30th August 2008 Whitburn Obs

A fantastic seawatch from Whitburn OBS this morning.

Although I did learn that I can't count duck flocks! If you are just as bad as me at estimating flock numbers then try this link here. It's a good game even if it didn't make me any better!

Before 10.00am there was a duckfest and more:
>1000 Teal
>250 Common Scoter
50+ Wigeon
1 Shoveller
1 Gadwall
13 Shelduck
12 Eider
2 Mallard
90+ Manx Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
1 Pomarine Skua (adult with full spoons)
4 Bonxies
17 Arctic Skuas
10 Little Gulls
2 Whimbrel
and a flock of 12 Common Sandpipers!


How many Teal in this picture? Don't ask me!


2 adult Arctic Skuas make a getaway after nicking a pipefish from this gull!


a juvenile Arctic Skua - one of only a very few past Whitburn so far this year.


10 of the 12 Common Sandpipers - I've never seen a migrating flock of this species before!

Brilliant!

Dalton Park Dragons and Damsels

Finally today we had some sunshine, so I popped down to Dalton Park to look for dragonflies. Having never seen any at this site before I was surprised to find 5 different species:



Common Blue Damselfly


Blue-tailed Damselfly


Emerald Damselfly


Common Darter


Emperor !!!

I wonder if this site gets migrant species too?

Seawatching Fun

Good Seawatching so far this weekend. Took Friday off and was rewarded by

ADULT SABINES GULL

early on - picked up simultaneously by the two observatory residents!

Friday evening was a big disappointment with only a few Arctic Skuas migrating south in the Northerly wind and Manx Shearwaters coming past at 1 per hour!

Today was a little better - no increase in skuas or shearwaters but a small increase in Teal (91 N) and Common Scoters (68 N).

That is, until about 9.00am when for no apparent reason a Sooty Shearwater came North pretty much right in front of the obs!





Sooty Shearwater

Black Stork in County Durham

And today, a British tick in my home county!



thanks to who ever found it!

A week in British Columbia

A few good birds during a relaxing week in BC

Pine Siskin


Ruffed Grouse

... a tick!

Bald Eagle


and a mystery hummer

A visit to Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto - 28th July 2008

After attending a conference in Toronto, I had an afternoon trip to Tommy Thompson Park, a man-made spit sticking into Lake Ontario from the middle of Toronto.

View Larger Map


It is a brilliant place, with lagoons, lots of cover for passerine migrants and a huge colony of Double-crested Cormorants. The cormorants were magic, flying past almost constantly in large, dynamic flocks



lots of breeding Eastern Kingbirds giving good views



flocks of young hirundines:



and a few migrants, including this empidonax flycatcher that I'm still trying to identify:



What a fantastic place - I would love to bird here during the migration period.