Things that go bump in the night...

Leach's petrel (left) Storm Petrel (right) (Paul Baker)

Friday 1st August comments: It’s been all go on the nocturnal petrel ringing sessions, as more Storm Petrels have been caught whilst our Leach’s Petrel total has reached four; an unprecedented number for the Farnes. This oceanic wanderers are impressive birds but to see them in the hand, is another thing again. We even had the delight of listening to them ‘sing’ around the nets. The Farnes never fails to impress.

In another noteworthy bird sighting, the Farnes produced a major rarity on Wednesday as an immature COOT was discovered on the sea off Staple Island. A reasonably common breeding species in Northumberland this represented only the 24th ever record for the islands and the first since March 2007! It may not be noteworthy on the mainland, but a few Farnes birders were pretty pleased with that sighting!

So onwards into August and what will the month bring? The seabirds are shipping out, the migrant birds are moving through and who knows what the sea will produce? Orca anyone (it’s long overdue!).