PART 2

I had not intended to wait a year as per Ian’s comment for Part 2, but somehow here we are a year on!!

We stayed for four days at Bird safari Camp in our en-suite tent along with a number of other travellers wanting to escape the Christmas hype and do some birding instead.  The camp was everything that we had hoped for with wonderful friendly staff, fantastic food all overseen by the boss lady Binta.

Mornings were spent on early walks at 7am with our guide Lamin who was expertly knowledgeable on all of the birds by sight and sound.  A number of good species were viewed including Pearl Spotted Owlet, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Shikra, Grey Kestrel, Lizzard Buzzard, Yellow Crowned Gonolek and Grey Backed Camaroptera.  From the Bird Safari Camp we made a couple of outings by boat and by road.  One of these outings was an afternoon boat trip on the Gambia River where we had some superb views of numerous kingfishers including Grey Headed Kingfisher, Malechite Kingfisher and Blue Breasted Kingfisher.  Views of Chimpanzee and Baboon on some of the islands in the river were also had along with some glimpses of Hippo – thankfully not too close as our boat was not particularly big!

Another afternoon trip was to Bansang Quarry where a colony of Red Throated Bee-Eaters nested.  In addition to the bee-eaters we had some good views of Pygmy Sunbirds, White Backed Vulture, Vielliot’s Barbet and Cutthroat Finch – a great we bird with a scarlet throat as the name indicates.

After our four days at bird safari camp we headed back down river on Christmas day via the Wasu stone circles; a quick stop at some wetland ponds by the roadside allowed us some good views of Egyptian Plover, one of the birds that I had particularly wanted to see on the trip.  We arrived at our lodgings for the night at Tendaba camp where we were given our Christmas dinner – I opted for the wild boar rather than turkey!

The next morning we had an early start with a canoe trip into the mangroves of the Baobolong Wetland Reserve, which is Gambia’s largest protected area and an important RAMSAR site.  Slipping quietly through the mangrove channels afforded some fantastic close views of some great birds including Pink Backed Pelican, African Darter, African Finfoot and White Backed Night Heron; the latter two which our guide told us we were lucky to see as they were generally elusive.

After Tendaba we headed back the coast where we stayed for two nights at Footsteps Eco Lodge (www.footstepsgambia.com/).  These last two days were spent relaxing and a couple of birding walks which added a few more new species including Red Necked Falcon, Orange Cheeked Waxbill and Sulphur Breasted Wood Shrike.

I have just returned from an eleven day birding trip in Ghana with Ashanti African Tours (www.ashantiafricantours.com).  The eleven days were fully packed with birding and travelling the significant distances between the main birding sites.  On arrival on Saturday night at Kotoka International Airport in Accra I was met by my two guides for the 11 days and transferred to our hotel at around 11pm.  After checking in, the guides informed me that breakfast the next day was at 4.30am, leaving the hotel at 5am; this was the case for the remainder of the trip except for a couple of days where we had a long lie, with breakfast at 5am!

The first morning was spent in the dry savannah of Shai Hills Reserve, where  a number of good species were spotted including Flappet Lark, Croaking Cisticola, Vieillot’s Barbet, Gabar Goshawk and Bearded Barbet.  After lunch we headed for some coastal lagoons where numerous waders were observed.  The highlight of this visit, being a Lanner Falcon feeding on an unfortunate Black Winged Stilt, and good views of three Double Toothed Barbets.

Three nights were spent close to Kakum National Park.  The first day at the park was spent with an early morning and afternoon trip to the canopy walkway which is suspended from trees some 40m above ground level.  The walkway is the only one if it’s kind in Africa and is an extremely impressive construction consisting of a number of aluminium ladders bolted together, wooden planks, cargo nets, ropes and steel wires.  The walkway allows fantastic views of birds that spend their time in the canopy and are otherwise extremely difficult to see.  An extremely enjoyable few hours were had in the canopy where I had some good views of more than 50 new species including Pied Hornbill, Blue Cuckooshrike and Sharpe’s Apalis.

Days 3 and 4 were spent on different walks within the forest in and around the Kakum National Park with many more new species viewed including Speckled Tinkerbird, White Throated Bee-eater, Tit Hylia and Rosy Bee-eater.

After Kakum we moved further west stopping at Nsuta forest for evening and early morning walk enjoying good views of Vieillot’s Black Weaver, White Headed Woodhoopoe, Bristle Nosed Barbet , Long Tailed Hawk and Hairy Breasted Barbet.  As darkness fell on the evening walk we tried for the Akun Eagle Owl but to no avail.

Onwards to Ankasa rainforest, again for an evening and early morning walk with further new species added to the triplist; Blue Breasted Kingfisher, White Breasted Kingfisher and African Cuckoohawk were notable.  The elusive Nkulengu Rail was heard but was unfortunately did not show; the Akun Eagle Owl also proved elusive at Ankasa.

We headed back east and spent another night at Kakum.  An early morning walk at the north of the park gave good views of African Harrier Hawk, Blue Billed Malimbe, Blue Headed Crested Flycatcher and Congo Serpent Eagle.

Northwards, we headed to Kasumi, Ghana’s second largest city and spent the night on the outskirts.  An early start and off to the Bobiri Forest Reserve (a butterfly sanctuary).  The afternoon was dedicated to a visit to a site where the Yellow Headed Picathartes roosts.  The site is an hour walk into the rainforest to a rocky outcrop that these birds favour as a nest and roost site.  As we arrived the mud nests were evident on the rock face.  The plan to see these very elusive birds was to sit quietly at one side of the rock outcrop and await the return of the birds to roost; this is the only way to see these birds – our very experienced guides had never seen these birds anywhere other than at the roost.  We waited from 3pm and then at approx 5.15pm a single bird flew in and perched within 5m of our spot seemingly unperturbed by our presence.  The bird stayed for a few minutes and then flew into the canopy above; this was our signal to leave the roost site to allow the others to return in peace.

On from the Pacathartes site we spent an evening and morning at Atewa, following which we headed east over the Volta river to our final birding location, the Kalapa Resource Reserve ( a dry savannah habitat).  As with each of the sites that we had visited, we had some fantastic views of great birds.  Good views at this site included African Wood Owl, African Scops Owl, Long Tailed Nightjar and Black Shouldered Nightjar on the evening walk.  The following morning, our last birding, gave good views of 25+European Bee-eaters and Yellow Rumped Tinkerbird, amongst many.  After lunch we headed back to the airport where we had our final group meal and did a final count; a total of 290 species for the trip with in excess of 160 new species for me.  A very packed trip but all round enjoyable.

On leave from the Shetlands, the mist at home lifted, the sun came out and I wheezed up Kinnoul hill in Perth. Heard long tailed tits with blues and greats, a pair of jays and a buzzard. Saw ravens,  longtailed tits, jackdaws and a peregrine that obligingly went into a stoop over Barnshill and disappeared from my view. Meanwhile I was snapping with my panasonic DMC FZ7 and my Canon EOS 550 D, you can see the comparison above, the canon shots are on top and the brighter less real shots are the panasonics below. The canon camera to my mind produces the real light and colours, the f stops and the shutter speeds are similar to both cameras on a p setting, but what a difference, note on the landscape pic the canon picks out the Lomond hills where the panasonic does not. could be unfair to compare a panasonic 7Mpixel against a DSLR 18 Mpixel, but you would have thought the reproduction of the scene would have been similar in colour with the panasonic  lacking in detail. I am surprised, and need DSL to explain.

I will post about the Shetlands project separately, I want to give you a flavour of the island from a brief respite of time off. On a Sunday I dropped the guys off and took the pool car for a drive in the reduced daylight we get up here. First I was obliged to watch a boring GP from India, kinda glad its going to Sky sports next year as I don’t subscribe, therefore the link of “must watch” will be broken.

Going from Sella Ness (home) I stopped at a community woodland walk by an old quarry before you reach Brae, there was plenty of fieldfares and a few blackbirds about, I also put up a red grouse while climbing / wheezing to the small hill top. It did give me a view to Sullom Voe, a nice mix of countryside and industry, you can see a tanker at the pier loading oil. I loaded air and slithered downhill chasing the last prisms of a fading rainbow. The wee waterfall had to be photographed just as a challenge,  if I waited for sunlight on the fall I would need to be there in April I guess, if I last in the Shetlands I will re-visit.

That done and just midday I bought a pork pie from the coop in Brae and crumbed the interior of the new hired Renault estate, I do like the keyless system but I don’t like the car’s engine or layout, the controls and the sat nav dominating the dash, too fiddly.

One of my colleagues who is keen on photography had suggested Esha Ness  for photogenic scenes. I stopped at the top of the Watch Hill and headed over the wind cropped moor to the sea, this area is by no means the most sea / land dramatic area but given limited daylight it was my choice. The stacks are called the Runk, and the triple jagged peaks rising from the sea are the Dronga on the right and the Isle of Westerhouse on the left with the middle one unnamed on the OS map, perhaps I could name it ?

From memory one of the pics has a property in the distance, Zoar, its on the market for £20k, one of my other colleagues pointed this out to me, and he is also an ex falconer and re-told the story of a female merlin “annoying” a hooded crow, on site, then pursuing a fieldfare straight into his office cabin, the merlin missed the cabins but the fieldfare did not, the dead fieldfare was hand flung away from the cabins and the merlin returned and picked up the prey. I rarely see Merlins in Perthshire but have seen several here, how I will ever get a pic of them in this wind? they are dashing enough.

the paper (by Smart, Miles and West)

Readers may recall a report by Harry Green of a conversation with George Miles about palearctic waders in Dubai, WSG Bull 33:1. In this note we give a more detailed account of the numbers of waders and other birds on mudflats in Dubai throughout the year. These suggest that Dubai is an important migration stopover and wintering site for several species of waders.

Dubai is situated at the southern end of the Arabian Gulf. (figure 1 omitted as you can Google it and I can’t insert it!) It has a naturally formed tidal creek extending some 8km inland. This terminates in a large, round area approximately 7km in diameter, which has extensive tidal mudflats. On most days the mudflats are about 0.5km wide at low water. Occasionally, on extreme tides, the whole creek empties at low water. Ragworms, probably Nereis, were abundant in the mudflats. These mudflats, the surrounding sandy shore, and the shallow warm water, provide suitable habit for a large number and variety of wintering birds.

We made observations of the whole creek at weekly intervals between May 1981 to May 1982, using binoculars and telescopes. Table 1 summarises these observations. The number of birds seen between 1979 and 1981 were similar to those in table 1. Where actual numbers of birds are given in table 1, the peak number in that month is shown. Both black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) and bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) occurred at Dubai, but during winter we often had difficulty in distinguishing between them at long range. Numbers of these species have therefore been combined in table 1. Similarly, adult Herring gulls and lesser black-back gulls could not always be distinguished, so their numbers have been combined.

Table 1

Numbers give actual numbers of birds counted. Letters give abundance: a = 10-30 birds, b= 31-100 birds, c= 101-500 birds, d= 501-1000 birds

*= confirmed breeding. *?= suspected breeding. No counts were made during August

Most waders use the mudflats during both spring and autumn passage, and as a wintering site. The most abundant waders were Dunlins Calidris alpina (up to 9000 birds) and Sanderlings Calidris alba (about 1000 birds) . We saw Sanderlings only in December and February. Other numerous wintering waders, occurring at least in some hundreds, were ringed plovers Charadrius hiaticula, Kentish plovers Charadrius alexandrinus, Grey plovers Pluvialis squatarola, Little stints Calidris minutus, Redshanks Tringa totanus, Curlews Numenius arquata and Godwits. However the pattern of occurrence differed between species. Grey plovers and Ringed plovers were particularly numerous on spring passage, and few occurred during autumn. Similarly, few Dunlins occurred on autumn passage. In contrast numbers of Curlews, Godwits and Kentish plovers were similar in spring and autumn. Few little stints or Whimbrels Numenius phaeopus were present outside migration periods.

In addition to wintering and passage waders, we found small populations of breeding Little ringed plovers Charadrius dubius and Kentish plovers.

Other birds that used the Dubai Creek mudflats in appreciable numbers during migration and for wintering were grey herons Ardea cinerea, reef herons Egretta gularis, greater flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber (especially during spring and autumn), teal anas crecca, and slender billed gulls Larus genei. In spring, there is a large passage (up to 500-600 birds each hour) of terns, particularly gull billed terns Gelochelidon nilotica, Caspian terns Hydroprognetschegrava and little terns Sterna albifrons, westwards along the coast.

The only waders we found elsewhere than the Dubai creek mudflats were in Saffa park. This park is grassland, with avenues of trees, and with a pond of semi-treated sewage at its centre. The sewage is sprayed as fertiliser over the park at dawn and dusk. Between September and April, the pool was used by between 1 and 5 red necked Phalaropes Phalaropus lobatus. About 40 ruffs Philomachus pugnax (both male and female) and 10-15 golden plovers Pluvialis apricaria fed on the grassland throughout the winter. This park is also an important spring and autumn stopover for passerine migrants.

We estimated the peak numbers of over 15,000 birds used the Dubai creek mudflats, little is known of the importance of the Arabian gulf for migrant and wintering wader populations. However, it seems probable that the Dubai creek mudflats are an important wintering and migration stopover for several species of waders. We think that the numbers of waders using Dubai creek may be increasing, possibly as a consequence of nutrient enrichment from increased sewage outflow in recent years. Presumably the passage birds belong to populations that spend the winter in Eastern Africa. The importance of Dubai, and other parts of the Arabian Gulf to waders, warrants further investigation.

end of paper

the mudflats did have one red necked Phalarope as I have a picture of it, well a slide which needs scanning. Also an Osprey, eventually shot. Saffa park was where we (George Miles and I) did ringing. We also had Marsh harrier, snipe, red spotted blue throat and all sorts of shrikes, Indian roller, ubiquitous green parakeet and many other birds. As I have posted before, my first bird ringed in Dubai was a song thrush the second was a Hoopoe !

see also

http://www.uaeinteract.com/nature/bird/coast.asp

No juv or adult harriers in evidence so could also be gone.

End of another nesting season, comes round so quickly! however the weather was to say at the least variable but this nest site has yet again been successful, very successful with three chicks raised.

This osprey diary will be more fragmented next year as I am off to the Shetlands, but i should, with the block time off,  have more daily observations joined up instead of the weekender blogs.

Last weekend I decided that I would pay a visit to the RSPB Fowlsheugh reserve on the east coast of Scotland near Stonehaven.  My aim was to see some auks and in particular some Puffins – it was late in the season and as such possibly too late.  Indeed it was too late and no auks were in evidence, however some great views of  Herring Gull, Fulmar and Kittiwake were had, including juveniles of all three species.  A great view of a Sedge Warbler was also had on the walk back to the carpark.

For a bloke who gets sea sick standing on a pier the thought of a ferry trip to Shetland where the seats in the bar have a wire harness to the floor, was worrying. However the weather was high pressure and i needed to take my car to move the bulky PPE and other items I need. So with confidence having used the ferry port to turn around on after leaving Petrofacs office i set off, and duly turned into the right place to turn but the wrong quay, dope!!

Found the right quay, after instructions, boarded on time, and settled myself into my shared cabin, I was in first and awaited my blond Nordic female companion with growing interest. Set sail, had obligatory drink and meal and still no shared pal. Probably get on at Kirkwall, seas were calm and i spotted porpoises on leaving Aberdeen. I was in trepidation as to who would enter the cabin after Kirkwall, seems i was lucky as nobody did, you see i am absolutely in a world class position for something I cannot measure when awake, I snore brilliantly, according to my now sleeping in the spare bedroom, wife.

Having  done the ferry thing I would neither have a  shared cabin or a recliner seat, as i had on the way back. A set of ear plugs a travel rug and find a spot on a bench or on the floor and wait till mid night after the Kirkwall arrivals. This means more bar time that equals more snoring, but you are at least doing it amongst people who did not pay to sleep.

I wont mention work which at the moment is just paper work and waiting, however on Friday i had a free day as my client counterpart was totally occupied, so i went off to the Shetlands testing lab and made my acquaintance with Alan the main man, had a good chat as we are of the same vintage and i had to tell him Norman McRitchie had died, and was buried just the week before. Then off to Sumburgh head and the RSPB reserve, great weather, great birds, but needs more development, for bringing in cash,  a restaurant for instance. But it was very Rustic and very nice as the weather and the birds obliged. Puffins (Tammy Nories) are in trouble as are a lot of sea birds, they cannot find food, I did not see a single puffin with food in it’s bill and I must have looked at hundreds.

The lassie who was the warden was very nice, knowledgeable and from the Shetlands, Jo i think I heard someone call her, we discussed the Shetland names for birds  and how the seabirds had varying fortunes, but in the long term it looks bleak. I wanted to see a Whimbrel as i never have, she told me where to look, some miles away, but no luck. I did however get my first Arctic Skua (dark morph), not by trudging over their breeding moorland territory but by looking up from the upper passenger outside deck whilst moored in Lerwick, see poor picture. I did get better eyeball looks so I am very nearly sure I am right (ispot jargon). i took the pictures of the Tammy Nories by placing my aged Panasonic LC33 up to the viewfinder lens of my nikon fieldscope, the sun was too high and strong so they looked bleached, I could do something in  photoshop but they are the pictures of the moment and I dedicate them to Sarah A who phoned me whilst I was there, and during the technical discourse said  she had never see a live puffin. She still hasn’t but a step inclined perhaps.

Outside our temporary office, just over the bay from “my new home in Sella Ness”  next to the shore are arctic terns feeding noisily, gulls cruise menacingly, and otters have several holts on the shore. I did not spot them on my three day turnaround but they are there.

Shetlands; whit a place!!

All three chicks are on the wing and as rumoured they have been ringed, the osprey pic is the female on the left and a juv on the right, you can make out the ring on the juvs left leg. I think they have a ring on both legs. All three chicks were on the eyrie when i got there about 9.45, the female was there, then the male arrived and when I was watching the fox in the pics for a good 45 mins only a juv remained on the eyrie, the other four had gone fishing or were perched out of sight, or a combination. The birds do have favoured perches and I saw the juvs using them, slim top most branches of nearby trees, the juvs are not that clumsy either. Guess they must have took to the wing early in the week as they were not flying last week. I reckon that’s about 80 days from eggs to flying.

The vixen, yes I did see that closely, was in the adjoining field, and with the wind behind me and standing out like a scarecrow, I was certain she would not get close enough for a digiscoping pic. She was very content snuffing around eating beetles, I assume from the jaw movements, and scenting. I wondered if she scented when she found good food, to return to same place?  but I was unsure what was happening. What was happening was her roaming the field eating and scenting.

The song thrushes are singing again and I estimated about 20 long tailed tits flew past me from tree to tree, seems like a good year for them.

Witnessed a Male Marsh harrier food handover, to juv or female, not the  female spectacularly meeting the male in mid air, he just roamed the reed bed top and a brown object appeared under him, he landed, then within seconds took off.

Meant to post last time about a male Pheasant with two juvs, obviously him in charge and the two juvs following, in the same field as the fox was this week. I didn’t think male pheasants did juv care?