New Website

You've probably noticed that theres been a bit of a dearth of posting to this blog of late, i'm sure you've all been very worried that i've been kidnapped by the Iranians or had my bins knicked by chavvy scum in North Portland, actually i've just not really got out birding at all, thanks to a variety of reasons such as work, those 'orrible Nor-westerleys that are holding all the birds up in Normandy and the general lack of anything interesting to go and see.

I have however set up a new website to act as a photo gallery to compliment this blog. Check it out at www.joecockram.fotopic.net It's very much a work in progress at the moment and is looking rather empty but over time i'll gradually fill it up with all my old pix.

Spring Migration, it's on!!!!

A rather mixed week so far.

On Tuesday I joined Grahame and Duncan Walbridge for the long trip up to Camarthenshire for the Glaucous Winged Gull, after a very tedious journey and a 6 hour wait we left the site feeling just a mite disapppointed. The Gull had refused to show and has not been seen since, presumably its hiding in some other obscure welsh estuary that has yet to be discovered by western civilistaion. A little entertainment was provided throughout the day by 1 or 2 Goshawks displaying distantly and up to 10 Red Kites constantly on view the other side of the estuary.

I spent the next few days at Portland, enjoying the glorious sunshine, by far the best weather of the year so far. The clement conditions coaxed a few migrants over the channel, a female Marsh Harrier and three Firecrests on Wednesday and several Wheatears today being the pick of the bunch, hopefully much more to follow very soon.

Lunar Eclipse

Watched the Lunar Eclipse from the back yard tonight. An amazing spectacle as a shadow appeared across the surface of the moon, before it took on an eerie reddish shade.

I want to move to cornwall

Having spent the whole of the winter umming and ahhing about whether or not I could be bothered to go down to Cornwall for the overwintering Spotted Sandpiper at Hayle I finally got the incentive I needed. I had been tempted even more by the Pacific Diver at Penzance but chickened out at the last minute thanks to its elusiveness but the news of a showy White billed Diver at Hayle gave me the shove I needed to embark on my first British twitch since the Black Throated Thrush in Somerset at Christmas 2005!!!
After a 5 hour journey I arrived at Hayle Harbour and was more than mildly pleased to see the Diver happily farting around directly below me off the quay, and was treated to stunning views of this monster bird as it caught crabs (no sniggering at the back there).















The bird then went for a wander down Copperhouse Creek, where it showed down to about 10metres at eye level. It even managed to catch a decent sized fish (which I couldn't I.D) and spent ages trying to swallow it

After the obligatory celebratory pasty from Mr. Philps I wandered over to the Old Quay House Inn to try for the Spotted Sand. On arrival I got told it was over by Lelant Saltings Station so charged off over there. When I got to the station however, a quick scan revealed that the awkward little sod was back over by the Inn again, buggerations. Rather than leg it all the way back over there again I settled down for a scan of the rest of the estuary and picked up a few embarrassing year ticks like Spotted Redshank and Knot. A quick walk over to St. Uny Close and I found the skanky Arab Lesser Whitethroat thing feeding on the bird table, which seemed somewhat bizarre.

After almost being shat on by a very low flying Buzzard on the road between the station and the Inn, I soon got onto the Spotted Sandpiper at a much closer and more acceptable range on the saltmarsh creeks behind the pub. It showed very well through the scope but was a little too far off for any decent photos, especially with the light fading, still, a nice way to round off a great day, the first day with 2 brit ticks that i've had for a while.

After a night at the very pleasant, though rather quiet Penzance YHA I decided to call in at Hayle for another look on the way home. The Spotted Sand was showing nicely below the bridge but again too distant and in appaling light so no more pix. On heading into Hayle itself the WBD was soon found feeding in the Creek below the Swimming Pool.

Whilst watching the diver i noticed a gull flying past out of the corner of my eye. It was only when it was practically gone that I twigged that there was something 'not quite right' about it, it had the overall 'jizz' of a Med gull, but even against the light the mantle seemed worryingly dark. I told the other birders standing next to me (who didnt even see the gull) and then hurried off to Carnsew Basin, where the bird seemed to have disappeared to.
An hour of fruitless searching left me with that terrible feeling when you know you've had something good but it's got away. In a foul mood, and hurling obscenities (and bricks) at every Med or Blk headed gull that loafed past, I sat down on the edge of Carnsew Pool to photograph the Great Northern Divers, no sooner had I done so than some old bastard lobbed a stick in for his dog and flushed the Diver off to the other side of the pool.
































I headed off in hot pursuit along the track around the North edge of the basin and soon wished I was wearing wellies as the path was more than a little damp. I noticed a decent sized flock of small(er) gulls out on the estuary and had a quick scan through with the bins, MY GOD, there it was, although the flock was distant, one of the gulls had a really obvious dark upperwing, it was blatantly a Franklins. I fired off a couple of record shots, then as I was replacing the camera with the scope from my bag, to my horror the flock lifted off and pissed off over the trees towards St. Ives, nooooo! I had less than an hour til my train back home and my first potential proper rare for far too long was slipping away from me. Luckily the flock drifted back and I got good enough scope views in flight to be sure it was a Franklins and then lost the bird completely. After a thorough search, but with no joy I managed to convince myself to be happy with what I had got and headed back to Hayle for another quick peek at the WBD and to catch my train back home.
Overall, a wonderful couple of days birding, that has reminded me just how great birding in Britain can be.

A shoddy record shot of the highlight of the trip
Self-found Franklins Gull, Oh yeah!!!!!!

Portland

I spent last weekend down at Portland ,thinking that there could be a couple of early migrants coming through, somewhat predictablly, there wasn't.
It was generally very quiet with good numbers of Stonechats being the only sign of any movements.
A nice surprise was a 1st winter Glaucous Gull hanging around off the Bill before flying off West.
The usual wintering flock of Purple Sandpipers on the rocks below the Obelisk were typically tame and allowed a few nice shots to be taken, though i did get proper soaked from a rather large wave that i didnt notice until it was too late.



















































Kestrel in the Hut Fields














Dunnock

















A distant Aircraft Carrier, reassuringly identified as 'one of ours' by the locals

A photographic guide to the birds of my garden

This blog gets more exciting every day!! Heres a selection of the latest rares recorded in my garden.



Robin
















Greenfinch




















Blue Tit















Great Tit

More old Pix

The weathers shit and i'm bored. A quick walk down to the fishing lakes this morning was quite frankly, a load of pap, producing 6 mallard, a moorhen and a cormorant.
To lift myself from the doldrums of rubbish inland british winter birding i've just been looking through the pictures from Australia again. heres a selection from the Brisbane area, from last November.

Plum headed finch, a good record for central Brisbane



















Scarlet Myzomela


















Water Dragon on the Brisbane riverside




















White breasted Woodswallow




















Apostlebird



















Blue faced honeyeater

















Little Heron


















Monarch butterfly



















Pallid Cuckoo

Old Pictures

Seeing as how i'm stuck in Somerset doing fuck all until i can get a job, i've just been working through the vast stacks of pictures from the oz trip. Heres a load from the two Wollongong pelagics that i dont think i've put on the blog before.

Wedge Tailed Shearwater


















Black Browed Albatross

















Shy Albatross
















Kelp Gull

















Antipodean Albatross




















Cambell Island Albatross





















Southern Giant Petrel



















Providence Petrel




















Gibsons Albatross
















Brown Skua


















Indic Yellow Nosed Albatross




















Cambell Island Albatross


















Fairy Prion




















Pintado Petrel/ Cape Petrel/ Cape Pigeon