The Deskbound Birder: Sabine's Gull

Showing posts with label Sabine's Gull. Show all posts

Monday, 23 August 2021

Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly - 10th-23rd August

From the 10th August I had a family holiday planned in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Seawatching at Pendeen on 14th, 16th and 17th produced up to 17 Balearic Shearwater, 14 Sooty Shearwater and four Roseate Tern. For Pendeen seawatches see here, here and here.

On Scilly the land birding was extremely slow with the only bird of any note being a Lesser Yellowlegs on Tresco on 21st. On 22nd I was out on a Scilly Pelagic on the Sapphire hoping for Wilson's Storm-Petrel which had been seen on 20 back-to-back trips before the 22nd but today it was not to be. The highlights of the trip which went north-east to the Seven Stones area were a stunning adult Sabine's Gull flying close to the boat, two juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, at least 20 European Storm-Petrel, five Balearic Shearwater and 16 Sooty Shearwater. My eBird checklist for the trip can be viewed here.

Sabine's Gull - Scilly Pelagic's, Seven Stones Area

Yellow-legged Gull - Scilly Pelagic's, Seven Stones Area

Sooty Shearwater - Scilly Pelagic's, Seven Stones Area

Balearic Shearwater - Scilly Pelagic's, Seven Stones Area

Manx Shearwater - Scilly Pelagic's, Seven Stones Area

Thursday, 9 June 2016

Alaska - 9th June (Day 13)

Another day spent birding the Council Road which runs east from Nome, thats not a negative comment, its a fantastic birding road as it extends along the length of Safety Sound with the sound to the north and the open sea of Norton Sound to the south. Today we birded as far as Skookum Pass at Mile Post 53 on the Council Road, the pass had a true mountain feel to it with short tundra like habitat and bare rocky slopes dominating, here the highlights were Northern Wheatear, Horned Lark, American Golden Plover and Semipalmated Plover. We spent the rest of the day, after birding the summit, along the shores of Safety Lagoon scanning intently for Emperor Goose but with no luck. We enjoyed great views of many of the species we had seen previously and spent some time with the fantastic Long-tailed Skua breeding on the tundra and had good views of Yellow Wagtail of the race tschutschensis, sometimes split as Eastern Yellow Wagtail. Other species that were unusual for the day included four (three male and a female) Redhead, a rare bird in Nome, a summer plumage Pacific Golden Plover and seven Sabine's Gull. A fantastic site was a pair of Bristle-thighed Curlew coming in off the sea in the evening and giving their distinctive penny-whistle like call.

Short-eared Owl, fairly abundant around Nome due to a good vole year

Short-eared Owl - Council Road, Nome

Cackling Goose of race minima - Council Road, Nome

Long-tailed Skua on chimney of one of the houses. The Alaskan birds are of the race pallescens which is paler than the race seen in the UK - Council Road, Nome