Tag: Birds
-
Lovely Weather For Ducks
Yesterday I was leading a ramble for Fylde Coast Ramblers out of Coniston and round Tarn Hows. The rain was biblical. I will return to that later but first a couple of points about the visit last week for the reccy. Near the Coniston Inn there was a flock of Greylags and Canada Geese. Checking…
-
Book Review: Pan-Species Listing by Graeme Lyons
At the outset a brief explanation is probably helpful. Pan-species listing is a largely British pursuit where people try and see, identify and record all species of plant and animal life. This includes anything above bacteria level, from microscopic flies and tardigrades to whales. It is still a relatively niche pursuit but has become steadily…
-
Algeria South (Part 2)
Yesterday majored on a Sudan Golden Sparrow site to the north of Tamanrasset. As previously explained my camera was dead, but even though there were lots of birds about it was difficult to get prolonged views. I’ve borrowed one of Nick Bray’s shots to illustrate the blog. These birds are clearly doing very well in…
-
Algeria – South (Part 1)
We landed in Tamanrasset well after midnight, and with us needing to be escorted to the hotel by the police it was about half two in the morning before we were in our rooms. This led to me not having my camera fully charged, so the pictures are all from round the hotel. A circuit…
-
Algeria – North
I have come on a split Algeria tour despite not being a serious Western Palearctic lister. Everyone else needs Algerian Nuthatch in the northern oak forests and several birds on the fringe of their ranges in the south. I very much wanted Algerian Nuthatch obviously, because they only occur in Algeria and I’ll never be…
-
Late To The Party
Eurasian White-fronted Goose by Paul Slade Easterly winds just prior to Christmas brought an influx of scarce geese to Britain, including this neck of the woods. Both subspecies of Greater-Whitefronted Goose and Tundra Bean Geese were appearing all over the country, and often tagging along with Pinkfeet and even Greylag flocks. So naturally I wanted…
-
Out Skerries – Review of the Birding Year
Pine Bunting x Yellowhammer by John Coutts This blog is unpredictable in content and gaps between posts, but one constant is my review of the Out Skerries birding year. Highlights Firecrest A Firecrest on 2nd November was only the second island record, following one in October 2017. Firecrest is a description species in Shetland and…
-
Sunday Surprise
Picture by Tom Parkinson On Saturday I took part in a Cumbria Bird Club outing at Foulney. If you’ve never been I recommend it. Basically you walk out from Roa Island causeway near Barrow and get cut off by the tide. You’re then treated to great views of a couple of thousand Eider and hopefully…
-
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…
-
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…
Natural Selection 