Weekly birding round-up: 8 - 14 Aug 2018
This week marked an abrupt but probably very welcome return to mobile Atlantic weather - much cooler temperatures and a brisk westerly airflow with bands of rain and showers. All in all it was at last a normal British summer.
Unsurprisingly given the conditions, bird of the week was a Fea’s/Desertas/Zino’s Petrel past Porthgwarra, Cornwall on 11th, seen close enough to be photographed and videoed. It or another was off a Scilly pelagic on 12th. These magnificent seabirds are now an expected feature of the late summer seabird season but an encounter with one is still a huge excitement. The peak time for them is still ten days away so surely some more will feature in the headlines over the next week or two.
Despite premature reports of its demise, the adult Franklin’s Gull was still in Yorkshire this week - at Scaling Dam Reservoir again on 8th and then just west of Guisborough on 9th and 10th.
Sadly, Aquatic Warbler is today both a BB rarity and a roundup headline bird. One at East Fleet, Dorset on 13th (inevitably both trapped and at a south coast location) was therefore very welcome but it could easily prove to be the only one of the autumn. With a declining population and a very narrow migration route which just manages to miss Britain, this is an increasingly hard bird to see in this country. Significant numbers were recorded in western France this week so now is the time to get another before it’s all over for the season.
Two Snowy Owls were still in residence this week - on St. Kilda, Western Isles to at least 8th and at Grenitote North Uist, also Western Isles, to at least 10th.
The return to a brisk Atlantic airflow meant a return of seawatching conditions, with large shearwaters again rapidly obvious. Things began with nine Great Shearwaters and two Cory’s Shearwaters off Brandon Point, Kerry on 8th with, more unusually, a Cory’s off Corsewall Point, Dumfries and Galloway the same day.
Thereafter Great Shearwaters continued to be seen, with 43 off a Scilly pelagic on 9th and no fewer than 290 on 10th and 200 on 11th with another 60 on 12th, 12 on 13th and 15 on 14th. Elsewhere, just small numbers were off southern Cornwall and ‘The Scillonian’ with a maximum of ten off St. Mary’s, Isles of Scilly on 11th. Greater numbers were in Ireland, however, with 54 off Sevens Head, Cork on 11th and 20 from a pelagic out of Baltimore, Cork on 12th.
A small number Cory’s were also seen, with, on 11th, nine off Porthgwarra, Cornwall. Much more prominent, however, were Balearic Shearwaters with some excellent counts including 127 off Portland, Dorset on 8th and, on 10th, 191 off Berry Head, Devon and 56 off the Lizard, Cornwall. Another 84 were off Porthgwarra and 214 off Start Point, Devon, on 11th and on 12th 51 off Porthgwarra and, in Devon, 306 past Start Point and 125 off Berry Head. Another 50 passed Pendeen, Cornwall on 13th.
The other seabird highlights were an outstanding 14 plus Wilson’s Petrels off the Scilly pelagic on 9th with two next day, one on 11th and two on 12th, 13th and 14th, also two off a pelagic out of Baltimore, Cork on 12th. The rest of the scarce seabirds comprised two Grey Phalaropes off The Blaskets, Kerry on 9th and two off a Scilly pelagic on 12th and Long-tailed Skuas in the Minch, Western Isles on 8th, off Flamborough, Yorkshire on 10th, Berry Head, Devon and Seven Heads, Cork on 11th, Porthgwarra and Lamorna, both Cornwall, on 12th and Whitburn and Seaton Sluice, both Durham, and Newbiggin, Northumberland on 13th.
The best duck was a female Blue-winged Teal at Alkborough Flats, Lincolnshire on 11th, only the county’s ninth. Otherwise, wildfowl interest was limited to a Ferruginous Duck at Abberton Reservoir, Essex on 12th and 13th, a Lesser Scaup at Drift Reservoir, Cornwall on 8th to 9th and Ring-necked Ducks at Willington Gravel Pits, Derbyshire on 11th to 14th and Abberton Reservoir on 12th. At sea, the female King Eider was still at Ynys-hir, Ceredigion to at least 13th and a Surf Scoter in Lunan Bay, Angus to at least 14th.
Turning to long-legged waterbirds, the semi-resident Purple Herons were still at Rutland Water, Leicestershire to at least 13th and at Shapwick Heath, Somerset to at least 13th also while another was at Cliffe Pools, Kent on 11th to 14th and at Poole Harbour, Dorset on 13th. Thirteen Cattle Egrets were at Catcott Lows, Somerset, on 8th with others at Topsham, Devon, Southport, Merseyside and Burton Mere, Cheshire and Wirral. Spoonbills numbered around 85, with the largest concentrations being 27 at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire and 22 at Titchwell, Norfolk. The furthest north by some margin were four at Loch of Wester, Highland and two on the Ythan Estuary, Aberdeenshire.
A White Stork was at King’s Dyke, Cambridgeshire on 8th with it or another (unringed) at Cley and Beeston Regis, Norfolk on 10th and then again at Cley on 11th. Another was at Bracklesham Bay, Sussex on 11th and then at Pagham, also Sussex, on 13th. Single Glossy Ibises were at Hanningfield Reservoir and Bowers Marsh, Essex and Rainham Marshes, London and on the Exe Estuary, Devon. Finally, up to two Spotted Crakes were still at Potter Heigham Marshes, Norfolk to at least 13th with others at Burton Mere, Cheshire on 8th and 9th, Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire on 9th to 14th, Lackford Lakes, Suffolk on 11th to 14th, Low Newton-by-the-Sea, Northumberland on 12th to 14th and Middleton Lakes, Warwickshire on 13th.
The only scarce raptor interest of the whole week was the usual wide and random scatter of Honey Buzzards - over St. Margaret’s at Cliffe, Kent on 8th, Seamer Carr, Yorkshire on 11th, Stoughton, Leicestershire on 13th and Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire and Folkestone, Kent on 14th, with three still at Wykeham Forest, Yorkshire on 11th.
The Atlantic weather promptly brought single Baird’s Sandpipers to Tresco, Isles of Scilly on 9th (where it remained until 13th) and to South Uist, Western Isles on 11th to 14th. There was also a White-rumped Sandpiper at Lower Rosses, Sligo on 10th to 12th. The only other definitively American waders were the Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Blacktoft, Yorkshire to 8th and adult American Golden Plovers at Kilnsea, Yorkshire on 12th and at Hazlewood Marshes, Suffolk on 13th to 14th.
From the other direction came a Marsh Sandpiper at Cliffe Pools, Kent on 12th, and the adult male Pacific Golden Plover was still at Findhorn Bay, Moray on 14th. The remaining highlights were Dotterels at Shingle Street, Suffolk and Worcestershire Beacon, Worcestershire on 13th, Red-necked Phalaropes at Oare Marshes, Kent on 8th and Rutland Water, Leicestershire on 12th to 14th and Pectoral Sandpipers at East Chevington, Northumberland on 9th to 14th, Kilnsea, Yorkshire and Frampton, Lincolnshire on 12th and Blakeney Point, Norfolk and Upper Tamar Lake, Cornwall on 13th.
Also at Oare Marshes, Kent, the adult Bonaparte’s Gull remained to at least 14th whilst a new adult was at Hoylake, Cheshire and Wirral on 12th to 14th. Otherwise, rare gulls were just that, with the only white-winged gulls noted being an Iceland Gull at Skye, Highland on 12th and a Glaucous Gull at Afon Wen, Gwynedd on 14th. Ring-billed Gulls were at Nimmo’s Pier, Galway, Lurgangreen, Louth, Tiree, Argyll and Vatersay, Western Isles.
The best tern of the week was a White-winged Black Tern at Inch Lake, Donegal on 10th with, also in Ireland, the resident Forster’s Tern at Soldier’s Point, Dundalk, Louth to at least 14th.
Roseate Terns continued to be seen in northeast England with more far-flung individuals including two on North Ronaldsay, Orkney on 9th and again on 14th, two on the Ythan Estuary, Aberdeenshire on 10th and, more unusually, one inland at Farmoor Resevoir, Oxfordshire on 10th.
The prevailing weather ensured that this was a disappointing passerine week although some hints of what is to come were provided by the Northern Isles. A brief Greenish Warbler in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire on 9th started the week but more surprising was a Marsh Warbler trapped at Stanford Reservoir, Northamptonshire on the same day. The best passerine however, was an exceptionally early Arctic Warbler on Unst, Shetland on 14th. A quick glance at the archives shows only five previous Arctic Warblers before 15th August, all on Fair Isle, Shetland - two on 14th, two on 12th and, earliest of all, one there on 7th August 1970. With very early Greenish and Arctic Warblers already noted in Shetland this autumn, are things running ahead of normal? How long until the first Yellow-browed Warbler?
As ever, Fair Isle produced some of the best birds. An adult Rose-coloured Starling there on 9th shared the island on 10th with a juvenile in a classic case of ‘spring meets autumn’. An Icterine Warbler was there on 11th and, in a ‘window’ of easterlies on 13th, singles of Icterine Warbler, Barred Warbler and Marsh Warbler. Single Icterine and Barred Warblers were also on neighbouring North Ronaldsay, Orkney the same day with another Barred Warbler on Unst on 14th. Elsewhere in Scotland another ‘leftover’ adult Rose-coloured Starling was still on Lewis, Western Isles to at least 13th.
Elsewhere, the best of the rest were Red-backed Shrikes at Spurn, Yorkshire on 8th to 14th (with two on 14th), Brightlingsea, Essex on 9th to 14th and the Farne Islands, Northumberland on 13th and Wrynecks at Lulworth, Dorset on 8th and Taunton, Somerset on 9th.
Further afield, the week’s highlights were an astonishingly early Brown Shrike in Denmark, a Trumpeter Finch in Italy, two Aquatic Warblers in Norway and another in Denmark, a Pacific Diver (the country’s first) also in Denmark, a Roller and a Paddyfield Warbler in Sweden and a Sociable Plover and a White-rumped Sandpiper in Poland.
Pacific Diver off Grenen, found by Troels Eske Ortvad. First for Denmark! And a world first for me . . pic.twitter.com/hT0m5WcXIj
— Peter Denyer (@DenyerPeter) August 13, 2018
Looking ahead, the typical autumnal westerly run appears set to continue. This should ensure another largely passerine-free week and all eyes will inevitably be turned to the west where the peak seawatching period is now upon us. Obvious targets now include further Zino’s/Desertas/Fea’s Petrels and, of course, the chance of something rarer. Nearctic waders clearly represent another target group, with, for example, both Least and Solitary Sandpipers possible in August.
Andy Stoddart
15 August 2018
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