Summer Storm Petrel

Sometimes a plan comes together. I got to the Bill this morning at 530 following a day and a night of F6-7 southerly/southwesterly winds in the hope of Manx Shearwaters, a late Pomarine Skua or a Storm Petrel. At 0605 I picked up a bird fluttering about 1ft above the waves, it was facing the wind and making very slow forward progress towards the west. I had already seen a few Barn Swallows already fighting agaisnt the wind so this stood out immediately with a different jizz. Suddenly the wind caught it and it flew back a few meters and then resumed progress fluttering close to the waves in a typical small petrel fashion. I wanted to get the rump on it as I was aware that distant Nightjars can be confused for petrels. It was within the mile basket line and just before the breaking water so must have been nearly a mile out! I kept watching it and sometimes it would gain a foot or more height and then silohuette agaisnt the white breaking water so I tried to get a record shot but had no way of seeing it in the view finder so tried to locate a nearby gull or Gannet and then try and find that, shoot and hope for the best. By a miracle out of about 20 shots I got something (below) but not much use. I kept on it because I wanted to see the white rump or even something on the underwing but it just looked dark and didn't want to make a mistake - it was either a closer petrel or a further away Nightjar but the fluttering flight, regular backward drift flights in the wind and resumed progress didn't look like Nightjar at all and on one occasion I lost it for a while and it looked like it went down on the sea. After a while on more than one occasion another bird got close to it, a Herring Gull, a Sandwich Tern and a Gannet and each time the bird really looked tiny in comparison so I decided to put the news out as Petrel sp- presumed Storm Petrel. 

Sadly I lost it after that but more than happy it was a small petrel and the default this time of year in these waters is European Storm Petrel. I didn't see any white on it, just couldn't see the rump but following discussion with Andrew and Sam that it quite often the case with birds off the Bill, with distant small birds looking south towards the morning sun, although it was overcast this morning. There's also been a influx of them in the west and south west today. So a local patch tick- now on 213 for the Peninsula and 175 for the year. 

Other than that there were a few Kittiwakes, 4 Great Northern Divers and a couple of Fulmar HERE. I tried again in the afternoon but not much else HERE.

On the way back to the Bill in the afternoon a Spotted Flycatcher flew along the lane in front of me. It had come out of Andrew's hedge and landed in an Oak tree further down the lane so I called Andrew and luckily we found it back in the original tree in Andrew's hedge- a garden tick for him. As I drove past the Ferry I had a quick check- one of the pairs of Avocets had chicks, the first this year as far as I know. 

It was a work day today with Matt at the Lodge so the rest of the day was spent doing the garden. 

European Storm Petrel - the dark shape left of image with Herrring Gull (right) for comparison. No awards for this pic! If you click on the image first and then zoom into the shape it appears you can make out a wing and body shape. The first local spring record since 2020 (pers Ian). 

First-summer Kittiwakes

Avocet with chicks on Ferry

Spotted Flycather at Andrew's House, photo by Andrew House

A few bits in the moth trap last night in the much milder evenings with migrants including a few Silver-Y and Diamond-backs. Moth of the night was this Oak Gall Moth, Pammene argyrana which was on the side of my van. A lifer. 

The Sweetcorn is struggling but the back meadow is coming along- remowed the paths in today (above and below) 

The Water Mint in the pond is growing well and the Hemlock Water Dropwort is now flowering with loads of insects feeding on the flowers. With a concerted effort to record more pan-species this year I'm collecting bi-catch from the moth trap and also got the survey mats down and collecting insects from there and also flower heads. The lodge list is climbing fast with 237 species (not including moths,butterflies,birds or mammals which are recorded seperately) now HERE.