What a week!

I've been lucky enough to see some great birds this last week:

Okay, maybe putting that last one has aroused some suspicions, I've actually been nowhere more exciting than Gloucestershire. Not to knock it though, I had a great uni fieldtrip up to Slimbridge WWT (School of Applied Sciences paid our entry ticket, Get In!!) last Friday and had a good look around the place, having not visited since my early birding years way back.

I must admit that I actually really enjoyed looking at the captive stuff, seeing some stunning birds, some I've seen in the wild. some I've dipped, and some that I hope to see in the future. The Eider flock were particularly popular with our group, and the coach journey home was punctuated with impressions of the male's display call, some significantly more realistic than others.

I did of course take some time to look through the wild birds too, and was happy to see this thing, the first i've seen in the UK since 2 on Tresco in 1999, I seem to remember the boat from St. Marys for these detouring to twitch a newly discovered Surf Scoter between Tresco and St. Martins (eurgh, reminicising about Scilly more than a decade ago, i'm starting to turn into one you old farts, i'll be wearing Country Innovation and listening to P.I.L next!):

Bewick's Swans are always a delight

Male Pintail - Surely one of the best birds we get in the UK

White-fronts

Even the wild stuff comes close here, too close to focus sometimes.

And yet more wildfowl, this time the subject of my dissertation, nearly all of my 'birding' time this year has been spent watching Brents down in Poole Harbour. and time well spent it's been too, they're really quite endearing birds when you stop to watch them for a while.

And i'm back on Blakeney Point in 5 weeks, YEEEEHAAAAA!

Getting back to The Point....

After 2 and a half years or so my time at Bournemouth Uni is nearly up, and it's time to get back into the real world and start behaving like a respectable birding being again. Last week was mostly spent up in Norfolk where I had an interview for a return to Blakeney Point, where I spent the summer of 2010 as a seasonal warden. Having been a bit lacking in 'field-time' lately I decided to stay up there for a few days after and managed to catch up with some of the winter specialities; Smew, Rough-legged Buzzard, Snow Bunting and Shorelark being the highlights. The weather was pretty grim, so not great for photography and it was the usual half-arsed effort on that front, but I did like these:

A few days ago I was offered the job so will be returning to 'The Spit of Dreams' in April, this time with the grand new title of Ranger. I haven't looked through the full contract yet, but i'm assuming a white horse is provided

Movember!!!

As the autumn birding season dies away, thoughts turn to other, more important matters, like checking your balls. To be honest, i've probably spent more time checking my balls than I have birding over the last month anyway, thanks to uni work, being drunk, being hungover and being a lazy git, but that's not the point. The point is that one man dies of prostate cancer EVERY HOUR in the UK, and heaps more from testicular cancer ( I couldn't find a figure). A big reason for this, is that us blokes generally don't like to think about health stuff, cos it sounds horrible, and we don't want some doctor poking around our tackle, so we do our very best to ignore some very serious issues. 

So, over recent years, a campaign called Movember has sprung up to raise awareness of male cancers, and to collect fundage to go towards the fight against the 'orrible things. Basically it involves growing a moustache for the month of November. This provides the perfect reason for blokes to get chatting about why they do it, and hopefully educate the un-informed about the dangers. And of course, the main reason i'm posting this on here: to gather sponsorship money. The Movember website has a far more comprehensive breakdown of where donations go to than I can manage to put on here, so go have a look. There's also a Mens Health section telling you what you should know about keeping your essential parts healthy, so even if you can't throw us some cash, take a look at that for your own sakes.

Obviously, we're trying to make a bit of fun out of a fairly serious situation, otherwise it would be a bit depressing, so there's a bit of friendly competition going, between Mo-bro's (I know, it's an awful term) and between teams so if you can donate I would much appreciate it if you donated to my effort. We've only just set the team page up so its currently looking as sparse as my chin but hopefully we should get plenty of pictures up soon once the group of lads i'm doing this with (all studying Ecology and Wildlife Conservation here at Bournemouth Uni) get themselves signed up.

So, click here for my team page. and please be generous!!

And as a thank you for your generosity, here's a photo of me looking like an absolute tool after 1 weeks effort.

Malta Photos

A tad belated I know, but here's a few pictures from Birdlife Malta Raptor Camp 2011. Since returning from the camp i've been meaning to write a piece detailing my experiences, but to be honest, it's been a bit of a struggle coming to terms with the contrasting emotions over the fortnight. I'm not the most fluid of writers at the best of times and writing a report of that crazy two weeks has been a series of aborted attempts.

For those of you not familiar with Talking Naturally, you really need to take a listen to this podcast with Ceri Levy, which goes a long way to explaining the situation out there. The quote that sums it up best for me is 'Malta messes with yer head'!

Little Egret, shot down in front of us on the first day of camp

Purple Heron

Mixed heron flock

Dotterel in a cage for use as decoy bird. We called the police but the trapper legged it

HB's

Osprey over Buskett

Bee-eater, during the first few days we saw many hundreds of these cracking birds, often hawking just metres from us. These birds are often shot at.

More Honey Buzzards

This juv Honey Buzzard arrived low over us at Buskett one afternoon. The damaged primary is very typical of shotgun damage, and the wet breast feathers suggest that it may have been shot into the sea recently

To our horror it was then shot down again, it fell into a wooded area before rising flying weakly off. We didn't fancy its chances of survival after such an ordeal but wow, what an effort!

Black Kite

Early one morning, this Eleonora's Falcon gave us fantastic views at Girgenti, only the second one the species i've ever seen following a brief flyover 2 days previous

4 days later, a local birder witnessed the same bird being shot out of a tree by a local birder, and he managed to recover the body of the dead bird. Words just can't explain the feeling when something like that happens.

Little Egret shooting video

Check out the video of the Little Egret shooting at Delimara on the first day of raptor camp here

Since then I have also witnessed a Marsh Harrier and a Night Heron being shot down, unfortunately the circumstances didnt make any sort of prosecution possible. More later, maybe.....

Raptor Camp- day 7

Just a short update here, check my page on the Birdlife Malta for much more photos.
http://www.birdlifemalta.org/Content/hunting/rc2011dailyupdates/joesphotos/1112/

2 Pallid Harries have been the best birds for me so far, this juvenile flew past us the other afternoon and an adult male was part of a great display of migrant raptors over Buskett, photos from that afternoon are on the page linkd above.

Raptor Camp day 2 onwards

My plan to update the blog daily has failed already!! Birdlife Malta have given me the opportunity to do some media work for them and this includes creating a page on their website with plenty of photographs, basically to be updated whenever I see something worth seeing. Here is that page.

For updates of all the latest news, check the main updates page of the website here.

I'll bring more news when I can, it's all a little bit mental busy here. I was up for 25 hours yesterday/today including a shift watching over 2 roosting Black Storks from 8.30pm to 5am last night. The birds apparently left safely to Africa this morning. Main bird sightings for me have been my lifer Eleonora's Falcon, a Booted Eagle, nearly 1000 Bee-eaters in an afternoon and a spectacualr flock of 140 Grey Herons (and 1 Great White Egret)

Raptor Camp Day 1

Picture the scene; a quiet clifftop overlooking a tranquil bay, a handful of pleasure boats rocking gently from the onshore breeze that is taking a welcome edge off the afternoons heat. A few Swallows pass twittering overhead as they migrate south and a Sardinian Warbler chatters from the scrub behind. Suddenly the peace is shattered as two gunshots ring out and everyone is reminded that this is Malta. Turning to the direction of the shots, we see a Little Egret tumbling from the sky into the azure waters, foundering for a while, then agonisingly slowly hauling itself onto the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Welcome to Raptor Camp!
We call the ALE, the police branch responsible for wildlife crime, who manage to communicate with a local group in a boat who are attempting to rescue the bird from the rocks. It flaps feebly out to sea but soon drops again into the water in the middle of the bay, where, clearly exhausted it allows itself to be plucked to the relative safety of the boat. They pull alongside at a basic jetty for fishing vessels where we take it off their hands, grateful that most Maltese are an infinitely better bunch than the hunters who tar the name of these islands. On inspection, the bird is found to have several wounds to its body, wings and legs. It is whisked away to the vet, but its chances of survival appear slim. We continue our watch and hold our breaths as two juvenile Night Herons approach the same bay after a journey over the sea from Sicily. To our relief, they appear to sense that all is not well at the site, and turn sharply before heading purposefully South, next stop: Africa.

Back on the Levels, back in the game

The lack of bloggage this summer has been a sad reflection of my birding effort lately, I won't whinge about it though, cos its my own bloody fault. I did manage another a few days birding on the Somerset Levels at the end of August. This was typically brilliant for this fantastic area and produced the following goodies:

Great White Egret, The resident colour ringed bird from the Loire-Atlantique

Spotted Crake at the back of the drained lagoon, far too distant for a photo, use your imagination!

Osprey on Noah's Lake, possibly the annually returning bird.

The highlight of the week. A Pectoral Sandpiper that flew in to the drained lagoon early one morning, a much appreciated self-found tick for minimal effort

I'm currently back in Bournemouth and soon to start my 3rd and final year of uni, but laziness and hangovers have prevented any birding.

Shit gets real later this week however as I return to Malta to join Birdlife Malta for 2 weeks of their annual raptor camp. After witnessing for myself some of the horrors inflicted on migrating birds back in the spring I knew I had to go back and do what I could to help. This time i'll be taking my laptop and will be writing a daily blog describing the events, the work of the Birdlife Malta staff and volunteers, birds, birding and life on camp, primarily with the goal of persuading other people to join future camps. Hopefully i'll be able to get some nicer photos of birds than the 'images' shown in this blog post.

Raptor Camp dates announced!!

Birdlife Malta have announced the dates and opened bookings for this years Raptor Camp. It will be running between 14th September and 2nd October. For more details and to apply, click here

Harry, Luke and Joe's london Bird Race!!

The last few weeks have been pretty dire for me, revision and exams have totally taken over and i've been unable to spare any time for birding, despite some promising conditions at one of the best times of year, how rotten!!
Some of you may be aware of the challenge set to Harry Boorman by his girlfriend Hara to see 100 species in London over a course of weekend. I met Harry in Malta and he's asked if I would like to join him and his cousin Luke on this adventure. I'm always up for trying something new and having never birded London before, or even taken part in a bird race, this was too good an opportunity to turn down. So next weekend, thanks to a convenient break in exam schedule, i'll be joining Harry and Luke in what promises to be a mental weekend haring around the capital birding like hell.
Of course, i'm not just telling you this because I think you might be interested, but because I want your money, or more accurately, I want the RSPB to have your money. As with most challenges, this is an ideal opportunity to raise a bit of cash for a good cause, so if your feeling altruistic, pop over to our page at Justgiving and whack a donation our way. Of course, if your not sure we deserve a donation, you could wait and see if we reach the target and be particualrly generous if/when we do. Either way, any donation, however small would be much appreciated, and will go towards the conservation of Britain's birds, you know, those small feathery things without which your life would be utterly dull and miserable. Yeh, thats got you reaching for the hyperlink above to chuck a fiver in the pot hasnt it, good on ya!!!
Anyway, wish us luck, and if you're birding in London next weekend and see us about (apparently we have some snazzy t-shirts made up and waiting) come over and say hi, and point us in the direction of anything cool you may have seen, I think we're going to need all the help we can get!

White Storks shot in Malta

I am literally shaking with rage as I write this and finding it very hard not to resort to profanities, capital letters and exclamation marks. Yesterday evening a record sized flock of 200 White Storks arrived on Malta. In most countries this would be a fantastic sight for birders and 'normal people' alike to witness. Not in Malta. The birds were shot at as they tried to roost, and again when they left the roost this morning. It appears that they may also have been shot at overnight whils roosting, utterly appalling behaviour. For the full story, check out the Birdlife Malta news page.
White Storks hold such an important place in European folklore. Historically then were common across the mainland but farming practices led to their near extinction in many countries by the early 1900's. Re-introduction programmes and provision of nesting platforms, involving thousands of hours of dedicated work by volunteers managed to restore populations in many parts of Europe and now they can be enjoyed across the continent. An incident like this is a crime comitted against the whole of Europe, and I can only hope that it stimualtes a serious public outrage and forces the Maltese Government to do more to prevent illegal hunting. Please pass this on to anyone who may be interested, and also those who probably aren't. People need to know just how bad things are out there.
You can show your support for preventing this sort of behaviuor by joining Birdlife Malta here.

Levelling

After getting back from Malta it was back to the Somerset Levels for a few days birding with my Dad, which yet again produced the goods. After being picked up from the airport early afternoon, conventional logic would have suggested having a nap, as an average of 5 hours sleep a night on Springwatch had left me totally drained. However, it just felt a bit 'birdy' so after a quick lunch we headed down to Shapwick, the journey down being hurried by breaking news that a Wood Sandpiper that had been on the drained pool for the last few days had been re-identified as a Lesser Yellowlegs, a mega bird for Somerset. Sure enough, when we arrived this leggy transatlantic vagrant was pottering around the pool already with a decent sized crowd of admirers. It never came very close and this was the best shot I managed in several visits over a few days.

Rare as it was, the 'legs couldn't quite compete with this absolute stunner of a bird. I've never seen Great White Egret in breeding plumage, so it awesome to see this colourful beast fishing and flying about the same pool, check out the colours on the tibia and the lores, it's frickin glowing!!

Come at me bro'!!

The place was alive with birds as ever, and very noisy too. Cuckoos were flying around all over the place, phyllosc, sylvia and acro warblers singing from every bush, Bitterns booming and Hobbies and Marsh Harriers constantly overhead, excellent birding.

That evening I was in the mood for finding a Night Heron (we've all been there at some point) so after dinner we were just picking up our stuff to head back for a quick look when the news came through that a Gull-billed Tern was over Noah's Lake. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't best happy. When a bird as good as that gets found at a site that you're just on your way over too, it's difficult to not feel a bit 'gazumped', especially after almost the same scenario with the Yellowlegs earlier in the day. Still, it was another great bird for Somerset so we hastened on down and got good views of the bird hawking for c20 minutes before it naffed off high to the South, never to be seen again. It was a bit dark for photography but the following just about qualify as 'record shots'.

It was back down to Shapwick first thing the next morning to see if the previous days stars were still around and if anything else new had arrived. The Leeser Yellowlegs was still showing nicely in the same spot, and the drained pool also attractd in a drake Garganey, and briefly resting Whimbrel, Ruff and Little-ringed Plover alongside the constantly turning over squabbling flock of Black-tailed Godwits.

If you're not seeing the sun like this then you need to man up and get out of bed earlier

One of the ubiquitous singing Blackcaps

It'll be a sad day when I can walk past one of these bad boys without taking a photo

After the horrors of Malta it was a delight to see Marsh Harriers safely going about their business

The next day morning was just as good, with a majical highlight being two Bitterns circling high over the reedbeds just as the dawn broke. With the crisp, still air, the soft sunlight starting to break through a light mist and the cuckoos and all the warblers singing in the background, this was a really evocative moment, and for me summed what The Levels are all about. I took a few photos but they don't do the moment justice at all, so I won't post them here, you'll just have to go experience it for yourself.

I dont like to end on a sour note but you really should check out the latest awful news from Malta here. Frickin Pallid Harrier!! Where does this shit end!!