30th November – Today we had a lie-in and were up at 05:45, packed our bags and headed to Port Blair Airport for our flight to Chenai landing at 10:45. We then had a 2.5 hour stop-over in Chennai before our 13:30 flight to Coimbatore. We landed in Coimbatore, tamil Nadu at 14:45 gathered our […]
We were up 05:45 and birded the habitat around the guest house. There had evidently been a small fall of migrants and we recorded six Eye-browed Thrush, three Pallas’s Bunting, 12 Red-throated Thrush, Dusky Warbler, Reed Warbler and, best of all, two Siberian Rubythroat which showed well in a newly planted line of scrub opposite […]
Whilst birding the NADAC Farm area of Haradh 14 October I saw some good desert birds and migrants. One of the first birds seen was an Eastern Morning Wheatear, which was good as birds have only just started returning for the winter and I have not seen one at this location before. Other migrants included […]
Birding has been very limited of late save a quick trip to Fairlop in the the week to catch the local Hoopoe so today we decided on a trip to Dunge for a spot of early morning sea watching. Arriving at 6.30am we were rewarded for a two hour stint with several Arctic Skua, three […]
Either side of midday I birded Dowkah farm on Friday. The bad news was that there were no passage passerines in the shaded wooded area. The other news is more interesting. In particular the larger birds in the field were a mix of strangely off course herons and storks. An Abdim’s stork was a most […]
An exotic-looking bird is thought to have overshot its migration to southern Europe and ended up in the Borders. The hoopoe arrived in Innerleithen on Sunday and was spotted outside a bed and breakfast in the town. Lesley Foster, the guest house owner, was only able to identify it thanks to bird-watchers staying with her. […]
Chris Packham takes a trip to the island of Camino, Malta to see the conservation work done by the BirdLife Malta Ringing Station. Birds just ringed and ready for release include Golden Oriole, Hoopoe and Nightjar. Chris sadly recalls that during the week his hands have been covered in the blood of illegally shot birds […]
Cyprus is a stopping place for hundredes of millions of migrant birds moving between Africa, Europe and Western Asia each year. 300 different species use Cyprus as a stepping stone during their difficult and very tiring flights across the Mediterranean. Illegal shooting and trapping of birds ( with lime sticks and netting) is a persistent […]
Upupa epops – Bucerotiformes (Coraciformes) – Upupidae – C’est la seconde couvée de l’été! Ces photos datent de la mi juillet; le mâle continue d’apporter des insectes à sa femelle qui couve seule. Ces affûts ont l’air faciles mais détrompez-vous, certaines fois il va directement au nid dans le mur en terre battue de l’appentis, […]
Well, now…I’ve just about let my trip reports fall by the wayside. Let’s carry on with this one, shall we? On the morning of our 2nd full day in the Park, we headed out bright and early. In the summer months, you can exit the camp gates at 04h30, and it effectively gets light around […]
Each year, millions of songbirds are killed for food, for profit or just for the joy of shooting something, as they move from their winter grounds in Africa to their summer breeding territories in Europe. In Egypt, hundreds of miles of nets cover the entire coastline, catching almost every bird that makes its way to […]
In the dictionary the word passerine is described thus: passerine |ˈpasərin, -ˌrīn|Ornithology adjective – of, relating to, or denoting birds of a large order distinguished by feet that are adapted for perching, including all songbirds. noun – a passerine bird; a perching bird. The order Passeriformes comprises more than half of all bird species, the […]
It’s quite a long photo post this week and please scroll down and enjoy the views we’ve been having. I’ve been quite busy and wanted to write up more but I was out in the field most days and had lots of emails and other office work to do. Black-eared Wheatears continued to show up […]
