DAY OUT IN SOMERSET

Ham Wall - Shapwick Heath - Westhay Moor

Weather cloudy all day, windy at times, outbreaks of sunshine. Temp 11C

Today I met Nigel at Ham Wall RSPB car park at 8am for a day's birding in the wonderful marshland area of the Somerset Levels. A Bittern was heard 'booming' from the car park, a promising start.


Great Crested Grebes

We walked along the central track noting several common garden species as well as Little Egret, Teal, Wigeon, Gadwall, Shoveler and Mallard. A quick stop at the first look-out added Great White Egret, Mute Swan, Little and Great Crested Grebes, Moorhen and Coot to our list. From the first hide we watched Common Snipe and from the Tor-View Hide we had great views of two Glossy Ibis, these two local celebities have been around for almost a year and there are high hopes that they will breed this year, that is, if one is a boy and one is a girl.


Glossy Ibis


Common Snipe

Close views of Reed Bunting and distant Common Buzzard were followed by Song Thrush and Cetti's Warbler further along the track. We made our way to the Avalon Hide which offers superb views over the surrounding reed-beds and a large pool. An hour passed quickly as we enjoyed short views of at least 3 Bitterns! A Water Rail was nice to see and extended views of a small party of Bearded Tits was a highlight and even though they were distant they looked great in the scope.


TUFTED DUCK


TUFTED DUCKS - taken by Nigel Bleaken

Marsh Harriers sightings were frequent, they are obviously pairing off and are currently nest building, they gave quite a show.

Back at the car park Nigel produced a nice cup of coffee with chocolate-chip biscuits, wow the best thing he'd found all morning! ha! Above us dozens of Sand Martins were dashing about quite high up as was a male Marsh Harrier which was performing some kind of display.


Reed Bunting

After the coffee break we walked to Noah's Lake where we sat in the raised hide and enjoyed another hour. Our sighting highlights were Goldeneye (a pair), pintail (3), Kingfisher, Common Buzzards (4) it looked as tgough they were pairing off too! A Bittern 'boomed' several times off to our right and a few minutes later it flew right across our view in the front of the hide. This was fantastic and our best sighting today of this normally secretive and elusive species. Our return journey to the car park was via a new boardwalk route which was an interesting excursion and produced sightings of Bullfinch and a noisy Wren with a beak full of moss.


View from the Avalon Hide

For the afternoon we drove round to Westhay Moor and walked along London Drove hoping to bump into a flock of Siskin and/or Redpoll, neither of which turned up. At 30 Acre Lake we found lots more Pintails and a couple of Goosander, a Great White Egret sporting a black bill and the breeding 'green' lores was a indication that the 'Levels' were going to have another successful year with this species.


A pair of Northern Pintail

In last year's breeding birds' survey the Levels recorded 43 Booming Bitterns, 8 Breeding Pairs of Great White Egrets and two male Little Bitterns failed to find a female (but successfully bred in the previous 3 years).


a record shot of a distant Goosander

We finished off back in the car park where 4 more Great White Egrets flew over. It had been a great day out with lots of sightings, spring is definitely in the air.


Spring is in the air

The best of Spring Migration - Lesvos

MIGRATION TOUR - LESVOS 28TH APRIL - MAY 6TH 2017

Spring is in the air, bird migration has started, already several Swallows have been sighted in the UK.

Wheatears, Sand Martins, Chiffchaffs and Sandwich Terns have made it back already.

During the next few week over 900 million birds will make it back to the Western Palearctic from their wintering grounds in Africa.

There is one idyllic place in Aegean Sea to see them, the wonderful Greek island of  LESVOS.

This tiny island is a gem of a place to watch migration, everyday new species turn up, sometimes in their thousands. Lesvos is in an ideal position close to the Turkish Mainland and it 'fools' migrating birds into thinking that they have in fact reached the mainland, so they drop in.

Last year the island was practically deserted, devoid of birders, especially during the peak weeks of Migration because of 'false news' regarding the human migration of displaced Syrians. We saw zero human migrants, the island was as beautiful and untouched as ever.

This year there are no direct flights in April which will only exacerbate the situation, the locals need our support, hotels are going bust, restaurants are closing down and car hire has never been so cheap.

JOIN ME THIS FOR AN AMAZING TRIP AT AN AMAZING PRICE:

I AM LOOKING FOR 4 MORE PEOPLE:

FOR AN 8 NIGHT STAY WITH HB ACCOMMODATION, ALL LAND TRANSPORT, 7 FULL DAYS GUIDING AND FLIGHTS INCLUDED FOR AN UNBEATABLE £550.

I HAVE ONLY 4 PLACES LEFT AT THIS PRICE - FIRST COME FIRST SERVED

Here are few pictures, taken during recent trips, to whet your appetite:

Long-eared Owl

Little Bittern

Little Crake

Masked Shrike

Penduline Tit

Collared Pratincole

Red-throated Pipit

European Roller

Scops Owl

Squacco Heron

Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

the medieval Kremasti Bridge

Call now 01935 - 426152 or e-mail bobbuckler49@hotmail.com

Costa Rica - Pre-Tour Day - 11TH FEBRUARY 2017

Weather:           Sunny, warm but a little windy.

We arrived in San Jose late afternoon, it was 28C a clear blue sky but a little windy.  Whilst waiting for the shuttle bus to our hotel we logged Grey-breasted Martin, Long-tailed Grackle, Western Kingbird, Black and Turkey Vultures and House Sparrow.

                                                                      Rufous-collared Sparrow

After settling into our rooms at the hotel we went for a late afternoon stroll, 11 of us assembled at 4:30pm in the hotel foyer. A short walk for about an hour produced a number of species, our first ‘hummer’ Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. Our first Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager and lots of other firsts! Rufous-collared Sparrow, Rufous-naped Wren and lots of Crimson-fronted Parakeets, the trees around the hotel were flowering and dozens of parakeets fed on them.

                                                                 Red-billed Pigeon

An area of wasteland produced more Grackles, Clay-coloured Thrush and our first woodpecker, a female Hoffman’s Woodpecker that showed very well. A Cattle Egret flew over as did Blue and White Swallows, we found a Black Phoebe in a rock-strewn stream and our first reptile, the Emerald Basilisk or the ‘Jesus Christ Lizard’ a big one!

                                                              Hoffman's Woodpecker

Our last bird sighting was of a Yellow Warbler found in shrubs near the hotel swimming pool.

Our 12^th group member, Eva, arrived after dark, so we were now all assembled at the hotel ready for tomorrow’s official start to the tour.

SOMERSET LEVELS - WEEKEND BREAK - DAY 2 - SATURDAY 21ST JAN 2017

WEATHER: the beautiful weather continues, a most glorious sunny day, no wind, no clouds, perfect. Top temp 5C.

Well I couldn't believe that we had a second fantastic day weather-wise, it was superb, so we made the most of it! We left the guest house in the dark at 7am in order to get to the Starling roost by sunrise, which we did with 10 minutes to spare. It was freezing cold but we all wrapped up well so didn't notice it much, the air was still but alive with noise of nearly 1 million chattering starlings.

sun rise - we arrived to this at 7:20am

Whilst waiting for the starlings to fly we saw 13 Great White Egrets drop into the marsh with 7 Grey Herons, also Lapwings, Cormorants and several groups of various ducks dashed over us. A couple of early-bird Marsh Harriers also put in an appearance.

As 7:40am they all took off like a plague of locusts bursting from the reedbeds, it was incredible, the noise from their wings sounded like rolling waves on a windy day. It took ten minutes for them all to disperse, it was a truly memorable and fascinating experience, the ultimate natural spectacle, nature at its best, awe inspiring and many more superlatives I can't think of..

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a swirling mass of starlings as they erupted from the reeds

We were back at the guest house tucking into a delicious cooked breakfast at 8:30 but within an hour we were off again. Today we started our birding at Westhay Moor by walking along London Drove, our target species was Goosander on '30 acre lake' and any other goodies that might pop out of the marshes.

From a slow start we gained momentum with sightings of Common Kingfisher quickly followed by Bearded Tit. The latter showed extremely well down to 3-4 meters but they kept moving.

Water Rail - as I didn't take any more pictures today the next 5 were taken by Kevin Jones in recent visits to the 'levels'

We added our first Pintail sightings at 30 acre lake but no Goosander were present, most the lake was frozen over so all the ducks, geese and swans were crammed together in small pools of unfrozen water. It was comical to see Mute Swans landing on ice and slipping on their rear ends before crashing into other birds.

Bittern -  swimming - taken by Kevin Jones

We spent a while in a brand new tower-hide, again we looked over frozen pools with nothing on them but we did mange to see a Eurasian Bittern in flight, well most of the group did.
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Bittern - not swimming - taken by Kevin Jones

Walking back to the bus we stopped to watch a couple of Bullfinches and a single Lesser Redpoll before John found a Water Rail very close by. A quick search for a 'drumming' Great Spotted Woodpecker was in vain.

We drove round to Mudgley to look for Cattle Egrets but none were there, a huge number of Redwings and Fieldfares littered the fields with a single Song Thrush, a couple of Stonechats, a flock of Linnets and two Red Foxes!

Eurasian Teal - photo by Kevin Jones

A short drive around Tealham Moor produced sightings of many Lapwings, thrushes, Rooks, Jackdaws and Starlings, but nothing new.

After a short stop in Wedmore where we bought lunch we travelled to Cheddar Reservoir. Our lunch was eaten in the car park as we sat in the lovely sunshine. Birding at the Reservoir was short but sweet, we scoped the whole circular body of water from one point, it was covered in parts with hundreds of ducks, coots and gulls. We added Common Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Goldeneye, Red-crested Pochard but we couldn't find any Goosander that were supposed to be there.

Great Egrets fighting - phot by Kevin Jones

We then drove through Cheddar and the famous Gorge but never stopped because it was packed with day trippers that swarmed all over the place, a nightmare.

So back to normality at Chew Valley lake where we spent the last two hours of day light watching thousands or birds from the two causeways, Heron's Green and Herriot's Bridge. Both places provides good sighting and offered opportunities to see one or two rarer birds. We added Black-necked Grebe, Bewick Swan (8), Shelduck and we put a lot of time in looking for Ring-billed and Mediterranean Gulls without reward. We also missed Scaup, Long-tailed Duck, Pink-footed Goose and Goosander because we never had time to drive all the way around this huge man-made lake, another time maybe.

We drove back to our guest house in the dark arriving in good time for another delicious dinner.

SOMERSET LEVELS - WEEKEND BREAK DAY 1 - FRIDAY 20TH JAN 2017

WEATHER: a superb winter's day with a cloudless sky, no wind but cold. Top temp 5C.

The group arrived on time as we met at our guest house near Meare on the Somerset Levels. After settling in and a nice cuppa we were all ready for an afternoon's birding in the bright sunshine.

I drove the group round to Ham Wall nature reserve where we planned to walk the main track and to visit the viewing platforms and the large raised Avalon Hide. Our main objective however was to stay until dusk t o watch the famous 'starling murmuration'.

Glastonbury Tor looking from Ham Wall

In the car park we watched the bird feeders situated behind the visitor's centre where Blue, Great and Coal Tits were feeding on peanuts and Chaffinches were picking out seeds below them.

My group for the weekend, L to R Chris, Ted, Tom, Marianne and John

Along the main track we had excellent views over reed-beds, pools, ditches and managed channels where we found many species of wildfowl as well as passerines in the bushes and trees. The seven most common ducks were all present in good numbers, Mallard, Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler, Tufted Duck, Gadwall and Common Pochard, whilst smaller numbers of Little and Great Crested Grebes, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan and Great Cormorant joined them.

I love the fine vermiculation on the flanks of the male Gadwall

a closer view of the breast and flank - Gadwall

The larger birds consisted of egrets and herons with Great Egret being the most common and both Grey Heron and Little Egret providing a supporting cast.

From the Avalon Hide we searched for Bittern without success but we had great views of 3 Marsh Harriers and we heard Water Rail. We watched Reed Buntings feeding on the phragmites seed-heads and Stonechats and Robins in the scrub. A distant field held a number of Lapwing and a Mistle Thrush, a Kestrel sat in very distant tree feeding on its latest kill and a number of sightings of Common Buzzard was enjoyed by all of us.

Great Egret

Taking the long way back to the main track we stopped to watch a couple of Goldcrest, a single Long-tailed Tit and as we joined the track we found a flock of Goldfinch and with them were both Lesser Redpoll and Siskin. Some time was spent at a viewing platform where we added a couple of Common Chiffchaff but not much else.

one of the first flocks of starlings to arrive

Wren, Blackbird and Dunnock joined the list before we settled at one spot to wait for the starling spectacle. Over the next half an hour and until it got dark we were mesmerised by the amazing number of starlings coming to roost. Despite the lack of 'murmuration' it was still a wonderful spectacle, the stunning and most colourful sky formed a perfect back-drop to the thousands of black 'dots' swarming across our vista.

a mass of starlings with a Marsh Harrier in amongst them - can you spot it?

It was cold now and getting dark, a crescendo of noise emanated from the reeds as the starlings settled down for the night, it was time for us to leave them to it. We walked back to the bus in the dark with hordes of other birders who had also braved the cold night air to watch this spectacle.

We completed our bird-log before a superb home cooked dinner was served, we logged 50 species this afternoon, a very enjoyable start to our weekend break in Somerset.

SOMERSET LEVELS - DAY TRIP

Weather: mostly clear and sunny, top temp 10C, dry all day.

This was a fantastic day out with gorgeous weather, superb light and a nice range of species. I left home at 8am just as it got light and spent 40 minutes in the car before arriving at Ham Wall, it was cloudy to start but as the morning progressed the sky cleared completely.

Glastonbury Tor

The main track at Ham Wall is in fact an old railway track which is raised and provides excellent views over the marshes, pools and tree-lined droves. I soon listed a number of species in the shrubs and trees, Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Reed Bunting, Robin, Dunnock and Blackbird.

Ham Wall marsh and pool

In the pools all the common duck species were present in good numbers, Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck and Common Pochard, they were joined by Pintail, Great Cormorant, Great Crested and Little Grebe, Moorhen, Coot, Mute Swan and Common Snipe.

Reed Bunting

I walked to the 'new' Avalon Hide where I added Great Egret, Canada Goose and two top birds, Eurasian Bittern and Water Rail.

Eurasian Bittern

Water Rail

After an enjoyable hour in the hide I walked further along the main track to Loxton's Marsh where I sat in Noah's Hide. I added Greylag Goose, Little Egret, Common Buzzard, Marsh Harrier, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Kingfisher, Common Stonechat, Eurasian Chiffchaff and I saw at another 30 Long-tailed Tits in 3 more flocks.

5 Great Egrets with 9 Grey Herons

More Great Egrets were seen with a number of Grey Herons, it is amazing that Great Egret numbers in the UK have exploded in recent years. A fantastic count of 31 was seen recently at the Ham Wall roost.

can't believe a Peacock Butterfly was on the wing today

Back at the car park a pair of Ravens flew over, a Great Spotted Woodpecker perched nearby and 3 finches fed nearby, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch.

Gadwall

Next I walked to Noah's Lake on Meare Heath, along the way I searched for a Firecrest which had been seen earlier, it never showed.

Noah's Lake was covered in birds but only a single juvenile Whooper Swan was new for my day list, the light was superb and ideal for photography.

Eurasian Wigeon

Tufted Duck

I returned to the car park for a second time to find out that a Yellow-browed Warbler had been seen close by, however my search turned up nothing.

I travelled to Westhay Moor to look for Cattle Egrets but only found Pied Wagtails, Redwings, Fieldfares, Lapwings and a Song Thrush.

From there I visited Tealham Moor another superb section of the 'levels' where I saw many species, nothing new except Common Gulls, Common Pheasant and Rooks.

The last hour of the day was a classic winter sunset, the colours were simply stunning. I drove back to Ham Wall to watch the Starling roost and whilst their numbers were around 1 million birds they never performed as they are supposed to. Nevertheless, it was spectacular and a fitting end to a beautiful day.

Starlings - quite a few of them!