Soft-plumaged Petrel Varanger find of a lifetime

I say find but as with any of the best rare bird discoveries this was in fact just a mix of being in the right place at the right time, in effect luck! For everyone who has not seen the article in Birding World a quick summary of this amazing record. Mark Bannister and myself were birding at Nesseby Varanger, Arctic Norway, on the evening of June 6th 2009 when I tracked a passing Arctic Skua with my camera only to see it attack a seabird in front of us which quickly proved to be a pterodroma petrel; the bird was only in view for a few minutes before flying off down the fjord towards Vadso but I managed to get a set of small images of the bird with a 500mm lens and these proved on inspection to show what most people agree is a Soft-plumaged Petrel only the second for the Western Palearctic and the first for the North Atlantic; in fact there has been only one other record in the Western Pal and that was at Eilat. The full significance of this record will take a while to register but in effect it means that claims of pterodromas in the North Sea will now need to exclude this southern species rather than just being assumed to be Fea's or Zino's. 

To get decent photos of any rare seabird is a real challenge but getting shots of a pterodroma from the shore is staggering and I am still in shock after 5 weeks!

Soft-plumaged Petrel 2

This record has not been formally submitted to the Norwegian records Committee as yet but will be when I get the time; 

Common Blue damsels

Shelduck splash down

juvenile Redshank fledges

one of only two to fledge from 10 pairs; this species seems to fair rather badly around the Humber

Grey Heron

just swallowed a large fish and under attack from BHG's

Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits

rain birds

some nice heavy showers today -- the weather men got it right at last

Black-tails

a wadge of islandica returning early as usual -- 234 today 

Spoons a record and Avocet build up

a very poor record shot -- why these two birds are so wild is anyone's guess the early autumn Avocet build up is well underway 

Barn Owl by day

apart from during the thunderstorms this bird was hunting all day today suggesting a big brood

Black-headed Gulls and a Med

Shelducks

Lapwings

one juvenile that may make it and moulting adults

Shelducks at dawn

first Marsh Harrier brood

its the time of year when my hours of standing being bitten by horseflies and trying to work out just how many juvenile harriers fledge from each nest takes over life -- this brood of 3 was easy as the other nest had not fledged; in places where there are 6 or 7 nests it is often frustrating in the extreme

veggy harriers

its one thing trying to get the kids a varied diet but grass and straw for young harriers seems an odd combination but thats all the adults brought in this morning much to the disgust of the juvs

juvenile Grey Heron

this bird seemed to have some sort of agro wish as it kept flying over a reedbed with juvenile harriers around as well as aggressive adults; most of the time I failed to get both species in the same frame though!

adult female Marsh Harriers

although often depicted as a set cream crown in many guides adult female Marsh Harriers seem from my experience to come in two types; the chocolate brown bird with the cream crown and forewings and the rusty coloured bird with a poorly marked head pattern, rusty tail and general male type plumage; the latter often have very pale eyes but watching the same birds in successive seasons their plumage does not seem to change between one type and the other with age

juvenile Sedge

seems to be a good year for fledging warblers with lots of large broods about

Avocet v Teal

birds with chicks will attack anything that strays too close

the big pterodroma

an article with full details and the full set of photos of this bird taken off Nesseby Varanger on June 6th 2009 will be in the next issue of Birding World. 

tern art

hovering Common tern sequence

Avocets in better light

always seems a bit odd to see them swimming

reedbed avos

a distinct shortage of suitable nesting sites around the Humber has seen 16 pairs trying to breed on a bit of mud in the middle of a reedbed on the local patch; the greylags have done their best to extend the mud habitat but there seems little chance of any of the chicks surviving to fledging as all they have to feed on are the small muddy patches at the base of the reedbed -- the changes in bird behaviour is always an education; I had been stood on a busy road watching this family for some time with no reaction from the adults but when two people stopped to talk to me both parents made a sudden aerial attack only to immediately settle back down with the chicks

Common Tern

9 days after the back incident I managed to get out and hold the lens up today for a few shots; nothing great as it was  dull and humid and little bird action but at least things are on the mend

Cormorant and poo

for some bizarre reason this Cormorant sits on the edge of this breeding tern raft every day; at about 10 minute intervals the 4 - 6 Common Terns attack it from above leaving it well splattered with poo and no doubt a severe headache but it simply does not move and in fact doesn't even react; another Cormorant nearby was rather more nervous and dived under the water every time it was attacked even plunge diving from one of the tern's posts where it had been sat

Greylags v phragmites

we used to have a lot of reedbeds on the local patch, in fact we still have but we also now have 250 Greylags, beautiful wild geese with a splendid array of calls; during their wing moult though they consume a rather large acreage of the edge of favoured reedbeds and produce the rather obvious results shown above

moon in the forestlens

last night I managed to get mobile enough to do some Nightjarring -- the birds were terrific but I failed to capture any images; maybe next time with a better back! Today after a bit of a set back the garden was all I managed with the Canon 24-105 lens that I now use for most landscapes including all of the Scandinavian ones

more landscapes from the far north

I have been immobile for a week now due to the back problem so only just managed to pick up a camera with the 24-105 lens last night; I have taken time to add a few scenic images from the Finland / Norway trip to http://nycteagallery.blogspot.com/ --- here are one or two more images from the same trip -- Neljan is the spot for the grossers but they are rather better than the hot chocolate! the red area on the Nesseby peninsula upper image highlights the location of the most bizarre sighting of the trip soon to be revealed

a few random additions

the quaint church at Nesseby noted here -- more on a sighting from this location soon

Steller's Eiders

on our first trip to Varanger we saw just one adult drake Steller's but good numbers of immatures and females, on the second visit no adult drakes and just 18 immatures; this year amazingly there were 3 adult drake sin a total of six birds; one male paired to a female then this group of four birds, 2 drakes, a 2cy drake and a female all at Vadsoya; they often came in close to the shore but long grass meant that it was not possible to creep up on them and get shots without grass intervening

Steller's Eiders 2

there was a lot of fighting between the two adult drakes and the 2cy drake; the latter seemed to be paired tot he female and was trying to keep the two adults away

Finnish Lapland and Varanger area June 2009

a selection of the 7800 images retained in the plethora of posts below -- these are possibly my most favoured images but the skuas and waders take some beating!