Sammy the Shrew... dead but not forgotten

As you know, no one appreciates a dead shrew more than I. I'd forgotten about this, til just now. On Sunday, I was stood at the Mill in the rain, seeing no birds, and with a river of mud and water sloshing around my feet coming down the hill. I was in danger of getting bored, until I noticed a dead Common Shrew being washed down in the flood. In comedy fashion, rolling and tumbling. I laughed like a drain. A happy one. Later, up at the allotments, my wee heart leaped for joy when I saw another dead shrew, but on closer inspection, it turned out to be an onion skin. Is this what the internet is for, or what?

Lunchtime Tuesday - took a walk round Westburn and Victoria Parks, Aberdeen, listening for Yellow-browed Warblers. Not happening, but I did get crippling views of 2 Common Treecreepers, and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. A few Goldcrests too, which is always encouraging. One of the treecreeprs defied common dogma by walking vertically down the tree. I'm disturbed... how will I tell them from Nuthatches now?

Bird the weather

Bird the weather, they say. They presumably didn't say it in bloody Scotland in October. Rain battering against the windows this morning. And I mean TIPPING down. But this was my first chance to get out birding for a week, and quite possible my last for another week - I hate it when the students come back and we have to start doing some work. Not really... I love it! :-) So it was now or never - I birded the weather. I weathered the weather. I wore the weather. Yes, on the plus side, at least my army surplus coat got a long overdue rinse through. Not kidding tho, the water dripping out the bottom of it was grey/yellow like dirty dishwater. Mmmm... maybe I'll be able to let it in the house now.
Still, maybe there might be some migrants brought down? Maybe there were, but not easy to see. 1 Blackcap in the Mill garden, a few Barn Swallows, 1 Goldcrest. A stream of Gannets going north offshore, and plenty gulls, a couple of Sandwich Terns, 25 Red Knots flying past. Actually nothing very interesting, unless you actually were one of those birds. When I got home 4 hours later, I had to stand in the hall while my family laid blotting paper all round the floors and walls before I could come in. *Of course* as soon as I got in, it stopped raining and brightened up. I could have expected that.

And also came home to bad news from the Newtonhill Rare Birds Committee*.
'Dear Martin, the NRBC has examined your record of a Long-tailed Skua offshore on 17th September 2006. Although we sympathise with the difficult circumstances surrounding the observation, the digitally recorded description you submitted did not rule out the possibility of 'f***'! As such we cannot, on this occasion, accept your record. Please be assured that rejection does not imply that a mistake has been made, merely that insufficient details were submitted to confirm the identification. Yours sincerely, NRBC.'

Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

*Actually, I suspect the NRBC is in fact my evil twin brother, Marvin, who only comes out at night.

More IBWO - very sinister

Sorry folks, IBWO exists, but he's turned nasty. From the genius filmaking team that I shall call 'Amy and Tom from St Louis', because that's who they are... a very sinister turn of events.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker! Double knocks and Video!

B*gger me! Stick a fork in me... I'm done.

IBWO confirmed, and he's up to no good!

Ivory-billed Woodpecker claimed in Florida!! No photo!

Well, my scoop obviously spooked them. They published a sanitised version of the story, that removed any reference to the slaying of the last remaining pair. Frankly, I preferred my version. So, if you've been on Mars the last few days... the paper can be found at http://www.ace-eco.org/ with a pdf of the field notes at

http://web6.duc.auburn.edu/academic/
science_math/cosam/departments/biology/
faculty/webpages/hill/ivorybill/
FieldNotes2006.pdf

Lots of glimpses of what look like Ivory-bills, usually flying off at speed, lots of 'kent' calls that as sonagrams don't absolutely match anything, but are closest to IBWO, and some enormous cavities in trees, many of which are bigger than previously recorded for Pileated, and some bigger than ever recorded for IBWO! Blimey! No photo!

There's a large amount of evidence, and I think you would have to be NUTS to dismiss the possibility that Ivory-bills are holding on. Looking through the field notes, in some ways these are very honest descriptions of the sorts of views you get of fast-moving birds in dense tropical woods. But I think we also have to acknowledge that eyes and memory play tricks, and the naked eye views, silhouettes, blurry binculars (! yes really, you couldn't make it up!) and brief glimpses don't really hold water as acceptable records. In fact there's only two that, if they honestly describe what was seen, come close to being nail-ons. The first is Tyler Hicks 'shopping list' sketch (jelly, oatmeal, skim milk, Dr Pepper, Ivory-billed Woodpecker - couldn't be more American if it tried) where at last someone has seen another field mark... the white dorsal stripes. Presumably a slip, but in the text it mentions them going onto the flanks. If these really were seen as described, and are not an honest mistake, it's an IBWO. The second stonewall sighting it Brian Rolek's 'sketch 92'. IF, again, the sketch describes what was seen, which is a bird flying vertically upward to the tree trunk with the upperwing showing that clearly, then it really has to be IBWO. In fact this is the only rear angle where i really believe the difference from Pileated is clear.

Good on them! Good work.

Things that still confuse me....

A grad student desperate to go to Arkansas to find IWBOs, picks a spot on the map in Florida and finds IBWO within an hour. I know it's Florida, but we aren't actually in f***ing Disneyland are we?

Bad science. It's fine for birding to be bad science - we do that all the time... but it's not fine for science to be bad science. That was my gripe with Fitzpatrick et al. and it still is. Soooo... the most likely explanation for the double knocks is a large woodpecker, and the kent calls, though heavily degraded and difficult to work with are most like IBWO. So why not do a control... few hundred hours of audio analysis in a wet North American wood out of IBWO range, but still full of hunters, canoes, Blue Jays, nuthatches, baby pigeons, and show that the 'kents' and double knocks don't occur. Do Pileateds knock harder when the bark is tight on the tree?

So many holes, so little getting up to them and rummaging about in the litter at the bottom.

Why are they so often identified after being seen badly, flying away at speed? We saw after Arkansas that THIS is the angle where you can mistake Pileateds for Ivory-billed.

Don't you guys even carry binoculars?!!! :-) Or a camera. My granny could have done better!!! :-)

Anyway, I guess it's moot. If these IBWOs are real there will be a photo this winter.

I still think my truth was funnier. Actually, Ii think it's pretty ironic that although we are now virtually certain that the Arkansas video was spurious... the whole episode has kicked off the research programme that might tell us the true status of Ivory-bills in N America. Maybe not classically ironic, before someone jumps on me, but I don't know a better word.

Heroes of the Birding Revolution V - Bernard Tucker

I guess life went at a gentler pace in the old days... Harry Witherby, from 1907 the founder and founding editor of British Birds magazine, limped on until 1943 when, brought out of semi-retirement by the war, the effort did for him. He died. 36 years is, frankly, too long for any Editor, and it's fair to say that BB was sleep-walking. Cometh the hour, etc. a terse note in the next issue of BB that his no. 2, Bernard Tucker, was taking over the editorship for the time being 'in accordance with what I believe to be Mr Witherby's wishes'. !!! Sounds a bit USSR to me. Like Khrushchev succeeded Stalin 'in accordance with Comrade Stalin's wishes' mostly by no one noticing he was doing it.

Bernard Tucker, overgrown public schoolboy, Harrow and Oxford, crumpets and thrashings, was a bit of a firebrand in the birding field, and already a giant before accepting the majesty and authority that came with being Editor of BB - at the time, the SOLE arbiter of acceptance/rejection of all British rarities! Birding since schooldays... kept snakes in his rooms while studying for his zoology degree, worked at Cambridge University for a while (I assume this is where he flirted with communism and learnt to appreciate the benefits of a good purge), returned to Oxford as a Lecturer, and stayed. He was a thinker. And a doer, actually. The 'doing' generally being extraordinarily close observation of birds, alive, in the wild. Taxonomy was one of his fields, and he wrote about subpecies, species boundaries, etc. in a lengthy article in BB that you could probably reprint without revision today and it would STILL be useful. His most widely respected body of work was perhaps the sections on 'Field-characters and General Habits' 'Voice' and 'Habitat' (among other bits and bobs) for The Handbook of British Birds - difficult to appreciate these days quite how revolutionary this was in being broadly accurate(!), and how few people at the time could have written so comprehensively. He was instrumental in founding the British Trust for Ornithology and the Edward Grey Institute; he wrote papers (often for stupidly dull and now forgotten journals); he edited reports, founded bird clubs, and ran them; he was an extraordinary pedant and a stickler for scientific method; he travelled; and at the end he rescued and rejuvenated British Birds.

Real birdwatchers... will have seen recently in British Birds the 'Adios Moustached!' paper, describing the reasons for the deletion of Moustached Warbler from the British List. The Cambridgeshire 1946 record of a pair of birds feeding young came over his desk (as sole arbiter etc.) and he accepted it. It is in his critique of the record (never published in full, but I've read it) that it becomes obvious that he was very troubled. In fact he didn't believe it. In his teeny tiny (but very neat) scrawl, he bangs on about how none of the descriptions fit (that's generally a bit of a no-no for rarity descriptions), or even agree, and he bangs on some more about the nest - he really wanted it found. For anyone who doesn't know, when first seen the adults were feeding young in a bramble bush... at least one of the young could barely fly, and as they got older they started to move away from the brambles and feed around, e.g. coltsfoot. Bernard Tucker knew that the nest must be in the brambles and he also knew that real Moustached Warblers don't nest in brambles, nor do they feed in Coltsfoot. They nest and feed in reeds etc over standing water. The descriptions, habitat and behaviour didn't fit. So why did he accept them? I think it was because Bernie himself had dipped. He'd been on holiday in Scotland (the fool!), and came back to a gaggle of the biggest names in British birding at the time telling him they'd just seen a family of Moustached Warblers. He went for a look a few days later, but they had gone. Tough titty Tucker! I honestly think he accepted the record against his better judgement because it would have looked like sour grapes otherwise. There, I said it.

So, a conscientious man. But he was sick, and was still editing BB on his deathbed. I assume there was some health reason why he wasn't playing some active part in Hitler's downfall, and hence was free to take over BB in 1943. Mail me if anyone knows what his illness was. He died in 1950, age 49, and suddenly there was a vacuum at the top. When they buried him, David Lack and Max Nicolson wondered very publically if they were burying BB as well - there was no one to take it on and the publishers were losing interest. Max (another hero of the revolution, one day...) did what he did best - took on a job for which he was profoundly unsuitable, and did a pretty good job. BB was never as good in the 50s as it had been under Bernie, but at least it survived. In his obituary, they wrote: 'He was the least dramatic of men, but he did much to bring about a revolution in ornithology and to guard it against the reaction which awaits a revolution if it goes too far and too fast.' Probably fair, although bollocks to the woolly liberal counter-revolutionary Menshevism at the end - and Pah!

Bernard William Tucker. It wasn't 'all rot'. You were in the vanguard of professional scientist birders who shaped the collective effort of organised research into birds in Britain. Your premature death just went to prove that there's no justice. You were 50 years ahead of your time and struggled manfully to bring the rest of the bird World with you. For this, we honour you a Hero of the Birding Revolution.

Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815

Bit disappointed with my geek score. Would have thought an obsessive interest in the activities of an early 1900s taxidermist would have pushed me up the scale a little. Must try harder.

Did anyone else notice it was raining?

A decod glass returd to Dottigham peas. Oh yes, mater, I have a code id de hed. And what better for it than a 4 1/2 hour walk in the pissing September rain. Nothing better as far as I'm concerned. Stock up with Tuuunnnneees and I'm away. Bit of an easterly wind going overnight, and of course the rain, so high hopes for patch-tick Yellow-browed Warbler. Really have to see one this year after previous year's disastrous finding of Pallas's Warbler, which wasn't even a patch tick. And strike me dead with a custard cream - I didn't see one, or indeed many migrants at all. Bit of a wash out. There's a new unringed Dipper on the Elsick Burn. It was drying off by going for a swim. Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Great Tits yada yada. You don't want to know.
Look offshore - no repeats of last weekend's fireworks. In fact with 58 Barnacle Geese going south in 2 flocks (first of the autumn, and unusually beating the pinkies in), there's a distinct wintery feel to the sea... 3 Red-throated Divers, 5 Eurasian Wigeon, 2 Sandwich Terns, some Common Gulls south, a trickle of Gannets and auks, incl a Puffin. No shearwaters or skuas. Boo! The Coastal Park, Community Park and Allotments were dead, bit of relief down the Muchalls Track with a few Goldcrests and a Northern Wheatear having a fight with a Chaffinch on the telegraph wires (true!). Saw another birder down at Water Valley - first time I've intercepted another birder on my patch in over 4 years, apart from that old boy with the dog. He hadn't seen much either.

Nothing else, sorry. This week I have been mostly listening to Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane's Addiction. Seriously weird - my no. 1 top album for the last 10+ years

Of course this land is dangerous!
All of the animals
Are capably murderous.

When I was a boy,
My big brother held on to my hands,
Then he made me slap my own face.
I looked up to him then, and still do.
He was trying to teach me something.
Now I know what it was!
Now I know what he meant!
Now I know how it is!

One must eat the other
Who runs free before him.
Put them right into his mouth
While fantasizing the beauty of his movements.
A sensation not unlike
Slapping yourself in the face...
Slapping yourself in the face...
Slapping yourself in the face...

Wow, those lyrics sound so much better when you're on a Paracetomol/
Ibuprofen/Custard Cream high.

Ivory-billed Woodpecker confirmed in Florida!! Photo!

You've heard the rumours... in a Worldwide scoop I can now present the TRUTH!*

This is what will be announced next month...

A pair of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers has been confirmed in the Roaring Cutoff area of the Choctawhatchee River, Florida panhandle. The discovery was made by a graduate student, taking his Prof's hummer on a high speed tank cross-country. He described hearing a distinctive 'double knock' out the front of the vehicle. In his own words... not so much the classic 'double knock', as two sickening thuds. It was then that he noticed a male IBW smeared across the hood of the vehicle, and a second bird, a female, bouncing off into the water and being swept away. Both birds appeared to have died very recently. He pulled the vehicle over safely, but as he went to retrieve the body of the male, it slid off into the river and was lost. He returned the hummer to the Prof who confirmed by DNA analysis of the blood that it belonged to IBW. Previous estimates that there was perhaps enough suitable habitat in the vicinity for one pair of IBWs were rapidly upgraded to 9 pairs, just in case. In spite of extensive searching, no further birds have been sighted in the area. Fortunately a remote motion sensitive camera set up in the area captured one frame, confirming the identity of the birds.




*'TRUTH' may not be based on actual events for the purpose of this post.

The Doctor is... CHEERING UP

This was meant to be a bush-bashing day, but in fact the area down the Elsick Burn, the Mill, and the track to the beach, were all very quiet, though a constant stream of Meadow Pipits flying over, together with odd Sky Larks, and piles of Swallows, gave me hope. I decided to try a quick seawatch anyway. so up and along the cliffs (one Common Stonechat, 1 Northern Wheatear) to my favourite rock.

Conditions were about as bad as could be - sun in my face, and with a bit of haze (vis down to a mile) turning the sea into this kind of haze of soft glow. You know you're in trouble when *every* Fulmar looks blue. But hang on a minute... there was something on here. Birds going past. Close in. Jinkies, better hope my jizz and silhouette id skills are up to scratch. Immediately Manx Shearwaters - in the next hour and a bit there were 21 of those. Then zoinks! 2 Balearic Shearwaters, close in - they even came in for a circular fly past so I could get enough plumage detail - praise the Lord Lucifer and all his little pixies. Although the light still wasn't great, they came both directions in front of me, where I could see they were brown +/-Manxie-sized shearwaters, with uniform dark heads, largely pale-centred underwings and pale bellies, but dusky flanks. Also the flappy wingbeats stood out in comparison with the Manxies. In fact there were going to be two more as well (separately), but further out and I really only got the flight pattern and the general impression of all-dark heads and darker underwings that couldn't be Manxie. Absolutely fantastic. While this was going on, I tallied through 12 Sooty Shearwaters, 6 Great Skuas (all north), 6 Red-throated Divers, 26 Common Scoters and 3 Eurasian Wigeon south, an Arctic Tern and 9 Puffins north, and a stream of Northern Gannets, going both ways. For the first time this autumn, I was starting to feel something (stop giggling McKinney, save your smut for your own website), but The Sender hadn't finished with me...

...I look up from a herd of Guillemots and there's a LONG-TAILED SKUA just off the rocks, sailing north. Argh! This is the funny bit. I'm testing something called 'remembird' which is a kind of digital dictaphone/bird sound recorder, so I was trying to describe this skua into the mike instead of making proper notes like normal. When I uploaded them all to my computer this evening, it turns out that all I recorded for posterity is a stream of expletives of frustration about the light. A bit like 'F*ck, juvenile skua... jeez, it's a small one, it's got to be long-tailed... f*ck... f*ck... f*ck... I can't see a bloody thing... yep, it's a skua... small... f*ck... get out of the light! Go on... get next to that sarnie.. go on... no! f*ck. Long-tailed. It's just sailing past, not doing anything. f*ck...it's just going to keep going. Looks quite pale.' Then a couple of minutes later... 'F*ck'. A classic of modern bird recording, and a lesson in how to do it for any youngsters out there. If there are any youngsters out there, isn't it past your bedtime? Do your parents know what sort of filth you're reading on the internet?

A Sparrowhawk in-off, and a Harbour Porpoise, off-in, were also entertaining. It turned out that the birds were coming in ahead of a weather front, and about 10.45 the light improved enormously as it went dull and cloudy, and the mist went away a bit, but the birds stopped. Best seawatch ever from here, but I'd like to see what sort of descriptions I'm going to come up with. :-) Ker-CHOW!

After this, I went up to the Coastal Park, and then the allotments. The allotments still look good, but it was a bit awkward as there were several gardners out there picking their onions and their noses. I guess i should try to get there before 11.15 am on Sundays - curse those infernal interesting seabirds!

Note added in proof: I'm not claiming the L-t S. MC

The Doctor is back

and this time he's only mildly irritated. There was a fall of sorts while I was away, but conditions are still looking good.

CHIN, for when UTVs are the only Vs

The Doctor is OUT, again

I'm at a meeting in Dundee, the city that never sleeps, until Friday. I confidently predict an enormous fall of interesting passerines on Thursday. And for that pelican to be reidentified from photos as a White-throated Robin. Then I'll have to decide whether I can tick it.

SUPPORT the Campaign for Honesty In Notebooks (CHIN)

Today's blog entry is brought to you by Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment. With a daily application of Rust-eze Rear-end Formula, and a spectacular amount of luck, you too can look like me. Ker-CHOW!!

Very calm and quite misty this morning. No, tell a lie, very misty. In fact I'm not quite sure which way is up, but there's Meadow Pipits flying over (or under), which can't be bad. Spectacularly calm birdwise too. The Mill sycamores etc were like the grave... oooh spooky. I won't enumerate the Robins, Wrens, etc. But there were some. And a Common Chiffchaff feeding in the willows. That's a bit more like it. Some encouragement to keep going. Very low tide, and a Common Redshank on the beach, with 2 Oystercatchers, 2 Rock Pipits and 2 Grey Wagtails. OK, I'll take you all in pairs. And a Manx Shearwater flying south very close inshore. Bullocks! Am I screwing up here? I was hoping that this hadn't been one of those inexplicable calm misty mornings when seabirds are flying really close in. I almost ran up the beach steps (Common Stonechat) to get up to see what else was flying past close in. But it was a false alarm - a few Gannets, couple of hundred Herring Gulls, and that was pretty much it. :-( but phew! Up to the Community Park, also quiet (Common Whitethroat) and was following some sort of squeaky passerine through dense willows (that makes it sound more interesting than it was - pretty certain it was only a Dun Prunella) (that makes it sound more interesting than it was too), and I turned the corner wondering where this track went and had a bit of a revelation - I'd hit the allotments, never ventured in before, and they look brilliant. Overlooking the sea, with a mixture of fences, sheltered gardens, nice walls, some dense willows, and full of birds (OK only Great Tits, Blue Tits, Blackbirds, Song Thrush etc. today... but one day... Sibe Blue Robin). I've been such a fool, birding here 4 years without finding this bit of habbo. Down the Muchalls Track (another Common Chiffhcaff, and a Buzzard) to Water Valley (dead). I met a couple walking the other way to get their newspaper and rolls in Newtonhill - he'd had a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in his garden the lucky sod. Had a pleasant 20 mins scannning Meadow Pipits and Skylarks in the stubble just south of Muchalls, but time was getting on and couldn't face the twitching curtains, of the village.

Move along, nothing to see here

Or at least nothing much to see in Newtonhill. I was allowed out to play for the last hour after tea. On a fresh southerly offshore, I picked up 1 Arctic Skua going north, 2 Great Skuas going north, and one south, 9 Manx Shearwaters, 4 Arctic Terns, 2 Puffins, and a few families of Sandwich Terns. Assorted Fulmars, Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and Gannets. Nice evening though. Full of remorse for last night's mischief. No really.

Mystic Martin

Your horoscopes for 10-16 September

Aries:

With Pluto moving into Saturn, you will be prone to jitters about that funny Gropper you wrote off in the sedges behind the beach car park. On Sunday morning, check the bushes behind the vicarage. You are submissive to Taurus this week, so should not attempt to identify terns on seawatches.

Lucky colour: Tawny.

Taurus:

Your fortune is rising, and you should concentrate on identification of birds in the genus Tringa, especially on Monday morning. Beware of tall pale Pelicans, as verily they are all escapes, and no mistake. Do not go birding with men wearing fluorescent orange lycra leggings. Tuesday is a good day to find love in a bus shelter.

Lucky colour: Olive.

Gemini:

You can do no wrong this weekend, and should make giant leaps on your list. On Saturday you should decide that you might as well tick the Wells Indigo Bunting, because Ramsey was just too out of the way. Use your new-found peace of mind to come clean about that Fea’s where you had to ‘tidy up’ your notes after the event.

Lucky colour: Rufous.

Cancer:

You have been a bad boy but there is still time to make amends. Remember that small dark thrush that flew into the bushes at Fazarkerley and make chinking noises like a Blackbird… and you ticked it as Siberian and shook hands with your neighbour to celebrate your double tick, the other one being that Little Bunting that was surprisingly similar to reedie, until it hit your notebook? I’m going to leave you in a room with a bottle of whisky, your Leica list of British birds, and a rubber. I think you know what you have to do.

Lucky colour: Vinaceous

Leo:

Sorry, but you are going to make a complete arse of yourself this week. You should avoid identifying anything in public. Do not attempt to sketch anything and keep ‘Brian’ away from your notebook at all costs. DO NOT PUT YOUR PHOTOS ON SURFBIRDS!

Lucky colour: Octarine

Virgo:

You will feel the urge to check the sycamores around the school playing field, but should resist. True happiness will be found on the dry stone wall behind Cripple Annie’s cottage, overlooking the bay.

Lucky Colour: Straw

Libra:

With Uranus plonked firmly on the settee, you will see no birds this weekend. It’s time to understand the strong light streaming through the window is the outside World, full of interesting Phylloscs. Take a leap…go birding! There IS life after Steve Irwin.

Lucky colour: Mint green

Scorpio:

Mars will dominate your actions this weekend, fatty. Aggressive encounters with arrogant t*sspots in the hide at Aberogwen are guaranteed. You will attempt to string a Snowy Egret.

Lucky colour: Slate

Sagittarius:

You are getting very stressed over a Semipalmated sandpiper. Remember that it is only a tart’s tick, and if you claim to have seen one already no one is going to quiz you very closely about which one. Don’t mention Pagham Harbour…it wasn’t one, probably, and we all know that. Did you tick the 1990 Sandwich Bay Citrine too? I think you did. You should join your Cancer pal in the darkened room.

Lucky colour: toast.

Capricorn:

I know what you strung last summer….

Lucky colour: whatever you call the browny colour of ten pound notes…. Cos unless you find a stash of them and send them this way pronto, I’m going to tell, and you’ll never show your face around Llandyfnod again.

Aquarius

I know what you ringed last summer. Ffs! It’s very simple…. it’s not an Aquatic! Venus is in the ascendant, leaving you to decide between your spouse and your birding. And let’s face it, when you hold him/her in a good light, how cute are they, really? And what can they do for you that a Northern Parula can’t? You’ve bought them a house, so they can’t complain…off you go.

Lucky colour: Buffy

Pisces:

You have wasted your summer looking at creepy crawlies, but now is the time to come out of your shell. On Wednesday you will sit in a comfy RSPB hide and spout authoritatively, and at some considerable volume, on identification issues about which you know little or nothing. On Thursday you will string a Citrine Wagtail, but you won’t even have the decency to string a greyish Yellow Wag: oh no…, you’ll go the whole hog with a juvvy Pied. I hope McKinney doesn’t twitch it, for your sake.

Lucky colour: Grey.

Dear Martin...

OK, I'm opening my inaugural letters page... with something approaching permission

Dear Martin

I read all the huffing and puffing in your blog about what what you missed on your patch at the birdfair. Well... you don't know you're born. People are still arguing about the 'Eastern Olly' that was in Shetland the Wednesday before the birdfair. [Important Birder X] has looked at the only pic available (http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/pics06/EOW-by-Hugh-Harrop.jpg) and says he thinks it's an Olive-tree Warbler! [Big Birder Y and Important Birder Z] both think it is olive-tree too, allegedly, which is making the guys up here sweat a bit. However, they Y and X didn't see it, so size and tail actions are difficult to convey.
[Incendiary slurs and rumour about contents of next issue of popular birding magazine removed]

Yours, a Friend

PS [Birder A] is turning, he bloody is, he is wavering. Shit. It could have been one. Get it on your blog now.

Anyone got any advice for my 'friend'?

The Bill Ivory Witch Project

I know I can't talk, but some people have wayyyyyy too much time on their hands.

Sex, drugs and partidges

So, I seem to be getting about 1000 hits a month, which is way more than this stuff deserves, but small fry compared to some other blogs. I heard the best way to up your hits was to write about sex. So, without wanting to offend any remaining visiting Birdwatch readers... here goes

- Oh darling!
- Yes darling?
- Oh darling! I love you!
- Yes darling, I love you too!
- Oh, I wish we were married
- But we are married!
- I meant to each other.
- I see. Come here you sweet romantic fool
- Oh darling!
- MMMmmmmmm
- Mmmmmmmm
- I say, that's a very unusual way to check my papers are in order.

[cut to fireplace]

Classic writing eh? To birds... to set the scene, our end of the village is total middle class bungalows and neat open plan gardens, substantially populated by oil company administrators who spend their Sundays washing the car and buying settees. So I opened the blinds early this morning, ready for another pleasant valley Sunday in status-symbol land and bloody hell there was a family of Grey Partridges sat on the lawn across the road. Mum and 5 full-grown kids, bold as you like. I rubbed my eyes and they were still there. What the small fat furry hell was I drinking last night? Started to panic and went round the front room checking for empty bottles, dregs etc. Turns out I was drinking red wine, cooking sherry, Windowlene and Diane's special mushroom tea. Probably not good, but I've tackled that combination hundreds of times before and never hallucinated partridges (who by now were pecking about on the pavement in from of my house!). I needed a second opinion so dragged Lizzie off the settee where she had been enjoying her bowl of Chocolate-frosted Sugar Bombs, with strawberry milk and a half-litre of Coke (I really shouldn't let her fix her own breakfast). We were in agreement, one adult grey Partridge, with the orange face, and the belly patch, and the body like Hettie Jacques, and her five kids. Then I realised I'd left my camera at work. Took a photo with Diane's, but it's one of those 20th century film-type thingies that will need to be processed at Boots before I can get the picture up. They stayed for 15 minutes, then took off over to the school field, for no reason. Only my second patch records (previously 2 on Cran Hill a couple of years ago), but I guess if I explored the fields inland a bit more, I'd bump into them now and again. I was a bit perplexed about that they were doing in Newtonhill, bearing in mind a Partridge can live its entire life in one or two fields. When I stepped out birding, things got clearer - the stench!! Argh! Muck spreading! Jeeeeezzzzus! No wonder they got out of the fields, it must have been making their eyes water. Oooh, I wished I hadn't breakfasted on all those lambs' kidneys and oysters. Dry boke. Still it was a decent atumn morning with Meadow Pipits flying over (never a bad thing), and again 100s of Barn Swallows going south. Turned out to be a bit of a false dawn, though, as the patch was dead dead dead, again. The trek to the beach was punctuated by a couple of Willow Warblers, a few Robins, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel, but frankly not much else. And the smell was getting worse... was something dead on the beach? maybe only a pile of cowshit that had hauled itself ashore and was rotting in a sheltered cove. Sandwich Terns,2 Common Terns and 4 Arctic Terns offshore, and I watched a Great Skua giving the Kittiwakes a run out before being mobbed and chased off by a pack of Sandwich Terns. It was obvious by now that this was not going to be a great day of birding, so I figured the best option was to cover as much ground as possible and hope to bump inot a shrike or something. The trudge to Muchalls... I realised I'd lost my biro, so prayed to our god (dess) Michaela Strachan (may her beauty and really-wildness guide our thoughts, words and actions) that she would not send any rare or interesting birds my way that might need some notes taken. And she, in her wisdom and graciousness, granted my boon, such that no noteworthy birds were in Muchalls either. There was an unusual number of Great Tits around though (several parties of 5+) - not sure if Michaela was trying to tell me something. Otherwise more of the same, with rafts of auks offshore at Muchalls including 1 Puffin, and another Great Skua. Can't believe that lot took my four hours on foot.

All kneel

Embarrassingly rubbish

Actually, I did go birding Sunday, thanks for asking. It was kind-of embarrassingly shite. Dead, even. I got the message when I'd walked down one side of the valley (Elsick Burn) and saw nothing but a couple of Wrens and a Robin, then as I was walking back up the other side a Willow Warbler flew out of the err.... willows and flitted back in again straight away, to join his mates in hiding. I was briefly encouraged by that, but then hung my head in shame.

There were 100s Barn Swallows heading sooth along the coast - when I tried seawatching all I saw was more swallows, further offshore, heading out over the waves. Occasional Sand Martins too (they're like occasional tables, but less handy for putting your drink down on). And among the House Martins, a groovy coffee-coloured juvenile - its plumage patterns were OK, but the colour was all wrong. The white bits were OK, but the dark bits were like milky coffee. Actually, maybe more like strong coffee. With milk in. There was a good article in Dutch Birding recently about calling plumage colour aberrations by their right name. I must look it up. Pretty sure that 'strong coffee with milk in' wasn't one of the options. You can tell I was bored by the way I was checking out the House Martins.

A Red-throated Diver going north offshore was my first of the autumn, although it's a bit of a cheat, cos I don't think all of them ever really go away.

So, in the absence of birds.... here's a video that does actually make me cry! Not sure if the 'R.I.P.' bit is tongue in cheek or not (no, it's not RIP Sammy - you have to go to Tom's site for that). A reminder of the days when Leeds United were truely awesome, not awful. Even Kewell, Judas backstabber that he became, surely the most talented player ever to put on a Leeds shirt. I'm so glad he went all crap after defecting. Enjoy. Non-Leeds fans might want to look away, or skip to 2.45s for the best bit. Or listen to the music. I'm old enough to recognise the Morrissey cover, but too old to recognise who's doing the covering.

One more before I go

This is me, same photo album. Arava Valley somewhere, 1992. Photo quite possibly taken by Bonsai Birder. Kept saying, 'Back a bit, bit more, bit more Martin.... no, you're OK, don't look behind.' It's only now I realise I fell to my death. Wonder who's been writing the blog?
I'm ashamed to say, 14 years later, I still have (and wear) that t-shirt. Even worse, I still have those legs. FFS! Didn't I eat anything? The shorts are in the bucket, long ago.

Lest we forget....

Well, b***** my b******s with a sharpened stick! I was clearing out a bookcase trying to make space for the assorted loot I picked up at the BirdFair, and I found an old photo album. So, in a random sort of way, here's some blast-from-the-past.



Cape Clear - seawatching, 1990 or 1991. From left to right, un-named YOC member, then Dave Bird (with long red hair, CCI warden at the time), then the next one (looking at camera) I'm pretty sure is Dave Allen, minus beard, but ex-Bardsey Warden and future CCI warden. Then 2 YOC people who may not even have had names (if you're reading this, prove me wrong). Then me (yellow arrow) also looking ginger, balancing unscratched Zeiss bins on top of multi-coloured tape-wrapped Bushnell Spacemaster. The some other assorted YOC flotsam (!- again, prove me wrong). Ah! The Bushnell Spacemaster... tell me how many people knew that as their first scope. Me for one. An innovative optic design... at Cape Clear, everyone else saw the white rump of the Storm Petrels. Me, I saw the yellow rump. Happy days.




Israel, May 1992. Forgotten but very welcome roadside café that sold BEER! Such a treat. Left to right... Chris McInnerny, Ken Shaw, Fraser McConnell and Steve Addinall (aka Bonsai Birder to BF members). Didn't they look young? Who'd have guessed what we would all become? Note some sort of sexy poster on the wall. Israel, brilliant for birds, shite for people. Oooh, little bit of politics for you there.


OOooooh.. too much beer. Chris and Steve birding hard. Shall we be generous and suggest they might be recording the overhead migration of Levant Sparrowhawk? With their eyes shut. It could happen.... they're better birders than me.

Friday night mating rituals

Birds Of Papau New Guinea - video powered by Metacafe

The Secret Freezer is.....

...about as popular as a cup of cold sick in Africa.


Please tell all your African pals... and get them to tell their friends in Russia, that the Secret Freezer is well worth diving into. I think there's a tub of mint-choc-chip ice cream at the back, behind the stash of Killdeers

Peru rocks!

My theme song

Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long, I'm glad to be back" Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos. But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

What's Your Theme Song?

Desperate, but not serious

In the spirit of desperation, I did whizz round the patch this morning before work, in the hope that those scarce migrants had been marooned by incessant showers. In fact, there are still lots of birds around - picked up 20+ Willow Warblers, and 3 Common Chiffchaffs, etc. A Spotted Flycatcher on wires above the Mill was only the third I've seen here (after 2 together on Cran Hill, September 2004), and there were 2 Stonechats on the bracken by the cliff steps. 2 Golden Plovers went south (another species I only get on migration here), but star billing goes to another local scarcity - a Kingfisher on the Elsick Burn. My second patch record, the first was flushed from the willows at the cliff sides one September dawn. The previous one was probably a genuine migrant, today's more likely to be some sort of post-juvenile dispersal (??) Good though.

I COULD let it lie; but I WON'T let it lie

Last time, then I promise I'll shut up about it. I'm probably breaking about 10 laws, but here's Birdguides' (http://www.birdguides.com - they're very good) BirdMap for Saturday 19th August. Shows you where the good birds are, the bigger the sqaures the better. Notice the correlation between the gap in records for Newtonhill (purple arrow) and the location of the Newtonhill observer (red arrow)

The Doctor is IN

...And he's bloody mad!

As Tommo notes, I was away from my patch for the best fall of the year. Diane sent me a text on Friday telling me it was raining from the east... and I started getting a bit jumpy, then Friday and especially Saturday there were Red-breasted Flycatchers, Red-backed Shrikes, Barred and Icterine Warblers, and Wrynecks up the Aberdeenshire coast... and I was mouthing off to everyone I met about how aggrieved I was. Then news of one or two Greenish Warblers, and I became a disgrace, turned into a new 'Pete' from Big Brother, wandering up and down twitching, hitting myself and going 'Meow, root-toot- *Wankers*, huh huh!!

I showed my scratched bins to the repair man at the Zeiss stand, and he just laughed, more when I told him my darling children knew nothing about what happened. Still, he gave them a clean and a check-up, and some new eye cups, all for free. Zeiss rocks! It will cost £75 to get the lens replaced, which doesn't sound bad to me, but I made the mistake of having a look through the 7 x 42 and 8 x 42 FL Victories - they're bloody brilliant! Zeiss rocks, again. Diane will have to mind some more children and then I can get a pair. Saw a Green Sandpiper from the optics tent too.

The Fair was good too. Fantastic meeting all you people. Sorry I was being an arse! I received good advice from someone who might wish to remain anonymous, I'll call him 'SH' so no one guesses, that I need to increase the libels in the Secret Freezer. Trouble is, Im not very good at it, although I did hear from 'TA' that 'DM' was trying to claim a Raven over the reserve. I think we'll need to see that description.

Thousands of happy punters enjoying the Bird Fair sunshine

Chemical Toilets. Go early, or go when you get home.

Terrible amounts of wildlife-related tat


BB editor Roger Riddington (right) with BB contributor Andrea Corso (left). Disappointingly, Andrea is a man, in spite of his name. We checked.


British Bird Fair. That rocks too! Note BB stand on left

The Doctor is OUT

I'm at the British Birdwatching Fair, http://www.birdfair.org.uk/

The 'Birder's Glastonbury' apparently. i.e. pissing rain, mud slides, sleeping in tents, punks and hippies, weird smells, long lines for disgusting chemical toilets, dirty children and piss-poor ethnic dance troupes. Can't wait. Taking my camera.

Remember, British Birds stand. Your once-a-year opportunity to see me in a polo shirt.

I must go down to the sea again...

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky
I left my vest and socks there - I wonder if they're dry?
Spike Milligan

But it was crap this morning - flat and no Gannets or anything going past to give me a bit of enthusiasm. Within 5 min I'd decided to go bash some bushes. Then a Manx Shearwater and 2 Great Skuas came by, so I decided to stay on. Then 20 min later I was bashing bushes. I should probably have stayed on, but hark! A Tree Pipit flying over - there is some migration happening. Also a Stonechat in the bracken above the fishermen's huts on the shore. They bred across the valley in Cran Hill this year, so not as interesting as it used to be.

Sooty's off the starboard bow

Up early this morning. So... an hour and a half seawatch before work. This is the life. Hope all my lab were working hard. Wind had dropped, but figured it couldn't be any worse than the few days of northerlies. And, up to a point, I was right. 1st clue was a flock of 10 Manx Shearwaters going past, close in, and they kept coming through in dribs and drabs, so that I'd had 75 in the end which, as I think i said before, isn't all that bad for dead-sea Newtonhill. I guess there might have been a Balearic Shearwater trying to slip through, but 30 of these birds were so close no mistake was possible. About 10 were so distant I didn't really get any plumage details at all, but even then I've seen enough Bals that the flight pattern might have raised suspicions. Still, there you go. Also, 7 Sooty Shearwaters, my first of the year, heading north, always on a slightly more distant line than the bulk of the Manxies - I've noticed that before. It took til 7.15 for the skuas to wake up and get going, but between then and 8.05 there were 9 Great Skuas, all north. A Pomarine Skua too. Between you and me, the Pom is a bit stringy. Argh! I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm going to format it with really dense text so that no one gets this far. It was a long way off, and was more of a jizz id than anything - didn't see any plumage and didn't appear to have spoons. I don't think I'll be bothering the County Recorder with it. Back on real birds... two Black Guillemots flew north! To put that in perspective, there's a small but unknown number breed a couple of miles to the south of me at Muchalls, but these were only the third and fourth individuals I've seen at Newtonhill in 4 1/2 years. That's the problem with Black Guillemots - they look pretty, but they're just pig-headed. What else... 20 Sandwich Terns, 9 Common Terns and 7 Arctic Terns, 204 Gannets per hour and 144 Fulmars, a dribble of Kittiwakes (mostly herds of juveniles sat on the water), a few rafts of Razorbills, and a few individual Guillemots. 4 Dunlin flew north.

There was one Harbour Porpoise sploshing about - now there's something that's become really scarce here this past couple of years, and a Grey Seal. But continuing my series of appetising dead mammals along coastal tracks, I found a beheaded Wood Mouse (patch tick!), the head still there next to it, half eaten, and a Harvestman Spider sucking its blood (no really!). So now I know why small mammals die on paths... they're overrun by packs of hunting Harvestmen, apparently. I'd assumed I'd flushed a Kestrel from it's breakfast without noticing, but the mouse was still there 90 min later as I went back to the car. Still dead.

My Simpsons Personality - must be true...?

You Are Lisa Simpson

A total child prodigy and super genius, you have the mind for world domination. But you prefer world peace, Buddhism, and tofu dogs. You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth"

The Simpsons Personality Test

Do your seabirds lose their flavour...

... on the bedpost overnight?? Cos mine seemed to have very much the same flavour this morning. Seawatched for another hour-and-a-bit, til I got bored, in a fresh northerly (boo!) for 7 Great Skuas, 2 Arctic Skuas, 1 Manx Shearwater, a few Common and Sandwich Terns, and 3 Common Scoters. Gannets coming past too - didn't bother counting, but it was about the same as yesterday i.e. 300 per hour north, but with lots v distant mostly south, so it's all feeding movements. At least the Arctic Skuas were entertaining, both v close in and after their brekkie. I might have missed the first one, a gorrrrrgeous very pale adult, as it was under my line of sight, but was alerted by the noise of a Sandwich Tern in evident distress - the distress being that it had an Arctic Skua attached to its primaries.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Behold.. her Bounty! Pt 2

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A chatty man with a dog asked about the eerie whistling noises he hears offshore coming from some black-and-white birds. I explained in detail how in mid-late summer, Little Auks fly down from the north and hang around adult Guillemots and Razorbills, bullying and harrassing them with high pitched whistling until they force the adults to disgorge their fish. If a joke's funny the first time, it's funny every time, I say.

It was surprisingly chilly, and when I went for a good poke round the Mill Gardens, bushes, etc of Newtonhill a deathly quiet predominated. Eventually managed to chivvy out a few Common Whitethroats, Willow Warblers, Blue Tits etc., but not a lot happening today.


Later....
Back out at tea time for another look round and another hour starting at the blank sea. Jeeeeesus I need a north-facing bit of coast. Another 6 Great Skuas, 4 Manxies, 4 Arctic Terns. I know the North Sea is full of Sooties just now, but I aren't getting them facing south east. There's some Balearics around too, but I'm never sure with these*, if they're on their own in the North Sea, or with something like 4 Manxies: there's some sites and people where you can pretty much trust the seawatch reports coming out to be gen, but I also feel there's a lot of stringing. As if some people who don't seawatch often feel they're owed 1 good bird each time they get out, and basically it's Cory's and Balearic Shearwaters, and Sabine's Gulls, that are easiest to string. Oh, and juvenile Long-tailed Skuas. yeh right. There, I said it. How arrogant is that? Note also how Little Shearwater claims have dried up since fellow birders saw through that little ruse. OW! Go to bed, Martin, nurse has your tablets here.

*except mine of course. That was a stick-on.

Don't want to offend...

... the sophisticated readership of Birdwatch magazine, but this post contains the word 'shit'. If you don't want to read the word 'shit', I suggest you switch over just now to a nice saccharine blog like Birdchick http://www.birdchick.com/blog.html even though it has gory bloodstains.

So yesterday I heard there were 'hundreds' of skuas battling north against the wind at Peterhead. Sounds like hyperbole to me (gasp!) but there's also lots of Storm Petrels out there, which I need for my patch list. So tea time tonight I headed out to see what harvest the sea would yield...

Behold! Her bounty...
6 Great Skuas
1 Arctic Skua
2 Manx Shearwaters
2 Common Scoters
13 Bar-tailed Godwits

Now even by my standards, that was shit. And I still need Stormy for the patch. Still, ever optimistic, I'll be back tomorrow.

Hey! Good news... I'll be at the Bird Fair next weekend, on the British Birds stand, hardly ever saying 'shit' at all, so if you were offended at being compared to a medieval plague victim (blog posting passim), now's your chance to look askance in my general direction.

The Dawn of Time

Somewhere in my loft I've got the first issue of Birdwatching magazine, complete with 'amusing' article by Bill Oddie, identification of something or other by Ian Wallace, and a nice picture of a Great Crested Grebe on the front. 20 years ago! Blimey. I was 16.

But that's not big and it's not clever... this is big and clever. Issue 1 of British Birds, from June 1907. Brainchild of Harry Witherby.


Mmmm Harry Witherby, now there's a hero of the Birding Revolution. Unfortunately done to death by others, but he'll get the Secret Freezer treatment one day.

What struck me, looking at the contents page


is that actually it's not really that different from the contents page 99 years later, June 2006.


Behaviour of this, study of that, changes to lists etc. You'd think there'd be nothing left to read about. Note inciteful paper by the author of the Secret Freezer.


grrrrr..... European Storm-petrels past Peterhead today. Still need for Newtonhill list. Roll on the weekend.

btw... is this http://www.birdchick.com/2006/08/my-mind-is-blown-not-bird-related.html the best bird blog entry ever?

So *that's* where all these hits have come from

Argh... my secret is out. Wondered why people were suddenly visiting the Secret Freezer. Turns out Chris Harbard has been saying it's good, sullying the pages of Birdwatch magazine with filthy lies (No. 170, p56). Now I'm going to have to maintain some standards, for the first time in my life. Curse you all!


Hang on a minute... what do you mean... 'illustrates the simplicity of blogs'!!

Ta to Chris, Marianne and Steve. Birdwatch rocks!* www.birdwatch.co.uk (but not much on it)

(*there are other magazines that may rock harder, but I'm not going there today).

Eeek! Argh! Phew!

This is NOT what you want to see when you get back from a week off work.... photograph on your desk accompanied by a note from a work colleague:

'Saw this while out climbing last week - what is it?'


Eeek! Apart from being a bloody Wallcreeper. Argh! Where were you climbing? Switzerland! Phew!
Still jealous though. Not an easy bird to see and photograph.

Heroes of the Birding Revolution IV - HG Alexander

Horace Gundry Alexander ('HG') - 1889-1989.


A Quaker, prevented by his religious beliefs from doing anything remotely exciting or enjoyable, he and his brothers were drawn to birdwatching like moths to a flame. Born in London, educated at Cambridge, he was in his youth one of the pioneers of Dungeness when it was nothing but a wasteland of Stone Curlews and Kentish Plovers. He went on to become a teacher, League of Nations, blah blah blah, and is perhaps most famous for his peace-work and his friendship with Gandhi during India's struggle for Independence. In fact, when Gandhi was in jail, he described HG as one of India's best friends. Hung out with Salim Ali. Spent his later life in the USA, continued birding up til his death, even though he couldn't see or hear properly any more. Cool.

He earns his prestigous 'Heroes' medal for his prolific contribution to the early development of sight-based bird recording. Numerous notes in British Birds (http://www.britishbirds.co.uk), contribution to Witherby's Handbook of British Birds and author of the iconic 70 years of Birdwatching. Take this record of a possible Yellow-browed Warbler from Dungeness, 1915. Remember a few miles to the west, gun and taxidermy-based ornithology was in full swing, with George Bristow's shop churning out rarities of spurious provenance and virtually no field-based description. HG was not like that...

British Birds 9: 183-184 (1915)
YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER SEEN IN KENT
On the 24th September 1915, I put a small bird out of a bush on Dungeness shingle, which looked as if it must be a Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus superciliosus [now inornatus]). It was almost dusk at the time and I lost the bird without getting a very good view of it, though I once heard a note, like the ordinary Willow-Wren's note [Willow Warbler] in general character, but sharper and much shriller.
Fortunately I found it again in the same bush next morning and obtained a much better view. When it first flew out, almost from under my feet, the yellowish colour of the rump attracted my attention, and in consequence I wondered if it were really Ph. proregulus; however, an examination of some specimens kindly lent me by Mr. Witherby convinces me that this is not the case. The eye-stripe was not very conspicuous, and the only time the bird gave me a good view of its wing the side-feathers covered much of the coverts, so I did not see much of the wing-bars; but both these features. as far as I saw them, are in agreement with one or two of the specimens examined. the short tail and regulois appearance were marked as the bird flew, but when it settled it looked just like a small Willow-Wren. I heard the note again three or four times. The bird became rather difficult of access after I had put it up two or three times, and I had to leave it in order to catch the train.
Dr N. F. Ticehurst mentions one or more occasions when this species has been observed in Kent, but no instance of it being obtained is recorded.
H. G. ALEXANDER

Now I'm not sure what that bird was (and I doubt it would get past a modern day County Recorder... 'I regret to say that although your description is suggestive there are one or two features that worry me and therefore...') but notice how this lays down the formula for an honest description, of a wild-bird, alive(!), its call, its behaviour, and the possible conclusion as to id, with caveats and other possibilities. Compare and contrast with the 'a bird was obtained and brought to me...' standard of bird recording prevalent elsewhere at the time. I love the bit about having to go for the train too. Interesting that Ticehurst wasn't aware of any others being obtained, because one (a Hastings Rarity) had been published in BB the year before. He was obviously experimenting with what was to become a long and honourable tradition of BB editorial members forgetting what has just been published in their own magazine.

Horace Gundry Alexander... you had a crap and mildly amusing name, but you were instrumental in developing the modern age of sight-based ornithological recording, and for this I name you a Hero of the Birding revolution, 1st Class.

HG Alexander (second left), going over the finer points of Yellow-browed Warbler identification with Gandhi and other members of the Indian Ornithological Union

A wee moose, and stop press, a wee gull!

Headed out round Newtonhill this morning, hoping against hope that a bit of migration or something might be happening. Not really expecting anything, so a bit surprised to find two Common Chiffchaffs in the Japanese Knotweed (bit of botany for you there) by the Elsick Burn - hell, maybe there *is* something going on. So I slowed down and had a good poke round. Didn't really turn anything else up apart from a load of surprised juveniles (Sedge Warblers, a fresh brood of Goldfinches, House Sparrows and Starlings, and a family of Willow Warblers including one juvvy trying to sing and getting it wrong, throwing in a pile of low pitched Blackcap-like notes) wondering who the 'pish monster' was who wouldn't leave them alone.

Vaguely aware of a constant trickle of adult and juvvy Barn Swallows heading south along the coast (30+), with a couple of Sand Martins, a few Sandwich Terns occupying the 'parent and child' spaces in Newtonhill Bay (eh?), and in an hour offshore the grand total of 2 Great Skuas (1 heading N, one on the water looking intimidating), and a 4 Common Terns. Saw 1 Puffin carrying fish to the clifftops, which surprised me, this late on in the season.

Dead (Common) Shrew count of 2 today, although I suspect one of them was an individual I'd noted previously and failed to eat. The second was definitely a new arrival. And a bonus! A House Mouse dead on the clifftop path! So much bigger compared to shrews. The problem with shrews is they're delicious at the time, but 10 minutes later you could manage another. Not so for mice, which keep hunger locked up til lunch.


Later....
Time off family duties for good behaviour, so got another hour's seawatching in the evening. It was very nearly very dull, although for the whole hour there was a raft of 50 feeding Kittiwakes just offshore with 33 Arctic Terns (ads and juvs) and 3 Common Terns. Another 5 Arctic Terns went north. 3 Great Skuas, 1 Arctic Skua and a Manx Shearwater,a ll north, 1 Common Scoter south, a juvvy Puffin on the water and 239 Gannets north (can tell I was bored by the way I counted the Gannets).

But no! not boring at all because right underneath my nose, there was an adult and juvenile Razorbill on the water, and a 1st summer Little Gull. Hurrah! And it was doing something I'd never seen Little Gulls do before.. smoking a cheap cigar and drinking a Bacardi Breezer. No, that was me; the Little Gull was trying to feed in association with the Razorbills. For 15 min I watched it constantly. It would hover above the ad Razorbill, then follow it above the water when it dived, occasionally dropping to the water surface and pecking (presumably) at some piece of sea-crap churned up by the Razorbill. If it lost the adult, it would hang around above the juvvy (which was calling constantly) until the adult came back (that looked a bit clever to me). When the adult surfaced, it would sometimes splash down aggressively right next to the Razorbill, but never touching it - don't think it was trying to steal fish. Lots of Kittiwakes going past, which it ignored, but it flew at and chased off a single Black-headed Gull. Got some photos with the Coolpix on maximum digital zoom (so not v good quality - sorry moving too much to digiscope properly). It was still doing it 25 minutes later, but after that it turned up in the raft of Kittiwakes and terns, where it fed with typical tern-like hovering and dipping.

I was ready to write a Note to BB, incorporating the words 'sea-crap', but on checking when I got home, I found this by Steve Madge from 1965 - describing every detail of what I had seen! Amazing, and I reckon if I'm only 41 years behind Steve Madge I'm not doing too badly.
Amazing though!

Below - some poor quality Little Gull with Razorbill.

Heroes of the Birding Revolution III - Bob the Builder

As any fule kno, when Bob the Builder gets a day off, there's nothing he likes better than a spot of birdwatching (and/or going for long sticky 'walks in the wood' with Wendy). Bob has a single-observer inland record of Blue-crested Warbler (first and only Western Palearctic record). The record was never officially submitted and is hence not admitted to the British List, but he made a high quality 15 minute video of the bird and the circumstances of the find, which has been broadcast repeatedly on BBC children's channels to an audience of millions, and is currently available as a DVD price £15. One can only admire this innovative digital approach to rarity reporting which has never really been repeated, although there are overtones of the single British Bay-breasted Warbler record. And Ivory-billed Woodpecker, for that matter. Bob the Builder - you are a renegade, and a rake, but the birding scene needs characters like you. I therefore title you a Hero of the Birding Revolution, Second Class.

By special request....

... I'm back.

And straight out for an hour's seawatch off the rocks at Newtonhill. Ahhhh, it's good to be back!!! It's like being back in the womb, but with more Kittiwakes. Not much like the womb at all really. More Puffin and less pushing... more migration and less gestation... more Prion and less amnion... more yolks and less, err.... yolk. Hey these jokes don't write themselves you know.
I would have to be nuts - flat calm, visibility for miles and an empty sea, but I gave it a go anyway. Surprisingly, more skuas than usual - 7 Great Skuas and 2 Arctic Skuas going north. A Velvet Scoter went south, 3 Manx Shearwaters north, bit of a flurry of Arctic Terns (23 north) (2 Common Terns), and 10 Common Gulls south.

Only 6 Puffins. Also the father-kiddy pairs of Guillemots appear to have swum away, but there were 10s of juvvy Razorbills getting fed.

Some poetry to relieve the boredom:

Swan swam over the sea
Swim Swan Swim!
Swan swam back again
Well swum Swan!

That's all for today.

Loch Mallochie

Hooray for hotel internet access... otherwise I would't be able to show you this brood of Wigeons at Loch Mallochie (Loch Garten RSPB)

Lizzie contemplating how best to throw stones at Wigeons



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