Monday 30 December 2013

Festive photos

Here's some photos I've taken over the Festive Period of December, 
whilst going between Cemaes and St Helens,from North Wales and the North West-ish. 
Below there are shots I've taken of Two barred Crossbill at Broomhead Reservoir just east of the Woodhead Pass. The Buff bellied Pipit, Siberian Chiffchaffs and Northern Wheatear have been showing well at Burton Marsh near the border, along with Simon Hugheston-Roberts! The Hoopoe at Abergele/Pensarn was a good crowd-puller locally and I had this albinistic Pied Wag there to. I took a trip before Christmas to Marshide to see the Baikal Teal with two wings and no rings at a good time of year, that's good enough for me ;-) Finished off with a nice shot of the wonderfull Ruffs that routinely show well at Martin Mere in the winter months.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you who contribute and follow WBNW :-)














Thursday 26 December 2013

Boxing Day bits and bobs

The Hoopoe still at Pensarn today but elusive as often the case, many dog walkers etc in the area today. Two female Scaup offshore here close in and lots of Common Scoter further out. Buff-bellied Pipit still on Dee Estuary, Burton Marsh, also Siberian Chiffchaff reported there, anyone seen this bird? Is it a real one? Hen Harrier, Merlin and Peregrine all here and the late Wheatear still present - worth a visit. More storms tonight so could be more stuff blown into the Cricceth/Black Rock/Porthmadog area? Further away a Brunnich's Guillemot in Dorset, Portland Harbour, worth keeping an eye open for storm driven rarities. We still have space on our Finland/Norway trip in May/June 2014 only a few places left so if you fancy it please get in touch for more details soon. Hope everyone had a happy and peaceful Christmas. Good Birding Alan and Ruth contact info@thebiggesttwitch.com

Saturday 21 December 2013

Nice Saturday afternoon!


A Hoopoe and Buff Bellied Pipit makes for a great Saturday afternoon!
 Abergele's Hoopoe showing nicely between the caravans and the sea wall.


Across the river the BBP was a great record for Cheshire, more below

http://austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk/

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Triple Surf

Steve Williams picked up three drake Surf Scoter off Penarn this afternoon. They were close enough to capture a bit of video footage.
Hoopoe reported until 9.40am but the went AWOL
Video of a Surfie in flight here- 

http://youtu.be/hXqNbTlySgE

Monday 16 December 2013

Hoopoe still at Pensarn

Here's Barry Barnacal's pic of the Hoopoe from Saturday.  Showing a bit well!  Bird still reported today along Park Cove Caravan Park.

Robin

Sunday 15 December 2013

Eurasian Wigeon - head pattern variation

This Eurasian Wigeon was at Conwy RSPB this afternoon on the causeway. Nice bird showing the extreme end of variation in the green head pattern. 





Friday 13 December 2013

Yellow-legged Gull Conwy RSPB

One in the roost on the estuary from Conwy RSPB this evening. It was on the bank just south of the castle with mostly Herring Gulls, 2 LBB's and a few GBB's. Apologies for the typical poor pics, it was starting to get dark.




Thursday 12 December 2013

Possible GW Egret at Rhosneigr?

Earlier this week Ian Wright (Rhoscolyn not ex-Arsenal) was on a train from Holyhead when he saw a possible GWE on Rhosneigr Marsh near the Golf course. He thought the shape was right and it seemed to have a pale bill so if you are passing it may be worth checking any egrets on Rhosneigr Saltmarsh.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Don't forget tomorrow night is Bangor Birdgroup's Christmas Quiz!!!

What the headline says ;-)

Xanthochroism in a Robin




When visiting Penhescyn tip near Menai Bridge today, in the bushes by the mini-roundabout,  I saw a pale yellowish/faun bird fly off a barrier into cover. After dumping my stuff and speaking to the gatekeeper I returned to the bush and after a while it revealed itself to be a Robin, with pale sandy/yellowishfeathers on the upper and underparts with the orangey breast and grey behind the eye being the only normal colour. It reminded me of the Rock pipit in Caernarfon a few years back (and more recently at Porthmadog), and Norman's "Desert-like" House Sparrow near Valley, also from about 5 years ago. When these birds fly, you initially think Yellow Canary! Xanthochroism is an abnormal plumage colouration with a surplus of yellow, also called flavism.

Hoopoe still present

The hoopoe was still present this morning among the caravans and on the beach and beach road verges at Pensarn showing very well intermittently. Occasionally it would stay in view for several minutes before a vehicle or dog walkers would flush it back in among the caravans. According to locals the bird has been present in the area for at least 3 weeks and is presumably the earlier Rhyl bird relocating. A couple of records shots.

Monday 9 December 2013

Minke Whale @ Abergele!

Whilst driving home from St Helens today at 4pm Radio 2 reported on a beached Minke at Abergele! When I got there at 5.10pm in the dark,  it had been eased back into the sea. So check the coast (and beaches) again tomorrow if you can in case it is still around.

Surf Scoters still showing in the sun

It's great weather to pick up the Surf Scoters off Llysfaen Station Road (off the old dual carriage way) between Llanddulas and Old Colwyn.  Bright conditions best but at least 2 drakes are visible with a scope.  Not sure how far out they are but they are a long way! 2km?

They haven't been mentioned on here for a while but 2 have been seen for the past 3 days.  We get complacent!

Robin 

Sunday 8 December 2013

Hoopoe near Abergele today, present in area over 2 weeks

There were 3 or 4 independent reports in the last week of November and another one since so it seemed very likely there was a Hoopoe knocking around the west of Abergele.  It had moved on from a friends garden (which had no access) so I didn't put news out widely but P Alderson has seen it this morning in the caravan park west of Pensarn along the road by the sea wall but it is elusive.  He saw it at 11am this morning.  Really late record! poss saturata?  

Not seen it myself yet so hope to get out this arvo!

Rob

Cemlyn Bits and Bobs

I had a Red throated Diver and a Great Northern Diver in the bay yesterday late afternoon. Tony White had 2 Red thoats and a Black throat, between Harry Furlongs Buoy and Wylfa in the morning but no sign of the Tree Sparrow he had the week before. The Sparrow had been between Fronddu junction (the road to Hen Borth) and Hen Borth along the road in a mixed finch flock.The east Car park is innaccessable at the mo, as it is full of shingle. The car park at Penrhos CP is also closed due to debris so people are parking in the Toll-house car park. I also had an adult and a 2nd Winter med gull there yesterday afternoon.

Friday 6 December 2013

Bardsey gets all census data into BTO's BirdTrack


This afternoon I received an email from Andy Musgrove at the BTO HQ in Thetford.


"Thanks to sterling efforts from my colleague Justin, I can now announce that the Bardsey data are fully incorporated into BirdTrack! And they look mighty impressive. Approximately 700,000 records from 15,000 complete lists means that Bardsey alone now represents about 3% of the BirdTrack database...

...Finally, another fun statistic is that loading these records has trebled the number of Chough records in the BirdTrack database in one go! 66% of Chough records are now from the Bardsey Obs dataset."

I was moved!!! Years of work and head scratching to get the data to the BTO and I am now proud to announce that BBFO has become the first Observatory to have ALL its census data and ALL its ringing data digitised and logged at BTO HQ on their systems, making our data sets accessible and usable for conservation purposes on a national scale.

I responded immediately to Andy with this email:

"Andy that is FANTASTIC.

It has been a rather long, drawn out job getting all those records digitised as well as at times being tearful, stressful, and exhausting.

The list of people involved is huge, however, Julia Davies (my Assistant in 2001 and 2002) deserves special thanks as she was the one who originally digitised most of the data, and also Mike Archer and his team of helpers Dale Brown, Daphne Tyne, Joan James, Ruth Edwards and Jude were the main workers at the data checking 'coal face'.

Can I on behalf of the Trustees of BBFO and myself as Warden thank all involved at the BTO and all you guys who sat entering and checking data for such lengthy periods in sometimes uncomfortable conditions in the Obs!!

A tremendous effort all round to get all our ringing data onto IPMR (including all retraps and recoveries!) and now all our Census data onto BirdTrack.

The champagne will be popping tonight on Bardsey!!

And our next task is to get all the other Observatories to do the same!!!

All the very Best

Steve"

Andy Further responded:

"Thanks Steve

I would indeed second your thanks and congratulations to all the volunteers who did the real hard work of entering and checking data. And those who collected in the first place of course (although that's generally a bit more fun!) Well done all, enjoy your champagne!

Best wishes

Andy Musgrove
Head of Monitoring, British Trust for Ornithology
Address: BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, UK, IP24 2PU

Well that is a FANTASTIC result, some 15 years in the making and we now have our data all done and dusted. Mike Archer was presented with a gift from the BBRO Trustees in October when he was on the island for his work in the co-ordination of the mammoth task it has been over the past 15 years.

Peter Howlett (one of BBFO's Trustees) wrote a short piece for our Newsletter:

When Mike Archer and Dale Brown left the island on October 12th it brought to a close a remarkable period in the recent history of the Observatory. Mike has spent the past 15 years driving forward the digitisation of the bird log and ringing data. This has been a herculean effort both in his time and the amount of money spent and BBFO owe him and his band of helpers a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks to their efforts Bardsey has become the first Observatory to be able to submit all its archive log and ringing data to the BTO - a remarkable feat! 

As a thank you for all his efforts, Mike was given a small thank you from the Trustees. 


Pete Howlett



Andy did some very quick bits with the Bardsey data and had a look at the difference between Sand Martin records in the 1960s (top chart) and the 2000s (bottom). We can see instantly that there are more Sand Martin Records in March and April in the 200s than there were in the 1960s, prbably due to climatic change.



We are also able to see the number of species recorded per year on bards, as easily as clicking a few buttons on the mouse!!


So having seen the work that has been done on Bardsey, it is time for everyone to get involved. Enter your current sightings and then get out your old notebooks from the loft and get them digitised too. If you are interested in being part of the big picture read on...

About BirdTrack (copied from the BirdTrack web site (c) BTO)

BirdTrack is an exciting project, through a partnership between the BTO, the RSPB, Birdwatch Ireland, the Scottish Ornithologists' Club and the Welsh Ornithological Society, that looks at migration movements and distributions of birds throughout Britain and Ireland. BirdTrack provides facilities for observers to store and manage their own personal records as well as using these to support species conservation at local, regional, national and international scales.

The idea behind BirdTrack is that if you have been out birdwatching anywhere in Britain and Ireland, or simply watching birds in your garden, records of the birds you have seen (or indeed have not seen) can be useful data. Thus the scheme is year-round, and ongoing, and anyone with an interest in birds can contribute. Important results produced by BirdTrack include mapping migration (arrivals and departures) timings and monitoring scarce birds. We know very little about the timing of arrival and departure of winter visitors and this is just one area in which BirdTrack will provide useful information. There are also many scarce birds where we would like to know much more about their populations.
Register now to get started, or read on for more information...
The success of BirdTrack relies on your birdwatching lists. As a contributor you make a note of the birds you see, either out birdwatching or from the office or garden for example, and enter your daily observations on a simple-to-use web page. We need to gather a large number of lists at all times of the year from throughout Britain and Ireland. We prefer complete lists of birds (all species seen and heard) because the proportion of lists with a given species provides a good measure of frequency of occurrence that can be used for population monitoring. Incomplete lists and casual records can also be entered because they too build our understanding of populations, distributions and movements.

The local and national results are available on the website for everyone to look at - you don’t have to be a BirdTrack recorder. Every night the BTO BirdTrack computer will summarise that day's records and produce up-to-date maps and graphs showing the latest in migration, movements and distribution. These include animated maps showing the arrival and departure of migrants and the seasonal movements of birds. For scarce species, such as Hawfinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Woodcock and Water Rail, we will be building up a picture of their distribution throughout the year. You can also view and analyse your own records through specially designed features.
We hope that birdwatchers of all abilities will take part in BirdTrack. By encouraging large numbers of volunteers to join in the project we will be able to gather a large amount of unique and fascinating information.
We continue to develop BirdTrack in order to provide extra facilities for birdwatchers to maintain and analyse their own records, and for county societies to be able to do this for records within their areas. With your permission, all of your records will automatically be forwarded to the relevant county recorder.

Recording Migration Patterns
BirdTrack developed from Migration Watch, which ran in the springs of 2002-2004, and incorporates all of the Migration Watch data. Migration Watch was able to record the timing of arrivals and pattern of migratory spread of summer visitors across Britain & Ireland. This was a huge achievement and the power of the Internet made it possible to produce up-to-date daily results. BirdTrack expanded on this to provide a year-round recording package so that we can also study autumn migration (a much bigger challenge) and other movements and distributions. To find out more, read a fascinating article about how BirdTrack data is helping us to understand the effects of climate change on migration timing.
As with Migration Watch we are interested in not just when the first birds arrive or the last ones depart, but we also want to know when the bulk of the population has arrived or departed (whether summer or winter visitors). We can also get interesting information about passage migrants, such as inland wader movements. We can work this out by looking at the proportion of volunteers that have recorded a particular species on a given day.
By using the lists and counts of species submitted by volunteers we can also investigate how birds filter through the country; for example, do they head up the centre of the country or do they disperse west or east in spring time?

Tracking the Conservation Status of Scarce Species
An important aspect of BirdTrack is to provide supplementary information on some of the scarcer species in Britain and Ireland. Many species are monitored well by existing surveys such as the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey and by periodical surveys such as Seabird 2000 and the Nightjar survey. Others are difficult to survey well due to the habitats they occupy, their low breeding density and their secretive nature.
There is a range of species for which birdwatchers could easily and usefully contribute information. We hope to build up an annual picture of their distribution in Britain and Ireland, which would provide an excellent source of information between national Atlas projects. For species such as Hawfinch, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Woodcock we would like to receive records from throughout the year, whilst some other species are more common but scarce in the breeding season, e.g. Pochard and Dunlin, and so those records are particularly valuable.

Read more about taking part in BirdTrack, or just jump in and register to get started.
BirdTrack is organised by the BTO for the BTO, RSPB, BirdWatch Ireland, SOC and WOS. 
© British Trust for Ornithology, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PU, Tel: +44 (0)1842 750050
Email: birdtrack@bto.org (Britain) / bcaffrey@birdwatchireland.ie (Ireland)
Registered Charity Number 216652 (England & Wales), SC039193 (Scotland).

Morfa Bychan - good birds an bad pictures



I spent a few hours at Black Rock, Morfa Bychan today. I got decent views of the two surf scoters at high tide from the rock itself. I could just see that one or possibly both had a faint bill pattern and nape patch suggesting that they are 1 w males – as Mike D suggested  having seen them last week. It will be interesting to see how they moult as winter  unfolds. 

 Other birds included a nice velvet close in and 8 Longtails – Elfyn later had 10 of these smart  little ducks.
 At the  southern end of the beach  a Black necked and Slav grebe kept each other company as the tide swept them swiftly downriver and out to sea. Nice to get side by side views of these.  A Great Northern snorkelled the shallows on the far side of the river channel and two little gulls, an adult and first winter flew downstream and joined a small feeding flock of black-heads at the river mouth.



 I was surprised to find a chiffchaff at Carreg Samson. A really striking pale bird with bright silver undersides and pale brown uppers with  a hint of green in the wing, a  bright supercillium as well.



 It reminded me of a Bonelli’s warbler (apart from the strong super and eye-stripe) it called only once – which was how I picked it up. Just a typical chiffchaff call rather than the bullfinch/dunnock  call of  Siberian chiffchaff. I did get some awful pics with my phone (apologies). I also played it recordings of  Siberian and common chiffchaff and it  responded very enthusiastically to both  - as it did to pishing as well! – no help there then. Any comments on this bird gratefully received
Walking back i noticed a a fresh dead porpoise on  the beach  - already showing signs of predation. I did search, but there were no red-faced small white gulls to be seen : (
hwyl

Monday 2 December 2013

talk on the Rio Grande, Texas, at BBG this weds.

This Weds Neil Glenn will be talking about birding in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  19:30 start, doors close 19:20.  Brambell Building, Deiniol Rd, Bangor.
Hopefully see you there.

Rob

N Wales news

Took a trip over to Caernarfon on Sat and saw an ad m Black Redstart so I reckon there's two around the Council Offices.  Plenty of birds on the Foryd, love it along there.  Plenty wildfowl.

MD had Firecrest and 5 Chiffchaff at Llanfairfechan SF.  30 Brents and Whooper Swan off Aber yesterday.

GGS still at GBB today close to the mast

2 fem Surfies still off Morfa Bychan/Black Rock yesterday.

Rob