George Bristow's Secret Freezer

Heinz 57 varieties.

2008-07-18T22:25:00.002+01:00

I had my naughty Swedish maid, Barry, bring up my copy of Cage and Aviary Birds with my massage oil after tiffin this afternoon, and had a good peruse while she worked on my peroneal muscles (look 'em up - not as dirty as they sound). As always, checking for potential vagrants on sale in trade. Normally, in fact always, this is very disappointing. Plenty of parrots, Diamond Doves, Japanese Quails etc, never anything juicy like a Citril Finch, or a Yellow-headed Blackbird. Superb ('Spreo') Starlings are back in trade in a big way though, if you have £290 the pair, but are not going to get the blood racing on a misty day at Portland. I expect. Yellow-fronted Serins ('Green Singing Finches') seem to be going through the roof (£155 pr). To appear in C&AB I think a species really has to be heavily in trade. I mean, you can pretty much get anything through the white van trade, but mainstream legit trade eventually appears here. For example, Mugimaki Fly turned up here during a period when they were for sale in C&AB, which probalby means there were a lot around. Since the early 90s it has completely dropped out of mainstream trade, and sure enough there have been no more occurrences. Only a coincidence, of course :-)

Other things this week...
Siberian Bullfinch cock, £65
Mandarin Duck, £40 pr
Red-crested Pochard £35 pr - dirt cheap
Black Kytes (sic)- £750 each OUCH!
Gyr x Sakers £400
wait for it...
Gyr x American Kestrel £800... wtf? I mean WTF????? What the hell is that... and WHY??? WHYYYYY!!!!
European Eagle Owls £150

and Wanted... Turtle Dove (don't we all)

The McKinney would approve... I'm listening to an Iron Maiden tribute CD that fell out of Barry's copy of Kerrang. It has Remember Tomorrow covered by Metallica which would appear to be the best thing Metallica have done in a studio for about 10 years. Also Flash of the Blade covered by Avenged Svenfold in a bodacious way.

Anyway, I'm off to officially midgie-free Skye for a week. Youse can all had away n' shite.

Midgie hell

2008-07-14T22:54:00.005+01:00

Sunday 13th July

Saturday was very windy with a southerly force 5-6 (July!), but today dawned calm - gonna be rubbish for shearwaters, but the sort of day that is better for skuas. Sometimes. Maybe.

And so it proved to be, sometimes, maybe. Diane kicked, yes kicked, me out of bed and I had 2 hours at the cliffs, from05:40 to 07:40, when I gratefully gave up in the knowledge that I'd served my time. On a flat sea, 5 Arctic Skuas went north, 1 south, and 3 Great Skuas north. Not burning up... but at least it was a good sort of sea for cetacean watching, if you include 2 Harbour Porpoises out fishing. Ony 13 Manx Shearwaters north, with 139 Northern Gannets, and 42 gannet south too. A massive feeding flock of gannets on the horizon - in fact I think they were over the horizon(!), but certainly up to 1000 birds out there. Ducks n' stuff... oooh, 46 Common Scoters north, and a Red-throated Diver too. OK, so it's a dog-day doldrum and you think that maybe your bonus bird might be a European Storm-petrel, which I still ned for the patch list, and this is the day for it.... so this is a really bad day for a passage of hirundines to start low over the water. But still they come, and the first 15 Sand Martins (Bank Swallows) of the autumn head south.

Other thingies. Some more birds. The tern families have started turning up - with 37 Sandwich Terns kicking about, 26 Arctic Terns, 8 Common Terns. Piles of auks going all ways, including many Atlantic Puffins, all local breeders, probably.

Walk round the patch was a bit boring, tbh, but with taking Monday off as well, I made a mental note to try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow.. (today) Monday 14th July 08.

I was too busy doing very important and secret things last night to blog away. So turned up at the cliffs this morning to find a slight offshore wind and a nasty high contrast sea, and all the birds have left me. Not all of them, mind - three cheers for the 62 Northern Gannets that went north from 06:10-07:10, and a big round of applause for the other 104 who went south. 3 Arctic Skuas today, 2N 1S, and the Sand Martin migration continued, just (3S). Also a single Red-throated Diver and that's the lot.

Got my copy of Frontiers in Birding, by Martin Garner and friends, of which I'm one.

And another thing, goddammit, it's midgie hell down at the clifftops just now. I'm looking forward to escaping from the midgies, on err... Skye... next weekend,

July my ar*e

2008-07-06T22:38:00.005+01:00

This morning, and this time it was Peter and his sweaty jammies that wandered through into our bed, spurring me to get out and go sit in the fresh air on the clifftops for 2 hours, 05:30 - 07:30. Piles of Atlantic Puffins going back and forth, with the other auks, Black-legged Kittiwakes swarming, and a few Northern Fulmars, but quite possibly all local breeders.

Not quite so local were 370 Northern Gannets north,171 south and a reasonable (for here) 41 Manx Shearwaters north. The light was perfect, i.e. dull crap weather, and there was no chance of a Balearic slipping through unnoticed. But let's face it, it was getting a bit dull - 8 Arctic Terns N, 4 Common Terns, 2 Sandwich Terns south, 3 Red-throated Divers (Loons) north, a single Great Skua north and then bam! A single Pomarine Skua going south, a shiny pale bird with spoons...now that's the way I wanna rock n' roll. Good way to get the first of the year too, really obvious, reminds you what they fly like etc. Zooim and it's gone, and you're left wondering if thart just really happened.

A single Common Redshank went north, and then just as I was giving up, an Arctic Skua north at distance.

The walk round the patch was interesting if you're into that sort of thing (i.e. looking a shabby breeding adults) but I think we both undeerstand that you don't want to know the details and I want to go to bed, AND I didn't find any dead mammals, so let's leave it there. Here's a photo of Stephen Menzie's poster that he had to present for his assessment. It's very nice, but don't ask him about figure 2 - he'll go on about Lactobacillus or something like it's obvious he hasn'teven read it.
Warning, sweary... children and Birdwatching Magazine readers are warned. I've made it smaller so you don't have to see rude word.

Finally, it finally happened. We published the Herring Gull taxonomy paper. For me it represents the end of 8 years work. I can't say if it's any good, but it had better be...

If you don't subscribe to British Birds, this would be a good time to do it. And tuck in. Here are some genuine quotes on the paper from Birdforum...

Taken a glance at BB article, and must admit that I was a little disappointed. I was hoping it was going to propose further splitting.

I hesitate to display my ignorance, but there was so much about genetics (mtDNA etc), that it felt more like reading a medical paper than an article about birds.

The last word on the subject is far from said!

I think the article in British Birds was excellent and a must read for anyone with an interest in large gulls. While i agree it is at times "heavy going" surely there was no other way the authors could approach a subject matter like this. It provides a sound basis for more discussion and research into Herring Gull/Lesser Black Backed Taxonomy. As others have said much more needs to be done but it does provide a good "snapshot" of where we currently are. I applaud everyone concerned.

Even if gulls aren't 'your thing' then a paper under the joint authorship of Messers Collinson, Parkin, Knox, Sangster & Svensson must attract both respect and attention. Being no taxonomist I can't comment on the content and confess I'll probably have to read it several times to fully understand it.

Ooh, and another thing before I go. How can July be so bloody freezing!!!???? ffs!!!! We had mist and cloud and northerly breeze all day, though apparently it was nice and sunny in Stonehaven. Well f*** off Stonehaven! And that's McKinney-level swearing!

Know Your Enemy

2008-07-06T00:07:00.003+01:00

Updated

Saturday 6th

An hour's seawatch this evening, before the Dr Who series finale (ohh... how dull... bad guys tell good guys they're no different. Batman did that a long time ago :-) ). Anyway, lovely light, slight east breeze, no chance of anything good but on the other hand, not getting wet. I counted 407 Northern Gannets going north, (13 S), and 21 Manx Shearwaters north, 2 south. Most entertaining were 4 Arctic Skuas (Parasitic Jaegers) north - may have been the same one four time, it was zipping about a bit. But I'll call it 4. 5 Sandwich Terns north, 4 Common Terns likewise, and then I went home to see Davros.

Last year at the BirdFair the kiddies and Diane phoned up wanting to know what presents I'd brought them and I fed them the teaser that it was 'an expensive present for the whole family'.
Strangely, when I got home and brought out a bat detector, they laughed, and my spider-senses detected just the faintest hint of disappointment. I play with it all the time, but generally bats and kids are at opposite ends of the circadian rhythm thingy. Until last night however, when I let Lizzie stay up til 10.45 to see the Pipistrelle bats flying around over our back garden. She was almost impressed, and got to use the bat detector at last, catching lots of this. Who's laughing now?

2008-06-30T11:49:00.001+01:00

A Blackcap singing briefly behind the garden this morning - bit of a wildcard. Came from nowhere, and isn't in top habitat.

2008-06-29T22:28:00.003+01:00

Didn't get out birding til this evening. This morning, *someone* had to look after the kids while *someone else* was having a hangover, I mean long lie. :-)

And only for an hour this evening too. There was some footie match on. I was in such a hurry to get down the cliffs I nearly missed this...

A timely reminder that my season of small mammal photography is on us again. This one was very small - some sort of teenage Short-tailed Vole. Or a dwarf version of a previously undescribed Giant Vole. Either way, it's In. The. Bag. and presumably the first of many. Wonder where its head went?

Brisk onshore wind, and a summer sea, with big flocks of Northern Gannets offshore, and even 40 Northern Fulmars in a tight raft - I know I see these all the time, but normally not many. So you can tell by the fact I'm mentioning Gannets and Fulmars that it wasn't a classic movement. Kept me amused for an hour in the showers (Matron!). A single Arctic Skua went north, with 10 Manx Shearwaters north and 1 south, and 10 Common Scoters south. The only non-standard thingy was an unexplained minor trickle of Eurasian Curlews going south - 79 between 17:50 and 18:50.

But that was that, except I stumbled over a Meadow Pipit's nest. I mean, not literally, but I know where it is.

If The McKinney were French...

2008-06-24T19:10:00.002+01:00

... he might come up with something like this:

Proud to be a Dunnock (watch the address... work filters might throw a fit).

Fantastic stuff, and you get a French re-telling of all your old favourites...

e.g.
Messieurs, attention a vous.
Des chercheurs Australiens viennent de démontrer que la biere contient des hormones féminisantes.

Vous pouvez refaire l'experience chez vous ou dans un bar.

Prenez un echantillons representatif de la populations masculine (environs 5 potes). Videz environs 10 a 15 tournées de bieres.
Au bout de quelques ninutes vous pourrez constater les premiers effets des hormones:

- Vous parlez beaucoup
- Vous ete persuader d'avoir raison alors que vous avez tort et que vous en ete conscient
- vous devenez suceptible
- vous n'hesitez pas a faire de grandes accolades a vos amis
- vous aller environs 1 fois / 5min aux toilettes
- souvent vous pissez assis
- vous racontez votre vie
- vous avez du mal a conduire votre voiture et vous la rayez en la garant

Cette experience est terrifiante et ce passe de tout commentaire.

Blazing June

2008-06-22T18:05:00.004+01:00

So, if this were the 1950s, and I were 12 year-old public schoolboy on 'vac', I'd have looked out the window this morning and ejaculated (careful) 'What a filthy day!' and been disciplined by my (probably smoking) father, before going off to have jolly adventure. Fortunately, life ain't like that... I'm a 38 year-old birder so I looked out the window at 5.30 this morning and thought 'Seawatch!' and headed out. Pissing rain, onshore wind, poor visibility. Shame it was June not August, but I was so busy watching Doctor Who last night that I neglected to finish building my own time machine. According to the do-it-yourself time machine kit I got off ebay, I need nails and glue - where the hell am I going to get them from?? Anyway, to the cliffs. With a fresh southerly, and in 2.5 hours from 05:50 to 08:20, there were 7 (Parasitic) Arctic Skuas (3 north, 4 south), and 43 Manx Shearwaters all north. Not as good as it might have been, but they were all close in because that was all I could see. 359 Northern Gannets north, and 79 south, plenty of Atlantic Puffins and other auks, 2 Common Scoters north, 10 Sandwich Terns and 7 Common Terns. Actually, when I put it like that it sounds a bit shit, but I looked like I was enjoying myself at the time. Still a bit wet, and by 8.20 I had saturated all my tissues (let's face it, we've all been there) so there was no way to keep my scope clear, apart from stripping off and using a t-shirt, and I don't reckon the Fulmars deserve that kind of a trauma.

Cleared up a bit in the afternoon, and we went to Crathes Castle, where there was a falconry display. Kids were very impressed, but US-based readers might want to look away now...

The King of England stole your National Bird.

And what about this... a Bataleur... wild-taken in Botswana, if you please.

The definitive Birds of Fife

2008-06-19T23:08:00.003+01:00

Aha. I was back onthe train today, to Edinborough, (Dun Eidin?). Back at Markinch Railway Station briefly, again, but the Sand Martins were eclipsed by a flyover Green Woodpecker, and then at the next station along (?Springfield?) a fly past Eurasian Sparrowhawk. I also saw a Common Kestrel. Thus endeth your definitive description of the birds of Fife. There's probably some other birds, but frankly, I didn't see' em.

The Seawatch - Nature's boring miracle

2008-06-18T22:23:00.005+01:00

A 7-year old smelly apparition crawled into the bed at 5 am, waking me up enough to get me out birding and leave it snoring with its mum. I went down to the sea, to see what I could see. Must be a bit of seabird action going on. And there was, kind-of, if you include Guillemots and Razorbills going back and forth with their fish, and feeding flocks of Black-legged Kittiwakes, with the odd Atlantic Puffin and a few Northern Fulmars.

Best bird, a single Black Guillemot heading south. Wow, they're smart. We're right at the edge of the range here, and they've been less-than-annual on my Newtonhill list.

150 Northern Gannets north, and 240 south, between 5.15 and 6.35, Common Scoters (30N 49S), Sandwich Terns (2N 3S), 1 Arctic Tern feeding with Kittiwakes offshore, 1 Red-throated Diver north, 4 Manx Shearwaters north, 1 south and 1 with the Kittiwakes,mand a single Grey Heron north. None of your Long-tailed Skua nonsense for me, ta very much.

Thanks to Louis Bevier, who pointed out this paper, regarding the use of unverified anecdotal sightings to build up false pictures of the persistence of animals in regions from which they have gone extinct. It uses three examples, the Fisher (a kind of dead-hard Pine Marten, as far as I can tell) and the Wolverine in California, and errr... the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Very refreshing to here someone else tell it as it is.

'Although it is always possible to invent rationales to explain the lack of conclusive evidence, available evidence indicates that the ivory-billed woodpecker probably became extinct in the southeastern United States by the middle of the twentieth century.'

and this bit is for the 'there are too many sightings to dismiss them' all school:

'As a species becomes rarer, the proportion of false positives will increase. For example, in the contiguous United States, bobcats (Lynx rufus) are common and Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) are rare; occasionally bobcat observations are misidentified as lynx. Even if such misidentifications happen only 1% of the time, for every 1000 bobcat sightings, 10 will be identified as lynx, and false lynx observations can easily outnumber actual ones. Even if lynx were extirpated from the area, lynx would continue to be reported each year and, over many years, hundreds of spurious lynx observations would accumulate.'

The emphasis is mine. Replace bobcat with PIWO, and lynx with IBWO, and you get the point. Hell, maybe you got the point already. The whole thing must be as welcome as a cup of cold vomit in some parts of the USFWS.

Ref: pdf

BioScience Volume 58, 549-555 (2008)

Using Anecdotal Occurrence Data for Rare or Elusive Species: The Illusion of Reality and a Call for Evidentiary Standards

Kevin S. McKelvey, Keith B. Aubry, and Michael K. Schwartz

Anecdotal occurrence data (unverifiable observations of organisms or their sign) and inconclusive physical data are often used to assess the current and historical ranges of rare or elusive species. However, the use of such data for species conservation can lead to large errors of omission and commission, which can influence the allocation of limited funds and the efficacy of subsequent conservation efforts. We present three examples of biological misunderstandings, all of them with significant conservation implications, that resulted from the acceptance of anecdotal observations as empirical evidence. To avoid such errors, we recommend that a priori standards constrain the acceptance of occurrence data, with more stringent standards applied to the data for rare species. Because data standards are likely to be taxon specific, professional societies should develop specific evidentiary standards to use when assessing occurrence data for their taxa of interest.

I've been away

2008-06-16T00:09:00.002+01:00

I've been to Rutland Water - BOURC summer meeting. And aside from all the interesting thingies that I would not normally see around here (Shoveller, Gadwall) I haven't seen a lot. Noticed some Sand Martins (Bank Swallows, if you will) nesting in some small drainage holes in the wall at Markinch Railway Station. Never noticed that before, which is a bit unobservant, bearing in mind I've been through Markinch Station, like, a million times, dude.

Sweet 2

2008-06-12T23:30:00.001+01:00

I stole this from Birdchick. It's not big and it's not clever, but what am I meant to do?

Zeiss plumb new depths of depravity with gummie nockies!

Punk patch stealers

2008-06-09T21:51:00.004+01:00

Remember 30th May.. I do, Marsh Warbler and all that...

well if it wasn't weird enough finding out that the bird had already been seen the day before... can you imagine my face if I'd got down to the Elsick bird and found an entire marauding punkbirder crew poaching 'my' Marshie. Here (30th May). :-O

Git orrrfff moi paaatttttcccchhhh!

The Scatalogical adventures of Peter in the forest

2008-06-08T22:40:00.004+01:00

A very boring morning on the patch relieved only by two things...

1) watching a very sick-looking juvenile European Goldfinch down the burn, and waiting for it to die, which it didn't;
2) walking up the cliff steps, with Common Blue butterflies all around, a Silver-Y on the wing, grasshopper chirrupping uin the grass and a single Common Whitethroat the only birdsong in the sunshine, and wondering when did summer creep up on us?.

Afternoon, had to get the kids out of the house to prevent an infanticide. They didn't want to go, until I said they could take my butterfly net and then zoom! Couldn't get them out the house fast enough. To Swannley Hill - Forestry Commission war zone, recently clear felled in large part.

Please Dad, can we kill something... can we can we????

I'm sure this used to be woodland.

Honestly, Peter and his collecting pot. If you say 'don't pick up the poo' once, you have to say it a thousand times. Dog Poo, Rabbit Poo, it all goes in his pot. He thinks it's dinosaur poo, so I guess it's my fault for screwing up his mind. Also feeding his juice to the 'tablets' (tadpoles) in the puddles.

Birds - not all what you expect of spruce monoculture, much more what you expect of open country, which is what it was. Yellowhammers very common, also Meadow Pipits, Winter Wrens, European Robins, Chaffinches, Lesser Redpoll, Eurasian Siskins, a single pair of Common Stonechats, also Common Bullfinch, lots of Rooks, a Common Buzzard, a Common Kestrel.

Sweet

2008-06-07T00:13:00.002+01:00

Isn't it nice when people start to look like their pets?

Dear Martin....

2008-06-03T22:10:00.002+01:00

I got another letter. I haven't actually asked if I can post this here, so I'm compelled to assume it's OK. But just in case, I'll hide the identity so that no one will EVER guess unless they already know.

Well done with Marsh Warbler, it's a good bird to find. Been good here recently, a good scatter of scarcies. Have found multiples of RB Shrike, Icky & Rosefinch; single Bluethroat (in the garden last week), Marsh Warbler, Quail, Hen Harrier, several GH Wags etc. Best find a smart Rustic Bunting last night. Have also seen Tawny Pipit, Surf Scoter, King Eider, 2 Temmincks together. And Black Stork (just), the only tick. A better spring than many/most, and still only 2nd June! 'RR from Shetland'

That was enough to persuade me that something more could perhaps be squeezed out of Newtonhill's spring, and with a bit of drizzle and SE breeze overnight, what would the early morning bring???

ha ha. Early morning brought fog, turning to heavy mist before settling in for the day as a majestic pea-souper. I wasn't going to be picking out those distant white-dot Lesser Grey Shrikes, for a start. Still... needs must when the devil is drunk on meths. All the usual stuff around - and a nice quiet morning when I could make some recordings, but nothing to write home about. Sedge Warblers are pairing up I notice. That's nice for them.

I think it was George Orwell who said...

2008-06-01T22:09:00.002+01:00

... something like - if you ever want to annoy a Scotsman, refer to him as being 'Scotch'. It won't be obvious why I said that just now, but I had an alternative start to my post that I withdrew in the end on the basis that someone might be offended. And as you know I go out of my way never to offend anyone. However, if I'd left it in, that first bit would have been mildly amusing.

Postscript to the Marsh Warbler... there I was, Friday morning at work, feeling smug and, if it's not too wet a word, 'elated'. Hee hee. Sorry, seems like I'm going to do in-jokes today for people who will never read them. Dear Reader, you must never let me go out on Friday nights again. I had, of course, 'found' a Marsh Warbler, and had put it on BirdGuides on the bus to work. What BirdGuides was doing on the bus to work I will never know. So was sat there this morning and in came an email *ping* from the Aberdeen rare birds group saying 'Marsh Warbler at Newtonhill'. I hadn't mailed the group, on account of never being quite sure what the address is and never quite getting round to writing it down, but it's not unusual for Aberdeenshite records to get lifted from BirdGuides and put onto the list. Opened it up to bask in the glory, but the mail was Marsh Warbler at Newtonhill on the evening of 29th, a full twelve hours before I saw the bird, and in a different place, further down the burn. All very perplexing, but it turns out that there is another Newtonhill birder I didn't know about (Hi Matt!!). My joy at finding out there's a bit of back-up was tempered a little by having Marsh Warbler snatched out of the sticky grasp of my 'found' list. Actually by UK250 rules I think it would still count as 'found'. Anyway, that's the story.

Today's birding: the Marsh Warbler was gone :-O but I was still supremely confident of bumping into a Red-backed Shrike if I covered enough coast on foot. I'm a very naive man! You can tell it's June cos there was a bitter north wind. Not a whole lot to see except the pile of Common Starling families making some sort of racket. Usual stuff. I looked offshore, where 3 Manx Shearwaters and a Red-throated Diver going north reminded me that it will soon be seawatching time again. Just... got... to... survive... June. So cold... so cold. And then 3 errr... ducks going north and well, they're Goosanders (Common Mergansers). wtf? I mean WTF? Weird. A trickle of Northern Gannets going north, a Sandwich Tern and 4 Common Terns going south. Blimey, maybe it's seawatch time already! Disappointly no shrikes in the allotments, so went across the coastal fields, fully expecting to find one impaling Siberian Hamsters on a rusty piece of barbed wire. I was so near and yet do far.... I got the rusty barbed wire on the list easily. And wow! Thistles. What sort of mentality makes the national dress a kilt-and-no-knickers in a country where the thistles are a metre tall? I felt a small prick, matron. Anyway, as far as Muchalls, no shrikes, no nothing.

But a garden tick in the evening. Dinnae fash - nothing special - a female Common Whitethroat. A juvenile European Robin was having a bath in the cereal bowl we use for feeding the hedgehogs, when the Whitethroat popped out of the dogwood and tried unsuccessfully to muscle in on the communal bathing. That makes Common Whitethroat exactly half as common as Yellow-browed in out garden.

The early birder

2008-05-30T17:23:00.003+01:00

I haven't been thrashing the patch as much as an east coast May really warrants. Pressures of life and all that. Plus it's been a bit shit, tbh. However news of a Red-backed Shrike at Cove Community Woodland yesterday had me in hives with guilt. Also I really fancy Icterine Warbler for my patch list, so hauled my sorry ass out of bed at 5 am to go find my own. This was in spite of having to use Diane's nockies, on account of leaving mine in work last night. Got to the top of St Anne's track, bursting for a pee, and while urinating in a public place there was a bird noise impacting on me. Song Thrush, no, not that, there's a Common Whitethroat, but it's not that. Sedge Warbler singing. nope. Willow Warbler...very interesting, but that's not what's setting the alarms and claxons off in my head. P*ss off Blackbirds etc. I walked round the corner a little bit, and from the Japanese knotweed and gorse by the stone bridge I was assaulted by OhmyGod OhmyGod OhmyGod!! Marsh Warbler! Argh! A Scottish mainland Marshie. Not a common sight. Mind, it was still not a common sight in Newtonhill at that point, cos I couldn't see it. Very close, but hiding. And then I started to panic cos weird questions started in my head like, 'Why isn' it an Icky?', and not having heard either of them singing for a few years, there was no obvious answers except that it was obviously a marshie, with the tempo and the mimicry and the whoaaaaaa!!!! take a breath! more mimicry.

So with a bit of contortionism I started to see bits of the bird in stages... yes, it's a plain Acro, dark eye, obvious super , especially in above and in front of the eye, cold colours, no a rufous rump, long undertail coverts, oooh... wings (always a good sign), but can't quite get the primary tips, but look OK. Whiter throat, contrasting wih upper buffy breast. At no point did it come out in the open, and it wasn't singing all the time, which didn't help, but when it did open its gob it was obvious. Last saw it at about 7 am when I had to head to work.

More later... Friday night protocol demands that I go spend my salary rehydrating, but will scan the usual high quality biro field notes at some point

Like this...

Cage and Aviary Birds

2008-05-26T23:43:00.002+01:00

In my constant and seemingly hopeless quest to find interesting potential vagrants for sale in the UK, Cage and Aviary Birds disappoints once again this week (actually last week now, but it took me a bit of time to read it).

Still... of some interest, you can buy Glossy Starlings at £225 a pair (species indeterminate), Mexican House Sparrows at £80 pr (I have no idea what they might be), ever-popular Yellow-fronted Canaries (Green Singing Finch) for £60, Africa Silverbills at £20 pr, which seems dirt cheap to me, Chestnut-flanked Whiteeyes at £10 pr (you could get them for your tea at that price), and Western Grey Plantain-eaters (who in their right mind...???) at £100 each.

North Cornwall Aviaries (+44 1208 850572) are unloading Scops' Owls at a bargain £500 pr - imagine the kerfuffle if one of them went for a jaunt round Bodmin Moor?!

Also for sale... microchipped Brittany Spaniel puppies, ex-pedigree, from working parents. Ah, latch-key puppies. I'm 95% certain they're not birds.

Crappy video killed the radio star

2008-05-25T22:19:00.005+01:00

Well it's a dark dark day chez Martin. Hull City are in the Premiership while the Mighty Leeds remain rooted in bloody division 3. If there was ever a sign that the natural order of things is going all topsy turvy, that is it. personally I blame global warming.

Pleasant if slighty chilly Newtonhill this morning. I puttered around maiing some recordings of Sedge Warblers along the Elsick Burn. Not a lot interesting, although I spooked a Roe Deer in comedy fashion (I've never seen a deer sh*t itself before), and saw two Grey Wagtails on the burn flying up to mob... a Barn Swallow. Needs must. Sea was quiet, but with a few Atlantic Puffins out there. Similarly Cran Hill was a bit crap, with the only irregular thingy being a male Reed Bunting in the same spot where they bred last year. Also a woman and her dog singing (gentle reader) to the cows.... I wonder what she was singing. Mooving on Up? Bull-et with Butterfly Wings? Some udder third song? Anyway, while she was doing it her dog was eating a rabbit skin. He'll be sick as a dog in the morning.

Radom interlude... I've got a big shed. Just need wireless in there and I can withdraw from the human race...FOREVER...!

Time for a random Mystery photo competition. You can see where this is going. I've been on YouTube again. A bird and its reflection flying low over the glassy still waters of an American swamp. We really don't see enough of that. This is not meant to imply anything... but I think it goes to illustrate how crappy videos of birds distort patterns of light and dark and make them look like birds that they clearly are not. Have a look at this first and try and decide what it is.

Clues: it's not a Pileated Woodpecker, but it could have been taken in the southern swamps.

For the answer, look here.
So how the hell does that look like that... ?

Update 26/5/08.
Here's a couple of Belters with apparent white trailing edges :-O taken from this video. Btw it's worth watching the whole thing.

Great - get insulted by the internet

2008-05-23T15:28:00.000+01:00

Your Score: The Dork

You scored 25 anxiety, 53 awkwardness, and 34 neuroticism!

You aren't particularly anxious, and you don't count things--but you do notice sometimes that you don't exactly fit in. Polite people would call you an eccentric, but you truly are The Dork! And proud. Just because you feel a little awkward at parties doesn't mean you're not happy with yourself and fairly relaxed.

Your low anxiety score implies that you are able to relax, can enjoy the here and now, and have a healthy amount of self-confidence.

Your high awkwardness score implies that you are socially inept, probably stick out from the crowd, and perhaps feel uncomfortable in large groups of people, such as at parties.

Your low neuroticism score implies that you don't exhibit subtle neurotic behaviors--your nails are probably an acceptable length, your pencils aren't covered with bite marks, and your bookcase isn't arranged alphabetically by genre. Congrats!

__

See the other results!

Well-Adjusted

The Neat Freak

The Dork

The Geek

Phobic

Obsessive-Compulsive

The Subtle Neurotic

The True Neurotic

Link: The Neurotic Test written by littlelostsnail on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(littlelostsnail)

2008-05-18T22:05:00.002+01:00

Afraid to say my tour of the patch this morning produced absolutely nothing that it would be worth my while writing down and your while reading. Thanks to a not-so anonymous tip-off, I was put onto another classic CD hanging in the allotments to scare the birds... well it scared me. The Strictly Ballroom 'Shall we dance?' soundtrack, in Association with The Sun. Nice. Mind, i can hardly talk. Got me thinking about CDs in my collection that would be put to better use keeping Bullfinches off the cherry trees. Things like 'Cinderella Live at the KeyClub' and Electric Boys - Freewheelin' and, indeed, my back catalogue of Musical Youth.

So I'll leave you with this for today, sorry, because it tickled me enormously at 12.30 am last night when, thanks to the restorative properties of hard drink, the world seemed a warmer place. You can guess where it's from.

He twisted round in his seat.
'Are you sure she's all right?' he said again.
Beyond the fact that she was heart-thumpingly beautiful, he could make out very little, how tall she was, how old she was, the exact shading of her hair. And nor could he ask jer anything about herself because, sadly, she was completely unconscious.
'She's just drugged, ' said her brother, shrugging, not moving his eyes from the road ahead.
'And that's all right is it?' said Arthur, in alarm.
'Suits me,' he said.
'Ah,' said Arthur. 'Er,' he added after a moment's thought.
The conversation so far had been going astoundingly badly.

Douglas Adams.

Bird Photograph of the Year 2008

2008-05-17T12:56:00.010+01:00

Perusing Mark Lewis's blog last night, and wassat... a Bluethroat at Girdleness. Mmmm... I fancy some of that. Funny but when I realised I was moving to Aberdeen a jaw-dropping 6 years ago, I thought Girdleness... Bluethroats... easy. But this is the first one I had chance to see in those 6 years, so 5.00 this morning, I was up and awaaaaAAAAYYYYY!!!!! Got to the Torry Battery and there was just one other car there, but not birders so I naturally assumed it was only a young couple enjoying the fruits of love. Nice, but I've got better things to point my nockies at. Did a clockwise circuit of the battery, nice and slow, bit of pishing, about 10 minutes, then from the NE side I heard the busy song of... a Bluethroat! coming from round the corner. Sidled gently round and there he was, at the top of a nasty scrubby Bramble. Remembird was up to the job, and I got some sort of recording and a sonogram.

For what it's worth, you can listen to it (just about) here. Quite a lot of wind on that that recording - mind I did eat an East India Chilli Chicken from the Bollywood Tandoori, Newtonhill's BEST Indian Restaurant last night, so it's only to be expected.

The birdy soon stopped singing and went down onto the path to feed in short grass. Now I had had a brilliant idea that rather than persisting to try photos with my phone, I could maybe use Diane's camera, umptididdly megapixels and all that. I neglected to try and work out how it works before I tried to use it. So I got it turned on OK, and tried a shot.

Argh! Where's the AF? C'mon camera. Press some buttons and see if it can do any better.

Oh, you beastly camera... why won't you focus???

I decided to leave that little problem solving exercise for another day, and settled down to give him a good grilling. Shortly after though, he did something that in my experience Bluethroats are very good at, walked behing a tiny twig of gorse and disappeared. I lost him and did another couple of circuits of the battery without bumping into him again.

45 minutes later and no further sign. I went back to the car in time to see the ferry coming in from Shetland, carrying a cargo of Shetland twithchers desperate to see Mark's Bluethroat.

Oh, I see you'll focus on that won't you? F***er!

Then the occupants of the other car got out, and it was an old couple (eugh!) but no... no naughtiness, he got his rather nice camera out and started taking photos of the ferry - they'd obviously been laying in wait for it. I'm not sure who's most nuts at 5 am... the overnight ferry-spotters, the swarms of golfers teeing off, or the birder looking for someone else's scarcity. A young couple having al fresco sex would have added a touch of sanity to the proceedings.

Oh Lordy! it's the return of borealis!

2008-05-11T18:26:00.009+01:00

Today was the first day that I really felt all the summer migrants had got into Newtonhill. Like last Sunday I was picking up a single Sedge Warbler and a single Common Whitethroat - well today they were everywhere e.g. 4 Sedge Warblers along the burn, and popping out all over the place in bits of rough grass and unlikely-looking patches of gorse. It was the Common Whitethroats that were most flighty and in some very unsuitable locations (like the treetops in St Michael's Rd!) so I assume they may have been fresh in this morning. Also fresh in this week were 3 Common Swifts over the Courts.

Down at the bay... an unusually large (for this winter) flock of 25 Common Eiders, males and females and lawks-a-mercy (crikey, even!) one of the males on the rocks is a yellow-billed borealis-alike (search this blog to track my unhealthy obsession with this northern subspecies of Common Eider). It had a largely yellow bill, only the nail being a conventional greeny-grey. And lawks again (blimey o'reilly!), it's COLOUR-RINGED (COLOR-BANDED for people of a transatlantic disposition). Metal ring on right leg, white ring over orange ring on the left. All of Satan's little pixies are smiling benevolently on me again. I love Satan and all his little pixies.

Visibility was pretty average offshore - with small parties of Atlantic Puffins among the auk and kittiwake flocks on the water, and a trickle of Northern Gannets went past but nothing too interesting.

Community Park and allotments had more Sedge Warblers and Common Whitethroats singing, but have yet to deliver my BB-rare. I took a look at some of the dangling CDs that were meant to keep the birds off the flowers - they included (gosh I bet someone chuckled about this) an ironic RSPB Wildlife Explorers Bird Guide CD; also the Soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera, the Sunday Express Christmas Carols CD, the Daily Mirror Summer Lovin' (sic) (and sick) CD, and a CD of Balamory including the hapless Wildlife Investigations Officer PC Plum. I would very much like to see PC Plum transferred to a nightshift beat on a sink estate in Manchester or Leeds - wonder how he would get on? Actually maybe the police force just sends all the useless ones to a quiet village on the isles where they're relieved of the burden of ever being required to solve a crime? I must ask that next time I'm on Islay or Mull. I can see a Hot Fuzz situation happening in Balamory, btw.

Water Valley had a grey-and-white acredula-type Willow Warbler in song.

When I got back I checked the colour-ringing cr-birding website and got a contact email, then took the family, my imaginary friends and the voices (the VOICES!!!) down to Stonehaven. We enjoyed the delights of gambling on the Sabbath at the penny-falls, followed by the delights of gluttony at Auntie Betty's Ice Cream Emporium and 24 hour mobile disco. I then enjoyed the delights of trying to wipe 2 square metres of sticky ice cream off a 3 year-old boy with a tissue that would not have been overly generous for wiping a gnats a***. In the end the most effective strategy was to strip Peter naked and lay him out on the beach for the gulls to pick at his skin until he was clean again. While this was happening, I scanned across the sweep of Stonehaven bay and in the distance could see the 1s Iceland Gull at the mouth of the Carron among the Herring Gulls.

When we got home, I had a very informative mail from Ian Patterson at Aberdeen Uni, confirming (as I suspected) that the cr- Common Eider was banded on the Ythan Estuary, (that's a few miles north of here). Further confirmation, if any were needed, that these yellow-billed Eiders are not vagrant S. m. borealis. For further interest, it was ringed in 1986, which makes it a whopping 21 years old, approaching 22 (I worked that one out for you), and is presumalby in transit between wintering on the Tay and breeding around the Ythan, where Ian says numbers are still low this year.

Something a little more visual...

Uptown Girl

2008-05-06T20:59:00.011+01:00

I'm gonna try for an upland sand
She's been living in her white bread land
As long as anyone with hot blood can
And now shes looking for a downtown man
Thats what I am

It was very tempting... when news yesterday came up of an Upland Sandpiper at St Combs, the thought occurred to me that it just might be still there today, so I sneaked the telescope and bins into the back of the car and went to work as normal. At my advanced stage of life it's not often there's a life-tick within striking distance. Did an honest hour's innovative thinking (!) until news came on BirdGuides that it was showing, then drove the hour north for a keek. Surprisingly easy... over the hill, down the slope, set up scope, ker-ching lifer under the belt. When I turned up there were 5-6 people on it, but they drifted off and I had the little tease all to myself for an hour! I wish I'd brought a proper camera though - phone-scoping is nice but it doesn't really produce the goods.

I do have my errr... usual standard of meticulous and accurately captured field notes and biro drawings, but left my notebook at homw so will scan them in tomorrow. In the meantime... some record shots.

And gettaloadathis... twitching north-east Scotland-stylee

Unfortunately my superbly presented soundtrack is lost in the wind noises (matron!)... but it goes a little like this:

-I want to show you something...
-Upland Sandpiper
-And now the crowd...
-There you go.

The sandy turf was hoaching with Northern Wheatears, and a little further south there was a bare field with an impressive 25 Whimbrels in it. Then I got back to work, topped the car up with petrol on my way home, my crime is totally undetectable... neither my family nor my lab will have any clue that I wasn't in my office all morning. Unless they read this.