Soil Hill

  It has been a sluggish start to the Soil Hill autumn, with low migrants and shocking weather. Still, that was all forgotten about this morning when I added species number 125 to my Soil Hill life list with a cracking Reed Warbler at the bottom of the North Slope.

  The bird was typically elusive, but would occasionally show quite well, but only briefly meaning it was almost always too quick for my camera, with just a single reel of blurred photographs to show for it. It called occasionally too, but it was still difficult to keep track of where exactly the bird was at any specific time. 

  Otherwise just a low number of other migrants. Tree Pipit continues to be the saving grace of this autumn with four flying south or dropping in this morning. The first Snipe movement of the autumn was noticed this morning, with three flying southwest. 

-Reed Warbler

-Tree Pipit

In total managed 38 species this morning, the full list here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S193035051

Ringstone Edge Scaup

My photos of this bird, which surfaced only briefly between dives, were taken with a pocket camera (x30) in fairly poor - though dry - conditions.  I need to say more to justify my ID, and to exclude Tufted Duck.

Photos 1 and 2 show the typical Scaup head shape: steep forehead and rounded rear crown with no tuft or 'bump'.

Photo 2 shows well that the black on the bill is confined to the nail. All Tufteds I have seen have more black on the bill than this.

The photos - especially 3 - show grey on the bird's back. In Tufted the pale(r) flank is sharply demarcated from the dark back.

The belly, visible as it dived, was 'dirty' white. I have only seen pristine white bellies on Tufteds.

That's it! Comments welcome. (I am disappointed that no-one has been willing to give an opinion on Nick's gull: the worst that can happen is that someone disagrees with what one has said).

Ringstone Edge

Scaup. Grey bill with black nail. Grey body - suggests male. Dived repeatedly, showing greyish white belly. The dives were long - perhaps a minute at a time - and between them the bird was mostly on the surface for only a few seconds. No other ducks were seen.

Lesser black-backed gull: adult with juvenile.

Cold Edge

Stonechat: 2m 2f

Soil Hill

  Yesterday morning I stumbled across at least two but possibly three Sedge Warblers in the same area, a location I normally don’t check intensively due to its proximity to the quarry works. The birds being together like this could suggest a successful breeding season on the Hill, but it's hard to be sure. Earlier in the spring a Sedge Warbler was singing on the 3^rd May, but sadly I had to leave the following day and have only been able to commit a few days to the Hill during the summer when I would have been able to check. On the 8^th May NK reported the bird still being present, so certainly held territory for a week. If the bird did move to the area where I found the birds today, then it could explain how they managed to evade all detection. 

  In addition, there were a few other nice birds to give it a classic Soil Hill autumn feel. Three Tree Pipits flew south during the two hours I was there. Other migrant totals were eight Willow Warblers, one Chiffchaff and eight Whitethroats. Whitethroat numbers were boosted by family groups rather than migrants and peaked at 14 individuals earlier in the week.  

-Sedge Warbler

In total managed 36 species this morning, the full list here; https://ebird.org/checklist/S191388720

Gulls from Nick....

Any thoughts on these quite distant shots from Nick taken in mid/late July on the roof of the water board building at Pellon res'r. Adult Herring Gull on the first picture then possible Adult Yellow-legged Gull on the other shots - comments welcome.

Whiteholme

Another juvenile Wheatear. Orange margins to wing feathers.

A solitary Greylag Goose