Isle of Man blog: January 15th

January 15, 2005

January 15th - Up North

I couldn’t decide whether to go out on Saturday as the weather forecast was looking bleak. But when I woke up I saw that it was only overcast and not raining as predicted. So I decided that a trip up north was in order.
I haven’t seen any Divers yet in 2005 so I decided the NW coast of the Isle of Man was where to go and have a look. Normally the 3 types of Diver winter off here so I had a good chance.
The day started well when a flock of around 20 Redwing flew over my house.
About 40 minutes and 25 (ish) miles north later a female Sparrowhawk flew across the front of my car as I drove through an area of trees that looked like it had taken a major battering in the storms last week. My first stop was at Ballamona beg field near Ballaugh. I couldn’t miss the herd of 13 Whooper Swan here.
I took a record shot as I haven’t taken a photo of a Whoppa in over a year.

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I then was going to go about 5 miles north to The Lhen for the divers but something made me change my mind and try the nearby Ballaugh Cronk. This is also a shingle beach like at The Lhen but at Ballaugh Cronk you can park right at the edge of the beach and when the weather is bad it’s always nice to be sitting in your car. Luckily for me when I got to the car park there were no dog walkers parked up so I was able to park at the closest point to the sea. At Ballaugh Cronk there is a small stream that runs into the sea. However, before it meets the sea it turns and flows about 100 yards parallel to the shore then turns left into the sea. On this stretch were approx 100 Black-headed Gulls so I had a good scan through them as I always do with BH Gulls looking for a Little Gull. Apart from this time I was also looking for a Common Gull as I hadn’t seen one in 2005. I drew a blank on both. In between the stream and the sea were 15 Ringed Plover and 10 Turnstone in amongst them were 2 Knot.
I then heard a few peeps from a finch flock and I located them on the washed up debris at the top of the beach. The flock included 3 Linnets, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Grey Wagtail and 2 Twite. This was my closest view of a Twite for well over a year so that was good.
I then had a look out to sea for Divers but it was just too exposed and choppy to see anything. In the meantime more Gulls had flown in and I saw 4 Common Gull in them. I then had another look through the Black-headed Gulls just in case and as I was doing so spotted a Turnstone on the near edge of the stream.

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I went back to scanning through the BH gulls from front to back and as I got to the last few flying gulls I spotted a tiny one fly in. It looked about two-thirds the size of the BH Gulls and instantly I thought ooer what’s this. Could it be a stunted BH Gull or was this a lifer floating towards me head on?
My next thought was do I grab my camera and go for a record shot or do I get a positive ID. I went for the latter.
By now the bird had got within 50yards still flying head on but now I could see a dark cap!
Brilliant!!! A Little Gull. I then grabbed the camera to try and get a record shot but when I looked back through the bins to find it I saw the Little Gull bank sharply and fly off north with the wind. As it banked I got a good view of the wings and mantle and the pattern reminded me of a 1st Winter Kittiwake. This confirmed it as a 1st Winter Little Gull. Unfortunately I watched it quickly fly north up the beach and out of site. I phoned the record to my friend who was on a beach further north so he could keep an eye out for it. I stayed for another hour hoping that the Little Gull might work it’s way back but it never did. I didn’t manage a record shot of the Gull but did get a photo of the area instead :)

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I finally left and headed for The Lhen. The sea here was much calmer so I scanned with my bins hoping to quickly pick up a diver. After three scans I had only managed 1 Eider and 2 Guillemots so I brought out the big guns (scope) and set to work. On my second scan I finally spotted a diver flapping quite far out. But it dived before I could ID it. After 10 minutes of searching for it I refound it and was able to ID it as a winter plumage Red-throated Diver. Amazingly within another 10 seconds I found another RTD !! Where that one was hiding when I scanned before, I don’t know. Happy with that I was about to go when I spotted another Diver flying from right to left. I got the scope on it and even though it was far out it looked to me like a Great-Northern Diver. Luckily enough it landed and I was able to confirm it as a Great-Northern Diver. As I was leaving I had 2 big Raven fly in front of me. That was three firsts for 2005 in about three minutes!
I then headed for the town of Ramsey on the NE coast. On my way, a female Hen Harrier flew across the road in front of me and I got a fleeting view but as per usual with these birds it carried on deep into the fields rather than staying near the road. So even though I stopped the car I wasn’t able to get a nice long view.
When I got to Ramsey I went straight to the harbour as two Black Redstarts have been wintering here. My friend had seen the female in the morning so I had a look around but saw nothing. I decided to sit it out. While I did, I saw my first Rock Pipit of the year and unusually for this area 2 Meadow Pipits. About ten minutes later I saw a small dark bird land behind some Iron Girders. It then popped out and revealed itself as the male Black Redstart. Brilliant!
I was doing well today so I thought I would have a go for the Kingfishers up the river.
The tide was 2 hrs from high so I thought I might have timed their passing into the harbour to perfection but with it being a very high tide the water was at a higher point than I thought it would be. I still stayed for an hour just in case but I saw nothing at all. It then started to chuck it down so I decided to call it a day. But what a great day it was!! :)