A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...

Owls about that: Amazing SEO Pictures!

2012-02-14T18:14:00.007Z

Barn Owls were again present this morning with all three seen again, even though I was a bit later than on Monday morning.

I thought they may have gone off to roost before I got to their favourite field but luckily they were still out feeding. As cool as Barn Owls are though they can be trumped, for example by Short-eared Owls. There was at least 1 again on the local patch this evening, with another Barn Owl too! So another owltastic day! Apparently there was at least 6 Short-eared Owls in the lower part of the Lower Derwent Valley (LDV) on Saturday - awesome stuff. I wonder what the record count in the LDV is???

Check out this incredible set of hunting Short-eared Owl pictures taken just up the road by Paul McMullen. These are reproduced here below with permission.

Short-eared Owl © Paul McMullen

Short-eared Owl © Paul McMullen

Short-eared Owl © Paul McMullen

The rest of my walk this morning was fairly uneventful but the snow having almost gone now made for a nice change! There was a couple of Dunnock and Chaffinch in full song too! Spring here soon!

I worked at home today, didn't notice too much in/around the garden as I had my head in a laptop most of the day however I did notice a Cormorant fly over while having my breakfast and a male Sparrowhawk while I was having my lunch that was putting the fear of god into the local Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Greenfinch - oh and I had a Tree Sparrow fly through. Thats about it. Honest!

Barn Owls are just Great!

2012-02-13T21:38:00.004Z

The day got off to an absolute belter, I took the dogs out at dawn for their morning walk. The snow had started to melt quite considerably and it was much milder than the previous few days which made a nice change!

I headed towards a small area of set-aside/fallow land (about 80m squared) I noticed there was a Barn Owl up hunting over it - great stuff. Always nice too see.

As I approached the field I caught sight of another flash of white. Another Barn Owl was hunting in the same area!

As I was taking in the two birds I couldn't believe my eyes as a third bird got up and started hunting in the same small area. I watched all three birds as they foraged over the field for about 10 minutes before they went out of view and I had to crack on. Amazing stuff.

Barn Owl © Richard Hampshire

The only other birds recorded of note was a single Great Spotted Woodpecker, a few Fieldfare, Reed Bunting and two Kestrel.

I spent the day in the office in York City Centre. The highlight here was late morning when a male Goosander flew through following the route of the river. Loads of gulls flew over duing the late afternoon, presumably heading towards the Wheldrake gull roost.

Good Birding at Potteric Carr

2012-02-12T20:55:00.004Z

Went to the Natural Art Open Day at Potteric Carr Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Reserve today which was good fun. There was some amazing artwork on display which was great to have a look at. I got a couple of really nice limited edition prints of an Osprey and Bittern from Mike Bowman Images which I'm really pleased with. Check out Mikes website - highly recommended.

Whilst at the reserve I thought it only polite to have a little look around to see what I could find, however the first stop, as usual was the cafe. This actually paid off as due to the lack of seating inside I was forced outside onto the park benches. No worries I could bird while enjoying my cup of tea. Assorted tits and finches moved through the vegetation towards the bird feeders and the smell of a Sparrowhawk was in the air. However it was due to being sat outside that I found bird of the day - as a juvenile Iceland Gull flew low overhead, straight over the cafe!

A short walk around the reserve resulted in a very showy Great Spotted Woodpecker that was incredibly vocal high in the treetops (phone photo below).

Great-spotted Woodpecker (phone-scoped)

Great-spotted Woodpecker (phone-scoped)

However highlight was a very showy Kingfisher that caught a couple of fishes in front of us. Unfortunately it was sat in the dark under a bridge so I wasn't able to get a brilliant shot but the following gives an idea.

Kingfisher (phone-scoped)

I got home in time for a quick blast to Bubwith Bridge to see if I could scope anything off there in the fading light, a large flock of Wigeon and Mallard were on the river, a Barn Owl hunted a distant field and another Kingfisher flew down the river.

A great weekend!

Some Good Local Birds

2012-02-11T21:17:00.009Z

The morning dog walk was a rather Baltic -11 C. (it was 8am) but made for some nice landscape scenes with the heavy frost and lying snow. There was however very few birds about, a couple of Tree Sparrow, Fieldfare and Sparrowhawk being the highlights.

Cold morning

Cold morning

By contrast a late afternoon walk was very enjoyable, and a barmy -2 C. I took a route along the River and it wasn't long before I connected with a female Kingfisher. It was sat deep in a bush but I managed to get a couple of record shots on my phone, not the best but you can just about tell what it is!

Kingfisher - Phonescoped (note red to base of lower mandible = female)

Kingfisher - Phonescoped (note red to base of lower mandible = female)

Kingfisher - Phonescoped (note red to base of lower mandible = female)

Kingfisher - Phonescoped (note red to base of lower mandible = female)

The river was rammed full of Wigeon and Mallard with a few Teal, Pintail, Mute Swan and Moorhen present too. A quick scan of a distant field held a nice surprise - a hunting Short-eared Owl, my first on the patch. It was fairly distant, and after it caught a vole it got a bit of undesired attention from two local crows which chased it up quite high. I managed to get a record shot on my phone before it dropped back down low again.

Short-eared Owl - Phonescoped

Short-eared Owl - Phonescoped

Whilst walking back to my car a Kestrel was hunting the river bank and a Buzzard flew through to roost but the highlight came in the form of 2 further Short-eared Owl that showed really well. Unfortunately they were moving too fast to get any pictures!

Really pleased with 3 Short-eared Owl so close to home! I've said before this winter that there seems to be tonnes of them around. I wonder how many more are still out there to be discovered?

Off to Potteric Carr tomorrow for the NATURAL ARTS OPEN DAY. Looking forward to seeing Mike Bowman Images there and hopefully some Bittern activity too. Thermals at the ready!

BUDGET GULL MASTERCLASS: New for 2012

2012-02-10T13:02:00.004Z

Sick of standing out at your local smelly tip in a howling gale? Sick of standing out at your cold local reservoir in damp gloomy winter conditions trying to tell the difference between 2nd winter northern Herring Gulls and 2nd winter eastern Caspian Gulls or 3rd generation Caspian x Herring Gull hybrids? Bored of looking through 10,000 gulls at 1 mile range in the mist in the hope of picking out that elusive Glaucous-winged Gull, or even a bog-standard Iceland Gull? If so our BRAND NEW BUDGET GULL MASTERCLASS will be a perfect treat for you... and not half bad for only £4.95 per person(see below for your chance to receive a 20% discount).

Join our resident expert Ollie Metcalf B.A. (Budding Amateur) on a fantastic summer tour as we will help you learn about gulls in a whole new way. We will tour a wide range of habitats such as Scarborough and Bridlington Beachfronts on an August bank holiday weekend in the hope of delivering a fascinating range of gulls – don’t worry we’ll ignore anything that’s clearly not an adult (Receive a 20% discount if you promise not to ask any questions about any brown gulls during your tour). We guarantee nothing that may/may not represent a CASPIAN GULL will be seen (way too difficult), or your money back.

The expert guide

Itinerary: Day 1: What exactly is a gull?

Gull

Not a gull

Magpie © Teemu Lehtinen

Gull

Not a gull

Robin © Diamonddavej

You’ll soon be up to speed after a full day in the field with our crack team of experts.

Days 2&3: The gulls...

We will show you the incredible Herring Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Mediterranean Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Gull and Black-headed Gull. Spend time learning about these beautiful birds and how to identify them during the breeding season. It will be a pleasure to watch these birds as we eat ice cream on the seafront. You'll take away all you could possibly require to be able to ID these tricky birds all by yourself.

Herring Gull © Kurt Kulac. The bog standard 'seagull'

Yellow-legged Gull © Julio Reis. The bog standard 'seagull' with Yellow legs!

Lesser Black-backed Gull © Henry Bucklow. Like a bog standard 'seagull' but with a slightly darker back and yellow legs

Great Black-backed Gull © Andreas Trepte. Like a bog standard 'seagull' but with a black back and pink legs

Common Gull © Benoit Nabholz. Like a bog standard 'seagull' but a bit smaller. If you are lucky you might even glimpse a Kittiwake which is pretty much the same really.

Black-headed Gull © Hans Hillewaert. Has a brown not black head.

Mediterranean Gull © Martin Olsson. Like the Black-headed Gull but with a black head not a brown head

Note we can’t guarantee that you will see any of the above species, or that what we tell you will be correct but at least the ice cream will be nice (probably).

Please feel free to email for details.

COMING SOON, part of our Budget Masterclass Season: Budget Tits.

Fieldfare garden show!

2012-02-09T21:03:00.008Z

Enjoyable walk this morning with Great Spotted Woodpecker, 20+ Tree Sparrow, Yellowhammer and Bullfinch being the highlights, but the main interest was in the garden.

I worked at home today and it was interesting to see how many thrushes were coming in to feed as a result of the snow. I always get decent numbers of Blackbird in the garden and see Fieldfare, Redwing and Mistle Thrush daily at this time of year but very rarely do they come in, they generally just fly over the garden but today was somewhat different with a flock of 45-50 Fieldfare, 2 Mistle Thrush and 4-6 Redwing present for pretty much the whole day feeding on the few remaining berries in mine and my neighbours gardens. Interestingly I also had a ringed Blackbird feeding in the garden today. One of the locally ringed birds or a migrant from further afield? Who knows!....

I managed to get the following shots. I'm quite pleased with them as they were all taken on my phone, through the window!!!

Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)

Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)

Fieldfare - Garden (phone binned)

Redwing- Garden (phone binned)

Blackbird- Garden (phone binned)

UPDATE: 10th February.

More of the same today. Again worked at home and again the garden was full of Fieldfare (50+). There was also an increase in Redwing and Mistle Thrush increased from 1 to 2 birds, even allowing a brief set of phone photos to be taken. Also of interest was a single Song Thrush which too posed briefly for a photo. Other highlights included 2 Tree Sparrow that made a brief appearance. Long-tailed, Coal, Blue and Great Tit were all seen along with all the regular common birds. A single Mute Swan flew North, as too did a Buzzard (mobbed by crows). A male Sparrowhawk made a brief attack but didn't catch anything.

A dog walk this evening behind the house resulted in the expected Yellowhammer (2 very smart birds) and the rather unexpected local-area Year Tick in the form of a male Marsh Harrier. The bird flew southeast presumably looking for somewhere to roost, though it was getting seen off by a Crow that had taken offence at its presence.

The following photos, as those above were taken on my phone.

Song Thrush - Garden (Phone binned)

Mistle Thrush - Garden (Phone binned)

Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare - Garden (Phone binned)

Fieldfare - Garden (Phone binned)

A day of walking in the snow

2012-02-07T19:34:00.006Z

Had a couple of long walks in the snow today. Firstly a really nice dog walk around the local farmland set amongst some really nice views at sunrise in the mist and snow (below off my phone). The hedges were full of Fieldfare with a couple of Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin and Dunnock feeding in the bases of the hedges. Reed Bunting was heard calling from a nearby hedge but not seen due to mist. I checked an unfrozen stream - seems to never freeze (where I had Jack Snipe, Common Snipe, Redshank and Green Sandpiper during the 'big freeze' last year) but there was only a single Grey Heron - last year I found a frozen Grey Heron in the same ditch which was a shame, hopefully this one will survive!

My second walk was much longer and stretched across an area of farmland on the Wolds. The snow was quite deep in places where it had drifted. There was again quite a few Fieldfare in the hedges and a few Tree Sparrow, lots of Grey and Red-legged Partridge were searching for food along the hedge bottoms. A small copse held Redwing, Robin, Dunnock, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird and a range of tits however the highlights came in the form of a single Woodcock, flushed out of a ditch by a Hare that I had flushed! The other highlight was two different flocks of Skylark, one of 210+ birds, the other (over 2km away) of 106+ birds. Both flocks were feeding in kale/stubble fields. Quite a nice surprise and a little unexpected really given the location/time of year/previous visits to the site etc.

A brief stop at Bubwith bridge on the way home in thick fog produced a few Wigeon and Mallard.

Very Special Weekend - Mega Central!

2012-02-05T21:26:00.007Z

Its been a long time coming, on New Year's Eve I got a message about the Dark-eyed Junco in Hampshire, it would have to wait - which was a blessing in disguise as a couple of weeks later news came out of a Spanish Sparrow not far away from the Junco. A plan was hatched to twitch the birds but the day before we were going to go I couldn't be bothered with the drive so we bailed. Again this seemed to work in our favour as last week a Paddyfield Warbler (and apparent Parrot Crossbill) was found near to the Junco and Sparrow location. Another plan was hatched, what could go wrong... we hadn't banked on wind, snow, rain and freezing weather conditions!

Rodney came round to mine late Friday afternoon and we set of around 5pm. A very smooth drive got us down to the B&B to the south of Southampton at around 10pm. The only bird of note was a York area Little Owl just south of North Duffield at dusk.

Early Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny, yet incredibly cold day and went straight to the council estate at Calshot and waited for the Spanish Sparrow to show up, this didn't take long - good job as it was freezing! A really impressive bird that showed well on a roof, a telegraph pole, a road and then in a hedge next to a plastic bag! Real natural birding!!! There was plenty of other birds in the area such as Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit etc. I only managed the following shot as my hands were too cold to work the phone.

Spanish Sparrow - phone shot

We then headed over to the New Forest and Hawkhill Plantation – a beautiful area, much nicer surroundings to bird in. The sound of displaying Common Crossbill and Siskin rang out from the car park and during the morning both gave great views. As we walked to the Junco spot a couple of Woodlarks could be heard singing and were soon seen overheard, obviously not bothered by the minus temperatures. We waited for two hours with no sign of the Junco (that had been seen just prior to our arrival).

By this point we were both really getting cold so I decided to stretch my legs and go water the trees, at this time I walked away from the crowd of 8. With a kitkat in my mouth I looked up at some movement, the Dark-eyed Junco was sat in the tree right in front of me and I was the only one there! I looked round wanting to get Rodneys attention but it was quite hard to whistle with a mouth full of chocolate! Eventually I got his, and the others attention and they all came over and after a while the bird gave itself up feeding high in the pine trees. It then flew off, calling as it went where it dropped right onto the bird feeding area, a quick and careful maneuver and we were stood less than 12 feet away watching it feed. If only the others had of been as careful, they came charging over and flushed it. The bird was quite vocal so as it flew off I tracked it back to the area I’d had it originally so Rodney and I quietly went our own way and spent 10 minutes watching the bird on our own in a bit of peace and quiet. A fantastic bird.

Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone

Dark-eyed Junco - taken on my phone

This was a really nice bird and area in general and if it had of been a bit warmer we’d have probably had a bit more of a look around. Instead we headed out of Hampshire into and increasingly cloudy West Sussex and Pagham Harbour. I’d not been to this location before so wanted to get the access sorted for Sunday morning. We had a walk about along the North Wall enjoying Stonechat, Bearded Tit and lots of Water Rail out on the ice, and witnessed some amazing stringing such as:

Member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Stonechat.
Another equally skilled member of the crowd: “That’s it” [Paddyfield Warbler]. No that’s a Robin.

This went on with Dunnock, Wren and Reed Bunting! It then got even better when two Meadow Pipits landed in the bush where the Paddyfield Warbler had been ‘showing well’ (at over 100m range….): Member of the crowd: “Looks like Yellowhammer to me…..” It was clear that many were going to tick whatever they wanted, so we left! It was really, really cold by this point and not much fun.

Sunday morning saw us back on the North Wall at Pagham and after an hour plus wait we were rewarded with a brief but satisfactory view of the Paddyfield Warbler as it fed in the grass along the wall. Happy with our view we decided to head for home rather than try for the putative Parrot Crossbill, slightly worried about the route back with all the snow – however, despite a few jackknifed lorries a good journey home was had. I even managed to finish off the day with a nice walk with the dogs in Harrogate in the snow and enjoyed a few Red Kite as the sun set.

Walking the dogs in the snow

All in all a great weekend with good birds from Siberia, Southern Europe and the United States!

Jacks!

2012-02-02T22:36:00.004Z

Some good local birds today, Iceland Gull, Great Grey Shrike, Goshawk and Short-eared Owl all recorded in the YOC recording area. I worked at home so didn't get any of the above unfortunately however due to the nights drawing out a little I managed to nip out to a local site just before dusk to catch up with a local year tick in the form of 3 stunning Jack Snipe. Amazingly close-up views sat in amongst the waterside vegetation, great camouflage!

Jack Snipe © Tim Jones 2011

Looking forward to tomorrows surveys, high potential for some decent activity. But really looking forward to the weekend, Friday night we drive down to Southampton for a weekend of birding - hopefully the target birds will play ball...

Ice Cold!

2012-01-31T19:13:00.004Z

Today I had the joy of standing on the spot for 5 hours on the very cold east coast, in a very cold east wind! It was hard going, very hard going!

A Peregrine kept my spirits up for an hour or so in the morning as it hunted for anything that moved. Site highlight was a family of 6 Whooper Swans that showed really well to close range but after that it was onto Geese, Lapwings and Golden Plover with the odd Egret, Heron and Cormorant to keep the interest going. The flask of tea just about kept me alive!

The real highlight of the day however came on our journey back home. A flock of gulls was seen on a roof of a building. We stopped, got the bins out and in no time at all we were looking at a 1st winter Iceland Gull! Great stuff!! Got the scopes out and got a few record shots on my phone - below. Motto - If you see gulls stop and check them this year!

Panama, Trinidad and Tobago

2012-01-29T22:01:00.004Z

A couple more new additions to the Tico Tours itineraries.

Panama is an amazing country with a whole host of species - set in some breathtaking scenery with some incredible rainforest and great accommodations - such as Canopy Tower where you are right in amongst all the action. The country is crawling with Hummingbirds, Tanagers, Ovenbirds and Antbirds, Trogons, Parrots and Flycatchers and is a must see.

Trinidad and Tobago is the perfect introduction to the Neotropics with a large number of species possible in a 10-14 day trip - yet not in the numbers that you may find in central/southern America, so not too overwhelming for the first time visitor. Who can resist Oilbird, Ornate Hawk-Eagle, White-bearded Manakin, Bearded Bellbird, Scarlet Ibis.... amongst examples of the hummingbird, tanager, ovenbird, antbird, trogon, toucan, woodcreeper, flycather and other families.. Luckily Trinidad and Tobago also have some great birding lodges which make birding over here nice and comfortable too.

The Tico Tours Website is currently being updated with 2012 and 2013 schedule complete with tour summaries etc etc. Go check it out! We also have a Facebook page with lots of galleries from the various locations - this continues to be updated on a regular basis so keep checking back for regular updates.

Down the Local Patch (North Duffield)

2012-01-28T21:48:00.004Z

Had a couple of longish dog walks around the farmland to the south of North Duffield today, one in the cold frosty sunny morning and one in the cold yet nice and sunny late afternoon.

The highlight from the morning walk was a flock of 13 Bullfinch, mainly female/1st winter birds but there was a couple of cracking males in with them too. There was also a few Fieldfare and Redwing flying about and a flock of 20+ Tree Sparrow and a dozen Chaffinch sat out in the open along the edge of some scrub with a couple of Linnet overflying. Several Robin were noted in full song - as too were Blackbird. A Sparrowhawk flew over the garden as I got home flushing a decent flock of Greenfinch and Goldfinch.

Bullfinch Photo Richard Hampshire

The late afternoon walk was very enjoyable, I caught up with the same flock of Bullfinch again, as well as finding another 3/4 others too. I walked a path I'd not done for a few months and was pleased to find a flock of 40+ Yellowhammer, 10+ Reed Bunting and several Tree Sparrow feeding in a weedy headland. A flock of Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tits moved along a hedge, a covey of 6 Grey Partridge burst up as a Buzzard glided through heading off to roost. A couple of Song and Mistle Thrush were also found. Highlight however was the Barn Owl that gave great views whilst it hunted right infront of me. It didn't take long for it to catch its tea - a vole of some sort.

Winter Sun Anyone...?

2012-01-27T22:44:00.003Z

Have been working on this for Tico Tours...

A shed load of quality birds available on this tour!

A Good Short-eared Owl Haul

2012-01-24T19:47:00.002Z

Today I visited a new site for the first time, most of the day was taken up by a site meeting, however that was fine given the rubbish weather.

I was told the site was generally flat farmland with large open fields and would likely be full of Lapwing and Golden Plovers. It wasn't, didn't see a single one! There was some huge fields but there was also two large areas of fallow land that were incredible - it reminded me a bit of Worlaby Carrs. I had just stepped out the car and there was a Short-eared Owl flying about (it was 2pm), then a short while later a Barn Owl flew out in the same area, both showed very well, down to 30ft! (they didn't seem concerned at all with us looking like plonkers in our hard hats and hi-viz jackets stood in the middle of a field). A quick look at some scrub flushed a Woodcock, several Bullfinch, Reed Bunting and a good mix of tits. Hunting Kestrel and Sparrowhawk flew about as too did a female Marsh Harrier. A scan of another area of fallow land resulted in another Barn Owl and 4 additional Short-eared Owl too! Majorly good result!

It must be a huge Shorty year as they are everywhere!

Not a bad 30 minutes out on site in the drizzle! I wonder what else is out there....

Around the world trip...

2012-01-23T13:42:00.007Z

Check out these posters from Tico Tours and visit the Facebook Page, Wesbite or follow on Twitter (@ToursTico)

A bit of Harrier Action

2012-01-20T19:22:00.002Z

I spent today surveying in Lincolnshire, it was quite quiet generally however a 5 minute spell involving a Peregrine, Merlin and ring-tail Hen Harrier certainly livened things up a little. The Peregrine was hunting Golden Plovers, the Merlin was hunting Linnet and the Hen Harrier was hunting pretty much anything on the marsh but was getting a fair bit of stick from the Crows.

Was thinking of going for a Sparrow Junco double at the weekend but think I may just spend it doing some local area birding, there seems to be some bits and pieces - gulls at least so will see whats around...

Better looks at the Caspian Gull, and an ice-skating Pheasant!

2012-01-16T20:42:00.006Z

Had a quick look in at Wheldrake Ings this morning on my way to my dusk owl survey and pretty much the only gull sat out there was the 1st winter Caspian Gull found by Tim on Saturday! Result! Much better looks than I got on Saturday. I even got to see the legs with the Darvic - again too far to get the code on this occasion. Its a real cracker and stands out like a sore thumb (especially when there's no other birds there!)

I even managed to get a couple of phone-scoped shots on my new blackberry (below)

Whilst watching the gull I was momentarily distracted by the following ice-skating Pheasant... (again phone-scoped)

The survey was pretty dull, and very cold. However the highlight of Red Kite, Common Crossbill, Siskin, Tawny Owl, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk made the evening slightly more enjoyable.

Gull Fest in York: Caspo, Iceland and Med Gulls!

2012-01-14T22:22:00.004Z

Some good birds in York today, I got a message from Tim telling me he'd found an adult Med Gull at Heslington, another good record for the site, there has now been several records of this species from the site over the last year or so.

A bit later in the afternoon and another phone call from Tim, 1st Winter Caspian Gull at Wheldrake. This was too tempting to ignore. I was just heading out the door to go check North Duffield but this made me change my plans. I got to Wheldrake as quickly as possible and made my way to Tower Hide where Tim was stood. Luckily the bird was still present and was stood amongst the rapidly increasing gull flock. Got good views of the bird, very smart! It had a yellow darvic ring. A great local record.

Interestingly a yellow darvic ringed Caspian Gull (apparently from Poland) was seen and photographed well (below) on 23rd October 2011 at Spurn - the 3rd site record, presumably the bird seen today at Wheldrake is the same bird? Hopefully it will get seen again and we can get the code.

Caspian Gull - Photo John Hewitt - more on Spurn Bird Observatory Website

Not to miss out on the national Iceland Gull fest a 2nd winter bird dropped in before getting blocked up to view by all the other gulls. There was a lot of gulls tonight so tomorrow could be interesting for those lucky enough to be there.

At 1650 we heard the distinctive sound of distant Whooper Swans as they flew onto the Ings to find somewhere to roost. An enjoyable end to the day!

CATTLE EGRET TOPHILL LOW: Local MEGA

2012-01-13T16:13:00.002Z

One was seen by Bob on 18th and 19th December at the Little Kelk/Gransmoor area in East Yorkshire just to the north of Tophill, presumably the same bird recorded near Spurn late in the Autumn.

It has not been seen/reported subsequently but whilst visiting my mate Richs house (Tophill Low Warden) he got an email of an 'egret to identify - presumed Cattle' from a local landowner.

The bird was present in a paddock on their land and was considered to be roosting at the Tophill Nature Reserve somewhere unknown. Rich opened the email and we took one look at the picture (below) and were both happy that it was indeed a Cattle Egret! A very good find locally. The bad news however was that access was not going to be able to occur at the time at the request of the landowner, despite Rich's attempts to try and swing access, however now, some 2 weeks later, the news has come out, presumably as the bird can now be view from public rights of way/the Tophill reserve. Please follow the specific onsite access requirements - details here.

Cattle Egret Copyright 2011.

Though not the national rarity it once was 10-15 years ago Cattle Egrets are not fantastically common in Yorkshire, previous records include:

November - December 2011 Various East Yorks (e.g. Sunk Island, Easington, Little Kelk - presumably this bird)
July 2011 - Swillington Ings, West Yorks
March 2008 - Wheldrake Ings, North Yorks
January 2008 - Hellifield Flash, Norht Yorks
November 2007 - Spurn, East Yorks
October 2006 - Fairburn, West & North Yorks
July 2004 - Fairburn, West & North Yorks
October - December 1996 - Thorne, South Yorks
May 1992 - Hornsea, East Yorks
May 1992 - Nunnington, North Yorks (5 birds!)
November 1986 - Adel Dam, South Yorks
September 1986 - Hornsea, East Yorks
March - April 1981 - Duncombe Park, North Yorks

Well done to the person who found it and alerted Rich. Well done to Rich for trying to sort out access.

Some more recent photo can be found here soon...

BIRDRACE 2012: The Results and some Analysis

2012-01-11T20:47:00.004Z

I've had the full results through for the Yorkshire-wide Bird Race from last Sunday. Surprisingly our team (York LDV Birders) came third overall (joint with the York Heslington team) - I really didn't expect that! We could so easily have come second too... but first the results table:

TEAM SPECIES RECORDED
Scarborough 102
Barnsley Listers 92
York LDV Birders 90
York Hesslington 90
Barnsley OAPs 86
The Goolies 84
Spurn OAPs 78
Flamborough 2 73
York Originals 73
Fairburn No-hopers 71
Filey Yodellers 69
Filey Originals 61
Yorkshire Dales Flyers 51
Harrogate Drinking Team 50

Well done to everyone, hopefully some decent money raised too. Its all for fun of course, but here's why I think we could have come second. Of course every team will have feelings of, if only... here's ours...

The birds we missed. Redshank, Little Owl and Grey Wagtail are the big three, we have good sites for all of these and it was a real surprise/disappointment we didn't get them. Two of our team heard Grey Wagtail but the other two (of which I am one) missed it! All of our Little Owl sites drew blanks and the Redshank that have been glued to the spot at Wheldrake for the last 2 weeks were nowhere to be seen whilst we were there! Interestingly the other 2 York teams failed to connect with Grey Wagtail too, so fortunately this dip was not as costly as it should have been!

What about the 'nearlys'. Well, while we were making our way to pick John up at Bank Island, (after his blow out on the A1) he enjoyed watching (in addition to a very showy Grey Wagtail) a Marsh Harrier (none of the other York teams recorded this species), however when we got to him there was no sign of the bird. Egyptian Goose. Two members of our team heard one calling briefly, however we couldn't pin-point it and so was not heard by anyone else in our team, interestingly [at least] one of the York Heslington team, who were also at this location at the same time as us (independent) heard this species calling too!

Unfortunately we ran out of time to connect with Twite and there was also a couple of Waxwing reported at Bubwith (news made it out after dark so these were not available). The potential Rough-legged Buzzard has been observed well this week, it is only a Common Buzzard - I'll try and get some pictures up here next week to show you how good it did look!

In addition to our 90 species recorded, the above (Little Owl, Grey Wagtail, Redshank, Twite, Waxwing) - in addition to the species York Heslington/York Originals recorded that we didn't (Red Kite, Merlin, Oystercatcher, Green Woodpecker, Jack Snipe and Common Crossbill) would mean that at least 101 species were available within the York area on Sunday... How many else were lurking out there, surely (based on local knowledge) Brambling, Blackcap, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Long-eared Owl, Green Sandpiper, White-fronted Goose, Iceland Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Glaucous Gull, Mediterranean Gull were all about but just not evident... that takes it to a possible 111!!! In the York area!!!

So all in all, 100 species has to be feasible. Next year...

Since my original report Tim has written up York Heslington's day,and Jono has written up another take on our day - with some pictures (sorry Jono, didn't know you were hungry!!!), interestingly entitled Part One... Whats to come next.....?

Little Owl c/o Chris Gomersall

Bird Race York Record SMASHED (twice!)

2012-01-08T22:23:00.008Z

Today was the day of the Michael Clegg Memorial Bird Race with teams competing to raise funds for a local cause - this year to provide funds to provide habitat management to a new wildlife site in York.

I was part of the LDV Birders team, made up of Russell Slack, Jono Leadley, John Beaumont and me, Andy Walker! The previous best total for the York Recording area was 86 species, so that was our target! There were several other teams from the York area, our biggest competition would be from Chris Gomersall, Tim Jones, Ollie Metcalf and Jack Ashton-Booth's team - at least for bragging rights anyway!

The day didn't quite start as planned with John, who was picking Jono up from York getting a blow out on the A1! We had to immediately change plans! This seriously impacted on our start time + location as Russ and I had to drive up from Bank Island - our original starting place, to Bishopthorpe to pick up Jono. All this meant we didn't get started until 0815/0830ish! Russ and I couldn't believe that Ollie got his traffic cop mate to put a stinger out in front of John - total sabotage!!!

As events would transpire Johns' misfortune turned out to our benefit as on picking Jono up we hit Bishopthorpe Ings (a new local site for me), getting several key birds such as Kingfisher, Goosander, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Bullfinch, Coot, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Siskin.

We then moved on to Askham Bog (another new site for me) where we hit up Marsh Tit, Willow Tit, Jay, Goldcrest, Lesser Redpoll and Woodcock.

Grey Wagtail c/o Chris Gomersall

Our third site was Dringhouses Pond where we had Great Crested Grebe (and another Goosander!).

We then drove around through Crockey Hill and Naburn to Escrick, highlights here included a mega flock of Corn Bunting and Yellowhammer (over 30 of the former in one tree!), Skylark, Meadow Pipit, House Sparrow and Common Buzzard.

Next up was Escrick, where we connected with Nuthatch and Mistle Thrush (by this point we'd also seen Blackbird, Song Thrush, Fieldfare and Redwing).

Then it was on to Wheldrake over the back road, en route at a cracker of a lookout we connected with Tree Sparrow, Golden Plover, Shelduck, Sparrowhawk, c40. Pink-footed Goose and 3 Bean Goose.

We then got to Bank Island - Wheldrake where we got a few new species such as Cormorant, Wigeon, Teal, Pintail, Shoveler, Kestrel, Peregrine, Ruff, Lapwing, and Dunlin. It was here that John found a very interesting Buzzard. Front on it looked spot on for Rough-legged Buzzard - pretty much perfect, however when it dropped down the tail didn't look 100% right. We didn't count the bird (apparently in the area since Boxing Day) - but will check on it during the week and may add 1 species to our final tally if it turns out to be one.

Green Sandpiper c/o Chris Gomersall

After Bank Island we drove around several sites in the north of the LDV where we added Common Snipe, Grey Partridge, Little Grebe. It was here we hit the wall. Not our energy, but we ran out of birds/luck. Several of our decent sites for Grey Wagtail, Little Owl, White-fronted Goose, Egyptian Goose and Green Sandpiper all drew blanks....... time was pressing, we needed to get to Wheldrake but we also needed these 5 species.

We bit the bullet, ditching our chances for the above and made our way to Wheldrake. As late afternoon approached we waited in hope for a white-winger to drop into the gull roost - no luck here however as we waited we picked up Whooper Swan, Curlew, Goldeneye, Tawny Owl, Barn Owl, and a real surprise in the shape of 2 Short-eared Owls! The latter was certainly not expected as SEOs are rare in the LDV - these were in fact my first in the valley!

Great news, not only had we equalled the previous best (86), in the last half hour of light we'd smashed the record too, moving on to 90 species! A final hour in darkness trying to connect with something, anything, like a Redshank or Little Owl failed, however we were fairly please with our haul.

Looking back we missed some major species that on a better day we may have connected with - certainly species that we know the whereabouts of on any other day of the week such as Jack Snipe, Crossbill, Green Woodpecker and Green Sandpiper, but most disappointingly Redshank, Little Owl and Grey Wagtail!

Little Owl c/o Chris Gomersall

What about the other teams I hear you ask, well as far as I know the only other team that got close to our total was Ollie, Tim, Jack and Chris, who also beat the previous record.... they too managed 90 species!!! Congratulations to them too!!! An amazing coincidence!! So now, both of our teams hold the record (unless we can get better looks at the unusual buzzard!!)! Our list is below - check out Tims blog for a comparison of totals...

It was a great day and for a good cause, it will be interesting to see how the other teams have done across Yorkshire too, and how much money has been raised.

We are looking forward to next years event, anyone for a May Bird Race....

1. Little Grebe
2. Great Crested Grebe
3. Cormorant
4. Grey Heron
5. Muste Swan
6. Whooper Swan
7. Bean Goose
8. Pink-footed Goose
9. Greylag
10. Canada Goose
11. Shelduck
12. Wigeon
13. Gadwall
14. Teal
15. Mallard
16. Pintail
17. Shoveler
18. Pochard
19. Tufted Duck
20. Goldeneye
21. Goosander
22. Sparrowhawk
23. Kestrel
24. Buzzard
25. Peregrine
26. Red-legged Partridge
27. Grey Partridge
28. Pheasant
29. Water Rail
30. Moorhen
31. Coot
32. Golden Plover
33. Lapwing
34. Ruff
35. Dunlin
36. Common Snipe
37. Woodcock
38. Curlew
39. Black-headed Gull
40. Common Gull
41. Lesser Black-backed Gull
42. Herring Gull
43. Great Black-backed Gull
44. Feral Pigeon 'Rock Dove'
45. Stock Dove
46. Wood Pigeon
47. Collared Dove
48. Barn Owl
49. Tawny Owl
50. Short-eared Owl
51. Kingfisher
52. Great Spotted Woodpecker
53. Skylark
54. Meadow Pipit
55. Pied Wagtail
56. Wren
57. Dunnock
58. Robin
59. Blackbird
60. Fieldfare
61. Song Thrush
62. Redwing
63. Mistle Thrush
64. Goldcrest
65. Long-tailed Tit
66. Willow Tit
67. Marsh Tit
68. Coal Tit
69. Blue Tit
70. Great Tit
71. Nuthatch
72. Treecreeper
73. Jay
74. Magpie
75. Jackdaw
76. Rook
77. Carrion Crow
78. Starling
79. House Sparrow
80. Tree Sparrow
81. Chaffinch
82. Greenfinch
83. Goldfinch
84. Siskin
85. Linnet
86. Lesser Redpoll
87. Bullfinch
88. Yellowhammer
89. Reed Bunting
90. Corn Bunting

Ubatuba: Brazil Birding Tour

2012-01-06T23:25:00.009Z

Bird Race on Sunday, looking forward to that...in the meantime I've spent the last week working on putting together a birding tour to Brazil for Tico Tours. I'll post details of the full itinerary soon but in the meantime check out some of the images below from the area of main focus, Ubatuba.

Ubatuba sits on the coast in the northeast corner of Sao Paulo, Brazil, of the areas 711 square Kms, 83% is within the Serra do Mar State Park which therefore makes it an important area of contiguous forest where many endemic animals and plants thrive. The coastal stretch is one of the most beautiful in the country, (with over 80 beaches) and the area is also famed for the Atlantic Rainforest, which includes restingas and mangroves, lowland and interior forest and high altitude pastures, each with its own myriad of species. All of the various habitats outlined above result in a bird list in the region of almost 500 species! This tour will focus on the range of habitats available in the region with the focus on connecting with as many as possible, as well as learning about some of these fascinating species.

Brazilian Tanager - It has to be one of the Atlantic Rainforests most spectacular of endemic birds © Elsie Laura

Brazilian Ruby © Elsie Laura

Golden-rumped Euphonia © Elsie Laura

Green-headed Tanager - One of the most beautiful birds around © Elsie Laura

Red-necked Tanager © Elsie Laura

Saw-billed Hermit © Elsie Laura

Black-capped Foliage-Gleaner © Elsie Laura

Maroon-bellied Parakeet © Elsie Laura

White-bearded Manakin © Elsie Laura

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker © Elsie Laura

For many more incredible images check out the Tico Tours facebook page.

Review of 2011: WARNING: This report contains some AWESOME birds!

2012-01-01T21:48:00.018Z

This will be a brief review of 2011, in what was a pretty cool birding year for me both at work and for pleasure both home and abroad. Some of the photos are mine, and others are not – it will be clear which are which! It was good to meet up with old birding friends, and make some new one too - some of their work is included in this report. If you click on some of the bird names etc it will direct you to the relevant page with more details.

The year got going with Rufous Turtle Dove, Ross’ Goose, Rough-legged Buzzard and Arctic Redpoll all in the first few weeks of the year and local interest in the form of a wintering Great Grey Shrike, several Common Crane and Glaucous Gull along with huge numbers of wildfowl such as Whooper Swans and a range of geese and raptors. Work ‘ticks’ during this period included a single Tundra Bean Goose on one of my sites.

Rufous Turtle Dove © Bob Duckhouse 2011.

Spring and Summer were busy with work, mainly report writing but I managed to get some decent surveying in, resulting in breeding Nightjar, Merlin, Short-eared Owl, Peregrine, plenty of Quail (one site with c.20 singing birds!) and a plethora of Little Ringed Plover too across several of my sites, along with a decent range of scarce breeders too. Rarity highlight during the period included the famous White-throated Robin – seen down to a few metres in the Doctors garden and a local Marsh Sandpiper. A Quail singing and audible from my house was a nice surprise!

White-throated Robin off my phone.

It was at this time, late spring, that Jenny and I took a very successful trip over to Cyprus resulting in a number of new birds (Cyprus Warbler, Cyprus Wheatear, Chukar, Cretzschmar’s Bunting), some incredible avian spectacles (e.g. thousands of migrating swifts, daily totals of three/four figure bee-eaters flocks, dozens of golden orioles, red-backed shrikes, breeding Rollers and Bonelli’s Eagles, singing Masked Shrike and tonnes of Eleonoras Falcons etc), lots of endemic sub-species (future armchair ticks) and even a national rarity, Little Swift! This was a truly brilliant location – trip report starts here and trip list here.

Bee-eater (© Mike Bowman 2011)

Masked Shrike singing (© Mike Bowman 2011)

Eleonora's Falcon (© Mike Bowman 2011)

Autumn started early, and lasted a long while, and was amazing, bordering on insane! Yellow-legged gulls started building up in a local field on my dog-walking circuit, peaking at at least 10 birds. A trip to Lincolnshire resulted in a very confiding American Black Tern and a couple of Red-necked Grebe that had an air of holboellii about them. In September things started to kick off down on the Scillies so I thought it only polite to partake in some of the riches and dragged Dave down there twice (September 23rd – 26th and October 17th – 22nd) kicking and screaming all the way...

American Black Tern (© Robert Hardy 2011)

Highlights from these trips included: Northern Waterthrush, Scarlet Tanager, Upland Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, Red-eyed Vireo (1 re-found), Olive-backed Pipit (2), Lesser Yellowlegs (1 self-found), Pectoral Sandpiper (3/4), Melodious Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Black Kite, Wryneck (1 self-sound), Ortolan Bunting, Yellow-browed Warbler (loads + self-found), Woodchat Shrike, White-spotted Bluethroat, Richard’s Pipit (1 self-found), Red-throated Pipit (1 or 2, 1 self-found), Water Pipit (1 self-found), Buff-breasted Sandpiper (2 – 1 self-found), Firecrest (dozens + self-found), Siberian Chiffchaff (1 self-found), Balearic Shearwater (6), Leach’s Petrel (2), Sabine’s Gull (1) and several Black Redstart. Good Scillies birds, but hardly awe-inspiring included Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush and Pink-footed Goose! Several Cirl Bunting and Chough were enjoyed en-route.

Solitary Sandpiper © Andrew Vinson 2011

Northern Waterthrush © Andrew Vinson 2011

Upland Sandpiper - off my mobile phone

Wilson's Snipe - off my mobile phone

Olive-backed Pipit - off my mobile phone

I’d have been happy with the above, the autumn on the east coast had been rubbish until early November, when it finally kicked off, allowing me to catch up with Isabelline Wheatear, Greater Yellowlegs and Eastern Black Redstart. Thinking that my luck was in I ventured down for the Western Sandpiper and connected with that too. Another great set of birds, though I did chicken out of the Veery twitch (and would have connected in hindsight)!

Isabelline Wheatear - off my phone

Greater Yellowlegs, Hauxley NR © Frank Golding 2011.

Eastern Black Redstart, Holy Island © Tristan Reid

The one that got away....Veery © Stephen MacDonald 2011

Work was also enjoyable during the Autumn and Winter period with three sites in particular being very good, resulting in up to approximately 10 Hen Harriers being seen as well as dozens of Marsh Harrier, 5/6 Short-eared Owl, regular Merlin and Peregrine, some more Tundra Bean Geese, and a (very) in land "paradoxus" Black Redstart. Two other ‘work ticks’ in the form of a very showy Rough-legged Buzzard and a Rustic Bunting in November and December finished off the year nicely! As did Peregrine and Woodcock over my office in York city centre.

Looking forward to what 2012 will bring, a trip to the Pyrenees is on the cards which will hopefully result in one of my top 10 most wanted birds – Lammergeier, and who knows what else, hopefully a few more UK ticks too... Looking forward to it... Good birding.

Lammergeier © Nature Photography UK

Lammergeier © Nature Photography UK

Peregrine Rage!

2011-12-30T22:59:00.002Z

I did a day surveying today as I took a day off last week instead of working in order to prep for Christmas. The weather was perfect today, cold but still and dry. There was tonnes of Golden Plover activity today with thousands of birds about the place however the highlight was a frustratingly brief view of a Christmas cracker adult male Hen Harrier - stunner.

The real highlight came in the last 5 minutes of my 2011 surveys, I picked up on a female Peregrine shooting towards me, then heard a scream and looked around to see two smaller falcons tanking low along the ground in the same directions, a little confusion: male Peregrine chasing female kestrel or merlin? bins up, BASH adult male ripping into a juvenile male Peregrine!!! They were so loud and certainly not happy about seeing each other! As they shot about high then low constantly at each other the female carried on through keeping an eye on proceedings. They eventually went out of my sight but what a way to end my 2011 surveys! Total Peregrine Rage!

Cotingas and Manakins - A book Review

2011-12-28T21:27:00.002Z

I was very lucky this Christmas to get a couple of really good books. One of which was Cotingas and Manakins by Guy Kirwan and Graeme Green (Helm Identification Guide Series 2011). Illustrated by Eustace Barnes.

This is a mammoth Helm Guide and follows on from some really strong books that I love such as Sylvia Warblers and Gulls of Europe, Asia and North America. I've just started to work through the book - at 640+ pages crammed with data it will take a while. I've been lucky enough to have seen several species in the book through plenty of time spent in Costa Rica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago such as the impressive Long-tailed Manakin, Snowy Cotinga and Bare-necked Umbrellabird, the mythical Sharpbill, Grey-headed Piprities and Thrushlike Shiffornis to name a few...

The front cover featuring amazing artwork of Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock by Eustace Barnes.

The New World tropics possess the richest avifauna on Earth, with more than 4000 recorded species, many of which are endemic. Two groups found exclusively in this region are the Cotingas and the Manakins. Few other families of birds have such widespread appeal; they are much sought-after by birdwatchers for their colourful displays, unusual plumages and, in some cases, great rarity. For scientists, their natural history and behaviour provide fascinating case studies that yield important data in the quest to understand evolutionary biology, while, for taxonomists, elucidating their relationships has proved at times fascinatingly elusive, with many novel and unusual developments.

Two decades ago the species covered in this book were generally considered to comprise two families, but ongoing molecular work has revealed much about the relationships of these birds. One new family has been erected (the Tityridae) and another more widely recognised (Oxyruncidae). These and other resuls spawned principally by genetic research mean that this diverse assemblage of species is now considered to belong to at least five different families.

This book represents the definitive work on these jewels of the Neotropics, looking in detail at more than l30 species. These range from some of the rarest and most enigmatic birds in the world to some of the best-studied of all tropical species; many are breathtakingly colourful and ornate, but some are dowdy and difficult to see. The authors have lent heavily on the published literature, but have also included many personal, previously unpublished data, based on both field and museum studies. The texts are supported by 34 colour plates by Eustace Barnes, who has also observed many of the species in the field, as well as by detailed distribution maps and approximately 400 stunning photographs that cover all but a tiny handful of species. Some samples pages of the book are shown below.

After a few days of flicking through this books it has done three things:

1) Reminded me of some of the awesome birds I've seen;
2) Reminded me why I love and want to go back to the Neotropics again. Soon! and,
3) Reminded me of some of the awesome birds I've not seen yet... I want Araripe Manakin and some Cock-of-the-Rock action!

This is an excellent read and certainly well worth getting a copy if you have any interest in this group of birds or in Neotropical birding. I'm glad I've got a couple more days off work as I'm struggling to put it down!

Plate 15: Sharpbill, Scaled Fruiteater and Elegant Mourner.

Plate 28: Capuchinbird and Crimson Fruitcrow.

Orange-bellied Manakin text and map page.

Orange-bellied Manakin photo page.

Banded Cotinga photo page.

A morning walk around Skipwith

2011-12-27T21:22:00.003Z

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we all went for a walk around Skipwith, taking in the periphery of the Common and some nice farmland to the north. We went on a route that I've not been on before which was interesting to see.

There was a decent tit flock near where we parked the car, lots of Great, Blue and Coal Tit with a couple of Treecreeper all showing well. There was a sizeable flock of Chaffinch too and a nice mix of Thrushes: Song, Mistle, Blackbird, Fieldfare and Redwing all showing well to close range. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker were vocal too as they called from the tree-tops. A small patch of hedgerow held a dozen Tree Sparrow, several Reed Bunting and a couple of Yellowhammer. The usual Dunncok, Robin and Wrens were all busy in the hedge bottoms. There was quite a few Red-legs and Pheasants keeping low trying to avoid the Boxing Day guns and raptors on show included a couple of Kestrels and a few Sparrowhawk.

As we were at the stables in Escrick checking on Jennys horse a Peregrine showed well as it flew low overhead before stooping down behind a copse flushing several dozen Wood Pigeon.

Lesser Canada Goose - North Duffield...

2011-12-24T22:37:00.005Z

I popped down to North Duffield briefly this evening with my Dad to try and look for Barn Owls and seeing what else was down there. Unfortunately we didn't see any owls but there was a brief show from a couple of Peregrines, a party of 4 Buzzards were up in the air together and a Kestrel and Sparrowhawk were knocking about too.

Wigeon and Teal were vocal and a few were flying about too. Highlight however was this flock of Lesser Canada Geese, about half a dozen, not sure where they've come from... sorry about quality of pic, taken on phone in almost darkness!

By the way Happy Christmas to everyone! When I'm off during the week I'll write my review of the year - for what has been a very successful year (unless I'm out birding again!)

PS - Don't worry the geese are decoys, but they got me excited for a few moments until I saw the guy in the bushes with his AK!

Interesting insight into Honey-Buzzard breeding bahaviour

2011-12-22T23:18:00.002Z

Found the following interesting report today: Camcorder to rescue as Honey Buzzards spread their wings:

Bird experts have unveiled their latest weapon in a bid to shed light on the secret life of the elusive honey buzzard – a camcorder.

The striking face of a honey buzzard snapped on its visit to South Wales.

The tree-mounted camcorder was moved between carefully selected sites by Forestry Commission Wales to track the movements and habits of the rare bird of prey – so-called because of its unique diet.

Along with honey buzzard expert Steve Roberts, Forestry Commission Wales has been studying the birds for a number of years with the help of a static nest camera to record their annual visits to the forests of South Wales.

The camera provided important information on the birds’ breeding habits, but proved to be less successful over the past few seasons as the birds used other nest sites to breed.

Forestry Commission Wales Conservation and Heritage Manager Rosalind Codd said, “Birds can change nest locations each breeding season and a camcorder is useful for recording previously ringed birds, for example, as it can be moved between nests".

“The mobile nest camera project proved very successful in its first year, with a number of active nests found and filmed in detail by Steve".

“Footage such as hunting patterns, nest building, feeding behaviour, growth and activity of chicks was recorded, and we were able to begin identifying individual birds in each nest.”

Honey buzzards build their nests on branches of large trees and are usually found in areas where there are big mature forests, such as those in South Wales, but the exact location of their nests is closely guarded because of the threat from egg collectors.

The birds arrive from their wintering grounds in equatorial Africa in mid-May and the adults fly non-stop back to Africa in September. Migrating birds have been tracked using satellite transmitters funded by Forestry Commission Scotland, which also demonstrated the vulnerability of young birds on their first migrations.

The honey buzzard population is stable through most of Europe but is a rare breeder in the UK. It’s not known how many there in Wales, partly due to the inconspicuous nature of the bird.

Forestry Commission Wales has also been funding the ringing of a number of chicks which could be identified by the camcorder to establish their age and determine the range that birds are prepared to travel to find a mate and establish new nest sites.

Rosalind said, “We are very privileged to have these rare birds breeding in South Wales and it’s great to be involved in such an important project".

“The results will prove invaluable in helping to understand these secretive birds and to gain a better idea of their habitat requirements. This will help us to make informed management decisions to enhance such valuable habitats for the future.”

The honey buzzard is best identified by its long head shape and distinctive two or three bars on its tail. It is usually silent, but can make whistling noises near its nest and is sometimes confused with the common buzzard.

Honey buzzards feed mainly on the nests, larvae, pupae and adults of wasps, bees, bumblebees and hornets. The birds follow flying insects to the nest and dig as deep as 40cm with their feet to reach their prey.

It has small, dense, scale-like feathers on the front of its face to help prevent it being stung by its prey, and powerful feet with thick scales and slightly curved claws of almost equal size for digging and walking, as well as slit-like nostrils to reduce soil blockage while digging.

When main prey is scarce, they will eat other insects, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, nestlings and eggs of birds, worms, fruit and berries. Its peculiar diet is also the reason behind its alternative name of “bee hawk”.

The data from this year’s breeding season will now be collated and Steve will begin to build a data set for the birds breeding in South Wales.

Rosalind added, “We hope the project will continue in future years and, in time, we will get a much better grasp of this elusive bird’s ecology and behaviour.”

So Many Harriers

2011-12-19T23:21:00.003Z

So far this winter I've seen more Hen Harriers than I can remember, and I'm loving it!

Hen Harriers are such awesome birds, I could watch them for hours and days and not get bored! Good job really as I seem to be having a few on my sites at present which is great fun to be able to watch and study them as they go about their business.

I was at a site in Lincolnshire today that has already turned up some good birds in the few times I've been. Today was no exception with a cracking ring-tail Hen Harrier giving the Linnet flock cause for concern as it flew right past me, followed later on in the day by a cracking adult male that spent some time nearby as it hunted along the various ditches.

Further highlights included a pair of Peregrine almost catching a Pigeon, Water Pipit in a frozen ditch and thousands of Fieldfare with a decent number of Blackbird thrown in. I'll be keeping my eyes on the flock of 50+ Yellowhammer, just in case they are joined by anything a bit rarer....

Black Redstart: Smart Find!

2011-12-15T22:14:00.008Z

Yesterday I spent the day in the office, unfortunately no sign of the Peregrine putting the fear of god into the feral pigeons. One of my surveyors dropped me a message saying they'd just found a Great Grey Shrike on one of my sites - a great find. Unfortunately due to the weather forecast we had to move some surveys around for the end of the week which meant I got to drop a day in the office for some winter walkover surveying today.

The forecast for clear sky and sun had me looking forward to a day wandering about in the winter chill in the hope of connecting with something half decent, maybe even a shrike. When I opened the curtains and found a covering of snow and thick mist my expectations for the day soon decreased!

On arrival at the site there was no snow but it was blowing a cold cold wind with the occasional sleet shower but at least the sun was coming out. Unfortunately a flock of geese didn't contain any of the scarcer species that have been relatively abundant this winter.

As I walked around some scrub near a waterbody a few Dunnock and Robin were alarm-calling away (was there a Shrike about?) and then up popped another bird - typically it popped up straight into the sun, I lifted my bins but couldn't quite place it, was there a white patch in the wing? The bird made an unfamiliar clicking sound as it jumped higher into the tree, a flash of red - I wished it would move out of the sun, another 'click' and it flew into the top of a pine tree briefly before dropping down towards the waterbody. I jumped a couple of walls and refound the bird on the waters edge - Black Redstart, and a cracking male - a bit wind blown but a smart bird nevertheless. I'm thinking this is a juvenile male in ‘paradoxus plumage’ - (where it essentially looks similar to an adult male). I got on the radio to inform the other guys out on site and managed to get a record shot (phone-binned) - below. It was interesting seeing the more-typical Black Redstart after seeing the Eastern Black Redstart on Holy Island a couple of weeks back.

Black Redstart(Phone-binned)

Black Redstart(Phone-binned)

Black Redstart(Phone-binned)

Black Redstart(Phone-binned)

The Black Redstart showed well for 10 minutes but then I had to get on my way and continue my survey but it seemed pretty settled as there was plenty of insects about. A little altercation was noted with a Grey Wagtail but it gave as good as it got!

The rest of the survey was pretty uneventful, at least in my zone, however the other guys had some decent birds, highlights included Short-eared Owl, several hundred Common Snipe, 3+ Jack Snipe, Kingfisher and a Peregrine nailing a Common Snipe.

Short-eared Owl: Ringing reveals mysterious migration

2011-12-14T23:09:00.000Z

There appears to be a large number of Short-eared Owls wintering in the UK this year, including some in the York Recording Area. Hopefully I'll catch up with one at North Duffield or somewhere else in the LDV soon. I am getting good views of up to 4 birds on one of my sites which is enjoyable.

Short-eared Owl © Steve Garvie 2009

A new, interesting paper has just been published in Journal of Ornithology - Changing migration patterns of the Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus in Europe: an analysis of ringing recoveries.

Analyses of almost 500 ringing recoveries spanning nearly a century show marked spatial and temporal differences in the migration patterns of Short-eared Owls (Asio flammeus) in Europe. Despite several spectacular sightings in recent months, this species is a candidate for red-listing (based on marked range contractions apparent from the Atlas). Short-eared Owls are known to show considerable annual variation in their “irruptive” migration. However this study has found that the distances travelled increased from the 1920s through to the 1960s and 1970s, but have since fallen. This provides circumstantial evidence about likely population changes (earlier studies by the BTO have shown the problems in trying to survey this species); it is speculated that the increase in migration distance was associated with population growth in the early to mid-20th century, and similarly, that populations have declined since the 1970s. Ringing recoveries also showed that birds hatching or breeding in Scandinavia and Central Europe travelled the furthest on migration, while those from Britain and the low-lying North Sea area made the shortest journeys. A reduced tendency to migrate the greater distances in the latter part of the 20th Century may have contributed to breeding declines in more southern and isolated parts of these birds’ range, where populations could have been compromised without periodic immigration. However, shorter distances between breeding and wintering grounds, especially within Britain and some British island groups, could also be particularly favourable in facilitating the conservation of this vulnerable and globally declining species: management plans are often simpler when targeted at smaller spatial scales.

Read the full paper here.

NEW Shocking Persecution in UK

2011-12-13T19:48:00.009Z

Today I've found out about 2 further cases of some appalling bird persecution that have occurred in the UK this year, in a year that has seen numerous cases of persecution hit the headlines, e.g. here.

Firstly: The case of serial egg-collector Matthew Gonshaw (aged 49) of Cherrywood Close, Bow in East London who has extended his infamy as Britain's most imprisoned egg collector. He has been sentenced to yet another jail term, for six months, following conviction for stealing and possessing wild birds' eggs, including those of some of the rarest and most threatened birds in the UK.

Press Association

Watch out for this guy on your local patch - and then phone the police, or maybe some other birders...
Press Association

Gonshaw's home in East London was raided by officers from the Metropolitan Police and RSPB Investigations unit on 2nd June this year. Nearly 700 eggs were found at the premises.

Gonshaw faced 10 charges, including taking five Golden Eagle eggs and 12 Avocet eggs from the wild, and possessing eggs from specially protected species, including seven Golden Eagle eggs, eight Osprey eggs, 12 Avocet eggs, three Peregrine eggs, three Red Kite eggs, and 12 eggs of other specially protected species. The remaining wild birds' eggs were all illegally held but were from species not covered by Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Eggs seized Press Association

More Eggs seized Press Association

Avocet Eggs Press Association

Becky Owen, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service in London, said: "We have worked closely with the RSPB and the Met Police Wildlife Crime Unit to secure this conviction and our hope is it sends out a strong message about the seriousness of these crimes. Matthew Gonshaw's criminal actions caused untold damage to wildlife in the UK. He has plundered nearly 700 eggs, including some from endangered species such as Golden Eagles and Ospreys."

This is his fifth conviction relating to his collection.

In April 2001, he was caught raiding a golden eagle's nest in the outer Hebrides and fined £500. In 2002, he received a three-month sentence for stealing rare British species of eggs, but officers were unable to find his collection. In 2004, he was jailed for four months and fined £5,000 in Scotland for taking eggs and he was jailed again for six months in 2005 after being caught with more than 700 eggs.

I would hope the court has set this guys prison sentence to cover the 6 month breeding season, he obviously likes two things: 1) Collecting birds eggs and 2) Spending time in a cell. A bit of advice for Mr Gonshaw - don't drop the soap.

Secondly: The hunting of wild birds in Malta and Cyprus is widely reported, though little ever seems to happen to anyone caught doing it, despite so called EU protection for our migratory birds. Last year I read about hunters from these countries catching boats to Egypt to hunt birds over there and today I found out about Maltese hunters that have been coming to the UK to shoot our birds - see press release below:

Three persons were on Monday night apprehended by customs at Malta International Airport in possession of dead protected birds. The three persons were returning from a hunting trip in the UK.

A joint operation between Customs, Administrative Law Enforcement police, MEPA officials and veterinary services officials revealed a number of protected birds including birds of prey concealed in their luggage amongst other legal game.

The birds were protected by international law. The persons in question are expected to be arraigned in court soon.

Dead Peregrine

This news, along with that above totally appall me, and I hope all people involved in birds conservation and birding get together and stop this from happening, whether it is a "gentle word" in the ear of a known egger, or pressure on politicians...

Peregrine: Office tick!

2011-12-12T21:43:00.002Z

A couple of days back I had my third record of Peregrine over my garden.

Today I was back in the office and a little after 9 am just as I was making a cup of tea Ollie spotted a Peregrine flying low over the York city centre roofs as the feral pigeons went crazy! The bird, a juvenile female gave a couple of passes coming right in front of the window on one occasion! A great addition to my office list! Hopefully the plethora of feral pigeons will encourage it to stay around through the winter as it will make report writing a bit more enjoyable!

Strangely this was not my first Peregrine falcon of the day as whilst sat in the traffic on the York ringroad at the A1079 a male shot through on the hunt for some breakfast...

Western Sandpiper: Cley, Norfolk (late news!)

2011-12-11T21:57:00.006Z

A bit late this as I've been a bit busy decorating and stuff but last weekend Dave and I shot down to Norfolk in order to try and connect with the 'peep'.

Not THE "peep", but not far off it © Alan Wilson 2007

We had a fairly uneventful journey on the long and windy road to Cley stuck at 40mph for most of the way, but luckily Dave had brought some decent music to make the time fly by!

It was 'freezing' down there according to some (the cockney element), they should come to Yorkshire if they want to know what cold is like!!! We made our way down to the hides to be greeted with "It was showing (with 7 Dunlin) but was flushed by a Merlin, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier". We waited for a while but there was no sign and it was getting noisier and noisier in there (Why do people feel the need to be so loud in these hides?)

As the crowd was starting to annoy me I went into the next hide, which was deserted - awesome, a whole hide to myself overlooking a massive area, now all I needed to do was find the bird!

After 15 or so minutes of scanning, with only a few Dunlin (but lots of Lapwing, Ruff etc about) and a flock of approximately 60 Snow Bunting flying along the beach in the distance, a Marsh Harrier made its way across the back of the marsh, in doing so it started flushing all of the waterfowl. Birds started to drop in closer to the hide and stick their heads out of the longer grass to keep an eye on the raptor.

A small party of Dunlin landed right in front of the hide, 6 of them, but no American "peep" in amongst them. A bit more scanning and I was onto a small wader walking out of sight along a small channel. That has to be it I thought, it was noticeably small though the fraction of a second view was hardly conclusive. A small group of birders appeared into the hide. A short while later the bird walked into view again. Scope on it, "It's here" I said to the few guys and I called Dave who was in the other hide. Just as it walked out of view again Dave came through, shortly followed by the contents of the other hide and after a short and nervous wait the bird came into view, cue loads more noise as people tried to see it.

The "peep" showed well, quite a distinctive bird, a smart Western Sandpiper. After a while something flushed a few of the waders (the hide noise maybe?) and the Western did a little flight where it landed right in front of another hide with a Dunlin that had appeared from nowhere, cue mass exodus to another hide where the bird showed incredibly well briefly, allowing a full range of diagnostic features to be seen, before being flushed again, this time definitely by the hide noise and then it flew out of sight. It didn't come back during the rest of our stay on the reserve.

A good, yet frustrating day. A good ID challenge (I think the bird had started its time at Cley as a Little Stint, had turned into a Semi-palmated Sandpiper before becoming a Western Sandpiper...), made all the more difficult by the loudness in the hides. Some people need a lesson in hide etiquette...

I didn't manage any photos however here are a few pictures of Western Sandpipers looking a bit smarter than the bird I saw!

Western Sandpiper © Arthur Morris (Birds as Art)

Western Sandpiper © Arthur Morris (Birds as Art)

Species CAN change...

2011-12-10T23:15:00.003Z

A study of South American songbirds completed by the Department of Biology at Queen’s University and the Argentine Museum of Natural History, has discovered these birds differ dramatically in colour and song yet show very little genetic differences which indicates they are on the road to becoming a new species.

“One of Darwin’s accomplishments was to show that species could change, that they were not the unaltered, immutable products of creation,” says Leonardo Campagna, a Ph.-D biology student at the Argentine Museum of Natural History in Buenos Aires, who studied at Queen’s as part of his thesis. “However it is only now, some 150 years after the publication of his most important work, On the Origin of Species, that we have the tools to begin to truly understand all of the stages that might lead to speciation which is the process by which an ancestral species divides into two or more new species.”

For decades scientists have struggled to understand all of the varied forces that give rise to distinct species. Mr. Campagna and his research team studied a group of nine species of South American seedeaters (finches) to understand when and how they evolved.

The study found differences in male reproductive plumage and in some key aspects of the songs that they use to court females. Now, the group is looking to find the genes that underlie these differences, as these so-called candidate genes may well prove to be responsible for the evolution of a new species. This will allow researchers to gain insights into evolution.

“Studies like ours teach us something about what species really are, what processes are involved and what might be lost if these and other species disappear.”

The findings were recently published in Proceedings of The Royal Society.

Garden Peregrine

2011-12-09T23:33:00.003Z

Spent a couple of hours working at home this morning before heading in to the office. A reward for being sat at my desk at 9am came in the form of a 2nd year male Peregrine that burst out of a clamour of rooks that were scattering left right and center by this lean mean hunting machine. It shot straight over the garden and then over the house. I raced to the bedroom and caught it as it came over the roof before it closed its wings and stooped into the stubble field in front of the house putting up a mass of corvids, pigeons and starlings. With a bit of luck it may even have caught one of the village cats! This is my third garden Peregrine sighting since we moved in, just over 12 months ago, hopefully it will become a regular occurrence during the winter?

What a bird! Peregrine (Source Unknown)

Wind? What Wind?

2011-12-08T22:03:00.005Z

I'll admit to being a bit nervous about today's field work. After a chat with a few old hands we decided to go with it, the forecast 50+mph gusts were what was worrying me, combined with some torrential showers too - not much fun!

Luckily I managed to get the VP out of the wind - luck more than planning I think as the wind switched several directions after I hatched my cunning plan to avoid sitting in it all day, however it was still pretty windy!

There was still some bird activity despite the wind levels - good activity too, mostly low to the ground! It was difficult to judge just how much activity there was compared to normal as I was at a different location to my past two visits to this site. Highlights included close up views of an adult male Peregrine hunting Wood Pigeon - almost making a kill, adult male and ring-tail Hen Harriers, cream-crown Marsh Harrier and juvenile (probably male) Merlin (phone pics below).

Merlin off my phone

Merlin off my phone

Other interest was provided at "the watering hole" - a small (1 foot by 3 foot) puddle on a farm track next to my VP that attracted 12 Greenfinch, 5 Chaffinch, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 5 Redwing, 2 Song Thrush, 10+ Blackbird but most interesting of all, 2 Lesser Redpoll and a Green Woodpecker! (phone pic below - this is really NOT a place you'd expect to find a Green Woody!!!). Luckily the rain held off until 5 minutes after we'd finished the survey, it came down proper hard so I was glad I was back in the landy and warm and dry! We even managed not to get crushed by any articulated trucks getting blown over in the wind! All in all another good day.

Green Woodpecker off my phone

Pintail Garden Tick!

2011-12-07T21:33:00.003Z

I worked at home today, the weather was appalling for the majority of the day but as I looked out of the window nearing dusk I was pleased to note a huge flock of ducks, getting on for 500 birds, mainly Wigeon and Teal and the odd Mallard but mixed in with them was getting on for a dozen or so Pintail - a new garden tick!

They flew in the direction of Skipwith Common from North Duffield and appeared to go down there - but not sure where given how dry it is on the Common at the moment! Presumably there had been something going on in the LDV that flushed the lot of them! If only there was some water down there I might have got some diving ducks in with them! Though it does give me hope for the winter...

Pintail © Mark and Jen Rowlands 2009

Allen's Gallinule and it's still alive too....

2011-12-06T22:29:00.004Z

Another one in Spain - well Fuerteventura today and this one is alive, as can be seen from the great pictures taken by David Perez below (more on Rare Birds Spain). This record follows hot on the heels of a not-so-alive bird found at Palma Airport, Mallorca on 1st December. Maybe there are more out there a bit closer to home....

Allen's Gallinule Fuerteventura © David Perez 2011

Allen's Gallinule Fuerteventura © David Perez 2011

A brighter future for Europe’s rarest migratory songbird

2011-12-05T22:03:00.003Z

An interesting article from Birdlife International on Friday, reproduced below...

Aquatic Warbler, the rarest and the only globally threatened passerine bird in mainland Europe, is facing a brighter future thanks to six years of intensive work within a LIFE project (part financed by the European Commission), coordinated by OTOP (BirdLife in Poland). Swarovski Optik, Cemex Poland and the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) kindly agreed to co-finance the other part of the €5 million project.

Aquatic Warbler © Andrzej Kośmicki

“Aquatic Warbler belongs to a very special habitat characterised by peatlands fed by groundwater, called ‘fen mires’. Protecting this bird by restoring its habitat means at the same time to improve the conservation for other rare species that also live in fen mires”, explains Lars Lachmann, the project coordinator working at the same time for OTOP and for the RSPB, also partner in the project.

In the last century, all but a very few fen mires have been drained for agriculture or peat extraction, causing a catastrophic decline in Aquatic Warbler populations, and led to classify them as globally threatened.

A quarter of the global population has survived in Eastern Poland, and a small and isolated group of Aquatic Warbler has found refuge along the Polish-German border.

But today, the vegetation on the few remaining fen mires is changing, and the elements composing the bird habitats are disappearing, and with them, Aquatic Warbler and several breeding waders like Black-tailed Godwit, Common Redshank and Northern Lapwing. Even the establishment of National Parks, has not been able to invert this tendency.

The objective of the project led by OTOP has been to develop a landscape-scale solution for the restoration and the sustainable management of peatlands (fen mires). On the pilotsites, OTOP introduced a prototype mowing machine that does not destroy the delicate peat soil and vegetation. More than 30 of these machines now maintain 15,000 ha of Aquatic Warbler habitat in Poland and this successful technique has already been exported to Germany and Belarus.

OTOP has also implemented suitable agri-environment schemes, paying farmers for Aquatic Warbler friendly management, rehabilitating three national reserves, and supporting the idea that National Parks should lease out their lands needing active management to farmers using the new machines.

Currently, OTOP and its partners are setting up a system to convert the large amounts of low-quality hay harvested on those lands into carbon-neutral biomass briquettes and pellets, permitting to protect the climate, to finance habitat restoration and management for Aquatic Warbler, and at the same time to create local green activities and employments.

“We are very pleased to see the return of large numbers of waders, including Jack Snipe and Wood Sandpiper not seen in Poland for over 10 years, but the key success of this LIFE Project is of course that Aquatic Warbler is readily returning to the areas we have restored for it.” welcomed Lars Lachmann.

The €5 million project has been implemented with funds from the EU LIFE Nature Programme. Additional co-financing was provided by the RSPB, Swarovski Optik and Cemex Poland.

Skipwith Common

2011-12-04T22:35:00.002Z

Went for a cold walk round Skipwith Common this morning with Tophill and Whitburns finest Rich and Ade (with Jenny, Caroline and Lisa enjoying a birding trip in the freezing weather).

It was amazingly dry, the driest I've seen the place and the majority of the walk was silent of bird calls - last weeks Wigeon were not in evidence at all until a couple of small flocks flew in as we were leaving.

Most bird activity seemed to centre on a mixed tit flock that was roving around the reserve with blue, great, coal and long-tailed tit making up the majority of the flock with the odd goldcrest and treecreeper in with them. There was a few Chaffinch, Goldfinch and a single Meadow Pipit flying around and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpecker gave tantilising views as they moved through the trees. At least one Kestrel was hunting the site.

Rich let me take some pictures with his camera which i'll stick up when I get them...

AMUR FALCON on the Azores!!!

2011-12-03T16:51:00.004Z

Just looking through Netfugl this afternoon when I noticed Amur Falcon reported on the Azores on Wednesday!! What a record!!! The pictures, one reproduced below are labelled Red-footed Falcon but the bird is definitely Amur and on looking into the record represents the first for the Azores and is a phenomenal record too!

© Justin Hart, UK from Birding Azores

Amur Falcon, Falco amurensis, also known as Eastern Red-footed Falcon breeds in East Asia, eastern Siberia from Transbaikalia eastwards through Amurland to Ussuriland, south to Mongolia and Manchuria (it is also known as Manchurian 'Red-footed' Falcon) to North Korea and eastern China.

Amur Falcon is a long-distance migrant, the entire population migrates 11,000 km southwest to winter in sub-Saharan Africa taking a route from their breeding grounds, south through India, across the Indian Ocean making landfall in East Africa - I remember seeing these migrants in Kenya back in 1997/98 at Nakuru National Park. The majority head down to between Malawi and South Africa.

There has been a few records in Europe in recent years, the most memorable one (or worst memorable one depending on your point of view) was the first for the UK that spent several weeks at Tophill Low Nature Reserve in East Yorkshire a few years back, unfortunately I'd seen 5+ Red-footed Falcons that year so didn't bother going to look for another one, only when the bird had departed did review of the photos show that the bird was indeed an Amur! Evidently the bird had moulted some key ID features in during the time of its stay! Never mind...

For a bird to hit the Azores it raises some real questions. Did it come (undetected) westwards through Europe and the across to the Azores, did it hit Africa and get caught in some storms that sent it across the continent, or did it do a total flip and go across north America? All of the above seem fairly impossible to get your head around!!! Take a look at a flat map of the world and look at its breeding grounds, its wintering grounds, its passage route and then look at the Azores!!!

Amur Falcon on the Azores, a really remarkable record!!!

NEW LDV Website.

2011-12-02T21:33:00.006Z

Back in February I wrote a few posts about ringing recoveries in the Lower Derwent Valley (LDV), some really interesting ones too.

Good news: there are some more interesting recoveries, however better news is that the LDV has a new ringing blog: here, there is also a direct link on my blog list on the right of this page, why not follow the blog and keep up to date with all of the ringing information coming out of this fantastic reserve.

WIGEON: LDV BLOG

The following is sample of some recent ringing recoveries/resightings detailed on the blog:

Redshank (DB88181), ringed as a 6 on 29/03/03 on Aughton Ings, recovered on 19/10/10 at the Bay of Morlaix, France (dead).

Sedge Warbler (X437129), ringed as a 3J on 21/08/09 at Wheldrake Ings, recovered as a 4 on 26/08/10 in Paris, France.

Sedge Warbler (L751812), ringed as a 4M on 12/05/11 at Wheldrake Ings, re-trapped on 22/07/2011 and then controlled on 10/08/11 in Paris, France.

Teal (EL49846), ringed as a 4F on 12/11/07 on Skipwith Common, recovered on 27/08/09 in Finland (shot).

Wigeon (FA51531), ringed as a 3M on 04/12/04 at North Duffield, recovered on 01/01/11 near Long Sutton, Somerset (shot).

Wigeon (FH10123), ringed as a 3 on 23/10/07 at North Duffield, recovered on 01/01/10 in Solotcha, Russia (shot).

Whooper Swan (W09345), ringed as a 3M on 16/12/05 at North Duffield, sighted on 02/04/09 in Iceland (identified by darvic).

Whooper Swan (W24873), ringed as a 3 on 30/11/08 at North Duffield, sighted on 02/04/09 in Iceland (identified by darvic).

Wigeon (FP68613) ringed as a 4M at North Duffield on 11/11/07, recovered 07/05/11 in Russia (shot).

Whooper Swan (W24868), ringed as a 4 on 30/11/08 at North Duffield, recovered on 16/06/11 in Iceland (dead on beach).

Wigeon (FP65520), ringed as a 3M on 14/12/03 at North Duffield, recovered on 09/05/11 in Russia (shot).

Wigeon (FP93603), ringed as a 4M on 25/10/05 at North Duffield, recovered on 23/04/11 in Russia (shot).

Teal: LDV BLOG

Rough-legged Buzzard: Work Tick!!

2011-11-30T22:11:00.007Z

A couple of weeks back I visited a new site and had an amazing day - see here!

Today I managed to get back over there again and had yet another cracking day...

We arrived at the site around 10.30 and by 11 I was getting dropped off at my vantage point, where I was to spend the next 5 hours. As we were approaching the location we noticed a large bird hanging face on in the wind low directly over my vantage point. It didn't look right for the expected species based on my previous visit, marsh harrier, hen harrier, common buzzard... as we neared it the bird turned and showed it was very pale, we raced up in the landy, jumped out with our optics and were straight on it, a cracking juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard! The bird showed well as it gradually drifted west, I tried grabbing a couple of shots as it flew away (below - off my phone)

Rough-leg - Honest! (off phone)

Rough-leg - Honest! (off phone)

The bird showed well for the next three hours as it foraged around the site, here's a slightly better picture of a Rough-legged buzzard - taken last year © Renton Charman 2010. Rough-legged Buzzard was a 'work tick' for me which was really cool, and my first one of the winter and follows hot on the heals of last weeks self-found Rustic Bunting! I like my job!!!

Rough-legged Buzzard © Renton Charman 2010

Throughout the day harriers were again numerous, less Marsh Harrier (c4/5 birds) but more Hen Harriers (c6+ birds) including adult males and females and ring-tail male and females - again these birds gave great views as they hunted and fought with each other! A pair of Peregrine provided a bit of interest for an hour or so as they bombed around trying to catch one of the many Wood Pigeon that were about. Common raptors included a lot of Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Common Buzzard.

There was plenty of other birds around, the other highlight were singles of Pale-bellied Brent Goose, Pink-footed Goose and Tundra Bean Goose (phone pic below - thanks Russ!) and several flocks of Whooper Swan.

Tundra Bean Goose (mobile shot)

3 Months In Peru!

2011-11-29T19:02:00.036Z

One of the best nature photographers I've ever had the pleasure to meet and see at work, Glenn Bartley has just returned from a 3 month photography expedition in Peru. As expected Glenns trip has resulted in a series of breathtaking photographs, these shots are so inspiring that they make me want to buy a camera just so that I can go on a photography trip with him!!! The following is from his blog... (images © Glenn Bartley 2011)

3 Months in Peru: A Bird Photography Expedition

On the first of September I traveled from my home in Victoria, BC to Lima Peru for a 3 month bird photography expedition. My plan was to travel around the country in search of as many of the most beautiful and endemic birds that I could find.

Why Peru? The answer is simple. Peru is a country that is perhaps unsurpassed in terms of “quality” birds. While Columbia boasts a higher total number of species it is tough to beat Peru’s endemic birds like the Marvelous Spatuletail, Long-whiskered Owlet, Royal Sunangel and about 120 other birds that are found nowhere else on Earth except within the border of Peru.

My search for these birds took me from sea level to 4850m above sea level (ASL). From deserts, to lowland rainforests. From cloud forests to high elevation grasslands. And down many a bumpy road… I slept in towns where I swear no tourists had ever been. I slept in the back of my truck for two of the coldest wettest nights I can remember. I slept wherever I had to in order to be able to have a reasonable chance at photographing these birds. To me…it was all worth it… This is truly what I live for…

Cusco and Manu National Park

After a quick stopover in Lima I took an internal flight to the lovely city of Cusco. Cusco is a city full of culture and history and it makes a great base to visit several local ruins and cultural sites. Nearby there is a high elevation lake called Lago Huacarpay. It was here where I would begin my search for endemic birds.

Those of you that know me know that I love hummingbirds. One of the really special ones in Peru is called the Bearded Mountaineer. It is endemic to Peru and found only in a small area in the southeast. Huacarpay is definitely the best place to see it and it was a great start to the trip to find this beauty feeding on some Nicotina flowers near the lake. In addition to the Mountaineer, Lago Huacarpay produced a beautiful White-tufted Grebe and the strange looking Plumbeous Rail.

BEARDED MOUNTAINEER

WHITE-TUFTED GREBE

PLUMBEOUS RAIL

Flipping through the field guide to the birds of Peru there was another hummingbird from this region that grabbed my attention. The White-tufted Sunbeam is a real stunner that is also endemic to Peru. I had to travel to the smaller town of Ollantaytambo and then commandeer a taxi for the day to take me up above the tree line (around 3600m ASL) in order to search for this member of the Trochilidae family. The first day I went up the wind was howling and I knew that there was no way I would get any photos. But I found where the birds lived and made a plan for the following morning. Returning up the hill the next day rewarded me with not only the Sunbeam but also another endemic – the Creamy-crested Spinetail.

WHITE-TUFTED SUNBEAM

CREAMY-CRESTED SPINETAIL

With these targets photographed it was time to start making my way into the jungle. I really wanted to spend some quality time in Manu National Park. After all, it is the most biologically diverse place on the planet! Imagine a single park with over 1000 species of birds. It is enough to make your head spin! I made a plan to spend the next 3 weeks in Manu and began to prepare for what was sure to be an amazing adventure.

What makes Manu National Park so diverse is the fact that the park covers elevations from approximately 3500m all the way down to sea level in the Amazonian lowlands. This kind of altitudinal gradient creates all kind of different habitats for plants, animals, insects and of course birds to thrive in. Getting the most out of Manu means spending time at various elevations because many of the birds have very specific habitat requirements.

Driving in to the park from Cusco was incredible. The windy road took me up and over a pass of about 4000m ASL and then began to descend toward the park entrance. Before long the grasslands faded from view and gave way to cloud-forest. Trees became larger and were covered with moss and bromeliads. Clouds rolled in from the lowlands below hiding much of what lay ahead beneath a mysterious veil.

After a lengthy drive I arrived at my first photo stop at an area around 1500m. I would spend the next 3 days searching this area for as many birds as I could find. This area turned out to be great for mixed species flocks and I saw some really stunning birds. Photographing them however was often a challenge. But over the three days I did have some really rewarding encounters. Perhaps most memorable was a visit to a very active lek for Andean Cock of the Rocks (Peru’s national bird).

ANDEAN COCK OF THE ROCK

CRESTED QUETZAL

BLUE-NAPED CHLOROPHONIA

RUFESCENT SCREECH OWL

Three days came and went and it was soon time for me to continue on down the road deeper in to the park. I hitchhiked down the road to the next town and then took a moto-taxi to the town of Atalaya. From here I hired a boat to take me on to my next destination located at about 500m ASL where I would spend the next 5 days. One of my main targets at this elevation was the feisty little Rufous-crested Coquette and I was very pleased to get some nice images of this little guy. My five days at this location were full of exhilarating encounters with birds like the Band-tailed Manakin, Gould’s Jewelfront, Blue-crowned Trogon and many, many more! One of the coolest birds I found was the Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant. This bird is the smallest passerine in the world and let me tell you – he is tiny! The field guide has a very accurate description – “a tiny ball of feathers that is scarcely larger than a bee”. What a cute bird!

RUFOUS-CRESTED COQUETTE

BAND-TAILED MANAKIN

GOULD’S JEWELFRONT

BLUE-CROWNED TROGON

SHORT-TAILED PYGMY TYRANT

At this point I had reached the end of the road…literally. All travel deeper in to the park would require a boat. I managed to join a tour group to move on down the river – WAY down the river. We took the boat several hundred kilometers into the jungle and into the Manu National Park reserved zone. This is an area that is strictly protected from logging and hunting and is truly pristine. Some of the highlights for me in the reserved zone were the Agami Heron, Horned Screamer, Red and Green Macaw and a family of Giant Otters!

AGAMI HERON

HORNED SCREAMER

RED AND GREEN MACAW

GIANT RIVER OTTER

The tour group dropped me off at their final stop – a lodge based at 300m ASL. I would spend the next week here trying to photograph some of the really difficult lowland birds. Bird photography at this elevation can be really difficult. To start with, there is almost never any light to work with. Competition for the suns rays in the rainforest is fierce and most light is intercepted before it reaches the forest floor. This makes for hopelessly slow shutter speeds and high ISO’s. Not ideal! The other challenge is that while species diversity is incredibly high – the actual number of individual birds is quite low. Birds here often have huge territories and roam around in mixed species flocks throughout the day. Sometimes you have to be lucky to run in to the flock. Otherwise you may not see much at all. Even if you do find a good flock they are often up in the canopy or moving to quick to get decent shots of. Like I said…photography in the lowlands is very difficult!

That week I spent hiking around the trails for between 8-12 hours a day. Sometimes with very long gaps in the action. I was focusing on trying to photograph Antbirds and did manage to get a few. Fortunately for me I found a huge Army Ant swarm for a few days and this attracted a lot of birds that were looking for an easy meal. You see, when the army ants raid they flow out into the forest in rivers of ants. There can be hundreds of thousands of them and they are all hungry! They overwhelm anything that gets in their way, tear them to bits and carry the food back to the queen. Needless to say the other insects on the forest floor want nothing to do with the ants and try to get out of the way as fast as they can. The Antbirds and Woodcreepers know this and wait patiently above the ant swarm. When a cricket or cockroach moves from its hiding place to escape the birds pounce. An easy meal!

When I found the ant swarm I knew that this would be where I would be spending quite a bit of time. I think I stood in that swarm for something like 10 hours (over two days) trying to get images of Antbirds. I was rewarded with a few keepers…and quite a few ant bites too!

WHITE-THROATED ANTBIRD

BLACK-FACED ANTBIRD

BUFF-THROATED WOODCREEPER

I left the lowlands behind me and started the long journey back to Cusco. Before returning to civilization though I wanted to make one more stop. I felt like I had missed out on the birds in the higher elevations of the park so I decided to stop in at a lodge at about 2800m ASL to try for a few cloud-forest specialties.

The cloud-forests are home to a dazzling variety of beautiful tanagers. Birds like the Scarlet-bellied and Hooded Mountain Tanagers, Grass-green Tanager and Golden-collared Tanager to name just a few. These cloud forests of the Neotropical Andes are probably my favourite places on earth. So, for me, these few days were pure joy.

HOODED MOUNTAIN-TANAGER

GRASS-GREEN TANAGER

GOLDEN-COLLARED TANAGER

I traveled back the rest of the way to Cusco for a much needed break from bird photography for a few days. It was the perfect time to take a side trip to one of the wonders of the world – Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu

The trip to Machu Picchu involves traveling to Ollantaytambo and then onwards by train to Aguas Calientes. From here it is a short bus ride away to these most incredible Inca ruins. What a spectacular place to spend a day!

MACHU PICCHU

The Central Highlands

Visiting Machu Picchu was a nice break from bird photography. But after a few days off I was ready to get back to work. I flew back to Lima to meet up with a friend of mine from Ecuador. We rented a 4×4 truck and set off for the Central Highlands.

Our first destination was an area of high elevation grasslands and bogs called Marcapomacocha. When I say they were high I mean it. We were birding at over 4800m ASL which was the highest I have ever been. The thin air, strong sun and cool temperatures were all forgotten though when we spotted the first of our main targets – the critically endangered White-bellied Cinclodes.

WHITE-BELLIED CINCLODES

Our next target proved to be more difficult to find and was much more difficult to photograph. The Diademed Sandpiper-Plover is one of the most beautiful shorebirds in the world and certainly one of the toughest to track down. Living only in high elevation bogs above 4500m you dont just stumble upon them. It was a great reward for all of the huffing and puffing up there to come away with some nice images of this species.

DIADEMED SANDPIPER PLOVER

Over the next few days we worked away on some of the other high elevation species such as the Black-breasted Hillstar, Andean Goose, Gray-breasted Seedsnipe and Junin Canastero.

BLACK-BREASTED HILLSTAR

From Marcapomacocha we continued on towards the town of Huanuco. This was our base from which we would visit the legendary Bosque Unchog. Bosque Unchog is a beautiful area of Elfin Forest where some really special and endemic birds can be found. It is decidedly off the beaten path though. No facilities exist and it is a rough road to get there. We had to spend two VERY cold nights sleeping in the back of the truck in order to bird this area. But the birds made it all worth while. Although I missed getting photos of the most spectacular bird at Bosque Unchog (the Golden-backed Mountain Tanager) we came away with shots of many other great birds. My favourites had to be the Yellow-scarfed Tanager, Bay-vented Cotinga, Pearled Treerunner, Streaked Tuftedcheek and Chestnut-bellied Mountain Tanager.

YELLOW-SCARFED TANAGER

BAY-VENTED COTINGA

PEARLED TREERUNNER

CHESTNUT-BELLIED MOUNTAIN TANAGER

The North

After Bosque Unchog it was back down to Lima and then on northwards. Most people probably don’t realize this – but the Peruvian coast is a complete desert. Traveling back to Lima and then 800km up the coast was a long, long drive. But it was necessary in order to reach the next set of endemic birds.

Eventually we arrived at our first destination near the town of La Florida. This region is the only place to find what is perhaps the most extravagant hummingbird of them all – the Marvelous Spatuletail. I really wanted to get some solid images of this species and after two days of hard work I was able to get the shot I had dreamed of.

MARVELOUS SPATULETAIL

Not far from where the Spatuletail lives there is a new lodge that is dedicated to birdwatchers. It is a fantastic place to spend a few days and some really special species can be found in the nearby forests. After 10 weeks of grinding it out in the field let me assure you that it was not hard to convince me to stay here for a few nights!

On our second day at the lodge I had one of those days in the field that I will NEVER forget. The day started off with an unbelievable opportunity to photograph an Undulated Antpitta. Later on I had a phenomenal chance to photograph the Royal Sunangel. I was feeling pretty good about the day at this point and decided to try my luck at some owling that night. My target was the Long-whiskered Owlet and to be honest I did not think I had a chance to see it let alone photograph it.

ROYAL SUNANGEL

UNDULATED ANTPITTA

The Long-whiskered Owlet is an enigma. The bird was only discovered in 1976 and was then not seen again until 2002! Even to this day very few people have had good looks at it.

At just 5 inches this bird is the smallest species of Owl in the world. It is so unique that upon discovery ornithologists immediately put it in to its own genus “Xenoglaux” which means “strange owl”.

That evening I trekked down a muddy trail into the elfin cloud forest and I waited patiently to hopefully hear the birds call. Before long, to my delight, I heard what I believed to be an Owlet calling in the distance. I began to use the birds call to try to lure him in towards me.

I’m sure you can all imagine the adrenaline and excitement that I was feeling when I realized that it was working and the bird was coming closer. I stood motionless. I didn’t dare fiddle with my equipment. I didn’t dare check to see what insects were crawling up my leg. Heck…I didn’t dare breathe!!

And then…I saw a flash of movement in front of me. The moon was nearly full and there was enough light to just make out the movement. I shone my flashlight in the direction of the fluttering object and there he was not even 20 feet away on an open branch staring right at me – The Owlet!

As I walked back up the hill after photographing this incredible bird I could hardly believe what had just happened. I think that there are moments in our lives as photographers that I think we will never forget. For me this was most definitely one of them.

LONG-WHISKERED OWLET

3 months in Peru came and went in a flash. What a wonderful trip and what a great country for birds. I will definitely be returning soon!

If you would like to see more photos from my trip - CLICK HERE

If you think that a bird photography adventure to Peru might interest you make sure to EMAIL ME to sign up for the wish list for my workshops that will begin in the fall of 2013.

RUSTIC BUNTING SURPRISE!

2011-11-25T20:32:00.004Z

I got a bit of an unexpected, but rather nice surprise today.

The dilemma I have doing my job is: "What happens if/when I/another surveyor I work with finds a rare/scarce bird on one of our windfarm sites?" Unfortunately, due to many of my sites been highly confidential in their nature (because for some reason windfarms are not particularly popular) releasing news of where a rarity has been found would potentially give away a location of a proposed windfarm, hence why my work related posts are rather vague when it comes to locations. All records I get find their way back to the county recorder in one way or another eventually. Many of our sites are on private land with no public access.

Past rarities/scarcities I/other surveyors have had on my sites that spring to mind have included Blyth's Pipit, Richard's Pipit, Bluethroat, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Marsh Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Pallas’s Warbler, Barred Warbler, Great Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike, Honey Buzzard, Wryneck, Kentish Plover, Caspian Tern, Grey Phalarope, Waxwing, and a whole host of rare breeding species such as Montagu’s Harrier, Quail etc etc…

Today I was doing a walkover survey for wintering birds, it was a strange day with areas totally devoid of birds but with other areas totally rammed. Several thousand Golden Plover and Lapwing were the main feature of the day, along with several hundred geese. Totals included approximately 600+ Brents, 60 Barnacle, 26 Pink-footed and best of all 2 Tundra Bean Geese, only the second time I’ve had this species on a survey. I managed to sneak up within 40m of the Beans using a small hedge as cover so got some nice views.

Passerines were fairly thin on the ground, a few thrushes appeared to be moving along the hedgerows, mainly Redwing and Fieldfare but with good numbers of Blackbird and 2 Mistle Thrush too. A few finches were moving around, Goldfinch, Linnet and Chaffinch been the main feature however Lesser Redpoll was also noted, as too was a single Lapland Bunting.

After sneaking up on the Bean Geese I continued along the hedge where I flushed a bird, a bunting. It circled low and landed behind me on the top of a low hedge, I got my bins up onto it, the bird was side on and the first thing that caught my attention was the browny/orangy flank markings, I looked up a bit further and was greeted by a very distinct face pattern looking back at me. I was 6 feet from a 1st winter type RUSTIC BUNTING! No sooner had the fact clicked in my brain it was off it looped back round and dropped over the ridge. I’m having this I thought so I raced after where it had gone down only to be greeted by a water filed ditch that was pretty much 10 foot vertically deep with a good 10 foot wide bit of water. NO!!! I scanned as far as I could see in both directions but there was simply no way I was getting across the ditch! Pure frustration! A Yellowhammer and several Skylark flew over from the other side of the ditch but there was no sign of the desired Rustic Bunting.

After an hour or so of trying to get to the area where the bird went down I eventually found a way across, though by this time the wind was really picking up and a storm was rapidly approaching, if the bird was still about there was no chance it was going to show so unfortunately I had to give up on relocating it. I was really gutted that it managed to get away.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get any photos due to the brevity of the views (and not having a camera to hand) but below is a picture of the Rustic Bunting I found last autumn at Flambrough – it looked pretty similar to this bird as you’d expect!

Rustic Bunting (Phonescoped) October 2010.

Now, as stated at the beginning of this post I can’t say where the bird was, but rest assured I’ll be submitting a record to the relevant county recorder in due course.

Eastern Black Redstart: A Valid Species?

2011-11-23T22:08:00.018Z

This autumn I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading on the Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros complex, I think I’ve got is sussed now. A good place to start was Russell Slack’s Rare Birds Where and When, which provides a really good summary. The various races are all generally fairly distinct and some may warrant full species status. Essentially there are three ‘species groups’, Western European forms ‘Western Black Redstart’ including gibraltariensis and aterrimus, Eastern European/West Asian forms ‘Middle Eastern Black Redstart’ including ochruros and semirufus and Central and Eastern Asian forms ‘Eastern Black Redstart’ including phoenicuroides, rufiventris and xerophilus.

Daniele Occhiato has some incredible pictures of some of the above (e.g. gibraltariensis, ochruros and semirufus) and the Oriental Bird Club has some good pictures of the others (e.g. rufiventris, phoenicuroides), reproduced below (images are copyright to named photographer), the images show how variable the above are!

'Western Black Redstart' gibraltariensis© Daniele Occhiato 2010

'Middle Eastern Black Redstart' ochruros© Daniele Occhiato 2011

'Middle Eastern Black Redstart' semirufus© Daniele Occhiato 2011

'Eastern Black Redstart' phoenicuroides© Jaysukh Parekh Suman 2011

'Eastern Black Redstart' rufiventris© Sunil Singhal 2010

The Black Redstart recorded in the UK is ‘Western’ Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros gibraltariensis, it is a rare resident/migrant breeder (e.g. approximately 60 pairs) and fairly common passage/winter visitor. Check out this awesome bird caught by Jack Ashton-Booth:

Adult male 'Western Black Redstart' gibraltariensis© Jack Ashton-Booth

A couple of weeks back I noticed a post on the Surfbirds forum from Sweden about several birds from various locations within the country seemingly showing a very good set of characteristic features that appeared to rule out the [allegedly] fairly common pit-fall Common Redstart x Black Redstart hybrid (Phoenicurus phoenicurus x Phoenicurus ochruros) and looked very good for ‘Eastern’ Black Redstart Phoenicurus ochruros phoenicuroides, a very rare vagrant to Western Europe. Four previous British records of potential ‘Eastern’ Black Redstart (Scillies 1975, Lincolnshire 1978, Kent 1981 and Lincolnshire 1988) have all been removed from the British List. It may have been possible that some of these records may have actually been the real deal rather than hybrids; however the lack of documentation on these birds means they’ve been binned unfortunately.

Accepted records of Eastern Black Redstart within Western Europe have occurred in Sweden (1986), Belgium (1993), Germany (1995), Sweden (2000), The Netherlands and Guernsey (both in 2003) and Sweden (2005). Interestingly there is also a potential record, which in all likelihood would represent the first record for the UK of Eastern Black Redstart – a bird found by James McCallum at Clay in Norfolk – incidentally also in 2003 (complete with some cracking paintings/drawings), presumably 2003 was a bit of an influx year.

It appears as though eight years later in 2011 we (in Western Europe) are experiencing another influx year with at least one bird in Germany (13th – 17th October 2011), a staggering five birds in Sweden and now two birds in the UK. The first, at Foreness Point, Kent from 11th – 17th November 2011 and the second on Holy Island, Northumberland from 16th November - 21st November 2011. I will admit to having been tempted to travel down for the Kent individual but am glad I didn’t because as luck would have it the Holy Island bird would enable me the opportunity to connect. As stated in the post below, Dave and I had a very enjoyable and successful trip to see the Northumberland bird which was showing phenomenally well on the beach near the school last Sunday.

Seeing the bird was the first part of the Black Redstart conundrum, the second was ruling out a hybrid, the third to get it elevated to full species status!

Eastern Black Redstart is a long distance migrant from its central Asian breeding grounds to wintering areas in central India west to northeast Africa. Its breeding and wintering distribution is comparable to species that occur regularly in northwest Europe, including Desert Wheatear and Isabelline Shrike (Slack 2009), both of which seem to have been recorded in fairly decent numbers within the UK and other areas within northwest Europe this autumn.

Adult male phoenicuroides are very distinctive birds that show a unique number of features, typically males of phoenicuroides differ markedly from gibraltariensis by fully deep rufous-cinnamon sides of breast, belly, flanks, vent, axillaries and under-wing coverts, sharply contrasting with black chest; forehead often white, contrasting with black rim along base of the upper mandible (Snow & Perrins 1998). First winter males (in ‘paradoxus plumage’ – those immature birds in a plumage largely representing adult males) differ from adult males in that fringes to tertials, secondaries and primaries are brown, they are paler on the vent, the throat is mottled grey with black, the upperparts are influenced by brown feathers and the distal black shaft on the outermost tail feather is extensive and larger (Slack 2009, Evans & Lawrence 2011).

As mentioned above the possibility of a hybrid needs to be ruled out: The best way to assess if the bird is a hybrid is to take a look at the wing formula. Steijn (2005) proposed differences based upon the emarginations on p3-6 for phoenicuroides and a ratio for spacing between p5-6 and p6-7. The set of photos below, kindly provided by Tristan Reid (AKA Binocularface) provides a good indication that the bird in question is not a hybrid, as appears to be the case in the Kent bird also.

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

Eastern Black Redstart © Tristan Reid 2011 Holy Island, Northumberland

There is an interesting paper on the taxonomy of Black Redstarts by Ertan (2006) which concluded that Eastern Black Redstart, phoenicuroides (and rufiventris) were the most divergent subspecies in the Black Redstart complex, and that they appear to be more closely related to Hodgson’s Redstart Phoenicurus hodgsoni than Western Black Redstart gibraltariensis (and aterrimus) and as such may warrant full species status. Steijn (2005) also suggested there might be merit in treating phoenicuroides (and rufiventris) as a separate species. This is also reported in Slack (2009).

In summary, this very smart, distinctive bird represents potentially the second or third UK record of this plausible new species, I’m glad I’ve seen it (and even if it never gets split it was certainly a ‘looker’ in any case!).

Eastern Black Redstart (Holy Island)

2011-11-20T19:05:00.010Z

This morning Dave and I decided to head north to Holy Island, Northumberland in order to try and connect with the Eastern Black Redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros phoenicuroides. We were not disappointed with stunning close up views of this mega rare bird. I'll look into the taxonomy of Black Restart in a future post but for now here are a few photos taken on my phone. I bumped into Andy Vinson and Tristan Reid so there will definitely be some much much better photos out there (hopefully I'll get one on my blog too).

VEERY NICE SET OF PHOTOS- MEGA UPDATE

2011-11-19T08:02:00.006Z

The first boat charters of twitchers managed to get over to the Island of Muck today with approximately 25-30 twitchers enjoying amazingly close views (down to 10-12 ft) of the bird as it continued to feed around Gallanach Farm for the day - the bird was still present to dusk so will hopefully delight those lucky enough to be on tomorrows charters too. EDIT: The bird is still present this morning (Saturday 19th). See here (for initial details when the news was released) and here (for details on past records), or just scroll down a it!

Stephen MacDonald managed to get some amazing photographs of the bird this morning, which are reproduced below with kind permission. These images are © Stephen MacDonald 2011. What a stunning little bird!

Veery © Stephen MacDonald 2011

Veery © Stephen MacDonald 2011

My day involved a visit to a new site in Lincolnshire. It was not quite as busy as the site I was at yesterday however it was still really busy with Marsh Harrier, lots of geese and tonnes of Lapwing, Golden Plover, Curlew, Little Egret etc moving around.

The highlight however was a Lapland Bunting that flew 10ft over my head, it called as it approached me which got my attention and as it went over me (I was stood in a hedge) I must have caught it by surprise as it did a weird wing beat and trill as it looked down on me before it carried on its way. I didn't get any pictures but the ones below © Martin Cade 2010 show a good looking bird similar to what I had. I'm back at this site next week assuming I can get plenty of reporting done earlier in the week so fingers crossed for some more of the same or even better!

Lapland Bunting © Martin Cade 2010

Lapland Bunting © Martin Cade 2010

Swarm of Harriers and a Load of Owls

2011-11-17T21:24:00.006Z

Wow, what a day! After the excitement of yesterdays Veery on Muck today was my turn for some birding and what a day it was...

I can't say exactly where the site was due to confidentiality reasons but it was on the coast somewhere and here's what happened...

We arrived late morning in foggy conditions to start our survey and within no time at all the action was underway with 2 harriers up in the air together, both with totally different wing shapes/sizes. It was a ringtail Hen Harrier mobbing a juv Marsh Harrier that had some food. After a good while the Hen finally got the food off it, showing nicely in the process!

A short while later 2 ringtail hen harriers came up behind a bank. An adult female and an immature male based on size and colouration. I watched these birds for a while as they came closer giving stunning views, the juv had some food and the female wanted it big style, after a decent battle in the air he dropped the food and she grabbed it and dropped down and consumed it.

Gradually as the weather started to improve more and more Marsh Harrier became evident, with at least 5 birds present on one side of me with another 4+ on the other side! It was crazy busy!!!

Suddenly the sky was full with golden plover and lapwing, hundreds of birds all over the place. And while all of this was going my attention was drawn behind me by a grey ghost, a stunning adult male hen harrier was stupidly close drifting by - awesome bird! They just blow my mind every time I see them!

Hen Harrier: Source Unknown BBC News.

Having that number of harriers out hunting/fighting was fantastic because they would constantly flush other birds, such as Grey Herons, Little Egrets, Great White Egret, Redshank, Geese, Swans, Pipits, Larks, Finches and one even put up a male Merlin that was sat unseen on a ploughed field!

As lunchtime approached a single Lapland Bunting flew over heading southeast. It (or another 1 or 2) were also seen/heard by two other observers later in the afternoon.

The afternoon session was full of harriers, in total we recorded at least 5 Hen Harriers and over a dozen Marsh Harriers. A couple of Peregrine flew through and flushed all sorts of birds (pigeons + plovers generally). But the afternoons main attraction was owls.

I was surrounded by four Short-eared Owls and three Barn Owl all out hunting. It was so peaceful where I was stood, not a sound and the owls just kept coming closer and closer. The Shorties were incredibly aggressive, chasing off the barn owls and the occasional Marsh Harrier. It was great to watch these birds hunting and having them all to myself and the light by this point was fantastic!

Short-eared Owl © Steve Garvie 2009

As the sun set the various harriers went off to roost, a female-type Merlin shot across trying to catch its supper and a late Kestrel and Buzzard flew through thus ending a great day!

In summary, I was glad I'm not a vole!!!

More on the Veery...

2011-11-16T22:08:00.004Z

With the incredible find of a Veery on Muck, Highland today by Dave Barden I thought I’d have a look at the past records, courtesy of Russell Slack’s Rare Birds Where and When (Volume 1).

There were seven records up to the book being published: 1970 (Cornwall), 1987 (Devon), 1995 (Outer Hebrides), 1997 (Devon), 1999 (Cornwall), 2002 (Orkney) and 2005(Shetland). All records were of autumn birds, except the bird in 1997 which was a spring bird.

Since the publication of the above book there has been a further three records, two very well photographed birds on Shetland, both present at the same time (2009), with birds on Foula (1st – 7th October) and Whalsay (2nd – 5th October). The other record (2008) Orkney is pending.

See post below for more photos.

The Veery was still present this evening till dusk at Gallanach Farm and is apparently looking very settled. An issue with getting to this bird may be the availability of boats and the potential poor weather for landing on the island. I’ll post more information when I get it.

Veery © Dave Barden 2011

VEERY ON MUCK, HIGHLAND

2011-11-16T13:47:00.009Z

Got a phone call from Ade at lunch time to say that his friend on the island of Muck, Highlands had found a Veery, Catharus fuscecens that was showing very well at Gallanach Farm. Pictures of the bird taken by Dave Barden are reproduced with permission. All images are © Dave Barden 2011.

The bird is showing well! Unfortunately I don’t know about access to the island!

© Dave Barden 2011

© Dave Barden 2011

© Dave Barden 2011

© Dave Barden 2011

EDIT: For further, updated information on this bird please see here, and for some further photos, here.

Incredible Local Artist

2011-11-15T22:04:00.005Z

Didn't manage to get out birding today as my survey was fogged off but looking forward to my mega site visit on Thursday...

In the meantime I thought I'd draw your attention to an incredible local artist. If you want some inspiration check out Jack Ashton-Booths blog. A couple of samples of Jacks work are reproduced below:

The UKs first Amur Falcon and the UKs first Sykes Warbler:

Jack's work is featured in many of the local and national bird reports as well as several books, including a recent one of Kate Humble's!

Really worth spending an hour or so looking through Jacks blog.

More Greater Yellowlegs Pictures

2011-11-14T22:50:00.006Z

The Greater Yellowlegs remained all day at Hauxley Nature Reserve today, here are a few of the pictures I managed on my phone yesterday, nothing anywhere near as good as Frank Goldings pictures!!!

WOW! Great Legs!! (Even better pictures)

2011-11-13T21:51:00.009Z

No I'm not referring to last nights episode of Strictly Come X Factor but Greater Yellowlegs in Northumberland.

On Saturday afternoon I got news of a Greater Yellowlegs moving around the East Chevington area of Northumberland but sounded pretty difficult and mobile. Unfortunately I thought I'd probably not be able to connect with it given the amount of light left in the day. This record represents about the 31st bird in UK (excluding Ireland) but the majority of those records seem to be very short staying birds or birds on islands, so all in all a difficult customer. But the knowledge that it was present to dusk filled me with a little hope...

I was a little surprised, but very happy to hear that it was still present this morning at Hauxley Nature Reserve about a mile south of Amble so sorted out the dogs and the horse and headed north in thick fog the whole way, getting there around late morning.

I sent Dave ahead to secure it for me but an anxious 2+ hour drive ensued. I parked up and walked (very quickly) down to where Dave was saving me a place in the viewing area. In no time at all I was straight on it. The bird was about 40 m away roosting up, however after no time at all it started walking about feeding, all the time coming closer to the crowd, great stuff! I ruled out any possible confusion species such as Greenshank, House Sparrow etc and stood there enjoying the view.

A really cracking view, only interrupted by a Grey Phalarope flying about the place. I managed some pretty naff shots (as usual) on my phone - (will save these for a rainy day, ok I'll allow you one now...). But check out the two images after mine, you'll probably notice the change in quality!, very kindly sent to me by Frank Golding of Cramlington. These photos are reproduced below with permission and are © Frank Golding 2011 - Future Birdgudies Photo of the Week!! Please click on the photo to enlarge them, they are amazing!!!

On my phone... now for the proper ones....

Greater Yellowlegs, Hauxley NR © Frank Golding 2011.

Greater Yellowlegs, Hauxley NR © Frank Golding 2011.

Rounded the trip off with a couple of European White-fronted Geese as I was leaving. Another great bird!

11.11.11 is my Birthday and this...

2011-11-10T20:54:00.003Z

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Thrushes Galore

2011-11-09T22:56:00.004Z

I spent the day report writing at home today, trying to prevent the imminent transfer of germs from my cough etc. However I couldn't help but notice the half-decent passage of Fieldfare and Redwings going south/southwest over the garden. The main movement seemed to occur between 1100 and 1400 hrs.

The totals for the day (over the garden) were:

Fieldfare: 967
Redwing: 560

I spoke with Ade this evening, he was working up in Northumberland and also had a decent thrush passage with 2000+ Fieldfare during his VP survey.

I noticed a few Golden Plover and Lapwing flocks moving around and also a few Wigeon flying about.

A good day at Spurn...

2011-11-08T21:59:00.004Z

For those lucky to be birding today, Spurn Point again appeared a good spot to be, at least in Yorkshire anyway. After the Isabelline Wheatear turned up on Friday (and stayed showing well all day on Saturday) today's star turn was a 1st year female Pied Wheatear that turned up at the point and apparently showed well for most of the day - per spurn website (which also see for several photos). Interestingly, the last Yorkshire record of Pied Wheatear also turned up on 8th November, in 2008 at Reighton Sands.

Pied Wheatear - Reighton Sands (2008)

There has been a fairly decent arrival of scarce/rare wheatears in Northern Europe over the last couple of weeks made up by Desert, Pied, Isabelline and Black-eared. Technically there is also a Desert Wheatear in Yorkshire today too. A Yorkshire Black-eared Wheatear would be better though! (at the weekend!).

Also at spurn today Garry Taylor found a 'Coues' Arctic Redpoll - see his blog for some photos and there was a Pallas' Warbler and Siberian Chiffchaff too. It will be interesting to see what the next few days bring. Hume's Warbler I guess, but Pine Bunting would be better!

For those not lucky enough to be at Spurn today my garden held a record count of (at least) 50 Goldfinch! It's costing me a fortune to feed them, already! I hope it's a mild winter!!! Although I'm hoping they bring something good in with them...

Izzy Wheatear a right show-off

2011-11-05T21:29:00.009Z

An Isabelline Wheatear turned up at Spurn on Friday afternoon where it was trapped and ringed. The bird had very little fat, meaning it needed to feed, so I was hopeful that it would still be present on Saturday, though history with this species in the UK dictates that they don't often hang around for long, therefore making it quite a tricky species to connect with unless you are in striking distance on the first day!

It represents only the fourth (and latest) Yorkshire record after birds were recorded in 1990 Kilnsea (21st - 23rd October), 1998 Whitby (26th September) and 2006 Filey (14th October). A quick look at past records shows that the 1990 Kilnsea bird was actually the last mainland long-staying bird (i.e. more than 1 day!), prior to that it was a bird in Northumberland (16th - 20th September 1980) and Aberdeen (17th October - 10th November 1979). I really hoped it would stay!

I made the quick sortie over to Spurn this morning and I wasn't disappointed as the bird showed really nicely on the Humber beach for the hour or so I watched it. The bird was very actively feeding and occasionally came very close providing great views. I managed to get the following pictures on my phone but it was moving around so much it proved very difficult!

Some better photos can be found on Graham Catleys blog here, and also check out Tim's blog for a video of the bird, and some idiot who managed to get his car stuck in the dunes!!! As mentioned yesterday check out Garry Taylors blog for some in-hand shots.

Other birds seen during the hour included several showy Twite, a Short-eared Owl high over the humber before dropping into the triangle, lots of thrushes and a couple of Woodcock.

Isabelline Wheatear Pictures

2011-11-04T19:57:00.004Z

The Isabelline Wheatear pictures are now up on the Spurn Bird Observatory website.

Also check out Garry Taylors blog for some more in-hand shots.

I've not managed to connect with one in Yorkshire yet! In 1990 I was not properly twitching (I was 10) and then in 1998 I was in Kenya and 2006 I was in Costa Rica! Fingers crossed it's still there in the morning.

A Scilly Hour...

2011-11-01T22:15:00.004Z

By about 1 pm on Saturday afternoon Dave and I were buzzing. We had 1 hour of birding left before we had to get back to Wingletang B&B to collect our bags and head to the airport. I decided, after we'd seen the Scarlet Tanager it would be fun to try and connect with the other MEGAs on the island. We set off towards Borough Farm but there was no sign of the Upland Sandpiper, gutted, plan over then! We then headed off to Watermill to check out the Olive-backed Pipits and after only seeing one of them in the last couple of days it was nice to see them both together again.

We headed back towards the B&B via Borough Farm (where there was another first winter Black Redstart) and there, no more than 10 feet from the road was the Upland Sandpiper walking through the bulb field. It was back on!! We only had brief views as there was tonnes of people around and as good as it was to see the bird it was far more enjoyable watching it on our own!

We headed down to Lower Moors to see if we could connect with the other two megas. First stop was the ISBG Hide (there was a Little Bunting reported earlier in the day however there was no sign after the initial sighting). On entering the hide it took about 5 seconds to locate the Wilson's Snipe as it was parading around right out in the open. Third one down.

Next we headed across to Shooters Pool, there was quite a crowd there but a bit of careful maneuvering ensured I got to the front of the screen just in time to connect with the Northern Waterthrush as it walked out of some vegetation, tail bobbing. I got some really good views before it flew to the far side of the pool (calling) before it showed again. RESULT!! All four MEGAs (Scarlet Tanager, Upland Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe and Northern Waterthrush)seen within an hour (plus 2 Olive-backed Pipit and Black Redstart)!

Unfortunately that signalled the end of our Scillies trip. While at the airport we bumped into Andy Vinson who showed us his Scarlet Tanager pictures, WOW! They were incredible! Hopefully Andy will be emailing them through to me (and some of his others of the birds mentioned in the last few posts). A brief flight back to Lands End was not very eventful (thankfully) and within no time at all we were back at Lands End YHA. We rounded the trip off with a smart Firecrest that was in the YHA car park at dusk.

We enjoyed a few beers/ciders in the evening and celebrated a great few days!

SCARLET TANAGER: Scilly Highlights Day 5...

2011-10-31T21:59:00.004Z

The final day of our Scillies Birding Trip saw us having a leisurely breakfast chatting to some fellow birders. The main topic was hoping the Scarlet Tanager would be sorted in Cornwall and how much time we'd have to connect with it before heading north. We also talked about the fact that a decent bird always seems to turn up on the last day of a trip, we hoped that a) one would actually turn up, and b) that if one did turn up it would be before we had to get on the plane!

The bird log the previous night didn't provide any new information so we decided to head off and check out Carreg Dhu gardens. It was really windy making it difficult to even stand up in some places! We found a couple of Black Redstart in Old Town Bay along the beach. We headed into the gardens where it was much more sheltered - and bearable.

Walking through the gardens we made for the large Sycamore tree where we'd scored with some decent birds earlier in the week. In no time at all we were enjoying great views of a showy Firecrest but then the highlight dropped in, Treecreeper. Yes you read that right. Treecreeper. This is a MEGA on the Scillies, astonishingly this was only the 12th record of the species on the islands! Half the number of Blackpoll Warbler records which really puts it into perspective. We checked to make sure it wasn't Short-toed Treecreeper and both wished it was a Blackpoll Warbler!!

We got news that the Melodious Warbler was showing again so we decided to go and take a look (not really expecting it to still be on show) and bang on cue, it wasn't! We decided we'd go and have look around the bushes for it, however our plans changed very suddenly when the radio crackled into life "Scarlet Tanager Holy Vale".

The next scene was people all running off wherever they had been all heading towards Holy Vale. We quickly made our way up to Sandy Lane where we joined a large crowd of people watching a bit of hedge. After a short wait someone at a gateway about 30 yards back signalled they'd got it, a quick sprint and suddenly from being at the back of the queue Dave and I were right at the front of it! All we had to do now was see the bird!

After a very frustrating and nervous 10 minutes, that felt like an hour, and the highlight of someone claiming 'it' - when in fact they'd just seen a Dunnock, 'it' did actually come into view. My first sighting was a flight view as it flew out, and then back into a stand of Pines. It gave the impression of a strange golden oriole like bird in flight. Was that going to be all I'd be getting? I hoped not. People started to move around to try and get a better angle, climbing into the hedge to get their scopes through the thick hedge.

After a further 20 minutes or so I had ended up a fair way from Dave, and then it appeared BANG right in the centre of the scope as it sat in a Pittosporum hedge. Amazing bird and good scope views too. After it moved off I headed back towards where I lost Dave, hoping that he'd got it too. I was greeted by Dave with a huge grin, it was clear he'd had it, and had really good looks at it by the sound of it too.

We hung around for a while longer but there was no further sign of it. It was getting busier all the time as people were flying onto the island and as the Scillonian arrived in harbour.

What an amazing bird, and what an amazing end to the trip. We were on a MEGA high...

Scillies Highlights Day 2, 3 & 4

2011-10-27T20:48:00.010+01:00

As crazy as it may sound the last 3 posts all relate to Day 1, Dave and my first day on our second trip to the Scillies this autumn.

On day two there were several further highlights. After connecting with all the big stuff yesterday we decided to take a walkabout to see what we could find en route to a couple of birds we hadn't already caught up with. We set out along the coastal route and found a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers (one at Old Town Church and one at 'Nowhere'), the latter with a Firecrest, then as we continued on to Porth Hellick Pool we discovered a very smart Wryneck on the rocks. After enjoying the Wryneck for a while we continued down to the pool where we enjoyed great views of the long-staying 1st winter male 'white-spotted' Bluethroat. It was actively feeding right out in the open for a while but then it sat down in the vegetation and looked rather sickly before been flushed by some rather clueless twitchers. Redwings and Fieldfare had arrived weeks ago in Yorkshire but today they hit the Scillies in low numbers with 1 and 3 respectively.

Wryneck - Phonescoped

Wryneck - Phonescoped

'White-spotted' Bluethroat feeding happily - Phonescoped

not looking so great - Phonescoped

On day three we spent the day doing circuits of Peninnis Head trying to connect with the rather elusive Melodious Warbler. There were more highlights in the form of 5 Yellow-browed Warbler where we found 3 at 'Nowhere' (but no sign of the Firecrest) and saw another 2 at Carreg Dhu Gardens showing well in a Sycamore. While bashing the head we noticed several Chaffinch (and 1 Brambling) flying through, along with several Meadow Pipit, however the clear highlights were a Richard's Pipit that flew low overhead calling, heading straight towards Cornwall, a Siberian Chiffchaff that worked its way along a hedge, a Short-eared Owl. Eventually, when the sun came out in the afternoon we even managed to connect up with the Melodious Warbler. We even had a couple of Mistle Thrush, a scarce bird on the Scillies apparently.

Short-eared Owl - Phonescoped

Mistle Thrush - Phonescoped at a bit of distance

On the fourth day we didn't fare too well, we spent all day around the Peninnis area again but didn't get much reward. We had a Great Northern Diver and 2 Pink-footed Geese fly low overhead. The Pink-footed Goose was only the 75th record of this species on the islands which was rather surprising! We also had a first-winter Black Redstart on Porthcressa Beach feeding amongst a few White Wagtails. For most of the day our mind was preoccupied with trying to make arrangements to get off the islands and over to Cornwall to try and connect with the UK mainlands first Scarlet Tanager, unfortunately we didn't manage it.

In order to not totally draw a blank for the day we took a quick wander through Lower Moors where we had a Yellow-browed Warbler near Shooters Pool and further views of Wilson's Snipe, this time it was with 2 nominate and one presumed faroeensis bird again all were showing well. We also decided to try for the Waterthrush. We'd both had breathtaking views of the bird a couple of weeks back but since then it had become a little bit more variable in its preferences, presumably as its favourite foraging places around the reserve have dried out. We had been hearing stories of people spending days and even weeks in some cases trying to catch up with it (which we both though was a little strange!) and when we walked up to Shooters Pool it took us a grand total of less than 5 minutes to locate and see the bird! Again, like our last visit the bird was very vocal. A remarkable bird that has been present for at least 42 days to date! I can't resist another of Andy Vinsons photographs of this bird. The end of the day had certainly improved the daily score however we were both worried that the trip was petering out and had peeked on our first day.

Northern Waterthrush (Copyright Andy Vinson 2011) (taken during last visit)

Scilly Highlights 3: OBPs & RTPs etc

2011-10-26T19:49:00.006+01:00

After enjoying a great time with the Wilson's Snipe we decided to nip out into Old Town for some lunch and at this point I got some phone signal and suddenly a message popped up, 2 Olive-backed Pipits Watermill. We made our way staraight up there as this was a new one for Dave (I'd seen 2 before but they are definitley my favourite pipit, such cool birds!).

So far during the day we'd seen hardly any birders/twitchers etc but on getting to Watermill it was clear they were all here! The place was rammed! We negotiated a spot along the road and set about looking for the birds. Within no time at all we were enjoying really good views of the two birds, one was a lot brighter than the other and they we always keeping close company, occasionally they would fly up into the nearby trees but always went back to the same field.

I didn't manage to get any photos at this time but when we went back later in the week I managed to get the following photos on my phone, not great but they illustrate the point.

As people started to drift away from the OBPs we heard a crackle on the radio, Red-throated Pipit showing at Longstones. We were on a roll so we thought it might be worth a try as it was fairly close, however we did take a while longer getting there than expected as the Upland Sand was showing to about 10 feet on a ploughed field which was incredible as the thing came straight towards us!!!

On arrival at Longstones we had to jostle for a place halfway up a conifer tree to look over the field but once we could actually see into the field it was quite easy to pick the bird out amongst the Meadow Pipits, but unfortunately I couldn't get any pictures.

After these great birds we headed down to Wingletang B&B pausing for a Firecrest enroute.

Olive-backed Pipit - Phonescoped

Olive-backed Pipit - Phonescoped

Olive-backed Pipit - Phonescoped

One of the most memorable birding days I've had in the UK recently, Upland Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe, 2 Olive-backed Pipit, Red-throated Pipit, Firecrest and a whole load of common birds.

Scilly Highlights: Part 2... Wilson's Snipe

2011-10-25T19:32:00.008+01:00

After the spectacular views of the Upland Sandpiper we were both pretty much on a high! I got a call from Andy Vinson letting me know that the Wilson's Snipe was on show down at Lower Moors so we set off down there as quickly as we could. On getting to the ISBG hide we were pleased to find only one other guy in there, but alas no Snipes of any sort! A wait of around 30 minutes was fairly relaxed, we were told the birds had walked out of view but were likely to still be present and sure enough first the Wilson's Snipe and then two Common Snipe walked into view.

It was a really educational bird and it was great to be able to compare it with the Common Snipe and even better it was only about 20ft away! We continued to watch the bird for well over an hour, gradually ticking off all of the key features. I managed to get a couple of shots on my phone (below), not the greatest but it gives the general impression of the bird...

Wilson's Snipe - Lower Moors (Phonescoped)

Wilson's Snipe - Lower Moors (Phonescoped)

Wilson's Snipe - Lower Moors (Phonescoped)

Wilson's Snipe - Lower Moors (Phonescoped)

Scilly Highlights: Part 1... Upland Sandpiper

2011-10-24T21:28:00.007+01:00

Last Monday morning Dave and I set off down to Lands End ready to fly over to St Mary's first thing on Tuesday morning. On the way south we called into a site in Devon and connected with a family party of Cirl Buntings and then we moved down to The Lizard in order to look for some migrants, however it was blowing a gale down there so we binned that idea and headed to the Land's End YHA picking up a group of 5 Chough while we were down there, by this time it was pretty much dark. A pretty restless night was had by us both, fingers and toes crossed that the main targets would still be there the next day.

It was windy through the night and it was with some concern that we made our way to the airport, luckily they didn't seem too bothered about the wind and after a cracking breakfast we were on the way for a rather bumpy flight, but a very smooth landing and were greeted with a Black Kite circling overhead as we stepped off the plane - good timing as shortly after this it was not seen on the islands again!

After a very quick check-in at the very nice Wingletang B&B we made our way straight up to Borough Farm, due to our early flight it was only about 0915hrs and when we arrived there was no-one looking for the Upland Sandpiper so we started checking the favoured fields, within less than 5 minutes Dave picked it up right at the back of the by now famous 'bulb field'. Fantastic, but not the best views, it was favouring an area just over the brow of a hill.

A Carrion Crow flew over the Sandpiper and it vanished. An uncertain next few minutes went by and a quick look of an adjacent field revealed that it must have flown along the back of the bulb field and into the next one along. During the next hour the bird showed remarkably well parading around in front of us, as close as 12ft at times! What was even more amazing was that there was only one other person up there by this point! You can't beat a mega bird with hardly anyone else being present! A great start to the day, and it would only get better...

Upland Sandpiper - taken on my phone

Upland Sandpiper - taken on my phone

Amazing Scillies

2011-10-23T21:15:00.003+01:00

Just back from a really great trip to the Isles of Scilly, my second trip within a month! Will post some details and pictures tomorrow hopefully!

Rufous-tailed Robin PHOTOS

2011-10-15T18:17:00.002+01:00

A familiar situation, the Punkbirder strike gold, again! Check out Rob Martin's awesome account of finding the MEGA Rufous-tailed Robin in North Norfolk here. This is what birding is all about, great stuff!

Another Bluetail Picture

2011-10-14T22:06:00.005+01:00

Ade re-trapped the Red-flanked Bluetail again at Whitburn this morning so he sent me another picture of it (below). He also caught 3 more Yellow-browed Warblers (after 1 yesterday and 1 last week) and he thinks there was a couple of other un-ringed birds present on the site too! Its amazing what a little bit of wind from the right direction can do in October!

Further details about todays ringing activities here.

Vis Mig in North Duffield

2011-10-13T23:04:00.001+01:00

While most birders within earshot of the East Coast were bashing bushes for Sibes I was working on a major proposal that I have to get out before I go back to the Scillies next week. The bonus today was I that I was able to work at home (North Duffield) so I opened up my north-facing office window and listened out for the migrants going overhead. I wasn’t disappointed, well at least not until I got a phone call from Ade letting me know he’d just caught another Red-flanked Bluetail (see below) but I still managed the following:

Totals passing over the garden today (07.30-18.30) included:

Redwing: 399 (primarily directly west between 07.30 and 09.30, then south 09.30 onwards)
Fieldfare: 317 (mainly all south)
Mistle Thrush: 9 (south)
Blackbird: 3 (south)
Song Thrush: 1 (west)
Skylark: 6 (south)
Swallow: c20 (south)
House Martin: c25 (south)
Lapwing: 7 (south)
Golden Plover: 73 (south)
Shoveler: 1 (east)
Wigeon/Teal: 340 (mixed flock) (west)

Lots of finches were passing through however I didn’t try keeping a record of them. A male Great Spotted Woodpecker was a new individual for the garden (I’d had the female in June).

All in all fairly pleasing.

Red-flanked Bluetail IN HAND PICTURES & VIDEO!!!

2011-10-13T21:10:00.005+01:00

Check out these awesome pictures of Ade's Red-flanked Bluetail caught today at Whitburn, County Durham. Full details and a write up with additional pictures on the Souter Bird Observatory blog. Photos kindly supplied by, and reproduced with permission from Paul Hindess.

Red-flanked Bluetail © Paul Hindess 2011

Red-flanked Bluetail © Paul Hindess 2011

Red-flanked Bluetail © Paul Hindess 2011

Red-flanked Bluetail © Paul Hindess 2011

Also check out Pauls video of the bird in the hand here, gives a really good impression of the bird

Red-flanked Bluetail Whitburn & Flamborough

2011-10-13T12:14:00.006+01:00

Just got a call from my mate Ade (Souter Bird Obs) saying he's just caught a Red-flanked Bluetail at Whitburn. Will be released at 1245. Pictures to follow i'm sure...

As far as I know this is the first Red-flanked Bluetail of the Autum in the UK and it will be interesting to see how many more turn up in the coming days!

Ade is mega jammy, this is the second one he's caught at Whitburn in the last few years after he caught one in 2009 which I think was the last accepted record in County Durham. Hopefully this one will perform a bit better that the last one to visiting birders!!!

There is also another bird at Whitburn, in the village.

UPDATE

Just seen on facebook that a Red-flanked Bluetail has also just been ringed at Flamborough too! Holmes Gutt, thats where I'd be birding today if I wasn't writing my report!

There is also another bird in Suffolk at Orford Ness.

Arctic Skua in Derbyshire a Status Update

2011-10-12T20:19:00.002+01:00

Had an email today from the Derbyshire County Bird Recorder giving me some information on the status of Arctic Skua in the county:

"This would be the second record so far this year after a juvenile at Carsington Water found late evening on 24th September and still present up to 6.45 a.m. next morning before it flew off NE.

There have been a total of 35 records since the formation of the Derbyshire Ornithological Society in 1954 with the last record being in 2007 at Ogston Reservoir, a dark phase bird briefly on 27th May. Previous to 1954 there were 9 earlier records.

It is still the most commonly occurring Skua in Derbyshire but because of it’s less than annual showing it is a species which is on our list of Rare and Scarce birds which requires a description to back it up before it becomes part of our “official” records."

In summary it appears as though my record is the 45th record of Arctic Skua in Derbyshire which is quite cool!

Redwings Back

2011-10-11T22:51:00.003+01:00

No birding for me the last couple of days however I have had my first Redwing of the autumn back over the garden yesterday. Lapwing, Golden Plover, Geese and Gull numbers all seem to be increasing rapidly so hopefully I'll get chance to grill them in the coming days and weeks for something good amongst them. Not seen any more Yellow-legged Gulls recently.

'My' House Martins successfully fledged a couple of chicks at (presumably) their second attempt which was very pleasing. It was not particularly nice finding a pile of dead chicks under their nest at their first attempt. Most of the local House Martins seem to have departed however there are still a fair few around. Swallows too are decreasing however dawn and dusk seems to see a decent number as they arrive to, or depart from their roost in the maize crop.

Last week I saw two Hobbies, 1 down in mid-Lincs, the other just down the road in Escrick, probably my last ones for the year I'd guess, unless I get one on the Scillies next week....

Rock Thrush sp North Norfolk

2011-10-10T13:40:00.006+01:00

Blue Rock Thrush or Rock Thrush in Norfolk?

News this morning of a possible interesting thrush sp in Norfolk. Could this be Rock Thrush or an eastern form of Blue Rock Thrush and if so a wild bird or an escapee?? Hopefully we will see some pictures if it is re-found...

For those who don't know about Blue Rock Thrushes here is some info from Wikipedia...

The Blue Rock Thrush or Blue Rock-Thrush (Monticola solitarius) is a species of chat. This thrush-like Old World flycatcher was formerly placed in the family Turdidae.

This species breeds in southern Europe and northwest Africa, and from central Asia to northern China and Malaysia.

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius

The European, north African and southeast Asian birds are mainly resident, apart from altitudinal movements. Other Asian populations are more migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa, India and southeast Asia. This bird is a very uncommon visitor to northern and western Europe.

Blue Rock Thrush Monticola solitarius philippensis

Blue Rock Thrush breeds in open mountainous areas, usually higher than the breeding zone of the related Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush. It nests in rock cavities and walls, and usually lays 3-5 eggs. An omnivore, the Blue Rock Thrush eats a wide variety of insects and small reptiles in addition to berries and seeds.

Rufous-tailed Rock Thrush

This is a starling-sized bird, 21–23 cm in length with a long slim bill. The summer male is unmistakable, with all blue-grey plumage apart from its darker wings. Females and immatures are much less striking, with dark brown upperparts, and paler brown scaly underparts. Both sexes lack the reddish outer tail feathers of Rock Thrush.

The male Blue Rock Thrush sings a clear, melodious call that is similar to, but louder than the call of the Rock Thrush.

Or, what about an escapee Superb Starling?

Superb Starling fairly common in captivity

Arctic Skua in DERBYSHIRE

2011-10-06T19:53:00.003+01:00

I was out surveying at a secret location in central Derbyshire today in gale force winds. I've not been to this site since about February when I was getting some amazing views of Peregrine Falcon.

Today was no exception with excellent prolonged views of the pair of adults performing aerial displays and hunting a mix of Feral and Wood Pigeons, often giving really close views, however the main interest came at about 1.30pm when a shape caught my eye as it headed east on the gale force winds, a quick look with my bins made me do a double-take, SKUA! I quickly got on it with my scope and there it was, an adult pale-phase Arctic Skua, complete with long tail streamers. As it flew right over my vantage point it gave spectacular views. Its flight was jerky as it moved up and down in the wind, occasionally it circled up high but it also dropped really low several times as it went on its way. I watched it for about 3 km as it flew away and out of sight. A VP tick for me!

I'm not sure how many annual records there are of Arctic Skua in Derbyshire, though I guess most of them are from Carsington Water or Ogston Reservoir, in fact a quick search of Birdguides reveals:

A juvenile at Carsington Water on the 24th/25th September 2011 with one on 5th November 2007, one on 27th May 2007 and a probable 26th October 2002 Ogston reservoir with a juvenile over Pleasley Pit CP on 8th August 2005.

However I guess this is not all of the records. I have some recent Derbyshire Bird Reports in the office so will check this out tomorrow.

My location was approximately 110 km (70 miles) from the west coast with the east coast being a further 135 km (83 miles) away, so pretty much as inland UK as you can get!!! Though I guess a cross-country flight of approximately 250 km (150 miles) is not huge for a bird such as this!

Certainly a memorable day!

Northern Waterthrush Stop Press Photos

2011-10-05T21:32:00.006+01:00

Check out the incredible photos of the Northern Waterthrush by Andrew Vinson below. I was stood next to Andrew as he was taking these, what a sight! All images are reproduced with permission.

Northern Waterthrush © Andrew Vinson 2011

Northern Waterthrush © Andrew Vinson 2011

Northern Waterthrush © Andrew Vinson 2011

Northern Waterthrush © Andrew Vinson 2011

Solitary Sandpiper - Cracking set of pictures

2011-10-04T19:12:00.006+01:00

At Lands End airport the other week Dave and I met a guy called Andrew Vinson who, like us was heading over to The Scillies in order to try and catch up with the Northern Waterthrush, while there he captured some great shots of it, and also the Solitary Sandpiper, Red-eyed Vireo and Pectoral Sandpiper. The Solitary Sandpiper shots are reproduced with permission below. All images are copyright Andrew Vinson. This wonderful set of pictures allow pretty much all of the key ID features to be seen.

Solitary Sandpiper © Andrew Vinson 2011

Solitary Sandpiper © Andrew Vinson 2011

Solitary Sandpiper © Andrew Vinson 2011

Solitary Sandpiper © Andrew Vinson 2011

I will put some of the Northern Waterthrush, Pectoral Sandpiper and Red-eyed Vireo shots up shortly.

More on Scillies

2011-10-01T21:36:00.003+01:00

As a follow-up to my last post I thought I'd look into the rarity status of two of the rarer birds I'd seen on the Scillies. I'd usually check out Slack (2009) Rare Birds Where and When Volume 1 before the event but due to my high workload prior to going down there I didn't get the chance.

Northern Waterthrush was probably bird of the trip. It's always nice to get an American vagrant, but so much sweeter when it's a passerine. I was a bit gutted not to get the Black-and-white Warbler but statistically the Waterthrush is the rarer bird. There has been 15 previous records of B&W Warbler in the UK, with only 8 records of the Waterthrush.

There is a definite bias for the Scillies with four previous records (2x St Agnes 1958 and 1989, 1x Tresco 1968 and 1x Bryher 1982) all occurring. Other UK records include County Cork (1983 and 2008), Lincolnshire 1988 and Dorset 1996. Interestingly this morning the bird on the Scillies was caught and ringed. Check out the incredible picture below from Ashley Fisher and the Scilly Pelagics Website for more pictures and a video.

There has been approximately 35-40 Solitary Sandpiper records with approximately 25% of these occurring on the Scillies with the vast majority of others either in Cornwall or on various Scottish Islands. No doubt there will be a full and detailed account within Volume 2 of Rare Birds Where and When. Scillies certainly seems to be the best place to connect with this transatlantic vagrant.

Scilly Trip Report

2011-09-30T20:16:00.005+01:00

I, like many others spent the early part of last week watching the birding news services with baited breath with mega after mega dropping into the Isles of Scilly: Solitary Sandpiper, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo with a supporting cast of other scarce migrants such as Bee-eater, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Melodious Warbler and Woodchat Shrike etc...

I'd got some major EIA reports to finish so I couldn't drop everything to go straightaway so had to sit it out. By Thursday morning it appeared as though some of the birds had gone but there was still a fair bit of interest down there so I booked a flight and talked Dave into coming with me for the trek. Dave got to mine at 9pm on Thursday evening and we drove through the night, getting down to Lands End Airport for first light. We were both taken aback by how cold it was down there and were worried we'd not got enough cold-weather clothes! We needn't have worried though as the Scillies was like another country!

A poke around St Just didn't produce too much, a few Meadow Pipit, alba Wagtails and that was about it. A couple of Wheatear were noted on the airfield. While checking-in and going through the H&S information I glanced outside and saw a smallish wader flying over the airstrip, Buff-breasted Sandpiper! A good start to the day/trip and hopefully a sign of good things to come?!? The buff-breast circled about while we made our way to the tiny 8-seater plane and could be seen as we flew off to St Mary's.

On arrival at St Mary's airport (while waiting for my bag to arrive on the next plane!) we were treated to excellent views of the first summer Woodchat Shrike sat next to a Wheatear on a wire fence.

After dropping our bags off at the B&B we headed round to check out Higgo's Pool and the Dump clump to make sure we were in the right place for when/if the Waterthrush/Solitary Sand would show again, we then headed into Lower Moors to try and re-find the Black-and-White Warbler, which didn't result in much at all. After a fruitless couple of hours we made our way back to Higgo's Pool and staked it out for the afternoon. By this point the sun was raging down, it was baking hot and I was totally exhausted, so much so that I fell asleep standing up! After a 4 hours wait we were rewarded when the bird dropped in calling. It then showed well for the next 40 minutes as it fed along the edge of the pool, occasionally calling. A great bird!

The next couple of days saw a steady stream of good birds and saw us walking miles and miles. Saturdays highlights included the Solitary Sandpiper showing to about 12 feet, Ortolan Bunting showing to about 20 feet, Buff-breasted Sandpiper to 30 feet, 2Pectoral Sandpipers to 1 foot (they walked out from under the hide we were in!), Water Pipit, Whinchat, Stonechat, Wheatear and lots of other common birds.

Sunday was a difficult day, we walked miles and miles in search of the Bee-eater covering all the areas in which it had been favouring, but with no joy whatsoever! The only bird of note we had was a Lesser Yellowlegs that was sat on the beach next to our B&B! Hard work!

Monday was our last day on the island and the weather had closed in somewhat, we started out early and headed down to the dump clump, after an hour of watching the tree tops we were rewarded when we picked up a Red-eyed Vireo feeding in the Elms, it gave great views as it moved through. We didn't get much after that, save a showy Pectoral Sandpiper and a brief view of an Icterine Warbler both down at Lower Moors.

Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out) the fog prevented us from flying back to the mainland so we got on the Scillonian III, this resulted in a good afternoons birding with the highlights including 6 Balearic Shearwaters, 2 Manx Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 1 Sabines Gull, 2 Leach's Petrel, 35+ Storm Petrel, 4 Bonxie with Minke Whale, Common Dolphin and Sun Fish also seen. The sea was fairly calm which enabled me to get my scope up which certainly helped with the ID of the above!

Overall it was a great trip, it was a shame the Oriole and Black-and-White Warbler had gone, and also that the Bee-eater had flown off the day we arrived but that can't detract from the Waterthrush, Solitary Sand and Vireo that showed off nicely.

I didn't get many photos, and my blackberry zoom wasn't working for most of my trip which was a shame/pain, however I met a few birders who should hopefully be sending me some photos soon and I have a few better pics of the Pec Sands to put on.

Scilly Update

2011-09-28T22:10:00.003+01:00

Just a quick one to say the lack of recent posts is due to my recent trip to the Scillies. I will put a 'trip report' up in the next couple of days but I've got quite a lot on at the minute with work so will try and catch up at the weekend.

Needless to say it will be packed full of decent rarities and hopefully a few decent pictures!

American Black Tern, Lincolnshire

2011-09-18T20:25:00.005+01:00

After a busy day on Saturday of painting and shopping news of the American Black Tern in Lincolnshire went straight past me, maybe it was because I kept seeing Black and White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush and Solitary Sandpiper and I couldn't contemplate another mega out of my reach so it wasn't until late at night when I sat down with the laptop that I realised I may have missed a localish Mega! Unfortunately I'd got several plans and meetings scheduled during the day so had to wait my time and hope it would hang on.

Luckily the bird was still present on Sunday, and even better, it was still there when I could get across so as afternoon approached I met up with Dave and we shot across to Covenham Reservoir in Lincolnshire dodging a few hefty thunderstorms en-route.

On arrival we were straight onto the bird, we dodged another shower and moved along the dam wall for a closer look, the bird performed brilliantly and showed well for the duration of our stay. I didn't get any photos but there are loads on the Lincolnshire Bird Club Website such as this cracker by Robert Hardy

Also present were tonnes of Pied with a sprinkling of Yellow Wagtail lots of Great Crested and two Red-necked Grebes. Interestingly, the two grebes showed a great deal of yellow on the lower mandibles, could this be potential for the US holboellii sub-species? Check out Russel Hayes photo below, again with more photos on the Lincolnshire Bird Club website.

Local YL Gulls and a bit of other stuff...

2011-09-13T22:43:00.004+01:00

I've not done masses of birding lately, mainly due to continued decorating, nasty weather, a flu/cold and lots and lots of report writing so I've mainly been making do with what I can find while out walking the dogs.

The number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the LDV has been steadily increasing over the past couple of weeks. I've seen a couple of flocks locally and have been focussing on a flock near home which last weekend peaked at around 300+ birds. This flock contained a decent scattering of Great Black-backed Gulls (the first real flock noted by me locally) and also included at least 2 Yellow-legged Gulls but unfortunately they got flushed by a farm vehicle before I could get my scope sorted. Also at the weekend, 2 Yellow-legged Gulls were seen in the north of the valley, with another bird in the east of the valley.

The numbers of gulls in the field appear variable with some days none been present but other days quite a few about. Yesterday there was only 35 Lesser Black-backs and 1 Yellow-legged Gull but today there was approximately 100 Lessers, with at least 4 Yellow-legs present.

© David Iliff 2007 Yellow-legged Gull (note this is not the actual bird(s) seen!

The House Martins in the nest on the neighbours house appear to be very close to fledging (hopefully they will make it this time!). There has been a decent passage of Swallows over the last few days locally with a fair few Yellow Wagtail and Meadow Pipit passing over too.

There has been a few passage Common Whitethroat and Chiffchaff noted on the local dog walk circuit and the number of Starlings are rocketing up too.

Of note on my dog walk this morning was a Water Vole that gave decent views. While in the office today I added an 'office tick' in the form of Snow Goose!

Some Great Birds in Finland

2011-09-05T22:45:00.008+01:00

At this time of year I regularly check out whats going on around northern Europe in the hope that some of the awesome birds reported may make it over here. Last week Norway was my feature. Today it is Finland.

There has been reports of dozens of Pallid Harrier over there this autumn but it has been hotting up over the last few days, peaking with a cracking Isabelline Shrike and a first for Finland in the form of a migrating adult Sandhill Crane in amongst the Common Crane this evening. The photos below show the birds fairly well!

Isabelline Shrike presumed nominate isabellinus in Finland (September 2nd 2011 Nakkila, Leistilänjärvi, Finland © Mika Bruun)

Isabelline Shrike presumed nominate isabellinus in Finland (September 2nd 2011 Nakkila, Leistilänjärvi, Finland © Mika Bruun)

Adult Sandhill Crane (September 5th 2011 Espoo, Laajalahti, Finland © Joonatan Toivanen)

Adult Sandhill Crane (September 5th 2011 Espoo, Laajalahti, Finland © Joonatan Toivanen)

Is it April?

2011-09-04T19:49:00.002+01:00

I wasn't sure if it was April this morning. I was greeted by both Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler singing in the garden which was cool! I took the dogs for a walk behind the house and came across a flock of at least 15 Yellow Wagtail feeding amongst the cows and horses feets. Nearby I had a brief Wheatear on the muck heap with at least 40 Meadow Pipit and 9 Skylark feeding amongst the freshly cut bean field. Several small flocks of Swallows were recorded, all heading strongly low north. All of the above, and what with the showers throughout the day it certainly felt like April!

Heslington East early am (Sat 3rd Sept)

2011-09-03T21:29:00.004+01:00

Had an early am walk around the local wader hot spot that is Heslington East in the hope of connecting with the Little Stint that had been present for a few days. No such luck as there was no sign of the little one.

It was a surprisingly mild morning as the sun came up which was a pleasant surprise. The Little Stint had either gone, or was out of sight but 2 Greenshank, 1migrant juvenile Little Ringed Plover, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Green Sandpiper and 2 Snipe were recorded.

Highlights however came in the form of a Garganey and Kingfisher, the latter showed very well (not that my rushed picture shows this!), the former not so well unfortunately.

Kingfisher at Heslington East

Other waterbirds recorded included 2 Tufted Duck, 1 Pochard (when is the Ring-neck going to turn up?!?!), 2 Teal, 100+ Mallard, 1 Cormorant, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 20 Snow Goose, 65 Barnacle Goose and loads of Canada and Greylags.

Several passerines were also noted, including over 100 Swallow and 1 Sand Martin flying high south. Also heading south were 20 Yellow Wagtail, 2 Mistle Thrush, 30 Meadow Pipit, 1 Grey Wagtail and 150 Starling. There was also loads of Linnet, Goldfinch and Pied Wagtail feeding around the site.

Still hoping for a Yankee wader!

Lista Bird Observatory - Norway Birding!

2011-09-01T21:29:00.003+01:00

I've been ill for a few days but back in the office today to get on with some report writing so no birding for me for the last few days so thought I'd tell you about one of my mates birding days - as it sounds pretty good!

Lista Bird observatory is approximately 600 Km Northeast of my favourite UK birding destination - Flamborough Head (where incidentally I now have my caravan set up!) separated by the North Sea. Knowing what is going on at Lista (and other such locations in Europe) can prove for a) some interesting reading, and b) some food for thought...

Some of the better birds at Flamborough come from the east so it is logical to assume some of the birds that get recorded over at Lista may make it over here given the right weather.

A couple of weeks back Lista recorded Norway's first Grey-necked Bunting, there shortly followed another bird in the same country a week or so later. Grey-necked Bunting has not yet been recorded in the UK (to my knowledge). There has also been a Pallid Harrier recorded over the last few days over there which seems to fit in well with records of birds in the UK and Ireland over the last week or so.

Today my mate Rich Cope (Richbirder) has had a fairly decent day with 2 Pallid Harrier, 1 Hen Harrier, 1 Black Kite, 1 Rough-legged Buzzard, 2 Honey Buzzard, 100 Sparrowhawk, 2 Barred Warbler and a Wryneck! A sign of what may be heading this way over the coming days??

Rich has also been having decent numbers of Two-barred Crossbills since 27th July, with 8 seen yesterday, hopefully some more will make it to the UK in the coming weeks and months.

Rich is providing daily accounts (internet/time permitting etc) which I really recommend.

The Life of Brian - An Amazing Discovery

2011-08-31T21:15:00.005+01:00

A bird specimen that sat in a drawer at the Smithsonian for nearly 50 years has been revealed to be a totally new species to science, the first in the United States for 37 years.

The discovery of the true identity of the bird was thanks to a sharp-eyed scientist at the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP), who realized that the specimen had been misidentified after it was collected on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1963. Differences in measurements and physical appearance compared to other similar species were confirmed by DNA analysis, and the bird was given the name Bryan’s Shearwater, Puffinus bryani.

“I was doing research for a book I was working on, dealing with birds of Hawai'i when I came across this particular specimen of a seabird that was identified as a Little Shearwater. After examining the specimen, I knew that what I was looking at was not a Little Shearwater or anything else that occurred in the Pacific basin. Ultimately, I decided we needed to do the DNA testing, which determined that we had a completely new species,” said Peter Pyle, the IBP researcher who made the discovery.

Researchers rarely discover new species of birds, most of the world’s 9,000-plus species (including about 21 other species of shearwaters) having been described before 1900. The majority of new species described since the mid-1900s have been discovered in remote tropical rain- and cloud forests, primarily in South America and southeastern Asia.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is the first new species to be described from the United States and Hawaiian Islands since the Po’ouli was discovered in the forests of Maui in 1974. The Bryan’s Shearwater is the smallest shearwater known to exist. It is black and white with a black or blue-gray bill and blue legs. Biologists found the species in a burrow among a colony of petrels during the Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program in 1963.

The Bryan’s Shearwater is closest in morphology to the Boyd’s Shearwater, which is found in the Atlantic Ocean, but is more genetically distinct than all its other shearwater cousins. Based on this DNA evidence, researchers estimate that the Bryan’s Shearwater separated from other species of shearwaters perhaps more than 2 million years ago. These findings have been published in a paper, A new species of Shearwater (Puffinus) recorded from Midway Atoll, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in the current issue of the scientific journal The Condor.

Researchers do not know where Bryan’s Shearwaters breed today. According to Pyle, shearwaters and other seabirds often visit nesting burrows on remote islands only at night, and researchers have not discovered the breeding locations of many populations. Individual seabirds from colonies also often “prospect” for new breeding locations, often far from existing colonies. Bryan’s Shearwater could conceivably breed anywhere in the Pacific Ocean basin or even farther afield.

“We don’t believe that Bryan’s Shearwaters breed regularly on Midway or other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, based on the extensive seabird work in these islands by biologists with the Pacific Seabird Project,” Pyle said. The specimen was the only observation during this extensive project, which occurred on islands and atolls throughout the North Pacific from 1963 until 1968. “They would almost certainly have encountered more Bryan’s shearwaters then and since if they bred regularly in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.”

Given that Bryan’s shearwaters have remained undiscovered until now, they could be very rare. It is sadly even possible that they went extinct before ever being recognized, although there is at least one more record of a bird in a burrow on Midway from 1990, and observations at sea of what could be Bryan's Shearwaters as recently as 2005.

“If we can find where this species breeds, we may have a chance to protect it and keep it from going extinct,” said Andreanna Welch, who works for The Smithsonian and is the co-author of the paper on the new species. “Genetic analysis allows us to investigate whether an animal represents an entirely different species, and that knowledge is important for setting conservation priorities and preventing extinction.”

“American Bird Conservancy is not opposed to the judicious collection of specimens for scientific reasons, we oppose the collection of endangered species. If this bird had been found today, the data needed could have been obtained using digital imagery and DNA sampling on the live bird,” said ABC Vice President Mike Parr.

Bryan’s shearwater is named after Edwin Horace Bryan Jr., who was curator of collections at the B.P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu from 1919 until 1968.

(Press release from American Bird Conservancy)

Ringed-necked Duck Wheldrake - and other local birds

2011-08-27T21:20:00.003+01:00

On Friday when I sat down to have dinner I got a message saying that there was an eclipse drake Ring-necked Duck briefly at Wheldrake Ings, but that it had unfortunately flown off north. Hopefully it will stay in the area and get re found in the coming days. We've had a lot of rain over the last few days so there is likely to be some local flooding which could prove interesting. There was also a Turnstone at Wheldrake too. Will have to keep my eyes open!

Eclipse male Ring-necked Duck (Photographed in Canaries in 2003).

I have been checking out a couple of fields and hedges to the south of the village over the last week in the hope of connecting with some migrants, eg Wood Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Redstart or Whinchat etc. (or something better!), however as yet I've been unsuccessful in finding any of the above though I have had 3 Tree Pipit go south, along with a number of Swallow and a couple of Swift. A decent number of Meadow Pipit are starting to build up in one of the fields with a flock of Linnet and Goldfinch keeping them company. A bit of good hedge has held Sedge Warbler, Willow Warbler, Common and Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff with some of these considered to be migrants.

The gull numbers have been building up recently with birds flying over the house at dawn and dusk going to and from the River Humber. The majority of them appear to be Lesser Black-backed with the odd Common and Black-headed Gull thrown into the mix too. Yesterday while walking the dogs to the south of the village I was a little annoyed as someone ahead of me managed to flush a field full of gulls (c200+) before I could get there with my bins to take a look at them. Today however I fared much better and managed to get right up on them (even with the two dogs!). There was c.235 Lesser Black-backed Gull, 15 Common Gull and 2 Black-headed Gull but the highlight was two adult, and 1 juvenile Yellow-legged Gull that were in amongst all the Lesser Black-backs. I'll have to keep an eye open for them flying over the house as YLGull would be a pretty cool garden bird!

Speaking of Garden birds, on Friday morning I had a female/1st winter type Bullfinch in the garden. I heard the familiar call and then thought, I don't remember seeing/hearing Bullfinch previously from the garden, a quick check of my list reveled I was correct, it was indeed a new garden tick, number 82.

Posh man with stupid name falls over and blames Sea-Eagle

2011-08-25T21:56:00.003+01:00

Saw this reported on BBC news today. The story is below, however I think it is more a case of posh man with a stupid name falling over and blaming it on the White-tailed Eagle.... maybe keep the geese in an enclosure or maintain the netting? Personally I'd rather look at a White-tailed Eagle than a hideous feral inbred goose!

A senior clergyman has been injured by a sea eagle as he tried to scare away the bird after it attacked and killed one of his prize-winning geese. The Very Rev Hunter Farquharson said he arrived home in Abernethy, near Perth, on Friday to see his Toulouse goose Beatrice lying dead on the ground.

A sea eagle - the UK's biggest bird of prey - was perched on a nearby post.

It jumped on Mr Farquharson's back as he tried to stop it attacking a second goose, leaving him with a head injury. With a wing span of 8ft (2.4m), the white-tailed sea eagle is the UK's largest bird of prey.

It was completely wiped out in Britain in the early 20th Century and only returned when a reintroduction programme began on the island of Rum in 1975. The project has been opposed by some farmers and crofters who say the birds frequently attack and kill livestock

Mr Farquharson, Provost of Perth Cathedral, said it was the second time his birds had been attacked by a sea eagle.

Three years ago, one of the eagle, known as "flying barn doors", killed four of his bantams.

RSPB Scotland blamed the attack on "very young and naive" birds which had been released this year.

The charity, which is responsible for the reintroduction programme in Scotland, said there were a "tiny number of incidents" like this, but said the birds would soon disperse as they grew in confidence.

An RSPB spokesman said: "In our experience sea eagles will only defend themselves and attack humans if they feel cornered and threatened.

"It is of course unfortunate that the bird scratched Mr Farquharson, but we believe it was simply trying to escape and resist capture."

The RSPB said it had visited Mr Farquharson in 2008 after the first attack and paid for the installation of netting to keep his birds safe, but that these protection measures had since been removed.

The licence for the current reintroduction programme was granted in 2007.

Quick Flamborough Trip

2011-08-24T21:05:00.004+01:00

The weather looked like it had the potential to drop something good along the east coast last night/this morning so after my survey earlty this morning I headed over to Flamborough to see if there was anything about. I headed to the north side - my preferred area with the hope of finding something interesting. A loop of Holmes Gut, High Holme + Thornwick Bay Road produced:

Lesser Whitethroat (2) – 1 ringed
Common Whitethroat (11) – including several fledglings (a couple ringed)
Blackcap (1) – female
Corn Bunting (3)
Reed Bunting (4)
Sand Martin (4)
Yellowhammer (4)
Meadow Pipit (4)
Sedge Warbler (2) – pair?
Garden Warbler (1)
Sparrowhawk (1) – male

News filtered through of a Greenish Warbler and and Icterine Warbler on the south side so I thought I'd go and have a look for them. Unfortunately I didn't connect with either (not sure there was any sign of either after the initial sightings - or of the potential Ortolan that was mentioned) but I did manage:

Spotted Flycatcher (1)
Pied Flycatcher (1)
Willow Warbler (1)
Chiffchaff (2)
Common Whitethroat (2)
Sand Martin (1)
Whimbrel (1)

Generally at both locations lots of Swallow, Linnet, Goldfinch, the odd Greenfinch, Dunnock, Wren, Great Tit, Blue Tit etc… but lots of leaves made viewing tricky.

I bumped into Tim who found a Redstart along old fall but that cleared off before I could get a look.

Bird Fair - Saturday

2011-08-20T21:17:00.003+01:00

Had a really enjoyable trip down to Rutland Water for the Bird Fair today. I didn't make it last year so thought I'd make the effort to go down and support this year. On arrival I met up with Tim at the Birdnet stand then met up with Lewis who had driven down from Edinburgh for the weekend. We went round together for the day catching up as we'd not seen each other for a while so that was good. We started our tour round the fair checking out all of the many varied stands. We had a chat with Tim Appleton which was great. I bumped into Tim in the middle of Bwindi Forest in Uganda back in 1997/98 and he allowed me to tag along birding with him for 2 or 3 days seeing some incredible birds in the mean time, something I've fondly remembered for the last 14/15 years!

It was really interesting meeting up with people that I've known for years, or worked with occasionally. Caught up with Neil Calbrade on the WeBS stand and learned a bit about passerine migration etc and caught up with Mick from the Nuneaton Bird Club - I used to go birding with Mick when I got back from Kenya most weekends so it was great to catch up with him too. Also entered a few competitions so looking forward to winning a few books and bottles of Whiskey!

I've been considering a couple of options for my next 'proper' birding tour, several options are in the pipeline, I really fancy a few West African 'destinations' such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Guinea to connect with some of the many special birds of the region. I also fancy Sri Lanka (possibly a trip Jenny and I could do - a mix of wildlife and relaxation), though top of my list is certainly India. There are several options with India, my preferred option is a 'Birding and IPL' tour, I met a guy today who would likely be able to set me up with one of these, a couple of weeks birding in India taking in a couple of my preferred IPL matches - can't think of a better holiday! There was also a good couple of wildlife tours suitable for us both to go on which would be great too. I've picked up plenty of brochures to look through over the coming weeks and look forward to getting some details of some upcoming expeditions into the jungle!

As we walked around I met up with a couple of my 'facebook friends' including Ruth and Alan of 'The Biggest Twitch' fame, and Peter Jones of Andalucia, Spain, all really nice people.

We bumped into a couple of 'famous faces', Lewis was over the moon to meet Simon King AGAIN making me take their picture together! We also had a good chat with Nick Baker, Killian Mullarney, saw Bill Oddie racing through with his head down!, some of the Dutch big guns and best of all (in my opinion) Jonathan Scott. I've got several of his books from when I was in Kenya, such as The Leopard's Tale etc and have watch numerous documentaries so it was great to be able to say hello and have a chat with him.

A flyover Hobby was a bonus as we were leaving. All in all a very enjoyable (although a bit tiring) day.

More Garden Quail: An Update.

2011-08-17T21:29:00.005+01:00

The brief burst of Quail song heard from the garden on Sunday was unusual, it was a first for my garden list and it was bang in the middle of the afternoon, not entirely 'prime-time' Quail singing time, however on Monday evening the bird sang for a good hour or so at the more typical time, dusk.

This singing bird got me a bit interested - Quail always do generally, since I spent hours chasing them through the undergrowth in Kenya when I was younger. This year has been a bumper year for Quail, at least regionally with masses of them all across Yorkshire and I've had good numbers on one of my work sites (c 20 singing males) and had a good few locally too.

The cause of Quail influxes are poorly understood (it will be interesting to see how this years influx shapes up to previous years) but several have been associated with warm dry springs, a prevalence of southeasterly winds and drought in southern Europe. Recent research in France and Spain suggests that influxes may be associated with good breeding seasons in North Africa and Iberia.

© LDV Birder 2008

Quail are able to reproduce when they are 12-13 weeks old and the offspring of early breeders migrate northwards to breed in Iberia, France and Northern Europe eg England.

The English breeding population may have two components; long distance migrants which winter in the Sahel and fly directly to breeding grounds in England and others which breed in irrigated farmland in north Africa and Iberia before moving northwards to renew breeding activity alongside their own offspring in England. Whilst some late-nesting birds present in England in August and September may be birds tending replacement or second clutches, many may be such southern-nesting birds.

Was the bird heard singing from the garden one of these late breeders, or just a bird heading south on migration dropped by one of the recent showers taking a break to feed up before heading south? Who knows…

Gay Little Sparrows!

2011-08-15T19:41:00.004+01:00

Not quite sparrows but Zebra Finches. Saw this today on BBC Nature website... appears as though gulls, penguins, albatrosses are at it too! They're all at it!

Same-sex pairs of monogamous birds are just as attached and faithful to each other as those paired with a member of the opposite sex.

The insight comes from a study of zebra finches - highly vocal, colourful birds that sing to their mates, a performance thought to strengthen the pair's bond.

Scientists found that same-sex pairs of finches sang to and preened each other just like heterosexual pairs.

The study is reported in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

Lead researcher Julie Elie from the University of California Berkeley said that the research showed that "relationships in animals can be more complicated than just a male and a female who meet and reproduce, even in birds".

Dr Elie and her colleagues are interested in zebra finches' behaviour. The birds establish life-long relationships and are highly social; males sing to their mates, the birds preen each other and pairs share a nest.

"I'm interested in how animals establish relationships and how [they] use acoustic communication in their social interactions. My observations of [them] led me to this surprising result: same-sex individuals would also interact in affiliative manners, like male-female pairs."

Dr Elie decided to look more closely at the formation of these bonds and the behaviour of finches in same-sex pairs.

First, she and her colleagues, Clementine Vignal and Nicolas Mathevon from the University of Saint-Etienne, raised young finches in same-sex groups. More than half of the birds paired up with another bird of the same sex.

The team then closely monitored the birds for signs that they had bonded fully.

Bonded birds, Dr Elie explained, perch side by side, nestled together. They also greet each other by "nuzzling" beaks.

In the next stage of their study, the scientists brought novel females to a group of bonded male-male pairs. Out of eight males that were engaged in same-sex pair-bonds, five ignored the females completely and continued to interact with their male partner.

The findings indicate that, even in birds, the drive to find a mate is far more complicated than simply the need to reproduce.

"A pair-bond in socially monogamous species represents a cooperative partnership that may give advantages for survival," said Dr Elie. "Finding a social partner, whatever its sex, could be a priority."

There are many other examples of same-sex pairing in the avian world.

In monogamous gulls and albatrosses, it gives females the chance to breed without a male partner.

"Female partners copulate with a paired male then rear the young together," Dr Elie explained.

In captivity, there have been at least two cases of male penguins forming long-term bonds when there are females available.

Perhaps the most famous of these was two male chinstrap penguins in Manhattan's Central Park Zoo, named Roy and Silo. They bonded and paid no attention to females in their enclosure for at least a year.

They even built a nest together and incubated and hatched a fertilised egg donated to them by one of the keepers.

Quail Garden Tick!

2011-08-14T19:34:00.004+01:00

A mixed day today started with an 8 km walk around the village (North Duffield) surrounds. It was generally quiet however a mixed tit flock contained a single Marsh Tit and several adult and juvenile Coal, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits. Finches were fairly vocal with several Linnet, Greenfinch and Goldfinch around. A flock of 86+ Lapwing was the first local flock I've seen of the autumn. The same ploughed field also held 25+ Pied Wagtail. There appeared to be a more-or-less constant stream of Yellow Wagtail, with the occasional Meadow Pipit heading south. Swallow appeared to be migrating south in decent numbers, with a sprinkling of Swift in with them too. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was heard calling, as was Jay. There was no sign of any Corn Bunting today but several Yellowhammer were still fairly vocal. Raptors were represented by 3 or 4 Buzzard, a juvenile male Sparrowhawk drinking from a puddle and a family group of Kestrel.

The biggest treat of the day came in the form of a Quail garden tick. I was gardening at the time when a burst of song got my immediate attention. A nice surprise and my 81st garden tick! I'd spent all day keeping my eyes open for any interesting raptors going over to no avail.

The not-so-good part of the day came when I found the following: a dead juvenile female Green Woodpecker - a road kill victim. I think it's a female due to the black moustache.

Advanced Bird ID Handbook

2011-08-11T22:19:00.002+01:00

New Holland's Advanced Bird ID Guide has taken the birding world by storm, being described by leading authorities as 'ground-breaking', 'innovative' and 'brilliant', and scooping the prestigious Birdwatch Magazine Bird Book of the Year Award 2010.

I got my copy of the book today, a bit cheaper currently on Amazon (£15) rather than the RRP (c£25).

The guide accurately describes every key detail of every plumage of all 1,350 species and subspecies that have ever occurred in the Western Palearctic. Its level of detail is unprecedented for a book of its size. The book broke the mould for field guides as it contains no colour plates or illustrations, but instead its unique selling point is that for every species the detailed text lists the key characters of each recognizable plumage, including male, female, immature, juvenile, all subspecies and all other variations. This level of detail includes, for example, all eleven forms of 'Canada goose' and all eleven forms of 'yellow wagtail' known in the region.

The detailed yet concise nature of the guide means that it has become an instant classic. The Advanced Bird ID Handbook is intended as a reference companion for the original field guide. It has larger and more widely spaced text, and more than 100 additional pages, making it much more easy to use. In addition it has been fully updated with additions and amendments to the accounts of nearly every species, all recent taxonomic changes and new species in the region taken on board, and more than 20 tables giving side-by-side comparisons of the features of sets of similar species such as Syke's and Booted Warblers, Tundra and Taiga Bean Geeese, Marsh and Willow Tit and Snowy and Little Egret etc. There is also a full checklist of Western Palearctic species.

I think in combination with Collins this will be an incredibly useful book and look forward to working my way through it! I've just got to see if I can fit a copy in my glove box!

Nightjars still Churring & Babies too!

2011-08-09T19:22:00.003+01:00

Went out for another localish walk last night to check out the status of the Nightjars. Surprisingly, given how cold and late in the season it was, one of the males was again churring/displaying for at least an hour!

Whilst walking around I managed to find the female again, and this time she had two recent fledglings in tow. Excellent views were again given of one of my favourite birds.

Black Redstart in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

2011-08-03T22:15:00.002+01:00

I got an email this evening from my dad with a picture of a potential Black Redstart in a private garden with no public access in Weddington, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The photos were pretty grainy but it was pretty clear that it was indeed a Black Redstart! Not totally sure of the status of Black Redstart in Warwickshire, so will look into it.

Good stuff though and a pretty good garden record!

Nightjar Score!

2011-08-02T20:56:00.003+01:00

After last weeks no show I went back to my top secret Nightjar site in the hope of connecting with some birds last night as it was about 20 degrees hotter than my previous attempt with tonnes of moths and other insects - many biting, about. However on this occasion I scored big style with two pairs recorded, interestingly and rather surprisingly the two males of the pairs were still churring with one of them 'wing-clapping'. These were really great views but got better when one of the females landed on the track about 5 feet in front of me!

An unexpected bonus was a Green Sandpiper that flew over calling in the middle of the night! More expected was the several family groups of Long-eared and Tawny Owls recorded.

This is what it looked like! Check out Grahams excellent blog for images of Nightjar and other stuff...