Sal and Adie and I with Adie's friend, have just been to Portugal for a few days, with Hannah away on a school trip to Morocco. Just before we went it seemed spring had sprung properly at home, with Chiffchaff, Blackcap and 2 Willow Warblers singing in the garden on the 9th and 3 Swallows flying through. I managed to succumb to another virus of some sort that laid me out (now doubt picked up in Vietnam), so the week in Portugal was mainly about recovering - I saw a few birds, such as Red-rumped Swallow, Azure-Winged Magpie, Sardinian Warbler, Serin, Hoopoe, Woodchat Shrike, European Bee-eater, White storks, Zitting Cisticola, Thekla Lark, Golden Oriole and Spotless Starling, but now just looking forward to a few weeks of British Spring before the next trip. ....... I've also been a bit lax on updating the Vietnam trip - I'll probably post the first few days and then update a bit more at a time, but I reckon my list for the year is on 858.
Sunday, 20 April 2014
Friday, 4 April 2014
Thursday 3rd April - Selsey Surprise
Getting back into the thick of things having returned from a 3 week birding trip abroad is always a slow process, but with a favourable SE wind which looked to be on it's final day before swinging around to the West, I went to Selsey first thing. The lingering murk was still present t has been across much of Southern England and it was a little slow for the first hour with just a handful of Red-breasted Mergansers on the sea a small number of Sandwich Terns lingering . 4 Gannets flew past with 3 Fulmars. Up to 5 Great northern Divers and a single Red-throated were visible on the low tide and 3 Common Scoters pitched down on the water. 4 Curlew, a Sanderling and 20 Turnstone were the only waders.
After about an hour a Long-tailed Duck flew in, landed briefly for a few dives and then continued East. The first Common Terns (5) of the year for me also went East and a Chiffchaff was seen to fly in from the sea and land in the bushes. A couple of large Brent Goose flocks flew quite close to the shoreline, giving rise to the comments about whether there would be any other geese in with the flocks and sure enough at 9.30 the shout went out of Red-breasted Goose. A flock of 35 then of 20 were close together and the third bird in the second flock was indeed a Red-breasted Goose - to the amazement and excitement of all present, word spread along the coast and the bird was seen in at least 2 other sites .
As the mist lifted, a few more migrants started to appear with 5 Swallows a White Wagtail, a Hobby and a movement of passerines which were mostly Meadow Pipits, with some Linnets and Goldfinch. Proved to be an excellent few hours.
After about an hour a Long-tailed Duck flew in, landed briefly for a few dives and then continued East. The first Common Terns (5) of the year for me also went East and a Chiffchaff was seen to fly in from the sea and land in the bushes. A couple of large Brent Goose flocks flew quite close to the shoreline, giving rise to the comments about whether there would be any other geese in with the flocks and sure enough at 9.30 the shout went out of Red-breasted Goose. A flock of 35 then of 20 were close together and the third bird in the second flock was indeed a Red-breasted Goose - to the amazement and excitement of all present, word spread along the coast and the bird was seen in at least 2 other sites .
As the mist lifted, a few more migrants started to appear with 5 Swallows a White Wagtail, a Hobby and a movement of passerines which were mostly Meadow Pipits, with some Linnets and Goldfinch. Proved to be an excellent few hours.
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Tuesday 1 April - Return to blighty
Returned yesterday from a great 3 week trip to Vietnam - Need to go through everything but 350 species seen about half of which were new for me, we did really well on the key species seeing 9 species of Partridge/Pheasant. 10 species of LaughingThrush and 3 Pittas plus all the key Indochinese endemics. Will write up a separate report - Spring is definitely here at home !
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