fading light, I had no chance of getting a photo with my camera. Actually I quite like this set of photos, they convey far more accurately the reality and thrill of the sighting than any frame filler which might be technically perfect but also completely soulless.

Whinchats, Barrow Lane

A couple of cracking whinchats have been at Barrow Lane over the past few days, along with a few wheatears  plus a build up of skylarks (40) and lapwings (160).

These are my first whinchats of the year.

A third black tern at the flash

An adult black tern dropped in this morning during a period of heavy rain, and joined the two juveniles which were still present. Clearly a different bird to the adult seen last Sunday, making it the fourth black tern this week at the flash. Also today, the ruff still present and two green sandpipers now relocated to Teal scrape and showing much better than when they were in Ramsdales.

Black tern plunge feeding at Pennington Flash

During most of their stay at Pennington Flash, two juvenile black terns were observed feeding for prolonged periods using three different methods. The commonest method was dipping-to-surface, rhythmically rising and falling to snatch prey from the water with virtually no hovering. A second method which was deployed on a few occasions involved the birds rising high into the sky with the hirundines to feed by chasing flying insects in the air.

However, on one occasion a third method of feeding was observed. One of the terns flew along a feeding route between two of the green buoys that are at the side of the spit. It flew very low over the water, at times hovering as can be seen in the photo above, but more often just flying slowly, almost bat like, before plunging into the water when it would almost completely disappear below the surface for a second before re-emerging and flying up again. The tern continued feeding in this way for a distance of about 100m between the buoys before flying up high and going back to the start of the route. It repeated the same feeding route several times before returning to the dipping-to-surface method of feeding.

Fortunately I managed to capture this method of plunge feeding in a short video below. Watching the video in isolation and it would be easy to think that the bird was either injured or cleaning itself in someway, but in the field it was obvious that it was feeding because it kept returning to the same route. It seemed to me that there was obviously something in the water and close to the surface that it was feeding on, perhaps a shoal of small fish.

By taking a few screen grabs from the video you can see more clearly what it is doing and it becomes obvious that it is feeding.

Black terns at the flash

On Monday two juvenile black terns turned up at the flash. Obviously not the same bird as I found on Sunday because that was a moulting adult as can be seen in the black marks on the belly in the photos from Sunday. This morning was my first opportunity to have a good look at these juveniles, but as is usual with the species at the flash they were always distant, sticking to the middle of the flash.

Hobby with prey, probably a dragonfly.

Other birds this morning included great white egret, ruff (16th day), two swift, 50 swallows and 10 sand martins. The hirundines were being hunted by a juvenile hobby over the ruck and it seemed to catch one because following a break neck chase it glided around for a bit and appeared to be feeding. Later it flew over Horrock's and appeared to have a dragonfly.

How many more? My latest ever date for swift is 19th September at Flamborough Head (2015) and Eccleston Mere (2006). My latest ever at the flash is 13th September. Beating the 13th is feasible but I doubt I'll beat the 19th. In the early hours of the 20th we travel to Barra for three weeks and swifts are not particularly common in summer there!

Willow emerald again at Bickershaw

It feels like we're now in the last embers of summer when it comes to dragonflies at Bickershaw, but even so we did ok with seven species today, including southern, migrant and brown hawkers and most pleasingly both willow and common emerald damselflies.

One the willow emeralds was at the original pond adjacent to Fir Tree Flash but we also managed to find and photograph another male in overhanging trees over the Stock Pond adjacent to Diggle Flash. We'd seen a couple of "emeralds" in the same area over the past couple of weeks and suspected that they were willow emerald, but it was good to finally confirm it today.

Willow emerald damselflies spend a lot of time in trees adjacent to water and unlike most other damselflies even lay their eggs in the branches of willow and alder. 

Common blue and small copper in the garden

A few butterflies from the garden today and a couple of unexpected species. We regularly get holly blue but I've only once previously seen common blue, yet today we had two individuals.  Even more surprising was a small copper, the first I have ever seen in the garden. Other species seen were painted lady, red admiral, large white and small white.

More local passage

A yellow wagtail was at the Pennington Flash sailing club this morning and the ruff was still on the spit. At midday there were two juvenile black terns. 

Meanwhile at Barrow Lane there was a 1st winter wheatear.

Curlew sandpipers and black tern in the rain and murk at the flash

In heavy rain and dark, murky conditions at noon, and 10 minutes after I'd predicted it, an adult moulting black tern dropped in at the flash and started feeding in amongst the hirundines. 

I was trapped in Horrock's hide, for some reason I had not bothered putting my coat on when I left the car and when it was still dry, but now I was regretting that decision. So I settled down to wait for the rain to clear and hopefully pick up some decent birds. The black tern was a great start!

I didn't have long to wait for the next. At about 12:30 I saw five waders flying towards the spit, very low over the water. They were obviously dunlin size and shape, but as they arrived at the spit and attempted to land I could see that they appeared paler than dunlin with white, unmarked underparts and a buffy breast. They turned slightly and now I could see what appeared to be white rumps. They were clearly juvenile curlew sandpipers but unfortunately they didn't land, they turned and headed away into the murk south and were lost. All very frustrating, though perhaps their brief appearance through the rain and amongst hundreds of hirundines created an even more evocative experience and one which will live long in the memory. 

Later in the afternoon at 14:50 there was a report of five curlew sandpipers at Elton Hall Flash, Sandbach, and it's tempting to think that they were the same birds.

Other birds today included 10 wigeon which dropped in at 8:15, a juvenile shelduck and five swifts around the same time and a flyover ring-necked parakeet in the afternoon . 

Black terns at the flash have been pretty scarce in the past couple of years following a bumper year in 2023 when there were over 20 present on a single day in spring. Last year there was just one bird and as far as I know this is the first bird of 2025.

Glossy Ibis, Martin Mere

A juvenile glossy ibis was found on Sunley's marsh late yesterday afternoon. I didn't have enough time to get there yesterday before the reserve closed, but we made sure that we were onsite and waiting at the door when the reserve opened this morning. Good job we did, because although the bird showed on and off, it was definitely more off than on, and most of the time it was either distant at the very back of Sunley's, half hidden by the vegetation, or completely out of view. 

However, at about 10am it did show very well about half way out and in full view on Sunley's for about 10 minutes before flying off and landing out of view again at the back of the marsh. And there it stayed, unseen for over an hour.

Clouded yellow, Dairy Farm Road

Highlight of the day was a clouded yellow at Dairy Farm Road. It had been seen the day before and we twitched it on the way back from Martin Mere to St Helens. We spent a good 45 minutes searching in the area that it had been seen, just off the footpath between Dairy Farm Road and Siding Lane to no avail. However, on the way back to the car we saw it flying along the footpath in front of us, at least 200m from the original site.

"In flight" is actually the best way to see this butterfly, I've never yet seen one land with it's wings open. When landed they always close their wings like the butterfly in the photo above which I saw at Tetney Lock in 2015. Sadly the underwing is a pale yellow and a poor substitute for the bright yellow with black border of the upperwing which is only visible in flight.

Clouded yellow is a migrant species common in Europe which occurs in the UK in variable numbers each year. This was my third record in St Helens, the others were both in 2000 at Reed's Moss and Ruskin Drive. In the North West I've also seen them at Banks (10+ in 1983) and Martin Mere (2003). The most that I have seen in the UK were 30 at St Bees Head in Cumbria (1992).

Ruff at the flash for its 11th day

The juvenile ruff was still present on the Spit for it's 11th day. It really is incredibly confiding and will walk right up to you, albeit on the other side of a fence.

Juvenile little gull and ruff at the flash

The juvenile little gull was still present today, though easily overlooked when sitting on the water. In flight however, it really is a smart looking bird. The broad blackish W across the wing really stands out and this is a feature of 1st winter birds as well, but what makes this juvenile plumage are the black markings on the hindneck, mantle and scapulars, as well as the dark patch on the side of the neck reminiscent of black tern. First winter birds lack these markings with pale grey hindneck, mantle and scapulars.