What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[ardcarp]

A few observations from a sailing trip to the Isles of Scilly. On the voyage from Falmouth to Scilly we saw a few migrating swallows. They were in twos and threes flying low over the water and battling a northerly headwind. One tiny warbler (whitish chest and very thin bill) landed on our rigging. It was so exhausted that a temporary 'landfall' overrode its fear of humans. It stayed for a few minutes before setting off again. Of the seabirds there were Manx shearwaters, gannets, guillemots and razorbills. Among the islands themselves, oystercatchers were everywhere...greater in number than I remember on previous visits. Very noisy too. Although we didn't seek out the puffins, it is said there are only about 100 nesting pairs (mainly on Annet) as opposed to an estimated 100,000 at the turn of the 19th/20th century. Cuckoos have sadly declined too. We heard the resident male on St Agnes...very vociferous all day...and one was reported on St Mary's (the main island) but this is in sharp contrast to just 5 years ago where every island seemed to have one.

May is the best month for wild flowers...absolutely unbelievable...mixed in with escaped exotic species and commercial flowers imported in the 19th century by philanthropist Augustus Smith.

[eighthobstruction]

....ten rock pippets mobbing two young kestrels....

[oddoneout]

One of those 'you live and learn' experiences on Saturday night. Walking through cathedral cloisters early evening I heard blood curdling shrieks and screams and suddenly realised it was the resident peregrines. I had never heard them in full voice so to speak, and also wouldn't have expected them to be noisy at that time of day. Looking it up later I found out that, as is often the way, urban birds behave differently from 'natural' habitat, including catching prey after hours.

[Sir Velo]

Cuckoos singing all day last week in the upper Tywi valley, in every single bit of woodland that the Twyi Valley forestry Federation hasn't yet cleared, that is. Haven't as yet changed their tune now that June is here; an incessant two note intensely woody sound that one hasn't heard for years in the southern counties of England.

[ardcarp]

Haven't as yet changed their tune now that June is here

...definitely a nice wide major third from the Scilly cuckoo! But it was still May...just.

[DracoM]

Notable rise in stonechats round here.

[ardcarp]

Warbler at sea. Can anyone identify which species?

[Sir Velo]

Warbler at sea. Can anyone identify which species?

Never mind the warbler, I'm all at sea. A little more description might be of use! For example: size, colour, songnote, location.

[LMcD]

As it's all at sea, perhaps it's a billow warbler.

[Vox Humana]

I often find photos a good deal more difficult to ID than live birds and this is an example. I've looked hard and long at this and really can't decide. My initial impression was a Reed Warbler, but on balance I think it's just a Chiffchaff. The bill looks strangely thick though. Got any more photos, ardcarp?

[Richard Tarleton]

Warbler at sea. Can anyone identify which species?

Seriously - did you take this pic, ardcarp? Are there any more? Was this near the Scilly Islands?

A tricky one. It looks like a phylloscopous warbler (same family as chiffchaff and willow warbler) but with very dark legs - which chiffchaff has, and which would rule out willow warbler - but what looks to be a rather longer bill than either of them. Plain, with slight lemony tinge to underparts and in particular undertail coverts.....This is definitely worth running past the birding authorities locally - the county bird recorder where you are (google him), or if you were near Scilly, the Scilly bird recorder http://www.scilly-birding.co.uk/ios-recorder/.

Out of interest I'll run it past someone locally here who's up to speed on rarer warblers and who may care to venture an opinion. But I'd say it was interesting, art the very least.

[Richard Tarleton]

I often find photos a good deal more difficult to ID than live birds and this is an example. I've looked hard and long at this and really can't decide. My initial impression was a Reed Warbler, but on balance I think it's just a Chiffchaff. The bill looks strangely thick though. Got any more photos, ardcarp?

Snap - as do I! The lemony tinge looked wrong for reed warbler, to me, although I did think about acrocephalus...bill long, but not thick at base....I was veering more towards S. European phylloscopous.... Just not enough to go on, for me at least.

[Constantbee]

I often find photos a good deal more difficult to ID than live birds and this is an example. I've looked hard and long at this and really can't decide. My initial impression was a Reed Warbler, but on balance I think it's just a Chiffchaff. The bill looks strangely thick though. Got any more photos, ardcarp?

Chiffchaff. Collins Bird Guide (2nd Ed.) says: 'all species in the Chiffchaff group habitually dip their tail downwards'. Looks fluffy. possibly a juvenile.

[ardcarp]

Richard and Vox.

Seriously - did you take this pic, ardcarp? Are there any more?

It was taken on my sailing mate's iphone. Only one pic I'm afraid.

We had the same problem with identification, Mrs A assuming it was either a willow or reed warbler but possibly a chiffchaff. On closer inspection, it didn't quite fill the (er...) bill.

It landed on our boat (in the cockpit and close to the crew) when we were in open sea heading in a westerly direction on passage from Falmouth to the Isles of Scilly. We were about 5 or 6 miles south of Lands End at the time. The bird arrived from a southerly direction and after a few minutes composing itself took off again in a northerly direction. We assumed it was on its migration route to the UK mainland. As the bout was oriented in an east/west direction, the bird, for physical reasons, had to take off from the sides of the boat, i.e. either north or south. It went north. We were about 25 miles away from the Isles of Scilly at the time, so I've no reason to suspect it was heading there.

As I'm sure you know, unusual species are often seen on the IOS if they are blown off course during migration. Mrs A (the birder in our family) isn't here at the moment so I can't be precise about details but we heard that some unusual owl tipped up there in the autumn and stayed for the whole winter. Also some sort of lark (short-toed?) was spotted while we were there...also an osprey.

Incidentally, a few years ago a pigeon (presumably a tame homing pigeon) hitched a lift aboard on passage from Brittany to Falmouth. It arrived mid-Channel looking very bedraggled and sought shelter under our spray hood. Our grandkids were quite concerned about it and tried to feed it, but it wasn't interested. About 10 miles south of Falmouth it began to cheer up and started preening its feathers. It had obviously scented (or sensed?) land, and off it went. So it had a free ride for close on 40 miles.

[Richard Tarleton]

Chiffchaff. Collins Bird Guide (2nd Ed.) says: 'all species in the Chiffchaff group habitually dip their tail downwards'. Looks fluffy. possibly a juvenile.

Constantbee -it couldn't possibly be a chiffchaff - bill all wrong, and it can't be a juvenile at this time of year on a boat somewhere off Scilly.

One of the two people I've consulted - serious experts both - says

From a quick look..acro...looks a bit grey and possibly short winged. Blyth's Reed?

So he thinks at the very least it's an acrocephalus warbler (the reed warbler family).

I'll let you know what the other says if he gets back to me.