G'day Pom

Today saw my annual voyage on the RSPB Bridlington Skua Cruise.  I would usually call them Shearwater Cruises, but they were noticeable by their absence today, apart from a very distant view of a dark example, which was called as a Balearic Shearwater.  

In the harbour there were some Purple Sandpipers on the wall, with a Turnstone, some Mallard and Herring Gulls nearby.  A Wheatear nearly landed on the quay wall, but saw us at the last minute and promptly flew off.

Pomarine Skua

A crab in the harbour

We had only set off when someone spotted a large crab in the harbour.  It seemed to be swimming, but that may have been the action of the swell from the boat - it was probably dead in the water.  There were a few scattered Auks as we left the harbour with a few Guillemots showing really well.

 Guillemot

Graham spotted some Gannets plunge-diving and they continued to plunge for 5 minutes or more until the noise of the boat's engines seemed to frighten them off.  unfortunately, we weren't close enough for me to obtain any photographs of them in action.  

 Gannet

 Herring Gull

Not long after this our first Arctic Skua was spotted, but again it was camera shy.  Guillemots continued to heavily outnumber Razorbills, while there were no Puffins at all.  A few heavily-built Great Skuas or Bonxies were sighted, one of which was an immature bird.  

Arctic Skua

 Razorbill

 Great Skua

 Great Skua

 Ditto

Then there was an unfortunate incident with a possible Black Guillemot.  For reasons which remained unclear it was sighted, but the person with the microphone didn't give clear instructions as to its position.  In the end very few people were able to observe the bird, and then it dived and was never seen again, even though the boat continued to search for it for a quarter of an hour.  We moved towards deeper water beyond the very tip of Flamborough Head, but the birds began to thin out, and there were long stretches when nothing of any interest was seen.

Some birds were seen on the water, so the boat went closer to investigate.  A few Terns were seen flying about, and as we got nearer both immature Common and Arctic Terns were discerned.  One of them came very close to my side of the boat and I was able to get some decent pictures.  I believe these are of an Arctic Tern.  

Then the call went out that a light phase Arctic Skua was flying towards us.  At least 2 photographers were really pleased to have the chance of photographing a more attractive Arctic Skua then the dark phase we normally encounter, but they were to be rewarded with an even better photographic opportunity.  To the utter astonishment of everyone onboard it turned out to be a Pomarine Skua.  It may have been expected that it would remain distant with no one getting really close views, but this one exceeded all expectations.  It flew along the starboard side, and the port side.  It landed at the stern of the boat among the chum, it flew past again & then landed on the sea.  When we moved in its direction it promptly flew towards us and gave great views again.  Before the Pomarine Skua had been seen the collective spirits of the passengers appeared to be in the doldrums, but I've never seen the 'sick as a parrot' mindset change so swiftly, as by the time if had firmly been identified everyone was 'over the moon'.

Immature Arctic Tern

 Immature Arctic Tern

Pomarine Skua

 Ditto

 ditto

 ditto

Just a couple of young Puffins were sighted, and neither of these showed particulary well.  on the return journey a Shag and an immature gannet were the best sightings.  Some Red-throated Divers were sighted whilst one inexperienced birder kept identifying Cormorants as further Divers, but the rest of us weren't taken in.  

Record Shot of Immature Puffin

 Shag

 Immature Gannet

Ancient & Modern -Two Lighthouse Towers 

 At least one birder went home with 3 lifers and 3 year ticks under his belt, while others had at least one lifer and I'm sure most people went home very well satisfied with their day's birding.

Supermarket Sweep

Now is the time to visit the avian equivalent of the supermarket because at the moment the shelves are still fully stacked, but in a month’s time there will be gaping gaps on many of them.  Just outside the car park we had both House Martins & House Sparrows some mainly monochrome jackdaws, and a few very colourful Linnets.  The tide seemed to be going out & looking down on the first ravine of chalk we were able to see Puffins on either side of the cliff.  Looking over the grassy edge there were plenty of short, stubby Marsh Orchids.  Later there were several feral pigeons here, and a couple of apparently pure Rock Doves.  It was here that we were first assaulted by the sound of distant Kittiwakes.  From the top of the cliffs we could see a few of the stiff-winged Fulmars riding the breeze, and a single Lesser Black Backed Gull flying just above the waves.

Puffin

 House Sparrow

 Guillemot

 Razorbill

 Kittiwake & Chicks [above]

 Herring Gull

We carried along the cliffs, and here we could see some brilliantly-white Gannets against the blue of the sea and sky.  Meanwhile we were serenaded by plenty of Skylarks and just a few Meadow Pipits.  There were a couple of Swallows and a single white butterfly, and more Marsh Orchids.  All the usual suspects were in their accustomed niches on the cliffs: Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and herring Gulls, and a single Stock Dove.  Far below there were some Shags on the rocks at the water’s edge, and Steve spotted a sunbathing Grey Seal nearby.  This was the 1^st seal I’d seen here hauled out on the rocks, they are usually just seen round here as bobbing heads with their bodies hidden by the water.    

Grey Seal

 Marsh Orchid

 Shags

 Stock Dove

 Skylark

 Whitethroat

We carried on to a small conservation area devoted to different species, but it was overgrown with grasses and the ground was very wet & slippery.  Some of the usual suspects were absent from here with no sign of Yellowhammers, Reed Buntings or Linnets.  However, there were great views of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks as some compensation and a couple of Herons.  One Skylark in particular came down very close to us, singing beautifully the whole time, it was so good I’m surprised the group didn’t break into a spontaneous round of applause!  Towards the end of our visit to this area, a Whitethroat put in an appearance, but it wasn’t as easy to get good views of as it had been a few weeks ago.  However, later when we were almost back at the car park, Len did see one out in the open at the top of a bramble spray.  

On the return journey a Sand Martin was spotted heading south, which were added to the couple of Swifts we’d already seen.  A male Peregrine was observed, and this was seen even better in the afternoon when I left my camera behind and carried the telescope instead.  

Meadow Pipit (c) 2012 Phil Hargreaves

 Scarlet Pimpernel (c) 2012 Phil Hargreaves

No Queues at the Supermarket

Does this need a label?

ditto
ditto
Razorbill
Fulmar

ditto

Foul Maw

Skylark (c) 2009 Maurice Gordon

ditto

Linnet

ditto

Thrift

Some of the supermarket shelves (c) 2009 Maurice Gordon

Not much to add to the Tuesday post. However, there seemed to be many more Puffins, and several of these were closer than on Tuesday. There was a strange squawk in the sky, which turned out to be 2 raptors, probably an adult and a youngster. These gave good views before plunging out of sight. The other surprise was the "tu-tu" of a Greenshank, which circled over North Marsh several times, but it didn't come in to land. Went on to Barmston and met eBirder (Marcus Conway), I hope he got some good shots of the Sand Martins!

Supermarket Birding

Puffin

ditto
Linnet (c) 2009 Phil Hargreaves
Guillemot

Kittiwake

Fulmar

Meadow Pipit

Record shot of Rock Pipit (c) 2009 Phil Hargreaves

Evil Eye

Common Blue

Small Copper

Another sort of bird!

It's maybe not a widespread view, or a popular one, but today we had a day of what I think of as supermarket birding. The most obvious parallel is that everything is on its allocated shelf, and they're all packed in. It's also a busy, noisy place much as some supermarkets can be. Some of these places are heaving with people at this time of year, but I've managed to find somewhere where the crowds aren't too bad, and there are better, closer views of some of the birds. Where the analogy begins to diverge is this is quite a smelly place in a bad way, but supermarkets generally smell a little nicer, if a little too antiseptic for some tastes. I like to have a bit of a challenge when I'm birding but there were very few challenges here. Everything is so easy to see, c'mon this is birding for cheats - it should always be difficult, shouldn't it? All the usual suspects were on display, but I didn't manage to get a decent picture of a Razorbill. We made it to a new hide overlooking a marshy area, and we encountered a Barn Owl still hunting at 11 am. It eventually caught something, but a Kestrel swooped in for a bit of kleptoparasatism. We don't know who was the victor in the encounter, but the Barn Owl lay low for a while. Also on the marsh were Canada & Greylag Geese, Skylarks, Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings, and Goldfinches. We saw several Swifts flying south, whilst round the landing there were plenty of House Martins with 3 Sand Martins at lunch time. Did I mention, that the 'students' were very appreciative of both the venue and its birds? PS None of them went "weeeeeeee" when the Meadow Pipts were parachuting - must be a very advanced group of students!