Kuwait Pelagic

On 15th May, Omar Alshaheen, Abdulrahman Al-Sirhan, Humoud Alshayji, Mohammad Alazmi, Vincent Legrand, Julien Hainaut and I took a fishing boat out from Al Kirhan in South Kuwait to do some exploring around the banks, shelf areas and islands in the Persian Gulf. Ebird list HERE.

Highlight of the trip were up to six Short-tailed Shearwater. There have been two previous records of Short-tailed Shearwater for Kuwait involving three birds (infact the first for the WP was here in 2014) and there have been six previous records for the WP involving seven birds HERE. Therefore if accepted these records will almost double the previous numbers of individuals for the WP.

A few photo highlights below of an incredible day.  

Short-tailed Shearwaters (above). Will do a detailed seperate blog post on these but here are a couple of examples of a short billed (top) and slightly longer billed (bottom two images) individual

White-cheeked Tern- a lifer. A common breeding bird on the islands in the Gulf. That broad band on trailing edge to the underwing is the key feature in all plumages. 

Bridled Tern. The most numerous species we encountered.

Lesser Crested Tern

Bridled, White-cheeked and Lesser Crested Terns

Lesser Crested Tern and second-calender/non-breeding plumaged White-cheeked Terns (very similar to non-breeding Common Tern in this plumage, the broad trailing edge on the underwing is the key feature)

Bridled Terns

White-cheeked and Bridled Terns

Nightjar at sea. After not being able to pick up the Selsey bird earlier in the Spring having this close encounter with a Nightjar at sea hawking in a flock of terns was a wonderful sight. Despite my awareness of Nightjars at sea (they seem to hang around off shore waiting to night fall while on migration) I and everyone else on board managed to string this for every possible petrel before it came closer and the penny dropped. We also had a few Barn Swallows at sea. 

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins- a nice encounter with a pod of about 10 of these

We also had two encounters with other cetaceans including two Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoise and also the above animals which I thought looked like Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin (the default humpy in the region). We also had a Green Turtle and loads of fish species including Tuna sp, Baracuda and Flying fish. Our chum attracted absolutely nothing which was probably due to an abundance of natural food. 

Good Times ! 

Long shot, hit the target, missed the bullseye

Today turned into an exciting day and then ended a frustrating day. I started off at the Bill on the Seawatch where highlights included the 'resident' male Serin which I finally managed to get a photo of, a couple of Black Terns, some late Brents, a influx of Med Gulls and a Black-throated Diver. Ebird list HERE. 

I then went to Medmerry in search of the Collared Pratincole that had flown east from Farlington a couple of days ago. As usual with these things it was a long shot but any excuse to have a nice long birding walk at Medmerry is a good enough for me. Earlier in the Spring I had spent several days looking for the Least Sandpiper on the Peninsula after it dissappeared from Hampshire and then soon after Paul and Sam found it at Medmerry so it's worth a shot when vagrants are moving in this general direction.

There were plenty of Med and Black-headed Gulls aerial feeding so I started checking the flocks for the Pratincole. I got to Stilt Pool and then decided to walk down to the breach just to look for Spring waders. As I walked along the beach I walked up the bank to keep checking the marsh and then almost unbelievably there was the Pratincole hawking over the marsh. I got the chestnut underwing and the white-trailing edge and then I quickly went for my camera to get a record shot and through the camera could see it get mobbed by a Med Gull and lost it in the view finder so switched back to bins but couldn't see it. I then put the news out and then presumed would pick it up again. I checked the single photo I took which was just a blurred shaking mess.  Three hours passed, Marc, Sarah, Paul and Ian joined the search and nothing and then I had to go back for the school run and pack for Kuwait tomorrow. Later in the afternoon several other people tried and Ian, Marc and I returned in the evening for another couple of hours and nothing again which really surprised me as I expected to quite easily see it again hawking over the marsh in the evening when the insects were lower. 

So basically, unless it's found again at Medmerry or somewhere else on the Peninsula what was originally really exciting turned into one of the worst birding scenarios- a single observer sighting of a good bird with no photo which is basically just a horrible end to an exciting occasion. Ebird list from Medmerry HERE.

The moth trap was quite lively last night with several new for years. A few photo highlights below. Now on 465 for the garden and 153 for the year. Migrants last night included the first Rush Veneer for the year, a Turnip, 5 Diamond-backs and a Rusty-dot Pearl. 

The Selsey male Serin- been around a month now. The hazy shot is due to the only rain yesterday that we've had in weeks getting into my lens. Really don't like that about this new standard birder's set up of the Canon R7 and 100-500 - just the slightest rain on the tube and it fogs up.  

Brents- still going 

Whitethroat

Yellowhammer. Nice to see some clouds in the sky in this persistent high pressure Spring. There was actually some rain on Sunday night and yesterday. 

Pinion-streaked Snout 

Portland Ribbon Wave

Pug sp. Not sure on this. Maybe just a weakly marked Freyer's but could be something else. 140525 update- CMR agrees it's a Freyer's.

Light Brocade- always nice to see 

Weekend round-up

It was mainly a family weekend with Steve's clan down for the weekend but I did a couple of hours at the Bill on Saturday morning HERE- three Arctic Skuas were the highlight and on Saturday afternoon we went out on a fishing trip into Bracklesham Bay with the kids. Surprisingly very few birds- just 5 Common Scoters and a few Med Gulls, Sandwich and Common Terns but we caught quite a few fish. 

Today after catching up with work we spent a few hours at East Head on the beach and I was keeping my eye out as there were 9 Poms in the Solent, first hanging around the Hampshire mouth and then slowly they made their way through with several seen past the Bill. I didn't pick up any from East Head but was pretty distracted. The guys also had a Long-tailed Skua off the Bill so obviously Spring is still uncoiling out there. 

This evening I had a quick look at Ferry and walked to Mill Lane and back HERE. Not much changed since my last visit- an increase in Blackwits to about 20 on Ferry, the Snipe and a couple of Shoveler are sitll there and there were still about 26 Whimbrels out in the harbour with a few Grey Plover, Knot and Dunlin too. 

Arctic Skuas (above and below) chasing a Med Gull below. Arctic Skuas in this part of the world winter offshore Southern Africa and globally breed across the whole of the Holarctic and winters across the southern oceans. Poms have a more restricted global breeding range (not on Iceland, Greenland or Fenno-Scandanavia but across the rest of the high Arctic) and they also have a wider wintering range, even wintering in the North Atlantic and everywhere south too down to the Southern Ocean. 

Sanderlings- there were still a few waders moving. Similar to Turnstone, Sanderlings also have a near cosmopolitan wintering range but all breed in the high Arctic so birds migrating north past here now could basically come from anywhere south down to South Africa.  

Adult and third-summer Great Black-backed Gull 

Plenty of young birds around now- Dunnocks here 

The moth trap has picked up as the temperatures have gone up a bit again. Spruce Carpet was new for year

The first Satin Wave this year

Nice to get the first Cream-spot Tiger of the year . Now on 463 for the garden and 137 for the year

This decent Starry Smoothhound was our prize catch on the fishing trip (actually caught by Iris who caught more than all the boys together) 

We got quite a few of these Lesser Spotted Catsharks

Apart from all the sharks the only other type of fish we caught was this Black Bream 

The Medmerry Trail

Took a walk today along the Medmerry Trail to check for Red-footed Falcon which have been influxing regionally for the last few days. Didn't mean to walk so far but eventually walked all the way to Ham and then back via Ferry. 70 species of nearly 500 individuals HERE with highlights including the Corn Buntings at Ham, loads of Warblers along the hedges, House Martins and Swifts going over and Peregrine, Hobby and Kestrels but alas no Red-footed Falcon today. 

Corn Bunting, Medmerry. Five or six birds present including two singing males. 

Peregrine- not a common bird round here. Only seen three or four this year

Male Kestrel-not the falcon we are looking for but smart looking bird

Whimbrel in Ferry Channel

A call I'd never heard before alerted me to a female Pheasant alarm calling to her young- not all of them heard in time

Oak Nycteoline was the highlight last night. One Rusty-dot Pearl and 4 Diamond-backs were the only migrants. Had a Painted Lady at Medmerry. 

Uber-local

Decided to stay uber-local today and walked from the Lodge to Ferry this morning for a quick walk HERE before the school run and then spent the rest of the day at the Lodge planting out the vegetable beds etc

Cuckoo and Little Egret were the garden highlights. 

Spot Fly, Whinchat and Bee-eaters were seen on the Peninsula today so will get myself out tomorrow a bit further. 

Blackwit (above) and Avocets (below) on Ferry 

This group of waders were out from the Tramway- from the silhouettes looks like 2 Knot, 2 Turnstone and 8 Dunlin and not sure on the bottom two birds- maybe Ringed Plover on the left and another Dunlin?

The moth trap has been quiet again with temperatures dropping to 6 C- Oak Hook-tip above. Now on 130 for the year 

White-point, a possible migrant. Also had Rusty-dot Pearl and 5 Diamond-back moth so a few migrants out there

Getting there with the self-sufficiency beds. Basically after Holly's dad Bryan taught me about food growing I've selected the absolute easiest things to grow (perennials and fruit bushes and trees are the best because you just plant them once and they produce every year without too much fuss). So in the image above there's Leeks, Onions, Cauliflower in the foreground bed, Sweetcorn and pumpkins and peas in the middle bed (three sisters guild) and the fruit bed at the back (Raspberries, Strawberries, Black currants and a Lovage plant in the centre for a bit of layering). Potatoes and Blackberries in the patio pots. All the fruit trees (200 of them! Cherries, Pears and Buckthorns for the birds and honey fungus breaks) are doing well and the ducks are growing incredibly fast- still a good few months before we can expect any eggs.