This is my first post in ‘Focusing on Wildlife’. I thought I’d post about some of the vagrants migrants seen in the UAE recently. I start on 23rd December with a trip to Zakher Lakes near Al Ain, the water levels here are increasing at an alarming rate. There used to be many reed beds […]
The Saudi Arabian Gulf Coral Islands
The Saudi Arabian Gulf coral islands are very important sites for birds, both breeding seabirds and migrant passerines and hold internationally important numbers of breeding Lesser Crested Terns (Thalasseus bengalensis) and Bridled Terns (Onychoprion anaethetus). All six Saudi Arabian, Gulf Coral Islands were formed when sand, produced by wave action, boring of some worm species […]
Isahaya Bay in Winter
I always feel very fortunate to live in an area of Japan that is surrounded by some of the best winter birding locations in the country and, indeed, in all of East Asia. From my home in Shimabara, Nagasaki, it is just a short ferry ride and drive to Hikawa and Yatsushiro in Kumamoto, while […]
Great Southern White Butterfly
Great Southern White (Ascia monuste). Note the distinctive blue antennae tips. Taken at Gilchrist Park, Punta Gorda, Florida.
Fin Whales off the Irish south coast…
The second largest mammal of earth, the mighty fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is frequently seen in Irish inshore waters during the autumn and winter months. A pelagic species that spends most of their time well offshore; these large baleen whales move into coastal waters off the southern Irish coastline every year in search of the […]
A Coyote and Falcon Leftovers
I had a marvelous photographic experience with Coyote along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake last week and wanted to share some of the images that I created. The temperatures have fluctuated often the past few weeks in the Salt Lake Valley, for a while it was very cold and the Great Salt Lake […]
My Local Patch – Dhahran Camp (Saudi Arabia)
This post will give you all a flavor of my local ‘patch’ and the habits that occur there before I post anything about birds seen. Dhahran Camp, Saudi Aramco’s compound, is a man-made environment, where a remarkable greening of the environment has occurred, which now helps support a varied range of flora and fauna, including […]
Gosforth Park Nature Reserve
On Thursday, a glorious sunny but cool day, Brian Moorhead and myself visited Gosforth Park Nature Reserve. The reserve compromises of 60ha of lake, reed-bed and mixed woodland, fewer than 4 miles from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s City centre. Managed by the Natural History Society of Northumbria since 1929, it boasts a vast diversity of flora and fauna, […]