7 Oct 23 - Fortunate Timing

Making commitments in October is always a risk. But a Marinelife training course was being run at Ferrybridge & I decided to take the opportunity to complete the course locally: so that I can apply for Cetacean & Seabird surveys for Marinelife. But I was worried that something really good would turn up & either I would have to have a skip the course or spend the day worrying that the goodie would stay for another day. This time the Birding Gods were looking after me when a Grey Phalarope turned up at Ferrybridge on 6 Oct & quickly moved onto one of the small pools by the car park. Despite the good views, I couldn't justify driving to Weymouth to see it, having seen quite a few Grey Phalaropes over the years.

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter. They are seen annually in Chesil Cove during strong South West blows, but they are much less common on the pools at Ferrybridge

I headed down the following day for the course & checked the Southern end of the car park. There had been no news. But there were about six local toggers, none of which had made any effort to put the news out. But no surprise for the "I'm All Right Jack" toggers. Maybe they had put the news out on the local Whatsapp group, but if you aren't in that little clique, then you won't hear. Whatsapps is a really bad application as it has meant a lot of Bird news in Dorset is no longer broadcast in real time, apart to the local cliques: many of whom are not regular field Birders, but happy to twitch when others find them local Birds. The Grey Phalarope had flown out of view, but it had done that before & they were confident it would return. I headed down to the Dorset Wildlife Trust for the course, with a plan to have a look at lunchtime. Sure enough it was showing well at lunchtime, so I skipped the food in favour of the camera.

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter. At least one of us had some food

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter

Grey Phalarope: Juv moulting to 1st Winter

31 Jan 23 - The Antarctica Trip - Entering The Outer Part Of The Beagle Channel

Our final day at sea and the seas had moderated compared to the previous couple of days. However, many of the passengers who had disappeared two days earlier in the rough seas and Force Eight gale around the South Shetland Islands, were slow to return to view. Around breakfast time we were still South East of Tierra del Fuego, but by late morning we could see the Chilean coast.

Grey Phalarope: This Grey Phalarope well out to sea from the Tierra del Fuego coastline wasn't on my expected species to see on the trip list. They Winter all along the full length of the South American Pacific coast, but there are a few eBird records that have occurred off the Tierra del Fuego & Falklands coast

Southern Giant Petrel: No real surprise that we started to see Southern Giant Petrels given they are a common species in the Beagle Channel

The Southern-most part of Chilean Tierra del Fuego: The outermost part of the Beagle Channel can be seen in the right hand side of the photo

A closer view of the Southern-most part of Chilean Tierra del Fuego

The Argentinian Tierra del Fuego coast

By early afternoon, we could see the outer part of the Beagle Channel. The seas continued to moderate now we were closer to land, until finally the water became calm in the Beagle Channel. But it was to take the rest of the afternoon and early evening until we were in sight of the port of Ushuaia. There was a good selection of Whales, as we entered the very outer part of the Beagle Channel.

Antarctic Minke Whale: The distinctive thin dorsal fin of an Antarctic Minke Whale. Unfortunately, this was the only photo I managed to take of this individual

Antarctic Minke Whale: More of the body of a second, and more distant, Antarctic Minke Whale

Antarctic Minke Whale: The uncropped photo showing how distant the second Antarctic Minke Whale was from the Plancius. It is just visible in the middle of this photo and close to the coastline

Sei Whale: A Sei Whale also put in a brief appearance, showing its distinctive crooked dorsal fin

The real Whale stars were a couple of Fin Whales which put on a good show as they kept resurfacing closer to the Plancius. It's a pity the other two species seen weren't as close.

Fin Whale: The first Fin Whale on the surface with its blow still visible

Fin Whales: A second individual popped up

Fin Whale: The first individual

Fin Whale: A close up showing the classic dorsal fin shape of the first individual

Fin Whales: A close up of the more angular and irregularly-shaped dorsal fin of the second individual, as the second individual appears and starts to blow

Fin Whales: Showing the full height of the blow

Fin Whales: A good view of the head ridge and the blow-hole

Fin Whales

Fin Whale: Close up of the left-hand individual with the classic dorsal fin shape

Fin Whale: Close up of the right-hand individual showing the unusual dorsal fin shape, which, if this individual was seen on its own could suggest to be a Sei Whale

Fin Whale: A final view of the individual with the classic dorsal fin

There were also some Birds in the outer part of the Beagle Channel.

Southern Giant Petrel

Imperial Shag: As we passed the Chilean parts of Tierra del Fuego we started to see the first parties of Imperial Shags

Imperial Shag

Black-browed Albatross: Unfortunately, this flock of Black-browed Albatrosses were sitting on the water in the direction we started to pass into the outer Beagle Channel

We still had a few hours to travel along the Beagle Channel and I will save that for the final Blog Post.

My Birding cabin mate, Steve Preddy: Catching up on lost sleep after the Whales, whilst ensuring he was ready if there was a final interesting shout from the top deck

10 Oct 14 - Inland Dorset Grey Phalarope

I was just leaving Knoll Beach, Studland after finding the Yellow-browed Warbler there, when I had a phone call from Paul Morton, who runs the excellent Birds of Poole Harbour charity & website. Paul rang to say he had just heard of a Grey Phalarope locally. It was a likely species to see given the strong Southerly & South-Westerly winds in the last few days & several Grey Phalaropes had been seen around Ferrybridge & Chesil Cove, Portland earlier in the day. But these are expected sites. I had been hoping to find one earlier in the day around Studland, but without success. But what was surprising when Paul said it was at the Dorset Wildlife Trust, Tadnoll-Winfrith reserve which must be about 10 miles from the coast. He gave me the phone number for Ali Quinney who had found it that morning & Ali was very helpful on the phone & she proved directions to the bird hide, as I hadn't visited that part of the reserve before. About 40 minutes later I arrived at the hide & found it swimming on the back scrape.

The view of the two scrapes from the hide: It was not as bright as this photograph suggests & the Grey Phalarope was on the back scrape

The Grey Phalarope was actively feeding as it worked its way around the scrape. It was constantly on the move & was the only bird there, apart from when a pair of Mallards dropped in later on. Unfortunately, the light was poor as it was late afternoon & threatening rain, hence the grainy photos. I had hoped to try for better photos the following day, but it was looked for without success early on the following morning.

Grey Phalarope: It wasn't close

Grey Phalarope: 1st Winters would normally have dark tertials and wing coverts at this time of the year, so the lack of contrast in the upperwing makes me think this is an adult

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope: Note, the stout, blunt bill & the hint of rufous in the upper throat

Grey Phalarope: A clear view of the back of its neck

Grey Phalarope: Not sure I've ever seen the underwing before. Apparently, it's whiter on a Grey Phalarope than on a Red-necked Phalarope, especially on the primaries

Grey Phalarope: Part of the dark grey upperwing is visible on the left hand wing

This is a great inland Dorset record & well done to Ali for finding it & thanks for getting the news out.

10 April 14 - Finding A Rare Wader

It was another early start as you can never have enough early starts when you're on holiday. First stop was back to Eilat's North Beach to see if we could get better views of the White-cheeked Terns. In one word - No: didn't even see them.

The lads on the beach

Squacco Heron: At least this bird was around to photograph

Squacco Heron

Indian House Crow: There was one or two around

It was fairly quiet, so we quickly headed onto the km 20 saline ponds. Scanning the Waders on the Southern pool showed there was a interesting pale Phalarope feeding with the main group of Waders. Was waiting to get a chance to have a look through one of the scopes (didn't take a tripod for my small scope which was in the car anyway), when Simon called it as a Grey Phalarope. We all had a look at it & didn't think too much of the record, other than it was a new bird since we were there the previous day. At that point, Itai arrived & we mentioned it and I was a little surprised when he said he was about to send out a rare bird alert on it: as it's a vagrant & description bird for Israel. Not really sure if we found it or not, as there had been some other birders there when we arrived, but they had moved on, by the time we got to the Grey Phalarope area.

Grey Phalraope: I'm not sure how many records there have been, but sounds like it's no more than about 30 records. The Israelis call this Red Phalarope (following the American name), but the British name is clearly more appropriate for this bird

Red-necked Phalarope: This is the common Phalarope with several present on each visit

It was a quick dash back to the hotel for breakfast, before they stopped serving it. Feeling refreshed, the next stop was the car park next to Dolphin Reef for another look for the Little Green Heron. After a while, both birds appeared, but too far away for a photo. While we were waiting, we watched some White-eyed Gulls on the Dolphin Reef pontoon.

White-eyed Gull: Adult. This Gull has a restricted range of the Red Sea & the Gulf of Aqaba to Yeman

We headed off on the Eilat Mountains road to look for the Hooded Wheatear that was around an army checkpoint on the road. It doesn't take long for the scenery to get very arid. The soldiers on the checkpoint were fairly relaxed about us birding there, but warned us not to take photos of the Egyptian border fence. We spent about a couple of hours looking around the wider area, but no sign of the Hooded Wheatear.

The mountains are very arid

Looking back to Eilat

Bird hide: Israeli Army style (small). They didn't tell us we couldn't photograph the gun emplacements (but the photo was taken through the car window to avoid any hassle with the army)

White-crowned Black Wheatear: Fortunately, this bird was sitting on a road sign near the border fence, but sufficiently far enough away to get away with a photo. When the army checked the camera, they were impressed with the photo & didn't ask to look at the other photos so I got away with the bird hide photo

Selfies are all the rage these days: Proving I'm not too old to take one (badly)

Late afternoon saw us heading off to the Amran Pillars. A scenic site a few kms further north of the km 20 water tanks & on the West side of the road, but didn't see a lot of birds there. After that we headed down to the fresh water tanks at km 19 to look for Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse, but there were a lot of other people there along with a local nature tour group. The Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse did appear, but right on last light.

Amran Pillars: The pillars are tucked away at the top of this dried wadi

Amran Pillars: The geology is fairly complex here

Amran Pillars: Finally the Pillars

Sand Partridge

Black-eared Wheatear: Not the first bird seen in Israel keeping a careful eye on the skies. Not surprising with the numbers of Raptors moving North