Not quite as good as yesterday!

11/8/06 Holme NOA Leaders: Simeon Connor, Matthew, James
We returned to Holme this morning to see if we could get anything during a short seawatch. That was all we had time for so we dedicated the whole two hours to it. We managed to pick up several Fulmars, a Manx Shearwater, a possible Sooty Shearwater, five Arctic Skuas, a Pomarine Skua, 5+ Arctic Terns, 40+ Sandwich Terns, a few Common Terns, 20+ Grey Plovers, Bar and Black - Tailed Godwits and small numbers of Common Scoters. James and I are brushing up on our seawatching skills ready for Shetland (28th - 31st August) and a bit for Wales (13th - 26th)!!! Watch out for two BIG trip reports coming soon!

Stupid Computer!

(Connor) Unfortunately due to problems with my computer I have not been able to do anything on the website recently apart from a trip report on my day sea-watching at Holme NOA, which I did on a friends computer.

Good birds that I have seen recently include: Long Billed Dowitcher and Woodchat Shrike, Lincolnshire (see earlier trip report), Pectoral Sandpiper and Red Necked Phalarope at Titchwell RSPB and all the various Shearwaters, Skuas and other seabirds at Holme NOA. As well as this I was fortunate enough to find a singing Spotted Crake at Welney with Simeon!

A decent seawatch...at last!

10/8/06 Holme NOA Leaders:Simeon, James, Matthew, Connor
James, Matthew and I got dropped off at Holme and met Connor there. Seawatching had been good that morning, with a Manx Shearwater, several Arctic Skuas, plenty of Terns (including a few Arctic) and 40+ Gannets. We were slightly irritated that it had died down a lot! Nevertheless, we got to the watchpoint and within five minutes we had had one Arctic Tern, several Common Scoters and plenty of Sandwich with a few Common Terns. Then Connor joined us and by the time he had left we had seen; four Arctic Skuas, 20+ Gannets and a single Manx Shearwater. Things certainly hadn't died down! When he left we were certainly on the ball, seeing another Arctic Skua, several more Arctic Terns, a few Little Terns, 50+ Common Scoter and another Manx Shearwater. Then something happened. I was following one of the Manx Shearwaters when I spotted two dark Terns (probably Arctic). They flew below the surf and whilst I was trying to relocate them I saw another dark Tern. 'Black Tern' I said, but Matthew couldn't get onto it. It was a lifer for me! Meanwhile James had found a different dark Tern. It was a White - Winged Black Tern! None of us got onto it, but James was sure of it because of the plumage. James spotted one more Manx Shearwater and then things completely stopped with a strong Westerly wind. It had been a brilliant seawatch and we were all pleased with what we had seen.

Oh well...

8/8/06 Welney WWT Leaders:Simeon and James
We returned to Welney to try and positively ID the strange Snipe we had seen the day before. At Buxton Hide we counted 48 Common Snipe and the strange one. In the end we came to the conclusion that it was just a dodgy Snipe (excuse the phrase!), because it had a small amount of white on the underside that we hadn't seen the day before. Sorry for the false alarm and I apologise for any inconvenience. I know have a better knowledge of Snipes so I will not jump to any conclusions next time! Anyway, other birds we saw were 50 Common Snipe (including the dodgy one and one from the main observatory), two Green Sandpipers, 1 Common Sandpiper, 600+ Lapwing, 30+ Golden Plover, 15+ Ruff, Grey Heron (see gallery), 4 Little - Ringed Plover, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel and Hobby. It had been a good day with the positive ID of the Common Snipe! Sorry again for any inconvenience!

A big shock!

7/8/06 Welney WWT Leaders: Simeon and James
We returned to Welney to try and refind the Spotted Crake that Connor and I had found two days earlier. At the main observatory we got two Yellow Wagtails, a Kestrel and a single Common Sandpiper. Things seemed a bit quiet so we moved on to the Buxton Hide. There was a strange wader that turned out to be a young Ruff. Other birds were five Yellow Wagtails, three Green Sandpiper, two Little Ringed Plover, 10+ Sand Martins, a Kestrel, a Bewick's Swan and some Whoopers, a few Wigeon and twenty - five Common Snipe. Whilst counting the Snipe, I noticed a larger bird! After doing lots of research I thought it could be a Great Snipe! The key features were; the bill was shorter than the Common Snipes, the underparts were more heavily barred with next to no white, the underside of the wings were dark with no white at all, the bird had white coverts, it was noticeably larger and it had a lot of white on the tail. I don't know whether to count it or not. All of the features pointed towards Great Snipe, but the only problem is, it's a bit early! It had been a really good day though!

An early start!

6/8/06 Gibraltar Point Leaders: Simeon, Connor, James
We got up at 6:00 to twitch the Long - Billed Dowitcher. On arrival at 8:30 we rushed to the hide and within five minutes James found it in front of some Black - Tailed Godwits! A wonderful bird! Unfortunately the Lesser Yellowlegs had left yesterday morning. On returning home we got reasonable pictures of the Woodchat Shrike at Friskney (see gallery). It had been a brilliant morning!

Finding our own birds!

5/8/06 Welney WWT Leaders: Simeon and Connor
Connor and I went to Welney to see if we could find any of our own birds. We found a Turtle Dove on the aproach road - a nice start! Some good numbers of butterflies, Dragonflies and Damselflies had been seen (see butterflies and moths page), and a Green Sandpiper was wandering around somewhere on the reserve. So we spent a bit of time in the main observatory at first and managed to pick up, several Common Snipe, Teal, Common Sandpiper, Marsh Harrier and Stock Dove. Then we went on to the Buxton Hide after finding a Red Underwing Moth on a signpost. Here we got, Green Sandpiper, 14 Ruff, 300+ Lapwing, 7 Common Snipe and 7+ Redshank. After lunch we walked along the Summer Walk and heard something in the reeds. It was a Spotted Crake! It was calling in the reeds by the river but was unfortunately never seen. It was a lifer for me (Simeon) and a yearer for Connor. We had found a scarce bird at last! It had been a really good day.

Super Stuff Seawatching!

3/8/06 Holme NOA Leaders: Connor
As I walked down the path towards the seawatching hide at Holme NOA I was extremely excited as the wind was a near gale force north westerly! I was soon in the hide with the assistant warden and the amount of Gannets was clearly evident with 120+ in an hour. Kittiwakes and Fulmars were also regular as were Sandwich and Common Terns. Common Scoters numbered about 60+. At about 8:20 am I picked up a Sooty Shearwater flying west at about three quaters distance. This was followed by another 10 minutes later. While watching the second bird a Skua flew through my scope. It was extremely thin winged, very grey and barred, much more so than the 15+ Arctic Skuas or so I had been watching. I followed it and was delighted to discover it was a Long Tailed Skua! More Arctic Skuas followed before retreating to the obs for breakfast.

Next the moth trap was emptied and although several interesting species were recorded it was rather uninspering and I was anxious to watch the sea again. On returning to the seawatching hide I was extremely annoyed to find out that I had missed two adult Long Tailed Skuas, a Manx Shearwater and two Sooty Shearwaters, as well as hearing the warden had seen two juvenile Long Tailed Skuas from the dunes!

Two Great Skuas were quickly located and a Manx Shearwater delighted me by putting in a brief appearance. Arctic Skuas were still on the move and the final tally at the end of the day was 33 but the seabird movement was clearly slowing with 5 Arctic Skuas, 12 Gannets, 2 Kittiwakes, 3 Fulmars, 6 Grey Plovers, 2 Greenshanks and a Whimbrel in the next hour.

Other birds seen during the day included 2 more Whimbrel and another Greenshank. Common Tern, 3 Grey Plovers and 12 Sandwiches Terns were on Redwell Marsh and this concluded a super day!