Blakeney Point - 4th September 2014

Dad and I headed up to North Norfolk in hope of adding Ortolan Bunting and Black Tern onto my life and year list for the former, and just my year list for the latter. We decided to walk Blakeney Point, which considering we'd never done this before, seemed ambitious. We cheated a bit though, as we got one of Bean's Boat Trips (highly recommended) out to see the Seals, and then get off and walk back to Cley after landing on the point.

We got to the Seals, and they were fantastic to watch as always. Swimming by the boat or just doing what Seals do best...

We then got dropped off on the point by the National Trust Centre, and walked to the plantation. A Wheatear was very confiding on the way...

At the plantation, we saw 1 Redstart, 1 Pied Flycatcher, 2 Willow Warblers, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Spotted Flycatcher and 3 Whinchat. These were seen at about 14:00-15:00, and at about 17:00-18:00, there were 7 Redstart, 8 Pied Flycatchers and about 4 Spotted Flycatchers. This shows that birds were constantly coming in throughout the afternoon. We also had a Buzzard fly over too...

We were told that there was a Wryneck at long Hills, so we went to look for that. We flushed it from near the path were we saw it fly right in front of us, but landed quite a way from us, so we didn't bother to walk all the way back. We saw several Whinchat on the walk back, probably about 15 in total...

Waling back across the beach, we had a nice Bonxie fly east, but we also had a cracking juvenile Arctic Skua mobbing the terns just offshore. Incredible...

No sign of the Ortolan Bunting or any Black Terns, but still a pretty good day. However I don't think I will be walking Blakeney Point again in a hurry, as my legs felt like falling off when we finished to be honest, unless there is a MEGA perhaps.....

Happy Birding!

Isle of Mull - Day 4

Target Bird(s) - Skuas

Today we were heading out on a trip to the Treshnish Isles, to have a look at the sea birds about. This is our second visit, as we went here last year. We started off with Guillemot and Razorbill on Loch Na Keal, then as we moved out into the open sea, some Puffins were about. We got a distant Bonxie as we approached Staffa, with Fulmar, Kittiwake and Manx Shearwater.

Fingals Cave

As we arrived at Lunga we experienced the wonders of this island.

Puffins

Razorbill

Fulmar

1 of 7 Bonxie - poor photo

The best bird of the day had to be this dark morph adult Arctic Skua that was flying off the west coast. Fantastic!

Going back to Ulva, we saw the Grey Seal colony. What a delight!

We then viewed one of the White-tailed Eagle nests while on the boat.

Happy Birding!