January 24, 2005
King Eider
That'll be 2005 off to a good start then! Was at JL's house when his phone rang - B had finally nailed down a distant sighting he'd had earlier in the week - a drake King Eider roosting on a small island opposite ours. JL drove us on the first twitch of the year, all of a quarter of a mile, to park where we could scope the distant eider flock.
It took a short while to find the bird, and we got less than brilliant views - rather distant, partially obscured by the ground, poor viewing conditions in a brisk north-westerly... yep, not the stuff that makes for a convincing description! But the real deal nonetheless, trust me...
Went back to look for it again on Saturday, but no sign of any Eider at all. Lucked in on a white-winged gull flying along the shore of the far island, which obligingly flew across the water and right overhead - a 1st w Iceland Gull. Nice.
Also stumbled across the long-staying Bar-tailed Godwit - hardly a mega, but new for me for the island. Could really do with any of the three species above making it down to my end of the island... Best we could manage over the weekend were 5 flyover Whoopers.
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January 12, 2005
Shocking case of wind
Happy New Year everybody! Pleasantries aside, it's been a while - a testament to two things - the fact I've not really been birding since mid November, and the fact that there's not much to see anyway...
Of course that's not entirely true, as odds and sods have been turning up elsewhere on the islands, but my chances of finding something near to home are precisely nil, as I only ever see the island in daylight at weekends - short hours of daylight up here, though getting longer now.
The real reason for the first entry of 2005 was last night's weather - a hurricane by any other name. I kept going outside until midnight to measure the windspeed, and finally clocked a gust of 119mph just before midnight.
119mph.
Staggering stuff.
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