Grey Phalarope. Chesil Cove 27th October

In my portfolio of bird sightings, I am underweight Grey Phalarope. I have seen one - very nice one too, on a marsh in Hampshire, great views etc, but that was in the previous century. And I think birds that are primarily sea birds should be seen primarily at sea, not stuck on some reservoir or marsh. So I have been looking for an opportunity for a few years, but strong SW winds and my availability at the requisite location have not coincided. Until now.

The aftermath of Storm Adolf or whatever its called had dumped Grey Phalaropes in the traditional spot of Chesil Cove. Four! no Five! no Six! the number seemed to go up everytime I checked Birdguides (other birding news sources are available). Surely even I couldn't cock this one up. 

Nevertheless I did experience some considerable panic on arriving at the site and surveying the bay in front of me. It struck me immediately that The Sea Is Very Big and Phalaropes Are Very Small. And I had literally no idea where to look. Do they like to hug right next to the coast? Or out in the swell? Together in a flock? Apart? And to top it the sea was raging in the strong wind, which was spectacular and is I guess the inevitable accompaniment of Phalarope wrecks. I eventually noticed another watcher with scope at the far end of the walkway and made my way over, and he reassuringly said there were four around a distant raft of weed. Even with those directions it was hard, but I eventually had two clear birds, as in two very small pale birds with long beaks and dark markings scattered around that flew in a wader like-fashion. What were the key features that separated them from Red-Necked at this distance? Please don't ask awkward questions. 

Apart from a distant adult Little Gull there wasn't much else, so I made my way back whereupon a photographer pointed out a Phalarope a lot closer. Smashing sightings, quite a lot of detail. Really nice to get this bird in the classic circumstances.

If I had a tip it would be that the birds look for food so they were in the vicinity of gulls that were also looking for food. Not sure if this association holds on more viewings.  

Hoping it's not another thirty years until my next sighting. 

Water Pipit and Snow Bunting

A couple of short trips to round off this week in Weymouth.

First up, prompted by a record on Birdguides of three Water Pipits, was the north viewpoint at Radipole. Over the decades this location has had a range of habitat-types; ponds, scrapes, and a range of seating arrangements; today (20th) I sat in the open viewing area, looking through screens at a large open area of cut reed-bed. There were patches of water on the ground so I felt confident as I scanned across I would see three Water Pipits picking round the edge. Inevitably they weren't there. The compensation was two Stonechats, and then a couple of Marsh Harriers with 5 Swallows flying through. And as always here just loads and loads of Mediterranean Gull. Must be 1000+ in Weymouth at the moment

As I was getting ready to go there was a thin tseep and a pipit dropped into vegetation in front of the viewing area. A scope view revealed it was indeed a Water Pipit. Excellent! I had a good look as I experienced some difficulty with pipit ID at Titchwell; normally location-based ID works well for Rock/Water Pipit but the flock at Titchwell had me thoroughly confused; do two half-Water-Pipits make a whole one? This one was front on, but still showed a supercilium equally split fore and aft the eye, nice strong streaking round the throat, and well marked white wing stripes. Fantastic.

Then on 22nd a walk round Portland Bill where a Snow Bunting had been reported. Two photographers concentrating on a spot below the path did indeed turn out to be photographing a Snow Bunting, very good views too. They mentioned another Snow Bunting higher up by the huts. I went up there and found another photographer focussing on a flat area below the path by an old quarry. I scanned and saw nothing, so enquired and it was indeed the second Snow Bunting actively feeding in some low vegetation! 

I managed a sighting of Rock Pipit and checked the absence of eye stripe and lack of white wing bars, but I know from experience there is some variety. And indeed Water Pipit had been seen here recently by local top birder Joe Stockwell.  And finally Clouded Yellows still around, seven in total including a couple of the Helice form. Smashing.

Tuna!

19th October. A day of South Easterlies that brought rare Wheatears and exotic Robins to the east coast, and to me sat on the end of Portland Bill ... nothing. Obviously that's not strictly true. But a handful of Kittiwakes going west wasn't really doing it for me so I got ready to leave, but another birder was on his way down so we joined up and admired an empty calm sea with a setting sun.

Some gulls began to hang around about 100 yards away from us. And then some more, and then some Gannets, and then some more Gannets. The suspicion that something was happening was confirmed when my fellow birder shouted 'Tuna!'

I scanned and soon found a rear end going into the waves, then a back breaching the surface, then a whole fish in mid air briefly before it plunged down into the water. Wow. They are huge. Not just long but barrel-shaped, powerful, compact and muscular. I kept scanning, seeing more and more signs of activity, and at one point on a scan counted seven individual tuna. This went on for a good half hour, a frenzy of charging tuna and diving gannets. Occasionally one would be almost on the surface speeding across no doubt after prey, but generally they would become briefly airborne before plunging back down. 

Everyone reading this will know what was happening. A pack (shoal seems too tame a word) of Bluefin Tuna round up a shoal of small fish and coral them into a tight ball and force them up to the surface, then they tear into them in a feeding frenzy which attracts sea birds to form a melee of savagery.

Organised attacks by predators on prey provides some of the most memorable of nature's wildlife spectacles. People travel thousands of miles to see Lions hunt Wildebeest, Cheetahs charging across he plain, Tigers chasing deer. I felt this evening I was watching one of those great spectacles, Tuna hunting down their prey. Definitely one of my all time top wildlife moments, and all from the everyday location of the Dorset coast.

Musselburgh 5&6 Oct

A visit to D#1 and husband in SE Edinburgh to see grandchild #2 for the first time. A couple of chances to nip out to nearby Musselburgh.

I've been here before. So I'm getting a routine together. On the 5th I parked at Leavenhall links and made my way to the old lagoons. Almost deserted apart from a juvenile Ruff. Then as I walked down to the sea wall a skein of geese came over. Pink-feet are a feature of Norfolk at this time of years, so I put the bins on half expecting it to be them on their way south, but no! White bellies! Black necks with white face patches! 31 Barnacle Geese! A subsequent chat with a local indicated that locally this is nothing to get worked up about, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a genuine wild flock on migration, assuming that's what they were. 

Down to the sea wall and I got the scope up. It's a Kowa TSN-1 with 32x eye-piece that I keep at D#1's  house. It was state of the art in the 1980s but is a museum piece now. Looking through it is hard work; the focus is only sharp over a narrow range of depth so you have to work the focus wheel a lot and concentrate hard, whereas looking through my Kowa 883 is, well, its like looking but much closer. 

It was blowing a gale. Distant Eiders, many Red-Breasted Mergansers, auks, and a decent number of this year's Gannets, but for variety I could only find a couple of Red-Throated Divers. And then a brown bird shot through the scope, and getting my bins on it revealed it as a female Merlin heading over from Fife, which went over the sea wall and into the country park. Very welcome.

I called it a day, but found myself back here the next day. Straight to the coast in calmer conditions, and a distant flock of gulls. I spent easily half an hour going through these and amongst the Black-Headed Gulls found Little Gulls thinly spread throughout the flock, eventually settling on a conservative total of 33. There were a mixture of adults and juveniles, and I got excited by a gull with contrasting brownish forewings and white secondaries. After the event I was kicking myself for not giving this a better grilling, but then I have to remind myself I was looking at a distance of half a mile through the bottom of a pint glass. ID'ing Little Gulls was hard enough. Just let it go DD.

On to the new lagoons and it was alive with wildfowl. The lagoons are reasonably close to the path so great scope views were had. Wigeon in tens possibly 100+, Shoveler, Greylag Geese, and a flock of about 35 Barnacle Geese on the lagoons (I had been told about these) and amongst them all a few Pink-Footed Geese and a female Goosander. 

So that was it. A terrific place to watch birds with a range of habitat. I will be back.