Champions of The Flyway 2016

On March 29th I was involved in this year's Champions of The Flyway bird race held in Southern Israel. The whole idea was to raise money towards stopping the illegal hunting in Greece. Team Extremadura and I contributed towards raising of $70,000!

Of course, there was birding to be had in and around Eilat and into the Negev Desert. As I arrived a few days before the race I took full advantage of the time sifting through migrants and looking up at the magnificent kettles of migrating raptors.

Full species list is below.  

Crested Honey Buzzard - the rarest bird of trip

Purple Herons

A trio of Glossy Ibis

White-crowned Black Wheatear

Steppe Buzzard

Steppe Buzzards and a Black Kite

Black-headed and Blue-headed Yellow Wagtails

Spur-winged Plover

Black-eared Wheatear

Bird list:

Little Grebe

Brown Booby

Cormorant

Night Heron

Cattle Egret

Squacco Heron

Little Egret

Western Reef Egret

Great Egret

Grey Heron

Purple Heron

White Stork

Black Stork

Glossy Ibis

Eurasian Spoonbill

Greater Flamingo

Common Shelduck

Egyptian Goose

Mallard

Pintail

Shoveler

Teal

Garganey

Egyptian Vulture

Osprey

Lesser Spotted Eagle

Steppe Eagle

Short-toed Eagle

Booted Eagle

Black Kite

Marsh Harrier

Montagu’s Harrier

Pallid Harrier

Long-legged Buzzard

Steppe Buzzard

Crested Honey Buzzard

Sparrowhawk

Kestrel

Lesser Kestrel

Hobby

Chukar

Sand Partridge

Quail

Moorhen

Coot

MacQueen’s Bustard

Oystercatcher

Black-winged Stilt

Little Ringed Plover

Ringed Plover

Kentish Plover

Greater Sandplover

Spur-winged Plover

Dunlin

Little Stint

Wood Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Redshank

Greenshank

Marsh Sandpiper

Black-tailed Godwit

Snipe

Red-necked Phalarope

Ruff

Arctic Skua

Black-headed Gull

Slender-billed Gull

Baltic Gull

Heuglin’s Gull

Sandwich Tern

Caspian Tern

Whiskered Tern

Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse

Rock Dove

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Turtle Dove

Laughing Dove

Namaqua Dove

European Nightjar

Common Swift

Pallid Swift

Alpine Swift

Hoopoe

Common Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

European Bee-eater

Little Green Bee-eater

Syrian Woodpecker

Wryneck

Crested Lark

Short-toed Lark

Desert Lark

Sand Martin

Rock Martin

Swallow

Red-rumped Swallow

House Martin

Tawny Pipit

Tree Pipit

Red-throated Pipit

White Wagtail

Citrine Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail (feldegg & flava)

Nightingale

Bluethroat

Common Redstart

Northern Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear

Black-eared Wheatear (hispanica & melanoleuca)

Mourning Wheatear

Hooded Wheatear

White-crowned Wheatear

Desert Wheatear

Blackstart

Whinchat

Blackbird

Graceful Prinia

Blackcap

Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

Eastern Orphean Warbler

Sardinian Warbler

Zitting Cisticola

((Savi’s Warbler))

((Reed Warbler))

Olivaceous Warbler

Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler

Wood Warbler

Chiffchaff

Semi-collared Flycatcher

Great Tit

Southern Grey Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Masked Shrike

White-spectacled Bulbul

Palestine Sunbird

Arabian Babbler

Jay

Jackdaw

Hooded Crow

Brown-necked Raven

House Crow

Tristram’s Starling

House Sparrow

Spanish Sparrow

Greenfinch

Trumpeter Finch

Desert Finch

Ortolan Bunting

Cretzschmar’s Bunting

Cinereous Bunting

156 species

9 lifers

 ((heard))

Undiscovered Owls - A Sound Approach Guide (Magnus Robb & The Sound Approach)

Undiscovered Owls - A Sound Approach Guide

For once, I'm not on the pulse of modern day publishing as this book was originally launched a year ago. Indeed, I attended the launch in the Netherlands. It was a fascinating day of presentations by the various major contributors to the book. Amongst the speakers were Mark Constantine (the main man of A Sound Approach), Killian Mullarney and Magnus Robb. All gave insightful accounts behind the initial ideas and construction of the book.

Owls are an enigmatic family of birds. How many of us regularly see owls? The answer is that many of us don't with fleeting glimpses of birds flashing across car headlights being the best that many of us can attain. It is true: owls are not the easiest of birds to study. What this book has boldly done is to present owls in a whole new light, if you will excuse the rubbish pun. The authors set about recording the owl species in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and in the process they discovered new calls from species that we thought we knew well. They have made the suggestion that the Great Grey Owl of northern Europe be split from the Great Grey Owl of arctic North America and be re-named Lapland Owl. They even succeded in discovering a new owl species, the Omani Owl.

The book comes replete with four cd's containing the calls of the owls - a truly fascinating collection of sounds - that in the engaging text are deciphered and graphically described in sonograms. This is not a throwaway book that you refer to just once. It is a tome that will pique interest and will draw you to explore your environs under the cover of darkness to discover the owls in your neighbourhood.

I applaud A Sound Approach for their ground breaking work.

Undiscovered Owls - A Sound Approach Guide is available from Wildsounds http://www.wildsounds.com/products/4164-Undiscovered-Owls.shtml

Waiting for spring in Mérida

So far, I have been spending a fair amount of time in Extremadura, Spain and in particular it's capital city, Mérida. I have a lot of familiarity with the city having visited it for the past six years. During that time I have amassed a city list of 72 species thus far.

 The view from the Roman Bridge looking west

Mérida is a small city of 100,000 or so inhabitants and is essentially surrounded by countryside. Most tourists visit the city to see its rich Roman heritage as there are plenty of ruins around, not least the Roman Bridge - the world's longest of its kind. It cuts across the Guadiana River seperating the old town from the more recent part of the city on the westside.

 The view from the bridge looking east

Birders also come here, primarily to stand on the Roman Bridge to search for Purple Gallinules foraging alongside the reedbeds. It is indeed, one of the best places in the whole of Extremadura for this oversided moorhen.

 Looking south towards the Roman Bridge

Currently the water levels are artificially low because the local council are clearing the margins of a Water Hyacinth, a virulent invasive alien plant that has been choking everything in its path.

 An ancient house exposed due to the low water levels

The draining has created some interesting looking muddy margins that I was hoping would have yielded a few waders. Instead, I have only been treated to a Common Sandpiper once and a scarce  Pied Wagtail or two.

 Wasteland by the Iron Bridge

My patch is essentially the riverbank on the western side of the Guadiana from the Roman Bridge to the Iron Bridge (a railway bridge) 1.5 miles north downstream. There's an interesting area of land that is currently being churned up by bulldozers. Despite that there are some small areas of thick vegetation, muddy puddles and piles of compost. All looking very inviting to passing migrants. The compost heaps have been crawling with Chiffchaffs with at least 30 snapping up the insects the other day.

I have flushed Snipe and found two Little Ringed Plover from the muddy pools and in the vegetated bits I've watched Hawfinch, Sardinian Warbler, Cetti's Warbler and Spanish Sparrow. From the Iron Bridge sing Spotless Starling and on a reeded island in the middle of the river a pair of Marsh Harriers display.

Anyway, here are a selection of the birds that I have seen in the last month - and spring is not even here yet!

 Crag Martin

 House Martin

 Chiffchaff

 Crested Lark

 Blackbird

 Corn Bunting 

 Spanish Sparrow

 Serin

 Iberian Grey Shrike

 Meadow Pipit

 A leucistic Collared Dove

Stonechat

La Barrosa, nr Cadíz, Alicante, Spain

 A turnstone surveying the scene

Took a brief afternoon stroll around a section of La Barrosa - an extensive and protected salt marsh. The weather was pretty dull, windy with squally rain at times - hardly what you would expected from southern Spain!

 3rd cycle Lesser Black-back

Aside from an array of waders like Common Redshank, Grey Plover, Kentish Plover and Black-winged Stilt, I also managed to glimpse a Yellow Wagtail of the Iberian blue-headed race. An early migrant.

 Yellow-legged Gull

 Greater Flamingo

 Common Sandpiper

 Yellow-legged Gulls

 Lesser-black-back

 Lesser Black-back

Lesser Black-back 3rd cycle

Pompey Birding

Happy New Year everyone!!

Sorry it's taken so long to make contact but I'm back for another year of great birds in fantastic locations - God willing.

Today, I was spending time in Portsmouth, Hampshire a city that I have birded in before a few years ago.

Coastal view

I took a random walk along the coastline of this island this morning to eventually end up at Milton Common on the east coast. It was a bright though cold morning with plenty of birds around including the classic Oystercatchers, Curlew, Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and Dunlin.

 A couple Brent Geese

 A few more....

 Brent Goose

 Dunnock

 Tufted Duck

 Coot

Carrion Crow

Storks over my head

A late afternoon walk along the Roman Bridge under ladened skies produced a low flying Stork.

Marsh Harrier on my Mérida patch

Yesterday, I discovered a Marsh Harrier harrassing the local Black-headed Gulls and Coots whilst I stood on the Roman Bridge.

 Marsh Harrier - a probable 1st year female?

It was always just a little too distant for decent photography but I managed to rattle off a few record shots. This bird had clearly buffy forewings and head perhaps more what that a typical female would show.

It's not the first Marsh Harrier that I have seen from the bridge because I had one in mid-October this year when I was co-leading a tour at the time. No doubt they are regular visitors.

 Red Kite 

I also saw a couple Red Kite - a typical winter visiting raptor to the region.

Female Stonechat

Finally, couldn't resist snapping a Stonechat. They are such photogenic little birds!