Trip Report - Madeira, Portugal

Zino's Petrel: After booking a selection of Wind Bird Pelagics and land based birdwatching tours we stayed in a small village in the southeastern part of the island, a stunning little village nestled within a deep valley, surrounded by lush steep slopes that somewhat resemble the opening helicopter scenes from Jurassic Park!

Wind Birds have on offer a selection of pelagic tours including their 'flagship' three days of ultimate pelagic expedition focused on petrels, storm petrels, shearwaters and any other vagrant bird species that might be around the North Atlantic Ocean.

Desertas Petrel: We booked onto the Wind Birds Half Day Birdwatching Tour where they take you to several locations and its almost guaranteed that you will see the endemic Madeiran birds such as the Madeiran firecrest, the Trocaz pigeon and the Madeiran chaffinch. 

Bulwer's Petrel:  We also attended the Wind Birds Zino's Petrel Night Expedition Experience in the evening. Seeng a few silhouetted birds against the moonlight sky as the Zino's calls increased and intensified was a sensational birding experience. 

Madeira Storm-Petrel: The Madeira bird list is pretty small, with a low diversity of birds, however we managed to tick 40 birds through the whole trip, this included the Madeira storm-petrel, otherwise known as the band-rumped petrel, Zion's, Desertas, Wilson's, Leach's, Euro, Bulwer's petrel, Madeiran firecrest and Trocaz to name a just a few. 

Trocaz Pigeon: From start to finish, including the Wind Bird Pelagics, I can't recommend this trip highly enough, Hugo and Catarina are friendly, relaxed and knowledgeable. 

Please read more on my Trip Report below or click here - https://austinmorley.blogspot.com/p/madeira-portugal-june-2024.html

10/07/2024 My Garden, Golborne, Cheshire

Lesser Redpoll: A new bird for the new garden, this redpoll had been visiting the feeders through the day. These are tiny finches, only slightly bigger than a blue tit, and are sociable birds with chattering twitters and songs that enliven any garden. They are resident throughout the north of the UK particularly the far north and they tend to move further south as winter approaches.

I was surprised to see one in Summer, they are synonymous with visiting bird feeders during the Winter months. Perhaps they are breeding locally?In its breeding range, the key requirement is woodland and in particular birch and alder. Plantations of non-native conifers, particularly when the trees are relatively young are also favoured. 

The garden is looking really good at the moment, green and lush with the boarder plans and shrubs looking healthy and about to burst into colour. 

Identifiable by their streaky brown plumage and red patches on the head, lesser redpolls occasionally carry a red patch on their breast as well.

A welcomed distraction after returning back from a long, sunny holiday watching birds in Madeira. 

Trip Report - Delta de l'Ebre, Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain

Griffon Vulture: This week I turned 40, a milestone I have not been looking forward to, but one I could't escape. However I was able to escape the UK for some Spanish summer sun.  

Western Swamphen: Located in the province of Tarragona in southern Catalonia, the Delta de l’Ebre is an impressive natural landmark which attracts thousands of nature-lovers each year. 

Western Bonelli's Warbler: Where the Ebro River meets the Mediterranean Sea, the Delta de l’Ebre is home to a wide variety of wetland birds. I also ventured out up into the hills and to the drylands of Lleida and Zona Picnic Mont-roig.
 

Collard Pratincole: This trip was actually a surprise trip that the one in million partner of mine Dawn decided to gift me, with some help from Gary Edwards they conspired together to find a location that's birdy enough for me and offered family activities. 

Whiskered Tern: The area close to the sea is comprised of large lagoons and marshes, dunes and sand, with small remains of riverside forests by the banks of the river. Due to its naturalistic and ornithological character, the ares is internationally known. 

Gossy Ibis: Please check out the detailed trip report at the bottom of the blog page.

20/05/2024 Whitburn. Durham

 Indigo Bunting: Electric blue excitment in Durham. The news broke on Saturday afternoon but having family commitments I was resigned to feeling gripped off!Luckily the bird reappeared own Sunday afternoon giving me a change to grip back. 

Indigo buntings are migratory ranging from southern Canada to northern Florida during breeding season, and from southern Florida to northern South America to overwinter. 

During breeding season the male is a bright azure blue with an indigo head, and black wings and tail with blue edges. In winter the male has brown edges to its feathers which overlap so it appears mostly brown. The bird was pretty elusive and gave most folk the runaround but it eventually showed well before going to ground again. 

21/04/2024 Manvers Lake, Rotherham

Garganey: Sunday morning and I'm back out watching birds, this time with Dawn an Autumn in tow. We headed over to Manvers Park where a drake garganey has taken up residence with a female mallard. 

 

This duck originates from the flooded fields and swamplands throughout Europe and Asia. A mid-sized duck that can be recognised by it's distinctive white stripe around its eye and the blue and white patches along its wings. 

A migratory duck, the breeding birds arrive from March and return from July. Small numbers of non-breeding birds visit on passage migration in spring and autumn. They seldom breed here in the UK.

The bird was showing sensationally well, and was fiercely mate guarding its female mallard, feeding alongs side her and staying close to her at all times. The local birders ares yang its a bird of 'unknown origin' this is birders speak for they think it's a domesticated escaped individual. 

The bird is way too friendly, I've seen dozens of garganey and they have all been very flighty, but no body really knows its the right time of year and there is currently a big passages of garganey occurring at the moment. 

Either way, it's such a good looking duck, and very enjoyable to spend a few hours with on a sunny Sunday. 

20/04/2024 Normandy Marsh, Hampshire

Marsh Sandpiper: A bird that breeds in open grassy steppe and taiga wetlands from easternmost Europe to central Asia. A rare vagrant to areas of the UK and a bird I didn't want to miss, so edging my bets Kristian and I took the gamble by getting up at 3am and heading down to Hampshire for the early hours. 

These birds at first glance they resemble greenshanks but have a slender needle-thin bill and long olive-green legs, upon closer inspection these are pretty distinct features. The bird was busily dancing in the shallows at the far end of the western lagoons, feeding constantly and keeping its distance. 

This bird puts me on #450 for my British list, a real milestone and when I think back to all the early mornings, longs drives, the lows of crippling dips and the highs of connecting with rare birds its the memories with my mates, friends and acquaintances with I really treasure the most. 

13/04/2014 Platt Fields Park, Manchester

Common Scoter: These squat sea ducks are more commonly spotted as a line of dark ducks flying low over the water, or as large rafts of black ducks bobbing on the sea. but despite their seagoing habits, they do occur inland on lakes.

A nocturnal migrating bird, they are known to  move cross the land between the northern Irish Sea and North Sea coast of northern England and on occasion they can get disoriented and land on inland lakes.

This bird has been preset for around four days and papers to be in good shape, happily living side by side with the local mallards and Canada geese. 

Platt Fields Park is one of the largest parks in Manchester. Occupying a vast 16 acres, the park has two children’s playgrounds and a beautiful central lake, great for observing local wildlife. 

I had to wait around 45 minutes before the bird decided to stop taking its afternoon nap, wake up and do something. The bird paddled out into the open and started feeding, performing really well. 

07/04/2024 Gillingham, Devon

Dark-eyed Junco: I finally caught up with on of these charismatic little sparrows, a bird common across much of temperate North America and in summer ranges far into the Arctic. Dark-eyed junco are now pretty much an annual bird to the UK but more often then not they are recorded ion private gardens.

This bird didn't buy the trend turning up in a private garden. I was a little apprehensive the night before we set off, with the idea of limited viewing from a private garden who's owners only wanted us to arrive after 1pm I imaged a sene of carnage as folk screamed over each other and I'm left with only fleeting views form, the back. 

The reality on the ground however was very different, yea arrived to a friendly home owner who was very welcoming and a small crowed and I was able to get to the front without any issues.  

We waited for around an hour before seeing the bird in flight and eventually it came to the nearby cypress tree and then down to the bare branches of a walnut tree then the ground.

A New World warbler and one of five major subspecies: grey-headed, Oregon, pink-sided, slate-grey and white-winged. The most widespread is the dark-eyed variety. 

A smart little bird that performed really well for the crowds, big thanks to the home owner for letting us int his garden to view the bird. 

29/03/2024 Woolston Eyes Nature Reserve, Warrington

Ruddy Duck: This North American species were imported into wildfowl collections in Britain  due the 50s. Some birds escaped from these collections and formed a free-flying population which expanded to cover most suitable habitat in the UK and by 2001 the ruddy duck population was around 6,000.  

Eventually ruddy ducks were recorded in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Numbers of Ruddy Ducks also began arriving in Spain from the late 1980s and in the early 1990s these started to hybridise with the globally threatened 

This hybridisation posed a serious risk to the white-headed duck as as species. So in the 90s the  UK Government made the decision to eradicate the UK population of ruddy's. It was determined that shooting was the most effective method.

These days the ruddy duck is a rare sight and its been over 5 years since I last saw one of theses smart blue billed, stiff tailed dapper ducks. 

26/03/2024 Undisclosed Location

Black-necked Grebe: Locally they are listed to breeding at Woolston Eyes NR in Warrington. But with with an abundant wintering numbers after a successful couple of breeding seasons there might be new birds prospecting for new breeding territories, hence the undisclosed location. 

There has been records of adults with young at Moore Nature Reserve. Typically BNG colonies are associated with nesting black-headed gulls, which must give some measure of protection from aerial predators.

There are just 55 breeding pairs in Britain, with around 120  individuals here in the winter months. Whilst numbers here in Britain are limited, the black-necked grebe is the most abundant grebe in the world, with many of these residing in North America. 

BNG favoured habitat is shallow, eutrophic waters, usually with extensive vegetation along the fringes and often floating aquatic plants, and a site preferably sheltered from strong winds. This flash appears suitable albeit without any nesting gulls. 

 

25/03/2024 Aviemore, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Capercaillie: The always excellent Damien Young is due to tie the knot in April, so we organised a stag weekend in Aviemore with the hopes of seeing some of the Scottish specialties. With a few notable absences the stag party consisted of Toby Young, Kristian Wade, Patrick Earth and of course the stag.

We got lucky with this bird as walking through some undisclosed Caledonian forest hoping to see our first crested tit and walked right up to this resting bird off the public footpath. Astonishing crazy scenes! 

Crested Tit: Although other types of crested tit occur in Europe, Scotland has a special subspecies of crested tit called Lophophanes cristatus scoticus. 

They are mainly found in large areas of ancient pine forest and newer Scots pine forestry plantations across central and eastern Highlands, from the River Spey catchment to the Dornoch Firth.

The white cheeks and lack of wing barring identify it at this range. More closely it has a very distinctive black and white crest, which it can fan and raise upwards. 

We checked the feeders at RSPB Loch Garten in the rain while standing under the small shelter beside the visitor centre with was closed. We gave it enough time before the rain settled down but only got a skip full of coal tit and a few chaffinches before moving on. Our next stop was Nether Bridge, a Caledonian pine forest just north of Loch Garten. here we had two cresties attending the bird feeders. 

Snow Bunting: Our next target bird was the ptarmigan a bird most of the lads needed so I took them to Cairngorm Mountain where I saw them back in 2016. Apart from a large herd of reindeer all we couldn't find any ptarmigan, so we had to entertain ourselves with a large flock of 36 beautiful white snow buntings that are resident around the ski centre. 

Ptarmigan: We had to travel over to Glen Shee and scale the munro mountain's Cairnwell Pass at the head of Glen Shee. This was a tough, hard hike to the top and not for the weaker legged. We scanned them scree and searched all over before stumbling across a couple of birders viewing the northern slopes where two birds hundred down.

Their unusual name comes from the Scottish Gaelic meaning ‘croak’, in reference to their grumbling, croaking-like call.

Ptarmigan usually live above the treeline, in the hills and mountains. In Scotland, they usually occur above about 800m, moving up and down the mountain in response to weather and food availability. 

The pair had seemed to have lost their pure white plumage that they had only thee weeks ago or so and were now perfectly camauglaged against the patches of snow amounts the loose boulders and rocks.  The walk down is always good for the soul. 

Golden Eagle: On the way over to Glen Shee we kept out eyes open for any large reports, we had dozens of buzzard and a few red kite  until we got to the upland moors near the A93 Military Old Road, here we spotted two golden eagle. A juvenile and an adult, of which had. statute tracker on its back. 

There are no particular ‘hotspots’ for seeing eagles and their eyries are a closely guarded secret, but if you spend time in the uplands and keep looking up you may be lucky enough to see this great bird soaring around ridgelines, catching the thermals and looking for prey.

Ptarmigan: Saturday evening I booked us all in to the Speyside wildlife pine marten hide on the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore. Their hide regularly gets badger and pine marten can also be seen. 

Badger: Each evening wildlife watching experience lasts approximately two and a half to three hours. Our guide for the evening was chap called Harris, an extremely pleasant fellow with a. wealth of knowledge.

Pine Marten: Harris even took his time to show us a resident Scottish wildcat that they have currently in the grounds close to the hide, unfortunately it evaded us on this night, but Harris did get us two plant ticks, including holly fern and twinflower.  The pine marten were the highlight of the evening but the new hide is poor for photography and not great for phones either, both these images where taken with my iPhone. 

Red Kite: This was a top weekend spent with some of the best humans I know. Here's to Damian and Helen and to their big day in April. 

For the pine Martin hide check this link below out. www.speysidewildlife.co.uk