So Farne So Good

Apologies for a rather long-term lack of postings since returning from my travels.

Way back in mid-march, I moved oop north to The Farne Islands, in Northumberland, where I'm working as a Warden for the National Trust for the summer. It's been a superb season so far, it's just an amazing place, absolutely covered in birds. For example, Brownsman, the island I live on, has 1000 pairs of Arctic Terns, 10,000 pairs of Puffins and 8,000 Guillemots!!!

It's a good spot for 'real birding' too, this spring we've had 2 Red-throated Pipits, a Bluethroat and a Wryneck, along with a good sprinkling of common-ish migrants.

Here's a few pictures for now ,hopefully i'll be able to add a few here and there over the course of the summer.

Roseate Tern, not breeding unfortunately, but always nice to see


Arctic Tern, one of the massive colony around our cottage


Puffin, THE bird that people come to the islands to see


The second Red-throated Pipit, in horiffic weather back in May

Possibly the best bird of the spring. A male Bluethroat that spent a few days showing ridiculously well around the cottage

Yucatan

From Palenque, we headed into the Yucatan Peninsula for a few days.
We stayed a while at Tulum, where we mainly got very drunk, but we did manage some birding in the scrub opposite our hostel.


Rose-throated Tanager (yucatan endemic)


White-eyed Vireo (my hot tip to turn up in Britain or Ireland sometime soon)

We also had a day out at the nearby Mayan ruins of Coba


Black-headed Trogon

Plain Chachalaca

Worm-eating Warbler

After rushing through the grim town of Playa-del-Carmen (think Costa Del Sol, but with the package holiday brits replaced by their american counterparts, yuk!!) we got the boat out to Cozumel Island, which was also very plasticky and crappy around the main town, but exploring the island, we found it be quite a nice spot, and we also caught up with some local endemics;

Cozumel Vireo

Yucatan Vireo

Cozumel Emerald

Palenque photos

After a gruelling 26 hour bus journey from Oaxaca, we arrived at the historic Mayan ruin site of Palaenque, where we stayed for 4 days over Christmas. The ruins themselves were extremely busy with tourists, but the trails leading off into the nearby gave us some excellent birding.

White-collared Swift

Red-capped Manakin

distant White Hawk

female Great Antshrike

Kentucky Warbler (taken through a window in our tent)

Bat Falcon, sat in a tree in the centre of the ruins early in the morning

Lovely Cotinga, taken from the top of one of the Pyramids. These birds are infinitely better seen in the sunlight, they are an unbelievable electric blue, with big purple patches, just stunning!!

Oaxaca

One of the highlights of our trip was a 5 day stay with our good friend and expert local birder, Eric Martinez, in Teotitlan Del Valle, in Oaxaca State. The birding was truly excellent in this area, and with Eric's knowledge of the local sites, we were able to pick up a decent number of regional endemics and specialties, along with plenty of other great birds.


Oaxaca Sparrow


Lesser Nighthawk, Usual Excuses for poor quality(near darkness, manual focus, Max ISO ,blah blah blah)


Bridled Sparrow

Black-throated Grey Warbler

Rock Wren

Bullocks Oriole

Vermillion Flycatcher

Boucard's Wren

Red Warbler

Chestnut-sided Shrike Vireo

Red-faced Warbler

Violet-green Swallow

Lark Sparrow

White-throated Towhee (looks like a heap of shit, but a very range restricted endemic and my 1000th bird of the year)

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

Curve-billed Thrasher

Western Mexico

After Baja, we crossed the Sea of Cortez to Western mainland Mexico, where we spent a few days each birding around San Blas and Uruapan:


Russet Crowned Motmot


Slate-throated Redstart


Russet Nightingale-thrush

3 appaling record shots of 3 cracking warblers, all in the same tree;

Graces's Warbler

Olive Warbler

Hermit Warbler

Elegant Quail, a tricky North-west Mexican endemic

Masked Tityra

Citreoline Trogon

Bell's Vireo

Tropical Parula

Cinammon Hummingbird

Rufous-backed Thrush