A quick outing!

23/9/06 Welney WWT Leaders: Simeon, Matthew, Connor, James
Despite the latest report of the Pec. Sand was on Thursday and we only had about two hours, we all went to Welney. From the main observatory we got three Little Stint and 10+ Yellow Wagtails! We didn't get the Pec. Sand, but other highlights included; 2 Marsh Harrier, 250+ Teal, 3 Wigeon, 1 Pintail, 1 Common Sandpiper, 9 Whooper Swans (the residents), 5 Kestrel, 4 Meadow Pipits, 50+ Pied Wagtail and 500+ Lapwing! All in all a pretty good day, especially the Little Stints!

Rarities! Everywhere! EXCEPT HOLME!

16/9/06 Holme NOA Leaders: James, Simeon and Connor
We got up at 5:00 to get to Holme and at first it looked good with i fall of Dunnocks and Robins overnight. Then we got Redstart, Willow Warbler Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Yellow Wagtail and ringed two Garden Warblers, Robin, Chaffinch, Pied Flycatcher and Whitethroat. It was going pretty well until we got news of four Red - Breasted Flycatchers, four Wrynecks, a Yellow - Browed Warbler, Great - Grey Shrike and Red - Backed Shrike all in Norfolk that day. We were watching a Spotted Flycatcher and someone told us of a Yellow - Browed Warbler in the dunes at Holme. We stretched our time to try and find it, but no-one else had seen it. Oh well! We then found out that we had missed a Wryneck that had been ringed at Snettisham Coastal Park! We had missed a lot, but we had seen quite a few common migrants as well!

Not sure what to do!

9/9/06 Welney WWT Leaders: Simeon, Matthew, James
We went down to Welney at about 3pm, but due to the WWT installing a "Swan Tube" on the main lagoon there was basically nothing about. The only things of note were a few House Martins! But when James and Matt checked the small scrapes behind the visitor centre they had six Pied Wag. one White Wag and a Pectoral Sandpiper. I went back to look for it. I failed to see it, but i did get 3 White Wags. It had been a pretty good day and we were returning home at 5:30 when a small crake crossed the road! I later identified it as a Spotted Crake! At the beginning of the trip I hadn't been sure whether to do a trip report for the day, but the Pec. Sand and Spotted Crake quickly made up my mind!

Early Patchwatching!

5/9/06 Whin Common and Bates Wood, Leaders: Simeon
I woke up at 6:30 and got down to the patch as quickly as I could. During the first 20 minutes I only managed to pick up Great - Spotted Woodpecker. But I got more and more as the morning progressed. By the end of the morning I had seen; 1 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great - Spotted Woodpecker, 6+ Long - Tailed Tit, large numbers of both Robins and Wrens, 2 Jay, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Mistle Thrush, 25+ Swallow and 10+ Redwings. The Redwings were at the far end of Bates Wood at about 8:00 and they were probably the earliest ones I have ever seen! It had been a good trip and I was very pleased with the Redwings I spotted!

Simeon's Diary for Wales and Shetland holidays!

This is my diary for the time we spent on holiday in Wales and Shetland. For those who get bored easily (I know I'm one!), I have highlighted and underlined the the interesting birds and interesting numbers of commoner birds!

Monday 14th Aug.
(Medium Westerly wind, cloudy)
It took us several hours to drive to our destination, but the journey had provided 24 Buzzards! We stopped off at Lake Vyrnwy RSPB and got information for a future visit. There's a 50 - 50 chance of getting Dipper there and they have four Ring Ouzels present. When we finally arrived I went up to the attic and started seawatching. Only Cormorant, Herring gull, Jackdaw, Carrion crow and Grey Heron were seen - pretty rubish! At 8:00pm I went for a walk along the bottom of the cliffs. Slightly more productive with three Rock Pipits and a Peregrine.

Tuesday 15th Aug.
(Light South - Westerly winds, cloudy)
I woke up and immediately looked to the top of the hill behind the house. 3 Buzzards, still no Red Kites. Then it was to seawatching. I could instantly tell it was going to be better than yesterday because of the wind direction. I was right. 30+ Gannets and a single Manx Shearwater. On the beach there was a Curlew, Lesser and Greater Black - Backed gulls in the usual stream of gulls from there roosts along with Cormorants. We have a pair of House Martins nesting under the eves. They're about the only hurindines here! A few doors down there is a feeding station providing good numbers of House Sparrows, Jackdaws, Greenfing and Chaffinch. Looking in the dense bushes gives you Robin, Dunnock, Wren and this morning I found a Lesser Whitethroat skulking in the brambles. Late afternoon seawatching provided another Manx Shearwater, Curlew and 11 Sandwich Terns. A Buzzard showed well on a post on the hill behind the house. 10+ Mistle Thrushes were also seen. We've put out the moth trap despite the weather. Who Knows what we'll get? (See moths and butterflies page for results on all of the four traps we did)

Wednesday 16th Aug.
(Light Westerly wind, cloudy and raining)
After the moth trap we went to the hill behind the house. When we returned six hours later we were completely drenched, but we had seen 2 Buzzards, 4 Whitethroats, 3 Wheatears, 4 Chiffchaff, 12 Mistle Thrush, a Willow Warbler, 20+ Stonechats, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Tree Pipit and plenty of Meadow Pipits. Seawatching in the afternoon provided several Sandwich Terns and two Gannets. When we were on the beach we witnessed a passage of 3000+ Swallows. The strange thing was, they were going North! If anyone has a solution as to why they were doing that please leave us a comment.

Thursday 17th Aug.
(Medium westerly winds, cloudy)
A brilliant day! Seawatching in the morning provided 30+ Gannets, 6 Guillemots and a few Sandwich Terns. We then failed to get Dipper on the Torent walk (we got Nuthatch though), and then returned home. Seawatching picked up again with more Gannets and Sandwich Terns. Then I saw five small dark birds over the water! I called James and we identified them as four Storm Petrels and one Leach's Petrel! We decided to leave it as that as we were quite tired.

Friday 18th Aug.
(No wind, raining)
I got up late so I missed the best seawatching! James had seen loads of Gannets and 20+ Manx Shearwaters. I tried for something, got nothing and meanwhile James had seen another 6 Manx Shearwaters! A great day for James, but not for me!

Saturday 19th Aug.
(Medium/strong South - westerly winds, rainy cloudy and misty)
Just what I'd been waiting for. No, seriously, I woke up and Manx Shearwaters were streaming past. Over all I got 30 Manx and one Balearic! There were 25+ Gannets and 10+ Sandwich Terns as well! It was great! Then we went on the precepice walk which provided 3 Ravens but no Grouse. We returned home to find that the sea was dead. There weren't even any Sandwich Terns or Gannets. In the end it became misty so we gave up. I was pleased with the earlier seawatch though.

Sunday 20th Aug.
(Sunny and still)
Despite the fact that we didn't do much birdwatching we managed to get a Raven, two Buzzards and a female Hen Harrier behind the house! The sea was dead all day! Five Choughs were at Bird Rock though and a few more Buzzards nearby!

Monday 21st Aug.
(Sunny and still)
Unfortunately absolutely nothing of note bird - wise.

Tuesday 22nd Aug.
(Sunny with a very small north - westerly)
Definately a day to remember! I woke up at 6:10 and started seawatching. I spotted a few black birds fairly far out. I woke James and we identified them as Manx Shearwaters. We both witnessed an extraordinary flypast of over 2500 Manx Shearwaters!!! We also had about 30 Gannets. Then it was off to Lake Vyrnwy to try for Dippers. It took us three hours, but in the end I spotted one as it rocketed past us and landed on some rocks! After three years we had finally got one! At last! Also on that trip we got Grey Wagtail, Grey Heron, Siskin, Buzzard, Peregrine and Redstart! It had been a brilliant day!

Wednesday 23rd Aug.
(Cloudy, foggy and still)
Seawatching only provided 5 Gannets as it was very foggy. I got some nice photos of Cormorants and Herring gulls. Later I found a Melodious Warbler in the brambles with a Whitethroat! In an attempt to find it James got three Lesser Whitethroats and we both had a Merlin! (We unfortunately failed in relocating it!) In the evening we went for a walk on the hill which provivded us with Blackcap and three Peregrines. Another pretty good day!

Thursday 24th Aug.
(Clear with a light westerly wind)
The day started early with some seawatching at the point providing 3 Balearic Shearwaters among hundreds of Manx. Also on the beach there were five Rock Pipits and a Grey Heron. On the hill behind the house we had 4 Raven, 1 Chough, 2 Wheatear, 1 Red Kite and a possible worn adult Black Kite! It will probably remain unidentified though. There was also a Tree Pipit. It had been a really good day!

Friday 25th Aug.
(Clear and still)
Nothing was seen in Wales, but after the four and a half hour drive we saw several Curlews, 1 Whimbrel, Lapwing and a Grey Heron at Morecambe Bay near Lancaster.

Saturday 26th Aug.
(Clear and still)
Today we went to Leighton Moss RSPB which provided, 5 Greenshank, Grey Heron, Greater Black - Backed Gull, Marsh tit, Little Grebe, Great - Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and five Red Deer. A pretty good trip.

Sunday 27th Aug.
(Mixed)
After a five hour drive we were tired and had only managed to pick up a Buzzard on the journey! But the ferry trip provided Leach's Petrel, Manx Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater, Gannet, Kittiwake, Puffin, Fulmar, Guillemot, Eider and Red - Throated Diver! We're getting up early for the last part of the ride to try for Skuas.

Monday 28th Aug.
(Mixed)
We woke early and went up on deck. By the time we landed we had several Great Skuas, Black Guillemots (one of our target birds!),Eider and loads of gulls. We missed a Citrine Wagtail later that day at Strand, but we did get two beautiful Red - Throated Divers on a Loch. We also had Hooded Crow (another one of our target birds!), more Black Guillemots, Eider and Great Skuas plus a couple of Arctic Skuas and Shags! A pretty good first day!

Tuesday 29th Aug.
(Light westerly winds with sun and rain)
We got up early and tried to find some of our own rarities. Unfortunately, we didn't get any as the wind was wrong, but we still had 3 Chiffchaff, Great Skua, Black Guillemot, Razorbill, Eider, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit and Hobby! Then we found an Otter at Clickimin Loch! It was really nice to see one in the wild! Then we went to Hoswick and I noticed a few pipits about the place. I got my scope out and scanned them. 10+ Meadow Pipits and a Richards Pipit perched briefly on a barn roof! I was really pleased and was packing up when a Swallow flew past me. There were about 6 in the area, but this one had a pale rump. It was the Red - Rumped Swallow that had been seen there the day before! I was really pleased now!!! Two vagrants (and lifers) in about five minutes! It had been a great day!

Wednesday 30th Aug.
(Strong westerly winds, mostly cloudy)
Although the conditions were rubbish we spent the day at Sumburgh. There had been a minor fall of migrants overnight. We unfortunately missed a Marsh Warbler, but we got 30+ Wheatear and two dead ones, 20 Wigeon that we saw arriving from Iceland, 15 Twite, 2 Whimbrel, 20+ Rock Dove, 200+ Starling, a few Hooded Crows, Great and Arctic Skuas, Arctic and Common Terns, 1 Whooper Swan on Clickimin Loch and 2 Rock Pipits on the beach. A pretty good day.

Thursday 31st Aug.
(Mixed)
We got Whooper Swan and Grey Heron at Clickimin Loch, several Seals around including a really close one at a place called Meal Beach. We also got a few Wheatears and on the ferry we got Razorbill, Guillemot, Black Guillemot, Gannet, Fulmar and Great Skua.

Friday 1st September
(Mixed)
We docked in Aberdeen harbour after having the usual habour species and then had a final bonus of an adult winter Med. gull!

Summary
James and I have both had an amazing holiday! James got 5-6 lifers and I got 6-7! It had also been a wonderful experience and we really recommend it!