Optimism

In the wake of the recent West Bay Barred Warbler, exactly one month ago today I wrote this:

'So, what next? Does the Bridport recording area have any more surprises up its autumn sleeve? I hope so.'

The answer was yes, and we didn't have to wait long. On November 2nd it all kicked off. Following a WhatsApp message from Mike Morse that 2 or 3 Leach's Petrels had passed West Bexington late that morning, an afternoon seawatch at West Bay produced at least 10, also a Little Gull. Three more Leach's the next day, plus adult Pom Skua and another Little Gull. November 9th: Sabine's Gull. A few days later, up at the vis-mig watch point...

Cirl Bunting is still a quality Dorset rarity.

And the previous morning, a flyover Richard's Pipit. I probably don't have to tell you how it felt to be out of action on babysitting duties last weekend...

Since then we've had 2 Purple Sandpipers back on the harbour wall rocks, a Great White Egret which I missed, and 2 Egyptian Geese which I didn't.

Okay, it might be stretching things to include Egyptian Geese with that lot, but they are locally scarce at least, and probably more so than GWE.

A nice list of excellent local quality, which for me all began with an optimistic seawatch. I really was not expecting to see any Leach's Petrels at all, let alone 10 or more, and am so glad I listened to the voice in my head which chivvied me into action. 'What are you waiting for?' it said. 'Mike and Alan have had Leach's off Bex! Get down that shelter ASAP!'

So, I'm idly scrolling through Twitter this evening and come across a seawatching report from Jersey. Apparently 8 Little Auks and 409 Little Gulls flew W past some place called Grosnez. 'Where's that?' I wondered...

There's Grosnez...and there's me, up at the blue spot. Okay...

And what's the weather doing tonight?

A whacking great band of rain moving in from the west, plus a 45+mph gusting SSE. Hmmm...

Sure enough, the wild optimist in my head was going off again. The last time I saw local Little Auks was about 16 years ago I think, and at least a couple of times I've seen them after playing a weather-based hunch. Mind you, when it comes to playing hunches, failure has featured way more often than success. Still...

There have been a good few Little Auks down the east coast today, and to know that some have made it as far south as the Channel Islands is very encouraging, and probably more than I can resist.

If I do respond to the early alarm call, and if I do see a Little Auk or two, please expect a triumphant blog post. However, if NQS activity is conspicuous by its absence tomorrow evening, I will probably be pondering the wise words of my beloved wife...

'See? That's the trouble with being an optimist. Whereas a realist is rarely disappointed.'

Toot! Toot!

Who remembers Friends Reunited? More than 20 years ago we had a brief flirtation, but for me the allure of contacting old schoolmates extended no further than half-hearted curiosity, and I was quickly out of its grasp. Then came Facebook. Despite multiple break-ups and reconciliations, Facebook and I are finally done. Instagram? Didn't get past the first date. Twitter though. Oh, Twitter...

A bitter-sweet relationship of several years now. Always I resent its demands on my time and attention, yet cannot deny how much it has given in return. Such a wealth of interest and information, all provided via the slow and steady collection of contacts. Quite a network I have now, and it would be a shame to lose it. Yet talk on the street is that Twitter's days are numbered. Are they? Seriously, how would I know? However, should the unthinkable happen, it might be wise to have a contingency plan. Enter, Mastodon...

On Twitter I can be found here: @NotQuiteScilly

And on Mastodon, here: @NotQuiteScilly

Right now my Mastodon account is just a precaution, but if tooting ever supercedes tweeting, well, I'm all set.

Yesterday morning I spied a small bird land on a roof in the yard beyond our garden. Its distinctive tail-quivering was a dead giveaway: Black Redstart. I didn't bother with bins, but reached straight for the camera. A few shots in the bag, and it was gone. But no, it was back again. Wait a minute, that's another one! Sure enough, two Black Redstarts on the same roof. Two years ago I added Black Redstart to the garden list in exactly the same fashion, with two birds on that very roof. Yesterday's birds were against the light in bright sunshine, and it wasn't until I played around with the photos that I realised one was an adult male...

Black Redstart #1...

...and #2, a gorgeous adult male.

A bit later I came across another on West Bay's East Beach, almost certainly the same elusive individual that has been knocking about for a few weeks now...

With such a prominent white flash in the wing I assume this is a young male.

Some more from West Bay...

Male Sparrowhawk in the late afternoon sun. That eye!

Context shot. Blue gem in the reeds.

This morning I was at West Bay again. Just before 07:30, at the far end of the harbour wall...

Hello again! Two Purple Sandpipers.

Last winter's Purple Sand was a right pig to connect with. Countless efforts, and I think I saw it two, maybe three times. These two have so far been much more obliging. So much so that I was quietly confident I could show them to Sandra later in the day, when we visited with our little granddaughter. Wheeling the toddler's pushchair to the end of the walkway, I pointed at the now vacant rocks and said, 'Well, this is where they were earlier. Let's give them a minute or two, eh?'

I craned my neck and carefully scrutinised every inch of their favoured haunt, to no avail. Sandra said 'What's this then?' and pointed to our right, where a Purple Sand was perched up at point-blank range. She has an uncanny knack of doing this. I wish she came out birding with me more often.

Purple Sandpiper, almost doing purple I think.

Context shot. Lovely.

Always nice to close with a gull...

A gorgeous Med Gull on the river by Rise restaurant.

Rambling...

It's been a rain-dodging kind of day, and not always successful in that regard. In fact I've just got home from a good soaking. A brisk walk down the river Asker and back through town, following up a belated report of three Goosanders and a Dipper. The best I could muster were a Med Gull on the Bridport FC pitch, 2 Chiffs, and a Little Egret by Morrisons...

An almost-urban Little Egret.

This morning's walk was much better timed, with torrential downpours either side of the outdoorsy stuff. Best of all though, I had a long-desired tick...

A big clump of Lepas anatifera, the Common Goose Barnacle

The 'shell', or capitulum, from which the feeding tentacles protrude periodically. Astonishing creatures.

And this is what they were attached to - a knackered old flip-flop. I wonder where it went into the sea?

I don't know if Goose Barnacles are quite unusual locally, or if I've just been unobservant, but in 20 years living by the sea I have never seen any before. This clump was the larger of two on West Bay's East beach, and presumably the product of last night's stormy weather. There was still a big swell, and spectacular surf, and I had to be a bit careful retrieving my prize from the sea's grasp. I had a good poke about among the stalks to see if there were any little Columbus Crabs, but did wonder what onlookers must have thought I was up to...

15,000+ steps today, all very local. And 'very local' is fast becoming more and more the norm. Last night there was a Bridport Bird Club meeting at the Tiger Inn. Main topic of discussion? The club's winter survey initiative: House Sparrow roosts in the Bridport recording area. Finding, counting and documenting all our local House Sparrow roosts is not a thing I ever saw myself getting involved with, and yet here we are...

The sparrow counters (photo: Tom Brereton)

And on Thursday evening I'll be out again, this time as a sideshow to Tom Brereton's talk about the 2021 Bridport Breeding Bird Survey...

That's me in the blue star. Bird expert. You knew that, right?

Yep, I shall be talking noc-mig again. In public. For a small fee, even. Seriously, what is happening? The last time I made presentation slides, PowerPoint was not even a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye. Yet some bloke I barely recognise has just done exactly that. Some even have embedded sound files. I am in unfamiliar territory here, but quite enjoying the journey.

So, yes. Local. Since the beginning of October I have done very little birding away from the Bridport recording area, and not been to West Bexington or Cogden for more than six weeks. Focusing on West Bay for coastal birding has been surprisingly rewarding, as recent NQS posts testify. Still, there is one aspect in which it is very different to Cogden and Bex. People. West Bay is packed with them. Being a quiet loner has suited me for a long time, but self-absorption is a luxury not much afforded by West Bay birding. Especially when seawatching from the shelter. However, chatting with the various folk who strike up a conversation has been an unexpected pleasure...

On the day of three Leach's Petrels I met Bill Shelton, who used to live in Henfield, West Sussex. He told me about the Henfield Birdwatch initiative, a citizen science project which has been running for more than 20 years, and in 2011 won the BTO's Marsh Local Ornithology Award. A bit later he popped back to the shelter in appalling weather to give me his collection of Henfield Birdwatch five-yearly reports. Fascinating to see what a bit of community engagement can achieve. Quite inspirational actually. If you remember the 1988 Little Bittern that was taken into care on the Sussex coast and later released at a small pond which it proceeded to empty of Great Crested Newts, well, that was on the Henfield patch.

At least three times I have met Margaret. The other day we spent a couple of minutes chatting in the shelter, and I was pleased to learn that she'll be coming to the talk on Thursday night. It is good to know that a decent number of locals are enthusiastic about their local birds.

Talking of local birds...

An obliging 2nd-winter Med Gull on the river.

Same bird, with very West Bay backdrop.

I was chuffed to find two Purple Sandpipers on the harbour wall rocks early yesterday morning. Hope they stay for the winter.

Two Egyptian Geese heading west yesterday morning. The first I've seen locally. I was almost excited about them.

My first hasty go at a record shot had the camera desperately trying to focus on an overhead wire.

The recent storms have played havoc with the mothing. The trap has been out a few times though, and there have even been a couple of new species...

L: Chestnut, but not from our garden; caught in Lyme Regis while babysitting.
R: Dark Chestnut.
Subtle differences in wing shape are apparent in side-by-side comparison, but they still look a potentially tricky pair to me.

A really well-marked Blair's Mocha.

Still a few migrants, including this male Vestal...

...this Rusty-dot Pearl...

...and this female Vestal.

I suspect the mothing season is almost done now. Almost...

This somewhat rambling post is probably a sign of where things are heading for NQS. Rather more collaborative stuff than has been the case in recent years. Some of it may even be ornithology. And my regular birding haunts are getting closer to home. One day I might legitimately be able to use the word 'patch'...

Hope you got your tickets nice and early.

Sabine's Gulls

Today could hardly have gone better. But it didn't start that way...

Work. That's how the day started. The recent weather might have been good for seawatching but it has been rubbish for work, and I have a backlog. I got going about 7:30, and tried not to think about birds. Especially I tried not to think about what the storm might have left behind.

At 9:30 I had to interrupt work for a doctor's appointment. Arriving at the surgery I switched my phone to silent. And of course forgot to switch it back again.

Around 11:30 and I'm in the groove, toiling away for an honest crust. A quick look at my phone...

What??!!

Missed calls, much WhatsAppery and a mouth-watering photo of a juvenile Sabine's Gull at West bay!

What can I say? I can say 'Gripped!' I suppose. Because I was. Severely. Despite a nice tally of quality birds in the recent heavy weather, Sabine's was a conspicuous no-show. There were a couple recorded elsewhere in Lyme Bay, so it was always on the cards. But in the end, no, not at West Bay.

Until this morning. Typical.

I glanced down my work schedule and realised there was hope. If I bashed everything out as rapidly as possible, and if I skipped lunch, and if...IF...the bird lingered...well, maybe.

Around 14:00, and news of a juv Sabine's Gull at Seatown, around 3 miles west of West Bay. Same bird?

14:51 - the Seatown bird is still present.

15:10 - work is done, and I am heading east from Seaton at sensible, legal speeds.

Arriving at Seatown I spy a birder on the beach, with a scope. 'Yes', he says, 'Still here', and points. Yesss! There it is, a small, dark beauty, sitting on the sea. Almost immediately it is airborne, and I manage a burst of flight shots. Following a short sortie westwards, it doubles back and away east, landing again a couple of hundred yards away.

Reviewing my pics I notice the Sab's has a missing or damaged primary in its right wing. Hmmm. I was pretty sure the West Bay bird was feather perfect. A quick check of this morning's gripping shots confirms it. This is a different bird. I wonder if the West Bay bird is still there? There hasn't been any news of it for ages, so there is only one way to find out.

I'm at West Bay shortly after 16:00. Very few gulls at the harbour end, so I beetle off down the prom as quick as I can - there isn't a lot of decent light left. Looking west from the far end I can see plenty of small gulls, and spend a few minutes picking through them. No joy. As a last resort I have a quick look at the nearest bit of sea in case there is a straggler or two. There is. It is small and dark, and bobbing about just offshore. Within seconds it flies off east to join the others.

Juv Sabine's Gull at Seatown. Note missing p6.

The Seatown bird again.

The West Bay Sabine's. Rubbish light, but you can see how dark it looks on the water.

The West Bay bird again. A perfect set of primaries.

I've seen just three previous local Sabine's Gulls, all juvs. Two off Seaton and one on Monmouth Beach, Lyme Regis. But these two are my first for more than ten years.

Worth skipping lunch for.

Beside the Seaside

For a few days now, West Bay has been hosting a Wigeon flock...

The West Bay Wigeon flock yesterday.

Any non-Mallard is a novelty here, and very welcome. The other day I actually counted the Mallards (51) which is something I may well never have done anywhere else, ever. I'm not sure it's a good sign. Is Mallard counting normal?

The weather has been bad lately. Bad to the extent that seawatching has frequently been the most obvious birding option. However, apart from the recent once-in-a-blue-moon Leach's Petrel bonanza, there has really been nothing to get thrilled about. Some Gannets and Kittiwakes, a few auks, blah, blah... And then yesterday the weather got really bad...

By the afternoon we had a SSW gusting at 40-50+mph, which persisted all night. This morning I was very optimistic. So were a bunch of other Lyme Bay birders, and soon the local WhatsApp message board stuttered into life as little nuggets of quality were dug out here and there. The West Bay bits as follows...

Leach's Petrel

Three in total. The first, at 07:30, popped briefly into view with two Black-headed Gulls before vanishing behind a wave forever. I have no idea which way it was travelling. The next, at 13:55, went east quite rapidly, close and well above the surf. It gained height and drifted in over the harbour. Despite facing into the wind it was steadily going backwards. I soon lost it, but quickly packed up and hurried round to see if it was in the harbour, or even on the river. No sign. The way it was going, I can guarantee it never made it back to the sea. So where is it now, I wonder? The last one passed steadily east at 14:29, but not close.

I imagine that's my lot for local Leach's. A minimum of 13 in total. They'll probably have to last me a long, long time!

Pomarine Skua

Good story this. Great binocular views of a light-phase adult skua bombing west. A powerful-looking bird. I thought I glimpsed a breast band, the uppers looked quite blackish, and I was thinking Pom. As I tried to pick it up in the scope I realised it was piling into the flock of small gulls feeding in the surf at the end of the prom. A fleeting view told me it had no spoons, then suddenly my eyepiece was filled with a bloke walking along the prom! I never saw it again. I put a message on WhatsApp, to the effect that I hadn't clinched it. A bit later it passed Richard P at Charmouth and James M at Lyme, who confirmed it was indeed a Pom.

I'm not precious about who identifies my birds if I fail to, so I'll have it thanks. I cannot remember the last autumn Pom I saw locally. Definitely more years ago than I want to think about.

Little Gull

An adult flew east at 13:00. The range and light were such that any other age would probably have slipped through the net, but the black underwing nailed it.

Kittiwake

A common species, even here, but sheer numbers and lots of close views made for a special day. Combining morning and afternoon watches gives me a total of 420+, but this will be a massive undercount. Nonetheless, I am pretty sure that's the most I've ever recorded in a day locally.

6 Kitts, 3 BHGs and a Med Gull in this shot.

The photo above shows just a tiny fraction of the flock which spent all day at the far western end of the prom. Lots of coming and going, but probably 150+ gulls most of the time, and they were scopeable from the shelter. A passing Sabine's Gull would surely not be able to resist...

Presumably none passed.

So, a pleasing collection of birds, but honestly, it was slo-o-o-w going. Patience and persistence paid off in the end though.

Following my quick hunt around the harbour for the errant Leach's, I couldn't help but notice how the Wigeon flock was flaunting it...

Close and sunlit. Lovely...

Thank You, the Sea

A tediously regular feature of this blog is me moaning about the direness of our local seawatching. Once in a blue moon though, I have to eat my words...

But not this morning. This morning was typically rubbish. Despite a big sea and strong wind, very few birds. Low numbers of Gannets and Med Gulls, a couple each of auk sp and Kittiwake. I managed an hour.

Late morning there was heartening news though. Two (or possibly three) Leach's Petrels past West Bexington; the odd Leach's elsewhere around the Lyme Bay coast. The wind strengthened, and it was looking good for an afternoon effort. I wasn't free until half two, but within ten minutes of plonking down in the West Bay shelter a Leach's Petrel went slowly east. I could hardly believe my eyes. It is 17 years since my only previous Lyme Bay Leach's Petrels - two off Seaton seafront in November 2005. I cranked out about 30 seconds of video, and captured the bird in maybe 20-odd frames...

My aim was not good, but there it is bottom right: Leach's Petrel!

The forked tail is vaguely discernible in this one.

They may be pitiful record shots, but wow! I am chuffed to have got anything at all. And look at that sea! 

A few minutes later I had another sighting. Brief, and hard to tell whether it was travelling or lingering. Several minutes later, another, further out. All the same bird? I couldn't really say. Tom Brereton joined me after a while, and it soon became apparent that birds were definitely going through, heading east. In the end I called it 10 Leach's, but the count could easily have been as many as 14 or 15. Factor in 100+ Kittiwakes - many very close inshore, or even over the prom - plus a bonus 1st-winter Little Gull,  and it was very much a seawatch to remember, for all the right reasons. Two hours of genuine pleasure.

Also, the local WhatsApp group really came into its own today, with reports of various successes along the coast keeping us all encouraged and plugging away. Great stuff.

There was one mad moment. A close Leach's suddenly climbed rapidly, turned towards the shore and came in-off, heading over the prom and the seafront buildings and away inland!

Tomorrow might be interesting.

Or not...now that I've got all keyed up about it!

ObsIdentify - the Truth

Against my better instincts I tried a seawatch this morning. Thirty-odd minutes of almost nothing in a raging gale was more than enough, and I was soon back home to a hot cuppa. Breakfast Twitter was unsurprisingly light on mothy content for a change, but something about the ObsIdentify app popped up, and I thought it was about time to do an in-depth NQS review. This afternoon I was stupidly out in the relentless hoolie once more. In 4.5 miles of foot-slog I am pretty sure I saw absolutely no birds at all, but had plenty of time to think about my approach to a post about ObsIdentify. So, here it is...

First, what is ObsIdentify?

It is a smartphone app with which you can identify stuff. I use it mainly for moths, but have also tried it with beetles, bugs and whatnot. You input a photo, and it does the rest.

How good is it?

Ah, now you're asking...

I am old enough to have gone to school with a slide-rule in my briefcase. I can remember when the first electronic calculators began to appear, and how they were not allowed in exams. Why not? Because they made tricky sums way too easy. To use a calculator was basically cheating.

In reality of course, it was quite possible to use a calculator and come up with the wrong answer. You still needed to understand the problem you were trying to solve, to input the correct numbers and do the correct things with them, to press the correct buttons in the correct order. In other words, you still needed to think. Because a calculator is not a brain.

And if you approach ObsIdentify with the same mindset, it is - in my opinion - brilliant.

Some folk appear to have done all sorts of careful analysis of its performance, far more than I could be bothered with. To me it is just a tool, and here is one real-life example of how I have used it...

A few nights ago I caught a very small micro around 5mm long. It reminded me of the Beet Moth (Scrobipalpa ocellatella) that occurred in big numbers back in August, but was obviously smaller. I recalled that the Beet Moth was one of the Gelechiidae, so went to that family in my field guide and picked slowly through them all. Nothing quite seemed to match, and I wondered if it might be something else. So I took a ropey pot shot and ran it through ObsIdentify. The result was pretty rubbish...

Technically this is known as 'inconclusive'.

On the upside, both suggestions are gelechiids, so it looked like I was on the right track. As far as I could discern, the Potato Tuber Moth Pthorimaea operculella has never occured in Britain. But the Tomato Leaf-miner has. It is listed as an adventive and immigrant species. The photo in my field guide didn't quite match my moth, but I found some photos online which were spot on. Anyway, I took some better snaps and tried ObsIdentify again...

82% confidence! Okay. Now we're talking.

I asked the Twitter experts and got a general thumbs-up. I'm glad, because Tuta absoluta has got to be one of the coolest scientific names ever, and I am delighted to have it on my list. There are about 10 records on the Dorset Living Record map, and the occurrence fits nicely with recent mothy goings-on. Common in southern Europe, it seems very plausible that my moth was caught up in the huge late-autumn immigration event that we've been experiencing, and has likely been whipped up from Spain or suchlike. Here it is again, compared with a superb shot of this species taken in Worcestershire by Patrick Clement, which can be found on UK Moths...

Top photo by Patrick Clement (and identity confirmed by gen det, i.e. dissection); below is mine. The spitting image, if you ask me. Among other things, I learned that the stripey legs and palps are excellent pointers.

I'm not sure if the record will pass muster 'officially' but it is easily good enough to satisfy my needs, which basically means I can happily label my photos thus...

So, what we have here is an example of ObsIdentify as a tool. From initially having no clue, I was able to use ObsIdentify to give me some pointers. All the legwork was then down to me. Anyone can do this, using books and easily accessible online resources.

Next, two examples of ObsIdentify getting it totally wrong, and why that doesn't matter...

First, this cracker...

Blair's Wainscot

This moth is one of my autumn gems, but I was very cautious with the ID. The fieldguide was pointing me at Blair's Wainscot, and I knew that the first for Portland had very recently been recorded, but it is a rare moth and I could see the potential for error. So I decided to run it through ObsIdentify to confirm my suspicions. The result was a bit of a surprise...

Oh...

There is a small version of Large Wainscot, so now I was wondering whether that's what I had here. More research, more checking. In the end it was obvious that ObsIdentify was wrong, and I can only assume that Blair's Wainscot is not yet in its repertoire, or database, or whatever. Anyway, the point is this: despite ObsIdentify's conspicuous failure to correctly identify my moth, ultimately I wound up even more confident that it was definitely Blair's because I was forced to look more deeply.

And another huge ObsIdentify fail...

Back in June, we caught a rare migrant plume moth called called Scarce Light Plume or Crombrugghia laetus. I only ever got pot shots...

Crombrugghia laetus

Initial identification was made by using the Manley field guide. An obvious confusion species is Crombrugghia distans or Breckland Plume, but in the field guide that moth looks noticeably darker than our beast. However, I sought ID confirmation from a local contact in the Dorset Moth Group, who ran it past a very expert adjudicator. Thankfully he confirmed the identification. Job done.

Around this time I began to use ObsIdentify, and as an afterthought ran our Scarce Light Plume through the app...

Oh...

100% wrong! Again, I assume Crombrugghia laetus is not in the Obsidentify database. In my experience, when there are two very similar species, ObsIdentify struggles to decide one way or the other. You get results like 59% for one, 41% for the other, and so forth. A good example is the Wormwood Pug / Currant Pug pair. I played around a lot with those two species on ObsIdentify, and rarely (if ever?) got a really decisive result. So, a 100% confidence in Crombrugghia distans made it pretty clear that C. laetus was not in the app's system at all.

The whole point of this post is to illustrate that ObsIdentify is just a tool. Like most tools, there are things it cannot do, that it is not (yet?) capable of. If you accept those limitations, it can frequently be a massive help to your ID process. I have read comments that it is useless - frequently highlighting its gross errors - or that it leads to lazy habits. I disagree. My experience of this imperfect app is very positive. It has helped me out many times. Often it has pointed me in the right direction when I've been stuck. And on the rare occasions it hasn't, I have still learned stuff.

All along I have tried to remember that one important principle: like the electronic calculator, ObsIdentify is not a brain. When it comes to thinking, the responsibility is all mine.