Mediterranean Storm

During the night of 3rd/4th May, I spent an hour unable to sleep in our appartment in Menorca due to a severe storm, the likes of which I've not seen before. The wind was banging the shutters around and the outdoor chairs and tables were getting blown around everywhere! I've no idea what the birds did to stay out of the worst of it!

By the next morning, the wind had calmed down.



Above: A view of the local coastline (taken last year) in normal circumstances (no waves to speak of) - this bit is quite sheltered.



Above: The same place from further back and a slightly wider angle, the morning after the storm.



Above: A wider angle still - further out where it is a bit more exposed.

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 4

A variety of digiscoped images from Menorca:



Above: An Egyptian Vulture in Algendar Gorge - a site great for migrating birds and a dramatic landscape.



Above: An Audouin's Gull at Punta Prima. I've noticed that I tend to only find these gulls on the south coast of Menorca.



Above: A Kentish Plover (left) and Little Ringed Plover (right). My first ever Kentish plover!



Above: A Blue Rock Thrush near Pont d'en Gil.



Above: A digiscoped image of the moon.



Above: A Common Sandpiper along the coast near Es Grau.

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 3

This edition is devoted to Black-Winged Stilts. Again, a species I've never seen in Britain but that is hardly surprising.



Above: There were 20 + Black-Winged Stilts on this site - Las Salinas de Montgofre - probably the best site for them (and waders) on the island.



Above: An adult male Black-Winged Stilt.



Above: Male (right) and female (left) Black-Winged Stilts.



Above: A female Black-Winged Stilt.

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 2

This edition features Cattle Egret. I've never seen one in Britain (they're just starting to colonise Britain - perhaps in the same way Little Egrets have - but are rare at the moment). Last year I saw one group of 4 and a group of 7 but only briefly. This year I saw many more!



Above: A cheeky shot of a Cattle Egret I just had to include!

I was driving along a road I saw a group of 13 Cattle Egret flying away. 2 hours later I was driving the opposite way when I saw a number of Cattle Egret in a small grove of pine trees. It turns out I found a nesting site! Would this be an Egretry?

Stopping, I got my scope and camera out to get some superb photographs!



Above: A Cattle Egret preening at a nest site.

Whilst preening, birds are perched in the same place. I found it quite a challenge to get the timing right to get a good photo inbetween or whilst preening! This must happen regularly with digiscoping going on my experiences. I also found that when the birds aren't preening, they're usually moving making photographs hard.



Above: These were the only two Cattle Egret I could photograph 'on the nest'. Views were restricted from the road (the Egrets were on private land) where I was forced to stand.



Above: Another cheeky shot! Some of these birds were seen carrying twigs = nesting.



Above: One or two came down to the ground (presumably for nesting materials) and this was the only photograph I managed whilst it was sneeking away from me.



Above: At another site completely, I discovered 7 Cattle Egret in their natural feeding environment! Alas, before I could get a classic photo of one standing atop of a cow, it flew off not to return.



Above: One early morning I got a digiscoped image of these egrets - a mixture of Cattle and Little Egrets. There were 31 birds in total at roughly a 50/50 split (an accurate split was impossible to to the distance involved).

The total holiday count for this species was well over 30 birds!

Menorca Birds 2010 Edition 1

I've just got back from a holiday in Menorca. There were plenty of highlights and I am really happy that I had a scope and camera (with attachment) to record some of these.



Above & Below: A Woodchat Shrike near Son Parc.



I waited quite a while for this bird to turn to the side or the opposite way round to get more images but to no avail.



Above: Before we found the Woodchat Shrike in the other images, my dad found this partially eaten, dead bird, skewered on a branch right next to the path we were walking along. Did it end up as a meal for a Woodchat Shrike? It certainly ended up as a meal for ants!

23:30 on 20/04/10

A very vocal hedgehog brought me to my window just now (I didn't see it despite shining a torch). I looked up into the night sky and saw some flashing lights from an aircraft. This is good news - I'm booked on a flight to Menorca on Friday!

Oystercatcher with ring

A brief evening visit to Castle Mill (20/04/10) revealed a ring on one of the two resident Oystercatchers! See the previous post for a photograph of these birds. This bird was most likely ringed locally several years ago.

The species can be quite long lived - the British longevity record for a ringed Oystercatcher is 36 years and 8 months held by the Wash Wader Ringing Group. They believe that this record could easily be extended.

Castle Mill birds 18/04/10

I made a dawn walk to Castle Mill gravel pit today to see the birds and try my new scope & camera.

The results of my digiscoping are here ... well, the best bits anyway! Not super brilliant - the birds were still too far away & I've still got to get the hang of it all.



Above: A regular pair of Oystercatcher. Last year they tried to nest but rising water levels eventually covered their nesting site. This year the water levels have started high but at the moment they are dropping. Looking good to attract more waders ... (5 Temmincks Stints were last years highlight).



Above: Two Little Ringed Plover. I saw a third but the results of the photographs weren't as good. 3 were present on Friday also.



Above: The water remained almost perfectly still early on and this Great Crested Grebe strayed into my sights - exhibitionist that it was!



Above: After the early morning photography, I settled down to have a better look around. A species that I haven't seen at this site before (not that I've been looking hard and when I have, I only had a pair of binoculars!). This is a Common Snipe. Not being familiar with viewing this species in the field (or at all!) I had to check that it was a Common Snipe.



Above: Having confirmed my identification of Common Snipe, I was surprised to be viewing a Yellow Wagtail (a migrant species that has started arriving in the last week or so) at the same time. As I spent more time looking at what else was around and being more confident with the identification, I found 5 Snipe in total.



Above: A species that can always be seen here, Redshank. Although difficult to count just how many there are here, I have seen 6 flying together recently and this is around what I would expect. Also present was a Green Sandpiper (4 on Friday).

25-30 Sand Martins
1 Swallow
Female Mallard with 10 ducklings (present since Friday)
1 Grey Wagtail
2 Pied Wagtail (I did well with the wagtail species!)
The usual Great Crested Grebes, Coots, moorhen, Mallards, Cormorants, 3 herons, tufted ducks and 2 swans.

Now that I have a scope, I might make this a more regular walk.



Above: Plenty of them about but never a family of birds that I want much to do with ... gulls. I'll leave it at that.

Little, Rainbow, Barn

Sometimes, without trying, you get your timing just right. Last Friday I was working in Milton Keynes and on the way back, we stopped to put the last 30 binders on a layed hedge to complete a project (we ran out of binders on Tuesday when I had planned on finishing it!).



Above: Hedge 1 at Rectory Farm that we layed. Whilst using the outdoor 'facilities' here, I flushed a Little Owl sat in a hedge.



Above: A short drive later and I was at hedge 2 at Rectory Farm- also layed by BTCV. I needed photographs of the completed hedge for the funders (GrantScape) and my timing was just right to catch this rainbow too!

Then, on the way back to the office via Astwood my jaw dropped, my finger pointed ahead of me and I shouted Barn Owl! We watched it fly over the road and hunt in the field opposite. About 10 seconds after I shouted Barn Owl, somebody else in the mini-bus did!

Saturday morning, I went with Errol ringing at Priory Country Park where we ringed our first Chiff Chaffs of the year. It wasn't a classic morning but we finished with a couple of nice Song Thrush's. We also saw our first swallows (12+) and frog spawn.

Late Saturday afternoon and I took a walk out to Castle Mill (not far from my front door. Here I saw 1 Swallow, 2 Little Egret, 1 buzzard, 2 oystercatcher, 1 Green Woodpecker, 2 Grey Wagtails, Great Crested Grebes, Herons, Coots, Moorhens, Cormorant, Mallards, 5 Tufted Ducks, 1 Redshank.

Today, a ringing demo at Randalls Farm - 3 chiff chaffs and a pair of bullfinches were the highlight. Another walk to Castle Mill produced 2 (maybe 3) Mistle Thrushes and nothing that wasn't there the day before.

I was puzzled by the behaviour of the Oystercatchers. There is an obvious pair here and they stick to eachother like glue - even in flight (nothing odd there) but there was a third bird that called as it flew in and the pair seemed to chase it away. It (or another) came back and it was allowed to land. A minute or two later, the pair follwed and landed in the vacinity (hidden from my view) where all 3 remained for a few minutes. Then all 3 took to flight and the pair seemed to chase it away again. Then a short while later, it (or another) came in again and landed next to the pair. There were periods of quiet but also noisy periods. They chased it away and then let it stay? Could this 1 bird have been a male that was trying to outmuscle the resident male?

2 more came over later & two more as I was leaving. Puzzled I am.

Foray back home

A weekend in Gloucestershire:

On Saturday I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition at Nature In Art (www.nature-in-art.org.uk). In my opinion (humble as it is!), it wasn't as good as other years. Don't get me wrong, there were some good photographs, and some outstanding ones, but I rarely agree with the overall winner (or category winners). One that stood out for me was the photograph of Bramblings (see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/photo.do?photo=2527&category=50&group=1).

On Sunday at my dad's house, an early start & good conditions for ringing (overcast but hardly any breeze & no rain!). Here are the results: 41 birds of 9 species - New (retrap)

Blackbird 4 (0)
Blue Tit 13 (1)
Chaffinch 2 (0)
Coal Tit 2 (0)
Collared Dove 1 (0)
Dunnock 5 (0)
Goldfinch 7 (1)
Greenfinch 3 (0)
House Sparrow 3 (0)



Above: A collared dove. I don't get much chance to see these birds in the hand, but having had a couple over Christmas flirting with the net, I was glad that this one left with a bit of silver.



Above: For a good number of years (10 or more) my Dad has been seeing Blackbirds with some white feathers in his Garden. Presumably all are related (and I think all have been male)and are part of the local population. If this is true then it is obvious that these birds have no trouble mating!



Above: A male Chaffinch. These do not visit the garden in large numbers, but they do visit regularly.



Above: A Goldfinch. These birds seem to be visiting the garden feeders a lot at the moment. A shortage of natural food at the moment perhaps. One bird of note, a retrap (first caught at Christmas) Goldfinch.



Above: Just an excuse to post another picture of a coal tit!



Above: Caught together, this male House Sparrow thought it only right and proper to preserve the modesty of the female House Sparrow. Usually, House Sparrows are clever and sit somewhere nearby to feeders most of the day and make a short foray to the feeders. At my Dad's house, I don't know of a nearby bush where they sit (that doesn't mean it doesn't exist) but I don't think they are very close by (otherwise I would have heard them).



Above: Relegated to 'the garage,' this is the view of my ringing station!