14 Jun 26 - From The Biggest To The Smallest Expedition Cruise Day 5 - Quality Over Quantity

It had been worth being on the port bridge wing on the first morning at sea after leaving the Shetland Islands. We were heading for Jan Mayen Island. About 10:35, we had prolonged close views of a second large pod of Long-finned Pilot Whales and some shorter views of a small pod of Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. Only the passengers on deck had a chance to see the Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, as we had passed them before the Plancius could stop. Typically, the Long-finned Pilot Whales were in an extended pod and we stayed with part of the pod for about fifteen to twenty minutes, which allowed all the passengers to get on deck to see them. Just over thirty minutes after Expedition Leader Jan decided we should move on, there was a shout from the starboard bridge wing for a pod of five Orca. We quickly left the port bridge wing.

Orca: Type 1. This high dorsal fin leaves no doubt that this was an Orca pod

Orca: Type 1. In the background, is one of about forty Storm-petrels that were flying around the Orca pod

Orca taxonomy is complex. Currently, there is one species of Orca. Normally, the next sub-classification is subspecies. However, in Orca taxonomy, it is Ecotypes. There are about ten different Ecotypes. It's possible that some of these Ecotypes will be split into new species or subspecies in the future. Where there are more than one Ecotype in a region of the world, it is understood that individuals from different Ecotypes will not mix. This is probably down to the extended relationships within a pod, but food and diet are also factors that help to separate the Ecotypes.

Orca: Type 1. One of the features of Type 1 Orca is that the white patch on the head is horizontal, whereas it curves down at the rear in Type 2 Orca

Orca: Type 1. The same individual with its saddle patch just coming into view

In the North Atlantic there are thought to be two Ecotypes: Type 1 and Type 2. I presume I saw Type 2 Ecotypes on the Atlantic Odyssey in Spring 18 between St Helena and Ascension Island in the Northern part of the South Atlantic. I had a second sighting between Ascension Island and Cape Verde in the North Atlantic. Type 2 Ecotypes are thought to be Cetacean hunters. There was one lunchtime on the Atlantic Odyssey, when I narrowly missed another Orca sighting when a small party of Short-finned Pilot Whales appeared close to the Plancius. I saw two pass down the port side. A calf passed down the starboard side, followed closely by an Orca which successfully killed it. I still think I chose the correct side of the ship to view from, albeit it would have been a memorable sighting to have seen the Orca and the unfortunate calf.

Orca: Type 1

Type 1 Orca are found further North in cold waters of the Atlantic. They are smaller than the Type 2 Orca and only grow to about six and a half metres in length, whereas, Type 2 Orca can be an extra two metres in length.

Orca: Type 1 with another photo-bombing Storm-petrel

Most of the pods that appear in waters off the Scottish Islands, the Shetland Islands, mainland Scotland and occasionally the North East of English are Type 1 Orca. They mainly feed on Herring and Mackerel, but also they take Seals and a few Sharks. The well-known male Orca, John Coe and Aquarius, are the last surviving Type 2 Orca from the West Coast community. Being a different Ecotype, they are sadly not likely to find a mate again.

Orca: Type 1. More of the pod appeared

Orca: Type 1. Better views of the middle individual

Orca: Type 1. Males have the highest dorsal fin, which can reach up to two metres in the largest Ecotypes, but the dorsal fin will be shorter for the smaller Type 1 Ecotypes

Orca: Type 1. Orca pods are matriarchal. Female Orca are one of the few animals that are known to go through a menopause period in their life and after that, they could lead the pod for many more years

Orca: Type 1. A better view of the near individual

Orca: Type 1. This individual has a distinctive notch near the top of the rear edge of dorsal fin

Orca: Type 1

Orca: Type 1. Orca were number eight on my top twelve target species list

I was on deck for the rest of the day, barring meal and hot drink breaks. I saw another pod of two Long-finned Pilot Whales, a mixed pod of two Long-finned Pilot Whales and two Bottlenose Dolphins and a pod of three Orca. All these pods were distant and I didn't manage to get any photos of them. The best of the Birds were three Bonxies, an Arctic Skua and the large flock of Storm Petrels around this Orca pod. I stayed on deck until 21:50 when I decided it was time to end the watch for the day, after several hours of Cetacean-free observation.

Orca: Type 1. Finally, a couple of phot-bombing Fulmars

16 Sep 26 - Lancashire Hot-Spot

The number of Avocets on the Dorset Wildlife Trust Brownsea lagoon is increasing weekly when I count them on my regular volunteering day. There were three hundred and seventy-seven present on 30 Sep. This will rise to over fifteen hundred later in the Winter. Many are just roosting on the lagoon, while others enjoy spreading out and feeding on this ideal feeding habitat. On this visit, I saw one of the closest Avocets had CR Rings on it and I managed to get some photos.

Avocet K0

The ring details were a white KO on a dark blue flag above a yellow ring on the left leg and a yellow ring on the right leg. I was surprised that I couldn't see a metal ring. It was only when I went back again through the photos on the camera, that I found a photo showing the metal ring was next to its foot.

Avocet K0: This is actually a dark blue flag, but the early morning backlighting on the lagoon makes the flag look dark grey

My next problem was trying to find the CR ringing scheme on the CR Birding website. I selected Avocet and I failed to locate any CR ringing schemes. I repeated this search for the other option of Pied Avocet. I entered as much data as I could and again I had no results with this search. At that point, I gave up searching and appealed to the Dorset Birders on the local email group. Fortunately, a couple of the ringers responded and one, Ed Betteridge, managed to find the CR ringing scheme. Apparently, I had tried to provide too much detail and I should only have provided a subset of data. I went back and tried it again for Pied Avocet and sure enough, providing only a subset of data resulted in identifying the CR ringing scheme.

I had expected that it would turn out to be a Dutch Avocet, as I assume many of our Avocets come from the UK East coast or Holland. So, I was surprised that this Avocet had been ringed in Lancashire. There was a PDF file confirming that I had found the correct ring details and a contact email for Ian Hartley. Ian has provided its ringing history:

• Ringed as a chick at Conder Green, Lancs on 12 Jun 26

• Seen Morecombe Pool, Leighton Moss on 10 & 11 Jul 26

• Back at Conder Green, Lancs on 16 & 17 Jul 26

• Seen on Brownsea Lagoon on 16, 19 & 30 Sep 26.

Having spent my working life testing software and hardware in the IT industry, it is immediately apparent that the CR Birding website needs some simple steps to improve its usability. The CR Ringing website has decided to adopt the new trendy, but less widely used, name of Pied Avocet. So why allow users to select the species as Avocet, when there are no ringing schemes for the name. Removing Avocet from the selectable menu should be a two minute job to stop users entering data which is doomed to fail.

Secondly, there needs to be some clear instructions to users to only provide a subset of information when searching for details of CR ringing schemes and warning them that providing too much information, may fail to provide any CR ringing scheme details. These two simple steps would make the website more usable. I'm sure the people behind the website know how to use it. However without these simple improvements some users, including me, will fail and give up reporting sightings. I've struggled with this website in the past and not bothered to even note CR details, let alone wrestle with this website to report Wader sightings. I can't believe I'm the only Birder who has failed to report CR details due to this website.

26 Sep 26 - St Aldhelms Vestals

The clear highlight of the visit to the St Aldhelms patch was a finding my second Red-veined Darter for the patch. This was the subject of my last Blog Post. The sun produced some other nice Lepidoptera around during the day. The highlight was my first Vestal for St Aldhelms Head, although I had seen one on the full St Aldhelms/Winspit patch in Winspit back on 27 Aug 2000. This is a regular migrant at this time of year which is regularly seen in Moth traps, but as I haven't got the time to run my trap, I haven't seen once since catching one later that year in my Swanage garden.

Vestal: Amazing it's been twenty-six years since I last saw one. I went on to find a second more-worn individual later in the morning in Pier Bottom Valley

There were plenty of Insects enjoying the nearby sunny Ivy, including this Painted Lady and Red Admiral.

Painted Lady: There have been very large numbers of this species in Purbeck this Summer and Autumn

Red Admiral: This is a common regular species at St Aldhelms at this time of year

26 Sep 26 - Not Another One!

A lovely sunny day with light winds made a visit to St Aldhelms a good option. It was similar weather two days earlier, when I saw a reasonable selection of migrants including a couple of Wheatears, a handful of Whitethroats and Blackcaps, along with twenty or so Chiffchaffs at the site. The other highlights on that visit was the first Merlin of the Autumn and a migrant Dartford Warbler. This visit was similar totals, except for not seeing the Dartford Warbler. However, there is plenty of vegetation for it to skulk in and this less than annual species is probably still present somewhere.

Red-veined Darter: Looking at the photo it is clearly munching on a small Insect

The clear highlight of this visit was a Darter that was buzzing on the Hump, the rough grassy patch next to the top of Pier Bottom Valley. It was very pale and clearly not a Common Darter. Based upon the pale abdomen, my initial thought was it was a late Keeled Skimmer. This would be a patch tick for me. They occasionally occur as my patch buddy Phil Saunders had seen one a couple of weeks earlier near the Chapel. However, when I saw the blue lower eyes, it was clear it was only my second Red-veined Darter for the patch. My previous Red-veined Darter was a Male on the main track between the Quarry and the Chapel on 16 May 23.

Red-veined Darter: Female. The pale Pterostigma with the black edges, the blue lower eyes and orangey patch at the base of wing confirm the identification

Thanks to Steve Morrison for confirming it was a Female, after I had a previous suggestion it was a Teneral Male. Steve said it looks like an Adult Female to him, based upon the two row of black lines along the side of the abdomen. A Teneral Male would still show the distinct orange/red veins and has only has one row of black lines along the side of the abdomen. The dark red-brown upper eye suggests an Adult Female, rather than a younger Female, which has lighter eyes. The assumption is it is a freshly arrived migrant, but it's possible it has emerged from the pools at the seaward end of Pier Bottom valley. I checked them a few weeks ago for this species without any success, when there were Red-veined Darters on the wing at Portland. Maybe I need to have another look at the pools. However, they aren't the safest of places to check, given the risk of a landslide on the soft clay undercliff.

Nomophila noctuella: This is now known as Rush Veneer

While I was following the Red-veined Darter to get better photos, I disturbed this Noctuella. I grabbed a quick photo before switching back to the Dragonfly. When I started Mothing back in the mid-80s, many of the Micro Moths only had Latin names and I learnt this species as Noctuella. These days many species have English Names and most people call it Rush Veneer.

14 Jun 26 - From The Biggest To The Smallest Expedition Cruise Day 5 - Pirates And Their Pals

We had left the Shetland Islands behind around midnight on the previous evening, albeit I was already asleep at that point. We would be at sea for the next two days before we reached Jan Mayen Island. Sea days can be an excuse for long periods on deck, with the occasional tea or coffee break and the chance to check what biscuits had appeared since the last visit to the hot drink area. They would have been lectures in the morning and afternoon, as well as, the daily recap. It's a shame to miss many of these lectures as they would have been interesting, but I also knew there were good opportunities for some interesting Cetacean encounters during these two sea days. The main species I was hoping to see was my first Atlantic White-sided Dolphins which are a cold and deep water North Atlantic species that are unlikely to be encountered in the warmer waters I have travelled in on previous trips.

A map of our route to Jan Mayen Island

The seas were pretty good

About mid-morning, we spotted a group of Long-finned Pilot Whales ahead. The two Pilot Whale species are difficult to separate as you need to see the length of the front flippers on the underside of the body. Given I have never seen a Pilot Whale breach out of the water, then the only other real way of separating them is on range. Long-finned Pilot Whales are a Northern cold water species, which ranges as far South as Northern Portugal, whereas, Short-finned Pilot Whales are a warmer water species with its Northern limits off the Iberian coastline. While sightings at sea around the Northern Iberian Peninsula have to be left unidentified, the ones this far North can safely be called Long-finned Pilot Whales.

Long-finned Pilot Whale: The distinctive broad dorsal fin of a Male

The Pilot Whales are always good to bump into as they generally occur in reasonable-sized pods and they spend a lot of time on the surface. The old sailors gave them the name Pilot Whales as they thought they would help to navigate them to land. I know quite a few Cetacean surveyors who refer to them as Pirates, based upon a a mis-pronouncement of their name.

Long-finned Pilot Whale: The two species of Pilot Whales are classified as one of the six species of Blackfish along with Orca, Melon-headed Whale, False Killer Whale and Dwarf Killer Whale. All the Blackfish are actually Dolphins, rather than Whales, but the word Whale hasn't changed in their names

Long-finned Pilot Whale: Earlier in the morning, we had seen another pod of Long-finned Pilot Whales while we were still in UK Territorial waters and which were a UK Tick. Unfortunately, this party were just into Faroe Island waters

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale: Males can exceed over six and a half metres in length, with Females about a metre shorter

Long-finned Pilot Whale: Note the less extreme shape of the Female's dorsal fin

Long-finned Pilot Whale: This calf came up with its mum

There were a lot of splashes among the Long-finned Pilot Whales and it was clear that there were also some Dolphins within the group. I quickly switched to the Dolphins, as I was aware that Atlantic White-sided Dolphins were a likely companion to the Long-finned Pilot Whales in these waters. It was a challenge to get a good identification quickly as the Dolphins weren't close or showing well, so I switched to using the camera. The first photos were mainly splashes, but the latter photos confirmed I had been watching my third target species for the trip: Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. In-between these Dolphin photos, I carried on photographing the Pirates.

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: The species identification isn't clear in this initial photo. However, the sandy colouration on the flanks suggests it's an Atlantic White-sided Dolphin

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: As this individual appears, the greyer wash to the front of the body looks good for an Atlantic White-sided Dolphin

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: If this was a Short-beaked Common Dolphin, the front of the body should be sandy-coloured in a typical individual. The Plancius was probably too far North now for Short-beaked Common Dolphins, but given the distribution map in the Marine Mammals of the World Ed II is twelve years out of date and the warming seas, this could still be an odd-coloured Short-beaked Common Dolphin

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: This photo finally confirms it is an Atlantic White-sided Dolphin as the white stripe comes into view

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: This photo finally confirms it is an Atlantic White-sided Dolphin as it clearly has sandy flanks behind the white stripe. All this would be tricky to see with bins and this shows the power of having a good camera

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: Two more distant Atlantic White-sided Dolphins come into view including a calf. Unfortunately, while we were less than one hundred and twenty nautical miles from the Shetland Islands, we were about ten nautical miles closer to the Faroe Islands and so, this wasn't a UK Tick

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: A clearer view of the calf

My top twelve target species for the trip (in descending order) were: Bowhead Whale, Polar Bear, Atlantic White-sided Dolphin, Hooded Seal, Ringed Seal, Bearded Seal, Harp Seal, Orca, Northern Bottlenose Whale, Beluga Whale, White-beaked Dolphin and finally Ivory Gull. I was pleased to have seen target number three, which was my only new Dolphin species.

Atlantic White-sided Dolphin: The best view of the calf

The Plancius had stopped to watch the Long-finned Pilot Whales. There was clearly an extended pod and we stayed with part of the pod for the next thirty minutes. Unfortunately, we had already passed the smaller Atlantic White-sided Dolphin pod and we didn't see them again. The Long-finned Pilot Whales put on a good display for the other passengers. I couldn't resist taking another large number of photos, especially as some of the pod came very close to the Plancius.

Long-finned Pilot Whale: It's not often that I've seen their tails

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale: I really like the way they break the surface

Long-finned Pilot Whale: They have a very flat head with a big melon and no beak

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale: They kept getting closer

Long-finned Pilot Whale: They have small blows

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale

Long-finned Pilot Whale: More of the previous individual

Long-finned Pilot Whale: A distinctive-looking individual

It had been a good start to the day and it was still only mid-morning. There was plenty of time until I left the bridge wings for the last time. I will cover the rest of the day in the next Blog Post.

Some of the Dutch Birding Breaks group: From left to right, Jordy, Laurens, a Dutch Birder who's name I have forgotten and Maurice. They were some of the most regular Birders and Cetacean-watchers on the bridge wings