Farne Island Photos

My last post was a bit of a long wordy one due to the big weekend Short-toed Eagle and Bridled Tern twitch (click here to be taken to it). One of the highlights on Inner Farnes was getting up close to a number of sea birds, so less words this time, just lots of photos! All taken on my Panasonic Lumix FZ200.

Puffin © Andy Walker 2014

 

Puffin © Andy Walker 2014

Puffin © Andy Walker 2014

Razorbill © Andy Walker 2014

Guillemot © Andy Walker 2014

Arctic Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Arctic Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Arctic Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Arctic Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Common Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Common Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Sandwich Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Bridled Tern © Andy Walker 2014

Juvenile Black-headed Gull © Andy Walker 2014

Herring Gull © Andy Walker 2014

Kittiwake © Andy Walker 2014

Kittiwake © Andy Walker 2014

Red-breasted Merganser © Andy Walker 2014

Shag © Andy Walker 2014

Luis Suarez the Puffin not biting another Puffin © Andy Walker 2014

Eagley awaiting my Tern

This weekend was pretty manic! It's a long blog post but worth it!

I finished work on Friday and picked up Dave, Rodney and Albert and we drove through the night down to Ashdown Forest, East Sussex in hope of connecting with the Short-toed Eagle which has been around for a couple of weeks. We arrived at 3 am after going through the night. Got to the Gills Lap car park and were greeted by the sound of churring Nightjars! We grabbed a couple of hours sleep in the car and awoke at 5.30 to see what we could find.

Turtle Doves were the highlight for the next few hours with at least 6 birds being seen and heard. Lots of other nice birds around the car park but no sign of the Eagle by 8 am (not necessarily a surprise given the time of the day - but we wanted to try early having seen the weather forecast for later in the day!). As the number of birders increased it started to rain, I think between 8-10 am (I slept so not sure!). After it cleared up a bit things looked a bit more promising.

Shortly later someone got a call that the Short-toed Eagle was in the Long car park area near Wych Cross so everyone raced (at a suitably legal speed..) over there. A quick walk got us to the spot but there was no sign of the bird at first. After an anxious 20 minutes or so someone on a track higher up found the Eagle, a quick run and I had got my scope onto it.

Had excellent views for the next hour or so of it perched busily preening at about 400 m range. I got a rubbish record shot on my phone (below). After really enjoying seeing this bird we decided to commence our drive north, as we were almost back to the car park we noticed that the Eagle was flying off, presumably back to the Gills Lap car park area so we got some brief flight views.

At this point we need to sound the fanfare, set off some fireworks etc as Short-toed Eagle was Rodneys 200th UK species. Congratulations Rodders old boy.

Pretty rubbish record shot of the UKs 5th (if you include Jersey and Guernsey), but first twitchable mainland record, of Short-toed Eagle (iPhone-scoped at about 400 m range)

We got back home fairly late on Saturaday night, grabbed a takeaway, watched the world cup, had some celebratory wine then headed up early Sunday morning to Seahouses, Northumberland to get the first boat across to the Inner Farnes on Sunday morning....

It looked a bit rough on the sea between Seahouses and the Farne Islands but that didn't put me or the old sea dog off and we enjoyed a full English (at Trotters cafe!) in preparation for a rough ride. There was a lot of salty water splashed about but luckily we positioned ourselves to avoid the most of it. After a few hours of bobbing around on the water in the cold wind, and occasional rain shower we finally saw the target bird - an impressive adult Bridled Tern. However after a few minutes it flew off and out of sight!

We decided to head back to the island and spend a couple of hours on dry land during the afternoon hoping for better views of the Bridled Tern (and better weather), and to also enjoy the many other seagulls on the island - pictures of those in a separate blog post later in the week... they were quite impressive for seagulls.

On landing on Inner Farne we immediately found the Bridled Tern again, where it showed for about 5 minutes before flying off (again). It then didn't reappear until 5 minutes before our boat was leaving! But it did show much better on this third sighting so I managed a couple of record shots on my phone below, still too far for my camera unfortunately, but at least you can tell what it is this time.

I think there's somewhere in the region of 30 UK records of Bridled Tern, this is likely to be the same bird that was on the Farnes in 2013 and possibly even the same bird that was in Northumberland in 2010?

Bridled Tern wing stretching (iPhone-scoped)

Bridled Tern (iPhone-scoped)

Bridled Tern (iPhone-scoped)

Bridled Tern  (iPhone-scoped)

And so a  mammoth weekend concluded with over 950 miles driven, several thousand calories consumed, lots of good birds seen and the mighty Ticos winning on penalties.

Thanks to Dave and Rodney for sharing the driving.

Looks like we got a dose of luck too - today the Eagle has flown 100 km further south back to the New Forest, and the Bridled Tern has disappeared for the day!

Costa Rica Birding Trip Report 2

Another re-edited birding trip report.

This report was just over two-weeks long and recorded over 500 species. It was a really enjoyable trip with some major avian highlights. Loads of resident birds and a number of Nearctic over-wintering migrants too.

Birding sites visited included Savegre, Golfito, Carara, Tarcol, Palo Verde, Monteverde, La Selva, Braulio Carillo, Rancho Naturalista.

  Costa Rica Birding Trip Report 2

Costa Rica Birding Trip Report 1

Another re-edited birding trip report.

I've spent about 2 years living in Costa Rica where I worked as a bird guide. I've also guided several bird tours around the country and this trip report was from a tour I guided back in 2004. It was a fairly gentle introduction to Costa Rica (very different from the next report I'll post) and included time on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts as well as in the central mountains.

The tour recorded over 400 species including mainly highly sought national and regional endemics as well as a number of high quality birds such as Resplendent Quetzal and Scarlet Macaw. In addition to the birds some great animals were recorded including Howler Monkey and White-faced Capuchin Monkey in addition to some beautiful moths and butterflies.

  Costa Rica Birding Trip Report 1

Virginia Birding Trip Report

This is the second of my re-edited Birding trip reports.

This was a birding trip made for a couple of days either side of a three week Costa Rica birding trip that I was guiding back in 2006 (two Costa Rica trip reports coming soon).

This was a really good introduction to American birding with a nice range of familiar and some new species. The highlight was (for me at the time) my lifer Snowy Owl. A really huge bonus bird! Virginia was a really beautiful state scenically and a very nice spot for birding.

  Virginia Birding Trip Report 2006

Hawk Owl - Sweden Trip Report

Here is the first of my re-edited old trip reports. Think of it as something similar to when your favourite boy band re-release an album 10 years down the line which is essentially the same as the last one issued, but slightly different in some tiny way and it costs you loads more to get the 'new' version. This is just like that, but probably not as good. However at least this is free.

This was a weekend trip to Sweden for Northern Hawk-Owl in early 2006. Hawk-Owl was one of my most-wanted species the days before I knew about Pittas...! I wasn't disappointed.

  Sweden Birding Trip Report 2006

Doing some Housework

To make the most of sitting on my backside for a month while the world cup is on (and when the games are particularly dull like tonights) I've decided to sort out a few old trip reports, stick them into my new 'AWBirder format' and add them to Scribd along with my more recent trip reports.

So in the next few weeks I'll hopefully add trip reports from Sweden, Virginia and Costa Rica. I may even get round to jotting up some notes from the other places I've been relatively recently such as Borneo, India, Lanzarote, Canada, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, Cyprus etc etc... will see. But certainly the first three locations as trip reports are already written so it's a bit quicker and easier to do...

Spectacled Warbler Twitch

Dave made me drive him down to Norfolk today as he needed Spectacled Warbler. As I didn't have anything better to do and partly because I also needed it for the UK I begrudgingly agreed to it. The bird had been present for a fair few days (and was reportedly busy nest-building) so we thought there would be a good chance of it still being there so we headed down early morning.

We found the bird with no trouble at all and enjoyed brilliant views, firstly singing and moving through the vegetation, then a bit later, further along the dunes where it was busy building its cock nest. After watching the warbler for a bit we headed back home very satisfied.

I managed the following record shots:

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Spectacled Warbler © Andy Walker 2014

Taiwan Trip Report

I've put together my Taiwan Trip Report (below).

This was a really successful, short birding trip to Taiwan and Lanyu Island in May 2014 (14th-24th). The main target was Fairy Pitta. Once seen the focus was on seeing as many of the endemic species and endemic sub-species possible in the time allowed.

We saw all of the endemics, and pretty much all of the endemic sub-species that may one day get raised to full species status. In addition there was a high number of other endemic races seen. Birding highlights included Fairy Pitta, Swinhoe's Pheasant, Mikado Pheasant, Lanyu Scops Owl, Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and many more!

I've put a few photos in the report and there are some also in the post below.

If you have any questions/comments please feel free to drop me an email.

  Taiwan Birding Trip Report

Plumbeous Redstart, Andy Walker

Taiwan Bird Photos

Here are a few photos from my recent 10 day birding trip round Taiwan (and Lanyu Island - part of Taiwan). Will put together a proper trip report but for now this should give an idea of what was recorded.

Fairy Pitta

The main reason for the trip and it didn't disappoint with this bird found on the first morning, it showed very well for a Pitta. Nice to hear it singing too. This was at Huben where we stayed at the very nice Pitta Cafe B&B.

Flamecrest

Endemic species. Think Firecrest but funkier! Bright yellow rump with a huge white eye-ring and white lores gives it a spectacled look. Had several birds showing very well in Yushan NP.

Lanyu Scops-Owl

An Endemic owl found only on Lanyu Island off Taiwan. We were amazed by how easily we found this bird and it showed very well. It was getting mobbed by Japanese Paradise Flycatcher and Brown-eared Bulbul, both of which had young nearby within the forest.

Malaysian Night Heron

This species can be tricky to connect with but in Taiwan was fairly easy. We had great views on the way to look for the Pitta at Huben. A really smart bird.

Oriental Pratincole

Found this one sat on the deck as we were driving around looking for the endemic sub-species of Common (Ring-necked) Pheasant - which we also saw. Saw several other pratincoles at the same location on the east coast and also on the west coast.

Owston's Bullfinch

A potential split from Grey-headed (Beavan's) Bullfinch. Had this one at Yushan NP. Another really smart bird. Sounded like our Bullfinch so picked up on call then tracked down in the early morning near the Tataka Visitor Centre! We had great views of Chinese/Himalayan (Taiwan) Tawny Owl at this location too.

Spotted Nutcracker

A fairly distinct endemic sub-species. Fairly numerous in Yushan NP and not shy either!

Swinhoe's Pheasant

One of the birds of the trip for me. Really getting into my Pheasants. This was an absolutely stunning bird. The photo was taken at 3200 ISO f2.8 and 1/8th second as it was practically dark when it walked in! The females are incredibly well camouflaged. We also saw at least 2 male and 1 female Mikado Pheasants and although we got good views didn't manage any photos of them (we avoided going to the photo stake out at Anmashan as wanted to try and find out own).

Taiwan 'Island' Thrush

Had great views of about 8 birds in the Wushe Area - would have probably got more birds and better pics if it wasn't for the weather here which was terrible. A very distinct sub-species and potential split for the future...

Taiwan Barbet

A very common endemic more often heard than seen. Didn't spend any time trying to photograph as not enough time on this trip really. 

Taiwan Blue Magpie

I was really worried we were going to dip this bird as we just couldn't find it at our prime site, however just when it looked like we were doomed we found a family group, including a couple of ugly fledglings. This one was busy ripping up a caterpillar!

Taiwan Hill Partridge

Like other Arborophila partridges we had to work hard for this tick! We'd heard them at several locations but thwarted by a range of things, mainly the rain and the inaccessible nature of many of the areas they occur but we got wind of a site where they were coming to grain early in the am near Alishan. We rode our luck and got this covey on our final full days birding! Worth the wait and like the Pheasant picture above this was taken in near darkness!

Taiwan Scimitar Babbler

Really showy birds (by Scimitar Babbler standards) seen at several locations, this endemic was photographed at Huben.

Taiwan 'Violaceous' Rosefinch

This male was busy eating grass seed at Yushan NP. We saw several family groups when at the higher elevations. Many now consider this to be a valid endemic species.

Taiwan Yuhina

An abundant endemic at the higher elevations, often in mixed-species flocks and responds incredibly well to Collared Owlet calls and often pulls in other birds too.  

White-whiskered Laughingthrush

Another common endemic of the higher elevations. Incredibly approachable where often fed by tourists in the parking lots around the tourist attractions.

Eurasian/Winter Wren

A distinctive endemic sub-species that will presumably get split someday??? This was at Yushan NP but others were heard in the higher elevation areas.

Yellow Tit

Another cool-looking endemic. Essentially a yellow Crested Tit! A couple of birds were seen at Wushe. Good to get this species as not always easy judging by the past trip reports I read before going.

Steere's Liocichla

Another common endemic of the higher elevation areas. It has a wide range of calls but generally was shy.

Taiwan Birding Trip

It has been a long while since I've written a blog post, sorry about that. I've been incredibly busy with work and then have been on a birding trip to Taiwan. More on that over the next couple of weeks....

The Taiwan trip was designed primarily to connect with the Fairy Pitta, a globally vulnerable species seemingly in decline (along with the majority of pitta species unfortunately). The other reason for the trip was to try and see as many of the endemic species that live on the island. There are a number of endemic species currently recognized, there's another set of very distinct endemic sub-species that have a very high likelihood of being raised to endemic species status and then there's another set of endemic sub-species that are just that, for the moment, but certainly worth seeing... just in case!

The trip was very successful with over 150 species recorded including pretty much all of the endemics.  I'll put a trip report up as usual when I can find time detailing where I went, what I saw etc. But for now, here's a picture of the Fairy Pitta that I had on the first day of the trip...

Fairy Pitta, Taiwan Andy Walker 2014

A Busy Day at North Duffield

North Duffield was the place to be today it seems, in the local area anyway. However, I was a good couple of miles away on a dog walk when it got going...

Got a phone call from Jono "Osprey at north Duffield, sat on a post". Argh.... I was two miles away, on foot having just been enjoying watching a vocal Willow Tit with the dogs. A very quick walk/jog back and quick race across to the reserve. No sign! It had flown off about 2 minutes before I got there and possibly gone down behind some trees.... luckily after 20 minutes of constant scanning I picked it up heading back towards us. We had it for a good 20/30 minutes flying around. Eventually I lost it in a cloud as it gained height. Jono got a decent photo of it when it was sat on the fencepost - check his blog out for it sometime soon.

After enjoying the Osprey a Little Egret flew in to the reserve and fed for a while on the floods. There was plenty of ducks about, surely a Garganey or better out there somewhere... however by this point I needed some caffeine so headed home where I had a Yellow Wagtail fly over the garden.

Not long after lunch I got a message from Elaine from the village letting me know there was in fact a Garganey out there, a drake showing well, but I had to see if I was to become a millionaire first... I wasn't, so I headed back to the hide. A short wait and the drake Garganey flew in and continued to show very well for a good half hour - I got a couple of photos on my phone (below). There was a lone breeding plumage Black-tailed Godwit on the floods that looked very smart and a Lapwing in front of the hide. [There was actually a minimum of 5 Garganey in the LDV today - probably lots more hiding in the floods too]

I left to watch a pair of Gadwall get ringed, just after I'd left a first-winter Iceland Gull flew in, bathed briefly before flying southeast and two Swallows also flew through but I didn't see those either. Things are picking up....

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

Garganey North Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

LapwingNorth Duffield Carrs (IPhone-scoped)

About time...

Managed to get out birding a bit this weekend, just around the North Duffield Carrs area. Didn't go further afield and was mostly on foot.

On Sunday I had 4 Peregrine Falcon sightings, possibly all different birds. The highlights were one (a male) over my garden and one over the reserve that nailed a Pigeon after a couple of attempts after I'd picked it up circling at quite a height. There was also a fair bit of Buzzard displaying going on on Sunday, watched 4 birds roller-coasting over the garden and had another 4 birds about 2 miles south of the village. Also had a pair of Kestrel displaying over the garden. Looking forward to my House Martins returning soon, in 2011 they arrived on the 23rd, so could be any day now...

There was still a single Pink-footed Goose present on the Carrs, in with some Greylags. Also had a first-winter Glaucous Gull. I seem to always get Glaucous Gull at NDC in the late winter/early spring, think that's at least one in each of the last four years. They are probably fairly frequent if you bother to look for them (which I don't).

It was nice to see/hear a number of waders coming back to breeding grounds, e.g. Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Redshank, Curlew etc... Still lots of ducks around, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard. They are looking quite nice now, possibly even worth looking at for 5 minutes.

Unfortunately it started dumping it down with rain and the visibility went just as dusk came so no sign of any owls or the Bittern that was reported earlier in the weekend.

Bittern at North Duffield in November 2012 (Andy Walker) Details here.

Over the previous week I'd had several flocks of Fieldfare and Redwing all flying north or east, presumably heading back over to Europe to find somewhere to breed.

I had my first singing Chiffchaff of the year last weekend (16th), three near Kirkham Priory as I enjoyed a nice walk along the river.

I'm busy sorting out my preparation for birding trips coming up this year....

In May I shall be spending two weeks in Taiwan - the main target being Fairy Pitta, those who know me know how much I love seeing members of this family! There's also 20 odd endemics to get my claws into and a ton of potential armchair-ticks due to the number of very distinctive sub-species, just a matter of time!

In November I'm going to be having a bit of a big trip to Australia, will be spending time birding in South Australia, then in Queensland. I'll be birding in some great habitat with some great people so can't wait for that, will be visiting Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns and a whole lot of forest, bush, desert, sea and jungle in between. I really cannot wait for this trip. I hope to get another Pitta on this trip, Noisy Pitta but to be honest even the Pittas may get eclipsed by some of the other birds/families... Bowerbirds, Riflebirds, Honeyeaters, Fairy-Wrens, Albatrosses and a huge list of Parrots and relatives! Should be ok I think! Warning, I may not come back...

Will try and fit some local birding news in over the next couple of weeks too.... Got a couple of good book reviews coming up too... when I can fit them in.

Spring has Sprung!

Had a garden tick today - a Red Kite flew over heading east quite high up.

I was gardening today as it was a beautiful day, 16/17oC apparently. Also in evidence were my first butterflies of the year: Small Toitoiseshell, Peacock, Comma and Brimstone - all looking very smart and fresh. Also had a few Bees and even several ladybirds! Beats looking at ducks and gulls...

Lots of birds singing/displaying today: Skylark, Lapwing and Kestrel and several nest-building: Robin, Blackbird, Tree Sparrow.

Tigers and Great Whites in the LDV?

This last week there's been a bit of movement through the local area, almost making me want to get out birding. Almost.

Jack and Ollie found two Bean Geese at Bubwith on Sunday, Ollie forced me into his car at gunpoint so I was forced to look at them. They were very distant and then flew out of view onto some arable fields. Pretty certain they were Taiga's based on several of the features we could see, however better/closer views would have been preferable. (Ollie and Chris had found Tundra Bean Geese at Castle Howard the day before and these looked very different but we were all wary of how messy the whole 'Bean Goose' issue is). There has certainly been quite a bit of Pink-footed Geese/Whooper Swan movement over the last week or so so there may well be other 'interesting' geese/swans dropping in.

Mid-week and I got an email from a local birder alerting me that he'd just seen a Great White Egret along the Pocklington Canal after a tip-off from another local who had seen the bird the day before. Presumably the bird that was knocking about the local area for some months last year. One to try and catch up with again.