SOLWAY: More white birds from D&G

Leucistic Common Buzzard near Loch Ken, Dumfries & Galloway 16 June 2009 (with kind permission from Peter Bagnall).

Lancashire birder Peter Bagnall kindly sent me a few images from his recent trip to Dumfries & Galloway. The leucistic Common Buzzard has been frequenting Loch Ken for a few years now and boy did it give me a shock when it first flew out of a tree near Mains of Duchrae when I was looking for Greenland Whitefronts! Peter took this marvellous photo of the bird on the east side of Ken; indeed my last sighting (in February) was near Crossmichael too.

Peter has also sent me this picture of a leucistic Moorhen at Dalton Wildlife Park in one of the pens there. Peter has a superb website with a large selection of wildlife images at www.peterbagnall-wildlifeimages.co.uk and it's well worth browsing through. Thanks once again for sending me the photos Peter - let's hope it's a D&G Gyr Falcon next!

SOLWAY: Barrage of Abuse

Adult Mediterranean Gull at Brow Well near Caerlaverock, Dumfries & Galloway 28 July 2009.

July? More like October! Despite the blustery weather and squally showers there was still an air of optimism as I jumped in the car this morning It "felt" like autumn today, reflected in the birds (I saw some!) rather than the golden colours of falling leaves. I had only a few hours to spare this morning and with the tide low I concentrated on the Nith rather than the Inner Solway shore with its vast mud and sand flats. Turned out quite well with a couple of nice white birds at Brow Well in the form of a Little Egret and a smashing adult Mediterranean Gull, still with black-hooded finery. I like Med' Gulls but couldn't do this fine specimen justice with my handheld shot and 'scope blowing about in the wind. Nearly thirty years ago I looked for my first one - an adult at a winter roost of Black-headeds on a Middlesex gravel pit. Didn't see it and despite their stunning appearance in field guides I wondered how easy they'd be to pick out in a large gull flock. I finally made myself acquainted with a cracking adult by using the now familar "bread the Med' " method at Epsom Common (I think) but it was some time before I started finding them for myself in roosts (they weren't that common back then). Med' Gull: one to master before moving on to greater headaches!

I popped into Caerlaverock WWT for a quick look at the Folly Pond from the Farmhouse Tower. The pond is filling up now and there's still muddy edges but only a single Common Sandpiper and a few Lapwings found it to their liking. Last stop before lunch was the Nith Estuary itself where in driving rain I saw little apart from 250+ Lapwings, 60+ Redshanks, several hundred Black-headed Gulls and a Peregrine that spooked the lot.
A prior engagement took me to Colvend this afternoon and into the southern section of Dalbeatie Forest where I found myself distracted by Yellowhammers, Bullfinches and another Peregrine. I must admit to being a little more distracted as the high tide hour approached, especially as the south west wind was gaining strength and I was only ten minutes away from Southerness Point.


Pulling up at the point I immediately picked up a few Gannets offshore - normally a good sign. Then Sandwich Terns started to fly by, but it appeared the same birds were just feeding offshore and 8 birds were completing a circuit. Time past without so much as a Manxie let alone the hoped for Storm Petrel. I was just about to set a time limit ("If nothing turns up by .......") when a dark phase Arctic Skua flew west close to the rocks followed by a Manx Shearwater. And that was that! My single Manxie doesn't compare very favourably with the "550 / hour" off Drummore on the Mull by Pete Berry today (per D&G Birding Yahoo Group) but there you go.
My day started and ended with raptor sightings from the car. This morning's bird flew over the A75 as I was sitting in a queue near the bridge over the Annan. A "rangy" raptor flew across, at first I thought "Osprey" but it appeared all dark underneath. As I fumbled for my bins I was thinking "harrier?" but it disappeared behind the trees and the cars started to move. Couldn't pull over in the roadworks so had to let it go. My last bird of the day was indeed an Osprey flying over the A710 near Islesteps as I drove to Dumfries from Southerness. Straight forward this one - even had time to stop the car as it flew from the direction of the Nith towards Mabie Forest.

So "Barrage of Abuse"? Well coincidentally the two sites where I spend most of my UK birding time are both under threat of tidal barrage construction. The Ribble barrage project has become dormant (although it appears it may materialise under another name) and provoked strong reaction from Preston residents. The RSPB raised concerns of course, especially with their new reserve in preparation on the south shore just downriver from the proposed barrage site. The Save The Ribble Blog documents the current situation. The RSPB have also voiced concern regarding the Solway Barrage project, recently receiving £100,000 for a feasibility study. The barrage here would span the narrowest stretch of the Solway from Bowness in Cumbria across to Annan in Dumfries & Galloway - the site of the old viaduct featured in blog posts last May. See here for a computer generated image.

Just updated my Southerness Sightings page.

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SOLWAY: Yellow Wag' Surprise.

Summer plumage Knots in the Newbie high tide wader roost, Dumfries & Galloway 25 July 2009.

Inner Solway was good today with wader numbers building nicely. First stop was Graitney near Gretna and the birds were well spread out with the low tide. Curlew were the most numerous waders with 210 on the salt marsh and plenty more on the Cumbrian mud flats. Calling Greenshank and 3 or 4 Common Sand's "teetering" away in the ditches. Four Goosander in the low tide channels and the briefest of glimpses of an egret or something as it dropped into the roosting gulls. Sounds daft I know, but the distance and heat haze made it impossible to make out exactly what it was with the nano-second view of a big white rounded wing as it banked. Probably just a Little Egret, but of the white birds on estuaries its normally a Spoonbill that gets in with the gulls.
So having established that I can't identify egrets or Spoonbills I moved on and popped into Redirk Point, hoping to see my white birds from the other end of the salt marsh. No such luck from the embankment so I decided on a scan from the point. On leaving the car I realised I'd left the camera safe and sound inside: "Never mind, everything's always distant here and I'm looking into the light most of the time anyway". Yeah, nice one. While scanning through the gulls I picked up a soft "seep, seep" call and cast one eye from the 'scope to see something on the barbed wire fence. Yellow Wagtail! OK, just a Yellow Wag - so what? I can remember the days on my old Herts patch where 20+ Yellow Wags on the banks of Tring Reservoirs were a regular occurrence. Singles or pairs were at the very least merely a pleasant distraction. Nowadays I don't see many. Most of my Yellow Wags are on the south Ribble marshes and this is only my second ever D&G birds (hot on the heels of my first in May 2008 a Southerness Point).

Indeed Yellow Wagtail is a very rare bird in D&G:
2006 - 2 at Mersehead RSPB 30 April.
2005 - Single Drummore (no date given).
2004 - Single Mull of Galloway 25 May.
2003 - No records.
2002 - Single Caerlaverock WWT 13 & 28 April.

So pretty good record. I haven't heard of any others this year and I've no idea what happened in 2007 as the report's not out yet. Bound to be a few bombshells dropped when it does come out though. All those naughty suppressors keeping their rarities to themselves and coming to look at other people's birds. Tut, tut ...... we know who you are ...... (OK we don't cos the report's not out - but we will).
Anyway enough of all that, back to the birds. Next stop Browhouses: Not too much going on here but 28 Golden Plover were a welcome site. It'll be interesting to see how many are on the Cumbrian side as this time last year the Pacific Golden Plover turned up on the English side, "leaping"into D&G in September. Needless to say I check all Goldie parties nowadays, however small but no joy today. Nice flock of 18 Goosanders fishing "en masse" in the channels and 3 Common Sand's at Browhouses rounding off the morning.

North Solway shore at Newbie near Barnkirk Point with Bowness-on-Solway (Cumbria) behind.

A flock of 30 Tree Sparrows at Dornock was a surprise and after a quick bite to eat there I headed down to Newbie for the high tide wader roost. My aim is to find a decent wader in with the Dunlin roost this autumn but the birds were pretty scattered today. Still there were 356 Dunlin there today and 23 "rosy" Knots on the shingle too. Otherwise the roost was made up of a single Turnstone, 2 Ringed Plovers, 7 Whimbrel, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits and numerous Oystercatchers and Curlews that I didn't get time to count before the tide disturbed them. Away from the shore I did see a few tatty looking Whitethroats and Magpies are scarce here so seeing another here today confirms the Annan area as a local stronghold for one of the UK's most unpopular species.

Site descriptions and grid references for all the localities visited on the Solway today can be viewed on the side-bar of this blog by the way.

LANCS: Waders - R.I.P.

Mud, glorious mud! Ribble Estuary near Freckleton, Lancs 22 July 2009.

Did you know "The saltmarshes and sand and mud flats of the Ribble Estuary form another of the most important wetlands for wintering and passage waterfowl in Europe and the most important in Britain after the Wash for its waders, ducks, geese and swans"? Well, nor did I, but I do now thanks to Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside. There you go then, and it's right on my doorstep too.
Since moving to Lancs I've tried to get out on the estuary as much as possible but work abroad has often prevented watching the waders in late summer. This week it's been possible though with some good totals at the high tide roost - 350 Black-tailed Godwits, 74 Oystercatchers (not common in large numbers this far up river) and Dunlin varying in numbers anywhere between 70 and 800! Wednesday afternoon was notable for the above totals plus single Whimbrel and a dainty Arctic Tern on the river.
Today was special though. I spent three hours out there after high tide, didn't see anything rare but the comings and goings of hundreds of birds was simply enthralling. In fact total of birds were pretty unspectacular compared to the start of the week with only 77 Blackwits in the roost but 13 species of wader is good for this Ribble patch (plus the Green Sand' I saw at Newton Marsh on the way in) and I didn't see Greenshank or Spotshank this afternoon. It was good to see a few Golden Plover back on the estuary, even if it was just 22. There were a few waders around normally present on the outer estuary with more frequency like the two splendid summer plumage Ruddy Turnstones living up to their name, still in breeding splendour. A couple of nice pink-flushed Knot and a single summer plumaged Sanderling were all I could find in the Dunlins but the lack of rare visitors didn't bother me in the least. Just sitting there in the mud with nearly a thousand Dunlin to look through (most in fine summer dress still) for that elusive White-rumped or Pec' was quite enough for the afternoon to pass all too quick.
The disturbance of roosting birds on the shore has long been a personal gripe. I regularly witness horse riders, dog walkers or just folks out for a stroll putting up large gathering of waders, terns, gulls or wildfowl during my time on the Solway or on Lancs shorelines. It's irritating to say the least but it can happen inadvertently and I did it by mistake today. Many folks do it on purpose just for the thrill of seeing wheeling flocks of birds, not realising that these birds need to rest up after energy expended after long migratory flights or before setting out again in the Spring. How best to deal with it? Well I'm with John Dempsey who spoke to folks heading towards shoreline roosts in N Merseyside the other day - "all [the walkers on the beach] seemed genuinely interested in birds and quite happy to make the detour to avoid flushing them". Much better than giving out a mouthful because you didn't get a photo and then "demanding respect" as a birder. Sorry, I read some very strange posts on blogs and the suchlike!

Really enjoyed the estuary. Think I'll do some more tomorrow maybe ........

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LANCS: Mrs. B in Trans-Pennine KES remake shock!

Mrs B. with a Kestrel.

Craaaaig David with our Kes'.

Ooops got off to a bad start there and the influence of my youngest son and his Bo Selecta DVD is starting to tell. Disgraceful. Anyway, Mrs B. received a falconry lesson as a birthday present this year and quite sensibly she chose July as a reasonable time to do it. So we spent a very pleasant morning in the pouring rain in the company of some very handsome birds of prey.

Mrs. B drops off in sympathy with a Barn Owl that should be kipping.

After playing about with the Barn Owl Mrs B turned her attention to a female Kestrel for a while. In true KES tradition she appeared a natural but as a strict vegetarian found placing bits of dead birds on the glove a bit distasteful.


Next up was a splendid Bay-winged Hawk. Mrs B found this a bit heavy but soldiered on regardless.

Can you guess what this is? Clue is in the tail.

Red-tailed Hawk.

Mrs B in very poor Eagle Owl impersonation.

However the most impressive beast was undoubtedly the Eagle Owl. Whatever your views are on the birds currently at large in Bowland, they are magnificent.

Eagle Owl.

Tawny Owl.

One of these beautiful creatures is normally asleep at this time of day. Not quite sure which one .....

Angie's birthday gift was from her family and more information about Turbary Woods can be found on their website (click here). Turbary Woods is a non-profit organisation run by a volunteer group and money raised funds the sanctuary for the rescue, rehabilitation and release of young and / or injured birds.

For a close-up HD view of what this Eagle Owl looks like coming towards you click here!

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ECUADOR: El Oro Parakeet.

El Oro Parakeet, Buenaventura 30 January 2009.

Back to last January for a while again. I had the pleasure of visiting Buenaventura and another Jocotoco Foundation-run lodge there during a tour of Southern Ecuador. Apart from seeing some fabulous Choco Endemics (the Choco region is the wet forests of sw Colombia and nw Ecuador) like Club-winged Manakin and Long-wattled Umbrellabird we had the good fortune to see the rare El Oro Parakeet. This rare parakeet breeds in the December - January period apparently so we were there to see them at their nest sites. Buenaventura is a cracking place to go birding with a nice mix of Choco and Tumbesian birds - we also encountered Grey-backed Hawk over the forested hillsides one sunny morning. Great place; can't wait to go back.

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LANCS: High tide on the Ribble.

Nice to get out birding again, albeit briefly. I managed a couple of hours on the Ribble Estuary this morning starting at Freckleton where the Naze Pool was dead as a doornail. Nuthatch on the way was about the only notable bird. A few nice Green-veined Whites along the public footpath though (AKA dog toilet).

Having to watch every step I made took its toll so I drove round to Warton Marsh to check the high tide wader roost. It didn't disappoint either: 650 Black-tailed Godwits on the north shore alone, with another 70 or so on the south bank opposite Hesketh Out Marsh. You can see part of the flock wheeling round above the yacht in the shot above. Best of all there was about 800 Dunlin but they were virtually impossible to go through roosting in the saltmarsh.

Speckled Wood, Warton 20 July 2009.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get back for another go at the waders in the next few days. As The Birds of Lancashire & North Merseyside says - "Access to part of the Ribble Estuary is difficult and significant numbers of scarcer species undoubtedly pass through unnoticed by birdwatchers." Tell me about it! Before modernisation the nearby Freckleton SF logged many Lancashire firsts including Little Ringed Plover (!), White-rumped, Pectoral and Broad-billed Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs. Baird's and Buff-breasted Sandpipers and Long-billed Dowitcher had also occurred but were not "firsts".

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ECUADOR: Jocotoco Anpitta.

Bit of a delve back into the South America archives and Jocotoco Antpitta from last January. These birds (there's two different individuals in these pictures) were at a feeding station in the newish Jocotoco Foundation Tapichalaca Reserve, performing extremely well one wet morning for their admirers.

You have been warned!

When we arrived at the feeding station there was already a Chestnut-naped Antpitta bounding around on the path and after a good look at that one we made our way into position as the worms were put down on the trail. You can just see the first Jocotoco over his shoulder waiting patiently in the photograph above.

After a short while a couple of Jocotocos were in full view, happily feeding around us and posing for the photographers. Jocotoco was only discovered in Southern Ecuador in the late 90's indicating the species' restricted range (Ecuador had been extensively explored ornithologically). It has a distinctive song and has recently been discovered in extreme Northern Peru.

Antpitta baiting is not an exercise for the purist I guess. However training these individuals to approach the feeding station otherwise unmolested produces much needed revenue for the foundation and means that the rest of the local population can go about its business without visiting birding groups using playback.

Jocotoco Antpitta at Tapichalaca, Ecuador February 2009.

Who needs binoculars?

SHUT UP!

Chestnut-naped Antpitta, Tapichalaca February 2009.

SOLWAY: D&G round-up.

Southerness Point, Dumfries & Galloway July 2009.

So over a week on the Solway and what did we get? Well, wader numbers appear to be building with one count of 1080 Curlew on the Nith on 8th July. In fact numbers were pretty good that day (some total better than on the WeBS a week later) with 114 Mallard, 23 Goosander and 118 Lapwing on the Nith between Glancaple and Kenneth Bank. There has been a good influx of Common Sandpipers but my flock of 14 at Barnkirk Point, Newbie was put to shame by Cumbrian birders venturing to the Scottish side and seeing 27 near Gretna! Plenty of scattered Whimbrel sightings but it's hard to gauge passage of this wader as there's so many "residents" on the Solway (Carsethorn for instance). A flock of 8 Whimbrel at Newbie on 8th July is notable though. Apart from the couple of Bar-tailed Godwits there was little else of note with no Dunlin flocks as yet (at least on the D&G side). Hopefully this will change in the next few weeks and a Pec' or White-rumped Sand' will turn up? Apart from a few seabirds Southerness Point was pretty quiet although an Otter offshore early morning on 9th July was a decent reward for getting out of bed early.

Stroan Loch, Galloway Forest Park, Dumfries & Galloway July 2009.

Away from the coast it was predictably hard work with little of note apart from the Goshawk and scattered Crossbill parties. Just a brief look at a male Hen Harrier at Langholm and it appears HH's are going to have a difficult time this year - check out the Bowland Hen Harrier blog (link on right side of this blog).

SOLWAY: Waders, wildfowl & WeBS.

Life in sleepy Carsethorn - see here for explanation. Probably the best pub in the world! Read on.

Our holiday on the Solway wasn't all fun 'n' frolics of course as there were Timed Tetrad Visits to finish and WeBS counts to do. Actually there were a few surprises around - a flock of 14 Common Sandpipers at Newbie, a pair of Bar-tailed Godwits at Dornock (one in stunning summer plumage), several Whimbrel at various sites, four figure Curlew counts on the Nith, single Gadwall on the National Nature Reserve at Caerlaverock and a few Barnacle Geese including the two pictured above at Newbie Mains.

WeBS counting on the Nith Estuary. No I'm not going bald, it's a brood patch!

Just a few of the thousand plus Curlew on the Nith Estuary last week.

I ended the trip with a seawatch off Southerness Point early 13th July. A pair of Ravens over the point was a nice surprise but better still the two dark morph Arctic Skuas that passed by a few times were most welcome. There's something magic about skuas for me so double delight when a couple of Bonxies flew west soon after the Arctics. However the holiday highlight was definitely the main event at Carsethorn just round the coast from Southerness.
As previously explained we've had a bit of a giggle at the expense of the Steamboat Inn there over the last 20 years, having rarely seen it open. A couple of weeks ago we were about to take the plunge and go in when they turned the sign round to "CLOSED". Not being ones to take a hint we tried again this weekend.

The moment of truth!

Then it happened - I went in AND bought drinks!

Triumph. Ecstatic with satisfaction I return with drinks and crisps!

I was so taken with the friendly welcoming attitude of Anne & Graham and the rest of the staff here I decided to take Mrs B back the next night for a meal. I can thoroughly recommend the Steamboat Inn at Carsethorn for a pint, a meal and a warm D&G welcome. We'll be back ...... if you're open. Naaaah, just kidding.


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SOLWAY: Local stuff.

Looking out over the Solway from Rockcliffe towards Portling, Dumfries & Galloway July 2009.

We're fortunate enough to have quite a few places to visit within easy striking distance from our caravan at Southerness. The Colvend Coast is very attractive indeed and a short walk from Rockcliffe to Castle Point on a calm day can produce good numbers of scoters. You can just about see the bay behind Mrs B's feet in the picture above. Long narrow feet are apparently indicative of Celtic roots and this is well represented by the size of Mrs B's plates: "Like two barges going down the canal" as my Dad used to say. Anyway enough of Mrs. B's feet. The Solway Firth is an important moulting ground for scoters; we counted 2015 Common Scoters off Balcary Point (just across Auchencairn Bay from Rockcliffe) on 5th July. Couldn't see anything else amongst them but they were a way off.

Loch Kindar is just inland from the shore of the Nith Estuary and although not too interesting for birds at this season, it does have a good forest walk. It's one of the few areas I've seen Green Woodpecker in D&G (although worryingly I've not heard one anywhere in D&G this year) and is a pretty reliable site for Bullfinch.

Common Blue Damselfly, Loch Kindar July 2009.

Mrs. B. and I spent a very hot afternoon in the area last week. Crossbills were all over the shop although mainly in groups no larger than 12 - 15 birds.

Plenty of insects about in the sunny glades such as Blue-tailed Damselflies, Golden-ringed Dragonflies, Common Hawker, Ringlets and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

Ringlet, Loch Kindar July 2009.

Painted Lady.


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