Herring gulls on the battlements of Beaumaris Castle

Finally set off for a birding trip to Anglesey with my friend Mags, after a couple of aborted attempts owing to poor weather. In fact it didn’t look that great as we left, but it turned out fine, and we completed our mission of visiting Puffin Island (by boat) and South Stack, seeing birds, wild [land-based] mammals (a hare and a rabbit) and marine life (seals, porpoises and [bottlenose] dolphins. A great day.

The two points we visited are on opposite sides of Anglesey

Our first point of call was Beaumaris, where Mags sussed out some of the shops while I wandered along the promenade. I expected to see gulls ands oyster catchers, but was surprised to see shelducks (apparently common there) and even a little egret wading in the  sea water.

Oyster catcher on the shore at Beaumaris

Black sheep of the family? Black-backed gull, surrounded by Herring gulls.

Unexpected shelduck, apparently quite common in Beaumaris

Poor picture, but I did see mergansers out to sea

Black-headed gull, starting to shed its summer plumage

And wandering around the waterside were other birds that don’t get their feet wet:

A jackdaw seeing what he can scavenge from the beach

A couple of young starlings enjoying the morning sunshine.

We set sail for Puffin Island and fortunately the sea was reasonably calm, so the Quell I had taken proved to have been unnecessary. I say the sea was calm, but all is relative – it was certainly not what a photographer would wish for as we dropped and rose into the troughs and crests of the sea.

Porpoises, accompanying our catamaran as we left Beaumaris

As we sailed towards Puffin Island we saw both porpoises (near Beaumaris) and bottlenose dolphins (near Puffin Island), in different places as apparently they don’t get on too well together. It’s very hard to take pictures of these marine creatures as they come out of nowhere very suddenly, and you’re lucky if you have your camera even pointing in the right direction, let alone managing to focus it. Above, a couple of porpoises; we saw dolphins aplenty, but never managed to get the camera on them.

Who could fail to be moved by this loveable grey seal?

What we did see was seals, and lots of them, lazing around the rocks of Puffin Island, and keeping company with large numbers of sea birds: guillemots, razorbills, puffins (obviously), shags, cormorants, etc.

Guillemots floating on the sea around Puffin Island

A couple of cormorants sharing the rocks with the seals and other birds

Gulls circled incessantly overhead, this one a lesser black-backed

A short walk back to the car in Beaumaris, and a final encounter with a young mallard:

A pathetically cute mallard chick swimming in the moat of Beaumaris Castle

And so we set off to South Stack, on the other side of Anglesey, on Holy Island. Our aim was to see Choughs (a lifer for me), and it was a repeat journey as the last time I had been there the mist and fog had been so thick I could barely see my own feet.

Choughs on the cliff tops at South Stack

There are not very many places in the UK where you can see choughs, but here on South Stack they are plentiful as the ground is ideal for their foraging style.

Razorbills on the cliffs at South Stack

Close-up of a Herring gull at South Stack

We had come to South Stack with the hopes of seeing certain birds; choughs (of course), ravens, rock pipits, stonechats and linnets were on the top of our list. We saw all of these (except the rock pipit, which we certainly heard) but only managed to photograph a few:

A juvenile raven flew over South Stack

A pipit, but sadly a meadow pipit and not a rock pipit

Poor photo, but just identifiable as a linnet in flight

And a bunny to boot:

Rabbit frozen to the path, in the misguided belief no one can see him as long as he stays still

So, a lovely day, with a curious epitaph. We stopped for a bite to eat in Holyhead on the way home. The light had more or less gone, but as we got out of the car we saw a rook, calmly strutting his stuff around the car park. 

The implication of this is that on one day we had seen all the English corvids: crow, rook, raven, jackdaw and chough. No hooded crows, but for that we’d have to go to northern Scotland or Ireland.

Two fulmars and a puffin at Flamborough Head

I visited Flamborough Head last Sunday with the Stockport RSPB Club. We visited the headlands near the old lighthouse, and then went up to the North Landing. It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny with a light breeze, and it was nice to get out of the city for the day

There are two lighthouses at Flamborough, the older (below) being the reconstructed chalk tower and the other a more recent construction.

The chalk tower near Flamborough Head. Built in 1669, this is the oldest surviving complete lighthouse in England

The chalk cliffs are home to a number of regular visitors and residents: mostly guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and puffins. It is also on a main migratory route, so at certain times of the year you may see pretty much anything, especially if mist and fog forces unexpected landings. No little skuas recently, for that you need to go further north.

We saw four or five seals: it’s very hard to tell them apart in the water, so these are either common seals (Phoca vitulina) or grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). I’d plump for the common ones,  but what do I know?

We saw all the expected sea species: a selection below.

Juvenile fulmar flying over the calm water

Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs at Flamborough

A razorbill, perched rather precariously on the cliff edge

A few more puffins

And we also saw a few land birds around the headland:

A meadow pipit (aka Mipit), in all his splendour …

A male chaffinch surveying all he owns …

And a rather forbidding jackdaw pausing between meals …

All in all, a very pleasant day spent with my new friend Mags and other good people at the Stockport RSPB.

I revisited Pennington Flash with only two hours available, so divided my time between the Bunting Hide (with feeders) and the Teal and Tom Edmondson hides (for water fowl).

The Bunting hide was lavish in its food offerings, with perhaps the cheekiest little bird being this cute long-tailed tit.

Long-tailed Tit

In fact there were lots of these tiny little birds – they really are delicate little things, and very attractive.

Long-tailed Tits on feeder

Food tables were also well attended:

Blackbird (male)

Pair of bullfinches (male at left)

And even a moorhen had hopped onto a food table

Moorhen, unusually at food table

Other passerines were around the feeding area: chaffinches …

Chaffinch (female)

Chaffinch (male)

… a nuthatch …

Nuthatch

.. a cheeeky reed bunting …

Reed Bunting (male)

… and a Blue tit.

Blue Tit

Water fowl seen included: shovellers

Male and female shovellers

… teal …

a teal

.. and, skulking in the undergrowth, a water rail …

Water Rail (half hidden}

… who eventually revealed himself

Water rail out in the open

Finally, as I was leaving, I saw a male gadwall swimming on the big lake at the entrance.

Gadwall (male)

I went with the Stockport local RSPB group to Tophill Low, south of Scarborough on the Eastern Yorkshire coast. It was a pleasant outing but very overcast and it rained all day. In between the rain showers I was able to take one or two photos.

Tophill Low nature Reserve

This was a mixed site – woodland and wetland – but I only really saw water birds. Here’s a male goldeneye taking to the skies.

Goldeneye taking to the air

And here again, with a lady friend

Male and juv female Goldeneye

A Greylag Goose, one of many we saw ..

Greylag goose

Plenty of curlew around today …

Curlew at the water side

The highlight of the day was a pair of scaup on one of the reservoirs – we knew they were there, but were also –with the aid of spotting scopes– actually able to find them. Here’s a male scaup quacking up a storm about something.

Scaup in the distance

There were plenty of teal on the water – here are a few on a mudbank, with other assorted ducks and swans.

Mixed waterfowl on a mud bank – mainly teal

Swans a plenty too – here’s a Mute Swan cygnet from last year in juvenile plumage and black beak.

A juvenile mute swan

And to finish off, a bit or mallard woohoo – clearly they thought it was spring already.

A pair of mallards engaged in a little woohoo

It was a sunny day and I decided to take the train up to Silverdale, to visit RSPB Leighton Moss. I spent a few hours there and took one or two pictures (see below).

Nothing special, and this is just a photographic record of the some of the birds I photographed on this day (I saw many more species which I did not record).

Great Tit

Black-tailed Godwit (in foreground) with Redshank in rear

Again, Black-tailed Godwit (in foreground) with Redshank in rear. This time the Godwit has something to say for himself.

Redshank

Redshank again

Marsh Tit

Marsh Tit again

Tufted ducks on the prowl – the second from the right is a bit manky, probably a hybrid.

As always, click on a photo to see in slide format, or scroll down for normal view.

My first birding outing back in the UK was to Martin Mere, near Southport. I suppose the plat du jour was the recently hatched Grey-crown Crane:

Juvenile Grey-crowned Crane, Martin Mere

Here’s a reminder of what mother crane looked like, with a close up below of the colourful plumage.

Grey-crowned crane – adult

detail of feathers, grey crowned crane

Here’s a Northern Pintail – looking crisp as the weather I experienced on this visit …

Northern pintail

… and a few friends from Argentina, first the Southern Screamer …

Southern screamer

and below, the Chilean Flamingo …..

Chilean flamingo

… and finally some Muscovy Ducks.

Muscovy ducks

Moving outside the collections area, I didn’t stay very long on this visit as I mistimed train connections, but I did attend feeding time for the Whooper Swans, a main feature of Martin Mere. Below a close-up.

Whooper Swans

Whooper Swan, close up

Other wild birds I saw included a snipe  about his business …

Snipe

A glorious robin singing his heart out ….

Robin

A shelduck …

Common Shelduck

A greenfinch …

Greenfinch

Quite a few reed buntings

Reed Bunting (female)

Reed Bunting (male)

And, back on the shoreside, a lapwing

[Northern] lapwing

Grey Heron

And a ruff, sadly not in breeding plumage but I’ll be back!

Ruff

I was in Buenos Aires at the end of October 2015 for a teachers’  conference and when it was over my good friend Alec Earnshaw invited me up to Ceibas for a day’s birding. It was a long day too –Ceibas is in the Province of Entre Ríos and we left the northern suburbs at about 04.00, getting back to BA at about 23.00– but it was an excellent day, and I had myself an excellent guide, one of Argentina’s very best. Thank you again, Alec, for a wonderful day’s birding.

Alec knew this area really well, and was able to guide me to a a great many birds, twenty-eight of which were lifers for me. Below are some of the birds we saw – there were so many birds everywhere that I didn’t bother to take photos of birds I know in order to save my batteries for new ones.

Lifers of the day were Savanna Hawk, Grassland Sparrow, Chestnut-capped Blackbird, Wood Stork, Screaming Cowbird, Suiriri Flycatcher, Yellow-browed Tyrant, Solitary Sandpiper, Sooty Tyrannulet, Grayish Saltator, White-browed Meadowlark, Brown-and-yellow Marshbird, Straight-billed Reedhaunter, Curve-billed Reedhaunter, Nacunda Nighthawk, Bran-colored Flycatcher, White Monjita, Firewood-gatherer, Brown-chested Martin, Scarlet-headed Blackbird, Freckle-breasted Thornbird, Roseate Spoonbill, Warbling Doradito, Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Stripe-crowned Spinetail, Chotoy Spinetail, Whistling Heron and Snail Kite. That’s a total of 28 – not bad for one day’s birding, and I’m no longer a beginner.

The photos below follow, for some inexplicable reason, a not quite perfect inverse alphabetical order. This was obviously not the order we saw them, but some months later it would be time-consuming to reconstruct that order, and it’s not that important anyway.

varillero congo (Chestnut-capped Blackbird) Agelaius ruficapillus

tuyuyú (American Wood Stork) Mycteria americana

tordo pico corto (Screaming Cowbird) Molothrus rufoaxilaris

siriri pampa (White-faced Whistling-Duck) Dendrocygna viduata

siete vestidos ( Black-and-rufous Warbling-Finch) Poospiza nigrorufa

pitotoy solitario (Solitary Sandpiper) Tringa solitaria

piojito gris (Sooty Tyrannulet) Serpophaga nigricans

[female] pico de plata (Spectacled Tyrant) Hymenops perspicillatus

[male] picaflor comun (Glittering-bellied Emerald Hummingbird) Chlorostilbon lucidus

domesticated version of pato real (Muscovy Duck) Cairina moschata

pepitero de collar (Golden-billed Saltator) Saltator aurantiirostris

[not to be confused with long-tailed meadowlark!] pecho colorado (White-browed Meadowlark) Sturnella superciliaris

pecho amarillo común (Brown-and-yellow Marshbird) Pseudoleistes virescens

ñacundá (Nacunda Nighthawk) Chordeiles nacunda/Podager nacunda

federal (Scarlet-headed Blackbird) Amblyramphus holosericeus

espinero pecho manchado (Freckle-breasted Thornbird) Phacellodomus striaticollis

espátula rosada (Roseate Spoonbill) Ajaia ajaja

doradito común (Warbling Doradito) Pseudocolopteryx flaviventris

curutié colorado (Yellow-chinned Spinetail) Certhiaxis cinnamomeus

curutié blanco (Stripe-crowned Spinetail) Cranioleuca pyrrhophia

cortarramas (White-tipped Plantcutter) Phytotoma rutila

chotoy (Chotoy Spinetail) Schoeniophylax phryganophilus

chinchero chico (Narrow-billed Woodcreeper) Lepidocolaptes angustirostris

chiflón (Whislting Heron) Syrigma sibilatrix

chaja (Crested aka Southern Screamer) Chauna torquata

carpintero de cardon (White-fronted Woodpecker) Melanerpes cactorum

cardenal comun (Red-crested Cardinal) Paroaria coronata

caracolero (Snail [or Everglade] Kite) Rosthramus sociabilis

tordo musico (Bay-winged Cowbird) Agelaioides badius

becasina (South American Snipe) Gallinago paraguaiae

bigua (Neotropic aka Olivaceous Cormorant) Phalacrocorax brasilianus

cachilo ceja amarilla (Grassland Sparrow) Ammodramus humeralis

calandria grande (Chalk-browed Mockingbird) Mimus saturninus

atajacaminos tijera (Scissor-tailed Nightjar) Hydropsalis torquata

[young] aguilucho colorado (Savanna Hawk) Buteogallus meridionalis

suirirí común (Suiriri suiriri) Suiriri Flycatcher

suirirí amarillo (Yellow-browed Tyrant) Satrapa icterophrys

I made a return trip to Río Gallegos in November 2015. This time it was for work (to give one or two talks at a local teachers’ conference) but it was a good chance to meet up with my friend Emanuel Tiberí and do a little birding.

We took a half day and went out to Punta Loyola, an area that Emanuel knows well as he is working on the reserve there. I was lucky enough to see one or too lifers while there (Least Seedsnipe, Chocolate-vented Tyrant, Collared Plover and Tawny-throated Dotterel) , so it was a good outing.

Here are a few photos I took on the morning outing:

monjita chocolate (Chocolate-vented Tyrant) Neoxolmis rufiventris

chorlo cabezón (Tawny-throated Dotterel) Oreopholus ruficollis

chorlito doble collar (Two-banded Plover) Charadrius falklandicus

agachona chica (Least Seedsnipe) Thinocorus rumicivorus

bandurrita comun (Scale-throated Earthcreeper) Upucerthia dumetaria

In the afternoon I walked out along the costanera before taking my flight back north and took my final shot of the trip: possibly the most common bird in Patagonia, but always a delightful one: the chingolo.

chingolo (Rufous-collared Sparrow) Zonotrichia capensis