The thrushes are back!

It's that time of year again: calm, clear nights are filled with the 'seep' calls of Redwings and the 'ticks' of Song Thrushes, whilst fruiting hedgerows and berry-covered trees become the site for a major feast. I do love autumn thrush migration, especially when you can stand on your Uni campus and watch flocks of up to 70 Redwings migrating overhead during the morning!

So yeah, the thrushes are here! Or at least, in Cornwall at any rate. I awoke from our caravan on the 12th to hear my first few Redwings of the year calling before dawn broke, and in the ensuing days witnessed a fantastic arrival of hundreds (perhaps thousands?) of mixed turdus species falling from the sky into the county. It was superb to see flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares streaming overhead, particularly on the busier days when over 500 were noted. My counts builded gradually from the 12th, as noted in the following counts...

• 12th October - three Redwings
• 13th October - 158 Redwings, six Song Thrushes, six Blackbirds
• 14th October - 25 Redwings, three Song Thrushes
• 15th October - 87 Redwings, nine Song Thrushes, 16 Blackbirds, three Fieldfares
• 16th October - 498 Redwings, 19 Song Thrushes, 12 Blackbirds, 72 Fieldfares
• 17th October - 157 Redwings, 21 Song Thrushes, three Mistle Thrushes

By the 17th, the visible migration of birds overhead had more or less dried up, but many were now scattered amongst the various fruiting bushes and trees that line the fields and pepper the gardens. On campus, the most utilised trees took the form of the Yew conifers, which happened to be right outside our main lecture theatre! I spent quite a while on many a day watching them picking these potentially poisonous (to humans) berries and down them with satisfaction - as can be seen in the images below!

So there we are- it really is great to have the thrushes back, and hopefully some more periods of calm and clear conditions will provoke more movements and passages of birds overhead. For now, I shall enjoy watching them across the country in the surrounding area...

 Blackbirds making use of the Yew berries on campus

Arty Blackbird shot

 Song Thrushes

 Redwings

Fieldfares

Falmouth Birding update - autumn migration well underway

It has been a while since I had an avian-based update on my blog, so I thought it was about time to catch up with some of the sightings I have had around the area...
It has been great to start seeing some classic winter species arriving, hinting that autumn is approaching its mid-stages of migration: it was great to hear the first 'seep'-calls of Redwings yesterday morning, as the clear night gave way to a stunning morning. These were followed by a fantastic passage of Redwings over campus between 0800 and 0930 today, where flocks of up to 50 passed south-west, comprising over 160 during this time period! Accompanying them were a couple of Mistle Thrushes, Song Thrushes, 30+ Meadow Pipits, 4 Siskins, 4 Chaffinches and a Cormorant (!).

Visible migration, or 'vis mig' as it is alternatively termed, has been great over the caravan over the weekend too: I noted over 100 Meadow Pipits, 50+ Linnets, Siskin, five Skylarks, a Sparrowhawk, two Snipe, two 'alba' Wagtails and five Chaffinches on Sunday, with similar number present the previous day. I am hoping that this trend will continue over the next few days of clear skies and low winds, with a slightly scarcer stray perhaps finding its way into the mix...

In other news, the ridiculous Yellow-browed Warbler influx which is currently underway int he UK has certainly reached firmly down into the south west: I now have this stunning sibe wanderer on my home 'patch' list, when a bird turned up in the Sycamores about our caravan a few days ago! Prioir to this, another bird was heard on campus a day or two earlier. Aside these smart phylloscs, Firecrest numbers have been excellent: I have noted birds either on the coast or on campus every day for the last week, with the as many as five on any one day. I had a great encounter with a pair on the 7th, which are pictured below.

Other sightings of note: Greenshanks, Common Sandpipers, Curlews and Little Egrets on the flats in Penrhyn harbour; Green Woodpeckers on campus most days, with good numbers of Coal and Long-tailed Tits; a significant increase in wildfowl numbers of College Lake, with 17 Wigeons and 26 Teals present on the 10th, hinting towards the arrivals that are hopefully due to continue in the coming weeks.

Here is a more bird-centred mish-mash of images from the last week...

Coot! Great to see these charactful birds, especially coming from an island where one turning up on a small pond was the first in 15 years! Getting up close has been great for photography 

 The autumn colours are really starting to come through now...a Great Tit hiding amongst a tangle of branches

 One of the many Firecrests that have appeared over the last week; there has been a singing male daily on campus for a number of days now

female Stonechat

 It was nice to connect with a handful of smart Wheatears last week at Godrevy, where some Skylarks also pitched down amongst the 170+ Meadow Pipits...

 Skylarks- one of the quintessential elements of autumn passage, with their musical calls overhead a sure sign of good 'vis mig'

 Cormorant on a misty morning at Nanjizal

 It has been good fun to photograph a number of wildfowl species which I have never really spent time observing before now, due to their infrequent regularity on Bardsey. Little Grebes have been a pleasure to watch and photograph, as have the tame Tufted Ducks on Swanpool...

 male Tufted Ducks

Jays have been busy all over the area collecting their winter stash of Acorns. 

Underwater photography - Lumix FT-5

I have recently acquired a new piece of photographic kit, namely the Lumix FT-5. I bought this compact little camera to try out a bit of underwater photography, admittedly at a fairly low quality, but a progression from GoPro stills from movies nonetheless. Unfortunately the weather has not played ball for the last couple of weeks, meaning murky seas, strong winds, cloudy skies and therefore very little opportunity for taking to the seas. I have managed to get out a few times to try the great little camera out, and I have to say that I am very impressed with its capabilities. The macro is a great function, allowing very close range for small fish and other subjects, whilst the ease of use underwater and quality of images is great. I look forward to using this camera lot more in the coming weeks. Here is a small selection of images for now:

A species of Goby, which I am not entirely sure of yet

Grey Seal encounters! A female above and male (below) came to investigate me whilst I was snorkelling

Two-spotted Gobies (Gobiusculus flavescens)

It was cool to swim amongst this shoal of several hundred White Bait one afternoon- I tried to get below the shoal to get some silhouetted images

a species of Periwinkle I believe

Autumn migration update

Autumn migration seems to be very slow this year: in most years, the numbers of bright yellow juvenile Willow Warblers begins to rise from mid-July onwards, as birds begin their southward migration to Sub-Saharan Africa. Occasionally these numbers can reach peaks of 1000 (2nd August 2011) in early August. However, this year has seen very low numbers, with counts barely rising into the double figures during the whole of July and first part  of August. These lower than average numbers were mirrored in other species such as Sedge Warblers and White Wagtails, whilst hirundines have had some good passage days during the last few weeks. Most of this is down to the weather, with very unsettled conditions bringing windy and wet weather for prolonged periods during the summer.

The last week has seen a slight change, with calmer conditions encouraging some bigger arrivals and interesting sightings. On the 14th we had an arrival of almost 400 Willow Warblers, accompanied with 34 Spotted Flycatchers, two Garden Warblers, one Blackcap, four Chiffchaffs, five Whitethroats and three Goldcrests; in addition, recent days have seen Tree Pipits, Whinchats, Yellow Wagtail, Song Thrush and Short-eared Owl stopping off on the island. With the recent new moon, the high tides have brought a good deposit of seaweed onto Solfach, which has in turn encouraged a good number of waders to its shore. Peak counts have included 10 Ringed Plovers on the 16th, 25 Dunlins on the 15th, three Bar-tailed Godwits and a Whimbrel on the 17th, 32 Curlews on the 16th, 11 Redshanks, six Common Sandpipers and 12 Turnstones on the 17th, whilst scarcer visitors comprised a female Ruff (14th-16th), Green Sandpiper (17th), and three Bar-tailed Godwits (17th).

Sightings of rarer visitos to the island have been frequent in the last week: a single Great Crested Grebe off the coast on the 12th was surprisingly followed by a flock of five on the 13th- this is a very rare bird on the island, with no records for over 10 years before 2014! A Greater Spotted Woodpecker on the 13th was a good record too, and this bird stayed for a few days in the more wooded areas of the island. On the 16th, a large white bird was picked up flying south-west a mile or two off the coast. After a while, it became clear that it was an egret of some kind, and judging by the size, a Great White Egret! The island third record!

After a stunning few days, the weather looks to be breaking up in the following week, which will bring a good selection of seabirds past the coast, but conversely will not favour the arrivals of the smaller migrants on the island. Here is a selection of images from the last couple of weeks:

An adult and juvenile Oystercatcher roost amidst the breaking waves

many of the Turnstones are smart summer-plumaged birds

Kestrel

Willow Warblers are by far the most numerous migrant on land at the moment, but 90% are now adult birds (above). We have missed out on the large movement of bright juvenile birds that takes place earlier in the month. 

Juvenile Sedge Warbler

Whinchat- there have been a couple of birds present in the last week

Linnet numbers have increased substantially in recent days and weeks, with daily counts over 320 at the moment. Many are feeding in the oat and borage mix planted at the north end

the female Ruff spent a good few days feeding amongst the waders in Solfach

juvenile Dunlin

A Grey Heron flying in front of the buildings of Bardsey Bird and Field Observatory