Videos

Well there's to much fog to do proper video recording so what else does one do..... collect a bunch of crappy photos I've taken over the last few years and put it to some music, standard.


http://www.vimeo.com/18267003



Compilation from Tim Jones on Vimeo.

Gulls

Now I am back in Birmingham I was keen to get to a gull roost. With Bartley Reservoir being only 15mins away we went down yesterday in the hope of finding something unusual in and amongst the larids. 

Yesterday we managed to find a juv Iceland Gull! Along with 6 ad Yellow-legged Gulls, 2 Juv GBBG and 3 Goldeneye.

Iceland Gull Bartley 27th December 2010 from Tim Jones on Vimeo.


Then today I went down to try and help Gary Prescott (TheBikingBirder) find the bird again as he needs it for his year list, unfortunately Gary had some problems with his tyre and couldn't make it! So I arrived at Bartley to dense fog.... Still managed to check probably around half the roost when this lifted slightly and even managed to read a ring on a Lesser-black Backed Gull, Blue Darvic with orange code HVP. Submitted the details through Euring and amazingly received and email from Peter Stewart who had let me know that the bird was originally rung 30th 2010 in Gloucestershire, then sighted in Edinburgh in August and Glamorgan on the 4th December 2010 before I saw it today at Bartley. Cool!

HVP through the fog

Also for Christmas I got a Panasonic SDR-H85 camcorder so hopefully will be able to get some better quality videos on here than the Iceland Gull one!

TTV

So today I did my first timed tetrad visit. Well not quite a timed visit seen as by the time I'd woken up and got there it was about 30mins from being dark, oh its tough being a student!


But to cut a long story short in the 30mins I did have were very enjoyable. On the bike ride there I managed to cycle straight past a flock of 11 Waxwing until they called making me stop very quickly and enjoy fantastic close views of them feeding in an apple tree, we're they the same flock of 11 I had fly over the flat not 10mins down the road yesterday? At the tetrad highlights were a Barn Owl hunting over roadside fields that flew to within about 10ft when I did squeaky noises! 3 Woodcock that flushed late on from a hedge, 6+ Tree Sparrow, 3 Yellowhammer and plenty of Fieldfare. Will be going back to do the timed visit properly, but I'm glad I don't have to count birds that don't use the tetrad, as thousands of Gulls flew over towards the Humber!


Also last week had up to 3 Jack Snipe in the lake over the back of the flat, 11 Waxwings over the flat and 2 in the car park. Oh and yesterday saw a lot of Mealy Redpoll where's the Arctic though!


And here are a few links that I have found interesting recently and posted onto Twitter so thought I'd put them on here as well.


Podcast by birders loosely about UK birding etc http://www.talking-naturally.co.uk/tn012-conference-calls-blatant-begging-stuff-episode2/


Garners put a load of posts on recently on interesting stuff http://birdingfrontiers.com/


From Birdguides, all the reports of Waxwing so far on one map http://twitpic.com/3fjabq


Cracking photo http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?v=1&off=279802&r=1&st=0&q=0


What we all dream of http://corkdudeing.blogspot.com/2010/12/king-of-grebes-2-revenge-of-grebes.html


Another mental raptor photo http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?f=279116


Lotto win well spent? http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/07/world-most-expensive-book-sold


Imagine one of these in your garden with the dunnocks... http://rarebirdsinthewesternpalearctic.blogspot.com/2010/12/black-throated-accentor-in-finland.html

I'm a listing geek, but my gosh don't I just know it

After reading in quite a few peoples different blogs and talking to different birders. There seem to be quite a few birders that don't keep track of their lists. Is this because listing has got a recent bad press due to the programme and birders want to try and distance themselves from being associated with that? Personally I think keeping lists is a great thing, I'll probably come across a bit weird now but oh well. The reason I keep such a detailed list is because its such an easy reference tool, I'm not obsessed with adding new birds to my list. Of course I like doing that, but if a bird is reported that I haven't seen before the first thing I think isn't how quickly can I get there but about the finder of that particular bird. Do I know them? Wonder what it was like finding x? Probably why I like the Finders Keepers articles on Birdguides


Probably similar to most people who actually keep lists I have mine laid out in excel. So thought I'd put up a few screen shots of my list and maybe it will inspire some of you to do similar, or more than likely just prove how weird I am.

Points scores for species from http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=157697http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=157697

This shows the bottom of my list and the various different stats and information that I can quickly gather from looking at this.

This is another part of the area under the list with various different pieces of information.

This table shows 2010 broken down into how many lifers, yearers etc in each individual month.

This is a list of the birds that I have seen that my Dad hasn't and vice versa for the year and life. Nice reference tool for gripping Dad off, especially for the year! Red/Orange/Green highlights show how hard/medium/easy a bird will be to get back either in the year or life. 

A seperate sheet to the above, has the order of birds I have seen in that particular month, only started this year in Feb. Red highlight is a lifer and green is a highlight bird/species. Orange over the number means I have only seen that species on one occasion/location this year.

This is the last page that I call bogey picking. Basically its all the birds that are on my 'list' but not if you understand that. I've then split them into categories of where I need to go in order to see them.

As you can probably tell from those screen shots there are a lot of different components to my list but its nice to be able to go through it and pick out random trivia from it really easily but mainly its just so I can turn to my dad and say, I have seen 24 more species than you this year because what's birding without a bit of competition!

If anyone else has a similar system to this then I'd love to hear from you and anything that you do differently to me!

Trending Redpolls

Seen as this winter there seems to be a lot of new/old ID features of Redpoll being put into various different articles on how to tell the various lessers/mealies/arctics apart, I thought I would also jump on this band wagon...


But seen as I'm not a Redpoll expert in anyway at all thought I would just put links to all the articles on here just in case you haven't seen them all before.


Why would I do this? Well I suppose coming from inland birding its kinda hard to get excited at the thought of trying to find a Northern Harrier when a Hen Harrier that stuck would cause a twitch in Worcs! But Redpolls are a group of birds where the prospect, for an inland birder, of finding something a bit different and maybe even a BB are greatly increased! Also apparently York Uni gets a flock over the winter and they have held Mealies in recent years and apparently an Arctic not too many years ago, so there's always potential, although I've only had a single fly over so far!


Very in depth guide covering most species/subspecies to be found in the UK good comparisons between types and ages. http://www.worcesterbirding.co.uk/redpolls_58.html


Martin Garners Article, not as much detail but good encouragement for getting out there and finding your own birds! http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2405


Just to show that not all Redpolls are Identifiiable and some have to be left as a best guess http://birdingfrontiers.com/2010/11/30/intermediate-arctic-redpoll/


http://sibleyguides.blogspot.com/2008/01/urging-caution-when-identifying-common.html


Good article focusing on Lessers and Mealies http://www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/File-Store/The-Separation-Of-Lesser-&-Mealy-Redpolls.pdf


Good tips on splitting the Arctics. Anyone know if the BOU/BOURC/BBRC are considering a split of exilipes and hornemanni?   http://www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/File-Store/Arctic-Redpoll-ID-revisited.pdf


Also wise words to remember from one of the Crows Jonathan Lethbridge ''that not everything can be identified'' but give it a try!


If you haven't seen the crowcouncil blog yet check it out here http://thecrowcouncil.co.uk/blog/

Comments on BBRC WIP

So thought I'd share some comments on the latest BBRC work in progress file, avalible here- http://www.bbrc.org.uk/The%20Records-for%20WIP%20on%20web.xls


So all previously accepted Redhead records are under review, does this mean that a new piece of information has come about regarding the acceptability of wild Redheads in the UK? Doubt identification is under assesment, all but one of the records involve males, maybe someone has studied hybrids and found that these birds are no longer acceptable?


Only one of the many possible/probable/definite Yelkouan's from Cornwall/Devon this year submitted so far, suppose a submission for a species like this may take a while to compose and consult all literature possible. See the Berry Head bird has made it to the BOURC.


Little Shearwaters, anyone know what held means?


Fregetta sp from Severn Beach at BOURC, likely hood of being accepted? Shame it wasn't nailed to species.


Masked Booby from Norfolk, could be one to keep an eye on, I heard it was seen by an experienced birder.


Egyptian Vulture, Norfolk??? 


At least the Lesser Kestrel sightings stop on the 31st March (I was there on 1st April when it was reported and was lead on a merry dance around the heath!)


Sakers on Shetland another potential first for Britain, at BOURC.


SBC I won't even go there....


Elegant Tern, earlier Devon records from '02 rejected but later records from Devon and Wales at BOURC. Any coincidence that the later two, at BOURC records, have names next to them and the other two don't?


Alder Flycatcher from Cornwall gone back to BOURC, interesting, anything more come out of this after it was returned to BBRC or has it just been bounced around a bit?


Lesser Grey Shrike from earlier in the year moved from Norfolk to IOS, interesting movement never noticed that at the time. Infact comparing photos http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?t=656558&v=0&q=0 
and
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?t=650124&v=0&q=0
Looks spot on! Cool movement.


Iberian Chiffchaff, interesting to note that from the 5 submitted from 2010 the first to be accepted, the Titchwell bird, has a name next to it. Trend emerging?


Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Outer Skerries 8th October 2010. Go on Mike!!!


Blue Rock Thrush from Lundy this year, was only reported as a probable/possible, anyone got any more gen? Anyone twitch it?


Desert Finch from Kent '01 at BOURC!!!! Maybe I'm missing something but why was this wrote off as an escape (on Birdguides) Trumpeter Finch can make it then Desert could? And Citril has as well! Or are Desert Finch known for not moving at all, any WP records away from breeding ranges?


Oriental Greenfinch from Surrey, well what to make of that! Have stranger things happened, surely escaped bird will be to hard to rule out.


Sooty Albatross, Mull this October! Well these mega seabirds just keep coming don't they!


So in total that's a potential 11 firsts for Britain being considered, not including sub species, so what will be the 600th species for Britain to be added to the list?


Well on reflection that might actually be a rather boring blog post so well done if your still reading. Any answers to the millions of questions above, greatly appreciated on the back of a postcard (or as a comment/email)


Also you know you wanna click follow>>>>>

So got back into Birmingham yesterday and then at 10 o'clock last night me and Dad decided to go down to Devon with the potential for lifers in the shape of American Robin, Glossy Ibis, Water Pipit and Cirl Bunting also several potential year ticks on offer.

Probably down to planning this late at night we only managed to connect with the American Robin, but what a bird it was! Managed to get pretty close views of it and even managed to pick out its eye ring up in the middle of a hawthorn. Also bit of drama whilst trying to gain views of it when a farmer drove past leading a heard of 20 cows, once they reached the group of birders they all stopped so we headed up the bank out of the way, save for one poor old bloke that nearly got ran over by them despite moving as fast as he could!

Speedy Gonzales in action!

Dad trying not to laugh!

All in all, nice place to visit even if we did drive past the flooded fields that a Cattle Egret was found in today! I blame Dad, it was on his side of the car! Now up to 209 for the year and 263 for life.

Amusment

Bit of a laugh if you haven't seen it already.

PBG

Managed to get a lift from James Spencer of http://idiocybirding.blogspot.com/ to the Pied-billed Grebe on Saturday, to say it showed really well is an understatement!

Taken without zoom on compact digital camera, its just dived in the middle of the pic!

Suppose you can just about tell what it is!

Then today managed to get a lift from Oli Metcalf and went to Flambrough fairly early highlights being

1 brief flyover Waxwing over the Old Fall hedge.
3 Pink footed geese in field near Old Fall.
1 Barn Owl.
1 Woodcock on the road on way there early this morning.
2 Roe Deer that walked along just ahead of us for quite a while.
1 Male Blackcap in Dane's Dyke and several Chiffchaff.

Unfourtunatly no sign of the Pallas's Warbler in Dane's Dyke.

So seen as I haven't posted in over a month now thought I'd share some this with you all.


 http://fair-isle.blogspot.com/2010/11/waxwings-oct-25th-2010-day-well-always.html


Yes yet again Tommy makes every other birder in Britain Jealous, first finding Citril Finch now this....


In other news I moved to York to go to Uni, loving it and managed 3 lifers since I've been here trip with Local RSPB group to Spurn = Pallas's Warbler, Bike ride to Wheldrake = American Wigeon (and met up with the Biking Birder aka Gary Prescott http://bikingbirder2010.blogspot.com/ ) and a field trip to near Langsett Reservoir = Red Grouse! 


Also got this book, right up my street definatley recommend it 
http://10000birds.com/review-bird-migration-by-ian-newton.htm


Sweet

Buntings and Finches

Quick post to say about decent numbers of Yellowhammer and Reed Buntings near to Bittel. Around the side of Cofton Hacket Farm I counted 50+ Yellowhammer and good numbers of Chaffinch, Reed Bunting and Greenfinch. Also heard what sounded good for Tree Sparrow, 5 Brambling were also reported from here a couple of days ago so this area could be well worth checking out.

Finding Rosefinch

So my 3rd day on Fair Isle came about 24th August. It started like most other days waking up at 6:50am to go on the early morning trap round, wishing Jack a happy birthday we headed out to see if anything would turn up in the heligolands. Walking along the top of the Gully I noticed Jack started running and flew up the little ladder and into the back of the trap, a task that I struggled to do at a snail pace! Definitely an AW trick! Jack then pulled out a lovely Wood Warbler out of the catching box, nice little birthday treat. We took it back to the Obs for Becki to ring. Then we had breakfast, after this I went and got ready for north census and while waiting for Jack to come down I wondered into the Library and looked out the window where there was a flock of Twite and I thought, O I'll check them out for Rosefinch. First bird Twite, 2nd Bird Twite, 3rd Bird hang on that's not a Twite and there it was one Juv Rosefinch!!! Big black eye huge beak and streaky back, quick look round and theres no one around another look at the bird and it definitely is a Rosefinch so a quick jog round to the Interpretive room where Rob was but there was no sign of the bird!


Now having never seen one before, even though I was 100% sure that it was a Rosefinch I still wanted someone else to see it just to confirm it. It was playing on my mind all census and it was kind of odd being 100% confident that it was one but then at the same time worrying that it wasn't one! But my mind was put at rest when Rob saw it later on, phew. It then continued to show amazingly well from the Obs lounge window for the next several nights. And yer it was only finding a Rosefinch on Fair Isle but I loved it and couldn't wait to find my next good bird, of course this wouldn't be hard on Fair Isle another mental thing that I never quite got my head round how easily it could have been to find a BB!

Digibinning at its best!

Simon later caught it in the Plantation

Where it showed from in the following evenings feeding with Twite

Bird ID Classes

So I've been having a think on ways of earning some extra cash while I'm at Uni, and I thought what better way to do it than doing something I already do! It seems most time I go down Upton Warren in the week I end up in the hide telling people the difference between a Common/Green Sandpiper or a Tufted Duck/Pochard to people who are just starting out new to birdwatching. Now most birders I know find this annoying, but I find it quite rewarding, and most times I get a comment on how clever I am for my age! So this got me thinking, why don't I run a Beginner Bird ID Guided Walks! Something along the lines of meeting a group at a local Nature Reserve and walking round with them and helping them with their bird IDs all for a small fee that would help with my Uni fees.


So the whole point of this post isn't so you can all rob my idea! But so that I can get some feedback on what people think to me possibly doing this. At the moment I will probably do them in York when at Uni and around Birmingham when at home, I know most people who read this blog are already experienced enough with bird identification to not need to be interested in something like this but if anyone has any experience of doing something like this or any useful information/websites they could point me towards that would be great.

Sprawks

8th September 7 Sparrowhawks arrive on Fair Isle which is a new day record count! So naturally staying at a bird observatory we set out to try to catch some to ring them. Sparrowhawks on Fair Isle apparently always roost in tree cover, and seen as there is very little of it on the island and the two main groups both and heligoland traps at the end of them these would prove ideal to try to trap some of the sprawks in. On the 7th me and Jack had been on census all afternoon and we had asked to have our evening meal later so that we could fit in more birding, this meant we were heading back to the obs 2 hours later and by this time it was starting to get a lot darker and this also therefore meant that the Sprawks would be starting to roost. So we decided to push the plantation to see what was in there, creeping up along the side so that the birds don't see us till the last second and hopefully fly into the heligoland, then we jump up but all the birds fly vertically! 4 Sparrowhawks in all! Jack says that they will be back and sure enough after hiding around a dry stone wall for 10mins 3 birds had returned. We tried again but they did the same, flying vertically! This time we tried a different tactic, we both hid in the plantation! This way the birds would fly in and hopefully not see us then we'd jump out and we'd catch them. So after 5mins of waiting a juv male comes in! Lands literally 3ft away from me and Jack completely unknowing that we are there! We give it a bit for him to settle then jump up to try to push him into the heligoland but he just flys over the top again! 


By this time the light is getting too dark to be trapping the birds so we returned empty handed. But we were going to try the following night.


This time we arrive at the plantation when it is getting dark and 3 Sprawks flush out, 2 Females and a Male. We open the mist net in the plantation and Jack hides behind the dry stone wall and I hide in the Vaadal. Watching from here I see a female drop into the plantation but bounce from the net and fly away, then another female comes in and bounces again! Then the male lands 10ft away from me, eyeing up a couple of the fir trees behind me before turning and flying towards the mist net, success! Jack extracts him and we head back to the obs with one 1st winter male Sparrowhawk. A brilliant experience and I doubt that I will get any closer to a Sparrowhawk in the field again! Cheers Jack!

A new feature on the blog and hopefully one that I will be able to share with you more often, is a quick sketch and description that I did of the Pec Sand at Upton this morning. Should do this more often and when I do I'll pop it on here seen as not many people seem to, this is where I say that you might be able to learn something about taking descriptions for rarity submissions but hopefully it will be the other way round with you the reader giving me hints and tips on what to add etc to my sketches for that day that I need to do a proper description of a BB. So comments on how rubbish/good you think it is will be most appreciated and really helpful, cheers.

Oh and also here is a little treat for you all, to say thank you for all the helpful comments!

Image Copyright Kris Gibb

Everything in one shot! White on the outer tail feather, slim trailing edge, white on the coverts, barring on the belly and underwing! This is what makes me loves birdwatching and gets me way more excited than Empidonax sp.

A Quick One

I heard this story whilst on Fair Isle so thought I'd share it here. It goes like this, group of birders on Fair Isle claim a Blyth's Reed they get all excited and ring the obs and let them know, more people go and see the bird and confirm that it is indeed a Blyth's Reed, more people get excited but they soon realise that the bird doesn't look very well. But it's still a Blyth's Reed and are really excited. Deryk turns up looks in scope at said bird ''that's a Reed Warbler'' takes another look ''thats a dead Reed Warbler'' goes and picks bird up and proves it was indeed a Reed Warbler.

Morale of the story, don't think that any bird you have in the field is gonna be rare just because you're on Fair Isle and elsewhere always presume its the common alternative and prove it otherwise. 

Lapland Buntings

So I saw my first Lapland Bunting of my stay in Fair Isle on 27th August, it started with one on Golden Water that flew around for a bit before departing south, Deryk then had one at the obs then Simon had one flying south later on. Then one of Jack's mates had it on North Ron, at the time we thought that all these birds could be the same bird. Oh how wrong we were, as the next 2 weeks proved. For everyday following on from this initial sighting I would see Lapland Buntings! They were everywhere, mainly in the North and West of the Island where the best views were to be had with birds seemingly happy to stay on the deck until about 5ft away sometimes! After about the first week we'd be walking round on census and hear the familiar trill and chip and just casually say lap bunt and note down how many we'd seen! Whilst on the island we all thought that we would be able to break the previous day total for the island of 90 set 13th September 1960, but we managed to equal it two days on a row! With exactly 90 on both 29th and 30th! Then we finally managed to smash it on the 1st with 142 then double a 50 year old record with 184 on the 2nd! The number for them then levelled off to around 120-110 across the whole island for the rest of my stay. During this time we took the opportunity to try and trap and ring some, one cause it would be cool but also to see if there were any of the subcalcaratus race. On the whole we were very successful managing to process probably around 30 birds of which several had large wings with some of ones around 101mm, I'm sure more will come of it soon so lets see! My daily totals for Lap Bunts were as follows-


27th- 1
28th- 10
29th- 51
30th- 55
31st- 74
1st- 35
2nd- 12
3rd- 25
4th- 34
5th- 28
6th- 10
7th- 15
8th- 34
9th- 49
10th- 19

You can see why they are also called Lapland Longspurs

Arctic Warbler

So I decided that a full trip report of Fair Isle is gonna take a while to do, so while that is in progress I thought I'd share some short stories of my time in Fair Isle.


It was the morning of Tuesday 31st August and me and Jack Ashton-Booth were in the office at FIBO doing various tasks when Carrie the ranger came in and said that Ian, one of the candidates for the wardens job had just caught what he thought was an Arctic Warbler in the Vaadal Heligoland! So we both flew across the obs to the ringing room where Ian and his wife were standing holding a bird bag, Jack asked to see it and Ian pulled out a stunning ARCTIC WARBLER!!! WOW cracking little bird and now we confirmed it was indeed as Ian thought an Arctic Warbler we started ringing everyone on the Island that would want to see the bird. Within 15mins everyone had assembled in the ringing room and Jack got to ring the warbler, one of his dream birds! A quick description was taken for the formal submission and photos taken and the bird was released into the plantation. Very elusive throughout the rest of the day, but showed well the following day in lovely sunshine along with Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff.

Deryk holding the Arctic Warbler with Ian the finder in the background.

The warbler close up, mega!!!

Sweet.

A special little warbler turns up....

A sheep walking along a wall....

Ringing Lapland Buntings..... they are everywhere!

Shocking photo of a beast bird....

Lazy evenings spent trapping Lapland Buntings before heading back to the obs for a beer, quality

Today it was windy, a lot....

Fair Isle Photos

Just a quick one before going to play football!

80 degree bank over north haven in an 8 seater plane, mega!!!

Young Fulmar that got stuck in a field and couldn't take off so what do you do? Throw it off a cliff! Seriously cool feeling!

Self found lifer! Digibinned as it fed with twite through the obs window! Just a little bit of Fair Isle Magic!!!

Quick visit to the Flashes this evening after dipping on the Tardebigge Garganey.

1 Juv Arctic Tern was on the mud looking like it was roosting with the Common Terns but then flew off south at 8:45pm. Have been checking out the Juv Common Terns to try and pick one out and making myself familiar with the plumage so that I could pick one out so it was really nice to find one this evening. All dark bill, no gingery/brown across the back, shorter legs all noted while the bird was on the deck and also the cap seemed darker and more well defined. Then when it flew the jizz was more bouncy and also an all white rump, no dark bar on the trailing secondaries and a more diffuse front black bar on the front of the wing all noted. A plumage I hadn't seen before and also an Upton lifer taking me to 136 life and only 108 for the year.

Also 3 Greenshank had passed through earlier by 3 people in the hide (none of whom had put it in the book!) Other wise 8 Green Sand, 8 Teal, 1Little Owl on the Chimney and 28 Curlew roosted.

Cornwall 23rd July-5th August

So in this post I will write a summary of what birding I managed to get done in the 14 days I spent near Penzance, Mousehole on a family holiday. (Square brackets after a bird either mean number on life list in red or year list in green)


Day 1 23/07
From House
100+ Manx Shearwater [170]
1 Shag [171]
24 Common Scoter [172]
30+ Gannet
50 Curlew


Day 2 24/07
From House
5+ Fulmar [173]
25 Common Scoter
100+ Manx Shearwater


Day 3 25/07
Gwennap head
1 Balearic Shearwater [245] [174]
500+ Manx Shearwater
15+ Razorbill [175]
3 Guillemot [176]
1 Great Skua [177]
250+ Gannet
20+ Fulmar
10+ Kittiwake
5 Rock Pipit
2 Med Gulls (Ad, Juv)
1 Stuart Croft! (Spooky coincidence from Upton Warren!)


St. Ives
2 Med Gulls (Ad, Juv)


Day 4 26/07
Marazion Marsh RSPB
Beach
c20 Sanderling [178]
5 Dunlin
4 Med Gulls (2nd Summer, 3 Juvs)
5 Ringed Plover


Reserve
1 Sedge Warbler
4 Reed Warbler
2 Blackcap


Day 5 27/07
Pendeen
1 Balearic Shearwater
150 Manx Shearwater
100+ Gannet
20 Fulmar


Cornish Headland
3 Chough [179]
5 Raven
1 Roe Deer


Day 7 29/07
Sennen Cove
3 Med Gulls (Ad, 2 Juvs)
10+ Gannets, flying over head whilst body boarding


Hayle Estuary
5 Whimbrel
20+ Curlew
4 Redshank
5 Little Egrets
5 Med Gull (3ad 2juv)
3 Common Sandpiper


Day 8 30/07
From House
4 Common Sandpipers
1 Juv Med Gull
1 Commic Tern
4 Rock Pipit


Day 9 31/07
Gwennap Head
2 Sooty Shearwater [246] [180]
2 Storm Petrel [247] [181]
3 Balearic Shearwater
500+ Manx Shearwater
5 Razorbill
2 Guillemot
1 Minke Whale


Fishing Trip out of Penzance
1 Balearic Shearwater
5 Manx Shearwaters
2 Storm Petrel


Day 10 01/08
Mousehole
2 Med Gull (ad, juv)
11 Turnstone
20+ Manx Shearwater
100+ Curlew roosted on St Clements rock


Day 11 02/08
Praa Sands
2 Whimbrel
1 Common Sand
6 Med Gull
2 Shag
Most seen at close range from a kayak


Hayle Estuary
2 Whimbrel
1 Dunlin
11 Greylag Geese
1 Common Sandpiper
2 Little Egret


Day 12 03/08
Mousehole
11 Turnstone
Juv Med Gull
Hummingbird Hawkmoth
100+ Manx Shearwater


Day 13 04/08
Gwennap Head
Puffin [248
6 Sooty Shearwater
15 Storm Petrel
5 Balearic Shearwater




Day 14 05/08
Sennen Cove
3 Med Gull 
1 Whimbrel
5+ Kittiwake (over head whilst surfing!)

From House
60+ Manx Shearwater (Means that I have now seen Manx Shearwater everyday for 2 weeks, awsome!)