Nest Count Looms...

 Counting of the cliffs continue

Pinnacles counted!

'Bridled Guillemots' on the sea

Saturday 2nd June comments: With all the excitement of the spring migration, it’s now time to concentrate on the seabirds and when I say concentrate, I mean concentrate. Tomorrow (Sunday) the Inner Farne ranger team will complete the ‘big day’ – nest count day!

Starting at dawn (for those rangers reading – YES 4am start!!) the team will rope off and divide Inner Farne and then count the island systematically for all ground nesting seabirds. It’s a simple but long process as each person will count nests (each nest represents a pair of birds) and by the end of the day we will have a result. Easy?!

It’ll take the team best part of 14 hours to complete, all in one day, so I suspect we’ll be early to bed on Sunday evening. The difficulty of the day comes in the concentration levels which are required, as ranger’s tip-toe between hundreds of Tern nests, avoiding eggs and young, whilst being attacked from above for good measure!

At the end of the day, apart from tired rangers, we’ll have population figures of all ground nesting seabirds including Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns, Eiders, Mallards, Oystercatcher and Ringed Plover to name but a few. Then on Monday, we will do it all over again, this time on Brownsman.

Welcome to a busy month for the Farne Island rangers. I’ll keep you informed if my eyes stay open long enough.

Rustic Charm

A real spring beauty - Rustic Bunting (Graeme Duncan) 

Top performer (Graeme Duncan) 

5th for the Farnes - male Rustic Bunting (Andy Denton)

Friday 1st June comments: Welcome to June! Its always a tough month for the ranger calendar as the team will operate in top gear, from early morning population counts to dealing with large number of visitors. The islands will be in full swing and hopefully the breeding seabirds will be enjoying an excellent summer.

However during the last two days, our attention has focused on the ‘star of the spring’ as the male Rustic Bunting remained until late last night. For a second day, the bird performed well in its usual spot and the ranger team policed a well organised twitch, with 72 people visiting to enjoy this eastern beauty. A fitting way to finish May and now we’re into June and out attention will focus on the seabirds. It’s been some spring.

Jubliee Bunting

Cracker - male Rustic Bunting on Inner Farne (Graeme Duncan)

Showing well - Rustic Bunting (Bex Outram)

Thursday 31st May comments: WHAT a day. Yes I keep saying this, but yet again a new arrival eclipsed the previous days sighting, but this was special, very special. The day began in the usual manner (rain and wind has now become the ‘usual’ this year) but everything was about to change.

News was breaking that the team had found a male Rustic Bunting – a stunning bird in many ways. However business comes first (professional to the last) and following a meeting on Staple Island, we were soon on Inner Farne enjoying great views of the bird.

Rustic Buntings originate from northern Europe and have only occurred in four previous occasions on the Farnes – the last was seventeen years ago! So this bird was special and more so because it was a male. It is difficult to give an idea of how amazing this bird is, not only because of its’ rarity status but purely because of its’ sheer unadulterated beauty! It also helped that the bird performed so well, feeding on open rocks until dusk, giving great views and even allowing a handful of Northumberland birders the chance to see the first Rustic in the County since the late 1990’s. WHAT. A. BIRD!!!!

For migrant birds, this is by far the best spring for some time on the islands, it is certainly the best I have spent here and this is my 12th year! However the euphoria was slightly dampened by the heavy rainfall which fell during the night. The Puffins are back in trouble, serious trouble, but more to follow…

Rustic Rush

Male Rustic Bunting on Inner Farne today (Bex Outram) 

Showing well....male Rustic Bunting (Bex Outram)

Thursday 31st May comments: Just a brief afternoon update (more to follow tonight) but a male RUSTIC BUNTING was discovered on Inner Farne and is still showing well as I type! This stunning visitor is very rare (our first since 1995) and has been admired by all the staff and a few visitors today. If the bird is still present tomorrow, your welcome to visit to see it (boats sail from midday). I'll update in full later tonight but until then, enjoy the first photos...

  

Bowled Over

The cars being prepared at Seahouses harbour

Bowling Green twitch - birders in action 

'Steely' in action - public work even at twitches 

A happy team at Hartlepool having successfully twitched the Orphean Warbler

Wednesday 30th May comments: Hartlepool headland, the 33rd Farne Island (or so it is becoming). Yesterday during visiting hours, the birders amongst the ranger team received news that Britains' 6th Orphean Warbler had been discovered at Hartlepool Headland (about 1.5hrs south of the Farnes). After a brief discussion it was decided those amongst the team who were interested, would set off south after work to view this rare visitor.

This time last year, we had a very similar experience as we went to Hartlepool Headland for another very rare bird; a White-throated Robin. Little did we expect to be heading south to the same venue, almost one year on to do it all over again. However soon after 6:30pm, the ranger team arrived complete with scopes and bins to join a reasonable sized crowd on a bowling green at Hartlepool. You couldn't make it up but this really was happening.  

This bizarre setting must have been even more strange for the Orphean Warbler, which originates from the warmer climes of the southern Mediterranean. However soon after everyone was enjoying good views of this unique visitor and following the great success, a very happy team returned to the Farnes to celebrate another Hartlepool success. So watch out Hartlepool, same time, same place, a new mega rarity in 2013; the Farnes Rangers are coming!!

Stand up and be counted!

Rangers in action -counting the seabird populations (David Steel) 

In full counting mode (David Steel) 

Its not easy counting those nesting birds... (David Steel) 

Pair of Roseate Terns lingering (Laura Shearer) 

Noisy neighbours at it again (Graeme Duncan)

Tuesday 29th May comments: And so it begins. The busy period is now upon us as the team have started the mammoth task of counting all the seabird populations across the islands. Over the next few weeks, we'll be counting no fewer than 82,000 pairs of birds, so it'll keep us busy and off the streets. This morning the count began at 06:00, something we'll repeat for some time to come.

If I was a betting man, a quick assessment (and I have been wrong before!) the cliff nesters (Guillemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and Shags) appear to be breeding in good numbers although I suspect both Eider and Arctic Terns 'on the ground' have dropped in number. But all will be revealed soon. 

Interestingly a pair of Roseate Terns are lingering raising hopes of a potential breeding attempt, whilst our Shelduck numbers have increased with at least three pairs nesting. The next few weeks should reveal a lot more and as ever, I'll be bringing you the news.

Short-toed Delight

Short-toed delight (Graeme Duncan) 

Short-toed Lark on Brownsman (Graeme Duncan) 

One very interesting Red-breasted Flycatcher (Will Scott)

Red-breasted Flycatcher on Brownsman (Andy Denton) 

Second spring Wood Sandpiper (Bex Outram)

Sunday 27th May comments: It’s just been one of those crazy hectic days on the Farnes (but we don't expect anything less out here). The team were celebrating their first 'full' week (the weather didn't close us this week) although it was slightly dampened by the thick fog which remained all day (whilst everywhere else basked in glorious sunshine!). Regardless the show went on and both visitors and seabirds have been enjoying the fine, settled weather which has been dominating recently.

However with easterly winds, the focus went back to the migrant birds... Yesterday Brownsman pulled in a first-summer male Red-breasted Flycatcher, the second this spring (and a very interesting bird…) whilst the nearby pond witnessed both Wood and Common Sandpipers together. It’s been a cracking spring for rare and unusual migrants and today went even one better…

Today the islands have been shrouded in thick fog and late afternoon the boys on the outer group discovered a little gem – a Short-toed Lark. This southern European species has only occurred on the Farnes on eight previous occasions (the last record was in 2001) and although the bird was flighty, it showed well for all admiring rangers. The day wasn’t complete with the Mediterranean theme, as a Little Egret was noted over Inner Farne as dusk approached.

So warm hot weather, flat seas, seabirds doing well and rare migrant birds still coming in – we can’t ask for anything more!