It's all gone now of course, but last week St. Swithin did eventually do his stuff, and weather resembling summmer did materialise. Just in time to develop a most unpleasant cold, it's been absolutely horrible.
So with the dreaded lurgy and the beginning of the Olympics to enjoy, last weekend was expected to be a bit of a write-off on the birding front. But last Friday evening, Andy found a juvenile Med Gull at Croxden Quarry, and was still present on arrival straight after work.
Then if that wasn't enough, after about half an hour an adult Med Gull flew in, cracking stuff!
Also present was the adult Yellow-legged Gull that's been coming and going from Croxden for a while now.
Another adult Yellow-leg was at Uttoxeter Quarry on Saturday afternoon, along with good numbers of Black Heads and Lesser Black-backeds, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary. Then just when you think Sunday can be a day off and recover a bit, Andy goes and finds a Black-tailed Godwit at Uttoxeter. Better have a quick look at it as it would be a quarry year tick.
As a matter of fact, it's the second Blackwit I've seen locally this year, and both in the same pose! Before setting for home another scan of the gulls was done. One of them was similar size to the Black-headed Gulls, had a plain, pale head, dark bill and a bit of a scaley pattern to the mantle and scapulars. Great, another juvenile Med Gull, pictures taken and off home.
Then, when loading the photos on the computer and comparing it with the Croxden bird, pieces in the puzzle weren't fitting. The pale front end looked ok, but bill wasn't right and the white edging to the mantle and scapular's scale pattern was nowhere near as pronounced as the Croxden bird. So other than a Beecham's-influenced hallucination, what's going on?
Perhaps it was actually a juvenile Common Gull instead, but the more pictures I studied, and being under the weather, the more confused I got. Thankfully after a few second opinions, the consensus is indeed that this is a juvenile Common Gull:
Although I must've done before at some point, I can't ever recall seeing a juvenile Common Gull like this one, looking so juvenile-like if you will, so close to home at the end of July. When they usually appear later in the year they've all moulted into a first-winter plumage of course. Am I worried about making a boo-boo, certainly not because everyone comes a cropper on gulls at some point. When you get little experiences like this, in the flesh, you learn so much more from it.
As everyone knows on the 15th July, St. Swithin's Day. If it's rains on this day then expect it to rain for the next 40 days and nights. And if it's fine weather, then expect that for the next 40 days and nights. It's been a fine and sunny day today, so come on St. Swithin, do your stuff and give us a dry spell!
Over at Uttoxeter Quarry, the main gravel pit these days is connected to the River Dove, so the water level goes up and down with the river. It's noticeable that flood waters do recede relatively quickly, so at least for today there's a bit of shoreline on offer, but a dry few weeks would of course expose more.
It was enough for decent selection of waders considering the circumstances, and getting a nice little run of birds going of late. The main highlight being the first Greenshank of the year, along with 7 Common and 4 Green Sandpipers, 2 Redshank, 2 Dunlin, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and 86 Lapwings. The family of Spotted Flycatchers with two youngsters were still around, as was this male Redstart. Not quite as smart as he would be in the spring, but still rather dapper.
No such luck with receding water levels at Blithers. If the water recedes at all this summer? Certainly hope it does. But a scan from the causeway revealed good counts of 33 Common Terns over the water, and 8 Common Sandpipers along the wall of the causeway.
Finishing the day off at Branston Gravel Pits. Another Greenshank here, and nearer than the Uttoxeter bird to have it's picture taken.
Other birds here included 3 Green Sandpipers, 3 Ringed Plovers, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 18 Curlew, 1 Oystercatcher, 2 Red-legged Partridge, 2 Green Woodpeckers and a Raven.
No pressure St. Swithin, but we've had enough rain now, it's not funny any more!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, don't write July off for birding. It doesn't have to be all moths, butterflies, dragonflies and other creepy crawlies. Take Thursday for example, checking Uttoxeter Quarry after work before it floods again. A drake Common Scoter had appeared:
I find it a strange phenomenon that Common Scoters appear on inland waters at this time of year, but it always happens. It would've been nice to check the quarry after work on Friday, after all the rain, But with a couple of closed, flooded roads between work and home, at Sandon and Lower Tean, perhaps it's best to make sure I can actually get home!
Checking the quarry this morning, it had indeed flooded for the fourth time since the end of April. The Common Scoter was still present, 5 Green Sandpipers found a flood in a field to their liking, 10 Common Sands were wandering around a combination of the little remaining shoreline, and the flotsam and jetsam adjoining the shore. It was also really pleasing to find a family party of Spotted Flycatchers, at least they've been successful:
Not sure what birding is going to be done tomorrow, I hear there's a little game of tennis on the telly to watch.
Without one particular bird this afternoon, I don't think I would've any blogging this evening. No birding done yesterday due to some much-needed housework, and today just a usual check of Uttoxeter Quarry.
A scan through the Lesser Black-backed Gulls had a Yellow-legged Gull with them, 3rd summer or a near-adult anyway. Then they all took off. Whilst looking through all the gulls in the air another large bird was descending from the sky. But this was no gull, it was only an Osprey, wayhey!
It had a fly around the gravel pit, landed briefly a couple of times. I for one was very pleased to see it, which can't be said for the Common Terns and Oystercatchers!
Then after a failed attempt to catch a fish, the Osprey steadily gained height, drifted off south-east and into Derbyshire. It's strange that after seeing loads of Ospreys in Cape May, I can still get really excited about one close to home. Also around this afternoon, completing a decent selection for July 1st were 8 Common Sandpipers, 7 Common Terns, 2 Redshank and 2 Raven.
Just when you think nothing much is going to happen, it's been quite a busy weekend. Thanks to a combination of being the Theo Walcott of WeBS counts (super-sub!) for a few different sites, and a Little Swift.
Tad Bay in Blithfield was to be counted on the Saturday morning anyway. This produced 17 Common Terns and a drake Shoveler. It was also pleasing to see a few young Coots and Great Crested Grebes, but not so good to see the water levels so high. It's going to take a good dry spell for some shoreline to appear.
Meanwhile, the pager reports had the Little Swift at New Brighton coming and going all the time, it came across as if it wouldn't be easy, and quite off-putting. So the Uttoxeter Quarry WeBS count was done. This revealed 9 Common Terns, a Ringed Plover, 10 Oystercatcher, 2 Shelduck and a Kingfisher amongst it's highlights.
During this time Little Swift news had gone very quiet. So some lunch, filled the car up with petrol and went home not having a clue what to do. But after a short time the thought was "I can either stay at home all day, or I can go and if it's a dip, so be it".
There was a hugh sigh of relief when the pager mentioned the bird still being present while driving up the M6 through Cheshire. It's a 90-minute drive to New Brighton, right at the top-end of the Wirral. Finding a group of birders with absolutely nobody looking, oh no what have I done.
But after about 20 minutes, thankfully the Little Swift was seen again flying over the mouth of the Mersey, hurrah! By the way, when I say the mouth of the Mersey, I do mean the river and not Jimmy Tarbuck or Stan Boardman. A few times the bird flew right over everyone's heads, double hurrah!
During my time at New Brighton, in addition to the Little Swift, other birds seen included Common Swifts and House Martins, a Peregrine, 2 Shelduck, a Dunlin and your usual Herring and Black-headed Gulls. Also from here, an excellent photo opportunity of the city of Liverpool from across the Mersey:
With one of the Liver birds in the distance,on the Liver building of course. Also in dock at the time was the Arcadia cruise liner.
With the Little Swift in the back of the net it was back to WeBSing this morning, like a duck counting machine! This time it was Dimmingsdale (not a lot), Brookleys Lake (a bit more, a female Mandarin and a pair of Mute Swans with eight cygnets) and the JCB lakes in Rocester (even more, apart from the untickable stuff, a flock of 131 Greylags).
Yesterday morning, through all the cold sweats and palpitations, I got my credit card out and spent some money! I am the proud owner of a nice, new, shiny laptop, and this is my first blog entry using it. It goes like stink! Much quicker than my old one, which after five years of use, was gradually running like a dog with one leg.
So whilst spending time copying files and installing software onto it, news was filtering through of a female Red-backed Shrike in the Silverdale Country Park/Black Bank area. A very pleasant interruption, lets have a look.
Only my second visit here, after looking at the juvenile Iceland Gull last christmas. The bird was always rather distant along the fence wire, with digiscoping not that easy in an increasingly wet and windy afternoon. It's also the second Staffs Red-backed Shrike pour moi, following the bird at Berry Hill in October 2006.
Onto Uttoxeter Quarry this morning. Despite yesterday's Shrike, things are definitely quietening down for the summer now. There were a few Common Terns around, a flock of 475 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (told you it was quiet!), and a selection of warblers which included a Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Common Whitethroats and 2 Reed Warblers.
Right, this should finish the last few days of this trip.
There were still a few guided excursions available, one of which on the 30th May was at the Cape May point state park. Parts of which felt a bit dudey, and after spending quite a bit of time there already, was there any need to do this? Most of the time it felt like I could've done this on my own, especially when pointing the guides to a pair of Caspian Terns on the beach. Breeding Caspian Terns in New Jersey are quite scarce, so it was pleasing to see these two getting rather amorous, although you're not quite there son!
There was also a Brown Pelican out at sea, and the first White-rumped Sandpiper of the trip on one of the lagoons. It was also interesting to see the man who checks the Purple Martins in action, winding the nest boxes back up!
In all five nest box colonies 420 eggs had been laid, with 10 hatched. Sounds like an excellent start for them this year. Where the guided walk came into it's own was for bird song. There was one particular song pointed out which was of a Northern Parula, but away from the footpath. When the walk finished it had started raining quite heavily. Which was good because it finally broke the heat, but I left my coat back at the motel.
So after going back to get my coat and a bit of breakfast, let's get back to the state park. Unfortunately the White-rumped Sand had moved on, but I managed to find the Northern Parula by the footpath,singing in the rain!
The rain continued for most of the day, but had stopped in time for the next guided excursion of the day, back at saltmarshes of Nummy Island. The problem was, although the rain had stopped and no wind, the midges were unbelievably vicious. Plenty of insect repellant was the order of the day! It was worth sticking it out however, for excellent views of Clapper Rail:
And the fantastic Yellow-crowned Night Heron, yabba-dabba-doo:
A great place for birding, but with both midges and ticks, not much luck with insects at Nummy Island! The next morning was back at Belleplain State Forest for another guided trip, the last one going for my time here. As with spring woods here, things start to quieten down in terms of bird song at the end of May. Well, apart from this Grey Catbird, he wouldn't shut up!
The lack of bird song cost the normally common Hooded Warbler, in fact it was even quieter than at the beginning of the week. But there still quite a few of lifers on offer. Including Wood Thrush, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Wood Pewee, a family party of Eastern Bluebirds (completing the "Blues Brothers" hat-trick, along with Indigo Bunting and Blue Grosbeak!), Yellow-breasted Chat. As much as we tried to see a singing Louisiana Waterthrush, there was no way of seeing it in some thick, impenetrable Cedar bog forest. Some further exploring after the guided trip produced a female Scarlet Tanager and a Black-and-White Warbler "tree-creeping" up a trunk.
During the Belleplain excursion, one of the guides checked the New Jersey bird news on his phone, and said seven Mississippi Kites were seen over the Rea Farm. That would've been nice to see. I also knew I hadn't seen Bald Eagle yet, the national bird of course. There are a few pairs of Bald Eagles around Cape May at this time of year, but far more common in winter.
So that was the challenge for my last full day, the 1st June, to get a couple of raptors for the trip list. The day started in neighbouring Cumberland County, at Heislerville.
It was strange that, despite being a similar habitat of saltmarshes and lagoons, different birds were to be seen here during the morning. Including 2 Bald Eagles, an adult and a 2nd-year bird. Also a Northern Flicker, Spotted Sandpiper, Ring-billed Gulls and oddly, a male Pheasant!
One of the lagoons at Heislerville contains a tree-filled island, containing a mixed colony of Double-crested Cormorants, Snowy Egrets, Great White Egrets and Night Herons of the Black-crowned flavour.
So that was a good morning spent. But if there's any chance of Mississippi Kite, then it's got to be back around Cape May point for the afternoon. An overcast morning turned into a gloriously sunny afternoon. Which brought out the vultures, allowing good comparisons between Turkey Vulture:
And Black Vulture:
Then spending some at the state park, a smallish raptor with a graceful flight came in, flew around the lighthouse and exited to the north. It's a Mississippi Kite, yes!! One more surprise came in the form of a flyover Little Blue Heron! A fine way to finish off my time at Cape May.
But with most of the day to spend on the 2nd June before heading back to Philadelphia, there was one more place to try. This was the "Edwin B. Forsythe" refuge, just north of Atlantic City.
Despite being very tempted to make my fortune at the casinos in Atlantic City, I went birding instead. Once again, its a case of more saltmarshes and lagoons, with an eight-mile driving circuit where you can stop and scan whereever you like.
Unlike further south in Cape May, Gull-billed Terns are frequent here, with a couple seen. But apart from that, there wasn't much excitement until the end of the circuit. That's when an adult Bald Eagle flew across, and I didn't realise that it landed further along from the track, just to stop for a drink. It allowed for fantastic views from the car!
Not that the local Willets and Oystercatchers were too pleased....
That seemed like a good point to finish the birding for this trip, and headed back to Philly with plenty of time to spare. I didn't do much research into Philadelphia, otherwise I could've done some sight-seeing. The little that I know of Philadelphia, it's famous for some soft cheese, a liberty bell that they still haven't fixed the crack in, and those steps that Rocky Balboa ran up (the museum of art). Thinking about it now, I could've done a Rocky!
Oh deary me no, that's far too energetic! But the jumping up and down was similar when seeing the Mississippi Kite. Instead, the trusty Toyota Yaris was handed back at the airport, checked my luggage in, through security, and successfully find a bar!
