Shetland Mainland - 8th October

What a difference in a day after yesterdays almost un-birdable conditions, the wind had dropped there were just occasional showers and all in-all it was pleasant to be out. I started by heading to Lunna to try and see the Melodius Warbler that I had dipped few days ago, I thought that, if the bird was still around it wouldn't take too long to see. Arriving at 08:30, four hours later I had achieved a fairly brief view in the Sycamore hedgerow west of Lunna Kirk and a distant view in the hedgerow to the north of Lunna House. I headed back to the car for a snack determined to get a decent view before I left, in the car park I bumped into some people, not birders, who asked 'do you know anything about birds? we just saw this bright yellow little bird hoping around on the ground in the Kirk and then it went into the tree over there'! Oh dear, I was about five minutes late. I had a snack at the car and cursed my luck. Just then a lady birdwatcher who had been watching the garden of Lunna House began waving from the skyline and I legged it up a very steep hill to eventually get decent views of the bird as it fed in Willows, Sycamore and Fuchias. Good views in the bins but a little distant for the camera, still record shots and good memories.

Melodius Warbler - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Melodius Warbler - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Ominous storm approaching - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

Rock Dove with a dodgy bird watering down the genes of the 

pure birds - Lunna, Mainland Shetland

I had spent some time birding Lunna and had seen little, 15 Wigeon, five Snipe, a fly-over Red-throated Diver, two Wheatear and lots of Rock Dove including a worrying number of impure birds. As I headed off I birded a few of the gardens and Voes that line the road to Lunna but saw little. But, this is a beautiful part of Shetland and I enjoyed the simple fact of being there. I pulled into a lay-by over looking Laxo Voe, across the Voe there were a handful of Wigeon, Redshank and Ringed Plover. Hooded Crows were calling aggravated behind me and I turned to see them mobbing a large white, Buzzard sized falcon - a white phase Gyr Falcon. Bloody hell! Grab camera from car take some shots. I then watched the bird as it flew north-east. My mind then had flash backs, some birders I had met the other day had seen a Gyr with jesses and zooming into my images this was clearly the same bird - bells and all, an escaped falconers bird. A quick search on the internet indicated that such a bird may sell for in the region of £10,000, someone must be very unhappy that they had lost their bird.

Escaped Gyr Falcon - Laxo, Mainland Shetland

I then headed to Lerwick, grabbed a coffee and decided to bird the Seafield area of Lerwick. The foreshore produced a Purple Sandpiper and lots of Starling, Rock Pipit, Turnstone, Herring Gull and Great Black-backed Gull but the bushes produced nothing. I headed to Fladdabista for the last hour or so birding, it was deadly quite, two Redwing were the only birds worthy of note and a Minke Whale passing south fairly close to shore added some interest. At 17:30 the light was fading and the birding provided diminishing returns so I headed back to my hotel.

Adult Great Black-backed Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

1st winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

2nd winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

3rd winter Herring Gull - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

Purple Sandpiper - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

Rock Pipit - Lerwick, Mainland Shetland

Ross's Gull, Ferrybridge, Dorset - 6th March

On 21st February I was birding at Pennington Marsh when news broke, mid-morning, of an adult Ross's Gull that had been seen at Ferrybridge flying up the Fleet. I toyed with abandoning Pennington and driving straight to the bird but as the bird appeared to have disappeared I abstained. Later that afternoon the bird was relocated at Lodmoor RSPB and stunning photographs then emerged on the various social media outlets. I was well and truly gripped, I am a great fan of gulls and consider the smaller gulls (Ross's Gull, Little Gull and Sabine's Gull) as some of our most beautiful and enigmatic species. So, I checked my diary and with dismay realised I had no availability to go for this bird, a mere one hour 15 minutes from home, for at least a week due to work and family commitments. The bird lingered and my diary stayed packed until a slot, the 2nd March, became available in my diary. But, on 1st March the 'Beast from the East' struck a low pressure system, Storm Emma, that approached from the south and southern England was gripped by heavy snow and the roads were gridlocked so I had to cancel my plans - unsurprisingly the bird was not seen that day. I then reviewed my diary and the next slot that I could create was on the 6th March and so that was the plan.

I checked the weather and the bird news on the 5th and all was looking positive. The bird was rather unpredictable in occurrence moving between Ferrybridge, Radipole RSPB, Lodmoor RSPB and occasionally disappearing, presumably to sea for extended periods.  But I headed to bed early, set my alarm for 04:00 and was on the road by 05:00 arriving at Ferrybridge at 06:30. Setting up my scope by the Chesil Beach Cafe I scanned The Fleet but there were few gulls, but I picked up a small gull in flight and which I could see had a wedged shaped tail and broad white trailing edge to the secondaries and inner primaries - that was it, the Ross's Gull but it was distant and the bird soon headed inland, seemingly towards Radipole Lake RSPB. My views were brief, distant and quite unsatisfactory. It was then a waiting game, I scanned the gulls but there were only a handful of Black-headed Gull and Herring Gull. There were around 300 Brent Goose and I soon picked out a Pale-bellied Brent, waterbirds included a handful of Red-breasted Merganser, Great-crested Grebe and Little Grebe and waders included Dunlin, Oystercatcher and Redshank. By around 08:00 a few more Black-headed Gull arrived and a total of 13 lovely summer plumaged Mediterranean Gull showed well and were calling away. There was quite a traffic queue on the approach to Weymouth and as the Ross's Gull had been showing at Radipole RSPB during the late mornings I decided to hedge my bets and join the traffic to get to Radipole. It took around 30 minutes to get to the reserve car park and there were around 15 birders there so I joined the ranks and began to scan the island and lake in front of the visitor centre. There were a dozen or so Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and a few Common Gull but no sign of the Ross's Gull. I decided to stick it out for a couple of hours but other than 45 Snipe and good views of Tufted Duck giving their rather odd wheezing calls there was little to be seen.

At 10:40 news broke of the Ross's Gull back at Ferrybridge but, knowing that the bird was pretty mobile and often didn't stay at one spot for long, the assembled birders stayed put on the assumption that it would probably show at Radipole. At 11:30 news broke again that the bird was still at Ferrybridge and a mad dash through Weymouth ensued with all lights seemingly on red. It took around 25 minutes to get to Ferrybridge and on setting up my scope I soon picked up the Ross's Gull and put other birders onto it. Walking along the pavement adjacent to the A354 we edged nearer and obtained some fairly good views of this stunning little pink-tinged Arctic gull with its silvery primaries and distinctive neck-ring. The Ross's Gull was with a flock of Mediterranean Gull which must have numbered around 500 birds and far out numbered the Black-headed Gull. This was quite an amazing sight in itself. The Ross's Gull flew and headed over Chesil Beach to the sea showing its broad white trailing edge and diamond shaped tail but it soon returned and again settled with the Mediterranean Gull's . At around 13:00 the bird took flight and headed out to sea once more and I decided it was time to head for home having obtained good views of the target bird. My photos are not as good as others online but my views were all at a moderate distance. The bird has shown particularly well especially when it appears at Radipole where it occasionally sits in the car park - still I was very happy with my views and I headed home satisfied.

There have been 97 accepted British records of Ross's Gull to the end of 2016, with an additional 22 Irish records to the end of 2014. The prime counties being Shetland with 17 records followed by Yorkshire with 13 records. The peak month of occurrence is January with over 40 records and adults make up over 75% of all occurrences. I have previously seen two Ross's Gull in the UK, the first a superb pink adult at Blackstone Meadow on the Plym Estuary in January 2002 and the second a rather tatty looking 1st summer bird that summered at  Bowling Green Marsh RSPB, Exeter in 2014, see here. Britain is the only country in the world that I have seen this species but I would love to visit Barrow in October where a regular passage of thousands of birds occurs, see here.

Ross's Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Ross's Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Ross's Gull with Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Ross's Gull with Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Ross's Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Ross's Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Mediterranean Gull (2nd summer) - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

1st winter and adult Mediterranean Gull plus Shoveler and Avocet - Radipole RSPB, 

Weymouth, Dorset

Colour-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gull - Radipole RSPB, Weymouth, Dorset

Juvenile Herring Gull - Radipole RSPB, Weymouth, Dorset

Brent Goose with Mediterranean Gull - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Brent Goose - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Brent Goose - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Dark-bellied Brent Goose - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Pale-bellied Brent Goose and Dark-bellied Brent Goose - Ferrybridge, Weymouth, Dorset

Cornwall - 16th-20th March

A long weekend in Cornwall and nothing much planned, I wanted to relax after a busy time at work, watch the final matches of the 6 Nations and drink some wine! But there were a few birds to see and I decided to bird on the morning of 17th before abandoning the bins and relaxing (unless of course something good was found).  So, on the morning of 17th I was up at 06:30 and on my way to Helston where a Bonaparte's Gull (1st winter) had been present on the boating since 5th March. I arrived at the boating lake at 07:30 and there was no sign of the bird but in the southern end of the lake was a flock of around 75 Black-headed Gull and I decided that this was the obvious place where the bird would appear. I waited for 20 minutes with no luck and then decide to walk around the lake seeing Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Chiffchaff and Grey Wagtail. By the time I returned to the southern end a brief scan revealed the Bonaparte's, obvious because of its small size even at a distance. For the next hour or so I enjoyed good views of this diminutive gull as it loafed amongst the Black-headed Gull and occasionally uttered a distinctive tern like call.

On 19th a morning on the beach with Nigel, Alice, Sarah and the boys found us playing rugby - of sorts! Off shore there were three Sandwich Tern, my first migrants of the year.

Bonaparte's Gull, note the black bill, blackish wing markings and neat trailing edge to the wing. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Compare the wing and head pattern to the Black-headed Gull in the background. To me this species is intermediate between Black-headed Gull and Little Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the clean white underwing and bubble-gum pink legs. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - This image is roughly to scale with the Black-headed Gull below. 

Helston Boating Lake.

Black-headed Gull (1st winter) - Roughly to scale with the image of the Bonaparte's Gull above. The greater bulk and orange to red bill of the Black-headed is distinctive and obvious. While the dark tertial centres are said to be darker on Bonaparte's this is not obvious. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing 

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Bonaparte's Gull - Note the distinctive white underwing with neat dark trailing 

edge to the primaries and secondaries. Helston Boating Lake.

Shoveler - Helston Boating Lake

Shoveler - Helston Boating Lake

Coot - Helston Boating Lake

Coot - Helston Boating Lake

Rook - Helston Boating Lake

With time now pressing on I spent an hour on the Hayle Estuary scanning the saltmarsh at Lelant. I quickly found the three Cattle Egret reported yesterday and one of the two Iceland Gull plus a Spoonbill - quite a nice selection for such a small area of marsh. Other birds here were Bar-tailed Godwit (3), Greenshank (1), Pintail (5), Wigeon (c.150+) and Mediterranean Gull (3).

Cattle Egret (3) with Herring and Black-headed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) with Wigeon and Herring Gull - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) - Hayle Estuary

Iceland Gull (1st winter) with Black-headed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill with Redshank and Lesser Black-backed Gull - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill - Hayle Estuary

Spoonbill with Herring Gull - Hayle Estuary