Bonsaibirder - birds!

Spring Migrants

2010-04-24T12:31:00.004+01:00

A recent trip to the Blast Beach and Hawthorn Quarry (2nd April) produced this lovely Black Redstart!

and today I had this cracking Northern Wheatear at Ryhope Little Dene

It appeared quite large and bright so may well be a Greenland Wheatear.

A little cracker!

2010-01-31T23:30:00.001Z

There's been a Black-necked Grebe at Silksworth Lake for a while, so, now that the crowds of unruly birders have died down, I thought I would go along and have a look for it.

The lake was mostly frozen but there was a large area of open water very close to the road and the footpath which goes round the lake.

The Black-necked Grebe (and all of the other birds on the lake, including 3 species of gulls, Tufted Ducks, Mallards, Coots and Moorhens) seemed entirely oblivious of any people or dogs walking round the lake and were coming as close as the very edge of the water.

I've never seen BNG this close before - it was an absolutely gorgeous little thing, actively feeding the whole time I was there. It jumped right out of the water during each dive, the only exception being when it was being hassled by Black-headed Gulls. Then it submerged as fast as possible and re-appeared some distance from the gulls. They followed him for a while but soon gave up.

The light was fantastic so I hope this photo shows up well ...

Whitburn Steel pipits.

2010-01-17T17:00:00.000Z

I went looking for the Water Pipit recently reported from Whitburn Steel. I did see the Water Pipit but, as can often be the case with the most interesting birds, it gave only brief views and flew off before I could photograph it. I got lots of Rock Pipit photos though. Here are a few which illustrate the variable appearance of these birds (and in the sunlight - none of them had dark legs!):

These birds are fairly dark-looking and what I would think of as typical for Rock Pipit (the last six are probably same bird).

This bird is perhaps a little paler:

... and this bird was particularly pale:

Happy New Year

2010-01-02T17:27:00.005Z

I found a Great Northern Diver at Sunderland South Dock on New Year's day. Some of us had been musing that this was a good potential site for divers to turn up, so it was nice to see a prediction come true.

On the same day, there was a remarkable southward passage of Skylarks. I counted 2610 in 70 minutes over the docks. The movement was most noticeable between the heavy snow showers but they kept coming no matter what, in flocks of up to 200 birds.

The accepted explanation for this appears to be that, in cold weather, birds move towards the coast and south.

Today there were much fewer Skylarks on the move but I did have a fly-over Snow Bunting and I managed to get a video of the Great Northern Diver using my new camcorder. This was taken at 70 x zoom and so the quality isn't too bad considering!

A Fantastic Winter Seawatch!

2009-11-29T16:45:00.007Z

Mark phoned me on Friday and told me I might want to go seawatching on Sunday. How glad am I that I took his advice!

This was one of the best seawatches I have had. The wind was North-Westerly, force 6-7 and there were regular, torrential downpours - apart from that it was lovely!!

Almost all of the birds we saw were going North, into the wind, as seems to be the norm here. The theory is, at least after a strong northerly blow, that birds are returning North, having been pushed South by the wind. However on days like today, the birds are heading North before the wind has died down. Perhaps they drift South on the sea overnight, then feel they have to re-orient themselves the next day, regardless of how horrible the weather is!

The obvious highlights are indicated in blue below, but saying that we had 3 diver species, 3 skua species, 2 shearwater species, 2 petrel species, 4 auk species (without puffin!) and 11 duck species illustrates just how good it was today!!

Red-throated Diver 5N 6S
Black-throated Diver 1N
Great Northern Diver 4N
Manx Shearwater 2N
Balearic Shearwater 1N
Fulmar 230 N
"blue" Fulmar 1N
Leach's Petrel 1N
Storm Petrel 1N
Gannet 70N
Eider 11N 14S
Common Scoter 254N 12S
Velvet Scoter 2N
Long-tailed Duck 4N
Gadwall 2N
Wigeon 9N
Teal 19N 1S
Pochard 4N
Goldeneye 4N 1S
Red-breasted Merganser 10N 6S
Shoveller 2N
Grey Plover 11N
Bar-tailed Godwit 9N
Purple Sandpiper 4N
Snipe 1N
Bonxie 12N 1S
Pomarine Skua 1N
Arctic Skua 1N
Little Gull 8N
argentatus Herring Gull 2N
Kittiwake 2700+N
Black Guillemot 1N
Little Auk 2N

More camera testing

2009-11-28T15:53:00.001Z

This new dSLR has a video or "live view" mode. It really doesn't allow great results when hand-held, especially with the long lens on. However perhaps it might be useful for capturing fly-pasts during seawatching from a tripod. Here's a first attempt from the tripod - things can only get better!

Testing a new camera!

2009-11-22T16:33:00.003Z

After a recent trip to Spain with Oliva Rama Tours to look for Iberian Wolf (we saw 2 between us!) my camera was stolen from my checked in luggage!

It was a fantastic trip with Iberian Wolf, Wild Boar, 300+ Great Bustards, 3 Little Bustards, 5 Black-bellied Sandgrouse, 3 Black-shouldered Kites etc. etc. etc. but I have no photos to show here. My memory card was in the camera - so there's a lesson - take your card out of the camera and put it safe on the way home!

Anyway, I already have my replacement camera from the insurance and it's a Nikon D90 - a slightly more modern model. So I took it out for a test drive today.

Here are one or two photos from Herrington Country Park:

Black-headed Gull

"nordic" Jackdaw

"nordic" Jackdaw with Jackdaw behind

Moorhen

Found List

2009-09-05T13:56:00.002+01:00

Seawatching has been a bit frustrating at Whitburn recently, at least in comparison with previous years. Seemingly permanent Westerlies finally started to have a hint of Northerly in them in the last three days.

Today looked like it had some promise early on - Kittiwakes seemed to be coming past with much more speed and purpose and large numbers of very distant Manx Shearwaters were bombing through.

Bird of the morning was a juvenile Sabines Gull - poor distant views as it was only picked up having almost passed us to the north. It was a landmark for me though seeing as it was a "find tick". Sabine's Gull is a species I have always wanted to find - ever since I started reading Heinzel, Fitter and Parslow 25 years ago!

So, my "found list" is the number of species I have found in the UK, for myself (or at east as part of a group having made a contribution to the finding) using punkbirder rules – and it is now at 263.

To be honest it is the only birding "list" I really care about - I get a thrill from discovering a bird for myself or discovering a bird with friend(s).

263 is not a great total but it's not terrible either. Here are the "easiest" species I have never found in the UK.

Common Crane
Scarlet Rosefinch
Rough-legged Buzzard
Subalpine Warbler
Pectoral Sandpiper
Red-footed Falcon
Dusky Warbler
Rustic Bunting
Alpine Swift
Marsh Warbler
Ortolan
Woodchat Shrike
Short-toed Lark
Hoopoe
White Stork
Desert Wheatear
Bee-eater
Green-winged Teal
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Red-rumped Swallow
American Wigeon
Ring-necked Duck
Great White Egret
Corncrake
Golden Oriole
Kentish Plover
Hume's Warbler
Olive-backed Pipit
Lesser Scaup
Ring-billed Gull
Tawny Pipit
White-billed Diver
Serin
Red-necked Phalarope
Booted Warbler

Seems like I need to do some more Spring birding on the Scillies to increase my chances of Hoopoe, Serin, Ortolan, Woodchat Shrike, Short-toed lark etc. But even if I managed to find all on this first list I still wouldn't be at the magic 300. So I will need some of these more difficult species too:

Blyth's Reed Warbler
American Golden Plover
Arctic Redpoll
Thrush Nightingale
White-winged Black Tern
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Grey Shrike
Marsh Sandpiper
Pied Wheatear
Blue-winged Teal
Night Heron
Cattle Egret
Wilson's Phalarope
Glossy Ibis
Stone Curlew
Ferruginous Duck
Great Spotted Cuckoo
Squacco Heron
Lesser Yellowlegs
Snow Goose
Red-eyed Vireo
Desert Warbler
Isabelline Wheatear
Ruddy Shelduck
Bonelli's Warbler
Ross's Gull
Red-flanked Bluetail
Isabelline Shrike
Sardinian Warbler
Great Reed Warbler
Boneparte's Gull
Lanceolated Warbler
Spotted Crake
Pallid Harrier
Citrine Wagtail
Black Stork
King Eider

Plenty of birding to do - I'd better get back out in the field!

Extremadura, May 2009

2009-05-18T17:34:00.004+01:00

Some photos from my recent trip to Extremadura.

(click on the slide show to go through to the actual gallery)

The highlight of a visit to this region of Spain must be seeing birds of prey everywhere! Look up and you will almost certainly see a Black Kite or a Griffon Vulture and if not one of those perhaps a White Stork. This is completely unlike birding in most of the UK!

Other highlights included 5 new birds for me - White-rumped Swift, Great Bustard (including a flock of 21), Little Bustard, Spanish Imperial Eagle and Western Orphean Warbler.

But what about regular views of BeeEaters, Hoopoes and Red-rumped Swallows? Scope views of male Golden Oriole? Roller? Subalpine Warbler - there are too many brilliant birds to choose from.

Then there were butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, terrapins, frogs, bats, a preying mantis, glow-worms etc. etc.

Fantastic!

Whooper Swans and Snow Buntings

2009-03-29T21:26:00.006+01:00

A flock of 82 Whooper Swans turned up at Herrington Country Park last week and it turns out that this was the second biggest flock ever in Durham! Here's a small part of the flock.

Then today, Chairman of the Durham Bird Club found two gorgeous Snow Buntings in Hendon.

Two brilliant species, neither found by me - but who cares!

Brooklyn Birding

2009-03-19T23:27:00.010Z

I have just arrived back from a week in Brooklyn, during which I was lucky enough to go birding in Prospect Park most mornings before breakfast. Temperatures were pretty low (close to freezing on some days) and the light was not that good for photography. But I had lots of fun and saw some great birds.

Thanks to the people at the Prospect Park Birding Blog for providing up-to-date sightings which whetted my appetite before I arrived. What a great local patch to have!

I have only seen a handful of Winter Wrens in the USA, so finding this chap in the undergrowth was a real thrill (despite seeing them all the time in the UK).

Winter Wren

Winter Wren - dodgy photos - it was nearly dark!

Another highlight were the woodpeckers - four species seen - and in particular the absolutely tiny Downy Woodpeckers. They are becoming one of my favourite species! This pair were trying to find food inside some pretty thin grass stems - fascinating to watch a sparrow-sized woodpecker at work:

Downy Woodpecker (male) - what a great pose - but this is what happens when you change the white-balance setting on the camera by mistake!

Downy Woodpecker (male)

Downy Woodpecker (female)

The two common Sparrow species were Song and White-throated, both of which can be pretty birds:

White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow

and here are some other miscellaneous birds from the park.

American Robin

Pied-billed Grebe

Belted Kingfisher

Ring-billed Gull

Well-travelled LBBG

2009-01-19T21:31:00.006Z

This Lesser Black-backed Gull (just to the left of the Audouin's Gull) was ringed in Gloucester on 13th March 2004.

Since then it has been seen in Agadir, Morocco in November 2005 and January 2007.

It was then seen back in Gloucester in March 2007 before I found it on the beach at Oued Massa, Morocco on 9th January 2009.

Brilliant!

I thought that the Lesser Black-backed Gulls in Morocco were going to be intermedius but perhaps the strong light makes them look darker than they do in the UK - are these birds (which all looked to have similarly dark backs to me - up to 1100 of them!) actually graellsii?

Through e-mail correspondance with the ringing group I have learned that this was probably not one of the darkest birds they have rung in Gloucester. But they do ring numerous intermedius gulls which vary from dark grey to nearly black in mantle colour.

Morocco - January 2009 - High Atlas and Oued Massa

2009-01-17T17:39:00.020Z

This was not a comprehensive birding trip to Morocco. First, we had a week trekking with Mountain Safari Tours in the High Atlas, south east of Marrakesh. Then we had four days on the coast in the very lovely Ksar Massa Hotel, south of Agadir, right next to a well known birding spot – Oued Massa. We did not do any desert birding.

The trek was great - energetic, scenic and with quite a few birds to keep me happy. But the first birds we encountered were as we had breakfast on the roof of our hotel in Marrakesh.

These are the sahari race of House Bunting.

They are much more rufous on the back and wings than the race I saw previously in Turkey. They are a bit grotty to tell the truth but have the cutest call of just about any bird I have heard! Certainly, their cheeky little squeak is unlike anything I have heard from a bunting before. They live up to their name too - we saw them on the hotel in Marrakesh and in every village we passed through in the trek - nowhere else!

Between the villages, House Buntings were replaced by Rock Buntings.

Note the dark streaks on the upperparts, strong head pattern, grey bill and grey lesser coverts (you can just about see these on the first Rock Bunting pic) which separate them from House Bunting (rufous upperparts, yellow lower mandible and rufous lesser coverts).

Many birds seen on the trek were very familiar - Robin, Blackbird, Great Tit, Coal Tit Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Song Thrush - it was a bit like my back garden! Mind you, you don't see Blackbirds on cacti very often in the UK!

Other apparently familiar species didn't look quite the same as they do at home.

ultramarinus Blue Tits with blue backs and dark blue crowns

africana Chaffinches with green backs

and mauritanica Magpies with blue bare skin behind their eyes

I saw four new species on this trip and was lucky enough to photograph three of them.

Moussier's Redstart is a small, stunning redstart. Possibly one of the prettiest birds I have ever seen. It's a shame I didn't really get a good photo of the male. But this bird is so good that any photo will look OK to a point:

This male Levaillant's Green Woodpecker was spotted at the side of the trekking path by our "donkey man" Ahmed! I never thought we would get this close. And I especially didn't think it would sit there and wait for me to photograph it!

The third "tick" was Tristram's Warbler which is a lovely little bird, but I didn't manage to photograph the two I saw.

The fourth "tick" was probably the main target species of the trip. This flock of 62 Bald Ibis represents around 15% of the world population !

These majestic, powerful flyers are huge compared to other ibis species I have seen. I just hope the conservation measures in Morocco and Turkey are successful. I was told that the population is rising – so fingers crossed.

What a treat to see them every day from our hotel on the beach! Our best was 129 on one morning – more than a quarter of the world population.

Luxury!

More pictures here!

Who ate all the (mince) pies ? !

2008-12-31T17:05:00.005Z

There were some funny-shaped Robins at Hurworth Burn Reservoir today.

Is this what you call a round robin? The fattest Robin I've ever seen!

And what is going on with this guy?

I can't remember having seen 3 Great-spotted Woodpeckers in the same tree before, so the feeding station here was quite a treat.

There were 3 Willow Tits in the area and plenty of other very tame birds, like this Song Thursh, visiting the feeding station.

I must go back when the sun is shining!

Rubbish Photos - Great Birds!

2008-12-28T18:13:00.003Z

During the Christmas period I have managed to demonstrate exactly how NOT to take digital photographs!

I did manage to get one or two images that were worth enhancing (much as I hate doing so) in these cases by taking the "brightness" control as high as it would go! I've put them under the originals to show the adjustment.

Here's how not to take pictures of birds ...

1] Don't use the automatic "portrait" setting !

2] Don't confuse the focus setting with the exposure setting!

In the end, these ones were almost bearable!

It's a shame as these Red Kites were absolutely magnificent, and right over the house. They must be one of the most beautiful birds of prey in the world, surely!

Best Bird Ever?

2008-12-07T17:58:00.005Z

This Bohemian Waxwing was found exactly how Waxwing's should be found - from a moving car, almost causing an accident!

It's a first winter - no yellow on the inner edge of the primaries and only one 'wax' blob on the secondaries - and according to the Collins guide, the blurred lowered edge to the black bib could indicate it's a female.

This is my first and only Waxwing of the year and all the better for having stumbled across it myself.

They have a great call, they look comical and magical and they have one of the best names of any bird - Bohemian Waxwing must be one of the best birds ever!

That place looks perfect for Black Redstart !

2008-11-30T21:04:00.005Z

I have walked or driven past Seaham Docks many times and thought - it looks great for Black Redstart down there! But I don't go in and look nearly often enough. Today I was doing my atlas square which includes the dock area and guess what I found?

One of the great things about Atlas work is that I end up birding in places I wouldn't normally go!

An autumn update.

2008-11-09T16:04:00.006Z

It's been a frustrating Autumn! Lots of birds around but I've not found many myself. A Bluethroat on my local patch was the highlight but a calling Greenish Warbler which I couldn't see was the one that got away.

In the meantime I have been to Shetland with an entertaining crew! We missed the big fall by a couple of days.

Between us we found about 30 Yellow-browed Warblers, 1 Bluethroat, 1 Richard's Pipit, 1 Rosefinch, 2 Red-breasted Flycatchers, 2 Barred Warblers, 1 Little Stint, 1 Jack Snipe, 1 acrocephalus sp. (Reed probably!).

Hooded Crow

Herring Gull

Yellow-browed Warbler - a highlight of the trip was seeing two of these in the same tree at two different locations!

Scarlet Rosefinches

What a weekend!

2008-09-07T22:12:00.004+01:00

Seawatching on Saturday morning was fantastic, with big numbers of Great and Arctic Skuas moving South. The highlights though were two juvenile Sabine's Gulls, two juvenile Long-tailed Skuas and two adult Pomarine Skuas.

Great Skuas - our biggest flock was 8!

Velvet Scoters

Then in the afternoon we heard that the coast was covered in migrants. It turned out not to be an exaggeration!

On my local patch I found a Bluethroat and a Greenish Warbler !!!!!!! in amongst Redstarts, Spotted Flycatchers, Pied Flycatchers, Willow Warblers, Garden Warblers, Blackcaps, Lesser whiethroats, Tree Pipit etc. etc.

Today there were much the same birds on the patch but the sun allowed some photographs.

Redstart

Lesser Whitethroat

Pied Flycatcher

Garden Warbler

Spotted Flycatchers (a patch tick yesterday!)

Willow Warbler

30th August 2008 Whitburn Obs

2008-08-30T12:30:00.012+01:00

A fantastic seawatch from Whitburn OBS this morning.

Although I did learn that I can't count duck flocks! If you are just as bad as me at estimating flock numbers then try this link here. It's a good game even if it didn't make me any better!

Before 10.00am there was a duckfest and more:
>1000 Teal
>250 Common Scoter
50+ Wigeon
1 Shoveller
1 Gadwall
13 Shelduck
12 Eider
2 Mallard
90+ Manx Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
1 Pomarine Skua (adult with full spoons)
4 Bonxies
17 Arctic Skuas
10 Little Gulls
2 Whimbrel
and a flock of 12 Common Sandpipers!

How many Teal in this picture? Don't ask me!

2 adult Arctic Skuas make a getaway after nicking a pipefish from this gull!

a juvenile Arctic Skua - one of only a very few past Whitburn so far this year.

10 of the 12 Common Sandpipers - I've never seen a migrating flock of this species before!

Brilliant!

Dalton Park Dragons and Damsels

2008-08-23T16:13:00.003+01:00

Finally today we had some sunshine, so I popped down to Dalton Park to look for dragonflies. Having never seen any at this site before I was surprised to find 5 different species:

Common Blue Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Common Darter

Emperor !!!

I wonder if this site gets migrant species too?

Seawatching Fun

2008-08-23T15:56:00.006+01:00

Good Seawatching so far this weekend. Took Friday off and was rewarded by

ADULT SABINES GULL

early on - picked up simultaneously by the two observatory residents!

Friday evening was a big disappointment with only a few Arctic Skuas migrating south in the Northerly wind and Manx Shearwaters coming past at 1 per hour!

Today was a little better - no increase in skuas or shearwaters but a small increase in Teal (91 N) and Common Scoters (68 N).

That is, until about 9.00am when for no apparent reason a Sooty Shearwater came North pretty much right in front of the obs!

Sooty Shearwater

Black Stork in County Durham

2008-08-09T09:59:00.001+01:00

And today, a British tick in my home county!

thanks to who ever found it!

A week in British Columbia

2008-08-09T09:54:00.004+01:00

A few good birds during a relaxing week in BC

Pine Siskin

Ruffed Grouse

... a tick!

Bald Eagle

and a mystery hummer

A visit to Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto - 28th July 2008

2008-08-09T09:33:00.005+01:00

After attending a conference in Toronto, I had an afternoon trip to Tommy Thompson Park, a man-made spit sticking into Lake Ontario from the middle of Toronto.

View Larger Map

It is a brilliant place, with lagoons, lots of cover for passerine migrants and a huge colony of Double-crested Cormorants. The cormorants were magic, flying past almost constantly in large, dynamic flocks

lots of breeding Eastern Kingbirds giving good views

flocks of young hirundines:

and a few migrants, including this empidonax flycatcher that I'm still trying to identify:

What a fantastic place - I would love to bird here during the migration period.

Isn't Seawatching Brilliant!

2008-07-20T11:14:00.009+01:00

What a brilliant seawatch today!

1 1st Summer Sabine's Gull - found by the Mr. Miyagi of Whitburn Obs!
2 adult Pomarine Skuas
1 Balearic Shearwater - flew through our field of view while watching the Sabine's !

and this:

... it's in the top left hand corner of the picture if you can't see it!

Wow - I actually managed to photograph a Minke Whale!

It was found by someone on their first visit to the obs this year!

The third image shows both its fin and tail as it is diving.

Here's a blow-up of the best picture:

Whitburn Obs - 0530 to 0830

2008-06-29T16:53:00.008+01:00

A seawatch with the Whitburn Obs regulars this morning.

Whitburn Obs on a sunny day!

Despite the very strong sunlight in our faces, today's seawatch was excellent, the highlight being an adult Roseate Tern.

Also of interest was a small passage of Curlews:

Dawdon Blast Beach

2008-05-31T19:45:00.000+01:00

Dawdon Blast Beach and the nearby Hawthorn Quarry have a pretty good history of turning up migrants. Radde's Warbler, Richard's Pipit, Pallas's Warbler, Great Grey Shrike, Wryneck, Quail and Yellow-browed Warbler are just some of the birds which have turned up over the years.

But I can empty a migrant hotspot just by turning up with my bins!

So it's no surprise that over the last week, with the hundreds of scarce and rare birds on the east coast, the best bird I have seen at the Blast Beach is this cute juvenile Stonechat.

At least the council, as part of their "improvements", have installed some convenient Red-footed Falcon and Red-backed Shrike perches!

Wintering Chiffchaff

2008-03-01T18:27:00.000Z

This Chiffchaff is wintering in Seaham.

It's a rubbish photo!
It was hovering around after insects like I've never seen one do before.

Tufted Ducks

2008-03-01T18:19:00.001Z

So, are male Tufted Ducks' heads blue ?

... or green ?

Cormorants - gular angles !

2008-03-01T18:12:00.001Z

So, looking more closely at the gular patch angles of these three birds, perhaps I was right that C1 is the best candidate. And when comparing C3 with the Coot next to it, perhaps it doesn't look quite so big. Although its bill is still very deep. I would now say that C1 and C3 are possibly sinensis and C2 is possibly carbo

C1

C1

C2

C2

C3

C3

C3

Cormorants

2008-02-24T13:34:00.000Z

An interesting visit to Herrington Country Park today. I looked hard at these three cormorants and thought maybe #1 was a sinensis. Then I looked at the photos and they all seem to have pretty perpendicular gular patches.

sinensis? #1

#2
Is the angle of the bare skin too wide for sinensis?

#3
Surely this one is too big, with a particularly sturdy bill. But look at the perpendicular skin patch - in the field I thought I saw a much wider angle. Perhaps the pose in this photo is misleading?

Here are #1 and #2 together - from this picture number 2 looks like it has an angled gular patch more like carbo

sinensis #1 and #2

... and then there was this beauty !

No Firecrest .. yet !

2008-02-16T13:27:00.000Z

Visited Mount Pleasant to look for the Firecrest, but no joy.
This wren sat up briefly for a half-decent photo.

... and insects

2008-02-10T18:59:00.003Z

This is an old picture but it was the first decent wild-life photo with my new camera and lens.

A fabulous female Banded Demoiselle.
Taken near Oundle, Northamptonshire.

NZ Falcon

2008-02-10T18:59:00.001Z

This New Zealand Falcon was near the Franz Josef Glacier.

It sat in the rain for at least half an hour !

NZ Highlights

2008-02-10T18:58:00.001Z

Here are some highlights from my recent trip to New Zealand

Red-billed Gull

Salvin's Albatross

Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Royal Albatross

New Zealand Robin

Kea

Med Gull

2008-02-10T18:57:00.000Z

Med Gull's are gorgeous!
This one was at Newburn near Seaton Carew.