22 May 25 - Another Durlston Bee-eater

After a long day of volunteering on Brownsea, I was enjoying a lazy start on the next day. I had just finished my breakfast, when the phone pinged, a mobile Bee-eater around Durlston Castle. This is the only regular Purbeck site for Bee-eaters and they have a habit of hanging around. So, I grabbed the bins and camera and headed up. I had a quick look at the top of the Long Meadow, where I've seen a flock of six on 31 May 97 and seven on 15 May 19, but there was no sign. I tried a loop around the Castle but again, I drew a blank.

At this point, local Birder Rob Johnson, appeared. Rob said it had been found an hour earlier over the diagonal path by local Durlston patch-watcher, Hamish Murray, before disappearing. Hamish had then had short views by the Castle, before it disappeared. It was clearly mobile. Rob & I decided to check out the Lighthouse Gully, where I saw my other Durlston Bee-eater on 31 May 2012. By this point, we had been joined by James Leaver & Jol Mitchell. Initially, there was no sign, but about ten minutes I heard it giving a classic pantomime call: it's behind you. We turned to watch it fly past at a distance, before flying over the Lighthouse Gully for a couple of minutes.

Bee-eater: A distant flight shot over the Lighthouse Gully

Swanage Birder Phyl England reappeared while it was flying around the Lighthouse Gully and we waved to her to join us. Next, we saw it drop into the large Sycamore next to the bridge on the Lighthouse road, but that was about three hundred metres away. Time to walk down the road. We finally picked it up in the Sycamore when we were about sixty metres away. Time for a few record shots.

Bee-eater

Bee-eater: It saw a couple of Bees, went after them, before dropping back and out of our sight in the tree. Time to walk closer

We were all aware that this is a popular thoroughfare and locals and visitors were likely to walk about twenty metres away from the tree. So, after a few minutes we walked closer until we were finally on the bridge. It was a lot closer, but more hidden behind the branches. But it wasn't worried by our presence. At least we could explain what we were watching to any passers-by and hope they wouldn't be as loud as they passed the tree.

Bee-eater

After showing it to a couple of walkers, it decided it was time to go and bully the local Bee population and flew up and disappeared back towards the car park. After twenty or thirty minutes, it reappeared in flight before quickly flying off along the Upper Gully. We gave it a bit more time, but it didn't reappear. I walked back along the Long Meadow and it put in two short appearances before disappearing as I left the park. It stayed until late PM, but surprisingly it appeared to head off West around tea-time.

Kestrel: Male. It's a shame the Bee-eater didn't sit out as obviously as this Kestrel

Despite having seen fifteen Bee-eaters on four dates at Durlston, I've only seen two other Bee-eaters in the Isle of Purbeck, with Autumn singles in Swanage on 29 Oct 12 and Creech Heath on 10 Sep 22. I've never seen a Portland individual, which is the other Dorset Bee-eater hotspot. But there again, I've never tried chasing one on Portland, given how mobile they can be.

10 Jul 21 - Just Drifting By

In the last Blog Post, I detailed my first attempt to see the Black-browed Albatross at Bempton Cliffs, when I missed it by about one hour, after it had flown out to sea. It was back on the cliffs for most of the mornings on the Monday and Tuesday mornings, but it disappearing off to feed at some point in the day. There were no sightings on the Wednesday & Thursday. But it was seen again on the Friday, where it spent the day on the cliffs. During the week it seemed to have found a regular spot on the cliffs, which was viewable from one of the viewing platforms.

I decided to have another attempt on the Saturday, after another hectic week of work. I was too tired to get up at 23:00 after only two hours sleep. I finally got up at 00:30 and left at 01:30. I arrived at Bempton at 07:15, to hear that it had already flown off the cliffs, but it was still showing at a distance on the sea. However, it had flown out to sea by the time I arrived at the clifftop viewing platforms. I had missed it on its cliff roost spot by just over an hour & on the sea by about forty minutes.

Still I had a good time watching the Gannets, Auks and Kittiwakes and chatting with my friend Ewan Urquhart (Black Audi Birding) & his mate Hugh. We were at the platform that could see the Black-browed Albatross roost spot. It was packed with a few Birders, as well as, birdwatchers and photographers: as it also provided good views of part of the Gannet colony. Pete Moore was standing nearby, as he had arrived earlier than me. But there was no room in the crowd to join Pete. C19 still a big concern for me & I was not into sharing cars at this point.

Fulmar

Bempton Cliffs are a superb area to visit & enjoy the spectacular Seabird colony. It should be one of those locations that everybody puts on their Bucket List to visit at least once in their lifetime. I will focus on some flight shots in this Blog Post. But there was so much more going on in front of each of the viewing platforms, that it still remained a great day out, despite missing the Black-browed Albatross.

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Gannet

Puffin

Puffin

Puffin

Kittiwake

Kittiwake

Kittiwake

Later in the day, I walked off to try some of the other viewing platforms to see some of the other parts of the colony. There was a Bridled Guillemot distantly on view from one of the viewing platforms. I must have seen them before on my first visit to the Shetland Islands, but there is nothing in my notes to indicate that. It is only a colour form of Guillemot, which is uncommon in Dorset, but more common in the Shetland Islands.

Kestrel: It wasn't all about flying Seabirds during the day

Sea fog appeared & cleared a couple of times in the late afternoon, but then it drifted in and looked like it was set in for good. I left about 19:15 for the long journey home. The weather forecast for the following morning was for the fog to persist . There was thick fog there the following morning, which didn't clear for several hours. So, I made the right decision to head home. However, the Black-browed Albatross reappeared on the cliff around mid-afternoon and it spent the rest of the day on view on its preferred cliff perch.

4 Jan 14 - Nilgiri Tahr

The previous afternoon, Vinod had proposed a change to the plan for this morning. Originally, we were scheduled to visit Eravikulam National Park, about 30 minutes from Munnar. However, as the main target bird is Nilgiri Pipit, which we had seen well at Ooty, Vinod proposed the revised plan of looking for the Broad-tailed Grassbird & other species we had seen earlier this morning (see Birding With Coffee). The drawback was we were likely to miss Nilgiri Tahr, which is an endemic Mountain Goat. Given we only had 1 day left around Munnar & several key ticks to see, this seemed a good revised plan. I then said to Vinod I had see Nilgiri Tahr the previous day & showed him the picture.

Nilgiri Tar

For anybody in the UK at the moment complaining about pot holes, just be glad you don't have these amateurs filling your pot holes. Amazingly, they got this far & without any attempt to compact the tar & stones, just left it along. The result is within minutes a car went through the pot hole leaving most scattered over the road. I'm sure within a few hours the hole would have been as bad as it was before they started.

The tar laying gang: A wood burning machine to melt the tar

When we got to the hotel the previous evening & before we had had chance to check out Nilgiri Tahr on the laptop, I saw this interesting picture of the Mountain Goat, we were expecting to miss.

Nilgiri Tahr: Looks like it will be a pity to miss this species

Back to today, we had our late breakfast & returned to the site, we visited the previous afternoon as there we still several birds we were looking for. The main bird from my viewpoint was Black-and-orange Flycatcher, which Vinod had said should be common & yet I had missed the only one seen on the trip (at Ooty). Fortunately, Brian spotted one soon after we got out of the car & while it provided to be quite showy, it wouldn't allow me to get close for decent photos.

Black-and-orange Flycatcher: A Western Ghats endemic I wouldn't have wanted to miss

There was a lot more bird activity than the previous afternoon. Not particularly surprising as quite often bird activity drops off well before dusk, when it cools down quickly due to the higher elevations. Other birds seen here included the following species.

Tytler's Warbler: The thin, long, dark  bill, long whitish eyestripe over a dark eye line, overall crab colouration & no wingbars are all features. Not the best of photos, but the only Tytler's we saw

Grey-headed Flycatcher: A species that will be familiar to many Oriental birders

Indian Black-lored Tit: Also known as Indian Yellow Tit & recently split from its Himalayan cousin (Black-lored Tit)

After a couple of hours, we had seen most of the expected Munnar ticks, but we were still struggling to find a White-bellied Shortwing. Vinod lives at Thattekad, a couple of hours drive away from Munnar, at so he is almost on home ground here. So he got on the phone & started to ring some of the local birdwatchers & fortunately, hit gold with the news that one of his mates had been watching a White-bellied Shortwing that morning. We now had directions down to the patch of trees & bushes. Even better it was at Eravikulam National Park, so we would have a crack at Nilgiri Tahr after all. We quickly headed off to the entrance road to the National Park. Private vehicles are not allowed in the park, with access being by a group of park minibuses which run every few minutes up the road to the National Park. Everybody is dropped near the top & can then walk for another mile or so, along the closed off final section of road. The drawback is it is a popular tourist site & best visited early before the hordes descend. Still we couldn't do anything to change this & just had to put up with the people.

The Park is a grass covered steep & high volcanic plug of rock: The first Nilgiri Tahr were right up on the grassy ridge

The view over the valley

Just after we left the minibus drop off point, I got distracted with photographing a Red-whiskered Bulbul. This was nearly a costly error, as Brian & Vinod had walked up the road & had a Painted Bush-quail run across it. I quickly caught them up & fortunately, they had spotted another 2 lurking in the edge of the bushes (which clearly wanting to join the bird that had already crossed the road). Even better the male then reappeared onto the road, to try & find out why the female/immature birds were dawdling. I had hoped I would get to see a Bush-quail somewhere on the trip & this was my the second species & it was standing right out in the open. It is a gorgeous bird, when seen well & made up for the lack of photos of the Jungle Bush-quail we had seen.

Painted Bush-quail: Male. A cracking Bush-quail

Painted Bush-quail: The male then walked off the road, before standing on this small rock, in the hope the other birds would come along. Sadly, it was another group of locals who appeared first & flushed them

As we continued up the track, I was scanning the high ridges looking for Nilgiri Tahr & it wasn't long before I found some. I was quite pleased to see this endemic Mountain Goat, albeit the views weren't that impressive. I later found out as we walked further up the road, my efforts weren't really necessary.

Nilgiri Tahr: A real one at last, high up on the ridge

Nilgiri Tahr: This one is clearly the local exhibitionist & was sitting quietly about 30 metres from the road

There were a reasonable selection of birds to see, despite the problems of people who kept noisily walking up to us to stare into the bushes & were surprised there weren't a herd of Tahr in there.

Kestrel: Female. There is a resident subspecies objurgatus in the Western Ghats, but the subspecies interstinctus also winters across Peninsula India

Red-whiskered Bulbul

White-bellied Shortwing: This seems to be a shy bird, but for once the only people to come along were a Swiss girl & her Indian boyfriend who patiently waited while we were photographing this bird. The key features are the white belly & narrow white supercilium as well as feeding on the ground like a Rubythroat

Kerala Laughingthrush: A really great looking Laughingthrush. Although it has a limited range in the Southern part of the Western Ghats, it does seem to be fairly common

The river by the start of the entrance road: Sadly, there is little interest in disposing of rubbish in an environmentally friendly way in India, often to the detriment of the local rivers

As we were driving back to the hotel, we saw the final bird of the day, a Grey Junglefowl.

Grey Junglefowl