Day 19.273: Family gathered

Exile #2's brother and family joined us for another day of birthday celebrations today. It was great to spend most of the day together.

Day 19.272: Birthday

The main reason for our trip was to help Exile #2's mum celebrate a landmark birthday, and that is what we did today:

Day 19.271: Incidental birding

We’re in the UK for a brief visit. Today we were mostly sleepy, but we did spot some birds and I had a few minutes walking under some trees.

Here is my incomplete list for the day:

Feral pigeons - around the outside of the airport terminal 

Starling - one visited us as we waited for our rental car

Common magpie - several along the road

Red kite - showed up on cue as we approached Oxford

Jackdaw - one perched on a lamp in a car park. 

Wood pigeon - several as we drove around. 

Here is part of my Merlin sound list from my brief spell under the trees:

I saw the blue tit and got a blurry photo. I also clearly saw a great tit and recognized long-tailed tit by sound and saw movement that corresponded. I heard the robin, but the others I can’t say with any confidence. 

Day 19.270: Travel

Four out of five of us are on the move:

Day 19.269: Mammals at sea

I didn’t get a photo of harbor porpoises this time although I did see some. I didn’t even see the distant minke whale that apparently some did from our trip. 

We encountered a large pod of dolphins hunting as we headed out. Gannets were benefiting from the fish they were stirring up making them even more visible from a distance, but we went over to them. 

These are Atlantic white-sided dolphins. The naturalist on the boat estimated this pod was 30-50. 

We saw several more groups later and at least one was a mix of white-sided and short-beaked common dolphins. 

I’m not sure which these are:

The views we had were more impressive than the photos suggest. 

Day 19.268: Birds from the boat

Apart from yesterday's life bird and a great shearwater that I missed with the camera for the second trip in a row, here are some other birds from yesterday's adventure:

Canada geese and common eiders

Surf scoters

Green-winged teal

J spotted this distant bird apparently chasing or being chased by a smaller bird. I was pleased that a photo helped confirm it was a peregrine falcon out over the shore as we left port. Another birder on the trip identified that both birds were immature peregrines.

Bald eagle

Black scoters

Northern gannet

Red-necked phalarope - a very quick flyby. I was far from sure I'd got a photo

Northern fulmar (tube-nosed bill visible)

Razorbill

It tried to take off and then faceplanted with a "I meant to do that" recovery

Atlantic puffin

Atlantic puffin

Atlantic puffin

Bonaparte's gull

Northern gannet

Northern fulmar

Wilson's storm-petrel

Although it was late to be seeing these birds, there were enough to see several in one shot like this

...and to get nice individual shots when they came close.

Razorbill

Common loon

Black guillemot (not particularly black at this time of year)

Black guillemot

It turns out that the phalarope was a life bird too.

Day 19.267: Parasitic jaeger

I took a birding boat trip from Boothbay Harbor with my friend and nature-guru J and a load of other experts. It yielded a lot of great sightings, but - as far as I am aware - only one life bird for me - this parasitic jaeger:

Pretty great views of this unusual bird as it chased some small gulls quite a way out in the Gulf of Maine.