Showing posts with label Sanderling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sanderling. Show all posts

Saturday, December 17, 2022

As Cold As Ice

Everyone is talking about the UK's cold weather. I am no exception. I have been marooned indoors  in minus temperatures and icy roads for a week, a now unusual but not unknown sequence of the natural cycles of weather. This is a real old fashioned British winter; when postmen trudged through six feet of snow, milk bottles froze solid to the doorstep and trains came to a halt in snowdrifts, not because of rail strikers.

I have been trapped in our north facing away from major roads cul-de-sac where the sun don't shine and gritters never venture.

Gritter

With plans for ringing and birding literally "on ice" and when standing around invited hypothermia I managed a couple of trips out Pilling way and then Knott End on Sea Ice.

At Pilling where I went to top up the supplementary seed - quick and rough counts of 30 Shelduck, 40 Teal, 50 Mallard, 180 Wigeon, 45 Lapwing, 40 Curlew and 15 or so Redshank. 

Of the small birds I found 10 or more Skylarks and 5 Meadow Pipits braving the elements but nothing else save for Blackbirds, Robins, Reed Buntings, Chaffinches, Dunnocks and a few Blue Tits. All were busy inspecting and devouring our offerings of millet, rape seed, niger and Luxury Picnic Mix. Moorhens, forced off the frozen water, joined in the feast.

Dunnock

Blue Tit
 
On a good bright morning I reckoned to have better luck with the tide and waders at Knott End where the ice and semblance of snow covered the beach, foreshore, walkways and the jetty. It didn’t take long to find a good but not especially numerous selection of waders either roosting or feeding, but I was careful not to disturb them nor venture too far onto the treacherous icy surfaces.

Ringed Plover

Knot, Turnstone

Grey Plover, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstone, Knot

Redshank

Turnstone

Knot

Redshank

For the record my counts were 30 Turnstone, 1 Grey Plover, 48 Redshank, 22 Knot, 14 Ringed Plover and 3 Oystercatcher.

A few Shelduck in amongst the ice floes sailed past the end of the jetty, as they looked for food at the tide edges.

Shelduck

Also along the foreshore were the now annual visitors, approximately 45 Twite and a single Rock Pipit.

Twite

I’d spent an hour or more taking pictures and I was pretty much frozen to the core so headed home for a hot drink and a sit down next to a radiator.

It looks like the two week cold snap will end today with a return to the more normal wet and windy for Christmas.

Here's  wishing a Happy Christmas and a Successful 2023 to the many readers of Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni in Texas and Eileen's Saturday.



Thursday, December 19, 2019

More Canaries

I'm out of action. For today’s post I put together more archived material. This selection is from January 2013, a winter escape to Fuerteventura, just 60 miles from the coast of Morocco, North Africa.

Fuerteventura is the oldest Canary Island, formed about 70 million years ago as a result of volcanic activity. The geographical position of Fuerteventura means that for many tens of thousands of years sand from the Sahara has been deposited on Fuerteventura's shores, resulting in 125 miles of the world's finest beaches. 

Beach Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura Beach

Little Egret

I volunteered to check out a few beaches for waders and clocked up Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Grey Plover, Redshank, Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew.  Lots of Sandwich Terns buzzed along the shoreline too, West Africa being a hot-spot for seeing the species.

Sanderling 

Kentish Plover

Whimbrel

Sandwich Tern

Anyone planning a trip to Fuerteventura should be forewarned that the island is something of an exhibitionist paradise.  Couples of all persuasions think nothing of walking hand in hand along  the fine sand beaches.

Beach Bums, Fuerteventura  

Although holding a certain attraction, the beaches of Fuerteventura weren’t the sole interest of the holiday. A hire car for a few days gave a chance to explore the island although at approximately 650 square miles there’s a lot of ground to cover. A pure white car may not have been ideal for approaching cautious birds like Cream-coloured Courser, Stone Curlew or Houbara Bustard, the birds of the sandy plains.

Fuerteventura

Over the Plains Fuerteventura

Cream-coloured Courser

Stone Curlew

There were lots of Lesser Short-toed Larks on the dry, open plains with small gangs of Linnets and occasional Desert Grey Shrikes. The Linnets were very unapproachable, likewise the Goldfinches that can be glimpsed in greener parts of the island. The Linnets in the Canary Islands belong to the race/subspecies Linaria cannabina mediterranea, and in these desert islands have a sandy appearance. 


Linnet

Desert Grey Shrike

Lesser Short-toed Lark

We journeyed through the centre of the island through the village of Betancuria and on to the highest parts of the island at 600 metres, giving a spectacular outlook on the landscape below and distant views of an Egyptian Vulture. This species is apparently now rare on the island as they are elsewhere in its range and we had just two sightings of the vulture in two weeks.

Egyptian Vulture

Fuerteventura January 2013

Fuerteventura

Fuerteventura, January 2013.

Inland birds and around the village of Betancuria proved to be Sardinian Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Kestrel, African Blue Tit, Spectacled Warbler and Trumpeter Finch. The latter three were all new birds for me with the wary Trumpeter Finch a particular favourite, due to its slightly comical appearance.

Betancuria - Fuerteventura

Betancuria - Fuerteventura

Trumpeter Finch

A few Spectacled Warblers were in song, and we guessed the breeding season to be early in these parts.

Spectacled Warbler

The so named Canary Islands Stonechat Saxicola dacotiae is found only on Fuerteventura where it is said to frequent dried up river beds, the "barrancos", dotted around the island. I found them in a couple of locations where houses ran down to the beach, one time finding one feeding on the tide wrack with Berthelot’s Pipits. This endemic species is very like a very dark-headed Whinchat rather than a Stonechat but it has the chat like habits of both.

Berthelot's Pipit

Canary Islands Stonechat - CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

 
Fuerteventura

We enjoyed our single visit to Fuerteventura and Costa Calma, a large bay approximately 1.5 km long.  Southwards it is possible to walk along the beach to Morro Jable for approximately 21 km.  

Costa Calma Hotel

In the quiet parts of the hotel grounds were Spanish Sparrows, a pair of Hoopoes, the resident Kestrel and at least one White Wagtail, following  the gardener’s watering hosepipe so as to locate insects. There were Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs about the grounds but they kept out of sight in the strong sunshine of most days.

Hoopoe 

 Spanish Sparrow

Kestrel

African Market, Costa Calma

As very birder knows, there’s a price to pay for a spot of birding, brownie points to be earned and then banked for another day with bins and camera. Here in Costa Calma it’s the “African” market where bartering is the order of the day followed by a glass or two of wine reflecting on the fading light and planning the day to come.

Fuerteventura

More soon. Stay tuned.

Linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday.


Monday, January 26, 2015

What's The Weather Back Home?

Here are a few more pictures from Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain where the temperature hovers around the 21°C mark, just the job to shift those winter blues. 

Birding here isn’t the easiest in the world with a limited number of species, some of which are difficult to find and none provided on a plate but it all makes for interesting and often exploratory days. This all works quite well as it leaves time for Sue and I to enjoy the touristy parts of the island or simply relax on a sunbed around the hotel pools. 

The tourists don’t hit the beaches too early after sampling the nightlife of Purto del Carmen the previous night so a morning walk surveying the deserted beach while looking for a coffee stop provides an agreeable morning. 

Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote

Not too far from the promenade, the shops and the lines of sunbeds there’s an area of rocks and sand which hold Yellow-legged Gulls, Turnstones, Sanderlings and maybe one or two Whimbrel. 


Whimbrel

Sanderling

In the old and very picturesque part of the harbour Little Egrets and Turnstones search through the fishing boats hoping to grab a bite to eat. There are lots of gulls and at the harbour mouth a number of Sandwich Terns loafing away their time until a passing boat sends them back out to sea looking for a meal. 

Puerto del Carmen

Turnstone

Little Egret

Sandwich Tern

The waters off the Canary Islands are rich in Atlantic breeding seabirds, including large numbers of Cory's Shearwaters, Manx Shearwaters, the rare Barolo's Shearwater, White-faced Storm-petrel, Madeiran Storm-petrel and European Storm-petrel, while the list of other regularly-occurring pelagic seabirds includes Wilson's Storm-petrel. 

Watching the sea along the southerly coastline here can result in sightings of whales and dolphins including the Short-Finned Pilot Whale and Common and Bottlenose Dolphins, and it is said that Hammerhead Sharks and Loggerhead Turtles are present. The Canary Islands were also formerly home to a population of the rarest pinniped in the world, the Mediterranean Monk Seal. 

From the hotel I have seen distant whales in past years so keep a look out although I’m more likely to see one of the many ocean going yachts moored locally. 

Yacht at Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

Back at our hotel there are a couple of walks across the often parched landscape might provide Houbara Bustard or Cream-coloured Courser. Oases of greenery including gardens can turn up the goods like Trumpeter Finch, Desert Grey Shrike, Collared Dove, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Berthelot’s Pipit and Spanish Sparrow.

Calero, Lanzarote

Spanish Sparrow

Trumpeter Finch

Desert Grey Shrike

Hotel Costa Calero

This week I found nesting Desert Grey Shrike, breeding Stone Curlew, Houbara Bustards and a pair of Trumpeter Finches yards from the hotel.

It’s back to normal in the UK very soon on Another Bird Blog. Stay tuned.

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