World Gig Rowing Champs Day 3

The morning after the day before …….. big time sea mist

Can’t even see the end of harbour

Through the mist an ocean liner appears

Getting better – soon be time to start racing …

Rodney Bey heads out for the Finals

Followed by Shelly Maid

Rodney Bey weaving her way through the boats in the harbour

Followed by Shelly Maid

 

Like butterflies over the water …

Still a bit misty half way over

But it has cleared by the time racing begins. On the way back …. Rodney Bey holding off Ella Rose

 Shelly Maid – looking good

 

 

And now the liner appears! Shelly Maid being edged by Energy

Glorious spectacle

End of the Men’s Race – all the Crews raise their oars to the Champions

Nothing quite like it in UK sport

158 gigs with their oars – amazing

Well done all and thanks to the organisers….. lets do it all again next year.

Congratulations to Looe (Mens champions) Caradon (Ladies champions)

 

 

Forget the rarities – what about the hawfinches

Every now and again something extraordinary happens.

We were out birding yesterday on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly prior to me catching the Scillonian back to the mainland. We were in Carreg Dhu, an ornamental garden in the middle of the island when a big flock of …. hawfinches flew into the sycamore tree directly above our heads. It was difficult counting them as the foliage obscured them and they came in two groups separated by around 30 seconds. We made an estimate of 24 + birds. 24 +!!

This illustration is from the Collins Bird Guide app – the broad white bands on the underwings were very obvious as were the white tail feathers. By the way the Collins Bird Guide app is highly recommended, it works brilliantly on an iPhone (see here) and there is also an Android version too.

A little later the flock was spotted again by other birders and it was estimated that there were between 50-60 birds in it. By all accounts there were also some flocks of hawfinches on the mainland too.

I doubt very much whether I will every see such a thing again. The UK is currently experiencing some big southerlies so the most likely explanation is that these flocks have come from the Continent.

Here is a photo of a couple of the birds from wildlife photographer, Richard Stonier’s twitter account. You can checkout his gallery of hawfinch photos here.

Even got a great sunset over the Isles of Scilly on the way back to Penzance.

In so many different ways, Scilly never disappoints

 

A proper twitch – Orphean Warbler

St Agnes yesterday saw a proper twitch – the like of which I haven’t been involved with for over a decade – the Orphean Warbler. Over 200 birders along the track up to Troytown Farm. Fleeting glimpses of the possible bird, several incidences of running about, tripods and telescopes abandoned, moments of dejection, interludes of hilarity and humour. Can you tick a fly past if you have seen it 6 times? No  no  no …

Unexpectedly the bird was relocated by Will Scott hundreds of metres away between the Lighthouse and the Church.  Stampeding, followed by hedge abuse, focusing through postage stamp spaces in the Pittosprorum, heads in the way, polite conversations, impolite conversations, squinting and finally ……

BOOM!

Western or Eastern?

Time will tell but …..

Still

BOOM

p.s. Thanks Will @dub_birder – without you  no one would have got it. We are now all at 140bpm – well at least we were yesterday for a few moments.

A couple of sparrows

Had a cream tea at Juliet’s Garden yesterday and off course got mobbed by the local sparrow population.

Queuing up to eat my scone!

Moving in ….

And rather strangely there was this individual with a very distorted upper bill – I suspect that if it didn’t live at Juliet’s Garden it might not have got this far….

 

A selection of gannets

A good number of gannets were flying behind the boat the other day

White birds with yellowish heads are adults, whilst the blackish birds are juvenilles and the black are white birds are sub-adults

Great Northern Diver off St Mary’s

We encountered this wintering Great Northern Diver yesterday on the way back from our pelagic trip.

Around 2500 birds winter in southern Britain each year

A few pairs breed in Scotland

The majority breed by large deep lakes in the Tundra in Iceland, Greenland and North America/Canada

American Golden Plover and a couple of migrants

On St Mary’s yesterday we managed to see the American Golden Plover on the beach at Porth Hellick.

There was a Redstart in a garden near Porthcressa beach which made regular visits to the beach

Finally a Grey Wagtail dropped in briefly on the pool at Porth Hellick

Cedar Waxwing on St Agnes

Back on the Isles of Scilly for a further week! We arrived yesterday and headed over to St Agnes in search of the Cedar Waxwing which is an American vagrant which arrived earlier in the week. We were fortunate that it stayed as the American Cliff Swallow, Red-eyed Vireo and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak had already left.

Got some great views of what had previous proved to be a rather elusive bird.

The 9th record for Britain and Ireland

Scilly seabirds and a sunset

We went out on a pelagic last week (a boat trip to look for seabirds), it was pretty quiet bird wise but I managed to get a few pictures.

Gannet

Fulmar

Fulmar in the setting sun

Great skua – a kleptoparasite i.e. it harries other seabirds to make them disgorge their food!

At the end of the trip we were treated to this magical sunset

American Golden Plover

I managed to see the American Golden Plover on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly on Monday 18th September. Here are a couple of photos of it on the beach at North Hellick.