Just back from 2 months' contract on the Isle of Man - some pictures on http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff168/jerbarker/Isle%20of%20Man/ - and a week seawatching in Cornwall for Seawatch SW (www.seawatch-sw.org) and now off to Austria with N for a couple of weeks: catching up with some friends from the zoo, helping at the ringing station and showing N round some of my old haunts!
Work on the IoM was grand; breeding bird surveys, a wee bit of ringing and learning some new skills (boat-handling, mackerel-fishing, moth identification, for instance). The week in Cornwall was nice as well, with one or both large shearwater species seen most days and a healthy number of Balearics passing through. Also had 3 of the season's 11 Basking Sharks - a far cry from last year, when my co-worker and I had a peak count of 72 one day! Must be something to do with the weather...
A pic or two below for ye all...
(Red-billed) Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax
Juvenile Peregrine Falco peregrinus
Black Guillemots Cepphus grylle in Peel harbour
One of numerous Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus attempting to behead me
Basking Shark Cetorhinus maximusThere's a few more at http://picasaweb.google.com/jerebarker/IsleOfMan as well, if you're interested.
And from Cornwall, a good bit of Cornish seawatching weather, as viewed fromthe watchpoint at Gwennap Head!:
More when I get back from Austria...
