Passerines of Fair Isle

Hello

Fair Isle is well known for its breeding sea-birds and ability to pull in far-flung rarities. The exposed conditions and minimal amount of shrubs and trees ensures that only a few species of small birds find sufficient cover and food to breed on Fair Isle.

However the ones that do call Fair Isle home generally breed in good numbers. Fair Isle Wrens and Shetland Starlings find the dry stone walls and cliffs perfectly adequate nesting sites, House Sparrows cling to crofts and other buildings and open country birds such as Wheatear, Meadow Pipit and Twite cope very well with the heather strewn north end and the gentler croft dominated south end. Rock Pipits find the dramatic cliffs and geos to their liking and can be found foraging on most areas of the island. And apart from a few pairs of Pied Wagtails, few other small birds try to breed on this 3 mile by 1.5 mile rock situated between the Shetland and Orkney Isles.

Summering birds this year included a couple of Robins, a Blackbird and one or two Redwing, but no evidence of breeding...

Regards

Neil M

Male House Sparrow

Juvenile Twite

Juvenile Rock Pipit

Juvenile Wheatears

Wet Tuesday

Hello

Eleanor was out in the wet but quite humid conditions at Harrington Airfield this morning, and no near misses with tractors this time! A juvenile Marsh Harrier was hunting the fields and a second brood of Grey Partridge was found, this time a group of four youngsters...

Ringing returns from the weekend included a session at Linford Lakes on Saturday resulting in 45 birds being caught, 35 of which were new. They included 7 Reed Warblers, 4 Sedge Warblers, a Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaffs, a Garden Warbler, a Blackcap and a Treecreeper. A Great Crested Newt was an excellent non avian find!

On Sunday Stortons Gravel Pits was the venue for another session and this yielded 48 birds of which 40 were new. They included a Treecreeper, a Chiffchaff, 12 Reed Warblers, 3 Sedge Warblers, 2 Cetti's Warblers, 3 Garden Warblers and 9 Blackcaps.

My thanks to Kenny Cramer and John Woollett for the ringing information.

Regards

Neil M

Juvenile Robin at
Stortons GP.

Courtesy of John Boland.

Fair Isle summary

Hello

Apologies for the trailing off of blogs recently, a disadvantage of residing on the most isolated populated island in the UK - the Internet and mobile phone coverage on Fair Isle is limited and often absent completely...

We enjoyed a mixture of weather during our stay, the only sustained period of rain being at night. Walking, birding and some ringing has been the main activity of our short time on the island, the long daylight hours meaning we remained busy in the great outdoors for much of the time. The wonderful Fair Isle Bird Observatory hospitality and good food ensured a comfortable and enjoyable stay.

We located over 80 Bonxie or Great Skua chicks on the wilder areas of the island ensuring that the total number of ringed birds were at record levels this year, and with high levels of productivity. We also ringed some Fulmars, both chicks and adult, their legendary projectile vomiting habits reminding us why they are not a favourite amongst sea-bird ringers! We caught and ringed about 40 passerines which included the (Shetland) Starling and (Fair Isle) Wren, Twite, Pied Wagtail, Rock Pipit, Meadow Pipit and good numbers of Wheatear. Photographing colour-ringed birds proved an adult male Wheatear to be at least five years old and the identification of a breeding Rock Pipit that was first ringed in 2012 and has since been seen wintering in Aberdeenshire.

No rare birds were located but we did encounter Purple Sandpipers, a Black Redstart, quite a variety of waders and summering Great Northern and Red-throated Divers.

Time now for the long journey home to sunny Northamptonshire...!

Regards

Neil M

A stunning light phase
Arctic Skua - beautiful both
on the ground and in flight.

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

Dark phase Arctic Skua

Red-throated Diver

Dark phase Arctic Skua defending
its territory and chick from a
marauding Bonxie

Wheatear

Round Up

It has been a busy week and my birding has been rather restricted.
Whilst at agility near Staverton the resident family of Raven's were very vocal and tumbling about which was quite funny to watch......almost as funny as Tor, my dog, clowning about as he went over the jumps !!

The big grassy field at Blueberry has had a severe haircut and there is now only a small area of long grass/bushes.  Despite this at least two singing Grasshopper Warblers remain . It was whilst scanning this area I found a family of Stonechat, 2 adult with 3 youngsters and I'm pretty sure that they could not have flown very far as too young. I think that they could have bred there. Yesterday I could only find 2 youngsters with the adults. Before the field was cut I had been watching a healthy colony of Marbled White Butterflies, but I cannot find these now.

There have been a couple of Barn Owls hunting the area and also below Hanging Houghton.

This afternoon I was walking the fields between Walgrave village and the back of the Walgrave Bay. A couple of the fields have been recently harvested and these were attracting plenty of gulls, Red Kites, Common Buzzard and a "cream crown" Marsh Harrier.

I visited Harrington Airfield this evening and nearly got bowled over by a tractor. I literally had to jump into the bushes dragging the dogs with me !!!  They were busy harvesting and several tractors were taking the grain away, but one particular tractor was going too fast along the track.  So this rather spoilt my walk. I got off the track as soon as I could and was rewarded by a Redstart, Turtle Dove and at least 10 young Grey Partridge.

A few birds over the house this week including 2 Crossbills, Grey Wagtail, Ravens and Common Terns. There was a Humming Bird Hawk Moth in the village during the week.

It is nearly time for the next Birdclub Meeting.  On Wednesday 3rd August we have one of our birdclub members Jeff Blincow giving a talk about his trip to Chile.  It promises to be an excellent and entertaining evening. Everyone is very welcome - 7.30pm at the Lodge, Pitsford Water.

Regards

Eleanor

An island of skuas!

Hello

Our morning on Fair Isle today was made up of seeking out and ringing Great Skua (Bonxie) chicks! Quite different to their confrontational and aggressive parents, these delightful 'monsters to be' generally behave very well once located and sit still whilst their metal ring is affixed. Providing they survive the first year, these ocean predators may well live for twenty years or more...

Record numbers are breeding on the island this year, and it seems that they and other sea-bird species are generally enjoying a productive breeding season.

Also on the island are the beautiful and graceful Arctic Skuas. Much smaller and slimmer than their Bonxie cousins, a small population manages to breed on Fair Isle but sadly the chicks are often predated by the Bonxies at the fledging stage. Nevertheless they also seem to be experiencing a more productive season than of late.

Very few migrant passerines are moving through but gulls and waders are definitely on the move with plenty of Common Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Curlews, a Whimbrel and a variety of smaller waders feeding on the beaches or croft fields.

Regards

Neil M

Helen Franklin and Lynne
Barnett holding Bonxie chicks

Adult dark phase
Arctic Skua

Juvenile Arctic Skua

John Franklin suffering 'the Bonxie
experience'. Even when they are not
on territory, these intimidating birds
are renown for flying at the heads of
people, sometimes with a resounding
'slap' as they make contact with their feet...

Head to head with a Bonxie!

Adult Bonxie or Great Skua.
Big, powerful but also very
maneuverable too, these
predatory sea-birds really are
the 'wolves of the sea'.

Scottish birding

Hello

The NRG contingent finally arrived on Fair Isle today, the weather preventing this last leg of the journey until this afternoon. Prior to this we utilised our time with some birding in the Edinburgh area on Saturday and mainland Shetland on Sunday and Monday. A couple of pods of Orcas are presently patrolling Shetland waters but we haven't caught up with them yet...!

Regards

Neil M

Goosander

Eider

Guillemot

Fulmar

Puffin

Arctic Tern

Grey Seal

Red-breasted Merganser

Shetland birding

Hello

A planned short trip to Fair Isle hasn't gone quite according to plan with the travel arrangements, and currently four of us from the Northants Ringing Group are in Lerwick on the Shetland mainland. Plenty of northern birds to see this time of year with breeding sea birds and waders in good numbers and an opportunity to see passerines such as Rock Dove, Twite and the Shetland races of Starling and Wren.

Yesterday (Monday) we enjoyed an evening boat excursion to witness the vibrancy of the sea-bird city on Noss; we hope to try and fly to Fair Isle later today...

Regards

Neil M

Gannet

Great Skua or Bonxie

Arctic Tern

Fulmar

Great Black-backed Gull

Razorbill

County bird ringing...

Hello

Yesterday (Saturday) provided views of two Turtle Doves at Harrington Airfield during the early morning and Eric Graham's visit to Titchmarsh Reserve near Thrapston continued to yield views and song of common warblers, two Yellow-legged Gulls and five Little Egrets.

Today (Sunday) and Northants Ringing Group members John Woollett and Chris Payne were active at Stortons Gravel Pits where the catch included good numbers of Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler and a Willow Warbler. Nick Wood tried a new ringing strategy at Chase Park Farm adjacent to Yardley Chase resulting in the capture of three Dunnocks, two juvenile Goldcrests, a Blue Tit, three juvenile Chiffchaffs, three Willow Warblers, three Whitethroats, two Great Tits and a Robin.

Regards

Neil M

Juvenile Wren (oops not a
juvenile Cetti's Warbler)!
Courtesy of Chris Payne.

Pitsford Reservoir antics

Hello

A ringing session at the main Pitsford Reservoir feeding station spanning a few hours yesterday evening (Thursday) and first thing this morning (Friday) yielded a very good total of 71 captures (64 new birds and 7 re-traps). As you would hope at this time of the year most of the birds were juveniles (hatched this year) and were made up of 14 Dunnocks, 13 Tree Sparrows, 6 Chaffinches, 5 Sedge Warblers, 4 Blue Tits, 4 Robins, 5 Blackbirds, 6 Great Tits, 2 Garden Warblers, 2 Whitethroats, 2 Lesser Whitethroats, 2 Wrens, 2 Reed Buntings and singles of Chiffchaff, Greenfinch, Reed Warbler and Woodpigeon. 

The RAF Red Arrows display team whizzed over the reservoir heading south yesterday evening, and this afternoon they came back north between Hanging Houghton and Blueberry Farm.

Clouds of biting flies (Cleggs and Deer Flies) surrounded us this morning in warm conditions at Pitsford as efforts were made to tidy up the ringing rides in the Walgrave Bay, and work has started this week in replacing the bridges arching over the brooks at the very ends of the Scaldwell and Walgrave bays. Pedestrian access around the reserve shouldn't be affected by this essential work which is likely to take some weeks. A couple of Marbled White butterflies can be seen in the Scaldwell Meadow currently, between the causeway and the Maytrees Hide.

A flock of 14 Mistle Thrushes at Hanging Houghton this morning is a typical summer record when all the local village birds flock up after all breeding efforts are over. This bird is another of those species which is still present over most of its original range but the numbers have thinned out during the last few years.

Several hours walking and scanning in the Brampton Valley below Hanging Houghton this afternoon in sultry and humid conditions paid off for Eleanor with sightings of two Crossbills over Blueberry Farm, at least one Hobby and a juvenile Marsh Harrier again hunting cereal fields and grass headlands. Just a few Marbled Whites were visible at Blueberry Farm.

Birds of interest in the area of the dam and sailing club at Pitsford Reservoir this evening amounted to little more than two adult Yellow-legged Gulls and a Common Sandpiper.

Regards

Neil M

Some of the Red Arrows
(of a flight of nine aircraft)

Yellow-legged Gull
at Pitsford Reservoir
today courtesy of
Jacob Spinks (Young
Birdwatcher of the
Year finalist!)

French Dragons

Hello

Some initial images of dragonfly fauna and other beasts from the French Camargue region earlier this month. These pictures were taken during an eight day Naturetrek tour I helped out on, specifically looking at dragonflies and birds - but of course we looked at everything that crossed our path!

Regards

Neil M

The spectacular Scarce
Swallowtail butterfly...

Wall Brown butterfly.

Black-tailed Skimmer eating
a Wall Brown butterfly!

Pronged Clubtail

Cicada

Honey Buzzard

Red-veined Darter.

Black-tailed Skimmer
with blow-fly prey.

Mating pair of Blue-tailed Damselflies.