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Weekly birding round-up: 28 Jun - 4 Jul 2022

There’s no use polishing the week or rolling it in glitter and pretending it was more than it really amounted to be – as June handed over the reins of summer to July, we were firmly in the midsummer quiet times where birds as a whole were concerned. Thank goodness, then, for East Yorkshire and, latterly, Co.Wexford.

 

The saving of the week for many came courtesy of a bird that, for a while as the preceding week drew to a close, had looked like it might be subject to the most fleeting of sightings, seen at Bempton Cliffs RSPB just long enough to be grippingly photographed before heading inland, never to be seen again – a male Turkestan Shrike.

Happily, in the early afternoon of 28th, it was relocated nearby, some half a mile away from the initial sighting, at Wandale Farm. And here it was to remain throughout the week, giving some deliciously confiding views at times to a steady stream of admirers.

 

As the week drew to a close, Ireland’s roster of terns of significant interest was significantly augmented by a bird that, initially, confounded certain identification. Seen distantly at first at Lady’s Island Lake, an orange-billed tern sp looked at first set to be a frustrating bird - thought to be a probable Elegant Tern, whilst it proved elusive it seemed set to be one to watch as the new week unfolded…

Then, in the dying gasps of daylight of 4th, came confirmation that it was indeed an Elegant Tern. A bird set to be Co.Wexford’s second record for the species, it comes over 20 years since the county’s first, an adult that spent 8th-19th July at Lady’s Island Lake in 1999.

Ireland has, to date, done rather better for Elegant Tern than Britain, boasting six accepted records to the end of 2020. Maybe not one, then, to fire up Irish listers’ engines… though, with the last accepted bird dating to 2013, maybe there’s fresh Irish birding blood that would keenly like to make their acquaintance with this smart species someday soon should it choose to linger.

 

Once again the cream of the seabird crop, the adult Black-browed Albatross at Bempton Cliffs RSPB (East Yorkshire) enjoyed something of a fresh wave of popularity this week, being a bonus bird for many a Turkestan Shrike pilgrim as the days wore on. It remained present there until 4th.

East Yorkshire also scored a Cory’s Shearwater off Spurn on 2nd, coming in the wake of a single bird seen from the Scillonian near Scilly on 1st, the first birds of the week after some blank days in the wake of a mighty tally of 750 birds logged on 28th, of which 617 noted from Galley Head (Co.Cork) were comfortably the best return. Another singleton was seen on 3rd at sea off Brixham (Devon).

Great Shearwaters too entered the mix this week, with seven seen from Galley Head on 28th, and a single bird off North Ronaldsay (Orkney) on 29th.

Numbers of Balearic Shearwaters were still on the modest side, with 20 noted over the course of recent days, the majority of which were in the English southwest. There the best site was Start Point (Devon), where counts of five on 28th and six on 2nd were the highest of the week.

Galley Head (Co.Cork) – where else, this week – enjoyed the best of the skuas, with eight Long-tailed Skua noted from there on 28th. Elsewhere single birds were seen on 28th at Start Point (Devon); on 29th at Seaton Sluice (Northumberland); and on 2nd from The Lizard (Cornwall) and Insh Marshes RSPB (Highland & Caithness).

A handful of Pomarine Skuas were also recorded this week – singletons on 28th at Helvick Head (Co.Waterford), in Co.Derry on 30th on the Bann estuary and on 2nd-4th at Barmouth, and on 1st at Carnsore Point (Co.Wexford).

Just the one Wilson’s Petrel was found this week, seen at sea off Scilly on an evening pelagic on 4th.

Finally, a Fea’s / Desertas Petrel was seen from a boat off Slyne Head (Co.Galway) on 3rd.

 

For yet another week, the main news on the long-legged beastie front were the lingering presence of at least 20 Glossy Ibises in Britain alone; Ireland’s only records this week were two birds again at Ring Marsh (Co.Wexford) on 3rd. Peak counts this week involved quartets at, respectively, Dungeness RSPB (Kent) still on 30th, Berry Fen (Cambridgeshire) on 1st-2nd, Ouse Fen RSPB (Cambridgeshire) on 3rd, and Welney WWT (Norfolk) on 2nd.

A Night Heron pitched in to Waltham Brooks SWT (West Sussex) in the evening of 4th.

A Corncrake was heard calling in Norfolk at Sculthorpe Moor NR on 3rd.

 

What to make of the two Red-breasted Geese in Cleveland, at Saltholme RSPB still on 29th-3rd? Yes, it was a good winter for the species on the east coast of England, but we’re now in the heart of summer, and wild birds would, surely, have better things to do than to hang around the English northeast? Hm…

On the other hand, we’ve a few Nearctic quackers still that would beg to differ. Starting in Co.Derry, at least two American Wigeons remained on Lough Beg on 2nd, while the drake was still present at Skinflats Lagoons RSPB (Forth) on 1st-3rd.

In Co.Mayo, a drake Ring-necked Duck was still hanging out on Achill Island on 28th.

A female Ferruginous Duck settled down on Hornsea Mere (East Yorkshire) on 30th-3rd.

A couple of young drake King Eiders were logged this week – a second-summer individual in Shetland off Yell on 29th, and the first-summer bird still off Musselburgh (Lothian) on 1st-4th.

Finally, a drake Surf Scoter was seen in Lunan Bay (Angus) on 1st-2nd, and a drake was found off Howick (Northumberland) on 4th.

 

Pick of the week’s waders has to be another sighting of the Broad-billed Sandpiper in the south Mainland of Shetland on 2nd, seen at Pool of Virkie. When and where will it next turn up?

The family of Black-winged Stilts at Potteric Carr YWT (South Yorkshire) got another week under their belt, with all six birds persisting until 2nd.

In Co.Wexford, the adult male American Golden Plover remained at Tacumshin on 28th-3rd.

A Pectoral Sandpiper was found inland at Lilbourne Meadows NR (Northamptonshire) on 2nd-3rd.

Temminck’s Stints were found this week at Balgray reservoir (Clyde) on 30th, Cley NWT (Norfolk) on 1st-3rd, and Rimac (Lincolnshire) on 4th; another bird was found on 4th in Norfolk at Titchwell RSPB.

 

Unsurprisingly, given the excellent numbers of scarce shearwaters logged from Co.Cork’s Galley Head on 28th, the site also racked up some Sabine’s Gulls - specifically, 10 of them. The week elapsed devoid of more until 3rd when a single bird was seen passing Whitehaven (Cumbria).

A first-summer Ring-billed Gull was seen at Clahane Strand (Co.Clare) on 28th.

Glaucous Gulls stayed in the low single figures this week, with four birds noted, two apiece for Ireland and Scotland. Just one Iceland Gull was reported, from Hartlepool Headland (Cleveland) on 28th.

The Least Tern was again seen in Co.Dublin near Portrane on 2nd-3rd.

In Northumberland, the adult surinamensis American Black Tern was again seen at Long Nanny on 29th-4th.

A couple of Caspian Terns continued to be popular this week – one remined at Misson (Nottinghamshire) on 29th-2nd, while in Cleveland sightings came from Dorman’s Pool on 29th, and Bowesfield Marsh on 1st. On 3rd a bird was tracked west, being seen passing Dell Quay (West Sussex) and then Normandy Lagoon (Hampshire) in the morning and early afternoon.

 

A report of the Short-toed Eagle in Highland & Caithness near Loch Grudie once more was couched with the caveat of ‘elusive’, and further qualified with the vagueness of ‘recently’. Not entirely unsurprisingly there was no further sign of it when looked for this past week.

On the Western Isles a female Snowy Owl was seen on North Uist on 2nd; an adult male was seen on the flanks of Ronas Hill (Shetland) on 3rd.

 

Away from Norfolk this week, where the small party of breeding Bee-eaters remained present in the sand quarry outside Trimingham throughout, sightings of the species were sporadic once more – single birds being reported from Barnham (Suffolk) on 28th, over Banks (Lancashire & North Merseyside) on 29th, at Monkseaton (Northumberland) on 1st, over Kilnsea Wetlands (East Yorkshire) on 3rd; and at Felixstowe (Suffolk) on 4th.

Rare swift news calmed down this week, with an Alpine Swift at Bempton Cliffs RSPB (East Yorkshire) on 30th, and another seen at Castlemartin (Pembrokeshire) on 3rd the best of it.

Away from Bempton, our only other shrike news of note came from Suffolk where a male Red-backed Shrike was present at Lowestoft on 30th, and Northumberland where a male was seen at Prestwick Carr on 2nd.

Rare warbler news largely contracted this week as the dog days of summer seemed to kick in. Best of them, for novelty and, in what seems to have been a poor spring and early summer account for the species generally, rarity too was the singing Savi’s Warbler present at Stodmarsh NNR (Kent) on 29th-2nd.

Both Great Reed Warblers remained in Norfolk at Snettisham CP and in Nottinghamshire at Langford Lowfields RSPB on 28th-1st.

In London, the male Iberian Chiffchaff was still belting out his song in London in Regents Park on 28th-3rd.

A Golden Oriole was singing at Wilstone reservoir (Hertfordshire) on 3rd. Another was reported from Cotterstock (Northamptonshire) on 28th.

The male Bluethroat was again in song at Slimbridge WWT (Gloucestershire) on 29th-2nd.

A probale first-summer male Blue-headed Wagtail was trapped and ringed on Calf of Man (Isle of Man) on 30th.

Belated news concerned an Eastern Black-eared Wheatear reported from Cliffs of Moher (Co.Clare) on 16th June.

Rose-coloured Starlings were in short supply this past week – one was seen in Wiltshire at Purton on 28th; one remained in Highland & Caithness on 28th also near Melvaig; one was noted on Islay (Argyll & Bute) on 28th and 30th; another Scottish bird cropped up at Bettyhill (Highland & Caithness) on 3rd; and an Irish individual was seen at Ballyoughteragh (Co.Kerry) on 3rd.

Finally, Serins remained for the most part a south-eastern specialty in recent days – one was singing near Lewes (East Sussex) on 29th, and another was noted over Foreness Point (Kent) on 1st. One was found to the west over Burnham-on-Sea (Somerset) on 4th.

 

Our overseas news begins once more in France, where the Bridled Tern remained obstinately not visiting the British south coast, being instead still present on Île aux Moutons on 28th-1st.

In Germany, a White-tailed Lapwing was seen at Ewiges Meer on 2nd.

Finally, in Switzerland a Blue-cheeked Bee-eater was found on 1st at Oeschgen. Nobody needs telling what a big deal another British record would be…

 

And so to the week ahead of us… A week that feels like a classic time for a rare tern or a half-decent wader. Standing out from the historic records like a bit of a sore thumb is the Sooty Tern first seen on 7th July 2018 on the Farne Islands (Northumberland). It was to go on to be re-seen on 9th July 2019 (in Northumberland, Co.Durham, and Cleveland) and, showing strong date fidelity, refound again on 8th July 2020 in Suffolk. It skipped a beat in 2021, but there must be a half-decent chance of it pitching up somewhere on the east coast again in the coming week…

Failing that, the week to come has decent pedigree for Marsh Sandpipers, boasting seven historic records. July and August are traditionally the peak months for this elegant wader putting in an appearance in Britain though, with four blank years in the past decade, it’s perhaps becoming a little less reliable than hitherto. By no means historically biased towards coastal records, it’s one every local patch watcher should have on the radar during the days and weeks ahead.

 

Jon Dunn
5 Jul 2022

Many thanks to all this week's contributors for your photos and videos

 

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