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An Exciting Finale
As I’ve mentioned in these blogs the go to location for birding near the hotel (the Riu Palace, but the Riu Karamboa is closer still) is Rabil lagoon. It’s a location I’ve heard of over the years which has always sounded exotic to me. It had delivered to a decent extent over the holiday, with…
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Boa Vista birding – the middle chapters
I got into a birding routine on holiday walking round Rabil lagoon and back to the hotel one day, and returning to the south on alternate days. EBird showed a sewage pond a couple of miles away from the wader scrapes at Lacacao, so the second time I went south I went looking for it.…
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Day 4 – Sharks And Turtles
I walked up the beach to Rabil Lagoon in the morning. The Greenshank flock appeared to have increased to 20 birds. But when I scanned them in flight there appeared to be a Lesser Yellowlegs. Soon after they flew back down the lagoon in the opposite direction and there appeared to be a rather surprising…
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Day 3 – Five Star Wader
Today I went down to some wader habitat at the south of the island near the Riu Touraeg hotel. The area at Lacacao has a decent track record for shorebirds over the years, and is well known for a Willet turning up this spring. Willet is one of the few American waders to have been…
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Day 2 – Recording Rarities
Lesser Yellowlegs by me, but taken in Canada when our cruise was diverted in 2023 Before breakfast Jane and I got up early and went up the beach. It’s really pleasant walking alongside the surf before it gets crowded. When I approached the lagoon I realised my camera was ‘on’. Given I’d not turned it…
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Boa Vista – Day One
Cape Verde Sparrow (female) We arrived on Friday afternoon. If we’d come without luggage we could have walked round to the hotel. I had a mooch around the grounds and saw Spanish Sparrows (also conspicuous at the airport), Cape Verde Sparrows and Spectacled Warblers (and Collared Doves). A gentle introduction. Spectacled Warbler (female) Before breakfast…
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
juvenile Garganey by Stefan Berndtsson used under Wikimedia Commons licence Yesterday I was mostly doing proper bird surveys rather than birding for fun. Under the auspices of the new Wintering Bird Survey I did my long-term square at Blackpool Pleasure Beach with the usual mix of gulls, Feral Pigeons and scoter on the sea. I…
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Larking About
Per eBird there are five lark species recorded in Cape Verde. One of these only occurs on the island of Raso (well done if your guess was Raso Lark). All the others were possible on Sal where Jane and I went in 2017 and 2018, three residents and one rare visitor. The three resident lark…
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The Trouble With Ebird
A Rosy Starling I found on Out Skerries in spring 2018 At the outset I should say that I think eBird is great. A system for bird record documentation created by the American Cornell Institute it’s a wonderful resource. From the same stable the Merlin birdsong ID software has broken through to be adopted by…
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Wyre Hat Trick
White-rumped Sandpiper by Dario Nix used under Creative Commons licence The Wyre around Skippool and Little Singleton has been well covered this year. I was fortunate enough to find the first American Wigeon on this part of the estuary in January. Whilst I was too busy to blog Jonny Scragg had the Fylde’s first Forster’s…
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Natural Selection 