KB57's 2019 list (1 Viewer)

[kb57]

13th March - Ventanas / Riosucio road / Jardin

143. Black-billed Thrush
144. Band-winged Nightjar
145. Band-tailed Pigeon
Rufous Spinetail - heard only
Spillman's Tapaculo - heard only
146. Blue-and-black Tanager
147. Sepia-brown Wren
148. Grey-browed Brushfinch
Rufous Antpitta - western Andes form - heard only
Andean pygmy-owl - heard only
149. Buff-tailed Coronet
150. Collared Inca
151. Tourmaline Sunangel
152. Lesser Violetear
153. Yellow-eared Parrot
154. Black Phoebe
155. Masked Flowerpiercer
156. Purple-throated Woodstar
157. Ocellated Tapaculo
158. Chestnut-crested Cotinga
159. Chestnut-naped Antpitta
160. Russet-crowned Warbler
161. Long-tailed Sylph
162. Speckled Hummingbird
163. Fawn-breasted Brilliant
164. Northern Crested Caracara
165. Streak-throated Bush Tyrant
166. Rufous-crowned Tody-Flycatcher
167. Azara's Spinetail
168. White-capped Tanager
169. Red-crested Cotinga
170. Slaty-backed Chat-Tyrant
171. Lacrimose Mountain Tanager
172. Inca Jay
173. Western Cattle Egret
174. Carib Grackle
175. White-capped Dipper
176. Torrent Tyrannulet
177. Andean Motmot
178. Red-bellied Grackle

 

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14th March -
Jardin, riverside and town square

179. Smooth-billed Ani
180. Streaked Flycatcher

River Cauca, Bolombolo

181. Neotropic Cormorant

RN Canon de Rio Claro

182. Buff-rumped Warbler
183. Black-throated Trogon
184. Pied Water Tyrant
185. Sand-colored Nighthawk
186. Oilbird

 

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15th March: Rio Claro

187. Rufous-breasted Hermit
188. Golden-hooded Tanager
189. Magdalena Antbird
190. Dusky-faced Tanager
191. Grey-headed Tanager
192. Golden-headed Manakin
193. Roadside Hawk
194. Thick-billed Seed Finch
195. Long-tailed Tyrant
196. Cocoa Woodcreeper
197. Forest Elaenia

 

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16th March:

Rio Claro

198. Cinnamon Woodpecker
199. Thick-billed Euphonia
200. Crimson-backed Tanager
201. Chestnut-backed Antbird

Puerto Boyaca - Puerto Pinzon

202. Great Egret
203. Cocoi Heron
204. Saffron Finch
205. Orange-chinned Parakeet

Pro Aves reserve El Paujil

206. Greater Ani
207. Blue-billed Curassow

 

[kb57]

Slowly catching up...

17th March: El Paujil Pro Aves reserve

208. Black-chested Jay
209. Grey-necked Wood Rail
210. Pauraque
211. Band-rumped Swift
212. Fork-tailed Flycatcher
213. Lesser Kiskadee
214. Collared Aracari
215. Rusty-margined Flycatcher
216. White-necked Jacobin
217. Black-throated Mango
218. Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
219. Colombian Chachalaca
220. Swallow Tanager
221. Fulvous-vented Euphonia
222. Blue-and-yellow Macaw
Myiarchus sp. Flycatcher
223. White-tipped Dove
224. Cinnamon Becard
225. Northern Waterthrush
226. Plain-colored Tanager
227. Turkey Vulture
228. Striated Heron

 

[kb57]

18th March: Puerto Pinzon - Puerto Boyaca

229. Snowy Egret

 

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19th March: Bogota
Some urban birding before leaving Colombia.

Monserrate
230. Glossy Flowerpiercer
231. Shining Sunbeam
232. Brown-bellied Swallow
233. Andean Siskin

Botanical gardens
234. Common Gallinule
235. Lesser Goldfinch
236. Eastern Kingbird
237. Scarlet Tanager
Empidonax sp. Flycatcher (Alder most likely)
238. Yellow-backed Oriole
239. Purple Gallinule

 

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24th March, River Coquet, Warkworth

I've seen quite a few red-breasted mergansers this year, and a quick visit to Druridge Pools yielded a few more. Balance on the merganser front was partially restored with a couple of goosanders at Warkworth.

240. Common Merganser

 

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28th March, Co. Durham

Lunchtime walks near my office, wondering how I managed at all in dense rainforest when a chiffchaff managed to elude me for three days in a bare birchwood.

241. Common Chiffchaff

 

[kb57]

1st April, Newcastle / Northumberland

near Newcastle
Heard a mistle thrush singing, then saw it flying over, still giving little bursts of song.

242. Mistle Thrush

Warkworth
Mistle Thrush #2 of the year was rattling away (not singing) from the top of a tree...thought it was supposed to be the other way round, sing from top of tree and call when flying...

Hauxley

243. Lesser Black-backed Gull
244. Common Snipe

Druridge Bay
Distant herd of whooper swans and mute swans in fields north of Druridge Pools, heard there was a Bewick's amongst them but couldn't pick it out with binoculars and didn't have the scope today. My first sand martins of the year hawking insects over the pools.

245. Whooper Swan
246. Sand Martin

 

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6th April, Wallington Hall

Two quality additions from the woodland hide...I didn't see a treecreeper at all last year!

247. Eurasian Treecreeper
248. Brambling
Marsh Tit (heard-only)

My partner had seen all three species earlier in the week, so when she suggested we visit I agreed straightaway. She saw the marsh tit again today, but its visit was brief and I missed it; although I did register it calling nearby just after she saw it, it didn't return while we were there.

Decided not to count the 'bean goose sp.' towards my year list, in order to accord with the way I've treated Myiarchus and Empidonax spp. flycatchers, so I've had to go back and renumber everything.

 

[kb57]

14th April: Northumberland coast

Alnmouth
A fairly short walk along the beach in a brisk onshore wind produced the first terns of the year.

249. Sandwich Tern

Cresswell Pond
Called in for one target species, another summer migrant as far as NE England is concerned.

250. Pied Avocet

 

[kb57]

20th April, Co. Durham

A rare Easter break with no urgent work to do, but some equally necessary gardening to catch up with at home.
Distracted by some warblers singing in nearby woodland though..

Eurasian Blackcap (heard-only)
251. Willow Warbler

Called into the Baltic in Newcastle for a coffee on my way north

252. Black-legged Kittiwake

 

[kb57]

21st April: near Holystone, Northumberland

Trying to avoid the Easter crowds, my partner and I headed for a favourite woodland walk in the Cheviot foothills. Usually see redstart here, but none today...it's been a few years since we saw tree pipits here too. Conversely, habitat always looked great for pied flycatchers, but we've never been able to pin one down before, possibly visiting a bit late in the year in the past - this time was different...we even found a nest, high up in an oak tree.

253. Eurasian Blackcap
254. European Pied Flycatcher

 

[kb57]

22nd April: Holywell Pond, Northumberland

Finding myself with a couple of hours to spare in North Tyneside / Newcastle area, I decided to revisit a site I last went birding at around 45 years ago!
This used to be part of a favourite circuit, either in a group or with a friend - bus to Whitley Bay, walk up the coast past St. Mary's to either Old Hartley or Seaton Sluice, then walk up Holywell Dene to the pond, finishing off catching a bus back to the Town from the main road near Delaval Hall. I've never visited by car, and had to look up where the best place to access the site was!
One thing I remember was always building up a decent day list from this circuit, and today reminded me why - even with a severely attenuated trip missing out the coastal habitats, a couple of hours visiting the public hide and local footpath network (in the afternoon heat on a bank holiday) resulted in 40 species, comparable with a day's guided birding in the Colombian cloud forest! No corn buntings this time though :-C

Common Whitethroat (heard-only)
255. Great Crested Grebe

Scythebill says 255, so I'm going to have to have a careful check through when I have time...

 

[kb57]

Few days off on the Eurostar with my partner, on a (mostly) non-birding trip to Paris...

2nd May, Ile Saint-Louis

256. Grey Wagtail

3rd May, Bassin de la Villette

257. Common Tern

The last species an unexpected addition to the list, seen on a boat trip down Canal Saint-Martin - it's up there with Leazes Park in Newcastle and our own office in West Durham as unexpected places I've seen a common tern

 

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4th May: Bois de Vincennes

Although we were on a city break, I was determined to contribute to the eBird Global Big Day. Weather wasn't great in the morning, so our 2.5 hour visit to Lac Daumesnil and Bois de Vincennes didn't get off the ground till mid-afternoon, not exactly prime birding time in a public park and woodland.
Didn't nail my hoped-for target species (short-toed treecreeper, which would've been a lifer), but added a few to the year list.

258. House Martin
259. Barn Swallow
260. Common Swift
261. Ring-necked Parakeet
White Wagtail (ssp. alba)
European Green Woodpecker (heard-only)

 

[kb57]

12th May, Low Newton, Northumberland

First time we've made it up to Low Newton by the Sea this year, so a few species to catch up on. Blissfully unaware of local twitching news, so putting the 'scope on a yellow wagtail at Newton Flash and finding it had a grey head was an unexpected treat. 'Alba' white wagtails around the flash, then a putative 'leucorhoa' wheatear on the rocky foreshore provided more subspecific excitement. You get a lot of meadow pipits on the rocky shore here too, which directly abuts prime meadow pipit and skylark habitat on the grassland, and I often wondered about competition with rock pipits. Today we watched a meadow pipit chased off the foreshore by a rock pipit - the latter was carrying food, and clearly saw the meadow pipit as encroaching on its territory.
A seawatch with a sandwich on Newton Point produced quite a few Sandwich terns, and some 'tern sp.' too far out even for 'scope views - then two little terns started fishing quite close inshore, returning on a couple of occasions. Excellent views, more satisfying IMHO to watch them foraging than visiting the nearby Long Nanny colony and having their locations pointed out by wardens. I will still try and visit the Long Nanny colony this year, which is also a great place to see Arctic terns.

262. Dunlin
263. Western Yellow Wagtail (ssp. thunbergi & flavissima)
White Wagtail (ssp. alba - 1st 2019 Britain)
264. Sedge Warbler
265. Common Whitethroat
266. Northern Wheatear
267. Eurasian Rock Pipit
268. Northern Gannet
269. Northern Fulmar
270. Little Tern

 

[kb57]

16th May: somewhere in Co. Durham

If I hadn't seen one in Lithuania last year, this would be a cause of even greater celebration - my first wood warblers in Britain for decades, plus I watched one of the pair take food into a nest on the ground not five metres from the path... Didn't linger in order to avoid disturbance - given understandable sensitivities regarding this locally very rare and declining species, I'd better not say any more!

271. Wood Warbler

 

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23rd May: Warkworth beach / Coquet Estuary

For once managed to finish work early enough to head up the coast for a relaxing evening walk on the beach. Came upon a large flock of ringed plovers with some dunlins and a few sanderlings...finally catching up with what is normally a New Years Day species for us just before they head off to the Arctic. Despite the roseate tern colony almost being visible in the distance, the only terns fishing inshore were Sandwich, no Arctics or roseate.
Walking back by the Coquet estuary, the beautiful call of a whimbrel added another species to the year list, not the greatest flight view but we'll hopefully see quite a few more back in the Algarve this autumn. Nice to catch up with one on its spring NE coast passage though.

272. Sanderling
273. Whimbrel