Namibia day three

Today we spent around Walvis Bay and drove through the salt pans to Pelican Point HEREand then after lunch (and a visit to the shopping mall to replace my luggage which at least has been found in London now) we went to check Bird Island HERE. 

Three lifers today and the year list is now on 985. 

Tomorrow we leave the cool coastline into the blistering interior as we head north towards Etosha. 

Adult Damara Tern (above and below)

First-'summer' Damara Tern

African Oystercatchers (above and below)

Crowned Cormorant

Lesser Flamingo

Checking the hundreds of Curlew Sandpipers for a Dunlin (a local rarity)

Mainly Black Terns- plenty of Palearctic migrants are currently arriving 

Chestnut-banded Plovers- we estimated over 1000 in the bay today 

Black-backed Jackal

Cape Fur Seal

Namibia day two

This morning, while I waited for the group to arrive, I did a bit along the promenade and then went to town to buy a battery charger (still no sign of my bag and by the sounds of nobody knows where it is). While I had the taxi driver we did a diversion to the Birds' Paradise wetlands HERE,

Then I had lunch and a rant to the baggage company before meeting the group and we set off for Rooibank for some larking HERE and then it was back to Birds' Paradise wetlands HERE. I had 10 lifers today taking me to 3600 species for the world-HERE. The bird year list is on 979 edging closer to the 1000 in a year target. 

A few photo highlights below:

Gray's Lark

Dune Lark

Red-capped Lark

A couple of classic African plovers- Three-banded (above) and Kittlitz's (below) 

Maccoa Duck 

South African Shelduck

Plain Martin 

(African) Reed Warbler 

Rosy-faced Lovebird

Dune Lark habitat

Namibia day one

After a long overnight flight to Johannesburg and then a short flight to Walvis Bay I arrived in Namibia around mid-day. Unfortunately my bag didn't arrive with me and we are still trying to track it down. Jaffa was sick so couldn't make the trip too so I'm travelling alone at the moment until the group arrives tomorrow so hopefully we're getting the bad luck out of the way.

Fortunately there is a great birding area outside the Flamingo Villas Botique Hotel that I'm staying in so I spent the afternoon checking out the mudflats HERE . Highlights included Chestnut-banded Plover, Cape Cormorant and Rosy-faced Lovebird which were lifers but also had Greater Sand Plover (a local scarcity), White-fronted Plovers, Damara Tern, Cape Sparrow, Cape Wagtail, White-rumped Swifts and a nice selection of waders and both Lesser and Greater Flamingos. 

Fingers crossed my bag arrives tomorrow! 

White-fronted Plover 

Chestnut-banded Plover, immature/non-breeding

Hartlaub's Gull

Kelp Gull

Greater Sand Plover (above and below), a local scarcity 

Greater Flamingo

Male Cape Sparrow

Female Cape Sparrow (above) and Cape Wagtail (below) 

North American Landbirds in the Western Palearctic

 

Great to see this book by Ross Ahmed in the flesh. Now available from Birdguides HERE. I had the honour to comment on the drafts and contributed photos and accounts. It really is a fitting tribute to the most sought after of vagrants, the mythical and magical American landbirds. 

Bulgaria, October 2026 round-up

Another great trip to Bulgaria, this was my 27th visit HERE. Highlight was the Yellow-browed Warbler which was the 6th national record. Also a few new project birds and moths with the local bird list now on 193 HERE and the project lep list on 460 HERE.

Also got to up to date with the conservation work at the plot and got the caravan sorted so that we were able to stay in it. Background to this project HERE.

Plans are afoot to arrange a migration camp next year in the area so standby for more on that. 

A few photo highlights in the facebook album below.

A tour of the plot 

Bulgaria, October 2026, Moths and Butterflies update

At the beginning of the year the lepidoptera list for our Bulgaria project at Kamen Bryag was on 427 and following the short summer visit and this week's visit it's now on 460 HERE. My lep list now for the whole of Bulgaria inlcuding wider travelling is 594 HERE. 

A few highlights from this week's trapping below which considering the time of the year and the pretty awful wet weather was not too bad.

Cervyna cervago- after recording this for the first time on the Bulgaria I-Nat moth project we have recorded it nearly every session since. An eastern WP speciality by the looks of it HERE

Good old Merveille du jour- a first for the project 

Double-spot Brocade- a cracking moth and a lifer (above and below) 

Polymixis trisignata- another great looking moth and a lifer (above and below) 

Agrochola nitida- a regular species at the plot 

Ulochlaena hirta- a stunner and a lifer 

Crocallis tusciaria

I recognised this one from last year, probably Dryobotodes carbonis HERE

Depressaria sp?

Amphipyra livida- a distinctive sooty coloured moth with an orange thorax behind the head and a diffuse orange underwing HERE

Brown-spot Pinion

Agrochola laevis

Flounced Chestnut- a highlight of the week 

Conistra veronicae