26 Jun 22 - Half A Million & Going Strong

I started this Blog back on 24 Oct 13 after I bought myself a Canon 7D & 400 mm lens. A few years ago, I upgraded the camera gear to a Canon 7D Mark II & 100-400 mm Mark II lens. I'm a Birder, who takes photos for my enjoyment, but I don't have the skills, patience or interest in becoming a photographer.

The original aim of the Blog was to use it as a diary for myself where I could put my photos to avoid them being tucked away on my laptop & lost for ever. It's also allows me to quicky dip into some of the days out Birding or longer trips over the last eight & a half years and quickly relive the memories. While this was for my own memories, I quickly expanded the aims of the Blog to "showcase both the excellent birds & other wildlife in the UK as well as abroad".

When I started the Blog, I hoped that other people would also enjoying reading it and would be inspired to visit some of the places documented and enjoy the Birds and other wildlife I've mentioned. I had no idea whether the Blog will be popular or not, but I must be doing something right as I passed the half-million hits on the Blog yesterday. The Blog has been viewed from 165 countries or major regional territories.

The 165 Blog Flags

Over the last few years, the frequency of new Blog Posts have varied based upon my available time to process photos & also whether I've got interesting photos to post. Foreign trips have clearly been a big source of interesting photos and I've thoroughly enjoyed sorting the photos from a foreign trip & writing the Blog Posts. I get the most enjoyment out of foreign trips, by the research & planning that leads into the trip, the trip itself and finally, the post trip analysis of the species seen, including investigating some of the complex identification of some of the species seen.

Travel features highly as a theme and since starting the Blog, I've been lucky to visit many parts of the UK & abroad including: Holland (Nov 13); India including the Andaman Islands (Dec 13 - Jan 14); Morocco & Western Sahara (Feb 14): Israel (Apr 14): Croatia (May 14): French Polynesia and Pitcairn (Nov 14); California (Nov 14); Turkey (Jun 15); Finland (May - Jun 16); Colombia (Feb - Mar 18); Chile (Mar 18); the Atlantic Odyssey from Argentina to Holland visiting South Georgia, Tristan da Cunha, St Helena, Ascension Island & Cape Verde (Mar - May 18); a ferry from the UK to Santander & back (Aug 18). C19 severely impacted the travel plans since it's outbreak, but I've managed trips to Ireland in Aug 16, Mar 22 & Jun 22.

This is the 725th Blog Posts which cover a mixture of mainly Birding related subjects, but also Cetaceans, other Mammals, Butterflies, Dragonflies & other insect groups, Sea Turtles, Reptiles and Amphibians, Orchids and a few other groups. There are also the occasional historical Posts. Over 1150 species of Bird have been included on the Blog, along with another 400 other species of wildlife.

There are too many favourites to detail all the Blog Posts. Expanding the date index allows readers to scroll back to a particular period. More usefully, the Labels section on the right hand side allows readers to click on a species of interest & quickly find all the Blog Posts where that species occurs. To whet your appetite, here are ten of my favourite Blog Posts from the last few years.

I will start with a 2020 Blog Post covering finding the first Buff-breasted Sandpiper for St Aldhelms: my favourite UK Wader.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper: The first for St Aldhelms & one that was on the Self-found Wish List for many years (20 Sep 20)

One of my favourite travel Blog Posts including this gorgeous Tuamotu Sandpiper photographed on an expedition cruise to French Polynesia & the Pitcairn Islands group.

Tuamotu Sandpiper: This mst be the only Wader with a sweet tooth. Tenararo, French Polynesia (12 Nov 14)

I've enjoyed documenting memorable twitches & one of them was the Chestnut Bunting twitch to Papa Westray.

Chestnut Bunting: This Blog covered the private charter flight onto Papa Westray and has had one of the highest hits for a single Blog Post (28 Oct 15)

Another memorable twitch was a mini break to Holland with Dave Gibbs for a Hawk Owl that had taken up residence in the middle of the small town of Zwolle.

Hawk Owl: This ticked a number of boxes including a successful twitch, foreign travel and an Owl: one of favourite Bird families. Zwolle, Holland (27 Nov 13)

One of the things I've enjoyed doing is pulling together an Index of all of the Blog Posts under a certain wildlife group. The Indexes can be found below the Blog's banner. Currently, I've created Indexes for Whales, Beaked Whales, Blackfish, Dolphins & Porpoises and Sea Turtles. Clicking on these Indexes, allows the reader to quickly find all the Blog Posts on a particular wildlife group. I will add some new Indexes in the future. I particular enjoyed the Blog Posts that allowed me to create the Sea Turtle Index.

Leatherback Turtle: At sea between St Helena and Ascension Island, Atlantic Odyssey (22 Apr 18)

One of the Blog Posts looked at the St Aldhelms Continental Swallowtail Butterflies in early July 14. After seeing them, I tried identifying individuals from the photos to work out how many might be involved. Examination of my photographs, along with those from other people, documented five different individuals. The assumption is a female arrived earlier in the Spring, laid some eggs which produced this short-lived group. That year, Continental Swallowtails were seen at a number of other locations in the South East of the UK.

Swallowtail: This was individual B. It's identification from the other four individuals are detailed in this Blog Post (2 Jul 14). A follow-up Blog Post on 11 Jul 14 confirmed there had been no wedding released Butterflies in the previous 3.5 years that the currently vicar had been conducting services at the chapel

One of my passions is to dig deep into the identification of some of the tricky to identify species that I have seen. Initially, this is to confirm what I've seen. In Spring 18, I enjoyed 7 weeks on the expedition ship Plancius travelling from Ushuaia, Argentina back to Holland, stopping at a number of Atlantic islands en route. The first was St Georgia and on 4 Apr 18, the ship entered the Drygalski Fjord, where I saw over one hundred Diving-petrels. The majority were Common Diving-petrels, but we were trying to pick out a handful of the very similar-looking South Georgian Diving-petrels. Like many Birders on the boat, I struggled to pick one out in flight with a complication of very subtle features on fast-flying 'equivalents' of Little Auks at a distance and no previous experience. I'm sure some of the other punters, just ticked a likely candidate after somebody else called it. But I wanted to be sure & spent several hours poring over my photos, along with Id articles and internet photos. Having come to some decisions on what I had seen, I wrote a Blog Post summarising the outcomes. This will be of use to me as I will get back to South Georgia at some point in the future and also I hope it will be of use to others trying to get their heads around this difficult pair of species.

South Georgia Diving-petrel: The separation of South Georgia Diving-petrel and Common Diving-petrel in the Drygalski Fjord, South Georgia, is covered in this Blog Post (4 Apr 18)

On the Atlantic Odyssey, I was lucky to see 26 of the 90 or so extant species of Cetaceans. While many of them were relatively straight-forward to identify, a number were far more tricky. Again the photos that a number of us took of those tricky species were really helpful to identify them. This allowed one of the expedition guides, Marijke De Boer, to subsequently document the records which will help to increase the knowledge on some of these rarely seen species. This was particularly true with some of the Beaked Whales like this Strap-toothed Beaked Whale. I plan to book up for a future Atlantic Odyssey trip once I feel comfortable about travelling abroad again and assuming that this superb trip continues to run in the future. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on.

Strap-toothed Beaked Whale: The distinctive black face & white beak is diagnostic for Strap-toothed Beaked Whale which is shown on this individual within a small pod photographed between Tristan Da Cunha and St Helena. Typically, the lower face would be a paler grey, but none of my photos show that area. I can't see a white tusk sticking up from the beak so I think this individual must be a female. One of the benefits of seeing a small pod is having identified one or two individuals, then it is possible to get photos of even more tricky to identify subadult individuals in the pod (16 Apr 18)

One of my favourite Blog Posts covers the visit to Ernest Shackleton's grave at Grytviken, South Georgia. Shackleton is my all-time hero explorer. However, it's not just Shackleton who stands out on his second Antarctic voyage, but also Frank Worsley & Tom Crean. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean were the three members of the crew who were involved in raising the alarm following the loss of the Endurance in the Antarctic, with their epic voyage in a small rowing boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia, the subsequent climb over the mountains & the dangerous toboggan down the slopes towards the whaling settlement of Stromness. Captain Frank Wild was left in charge of the rest of the crew on Elephant Island and his ashes are buried alongside Shackleton.

Homage to Ernest Shackleton & his expedition: Shackleton grave at Grytviken, South Georgia (3 Apr 18)

I will end on my favourite Bird photo of a Rainbow-bearded Thornbill taken on a memorable Birdquest tour to Colombia with my late good mate, Brian Field.

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill: Hotel Termales del Ruiz, Colombia (25 Feb 18)

Thanks for following the Blog. I hope you have enjoyed it over the years & here's to the next half million hits.

2 Jun 16 - The Final Finnish Ticks

I was half way through the second Finnature trip on my Owl trip to Finland with Mark Edgeller, Andy Rhodes & Simon Ingram. It was only 06:30 in the morning, but we had met the guide Olli at 03:00 & been at a hard Birding pace since we started. In the previous Blog Post, I had covered some of the crazy species seen including a Willow Grouse sitting on a lamp post & very close views of a male Capercaillie. But we had come to Finland for its Owls & so far we had seen only three of the five key species: Pygmy Owl, Ural Owl & Great Grey Owl on the first Finnature trip in the Oulu area. We had also seen a Short-eared Owl, but that didn't count as they aren't hard to see in the UK. Our final two target Owls were Tengmalm's Owl & Hawk Owl. I had seen Hawk Owl before after twitching one in the centre of the small town of Zwolle, Holland in Nov 13, but it was a Tick for Simon. As Hawk Owls are such cracking Owls, I was keen to see another. Fortunately, Olli said the right words when we met, that he knew a site where we can see a Tengmalm's Owl & we will start by looking for that first. Both of the small Owl species are happy to nest in nest boxes & by the start of June, they are bringing food to the chicks. There is little chance of upsetting their breeding cycle by brief visits to the nest box at this time of the year. The only drawback is the light was very poor & I was trying to hand hold an unstablised 400mm lens on ISO 10,000.

Tengmalm's Owl: This nest box was near to a quiet road where we waited. Olli walked over & scratched the tree, which was the cue for his friend to appear

Tengmalm's Owl: This is the nominate funereus subspecies which occurs from Scandinavia to the Pyrenees & the Urals. The overall range of Tengmalm's Owl is huge as it is occurs in all the conifer forests across Northern Europe to China & Alaska, Canada & the Northern US (where it is called Boreal Owl)

After looking for the Willow Grouse, Black Grouse & Capercaillie (see the previous Post), it was time to head off to look for Siberian Tit. This was another nest box stakeout.

Siberian Tit: This pair were actively feeding the youngsters in this nest box

Siberian Tit: It quickly popped out again

Siberian Tit: This is the lapponicus subspecies which occurs in Scandinavia & European Russia

Siberian Tit: They occur from Scandinavia to Alaska & NW Canada

Siberian Tit

Northern White-faced Darter: Female

Grey-headed Wagtail: Male

Next on the itinerary was Hawk Owl. The numbers of breeding Owls fluctuate annually, depending on fluctuations in Vole & Lemming numbers. This year, the numbers of breeding Hawk Owls weren't high, but Olli had a site a few miles before the Russian border. It was a bit of a drive, but worth it. It was such a remote site, we could have spent a month trying to find this pair without local information.

Hawk Owl habitat: There was a lot of similar habitat

Hawk Owl: Olli said the youngsters of this pair has recently fledged. We decided to stick with the parents, rather than cause them concern by looking for the youngsters

Hawk Owl

White-tailed Sea-eagle: Adult

By late morning, we were back in Kuusamo. We had enough time for a leisurely drive back to Oulu to catch the plane home to the UK. Our short four day trip was over, but it had been a good trip & four days was long enough. If you are planning a trip to Finland at this time of year, I can thoroughly recommend booking the guided trips at Oulu & Kuusumo with the Finnature guides. They seem expensive for an eight hour long morning, however, they will have most if not all of the speciality species staked out. But book early to ensure you can get onto a trip as spaces are limited. Finland is such a vast area & it would be very time consuming to try finding these species without very good local information. However, as a cost-effective compromise, you can hire cars at a reasonable price & driving in Finland is easy. There is plenty of self-catering accommodation available online. Therefore, it is reasonable to book the two Finnature trips & have a few days Birding on your own seeing the easier species. There were a few other Scandinavian goodies I didn't see, but they occur several hundred miles further North. They were Pine Grosbeak, Brunnich's Guillemot, King Eider & Steller's Eider. However, these are best seen by a trip to Varanger Fjord in Norway. I've seen all of these species as vagrants in the UK over the years, but I am still tempted to go to Varanger Fjord for a few days at some point in the future. One final thought, I wish I had bought one of the mozzie head nets before the trip. Olli lent us some for the final morning & having one for the rest of the trip would have been good.

24 Oct 14 - Happy First Birthday

Happy Birthday to the Blog - 1 year old today & the 225th Blog Post. It's been an amazing year with a great selection of Birds seen, both in the UK, but also on the trips abroad. I have also seen & photographed an amazing amount of other wildlife over the last year. Too many great species to cram into a single post, so I will focus on 13 of my favourite stories or photos, one from each of the last 13 full or partial calendar months to hopefully wet your appetite to go back & explore some of the posts. It is traditional for many bloggers to do a round up of the year. I'm going to do that on the Blog's anniversary instead.

Oct 13 - Cape May Warbler: The highlight of October was the day twitch to Unst for the Cape May Warbler, just for the whole craic of the day, as well as seeing such a massive UK rarity. I wasn't that impressed when I saw the first photos of the Cape May when it first turned up, but it was a more subtle & great looking Warbler than I was expecting. Unst, Shetlands (29 Oct 13)

November's Bird has to be the stunning Hawk Owl in Zwolle, Hollard. This was an opportunity for me take the car over to Europe for the first time & it was a great 2 day trip with a good mate, Dave Gibbs. The Hawk Owl was amazing as it sat completely unfazed only 30 metres away from the assembled crowd of admirers.

Nov 13 - Hawk Owl: A great Owl & a World Tick. Zwolle, Holland (27 Nov 13)

December saw me heading off to the Andamans & mainland India for a 7 week trip, the first 3 weeks of which were with old mate, Brian Field. Choosing the best Birds for the 400+ species seen (about 75% photographed) is very difficult, so I am going for this Andaman Flowerpecker. A small, subtle endemic species. Anybody who have travelled in SE Asia will be used to Flowerpeckers being small, active Birds high up in the rainforest canopy & rarely giving good views. So it was great to see this Andaman Flowerpecker only a few metres away for an extended period. Initially, I had to step back as it was closer than the 3.5 metre minimum focus on the 400mm lens.

Dec 13 - Andaman Flowerpecker: Ghandi Park, Port Blair (22 Dec 13)

The Indian trip carried on to the end of January & I travelled through the Western Ghats, Gujarat & Rajasthan before finishing in Delhi. India is a great country for wildlife, although there are often long, slow journeys to the good sites. The other good thing is there are plenty of great mammals to see out there. It would be well worth looking at the Indian posts for anybody thinking on visiting any of these parts of India.

Jan 14 - Wild Ass: This was my favourite mammal of the year & it's a real shame as these 4 Wild Asses had walked for a mile or two across the bare dried up lake bed for a mile or two & then crossed a 1/4 mile salt bed, only to find Bill, myself, the guide & the jeep parked up by the only vegetation for miles. After sniffing the air for a few minutes, they turned & headed back to where they had just come from. Desert Coursers, Gujarat, India (17 Jan 14)

Within a week of being back from India I was off again to the Western Sahara & Southern Morocco for 10 days. This was a great trip to an infrequently visited part of the Western Palearctic. Not a huge number of Birds & Mammals, but some good species seen in this interesting area. It was interesting, but worrying, to talk to Trevor Charlton, the finder of the putative Moltoni's Subalpine Warbler recently, about one of the main Birding areas, Oued Jenna. This is the Cricket Warbler site and conventional information is, this area wasn't mined in the recent civil war. From what Trevor was told, it may well have been mined & cleared and mine clearance isn't 100% certain. This was an area we visited twice as we had to return after hearing about two Sudan Golden Sparrows which weren't on our expected list: we found them along with an additional two.

Feb 14 - Sudan Golden Sparrow: An excellent bonus Western Palearctic & World Tick. Oued Jenna (11 Feb 14)

I didn't managed to get out much in March as I was spending most of my time wading through the thousands of photos from the Indian & Western Saharan trips. But my interest picked up following the news that a Pond Heron at Hythe, Kent had been confirmed as being a Chinese Pond Heron. I teamed up with local Birder, Marcus Lawson, who has only recently moved from Kent for the trip. Our timing was perfect as it was located when we were about 10 minutes away, but flew just before we arrived. Fortunately, Dave Gibbs saved the day with a phone call to say it had been relocated, allowing views sitting in a garden tree before it dropped out of sight. We later found out we were even more lucky when it transpired this was the last time it was seen well. A brief flight view that evening was its last sighting. Sadly, its long dead corpse was found a few weeks later, allowing confirmation of its identify by DNA. The next question is will the BOU allow this onto the UK List? Having seen the target Bird, we went onto Dungeness & saw Great White Egret, Glossy Ibis, Glaucous Gull, Hume's Yellow-browed Warbler & a number of good, but commoner, species. A great day out to one of my old pre-university stomping grounds.

Mar 14 - Chinese Pond Heron: Dropping down to a concealed garden pond after its last prolonged view (8 Mar 14)

There is no problem trying to work out the best bird for April. It clearly goes to this obliging Scops Owl seen during the 10 day Spring Israel trip. Owls & Nightjars have long been a favourite group of families for me. I have spent many happy evenings abroad out looking for them & trying to sound record them. In this case, I didn't even need to worry about using a recording, as there were a number of different males all winding each other up throughout the evening. So all I had to do for the 2 nights I stayed at the Kfar Ruppin kibbutz was to try & get some good photographs. This particular bird sat a few metres from the camera & wasn't unset by my presence or the flash as it continued to call.

Apr 14 - Scops Owl: Kfar Ruppin, Israel (13 Apr 14)

May was a difficult month to work out the best story, given the successful trip to look for Rock Partridge in Croatia: which we saw by 06:00 on the first morning of the trip. However, the story has to go to the end of May Bird. The camera has also been invaluable for getting a documentary record of many of the species seen. Like many of the other local Birders, I tend to cover my patches on my own, so it's good to have the ability to get some record shots to support a description, in case the Bird disappears before others arrive. This was one of the reasons why I bought the camera, having seen how other Birders have documented rarities they have found on the Northern Isles. Additionally, there is always that risk that having found something good, you fail to note one of the key details needed to clinch the record. The camera proven its worth when I heard a Yellow Wagtail calling behind me at Old Harry at the end of May. Turning round, I was surprised to find it wasn't a Yellow Wagtail & it had a grey head. I grabbed some photos as a record shot, so I could work it out later. Later didn't happen in the end until late that evening as within 5 minutes I was hearing the news of a probably Short-toed Eagle at the nearby Morden Bog. The rest of that story is well known. This really upstaged my Grey-headed Wagtail, which if accepted, will be a 7th for Dorset & 1st for Poole Harbour.

May 14 - Grey-headed Wagtail: Female. Getting good photos were essential to help confirm the identification of this rare race in Dorset. Old Harry (31 May 14)

It has also been a good opportunity to look closely at Dragonflies & Damselflies this year. Dragonflies are a group, I've been getting into in recent years, but having the camera has certainly made it a lot easier to figure out the different species. Having a camera is a great way to see those small subtle details that separate some of the similar species.

Jun 14 - Brilliant Emerald: This Brilliant Emerald was one of five Dragonfly Ticks for me this year & I was really pleased to get this flight shot, especially as it captured the yellow U shape on the face, which separates it from the more widespread Downy Emerald. Esher Common (13 Jun 14)

Another piece of fun with the camera has been the ability to compare photos to pick out different individual Butterflies. I assume this must have been tried before for Butterflies, I know it has been tried for Birds. So it was interesting to try this out on the Swallowtails at St Aldhelms Head. These were found at the end of June 14, by walkers on the coastal footpath close to the Coastguards lookout at St Aldhelms Head. One was pointed out to local Dorset Birder, George Green, along with the news the finders had seen two earlier that day. I finally connected with one on 2 July and made a couple of extra return trips to photograph them. The result was from looking at the photos I had taken & photos kindly forwarded from other photographers, I was able to show there were five different Swallowtails involved. Since that time, I've shown the photos to Neil Hulme, who confirmed that all five Swallowtails were males. Therefore, it begs the question as to whether any females hatched out. If so, they are likely to have quickly mated & presumably dispersed. I did return at the end of August to see if I could find any second brood Swallowtails, but I had no joy. There is the risk of collectors having been there looking for caterpillars to collect, but then it's also possible that if a female hatched out, She might have mated & dispersed to start a new colony. So something to look out for elsewhere in Dorset in 2015.

Jul 14 - Swallowtail: Individual D. The full set of mugshots & how I was able to separate the different individuals can be found in the Swallowtail mug shots post. St Aldhelms Head (6 July 14)

August 14 is clearly an easy decision as to the species for the month, but trying to work out the best photo was more difficult. It has to go to the Map Butterflies which dominated the month. This was a totally unexpected find and for a couple of weeks it was looking like not only had I found a very rare Butterfly, but also there was a fledgling colony with 20 proven individuals photographed. As a result, news had to be shutdown down on the site to try & provide some protection for the colony, whilst starting to work with the local landowners & Butterfly Conservation to see what could be provided for longer term protection. Sadly, the news did get out & the site was visited by both a commercial & a private collector. It was a really frustrating & unexpected bombshell to then find that somebody had come forward via a reliable conservation body, to admit to a release at the site. This individual's story that it was an accidental release, is blatantly a lie. But it's more than likely a cover story to try to avoid potential prosecution, given it is illegal to deliberately release an alien species in the UK. We have never got the real story of how the release occurred & it is unlikely this will ever happen. But it is a really shame as it would have been my best UK find ever had it been untainted. I still need to return to this story at some time with the evidence as to why it had to be a deliberate release and not an accidental release. In the mean time, you can enjoy the story as it develops about the initial discovery of a Map, the realisation there was a Map colony present & the news of the release in the 3 posts.

Aug 14 - Map: Individual B. This was the second individual found at the site & the first female. Therefore, it was the individual which changed the story from a lone male to multiple individuals. Swanage (7 Aug 14)

The last year has also been a lot of fun looking at the Birds seen from another & more detailed angle. Up to when I bought the camera, I tended to look at something until I had identified it. Sometimes I would then carry on watching the Bird, but often my eyes would start wandering to look for something else. With the camera, I have found that while I might even pick up the camera & stop watching my subject quicker than I would have done without the camera, I am spending a lot more time looking closer at the subsequent photos. Consequently, I am noticing a lot more than I would have probably seen in the field e.g. the ability to freeze a wing & then look at the individual feather markings is rarely possible in the field on a moving subject, but with a good photo it is often possible. This has lead to me becoming far more interested in trying to age or sex some of the Birds I've seen & in turn, this has helped broaden my knowledge. I am now using this new knowledge to start looking at ageing & sexing of Birds in the field.

Sep 14 - Adult Green Sandpiper: A fairly common Wader in Poole Harbour, but great to look at a Green Sandpiper closely to age it as a 1st Winter. Even better, when I returned the next week & found this Adult Green Sandpiper for comparison. Middlebere (26 Sep 14)

Back to the subject of using the camera for helping to identify tricky species. The choice for Oct 14 was difficult as there were 2 very interesting Sylvia Warblers seen and photographed. First was the putative Blyth's Lesser Whitethroat at Portland Bill & this was followed mid month by the putative Moltoni's Subalpine Warbler at Porthgwarra, Cornwall. Fortunately, the first Bird was caught and DNA has been send off. The Moltoni's was only seen in the field, but reaction to playback & its partial moult are good supporting evidence, to go along with the more subtle plumage details. Whether that will be sufficient to get it accepted, given the only call that was heard is given by both Moltoni's and Western Subalpine Warblers and the other distinctive call of Moltoni's was not heard, is probably a decision we will be waiting for over the next few years.

Oct 14 - Putative Blyth's Lesser Whitethroat: Portland Bill (1 Oct 14)

Hopefully the coming year will be as exciting as this first year has been. One final thing that has also been exciting is how much I've enjoyed the blogging & how popular the blog has been been. Yesterday, the blog passed 51,000 hits. I had no idea when I started how much interest there would have been in the blog, but I certainly wouldn't have predicted it to be that popular. What has also been exciting is how well viewed the blog is, as since I added the flag counter in May (which counts internet countries so Jersey, Guernsey & the Isle of Man were bonus countries), the blog had been read from 96 different countries, with the 96th, Seychelles, being added today. I wonder which will be the 100th country. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I have & you continue to follow it. In the meantime, there are links back to each of the stories behind the monthly photo to look in more detail at those that interest you.

29 Aug 14 - Crucial Imminent Vote For Scottish Birders

In under 3 weeks, there will be a crucial vote for all Scottish Birders. Scottish Birders will be asked to decide "Do You Wish Your List To Become Independent From The UK". This post can now reveal for the first time some of the real facts behind the Yes campaign.

The date for this crucial referendum has been chosen with great care by the Yes campaign. They have gone back & scoured history & selected the key date of 18 Sept for it's historical significance. There has been a lot of speculation in the press, about it being on the anniversary of some big battle. That is just coincidence. This blog can now reveal the true significance of the 18 Sept. It is only 5 days after the only UK Hawk Owl in living memory was found on 12 Sept 83 near Lerwick (and 4 days after it disappeared). The Referendum was chosen to celebrate the day the Bressay finders planned to go birding a couple of days later & were lucky to relocated it on Bressay. The historical significance of this date is therefore obvious. Some of the key people behind the Yes campaign managed to twitch this bird on Bressay & grip it back on those who got to see it near Lerwick. The subliminal message is also clear: it was there on the 18 Sept, but it was not actually seen on that date. So if you live South of the border, you will be denied to get this on your UK list, when the next one turns up in Shetlands. Also if you did see it, you will have it removed as it will no longer be in the UK.

Hawk Owl: Will we ever get another chance to tick in the UK: if there is a Yes vote it seems unlikely. Zwolle, Holland (29 Nov 13) 

The timing of the vote has a second significance. The date is also just before the start of the main Shetlands & Fair Isle Birding season. In recent years, Birders have headed to the Shetlands & Fair Isle from mid September onwards from all over the UK. A Yes vote might seem appealing. After all, if Scotland becomes independent, then the UK birders won't be allowed to tick Birds in Scotland. So most will stop going & be forced to return to the traditional old haunts of the Scillies & West Cornwall.  Perhaps Lundy (the site of a number of Firsts for the UK) will again become popular. So it would seem appealing to a Scottish voter to vote Yes. After all, it will be easier to make a booking on Fair Isle or get a seat on a plane there, if there are only Scottish twitchers trying to get there. Also, a Yes vote will appear to provide a greater chance of a self found Scottish mega. But with the loss of all those English Birder's eyes covering the Shetlands & Fair Isle, maybe less rarities will be found. It would bring a premature end to the Shetlands tourist season & maybe the Fair Isle Bird Obs will have trouble filling its accommodation with purely Scottish Birders through the year & would run the risk of eventual closure. So some big potential home goals by voting Yes, but the Yes campaign have stayed silent on these risks.

Cape May Warbler: Would as many birds of this calibre be found with a reduced coverage of Birders in the field following a Yes vote? Baltasound, Unst (29 Oct 13)

But again the Yes campaigners are not telling the Scottish Birders the full picture. They talk about the positives of keeping the Scottish Birds for Scottish Birders. Of how only the Scottish Birders will be able to tick species like Capercaillie, Ptarmigan, genuine Rock Dove & Crested Tit.

Rock Dove: It would be no longer possible for UK Birders to tick Rock Doves looking like this. The Yes campaign want this kept only for Scottish Birders. Instead, UK Birders will be left desperately trying to find a pure looking individual in Trafalgar Square (having had to take the whole family there as a cover story) or perhaps hoping for a lone, clean-looking Racing Pigeon to flyby at a coastal site (& hoping no questions are asked). Sollas, South Uist (4 June 12)

But what the Yes campaigners are not being honest about is the Yes campaign plan to strike off all those birds Scottish Birders have seen in England or Wales. This is their secret plan, which they managed to avoid being mentioned so far. Amazingly, it was not discussed in the recent TV debates. Today, a Scottish based Birder could book a week's holiday & head South for some easy English specialities ticks: such as Yellow-legged Gulls, Melodious Warblers & Ortolans. All of which could be fairly easily seen with a week's stay about this time of year at Portland Bird Observatory and all of which are currently tickable. If we hear a sudden appearance increase in the numbers of Scottish accents around Portland in the coming weeks, we will know that Birders living North of the border are getting these easy ticks in while they can (as they fear a Yes vote). But it will all be in vain, a Yes vote will mean all of your lists will be purged of these species. This blog has it on good authority, that Lee "Good" Heavens has already been provisionally booked to police the purges of the Scottish Birders lists. This blog understands that controversially, part of the payment for this work, is the agreement that he will be allowed to join (& remain) in the top 10 Scottish listers following the completion of these purges.

Short-toed Eagle: In the event of a Yes vote, this will be struck off your list if you saw the Scillies bird or this year's bird in Dorset or Sussex. If you saw it in Hampshire, then prehaps you should be honest & quietly change it to a Buzzard in your notebook. The Yes campaigners are hoping to attract the votes of those people that appear on Birdforum to add useful quotes to the thread of the latest UK mega to say "they would never go beyond the end of their road to see the bird". Morden Bog (31 May 14)

Yellow-legged Gull: This rare English breeding bird only breeds at a handful of sites in Southern England, but is fairly easily seen in Poole Harbour at this time of year. There have only been a handful of Scottish records this year. Scottish Birders will be forced to work hard to add this to their lists in the event of a Yes vote purging them of one seen South of the border. Brands Bay (21 April 14)

Melodious Warbler: Portland is one of the best locations for this species. With an average of only one or two a year in Scotland, this is a species you might end having to twitch an outer island to see after a Yes vote. Winspit (8 Dec 13)

Cirl Bunting: A bird most Scottish Birders will lose off their lists. With only 3 island records this millennium, this is very likely to be purged from Scottish Lists by Lee "Good" Heavens. It is likely to the first lost in a series as the Policeman, as he likes to be know, removes all the birds ticked on those old Scillies trips. Velji Do, Croatia (5 May 14)

Ortolan: Again Portland is one of the best UK locations for this species & the Yes campaign will purge this off your list if you have seen it there. It is likely to be a costly Fair Isle twitch to tick this one if the Yes campaign get their way. Yotvata, Israel (11 April 14)

So now the truth is being revealed about the real risks to your lists in the event of a Yes vote, then it is clear there are only 2 real options: Vote No or in the event of a Yes vote, move to Fair Isle.

27 Nov 13 - Close Ups Of An Owl

Been a long & tiring day as I didn't manage to get much sleep last night for reasons I'll explain later. However, the birding has been interesting today & I did manage to get some close up photos of an Owl. So pleased by that. As it was very approachable I thought I would start with this nice cropped shot.

Head Shot

Been a bit of a rush job to get some photos published this evening, before heading out to eat, so I'm sure I will find some better photos when I get the chance to view all the photos. 

I'm sure those of you not in the know, are thinking, yeah, yeah I've seen better photos of Little Owl on Brett's blog, so here is the original uncropped photo.

Hawk Owl: Zwolle, Holland

Despite a lot of photo calls to friends offering lifts to go for this cracking Hawk Owl, I only had one

 taker for a lift: Dave Gibbs, who is helpfully pointing out the bird in the photo.

Dave Gibbs: helps me get onto the bird

Here are a few more details to wet the appetite for anybody considering a Eurotunnel trip for this weekend. Our return trip for car & passengers a mere £53 return. After an easy drive of about 4.5 hours, we arrived at the town of Zwolle. Turning off a main road, in the Southern side, we entered the side streets & into a trading estate, where the crowd were quickly located. The bird was catching small rodents in a building site that was being cleared. It was sitting quite unconcerned of the people watching it or the yellow digger demolishing the foundations of a nearby building.

Hawk Owl: The bird sat 20m away from the birders & was equally unfazed by the yellow digger

Can't resist some more photos of this excellent Owl, which I can remember wanting to see ever since I started looking at my Heinzel, Fitter & Parslow Birds of Britain & Europe guide in the early 70s. Not having been to Scandinavia then this was a World tick.

Hawk Owl

Hawk Owl: Just after taking this photo, it swooped for and narrowly missed a small vole or mouse

Hawk Owl

Hawk Owl: Just to stop Peter M saying it was stuffed - lots of different head angles

Hawk Owl: Like all Owls it can turn it's head around to silly angles

All memorable twitches should have a crowd photo. So about 2/3rds of the midday day 4 crowd.

Crowd photo: Just to prove we are in Holland, there is a bike in the photo

After a quick refreshment trip, it was onto Drents-Friese Wold, a national park, about 45 minutes to the North of Zwolle. This area looked similar to some of the heathland/woodland sites in North Hampshire & was currently hosting about 30 or so Parrot Crossbills along with a few resident Black & Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Large flocks of Tundra Bean Geese arrive in late afternoon to roost. There was no sign of any Crossbill flocks in the late afternoon. We had the place to ourselves except for these locals. Found a good & inexpensive hotel in the nearby small town of Diever.

The local cattle: Signs advised keeping 25m from them, but they clearly can't read as they approached to 10m to see us

The local cattle: Very cute looking