French Trip - Day 6 - 19/5/13

Woke up to a surprisingly bright morning. The contents of the previous evenings snow blizzard was still lingering, however this had obviously prompted a few species to descend. Our last day in the Alps, so as much time was spent trying to clear up on any missed species, but due to the conditions it was tricky. The afternoon was spent on the coast again and we spent the night in a car park at Le Crau.

Briancon - Col de Lautaret
Rock Thrush - 5
Rock Sparrow - 1
Cirl Bunting - 1
Red-backed Shrike - 4
Alpine Chough - 200+
Red-billed Chough - 10
Wheatear - 110 (huge numbers in fields with no snow)
Dipper - 2

Bois des Ayes
Nutcracker - 5
Citril Finch - 2
Golden Eagle - 1
Alpine Chough - 20
Water Pipit - 5

Le Crau (east)
Southern Grey Shrike - 1
Little Bustard - 4
Stone-Curlew - 10
Crested Lark - 2
Hoopoe - 2

 Rock Thrush

 Crag Martins

 Red-backed Shrike

Alpine & Red-billed Chough

French Trip - Day 7 - 20/5/13

A lovely day with clear blue skies all day. The wind got quite strong in the afternoon but didn't stop the birds from showing. Mainly concentrated our efforts around The Camargue seeing plenty of bits. Our last night was spent at the Auberge des Epis hotel in St. Martin Le Crau.

Le Crau (Peau De Meau)
Pin-tailed Sandgrouse - 14
Little Bustard - 1
Short-toed Lark - 6
Roller - 4
Bee-Eater - 100+
Woodchat Shrike - 1
Hoopoe - 5
Black Kite - 50+ (in one flock)
Honey Buzzard - 1
Quail - 1 h

The Camargue (East)
Greater Flamingo - 500+
Slender-billed Gull - 1
Spectacled Warbler - 5
Short-toed Eagle - 3
Gull-billed Tern - 2
Kentish Plover - 10

Le Petit Camargue
Little Bittern - 1
Montagu's Harrier - 1
Caspian Tern - 1
Black Tern - 2
Whiskered Tern - 10
White-winged Black Tern - 3
Gull-billed Tern - 10
Purple Heron - 20+
Glossy Ibis - 10

 Black-winged Stilts

Slender-billed Gull

Sardinian Warbler

 Greater Flamingo

 Spectacled Warbler

Kentish Plover

 Lesser Emperor Dragonfly



Splash Point 7/5/13

Only an 11 hour stint today as I had to leave for 3 hours, but fortunately no Poms were missed in that time frame. It was slower than yesterday but as always the company was good.

The winds are turning westerly now so today will be my last seawatch of the Pom season as I am also going away next week. It was somewhat better than I expected it would be from a few weeks back and it was good to do some all day sessions. As tedious as they can be, I still enjoy them.

Totals for 04.45-09.00 & 12.00-19.00 are:

Pomarine Skua - 9
Arctic Skua - 3
Black Tern - 1
Little Tern - 7
Commic Tern - 810 (more mixed groups today)
Arctic Tern - 10
Sandwich Tern - 54
Little Gull - 1
Mediterranean Gull - 2
Bar-tailed Godwit - 238
Greenshank - 1
Redshank - 1
Whimbrel - 2
Sanderling - 2
Knot - 7
Common Scoter - 194
Shoveler - 8

poor pic of my favourite seabird

Skuas in the Mist 6/5/13

Well, a 14 hour seawatch at Splash Point of what half of this time was spent looking at nothing as the fog rolled in (and eventually back out again) limiting the visibility to 50 metres actually produced some results towards the end of the day.
It was tough going and as I am now in a 'ok' position to take the Splash Pom King for my third year, I will spend all the time I can down there, especially when my Pom rivals are just over my shoulder!!! But also it is always a good laugh with the likes of Ewan and Bob around.
Anyway, the fog rolled in at 06.45 and rolled back out at 14.00 in which time very little was recorded.

Totals are 04.30-18.30:

Pomarine Skua - 7 all l/p (2@ 15:39; singles at 16:43, 16:51, 17:27, 17:38, 18:12.)
Arctic Skua - 5
Great Skua - 1
Black Tern - 5 - all within the first hour
Little Tern - 6
Common Tern - 793
Commic Tern - 548
Sandwich Tern - 39+
Whimbrel - 27
Bar-tailed Godwit - 164
Greenshank - 1
Grey Plover - 2
Sanderling - 5
Dunlin - 1
Knot - 2
Common Scoter - 52
Black-throated Diver - 1
Red-throated Diver - 5

Not the brightest idea!!!

Seaford Head, Old Lodge + Splash Point 5/5/13

Started the day on S'ford Head where there was literally nothing. Not a single new arrival was noted. Anyway a quick detour to Splash resulted in a few Arctic Skuas and a Little Tern past.

Old Lodge was next with Dick and James where the usual stuff was seen. However, after all this an afternoon seawatch at Splash produced masses of Terns and lots of Skuas for a change.

Old Lodge
Redstart - 2 + many more heard
Hobby - 1
Tree Pipit - 5
Cuckoo - 2h
Woodlark - 1h

Splash Point 2.30pm - 6pm
Pomarine Skua - 4 - groups consisted of 3 and 1.
Arctic Skua - 15
Commic Tern - 4200 - all identified were Common, birds further out were presumably this species.
Bar-tailed Godwit - 88

Tree Pipit at Old Lodge

Seaford Head 1/5/13

A late morning walk produced no new migrants whatsoever. Maybe they had all moved on north before I had arrived, or just none had come in.....more of the latter I think. It was nice however to see some other wildlife for a change.

Totals:

Black Redstart - 2 (the same individuals from last week)

Orange-tip Butterfly - 1
Adder - 1

Adder on Seaford Head

Seaford Head + Abbots Wood 30/4/13

A very cold morning on the Head produced as expected not very much. After I had defrosted at home I went to Abbots to mainly photograph the Nightingales. No Butterflies were seen however.

S'ford Head:

Firecrest - 1
Wheatear - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 7
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 3
Whimbrel - 11
Bar-tailed Godwit - 2

Abbots Wood + Arlington Res.

Nightingale - 6
House Martin - 2 (my first of the year!!!)
Willow Warbler - 2

 Nightingale

Pied Wagtail at Arlington