BBQ & Petrels

On Saturday night the CCG and the Ringing Group held an open night at Whitburn Coastal Park. It began at 7pm with a BBQ at Souter Lighthouse. It was very well attended with well over 30 people enjoying the free food put on by the Groups. John was alpha male and took charge of the grill and I was more than happy to let him! According to weather reports it was meant to be a cloudy evening with possible showers, but as we ate our food in the open the weather was lovely. As everyone was enjoying the evening, at around 9.30pm myself, John and Andy nipped away to put the nets out in preparation for the second part of the event, the Storm Petrel Ringing. We were feeling really hopeful as on thursday myself and John had a practice run and there were loads of Stormies then. Unfortunately the wind was really strong that night so most of them bounced out of the nets before we could get a hold of them. So as long as the weather stayed fine we had a great chance tonight. Shortly after 10.00pm the people started to make their way over from the BBQ, and we all settled in to wait for the dark to come. While we patiently waited for the birds to arrive we were entertained by a number of Common Pipistrelle Bats buzzing around searching for Moths. There were also a few Common Toads scattered around, which the kids loved playing with! Then at around 11.30pm, John returned from checking the nets and he was carrying a little white bag. We had one! It was handed to Andy to do the sciencey stuff before it was shown to the excited crowd. I never ever grow tired of seeing peoples reactions to seeing these amazing little birds, especially when they realise that such a small, fragile looking thing spends most of its life out at sea. But they are obviously a lot tougher than they look! Once everybody had had a good look at the bird we took it to one side and released it unharmed. A job well done. We then settled down to wait for the next bird to come when, surprise surprise, the heavens opened. It started chucking it down and forced everyone to scarper for their cars. After a little wait the rain hadnt eased so most of the people went off home. Myself and the other Ringing lads hung around a bit longer but called it a night ourselves at 1.00am. Despite just getting the one bird it was a really successful night. The BBQ was a big success and everybody got to see a Petrel. Mission complete!

CUBA WILDLIFE

RED LEGGED THRUSH

GREAT LIZARD CUCKOO

CUBAN GREEN WOODPECKER

CUBAN EMERALD

CUBAN TODY

CLAPPER RAIL

NORTHERN CARACARA

BLUE HEADED ANOLE

CUBA - JULY 2012

A very, very late decision (ie just days before!!) saw myself and Maria heading off to the Caribbean yet again. This year the destination was somewhere neither of us had actually considered before, Cuba. But thankfully it turned out to be an excellent choice. It had a beautiful beach for Maria to relax on, and enough greenery and wildlife for me not to get too bored! Our hotel was in the area of Holguin on the east of the island. It was a stunning area, with gorgeous white sandy beaches surrounded by miles and miles of lush exotic forest. Perfect for a relaxing, peaceful holiday.
As ever this was in no way a wildlife holiday, but as usual I managed to get myself a couple of hours in early in the morning and the odd wander in the evening, so I still managed to see a fair bit. The hotel grounds themselves had a great variety of wildlife, with lots of species of birds, hundreds of butterflies of various types, plenty of lizards, and loads and loads of crabs! They were absolutely everywhere. But there was one creature that thankfully we hardly seen at all, mosquitos! As we were in the middle of the rainy season we were expecting to be bombarded by them, but we hardly seen any at all around the complex. Admittedly I did get a fair few bites when I went exploring in the surrounding forests but that is to be expected. In total I saw 48 different species of birds, 19 of which I had never seen before. The highlight was easily seeing the Cuban Tody, an absolutely stunning little bird which was thankfully very common. Another was the huge Great Lizard Cuckoo. Great to see and even better to hear! Away from birds, another highlight was snorkelling with a huge shoal of Barracuda fish. A great experience!

MAGNIFICENT MOTHS

This morning we had the best catch of the year in the Souter Moth Trap. Mind you, thats not really that difficult cos its been an absolutely rubbish year so far. There were 40+ individual Moths from 15 different species, but the undoubted highlight was this absolutely stunning POPLAR HAWKMOTH (above). Its only the second time I've ever seen one of these incredible Moths, and the only species of Hawkmoth I've seen in the UK. Other highlights included Buff Ermine, Angle Shades and my first ever Ghost Moth.

ANGLE SHADES

BUFF ERMINE

SILVER GROUND CARPET

GHOST

THIS IS WHY.

On Wednesday lunchtime I decided to pop over to Whitburn Coastal Park to have a quick look at how the Ponds were doing. It had been nearly a fortnight since I was last there so a visit was long overdue! The rain was coming down heavily when I pulled up, so I decided to have my sandwich in the car and hope for a break in the weather. After about 15 minutes the rain hadn't stopped but it had eased enough for me to get out the car and go for a wander. The North Pond was very quiet, with only a couple of Tufted Ducks present, and as I approached the South Pond things initially didn't look a whole lot better. That was until some movement on the left of the Pond caught my eye! I knew straight away that it was a Wader, but as I focused my binoculars on the feeding figure it suddenly dawned on me I was watching a Greenshank! My jaw dropped and my heartbeat quickened. I was totally and utterly gobsmacked. A Greenshank was on our Pond! A Greenshank was feeding on our brand new, recently created Pond!!! This was amazing. Now don't get me wrong, I know a Greenshank isn't an absolute mega rarity for Britain, but it IS an extremely scarce bird for South Tyneside. And the fact that one was here on one of our Ponds that had only been complete since March was superb news. When we were in the original planning stage of the project, Greenshank was one of the species we had in mind when we were designing the Pond. And now, after all the hard work, one was actually gracing our Pond. And it felt great. It pretty much justified everything we had done and proved something we had known all along, if we created the environment the birds would come. And for this particular species to arrive so soon after completion is the dream becoming reality. Hopefully, this is just the beginning.

TUNSTALL RESERVOIR

I had actually intended to have a much needed lie in this morning, but I found myself wide awake and restless so decided to get up and make the most of the nice weather. I headed off to one of my favourite places of all time, Tunstall Reservoir, in the hope of seeing some of our more elusive summer woodland birds. The beauty of this place never fails to amaze me, and on a lovely warm summer morning the place is glorious. And on this glorious morning the place was alive with birds! There are four particular species that Tunstall is famous for, and the first of these species I got within seconds of arriving. As I walked up the path approaching the woodland I immediately heard the very distinct song of one of the countys scarcest breeding Warblers, the Wood Warbler. I was absolutely thrilled, as its three years since I've seen this species here. It took a little while for me to actually track the bird down, but eventually it hopped onto a branch merely feet away from me and began trilling its little heart out. I decided to soak it up as much as I could cos this species is getting harder and harder to see in our parts and you never know how often I'll see it again. I enjoyed it for almost half an hour before it eventually flew away out of sight. I then turned to head further into the wood when species number two popped out in front of me, the Spotted Flycatcher! What a start to the morning! As I stood watching the Flycatcher a Cuckoo called just to my right. I quickly turned to see the bird land and start calling in plain view. This was amazing! The Cuckoo took off when it realised I was close by, and the Flycatcher also flew off into the foliage. The third special species was found next, the Redstart. This was actually the most abundant of the famous four and was seen very well throughout the whole of the wood. The last of the four proved a whole lot more elusive though. In fact I was just about ready to turn around and head back out of the wood when I saw a flash of Black and White land in a tree to my right. I got my bins on it and was delighted to see a stunning male Pied Flycatcher singing its quiet song. It was swiftly joined by a female, and I saw that she was carrying food so I backed away and crouched behind a tree in silence. Within seconds both birds were seen going in and out of their nest. This went on for almost half an hour before I skirted round and left them to it. It was an absolute delight to witness, and headed back to the car with a bounce in my stride. But I had one more treat as I headed out of the wood, a pair of Tawny Owls flying silently over my head and perching in a tree close by before being harassed by a pair of Blackbirds and disappearing. This ended an incredible morning. Its not often you get mornings like this, when everything seems to just click, but when it does it feels absolutely wonderful!

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

No time to recover from the gruelling Cumbria trip, as I was out again straight away! This time myself, Steve and John Brown went to visit some more of Jimmy's various nest boxes scattered around the county. We targetted two totally contrasting species, Tree Sparrows and Kestrels! As nice as the Tree Sparrows were the highlight was easily the Kestrel chicks. We checked two different nest boxes and both had a healthy brood of chicks. While we were travelling we popped into Black Plantation where I saw my first Tree Pipit of the year and a couple of lovely male Redstarts.