Sunday 12 November 2023

Back to Spain ... it's Aiguamolls de l'Emporda

 Family wedding celebrations are great ... when they're close to a wonderful reserve somewhere abroad they're even better ...

Aiguamolls is a reserve that I've visited many times over a fifteen year period ... this former rice paddy site has never failed to delight ... with its pools, wet meadows, woodland, open grassland and coastal dunes ...

While Great White Egrets are not the rarity that they were a few decades ago, a little group of them is always a nice sight ...


... the same thing goes for Spoonbills too ...


... and Flamingoes of course ...



... the wet meadows had many Dunlin, Ringed Plovers but this Pectoral Sandpiper was a nice surprise ...


... and a single lingering White Stork stood nearby ...


... a flock of Black-headed Gulls is always worth a look through and this time it turned up a Slender-billed Gull ... a delightful species ...


... the flooded fields were perfect habitat for Green Sandpiper ...


... and Yellow-legged Gulls are always worth looking at ...


... some Mousached Warblers were singing quite well from some isolated groups of reeds and Zitting Cisticolas were also in the reedbeds and one showed well ...


... Spotted Redshanks were common and typically favouring the deeper water ...


... in the more open areas of dry grassland a Crested Lark put in an appearance ... showing better in flight than on the groiund ...


... and back on the wet grassland Water Pipitswere present in good numbers ...
























Saturday 21 October 2023

Waders and Gulls ... East Anglian birds ...

 Frampton Marsh was my first port of call last week and both Semi-palmated Sandpiper and Lesser Yellowlegs were still present despite being rather mobile ... but a Pectoral Sandpiper remained more site faithful to give some nice close views ...



Then on to my planned destination of North Norfolk where high water levels on the marshes left less feeding areas for waders than usual ... among the Ruff there were some very smart males ...


Curlew Sandpipers were rather scarce but one at Burnham Overy showed well as it fed along with a small group of Dunlin ...



At Cley some Cattle Egrets dropped on to Pat's Pool and finally numbered a remarkable sixteen birds ...


Mediterranean Gulls turned up at a few locations including an adult past Sheringham ...


... followed by a second-winter bird there ...


... and a very distant first-winter bird on Arnold's Marsh in rather murky conditions ...


... juvenile Gannets were a frequent sight close inshore ...



Late afternoon on Pat's Pool gull numbers built and an adult Caspian Gull put in an appearance on two occasions ...




... and a Starling roost started to build ...




















Thursday 12 October 2023

Autumn in North Cumbria ... Waders, Gulls ... arriving and departing migrants ...

 Barnacle Geese are arriving wave after wave now and seem more obvious than the Pink-footed Geese that filled the skies a few weeks ago ...


Greenshanks, rarely very common on the Solway have numbered up to four in recent weeks ...


... the wake behind this bird resulted from it running along with its head submerged ...


... this adult favoured the rocky shore ...




Knot numbers have increased from just a handful a couple of weeks ago to around 1000 ... with some lovely peachy juveniles ...



... and Bar-tailed Godwits roosting behind ...


... the Knot flocks performing spectacular aerial displays


... a notable 81 Mediterranean Gulls in Workington Harbour included adults, second-winters and first-winters in decreasing order of numbers ...


... and a single adult at Port Carlisle / Bowness Railings was further up the estuary than most venture to ...


Grune Point hosted three Female / 1st winter Wheatears ...


... and nearby a Spotted Redshank typically favoured the deeper water ...


... and moved restlessly on the mud ...




... an adult Little Stint finally showed itself among the large Dunlin flocks ...




... and this juvenile Garganey consorted with Teal on the new Campfield Scrape pools ...



 






























Saturday 16 September 2023

Ullapool and around ... and the Viking Gull is back ...

 It seems early for white-wingers and yet the Ullapool Viking Gull was present last week ...



... one of only a small number of large gulls around the harbour which seems to be increasingly catering more for leisure vessels than fishing boats ...

Rooks appear to have a rather unusual ecological niche here, often feeding around the streets of the town ...


... and on the shore ...



... this time of year sees a mix of plumages with some already in full winter garb as with this Razorbill



... and these first-winter Black Guillemots ...




Cormorants were present in numbers but alongside a few Shags ...



... and small groups of female Eiders ...


A Hooded Crow patrolled the saltmarsh at Achnahaird ...


... and a few Rock Doves passed by while one landed briefly ...



At dusk some Curlews were presumably making local movements, not uttering the typical migrant calls ...


Seeing migrants coming in off the sea is always exciting to witness and wave after wave of Pink-footed Geese arrived thus ...



While in contrast a Dipper occupied its favoured rock ...































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