Suffolk Part 2.

 As I have said in the previous post, while pottering around the Suffolk Sandlings area doing the tourist thing, visiting Southwold, Walberswick, Aldeburgh etc a few other creatures of interest to a Northern Naturalist were discovered. In no particular order here are a few..

Many of us who use a moth trap are familiar with a wide range of Ophions or Ichneumon species. They range from orangy yellow to black and white things and are generally tricky to id. Some just stand out from the crowd. This Enicospilus inflexus is one such specimen. Looking at the photo you might shrug and think you've had loads like that, but in life I had never seen anything like it that was quite so big. It was huge. You can almost make out that it was bigger than a cranefly and in flight was like a Common Darter. Apparently it is a parasite of the large Eggar / Drinker type moths. I wish I had taken its photo with a good size comparison now. On Google, sites show it to be quite sparsely distributed, but that is maybe due to a lack of recorders rather than it being a rare insect. Impressive.

Above, another parasitoid, Ichneumon sarcitorius was contrastingly, very common with up to half a dozen in the trap every night. I dont see these in the trap at home. Smart little things, unless you are a moth.

Finally for the hymenoptera were the Hornets around the garden. I like to catch up with them when we are here and they did enjoy the moth sugar. They were quite defensive towards trespassers such as Red Admirals who would be chased off by a short wing flicking open jawed charge from the Hornet. They're like terriers....

 

This large, blackcurrant Fruit Gum lookalike beetle Chrysolina banksii was quite a good record too. I dont really do beetles as they mostly need a microscope but this one was id'd from the Facebook beetle page. 

Dark Bush Crickets are common and can be heard stridulating from bushes under street lights and in gardens etc. There are no Bush Crickets in Northumberland.

Oak Bush Cricket was new to me found on the kitchen window attracted to the light. This one is a male. Smart.

A special visit to Carlton Marshes was required to see this one, the rare Fen Raft Spider, Dolomedes plantarius. We found three in a nicely vegetated ditch near the visitor centre. It is only found in 3 UK locations. This one can be seen with its feet on the water surface feeling for the vibrations of insect prey using it a bit like a web.

While we were here Wasp Spider was seen along with Brown Hawkers and Chinese Water Deer.

Chinese Water Deer looking more like a dog than most deer.

Then we come to some odds and sods - Bugs. True Bugs, not that Americanised slang for insects. 

Ant Damsel Bug.

Dock Bug final instar nymph.

Hawthorn Shieldbug 

To end with, although there wasn't much birding to be had, a morning on the heath with a flock of 8 calling Stone Curlews and a dozen Dartford Warblers is always appreciated.

A ringed Dartford Warbler, Dunwich.

  

Long Time No See.

 A bit of a gap between blog posts here due to being away on holiday for two weeks. We went to Suffolk, as is usual these days, but this time for two weeks rather than just the one. We couldn't get away in June this year so it was good to have a longer break.

It was great to hear locals both on TV and around villages on some days saying that winter was on its way and things like 'well at least we had one good week' etc when outside it was 23 degrees and sunny. One day at Dunwich there was a 15 minute shower and people were going around in big coats. Needless to say, like the cliche, we were in T shirts the whole time...it was glorious!   What visitors to Northumberland from the South must think when they get here. It is usually dry but usually a few degrees colder than most of the country. A few times recently we have commented that on the TV weather forecast we are often the coldest in the UK including Shetland.

All the lovely days did little for the birding, so most of my wildlife watching was of the invertebrate kind. Northumberland  may be good for birding but we cant touch the south when it comes to insects etc.

Our base for the fortnight was Westleton an area we know quite well now, this was our 9th stay in the village.

Armed with the moth trap, I had a few targets in mind but unlike birding you cant 'up your game' you just turn the light on and wait. A tin of sugary elixir was also taken, for a very specific reason.

We drove the 350 miles down on Friday the 3rd Sept, returning on Friday 17th.

There were some good highlights but I am starting with the best of the bunch. A very big and previously very rare moth, the Clifden Nonpariel or Blue Underwing has been having a resurgence in the last couple of years. Once a mythical migrant at coastal traps, it now breeds in southern England and seems to be doing well. This is the reason I took a tin of treacley sugar mix. These 'underwings' are often more easily attracted to this than to light, so it wouldn't hurt my quest to do both. 

Five nights passed without a single moth taking the bait. Nothing at all. But nothing ventured they say, on Twitter loads of Blue Underwings were being trapped from Norfolk to Somerset and even in Suffolk, so I hoped luck would be with me.

On night 6, it certainly was. I had painted the usual tree trunk at dusk and checked a couple of times to no avail so when it came to bedtime, I thought Id have another glance. At midnight, I looked out and there was this huge apparition on the bait. Like finding a rare bird, I went into panic mode. I shouted for Jane to get up, she had just gone to bed 10 mins earlier and was keen to see the moth, as I flapped around more than the moth would, putting the flash on the camera, hoping the Clifden wouldn't do a bunk. Luckily it was enjoying the sugar and it was quite happy to allow a few shots to be taken. It was a pristine new specimen so I didn't want to pot it up or keep it over night. I took my photos then turned off the moth trap so it could go about its business without disturbance. What a moth...

What a beauty. The name means 'Beyond Compare'. How appropriate.

The garden sugar, on a different night attracted another lifer for me but a much more understated one - 

...the Buttoned Snout. A local and scarce species.

Meanwhile the moth trap was no slouch either. The warm nights pulled in hundreds of moths. As it was a holiday, I didnt spend time counting Setaceous Hebrew Characters, Common Wainscots, Turnip Moths, Brimstones and Vines Rustics of which I caught hundreds of each, I concentrated on 'good' or new species for me that we don't see at home. Here is a sample - 

Labelled from top left like reading a book, see below.  

Row 1. Anania crocealis, Evergestis limbata, Cypress Pug, Dusky Thorn.

Row 2. Evergestis extimalis, Yellow Belle, Box Tree Moth, Small Blood Vein.

Row 3. Celypha rufana, Nephopterix Angustella, White Point, Dogs Tooth.

Row 4. Cochylis molliculana, Monopis monachella, Hedge Rustic, Webb's Wainscot.

Over the holiday we did a few nice walks around coastal marshes and nice picturesque villages, we even twitched locations for the TV series 'The Detectorists' one of our faves around the small town of Framlingham.

'Danebury Scout Hut' the base camp for Lance and Andy...The Detectorists.

On our travels it wasn't just pub lunches and Adnam's Cider, there were more small wildlife to be had...

To be continued...

 

Bank Holiday

 In a cliched Bank Holiday fashion today began quite miserably. It was fully over cast with regular showers of mizzle, for just long enough to affect the optics.

There had not been too many seabirds yesterday, but the North wind continued so we headed down to Boulmer where we can combine a seawatch with waders and anything else passing. In short, we spent from 6.15am - 11am on a park bench style seat positioned on eight 2ft sq paving slabs (4 x 2 set up) over looking the sea and muddy shoreline. 

The Obs...

There were decent numbers of birds constantly on show with Gannets still streaming past as they have done since last Thursday. It makes you wonder how many thousands of birds have been involved and how many are duplicates going around in huge circles. A few tern and Kittiwake frenzies close inshore were worth perusing as they included Arctic, Common, Sandwich and Roseate Terns and at least 3 first winter Little Gulls pause on the way north.

True 'seabirds' were fewer with 'only' 10 Sooty and 2 Manx Shearwaters, 9 Bonxie and 2 Arctic Skuas. There were divers with 1 Great Northern the first of autumn heading north as well as Red throats with 4 N and 3 S. Wildfowl included 39 Pale bellied Brent Geese, 32 Wigeon, and 45 Teal all north.

Pale phase adult Arctic Skua

Pale bellied Brents.

Around the shore were 129+ Dunlin, 2 Knot, 3 Sanderling, 6 Bar tailed Godwits, a Pergrine seen three times and 2 Yellow Wagtails on the beach.

All in all not a bad morning. Another Fea's slash Desertas ( who actually uses this combined name?) Petrel was eagerly awaited in sea stations along the county coast but it had drifted further offshore at Whitburn.

I remember a time when seawatching was the last bastion of birding that held surprise and intrigue. You never knew what you might see until it loomed up from the waves. Now, a newer version of seawatching means you can sit in the house, wait for a report of rare bird passing Flamborough, Filey, Scarborough or Cowbar, consult your handy smartphone timetable to predict a local arrival time then head out half an hour before and expect the bird to be nailed on. 

I am so pleased birding is not that predictable and that at least this Feas Petrel did the right thing and didn't conform. I like a bird report from the south as much as the next man but I also like to put in the hours without waiting for one individual over the vastness of the sea. 

If you want good seabirds, put some work in, face the elements head on and feel the buzz when a global wanderer pops up...

Joe Pender eat your heart out, 3 Sooties passing...

Not a bad week on the patch.

 Seawatching gets me a bit fired up. So much so that I forget to take any photos for the blog so here is another naked post...

Before the seawatching there have been a few interesting patch sightings this week, mostly while out on dog walks before work.

On Monday, a year first Spotted Flycatcher flew into our village from the coast path. It was picked up flying over open fields where it looked decidedly unusual, until it perched up in a village tree briefly before vanishing not to be seen again.

On Tuesday there was a proper garden event of the mega kind. 

I had noticed a bird soaring over fields behind us so dived indoors for my binoculars to get a better look. With the naked eye, at range, Marsh Harrier was considered but through the glass only a juv Lesser black back could be found. As I scanned a bit further, a small flock of birds high to the West in direct flight caught my attention as they flew North. The formation was a straight line of 4 with a single higher up. Usually these type of sightings here are of Golden Plover or maybe Oystercatchers so I wasn't really concentrating. 

That is, until it dawned on me what I was watching. All 5 birds had long bills and legs and best of all, white wing bars translucently back lit! They were Black tailed Godwits! What a superb garden tick. Black tails are a rare bird on my patch, we have no marshes or muddy areas so all sightings are of birds passing by. When I say 'all sightings' I mean the one in 2012 and in 2020 that both involved small parties in spring on seawatches.

Those 5 beauties take my from the garden list seen or heard to 141 species. I wonder what we miss when we are not so lucky?

Also on Tuesday a Raven flew over the garden calling quietly as it went.

Wednesday followed in a similar vein when, at Peggy's lunchtime walk a Willow Tit was calling loudly along the lane. Almost annual in a wider patch context they are not so regular in our village with most local sightings coming from Craster or Boulmer. 

Now to Thursday. A large high pressure over the north Atlantic was providing a flow of air from south of Newfoundland, past southern Iceland and over the top of Scotland giving a brisk northerly down the Norwegian coast into the North Sea. Conditions that would surely give us a few seabirds passing. This merited a two seawatch day.

Seawatch 1. Cullernose Point 6am - 7.30am

Slower than expected.

Sooty Shearwater 8N

Manx Shearwater 1N

Bonxie 5N

Arctic Skua 1N 1 S 

Common Scoter 4N

Teal 6N

Red breasted Merganser 2S

Roseate Tern 4

Arctic Tern 1

Sandwich Tern 3

Then it was time to get to work wondering if things would pick up later. I'm pleased to say it did but not by much.

Seawatch 2. 3.45pm - 6.15pm Rounding the wave watching to a nice 4 hours.

Sooty Shearwater 33N

Manx Shearwater 19N

Bonxie 15N

Skua sp ( down as Arctic but it was a Long tailed on hindsight. Dropped a bollock there) A dark juv was very small directly alongside a Manx it was around the same size. It then almost collided with a huge Bonxie lifting off the sea making it look like a tern it was so slim. At one stage a Sooty flushed by the Bonxie that was being agitated by the Long tail all in one scope view as a Manx went past.

Teal 82N

Wigeon 2N first of autumn.

Bar tailed Godwit 1 sum plum N

Whimbrel 1 N

Grey Plover 2 sum plum N

Purple Sandpiper 1N

Roseate Tern 1ad 1 juv

Sandwich, Common and Arctic Terns lingering.

Red throated Diver 1S

Puffin 1N  

A small group of 3 Bottle nosed Dolphins lingered off the point.

Not too bad, but no cigar. maybe over the Bank Holiday weekend? Still, mustn't grumble, its been a reasonable week around the home tetrad. 

 

Nicely Spotted...

When we watch a local patch over time we can get not only very familiar with what should be where and when but we can even be a bit complacent. This is when a visiting birder drops in to the spot you have visited over months only to find the good bird you have hunted high and low for, but missed.

At Boulmer, these days there is not a drop of fresh water on the headland such is the efficiency of the land management .  Gone are the days of the Bow mere flash behind the pub after a lot of rain. It simply gushes out across the beach and into the sea. In autumn it was our only hope of getting some fresh water waders such as Ruff or Wood Sand. It even had a lovely Bairds Sandpiper once that showed very well for a few days.

Now, we chance upon fresh water birds as lucky fly overs heading to more suitable habitat. 

On Sunday I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Boulmer Haven in the drizzle.

John and myself were keen after some heavy rain in the hope of a passerine migrant or two so began at Seaton Point first thing. It was very dull, the sky brooding and looked full. It soon became apparent that our annual optimism was more pie in the sky as all we could find were a few Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs and the local Whitethroat families. In the caravans, its a bit of a maze and we got separated while checking odd bushes.  I ended up overlooking the beach and sea right on the point. Immediately a call drew my attention to two birds flying at eye level heading my way. As I lifted the bins I knew what this was. Front bird was a Redshank unusually quiet, but about 2 feet behind it was a mythical Boulmer wader! Just a juvenile Spotted Redshank, that's all! The 'chew-it' call that drew me to it was the only sound it made as both birds slowly passed me. I tried to get a flight record shot but the camera just wouldn't lock on to them before they vanished north towards the haven.

Spotted Redshank is a patch tick for me ( and would be for all of the current small cohort of present day Boulmer crew) and is the first here since 1998.

Wader numbers had greatly increased since our last visit, so we abandoned the passerine hunt to see what we had poddling around the shore. Apart from the Spotshank, there were 2 Ruff, 1 ad Little Stint, 200+ Ringed Plover, 50+ Dunlin, 6each of Bar tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Knot, 1 sum plum Grey Plover and 1 Purple Sandpiper. A Snipe came in off to pitch into the rock pools for a spell before continuing west. Not bad.

A juvenile Mediterranean Gull was on the waters edge while a scan and wait off shore had 1 adult Little Gull, 1 Sooty Shearwater N very close in, 2 Manx Shearwater and 1 Bonxie intimidating the auks in the feeding frenzies. 

Spotted Redshank passes.

The morning might not have given us what we hoped for but it still delivered a nice bagful to be going on with...

Blue in August...

Yesterday, for a brief spell the direction of the wind turned to the NW dragging me, Siren like, down to the sea. 

By the time I had finished work and got all of the 1 km down to Cullernose Point the sun was warm, the sky blue and the sea even blue-er if that's a word. Hardly stereotypical seawatching conditions, granted, but a high pressure to the west of Ireland was creating enough of a trough to direct seabirds over Scotland and into the North Sea and a light NN Westerly might just be enough.

We began at 5pm, the stroll down the track to the point was busy with at least 14 Wall Brown butterflies, another sight not so indicative of good pelagic watching conditions, but, no sooner had we plonked ourselves on the rock, a Sooty Shearwater strolled by at a range close enough to see its eye. Worth coming down already, good.

Reading about seawatching recently from the English Channel coast, it seems a very different prospect to our East facing coast. Here Gaving Haig gives it an hour for 1 Gannet. To compare, that is a prospect here maybe on New Years Day, but from June to November they are ever present, never making it into a seawatch list. There are just too many to keep an eye on. The same goes for Fulmars, Kittiwakes, Auks and Terns. A constant back and forward where if you can be bothered you might do a five minute sample count but then realise you might be missing better fare. Last night Gannets numbered about 20 or 30 per minute N with a  scattering going S and sitting on the sea or feeding.

Terns and Kittis were blurred objects in the foreground of the scope view. Occasionally a very pale blur forced a quick refocus to confirm an adult Roseate off the rock edge. 

We gave it 2.5 hours waiting for Dave Dack's Long tailed Skua to arrive from Newbiggin, 20 miles to the south, but it never did.

In the mean time we had 13 Sooties Shearwaters N, 23 Manx N and a few S, 9 Bonxie N, 1 pale ad Arctic Skua N and 1 S, 1 Tufted Duck N, 1 Red throated Diver S, 3 Roseate Terns, 1 Bar tailed Godwit in with 6 Curlews and 2 Mute Swans N.

As the light changed and even the Gannet tap had been turned down, it wasn't only the sky and sea that was blue, my hands were beginning to match. Autumn is well and truly in...

Moth Trap

 A few highlights from the past three nights trapping in the garden. Catches now are mainly Rustics and Yellow Underwings, for example, last night a catch of 500 moths of 63 sp could be broken down into 285 of them being 7 species of 'brown' the other 200 odd made up of 56 varied species.

To begin with, the first Old Lady of the year on my Sugar Table. 

Cloaked Minor, a garden first. Ive only seen one other some years back at East Chevington.

Above two Ear Moth agg. They come in various shades. I had some checked over once and found Large Ear and Saltern Ear in the garden, but would like to know how common each are.

Orange Swift

Clavigesta purdeyi, another new one for the garden. Its a bit battered though.

A lovely bright Lilac Beauty is always exciting. A localised species, Ive had a few here.

Pale Mottled Willow is a common moth generally but not here, its just about annual. For a noctuid its quite flighty, this one is warming up for take off.

Rush Veneer, a migrant moth that resembles a Caddisfly.

 

Toys...

 On Sunday met up with John at Boulmer for 6.30am. Now we are in the height of the holiday season, nowadays Boulmer soon becomes a theme park for visitors wanting to 'get away from it all' so its best to get some birding in before 10am. 

The Toy Box is a new feature here and at the risk of sounding like the grinch, what a bloody eyesore it is.

 We covered both ends of the village  before human numbers built up...

2adw, 1 2ndw Mediterranean Gull, 6 Goosander, 10+ Sanderling, 33 Dunlin, 2 Turnstone, 1 Knot N, 12+ Redshank, 3, 5 and 1 Bar tailed Godwits stopped briefly then flew south,  150+ Golden Plover, 1 Grey Plover, 6 Ringed Plover, 220 Curlew, 1 Yellow Wagtail juv on the beach, 1 imm male Marsh Harrier, 1 juv Peregrine, 25+ Swift.

For the time of year, wader numbers are disappointing? I hope its not due to disturbance of the feeding areas here?

Back home, 14 Swifts flew south.

 

Back...

 A bit of a gap in posting on here recently, due in no small part to the broadband going off  9 days ago. BT really are a shower when it comes to customer care. Its just lies, false promises and failed appointments one after another so after a bit of letter writing to the upper echelons in the company we are back in the land of the living.

As it happens, I don't have much to write about as work and household commitments have put birding on a back seat and even garden mothing has been intermittent. Hopefully we will be at full strength again from now.

I have managed to keep the insect-table stocked with fruit and drizzled with moth sugar on most days. There have been no visits from the targets yet, Old Lady and Red Underwing, but there is time yet. On the moth front there has been Large Yellow Underwing, Dark and Light Arches, Common Rustic agg, July Highflyer, Shuttle shaped Dart, Smoky Wainscot, Six striped Rustic, Herald etc. During the day it keeps the wasps away from us and also attracts a few butterflies with Comma, Red Admiral and Speckled Wood all having a go. 

 

Herald on the sugar table.

Since the last post, a few interesting things for my garden have turned up in the moth trap - 

Clockwise from Top left - White Satin, Sand Dart, Eudonia lineola, Hemp Agrimony Plume.

Gold Spangle, Agonopterix angelicella, Dark Marbled Carpet and Aethes smeathmaniana

Epiblema foenella, Caryocolum fraternella, Mompha locupletella and Red barred Tortrix. 

 

Catching up.

I still haven't found away to add a picture to the header above. It looks like its because this template may not be recognised so its time for a change in look but I'm nervous the whole lot will go awry... 

Whats been happening lately? The Albatross is still there. It went missing on Friday and Saturday again after about a week of daily presence. I wish it would just go, because I just don't have time to lay a full day aside to go for it.

The mini warm, dry spell is continuing and, though a little cooler, we've not had any rain. We've had to resort to getting the hose onto the garden plants every other night, until there is a ban that is. On 17th the temp was 29.5 degrees, probably the warmest day since we've lived here. The conditions, as mentioned in my last post, have been great for moth trapping. So much so that I've had to take a break for a few nights to get away from processing catches and photographs. Its been taking up quite a bit of time, so I'll leave it til Wednesday. The moths will have a rest too.

There is little happening on the bird front at the minute. A couple of good garden records were had last week with Dunlin calling over in the dark and both Arctic and Sandwich Terns taking inland flights over the village on a few days.

At the weekend we returned home from shopping to be met by a Water Shrew having a right old rummage around the drive. It showed well for a few minutes, constantly active as it made its way along the wall and into a neighbour's old lean-to. There are a few records here now over recent years with this being the 5th individual seen but they are always pleasing to actually see in the open and alive ( two have been casualties).

 Finally, on Sunday the morning began with a seawatch from Cullernose Point. Despite a calm sea and a very light N breeze we put in an hour with 3 Bonxie, 10 Roseate Terns, 2 Manx Shearwaters, 65 Common Scoter, 13 Teal, 1 Red breasted Merganser, a Whimbrel and a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull all N. Not bad considering.

From there, next stop was Boulmer via Seaton Point where it was very quiet. 4 Bar tailed Godwits included a full summer male, 1 summer plum Grey Plover, a few Roseate Terns in with hundreds of other terns offshore, 1 Little Tern flew S and 2 Manx Shearwaters moved N. Small waders were almost totally absent except for a lone Sanderling. Not one Dunlin was very odd, with none even heard.

Already outside there is a sense that seasons are on the change ...

       

Busy Moth Trapping.

This current warm spell, I'm reluctant to call it a heatwave unless its been on until about September, has been great for garden mothing. On Friday night there were 494 moths of 95 sp and on Saturday night 719 moths of 119 sp. I was running two traps for the first time this year so these totals kept me busy all Saturday and Sunday mornings. A few good moths for here included -

This Celypha rufana is well out of range but is the 2nd Northumberland record after one in 2016. A RDB species scarce in the UK found mainly in Wales and Cumbria. 

My first Lyme Grass in 6yrs. The 4th for the garden.

Clockwise from top left - Coronet a new garden moth, Sallow Kitten, Straw Underwing and Blackneck all good for this area.

Diamond back, Dicrorampha sp, Bird Cherry Ermine and Eudonia lacustrata.

Latticed Heath, Mompha propinquella, Crambus perlella and Pammene aurana.

 Due to the heat on Friday I left some sugar water soaked kitchen roll in each trap for them to drink until dusk, but on Saturday I released them all in thick cover straight away in the morning. Some night species will feed during the day if its warm so I gave them a chance to do that.

G...Utted.

 Day 6 since our dismally failing albatross twitch to Bempton. 

I can easily get over missing out on such a great bird, so that's not the issue. 

What wakes me up in the morning is that it is still there and has been present for the full 6 days since!  Due to other commitments, work, builders etc I am too tied up to set aside a whole day for a return visit. I just wish it would leave now so I can get on....

To take my mind off it, I'm trying to focus on the small things locally when on dog walks etc. A nice Merlin dashed along the coast road the other day and an adult moulting Mediterranean Gull flew south across the coast fields. There are flocks of warblers around the village early in the morning now, Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs with a Sedge Warbler today. 

Autumn approaches...

Only my 3rd Southern Wainscot after two together in 2020.

Volucella bombylans a bee mimic hoverfly in the moth trap this week. 

Its been a long, long day...

 Do you keep a bird list? If you do, what does it really mean to you? Is it an integral, important part of your birding? I think most of us who are observers of natural history keep lists in one form or another, from the rabid down-tools-and-go-for everything twitcher to the garden moth trapper we all like a new list addition. For those who say, 'I don't', 'Lists are a trivial waste of time, you should be doing something more important and stern like survey work, ringing, constant effort monitoring, local patching' etc  what do you do?

I keep several lists. For birds, I have UK, County, Local Patch. For Moths I have UK and Garden, same for Butterflies. I have a dragonfly list, a wild flower list and a fish list. I do like them and enjoy adding to them but if there was a Top 10 of my lists, the long staying number one, the equivalent to a Bryan Adams single would be my Northumberland Bird list.  The County List. 

Periodically though my UK list becomes an itch that needs to be scratched. I am fickle in this regard. For example, a Moltoni's Warbler would not get me out of the county. It doesn't even have  a piece in my 1972 Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow. The same goes for a lot of these new 'splits'. They just don't have the background of birding history and lore that say, the Anglesey Black Lark, the Aberdeen Belted Kingfisher or even the StAbbs Marmora's Warbler had.  I like my travelled for birds to come with some provenance, like a fine antique.

In the 80's a Black browed Albatross lived every summer on the northern most tip of the northern most island in the UK, Unst. This is way beyond my travelling distance even if I had known about it in the dark ages before WhatsApp, but tales of travelers intrepid enough to go to extremes to see this bird were gripping. 

In recent years, there have been tantalising temptations of Albatrosses in the UK, even in my own county, but none really getable for the likes of me. That is not until two weeks ago when the Bempton Cliffs bird of last years brief stay returned. In previous summers it has stayed across the North sea, but now it seems to enjoy the company of Gannets on the great white cape of Yorkshires East Riding, having spent a fitful two weeks on site giving views down to knock- your-cap-off range.

Tied at home due to work and builders in my loft, we were late to the party. On top of that, we also have a guilt trip where the Twittersphere is quick to vilify anyone who travels anywhere other than by bike. Its ok for Richard Branson to go to the moon or for 30,000 fans to drive to a football match every weekend but if you dare twitch a bird, on your head be it. You alone have destroyed this planet with your petty trivialities.

How would I react to that? I have no kids, so I am not instantly doubling up or more on resource use , I have not eaten any meat for 30+ years, I have only flown on a handful of occasions in my life, my partner Jane has never flown, so I think, if I want to drive all day occasionally in my diesel motor I will!

I transgress. On Monday John  and myself made plans to go for the Albatross on Friday, our earliest possible free day. As it happened, no sooner were plans made, the Mollymawk buggered off, we thought for good, so that was that. Friday came, I was finishing up on chores after the builders and didnt see my phone until later. The Albatross had only returned to the cliffs hadn't it, but I was too late to go on the day so, Saturday was selected for the trip.  

We left Alnwick at 5.30am arriving at Bempton 3 hours later to news that the bird was last seen heading towards the horizon at 7am. Looked like we would have to wait. And wait. And wait.

11 hours later, the site and sounds and smells of a magnificent seabird colony were beginning to wane. At 7pm with no sign of the bird, we called it a day. Albatross 1 Northern Albatross Twitchers 0. I can almost hear the laughs from the enlightened few saying 'You get what you deserve you destroyer of worlds'. At one time a full day dip would have left me gutted, but now, not so much. Disappointed yes, but no more than that. There are more important things after all. I would like to see it tracked up the coast from Whitburn one day, now that would be special.

24 hours later, this afternoon, I was looking at some photos I took of the Gannets when word comes out, the Black browed Albatross was back on its favoured cliff ledge at Bempton. You know, I think it knew we had been watching and waited for us to leave...here's to 2022...

Bempton Big Cliffs

The number of birds on show is dizzying.

Gannets

Click here to see layers of albatross dippers.