A Personal Best!!!!

Oh yeah it feels good & all thanks to ze Guru finding an adult summer pl. Mediterranean Gull at Mire Lake at 16:45pm today!!!

I raced there like a lunatic... in rain showers, stupid arseole' drivers and cattle crossing the road in time to arrive at Mire for Andy to tell me the bird had just flown to the east end of the pool!!.... Back in the car, already soaked, tripod smashing the crap out of my new Argo Mk.II dash.... just to reverse out onto the road, virtually blind, thanks to rain & the car steaming up, only to look up & see Andy frantically waving at me.... Pulled forward again, grabbed my gear (more scuffs to the dash!!), only for Andy to say "it's f**ked off back to the other end.... at least it's still here mate!!"...

Jeez!!! Back in the Argo Mk.II & offf to the east end of ze lake..... With the sodding rain now lashing down, I parked up, legged it up the bank.... lens now drenched too, & scanned the 200+ strong flock of gulls on the north side of the island.....

.... & there he/she was... in full pristine glory, an ad. summer pl. Mediterranean Gull!!! Bird No. 161 on my county year list & a new personal county best!!!
Yeah, I'm chuffed as f**k!!! Every bird now just improves the list..... Just 9 more for 170 too!! With 4 bankers also!!...

160 Up!!!!

Yeah, I'm still here, still birding.... But look, it's July ~ a pretty crap month to bird!!!
However.... 2 year ticks for me today.... and both were belters!!!

First off, due to the species involved, I cannot say where I went... Only that I went there this evening along with ze Guru & Dave Western, we met Paul Barker just after 9pm on location.... We set off for 'ze spot'!! Dark clouds loomed overhead, threatening rain, which thankfully never came.... actually, it was surprising mild & calm with pretty good half-light.
After waiting just a few minutes I clocked the first of our targets - an adult Long-eared Owl in flight!!! Awesome, only the second time I've seen one in Shropshire!!!
Elated having scored so quick we set off again arriving at our next 'spot' just a few moments later... It was Paul who located the second of our target birds - a Nightjar!!!! Flying in front of us only 20 odd feet away at one point!! Brillaint, my 4th county tick for the year & 160 species, equalling last years total, my highest ever... every tick now is a new personal best!!! (I'm still a full 6 species behind ze Guru though!!!)....

Excellent stuff & I still have 6 odd relatively easyish birds to tick!!.... So, 170??.... Maybe!! ;~)

Madeira ~ The Final Day's....

Oh yeah, there's something I did forget to mention in my previous two post's, if you should ever want to study Yellow-legged Gull's, especially comparing them to the similar Herring, then Funchal harbour is the place to do it, as Yellow-legged Gull outnumber Herring by easily 10-1!!!...

Anyway.... back to the job at hand... After our brilliant day on the boat we enjoyed a couple of day's being shown around Funchal by my parents, no real time for any birding & thwarted by limited bus timetable (& mainly where the buses travel to), and the extortianate taxi prices getting to any key sites looked to be just too awkward (we needed to get high into the mountains for any chance of Trocaz Pigeon & Rock Sparrow)...
I did have a pipit sp. fly over calling one day which was most probably Bertholot's Pipit, but as I was in no way certain I couldn't possibly count it.... However...

I was sat relaxing outside my condo, enjoying a cold beer & a smoke when I saw what looked to be an egret sp. fly off the sea & land in a tree just beyond the complex boundary wall.... As my bins were rarely more than 2ft. from me I grabbed tham & looked into the tree where I saw the bird land, & to my utter surprise there was an adult. Squacco Heron!!! A lifer for me & also quite a rare bird for Madeira (since arriving home I have contacted the Madeira rare bird recorder & submitted my report & the piccie below....)





Not brilliant, but a fairly okay pic of the Squacco Heron I found just off my complex!! The bird remained around 1 hour before vanishing!! Nice bird though & always a great feeling 'finding' your own lifer!!!....


The only other bird of note was one day myself & my Dad after some effort trying to get up to the 'higher ground', managed only to get to the Botanical Gardens, however this was a worth while trip as after a half hour wait or so I got pretty good views of 3 Madeira Firecrest!! My 1st real endemic & obviously another lifer!!!

So, how do I sum up Madeira? Well, it aint really a young persons place nor somewhere to go birding as there are very few bird sp. on the island & even then you need to travel, which is at best awkward on Madeira, in order to stand a chance to get them...
However, it's a very clean, tidy island, weather is sound and the people exceptionally friendly... the food is excellent and the boat trips a must!!!
I didn't get a Trocaz Pigeon, Bertholot's Pipit, Madeira Storm-petrel nor Rock Sparrow, but hey ~ as with Florida last year, I was totally green, my first visit & not on a birding holiday....

Well, I guess it's back to the county birding scene for me now.... July is normally a pretty dead month for birding, but as I have done such a spectacular job of dipping stuff recently (Gropper now dipped seven times!!!... Plus Nightjar now on the dip list too!!...), not to mention that the 2 Common Cranes seem to have returned to the county, I have some stuff to chase after & attempt to grip back!!!

Half way trough 2009 & my county yearlist is at 158 species, which, at the start of the year I'd have been ecstatic with, but I could so easily have been around 165+ mark now.... so I'm actually kindda disappointed....
That said... this is now the 2nd best county yearlist I've achieved, plus 3 more year ticks will make it my personal best.... so, that cant be too bad can it?

I have also decided that this shall be my final year of 'listing'!!! The reason? Well, I simply dont have either the spare time to chase across the county nor the finances to fund it!! As I went into 2009 knowing this I wanted to set myself a 'gettable' goal... Obviously doing a notable UK yearlist was well out of my reach, so that's why I decided to do a decent county list (if only my luck was as keen as I am!!).... I shall therefore, for the forseeable future at least, be a non-listing county birder... & as with all ex listers/twitchers (the 2 go hand in hand really, listing & twitching that is, I've already travelled around 5000 miles around Shropshire chasing 'ticks' this year!!! Whats that if not twithching?), I shall no doubt be one of those bitter & twisted birders that go around moaning & slagging off twitchers!!! ;~)

(Me!!! Moan??!!)...

To all my fellow county listers, birding buddies & regular blog readers..... thanks & cheers!!! :-)

Madeira 2009 ~ The Best Day for a Birthday!!

There was little to report from the Tuesday, but Wednesday 24th June was my Dad's 65th Birthday (the reason for the holiday, my brother, Mandy & myself had joined my parents to Madeira to celebrate my Dad's 65th!!)...

The Santa Maria de Columa ~ our vessel for the day & a replica of Christopher Columbus's boat....

It was this day that we'd booked a boat trip from the harbour at Funchal, departing at 3pm on a 3hr cruise, I was hopeful for a few 'ticks', but this trip proved even more eventful than any of us could have imagined!!!An old sea dog, you might say?... Arrrharghh me hearties!!!... Er, okay... naff joke, I know!!

My first new bird came in the harbour itself with 2 adult summer Roseate Tern flying around the harbour, along with Arctic & Common Tern's (although the latter 2 species were slightly further out at sea, favouring the coastline).

The view over Funchal harbour as we depart on our sea voyage....


A distant 'brown blob', one off 100's, that soon became apparently clear as Cory's Shearwater!!

It was possibly around half hour into the cruise when I picked up on a flock of birds sat on the water, they were large & brownish in colour, I had a pretty good idea what they were, & soon a few got up & flew confirming my belief, 100's of Cory's Shearwater!!! The birds soon came within feet of the boat giving excellent views & the odd photo opportunity - however, excitement soon moved to some comotion off the front of the boat!!...



A couple of marginaly better pics of Cory's, the birds were fast & flighty, but we all had great views...

A pod of around 30-40 Dolphin's were breaking the surface of the sea & soon the boat was moved into a better viewing position, the dolphin's then put on an excellent display, leaping & swimming around our boat for a good 15 minutes, they seemed to lap up everyone's excitement, certainly showing off their amazing beauty & grace in the water. There were also clearly a few young dolphin's present, of which I tried to get pictures of!! (Oh yeah, after the excitement that followed all this I forgot to ask what species of dolphin these were, any one know? I'd be grateful if you could let me know!)...

A selection of many photo's we took of the pod of Dolphin's, sorry I know not what species they are?... Maybe you can help?

We then pushed on & what initially appeared to be a large leaf on the water surface was in fact a Terrapin!!! Through my bin's I could see clearly it had a 'spined' shell that was red & yellow in colour, with a light brown shell... no idea what type of Terrapin this was?...

Then my Mum noticed a shape over to the right of the boat, around 200 metres away, I got the distant shape in my bins, a distinct dorsal fin broke the water, followed by at least 20-30 ft. of body!!! A WHALE!!!!... I yelled to everyone on the boat, people immediately moved over to view this awesome animal... The boat was moved closer... I watched as this huge animal broke the water surface again, around 20 ft. of 'head' end, the very distinct dorsal fin, follwed by the huge rear body... Then a spout of water was blown & the animal vanished from view!!.... We had just watched a FIN WHALE!!! The second largest animal on the planet (second only to Blue Whale, which it closely resembles), this one I estimated had to be no less than 60 ft. in length!!!


The huge, ominous shape under the water that my Mum first observed... gradualy it neared our boat....

Best shot we managed of the Fin Whale... around 60+ ft. in length & a good pic here of the dorsal fin... What an awesome animal!!!

The Fin Whale did appear again, far behind us, at least 500 metres or so, I watched it through my bins as it continued to show, surfacing again & again, for around 5 minutes or so....

Wow!!! My first ever whale sp. & I was ecstatic!!! What an awesome animal & it was while we were all still marveling over this beheamoth from the deep when another giant swam past - a huge Sea Turtle!!! Sadly I was too slow with the camera, as it dived again after only a brief view!! But it had to be the size of your average patio table!!!

Sadly, the trip had to come to an end, but what a trip it was & an amazing birthday treat for my Dad!! We celebrated that night with expensive wine & posh italian food ~ what a day, & one I shall never forget!!!

I couldn't see how this could possibly be topped....

But it was.... You'll have to wait 'til later to find out how!!...

Madeira 2009.

Hello all... not long arrived back from Madeira, so thought I'd do a quick intro-write-up-type-thingy, as Mand is currently catching up on a weeks worth of 'Come Dine With Me'!!...

Basically I knew that Madeira wouldn't give me many bird species (I'd had a chat with a few of my worldly knowledgeable birding buds!), however the island does hold a few endemics & hard to find birds elsewhere in Europe... Wether I'd see them or not was another thing entirely...

Arrival at our 5 star complex (£5 a pint!! in other words) did reward me with an instant lifer - Canary!! There was a flock of 60+ that would visit the garden area outside our condo...

Couple of shot's of the group of 'daily' Canary's that were ever present outside out condo....

Again, not a birding holiday, but I was hoping to find a good bird or two.... Madeira however held a surprise for me!!... More about that later....

Plain Swift was my 2nd lifer on day 1, not very numerous, biggest flock I saw was only 9 or 10 strong, but they're widespread across most of Funchal.

My main hope's for a tick were due on Wednesday where we'd got ourselves booked onto a boat trip out to sea... This trip would prove waaaay better than we would ever have dreamed of!!! Again, more about that to come later...

For now, I'll leave you with a jammy tick that I cant have!!.... Late evening I was seawatching when I saw a what I first thought to be a shearwater, quite dark on the back, but the flight seemed different to me, quite regular, fast wing beats, the bird turned & I could see dark undrwing, white belly & a fairly obvious all-pale head - a Fea's/Zino's Petrel!!!! Sadly, no possible way to def. ID which one it was, although a local guy I spoke to did tell me that Zino's was more likely... But as no positive ID can be made, no tick can be had!!! Oh well....

More to come later in part 2!!...

A Change in Luck??....

I must admit, recently after two pretty annoying dips, I was becoming quite disheartened!! A day off this Thursday I hope to grip one back, the other one hopefully on Friday... but I'm not feeling too hopeful...
However, after my major luck this evening maybe I stand a chance now?...

Last thing on my mind today was a year tick (except maybe a Little Owl en route home from work!...), I arrived home from work around 21:50hrs to a barking dog!! She was in the garden, head down in my shrubbery, tail wagging... she'd obviously found something!! Indeed she had, a hedgehog!! (a first for the garden, had badger in the past!!). I went & fetched Mand from the front room to show her this prickly customer... As we were stood in the garden my ears suddenly pricked up to a very recognisable bird call.... 'wet-my-lips, wet-my-lips'....!!! "Thats a Quail!!!" I yelled to Mand!! She looked up at my slightly confused.... "No love, it's a hedgehog!!"... "Not that... THAT!!"... Again, 'wet-my-lips, wet-my-lips'.... I've heard Quail in the fields close to my house a few years back, but no way could I possibly hear one from my garden... The call then seemed very close indeed... I looked up to see a small bird bombing across the sky, around maybe 30ft-40ft up, with fast wing-beats, showing well against the setting sun-red sky!!! WOW!!! Only the 2nd time I've ever seen Quail in my life!!! What an amazing stroke of luck, and a fantastic year tick to boot!!!
I must admit I wasn't aware that Quail did this call whilst in flight, but no question of the call & the small bird flying overhead was making the call.... so, obviously, they do!!!
Hopefully.... this will be a change to my recent streak of dire luck... I do hope so!!! The next few days shall tell!!...
I'm off to Mediera on Monday for a week, be great to add a couple more ticks before I go!!!

Another Dipped Gropper!!!

It's getting on my tits now!!! After recieving a reliable report of a Gropper reeling at Wildmoor pool, I set off there yesterday evening. After over 2 hours of waiting, 2 hours of boredom, 2 hours of nothing more interesting than Reed Buntings & Meadow Pipits for company, 2 hours of wondering why I bother?... I gave up on this f***in' species as a 'tick' for 2009, as this is now my THIRD!!! Gropper I've dipped this year - Long Mynd bird (twice!!!), the Rednall bird & now this one!!! I'm totally pissed off with this species now, & I shant be wasting one more second this year trying to see one.... That's how f***ed off I am!!!

A very minor consolation came from a brief visit to Handless woodland area prior to wasting my time at Wildmoor... where I picked up a brief Spotted Flycatcher that perched on a bush beside the road, before flying into the opposite woodland area.
Again, only a brief view of Redstart (again a female!!), however, en route to Wildmoor I did see Redstart on 2 occaisions in the heavily hedgerowed area!!...
Not too happy at the mo, which you may have gathered!!! I dont get much spare time at the moment, & the time I do get I really despise wasting on dipping!!!
Anyway.... my bad mood shall shift soon, I promise.... ;~)