11 Nov 24 - Double Plus Good

In his classic book 1984, George Orwell introduced his Newspeak language, where words were removed from the English language to simply it. But the removal of words were also to control the population from being able to fully express themselves. So, many words like fabulous, tremendous or amazing were replaced with the phrase Double Plus Good. Well here is my use of Double Plus Good.

After a run of grey days at St Aldhelms, the morning started off with the promise of a change in the weather. Still conditions, high cloud, as well as, a lot of clear sky. There were regular parties of a few hundred Woodpigeons on the move and all heading South East towards Durlston. A lone Fieldfare headed North which belatedly was my first of the Autumn. I had just passed the open barn when a Golden Plover flew over calling. It circled on a number of occasions, hoping for some mates below to call back. But as St Aldhelms isn't a wintering site, it didn't get a response & finally moved on. I saw Ian Parsons who is one of the most recent Birders to move to Purbeck & waited for him to catch me up. There was plenty of Skylarks appearing from the fields, but so far nothing too exciting. We carried onto the hedges at the very top of Pier Bottom valley, just North of Trev's Quarry. This is the start of my favourite corner of the patch. It's a migrant trap and it's always worth a good look. There was a party of at least eight Yellowhammers skulking in the bushes. They weren't close, so I set the scope up to check them. All were Yellowhammers, until I saw one with a dark chin and a bit of dark rufous on the mantle. It was tucked well in & I could only see parts of it. I had to move the scope three times before I got a clearer view. My initial thoughts were right: a Male Cirl Bunting. I called Ian to look through the scope, whilst pleased to have finally joined the Cirl Bunting in Purbeck Self-found Club. It flew into the bare field next to the bushes, but it was too far for more than a record shot. But over the next hour it appeared in the closer bushes and allowed a few photos.

Cirl Bunting: Male

Cirl Bunting: Male. Showing its underwing as it prepares to take off. Cirl Buntings have a shorter primary projection compared to Yellowhammers. My perched photos aren't good enough to see this, but it's a feature I will look for in the future. However, this open wing looks pretty rounded

Cirl Bunting: Male. A good view of the white in the tail. However, this can be variable enough to overlap between the sexes and ages of Cirl Buntings, as well as, Yellowhammers

Cirl Bunting: Male

Cirl Bunting: Male. My best upperwing shot

Even better, while I was scoping the bushes with the Yellowhammers & the Male Cirl Bunting in them, I picked up a second Cirl Bunting again tucked well into the bushes. On this occasion, I could see it wasn't an adult Male. Initially, I could see it had a bit of dark rufous flecking in the gorget, as well as, on the wing coverts. Like the adult Male, it appeared in the closer bushes on a few occasions, which allowed me to get some photos. Initially, I thought it was an first Winter Male as, it seemed brighter than a couple of Purbeck Females I've seen over the last two Springs locally. But being in the breeding season and with the possibility they might settle down on territory, on both occasions I didn't linger with those Females.

Cirl Bunting: Female. Note, the rufous flecks in the gorget & the pale yellow spot on the lower ear coverts. After the post breeding moult in Oct, young males should have black feathering on the chin and throat with white tips, unstreaked breast and rufous on the upperparts according to this Spanish ringing guide by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze, which Mike Morse suggested I read. Therefore, this second individual is a Female

Ageing and sexing of non-adult Males is tricky. But after reading up, I now believe it is a Female, albeit I'm uncertain about its age. As these St Aldhelms individuals haven't held territory at St Aldhelms and were out of the breeding season, so I felt more comfortable hanging around and watching them, as well as, putting the news out about them.

Cirl Bunting: Female. The new Dutch ID Handbook of European Birds states that Cirl Buntings have a characteristic dark line in the supercilium. This small dark line is visible in the harsh crop just above the eye. There is also fine streaking in the rear collar, which Yellowhammers don't show

Ian was short on time, so he moved on in the hope that the Pallas's Warbler (see my last Blog Post), that Phil Saunders had found a couple of days earlier might still be around: but it had moved on. Eventually, I managed to get reasonable photos of both Cirl Buntings, albeit the light wasn't great.

Cirl Bunting (right) with a Yellowhammer (left): Note, the Yellowhammer is a bit larger, bulkier and longer-tailed

Cirl Bunting: Female. A close up of the Cirl Bunting showing its crown pattern, not that it's an ID feature

Yellowhammer: A close up of the Female Yellowhammer for comparison. Note, the stronger yellow colours and lack of any rufous feathering on the breast or wing coverts. This individual has a pale yellow ear covert spot, but it isn't as clear as on the Cirl Buntings

Cirl Bunting: Female. A clearer view when it perched in the top of the bush. Now I'm looking for it, I can just see the dark line in the supercilium and the ear coverts spot really stands out

Cirl Bunting: Female. Sexing Cirl Buntings that aren't adult Males is difficult. But I think I've cracked it: Males always fly right and females always fly left, providing you are standing in the right position

Cirl Bunting: Female. Unfortunately, this photo isn't in focus, but it does show the dull brownish-grey rump of Cirl Bunting. Yellowhammers have a rusty-coloured rump

It certainly had been a Double Plus Good morning with my first St Aldhelms Cirl Buntings. The day wasn't over yet, but as Orwell didn't produce a phrase for better than Double Plus Good, I will have to leave the rest of the time at St Aldhelms to the next Blog Post.

9 Nov 24 - An Overdue Patch Pallas's Warbler

Having been out a lot locally with little success in recent days during a period of grey, overcast skies and light winds, I decided I needed a lie-in and time to catch up with a lot of overdue tasks. The Purbeck coast had been hard work in this period, despite the daily updates of Yellow-browed Warblers and Pallas's Warblers at Portland. But a lie-in is always a risky decision when fellow St Aldhelms patch Birder, Phil Saunders, might be out at the weekend. His first call was for a Ringtail Hen Harrier, which is an erratic species which generally only appears on two or three days a year. An hour later, there was another call for a Siberian Chiffchaff. I've not seen one at St Aldhelms, but I have seen one on the patch in Winspit. On both occasions, Phil failed to distract tempted from my overdue paperwork & other jobs, before my plan to head out to Studland.

Phil's final call was at 11:45, when he rang to say he was watching a showy Pallas's Warbler in The Garden. This isn't a garden, but the highest vegetated ledge at St Aldhelms. It got its name as it was a ledge that Billy Winspit, whose real name was William Bower, cultivated as a garden back in the fifties & sixties. Billy was a quarryman who owned the cottage that was closest to the sea in Winspit up to his death in 1966. Before he retired he worked at Trev's Quarry on St Aldhelms. Albeit, in those days, the Quarry was owned by Trev's father, while Trev was still learning his stonemason skills. I guess it was easy to pop into The Garden if he took the coastal route back to his cottage from the Quarry. There is a photo in the excellent book, Purbeck Stone, that Trev wrote a few years ago of Billy sitting in his cottage. I'm sure every local Birder who has spent time in Winspit, would have dreamt about owning the cottage. But if it came on the market again, the cottage and its extensive real garden, would have a two to three million pound price tag. A long way off the price that would have been paid for the cottage when Billy died.

The Garden from the normal Eastern viewpoint, which is one of my regular seawatching positions

Another view of The Garden from the Western viewpoint

Anyway back to 2024. I passed the message about the Pallas's Warbler to a few of the locals as I headed out of the door. Sometimes, Birds will stick in The Garden for the day, but many others quickly work their way up to the bushes on the main ledge, Quarry Ledge, before the head inland. With this risk, I was intent on getting there as quick as possible, as it would probably be my only chance of a Pallas's Warbler for my Isle of Purbeck Year List. I checked with Phil as I was heading past Trev's Quarry, but he said he had lost it when he was putting the news out & hadn't seen it since. With the negative news, I had a quick look at the bushes on Quarry Ledge: it wasn't there. Then I tried pishing at a viewpoint over the Western edge of The Garden. No sign, but I did get a phone call from Phil to say it was on view at the usual seawatching viewpoint at the Eastern edge. Two minutes later, I arrived & within another thirty seconds, it had popped up. It was certainly lived up to its showy reputation as it bounced around on the tops of bushes like a Firecrest on speed. It was working along the whole of the bushes in The Garden, but due to the steep grassy cliff top, it is only possible to see about half of The Garden: the closest edge of the ledge is hidden from view, as is the Western third. Still no complaints as this energetic stripey bundle of fun was working its way towards the big Sycamore closest to us. What was particularly nice was to be able to look down on a Pallas's Warbler that was on a ledge twenty metres below over viewpoint. A nice change from staring up into tree tops to try & see the lemon yellow crownstripe & rump.

Pallas's Warbler: Showing the crown stripe & lemon yellow rump

Pallas's Warbler: Unfortunately, even when it was 'close' it was really best viewed with a scope: hence the grainy photos

Pallas's Warbler: A better view of the crown stripe & lemon yellow rump

Pallas's Warbler: This seemed a bit of a washed out individual

Pallas's Warbler

Pallas's Warbler: They have to be about the best of the Old World Warblers on the British List

Pallas's Warbler: This is far from sharp, but it shows have well marked these gorgeous Warblers are

It was good to see local Purbeck Birders, Rob Johnson (left) & James Leaver managed to get down to enjoy it

This is only the tenth record for the St Aldhelms & Valleys patch to my knowledge. The previous records are:

• Winspit Cottage Garden, Winspit (14-15 Nov 92)

• Blackthorn Patch, St Aldhelms (5 Nov 94)

• Winspit (7 Nov 94)

• East Cliff later flew to Winspit Bottom, Winspit (30 Oct 95)

• Winspit (31 Oct 99)

• Winspit Bottom (1 Nov 11)

• Winspit Cottage Garden, Winspit (28-29 Oct 15)

• Worth Matravers (28-30 Oct 15)

• St Aldhelms (29 Oct 22).

21 Jan 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 4 - Joined By Some Pilots

We opted for an early breakfast on the third morning at sea, as the combination of being further West & the ship's clock time meant was a late sunrise. As a result, we saw the sunrise from the restaurant. This meant we would be able to have a longer period of the morning surveying from the deck. At sunrise, we were just North of Gibraltar and the entrance to the Mediterranean, however, we were about 250 miles West of Gibraltar.

Sunrise was on the breakfast menu

A breakfast table by the window was always good for the possibility of a Cetacean: We saw a lone Pilot Whale sp. from the restaurant that morning. There were several other Cetacean sightings from the restaurant during the trip, which was a sign of us always looking out of the window, rather than very long meal breaks

Around mid-morning, we saw a pod of at least seven Pilot Whales. Unfortunately, we were in an area where both species could occur and they had to remain as unidentified Pilot Whales.

Pilot Whale sp.: This pod was seen at the Southern-most part of the range for Long-finned Pilot Whales and within the range of Short-finned Pilot Whales, so they had to go down as Pilot Whale sp.

Pilot Whale sp.: The best way to separate the two species of Pilot Whales is to see the length of their fins on the underside of the body. However, despite having seen many Pilot Whales of both species, I've never seen these fins. Consequently, my previous sightings have been identified based upon the range with Long-finned Pilot Whales being a cold-water species, while Short-finned Pilot Whales prefer more tropical waters

Pilot Whale sp.: Male. This can be identified as a male due to the broad dorsal fin. Note, how small the blow is when it surfaces

Pilot Whale sp.: Male

The warmer weather meant we had more passengers joining us on deck: Overall, we had better passenger engagement than on previous cruises that the others had been on

The end of the day noticeboard: It had been a more successful day than my photos suggested, but if I was surveying on the other side of the ship, I only abandoned my position for photos if it was a more interesting sighting and one of the others was happy to backfill my position

20 Jan 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 3 - Sweet & Sower By The Ship

We were back on the top deck for first light on our second day at sea on the ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso. The Spirit of Discovery was about two hundred & fifty miles West of La Coruna on the North West corner of Spain. We were getting into the swing of the surveying and life at sea. It was good to find the ship was comfortable and stable at sea. We managed to get two or three half hour survey rotations in before heading down for breakfast. The only problem so far had been the absence of any Cetaceans on the first day at sea as we passed well to the West of the Bay of Biscay. But the deep oceans have a smaller number of Cetacean species compared to the continental shelf and unless you are on a Whale migration route, there can be long spells when you don't encounter any Cetaceans. After breakfast, we returned to the deck again. Being further South, it wasn't as cold as it had been on deck for the first day.

Around late-morning, I was surveying from the starboard side & chatting to Chris, who was another of our regular top deck passengers. Chris & I saw a distant splash several miles ahead of us & to the starboard side. We scanned the area for the next five minutes, but we didn't see it again or any blows. There wasn't anything we could do with the sighting and being a lone splash, I couldn't be sure if we had seen the splash of a Whale or a lone Tuna: I wrote it off as probably the latter option.

When I had lost all hope on the splash reoccurring, there was a shout from one of our regular passengers, Penny, of a Cetacean breaching on the port side about half a mile in front of the ship. I got onto it quickly. It looked too big to be a Dolphin and looked like a slim Beaked Whale. Beaked Whales are some of the most trickly Cetaceans to identify and good photos are often required to both identify the species and to convince others you have made the correct identification. I quickly lifted the camera and started to take photographs as it repeated breached, before it splashed down into the water. In total, I saw it beach five times, before it stopped. I lowered the camera to have another look with the bins, but I couldn't find it again.

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: Beaked Whales are often tricky to identify, however, the slim body and the long thin beak is unique & diagnostic among the North Atlantic Beaked Whales

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: Was this the cause of the splash that Chris & I had seen several minutes earlier. We will never know, but I like to think it was, given we hadn't seen any other Cetaceans or Tuna up to this individual

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: They can grow to about 5.5 metres long for males, with females being slightly smaller at 5 metres

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: The big splash

I joined the others who were on the port side having had a quick look at the photos. These confirmed my suspicions that it was my first Sowerby's Beaked Whale. I've seen similar photos of Sowerby's Beaked Whales breaching like that in the Bay of Biscay. But as they are an uncommon species in the Bay of Biscay, it was a species I never expected to see.

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: The start of the second set of breaches for the camera

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: Sowerby's Beaked Whale is the forty-fifth Cetacean species that I've seen. I have now seen over half of the extant eighty-nine Cetaceans: following the taxonomy in the excellent Marine Mammals of the World Edition II handbook

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: Another & a better splash

This was the third & final set of breaches, I managed to photograph.

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: Showing the flipper

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: The dorsal fin appears as well

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: It is thought these breaches might help to knock off parasites from their bodies

Sowerby's Beaked Whale: The final splash

A couple of hours later, we were on our final thirty minute survey, before heading off to lunch, when we saw a pod of Dolphins. They were quickly identified as eight Striped Dolphins. It had been a good morning for sightings.

Striped Dolphin: Showing the thin black line through the eye & onto the body which gives the Striped Dolphins their name

Striped Dolphin: The rear of the body of the same individual. The pale stripe going up towards the dorsal fin is another useful identification feature, along with the tall, narrow & falcate dorsal fin

Striped Dolphin: Then there was three individuals

Striped Dolphin: A fourth individual has just popped up

Striped Dolphin

Striped Dolphin: It's been over five years since I last saw these gorgeous Dolphins and it was great to see some more

After a superb morning, the afternoon was quieter. However, by the end of the day, we had also seen brief views of another unidentified Beaked Whale, a pod of eleven Short-beaked Common Dolphins, another pod of six unidentified Dolphins and a lone Risso's Dolphin. The only Birds I saw during the day were two Kittiwakes & six Little Gulls.

Little Gull: Adult

The end of day noticeboard: Charlotte did an excellent job keeping the noticeboard up to date with sightings & it was always a popular spot for passengers to stop and read