Loonacy

(I know James used this title a few days ago, but copyright is actually mine...)
This morning I left home at ridiculous o'clock to meet up with Alison and Chris. Our plan was a 5-diver-spp day and bonus Black Scoter. Our first destination was Druridge Bay Country Park in Northumberland for the Pacific Diver. I have a bit of a bad history with this species. In late April 2015, before boarding the Scillonian to twitch the Great Blue Heron, I scanned the bay and failed to find the diver there. Next day it was seen. A few months later, I had a seat in a car that went and saw it, but I couldn't go. So when this Northumberland star started performing, showing 'slightly' better than the Penzance bird, I understood that this is an opportunity I was not going to give up. Despite the long drive.
And a long drive it was! We forged through Newcastle traffic to arrive on site before 9, when the light improved and positive news already relaxed our tension. We got on the bird immediately, as it foraged offshore the visitor centre. What a great start to the day! WP tick #1. It was showing well all the time we were there, but not really close enough for proper photos. But I cannot complain.

Pacific Diver - 2cy. Nice solid dark flanks, lacking rear flank patch of black-throated

At some angles, chinstrap was sort of evident... I have seen more convincing chinstraps in my life, but hey-ho. We traveled so far to see it, so no doubts please...

At some angles, head shape was not so round... But forehead is steep and bill is petite.

Here the massive dark flank and vent bar is evident:

And then it was time to move on. Nice to see Tree Sparrows and Bullfinches in the feeders at the carpark

Druidge Bay Country Park

Our next target was the male Black Scoter at Goswick, about an hour north. We headed straight east from the golf club carpark. We joined some birders already on site, but there was no sign of him this morning. We worked hard, scanning back and forth. There were tons of seaducks, and there was clearly stuff moving around, but no show. The sun was bright and brilliant, and the frontal views of yellow bills of male Common Scoters fooled us, but no sign of the real deal. We split after a while, I went south, also to try and photograph a 2cy Glaucous Gull that didn't cooperate, and I scanned the south side of the bay. Nada. 

Glaucous Gull 2cy - phonescoped through Swarovski ATX95

Then, after several hours of searching (which meant we had no chance to get to the White-billed Diver / Yellow-billed Loon in Lincolnshire on time), I got a call from Alison that they had found our bird further north. I hurried to join them and the bird was showing well, albeit distant. WP tick #2! It was swimming with other male scoters (interesting to see single-sex flocks of scoters), and oh boy, that yellow bulge was huge! And it was nice and black too. Great bird and really satisfying to see it after working pretty hard - somewhat more challenging than the Druidge diver.

Black Scoter (right) with Common Scoter (left)

Looking north from Goswick - Berwick-upon-Tweed in the distance

Supporting cast was absolutely fantastic. Hundreds of Long-tailed Ducks and Red-throated Divers, nice numbers of Eiders and Red-breasted Megansers. Quality birds included an out-of-season Manx Shearwater, 4 Slavonian and 1 Red-necked Grebe, 3 Great Northern and 2 Black-throated Divers, and 4 flyover Twite. See my eBird checklist here.

Then it was the L O N G drive back. Many thanks to Alison and Chris for the good company and for the driving. The White-billed Diver will have to wait for another day. Now it's time to get some sleep. Good night.

Birding Barbara

Had a great day in N Norfolk with James, Terry and Marie. Our main focus was geese - the large pinkfeet flocks attracted some quality geese over the last few days. We set an aim to see 14 goose taxa today but ended up with only eight... We started early around Syderstone and Docking. Scanning our own flocks produced little more than a few Tundra Beans, some Euro Whitefronts, a wild-looking Greylag, and a couple of funny hybrids. But hey, we didn't get bogged which was an achievement. As normal in these conditions, birds are distant and the best one can expect is crap digiscoped record shots. 

After some time others relocated the Red-breasted and the Todd's Canada side by side, north of Docking (thanks Ben for gen). We headed over there and the birds were on show. A mile away but scope views were good. Photos were, ehmmm... But great to see these two quality birds in the same scope view. This is my first 'wild' Canada Goose in the WP, and only my second-ever Red-breast. By the attention it receives from local birders, it should be 'wild' too. 

The Beauty and the Beast: Red-breasted Goose and Todd's Canada Goose, with Pink-footed Geese

Digiscoped through Swarovski ATX95 with Samsung Galaxy S5 and Novagrade adapter

Non-plastic Greylag? Who knows

Funny pigment-challenged (thanks Dave!) Pink-footed Goose. When I first saw its head, I thought it was a Lesser Whitefront. It clearly isn't. Sorry about the quality - a very long way away.

According to part of our team, the day's highlight was a brilliant breakfast at a secret N Norfolk spot:

While we had a quiet and cosy breakfast, outside things were happening. We moved on to Titchwell for some quality seaducks. When we got there, Storm Barabara had hit the coast and the weather was quite horrible. We were greeted at the carpark by this friendliest Robin, demonstrating pure Christmas spirit. James didn't miss an opp to pap him, and got down and dirty. Hardcore wildlife photography.

Braving the storm, we headed down to the beach. We had a quick look on the freshmarsh, and amazingly James picked up this adult Yellow-legged Gull, despite his frequent declarations that he doesn't do large white-headed gulls. 

One Water Pipit was on the freshmarsh too. On the beach it was pretty awful. The wind was so strong we couldn't stand up. Hunched under the concrete blocks, trying to find some shelter, we scanned the large raft of seaducks bobbing up and down on the choppy sea. The crazy wind had pushed them away from shore so views were less than great. But still it was quite fun with quality. There were over 25 Long-tailed Ducks, 6-7 Velvet Scoters, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 probable Black-throated Diver. I just love long-tails - great birds:

On the way back we paid a visit to the Ferruginous Duck on Pat's Pool. I would not twitch this bird independently, but the others were keen so why not. When we got there we scanned hard through the distant tufted flock and couldn't find the bird! Then we were shamefully told by other birders it was right under our nose, mooching about with the dabbling ducks. The sky darkened then as a result of the fading light and intensifying storm. Another set of excuses for rubbish photos. It was time to head back home.

 Ferruginous Duck 

With Gadwall

'Merry Christmas boys and girls!' says Mr. Fudge

BC day 2 - Vancouver Island - Orcas!

What a great day yesterday was. But first, good news - I think I have already overcome my jet-lag and I am delighted to announce that I had a good night's sleep.

Anyway, the night before was awful and I was grateful when the sun had come up over beautiful Vancouver. I just spent some time getting acquainted with common garden birds which was nice. Quite a lot of singing stuff. I think Bewick's Wren was a new bird for me...

After breakfast we headed out and caught the ferry to Nanaimo. While waiting for the ferry one Audobon's Warbler was singing in tall tress on a slope above the road. Though we did spend all of the crossing on the deck watching out, there were rather few birds. Some first Marbled Murrelets and Common Murres, Pacific and Common Loons, a few rafts of Surf Scoter but no marine mammals.

Surf Scoters

We started making our was north along the coast and made a few enjoyable stops. Englishman River Estuary was really good with lots of birds and good variety. Geese included quite many Black Brants, 6 Cackling Geese and a lone White-fronted Goose - I have no idea which form to expect here:

Ducks were in good variety too with Harlequins, Buffleheads, Goosanders, Red-breasted Mergansers, one Long-tailed Duck etc. Not too many shorebirds but we had a tame group of c. 30 Western Sandpipers - so pretty in summer plumage:

There was a larch concentration of gulls there. Among the masses of Glaucous-winged there was one Kumlien's Gull (need to confirm that - couldn't get a photo of it), American Herrings, Mew, California and Western Gulls.

Glaucous-winged, Mew and Bonaparte's Gulls, maybe a western on the left?

California Gull. Not sure about its age. Pretty fresh primaries and no moult yet, but already pretty bleached median coverts:

A group of the sweet tern-like Bonaparte's Gulls were foraging close in a funny fashion that included small springs and dives head-in:

Not too many passerines around, some hirundines and a small group of Savanna Sparrows:

Dedicated to my friends in the UK who dipped or didn't go for the one in Cheshire the other day:

'Pacific' White-crowned Sparrow

When we finished the circuit and arrived on the beach, Gidon was ahead of me and Amir, we were wasting time on photography. Gidon ran back to us: Orcas! We caught up with him - a pod of about five Orcas swam gracefully across the bay, too distant for photography but boy, these long dorsal fins... My first Orcas so I was pretty chuffed, stunning animals.

Gidon 

Little Qualicum River Estuary was also good with more gulls and ducks. I am just crazy about Harlequin, stunning birds:

Harlequin Ducks

Qualicum Bay was also just packed with birds. Huge numbers of loons, grebes, seaducks, alcids - I really enjoyed it. Also quite many Harbour Seals and Harbour Porpoises swimming about. Superb. Three species of scoter, Red-necked and Slavonian Grebes, Cassin's, Marbled Murrelets and Pigeon Guillemots, and lots more - great stuff.

At Fanny Bay the California Sea Lions were entertaining. The males roar is quite something, what a resonance box they must have...

In the evening we finally made it to Campbell River. As we checked in we got intel about Orcas that should be heading our was in front of our accommodation. We sat on the porch, enjoyed the sunset over the beautiful bay. We didn't see the orcas (did add Rhinocerus Auklets) but it was a lovely end to a great day.

Shetland day 5 - Lap Bunt but not there yet

Winds dropped today and it was an exceptionally calm day, sunny at times. This raised hopes for new arrivals. Well, that hope was almost completely false. I spent most of the day with the Dream Team, Roger and Paul. We started off with the Sumburgh circuit. Some stuff moving about up in the air - several Lesser Redpolls, Siskin and quite many geese. In the bay several Slav Grebes and Long-tailed Ducks:

Long-tailed Ducks - juveniles

Slavonian Grebes

Then we had a thorough look around Quendale. Also today the iris beds did not deliver. One Common Sandpiper and a Whitethroat were new. There were two Great Northern Divers there as well. I did play around with the Fulmars a bit.

Amazing scenery off the end of Quendale head

After lunch the news about Swainson's Thrush broke. I decided not to go because it would have been a mad dash, and I preferred to stay in the south and look for my own birds. Mistake? 

In the afternoon we checked Sumburgh head. A very showy Lapland Bunting (adult male?) was at the carpark. Lots of admirers there. Stunning bird! 

The view off Sumburgh Head was stunning:

Fair Isle was visible in the distance:

Last place we checked was Scatness. Roger found a very unsettled Sibe Chiffy but by the time I joined him it had evaporated. 

Lovely evening with all the team - certainly pumped me up with energy for tomorrow. Weather is looking promising. Hope my last day on Shetland delivers.