Breakfast Archives -

Return to Cape Clear

Thirty-two years ago following a successful twitch of the Sullom Voe Harlequin I encountered Mike Terry on the Aberdeen ferry. This chance conversation led me to abandon further October trips to the Isles of Scilly. A sense of adventure and a desire to see transatlantic vagrants away from the Barbour clad hordes led me to Cape Clear. I have mended my relationship with Scilly and enjoyed many successful birding and family holidays. But in 1987 I only had eyes for Cape where my first trip started brightly enough. A Rose-breasted Grosbeak and a Myrtle Warbler in quick sucession was followed by two relatively birdless weeks. The following year’s Sapsucker sealed the deal and I returned to Cape regularly until 1996. Although the returns in American landbirds were poor, the scenary, company and craic was always first rate.

Thursday 10th October

After 23 years it was time to return. This time in the company of Graham who had spent many happy hours on Cape when he lived in Cork City. Unfortunately the trip started badly when our hold luggage, including waterproofs, did not arrive.

Lost luggage formalities completed we picked up the hire car. Left to his own devices Graham was easily seduced by the plastic trim and gizmos of a Mini. Despite its drive chain, it got us around. As for the missing waterproofs, toiletries change of clothes etc Aer Lingus offered tocover the cost of “necessary replacements”. OK – this was a birding trip to Ireland and the day was decidedly “soft” and we took them at their word. After 45 minutes we emerged from the excellent Wildside Sports in Bandon each €300 lighter kitted out with brand new ‘proofs and other “essentials” . I did wonder however if KLM/Aer Lingus might balk at Graham’s €35 pair of merno wool jocks.

Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtus) – Toe Head, Co Cork

Back in the game we headed for a very wet and windy Toe Head a less covered headland SW of Skibbereen. A walk around the outer head offered very little. Instead we tried our luck slightly inland. A well vegetated garden flanked by a line of trees just screamed rare. Not today unfortunately, but Graham did score a Lesser Whitethroat. But that was not bird of the day. As we left a very late and bedraggled Turtle Dove was walking along the entrance road.

Onto the quayside at Baltimore. Here we met Brian Lynch, a friend of Graham’s from his Cork days ,who was joining us for the weekend. It was not the smoothest crossing I have ever had over to Cape. Relieved to set foot on the quay I let Mary Cadogan whisk us away in her taxi to our B&B. Located up the Lighthouse Road the charming Ard na Gaoithe is a lovely place to stay. Reinvigorated by a shower and partial change of clothes we walked to Cotter’s Bar to find dinner.

Friday 11th October

Our early morning exploration of the Glen failed to turn up either the Yellow-browed warbler or Firecrest. Returning to the B&B things looked up with news of a Hippolais warbler and a Wryneck. Even better was the splendid full Irish and positive news on Graham’s bag. This was scheduled to arrive in to Cork that morning before being couriered to the ferry in Baltimore.

Full Irish – the poached eggs were our only nod to heatlhy eating

However here was no news on my lugggage so Graham and Brian left me to a futile conversation with Aer Lingus. Forty minutes later I set out on a half-remembered route around Ballyreigh. Following the Low Road I caught up with top Irish lister Victor Caschera. I carried on through East Bog and up through the Wheatear Field up onto Firbrega. The highlight was a lone Skylark and a chance to photograph the local Stonechats.

Over by Lough Errul I found Graham and Brian. They had not seen either the warbler or the Wryneck nor a recently discovered Common Rosefinch. Breakfast was now a distant memory and we stopped for lunch at An Siopa Beag (the island shop) and put our names down for pizza that evening.

Common Stonechat (Saxicola torquata) – Central Bog, Cape Clear Island

After lunch Graham and I headed up the Glen Road where we caught up with the Firecrest that had been hanging around the Sallows at the entrance to the Post Office.

Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla) – Post Office, Cape Clear Island

Graham bailed out at the top of the Glen and headed back to North Harbour to meet the ferry . Lost in memories I carried on walking through Knockannamaunagh as far as Comillane Bog before turning for home. Walking down the A1 I was treated to a spectacular Atlantic sunset before retiring to Cotter’s . After 33,000 FitBit steps, I enjoyed a pint of Murphy’s and caught up with Dennis Weir who shared many of my past trips to Cape.

Sunset over O’Driscoll’s Castle and Mizen Head

We took a short walk across the road to the shop where 25+ resident and visiting birders squeezed in for an impromtu pizza night. The excellent pizza was followed by a couple more beers before tiredness kicked in. An early night beckoned and we returned to the B&B.

Pizza Night in the Cape Clear Island Shop

Saturday 12th October

Blue skies greeted us the next morning along with another monster breakfast. The boys headed out whilst I checked the status of my bag online. Good news – located and arriving at Cork Airport that morning! Huge relief as it contained my suit which I needed for a work appointment on my return to the UK.

My joy was short-lived. Leaving the B&B I turned right up the Lighthouse Road. Had I turned left towards the Priest’s Garden I might have found the Red-eyed Vireo. When I did get news of the Vireo it had crossed the road to the Youth Hostel. Here I saw it briefly before it disappeared. This was compounded by my schoolboy error of going back to the B&B to finalise arrangements with Aer Lingus. In my absence the REV reapppeared in front of Graham’s camera (see here) and promptly flew off across South Harbout. Later it was found along the Low Road and showed well to all comers over the next few days. Except yours truely who never got a sniff.

Interest in the Samoa v Ireland rugby match then ensured a couple of hours with few birders in the field . Despite this I had little to show for my efforts. Brief views of the Hippolais warbler suggested a Melodious. Otherwise a pleasant walk around the Lough Errol pines offered nothing but stunning scenary.

Looking North from the Lough Errol Pines

Graham and I had no luck with the Rosefinch in Michael Vincent’s (aka the Lough Errol Garden) and headed towards the Waist. En route I picked up the Wryneck atop a dead gorse bush. Walking up the hillside with a drystone wall for cover we managed some rather nice views!

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) – High Road, Cape Clear Island

Bag recovered and wearing a welcome change of clothes I enjoyed a classic Cape October evening in Cotter’s. A hearty meal washed down with Murphy’s before the entertainment began. First Jim Fitzharris’s theatrical log call. Then Stuarty McKee’s video compilation of past Cape trips made by Northern Irish birders in the eighties and nineties. It was poignant to see Dennis, Anthony McGeehan and the late Willie McDowall as I remember them during our time on Cape in that era. Happy days!

Sunday 13th October

Another glorious day, another gut-busting breakfast and another failure on the Vireo! Never mind the Hippolais finally came out to play and revealed itself as a Melodious.

Melodious Warbler (Hippolais polygotta) – Lough Errul, Cape Clear Island

Still no luck with the Rosefinch, but the Wryneck gave a farewell performance. I spent my last forty minutes on the island not seeing the Vireo and chatting to Dennis in the bright sun. The return ferry trip was a delight with blue skies and calm seas. Plus plenty to look at; Mediterranean Gulls, Razorbills, Guillimots and Tysties. Graham and I said our farewells before another look at a birdless Toe Head and overnighting in Cork. So ended another trip to Cape. I sincerely hope it won’t be another 23 years before I return.

The Persian Gulf – Islands and Seabirds

Never play cards with with Graham! Day five saw an earlier than usual start and it was my turn at the wheel for the long drive South to the port of Al Khiran; the starting point for our boat trip into the Persian Gulf. The main highway South to Saudi Arabia had levels of construction that made semi-permenant roadworks on the UK motorway system look like minor maintenance. The result being that we couldn’t find anywhere that was open for coffee and AbdulRahman got ever so slightly lost. As we reorientated before hitting the Saudi border by making a U-turn I was overtaken on the inside at about 120 mph by a SUV that came from nowhere and scared the living daylights out of Graham in the passenger seat.

Which meant that by the time we got to the harbour we were more than ready for a quiet cup of coffee and a cracking open our packed breakfasts. On the quay we met up with a group of four Danish birders who were travelling independently, but joining us for the day trip. As we ate our skipper took the opportunity to refuel and on his return we were ready to board. This proved a little tricky on the very low tide, but was quickly done and we were soon steaming towards the calm blue waters of the Gulf.

Our boat for the day – the awnings were essential in the unremitting sun

Barely 20 minutes out of the harbour we encountered a mixed group of terns; mainly Lesser Crested and Bridled with the odd Greater Crested and Little thrown in. Because they were actively feeding it was not easy for the skipper to keep up with them and keep the sun in best position for viewing/photography. And after a very enjoyable twenty minutes we moved on.

Thereafter our strategy was to locate a series of navigational buoys each of which held a gang of loafing terns. Without exception these took off as we approached, flew around the boat offering excellent photographic opportunities and returned to their station when we moved on. This was a real treat as before this trip I had seen just a single Bridled Tern, on Angelsey in 1988, and one Lesser Crested – “Elsie” (the returning Farne Islands Bird), who I squeezed into one hectic week in July 1989 when I returned from Colorado for my PhD graduation and to get married.

Lesser Crested and Bridled Terns (click on an image to view it at full size)

After exploring several buoys we headed for Umm Al-Maradim Island a small island (0.5 x 0.5 km) lying in deep water on the southern edge of Kuwaiti territorial waters – several mobile phones switched to Saudi networks. It is home to a lighthouse and a police station and is notable for being the second piece of Kuwaiti territory to be liberated in the Gulf War on 29th January 1991 when it was captured by a task force of US Marines.

The island has a small deep water harbour and we found several traditional Dhows moored offshore. presumably preparing to fish.

The characteristic shape of a Dhow moored off Umm Al-Maradim.

The low tide allowed us to disembark on the sandy West side of the island via a set of stepladders that AbdulRaham had brought for the purpose. There were good numbers of Redstarts and other chats along with four species of shrike including the only “Steppe” Great Grey we saw all week. A link to our eBird checklist is here. After about an hour on land we got back on the boat and headed North.

Turkestan was one of four species of shrike encountered on Umm Al-Maradim

Our next destination was Kubbar Island which compared to Umm Al-Maradim is much bigger, lower lying and surrounded by clean sandy beaches. Again there is a lighthouse and plenty of cover for migrants and we were hopeful of turning up something unusual.

White-cheeked (left-hand two birds and flying), Lesser Crested and Bridled Terns

En route we rendezvoused with possibly the best buoy of the day – a bright red creation that was dripping with “splash” and absolutely lifting with terns including a 3 or 4 White-cheeked Terns (WP #712). These dainty pale grey terns were a major target for most of the participants and were well received as they proved to be the only ones we saw well all day.

Kubbar Island – unlike Umm Al-Maradim it is ringed by clean sandy beaches

We were in good spirits by the time we arrived at Kubbar whose idyllic beaches seemed to be popular with day-trippers on private yachts who could enjoy a swim and a picnic free from the constraints of Kuwaiti dress codes. Although good numbers of terns were gathering offshore none had returned to nest so we were free to roam the island in search of migrants. Despite it’s relatively small size birds moved quickly through the waist high vegetation and were very hard to pin down. Graham elected to stake out an open area in the hope of some Isabelline Wheatear shots whilst I explored, simply enjoying the migrants but finding little new. I eventually bumped into Paul and Marc who kindly put me on to a relatively obliging White-throated Robin near the phone mast compound. The bird hopped up onto an irrigation pipe and posed – I fired off a series of shots – bird flue – I checked the back of my camera – overexposed due to wrong settings – air turns blue. Fortunately the bird reappeared around the corner on a rather more natural perch and my equilibrium was restored.

Finally a White-throated Robin that perched in the open!

The sequence of events over the next thirty minutes is a little bit hazy which is probably just as well given the mounting levels of frustration I experienced! Having summoned Graham with the promise of a WT Robin under some sort of control I noticed that the rest of the group was converging on a spot about 200m away. It transpired that Daniel had found a flava wagtail of the form leucocephala “White-headed” (Western Yellow) Wagtail which breeds in Mongolia, winters in India and is as beautiful as it is rare in the WP. And whilst searching for the wagtail the group had found a “Lesser” Whitethroat that AbdulRahman identified as a Hume’s Whitethroat equally as rare, hard to identify and a full fat WP lifer for everybody on the tour. By the time I got there the wagtail had disappeared and the warbler had melted away into the vegetation giving very brief and tantalising partial views. After a few minutes it appeared very for a few seconds in from of Jim and and Graham only to disappear again as the group moved to join them. At which point most folk seemed satisfied and moved off whilst I stayed to try and relocate both birds without success although a very smart Syke’s (Western Yellow) Wagtail was some compensation.

Western Yellow Wagtail ssp beema (Syke’s Wagtail)

Whilst not seeing the Hume’s Whitethroat was frustrating – missing a drop dead gorgeous male White-headed Wagtail would be absolutely criminal and things almost got worse Unknown to me, as Graham had the radio, the others had relocated the wagtail – as I ambled over towards the group I met Graham who casually passed on the news as he headed back to look for the WT Robin In the event the wagtail flock had not gone far and Anders and Jim were at hand to help relocate the leucocephala before leaving me in peace to enjoy it- which I did and for the second time in an hour calm was restored. A link to our eBird list for Kubbar Isand can be found here.

Western Yellow Wagtail (ssp leucocephala) – *White-headed* Wagtail my new favourite race of this lovely species

In truth I got a bit carried away with the wagtail and lost track of time, then got distracted by a “Lesser” Whitethroat playing hide and seek and was last back to the boat. Apologies were in order as it was getting late and everyone was eager to depart as we had one more target on the way back to port. Socotra Cormorant is endemic to the Persian Gulf and whilst it is relatively easy to see in the UAE and Oman, Kuwait is the only place it regularly seen in the Western Palearctic and even then it is no means certain. As we got closer to shore we started checking a series of fixed navigational features – the third one we approached had two cormorants perched on the whitewashed railings – one Great with pale underparts and a yellow chin contrasted markedly with an all black bird with a thin bill and very kinked neck; Socotra Cormorant (WP #713). As we manoeuvred closer the birds took off and the Socotra did a couple of laps of the boat allowing us to take in its distinctive flight silhouette.

Great Cormorant (left) and Socotra Cormorant (right)

The sunset accentuated the plume of brown nitrogen oxide emissions heading out over the Gulf from the local oil refinary

The sun was going down as we approached the harbour and everybody was getting very tired after an epic day of rare seabirds and hunting scarce migrants – I somehow managed the long drive home in heavy traffic, but it was almost 8pm by the time we reached the hotel and I was absolutely knackered and ravenous. We decided to give the Egyptians a miss and order a takeaways to be delivered to our rooms ASAP and I am still amazed that I managed to finish mine before falling asleep ahead of another 5.30am start- but oh well – at least Graham would be driving!

Sheringham

After a difficult couple of weeks it was nice to have a morning out with Graham. Given our time constraints and Graham’s love of chats there was only ever going to be one destination; Sheringham where a lovely confiding male Black Redstart has been frequenting the seafront RNLI carpark. We arrived at the car park, a bit of waste ground next to the a block of flat prophetically named Upcher Court where the gaggle of birders/toggers suggested the was not that far away In order to photograph it at eye level against a clean background we cut the height of the tripods and lay on the floor – for as long as we could stay in contact with the bitterly cold ground before having to get up and walk around.

Graham demonstrating exemplary technique

The approach worked well as the bird dropped to a favoured area of grass no doubt encouraged by the meal worms scattered by a benevolent local photographer.

Black Redstart, Sheringham, Norfolk, January 2018

Ironically whilst we were there a bit of furore broke out on Twitter in response to news that the long staying Desert Wheatear near Whitby had been predated with some posters quick to blame supplementary feeding by photographers for its untimely demise. So should we resort to supplementary feeding in order to get good images? Many must think it is OK as since I first encountered this practice at another Desert Wheatear , at Horsey in November 2008, and it is something that has become increasingly commonplace in the UK.

Eastern Black Redstart, Skinningrove, Cleveland, December 2016

I must admit to not being entirely convinced. Given enough time, space and cautious movements by their observers small chats quickly get used to humans and are also quite adept at finding their own food sources. For example the long-staying Eastern Black Redstart in Cleveland last winter found plenty of insects in its favourite patch of wrack strewn boulders and was very tolerant of a steady stream of admirers during its four month stay. And another Desert Wheatear, this time at Lowestoft in November 2014 would with patience walk up to you!

Desert Wheatear, Lowestoft, Suffolk, November 2014

On the other hand supplementary feeding raises awareness of birds and their conservation as well as supporting vulnerable populations during hard weather. Where such activities exist photographers are more than happy to take advantage. For instance how many world birders would have Antpittas on their lists and good photos if it was not for the ground breaking efforts of Angel Paz in Ecuador? And we all love feeding stations whether it is for Willow Tits in Northern England, Hummingbirds in the Neotropics or Rosy Finches in Colorado we are all more than happy to turn up with our cameras and click away. Speaking of Rosy Finches – one appeared at a feeder in front of a hide on the Nosappu Penninsular on Hokkaido last winter even before my Japanese companions had emptied a tub if sunflower seeds on the feeding station!

Asian Rosy Finch, Hokkaido, December 2016

Like many aspects of birding it comes down to common sense and above everything else the welfare of the bird. If it is possible to supplement a bird’s normal food supply in a way that does not make it dependent and susceptible to predation fair enough. However that is no reason to suspend the principles of good field craft and behave in a way that prevents the bird from attending the food supply and deprives others the opportunity to observe/photograph/enjoy it in their own way.

Meanwhile back in Sheringham after an hour or so of enjoying the Black Redstart Graham and I were frozen to the bone and went in search of a cafe. Failing miserably in Sheringham we drove along the coast to Cromer and eventually found refuge and a warm welcome in the excellent Crab Pot Cafe where we enjoyed some supplementary feeding of the Full English variety.