Happy New Year from Extremadura, Spain!

I'm hanging out in Extremadura for the first couple of days of the New Year for a bit of rest, relaxation, birding, writing and plotting.

I'd like to wish everyone a peaceful and prosperous 2015 filled with love and lots of urban birds!

 Crested Lark in the forecourt of a petrol station near Merida

 A bunch of Griffons with a solitary Black Vulture

 Female Blackcap

 Male Blackcap

 Chiffchaff

 Zitting Cisticola

Male House Sparrow

Last day at The Scrubs - for this year!

The Scrubs: looking south at The Scrubs

I have to say that 2014 has been a pretty abysmal ornithological year down at The Scrubs. Well, a bit of a lie because we've recorded a couple of great birds with Wryneck and Hawfinch heading the list, plus I glimpsed a possible Waxwing dashing south over the prison this morning. Lists have been a bit of a major problem this year. I've already mentioned it but I'll mention it again - we have very few observers out in our urban field trying to find stuff.

Yesterday, I managed to score our very first Snipe for the year. This bird materialised seconds after I was publicly lamenting the absence of this characterful wader. Another case of The Force in action. If only I was asking for a flock of Sociable Plovers!

This morning I pulled some Lapwing out of the bag to make it 83 for the year - our smallest annual total in 11 years. I also noted some interesting behavior between a male Great Spotted Woodpecker and a few Rose-ringed Parakeets that were unfortunate enough to be sharing the same tree as him. I watched as the woodpecker made repeated physical attacks against parakeets that came too close, chasing them clean out of the tree. He would return again to the branch from whence he came, tap it a few times before launching yet another attack against another hapless parakeet. Despite possessing a formidable looking beak, the parakeets turned tail and seriously scarpered.

Our 1st Lawings of the year

I titled this blog 'the last' because as from Sunday I will be seeing out 2014 from the hopefully sunnier and warmer climes of Southern Spain.

Watch this space!

Birding the Tagus and the Alentejo

Portugal is one of my favourite birding destinations and for European urban birding, Lisbon takes some beating. Over the four days of my Lisbon Tourism sponsored trip I spent the time birding the delights of the expansive Tagus Estuary and the wonderful Alentejo Region which spans the landscape between Lisbon to the north and the Algarve to the south.

 Views around the Tagus

 My guide was my old friend Joao Jara and I was also in the company of nature writer and dragoneer (dragonfly enthusiast) David Chandler. As well as exploring the Tagus we also spend a brief day taking a look at the varied habitats in the Alentejo from the gently cork oak wooded hills to the expensive steppes of Castro Verde.

 Black-winged Kite

 Little Owl

Despite the lack of sunshine and occasional spot of rain we saw a load of good birds including a very obliging female Merlin in the Tagus.

 A male Hen Harrier against the backdrop of suburban Lisbon

 Redshank

By far my favourite area for birding was the Tagus. Despite its close proximity to the city it was absolutely stuffed with birds and is a very important wintering/refueling area. In excess of 5,000 flamingos and 7,000 Teal share this food rich habitat with many thousands of waders and other waterbirds.

This is truly a fantastic urban birding venue.

Lisbon & the Alentejo Region 11-14 December 2014

Dabchick

Cormorant

Cattle Egret

Little Egret

Great Egret

Grey Heron

White Stork – Seems that quite a few overwintered. Some already standing on their nests.

Glossy Ibis – c2,000 on the Tagus.

Spoonbill

Greater Flamingo – c1,500 on the Tagus.

Greylag

Shelduck

Mallard

Gadwall

Shoveler

Teal - At least 7,000 in theTagus.

Garganey – 4 separate birds found (2 males & 2 females) amongst 5,000 Teal in the Tagus.

Osprey – a couple seen carrying fish in the Tagus.

Iberian Imperial Eagle – c5 seen in Castro Verde.

Booted Eagle – 1 briefly in the Alentejo.

Bonelli’s Eagle – 1 1^st calendar year bird watched in the open sitting in a tree in the Tagus.

Red Kite

Marsh Harrier

Hen Harrier 

Buzzard

Black-winged Kite

Kestrel

Peregrine

Merlin - A couple seen.

Red-legged Partridge

Coot

Purple Swamphen - A couple seen in the Tagus.

Common Crane

Great Bustard

Little Bustard

Avocet

Black-winged Stilt

Ringed Plover

Kentish Plover

Grey Plover

Golden Plover

Lapwing

Knot

Sanderling

Turnstone

Dunlin

Little Stint

Green Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Redshank

Spotted Redshank

Greenshank

Black-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit

Curlew

Whimbrel

Snipe

Black-headed Gull

Mediterranean Gull

Yellow-legged Gull

Great Black-back

Lesser Black-back

Black-bellied Sandgrouse - c50 all told.

Feral Pigeon

Wood Pigeon

Collared Dove

Short-eared Owl - 9 together in the Tagus.

Little Owl

Hoopoe

Kingfisher

Great Spotted Woodpecker (heard)

Skylark

Crested Lark

Thekla Lark - a coupled noted near Mertola, Alentejo.

Calandra Lark

Crag Martin

Meadow Pipit

White Wagtail

Robin

Bluethroat

Black Redstart

Stonechat

Song Thrush

Blackbird

Blackcap

Sardinian Warbler

Zitting Cisticola

Cetti’s Warbler (heard)

Chiffchaff

Great Tit

Coal Tit

Blue Tit

Iberian Grey Shrike

Azure-winged Magpie

Magpie

Jay

Jackdaw - only 1 noticed in the Alentajo.

Carrion Crow

Raven

Common Starling

Spotless Starling

House Sparrow

Tree Sparrow

Chaffinch

Linnet

Goldfinch

Greenfinch

Serin

Reed Bunting

Corn Bunting

110 species

The Tagus Estuary, Lisbon in pictures

Just spend a stupendous four days in the Lisbon area including one day in the Alentejo Region - my favourite part of Portugal. The weather wasn't amazing. Mostly cloudy skies with some rain. Indeed, on our first day it was foggy most of the day.

The most mind-blowing moment was when I witnessed the vast clouds of Glossy Ibis and Greater Flamingo swilling around near Evoa in the Tagus Estuary.

I'll give you more of a breakdown of my trip tomorrow.

 Female Common Stonechat

 Snipe

 Great Bustard

 Eurasian Spoonbill

three of the nine Short-eared Owls in the vicinity

Serbia 2014 winter owl trip

As you can probably gather, my proposed daily update from the Serbian owl frontier never happened. This was partially down to poor internet but mostly due to being totally knackered by the time we all arrived back at the the hotel in Ecka (pronounced Echka) our base in Northern Serbia near the Hungarian border.

In short, we saw a ton of owls. In four days my group and I easily saw in excess of 1,000 Long-eared Owls. Many of my group had not seen an owl of any description before so I loved seeing their glowing faces!

We wandered around a few small towns urban birding as well as visiting fish farms and open countryside under mostly grey skies with spots of rain on occasion. Despite that and the cold we had an amazing time birding.

 1st winter Caspian Gull

Aside from the owls we also saw a few Caspian Gulls including this confiding bird (above) who posed beautifully displaying its salient identification features including its pink lankey legs, drooped tail-end of its body, largely white head with slooping forehead, pigeon-chest and long, thin-looking black bill.

Collared Doves

I'm already excited about coming back next winter with more people to show them the amazing phenomenon that is the huge numbers of Long-eared Owls that chose to winter in the towns of Northern Serbia.

Trip List

Kikinda and environs, Serbia Nov 30 - Dec 4 2014

Great Cormorant
Pygmy Cormorant
Great Egret
Grey Heron
White Stork
Eurasian Spoonbill
Mute Swan
White-fronted Goose
Greylag
Shelduck
Mallard
Gadwall
Northern Shoveler
Common Teal
Pochard
Ferruginous Duck
Goosander
Pheasant
Marsh Harrier
Hen Harrier
Common Buzzard
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Common Kestrel
Peregrine
Merlin
Common Coot
Common Crane
Eurasian Curlew
Black-headed Gull
Common Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Caspian Gull
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove
Long-eared Owl
Little Owl
Common Kingfisher
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Syrian Woodpecker
Meadow Pipit
Robin
Wren
Black Redstart
Blackbird (heard)
Goldcrest
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Coal Tit
Marsh Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Penduline Tit (heard)
Nuthatch
Common Treecreeper
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Hooded Crow
Raven (heard)
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Bullfinch
Reed Bunting

I really love owls! Day 1 Serbia Long-eared Owl Trip

Day one of my TUB Tours trip to Serbia went very well. Over 750 Long-eared Owls plus a possible Short-eared Owl had my group in raptures.

Other birds seen today and yesterday afternoon included a drake Goosander seen in flight over the Danube in Belgrade (a very scarce bird), Pygmy Cormorant, Sparrowhawk and a Marsh Harrier. There were an unusual large number of Long-eared Owls this winter due to an exceptional breeeding season. The town square in Kikinda, the world's Long-eared Owl capital, was alive with owls. We counted just under 500 birds!

A gaggle of owls in Kikinda

Pygmy Cormorant

Great Spotted Woodpecker