January 03, 2005
January 1st - Langness
My local patch is at Langness & Derbyhaven on the Isle of Man.
Due to the recent strong winds I went to check Derbyhaven bay to see if any Divers or Grebes had been sheltering there.
The only birds in the bay were a couple of Shag
A bit disappointing but during this winter the bay hasnt produced any Divers or Grebes so far which is a bit strange.
I was heading home when I spotted 7 Chough feeding on the beach. They dont usually feed on this side of the peninsula but I think due to the very strong westerly winds they were feeding in a more sheltered area.
I parked up and they flew off as usual but after about 30 minutes they plucked up the courage and started coming back. A one point I had a Chough about 12ft from my car and I was able to get my best shot to date of a Chough.
I sent the record of the colour rings into our recorder and he told me that the bird was rung in the nest in May 2003 and was from a nest about 5 miles up the coast.
click for a larger version
Pretty happy with this, I then noticed all the birds go up. Assuming there was a Peregrine around somewhere I starting looking for it and spotted the big female coming in low from the breakwater area. She didnt catch anything and then headed over the golf course to try her luck at Langness.
I then was going home but took a detour to Scarlett which is on west side of Castletown bay ( Langness is on the east side )
Here were 3 female Goldeneye and not much else. The amount of Goldeneye wintering here seems to be dropping ever year. I hope that trend stops soon or I will have no Goldeneye to watch soon.
Also here was another Peregrine, this one came in over my head and stooped on a Redshank, making it take evasive action and it sploshed itself in the sea!
The Peregrine never tried to pick it up and the Redshank luckily wasnt overcome by the waves and flew off.
Not bad for the first day of the year 2 Peregrine sightings. There was not much else of any note here so I headed home.