Birding Barbara

Had a great day in N Norfolk with James, Terry and Marie. Our main focus was geese - the large pinkfeet flocks attracted some quality geese over the last few days. We set an aim to see 14 goose taxa today but ended up with only eight... We started early around Syderstone and Docking. Scanning our own flocks produced little more than a few Tundra Beans, some Euro Whitefronts, a wild-looking Greylag, and a couple of funny hybrids. But hey, we didn't get bogged which was an achievement. As normal in these conditions, birds are distant and the best one can expect is crap digiscoped record shots. 

After some time others relocated the Red-breasted and the Todd's Canada side by side, north of Docking (thanks Ben for gen). We headed over there and the birds were on show. A mile away but scope views were good. Photos were, ehmmm... But great to see these two quality birds in the same scope view. This is my first 'wild' Canada Goose in the WP, and only my second-ever Red-breast. By the attention it receives from local birders, it should be 'wild' too. 

The Beauty and the Beast: Red-breasted Goose and Todd's Canada Goose, with Pink-footed Geese

Digiscoped through Swarovski ATX95 with Samsung Galaxy S5 and Novagrade adapter

Non-plastic Greylag? Who knows

Funny pigment-challenged (thanks Dave!) Pink-footed Goose. When I first saw its head, I thought it was a Lesser Whitefront. It clearly isn't. Sorry about the quality - a very long way away.

According to part of our team, the day's highlight was a brilliant breakfast at a secret N Norfolk spot:

While we had a quiet and cosy breakfast, outside things were happening. We moved on to Titchwell for some quality seaducks. When we got there, Storm Barabara had hit the coast and the weather was quite horrible. We were greeted at the carpark by this friendliest Robin, demonstrating pure Christmas spirit. James didn't miss an opp to pap him, and got down and dirty. Hardcore wildlife photography.

Braving the storm, we headed down to the beach. We had a quick look on the freshmarsh, and amazingly James picked up this adult Yellow-legged Gull, despite his frequent declarations that he doesn't do large white-headed gulls. 

One Water Pipit was on the freshmarsh too. On the beach it was pretty awful. The wind was so strong we couldn't stand up. Hunched under the concrete blocks, trying to find some shelter, we scanned the large raft of seaducks bobbing up and down on the choppy sea. The crazy wind had pushed them away from shore so views were less than great. But still it was quite fun with quality. There were over 25 Long-tailed Ducks, 6-7 Velvet Scoters, 1 Slavonian Grebe, 1 probable Black-throated Diver. I just love long-tails - great birds:

On the way back we paid a visit to the Ferruginous Duck on Pat's Pool. I would not twitch this bird independently, but the others were keen so why not. When we got there we scanned hard through the distant tufted flock and couldn't find the bird! Then we were shamefully told by other birders it was right under our nose, mooching about with the dabbling ducks. The sky darkened then as a result of the fading light and intensifying storm. Another set of excuses for rubbish photos. It was time to head back home.

 Ferruginous Duck 

With Gadwall

'Merry Christmas boys and girls!' says Mr. Fudge

Birds in the Holy Land - a new book by Thomas Krumenacker

In this post I want to present a beautiful new book published recently by my dear friend Thomas Krumenacker. This is not a book review (I write book reviews for Dutch Birding); it is rather a celebration of this wonderful creation by my friend. I am too involved in the book, and too close to Thomas to provide a critical book review. But anyway, it is not an ID guide, nor a generic 'Where to Watch Birds at...' book, so it deserves a differnt approach anyway. It is first of all a book full of beautiful photographs of the stunning birds of Israel. Thomas really is a very good photographer - and this is the foremost virtue of the book - the brilliant photographs. Through his endless visits to Israel, Berlin-based Thomas has captured some of the best wildlife photos I have ever seen taken in Israel. Already the front cover is gripping, demonstrating that the book contains not only field-guide photos, but also lots of artistic and aesthetic beauty.

In the book Thomas showcases his best photographs, some of which have become his trademarks, like this shot of Eurasian Cranes in the Hula Valley that won the 2011 Best World Press Photo in the nature category:

Or this dramatic photo of an Eastern Imperial Eagle giving a young crane the kiss of death:

But it is more than just a coffee-table book. The book is structured in a way that it takes the reader on a journey through Israel. Thomas treats some of Israel's main biomes in separate chapters (The Hula Valley, The Arava Valley and Eilat etc.), and combines introductory text, bird photos and landscape photos to provide a complete experience. I found the text very well written, full of life through personal experiences and feelings, and spiced up with some good humour. Though Thomas is not a native English speaker, the English is excellent. I must confess that only after scanning this page I found a Freudian German slip in the caption...

Though as I mentioned above this book has no proper site details and maps, it does provide a good introduction to the most important sites like Hula Valley and Eilat. The captions by each photograph are informative and often tell a little story of provide useful information:

As I mentioned earlier, I worked with Thomas in the field during some of his projects in Israel. He always produced better photos than me... But I am glad I could contribute a little to his book. We took the Moustached Warbler photo above shoulder-by-shoulder in the Hula in 2011. I held the torch when Thomas photographed this Desert Tawny Owl in a bloody night in 2014 (sorry about the dirty scanner):

In March 2009 Thomas started a fascinating photo-project on Sinai Rosefinches and other desert birds in the Eilat Mts., using fisheye lenses and remote controlled cameras capturing unique photos of the birds and their environment. Thomas attracted the birds to a small drinking puddle specially created for them:

To create stunning photos like this:

I sat away from the setup, and watched in awe how the birds perched on the cameras and tripods without a problem. Magic.

Thomas's main profession is a news reporter for Reuters. Through his work, Thomas got know all the different aspects of life in Israel, often complicated and less-than-idyllic. However, I think that Thomas truly loves Israel, not only its wildlife but also the country's people, cultures and diversity. This love of Israel is clearly evident in the book, and for this I personally thank Thomas.

If I could offer a small piece of constructive criticism to Thomas (which is unfair as Thomas has sent me an early draft and asked for my comments, but I failed to comment properly back then), I would like to see an index of species and sites, and perhaps a page in the book could be dedicated to more information about birding in Israel (useful websites, literature etc.). But maybe this can be done in Thomas's website.

I strongly recommend buying this book. If you have been to Israel before, this book will make you nostalgic and want to return to Israel. If you haven't been to Israel yet but have an interest in birding in Israel or in the region, hopefully this book will convince you to visit Israel for the first time. And if you just like beautiful books on birds - this is the perfect Christmas gift.

The book comes in two versions - English and German. The English version can be ordered through the Israel Birding Portal. Both English and German versions can be ordered through Thomas's website.

The autumn that doesn't stop giving

Just as I was about to pack my birding gear up for the winter, news broke of this Dusky Thrush in Derbyshire. After the first positive news came in this morning, I joined Will (who luckily needed it for his Derbyshire list), Dan, Jake and Michael - all five of us crammed into Will's feisty but brake-less Corsa. We arrived at the tiny village of Beeley in the early afternoon, and as we were looking for somewhere to park the car, birders were watching it just beside us. We abandoned the car and saw the bird within about 10 seconds of arriving. Incredible. Phew. But views were not great and certainly no satisfying photos. Then it flew off and away, and we found ourselves in a pretty bizarre twitch scene. Loads of birders running around like headless chickens, peeking over walls and into gardens, but we had no idea where we were, what was the birds' regular loop and what to do. After a while the thrush thankfully reappeared and disappeared again, and we ran from one side of the village to the other, trying to improve our views. Eventually it did settle for a bit, and so did we. It showed quite well until it got dark and I was pretty satisfied. What a brilliant bird! That pattern on the underparts... Too distant and dark for proper photos, and it was partially obscured most of the time, but hey-ho, can't complain.
Good to meet up with many twitchy friends - this autumn we had lots of super opportunities to meet.
Dusky Thrush is a much-wanted WP tick for me. Only one Israeli record, in 1984 just before I started birding properly. I saw lots if East Asia, but this is of course a very special bird over here.
The ride back was uneventful. I was hoping for a second tick as we drove through the desolate grouse moors - funnily enough I still need Red Grouse, but that will have to wait for another time.
Many thanks to Will for driving!

Dusky Thrush, Beeley, Derbyshire, 5/12/16

I know little about age and sex of Dusky Thrush. Collins guide shows that pale tips to GC are retained juvenile feathers. But Nils van Duivendijk mentions in his handbook that 1cy should show a moult contrast in GC. In my photos I can see no moult limit, and tail feathers look nice and broad, but what do I know? Regarding sex, throat is all streaked, that seems to indicate female, but underparts pattern is really nice and contrasty. Not sure.

Sorry about this one...

30% of my Derbyshire list

Sunset over Peak District National Park. Good night little bird. 

Drake Goosander

Took a lunchtime stroll to check if the Goosander found by Drew last night on UEA Broad was still present. It was. I first wasted time trying to photograph it with my phone through bins. Then my lovely wife graciously brought me my camera to work, and in the afternoon I went for seconds.
The fine-looking drake was pretty shy and kept its distance from me (but ignored dog walkers and ordinary students). It swam from one side of the lake to the other, occasionally flying short distances. The light was alright but my old camera is too slow so I screwed up the flight shots. But I guess that for 15 minutes of effort this is not too bad.
This is my second UEA Goosander. The January 2015 redhead was even more skittish. Not a rare bird in Norfolk, but always nice to see. Unique birds.

Anyone knows anything about moult of these guys? He seems to have a suspended moult?

 

Those red legs...

With friends

I'm out of here

It's not my tern today

Experienced my first proper dip of my short UK twitching career today. A Forster's Tern showed brilliantly over the weekend just around the corner in Suffolk / Essex, but I simply could not go. All my mates went and had a great time, that included sending me back-of-camera shots from the field. This afternoon I finally had a chance to go with Ben. We hoped for a repeat of yesterday's appearance at the Felixstowe Ferry gull roost, and there was a probable observation in the morning, so we left Norwich with mild optimism. We were joined by 4yo Toby...
It was cold and windy, and when we got there we were greeted by some grim faces. We walked the long way out to the only place where the roost is viewable from, and hoped for the best. Sadly, our hopes never materialized. Lots of gulls came in to roost, but not our tern. We waited and waited, scanned and scanned, but bugger all. I found a smart-looking 1cy Caspian Gull,1-2 heinei-type Common Gulls, a Med Gull, but I was so cold and so buggered that I couldn't bother getting record shots in the gloom from miles away.
On the way back to the Norwich we had the classic post-dip conversation. One day someone should write a book that collates all the dipping phrases: 'Can't win'em all', 'Part of the game', 'At least I found a Caspian Gull', 'Such a great site - I am really happy I got to know it' etc.

Waxwing fever

So what's my story with Waxwing? Since childhood, I wanted to see Waxwings. In Israel they're mythical rarities - a handful of records from the 1960's and 1970's, and that's it. And they're beautiful. And they're unique. And despite originating from the cold boreal forest, they feel so exotic. And they toss berries up in the air.
Since I moved to the UK this is the first proper Waxwing winter. I have seen a few this year already, but have not satisfied my appetite with them, yet. Today I got one step closer to catharsis, but I still need a really tame group in a frosty morning at eye level.
Anyway, today before work had an enjoyable hour or so with UEA ringing group mates. A flock of about 20 have settled in a park near my house for a few days now. As part of a national project, we tried to ring some today. When I arrived it was so mild they were flycatching from tree-tops and didn't care much about berries:

But later on they did come down to their favourite Rowan tree and we caught six! Fantastic birds. We had a nice selection of different ages and sexes. Those wings - wow!

Waxwing - adult male

Oooof...

Those waxy tips are just brilliant aren't they?

I didn't know that adult males have red waxy spots at the tips of tail feathers too:

Waxwing - 1cy female 

1cy female (left), 2cy+ female(right). Note difference in pattern on primaries. The adult female had suspended its primary moult - outer primary unmoulted. This is an uncommon moult pattern, but it is mentioned in Laurent Demongin's guide.