wightvogels

2012-03-06T21:19:00.002Z

2012-03-06T20:10:00.002Z

2 short-eared owls showing well in the same spot at brading marsh with one spending most time in front of the sewage works.

2012-02-28T09:51:00.002Z

65 hg's on sandown beach and plenty of meds, some looking really good now. 6 lbbg first of spring. great crested grebe and 6 brents on sea.

2012-02-25T20:44:00.001Z

2012-02-25T20:42:00.001Z

2 short-eared owls giving close views from brading old seawall this evening, unfortunately i'd walked out to bexley point before they appeared at 16.30 and then by the time i'd got back there they were down. they came back up at 17.20 but the sun was below the downs then. the female marsh harrier came in to roost in the usual spot. best of all was a bat feeding on the river, was the best thing i've seen in a long time. gutted i didn't have the slr, the videos dont do it justice. other mammals seen were 3 foxes, hare, red squirrel, but blanked on badgers at a set on the walk home, shall try again there in spring. sky looked great, 2 planets close to the moon.

2012-02-16T18:52:00.001Z

2012-02-16T18:41:00.000Z

another look at the tip didn't produce anything of note but the active site has moved a little and improved the viewing. popped into the alverstone hide on the way back where there were 5 squirrels. i returned in the avo with my new macro lens and got a few pics, it's a frustrating place to photograph tho cos the trees block out most of the natural light and i'm dead against flash.

2012-02-12T16:27:00.001Z

2012-02-12T16:16:00.001Z

15 chiffchaffs at roud sewage works including 1 abietinus and 2 firecrests further down the valley towards godshill. 9 gadwall on ice at the canoe lake and a peak of 60 herring gulls. peak of 80 hg's on 10th.

2012-02-10T21:36:00.000Z

on the subject of eastern chiffs the webpage is still online with proper tristis song and calls recorded from a couple of birds that were at sandown canoe lake in march 2009 http://wightvogels.web44.net/news.html

2012-02-09T10:08:00.002Z

a black-throated diver was feeding close to shore at sandown this morning, i rarely see these in winter. dunlin still present!

2012-02-07T18:48:00.002Z

3 grabs from the videos

2012-02-07T18:36:00.003Z

2012-02-07T18:36:00.002Z

2012-02-07T17:26:00.000Z

3 (different) gadwall at the canoe lake and a peak of 70 herring gulls. at brading sewage works the grey + white type chiff showing well and 2 ruff with 7 dunlin amongst lapwing from the old seawall.

2012-02-06T16:57:00.002Z

third time i've seen dunlin on this spot. went to twitch the 4 black-necked grebes at binstead in the avo, cant have been a flock bigger than this on the iow? i'd only seen singles before. c.300 herring gulls roosting at ryde but too distant.

2012-02-06T13:56:00.001Z

2012-02-01T17:17:00.001Z

3 gadwall at the canoe lake. east winds do seem to be kicking the gulls into gear this time, big final push of hg's at dusk which i couldnt get any purchase on, when conditions are like this i hate being at work.

Glossy Ibis

2012-01-30T18:27:00.000Z

about as cooperative as rarities get - choosing to feed right beside the entrance track when there's the whole of brading marsh to get lost in. nice red tones on the under body and marginal wing coverts and glossy green scaps and median/lesser coverts makes this at least a 2nd-winter?

2012-01-24T15:02:00.002Z

lewington has done some work on his website http://www.ian-lewington.co.uk/index.htm

2012-01-22T21:51:00.002Z

y'day peak of 65 herring gulls at canoe lake but nothing with them. peak of 17 shoveler.

2012-01-16T16:47:00.000Z

long awaited east winds failed to deliver. started the day looking at the sea off ventnor but couldn't even stay an hour. with thousands of auks off portland and dunge why not in between? 21 brent geese were making the most of the easterlies and 10 rtd's went east. three visits to the canoe lake didn't produce anything of note but this was my first slr photo of an iow lesser black-back.

Iceland Gull invasion on the Faroes january 2012

2012-01-14T19:26:00.000Z

http://birdingfaroes.wordpress.com/
http://www.nature-shetland.co.uk/naturelatest/latestbirds.htm

2012-01-14T17:51:00.000Z

the iceland influx tempted me back to the tip for the first time in years. it's changed a lot since my last visit and it's not possible to get a clear view of the active tip since a planted conifer stand has grown up a little too high in front of the (now) only viewing spot. there were shit loads of gulls and i could at least bin all the ones streaming into the site from behind me, but in the end all i could pull out the bag was my first adult argie of the winter (!). maybe i shouldn't expect to just turn up after years of neglect and have a caspo handed to me on a plate but i cant help wondering what the situation would have been had i been on the mainland! it was frustrating/boring but i'll prob have to give it another go next week, and maybe more regularly again if i get my driving licence sorted (barely get change from a tenner for a bus return).

2012-01-11T17:30:00.000Z

peak of 60 herring gulls on the canoe lake but only thing of note was this. peak of 15 shoveler the other day.

South Polar Skuas feeding in slick ~ May 2009 Hatteras, NC USA

2011-12-31T18:26:00.000Z

2011-12-31T17:33:00.000Z

5 pochard on the canoe lake the other day. december is normally the month for gulls but didn't even see an adult argie, hoping for some east winds soon, or some ice.

2011-12-20T15:45:00.001Z

back showing well beside the canoe lake. also 1 argie and 3 pochard seen.

2011-12-06T20:16:00.000Z

a short-eared owl flew east overhead then inland whilst i was walking down to the canoe lake at c.2.30pm. seems to be a higher proportion of black-headed/med gulls with hoods than normal for the time of year, or have i just not noticed it before? also seeing quite a few oiled gulls so must have been a local spill

Thou shalt always Bird - Gyr Crakes

2011-11-29T20:44:00.000Z

Tart the Gyr - Gyr Crakes

2011-11-29T20:43:00.000Z

2011-11-29T15:49:00.000Z

60 herring gulls today at the canoe lake, biggest count so far this winter plus the first argie.

2011-11-29T09:25:00.000Z

down sandown...

World's most amazing photos - Part 1

2011-11-29T09:20:00.001Z

Garrett McNamara rides 90 Foot Wave! (Full Video) New World Record

2011-11-29T09:20:00.000Z

2011-11-21T16:10:00.000Z

kicking the kids out

2011-11-20T20:41:00.000Z

these ventnor wall lizard photos from back in october

2011-11-20T16:46:00.000Z

ring ouzel at whitecliff

2011-11-19T11:10:00.001Z

two xbills over and a v vocal brambling in trees at sandown this morn

2011-11-18T17:51:00.001Z

devon pics

was cloudy everyday so no chance of getting good pics of the autumn colours

berry head lighthouse

balamory style at brixham

wasn't expecting the river dart to be so disturbed by water sports. seems like everyone from the city wants to spend their weekends in a kayak. not surprising then that i only saw one dipper

2011-11-18T17:25:00.000Z

in plymouth we visited the aquarium. cuttlefish are one of my faves, wish i'd taken a vid of this one. the jellyfish looked cool as well, wasn't expecting those. was pleased with the low light performance of my new camera.

2011-11-18T17:04:00.002Z

some slr pics of the otter on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/31602365@N05/

2011-11-17T22:56:00.001Z

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Northern_Goshawk#p00gn1yd

2011-11-14T17:24:00.000Z

stopped off to twitch the otters at blandford on the way home. seems a bit artificial to tick a wild animal in this way but after grilling the waters of the dart for a week i realised i aint got much chance of seeing one in england, and you wouldn't even get views like this in scotland. after missing one by minutes on the first go we timed it perfectly on the second. quote from one woman in the crowd 'this is the best day of my life' !

there are some more vids of the otter on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/wightvogels

2011-11-13T22:21:00.001Z

just come back from a week in devon

2011-11-05T21:40:00.000Z

i had what must've been a lap bunting flying west along the cliff at yaverland in the gloom first thing this morning. felt like i knew the noise but wasn't making an exact match in my head. and the silhouette/flight was right being a big and strongly built bird. different to the one i had at culver recently which was instant id, i've never been in a situation where i couldnt id a bird from call before so it's been really bugging me all day! was just repeatedly doing a chu call but not exactly the type i've heard them do in association with the rattle.

2011-11-05T14:25:00.000Z

am all about the tit flocks now. looked at 6 today but only got 2 firecrests out of it. 4 swallows over the cycle track. most interesting thing up culver was this 'ivy tree'.

2011-11-03T20:05:00.002Z

one from the cornwall trip - mousehole harbour

2011-11-03T19:57:00.001Z

got myself a new camera for digi/videoscoping to replace the shitty samsung that i've put up with for a couple of years. i had a v quick go on it today and the biggest improvement is the handling, so much easier to follow a subject, panning the scope and holding the camera to the eyepiece. with a stronger zoom the vignetting seems less too. spec wise it's got a 5x optical zoom, image stabilizer, f2.7 lens, 12m pixel sensor and full hd video, with a handy dedicated video button, and is the size of my mobile! great value for £108. cameras have come on so much since the coolpix i bought ten years ago probably for double that price. now i just need a caspian gull on the canoe lake to point it at.

on the subject i had to send my canon lens in for repair recently and the bill was nearly half what i originally paid for the lens! has put me off buying another lens with an image stabilizer a little

2011-11-01T15:47:00.002Z

1 xbill over work

2011-11-01T05:19:00.000Z

flock of 27 xbills, 19 swallows, 4 blackcaps, 1 wheatear up culver. wasn't any better at st caths - just 1 firecrest. still no pallass's. bring on the gulls

2011-10-30T20:21:00.001Z

a firecrest at my work this morning

2011-10-28T21:07:00.000+01:00

was watching some long-tailed tits this morning. looking down on a migrant-looking flock in minimal blackthorn scrub on the cliff face at yaverland, in cold light on a crisp late october day, long-tailed tits are hard to beat.

2011-10-28T21:02:00.000+01:00

snow bunting at bembridge down, appeared to come up from west car park and dropped down beside fort but nothing more. 5 bullfinches over, 4 wheatears. ring ouzel red cliff and seo flushed (brilliant view for all of a split sec), flew straight out to sea. seo overhead at the canoe lake moving inland. a hummingbird hawkmoth was inspecting each red light on the outside of sandown amusement arcade - nope, none of them were flowers.

2011-10-25T18:34:00.002+01:00

when you need to stand out from the crowd http://www.baigish.ru/eng/products_c/souvenir_b/

2011-10-23T17:17:00.000+01:00

140 gannets east, 4 scoter, 1 manx west, trickle of kits, handful of auks past ventnor, disappointing in sse wind.

2011-10-21T16:27:00.002+01:00

14 xbills, 3 bramblings and 2 ouzels up culver

2011-10-20T11:32:00.003+01:00

couldn't compete with rob martin's 30th bday bird but a lapland bunting west at culver is still a good one for me (3rd record and 1st on passage). otherwise quiet. 2 ouzels, 2 small flocks of xbills. actually saw some redpolls perched but were just lessers.

2011-10-19T08:56:00.001+01:00

the percentage of mealy redpolls being trapped at dunge lately is interesting/annoying cos i've never knowingly seen one, never get to see autumn migrants on the deck http://www.dungenessbirdobs.org.uk/lateframe.html

2011-10-19T08:47:00.000+01:00

been down to penwith for a 3 night break staying in whitesands lodge. only find was a wryneck booted out of gorse on coast path at treen, my 1st in uk for a few years. on last morning the wind had veered nw after a sw blow overnight. looking off sennen cove there was a phenomenal gannet passage so we quickly moved on to pendeen where i watched for a couple of hours, the volume of birds so amazing compared to what i'm used to even if it was mainly gannets (est. 6k p/h) and razorbills.

some of the poms were passing over the white water! can just about see me in this pic, down near the sea and soaking up the views - most people were up against the lighthouse wall, pointless. i dunno who put the report of 2 poms and 6 balearics out but they must've been watching with their eyes closed.

a seal put on a good show playing in the surf at porthcurno....

2011-10-18T20:28:00.001+01:00

2011-10-14T17:12:00.003+01:00

13 shoveler at the canoe lake. on 10th there were about 80 meds there

2011-10-14T17:11:00.001+01:00

yesterday did st caths for the first time in autumn. drew a blank but it was another crazy summer-like day, surely the last one now. 1 firecrest at old blackgang road junction. someone needs to take a machete to rocken end.

fog bank rolling off blackgang

rock balancing - it's the new thing that all the kids are doing

2011-10-13T18:05:00.000+01:00

http://vimeo.com/30242403 video of brents migrating down the other side of the channel, lovely stuff

2011-10-12T18:09:00.000+01:00

some nice photos on cap gris nez http://seawatchcgn.free.fr/ spesh the arctic, long-tailed and pom together

2011-10-08T09:05:00.000+01:00

30+ crossbills east at canoe lake. seems to be a few on the go lately - see http://www.durlston.co.uk/index.php?id=3&dry_id=2&nid=119

2011-10-03T10:59:00.002+01:00

merlin, 5 xbills, 30 redpolls and nice 'looking down on' views of siskin at culver

2011-10-02T20:25:00.001+01:00

13 xbills and 2 ring ouzels up culver this morning, not a great deal on the go but nice to see 4 species of carduelis in one flock. 2 wigeon and 6 shoveler on the canoe lake. another day on the beach, went for a swim for the novelty value and ended the day with the best bbq (on the nicest evening) of the summer!

2011-10-02T06:33:00.001+01:00

2011-10-01T22:02:00.000+01:00

always too distant for anything over than crappy record shots

2011-10-01T21:42:00.001+01:00

2011-10-01T21:36:00.001+01:00

2011-10-01T21:30:00.000+01:00

there hadn't been a glossy ibis since the one and only record in 1898. today i saw 11. got to brading marsh at dawn hoping to catch the 7 that were seen last night before they (inevitably!) left the island. first 1 then 6 flew in from their roost over bembridge ponds way. the single dropped down to the pool on the west side of the river where the flock had been seen last night. the 6 circled then headed purposefully north along the coast towards seaview. we crossed the river and had good views of the single on the deck but that didn't stay long and soon flew low back towards bembridge ponds. walking back to the green bridge i then picked up a new bird circling over the valley out from the sewage works. it flew straight towards us but veered to the side and dropped down into the flash between us and bexley point. within minutes it was in the air again - with 3 others! the 4 continued out over the harbour and were lost to view over the duver, heading north. the regular wintering female marsh harrier has also returned today.

2011-10-01T21:16:00.002+01:00

kleenex?

2011-09-30T21:57:00.001+01:00

out in the open here, normally creeping furtively through grass. bit of feeding action at the end of vid.

2011-09-30T21:51:00.002+01:00

went back for another go on the pec. actually difficult to get a decent pic cos it's not comfortable being out in the open. got a vid with it + my shadow in, got a photo where you can see my reflection in its eye, blah, blah, blah, typical confiding yank wader.

star in the hood - one of ventnor's famous wall lizards, probably wondering why it's baking on the last day of september

2011-09-29T20:36:00.001+01:00

2011-09-29T20:32:00.002+01:00

2011-09-29T17:58:00.001+01:00

2011-09-28T20:42:00.000+01:00

day spent sunning it up on the beach at compton. saw my 1st arctic tern for a few years. hobby over the road at whale chine. twitched the pec at scp on the way home. what a great find that was, but wonder how long it's been there? behaving like a jack snipe, super unobtrusive, v confiding, wont flush just crouches when approached. my 1st yank wader on iow.

2011-09-28T20:33:00.001+01:00

2011-09-28T10:15:00.001+01:00

uncomfortable in a t shirt before sun up in late sep, didn't feel like i should be looking for sibes. up culver had hobby, firecrest, 7 herons + 9 xbills in east wind.

2011-09-24T18:15:00.002+01:00

3 sabs and a grey phal in one shot http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2GUqoCfvqA/TnzvrFp0UzI/AAAAAAAADyA/hQrvWEDUvq4/s1600/Sabines+Gull+Exmouth+275.JPG

2011-09-21T19:46:00.000+01:00

lol at the fact there's a bird in sussex which hasn't been seen in the uk for 30 years but the site only has room for 15 cars

2011-09-21T19:21:00.001+01:00

a very unusual report of a juv golden oriole on the island, flew into someone's window, check the vid http://www.youtube.com/user/andythirteen#p/a/u/1/eFBgkMaoE7w whilst looking at pics on the web i came across this page, nice pic of little crake in lap and sheltering from sun underneath a great reed warbler! http://www.hawar-islands.com/blog/14_stub.php/2008/09/

2011-09-21T16:01:00.000+01:00

copied this off the web. defo need to go!

Yesterday sept 18th seawatchers at Estaca de Bares (Galicia, NW Spain) enjoyed
another great seabird passage. The most remarcable numbers are:

1 Pterodroma - type petrel (feae / mollis / madeira). Very close. The 12th this
year from Estaca de Bares. Another bird was seen the previous day.

3 Wilson's Storm Petrel

27,284 Manx Shearwater

48 Great shearwater

120 Cory's shearwater

1.586 Sooty Shearwater

3 Northern Fulmar (scarce in Spain).

4.110 Gannet

949 Great Skua

650 Pomarine skua

395 Arctic skuA

357 Long Tailed Skua

52 Sabine's Gull

628 Sandwhich Tern

2,743 "Commic" Tern

137 ROSEATE TERN.

2011-09-20T19:17:00.000+01:00

extra dry

2011-09-20T18:18:00.002+01:00

http://www.rarebirdspain.net/arbsr000.htm seawatching news from northwest spain - around 2,000 long-tailed skuas and multiple feas so far this month!

2011-09-19T08:21:00.002+01:00

http://seabirdwatchireland.blogspot.com/ seawatching news from the bridges of ross - astounding numbers lately

2011-09-17T20:37:00.002+01:00

another great ventnor seawatch - 8 scoter, 6 sandwich terns and a skua sp.

2011-09-12T13:35:00.000+01:00

walking along the seafront at sandown a calidris shot past me straight into the driving rain, couldnt react quick enough, was prob a dunlin but you never know. a 2hr seawatch at ventnor once the rain had cleared was ok i spose for the iow, but still frustrating given what's about in the channel lately. 1 manx, 3 sooty, 3 balearic, 3 fulmar, 4 razorbill, 4 shag, 2 sandwich tern, 140 gannets, all west. freshwater bay would be a good bet.

2011-09-07T14:58:00.003+01:00

gluten for punishment i was back at ventnor, early to see if anything was heading back out after yesterday's gale. watching from the bandstand there wasn't much on the go - more gannets than yday, a common tern, 4 shags and a mega distant excuse for a sooty/bal. then at 8.25 a beautiful juv sabine's gull drifted by at point blank range. while i scrambled for the camera i lost it but it must've cut in right beneath me cos i spotted it gliding away low over the heads of the gulls roosting on the beach! was looking like it was gonna land but changed its mind and continued along the cliff towards steephill. a short while later it was back, circling the west end of ventnor bay, then headed straight in for the cliffs, up and over the old park and lost to view behind the trees. lil bugger, happier heading inland than resting on the beach - not funny! just hope it's not a 13 year wait till the next county record :-0. sab's is defo a birder's bird - so clean, so contrasty, all triangles and pointy angles, a small slim body underslung beneath a set of big arched wings - love 'em!

2011-09-06T14:18:00.000+01:00

typical iow seawatching in a sw gale - 9 gannets and 3 fulmars in 3 hrs, spared a little by a flock of 7 manxies. it's all happening at estaca!

2011-08-09T09:10:00.000+01:00

have yet to get into autumn mindset. posted on birdguides yday was a gripping pic of a r-c starling from someone's garden locally. a blocker for the iow, they're always in gardens or single obs.

2011-08-04T17:29:00.000+01:00

news for july 24th, yeartick 2 green sands at bembridge lagoon and a hobby chased a finch across the harbour entrance. pulled this bass out of the water. cant believe it's august already.

2011-07-19T22:01:00.004+01:00

bit late getting on juv yellow-legged gull bandwagon this year. one at the canoe lake later joined by a 2nd bird with advanced moult of scaps. showing really well in flight and on drink but no camera - i went back later and got this shot of the 1st bird through the scope. another one also flew over. had a quick look at ryde east sands early in the morning, nice to see fresh juvs amongst the 120 or so meds.

for what it's worth

couple of days ago when it was a bit blowy had a look at the sea off ventnor. felt so right for a cory's but saw just 3 manx and 2 balearic. had to leave before i caved under the weight of boredom and was close to picking up that packet of biscuits (see below)

2011-07-15T05:35:00.002+01:00

Long awaited county tick this morning. Went down sandown beach to cast my first line for over a decade and as I was stood on the groyne a spoonbill flew over my head, going west at 05.17. First time i've seen one actually move. caught a couple of bass too

2011-07-04T18:32:00.000+01:00

went to look at the brading long-eared owls the other night. they didnt start up till it was nearly dark and there were only two birds, one not calling possibly an adult. they started on the old seawall then moved through the bishops house and into the copse. one of them flew right overhead.

2011-07-03T20:14:00.001+01:00

2011-07-03T20:13:00.002+01:00