Weekly birding round-up: 11 - 17 Aug 2020
With all of this unrelenting heat of late, something had to break – and for many at the start of the week, that meant torrential rain and some spectacular electrical storms.
But what of the birds – was there a deluge of migrants? Were there fireworks in store for us again this week?
The emphatic bird of the previous week, the Scopoli’s Shearwater found off Lothian’s South Queensferry, remained in the Forth to kick off this week’s news and, in so doing, gave birders from near and a little further afield a chance to connect on 11th until mi- afternoon, at which point it did a bunk.
And there, one would have thought, the story ended – though a ‘Cory’s Shearwater’ with similar or the same distinctive upper wing markings had apparently been seen previously off Filey and Long Nab (North Yorkshire) and Cowbar (Cleveland) on 9th July – so perhaps there was a chance that the bird might be picked up again?
And whaddya know? At 8:20am on 15th, a Scopoli’s Shearwater said to sport the same helpful individually clinching upper as well as underwing markings headed south past Mundesley (Norfolk) – assuming a photo was taken, it’s in with a sporting chance of being an accepted county first. On the basis of just field notes… well, we’ll see. The bar is being held high for rare seabirds these digital days.
The new week dawned with East Yorkshire’s fourth Collared Flycatcher, a first-winter female, still all present and correct at Spurn on 11th. The Spurn faithful could be forgiven for resting on their laurels at this point in proceedings – but with migrants raining down in the area, that was never on the cards.
The following day was barely a few hours old before news broke of East Yorkshire’s next big bird – a Roller at Easington. They’re odd things, Rollers - they inherently feel mega, but statistically work out to roughly two records a year, at a national level – so they’re not that rare after all. Try telling that to a Yorkshire birder though – there’s been a long dry spell since their last, a bird that lingered at Spurn and Kilnsea for 17 days from late May to mid-June 2012.
That bird came at the end of brief flurry of county records, preceded by two day birds at Easington in September 2010 and July 2007. But before that… we go way back to 1977 for their last. Yorkshire memories are long, and there would have been some who feared another decades long drought before the next bird.
So the good news? Here was a Roller, available for those who could move fast. And they needed to as, after a stay that lasted under two hours, it flew off north, never to be seen again.
At least the Collared Flycatcher stuck around until later in the day, but even that was gone by 13th.
Speaking of birds sticking around, we’ll finish off the headlines with the resolutely settled Lammergeier still finding succour and dead things in the Crowden area of Derbyshire throughout this week.
It’s become almost obliging – one wonders, though, how long it will stick around and, perhaps more pertinently for anyone who’s of a list-keeping inclination, how long it will be until the next such obliging bird turns up in Britain? Lightning doesn’t strike twice, they say, and after the elusive 2016 bird in the southwest, and this one, it could be a long, long wait for another. This bird really does have insurance tick written all over it.
Pick of the bunch of the non-headlining seabirds this week were another fine haul of Wilson’s Petrels - with the Scilly pelagics proving ever-reliable: single birds being logged on 11th and 13th, half a dozen on 14th, a quartet on 15th, and another half dozen on 17th – the latter pelagic a bit of a peach, with five Cory’s and 44 Great Shearwaters for good measure. A pelagic off Cape Clear (Co.Cork) notched up a pair of birds on 15th.
A single Leach’s Petrel was heard, but not captured, during a Storm Petrel ringing session at Noss Head in the early hours of 14th.
It’s worth noting, at this juncture, and in a week in which a Swinhoe’s Petrel was noted off the Israeli coast, that there hasn’t been a Swinhoe’s Petrel coming to the nets on Fair Isle (Shetland) for a while – not since 2017, at which juncture a five year run of regular summer visitations in the dead of night came to an end. While knowing what these birds are doing so far away from their known breeding grounds off Japan and Korea is frustratingly speculative, there is now some urgent certainty coalescing about other, more important matters, that concern the island where they were turning up…
Fair Isle Bird Observatory, tragically, burned to the ground early last year. The Obs has been a fixture in many of our lives, a place of pilgrimage for us every autumn as we’ve headed there hoping to see rare birds from all points of the compass. Apart from feeding our addiction, the Obs has, for decades, gone quietly about the serious business of doing proper science and ornithology – generating data sets of unparalleled longevity and detail. That’s what those petrel-ringing sessions that incidentally turned up the Swinhoe’s Petrels were all about.
This week, as autumn migration kicks in, the Obs staff – without a physical Obs, but still working away on the isle – have started turning up the first goods of the autumn, more of which anon. Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust has also launched an appeal this week – looking to raise £650,000 towards the cost of raising the phoenix from the ashes and rebuilding the Obs as a base for ongoing science, a home for us visiting birders hoping for the big one, and as a hub in the Fair Isle community.
I know this year, for various very human reasons, has hit us all hard, emotionally and financially. But I’d like to take a moment to ask anyone reading this to consider making a donation towards the rebuild – every little bit will help.
http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/
Getting back to those seabirds now… and before we leave Shetland, we’ll start with one or two Great Shearwaters, a significant local rarity that far north – one was seen from a small boat a mile off Unst in the morning of 16th, with a Sooty Shearwater for good measure. Either the same two birds, or a different duo, were then picked up following a large purse seiner off Haroldswick late that afternoon by local birding legends Brydon Thomason and Dave Cooper. Away from such high drama in the high north, Great Shearwater numbers were picking up in the southwestern approaches – Scilly pelagics logging 39 birds on 14th and 31 on 15th, then 44 on 17th, making up the bulk of the week’s overall 140 or so birds.
Cory’s Shearwaters, meanwhile, were still being seen but in more muted numbers – some 30 in all were noted throughout the week, ranging from Highland in Scotland down the east coast to Flamborough (East Yorkshire), from the usual quarters in Cornwall and Scilly, and at sea off Union Hall (Co.Cork).
Numbers of Balearic Shearwaters were modest too in recent days – some 45 birds being seen nationwide, with a predictable southwesterly bias, of which 10 off Berry Head (Devon) on 15th were the highest single site tally.
Around 40 Pomarine Skuas were recorded over the course of the week. Many were singles, but on 13th, three were logged from Chanonry Point (Highland) and four off Longhoughton Steel (Northumberland); four were seen on 14th from Gibraltar Point NNR (Lincolnshire); and three from Whitley Bay (Northumberland) on 16th.
Long-tailed Skuas, on the other hand, were having a glorious moment this week, particularly over the course of the weekend – of the 250 or so birds noted this week, around 65 owed themselves to 15th alone and, of them, 30 were seen from Flamborough (East Yorkshire) alone. The following day, 16th, saw around 140 birds logged on the east coast, albeit there would surely have been some duplication of birds between various watchpoints. Numbers were tailing off on 17th, though individuals seen inland at Holme Pierrepont (Nottinghamshire) on 16th and Startop’s End reservoir (Hertfordshire) on 17th spoke both of a large movement of birds and a fillip of hope for inland patchworkers. Seawatchers down the east coast, meanwhile, had enjoyed something to really get their teeth into, even if it wasn’t a Scopoli’s Shearwater…
We conclude the seabirds back up in Shetland where, on 15th, the unseasonal White-billed Diver was again seen in the bay at South Nesting.
We’ll kick off the long-legged beasties again this week with Glossy Ibises where our two recent British birds were joined in the news by a couple of Irish representatives – so, in addition to the resident bird at Newport Wetlands RSPB (Gwent) still on 11th-16th, and the more recent arrival still present in Kent at Dungeness on 11th-17th, we can add a bird seen in Co.Dublin on North Bull Island on 12th, and one at Rahasane Turlough (Co.Galway) on 16th-17th.
The recent juvenile Purple Heron was still present in Somerset at Durleigh reservoir on 12th-17th, while the juvenile bird in Norfolk was once again noted in flight at Burnham Overy on 11th. Another, an adult, was reported from Scilly on 17th, seen first on Stony Island and then in flight to Samson.
The juvenile Night Heron was once again seen in Dinton Pastures CP (Berkshire) on 16th.
Away from Norfolk, Common Cranes were seen once more this week at Lakenheath Fen RSPB (Suffolk), where four birds were noted on 14th-15th; and in Lincolnshire at Willow Tree Fen LWT where three birds were once more seen on 13th. On 15th three were seen on Hatfield Moors NNR (South Yorkshire); on 16th further sightings came from Cambirdgeshire where six birds were noted at Nene Washes RSPB and 24 at Ouse Washes RSPB; and on 17th two were seen at Loch of Strathbeg RSPB (Aberdeenshire).
A Spotted Crake became a daily fixture in recent days at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB (Cheshire) on 12th-17th – on the latter date, we suddenly found we had three birds there, an adult and two juveniles… Another was reported on 17th from Eyebrook reservoir (Leicestershire). More of them, surely, are in the pipeline in the next couple of weeks…
It mostly fell to seaduck to make up the week’s interesting quackers – all birds of note being seen in Scotland.
A female King Eider was a fine find at Dornoch Point (Highland) on 13th; while, in Aberdeenshire, the drake Surf Scoter was once again seen from Blackdog on 13th also.
Back to Highland on 17th, where we find the drake Black Duck loitering still at Stronian.
While we continued to cast covetous eyes across the English Channel to the wader wonders of the near continent this week – France and Holland hosting a suite of particularly choice birds – we still had some crowd-pleasers of more modest stature of our own on offer.
Starting in Northumberland, the cracking adult Pacific Golden Plovers remained in the Boulmer area on 11th-17th; joined in the newsfeeds by a probable in flight over Flamborough (East Yorkshire) on 12th, and a possible over Oare Marshes KWT (Kent) on 14th; this latter bird followed by a probable on the north Kent coast at Reculver on 16th.
Further gold was struck this week in the west – adult American Golden Plovers being found on Barra (Western Isles) on 13th-14th and Annagh Marsh (Co.Mayo) on 14th.
Kentish Plovers, meanwhile, were the preserve of the southwest – on 13th, a juvenile in Devon at Dawlish Warren NNR in the morning was followed by two birds in the afternoon on the Exe extuary at Cockwood; and a further bird was found on 14th at Stanpit Marsh (Dorset).
A couple of Dotterel were noted in recent days – one heard over Holy Island (Northumberland) on 11th, and a further bird inland at Willenhall (West Midlands) on 14th.
The week began with the Temminck’s Stint still present at Amwell NR (Hertfordshire), and it remained there until 16th; another two birds were found at Frampton Marsh RSPB (Lincolnshire) on 15th-17th; another was seen on 16th at Cantley (Norfolk).
While we might not have a Birdfair to visit this year - it’s going virtual instead – nobody’s told the birds. Visitors to Rutland Water (Leicestershire) can usually expect something tasty around about now, and this week that something was a White-rumped Sandpiper seen there on 14th.
The adult Pectoral Sandpiper remained at Kilnsea Wetlands (East Yorkshire) on 11th-12th; further sightings came from East Chevington NWT (Northumberland) briefly on 11th, on 13th from South Uist (Western Isles) and Ballycotton (Co.Cork) and, on 16th-17th, from Hollingworth Lake (Greater Manchester).
Both of the prior week’s Spotted Sandpipers remained in situ this week - at Castle Espie WWT (Co.Down) still on 11th-17th, and in Cornwall at Drift reservoir still on 11th-17th.
The adult Long-billed Dowitcher was still present in Cumbria at Anthorn on 12th-17th.
In Somerset, there were no sightings of the young Black-winged Stilts for much of this week – both parents were still to be seen at Steart WWT on 11th, with one bird certainly remaining there on 13th-15th and then, on 16th, good news – all three youngsters were still alive, and present with the female adult bird.
Last but not least, a Grey Phalarope was noted from the Scilly pelagic of 15th.
Terns continued to provide all manner of variety this week, perhaps none more popular than the settled Gull-billed Tern still hanging around Alon Water (Suffolk) on 11th-16th. That bird presumably also accounted for that seen in Suffolk at Trimley Marshes SWT on 13th; but can’t account for further birds found this week near Singleton (Lancashire) on 13th, and once more at Tacumshin (Co.Wexford) on 14th-16th.
Adult White-winged Black Terns cropped up in recent days too – in Northumberland, sightings came from Longhoughton on 13th, and Druridge Bay CP and East Chevington NWT on 14th-17th; while a further bird was seen on 14th at Castleshaw reservoirs (Greater Manchester).
In Ireland the resident adult Forster’s Tern was still to be found at Soldier’s Point (Co.Louth) on 11th-14th.
A possible Sooty Tern was reported heading south past Cullercoats (Northumberland) in the morning of 17th.
Two Bonaparte’s Gulls were again noted this week – the regular adult still present at Oare Marshes KWT (Kent) on 11th-16th and, in Argyll & Bute, a first-summer at Lochgilphead on 13th-14th.
Numbers of Sabine’s Gulls picked up somewhat, exemplified by the Scilly pelagics which notched up single birds on 11th, 13th and 15th. Elsewhere, East Yorkshire did well on 13th with northbound sightings from Hornsea and Kilnsea; the former site also logged a bird on 15th, with one noted from Spurn then too, and a more southerly sighting that day coming from Canvey Island (Essex). On 16th one was seen in Highland in Whiteness Bay.
Am adult Ring-billed Gull was found on 17th in Co.Louth at Blackrock.
A Glaucous Gull was the week’s only confirmed white-winger, seen on North Uist (Western Isles) on 13th. Another adult (or a Glaucous x Herring Gull hybrid) was seen in Ullapool (Highland) on 15th.
It’s worth mention, in passing, the massing of Little Gulls presently in East Yorkshire – Hornsea Mere boasting an impressive 5,370 birds in the evening of 17th, truly a magnificent spectacle.
White-tailed Eagle of unknown origins were seen once more this week – one seemed to be lingering in Lincolnshire, with presumably the same bird accounting for the probable sightings at Anderby Creek on 11th and near Louth on 14th; and an individual was noted in Suffolk on 15th at Kentford.
Autumn, gloriously, marvellously is with us now – the prior week’s late fall continued into the present reporting period and, looking at the forecast, should be set fair to continue for the coming week too. Even as I write, I can see the windsock on the airstrip behind the house, and it’s showing a due, fresh easterly. Surely it’s about time I get a Greenish Warbler in the garden?
It may not have happened yet for me, but there were certainly plenty of Greenish Warblers making landfall down the east coast this week – they were piling in. One remained at Flamborough (East Yorkshire) on 11th-12th; further East Yorkshire sightings came from Grimston on 11th, and Spurn on 16th-17th. While a couple lingered in the north – one was present on Holy Island (Northumberland) on 12th-14th, and another on Isle of May (Fife) on 13th-16th – it was Norfolk that got the lion’s share at the weekend… Following one at Sidestrand on 12th, birds were logged in the county at Blakeney Point on 15th-16th; on 16th, at East Hills, Thornham Point, Holkham NNR, and Holme NWT; and on 17th, near Stiffkey in Campsite Wood and briefly in Wells Woods, while the Blakeney, Holme and Thornham birds all remained present on 17th too. Away from this localised fall, one was heard singing in Kent on 11th at Coxheath; another was at Gunton (Suffolk) on 16th; one was trapped and ringed at Fife Ness (Fife) on 17th; and a further probable was seen in Northumberland at Newbiggin on 14th.
They may have been the most numerous of the scarce and rare warblers this week, but the cherry on the warbler cake definitely came from the Isle of May (Fife) on 11th, with the autumn’s first Booted Warbler seen there...
…although perhaps the honours should be equally divided with the Aquatic Warbler trapped and ringed at Lytchett Bay (Dorset) on 12th.
That bird vied in terms of inaccessibility with the Sardinian Warbler seen in the afternoon of 16th at Winterton South Dunes (Norfolk) – a bird that only emerged, blinking, into the news in the morning of 18th. To say they’re something of a Norfolk specialty is to underplay the species’ import to Norfolk birders – while the county boasts a higher proportion of the 81 accepted British records to the end of 2018 than any other county, with 13 birds on the books, their last accepted example was way back in October 2004. This would surely have been a popular bird, had anyone known about it.
Melodious Warblers are rare fare north of the border, so one on North Ronaldsay (Orkney) on 12th-13th was particularly noteworthy; another was trapped and ringed at Nanjizal (Cornwall) on 17th.
Much more anticipated, however, are Icterine Warblers, and this week certainly didn’t disappoint, with over 30 individuals seen the length of the eastern seaboard from Shetland to Kent, with outliers in the west at Bolberry (Devon) on 12th, Bardsey (Gwynedd) and Nanjizal valley (Cornwall) on 15th and an inland bird trapped and ringed on Salisbury Plain on 16th. Spurn (East Yorkshire) alone enjoyed at least four birds on 16th.
Barred Warblers meanwhile were more resolute in their eastern inclinations – some 25 birds were shared in a spread from Shetland to Lincolnshire. Fair Isle (Shetland) peaked with three birds present on 12th; while two were seen on North Ronaldsay (Orkney) on 13th-16th.
Fair Isle properly opened its autumn account on 14th with the finding of a Thrush Nightingale.
A substantial presence this week right down the east coast were Red-backed Shrikes - I defy anyone not to be in a better mood after they’ve found one of these charismatic birds. At least 25 were logged this week, with nearly half of those being in Shetland – where Fair Isle alone bagged three birds on 13th. Spurn (East Yorkshire) also did well, with three birds logged on at least 11th, 13th and 15th this week, and Flamborough (East Yorkshire) held four birds at the week’s end on 17th.
Wrynecks were the week’s early autumnal understudy, with 15 birds noted in all – individuals on 11th at Easington (East Yorkshire) and on St Mary’s (Scilly); on 12th on North Ronaldsay (Orkney); and on 15th at Brancaster and Winterton (Norfolk), and Bardsey (Gwynedd). On 16th further birds were seen at Piccotts End (Hertfordshire), Littlehampton (West Sussex), Lucott Cross (Somerset), Reculver (Kent), and a second bird had joined the first at Brancaster. 17th brought birds at Nanjizal (Cornwall), Freshwater (Isle of Wight), Blakeney (Norfolk) and Thorpeness (Suffolk).
Somewhat more nebulous, an unconfirmed report came of a Hoopoe at Montgomery (Perthshire) on 13th. A Bee-eater was heard only at Craig David Croft (Aberdeenshire) on 12th; another was seen at Glentham (Lincolnshire) on 14th; and on 17th one more was seen in Nottinghamshire at Woodborough.
A Red-rumped Swallow was found over Hook Head (Co.Wexford) in the evening of 16th.
A male Blue-headed Wagtail was found in Cornwall at Mayon on 11th; another probable example was trapped and ringed at Marlborough (Wiltshire) on 14th.
In Shetland, at least one Citrine Wagtail was playing hard to get in the south Mainland during recent days – found by Paul Harvey at the Pool of Virkie on 12th, it promptly flew off north; Paul then found it, or another, at Boddam Voe on 14th; while either the selfsame bird or another individual was seen at Sumburgh on 15th. A further bird was found at Slimbridge WWT (Gloucestershire) on 15th-16th; and one more flew over Voy on the Orkney Mainland on 17th.
The first of the anticipated autumnal glut of Richard’s Pipits was seen in Norfolk at Horsey on 11th.
A handful of Rose-coloured Starlings were logged this week – one lingered in Ireland at Rossnowlagh (Co.Donegal) on 11th-17th; a Scottish representative was present on Lewis (Western Isles) on 12th; Wales got a look in with one on Skomer (Pembrokeshire) on 13th; and Portland (Dorset) supplied an English bird on 14th-16th.
An Ortolan Bunting was heard over Sandwich (Kent) in the opening hours of 16th; another put in a brief appearance at Landguard NR (Suffolk) on 17th.
Finally, back in Shetland, a scatter of Common Rosefinches, seen on Foula and Fetlar respectively on 14th and Fair Isle on 16th-17th, and one more bird for good measure on Papa Westray (Orkney) on 17th gave us a taste of what’s to come in the weeks ahead… while a male in song in Lincolnshire at Chapel Six Marshes on 17th had clearly got the wrong season in mind.
It’s not often one finds oneself in the curious position of telling the tale of the same Western Palearctic first twice in the space of as many months but, as we well know, this year is far from a normal year where strange seabirds are concerned.
So we’d no sooner got over the surprise of the Western Palearctic’s first Short-tailed Shearwater, the moribund individual found on 22nd June in Co.Waterford on the beach at Tramore Bay than we learned, this week, that the WP’s second record had been found and photographed by Sylvain Reyt, alive and well, at sea off the north-west French coast in Mor Braz bay during a pelagic on 7th August. Upon reviewing his images, he suspected he’d got a Short-tailed Shearwater on his hands – a suspicion confirmed by, amongst others, Bob Flood and Killian Mullarney.
The ink had barely dried on that correspondence before both birds were relegated to the Western Palearctic’s second, and France’s second records respectively – as it transpired that back on 9th September 2015 the WP’s first Short-tailed Shearwater had been photographed off the Brittany coast by Yann Février – making Sylvain’s bird not even the first for Brittany!
It’s tempting to speculate the species is simply being overlooked here, given the potential for confusion with Sooty Shearwater, particularly from a land-based observer’s perspective. Then again, it’s a species that we know has recently experienced a state of behavioural flux and stress, with birds arriving some two weeks late at their Australian breeding stations last year and, during the preceding northern hemisphere summer, unprecedented numbers being found dead and severely emaciated, in their thousands, along the Alaskan coast.
Rather like the recent spate of extra-limital Brown Booby records on both sides of the North Atlantic, one suspects that all of this augurs little good and owes itself to climate change, changing ocean temperatures, availability of food sources… Perhaps the recent small flurry of Short-tailed Shearwaters is not so much that they’re overlooked as they’re now arriving in low numbers in places they never used to be. It’s impossible to get away from the fact that 2020, and indeed 2019, have been striking years for strange seabird sightings in these parts…
Meanwhile, France wasn’t having too shabby a week – the recent, settled White-rumped Swift remained at Minerve on 15th; the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was still to be seen at Ambon on 11th-17th; a Greater Sand Plover was seen at Etang David Allegre on 12th-15th; and an Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler was found on Hoëdic on 15th-16th – Brittany making much of the week’s running in the news.
All that said, and while Scilly’s pelagic faithful could be excused for keeping everything crossed that something Antipodean is coming their way, British birders as a whole could only cast covetous eyes at what Holland was hosting this week – and no, we’re not talking about the Black-winged Pratincole at Sint Maartensbrug on 11th-17th, lovely though that was. No, this was the week that Holland landed an Oriental Plover at Trommelweg on 15th – a one day bird, last seen heading off high south-west late in the day. The first Dutch record, only the fourth for the Western Palearctic and surely one, one day, is on the cards for us too?
Holland’s long-staying leucopsis Amur Wagtail was also logged again this week, something of an afterthought after all that excitement, at Rockanje on 16th.
Another Black-winged Pratincole was seen this week, on Falsterbo (Sweden) on 13th.
Poland meanwhile enjoyed a Sociable Lapwing at Kaliszany-Kolonia on 13th also.
In Belgium, the recent Booted Eagle remained at Baasrode on 17th.
Switzerland’s first ever Brown Shrike was found on 14th-15th at Krummi. There’s a species that’s almost expected these days in the course of a British autumn, remarkably.
Finally, we come back to where we began in the seabirds section, ruminating about the origins of Swinhoe’s Petrels in the Western Palearctic – one was seen this week at sea off Eilat (Israel) on 13th.
I so want to say that this week will be marked by a Short-tailed Shearwater seen from a Scilly pelagic, and wrap things up on that bold statement.
But yeah. Not gonna happen, is it?
(That’s Fate tempted. Now it just might…)
Back in the real world, the third week of August continues some familiar themes – good seabirds, and good waders, are both distinct possibilities. With much of the coming week looking set to be dominated by winds off the Atlantic, you’d have to think something of either kind is coming our way.
If we’re not to be blessed by, at the very least, a Fea’s / Desertas Petrel or one of the regular autumn trio of Baird’s, Semipalmated or White-rumped Sandpiper I’ll be very much surprised…
If I still lived on the mainland, I think I’d be heading down to Cornwall for few days towards the weekend. Then again, hype this early in the week often comes to naught. Let’s see where we’re at this time next week…
Jon Dunn
18 August 2020
Many thanks to all this week's contributors for your photos and videos
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