Flamboro' threesome

Last night after scouring the weather charts and various weather related websites, a decision was needed as to do either the NE Yorkshire coast or the North Norfolk coast. Despite the conditions looking favourable for the Norfolk coast to be dripping with some decent scarce, I decided to risk it and hit the already scarcity laden Yorkshire coast - namely Flamborough Head - although clear skies forecast for overnight over the NE of England didn't fill me with optimism! The Marquis (recently renamed and in future to be known as simply 'Mickipedia') and Archer were recruited and a dawn raid was planned before retiring for the night. This morning I awoke at 4am to be greeted by a message from Archer informing me that he had had a change of heart and would be instead tootling up to Old Moor RSPB in S.Yorkshire to indulge in a spot of Orchid Sniffing rather than joining us to greedily collect some tasty yearticks! So, myself and 'Mickipedia' arrived at Flamboro' early doors and to cut it short, were notching off Icterine Warbler (263) & Red-backed Shrike (264) within five minutes of exiting the motor! Game on! However, news of a Citrine Wag' 'down the road' at Spurn got to me so after a very hearty breakfast at The Headlands cafe, I started to cane it down the tourist infested roads south. About halfway, we received news that the Wag' had done one followed by news that a Barred Warbler and Wryneck had been found back at Flamborough! A decision to head back was put into motion and we soon screamed back into the car park adjacent to the lighthouse. Unfortunately after a brief search and some investigative quizzing by Mickipedia, it soon became apparent that the 'claimed' Barred was in fact most likely a Garden Warbler but that the Wryneck was showing up at the 'Icky/Shrike field'. We headed back up to the 'top' and whilst scanning the field for the Wryneck, we were amazed to hear that characteristic voice of 'Springwatch' finest Chwis Pwackham but alas it was merely a sound-alike, resmbling perhaps Pwackhams dad - ''Is this where the Wed Backed Shwike is'' he exclaimed excitedly. A kind bloke/woman (I'm not sure what it was) replied ''No, this is where the Wryneck is'' - ''WHYNECK! WOW, WHERE'' he said. He was soon directed to the other corner of the field and off he trundled. Myself and Mickipedia followed shortly behind him and soon we had notched our 3rd yeartick of the day (265)! Unfortunately, not a lot else was seen so around 2pm we did one back home towards Notts and dropped into Collingham Pits near Newark and joined fellow Notts Lister Nigel Davis where after a bit of hard work, we managed to dig out the lingering Wood Sandpiper (266). Also here were up to seven Greenshanks, a Ruff and a hand full of Green Sandpipers. A pretty enjoyable day, especially as tho it appears my luck as changed (after an undocumented series of events yesterday) and that Archer is now languishing 7 species behind me in our 'friendly' year listing duel!





Below - Chwis Pwackhams 'dad' gets all exited about a Wascally WHYNECK!



Below - Some South Yorkshire bruisers keep the peace

Baird's Sand' in Notts

Last Thursday as we left Notts en-route for Scilly. a pager message was noted stating that a Little Stint was present at Lound. I recall musing to The Marquis that it would prob turn out to be something sweeter! Friday morning as I stood at Penzance awaiting to board the Scillonian, I received a call from Mark Dawson informing me that he had sorted out the ID of the Stint at Lound! Mint! Altho' I didn't need it for a county tick, it was a juicy year tick and throughout my four days on Scilly, the Baird's was always at the back of my mind. Fast forward to Tuesday morning (10th August) and after arriving home at 3am, a good few hours sleep was followed by collecting 'The Marquis' and swiftly heading to Lound. Almost immediately upon squinting thru the slots at the Chainbridge viewpoint, the target was bagged!! A cool adult (beginning to moult into winter plum') Baird's Sand (262) (with a pretty striking supercillium almost as bright as Mikes!!). Also present here were a single Dunlin and a Black-tailed Godwit. Archie Archer arrived on site and duly had his share of the bird. I later heard that as Archer was leaving Lound, he was accosted by a member of the Lound Gestapo who for some bizarre reason believed that he was me (we think). Come on tho, he's old enough to be my dad...by West Midlands standards! Due to the distance between us and the bird, the following shoddy shots should be excused!







Mike's super' is equally as bright & striking!

IOS Aug 6th - 9th

from left to right - Archie Archer, me & Mike 'The Marquis' Feely.

I really can't be arsed to write a load of bollocks about our 4 day trip to Scilly. Apart from some memorable non-birding moments, the trip as a whole was a wash-out. Lowlights included 'chartering' a taxi to twitch a Grey Heron that some cunt had put out as a Squacco, No decent sea-birds on a 9hr pelagic SW of St Marys plus having no photographic equipment due to my battery dying the night before and having no pissing electricity supply on the camp-site, a tent that was designed for Dwarfs (and leaked!), stupidly over-inflated prices for food, Wilson's & Great Shears being seen on the pelagic trips we didn't do and the timely appearance of a Spotted Crake & Lesser Yellowlegs moments after we had left the archipelago. I'm sure there's plenty more to gripe about but I'm trying to forget the whole episode. Highlights, if that's what I'm to call them, include (just) six year-ticks - Sooty Shearwater, Bonxie, Storm Petrel (6th August), Grey Phal' (7th August), Balearic Shearwater & Arctic Skua (9th August) - taking my total to 261, daily sightings of Basking Shark including one beast that swam just yards alongside the Sapphire on our Saturday pelagic, a Blue Shark that was expertly caught, landed, tagged & released on board the Sapphire, an Hummingbird Hawkmoth on St Marys, the daily quest by all three of us to locate plug sockets in various Scilly establishments in order to illegally steal electric to power our mobiles, some extremely memorable laughs, Mikes sunburnt mush, and perhaps THE highlight of the trip - Adam Archer being 'spooked' in the dark by a 'demonic voice' on the campsite! I'm pretty sure Arch will pen a more in depth & entertaining account of our trip so best to check there if you feel the need to know more.



above - ASBO birders base-camp and below the Hummer on St Mary's





above - The Red Baron & Arch hunt for plug-sockets and below the object of our desires on that first evening on Scilly! If YOU found this and rptd it has a Squacco, you owe me £5.50 for a wasted fucking taxi!

CRANE in Notts!!!

Last night I received a phonecall from fellow Notts birder Alan Clewes informing me that a pal of his had just found a Crane at Hoveringham! This was at c8.40pm! I had time to bomb there before dark, no problem.....except that I appeared to have lost 2/3 of a bottle of the old 'Rouge Juice' and thus was a tad over the limit to be careering along the country lanes of Thurgaton at pace! So the alarm was set, the remainder of the bottle gulped.......and then decided to start on some White & stay up til 12.45am like a c*nt! Anyhow, 4am, the alarm goes off, I stagger, still pissed, into the kitchen, black coffee swamped and out into the humid early morning air! Surprisingly, by the time I reached Kirkby-in-Ashfield to collect The Marquis, I had was relatively sober and with the target in mind we headed to The Trent!



We arrived at Hoveringham at 5.10am and immediately I received a text from Mark Dawson that the bird was still present! After a bit of confusion regarding which way to walk (east path or west path, NOT forwards or backwards!) we were soon staring down our scopes at a cool Crane (255) and cheesily grinning like two schoolboys who had just found a porno mag on the park! The fact that it was a year-tick to me was massively overpowered by the better fact that it was a much longed for, over-due County Tick! Having had our fill we decided to do one and has we headed back to the car, the Crane wished us farewell as it too flew off SW calling! (see further down for a pretty shoddy bit of video footage...in fact, don't bother!)

One good Tern deserves another!

Saturday 31st July saw me and The Marquis up at Saltholme RSPB in Cleveland early morning where upon parking in the layby alongside the A178 we immediately connected with the juv' Whiskered Tern (252). The bird was mainly roosting alongside a Little Gull on a band of rocks in the middle of the Western Pool but did make a few feeding forays over the pool where I managed this extremely fortuitous shot using my mobile phone up against the scope!!



A decent year-tick and my 15th of this species I've seen in the UK. Unfortunately another 'wanted' year-tick - Wood Sand' - had done one overnight. A few other bits 'n' bobs on site included 7 Black-wits, 2 Little Gulls, 3 Little Egrets, 30+ Dunlin, 4 Ruff & a Greenshank. Nearby at the Teesmouth NR a single Avocet and loads of babby Shelducks were noted. A 'Golden Arches' breakfast was called for before heading further north. Arriving at South Shields, we parked up and walked the short distance to the metal gates along the south pier and immediately bagged Roseate Tern for the year (253) in amongst c50 Common Terns and c25 Sandwich Terns. Slightly embarrasingly was the fact that Roseate Tern was also a UK tick for me but less said about that the better. Anyway, in all I counted 8 adults and 2 juvs all showing very well down to 25yds. A small doseage of seawatching was put into practise here and despite not alot happening out there, we still managed to bag 3 Manx Shearwaters (254) heading north along with the usual commoner stuff.



With nothing much else doing locally we made a decision to head down to Hartlepool Headland and try for some more seawatching action. Unfortunately there wasn't alot happening apart from a Whimbrel heading south, 7 Manxies south and a host of terns & gulls. As is usually the case, boredom was relieved slightly with a different type of birding!



The only downside(s) of todays events were the lack of some decent seawatching and the fact my motor seems to be drinking far too much fuel - Over £60 from Derbyshire to Teeside and back is a tad too much I reckon! Oh well, Scillies next weekend, should be eventful....and expensive!

Finally milked the Cow......Egret!

With news of a Cattle Egret roosting at Doxey Marshes for the last two nights, I, along with The Marquis, made the short 50 mile trip over to Staffs. After missing this species twice this year in Somerset, it was pleasing to eventually be able to connect so close to home! Initially pretty elusive in amongst the udders of some distant cattle, the bird, presumably hoofed up the arse by one of the bovines, flew a short distance and settled in pool side bush and showed sweetly until we got bored (and pissed off with doddering old c*nts standing in front of me) and did one home (251).


Cow Egret


Mad Cow 'Egret' Disease affects Staffs birders more than most!

Green Sand' = 250th yeartick!!

Yep, the title is correct! After 207 days of 2010, my elusive quarry has fallen! Now, this may sound a little OTT but up until today, I had genuinely resorted to believing that I had more chance of seeing Slender billed Curlew/Liz Hurley taking a soapy plunge in my tub/Liz Hurley waking me up with a coffee and pack of Embassy No.1 dressed as a naughty schoolgirl etc, than I had of bagging Green Sand for the year! Anyhow, this is how it went - Leaving work at 5pm, I noticed a pager message reporting a Common Scoter at Ogston Res' and tagged onto that message was this bit of juicey news - '' + Green Sand<''. Now, even tho I desperately needed to see this species for the year, I HAD said there was no way I was going chasing one BUT Ogston Res is a decent place (let down by it's county of residence!), I f*ckin' love inland seabirds and if I caned it from home, I could get there in 9 minutes! The twitch was on! I arrived home in Tibshelf at 5.25pm, grabbed my scope and jumped back in the motor (engine foolishly left running!) and arrived at Ogston at 5.37pm! Now, I wouldn't normally be writing so much shite regarding times etc but this was the one, the holy grail of 2010, the chance to hit 250 for the year with.....................a proper w*nk species! Viewing from the car park on the west bank, I quickly located the imm drk Common Scoter loafing just offshore. I then moved to the public hide and noted 8 imm Mandarins, Oystercatchers, a few juv' Ringed Plovers, a twat with a sco-pac, a couple of typically miserable derbyshire birding bastards but no Tringa. A few more sweeps of the far bank from the car park revealed 3 Common Sands and very little else! Time was now ticking by and with a phonecall from the other half demanding that if I wasn't back within 15 minutes my tea would be inside the next door neighbours dogs, I 'threw' the scope and bins into the car and quite angrily started heading home. However, a decision to make one final stop to scan the Wooley Moor bay of the reservoir proved to be the highlight of the year(?) as stood on the spit here was the bird I had been dreaming of (I haven't really) for the last 6 months.....Green Sand (250)!
And that was it, a true anti-climax to a pretty annoying quest but with a wry smirk to myself, I did one and thoroughly enjoyed a (still warm) sausage hotpot!

Babbys!


Blackish duck


The location of the Holy Grail...some f*cker tell Tom Hanks!!



I 'ATE Fishermen too,