BIRDING FRONTIERS- PELAGIC BIRDING OFF THE AZORES

Got a piece on Monteiro's Petrel and Pelagic Birding off the Azores on Birding Frontiers which can be viewed here:

MONTEIRO'S PETREL AND PELAGIC BIRDING OFF THE AZORES  

Zino's Petrel and Swinhoe's Petrel- a couple of the surprise finds from our pelagic trips

MORE HERE:

PELAGIC BIRDING OFF THE AZORES

We've still got a couple of spaces on the 2017 boat so if interested please email me: littleoakgroup@btinternet.com 

Holly's, The Old Vicarage

Spent today continuing with the bioblitz in Holly's garden. Still only 149 taxa but that's from the winter and still haven't completed the area or identified everything I've found. A few good ones for the bird list; 3 Golden Plover going over yesterday afternoon and Wigeon going over at night calling. The Tawny Owl was calling again last night. 

 Red Kites from the garden chair

 Goldcrests in the trees 

 and Coal Tits 

 Only moth in the trap was this Diurnea fagella

 Leafhoppers and pollen beetles on the newly emerged Daffodils 

Cherry in blossom and Willow coming out in leaf. Also my new mate Izzie who stays with me all the time while I'm out there. 

Did the wild area and vegetable patch today. Still need to do the walled garden and the house/patio.

Roe Deer in fields nearby (looks more like a fallow) 

I-RECORD LIST

PREVIOUSLY FROM THE OLD VICARAGE

Otmoor

Up at Holly's for next couple of days so spent this morning at Otmoor. Had a few Otmoor ticks including finally seeing the Short-eared Owl and also a few new waders including Black-tailed Godwit , Oystercatcher and Curlew. Still good numbers of Golden Plover about and all of a sudden lots of Redshank have taken up territories across the wetlands. Still good numbers of Wigeon about and a few Pintails. Grey Herons are building nests and the air is full of Skylarks singing, the reeds full of Reed Buntings singing and Red Kites, Common Buzzards kettleing overhead with Marsh Harrier quartering the reed beds. Magical place- looking forward to Spring unfolding further.

Short-eared Owl

 A few Barnacles in with the Greylags 

 Blackwits 

 Golden Plover and Dunlins- still about 500 or so Golden Plovers about

 Oystercatchers

Female Reed Bunting

Big Otmoor- great looking habitat, stacked full of birds 

E-bird list  from today.

OTMOOR BLOG

Night recording etc

Following initiations with Dave Lambert (cheers Dave) and Paul Morton (cheers Paul) I've started doing some night sound trawling- which is basically leaving the sound equipment recording through the night and then checking the sonograms/spectrograms for distinctive signatures. So far my efforts are a bit crude/ basic but I've got some basic spectrograms here with some results from last night- a Little Owl , Redwings flying over and also a mystery bird. The images show the visual representation of the calls.


Met up with a couple of local environmental campaigners today, Sav and Rav from Thornton Heath to discuss some campaigning ideas and then I had a quick look round the farmlands for any migrants. Despite the good conditions (light rain and overcast) we couldn't find any summer migrants.

Up to 8 Water Pipits on the enclosed beds 

Flocks of Snipes were unusually flying around- groups totally 30-40. Appeared to be restless migrants. 

Skylark singing on the mound- great to hear. 

A couple of new moths in the trap last night- Common Plume and Twin-spot Quaker (below) 

First summer migrants

One Sand Martin north, 30+ Duck sp (Possibly Wigeon) east, a Buzzard drifted north and a new adult Med Gull today. Also a few butterflies about including Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell. Brimstone was seen in the week too. 

High pressure centred over Europe bringing warm winds from Iberia- a large influx of summer migrants into the UK today. With fronts moving in from the west tonight- it could be interesting in the morning. 

Oak Beautys

 Oak Beautys. 3 in the trap last night. A local record. 

  A good haul last night with Common Quakers, Hebrew Character, Oak Nycteoline, Small Quaker and a few others, 

 Hebrew Character  

 Small Quaker 

Oak Nycteolines 

A good haul in the trap last night. The first good night this year so far. 

Had a look at the gulls this afternoon with a guy from California, Adam Dudley who was after Caspian Gull. Managed to find a classic first-winter, also a first-winter Yellow-legged and a few intergrades. 

More hints of Spring

Chiffchaff on flowering Cherry Plum. Also 2 Blackcaps singing today. 

First-winter Caspian Gull (one of four first-winters today)