Well what can I say.
Ive been out every saturday and sunday
since my last blog entry and what have i seen?
Not alot! thats what.
So I am feeling not best pleased at the minute. What makes it worse is I am positive there are decent scarcities here somewhere, I just cant find them!
dohh
The closest I got to seeing a scarcity recently was a few weeks back when a Hoopoe was reported in the North of the Island. I went straight up there but by the time I got there the lady wouldnt allow any more access to her farm lane. She thought 2 people was too many..
dohh arama!
And thats about it. Nothing else to report.

I might take up trainspotting if this continues
(hmm its maybe not that drastic… yet.)

Pete.

http://www.manxbirdphotography.co.uk

today I was running extremely late and was very late for my lunchbreak.
I normally have my lunch around 12.30 but today it was 13.20 as I got out of the door. As I got to the bottom of the outside stairs and walked towards my car I could hear alot of commotion from some Herring Gulls.
I looked around and spotted about 10 of them quite high up. They seemed to be mobbing another bird. I strained my eyes and could make out this other bird was much much bigger than the Herring Gulls.
Thoughts went rushing through my head of what it could be so I sprinted (linford christie speeds!) back up the stairs and back into my office where I keep a rubbish pair of bins. I refound the gulls and swung the bins onto the bigger bird. I could not believe my eyes when I realised I was looking at an Osprey! Luckily noone else was in the office as expletives filled the air.
I have never seen an Osprey before so was in complete shock.
As it slowly flew SE towards Derbyhaven I grabbed my mobile and rang a birding mate. He usually spends his lunchtime birding at Derbyhaven with his lunch at 12-1 but I thought I would inform him anyway.
When he told me he was at Derbyhaven that second I quickly told him to get to the flying club as quick as he could as there was an Osprey heading that way.
A few minutes later he rang back to say he could see it and it had turned and was flying N up the coast. I managed to just about pick it out until it flew N out of sight.
Absolutely brilliant. One of the best moments I’ve had watching birds.
It also made me think how spooky it was that if I wasnt late for lunch
I would have missed the bird and how if Chris also wasnt late on his lunch he would have also missed it.
I hope I have more good luck like that in future though!

To cut a very long story short :
I was called early on sunday morning to be told there was an Iceland Gull at Maughold. I quickly got up there as I havent seen one in a few years.
When I got there I thought it looked more like a Glaucous Gull but I hadnt seen one of them for about 10 years so was a bit rusty . After a few people had viewed it I was overuled and it was put down as an Iceland Gull. Mainly due to the long primary projection it had.
After viewing my photos at home I again wondered about it being a Glaucous Gull so emailed the finder. After 2days of too ing and froeing and some discussion on Birdforum.net everyone eventually agreed it was a 1st winter Glaucous Gull.

I managed to get some not bad flight shots of it when it was coming to investigate the finders sandwiches we threw into a field

click for a larger version

It was still there upto the 23rd when a visiting photographer also saw it.

Pete
http://www.manxbirdphotography.co.uk

Ive been going down to my local patch every lunchtime this week
in the hope of finding some migrants coming in.
The best I came up with during the week were
the Brent Geese flock had now increased to 22.
I found a Bar tailed Godwit at Derbyhaven on the 16th and best of all
today (18th) I was scanning through several Rock pipits at the Flying club,
at least 8 of the birds were Scandinavian Rock Pipits and there were also a couple of Meadow Pipits here, when I came across another Brown pipit
but it was a touch duller. The double white wingbar stood out, as did its white super. Underneath it was very clean and whitish. With hardly any streaks on the flanks. The chest was streaked. I stayed on this bird trying to get the clincher and luckily for me at one point it preened and fanned its tail.
A white outer and a white tip to the next tail feather in ment I was looking at a non breeding plumage Water pipit!!
Ive spent all winter going through Pipits at various locations hoping for a Water Pipit and I finally found one. Well chuffed.

Well a combination of rubbish weather and zero scarcites has put a dampner on the good start to this year.

A fews weeks back though, I did manage a view of a Greenland White fronted Goose as it went towards the (private) Gravel pits at the Point of Ayre.
This was a manx tick for me and puts me at 195. My target is to reach 200 by the end of 2005. (Only a handful of manx birders are past the 200 mark at the moment).

To reach 200 I have a few targets in mind.

Crossbill – a few hang about the many man made plantations of here. (needle in a haystack springs to mind)
Ring Ouzel – they annually pass through the Calf of man but miraculously hardly touch the main island!
Reed Warbler – a tiny amount pass through and with about 2 very small areas of Reedbed over here this could be a bit tricky.
Then Ive got to hope to see some BOPs going over.
Red Kite – passes through annually and seems to be increasing in regularity.
Osprey – one or two go over the IOM on their way south. This one would be a well fluke.
Buzzard – A few a year seem to wander in then wander straight back out again.

If I can get them boys I’m home and dry

This does give me a headache at the weekends. Trying to decide whether to go Birding to look for new birds or Birding with an angle on getting decent photos.
The 2 types never seem to mix together which is annoying!

This spring I have decided to go for the former and when I reach 200 I can relax and switch to the later then

As for this weekend
Saturday Feb 19
I tried a new birding spot for me, Niarbyl. Last time I heard it mentioned was about 3 years ago when I visiting birder found a Desert Wheatear!!
I didnt have that much luck but nearly found something.
As I walked along the clifftop path, a pipit flew across me and banked to show its underside. There were no streaks at all. With the recent lack of interesting birds my mind went into overdrive so I peaked over the hedge into the unused field. It wasnt anywhere to be seen! I stayed for another 30 mins but it never reappeared… doh.
I walked a bit more along the path and found the small area of reedbed i had been told about. Its about half an acre in size so will be worth a look later in the year. (Ill keep you posted
I then found the small valley I was also told about. I had a look through for a wintering Firecrest just in case (Theres so many in the NW there must be one in the IOM somewhere). Nothing unusual was there but this area also looks promising for migration time.
On the walk back I saw my first Gannet of the year and a flock of 15 Common Eider fly north. (The pipit hadnt returned)
I think I will see how its like for Seawatching from here in the Autumn. It looks like it could be good.

Sunday Feb 20

I had decided to stake out Wigeons today so I got all the camo gear on.
I went straight to Strandhall for the high tide and was amazed to see the tide quite far out! It must have been one of those low high tides so I had to completely scrap the photographing wigeon plan.
I turned my attention to the several Rock pipits.
I looked at every one carefully and 1 stood out. It had a white super
and was whitish underneath with well defined streaks, but it still didnt look well defined enough to be a Water Pipit so I put it down as a Scandinavian Rock Pipit.
A scan on the saltmarsh produced approx 60 Golden Plovers but none was an AGP. That would have been nice.
I then moved to Langness and again was looking at Rock Pipits.
All were of the bog standard variety till a browner Pipit appeared.
For a few micro seconds it pretended to be a Tree Pipit but it was just a Meadow Pipit. Nothing else was about so I started scanning distant gulls.
Depressed I had resorted to that I cut my losses and went home.

Fingers crossed Migration starts early

Pete

http://www.manxbirdphotography.co.uk

22nd January

Saturday morning I had another visit up to the north of the Isle of Man.
First stop was Ballaugh Cronk just in case another Little Gull was about
It was just past high tide so there were very few birds on the beach but there was a flock of mixed finches about which I checked in case of a Brambling but it was just Linnet and Greenfinch.
I quickly moved further up the coast to The Lhen. Here with the tide in the Divers come within 50 yrds sometimes. It took me 2 scans of the sea to find 2 Winter plumage Red-throated divers about 100 yrds out then a little further out another diver surfaced. I got the scope on it and was pleased to see a winter plumage Black-throated diver. Going for the “hat trick” I scanned around and did indeed find a winter plumage Great-Northern diver. Brilliant stuff! None of the birds were close enough for photos though. I then saw a small flock of Geese flying over northwards. Assuming they were the local feral Greylags I had a half hearted look only to find they were Pink-footed Geese!
I was pretty pleased with that as I had missed out on the wintering flock at Glascoe everytime I had tried to see them. I also noticed another flock of finches flying along the dunes north. Curiousity took over so I drove to the next available beach which was Blue Point. I went down to the front edge of the dunes and walked along. I never found the finch flock but did spot a pipit skulking around in the low weeds. It then flew up the beach by about 10 yrds without calling. I thought this was a bit unusual as normally the Meadow or Rock pipits I see always call as they take off. I got close ish again and had a good look. It was a definate Meadow Pipit. Bahh. Never mind one day I will do that and it will be a Red-throated or Olive-backed Pipit
I went back to my car and didn’t see anything new so went off to Ramsey again. I had a quick stop to see if the Black Redstart was about but it wasn’t so I then moved off to stake out the Kingfisher again.
This time it was 2 hrs before low tide so I tried up a Pooyl Dhooey (probably spelt wrong). My friend had seen the 2 Kingfishers there at low tide a few days earlier so I parked up by the river and waited.
And waited….. and waited… I had a few things to keep me company as a few small birds kept flying across me into some trees. I checked them all and they were mainly Chaffinch with a few Blue and Great Tit chucked in for good measure. A Sparrowhawk also slowly went through the trees after the finches. After about 3 hrs I decided to cut my loses and head home.
I’m such a gluten for punishment I will probably be there again next Saturday.
I took a strange way home and managed to accidentally drive past the Whooper Swan field in Ballaugh. I saw through the bushes that they were extremely close to the roadside so I stopped and got a much better photo than last week.

Click for a larger version

23rd January
I found out that while I was up north the day before, there had been 10 Pintail at Langness (my local patch)!! Pintail is a scarce passage visitor to the Isle of Man and I reckon one of the nicer ducks to see. (Especially the males) So with this in mind in the morning I headed straight for Langness.
It was high tide so I expected to spot the ducks straight away if they were still there. Unfortunately most of the ducks had hauled out and were sleeping in amongst the rocks so trying to see them all was a bit tricky. After trying 3 different viewing positions I finally spotted 2 female Pintail a bit south of Madoc’s pool (this is the small pool that’s in line with Madoc’s hill, I’m not sure if this pool has a name so I always just call it Madoc’s Pool.)
Apart from the usual large flocks of Teal, Wigeon and Curlew there was not much else to see bar about 20 Golden Plover. Not many I know but at least its an improvement over the zero that had been here recently!
Wondering where to try next I then found out there was 4 Waxwings seen at the new hospital entrance the day before. 3 months ago seeing a Waxwing was a lifer for me so having only had a few sightings of them I quickly drove the 15 miles north to the outskirts of the capital of the Isle of Man.
I did a drive by first to try and spot or hear the Waxwings with no luck. I then got lost in the new hospitals car park! But managed to eventually find my way out. On my way out just by the entrance gate I spotted the 4 Waxwing in a tree on the right. Not wanting to park where I was I drove about 300 yrds away and was able to find a safe place to park. When I walked back the Waxwings were not in the tree!! Luckily I heard their loverly call from behind me and saw they had moved into the bushes on the opposite side of the road. I managed to walk round the bushes and get the sun (well the direction of the sun anyway) behind me. After about 1 hr one of the Waxwings came down and fed in a bush about 5-6 ft from me. I had my camera up ready for a shot but was looking past it to try and pinpoint where the WW had landed so before I got a shot off the WW was gone again!! NOOoooooo
What an opportunity missed that was!
Slightly depressed at this, I picked myself up when another WW appeared about 10ft away. This time I didn’t mess up my chance and got a shot I am very pleased with.

Click for larger version
Thank god I’m using a Canon 20D as in the bushes the light wasn’t good and I was able to use ISO 800 with hardly any noticeable “noise” on the finished shot.
Happy with seeing Waxwings again and getting a photo I left them to carry on finishing off the last few berries.
On the way home I popped in at Eairy Dam (a small reservoir in the middle of the island) to try and see Tufted Duck. Unfortunately there wasn’t any there. In fact last winter there were Tuftys, Pochard and Gadwall as well as the Wigeon and Teal here but this year there are only the Wigeon and Teal. I’m not sure what’s happened to the other ducks. Have they died or have they decided to winter somewhere else like at the Gravel Pits up at the Point of Ayre. Where the people with access have recorded large amounts of Pochard and Tufted Duck. I did see a few Coot on Eairy Dam though which was a first for the year for me!

24th January
I didn’t do any birding today but after work I had an evening trip to B&Q (lucky me!). On the way home a Barn Owl flew across the road! Excellent stuff!. It’s pure fluke if you see a Barn Owl on the Isle of Man during the year. (I only managed 1 sighting through all of last year.)

I had a quick check of my local area this morning but wasnt confident of finding anything especially with the tide out.
I started at Strandhall and there was nothing in the Gull roost there then I went round to Derbyhaven bay to again try and see if there were any divers or grebes.
As per usual there wasnt but there were about 6 Black Guillemot in the bay now. I then moved back round to scan the intertidal area and found
a Bar-tailed Godwit, always nice to see in the Isle of Man.
I then scoped a different part of the beach and found 2 Golden Plovers. I’m sure last winter we had a flock of 100+ Golden plovers right through the winter but this year apart from a large flock that came through in Oct/Nov I have hardly seen any Golden Plovers. Very strange.
Also a Grey Plover was flushed by a bait digger so I got a nice view of the dark “armpits” as it flew to another roosting position.
The heavens then opened so my quick check turned out to be even quicker and I headed home.

Here is a map of my usual areas I check.

Click for a larger version

(In later entries I will get pics of the actual areas.)

Pete.

http://www.manxbirdphotography.co.uk

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.

Click for larger version
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.

Click for a larger version
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

Click for a larger version
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!!

Pete
http://www.manxbirdphotography.co.uk

Last week I noticed someone had recorded Goosanders at Tromode.
So with these being very scarce on the IOM I decided that my Saturday morning would be spent going for these. Now last year there were 2 Goosanders wintering at Tromode and I noticed that they only spent overnight in the pond and would fly up river as soon as it got light. So with this knowledge I got up at 7am and drove the 10 miles to Tromode. Luckily for me I got through all the roads before the Police got up and shut the roads due to trees and power lines down!
I got to Tromode in the pitch black but still went and had a look and spotted the Male Goosander in the nearest corner on the pond. I decided to retreat back to the car and wait for the light to start to come up rather than go and frighten the Goosander. After about 20 minutes the light was starting to appear so I went back and the Goosander had already gone into the middle of the pond. But this time there were 3 females with it (or so I thought).
I then spent the next 2 hrs crawling round the pond trying to get in a positon where the Goosanders would swim past so I could get a photo. The best shots were in the end when I just walked along the path with the Male sleeping and then took a shot from by the side of a tree!! Slightly annoying, after I had spent alot of time and effort crawling around as not to disturb them and it looks like I didnt need to.

Click for a larger version
At one point when I was sitting by a few trees I heard some noisy Long-tailed Tits coming through. I have learnt to always check these flocks as other birds like to join them. Straight away I spotted a bird in the tree above me that didnt have a long tail. I got the bins on it and it was a female Siskin. Thats a good bird for me, I usually have to put alot of effort into finding them.
Then another bird flew onto a tree by the side of me and started scooting up it.
A loverly Treecreeper. Unfortunately in the scramble I goofed up both pictures and also a Long-tailed tit photo even though it was only at about 5 ft range!! arhghgh.
By 9.30am I had expected the Goosanders to have flown but due to the torrents in the nearby river, I can only assume the Goosanders had decided not to risk it. I decided then to leave them alone and try and see if I could get to the nearby Kerrowdhoo Reservoir. Here I was hoping for some diving ducks and an extremely super remote chance of a Smew.
Unfortunately the road to the reservoir was closed due to fallen trees!
bahhh.
I turned for home and decided to check Derbyhaven Bay. With the winds reduced but still up at the force 8-9 I had again hoped for some Diver/Grebe action. Last year with winds like this I found Great Crested and Slavonian Grebe in the bay which are both extremely scarce visitors to the IOM.
Unfortunately though there were no Divers in the bay but I did count 9 Black Guillemots in winter plumage. Also there were 9 Eiders.
I drove round to the beach side and noticed 3 Black Guillemots extremely close in. So I got out and nearly got blown over and went for the beach.
I waited for them to dive then legged it into position. I managed a few sharp shots inbetween alot of blurred shots.

Click for a larger version

I didnt stay too long as I kept getting blown over onto the wet sand.
Before going home I had a quick check of the Langness side (which was getting the full force of the wind) and noted a Male Shoveler in an advanced eclipse stage and 1 Knot on the Stinky Dubh. There were also the hundreds of Teal that winter here every year. After that I quickly retreated home to get dry and warm!

Ps. When I got home and went through my Goosander pics I noticed that one of the “females” was actually a 1st winter Male! . whoops