Hudsonian Godwit, Burton Mere Wetlands.

When news broke on Tuesday 13th August that Colin Wells had found a Hudsonian Godwit at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB (BMW) the previous evening I played it cool and went to Hilbre to man the Bird Observatory for a few hours  - especially as the wind had switched to SE over night. As it happened the winds hadn't brought any new birds in and the sole reward for my efforts was a juvenile Whitethroat that had been ringed the week previously and had put on 1g in weight during its stay.

Hudsonian Godwit is an extremely rare bird in the UK with around 6 accepted records and some of those refer to what was provably the same bird. The last one I saw was in January 1982 at the Countess of Wear near Exeter and ths was presumed to be the same bird that was at Blacktoft Sands in September 1981 where it was presumed to be the same bird returning in 1983! 

Needless to say it was a 1st for Cheshire and I resolved to call in to BMW on the way home if it was re-found. Which it was...........

Arriving to a busy site I was lucky that a car parking space became available in the main car park just as  I  turned in so I was directed away from the over flow car parking to the reception building. A quick yomp later and I found myself in a packed hide looking at a large flock of Black-tailed Godwits in which was the strikingly obvious Hudsonian Godwit. My telescope was at home but I'd decided to come straight to site and then potentially come back with it later when things has quietened down. Luckily a few friends were in the hide and Phil Jones kindly allowed me to view the bird through his telescope. I did have my camera with me though and fired off a few distant shots of this mega rarity. Probably the rarest bird ever discovered in Cheshire? 

The bird was noticeably smaller and darker than the surrounding Black-tailed Godwits with a long dark eyestripe extending well behind the eye and a thick white supercillium that extended to the base of the bill and tapered out behind the eye. The underwing pattern is diagnostic but unfortunately it never flapped its wings whilst I had the camera ready. 

Leaving site I was certain the bird would hang around for Steve & Chris to catch up with when they came back off holiday but it flew off later that evening and has been elusive since. This was my 321st species for Cheshire.

Scilly's pelagics - part 4. The final day and a final surprise

Bleary eyed after the Sundays adventures our sleep was rudely interrupted at 5 am by the Herring Gulls calling outside our bedroom windows. With the days pelagic being an evening one we had the day to fill so after alate breakfast we spent a few hours drinking copious mugs of tea and processing some of the hundreds of photos we'd all taken.

That suddenly changed when news flashed up on the Scully's birds WhatsApp group that Ash Fisher had found a summer plumaged Spotted Sandpiper at Port Hellick Pool! A lifer for Al and I'd only ever see na couple of full summer plumaged birds in the UK before with the rest being winter plumaged or juvenile birds. The last summer plumaged bird I'd seen was also a Cheshire tick  - a bird seen on the 13th June 2004 at Sandbach Flashes.

Luckily we bumped into Higgo as we were leaving our accommodation and he kindly gave us a lift in his van to and from the site. We were among the first to arrive so had the small hide to ourselves for awhile. The bird was showing ridiculously well down to a few metres as it patrolled up and down its chosen area of exposed mud. Its feeding technique was reminiscent of a small heron as it extended its next and intently  stalked its prey before stabbing forward with its bill.

Pressed for time we left the site and got back to our accomodation just in time to grab our bags and head down to the quay. Unfortunately, after 4 days of good weather, the rain forecast materialised and it was a very wet and lumpy trip. None of us suffered with sea sickness but several people on board did.Despite the conditions we saw several more Wilsons petrels but none of us took their cameras out the water proof bags! With thunder and lightning and fading light Joe took the decision to head back to St Mary's earlier than planned  and a very wet team disembarked and headed to the Atlantic to dry out and have a couple of celebratory beers.

Next morning we had our customary avian 5 am alarm call before having a leisurely morning before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to lands End airport and the long drive home. A great trip with great mates and loads of good birds! 

Scilly's pelagics - part 3. The big day!

It was a tired crew that work early the next morning to the sound of the herring Gull early morning  wake - up calls on the roof of our accommodation. Making our way to the quay for an 08.00 start we were still bleary eyed but excited about what the day could bring.

The day started well when a shout of 'skua' resulted in a 1st moult cycle Pomarine Skua appearing alongside the boat. A brute of a bird and one we see all to infrequently on seawatches off Hilbre. 

As we steamed out to the open sea a group of gulls followed us and among them was a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. Another uncommon bird off Hilbre.

As we stoped and started chumming it was soon apparent that the overnight south westerly winds had done the business. There were birds everywhere with rafts of Shearwaters sat on the water - including Sooty, Great and Cory's but best of all Bob shouted everyone one to get on one particular shearwater as it took flight and this proved to be a Scopoli's Shearwater. A lifer for me as well as the other guys. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo as  I was to busy watching the bird. This was a bird I was hoping to get after a couple of near misses last year when I twitched the Red-footed Booby (see here). We'd seen several possible candidates but nothing confirmed. The Scilly's pelagics team have see numerous Scopoli's over the last couple of years and it takes a lot for Bob Flood to get excited but a melanistic Cory's Shearwater had him bouncing!  To quote Bob:

Melanistic Cory's observed from pelagic trip out of Scilly on Sunday. Am aware of 2 reported by Joel Bried et al. 2015, Canaries & Azores, & have photos of singles off Lanzarote 2010 (B Rodríguez) Portugal 2021 (T Guerreiro). Keen to hear of other documented records.

The day got even better. Wilson's Petrel were literally pouring in thick and fast and it soon became obvious we were on course to beat the Scilly's pleagic day record. Infact we ended up beating the all time record for Wislon's petrels in British and Irish waters by a huge margin. A massive total of 105 birds were recorded and this was a minimum! An incredible spectacle.

At one point we had 14 Wilson's petrels feeding together in the chum slick. Again a mixture of small and large birds with different flight and feeding characteristics. With European Storm petrels also in the slick a good comparison could be made. See photos below: 

The stars of the trip were obviously the Wilson's petrels but we also had good numbers of Sooty, Cory's and great Shearwaters.

Great Shearwaters 'rafting' with a Sooty Shearwater in the middle

Above: Cory's Shearwaters

Above: Great Shearwaters

Sooty Shearwater

At one point we just stood and watched as Wilson's after Wilson's, attracted by the smell, flew in to join the slick! What a day.

RBA report for the day.

It was Chris's birthday whilst we were away and as an annual visitor to St Agnes he arranged for Joe to drop us off so we could have a few drinks at the Turks head. What we hadn't realised was the annual St Agnes fair and round the island boat was also taking place so St Agnes was heaving! We couldn't get any where near the pub but Joe had told us 600 people were being taken off by17.30 so we had a walk around the island waiting for the crowd to thin out. Unfortunately we couldn't get any food but luckily the pub had a few sausage rolls left to add to our already high intake of foods we'd probably not consider healthy at home!

Chris had also arranged for John Peacock to take us back to St Mary's at 9pm and it was a very happy and slightly inebriated crew that disembarked straight to the Mermaid. Monday evening was to be our last pelagic of the trip so at lest we could get a lie in the next morning........