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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Trystan's 2015 world list (1 Viewer)

01/8/15

With a slight chance of a Yorkshire tick by way of Little bittern and still needing Bittern and Water rail for the year I decided to spend the morning at Old moor where decent flight views of the Bittern made it a semi-successful trip.

Old Moor

578. Bittern
 
05/8/15

Evening twitch for scarce gulls after work.

Pennington Flash

579. Sabine's gull

Preston Marina

580. Ring billed gull

Both in close showing well.
 
12/8/15

Another Wednesday evening jaunt, this time to try for the Spotted crake at Blacktoft. I've only seen one before and that was fairly fleeting so it was nice that this one spent so much time in the open at the edge of the reeds.

Blacktoft

581. Spotted crake
582. Water rail

A brief squabble ensued when the latter bird crossed paths with the former but it was quickly on it's way.
 
15/8/15

Tempted out by the reports at Spurn of Icterine and Barred warbler plus the come-a-day go-a-day White rumped sandpiper, I arrived to find that nothing had been seen for some time and the day looked like being a complete write off for year ticks after 3 hours trudging round and finding nothing better than Whinchat and Lesser whitethroat.
It was only after I set off home that just beyond Kilnsea I spotted a Hobby in a field. It didn't take kindly to my car stopping and flew further out into the field carrying something dead. I got out and scoped it eating while a passing kestrel came and landed right beside it looking for scraps. Not the scarcity I'd hoped for but a great recovery to the day!

Kilnsea

583. Hobby
 
06/9/15

Frustrating day today as I was booked on the RSPB cruise out of Bridlington but it was cancelled due to the weather conditions.

Several hours at Flamborough at least produced a couple of year ticks but was not as good as the previous day.

Flamborough

585. Sooty shearwater
586. Arctic skua

I then tried Hornsea mere where a Red necked phalarope had been present all morning only to find that it had vanished. After 30 mins of searching I gave up and headed for home.
 
13/9/15

Swillington

587. Black tern

Decided to try my luck at Spurn after this but although, there were some nice species around, Redstart, Pied and Spotted flycatcher, SEO, Red backed shrike, no year ticks.

I did go for the Black stork which was also not a year tick but a new bird for my UK and Yorkshire lists
 
Just back from a week in Spain, staying on the Costa de la Luz.

I went with my wife and met some family out there so this was a compromise holiday with some tourist destinations and some birding planned in. My dad lives in another part of Spain but we arranged to meet here in order to see and do some different things. Unfortunately I failed to see any of my main target birds (Spanish imperial eagle, Crested coot, Azure winged magpie and Pin tailed sandgrouse) during the stay however still saw 108 species and reached my year target of 600.

I will lay this out as a mini trip report focusing on the best species and the year ticks. There was also one lifer for me by way of the somewhat plastic Common waxbills which I found at a couple of locations.

19/9/15

We arrived in Malaga (not the most ideal airport for our stay but the cheapest by a long chalk) on 18th and picked up our rental car, driving to our location in the dark and trying to avoid the toll road. A large owl nearly flew into the car along one of the small roads before Cadiz. I suspect long eared but it went down as unidentified.

We were located at Playa Bellena and spent the 19th checking out Sanlucar. I made an excursion to the woods north of here to try for Azure winged magpie but all I got for my troubles was to be eaten alive by various insects here. Pied flycatcher, Spotted flycatcher and Redstart were much in evidence as migrants with Sardinian warbler, Zitting Cisticola and Serin being the best of the rest.

The only year tick of the day was

Playa Bellena

588. Spotless starling - on the roof of the hotel
 
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20/9/15

Today was to visit Seville but I tried the Lagunas de Labrija on the way up, needing to keep it brief as my wife was also present. The first two lagoons were completely dry, while the Laguna de cigarrera still held water, it had shrunk away significantly from the edges. There were only 3 coots on the lagoon, none of them crested. Of note were two Turtle doves and a Short toed eagle from the track plus Flamingo, White headed duck and Black necked grebe on the water.

Laguna de cigarrera

589. White headed duck

Seville

A couple of white storks in fields from the Autovia and feral populations of Ring necked and Monk Parakeets in the town. Also Lesser kestrel at the Cathedral.

590. Monk Parakeet
 
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21/9/15

Bonanza Pools and Saltpans

Everyone wanted an easy day around the hotel today giving me the opportunity to go birding. With more time on my hands I again targeted Azure winged magpie north of Sanlucar as well as exploring the saltpans and lagoons around Bonanza and Algaida.

The bonanza lagoon was very productive early doors with a tree decorated in Cattle egrets, also Squacco heron and little bittern seen here. Red crested pochard was a year tick and I had good views of Purple gallinule, Kingfisher, Cettis warbler and a flyover Glossy ibis being the only one of the trip. None of the coots were crested!

Out on the saltpans were an array of waders, the main target for me here was Slender billed gull being another year tick.

591. Red crested pochard
592. Slender billed gull

Laguna Tarelo

Back to counting coots here with no joy. Three night herons were present and this was the first location at which I found the Common waxbills.

593. COMMON WAXBILL

Codo de la Esparraguera

A drive through the woods turned up nothing new but this lagoon had several spoonbills and 4 Marbled ducks flew across the back. A Red kite was working the area.

594. Marbled duck

Pinar de Algaida

With the sun getting a little much and only crested larks in evidence around the saltpans I headed back to the woods to feed the insects again. Immediately out of the car three raptors turned out to be Booted eagles which spent alot of time over the woods and were also very vocal.

Only Short toed treecreeper of note beyond the previously mentioned species in the woods.

595. Booted eagle

Playa Bellena

No more year ticks until I took my wife for a stroll along the beach in the evening where there were several Mediterranean gulls in flight, two Audouin's gulls on the beach and a single Pallid swift overhead was the only swift of the whole trip.

596. Audouin's gull
597. Pallid swift
 
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23/9/15

The 22nd had been a day trip to Cadiz with no new year ticks. A nightingale along the scrub near the hotel in the morning was a new migrant for the trip.

The 23rd was an excursion to Gibraltar. We set off early in order to sight see along the way. We found a turn off at the Embalse de Charco Redondo and a track up into the mountains (Parc Natural Los Alconocales) with both Rock bunting and Griffon vulture added to the list. I think the place had potential for more but being on an agenda I couldn't give it the time it deserved.

Parc Natural Los Alconocales

598. Rock bunting
599. Griffon vulture

After this, the species dried up somewhat. I spent the 24th at the lagoons around Espera, Laguna Dulce is supposed to be the site for Crested coot but access is limited and because of the distance and the haze, even with a scope I was frustrated not to be able to get good views of any but the closest birds. I found one bird which looked to have a bluer bill, always swam with the back end up but making out the facial features was not happening and although I believe this was the target bird, I am not confident enough for a lifer.

Iberian green woodpecker and Hoopoe were also of note and I found a Spanish terrapin on the path.

On the 25th Great white egret and 2 migrating black storks went over the Bonanza saltpans. I've seen black stork in 3 countries now this year!

The 26th was our return day and we went via Llanos de Libar to try predominantlyfor Bonellis eagle, black wheatear for the year but came up short on both. There were many Griffon vultures and a Short toed eagle perched for a while. Numerous blue rock thrushes were around and I found several Spanish Ibex around the mountain tops.

Credit for many of the locations visited goes to John Cantelo's Birding Cadiz Province - I'm sure he won't mind the plug and as suggested on his website, I have donated to the RSPB for use of his information.
 
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As mentioned further up the list, I have now hit the 600 target due to:

600. Ruddy duck

At an undisclosed location
 
04/10/15

The Bridlington Skua and shearwater cruise wasn't cancelled today and despite the unfavourable weather system it managed to live up to its name. Met up with a few Bird forum members early doors to make for an entertaining day.

Arctic and Great Skua seen and in between, and unbelievably showy Pom skua following the boat. Also a couple of Sooty shearwaters, one very close in.

Bridlington boat trip

601. Pomarine skua
602. Great skua

Despite the Pied wheatear and OBP not sticking, spurn looked to be having another good day so we headed there after the trip.

Some quality species seen here although the Little bunting and Arctic warbler trapped earlier had eluded everyone thereafter, the Citrine wagtail showed well and although not a year tick, was my first in the UK.

Spurn

603. Yellow browed warbler - in plentiful supply and occasionally showing really well
 
11/10/15

Spurn

Back for another bite of the cherry, this time coinciding with a large fall of Goldcrests which is always fun. Some nice birds again today, managing to catch up with Richard's pipit and Yellow browed warbler, only one today. The putative Eastern redstart failed to convince me whereas the Siberian chiffchaff did. A barn owl was nice but the day finished with a hoped for lifer in the form of:

604. AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER
 
14/11/15

Chesterfield

Well, this started out as a very relaxed twitch. A UK tick but not a year tick, I arrived before 8 and paid parking until 9 expecting it to be nice and easy. Plenty of space to stand without worrying if the bird might be somewhere else but the Crag Martin had other ideas.

At 9 I had to go move the car. Being a tight Yorkshire man I didn't want to pay any more so drove a little out of town, found a 2 hour slot and walked back. By 10.30 I was convinced the bird hand done a bunk so gave up.

By the time I hit the motorway I saw the bird had been reported so turned around and headed back, now in heavy traffic, found another 2 hour space somewhere else and walked back in to find people leaving after the bird had been showing well but now flown off.

Fortunately, it mustn't have gone far because as I approached the bend, the bird was back and showed for around 10 minutes more. Phew!
 
Trying to sort out why my list didn't tally with the number on here and it looks like I missed Common gull off the list right back on the first day!

Final score was 605.
 

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