Fuerteventura Trip Report

Red-billed Tropic Bird: Damion Young, Gary Edwards, Patrick Earith and I, all North West birders, planned a trip to Fuerteventura to tick off some of its special birds.

The island of Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands, is home to its own unique endemic bird, the Canary Islands stonechat, and is probably the best place in the world to see the endangered Houbara Bustard.

Houbara Bustard: Three further Macaronesian endemics - plain swift, Berthelot's pipit and Atlantic canary - occur on the island and other specialities include cream-coloured courser, black-bellied sandgrouse, African blue tit and trumpeter finch.

Trumpeter Finch: We had a very successful trip, with all targets except Barbary falcon and the canary seen, and we couldn't ague with the superb view we had of the birds, especially the tropic bird and bustard.

Canary Islands Stonechat: The undoubted highlight was how lucky we got to see the tropic bird at such close range. Possibly one of the best breeding birds in Europe.

Berthelot's Pipit: If you would like to see a lot more images and read about our trip, please click on the link below or see my holidays trip reports at the foot of my blog.

https://austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk/p/fuerteventura-april-2018.html

29/04/2018 Llanmill, Pembrokeshire

Green Heron: Yesterday this little beaut turned up in the Tory MP's Simon Hart's garden, the same garden that has in the past had squacco heron and purple heron!

Mr Hart and his family were extremely good to let us on to their property to view the bird and even laid on some hot drinks. I would like to extend my gratitude and thanks to him.

The green heron is sometimes called the green-backed heron and is a distinctively small bird that is about the size of a large crow.

This bird is the 6th record for the UK and a first for me.

The bird was pretty mobile at times and spent some time foraging out of view in the iris stems before perching on the logs sticking up out of the pond.

Thanks also to Iggo for driving, nice one pal.

28/04/2018 Venus Pool, Shrewsbury

Green-winged Orchid: Today I had a wedding client met ting in Shrewsbury, typically I wouldn't go that far but this client is an old friend and colleague from my days at Cheshire Wildlife Trust.

After visiting their beautiful venue and having a good catch up I decided to make the most of my time down here and go see if I can find the  green-winged orchids around Venus Pools.

I have only ever been here once before to see the female pine bunting and even then i didn't get a chance to have a good luck round.


After finding the place, which took some doing, I walked around the pools and visited some hides. I spotted the purple flowers from some distance in a nearby field.

They came in two main colours a light pinky purple and a darker purple and stood out in the bright green fields transforming it from pasture in to a wild flower meadow.

These striking orchids are very similar to the early-purple orchids that are much more commonly found, but can be identified by the distinct parallel greenish veins on each side of the hood formed by the tepals on the upper part of the flower.

These veins are never found on the Early-purple Orchid. The colour of the flowers can vary from very pale pink to a much deeper purple.

The leaves of this species are unspotted, mainly in a basal rosette, the uppermost sheathing the lower stem.

This is where the orchid gets its name from, these green greenish veins under the tepals in away resemble wings, made green by the veins.

15/04/2018 Leighton Moss RSPB

Western Yellow Wagtail: This male Western Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava feldegg)  or more commonly known as a black-headed yellow wagtail was showing well albeit distant on the other side of the railway crossing at Leighton Moss today.

These awfully poor record shots don't do it justice.

So here is a link to Pete Hines video. Certainly worth a watch.

 www.austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSGsYIh2JjY&feature=youtu.be

15/04/2018 My Garden, Abram, Wigan

Siskin: ****A GARDEN FIRST****

I'm always thrilled when I get a new species of bird in my garden, it doesn't happen all that often, and makes me think the work that I am doing in my very own garden patch is working.

Not only was it a joy to see this siskin enjoying the seed I have on offer, but also watching the pair of blue tits and great tits nest building in their bird boxes. This would be the fourth year for the blue tit and the third for the great tit in the same boxes since Dawn and I bought this house.

I get a huge amount of enjoyment out of watching the birds in the garden, putting out food and watching the birds dart onto the feeders. I know I'm certainly not alone, but I look at my neighbours gardens and don't see any feeders, no bird boxes nothing!

These people must be mad!

Siskin & Goldfinch: The little yellow bird hung around most of the morning, often on its own but would be occasionally joined by some of the local goldfinch.

08/04/2018 Wirral

Chiffchaff: A lovely morning spent on the Wirral catching up with some spring migrants, including chiffchaff, swallow and ring ouzel.

 I started the day off at Leasowe Lighthouse where I bumped in to Patrick who said he had not much luck this morning.

Sparrowhawk & Starling: After a quick catch up I headed down the very muddy Lingham Lane when Patrick called me saying a news of a male ring ouzel came through and was still in the are.

With renewd vigour I reached a small group of birders who pointed it out to me, the bird was opposite the horse paddocks, but kept its distance.

Ring Ouzel: We watched it until it got spooked by the nearby sheep and disappeared out of view.

After walking around the Ligthouse I saw two more swallow but no wheatear as I was hoping for.

Great White Egret: As I travelled in my car out of Leasowe I spotted a sphawk fighting with s starling, i quickly parked up and jumped out. great little drama to witness.

On the way home I stopped off at Neston and picked up the local GWE and three lovely looking water pipit down near the sewage works.

Gambia Trip Report

Blue-breasted Kingfisher: Hello all, please check out my Gambian trip report, simnply go the the bottom on my blog and under the holiday and trip reports you will see the link to The Gambia January 2018.

Laughing Dove: I have invluded a vast ammount of images and a detaild account of the trip.

Pygmy Kingfisher: I, along with Gary, Dawn and Garys wife Elise visted several natutre rserves including Abuko Natutre Reserve, Farasutu Forest and Kartong Bird Observatory.

Hooded Vulture: We satyed at the famous Bakotu Hotel near Banjul (the one Chris Packham stays at).

Abyssinian Roller: I managed to see 193 bird spcies including 7 kingfisher species, 5 bee-eater spcies and many more. 

Red-cheeked Cordon-Bleu: Hopfully this might come in handy if someone is planning atrip themselves,  hope its hepls. enjoy.

https://austinmorley.blogspot.co.uk/p/the-gam.html

10/03/2018 West Kirby Marina Lake

Greater Scaup: I've not seen one of these for what seems like a long time, so it was great that these birds hung around for a week or so and showed pretty well. Happy days.

There were seven scaup in total on the lake, including four drake and three female of which five of then stayed out in the middle of the lake.

Two drakes were brave enough to come a little closer and came down to at least 5 feet, foraging for crabs in the shallower water.

Great to bump in to John Tymon,  Karl Bishop and Andy Ingham.

10/02/2018 Hollingworth Lake, Rochdale

Glaucous Gull: This massive bird just happens to be the second largest gull in the world, after the great black-headed gull.  This species breeds in Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and this individual has decided to winter in Rochdale.

For the past two weeks or so there has been a very obliging juvenile glaucous gull at Hollingworth Lake, near Rochdale in Greater Manchester.

I've put off going to see it for a number of reasons, not least because I spent all last week birding in The Gambia.

Even on a grey, wet Saturday afternoon Hollinhworth Lake was busy, not only with families coming to feed to ducks and gulls and dog walkers enjoying this tranquil little spot, but parking enforcement officers!!

Beware and make sure you pay if you are staying.

When Gary and I arrived the bird was happily standing amongst the local wildfowl and black-headed gulls right off the car park on the concrete ramp leading in to the water.

The bird sat there happily and wasn't bothered by the dog walkers who came down to the waters edge as it just moved off on to the water and then came back.

The bird was almost immobile, and didn't fully take flight until a little girl and her mum came to feed the ducks.

Then the bird became very aggressive towards the black-headed gulls who were masters at steeling the bread, even in mid air.

But don't worry the galuc muscled in and got its fair share.

I never tire of seeing these birds up close like this, its a real winter treat.

The bird enjoying the company of the locals.

25/01/2018 Ashton-in-Makerfield

Hooded Crow: An excellent Greater Manchester  bird first found back in September by Damian Young in St Helens off the East Lancs Road and relocated by Collin Davies, presuming it's the same bird - two top local birders.








The bird can now been seen off Heath Road and regularly forages in the playing field opposite the Eagle & Child pub.











A great local bird to connect with.