Tim Jones

Homepage blog for @lundybirds.bsky.social updated with an account and photos of the dark-morph Booted Eagle that graced the island earlier this week, together with Golden Oriole & Woodchat Shrike, here: www.lundybirdobs.org.uk #UKBirding

The best sighting of the day was not a bird but this pristine male Orange Tip butterfly, still drying itself out in the sun after emerging in the garden at home. What extraordinary beauty in those transluscent hindwings! 🤩 💚

Bull Point quiet for late April. 35 Swallow, 9 Sand & 3 House Martin a poor showing for hirundines over several hours. Single Tree Pipit & Grasshopper Warbler, 4 Whitethroat & 8 Willow Warbler. Sunrise well round to the NE – over the Welsh coast already. Amazing how quickly that happens! #UKBirding

Highlights at Bull Point this morning: 1 Red-throated Diver W, 71 Manx Shearwater, 13 Willow Warbler, 9 Blackcap, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Grasshopper Warbler reeling, 3 flyover Yellow Wagtail, 7 flyover Tree Pipit, 120 Linnet, single Redpoll & 125 Goldfinch. Few hirundines. #UKBirding

The sightings blog for @lundybirds.bsky.social has been updated with details of the island's second-ever White Stork yesterday (Friday 11th April) and lots of other recent news, including a Lundy colour-ringed Wheatear seen in Mauritania: www.lundybirdobs.org.uk #UKBirding

Surveying this morning for NT-led Landscape Recovery Scheme linking Arlington Estate with West Exmoor. Great to find 3 territorial male Yellowhammers – very scarce these days in this part of N Devon. Also Red Kite, another locally scarcity, and an obvious influx of phylloscs & Blackcaps. #UKBirding

Yesterday a.m. (5 Apr) at Bull Point: Osprey E at 10:15, 18 Sandwich Tern, 79 LB-b Gull, 3 Manx Shearwater, 127 Sand Martin, 51 Swallow, 17 House Martin, 7 alba wagtail, 2 Tree Pipit, 51 Meadow Pipit, 160 Linnet, 138 Goldfinch. Everything going E into the wind, gusting at F7, except the terns – SW!

Proud to announce a new guide to Lundy’s commoner birds, aimed especially at helping day-trippers & families, has today hit the shelves of the island shop😊
With pics by Richard Campey⁩ and text by Tim⁩ Davis & myself, we hope this will also raise awareness of the Bird Observatory. #UKBirding

Quiet for passerines at a chilly Bull Pt this a.m. with an onshore N wind & leaden skies. Main interest over the sea: 15 Common Scoter W, continuing passage E of ad LBB Gulls, and a colossal patch count (for settled weather in spring) of 235 Gannets ENE. Also 1 Curlew & 2 Sand Martin E. #UKBirding

I took a winter break from posting but Spring Equinox has got me going again😃 At Bull Point, the first of 55 Sand Martins zipped through before sunrise. Also 3 Swallow (1st of yr), 141 LBB Gull coasting E, 219 Mipit, 47 Linnet, a songflighting Wheatear & a single subsinging Blackcap. #UKbirding

Pallid Swift

Flight shot of a Pallid Swift with the jetty out of focus in the background

A couple more flights shots of the Pallid Swift, again captured brilliantly by Brennig Hughes

Seems like we’re getting towards the fag-end of Chaffinch migration at Bull Point, with just 128 through in a couple of hours from dawn this a.m. Also 96 Woodpigeon, 31 Redwing, 6 Fieldfare and a female-type Black Redstart on the very highest bit of the lighthouse. #UKbirding

Back on my mainland patch at Bull Point this a.m., strong passage of c.2K Chaffinch, 6 Brambling & 43 Siskin – all undercounts due to tricky viewing conditions with clear skies & low sun. Also my 1st patch Yellow-browed Warbler plus 2 f-type Black Redstarts feeding around the lighthouse. #UKbirding

3/3 A Barnacle Goose flew in over the Cory's seawatchers on 17th, followed in short order by a Gt White Egret, and I stumbled on an Ortolan Bunting creeping in the tussocks nearby. Something of a Lundy 'purple patch', with the goose & egret being scarcer than the bunting in island terms! #UKbirding

2/3 The highlight was an unprecedented influx of feeding Cory's Shearwaters on 17th & 18th, presumanly the outer edge of larger numbers in the Celtic Sea/SW approaches. The first occurrence of multiple Cory's in Lundy waters and maybe a sign of things to come as seas warm...

1/3 Recently back from @lundybirds.bsky.social An excellent trip with a good range of scarcities, incl. the long-staying Greater Short-toed Lark, Yellow-browed Warblers most days, and an elusive Wryneck. Rather low numbers of 'common' migrants but enough to keep multiple Merlins well fed. #UKBirding

Great write-up & pics Tom! You've perfectly captured the thrill of encountering new and unusual species on a local birding patch that you know inside-out on one level but which keeps yielding new discoveries and posing new challenges and questions.👏

Hardly any visible migration at Bull Point this morning. A few Meadow Pipits and 6 Swallows was about it. On the plus side, an evident influx of 8 grounded Song Thrushes, with a few more Chiffs & Goldcrests about, along with this delightful (if rather distant) presumed 1st-yr Whinchat. #UKbirding

Also at Bull Pt this a.m. the first migrating Chaffinch flocks of autumn (75) plus first trickle of Redwing (4), Skylark (4) & Siskin (9). Offshore, steady passage W of 68 Common Gull & 96 Black-headed Gull, and 5 Cormorant E. Few grounded migrants after a starry night and clear dawn. #UKbirding

The unusual sight of 2 migrating Great White Egrets passing feeding Gannets off Bull Point this a.m. Also in the shot (the fuzzy brown dot between the egrets!) is a Meadow Pipit flying in off the sea, likely having left the Welsh coast earlier. I didn't even notice it at the time! #UKbirding

BTO Winter Gull Survey (WinGS) on Taw Estuary last night, avoiding gales & horizontal rain forecast this pm... Frustratingly (but as expected) most gulls came in when almost too dark to count, let alone ID, but >3K on our sector. Beautiful light & plenty to watch whilst waiting for gulls😁 #UKbirding

Dramatic skies at Bull Point early this morning. Unsurprisingly, not much on the move but 66 Linnets, 65 Meadow Pipits, 4 alba wagtails & 4 Swallows battled through the brighter breaks, as a noisy flock of about 20 Gannets plunge-dived among Harbour Porpoises off the lighthouse. #UKbirding

A very high spring tide & heavy rain combined to make today one of the soggiest Taw Estuary WeBS counts I can remember. Plenty of Wigeon in on the recent easterlies. Also notable were single Great White Egret & Great Crested Grebe (local scarcity) and an Osprey tucking into its breakfast. #UKbirding

Recently back from a bucket-list trip to see the spectacle of migration across the Strait of Gibraltar. 1000s of Honey Buzzards + numerous Black Kites, Short-toed & Booted Eagles, Egyptian Vultures, White & Black Storks, Bee-eaters & much else. Essential kit: comfy chair, multi-clicker, neck yoga 🤩

From a murky but dry Bull Point this a.m. in a F5-6 ENE, 15 Common Scoter and – patch gold! – 2 Wigeon. Virtually no passerine movement; zero hirundines! This heron flew in from W, struggling to hold steady in the wind, with a GBB in hot pursuit but stabilised in the lee of the headland😁 #UKbirding

Fancy a pelagic out of Ilfracombe?! 😉

(PDF) Identification of Great Skua and South Polar Skua in north-eastern Atlantic Ocean in autumn PDF | T he purpose of this paper is to illustrate how to separate and identify Great Skua Stercorarius skua and South Polar Skua S maccormicki in the... | Find, read and cite all the research you need...

Hi Richard, I'm no expert in South Polar Skua moult but the latest info has just been published here: www.researchgate.net/publication/... Co-author, Bob Flood of Scilly Pelagics, confirmed Saturday's bird as a first moult-cycle individual.

3/2 😉 The supporting cast included a gorgeous juv Sabine's Gull, Long-tailed Skuas + numerous European Storm-petrels zig-zagging & dipping over the chum-enriched wake of 'Sapphire'. Thanks to Joe Pender, Bob Flood and the whole Scilly Pelagics team, including @scottreidscilly.bsky.social #UKBirding

2/2 As a young birder, the notion of South Polar Skuas in UK waters was the stuff of myth & legend. Were they really ID-able in the field? Would I know if I ever saw one? 4 decades on, I can reassure my younger self on both counts! This 1st-yr bird put on an epic show off Scilly on 24 Aug #UKbirding

1/2 Last weekend I realised a long-held dream, joining Scilly Pelagics for 4 unforgettable days of seabirding. Staggeringly close views of Great, Cory's & Sooty Shearwaters + Wilson's Storm-petrel. South Polar Skua & 2 Scopoli's Shearwater (pic) the cherries on the icing of a huge cake. #UKBirding