Buntings and violets on the Great Orme

I had an early morning visit to the Great Orme today on my way to a job in the Conwy Valley, hoping to see the lapland and snow buntings which have been present for a few days. It took a while, but eventually I found a female Lapland bunting just north of the cairn. What made it so difficult was the fact that the bird was so approachable, I only found it because I saw it fly in and land. Once on the ground it virtually disappeared and wouldn't fly even if you walked quite close by. 

Early spring migrants at the Flash

Almost three weeks since their first arrival at Pennington Flash, today I finally caught up with sand martins for the year, with a flock of around 100 off the ruck this morning. Also today a pair of garganey and a black-tailed godwit in Ramsdales and two little ringed plover.

The south Cumbrian coast

Six shoveler were a site tick for me in south Cumbria today, a sure sign of spring, and 18 whooper swans flew over heading north. Otherwise not much sign of migration at North Walney today.

Spotted sandpiper, Croy

Another week and another trip to Scotland for work put me within striking distance of this wonderful spotted sandpiper on the beach at Croy. It was first seen for a few days in mid-October last year, but then went missing until the end of January. I've been keeping my eye on it for a few weeks but despite numerous work trips to Scotland this year I've not really been close enough to justify it, until today.

It's an incredibly confiding bird and these were easily my best ever view of the species. I stopped to photograph the grey wagtail at the bottom of this post and suddenly saw the sandpiper walking behind it. It looked tiny amongst the rocks on the shoreline. It just kept coming closer and closer and eventually walked right past me at a distance of about 2m! In fact it didn't just rush past, it was feeding and going back and forth as it walked, not concerned by me at all.  

It's a 1st winter bird but is starting to show a few spots and presumably will be in full adult summer plumage within another few weeks. A really smart bird.

Green sandpiper at the horse paddocks

There's been a green sandpiper knocking around the horse paddocks for a while, perhaps all winter, but it's not always around and probably also spends a lot of time on the nearby brook or even some of the flooded fields or ponds further down the valley. Anyhow today I finally caught up with it on the same fields that the little ringed plover were on yesterday, though the plovers themselves were nowhere to be seen. Much less activity around the floods today, with a single shelduck about the best.

First little ringed plover of the year at the horse paddocks

This is the first of what will probably be a series of posts from a site that I am going to refer to as the horse paddocks. It's a place which is just a 10 minute drive from home but which has a surprisingly decent selection of birds. However it's not a place which I want to attract too much attention to so I won't be giving out any more information than this as to it's exact location.

This was my second visit of the spring and it came up trumps with my first little ringed plover of the year with male and female birds present. This is my earliest ever record of the species in the UK, beating the previous record by five days.

Also today in amongst the 200 or so black-headed gulls, two cracking summer plumaged Mediterranean gulls. In summer plumage this has got to be the most beautiful of all gull species.

Yellow-legged gull at the horse paddocks

While I was looking through the gulls at the horse paddocks today, I came across this gorgeous summer plumaged large gull at the back. Clearly it's a big bird and it's far too dark to be a British herring gull Larus argentatus argenteus but it's also quite a lot paler than the nearby lesser-black backs.

In the field my immediate reaction was yellow-legged gull, and this seemed to be confirmed when I looked at the photos later and saw that the bird had yellow legs. Notice also that it's quite slender looking bird with long wings.

However this wing pattern had me confused for a while because yellow-legged gull is meant to have a black tip to primary feather p10, but in this case it appears to be completely white, which made me consider first Caspian gull and then yellow legged omissus-type herring gull L.a. argentatus. It doesn't quite fit either of those species though, either in wing pattern or jizz and further research reveals that actually some male yellow-legged gulls can have an all white tip to p10 (Olsen 2018).

Also, on closer inspection p10 does appear to have a black notch near the end and after a discussion on the facebook group Western Palearctic gulls, the general consensus is that this is indeed a yellow-legged gull, and a very smart individual at that.

 

Snow bunting, Winter Hill

There's been a cracking male snow bunting on Winter Hill for a couple of weeks, hanging around the trig point. It was surprisingly elusive today, but I did get some decent views of the bird. To me it looks like an adult male in winter plumage and most likely of the race P.n. insulae. My photos aren't that great, but it's a male because it has white lesser and median coverts, black tipped white primary coverts and square edged black centered scapulars. It's insulae because it has black tipped white primary coverts and in the field I saw clearly a brown rump with dark centers to the feathers.

Dusky warblers Ainsdale

This morning I got the opportunity to take my daily walk at Ainsdale. There's been at least one dusky warbler reported from here for about 3 months, and on 15th February two were seen together. This is the first time that I have been able to get here legitimately, due to it not being particularly local, or at least not local enough for me to feel comfortable about making the journey.

I arrived at about 9am and started the tough slog across the dunes. At this time of year the footpaths are flooded often above welly height and the slacks are large, almost like lakes in places and long detours away from your planned route are often required. It's a maze of footpaths, a place where you can very easily go wrong, especially if you're looking for a tiny, wide ranging, unobtrusive and skulking bird which is a mile or more from where you parked the car with the preferred habitat of ubiquitous hawthorn scrub and in all likelihood there will be no other birders around to help, the bird having been present for three months after all.

I got lucky today though, because as I approached it's favoured area I spotted two other birders clearly looking for the bird. As I approached them, at a distance of about 50m, one of them waved to me and started pointing to my right. Almost immediately I saw it, a dark chiffchaff like bird moving secretively around from hawthorn to hawthorn but fortunately for me it was coming closer and eventually went right past me at a distance of about 3m. Jackpot! No chance of a photo, I didn't even get the camera out it was just too quick and too skulking. Then it flew about 20m and I lost it. I had heard only the faintest of calls from the bird but it had been a decent view, albeit for just a few seconds. My impression was of a bird with dark brown upperparts and dark grey underparts, with a distinct pale supercillium.

I hadn't expected to see the bird so easily and it was far too early for my appointment nearby so I hung around for an hour or so hoping for better views, but I couldn't find it again. The original two birders had gone to be replaced by two new arrivals plus Andy, the original finder of the birds and we spread out in the hope of relocating it, but without success. In the end I decided it was time to leave and I started walking back towards the car. 

I hadn't gone more than 50m when I heard a loud, harsh, 'tek, tek, tek' in the bush right in front of me! Surely not? Yet sure enough there it was, a dusky warbler flycatching out in the open about 2m away from me. I had incredible views of it before remembering my camera. It was still very difficult to photograph, permanently on the move and always behind vegetation which the camera always seemed intent on focusing on before the bird, but I did at least manage one photo. It looked different than the earlier sighting though, paler on the ear coverts and there was more contrast between the upper and under parts. I didn't think too much about it at this stage, until the bird flew into a bush behind the other two birders who had their backs to me and who were looking in completely the wrong direction. I whistled them and turning one indicated that they were watching the dusky warbler in a bush in front of where they were standing. Yet I could see and hear one in the bush behind them! Clearly two birds were involved. My bird moved closer to the other birders but apparently didn't join up with the other bird, but for a short while they were in the same area. As far as I know this was only the second time that two birds had been confirmed here.

Then I could put off the inevitable no longer. My impending appointment beckoned and I had to face the long slog back to the car. I was well and truly knackered when I got back, I recommend walking at a brisk pace through the dunes in winter as a decent form of exercise!

Beddmanarch Bay

Anglesey for work today provided me with a great opportunity to visit Beddmanarch Bay, and what a beautiful day it proved to be. Birding highlights were great northern diver, Slavonian grebe and at least 200 pale-bellied brent geese, plus a lot of waders as the tide retreated. Spring is really in the air now, with a chiffchaff singing in the woodland and plenty of lesser celandine and snow drops in full flower.

   

A few days at Lightshaw Flash

A few signs of spring at Lightshaw now, shelduck and oystercatchers are back, and grey partridge are suddenly a lot more obvious as they strut around with their chests puffed out in a kind of mini leck. Their harsh calls might not be the most beautiful but they are amongst the most enigmatic, the sound of summers which are now largely a distant memory.

Teal are displaying on the flash, tufted ducks chase each other around both on the water and in flight, and other ducks include four wigeon, 10 goosander and singles of drake pintail and 1st winter male pochard. On the fields off Lightshaw Croft Lane two curlew were present today and skylarks are singing bringing hope and anticipation.