Greater scaup, Pennington Flash

I don't normally bother with the greater part of this birds name, but I feel that in this instance I need to make clear that I am not referring to last Saturdays lesser scaup, which incidentally has not been seen again since. These birds showed quite nicely at the western end from Mossley Hall farm.

Jack snipe and merlin, Barrow Lane

Barrow Lane this morning, a jack snipe flushed from  the wood sandpiper pool by two mallard, flew low to the other side of the pool and landed again deep in vegetation. 

Also today, breathtaking view of a merlin again, low over the road hunting starlings, 20 fieldfares over, green sandpiper still and female / 1st winter stonechat. 

No geese at all this morning, though I was delayed because I called in at Pennington Flash first after being informed of 2 greater scaup there.

A second lesser scaup of the year, Pennington Flash

At 9.25am I received a text message from a fellow birder, BH, informing me that he had just seen a greater scaup at Pennington Flash but without a scope he couldn’t be 100% certain and very soon he had to leave. I messaged him back and told him that I was nearly at Green Lane with my scope and would check it out. On arrival it was immediately obvious that there had been a large build-up of tufted ducks and pochard, totalling around 400 birds with flocks at the west end, off the car park and in East Bay. However, I couldn’t see any scaup from Green Lane so I decided to drive around to the main car park. 

It wasn’t with the flock at the car park so I walked to Horrock’s hide and viewed East Bay from there. Almost immediately I saw a scaup sp. but it seemed obvious to me that from the head shape and size it was actually lesser scaup. It was a bit distant from here so I walked around to East Bay for a closer look.

Fortunately, when I arrived the bird was still present and I had decent views at a distance of about 100m, and also managed to take a video and some photos. The bird was an adult lesser scaup with a grey vermiculated back, white flanks and a black head and breast. It was similar size to the accompanying tufted ducks. 

The head shape was distinctive with an obvious peak on the rear crown. The bill was blue with a tiny black tip on the nail which seemed to rule out any possibility of a hybrid.

At 10:42 the flock was flushed by a yacht and flew off before splitting, some birds flying towards Ramsdales, the others to the bay off the car park. I walked back to my car and had a look through the flock off the car park but could not relocate the lesser scaup. It was not seen again. 

I messaged BH who by this time had left, to tell him that it was in fact a lesser scaup. His reaction was one of surprise because he said that the bird he had seen had been clearly larger than the tufted ducks and was not in his opinion lesser scaup. My next visit to the flash was three days later when two 1st winter greater scaup were found at the west end of the Flash. I saw these birds with BH and he told me that the scaup sp. that he had seen was most likely one of these birds. He remains adamant that the bird he reported was not lesser scaup.

This was the second lesser scaup at Pennington Flash / Greater Manchester in 2025. The first was also found by myself on 30th June and stayed for about two weeks before relocating to Audenshaw Reservoirs where it stayed until the end of August and then disappeared. That bird was considered to be a returning bird which has spent the past several summers in Greater Manchester and which historically has always disappeared at end of summer. Today's bird will be submitted to BBRC as a different bird due to its brief appearance so far outside the normal pattern of occurrence.

Knot, Carr Mill Dam

At 8am I got a message from Bill at Carr Mill Dam informing me that he had a knot on the concrete next to the outflow. I was aware that it wouldn't stay long, it only needed a dog walker to stick his head over the wall, or a fishermen to decide to go into that area and it would be gone, but I'd never seen one in St Helens, so I had to give it a go. 

At that time of day it's not an easy journey, with at least a couple of bottlenecks to negotiate including Haydock Island, plus a set of road works and school traffic, all combining to give me a estimated journey time of 32 minutes to cover just over 13km (8 miles).

Fortunately when I got there it was still present and showing well, though I did have to view through the metal fence around the outflow. I quickly fired off a few photos and then went back to the car for my coat and scope.

I set up the scope and took this very brief video before the bird flew and was gone, flying high to the south west until lost to sight. At the end of the video you can see it crouch immediately before it flew.

Pied wagtail, Barrow Lane

This smart winter plumage pied wagtail with a lemon yellow face was at Barrow Lane, St Helens this afternoon. I'm not sure I've ever seen one with such a bright yellow face before.

  

Green sandpiper and stonechat, Barrow Lane

Today I finally caught up with the green sandpiper that's been at Barrow Lane for a week. Also today, at least one stonechat, possibly two, a grey wagtail, teal, 10-20 yellowhammers, nine great black-backed gulls and 70 herring gulls, plus lots of skylarks and meadow pipits.

 

Common darter, Barrow Lane

A common darter at Barrow Lane was a late record for me. Also today, nearly 1000 pink-footed geese over, mainly heading east, teal still on the pool and a grey wagtail.

Passage in St Helens

A week of dull murky weather with light winds was not conducive to great photographs and I'm not going to even attempt to brighten them up because this what the conditions were like! 

I spent two hours from dawn on each of three mornings at the beacon on Billinge Hill counting birds as they passed over. Tuesday was the best day with good numbers of redwings and fieldfares mainly heading south / south west, plus a single ring ouzel. The three two hour stints produced in total redwing 2132, fieldfare 84,  ring ouzel 1, skylark 163, meadow pipit 48, chaffinch 153, woodpigeon 1826, pink-footed goose 253. Other birds seen around the beacon included stonechat 6, reed bunting 26, linnet 300+, goldfinch 100+, yellowhammer 10, coal tit 6, song thrush 16.

As far as I know stonechats don't breed in St Helens and actually these birds were the first that I have ever seen on Billinge Hill so they're either on passage or newly arrived winter visitors, but it's hard to be sure with birds like this and even harder with chaffinches etc. Are they just local birds flocking together for the winter or birds from further afield? I'm not sure, but there's definitely been a build up of chaffinches recently.

Wigeon, Newton Lake and J3581

 

Five wigeon on Newton Lake today were a site first for me and the 123rd species I've seen in St Helens this year. 

Black-headed gull J3581 at Newton Lake today. Ringed as a chick on 10th June 2024 at Langøyskjær, Råde, Østfold, Norway, just south of Oslo. Distance travelled 1056km (656 miles).

Escape from Barra

Thankfully the weather was calm and the ferry fully operational so there were no delays leaving the island. First time we came here we were three days delayed in leaving due to a ferry breakdown. 

It was a decent crossing with reasonable numbers of common dolphins and a few seabirds, best being a sooty shearwater that was close to the boat. Nothing like last years crossing when we had 1000 great shearwaters and 200 sooties but that was very much a once in a lifetime experience.

At least 40 common dolphins this morning with at least one calf seen. Around 20 were at the entrance to the Sound of Mull out from Tobermory, 10 were out from Castlebay on Barra and the rest somewhere in between.

Coal tit, Northbay

The rarest bird on the island at the moment is this coal tit, which is the first Barra record in two years. Before I saw it, I had hoped that it might be the continental race Periparus ater ater, but it clearly isn't, so I just put it down as the normal British coal tit.

However, after posting my images of this bird elsewhere, I have been contacted by a ringing friend who suggests that the obvious sulphur yellow cheeks make this a good candidate for P.a. hibernicus or Irish coal tit, a race that I'd not even considered previously. 

The sulphur yellow cheeks are visible in most of these photos. The white patch on the nape also seems to have a yellow tinge. Whatever race it is, it's a smart looking bird.

An interesting lesser whitethroat at Northbay

This morning we found this lesser whitethroat at Northbay, amazingly in the very same garden where we had previously seen our only other record of the species on the island in 2022. On looking at the photos I think that this is a strong contender for the subspecies Curruca curruca blythii also known as Siberian lesser whitethroat.

I've seen a few blythii over the years and this bird seems to have some characteristics of that race. Some of the photos are a little burnt out due to the bright sunlight which was right behind me, however it's upperparts appear sandy brown and this extends onto the birds nape, and it's underparts are quite buffy contrasting with the throat and this extends around to the undertail coverts. Finally, it appears to have a faint supercilium and it has pale panel in the secondaries. It also tacked several times, like the usual British race C.c.curreca, ruling out the race halimodendri which has been proven through DNA to occur on Barra at least once in the recent past.

Having discussed this bird with other birders here, the general feeling is that most of the lesser whitethroats in October and November are blythii and they typically appear around the same time as yellow-browed warblers.

Icelandic redwings. Turdus iliacus coburni

Redwings are now arriving in numbers on Barra and are of particular interest because they are the Icelandic race T.i. corbuni. I've never knowingly seen this race anywhere else except Barra and they differ from the more familiar T.i. illiacus in that they have more thickly streaked underparts giving them a much darker appearance. 

Otherwise a very, very quiet day. Three days to go....

Barnacle geese and goose barnacles

Incredible as it may seem now, in medieval times before we understood about bird migration, barnacle geese were believed to spawn from goose barnacles and in fact this is how the birds got their name.

With perfect timing, today we saw not only flocks of newly arrived barnacle geese flying past Eoligarry jetty, but also found some goose barnacles washed up on a nearby beach. Surely this is all the evidence we need that the old myth is true?

Sadly, the geese had not just emerged from the crustaceans, but the reality is even more amazing, they had just arrived in off the sea from their breeding grounds in Greenland. They annually pass over Barra on their way to their wintering grounds on Islay and elsewhere in Scotland.

Meanwhile, the goose barnacles belong in tropical / sub-tropical waters, where they attach themselves to any floating items in the ocean, which in the case of those we found today means human litter. The goose barnacles are unable to reproduce in the colder waters around Britain, so the floating litter must have originated many hundreds of miles away and over the course of many years floated to Barra, carried by storms and ocean currents, bringing the goose barnacles with them.

By-the-wind sailors

This afternoon we found over 1000 by-the-wind sailors washed up on Traigh Eais, the first I have ever seen. These are related to Portuguese man-o-war, and like that species they are not a single organism, they are in fact a colony of organisms all working together fulfilling different functions to allow the colony to operate as a single individual. Weird!

Like Portuguese man-o-war, by the wind sailors just float in the oceans and are at the mercy of the currents and winds.

Thrushes on Barra

Song thrushes on Barra belong to the Hebridean race T.p.hebridensis and are darker than their cousins on the mainland.

Meanwhile, today saw the first arrivals of Icelandic redwings, with 25 on Vatersay.

A walk on the beaches

Today I had a 12km / 7.5 mile walk around Barra's finest beaches, Traigh Mhor, Traigh Cille-Bharra, Traigh Sgurabhal and Traigh Eais.

The photo never lies they say, but it can tell only half the story. These photos may look idyllic but the wind was gusting to nearly 60mph all day and walking into it was extremely challenging and effortful, not only because progress was very slow, but also because in many places I was being sand blasted. I was nearly blown off my feet on more than one occasion and just walking in a straight line was a challenge, while all I could hear was the roar of the wind.

Occasionally a shower would pass over, and in a moment I was drenched. Torrential rain for 5 minutes and then it was gone. Of course I don't photograph the rain so you'd never know from the photos.

In truth it's very tough going here on Barra at the moment, everything we do is a struggle with the elements and birding is next to impossible at times. It can be difficult enough to stand up without trying to peer through binoculars at the same time. Often we take the easy option and don't even bother going through the front door of the cottage, it's so tough. However, today I went for a walk on the beach.

Amy arrives

A fairly calm but gradually worsening morning, we did our usual rounds, starting at Northbay and then moving to Cleat.

Hebridean starlings are easily the commonest birds on Barra and the 1st winters are particularly striking birds.

Cleat and the approach of Amy

Storm Amy is rapidly approaching us from the west, with predicted severe gales tomorrow afternoon of up to 86mph. Ahead of it comes heavy rain this afternoon and tomorrow so birding over the next 36 hours is likely to be challenging!

Here she comes! The weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon. We're the white dot in the image.

However we managed to get out this morning and spent our time at Northbay and Cleat. No sign of the spotted flycatcher today but we did see a wheatear on the beach, plus hunting hen harrier and merlin.

Bottlenose dolphins and another black tern

I've mentioned before that Eoligarry jetty on the Sound of Fuideigh is our favourite place on Barra, we always seem to see something good here, and today just proved the point once again, with the highlight being at least four bottlenose dolphins. There was a lot of seabird activity in the Sound so presumably there was a shoal of fish, and the dolphins showed well with lots of leaps and tail slapping.

Last Wednesday we found an adult non-breeding plumage black tern in the Sound which was only the second ever for Barra and the first for 14 years. Amazingly a few days later the third for Barra was found at the same location when a juvenile joined the adult for a day. The adult seems to have disappeared now but the juvenile is still around and we had good views of it today as it flew back and forth.

Unlike this juvenile, the adult had dark primaries which contrasted with the paler grey in the rest of the upperwing. The adult was an altogether darker looking bird.

Spotted flycatcher, Cleat, Barra

Ok so it's only a spotted flycatcher and not some North American mega passerine, but it was great to watch this bird performing so well at Cleat today. The seaweed is full of flies and there are several stonechats, rock pipits and meadow pipits feeding on them. The flycatcher perched up on rocks and either dropped onto the the seaweed to pick off invertebrates or occasionally was seen flycatching in exactly the same manner as they do from a perch in a tree. Obviously on the move, birds like this bring us hope that the next migrant will be the big one!

Twite

Cleat.