I returned to the cyanea enclosure in search of a rumored schiedea for my plant photo gallery. No luck, but I did see a few interesting things. I explored a bit of the surrounding forest, which is fairly diverse in species but also quite torn up by pig rooting. Hunting trails and trash are scattered throughout the area, particularly around the loulu palms which drop meaty nuts that rats and pigs relish. I partially repaired a section of the enclosure fenceline that was squashed by a...
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2008 02 22
The weather was far from ideal for a "nice" day of bird photography. It had started snowing at 5:AM, and by the time I took the following shots in the early afternoon, the 5 inches of snow on the ground began to form a sheet of sleet driven ice. Still, any chance to use my new toy (70-200 L) is a "nice" day in MY mind.
Standing in the kitchen I glanced a reddish shape in the distant tree. Grabbing my 8x40 bino I could indeed verify that the "shape" was a Red Shouldered Hawk. So...
Hello there. With this blog I intend to enlighten readers about any avian activity of interest around the Exeter area. Being in Devon, UK, it means I have access to some of the best birding sites in the country, for example the Exe Estuary and various sites around Dartmoor.
I live in the suburbs of Exeter, so I'm not gifted with a garden that attracts daily red legged partridges and what-not, but from time to time we get a few gems. For a few weeks now we have had a neighbouring male...
Today was a volunteer day in North Kohala, clearing ginger and banana poka. We stopped at the koaia tree sanctuary on the way up the mountain, and I got photos of a few new speciesfor my plant gallery. We only worked on the edges of the cattle pastures, though, so no new discoveries. Unfortunately there weren't any stinkhorns in the pastures this time.
A 10 mile round trip, in search of new birds.
first destination, hope and Fagle Lane quarry or more precisly a large area of standing water. This was the furthest away I traveled. Not much overall, coot, widgon, pochard and gulls on the water, corvids and cormorants on this large and old metal object.
Back from here, screeching to a hault as 2 geese flew passed... pinkfeet. Then down to the river alyn by fellow bf member JWN Andrewes house, just some pideons, and tits here.
back closer to...
last year was the first year i started nature2pixel and creating an annual list online. i have to admit that i did not manage to get many birds for my list due to the busy schedule on the 2nd half of the year. however, i hope this year will be another busy year ahead (for bird listing).
and i am also hoping to spend a little more time on digiscoping which i have set aside for quite some time since moving on to DSLR. most probably i will also try out mobile phone on the scope. i have tested...
I took the westward trail off of Road R again, hoping to do the whole thing for once, and finally discover where it goes. This time I saw several plants that I had completely missed before! There was even a reasonably large cyanea tritomantha I had passed several times without noticing until today! This is obviously a hunting trail, evidenced by the amount of over-exhuberant machete butchering of innocent plants along the way, but it's very odd how many rare plants are right at the edges...
There haven't been many new species around in February. The weather was not exceptionally cold and there was no snow, so flocks of geese are commonsight and include Red-breasted Geese in good numbers, sometimes up to 35. Lesser White-fronted Geese are also reported, although ones or twos only.
A flock of 7 Bewick's Swans is staying at the Hortobagy, a rare winter bird in Hungary.
Flocks of Twite, Snow Bunting and Lapland Bunting were also reported. A small influx of Waxwings also occurred...
I just picked up a new Canon 70-200 ƒ4 L five days ago for my Rebel XT. It's my first "L" and I'm blown away by the IQ. This my the longest lens yet, and although it is a short lens for birding it has increased my ability to actually photograph those little feathered chaps. I like the fact that, with one lens, I can shoot up close birds, medium range flights, and surrounding landscapes, which makes for a good documentary lens.
Just yesterday I hit one of our local "Rails to Trails" spots...
good afternoon. thanks for clicking in again
my last post saw me through to late Jan, with the year total at 42.
this was clearly not acceptable, so a trip to the London Wetlands Centre followed. Peregines, Sparrowhawks, Egyptian Geese, and Yellow-Legged Gull were hilights. I was hoping for some smaller fry (Siskins, Redpolls, Stonechats, Pipits), but it was still a nice (if freezing) day. The parakeets swarming around the feeders caused great confusion amongst the non-London based...
Almost fully recovered from a heavy cold I was out for lunch today in Hexham, but not before I persuaded my non birder friend to call at Grindon Lough near to Hadrians Wall in the hope of finding the White Fronted Geese. No Luck I'm afraid and it was freezing cold up there. I wasn't dressed for birding so the visit was a short one. No W F Geese as I say, but 100s, perhaps 1,000+ Canada Geese in the fields with 2 Greylag Geese. I suspect the White Fronts where behind one of the numerous...
(lifer birds in bold)
the new year was seen in at Sidmouth, in Devon. my first messy, amateur, part-time birding year commenced on new years afternoon. with the sun emerging for the first time in days, a walk along the beach turned up Oystercatchers and Turnstones, amongst others. Fortunately, I had seen these the previous day, so was able to drag my hungover-self on autopilot towards the spot, kicking my list off in lazy fashion! I had looked into some good birding spots along the Jurassic...
I'm just not a morning person - didn't get up to the forest reserve before noon on any of the last three days. Much of that was due to staying up extremely late at night to process and post so many new photos to my PBASE galleries every day. :) Fortunately, the exceptionally dry weather allowed me to stay out until dark every day in the "wet" forest.
So...I checked another new trail off my to-do list in grand style! Since the sky was unusually clear I decided to risk a long awaited...
The first Rainbow Bee-eaters were spotted around Perth back in late August.
Last week I finally heard some at Wireless Hill, but didn't see any.
Yesterday I finally saw a few at Carine Lakes. One appeared directly in front of us and an astute member of the group realised this bird had dug it's nesting hole directly into the ground in front of us! Generally Bee-eaters dig hollows into embankments, but there was a lack of such formations at Carine. I'm not sure how successful this bird...
I'm doing poorly at getting out of bed in the morning, so today was another short afternoon outing off of Stainback Highway, around Road R. Off-trial I found 2 more nice big tetraplasandra trees. I've never see a young tetraplasandra, so I worry about them. Found a kilioe, which is a first for the area. Found 5 spots with 1-3 phyllostegia floribunda each, in about 600 meters of wandering through the forest. That's encouraging since I thought they were quite rare.
I spent the afternoon on the same section of old abandoned road/trail along Stainback Highway. I found a couple of new tetraplasandra trees, and a phyllostegia along a hunting trail. Lots of snails, including one with a spiral shell I hadn't seen before. I also got some pix of drosophila that live on cyrtrandra platyphylla.
hi all
this blog will be about myself reconnecting with my childhood interest in birds
it will mainly focus around my 2008 list, and the excitements, thoughts, mistakes, and naiveties of a novice birder/birdwatcher/twitcher - whatever
some quick facts
* I'm 32
* I live in Central London
* I do not own a car
* my job sees me often working very close to the RSPB reserve at Rainham, which I find very frustrating..!
* I have set myself a new years resolution to get a list of at least 150 UK...
Another day, another new trail off of Stainback Highway checked off my to-do list. A short afternoon of exploring and botanizing under nice cool overcast skies. I saw a new tree out there I need to ID, and got a variety of pix for the web page. Discovered some mystery fencing. Three day weekend coming up, so there's plenty more exploring on the schedule.
February 12th and yet another day of sun, blue skies and warmth although it had been -4 during the night. I decided to take a walk around the lake but because of the blinding sun saw little until I got around to the far side. I did note the Daisies Bellis perennis are growing in number and a few Dandelions Taraxacum officinale were in flower but the star of the day was the Winter Aconite Eranthis hyemalis. This was growing in a now wild area between the church grounds and the area where a...
Finally some dry weather, and yet I was so totally toasted from Saturday's big work trip in Honomalino that I slept until noon! I did get about 4 hours in the best native wet forest off Road R. I risked my new $$$ wide-angle lens to get some scenery photos in the afternoon rain, but I wasn't able to get good photos of the massive epiphyte-laden 'ohia trees today because of bad light.
I got a few interesting plant photos, including pilo kea and flowering phyllostegia floribunda. I also...
Volunteer work day at the Nature Conservancy's Honomalino Preserve involved removing japanese anemone and lilikoi from a small patch of the preserve. I also got piles of photos of native plants and mystery plants, including the flowers of a melicope species that I find in very small numbers in other forests, but I found in abundance there. There were even olomea trees nearly as tall as the canopy, which I don't see anywhere else.
On the bird front - 'amakihi, 'apapane and 'elepaio were...
There was an unusual break in the flooding this afternoon, so I went up Stainback Highway to visit the wet forest. I've been itching to return for the last two weeks so I can to identify some native mints I found in the rich native forest off of Road R. The stenogyne there have a variety of leaf shapes, and I've been trying to puzzle out whether they're different species, or just normal variation. There was also a phyllostegia I wanted to examine more closely, because there are two...
T’was Tuesday evening 5th Feb that Graham contacted me and asked if I would like to join him on a walk in Weardale the following day. Well the sun was forecast and it was to be an easy going seven mile walk so I jumped at the chance. It was no to be a birding trip as such, but the opportunity of a peaceful stroll appealed to me. Wednesday arrived and true enough the sun shone from a clear blue sky. It was one of those perfect winter days where you are at you best out of doors. We were soon...
If you missed the great Dutch peregrine saga of 2007 here is a nice little summary on video. See Great Dutch Peregrine Saga 2007
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