Yesterday I went out to Lake Constance in search for anything good. Last Wednesday a Great Skua and a Sabine's Gull were seen, but since then the weather was to good and I hadn't much hope.
The ferry from Romanshorn to Friedrichshafen and back was absolutely unproductive, nothing than some Yellow-legged Gulls. A walk along the shore from Kesswil to Güttingen produced a nice male Eider and a juvenile Mediterranean Gull. A final lookout at Triboltingen was a bit better, with a Marsh Harrier, a Great White Egret and twenty Little Gulls. It was then when I received a text message about a Pectoral Sandpiper at the Flachsee Unterlunkhofen. I calculated my travel time and came to the conclusion that I would arrive in darkness.
So I got up...
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The week has been very frustrating weather wise, but after torrential rain yesterday morning there was a lull which enabled me to scan the sea off Starr Gate in flat calm conditions.
There were at least 4000 scoter visible, and probably nearer 5000. It is always great to see such numbers, a shame they aren't a bit closer.
Off on birding travels twice in the next few weeks, hope to have something to report.
Stephen.
Hi all, had a huge flight for the little spot by my house on Wednesday, with around 250 Broad-wingeds in only two hours. Today, much smaller flight of about 65 Broad-wingeds, 4 Northern Harriers, My first adult GOLDEN EAGLE of the year and a Peregrine Falcon providing us with excellent looks.
Had a trip out to Wheldrake after work yesterday. Got rewards with my first Redwings of the autumn. Also a couple of Sparrowhawks being mobbed high up by crows. Got a late Spotted Flycatcher 1st summer which took my Yorkshire year list to 187. Also good numbers of other migrant passerines about with quite a few Phylloscs and Goldcrests. Down at the pool hide had a couple of Greenshanks (patch tick 101) plus some distant Common Sands and Redshank. Plenty of hirundines about and meadow pipits. Was alive with bird movement!
Well...its that time of year again. Summer is starting to come to a close and fall is just around the corner. I really love this time of year because bird activity seems to bounce back from an uneventful lull during the "dog days of summer". Vireos, Warblers, Flycatchers, and many other birds begin to gorge themselves on grapes, pokeberries, and other ripe fruit. Feeder activity is also starting to increase. For the first time in months I have seen Gold Finches visiting my feeders. These petite birds which are a brilliant gold during the breeding season have already morphed into their dull winter plumage. I am eagerly waiting for the return of my Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Chickadees. Winter seems like an eternity away...
Other...
My grandmother, who lived in what is now Slovakia near thy Polish border, told me about a local delicacy. This took place about 1900. Small migrating birds were netted and plucked and roasted whole and eaten in one bite. The birds probably ate pine cone seeds because she said that the entrails were not removed in order to provide the pine taste.
The custom sounds similar to the French eating the Ortalan Bunting, Emberiza hortulana.
Any clues!
I will be going birding on Sunday, at a new spot for me. However, I've still got a day of school ad a busy weekend. As you can see, my profile picture and avatar have changed, reflecting the non-birding aspect of my life ;) ;). I am preparing for this walk at the Marine Center in Oceanside with great joy. I will update when I go!!
Migration is in full swing in the first weeks of September in Hungary. Thrush Nightingales and Red-breasted Flycatchers have mostly passed through Hungary by now and Rollers, Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles and Lesser Grey Shrikes are also on their way south.
More and more waders arrive from the north among them rarer ones such as Broad-billed Sandpiper, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Sanderling, Red-necked Phalarope and Turnstone that are reported daily from several wetlands of the country.
Ospreys are also observed daily and there were a few Pallid Harriers reported from the East of Hungary. Red-footed Falcons are still here in big flocks but not for very long.
A first, Ashtead Common, and frankly a bit disappointing birdwise, even thoug Jamie and I enjoyed our three hour ramble. Highlight was a great view of a Nuthatch trying to ear a hazel nut and several GSW's. I was after a LSW, but no joy.
Jamie and Sandra in tow on a beautiful morning. Highlight was a pair of Blackcaps fliting about in a holy tree, must be a chance they will stay for the winter. Heard a Chiffchaff, and saw a bunch of Mistle Thrushes fighting over a Hawthorne Tree. Also saw a Common Whitethroat, possibly last of the year.
I was very, very surprised to see a small bird with wingbars flitting around outside my bedroom window today, as I live in a bird-free area. Blackpoll Warbler? What a fine surprise, I thought, until I saw it had a gray face, a grass-green crown, nape and back, and humungous wingbars. Chesnut-sided! That got me wondering what else I'd seen from my "yard," but when I made a list I found many 'maybes' and 'possiby's'. Not good enough! So I watched out the window and tallied a pair of kestrels, a goldfinch and a few flyby cowbirds to make myself feel a bit better.
Anyhow, the call of the backyard didn't last. My sudden was shatterred when a boring old House Sparrow (I think, no, I hope) slammed into the same window I'd seen the warbler out...
Well most of the weekend was a right off, due to the intermittent heavy downpours.
Managed to get out of bed early today, with the prospect of finding something in the grounds of Hiroshima Castle, before going to work.
I slogged around the inner circle of the castle, but only saw 2 Narcissus Flycatcher for my troubles.
Seems the winds were all wrong. I was just about to give up hope when I flushed a cuckoo sp from cover. I saw it several times after that and my best guess is Oriental Cuckoo, a first for me at the castle and a good bird for downtown Hiroshima.
Phoned my friend Sumida-san, only to find out that he had found and photographed a Baillon's Crake yeasterday, but didn't think it worth calling me!:-C
Let's hope I can...
Yeah I thought the same thing. A nice little depression was moving through the area, possibly with it a few interesting offshore species. A year ago somebody had a Sabine's Gull and a Sooty Tern off Fire Island. And that's where I was planning to go that day, in the company of BF user BEBirder.
Driving down there though, I couldn't help noticing the clouds were moving toward the south, not from it. That had me worried, but what do I know about weather? Apparently I knew a bit more than I thought because in ten minutes I was standing on the beach, looking south to the calmest Atlantic Ocean I'd seen in a few months, with the wind blowing in my face. As you can guess, no jaegers, tropical surprises. Just a gannet to remind us of the storm...
I live in Winterthur, a town in eastern Switzerland and I work in Turbenthal, a village nearby. In the morning I take my bicycle with the train so I can cycle back in the evening. The way back follows the river Töss and goes through a big forest.
Usually when I start the local Red Kite is circling above the village. At the river I see Grey Wagtails, Dippers and sometimes a Kingfisher, but I hear them more than I see them.
In the forest I often hear or even see Black Woodpeckers. Last week I suddenly noticed a big bird taking of from the ground just near me and it was one of them. He overpassed me, flew shortly directly in front of me before he gained height and reached a tree trunk where he recovered from the shock (so did I but on my...
Spent today out and about. Enroute to Blacktoft had a medium - large raptor being mobbed over the car. Couldn't stop but had the feeling it might have been a goodie... At the reserve not a lot doing considering the time of year. A handful of Spotshanks and Curlew Sands with some lovely Yellow Wags at the dry Ousefleet. Green Sand, Dunlin, single Snipe and Black-tailed Godwit made up the best of the rest. At NDC and Bank Island there was nothing. At all.
Well after such a humdinger of a weekend...I sonehow knew the rest of the week would be an anticlimax..well almost.
On Tuesday, I got a mail telling me that a Greay's Grasshopper Warbler had be found by my friernd Sumida-san at Hiroshima Castle. Unfortunately,
I was unable to go that day and the next morning the skies were clear, so I knew I was going to be in for disappointment.
The warbler was nowhere to be found, and the only birds of note were a couple of immature Narcissus Flycatcher.
Over the next three days I visited Hiroshima Castle and Shukien Garden, and was rewarded with just a few sightings, several Brown Flycatcher, 3 more Narcissus Flycatcher, a single Arctic Warbler and brief, but good views of another immature...
Well I'd been jealous of Tokyo birders getting crippling views of Spoon-billed Sandpiper down to a few yards and having heard that 4 birds had turned up along with a host of other goodies in Fukuokoa I decided to make an early morning Shink visit to said city.
A slighty overcast morning saw me get off the train, walk a coupla of k's across a new bridge over Fukuoka Bay to the newly completed artificial island.
The only birds of note on the way were a lone Eurasian Curlew, a couple of Grey-tailed Tatler and Common Sandpiper for company.
Around a thousand waders had been reported on a large reclamation lagoon..off-limits to the general public, but not an intrepid birder.
I managed to get access to the site and soon found the waders...
Today I woke to find a encouraging email in my onbox, mentioning 15 species of warbler at good ol' Jones Beach. Never mind two Purple Finches, two Buff-breasted Sands and a Dickcissel! Dickcissel is an annual vistor here, and actually three were reported from nearby Fire Island that morning as well. They, along with Lark Sparrow, are fairly reliable once or twice each fall, and from what I know, Clay-colored Sparrows as well (but in spring too, as they breed closer).
Anyway, I went down there and found birders looking into trees - a good sign. A few pewees, a phoebe, waxwings, a single Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a Baltimore Oriole and a smal variety of warblers (Pine, Prairie and Black-throated Green most notably). Also interesting was a...
We regularly get a nuthatch in our garden. Me thinking I could take a nice photo went outside for about 10 minutes and the nuthatch did not come. However I got a nice picture of a starling.
Oh well :egghead:
I ended up going to Jamaica Bay this afternoon. Unfortunately, I dipped on both reported Godwit species as well as the Red-necked Phalarope. However, my trip was not entirely in vain. I added both Dowitchers to my Year List, as well as Lesser Yellowlegs (There were Greater there, too). There were lots of small peeps, including Leasts and Semis, and luckily I "refound" the reported Baird's Sandpiper, a lifer. Certain sources (birderbf) had told me it had vanished. I also spotted some kind of warbler. I thought at first perhaps it was a Pine, but seems to have been a Bay-breasted or Blackpoll. BB would be a lifer, but I can't be sure, I will have someone confirm or deny it. Also, I heard a sound unlike any I have heard in my birding...
The topic of bird molt came up in the Bird ID Q&A forum today with respect to a bird that was in first-winter feathering in August. Since molt greatly affects the appearance of birds, it is often an issue when trying to figure out the identity of a specific bird. But there are several different systems of terminology that are employed to describe molt, which can create its own confusion. There were a couple of review papers written for Birding magazine in 2003 that are now available online. The first talks about why birds need to molt at all, and some of the factors that affect the timing of molt. The second part explains the modified Humphrey-Parkes system of terminology, which will hopefully become increasingly accepted as the...
The sun was shining and the wind had dropped. Paul Slade was watching a Med Gull when I arrived, I picked up another two then he another so we ended up with a respectable four. Two of these were Darvic ringed but too distant to read.
To cap it off nicely the first Pinkfeet I have seen this autumn headed over south - c45 in total.
Stephen.
Well, I guess that the American Tree Sparrow wasn't interesting enough, for the OFNC didn't include it in the weekly status report. Hummph.
On another note, I just finished reading Life List: A Birder's Spiritual Awakening by Chris Dunford (2006, Novalis). It is about a Californian who spent a week in 1998 in Churchill, Manitoba on Hudson Bay to bird the area (alone) and add to his life list. While some of his ponderings about God and Christianity left me feeling impatient, his ideas about God's connection to the natural world was more interesting. Fortunately, most of the book was devoted to his birding experiences and it was this part I enjoyed the most.
So much, in fact, that I'm considering a trip to Churchill myself one...
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