And ten shots of a Bonxie.

There were so many Great Skuas present on Fair Isle that they were never counted for the log at the end of each day. They were merely recorded as present. It would have been a difficult task to get a truly accurate count as they tended to be mobile; roaming all over the island and many spent long periods out at sea, presumably terrorising other seabirds. The boggy moorland was the most frequented habitat during the early mornings and late afternoons with birds loafing seemingly everywhere.
I came across one bird tearing a dead rabbit to pieces. It had, what appeared to be, a rabbit foetus at one point and although it picked it up and messed with it a little it did not seem to relish it much and left it on the ground. It was not a pleasant sight but there you go!

Great Skua with something nasty...prsumably a rabbit foetus

...and with dead rabbit.

As the sun sets a Bonxie looks out to sea.

Bonxie...banking!

Great Skua eating a rabbit

Ten Pictures of Fulmar

Just back after a week or so birding on Fair Isle and Shetland. I saw some great birds and had top company and I managed to take a fair old selection of photographs of a number of species. It will take a few weeks to work through them all and I thought I would work species by species. The first completed set is of Fulmar Petrel. There were at least two blue phase birds lurking about the cliffs but they were not in the mood to be photographed.

Fulmar - Fulmaris glacialis

Birding Islay and Skye.

We have just had a couple of weeks visiting Islay, Jura and Skye. Both the birding and the distillery visiting were good. Eight distilleries on Islay plus one each on Skye and Jura as well as a couple of breweries kept me occupied when the weather was not good enough to go birding. To be honest the distilleries kept me occupied when the weather was good enough too.
Over 100 species recorded including White-tailed Eagle both on Islay and Skye, Golden Eagle on both islands; Hen Harriers on Islay and at least seven Corncrakes on Islay, particularly around the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart. Redwing and Whooper Swan were good to see only a week or so from 1st of June; Black-throated, Red-throated and Great Northern Divers were all fairly frequent; Northern Wheatears, Meadow Pipits and Stonechats seemed to be everywhere as were the expected Hooded Crows and Ravens. A flock of 26 Red-billed Chough on north Islay was the largest flock I have ever seen. Twite were, as expected, fairly common.
We had a remote cottage just north of Uig on Skye and from the window we had regular sightings of both eagles as well as auks, Gannets, Fulmars, Gulls , Common and Arctic Terns, Shags, Eiders and Red-breasted Mergansers as well as over a dozen Great Northern Divers. Raven, Hooded Crow, drumming Snipe, flocks of Twite and breeding Wheatear, Stonechat and Meadow Pipit all seemed to be just outside the front door.
The whiskies were superb!

Black Guillemot

Great Northern Diver

Hooded Crow

Northern Wheatear on broken gravestone.

Red-breasted Merganser

Typical Stonechat picture!

Flock of Whimbrel
 

Raven
 

Birding Thetford

The day before yesterday I drove down to Thetford in Norfolk to spend a day birding with my mate Paul Stancliffe. The plan was to drive down in the evening, drink beer and whisky that night, get up early the next day (!) and have a day birding Lakenheath RSPB reserve. That plan was scuppered before I set off as news came through that the RSPB had closed the reserve for two days due to expected high winds. Presumably they were more than a bit worried about trees blowing over and crushing your optics...or worse. So we decided to stick pretty much to the beer and whisky bit but just do a bit of local birding around Thetford before the gales and torrential rain arrived. According to the Met office this was expected around one o'clock in the afternoon.
On Tuesday I set off and decided to call in at Twyford Woods in Lincs. to have a look for both Grizzled and Dingy Skipper butterflies as these are pretty much a certainty at this site in early May. But obviously not when the wind was gusting at around fifty mph, the rain was coming in in horizontal sheets and the skies were leaden. I spent three hours waiting for the weather to improve, got a photograph of a Butterfly Glade sign to remember the place by and a picture of a weird tower in the distance and then gave up. I did hear my first Cuckoo of the spring though and it sounded very much like Chris!

Clear and obvious sign indicating good place for butterflies. No butterflies in high winds, rain and general miserableness!

 Not a bird or butterfly to photograph so, in desperation, I resorted to taking photographs of anything that I thought worthy and this big tower was about as good as it got!

Great big tower thing near Twyford Woods. Water tower? Something to do with the old airfield? Used for shooting deer/pheasants/rabbits? Perhaps a butterfly observation tower!

Back onto the A1 to be confronted by " Long delays between junction 17 and 15." There had been an 'incident' and traffic was at a standstill so I headed off into unknown territory before junction 16. The Sat Nav took me through more fens, villages and hamlets than you could shake a fair-sized stick at but I did manage a couple of ropey photographs of a Red Kite battling with the wind in a village called Piddle-Down-The-Drain or some such.

Red Kite in the village of Piddle-Down-the Drain, Cambs.

Same bird coping better than me with the wid.

I arrived at Thetford around four o'clock and had a wander around the rivers looking for otters but there were none to be found so I took a stroll down to the BTO reserve at Nunnery Lakes. The wind had dropped, the sun was shining and there were at least seven species of warblers singing. Three species of hirundines and Common Swifts were hawking insects at various heights over the lakes and a muntjac deer took a look at me as I sauntered along. Not much from the hide but this Curlew stopped by for a quick bath.

Curlew from the hide at Nunnery Lakes

This bird was present for nearly a minute!!!

The beer and the whisky went as planned - very moderate, sensible and proper grown-up adult like approach adopted and so we were out and birding by 0800 the following morning. We racked-up the first 40-50 species at a lake, the name of which I have forgotten, not too far from Thetford. The most interesting birds were an adult and a first-winter Yellow-legged Gull, both too far away for photography, but which were accompanied by an adult Herring Gull for comparison. As far as photo opportunities went I could have taken pictures of, literally, hundreds of Mallards or a Pied Wagtail. The wagtail won and nothing else came near even though I was using a 400mm lens on a cropped sensor Canon 7D MkII.

Pied Wagtail.....near Thetford!

Next stop was a site not too far away for Nightingales. This was a small site comprising mainly, gorse, bramble, hawthorn and dog-rose and although it was close by the road and seemingly popular with dog-walkers we heard three singing males and had decent views of two birds. I even managed a few reasonable shots of one of the birds delivering its song. This is a species that, I think, is better heard than seen. I can stand around for hours listening to these birds.

Nightingale singing. You can tell that we are near the BTO HQ in Thetford...the bird's been ringed!

Whilst at this spot I managed to get photos of two species of butterfly: Orange-tip (female) and Small Copper but there was no sign of Green Hairstreak which is known to frequent the area.

Finally...a butterfly. Female Orange Tip

And another... Small Copper.

We set off for Lynford Arboretum before the threatened downpour - so far it had been dry and sunny, and very  warm at times. Fortunately Paul was suitably dressed in Wellington Boots. waterproof over-trousers, two fleece jackets and a Jack Wolfskin waterproof overcoat. So he was not feeling the heat at all!! Still he was ready for the deluge. At Lynford our aim was to see Firecrests and take some award winning photographs. We did indeed see a couple of Firecrests eventually when the wind stopped howling through the tree tops long enough for us to hear the calls. Photographs were never going to be. We were in a wood, it was dark, the birds were high in the trees, the trees were coniferous and dense, the birds were minute and everything was blowing about...forget photography. A better bet was a Chaffinch that dropped down to take at look at my camera lens.

Chaffinch... clocking me clocking him!

The weather forcasters were certain that the wind and rain would get really bad - that's why Lakenheath was closed. It had remained warm and sunny all morning but the wind was getting stronger and the skies were getting darker so we called it a day around twelve. On the way home it didn't rain once!
P.S.  check out Paul's new book here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_9/279-7893031-7606964?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bto%20guide%20to%20british%20birds&sprefix=bto+guide%2Caps%2C146

This is the brand new Collins - BTO guide to British Birds. This is volume one which deals with the commoner birds. Volume two, which tackles the rarer and vagrant species, is due in the summer.













Barn Owl Photos

I spent nearly three hours driving around the back roads of south-east Notts. and the Vale-of-Belvoir looking for Kestrels so that I could work on a few photographs which I hoped to take. Not a sign of any!! Plenty of Common Buzzards, a couple of Sparrowhawks and a single Red Kite, but what I used to feel was our most common diurnal raptor was completely absent.
However, a Barn Owl provided some compensation as it flew along a minor road near Aslockton before disappearing over a nearby farm.
So, out again tomorrow to look for the Kestrels.

Carrion Crows v Common Buzzards

Today was the first really warm and calm day of the last few weeks and the warm weather saw a big increase in Common Buzzards drifting overhead. There did not appear to be any obvious directional movement, it was more a case of lazily drifting about and calling, mixed with a bit of display behaviour. During a couple of hours at Langar in South Notts. this morning I recorded eight Common Buzzards with a party of four being the largest single group. Later, back at home, a group of three were calling and soaring  above the garden. Both of these groups attracted the attention of lone 'Top Gun' solo-fighter Carrion Crows which harassed the Buzzards and escorted them out of their air-space. Photographing the action proved a bit tricky as the focus seemed to lock onto the Buzzards but not the Crows, and as these were moving faster than the Buzzards all I managed was a series of slightly blurred Crows and decent(ish) Buzzards. Still you get the picture!

Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow Pulling Shapes.  Langar, Notts

Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow moving in to attack. Langar, Notts

Common Buzzard avoidance tactics.  Langar, Notts

Carrion Buzzard!!

Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow  Bingham, Notts

Common Buzzard and Carrion Crow out- maneuvered!, Bingham, Notts

Rutland Water

Out for one of the first times this year, to Rutland Water, primarily to get a few new bird images and to check on summer migrants. The first Osprey of the year had, by chance, arrived just a couple of hours earlier and was giving reasonable views although it was mobile. A couple of Little Ring Plovers were on Lagoon 4 as were a drake and a redhead Smew. There were plenty of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps singing but there was no sign of any hirundines. A Raven flying over the car-park was a Rutland tick for me.
I spent most of my time mucking about with my camera settings trying to make the most of the limited photographic opportunities. I ended up by overexposing shots to get some consistency, burnt-out backgrounds and more artistic interpretations of a few common species.

Black-headed Gull

Cormorant

Great Crested Grebe

Greylag Geese

Mute Swan