Book Review : Troubled Waters by Bruce Pearson

This is not a new book ... it was published in 2012 ...

I came across it at the Birdfair last weekend when I dropped by to have a word with Bruce Pearson who was the artist on board when I visited The Antarctic, The Faulklands and South Georgia almost two years ago ... it had been fascinating watching Bruce draw and paint, often in severe weather conditions with sea spray, rocking boats and wind to deal with ... to say nothing of the constantly low temperatures ...

The book describes Bruce's times spent on Bird Island back in the 1970s and subsequent visits to The Southern Ocean ... but the focus is on albatrosses and in particular their drastic reduction in numbers over the last few decades ... it deals with the excellent work of the Albatross Task Force in reducing the deaths of albatrosses from long-line fishing ...

... it is full of sketches of not only the albatrosses but the other seabirds of The Southern Ocean , along with the scribbled notes that accompany them ... and maps illustrate the juxtaposition of the locations he describes ...

... the seascapes are particularly evocative and will resonate with anyone who has visited wild coastlines in the northerly or southerly extremes of the planet ...

... there is some historical context relating to the voyages of Captain Cook ... and some literary references to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge who interestingly would never have seen a live albatross as the furthest south he ever went was the Mediterranean ... but he did have personal reasons to be interested and inspired by The Southern Ocean ...

The book is beautifully produced by the Langford Press.  It is beautifully written.  And of course beautifully illustrated.

Birdfair 2018 ... and some Gulls - Caspian Gull and putative Baltic Gull ...

I spent three days at Birdfair this year and had a 'total immersion' experience, residing in the camping field ...

The Birdfair event was a lot of fun ... I spent some time just wandering around and bumping into old friends and acquaintances ... I went to quite a few lectures ... I picked a few selected brains about some things like nocmigging ... I had a few excellent chocolate brownies and drank quite a few espressos from my new Birdfair reusable mug ...

... the Speyside Wildlife stand was great and gave an enthusiastic welcome and it was good to see Bruce Pearson again and have him draw an albatross in the front of the book I bought ...

... lectures that stood out were Mary Colwell's Curlew talk ...

... and Tormod Amundsen's intelligent perspective on bird hides ...

... good to chat with Tormod again ...

But there were some gulls ... and not far away !  News emerged on the Saturday afternoon of a putative Baltic Gull on Lagoon 4 ... this lagoon turned out to be viewable from the Dunlin Hide, only a stone's throw from the camping field ... the gull had flown but all was not lost ...

... in the hide was Steve Lister ( ? ) local gull man ... he pointed out a couple of Caspian Gulls and mentioned that there were no Herring Gulls present but Yellow-legged Gulls were there in small numbers ... 

... the gulls were all distant ( hence the poor record shots ) and there was an inconvenient hummock behind which the gulls would disappear ... but no matter !

... the light was dull and flat and the Caspian Gull stood out from the Yellow-legged and lesser Black Backed Gulls on mantle colour alone ...

... the right leg carried a Polish ring ... 

... a lovely long legged bird showing classic Casp. features of long slim bill, beady eye and bulging rear belly ...

... it raised its wings to show the very pale under-wing ...

... there was no further sign of the possible Baltic Gull that day ...

The next morning there were a few large gulls on the gravel spit ... and then this bird flew in ...

... long legs, particularly the tibia, long parallel sided bill, tertials with diffuse white tips and greater coverts with dark bases but becoming paler towards their tips ... there were a few second generation mantle feathers showing anchor marks ... this all looked good for juvenile Caspian Gull just moulting into first-winter ...

... a wing stretch showed the dark outer webs and pale inner webs of the inner primaries creating a venetian blind effect ...

... and the upper wing showed narrow wing bars created by the dark secondaries and dark bases to the greater coverts ...

... then a very dark, small and long-winged Lesser Balck Back showed briefly ... and disappeared ...

Later that day and by mid-afternoon the large gulls were reassembling ...

... one of the two near adult Caspian Gulls rested with two Yellow-legged Gulls standing behind and two LBB Gulls preening to the left ... this time with unwelcome sunshine the mantle colours were thrown into a confusing array of shadows ... but then the Casp. stood up and the red ring confirmed its identity ...

A very dark small and extremely long-winged LBB type Gull was on the water behind ...

... with the primary tips extending beyond the tail something like 30% as much again as on the LBB  Gulls this looked like the Baltic candidate ... but it had no ring ...

Lovely Med. Gulls at Workington ... and so many ! ...

The start of the day in Workington Harbour yesterday held little promise ... two adult and a second-winter Med. Gull looked at me and flew off ... the other passers-by on the footpath seemed to have caused them less offence ...

... during a rather typical Workington seawatch which produced 3 Gannets and 17 Sandwich Terns I looked south and saw another adult Med. Gull on the beach ...

... Siddick Pond was more productive with 4 adult, 1 2ndW and 3 juv/1stW Med. Gulls loafing in the far SW corner ... that seemed more promising ...

... just to the north in the St.Helens - Flimby area the tide was rising ... and the rocks and shoreline were scattered with Med.Gulls ... along with a smaller number of Black-headed Gulls and Sandwich Terns ...

... as the tide rose the gulls flew backwards and forwards along the shore ... some landed on the sea ... 

... these three adults demonstrate the variation in head pattern with none really conforming to the ' highwayman's mask that I think of a typical ' ... 

... these three were largely in juvenile plumage with only a small amount of moulting towards 1stW ...

... while this one was a little more advanced ...

... the juvenile birds on the rocks showed up their lovely scaly mantle and scapular pattern ...

... contrasting with the adults ... which were well into their primary moult ...

... and some juveniles gave nice fly by views ...

... these two show the nice clean pale under-wing ...

... while this bird showed more dark at the bases of the greater coverts ...

... the least common age was, as usual, 2ndW ... but these have a rather appealing subtlety to the wing pattern ...

... there were 8 of this age group while the adults were predominant with 44 birds ... the 42 juveniles must reflect a good breeding season ...

Hen Harrier Day 2018 at Parkgate ... and some recent developments ...

The best attended Hen Harrier Day event this year was at Parkgate in Cheshire with around 300 people present ...

James Bray ( on the left ) is the project manager at Bowland ... Iolo Williams ( second left ) well known presenter and Hen Harrier enthusiast ... Alan Davies ( third left ) of  'The Biggest Twitch : Around the World in 4,000 Birds ) ... Findlay Wilde ( firth left ) the young Hen Harrier campaigner ... Mark Avery ( Hen Harrier campaigner and ' Ban Driven Grouse Shooting ' promoter ) ...

... all spoke with great commitment and passion about illegal raptor persecution associated with driven Grouse shooting and the scandal that this represents ...


... then today a press release from RSPB Scotland gave the results of a study showing the drastic fall in Mountain Hare numbers in the Angus Glens ... and this is why ...

... Mountain Hares killed on an industrial scale on Driven Grouse Moors because of their perceived threats to the health of Red Grouse - the unnaturally high population density of Red Grouse created for shooting purposes already guarantees disease within their populations ...

... and also today the Labour MP for Workington and Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman 

 has spoken out about the environmental damage done to our uplands and the wider environment by the intensive and destructive management of Driven Grouse Moors simply so that people will pay large sums of money to shoot large numbers of Grouse simply for their own entertainment ...

... with BBC Radio 4 carrying several pieces about the detrimental effects of Driven Grouse Shooting in recent days ... it feels as though this issue is coming under increasing scrutiny and being brought to the attention of the wider public ...

..,. these are all steps in the right direction !

... 

Franklin's Gull in County Cleveland ...

A visit today to the areas where I did my early birding ... more than half a century ago ...

A Franklin's Gull had been seen at Scaling Dam over the past two weeks but its movements were very erratic ... sometimes present there all day ... sometimes there intermittently and sometimes not at all ... it had visited two other reservoirs briefly but had not been seen elsewhere and not in any dry habitats ...

This afternoon it was relocated at Pinchinthorpe in a stubble field that was being harrowed ...

... the tractor was working away while the gulls followed, grabbing prey and wheeling around to avoid the machinery ...

... the other gulls were largely Black-headed and well into winter plumage whereas the Franklin's was just starting to moult into winter plumage and had an almost complete black hood ...

... the hood apart, the mantle stood out as being much darker grey ...

... and the folded wingtip revealed much white with only limited black sub-terminally ...

... all the gulls were constantly in motion ...

... in flight the open wing had an almost Mediterranean Gull-like appearance with the underwing's whiteness contrasting with the Black-headed's dusky look ... the dark sub-terminal band showed up on closer looking ...