Corvo 2024, Days Three and Four, Hurricane Isaac

We have been waiting patiently (or not) for Hurricane Isaac to pull in some mega yanks and we are still waiting.  

There have been a few 'signs', yesterday a Lesser Yellowlegs flew in-off and today I found a new Red-eyed Vireo in the Lighthouse Valley. 

However following what was overall a rather boring day and hopes and light were fading Isaac served a curveball this evening when a dark and a pale morph Trindade Petrel were off shore, presumably pushed in by these persistent and very humid south west winds. Typical Corvo. days of boredom and then...wallop! 

Dark morph Trindade Petrel- I found this in the most appalling way. Max and Co saw a Sooty Shearwater flying past the Windmills so I waited for it at the end of the runway. I picked up a dark seabird with my bins coming in and then took a couple of scenic shots of it flying in with the Cory's and then carried out walking round without looking at the pics or even the bird with optics. I got back to the guesthouse and started going through my pics and that's when I noticed it wasn't a Sooty Shearwater but a dark morph Trindade. I sent the photos to Pierre to confirm the identification and moments later he had already found the bird but it was now in the company of a pale morph Trindade too. 

Nice to find this Red-eyed Vireo this morning- hopefully the first of more to come American passerines

Cory's Shearwaters performing beautifully in the windy conditions. We also had an Arctic Skua go south yesterday and there have been 4-5 Manx Shearwaters in with the Cory's. Others have also seen a few presumed Band-rumps.  

Hurricane Isaac is to the north west of us and moves gradually north over the next couple of days while maintaining a westerly airflow from the US as it interplays with another area of low pressure which is drawing strong north west winds off Nova Scotia. There are two large frontal systems which are presumably acting as barriers for vagrants but these should move through over the next couple of days. The longer this wind bridge between us and the US is maintained the more chance there is of new american vagrants coming in- we will see what happens. I've found Trindade Petrel on here before (in 2006) so my gamble of twitching the weather to find or see a new mega has yet to pay out. 

Pierre-Andre Crochet (back) and Paul Dufour in Lighthouse Valley. Paul works at Pierre's Lab at Montpellier University and together are leading academics in vagrancy theory. We have a paper due to be published soon on the results of our vagrant ringing project and isotope analysis which has revealed some interesting and surprising results on the origins of some of the vagrants here. 

Corvo 2024, Days One and Two, Mega Double-dip

After arrving at 1am for an overnight on Sao Miguel on Thursday night I was then up at 530am to get the new direct flight to Corvo so I was on Corvo by 830am, in time for breakfast and for a full day in the field. In the 20 years I've been coming here that's the fastest I've been able to get to the island- basically I can leave Gatwick at lunchtime and be on Corvo for breakfast. 

My new strategy is now to 'twitch' Corvo both in terms of birds and weather rather than pre-book the usual one or two week trip. This targeted approach is aimed at maximising chances and minimising time (as I'm no longer the free and single man I was when I started doing this)  and it worked perfectly last year. 

There was a Red-footed Booby last weekend and an Alder Flycatcher had been present all week and the weather forecast for the next week looks promising too so with two WP lifers and a good forecast  I scrambled the plan into action.

However so far so bad. I spent most of yesterday at Lapa dipping the Alder Flycatcher and today I dedicated to seawatching and saw very little, certainly not the Booby and worst still birders on Flores also spent today seawatching and had 2 Deserta's Petrel, a probable South Polar Skua, a Great Blue Heron in-off and yesterday evening they had a pale morph Trindade Petrel too. 

Meanwhile in the UK a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler has turned up at Bempton and my other Corvo chums who arrive next week have twitched that so all in all the last two days have not gone to plan.

However it's always great to be on Corvo, the atmosphere and the scenery and catching up with friends and meeting new birders is wonderful and I still have one gamble in the game- the weather still looks good to bring in some new american birds so my fingers are still crossed. I've got the whole of next week on here so will see what it brings. 

There were four or five Glossy Ibis flying around the fields near Lapa yesterday

Seawatching today included about 500 Cory's Shearwater (above), 4-5 Manx Shearwater and 36 Common Tern (below)

You know it's quiet on Corvo when you start photographing the local birds (Ebird list from today HERE). The recently split Azores Chaffinch (above), and the local endemic race of Grey Wagtail (below) and Atlantic Canary (a juvenile, below that) 

Long-tailed Blue. Seems to be quite a few of these flying around the fields. Also good numbers of Clouded Yellows and Large Whites around. I didn't have room for the moth trap this time but seems plenty of day flying moths around including Wedglings, Chevron snouts, White-specks, Rusty-dot Pearls and some Ephestia sp. 

Also a Convolvulus Hawkmoth caterpillar crossing the road 

View over Corvo village, built on a lava flow (Lava Delta) that spilled over the cliff and into the sea

There's a bit of interesting weather going on with a deep low passing north of us today, Hurricane Isaac (Holly said a hurricane named after our two year old is going to cause carnage) is moving across the Atlantic and over the next few days Isaac merges with another area of low pressure that draws a westerly airflow across the Atlantic from the US (below). Quite an usual weather pattern, not a classic 'yank fall' scenario but could be interesting - we will see if my gamble pays off. 

En route to Corvo

I'm heading off on the annual pilgrimage to Corvo today. It's the twenty year anniversary since I had the great fortune of discovering the birding potential of this mythical island in 2005. Discovery story HERE and HERE,

An Empidonax flycatcher was found this week, an Alder/Willow, so I'm hoping that hangs around until tomorrow and it looks like there are some promising westerly winds over the next week so fingers crossed.

I put the moth trap out last night, a very wet and stormy night- Feathered Ranunculus was a new for garden and there was a nice selection of migrants too. 

Right... I've got a plane to catch. 

Feathered Ranunculus- looking forward to resuming the search for a rare migrant moth in the garden when I get back next weekend 

Windy Monday

The prevailing southwesterly wind has re-established and its set to be a wet and windy week (there have been widespread floods across the UK last night). We had an important doctor's appointment for Isaac this morning so I only had a few hours in the afternoon to go birding so I decided to check East side and North wall as I haven't been there for a while. Ebird notable bird list here . Highlights were a Spotted Flycatcher, Whinchat and 4 Stonechat around the paddocks (they've been there a while), a Spot Red in White's Creek, 2 Marsh Harrier over the Breach Pool and a Peregrine. Also the smaller waders seem to be hiding out in this part of the harbour with 120 Ringed Plover and 65 Dunlin. 

The moth trap was somewhat more exciting than the birding today with a pretty decent haul of migrants including a nice Convolvulus Hawkmoth, 3 Small Mottled Willows, 3 Crocidosema plebjana, 6 Delicate, 5 Clancy's Rustic, 8 Rusty-dot Pearl, 4 L-album Wainscot, 1 Palpita vitrealis, 1 Dark Sword Grass, 1 Dark Spectacle, 1 Blair's Mocha and also had Cypress Pug and Black Rustics which were new for the new garden list. Garden list is now on 372 (since July).

Juvenile/first winter Spotted Flycatcher

Juvenile Marsh Harrier

Female Stonechat

An obliging Curlew (Barwit in background) 

A Curlew thinking it's about to meet it's maker- the juvenile Peregrine decided it was a bit too big to try it's luck 

Small Mottled Willow- the fresher looking of three last night

Crocidosema Plebjana- one of three presumably migrants

Convolvolus Hawkmoth (with the newly painted shed in the background)

Gold Spot- two of these last night (haven't seen one in a while). What with Frosted Orange, Centre-barred Sallows, Sallows, 3 Brindled Greens and Canary-shouldered Thorns there was a nice bit of colour in the trap this morning. Fortunately there wasn't too many wasps for the first time in ages (hopefully that keeps up as I had about 100 wasps in the trap a couple of nights ago)

Seal sp out in the harbour. I think this is Harbour Seal (Been told that's the most likely one here too). Also saw a Weasel on the reserve recently and Holly saw two along the lane this morning. The European Moles are causing plenty of mess in our garden but they are most welcome here. 

Quiet Weekend

There seems to be plenty of birding effort put in this weekend on the Peninsula (see Selsey blog) and I also did a couple of sessions including Church Norton yesterday evening here and I did Pagham Spit this morning here. Despite the effort there doesn't seem to be much down here despite the substantial fall of eastern scarce migrants and a couple of vagrants brought in by this easterly airflow (mainly in the Northern Isles, East Coast down to North Kent). My personal highlights locally have been seeing a few more Brents which are dripping in, a couple of Tree Pipits and a bit of vis-mig (although the hirundine passage of the week has dropped right off with Meadow Pipits being more evident this weekend). Seems like the Peninsula is in some kind of migration shadow as there have been absolutely enormous numbers of hirundines elsewhere this weekend- e.g. 54,000 at one site in Glamorgan yesterday and 200,000 (120K Swallows and 80K House Martins) at Dungeness today (also a Western Bonelli's there).  

The weather this morning was south east winds and rain, which even inland at Beddington Farmlands I would associate with a good chance of a scarce migrant- indeed there was a Short-eared Owl there today. Certainly seems like I may need to reprogramme myself for autumn weather watching for the south coast as easterlies seem to be a different box of chocolates down here (it was the dreamed for weather at other birding patches I've had). It could possibly have been just bad luck and other easterly autumn conditions might fair better. 

The winds are now shifting to a more southerly to southwesterly direction from tomorrow with stormy conditions predicted for next week so will be interesting to see what unfolds now with a change in wind direction. 

Brents arriving into the area- I had 10 this morning with the first two actually in the harbour. The first of the winter flock. 

What with the accumulating Wigeon, Pintail and Teal flocks it's all taking on a mid-late autumn feel

Whimbrel and Barwit- about 6 Barwits in the harbour and 2-3 Whimbrel. A noticeable lack of Dunlin and Ringed Plover at the moment after early autumn highs of 200 of each in August. 

This rather grey Western Yellow Wagtail was feeding in the fields behind the church yesterday, the yellow wash in the undertail coverts and the call dashed any hopes of an Eastern Yellow Wagtail but something this grey may be more typical in flava populations although the other birds in the group it was with were typical flavisimma 

The moth trap was equally quiet, a Grey Shoulder Knot was the only NFG over the weekend

Blair's Mocha- one each night this weekend and a few other of the usual migrant species 

Put some winter vegetables in and some onion sets and leeks into the raised beds. There's been up to 8 Chiffchaffs in the garden and lane and a Blackcap and Goldcrest this morning with a trickle of Meadow Pipits and hirundines going over. 

Birthday week

It was my birthday on Wednesday , the ticking time bomb spurred me on to try and get some trips booked for this autumn birding and start thinking about some world birding trips for next year (life goals are to see half the world's birds, 800 species in the WP and find loads of rarities). For this autumn I'm still planning on booking Corvo once the weather looks good and if I can get the pond liner will try and do a week in Bulgaria too for the autumn. Also thinking about doing Peru next July, Cyprus in the Spring and possibly a family holiday to Tanzania over the winter.    

A high pressure has been stable over the UK this week bringing persistent northeasterlies and generally clear skies. There's also been a super moon so with the clear nights and bright moon the moth trap catch has been pretty low (e.g. 60 of 28 last night) but seems like some moth migrants have been getting blown down to us here (highlights below). 

I actually worked on my birthday (around birthday lunch at the Sidlesham Crab and Lobster) to get Thursday and Friday off. The main feature of this week has been migrating hirundines which has been pretty impressive to see. On Thursday morning I joined the crew at Selsey Bill for some vis-migging/seawatching and we had approx 700 House Martins, 150 Barn Swallows and a few Sand Martins going east in about 3 hours but they were moving all day and I kept seeing small groups whereever I went across the Peninsula. Other highlights from yesterday included my first Brents of the year, a couple of Common Scoter and a Wheatear. Ebird list HERE. A check of Ferry and Mill Lane marsh didn't reveal much- a Greenshank at the marsh and a couple of Green Sandpipers on Ferry Ebird list here

This morning I finally got round to visiting Medmerry RSPB. Once again the hirundines were on the move- similar numbers to yesterday and I also had a few Medmerry specialities including Dartford Warblers and Yellowhammers. 63 species in total over about two and half hours HERE.

The highlight of my birthday was a bird I didn't even see- a 2nd-calender year Long-tailed Skua that Jack Petit found at Beddington (only the 2nd one there since I had this one while washing the dishes from the Beddington obs). Video of the stunning bird here -quite a rare plumage to see them in. Amazing!

Male Yellowhammer at Medmerry

Small Mottled Willow- at last one of the hundreds that hit the east coast has made it here! Other possible migrants included 2 Olive-tree Pearl, 1 Dark Spectacle, 1 Rusty-dot Pearl, 1 Delicate, 1 Dark Marbled Tabby, 1 Clancy's Rustic and 1 L-album Wainscot. 

Marbled Fern, Musotima nitidalis- after the one that got away a couple of weeks ago it was good to get a record shot of this one- a NFG. Garden list now on 369. 

No shortage of male Four-spotted Footman round here (one or two on many nights since we've been here) but this is the first female I've had here (or anywhere). 

In the Field Mondays

I'm trying to get every Monday off to spend in the field. This morning after doing the moths (and garden vis-mig- 10 Teal over the garden was a garden tick) I headed out and checked  out Mill Lane Marsh and then Ferry before heading over to Church Norton. I walked round the back towards Bluebell Woods and then back along the Severals, over to the Spit and then back past the Benches and through the Church yard. The wind was light from the northeast and it was nice and sunny so a really nice walk with 80 species in total (HERE), highlights including an immature White-tailed Eagle, a juvenile Red Kite (a peninsula tick), juv Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, a Golden Plover over, 2 Whinchat, 1 Wheatear and 83 Wigeon and 26 Pintail in the harbour. There was a trickle of passerine vis-mig with a few Mips, Yellow Wags and hirundines going over. 

About 200-250 of 52 in the moth trap last night- a few highlights below and also Scarce Bordered Straw, Olive-tree Pearl, Rusty-dot Pearl, Dark Sword Grass, Silver-Y, another Clancy's Rustic, 2 Delicate and also Portland Ribbon Waves. Most of the catch was Large Yellow Underwing (about 150 or so). 

White-tailed Eagle (above and below)- the rows of markings on the upperwing coverts indicates a juvenile bird although the quality of the photo isn't great. It's either a juv or a second calender year bird (but looks more like a juv- an old young bird should show more white in the underwing and underparts). 

Juvenile Red Kite- an easy one to age with all those white markings on the underparts and fresh plumage

Wigeon and Pintail- numbers building in the harbour. Others counted 200 Wigeon in the harbour. 

A decent solid white line along the costa and thorax leading edge of this Radford's. No mistaking ones like this

Green Brindled Crescent- an NFG. 170924 update CMR team says it’s Brindled Green which makes sense. 

Notch-winged Tortix, Acleris emargana- NFG

Small Dingy Tubic, Borkhausenia fuscescens- NFG. Garden moth list now 368. 

Black-banded Masonor, Blastobasis rebeli- the freshest one I've had of these. Smart little moth