Great Orme Harrier

A ringtail Hen Harrier was the highlight this morning on the Orme. The bird appeared over the reservoir area from the SW and continued on gaining height to the NE, disappearing to view over the wind turbines. The first I've seen here for over two years. A Spotted Flycatcher was at the back of the cemetery and Pete Alderson had a male Whinchat below the summit.
Migrants this week have included Yellow Wagtails, up to four different Whinchats, max counts of 7 Tree Sparrow and a few Sedge Warblers amongst the usual migrants.
The feathers below were found and look like the sad end to a poor migrating Wheatear.

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret doing what they do best, hanging around Cattle.

I was very lucky to see this bird a few days ago at Llanfachraeth, Anglesey.

More at http://austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk/

Northern-type Eider, North Uist

I ventured north recently for our friend's wedding near Inverness.  We decided to make the most of the long Bank Holiday weekend and took a trip west across Skye and onto North Uist.  It was at the back of my mind to keep an eye out for 'Northern' (borealis) Eiders but I was surprised to find one such candidate in virtually the first group I checked (in a small bay just north of Balranald RSPB).

The features that immediately stood out were the small white 'sails', a sure sign of Northern genes.  These appeared to be darker-tipped on their undersides (presumably indicative of a sub-adult bird) and were more prominently raised when the bird was chasing the nearby females around.  The bill was orangey-green (more orange towards the base), not quite the 'classic' borealis bright orange-yellow (you might recall an Eider with a bright orange bill that appeared at Rhos around this time of year for a couple of years running, but it never showed any sails).  I also noticed that the green patches on the nape were paler than on the other drake Common Eiders (not sure if this is a recorded feature of Borealis or not?).  The lateral crown stripe was brown (not white) and I assume that this also points to the bird being sub-adult.  It was displaying with the other Common Eiders (although they seemed to take quite a bit of offence to it!) and it appeared to be slightly larger/bulkier in comparison to the other drakes.

I hope the photos are of interest - with a resident group of Eiders in our area it's well worth keeping an eye open for these types turning up amongst them in the future.

Cheers and good birding!

 

Negative News

No sign of the Cattle Egret on Anglesey today.
Much reduced numbers of Arctic Terns roosting at Cemlyn tonight and no sign of the Roseatte Tern either.

Anglesey Day Trip 14th May 2013

Sometimes things just fall into place, usually not but just sometimes............ Yesterday was one of those days

Looking at the weather & having a day off I decided to head over to Anglesey for a day out & to meet up again with ex-Manchester birder Norman Rowbotham again, now a core member of the Anglesey Birding fraternity. Arriving pretty early I met up with Norman at Penrhos CP and soon we were scanning Beddmanarch Bay. Late Bar-tailed Godwits, a Grey Plover, several Dunlin & Ringed Plovers and two Arctic Terns with the Sandwich Terns were all picked out as well as a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers.

We then headed down to a woodland where I was told Red Squirrels still thrive. No luck with them but soon we had up to 8 Crossbills and I picked out a first for the year for Norman in the shape of a Spotted Flycatcher, soon seeing a second bird nearby. Red Admirals were everywhere and we also had Green-veined, Small & Large Whites on the wing.

Next stop was a pop into the harbour to see the 4 new nextboxes that have been put up for Black Guillemots and 2 of the aforementioned auks loafing about nearby. Then we visited South Stack RSPB where at least 5 Puffins were seen - 2 in & out of seperate nest burrows & 3 on the sea. Chough were overhead, A Raven was close in the roadside fields and a pair of Stonechats showed well too. At sea a couple of Gannets glided past joining the Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Razorbills & Guillemots just offshore.

Back to Penrhos CP for lunch but that was brought to an end by a text about a Cattle Egret nearby

Back in the car, on my own now, I headed up the A5025 to Llanfachraeth and parked but no birders were about - strange! Walking the paths I bumped into rarity-finder extraordinair Ken Croft & later local birder Grahame Morgan. As there was no sign of the egret in the field in which it had been seen we went for a wander. After tring every farm field to the west and about 1.5hrs later we glanced down into fields to the east & there it was, a superb Cattle Egret, we had relocated it We then watched it for the next half hour, I put the news out on RBA pagers too with the new location and folk started to arrive. I luckily got a few decent piccies and then said my farewells. The bird is still preesent today at an approx grid ref of SH316832 where we left it!!

To be 10mins away when a rarity breaks is fantastic, always read about it happening to others but never me - well now it has & it was great  

Great Orme migrants and some local breeding Mandarins

Two lovely Whinchats were the highlight of this morning's walk around the Great orme limestones. A handsome male and a night pale female. The male was in the field by the gully with 10+ Wheatears and the female was in the field above the churchyard. A single Tree Pipit was also by the gully on the stone wall. Three Black Guillemots have been showing each day to the east of the lighthouse below the cliffs.

Today's female Whinchat - this bird was new in today.

This tidy male Whinchat has been showing for a few days now, feeding with Wheatears in the sheep fields by the gulley.

Tree Pipits are usually flyovers or flushed from the ground on the Orme. This showy bird rested on the stone wall on the limestones.

Three Black Guillemots have been showing below the cliffs amongst the hundreds of commener Auks. I presume the two right hand birds are males and they are busily following a smaller bird with less white on the wings - I presume this is the female?

After a tip off from Adrian Foster, I went looking for the Mandarin Ducks he had seen on the River Dulas earlier in the week. There has been a chequered history of this species here with sporadic sightings over the past decade or so and an intriguing report of a female with eight duckling from several years ago. Despite looking before, I've never seen them here ....until today.

Three birds flew out of some trees alongside the river and showed on the River bank some 1 mile inland from Llanddulas village/ They were extremely wary and soon moved off downstream when they clocked my approaching. Three Dippers and a Garden Warbler also present.

Dotterel on The Range this afternoon

Here's a copy of an email I received today from Jan Owens of Aberrffraw

Hi Steve

Thought you might like to know that we had an excellent sighting of 4 dotterel this afternoon on the Range. They were in the heather/grass at the eastern end, grid ref 223796.

Best wishes

Jan

Ken tried for them with no joy but they may still be around.