Corvo 2023 Day Four - Good Day

It's late and we have been birding from dawn to dusk so I'll make this quick as we need to sleep and repeat tomorrow. The weather systems have produced and there have been some new arrivals today. Highlights today included the WP's 5th  Eastern Wood Pewee found by the German group (all have been on Corvo), 4 Swainson's Thrush (so seen seven this week), the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Cattle Egret, Peregrine and a possible first for the WP in the form of a good candidate for American Moorhen. There was also a possible Blackpoll Warbler at the camp site also found by the Germans. 

On the neighbouring island of Flores new birds today included Cape May Warbler, Cliff Swallow,  Indigo Bunting, Least Bittern and Blackpoll so clearly a major arrival of birds today. 

Live trip report HERE. It's always a case of quality over quantity here with 36 species recorded so far. 

Putative American Moorhen- the Gallinule like bill structure with yellow triangle tip, large blaze on forehead and rusty toned mantle suggest this taxon but ideally we would need DNA to confirm it. Considering the bird was on the road and then flew into a hedge it looked like it had just arrived and in the context of the weather and all the other new arrivals from America today it all seems to suggest a first for the WP. Unfortunately despite searching I'm the only one who has seen it so far but tomorrow we intend to try again and will also try and collect DNA. 

Eastern Wood Pewee- the 5th for the WP and the third I've seen so unfortunately not quite as pleased to see this mega as I would be for some other little monster but still a little beauty and we heard it calling several times too to confirm the identification 

The sub-adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron was showing well again 

Swainson's Thrush (above) and two together at De Ponte (below) 

Cattle Egret