Foreign Projects and Travel Review 2019

Here's a personal review in pictures of this year's travel with friends and family both to Little Oak Group birding and nature conservation projects HERE and some jollies to do a bit of World and WP ticking.

LITTLE OAK GROUP

 JANUARY- FUERTEVENTURA 

A family holiday (4 WP and World ticks)

 Juvenile/first-winter Allen's Gallinule 

 Adult Dwarf Bittern 

 Canary Island Stonechat 

 'Canary Island ' Houbara Bustard (More on Fuerteventura endemics HERE)

FEBRUARY- GHANA

A visit to the Manso Nkwanto region to set up an ebird hotspot and look into establishing a recording project for birds, moths and butterflies and to investigate the possibility of purchasing a small forest reserve. 

 Black Dwarf Hornbill 

 Black Bee-eater

 African Piculet

 Marsh Tchagra

Honey Buzzard 

APRIL/MAY -MAJORCA

Family holiday (3 WP/World ticks) 

 Balearic Warbler

 Mediterranean Flycatcher 

 Moltoni's Warbler

JULY- UGANDA 

World listing trip: We had 476 species of which about 200 were world lifers TRIP REPORT HERE

 Eastern Gorilla 

 Shoebill 

 African Grey Parrot 

 Grauer's Broadbill 

 Green-breasted Pitta

 Chimpanzee

Our Birding Group

THE AZORES NATURAL HISTORY TRIP (JUNE) AND THE BIRDER'S PELAGIC (SEPTEMBER) 2019

I was away for both of these this year so both trips were led by Vincent Legrand. More on this HERE

 Band-rumped Storm Petrel (Presumed Grant's). Both Monteiro's and 'Grant's' Storm-Petrel can be found on the birder's pelagic.

 Wilson's Petrel 

 Common Dolphins

Sowerby's Beaked Whales 

 Spotted Dolphins 

Azores Pelagic Birders 2019 

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER- EURO ROAD TRIP TO THE BALKAN ECOLOGY PROJECT

As alternative modes of transport (to flying) was a theme of 2019 we drove in our camper van to Bulgaria. We put on offer in for a small 2000m2 piece of land where we plan to build a bird/moth recording observatory and develop some habitat , did some recording and visited the main Balkan Ecology Project (of which the Black Sea project is a satellite)  in Shipka HERE. 

 Male Pied Wheatear

 First-winter Citrine Wagtail

 First-winter Black-headed Bunting 

 Found this Terek Sandpiper - a Bulgarian rarity 

 Marsh Warbler

 Montagu's Harrier 

 Jersey Black Arches 

 Pale Shoulder 

OCTOBER- CORVO 2019

Did a week on Corvo (a birding community founded by Little Oak Group) 

 CORVO BLOG HERE. 

 Hermit Thrush-a WP lifer 

Northern Parula 

We published the 2016 Azores Rare and Scarce Bird Report just in time for the Corvo season 

LITTLE OAK GROUP

Dorset Soiree and Otmoor Sunday

Been a busy week with two xmas curry's, one xmas batty day, recording a new track for Thee Bryans and the usual slog on top. Met up with Jaffa in Poole harbour on Wednesday for a meet and catch up. It's only about 2 hours from Holly's (must be the nearest coast to us from Oxford). 

Poole was pretty good considering we spent most of the day in the cafe and pub. We had a look at Studland's Bay, 6 Common Scoter, 4 Red-breasted Merganser, 5 Black-necked Grebe, 1 Great Northern Diver and 40+ Brents. We then went back to the cafe before Brand's Hide for roost counts (too dark for photos unfortunately) - that was pretty impressive; 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Great Northern Diver,  34 Red-breasted Merganser, 21 Great Crested Grebe, 7 Black-necked Grebes, 40+ Avocet, 100+ Brents and Barwits, Blackwits, Dunlins, loads of Grey Plover, Knot, Wigeon and Teal, a few Pintails and a Peregrine hunting them at dusk. 

 Brents over Studland Bay

 Red-breasted Mergansers 

Otmoor is a bird metropolis at the moment. So much water there and the bird numbers are building up. This morning I estimated 3500 Golden Plover, 2250 Lapwing, 1000+ Wigeon, 350+ Teal and smaller numbers of Shoveler, Mallard, Snipe and also 4 Dunlin in with the Golden Plovers. There's been a few good local birds about recently including Shelduck, Ruff, Curlew and Hen Harrier which I failed to locate - I'll try and give it another go this week. Ebird list HERE.

 Golden Plover 

 Golden Plovers and Lapwings (above and below) 

Pintail in with Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler and Lapwing  

View over Greenaways this morning 

Otmoor evening

Did a couple of hours at Otmoor this afternoon/evening. The Starling roost was pretty impressive with a bit of murmuration too. Also had a Bittern on Greenaways, a Barn Owl from the first screen and good numbers of waterbirds across the site with the Closes and Flood Field also extensively wet with a large flock of Golden Plover out on the Flood Field and large numbers of waterfowl including double figures of Pintail. 

 Starlings at dusk

 Golden Plovers over Flood Field 

 A Sparrowhawk over the Closes (below) 

and a December moth from the Old Vic trap 

Winter dregs

It's been slim pickings recently. The best I could muster up at Beddington after a bit of window watching, a two hour session yesterday from the hides and two nights with the MV moth trap on was a dodgy Caspian Gull , a couple of Mottled Umbers, up to 5 December Moths and 2 Winter Moths. 

 First-winter Caspian-type Gull. The blue-grey upperparts, apparent double wing bars formed by tips to median and greater coverts, the dark centred greater coverts, dark tertials, dark shawl and white underwings (below) all indicate a Caspian Gull. However the two-toned bill, the head profile, structure and some dark markings on the head suggest a possibility of hybridisation. Could be something from the Black Sea area? (SEE HERE )

 December moth- five last night, a site record. The run of cold frosty nights has finally let up with a bit more moth activity over last couple of nights. 

Mottled Umbers 

Lisbon Geese Videos

Here's a couple of videos from my weekend in Lisbon ( weekend blog HERE)  from Xo Fred.

Tundra Bean Goose - this was one of two Bean Geese present. This individual (found by Magnus) was smaller and shorter-necked than the surrounding Greylags (and the second Bean) and the orange on the bill (a more subdued saturation than the orange on the Greylag bills) was confined to a sub-terminal 'strap. The bill was also relatively short and deep based. Hopefully Xo Fred will update some video of the second Bean Goose soon for comparison. 

Snow Goose - no problem with the identification (although not sure if a lone bird can be assigned to an either Lesser or Greater Snow Goose sub-species), however the provenance is a consideration especially with THIS HERE going on. This bird was first seen in France and has moved south into Portugal. 

Staines Pain

I planned a days birding today and when news broke of a Red-necked Grebe at Staines yesterday I decided to opt for a local twitch. I dipped - despite the bird being reported this morning. I seem to be having trouble seeing very obvious ducks and grebes confined in a tank but at least after about two hours I finally located the long-staying Long-tailed Duck on the South Basin (the bird has been present since early November). 

Also a Water Pipit and a Common Sandpiper, 10 Black-necked Grebes and some stunning Goldeneyes.

Male Goldeneye (above and below) 

Black-necked Grebe

Common Sandpiper 

Long-tailed Duck- looks like a female, probably a first-winter female (but could be an adult female). Long-tailed Ducks have three moults in their first cycle and unlike other ducks the adults have two complete plumages a year. The amount of white in the head and the restricted pale in the scapulars indicate a female as opposed to a young male. First-winter females usually show some pale in the scapulars but I couldn't see any sign of that but the views weren't great!  Long-tailed ducks characteristically often sit on the water with their wings hiding the fore-flanks and when they dive they distinctively open their wings. 

Extinction Rebellion, Beddington Farmlands Political Strategy Meeting, Tuesday 3rd December

As Extinction Rebellion plan to shift attention from the public to polluters (see HERE) we are beginning to move the pieces in place locally.

For discussion click through to facebook