Sheer Delight for Shearwaters: Bird Report for Late August

First off I have to apologize for the lack of blog posts these past couple weeks. I have been going through some exciting developments in my own life, and so have spent the past week down in England sorting out some personal things. Not that I wasn't doing birdwatching whilst I was down there (they certainly have more Egyptian geese than us!), but it has made me unable to write the weekly blog reports. The timing couldn't have been worse, as now that summer has officially come to a close the Wig has been busier than ever. We've seen hundreds of birds descend upon Loch Ryan, including several wintering species that we haven't seen for months, and no less than three brand new species to the blog! To make up for my absence this article will be nice and long, after all there is so much to cover!

I suppose the first thing to address is the huge influx of birds on the loch. Whilst many of these are species that we see year-round, now is when they are at their busiest - whether they are gathering before migrating or have travelled here from distant breeding grounds. Eider numbers are once again picking up with flocks of hundreds being seen on several occasions. Red-breasted Mergansers have seen a similar increase, as our regular flock of 40 or so has doubled to over 90 birds last week! Moving over to seabirds and we hit a peak count of 119 Black Guillemots, the most we've had this year. Last week we also saw a huge increase in the number of Razorbills on the loch. Our previous counts of small groups of under 10 birds suddenly shot up to almost 400 in a single day, and since then their numbers have remained high. The last species to experience this autumn influx are our Shags. Normally we have pretty solid numbers and can have 20 or 30 sunning themselves out on the Scar or at the pier at Cairnryan. This past week though their numbers shot up to 141 on consecutive days, many of which were all in a singular large group over on the pier. 

A Razorbill cruises across the waves

Another sign of summer's end is the arrival of many species that winter at Loch Ryan. One of our most notable species in the Red-throated Diver, and whilst their numbers are not yet at their winter peak, we have started to see more and more on a regular basis. Perhaps more surprising is the presence of Black-throated Divers out on the loch. Whilst not uncommon during the winter, we normally only see a couple of them when the season fully sets in. So far we've already had 3 birds recorded over the past few weeks, perhaps a sign of even more to come! Finally, whilst we've had no Great-northern Divers or Slavonian Grebes (winter staples) we have had records of Red-necked Grebes. Normally a rare visitor, we certainly have had a lot this year so things must be going well for them somewhere. During winter we see a lot of ducks sheltering on the loch. Whilst many of these have yet to arrive, we have been seeing Common Scoter on a more frequent basis. These have only been small flocks of 10-20 birds, but hopefully as Autumn progresses we will see these numbers rise until there are flocks of hundreds of them out on the water. 

Whilst seabirds like Razorbills are to be expected (they breed out on Ailsa Craig), we also had some surprise visitors that were blown in my the stormy weather a few weeks ago. Normally found further up the coast, a pair of Kittiwakes ventured into the loch, perhaps seeking a little shelter. They are irregular, but certainly not something we haven't seen before. 96 Manx Shearwaters on the other hand was a very unique record. We have had a couple blown into the loch in the past, however a group of 96 was definitely a first. Speaking of firsts, the strong westerlies not only brought in these birds but two brand new species for the blog as well! Sticking with Shearwaters, a Balearic Shearwater was also blown in at the same time as the Manxies.  Ever so slightly larger than the Manx Shearwater, these birds are seen annually around the UK, however as seagoing birds, it is unusual to see them on a sea-loch. It must have been quite a wind blowing because there was one last surprise in store of us that morning. Not only a new species for the blog but the first record for Loch Ryan as well (as far as we know), a Cory's Shearwater completed the Shearwater trio. Distinctly bigger than both the Manx and Balearic Shearwater it is a rare bird around the coasts of Britain. Spending all their lives at sea (apart from breeding), we presume that it was a strong westerly wind that blew it into the loch. Realizing this was a dead-end all the shearwaters swiftly departed. Nonetheless it was a very exciting record and an exceptional mornings birdwatching.  

Last of our seabirds are the gulls, of which we get plenty all year round. Herring Gulls we see on pretty much a day by day basis, but we've been seeing some huge flocks of them recently, peaking at over 400 birds on the Scar at one time. Meanwhile up in our garden, we had the surprise visit of a Lesser-black backed gull. Finally, we wrapped it up with yet another Mediterranean Gull. We've had a couple these past few weeks, and this autumn migration is the best time of the year to see them. 

This Sparrowhawk is on the lookout for something - probably food!

Our garden has been host to all sorts of exciting birds and mammals in the past, but these past few weeks its really turned up a notch. In particular, the numerous House Sparrows and Starlings seemed to have attracted some birds of prey into the garden. It began with a juvenile male Sparrowhawk, who was posing for pictures high up in a tree as it scanned for prey. It must have liked what it saw since it stuck around for quite a while, and even returned the next day. It has some competition now though, as we also had a Barn Owl pass by over the garden. We used to see a lot of these birds in our local area, but in the past few years they have been very scarce. Not only was this a really nice record, it was great to see it from the comfort of home as well. 

Moving back to the Wig, and the shore is bursting with all sorts of waders. With so many species stopping by on their passage, we get different species on a day to day basis. Species like Oystercatcher, Curlew and Ringed Plover can be seen regularly, but over the past weeks, we've seen Ruff, Sanderlings, Dunlins and Redshanks. The list doesn't stop there, we've also had Whimbrels, Black-tailed Godwits, Golden Plovers and even Lapwings down on the shore. This is a great time to get down and practise your wader identification, especially since many of them are transitioning between breeding and winter plumages. 

We're approaching the time of year in which its not only waders and gulls which grace the Scar, but geese as well! Many different flocks of geese stop by at the Wig on their annual passage, and many more roost up at Loch Connell. Already we've seen a steady increase in our Canada and Greylag Geese numbers, with over 100 and 300 birds respectively. It was only very recently that we had our first Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Now up to four birds, we often see small flocks pass us by, and maybe once again a group will winter with us here on the Wig. 

A Meadow Pipit, or Mipits as we affectionately call them

I've already covered so much, but somehow we found yet another new species for the blog that I just have to talk about. Meadow Pipits are scarce visitors to the Wig, despite many birds being UK based all year round. We get a few more at this time of year as more come south for winter, resulting in a mighty 13 recorded last week. Alongside them was our 3rd new species of the week, a pair of Tree Pipits! A very unusual species for us, we saw these birds whilst they were on their typical migration to Africa or southern Asia. Whilst not an irregular record for the UK, they normally don't stray this far west on their migration. Or perhaps they do and we just miss them, as they can be hard to spot and travel in small numbers. Either way it was another great record for the week which we were very happy to see. 

I could keep going on with the many more species which we've seen, but given that this article is twice the average length, perhaps I will save those for another week. As you can see, late August has been such a bountiful time for birds, and this will continue into much of September. We expect to see even more species arriving for winter, so be sure to get out and see some of them for yourselves.

[All photographs were taken by and belong to Stephen Grover, please ask for permission if you wish to use them.]