James
I'm losing it!
Good weather and a bright start were the promise of day two of our guided birding. We met our guide Gerard at the hotel where we were staying at about 7.30 am but this time managed to sneak a quick breakfast before leaving at about 8am.
Within a few minutes we were parked up and walked up to a meadow in the Bukk Hills. Almost the first bird to appear was a flying Black Woodpecker. "Land somewhere!" was the general comment from us all, and land it did within about 50 yards. Stunning scope views of a really great target bird showed clearly the red on the head and other features. Could the day get better than this? We had only been birding about 15 minutes!
A Green Woodpecker made a fly by without stopping (thank goodness it wasn't the other way round) but ticked off another woodpecker species. We had specifically requested help to find woodpeckers (Gerards favourite group and the subject of his forthcoming next book - plug, plug, you owe me a copy Gerard!). Mere minutes later a Grey-headed woodpecker flew over and this time we had to chase. Before long a pair were located in a bare tree and performed by climbing to the top and posing for scope views even closer than the Black did. So good was this posing that we left before they did! This was superb and beyond our expectations already. How many times do we see a dream bird just to have it fly past and not stop, it is never as rewarding is it? Two life ticks down and less than one hours birding and what comes along but number three! A Middle-spotted Woodpecker called and with the help of a tape was persuaded to come and see who was invading his feeding patch. His curiosity was our gain and he posed as well as the previous birds making three life ticks and four species of woodpecker already!
A fly by from a couple of Ravens and some more common species gave some interest whilst we waited. Then along came a Great spotted Woodpecker, not the first of our holiday but nice to make up number five of the family. Shortly after it was followed by Lesser-spotted woodpecker making six!!! Unbelievable that we should get one or two of each in succession. Less than two hours and six species down (Black, Green, Grey-headed, Greater, Middle and Lesser Spotted in one meadow!!!) it was time to move on and try for the ones not in this area.
We moved to a wooded uphill walk of much more dense foliage which was always going to be harder to bird than an open area. Despite many signs of feeding and some distant calls we could not get a view of White-backed Woodpecker and eventually had to let this one go.
Moving to open fields we switched our search to raptors and Syrian Woodpecker. A likely candidate was chased and eventually located and scoped. Sadly it turned out to be another Great-spotted despite the majority in this habitat being Syrian. Still this is birding and it would be inconceivable to go back disappointed with this days birding. We also dipped on Imperial Eagle but were given a location for our journey home. This is sometimes the way it works - we were told to go to a certain motorway service station, park up, look in the trees to the right and you will probably find one roosting. Well we did and it was! So if you read this Gerard thanks again.
Because this was a mixed trip and not all four of us were birders I think we did well to return with about 80 species from two days birding including for me five life ticks (3 woodpeckers, Great Bustard and Red-footed Falcon).
I know it can be expensive to hire a guide but without that local knowledge I shudder to think that that particular woodpecker meadow for example would never have been known about or found! It was worth every penny!
James
Within a few minutes we were parked up and walked up to a meadow in the Bukk Hills. Almost the first bird to appear was a flying Black Woodpecker. "Land somewhere!" was the general comment from us all, and land it did within about 50 yards. Stunning scope views of a really great target bird showed clearly the red on the head and other features. Could the day get better than this? We had only been birding about 15 minutes!
A Green Woodpecker made a fly by without stopping (thank goodness it wasn't the other way round) but ticked off another woodpecker species. We had specifically requested help to find woodpeckers (Gerards favourite group and the subject of his forthcoming next book - plug, plug, you owe me a copy Gerard!). Mere minutes later a Grey-headed woodpecker flew over and this time we had to chase. Before long a pair were located in a bare tree and performed by climbing to the top and posing for scope views even closer than the Black did. So good was this posing that we left before they did! This was superb and beyond our expectations already. How many times do we see a dream bird just to have it fly past and not stop, it is never as rewarding is it? Two life ticks down and less than one hours birding and what comes along but number three! A Middle-spotted Woodpecker called and with the help of a tape was persuaded to come and see who was invading his feeding patch. His curiosity was our gain and he posed as well as the previous birds making three life ticks and four species of woodpecker already!
A fly by from a couple of Ravens and some more common species gave some interest whilst we waited. Then along came a Great spotted Woodpecker, not the first of our holiday but nice to make up number five of the family. Shortly after it was followed by Lesser-spotted woodpecker making six!!! Unbelievable that we should get one or two of each in succession. Less than two hours and six species down (Black, Green, Grey-headed, Greater, Middle and Lesser Spotted in one meadow!!!) it was time to move on and try for the ones not in this area.
We moved to a wooded uphill walk of much more dense foliage which was always going to be harder to bird than an open area. Despite many signs of feeding and some distant calls we could not get a view of White-backed Woodpecker and eventually had to let this one go.
Moving to open fields we switched our search to raptors and Syrian Woodpecker. A likely candidate was chased and eventually located and scoped. Sadly it turned out to be another Great-spotted despite the majority in this habitat being Syrian. Still this is birding and it would be inconceivable to go back disappointed with this days birding. We also dipped on Imperial Eagle but were given a location for our journey home. This is sometimes the way it works - we were told to go to a certain motorway service station, park up, look in the trees to the right and you will probably find one roosting. Well we did and it was! So if you read this Gerard thanks again.
Because this was a mixed trip and not all four of us were birders I think we did well to return with about 80 species from two days birding including for me five life ticks (3 woodpeckers, Great Bustard and Red-footed Falcon).
I know it can be expensive to hire a guide but without that local knowledge I shudder to think that that particular woodpecker meadow for example would never have been known about or found! It was worth every penny!
James
