Brecks Crex

Early August is never the most exciting month to go birding round the Nunnery Lakes, but a lunchtime wander can be quite a nice break from the office.  One such wander this lunchtime was fairly uneventful, I spent 15 minutes counting Peacock, Large and Small White, Comma, Meadow Brown and Small Copper butterflies for the Big Butterfly Count given the lack of general birdlife around the reserve.  However, just as I headed back to the office and walked along the overgrown footpath by Bob Clarke Lake, up from beneath my feet flushed a small streaky bird with dangling legs.  With my mind elsewhere, it took me a few seconds to put the features together as I watched it drop again a bit further along the path.  Certain it was something interesting, I slowly walked along the path but unable to see the bird on the ground due to the long grass and overhanging nettles and eventually the bird again flew up from just in front of me and confirmed itself as a Corncrake.  Unfortunately on this second occasion it flew across the river and despite a search of the meadow it looked to have dropped into a short while later and again by Nick and others later on, it wasn't seen again.

Unbridled relief

Having left Inner Farne behind, we left Seahouses, heading for Cresswell Pond where the Bridled Tern had been seen.  Now with the bird news coming through Twitter on the mobile, you are reliant on a good mobile internet signal, but the Northumbrian coast (well for Vodafone at least) is not an area where good coverage exists, and so we had no idea if the bird would still be present given the last news we had was that it had flown out to sea.  After what seemed like an eternity driving slowly down the coastal route with day-trippers, we arrived in the car park at Cresswell Ponds at 5pm to be greeted with the news that the bird had returned since the last news we had, but had then flown back out to sea.  Knowing we still had a 5 hour drive ahead of us, I begrudgingly gave myself a deadline of 6pm to see the bird.  The minutes whistled by and still there was no sign of the bird and anxious glances at the watch ticked off the quarter-past, half-past and then quarter-to markers and I again resigned myself to defeat.  Then a shout came up from a couple of birders on the dunes who were watching out to sea, and a short dash later and although I didn't have my 'scope with me (the bird had been showing so well on the Farnes I figured I wouldn't need it!) I soon got onto the tern flying just offshore, easily picked out from the surrounding Sandwich Terns by its dark back.  Unfortunately the bird was too distant to bother taking any photos as I had just grabbed the 70-300mm lens rather than my 500mm, but after watching the bird for ten minutes and relieved that I had at least seen the bird that we had come so far to see, the clock ticked to 6pm and we set off on the long drive home.

Bridled Tern

Note, this isn't the actual bird, but one I saw earlier this year in Australia, but had I taken my big lens up to the dunes, this is about the sort of image I would have got!!

Fantastic Farnes

There's no better place in the UK to photograph seabirds than the Farne Islands.  Each summer, tens of thousands of Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills and Kittiwakes along with a good number of Sandwich and Common Terns, Shags and other seabirds nest on these islands with the National Trust wardens doing a fine job monitoring the birds and dealing with the thousands of visitors.  With the Bridled Tern that had spent the last few days around the islands having clearly gone, we spent a relaxing few hours photographing on one of Billy Shiels' boat trips around the island with an hour on Inner Farne photographing the birds.

Puffin

Common Tern

Guillemot

Kittiwake

Razorbill 

Shag

Just as we headed back to the boat, news arrived that the Bridled Tern had been relocated some 20 miles to the south on the mainland, typical, but the twitch was back on.....

Unbridled agony

Any excuse to visit the Farne Islands is fine with me, so when a Bridled Tern appeared earlier this week, it seemed like a good reason to go. All week the bird has been showing well though it does disappear for hours on end on fishing trips, and although it hadn't been seen so far today we set off from Thetford for the long drive north. Five hours later we pulled into Seahouses and although the tern had been seen briefly at lunchtime, it had since flown back out to sea, we still booked on one of the boats across to Inner Farne. On landing there was a group of disconsolate looking twitchers staring forlornly at the roosting terns by the quay and it was soon obvious there was no point waiting with them so I resigned myself to missing the tern and spent the next half hour photographing the abundant Puffins and Arctic Terns on the island instead.

Puffin

Arctic Tern

Just Kos there's no birds

A week on a Greek Island in June seemed ideal for a week of birding, but as it turned out, the birding was surprisingly disappointing.  Thankfully the reason for going to Kos for a week wasn't just to go birding but to attend a wedding, but even so, the lack of birds as we drove around the island was staggering.  I'm sure in April and May when migration is in full swing the island is alive with birds but I was amazed by the lack of many species that having visited Lesbos in June in the past were still common.  After a week of fairly gentle birding, the trip list had limped to just 41 species, though the likes of Eleanora's Falcons, Long-legged Buzzard, Red-sumped Swallow, Pallid Swifts, Black-headed Bunting, Rollers, Bee-eaters, Ortolan and my first ever Chukar, still meant it was a nice relaxing week in the sun. Despite only taking the 70-300mm lens with me, I still managed to get some decent shots of some of the more confiding species.

Roller

 Bee-eater

Black-winged Stilt

Chukar

Crested Lark

Little Owl

Ortolan

Cory's Shearwater

Uppa Johnny, Uppa!!

Whenever we go abroad, we almost always find time to go on a whale or dolphin watching boat, and over the years we've been on some odd boats but the one out of Kos was certainly different!  We boarded the "Christina" on a Three Island Cruise out of Kos Town somewhat skeptical about the dolphins they were claiming they regularly see, however, as we approached the town of Vathis on the island of Kalymnos, the boat slowed near an offshore fish farm and then the shout went up as a group of Bottlenose Dolphins were seen.  As the dolphins came closer, the skipper began shouting "Uppa Johnny, Uppa" over and over and it seemed to have the desired effect as the dolphins jumped.  Over and over again he shouted and before long many of the people who seconds earlier had been sunbathing were joining in and the dolphins continued to perform.  Unlike on the Moray Firth where I have photographed dolphins before, here the light was fantastic and a good series of images was possible.

Thrice Bittern

Having woken up early this morning, I decided to have a pre-work visit to Lakenheath.  I have to admit I wasn't in a desperate rush to get there, so as a consequence by the time I ambled up to the spot where the Savi's Warbler has been reeling, it had shut up for the day.  Still, it wasn't all bad, as I walked along the track 3 Bitterns flew into view and for the next few minutes circled overhead croaking at each other, with another couple of males not so much booming as heavy breathing in the reedbed.

The Red-footed Falcon that was showing so well last time I was here has become a lot more elusive following a skirmish with a Sparrowhawk and the Orioles are very quiet this year but a few Marsh Harriers, Barn Owl, distant Hobby, Cuckoo, Common Tern and at least 5 singing Cetti's Warblers around the reserve, it certainly is a fantastic place to spend a few hours before reality sets in and the office calls.