Highs and Lows of 2017

Well where did 2017 go! As I get older the years fly by. So what were my personal highlights of 2017 and some lows? In no particular ranked order.

 

Raptors

Raptor migration.  In late September we went to the western Pyrenees to catch some raptor migration. Our destination Collado De Ibaneta near Roncesvalles in northern Spain, close to the French border. This is a major migration route as soaring birds and many passerines avoid the higher Pyrenees to east and pass through heading south. Even so its still relatively high at 1057m, a fair bit higher than Dartmoor! Different species migration peak at different times, but the end of September gave a pretty good spread. See http://www.gurelur.org/p/en/projects/migration-centre-roncesvalles.php which gives a chart for the various species. We saw 19 different raptor species, which was more than I hoped for! Of note the area is riddled with shooting butts for the big Woodpigeon migration later in October, but no shooting was taking place while we were there.

The highlights for me were seeing Honey-buzzards moving through. Most of the adults had already passed, but a few stragglers were still moving, outnumbered by the very variable looking juveniles. I really miss seeing these birds in Devon (having once helped to monitor them here).

Adult Honey-buzzard

Pale juvenile Honey-buzzard with a tatty tail

A darker juvenile Honey-buzzard with some missing secondaries

While local Griffon Vultures are numerous in the area it was nice to have several sightings of Lammergeier, without needing to travel up into the high peaks. The main migrant raptor was Red Kite with triple figure counts of birds moving through most days.

Red Kite

Local Golden Eagles showed most days, while a few each of Booted and Short-toed also passed through.

Pale phase Booted Eagle

Juvenile Short-toed Eagle

Many north European raptors pass through this site, with Marsh Harriers, Ospreys (perhaps even some UK birds), Common Buzzards; lots of Kestrels, Sparrowhawks and Hobbies seen while we were there. We even saw Hen Harrier, Goshawk and Peregrine moving through.

A Hobby skims over our heads

An immaculate juvenile Marsh Harrier

Perhaps the unexpected highlight this far north was an immature Black-shouldered Kite, sitting on a post by the road.

Immature Black-shouldered Kite

 Other soaring birds moving through included impressive numbers of Black Storks, with 113 one day. The White Storks move through earlier in the autumn but we did see a few late stragglers.

Migrating Black Storks

 On the last day we even got involved in an international watch event, as the sole UK representatives! Counts take place throughout the autumn to contribute to data on species using this important flyway. The EU funds cross-border promotion of biodiversity, environmental education and Eco-tourism, with monies from the Interreg Lindus-2 project, see https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://lpoaquitaine.org/index.php/2013-02-14-09-31-28/2329-presentation-du-projet-lindus-2&prev=search
This particular watch was celebrating / promoting these partnerships. We stated to our Spanish & French friends we were sorry the UK was leaving the EU, as we felt the positives of being a member outweigh the negatives, especially for linked up conservation. Out of interest when I did much at-sea survey with MarineLife of the English Channel for Balearic Shearwaters, this was a joint Anglo-French project, also with EU Interreg funding and knowledge sharing!

Seawatching

Balearic Shearwaters.  Although it was neither a poor or exceptional year for Balearic Shearwater passage off Devon I did at last hit a major milestone. On the 26/07/17 I saw my 10,000th Devon Balearic Shearwater pass by, yippee. Its taken a few years and many hour watching to get there! More on this years' passage here http://seaskywatch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/balearic-sheawaters-through-west-lyme.html
 
Humpback Whale Lyme Bay.  Seeing whales makes people feel good, myself included. This was a unique event and I spent a fair bit of time seeing this magnificent animal. More here http://seaskywatch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/lyme-bay-humpback-updated.html

Wilson's Storm-petrel.  2017 has to go down as the year for Wilson's off the SW England and W/SW Ireland. I first had a tantalising view of a Storm-petrel matching Wilson's jizz off Start Point on 30/07/17, but not really enough detail! I was desperate to get to sea and on 15/08/17 I negotiated a trip on a shark fishing boat out of Salcombe. It was a great trip and after around 5 hours of chumming a Wilson's turned up in among the European Storm-petrels, giving views to be happy with. For me it was Devon's waters, but others would disagree! What was even more tantalising, was a Storm-petrel that passed Berry Head on 03/09/17, I had the briefest views (with others), it looked pretty good, but destined for the Storm-petrel sp. pile! An account of the Wilson's boat trip is here http://seaskywatch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/a-wilsons-storm-petrel-in-devon-waters.html

Large shearwater day at Berry Head.  On the 21/07/17 I was lucky to be at Berry Head most of the day where we had what was one of Devon's best passages of both Cory's and Great Shearwaters. Some of the birds were close enough to photograph with a 300mm lens! I ended up seeing 181 Cory's and 82 Great Shearwaters. I've seen more of both species before (in a day from Devon) but never such close views. In fact in Devon terms it was a pretty good summer/early autumn for both species. Some pictures were on an ealier post, see http://seaskywatch.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/west-lyme-bay-large-shearwaters-2017.html

And yes there was a seawatching low and a big low at that! I love Pterodromas and while sitting at Start Point on 11/07/17 I had a call from Mike Langman that a Desertas/ Fea's Petrel had passed Berry Head and was on its way to me. I was already trembling at the thought and sat watching in anticipation. About 40 minutes I reckoned and it would appear?  But then the conditions deteriorated at the wrong time when it probably passed through, so I never saw it! But.....one small consolation was that I did see it in the end, on the fantastic bit of video Mike manage to get, so I finish with Devon's video of the year  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50POYa7vyTM . And my favorite photo. Hey ho!

Looking down a Humpback's blow hole, from shore, in Devon, whatever next!!!