Hawfinch

Some survey work in Wales over the last couple of days, allowed me an opportune visit to meet with a mate who has some Hawfinch well and truly staked out on his local patch........ 

Male Hawfinch

Male Hawfinch

Female Hawfinch

Male Bullfinch

More Bears and a hard WP tick!

Wise Birding trip in Abruzzo still on track with a second bear sighting and Rock Partridge in the bag!

Rock Partridge

ABRUZZO NP AGAIN

Well, yet again Abruzzo NP comes up trumps for Marsican Brown Bear sightings with two different animals seen for up to an hour over the last couple of evenings. Add to this White-backed Woodpecker, Collared Flycatcher and Golden Eagle all in stunning scenery - It really is a special place! Video below shows bear from 1st evening with an apparent "gin trap" injury to front left paw. Photo shows second male from this evening

Not quite a White's Thrush!

This Spring has been pretty dire for local birding, so I turned to mammals and set up my trail camera last night. Good to see the badgers are still around, though not quite as exciting as the White's Thrush caught on camera in Scotland earlier in the year. Check out the outrageous still from the camera taken on 31st Jan in Highland, originally set to try and catch Wild Cats on camera! I love the photo, the bird isn't even that obvious in the landscape - a truly cryptic species!

  

Taken from Highland & Moray Bird Forum

GNDs and 2 Puffin

A beautiful evening tonight with the sea like a mill pond and superb light. Had a look on the sea off Otterton Sewage Works and was somewhat surprised to find at least 30 Divers sat in small groups. Many were distant but the sea conditions and superb light enabled at least 20 birds to be identified as Great Northern Divers, some in summer plumage and reasonably close.These were presumably passage birds gathering on the sea. Also tonight 2 Puffins on the sea and my first on the patch! Great to see them as they swam with a lone Razorbill and then began fishing. Also today, a single Harbour Porpoise and Cormorants flying past at eye level collecting nesting material earlier in the day!

Cormorant: nest material is added throughout the breeding period, supplied mostly by the male

Last minute Bear Watching Break?

Still a couple of places left on the Wise Birding Tour to Italy's Abruzzo NP in 2 weeks time: 18-22 May 2013
An excellent time of year to see the endemic race of Marsican Brown Bear, as well as White-backed (Lilfordi) Woodpecker and a good chance of seeing Wolf also.
More details HERE             Trip report from last year HERE

LESVOS 2013

I have recently returned from leading a trip to Lesvos. This was my 4th visit to this fantastic island and it is always a pleasure to visit with new birds arriving every day. The migration spectacle is always very different each year, always with a few surprises. The light is fantastic and photographic opportunities are plenty, though it does seem that more photographers are visiting who have absolutely zero field skills! Sadly a sign of the times.....
That aside, it is a great place if you want a burst of eastern migrants. Below are some highlights.......

2nd calendar year Male Pallid Harrier (sexed on yellow iris colour)

2nd calendar year Male Pallid Harrier

2nd calendar year Male Pallid Harrier

Black-headed Wagtail

Adult Male Collared Flycatcher

Pied Flycatcher

Collared Pratincole

Green Balkan Lizard

Glass Lizard

Greater Flamingos

Griffon Vulture - Lesvos rarity

Male Kruper's Nuthatch

Female Little Crake and Stripe-necked Terrapins

Little Owl

Marsh Sandpiper

Night Heron

Persian Ground Squirrel

Male Red-backed Shrike

Roller

Male Ruppell's Warbler

Spur-winged Plover

Both Spur-winged Plovers

Scops Owl

A Lesvos traffic jam!

Spanish Sparrows

Male White-throated Robin - 1st April record

Whiskered and White-winged Tern

Wood Sandpiper and Tadpole

Yelkouan Shearwaters

Long-eared Owl

Small Fall and Spoonbill

As any birder knows, the Spring to date has been pretty terrible for migrants with the depressingly cold weather and the few migrants that have made it here have been struggling to find food. This has been highlighted by numerous sorry looking Chiffchaffs feeding almost everywhere and anywhere and the depressing news from Norfolk where 9 Stone Curlews were picked up dead in Wiltshire earlier this week!

Therefore, on Tuesday 9th April, things seemed a bit more positive with a small fall around the patch including:
Redstart - 2 males (1 Otter Scrapes and 1 W of Golf Course)
Black Redstart - 1
Willow Warbler - 8+
Chiffchaff - 30+
Brambling - 1 female (W of Golf Course)
Meadow Pipit - 70+ N in small flocks
Wheatear - 7+
Song Thrush - 15+
Blackbird - 25+
Robin - 30+
Swallow - 3
Sand Martin - 5
4 DB Brent Geese - Otter Est
Blk-tailed Godwit - 1 Otter Scrapes this pm

Bystock Meadow - Ring Ouzel still and 8+ Brambling

Thursday 11th April: things got even better with a Firecrest on the Otter, an Osprey over the golf course and a cracking breeding plumaged Spoonbill on the scrapes - a patch tick and what a cracker! I was cursing, as I did not have my camera, so had to make do with some rather dodgy Phone Scoped Pics!

Adult Spoonbill on the scrapes!

MOROCCO: African Rock Martin

Whilst birding near Merzouga the Wise Birding Tour bumped into an unexpected bonus -  African Rock Martin.
A very opportune picnic lunch stop found us birding a large wadi near Begaa where Andrew casually mentioned there were some "Martins" hawking around in the distance.  Whilst having lunch, the birds came a little nearer and Darryl made it clear we should all have a good look at these birds. I immediately saw what he was getting at, as the birds were very strikingly different in upperpart colouration to any Eurasian Crag Martins that I had ever seen ( a species that I was very familiar with). The steely-blue upperbody/rump contrasted strongly with the more brown toned upperwing. We decided to bin our Moroccan Tea and get closer! To cut a long story short, we made chase and  ensured we got some good photographic  evidence between us and below are just some of the images of up to 10 birds.

The photos clearly show: pale throat, steely blue grey upperbody and rump contrasting with wing coverts as well as dark underwing coverts near carpal contrasting with the paler axillaries and almost ghost image inner underwing coverts. The dark and less contrasting UT covert barring though conflicting with the Collins guide would seem normal for the "presaharica" race of AR Martin found in Morocoo.

More pics Here: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/moroccan-post-trip-tick.html
Here: http://www.leedingain.com/2013/04/rock-martins-at-bagaa-tafilalt-morocco.html 
and Here:  http://gwentbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/cover-me-porkins-im-going-in.html

African Rock Martin is currently a description species for the Moroccan Rarities Committee due to much confusion with its historical status, previous id pitfalls  and talk of potential hybrids etc. Therefore, we were understandably cautious; but thanks to some very welcome opinions from Messrs Mullarney and van den Berg on our return to the UK , it looks like our gut feeling was correct. Result!

 

Godwits and Cake

Not necessarily in that order!
Well, as usual there have been a few comments about the lack of cakes on my blog, so I had a word with the Mrs and she rustled up a mighty fine Victoria Sponge for my Birthday Cake (too old to remember my age) and as you can see, much of it has been consumed - I apologise for the slightly blurry image, but I was salivating at the time!
A visit to the scrapes today produced the female Ruff again this morning and 3 Black-tailed Godwits this evening. The drake Goosander was also on the estuary today. Hopefully the South-Easterlies may bring something new!

Black-tailed Godwits on the scrape

The Mrs Victoria Sponge!