February Patching.

My January patchwork challenge score was poor although this was not unexpected. After all, spending 10 days out of the country is good for a world list but adds nothing to a patch list, and the final killer was going down with energy-sapping flu almost immediately after arriving home. Once back to a reasonable level of fitness it was time to hit the patch hard. Number 1 target was the Rough-legged Buzzard on Haddiscoe Island which was being seen regularly from The Mound in Waveney Forest. My problem was that for it to count I had to see it from the New Cut, my patch boundary. Four times I trudged out along the New Cut in often dismal weather and four times I failed. At least for one of those efforts, it turned out the bird was on the other side of the high reed-fringed bank of the River Waveney and hence out of view from the Cut. Last Wednesday afternoon saw my fifth attempt. The portents were good; I had visited Breydon Water at lunchtime and almost the first bird I saw as I walked up on to the South Wall was a Rough-leg being mobbed by 2 crows on the opposite bank. I settled myself 2/3 of the way along the New Cut and started scanning. The Island was alive with Short-eared Owls, I counted a least 8 in just one sweep across the marshes, some close, some distant, but their (to me) butterfly-like flight makes them distinctive. Marsh Harriers were regularly on patrol, the occasional Common Buzzard put in an appearance and a single ringtail Hen Harrier drifted from Reedham across to Fritton. A single smart peregrine was perched on the marsh and Barn owls began to emerge as the afternoon drew on. There was no sign of the Rough-leg. Suddenly in the far distance  a large longish-winged raptor flying quickly and low across the marshes caught my eye. I could make out nothing on it until a Short-eared harried it and it flipped up to reveal a white tail base with a dark terminal band. Here was the Rough-leg at long last. I followed it for a minute or two hoping it would come closer but eventually it merged in to the haze and landed on a very distant gate becoming an indistinct blob.
Other new birds were more of a surprise, not least the patch life tick I had. Coming home from work one afternoon I found the Haddiscoe Dam closed by a lorry in a dyke just a mile from home. Faced with the alternative of a 25 mile detour to get home, I parked my car up at the New Cut bridge and walked the mile and a half across the marshes to home. (Fortunately my car is fully equipped with walking boots, waterproof jacket, over-trousers, gloves, hat and spare bins for emergency twitches from work). Returning in the dark to pick up my car in the late evening Chris and I both spotted an owl sat on branch overhanging the road. There's occasionally a Tawny or Barn Owl on this branch but as we drove under it we both simultaneously noticed that this one had long ears! The car was quickly slammed in to reverse but the Long-eared owl, a patch tick, flew off across the fields never to be seen again.
Two weeks ago the dog and I did a big circular walk across the marshes hoping there might be a Water Pipit around one of the many pools on both the arable and grazing marsh. The marshes were surprisingly quiet at first, the large flocks of lapwings and Golden Plover seeming to have moved on, but on the return leg Chris phoned me from the house to tell me about 6 White-fronted Geese he could see from his elevated view point, which I eventually tracked down behind a low ridge. Nearing the marsh edge 5 Barn Owls appeared and I enjoyed the sight of 3 Hares having a bit of March madness in February. I was just watching the dog, a little Jack Russell, tanking off in another fruitless pursuit of a Chinese Water Deer when a small falcon rocketed past across the reeds. It turned and came back across the path in front of me, a superb female Merlin, actually quite a rarity out here.

 The following weekend I was just about to head indoors after feeding the sheep when I head the distinctive wild sound of Bewicks Swans. I raced indoors to grab bins and head upstairs for an elevated view but I think they headed east low behind our wood and sadly  I couldn't see them. However that afternoon on one of my rough-legless walks along the New Cut, I noticed a smaller swan amongst the 100 strong Mute Swan flock that winters on Thurlton marshes and had good views of a single Bewicks, another Patchwork 2 point bird.
With the first returning Lesser Black-back of the year added today, February ended with 14 species and 19 points added. Patchwork is back on track.

Birding the Atlantic Rainforest Brazil Part 2

The next three days were spent birding the mid-altitude forest between Serra dos Toucanos Lodge and the town of Nova Friburgo. Nova Friburgo was the scene of a devastating flood and catastrophic mud slide just 4 years ago which killed several hundred people. It puts the UKs recent flooding "disasters" in to perspective. The only sign of the catastrophe today in Nova Friburgo is a bare, neatly terraced grassed hill side where there were once houses. On a lighter note, Nova Friburgo is the lingerie capital of Brazil; the road approaching it is lined by shop after shop selling nothing but underwear!
Day 4 was spent along the Macae de Cima road walking a bit, driving a bit, walking a bit more and so on. It was a little slow to start. One of the target birds, the Bare-throated Bellbird, wasn't in its usual tree but there were others calling and we eventually found another perched distantly. Another target, a Serra Tyrant Manakin that had been singing from the same corner for 7 years obstinately refused to show. We were distracted by a Dusky-legged Guan looking rather ungainly as it ate fruit high in the top of a cercropia tree.

Then a magnificent Black Hawk-eagle circled over our heads

As we walked back past the Manakin it started to sing again from within the forest. Taking a narrow path through the trees and up a slope the Manakin was finally located. It was hardly the most spectacular of birds, being a nondescript dull green but it was another very local species.
We stopped for lunch but we had hardly started eating when a Surucua Trogon started calling and flew straight in above our heads. Trogons usually fly in, sit still doing very little and then fly off again. This one was very active and began feeding in the trees above us.

Walking on, we came across a very showy Bellbird calling insistently from the top of a tree above the path. Shortly after we were lucky to come across the very different female, a usually secretive bird. She had been drawn in by the male who took a keen interest in her.

Next day we birded the Portao Azul trail all on foot. We had hardly left the minibus when new birds started showing all around. First, a Dusky-tailed Antbird, followed by Scale-throated Hermit, Scaled Woodcreeper and then a Bertoni's Antbird which appeared without the need for any use of the tape. Suddenly I noticed a large woodcreeper probing a trunk with the most enormous down-curved bill, the appropriately named Black-billed Scythebill, a great bird to see. Walking on the trees seemed full of birds including Long-tailed and Shear-tailed Tyrants, Swallow Tanagers and the very attractive but difficult to photograph Gilt-edged and Red-headed Tanagers. We also had another Dusky-legged Guan wandering along the track in front of us like an elongated turkey. The icing on the cake was an Ochre-tailed Antbird, a species we had tried for repeatedly the previous day without success.
Day 6 started very well when I spotted the superb looking Blond-crested Woodpecker outside the dining room as we ate breakfast. Todays trip was a visit to the Theodoro Trail just a short drive from the lodge. This had started as a railway line, was converted in to a road and then abandoned when the new road was built. It had been almost completely swallowed by the forest and in places was slipping down the hillside but it was a great birding site. A cute little White-throated Spadebill posed beautifully for me to take its photo and we quickly ran in to a bird flock, unusual during the breeding season, but always exciting trying to sort through all the different species including several different foliage gleaners and tanagers. The endemic Azure-shouldered Tanager was one of the highlights.

                                             White-throated Spadebill

Skulking on the ground was a Rufous-breasted Leaftosser and further along a few of us managed a brief view of a Sharp-tailed Streamcreeper, both rather dull brown birds but with fantastic names. A Ferruginous Antbird put in an appearance (along with another Bertoni's) completing the set of 6 endemic antbirds we could hope to see. Meanwhile a Cryptic Anththrush serenaded us with its amazing song, an ascending series of notes become louder and more frantic until it seemed the bird must explode. There was little hope of seeing this secretive bird so we concentrated instead on searching for the Sharpbill whose song was a single descending note like a falling artillery shell but without the explosion at the end. It was a good three-quarters of an hour walking backwards and forwards between 2 spots on the track before the bird finally showed.

Our final full day was spent on a whistle-stop tour of open pastoral landscape to the north of Nova Friburgo with remnant fragments of forest. Our first stop gave us Blue-winged Macaw, Streamer-tailed Tyrant and the classic Guinness bird, the Toco Toucan. Another stop at an unpromising tiny roadside clump of trees produced the endemic Serra Antwren. The wonderfully named Firewood-gatherer, so named because of its huge stick nest was another bird that duly obliged. Pulling in next to a cattle yard, a quick play of the tape drew an instant response from a pair of White-cheeked Puffbirds.

Our lunch stop was also the site for the slightly bizarre looking Curl-crested Jay but with the threat of impending rain we quickly moved on to our most important target bird of the day, the Three-toed Jacamar. This is a very rare and range-restricted species with probably only 1000 individuals left. We turned off the main road on to a dirt track and stopped almost immediately at the end of what seemed like someones drive with a few large trees on our left. It was a surprising site for such a rare bird but within minutes up popped not one but three birds which put on a great show for us, a fitting end to a fantastic trip.

The drive back to the lodge added Burrowing Owl and Rufous-capped Antshrike to the list.
We had a few hours to ourselves on our final morning before our scheduled departure at 11am. I headed up in to the trees around the garden and was delighted to find (and identify) by myself another regional endemic, the Black-capped Foliage-gleaner, but it was soon time to make our final drive in our trusty minibus and return to the UK. If you are interested in doing the same tour check out Serra dos Toucanos website here. I travelled with Birdfinders (although other bird tour companies are available they use the same lodge and the same guide at sometimes a higher cost) and had a great time.

Birding the Atlantic Rainforest Brazil Part 1

It's been a while since I last posted; 2 reasons, first I went on a birding holiday to Brazil for 10 days; second, I arrived home and within three days was laid low with a horrible flu-like virus that knocked me out for nearly 2 weeks.
So back to Brazil. Brazil is a vast country and my tour visited just a tiny part of it near Rio de Janeiro concentraing on endemic and regional endemic birds of the Atlantic rain-forest, a much diminished and fragmented habitat. We were met at the airport in Rio by our guide, the excellent Andy Foster, incredibly patient, genial and a superb birder, and driven straight to Serra dos Toucanos lodge about 80 miles away. The highlight of the drive was the numerous Magnificent Frigatebirds cruising at eye-level along the massive bridge that crosses the bay around which Rio is built. At the lodge we were immediately seeing our first endemics in the garden such as Brazilian and Green-headed Tanager, Sombre Hummingbird and Black Jacobin before being served a filling lunch.

       
                                                             Brazilian Tanager

                                                         Green-headed Tanager

                                                           Sombre Hummingbird

                                                               Black Jacobin

After lunch  Andy led us on our first walk in to the surrounding forest, secondary growth that had reclaimed an abandoned banana plantation, but still rich with birds including the endemic Scaled Antbird. During evening drinks and the days bird list on the verandah, the lodges Slaty-breasted Wood-rails, another endemic, put on a good show emerging from the forest and stalking around the edge of the garden pond.

                                                       Slaty-breasted Wood-rail

Day 2, our first full day, saw us heading upwards to Pico Caledonia, a mountain that reaches up to 2100m, in search of higher altitude birds and some particularly special endemics. We had barely left the minibus when the calls of the very localised Black-and-Gold Cotinga had us scurrying up the steep track to enjoy some excellent views of calling males. They were also joined briefly by a Swallow-tailed Cotinga.

                                                     Black-and-Gold Cotinga

The even rarer Grey-winged Cotinga (a species only described in 1980 and only known from a handful of sites) was harder to find. A calling male tantalised us for some time before Andy spotted it perched on a distant tree, not exactly the best views in the world but a relief to catch up with it.

                                  Phone-scoped Grey-winged Cotinga (scope on 50x)

Climbing beyond the trees to the scrubby low bushes at the top of the mountain our next target was the Itatiaia Thistletail, another very localised endemic. This too gave us an anxious wait before showing briefly, but eventually it decided to show a little better in the bushes below our viewpoint on the stairway that climbed the mountain to the communication aerials on the mountains summit. Other highlights were the creeping mouse-like Serra Do Mar Tapaculo (described only in 2006), Rufous-tailed Antbird and Brazilian Ruby.

                                                            Rusty-tailed Antbird  

                                                                  Brazilian Ruby

From our lofty position the views too were also tremendous but we also had an interesting encounter with a swarm of bees which appeared from nowhere. Andy ordered us to lie on the ground and keep still as the swarm passed over us as the bees could be potentially aggressive.

After a successful trip up the mountain we moved to a lower, more open area and here a family of Red-legged Seriemas put on a terrific display.

                                                              Red-legged Seriemas

The following day, we went in the opposite dierction to the lowland forest area of REGUA, a wetland and forest reserve that has been reclaimed from old pastureland by the planting of thousands of trees. In the heat of Brazil, the trees grow rapidly and the areas we were birding in with large trees had only been planted within the last 10 years. The change in altitude and the wetland brought a new set of birds and two endemic antwrens, Unicoloured and Silvery-flanked, and the endemic Sooretama Antshrike. For variety, we also saw 2 Capybaras and a Broad-snouted Caiman.
Returning to the lodge in the mid-afternoon there was time for a visit to a trail just up the road where we came across yet another endemic Antwren, Star-throated and also Spot-breasted Antvireo.

                                                           Spot-breasted Antvireo           

Day 3 was spent fully at Serra dos Toucanos exploring the grounds more fully and also giving the photographers some free time to concentrate on taking photos. Highlights were Rufous-crowned Motmot, a superb but elusive bird, Black-throated Trogon, White-eyed Foliage-gleaner and stunning views of Rufous-capped Antthrush, walking along the forest floor with its cocked tail reminiscent of a tiny moorhen.

Happy New Patch Birding Year

My Patchwork Challenge for 2014 ended 3 species and 8 points down on 2013. The mild winter of 2014 with a consequent lack of winter wildfowl was the main cause of this downturn in fortune but undaunted I've registered for 2015.
I left my patch (and Norfolk) on New Years Day and headed south to the Stour Estuary in Suffolk, and with work yesterday, today was the first day I could spend some serious birding time at home. There were other important duties to attend to however with some of these guys due this weekend:

but the seven ewes left to lamb were languidly chewing their cud every time I walked through the rain to check them. The rain kept me indoors much of the day but with a handily placed scope at the upstairs bedroom window birding could continue in comfort and warmth regardless.
Surprise of the day was the doubling of our seemingly now winter resident Tree Sparrow population from two to four birds. With birds popping in and out of the hedge, it was a while before I managed to see all four together on top of our privet hedge. The rain kept the local raptors down but, as it eased a little, a ringtail Hen Harrier appeared (always good to get safely on the patch list for another year). A Barn Owl was doggedly hunting through the rain too. Also out hunting, but happily unsuccessfully, were three wildfowlers who had built a temporary shooting blind and laid Pinkfeet decoys across a marsh directly out from the house. The Pinkfeet flock sensibly stayed up by the A143 close to Haddiscoe and the wildfowlers clearly cold, wet and bored from the way they ended up out of the blind stamping their feet and waving their arms gave up mid-morning. Within minutes of them leaving, the geese moved up closer to a more favoured feeding ground. The wary geese were obviously not easily fooled.
The rain finally cleared in the late afternoon in time for a pleasant walk around our marsh. A Woodcock flushing from our alder wood as I passed was my first of the winter. Then an owl lifted off the next marsh clutching prey and turned out to be a Short-eared, surprisingly scarce here this winter. Barn Owls seem to be returning to their former abundance after the disastrous winter of 2012-13 with 3 in the air at once and finally 2 Stonechats put on a show amongst the reeds of the neighbouring marsh, another bird that disappeared in 2013.

The bird that has been surprisingly missing from patch all winter is Rough-legged Buzzard. Haddiscoe Marshes were until very recently particularly favoured by Rough-legs but have yet to appear this year and have only been reported once or twice from nearby Haddiscoe Island despite there being a big influx in to the UK this autumn. Hopefully its just a matter of time.

Murmurations on the marsh

Its been a mostly grey, wet, dismal November here in East Norfolk particularly at the weekends which hasn't tempted me to travel far. Apart from a brief foray to Sea Palling for a repeat look at the Humpbacked Whale, on its last day as it turned out, I've stuck to patch birding.
As it happens the patch (otherwise known as home) hasn't been at all bad. Raptors have been especially numerous, the star birds being two ringtail Hen Harriers regularly quartering the marshes and probably roosting here too as I've seen them coming up from the reeds heading out in the mornings to hunt. The local Kestrels have clearly had a good breeding season too as 4 or 5 can be seen in one sweep of the marshes, with similar numbers of Common Buzzards, the calls of which are now a regular feature of the marsh soundscape. Sparrowhawks regularly buzz the garden and a Peregrine caught my eye one day as it flew purposefully over the house. Marsh Harriers are ubiquitous as always.
The star bird in the garden however has been Tree Sparrow. One bird appeared on the bird feeders 15 days ago and was joined by a second the following day, surprisingly with a House Sparrow another rarity in our garden. The House Sparrows visit was short-lived but the Tree Sparrows, having always previously just been brief visitors for a few hours, have stayed. They are clearly roosting in the hedge that divides our sheep paddock as their cheery chirruping is a feature of early morning trips to the chicken house.

Winter visitors have been trickling through too with the occasional Brambling and small groups of Redwing and Fieldfare too.
Today I took the dog on a long circular walk across Thurlton Marshes to the New Cut and back across Thorpe Marshes. The arable fields of Thurlton Marsh had large open pools of water across them and these were a magnet for Lapwings and Golden Plover. I counted upwards of 1000 Lapwing and 190 Golden Plover, the largest numbers I can recall seeing in the area.

On Thorpe Marshes, on a marsh next to the main A143 Haddiscoe Dam, I found my first grazing flock of Pink-footed Geese of the winter with a single White-fronted Goose.

The absolute highlight of the week however has to be the starlings. We noticed a few starlings roosting in the rushes and reeds behind Thorpe Hall a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend I reckoned there were about 3000 of them in a mini murmuration. By mid week the numbers had doubled but tonight mini had become massive. I walked out to the edge of our wood to watch the spectacle. As dusk approached thousands of starlings began to gather on the electricity wires across the marshes in dense masked ranks that bowed the wires. As they started to swirl over the reeds, more and more birds were pouring in from all directions. Last year I watched a roost of what I was told were 15000 starlings at Island Mere, Minsmere but this was way bigger and simply mesmerising. The noise from thousands of chattering starlings was incredible. After whirling around for about 10 minutes the starlings plummeted en masse in to the reeds but as darkness fell I could still hear the birds as I returned to the house.

This is just a small section of the flock. The thick black line to the right of the picture is starlings packed on the wires.

Desert Wheatears

Its been a remarkable end to the week with the discovery of not one but two Desert Wheatears, a few miles apart and a few miles from home. First up a 1st winter male on the North Denes at Lowestoft on Thursday, easily located from the Links Road car park by the small cluster of birders on the sea wall. The bird wasn't on view when I arrived as it had gone on to the beach but I was told it would pop back on to the sea wall and sure enough it did. Desert Wheatears are known to be confiding and this one was particularly so, picking at small black flies swarming on one edge of the sea wall whilst birders watched and photographed it from the other. Conditions were ideal for photography too, windless with a bright low winter sun and a blue North Sea as a back drop.

At times it would come even closer and wasn't perturbed when a springer spaniel trotted past it just a foot away.

A brief seawatch produced a distant single Little Auk powering northwards and thankfully avoiding falling victim to one of the many Great Black-backed Gulls loafing off shore.
Today, it was the turn of the female on Gorleston beach, still in Suffolk to Suffolk birders, but Norfolk to Norfolk birders and the County Council. Although sunny, a brisk wind was blowing up the beach so this bird was taking shelter against the base of the sea wall rather than feeding on top of it. Just like the Lowestoft male, this bird was extremely approachable and was unworried by the birders and general public above it.

Given that any novice with a reasonable camera could get a decent photo why then was it that certain photographers felt the need to scatter mealworms on the sunlit area of sand to tempt the bird out from its shelter in to the sunshine? The wheatear would dash out, grab a mealworm and immediately return to the sea wall and stay there for several minutes before dashing out again. Some would say that feeding the bird helps it but equally, feeding it could tempt the bird to linger in an area that is unsuitable for it. Others compare feeding for photographic purposes to feeding garden birds but there is a crucial difference. The photographer puts out mealworms for the purpose of changing the behaviour of the bird in order to get a better photo, the bird may (or may not) benefit as a secondary consequence but once he's got his photo he drives away and abandons the bird. The garden bird feeder puts out food for the primary reason that it benefits the birds visiting the garden, the feeder getting the secondary consequential pleasure of seeing birds closer, and the garden feeder will continue to feed the birds day in, day out providing a dependable food source. The bottom line is that we have no idea what the consequences are of providing food to a displaced migrant and the motives of the mealworm providing photographers are essentially selfish. Who wants a photo of a wild bird with a very unwild mealworm in its beak anyway?

Back home, there's a distinctly wintery feel to the marsh. A ringtail female Hen Harrier seems to be lingering in the area and a Stonechat seems to have taken up winter residence along the reed fringed dykes. Small flocks of winter thrushes pass over daily and a swirling flock of several thousand starlings is also gracing the area. The first groups of Pink-footed Geese are also on the move up and down the valley but are yet to arrive in large numbers

Scilly 2014

Hmmmm. Scilly 2014: well, it would have been better if I had been able to post a picture of an amazing American passerine in the slot above but instead you've had to make do with a stunning view, which along with the social side in the evenings, is what always redeems even the worst of Scilly years. 2014 will probably go down in birding folklore as one of the worst years ever, at least since 1974 I've been told and when I become an old birder I'll be able to say "I was there".
It started off well enough. My flight was on time and I made the 10.15 boat to St Agnes. Arriving on the island we walked straight to Castella Down in search of the Short-toed Lark. Reaching the area my group split to search but the first bird I looked at was the Lark feeding at the back of the field with some Meadow Pipits

A report of a Tawny Pipit by the Big Pool had us rushing down to Periglis and although it turned out to be a Richards Pipit we had prolonged good views of the bird as bounced around amongst long grass and rocks. I finished my day, whilst others had retired to the Turks Head, enjoying a Barred Warbler feeding out in the open on Gugh.
The following day there was time in the morning to visit the incredibly confiding Snow Bunting on King Edwards Road on Peninnis before embarking on MV Sapphire for a mini pelagic.

We steamed out from St Marys for a couple of miles  before looping round and coming back in via the Western Rocks. Birds were a little slow, a good view of a single Balearic Shearwater was the highlight and Joe Pender manoeuvred the Sapphire within touching distance (almost) of a Purple Sandpiper on the Western Rocks. However my keenness to do a proper Scilly Pelagic next August was reduced by a distinct queasiness which developed half way through the trip. I was glad to reach dry land.
Monday, and I caught up with my first Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrest and RBF of the trip but birding was hard with very few even common migrants. Next day was a flat calm and I took the 10.15 boat to St Martins. Part way across, a pod of Common Dolphins was spotted in the Roads, or maybe they spotted us, as they came over and put on a fantastic performance around and under the boat. Our boatman, Joe Badcock, cut the engines to allow all on board plenty of time with these inquisitive creatures.

When they seemed to lose interest, simply starting up the engines caught their attention and drew them back in. This is the first time in 30 years of visiting Scilly that I've had dolphins perform like this in the shallow waters of the Roads.
On St Martins, a Siberian-type Chiffchaff showed nicely at Little Arthur Farm, and a Firecrest and an elusive RBF were conveniently close to the re-opened Sevenstones Inn. Meanwhile, birds were pouring in to my home county of Norfolk; surely things were going to pick up birdwise on Scilly?
Unfortunately it wasn't to be, and despite covering many miles and spending many hours in the field, the hoped for rarities just didn't materialise. In fact, hardly any new birds appeared and even a single Redwing was noteworthy. It was a beautiful day on Bryher on my second Sunday (see photo above) but the highlight of the day, a Reed Bunting, said it all in terms of birds.
The arrival of Hurricane Gonzalo prompted great expectations but Scilly missed out.
A Green-winged Teal on Tresco caused some excitement as it was a Scilly tick for many, but as the pager Mega-alerted repeatedly on Thursday 23rd, it was only an Ortolan Bunting, found by a team of BTO birders on St Agnes, that prompted the first extra boat of my 2 weeks. As mainland birders enjoyed a Yellow-billed Cuckoo at Porthgwarra just 30 miles away, two more American birds appeared on the Friday in the shape of a pair of American Wigeon, not quite what we had hoped for, and a White-rumped Sandpiper also put in a brief appearance on Tresco. Returning on the 2.15 boat to St Marys, Chris and I put in a few hours birding on St Marys. Admittedly we saw very few birds but also very few birders. Maybe that is the problem, too much cover and too few birders actually out looking. At least that increases the chances of actually finding your own birds!