It's an age thing!

And I don't mean getting laughed at by 20 year old lasses when you try unsuccessfully to chat them up, this is far worse.  Well it has far worse consequences anyway.

What am I on about?  Not concentrating enough.  Specifically not concentrating enough when reading the pager/twitter feed.  After an initial urge to go to K*nt had subsided it seems I'd kind of glazed over when checking Birdnet's excellent Twitter feed (shameless plug) and read Northumberland as K*nt, or more likely not even read it at all and just flicked past it.

So after I'd been blissfully unaware of the presence of an eastern Black Red on Holy Island for 2 days I set off rather belatedly.  It would have been rude not to cos as it happens (nice bit of Jimmy there) I was staying in Newcastle Friday night for work so someone else effectively paid for most of my fuel costs.

So about the bird then, well what a fuckin stunner, as most people do I love Chats they surely have the best shapes around.  As I got there quite late everyone else had fecked off and left the bird in peace which meant I got pornstar views of it as it fed on insects around my feet that I'd disturbed walking along through the rocks.

There was no chance of any pics of it as the light was too poor but I'm constantly amazed at how good video comes out in low light conditions.  Here's a couple of short sequences.

It's fuckin Baltic!!!!

Well at least I was after spending 2 and a bit hours looking at the Gull at Bempton this aft, dunno what it is yet though.  And to be honest probably never will as it hasn't got a ring on it's leg.  My pics aren't the best so I'll probably go back tomorrow and try for better ones once I've thawed out a bit.

Whatever this bird is it's certainly distinctive enough being in full juv though worn plumage and very small, it's not much bigger than a Common Gull and has very long wings which actually mask how small it is when it's flying round.

Here's a couple of shots of them from Cyprus (albeit in March so 4 months later) to compare

I've probably already seen a Baltic Gull in Yorkshire.  I was in Beacon Ponds hide in July 2004 with John Grist when we found a third cal yr bird which seemed to tick all the right boxes but unfortunately it flew off south before we'd worked out the exact state of moult.  Then again that bird didn't have a ring either so we would still be none the wiser.

Here's another shot of the Arctic Poll from last week, this one showing the undertail better, it's a digibinned shot so not much better quality wise than the vid grabs.  But shows another feature to shut up the anonymous poster/wind up merchant.

Went back down to Spurn on Wednesday but despite conditions looking really good I didn't see too much.  The Pied Wheatear and the Poll were both seen briefly early morning then not seen again all day despite much searching, strange thing is one birder jammed in on both but others weren't so lucky..........he claims to have corroborating observers!

Had a bit of work to away from home on Thurs/Fri so didn't get out.  Then most of Sat was taken up with a committee meeting at Spurn.  I managed to miss the Richards Pipit and, well everything else apart from a flock of White Fronts and Barnacles in with the Brents.

Sun involved a stupidly early morning start for a trip up to Hauxley for the Greater Legs.  Got that one wapped off pretty quickly plus the Grey Phal.  It just shows how daft this chasing rare birds thing is really, ask most birders which they'd rather see and they'd say Greater Legs but look at them together in this pic and honestly the Phal kicks the Legs arse it's so much more stunning.  Then again if they both move south into Yorks I know which one I'll be going for!!!

Phal outshining septic

Thanks to Rob Capewell for the pic.  Believe it or not it's a phonescoped pic, and it was shite light so pretty impressive.

After the Phal Legs combo we went to the best the north east has to offer, first port of call was Marden Quarry in Whitley bay for the Lesser Scaup which duly flew in after we'd been thewre about 15 mins and wouldn't come to the 2 slices of bread I threw in.  I was too tight to try enticing it with any more.  They must not feed the young uns much up there cos The KingPrawn was eyeing up my Warburtons so we fucked off sharpish.

A few White Fronts and a brief catch up with a mate of mine and we decided to hit Marsden Quarry where we found a Swift......Bollocks!

I was only saying to one of the Spurn lads the other day if I ever find a late autumn Swifty thing I'm walking away cos they are nails to ID.  I should have listened to myself cos we didn't walk away.  Instead we wasted all afternoon trying to sort it out.  The trouble was it looked brown and although I's normally say the blunt winged feature is a load of bollocks we all thought it was, it didn't have a big pale throat though, hmmm.  Anyway with the foggy conditions we failed miserably to clinch it either way.  Here's a couple of vid grabs of Jacks.

You can see it looks brown even against 

the sky in this pic!

Does this look blunt to you?

So anyway after failing to sort out the Swift and having a large Pipit fly past which had probably come in off we decided on a mad dash to another of the great scenic spots of the north east we headed south for the Semi P.  Unfortunately we'd left it too late and missed it, all we could manage were a couple of Shorties and a load of Seals.

Firstly I have to start this post by telling you how sorry I am (seem to be doing a lot of apologising lately!) That I misled you by suggesting that I was ahead of Tim Isherwood.  I'm not.  In fact until the Wheatear Tim was one ahead of me, so we're now level, my mistake.  You can stop sulking now Tim.

I went back for seconds of the Izzy on Sat and had a bit of a seawatch to try out my new toy, a Kowa 883.  I'm very impressed with the 30x wide.   But more on that later when it's cold and there's no birds to write about.

Sunday I had to make a mad dash over to Wintersett for the Penduline Tit.  Feckin thing had fecked off tho.  It's the first one since 92 in the county, with the exception of one that flew south at Spurn over 2 birders heeds a couple of years ago which was never submitted.

Anyway  I had to dash back down Spurn today for the Pied Wheatear, the 3rd I've seen there now, seems like it's a good week for Wheatears maybe we'll finally get another Desert.  You simply won't believe me if I tell you the last at Spurn was in 1962, I said you wouldn't believe it!

With this in mind I walked the cliff top along the caravan park and back down Beacon lane without seeing any rare Wheatears which is why I'm going to talk about finches!  I was going to check the Crown car park for Hume's Warblers as there were a couple reported on the pager but I didn't get that far.  I flushed this Arctic Redpoll from some nettles along the lane and didn't get any further before dark.  Still nice though.

Looks like Carl White has taken it outside

Brief snatch of it's masseeve pale rump

Fancy a line?

With a Lesser 

As you can see the light was shit but I managed to get these grabs off some of the video I took.

The colour of long worn underwear!

Finally!  Finally there's a good bird in Yorks.  Finally I've got a Yorkshire tick, my first since spring 2010 and FINALLY I've gripped back Izzy Wheatear and pulled one clear of Tim Isherwood.

After my mate Gristi found an Izzy Wheatear near Sammies point in 1990 that I couldn't get a lift for It's been a massive ommision on my Yorks list. There was the Filey bird in 2006 that wasn't gettable and a couple of near misses from the Whitby area but I really was starting to think I'd not get this one back.

Fortunately Yorkshire's version of Geri Bagswell allegedly found a Wheatear nr the Narrows earlier, that's right a Wheatear, just a Wheatear.  Apparently the date didn't make him even the least bit suspicious about it, and he didn't give it a second glance.  The people that he mentioned it to did though and this is what they saw.  Well actually they didn't cos it wasn't in Pauls hand when they saw it!

I saw the bird in the field for the requisite 2 seconds and ruled out Chaffinch and Wren then punched the air and yelled get fuckin in!!!  I then watched it for 10-15 minutes until it wandered into one of Paul's spring traps.  After being rung it was released in the same place and it continued actively feeding.

It's a very clear night up here tonight but the bird had no fat on it so hopefully it will stay for the Saturday crowds, they don't often though so It'll be a case of squeeky bum time for those travelling up tomorrow.

I have been asked to point out that one of the Rubythroat pics I posted the other day may have been taken by Mr Micky Maher, top naturalist, all round nice guy and proud owner of a ticket to see the Stone Roses.  But then again it may not have been taken by him cos he hasn't yet produced any evidence!

Lens and converter for sale

Hello folks, I've decided to get rid of my camera lens.  Since the demise of the camera body I haven't missed using it and have realised how much it was taking over my birding.

So if you or anyone you know is in the market for a new lens let me know.  It's a Canon 300 f4.0 L IS USM and has a 1.4x extender with it.  It still retains autofocus when using the extender.  They are both boxed and have cases.  They are both approx 29 months old and in very good condition.  I'm looking for around £850 for them.

Sorry about the goose shit!

Right in an effort to say sorry to several regular readers who were very offended by the goose stuff here's something a bit more topical.

A blatant way to show off some stunning birds from China!  Not all the pics are mine, Thanks to Gav, Gristi, Adam and The F.

Just like Foula!

Amazingly none of us got a good shot of a fem

so had to make do with these!

It does have a rufous tail, honest

Typically skulking

Dross female

more dross!

Oh hang on!!!!

Ruby

And some more

If you're totally fed up with reading about mega sibe chats and how spawny some people are to find them/receive early news about them/eat them (if cats count) then you've come to the right place I promise you you'll be back to the Punkbirder website before you've got to the end of the second paragraph of this shite!!!

Many people are getting themselves in a bit of a twist over the Red breasted Goose at Scaling dam, look (Lawts) it's fuckin dodgy innit.  The only reason the birders up there are giving it a second look is they've had fuck all else all autumn. do yourselves a favour and don't waste the petrol money.

What you should probably do though is go to Hornsea and look at a goose with (probably) much better credentials for being wild. First indulge me while I give you a bit of background.

For a long time now 15+ years in fact there has been a flock of Barnacles at Hornsea in the winter usually numbering between 100 and 200 birds.  They were always thought to be feral birds that come from Flamingoland, in recent years some have suggested they come from Whitton Sands.  Wherever they come from they turn up at the right time of year and aren't too tardy about fucking off either.  They always remain separate from the feral Greylags and Canada's on site and are wary and flush very easily, I know this because I've been trying to photograph them.

Anyone still here or has Punkbirder crashed under the weight of hits?  Just in case Lawts is still reading I'll continue.  In recent years a few people have been questioning the supposition that they were feral and a couple of winters ago Roy Lyon saw a bird with a colour ring.  His pics and views were insufficient to read the number on it but it intrigued Mark Robinson enough that he spent time trying to record it, bingo when the number was sent off to the BTO it came back with the news it had been ringed as a nestling in Spitzbergen.

So that means at least some of the birds at Hornsea in the winter are tickable.  The normal migration route for these spitzbergen birds is to come down the east coast to Northumberland and hang a right to the Solway but every year some overshoot and records come from many sites on the Yorks coast.  It appears some of them are staying to winter.

Right that's the history of Barnacles covered.  Now we know some of the Hornsea birds are genuine it's not too far fetched to realise they could carry other stuff with them, like vagrant Canada Geese.  And it appears they may have done just that, in fact they might have been doing that for the last 2 winters as well but it's just not been deemed worthy news by those that have seen it, understandably really it's a goose afterall.

Now I have to confess that until a week ago I knew fuck all about vagrant Canada Geese except that I once found a minima type at the Swan feeding point at Fairburn and it was the same size as a Mallard!!!  One week down the line I still know very little, in fact if you read Chris Batty's article in Birding world from 2001 and Martin Garners book of revelations then you'll know as much as I do.  Actually that's not quite true you'll know as much about Canada Geese though.

The Bird at Hornsea would going on Chris' 2001 article be a parvipes but for the dark line running under the chin and which should make it a taverni but the bill seems too long.  But nealry ten years on is this arrangement still valid?  Martin would suggest otherwise if I'm reading his article correctly.  It seems now that there are many more races than was considered ten years ago and many of the British records which seem not quite right for one race or another more easily fit into some of these new races.  The trouble is it's all a work in progress and I certainly don't have any answers yet.

All I know is the Hornsea bird appears to be a small Canada,Martin would label it an intermediate bird in his simplified 3 types. I have only seen it with the Barnacles but called it a small race bird on structure in flight when it's short neck is very apparent.  On the deck it's a bit more subtle with a long body making it look substantially bigger than the accompanying Barnacles but it's neck still looks short.  Funnily enough the pics perhaps make it seem larger than in the field when it's often overlooked on a first scan of the flock whilst feeding  Last winter during the cold snap a few feral Canada's where in the same field as the Barnacles and a couple of the other lads made a size comparison when they described it as fuckin tiny, elaborating further when pushed they said the normal Canada's dwarfed it.  In the pics it does look a little on the large side so the spectre of it being a hybrid between a normal feral Canada and one of the small races can't be ruled out but I'll bet with more research it fits one of the new races quite nicely.

I'll be trying to get better pics in the next few days when the wind drops, these are all with my mobile.  When I get some I'll be sending them to people who know more than me for comment.   In the meantime it's make your mind up time if you want to travel for it.

Twenty years ago I missed the Mugimaki Fly at Stone Creek, I've looked at the wood many times since and felt gutted, my only saviour was the fact the BOU dumped it into cat D.  Seems my luck just ran out, with one caught in Italy the other day surely now the BOU have to look again at the record and upgrade it the same as they had to do when the Brown Fly turned up at Flamborough.  Despite being one of the few of the top ten in Yorkshire who missed it I really think it should be on the list.

C'mon BOU surely now's the time to do the decent thing!

Septic!

I'm getting a bit fed up with this.  In the last month I've refound the SemiP on the Humber at Pat Haven, got shit pics and got nobody else onto it.  Found the Pechora on Foula with Frenchy and only saw it in flight and got no pics (it was seen on the deck by another birder tho).  Found the Arctic Warbler which fucked off after 15 minutes, and only 3 of us saw it (Bill did get some good pics tho)  And now this!!

What's this?  It's a fecking septic Goldie on the Wolds nr Driffield.  I saw the bird ok, the wind was a bit of a pain but it showed well enough but it too fucked off before anyone else could get to see it, I also got more shit pics!!  really shit with my phone cos I'd left the camera in the car by accident.

I've been back today but although I saw 350 Goldies the views were shit and it was even windier, so it could still be there, we'll have to see......it's not in this first pic, it's just to show the views I was getting today with the birds all hunkering down out of the wind.

Views like these aren't helpful!

Told you they were shit!  You can see the size and colour tho.

Size difficult on this but looks dainty and long winged, 

I think!!!

Shetland 2011

Did some work from dawn this morning on the Wolds and was in two minds were to go afterwards, Pallid Swift a Flamborough seemed tempting, always educational, Spurn was always on the cards as it's ages since I've been and it has to get something soon!  And then there was the Solitary Sand in Lancs, a British tick.  In the end I ended up having a kip and sorting my pics from Shetland, birding is better in the week anyway cos most of the nobbers are at work!

So here's how Shetland went:

I only had a week on Foula this year and had cautioned myself into not getting too disappointed if it didn't produce, after all we were quite early this year and the last couple of years we've had long spells with no rare birds, in fact the first year we had long spells of no birds at all!

We all met up on the Ferry in Aberdeen on the Thurs evening and old timers Frenchy and myself regaled Shetland (autumn) virgins Aspin and Grist with tales of rarity finding exploits.  Actually that's not true we showed them some pics and told them to get ready for a week of fuck all and near mental breakdown, well it's best to not get their hopes up!

When we arrived in Shetland I dropped the virgins at Seafield while Frenchy and I went to Tesco for meat and milk etc and took it to the airport at Tingwall.  Frenchy was on the morning flight whilst the rest uof us were going over on the 4pm one.  We were quite nervous as we knew the frenchman would be going all out to find something before we got in.

When I met up with the others we set off south for our first target, Pallid Harrier.  We saw it but it doesn't look much like one!  It had suffered an attack by Fulmar by the look of things and was covered in oil making it incredibly dark, it showed no pale collar between the face and the boa and was generally just black above with rufous covs and underparts.  It also had a strange whitish spot on the crown which made it look like a cross between a Marsh Harrier and a Pallid, strange looking bird.

 Bit of a mess and not too educational!

We had a walk up the burd and irises at Quendale but found nowt but the other way to the coast had a single Yellow browed, nice scored our first scarce of the trip.  Fair Isle was showing welll too in the cracking weather.

Is this the best island in Britain?

I then showed the lads some of my favourite sites including Geosetter from where the Foul Isle was visible.  Looks impressive doesn't it?

Many would argue that this is....

When we arrived on Foula Frenchy had already done the biz and found a Buff breast which Gristi was overjoyed about cos I think it was one of his targets.  But most intriguing was a bird Geoff Atherton had found a couple of days earlier, a yellow legged stint, we couldn't really do much with it on the camera monitor so Geoff said he would come up to Ristie that evening to get them on the computer. 

Our home for the next week

Once we got the images downloaded it took us about 2 seconds to realise it was a cracking Least Sand, and second for Shetland.  The Shetland boys would definitely be chartering in for that so we got the news out.  Next day Frenchy refound it feeding in rock pools at the south ness and we all got good views.  But the boat or planes couldn't come in 'til Monday.

Saturday was otherwise good steady birding, I didn't see anything else rare but plenty of scarce migrants including a Rosefinch from the window of the digs.  Bill tried to claim an new Buff breast but maybe it was just one mobile bird, who knows it should have been a second with the number around but we never saw two together.

Sunday the wind swung round to the north east, a direction I'd never experienced on Foula, and it felt rare!

 Monster wind direction!

Sure enough the wind produced and within a couple of hours Frenchy and I had scored big with a Pechora. GET FUCKIN IN!!! Back of the net, a bird that was very high on my wanted list for finding.  Shame it din't land!  we only saw it in flight calling but having seen them in China and on Shetland previously we were confident.  A bit later on I scored again jamming in on this highly mobile Arctic Warbler that had obviously just arrived.  It was on view for 15 minutes then just vanished never to be seen again!

Thanks to Aspin for these pics

It was generally more of the same for the next couple of days with the numbers reducing day by day.   The twitchers finally got in for the Least on the Monday and all went home happy, it's the first in Shetland since about 1955 so a tick for everyone. 

We had an influx of observers when Ken Shaw arrived to stay in Ristie with us, actually it was us crashing his booking so maybe we arrived early to stay with him!  A couple of days later Kev Shepherd and Paul and Neil Wright arrived for the annual couple of weeks and then Andrew Grieve turned up.  Kevin scored with A buff bellied Pipit his second in 3 years which caused a bit of a stir especially for Ken who needed it for Scotland.  I didn't bother going to look for it as it was giving people the run around and I'd seen the last one.  Bill has some cracking shots of it which he'll no doubt have pics on his blog in due course http://babbthree.blogspot.com/ 

The birding slowed down a little so I took the opportunity to play with the camera getting some nice scenery shots and playing with a couple of filters I've invested in to get different effects.

I'm really pleased with this rainbow the sky was incredible!

And these two with a slow shutter to blur the water came out nice too

Most of the team on the last morning, Gristi had already fecked off

So here's one of the lone wolf!!

Had another bash at the Least on the final afternoon, here's Frenchy doing the same

Paul Wright called us all up on the radio for a Crake he'd found in the Hametoun burn so we set about trying to nail it, actually we just set about it bastard thing couldn't have been in a worse place.  We failed miserably to id it but it was obviously a Spotted/Sora, niggling doubt cos of all the Yanks about made us worried we'd let a big one go but the lads nailed it the next day and it was just a Spotted.  It was touch and go if we'd get off due to low cloud but it cleared just in time.  Mixed feelings all round really Bill wanted to stay, the lone wolf had to be off to get back to work and I wanted a curry!

Taking a break form Crake bashing

The next day we toured south mainland and found 8 Yellow broweds and a Barred Warbler, Gristi went home followed by Bill and I the next day, but not before we'd seen this cracking Lesser Grey.