St. Ives pelagic

Pictures today, words tomorrow,... so tired,... so very, very tired.

[Edit - the words...] Crept away from Abercwimcum under the cover of darkness, rendezvoused in Isca at midnight and rolled onto Smeatons Pier about three and a half hours later. By five o'clock we were chugging away from St. Ives and out into the lumpy unknown. Drizzle and murk took over as darkness left off, limiting the visibility as we pitched and rolled, wind-against-tide, out to sea. Seven or so miles offshore chumming began and we drifted with the slick like a lonely turd on the swell; Stormies soon appeared, skimming and jinking over the greasy-grey but, as nice as they are, quite a wait ensued for anything of greater note. Luckily, to while away the time, I entertained the other members of the party by going green for a few minutes and threatening to show everyone my breakfast. Then, all need for amusement, and any thought of upchuckery, evaporated as a Wilson's made a couple of passes and I bagged the worst photo of a seabird in the history of history; a second Wilson's briefly trailed the boat on the way back in but, basically, it was all over bar the shouting, a few Manxies and a balloon knot of a drive back.

St. Ives pre-dawn, yes, that is your county recorder centre stage, at this point, still in his trousers.

Storm Petrel slipping past and off into the soft.

Mally, how can you not love that face (breath like a pinniped popping a fluffy mind).

Not exactly buzzin'

Another day, another high tide at Goldcliff. The only 'anomaly' in the 55 strong Dunlin flock was a Sanderling. Elsewhere 1 Knot, 2 Greenshank and 2 LRP were almost noteworthy and one of the colour-ringed godwits is still present whilst 3 Wheatears, a couple of Yellow Wagtail and a few hirundines were the sum of the passerine movement. Also had Painted Lady ovipositing on the Creeping Thistle alongside the third platform and 3 helicopters, 1 light aircraft and a military jet overhead.

We're busy doing nothing

We're busy doing nothing, working the whole day through,
Trying to find lots of things not to do.
We're busy going nowhere. Isn't it just a crime?
We'd like to be unhappy but we never do have the time.

Not much birding this week, a few Green Sands over Avonmouth way and precious little else,... have got another boat trip planned for Saturday though,... which is nice.

Cold water? No, my worm is just very small

Nothing too inspiring amongst the waders at Goldcliff this morning, the best bits were probably 3 Greenshank, 2 Green Sands, 2 LRP, 147 Black-tailed Godwit, 15 Snipe and 20 Yellow Wags. During high tide the birds were almost all on Lagoon 1 thanks to half a dozen fisher-folk dotted along the sea-wall and two of their mates stood out on the pill.


Having spoken to a couple of the wanglers, it turns out they, and the 'Newport Sea Wanglers' (the organisers of today's match), are well aware they shouldn't be on that stretch but it seems to make precisely f**k-all difference. They don't even have the sense to sit below the sea-wall. I wonder if they use 'Wanker Custom Lures',... bet they do [Note: if you get a mo, check out the link, it's not every website that includes the phrase "Bob hooked this big bass with a BJ Wanker crank"].

As usual the piss poor putt-putt planes pottered to and fro from Whitson Aerodrome, today joined by a shiny low-flying helicopter.

A little maritime excursion

There can't be many better ways to spend a sunny Friday in August than eight hours steaming around Lyme Bay for cetaceans and seabirds? If the boat's engine had been a touch less tinnitus-inducing and we'd managed to rustle up a few drums of rancid soup les fruit de mer (lovingly laced with fish liver oil) it would have been a perfect trip, but even so, we got what we came for - 20+ White-beaked Dolphin. A few individuals showed down to a handful of yards, evading the camera naturally enough but giving crippling views.

A couple of animals further out,... aww look at their ickle white noses!

The lack of chum meant we had to take the birds as we found them: 2 Balearic and 20+ Manx Shearwaters, 2 Great and 1 Arctic Skua, and three Common Scoter were the sum of the 'notables'. Slightly less predictable was a constant trickle of Large White butterflies, presumably blown offshore by the gentle north-westerly.

I'd predict records of more interesting pelagic wanderers may be just round the corner - wouldn't be too surprised if Wilson's Petrel snuck onto a few Dorset lists with a little effort. More information on the 'Lyme Bay Project' can be found here.

As that famed French birder Luc Besson once penned, "Between what you know and what you wish, lies the secret of... [The Big Blue]",... that's a Manxie by the way, not Rosanna Arquette.

Should 'windowlicker' be hyphenated?

Three species of migrant lep in the front garden today without even trying, the joy of a well-placed buddleia/buddleja (depending on whether you're an 'i-man' or a 'j-man'). Eight species of flutterby in total but the Gatekeepers refuse to join the party out front,... anti-social little bastards.

Autographa gamma and a furry windowlicker. Painted Lady and Red Admiral were, predictably, the other two,.... should you really, really want to know.

FS 68278 LA Y,O(f); RA B,G comes to Newport by way of 3055

Got some information back on one of the colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwits that frequented Goldcliff a couple of weeks back. It was originally ringed in December 2008 640 km SSE of Goldcliff at Moëze-Oleron National Nature Reserve, Charente Maritime, France (for more information on the reserve and a chance to brush up on your Français click here).

Of course, in the intervening months it has probably flown up to Iceland and back. I wonder whether it popped in for tea with Jónsi Birgisson, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson or any of those other clever musical bunnies,... I bet it did, islandica Black-tailed Godwits are famous for their good taste in Icelandic ambient post-rock classical ear-wormery.

Like the leaves [...] when Autumn hath blown

The acros are definitely on the march at Uskmouth, the nets were littered with the little blighters this morning resulting in a catch of just over 150,... not too bad a haul. Not a lot else though, a Yellow Wag knocked about early on and the usual horde of 'bearded wonders' were pinging around.

Unfortunately, we left half an hour before a Marsh Harrier was seen to flop our way,... arse.

Lamb sushi anyone?

The dead sheep and attendant gull were still present and proved to be just about the best on offer at Goldcliff this afternoon. For some reason the wader roost was all but non-existent; it was left to 10+ Yellow Wagtail, 1 Wheatear and a Green Sand to maintain the trickle of migration,... to be honest it wasn't exactly one of nature's great events.

[Edit: Forgot to mention one of yesterday's more interesting sightings, a female Teal with 7 three-quarter grown young was on the first lagoon.]

Heave!

A pretty low high-tide this afternoon meant most of the waders were to be found on the foreshore. Three Whimbrel, 4 Turnstone, 1 Common and 1 Green Sand were the 'highlights', however, Ringed Plover numbers were also up and the 120 strong flock of Black-tailed Godwits included the Icelandic ringed bird from last week (but none of the Barwits reported earlier in the day). Three Yellow Wags, a single Rock Pipit and a partially dismembered sheep carcass also made it into the notebook; the latter was partaking of a game of tug o' war with a playful Herring Gull and, despite the lack of a suitable rope, was putting up a selfless show of sportsmanship by making do with its own duodenum. I think we can all learn from that,... it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part.